175 years ago today, the American writer Henry David Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau built a small cabin (10 x 14 feet) on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson in…
40 years ago today, the comedy film Airplane! premiered. Written and directed by David and Jerry Zucker, along with Jim Abrahams, it won Golden Globe nominations and starred Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves. A perfect parody…
30 years ago, Germany reunited, with East and West merging their economies under the Deutsche Mark currency. Western countries helped carry the burden, granting subsidies to pay East German bills and ease the budget gap. (1990) Photo raising the German flag,…
On this day 65 years ago, The Johnny Carson Show debuted on CBS television. The prime time variety show was a traditional potpourri of monologue, comedy, music, dance, and skits. The series was short-lived, but planted the seeds for sketches…
25 years ago today, the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis kicked off a new era in international space cooperation by achieving the first docking with the Russian space station Mir. Beyond the Mir docking, the mission of Atlantis flight STS-71 included…
On this day 150 years ago, Christmas was established as a federal holiday in America. A Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, December 25th is also enjoyed by non-Christians for its gift exchanges and holiday lights hung in houses…
On this day 140 years ago, Helen Keller was born with full sight and hearing in Alabama. Before the age of two she was stricken with disease and left deaf and blind, but at 24, she became the first deaf…
75 years ago today, the inspirational United Nations Charter was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco, a document that began with the following: “We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of…
Four years ago, a woman approached a black father who was shopping at the grocery store with his kids. She commended him for “sticking around,” and doing right by his children. Now, he and his “Dad Gang” are marching in…
It’s been ten years since Hollywood A-lister and philanthropist Sean Penn mobilized a huge team of volunteers to rebuild Haiti after an earthquake claimed 250,000 lives. His nonprofit, CORE, is still there today, with 150 people working with local communities.…
