Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 27, No. 2 March 2nd, 2015 @ 10:14 am PST
According to The Writer’s Almanac: Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata was published on this date in 1802. Its real name is the slightly less evocative “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 27, No. 2,” and its Italian subtitle is translated as “almost a fantasy.” In 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, a German critic […]
Zapruder November 22nd, 2014 @ 12:30 pm PST
The Essex November 20th, 2014 @ 8:42 am PST
On this date in 1820, a sperm whale attacked a whaling ship off the coast of South America. The Essex hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, and was captained by George Pollard Jr. Pollard was only 29, the youngest man to ever command a whaling ship; the Essex, by contrast, was pretty old, and she was also […]
Get Action October 28th, 2014 @ 6:37 am PDT
Get action. Do things. Be sane. Don’t fritter away your time. Create. Act. Take a place wherever you are and be somebody. Get action. Theodore Roosevelt, The Roosevelts
Anniversary September 11th, 2014 @ 7:42 am PDT
Originally posted September 18, 2001 It’s been one week. So this is the first anniversary of sorts. And next week it will be two weeks. And then it will be a month since. And then it will be six months. And then a year. And then five years. And then ten years. When all the […]
The 1973 National Personnel Records Center Fire January 27th, 2014 @ 6:38 am PST
A few weeks ago I did a little web searching on a mission to see if it would be possible to acquire duplicates of any or all of my grandfather’s service medals. He fought as a member of Merrill’s Marauders in the Pacific Theater in WWII and I know he had been awarded (at least) […]
Prohibition! January 17th, 2014 @ 5:36 am PST
It’s the 94th birthday of Prohibition! The Eighteenth Amendment, the Volstead Act, took effect on this date in 1920, a year after it was ratified. Congress passed the Act even though President Woodrow Wilson had vetoed it. It made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor illegal. It took almost 14 years before the 21st […]
On history January 9th, 2014 @ 7:52 am PST
People have been saying this for thousands of years.
Bury My Heart December 29th, 2013 @ 6:00 am PST
Today is the anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee, which took place in South Dakota in 1890. Twenty-three years earlier, the local tribes had signed a treaty with the United States government that guaranteed them the rights to the land around the Black Hills, which was sacred land. The treaty said that not only […]
A Look Back to the Future October 1st, 2008 @ 10:55 pm PDT
This is sure to be wildly popular: Google 2001. “In honor of our 10th birthday, we’ve brought back our oldest available index. Take a look back at Google in January 2001.” How cool is that? It’s pretty funny to do some searches to see what they’d indexed. I’m strangely proud to note, of course, that […]
