American History 22
This is why the Navy wears bell-bottoms, and it’s not for fashion
By Tim Kirkpatrick at We Are The Mighty, September 8, 2020 The Navy dress uniform — also known as “cracker jacks” — is one of the most iconic symbols in the military today. You can spot a Navy sailor from a mile away after they don the familiar dressing. Every piece of the uniform from
Charles Webb Abbitt
Charles Webb Abbitt was born May 25, 1920 in the pre-Civil War ancestral home on Gravel Knoll Farm near the Appomattox Surrender Grounds. “Big Dad” passed on to be with our Lord August 28, 2020. He graduated at age 16 from Appomattox Agriculture High School as Salutatorian and Class Prophet. He also learned to play mandolin and
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blames Confederate monuments presence at the Texas Capitol on Democrats
Senate Democrats want the symbols taken down, but Patrick said that the party is not committed to a “sincere” or “serious conversation” about the future of the monuments.
207th Anniversary of the Battle of Medina
Photos by Lisa Luna and Martin Gonzales By Robert H. Thonoff at Pleasanton Express, August 12, 2020 On this day, Aug. 18, in the year 1813, 207 years ago, in a matter of just a few hours, Texas lost over one-half of its adult male population and about one-third of its total population in the
How Prohibition changed the way Americans drink, 100 years ago
Prohibition did little to ease Americans’ love of liquor. AP Photo Jay L. Zagorsky, Boston University On Jan. 17, 1920, one hundred years ago, America officially went dry. Prohibition, embodied in the U.S Constitution’s 18th amendment, banned the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol. Yet it remained legal to drink, and alcohol was widely available
The American Founders made sure the president could never suspend Congress
The signing of the U.S. Constitution. Architect of the Capitol Eliga Gould, University of New Hampshire The British monarch has the right to determine when Parliament is in session – or, more to the point, when it is not. Breaking with longstanding tradition, and possibly with the United Kingdom’s unwritten constitution, new Prime Minister Boris
Trump Administration revives public charge clause that kept Nazi-era refugees from the US
“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet. And who will not become a public charge,” said Acting head of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli. AP Photo/Seth Wenig Laurel Leff, Northeastern University During the Nazi era, roughly 300,000 additional Jewish refugees could have gained entry to the
Young Americans deserve a 21st-century Moonshot to Mars
Mars should be the next destination for humankind. Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com Vahe Peroomian, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences “Hidden Figures” and “First Man” were arguably the most inspirational space-themed movies of the last several years. Both, though, had to reach back to the glory days of John Glenn and Neil
How America’s Founding Fathers felt about tariffs
The founders weren’t exactly free traders. John Trumbull Jeffrey Kucik, University of Arizona President Donald Trump’s trade wars have sparked fierce debate about the role of protectionism versus liberalism in U.S. trade with other countries. This debate is hardly new. It dates all the way back to America’s founding. As a political economist interested in
A Poem For Flag Day
The American Flag by Joseph Rodman Drake (1795 – 1820) When Freedom, from her mountain height, Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there: She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure, celestial white With
