231 years ago today, whiskey was distilled from corn maize for the first time by the clergyman Rev. Elijah Craig. The liquor was called Bourbon because the reverend lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky. (1789) MORE Good News on this Day:…
50 years ago today, The Long and Winding Road became the 20th—and final—No. 1 single in the US by The Beatles. Paul McCartney wrote the song at his farm in Scotland. The idea was inspired by the sight of a…
250 years ago today, the Great Barrier Reef was discovered by British cartographer Captain James Cook off the Australian coast. Cook’s scientific voyage as captain of the HMS Endeavour resulted in splendid detailed maps of the coastland of New Zealand…
85 years ago today, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, by Bill Wilson—who, the previous day, drank his last drink. He co-founded it with Dr. Bill Smith who helped form AA’s Twelve Step program of spiritual and character development…
On this day 105 years ago, the musician and innovator Les Paul was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin. A natural engineer and phenomenal musician, Lester Polsfuss, as a teen, invented his own speaker and one of the earliest solid body guitars–carving…
35 years ago today, Tears For Fears hit No.1 on the US singles chart with Everybody Wants To Rule The World. From the English band’s second LP (Songs from the Big Chair), the cut earned them a Gold Record and—along…
31 years ago today, during the student uprising near Tiananmen Square in China where one million people were rallying for democratic reforms—and the morning after the nation’s military arrived to open fire on protestors—a young man halted the advance of…
80 years ago today, to rally the morale of his countrymen following a great military failure, when 338,000 British troops had to evacuate Dunkirk, leaving neighboring France in the grip of Nazi control, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his…
55 years ago today, NASA astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space. During the Gemini 4 mission he opened the hatch and used a hand-held oxygen-jet gun to push himself out of the capsule and propel…
30 years ago today, U.S. President George H.W. Bush joined the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to sign a pact to end chemical weapons production and destroy their nation’s stockpiles. The two countries began the historic process with…
