Picture of the Day
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Spindletop In 1889, self-taught geologist Pattillo Higgins became interested in Spindletop Hill, just south of Beaumont, Texas. Believing that Spindletop covered a vast pool of oil, Higgins joined two other men in 1892 to form the Gladys City Oil, Gas, …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense On January 9, 1776, propagandist Thomas Paine anonymously published Common Sense, advocating an immediate declaration of independence from Britain. An instant bestseller in both the colonies and in Britain, Paine baldly stated that King …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points On January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson addressed a hastily convened joint session of Congress, publicly stating the Fourteen Points–his idealistic plan for a world forever free from conflict. Most of Wilson's Fourteen Points addressed specific …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Battle of New Orleans The War of 1812 may have ended on Christmas Eve of 1814, but news of the Treaty of Ghent had not yet crossed the Atlantic Ocean when a British army marched on New Orleans on January …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Joan of Arc: The Maid of Orléans French heroine Joan of Arc was born Jeanette d'Arc on January 6, 1412, in the French village of Domrémy. When she was 12 years old, she began hearing what she believed were voices …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
George Washington Carver After devoting his life to helping fellow African Americans through education, George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943, at Tuskegee, Alabama. Carver was born the son of a slave woman in the early 1860s, went to …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
The Cattle Kingdom In 1866, when the transcontinental railroad reached Abilene, Kansas, Chicago livestock buyer J.G. McCoy saw the possibilities of linking the unwanted herds of Texas longhorns with the meat-packing centers of Chicago. McCoy built a series of holding …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Photographers Frances and Mary Allen Sisters Frances and Mary Allen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, began their careers as schoolteachers, but when deafness forced a change of profession, they turned to photography. Their work shows everyday activities in a rural community, like …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
On January 1, 1892, after two years of construction, the U.S. Immigration Service opened Ellis Island in New York Harbor, a new facility for 'processing' immigrants. Formerly used as a munitions dump and landfill, Ellis Island was designed, its architects …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:06 pm
John Muir
Naturalist and forest conservation advocate John Muir was largely responsible for the establishment of national parks such as Sequoia and Yosemite. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Scottish immigrant Muir worked on mechanical inventions, but when an …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:05 pm
William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator On January 1, 1831, 24-year-old reformer William Lloyd Garrison of Massachusetts began publishing his newspaper The Liberator, dedicated to the abolition of slavery. Garrison's stridency and uncompromising position on both the institution of …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Civil War Photography Alexander Gardner probably took this chilling photograph of Confederate dead awaiting burial on September 19, 1862. It and several others shot immediately after the Battle of Antietam show the first dead soldiers ever captured on film.
Image: …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Wounded Knee Massacre Seventy-year-old Sioux chief Big Foot was killed by the 7th U.S. Cavalry during the massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. Three days later his body was found frozen where he had been killed. The South …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Union battery wagon This Union battery wagon?an ambulance converted to transport heavy telegraph batteries? was photographed at Petersburg, Va. The military telegraph made large-scale troop movements possible for both South and North, including the transfer of 23,000 Federals from Bristoe …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Louis Pasteur French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822. One of his several monumental contributions to science and industry was pasteurization, the process of heating wine, beer and milk to kill microorganisms that cause fermentation …
Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Clara Barton The founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1821. She worked as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War, distributing food and medical supplies to troops and earning …
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