United States
Physical Fitness: America Goes Crazy
People around the world think Americans are crazy. They think we are, on the whole, too extreme, that once we get something in our heads, we don’t let go. Witness fitness: Americans are the most gung-ho, the most passionate, about staying in shape, and our full array of health clubs and spas — not to [...]
Vought F-8 Crusader
EAST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, USA The Vought Crusader was the first US Navy fighter capable of sustained supersonic speed in level flight. It was extremely well liked by its pilots and, because of its agility, was considered one of the most potent combat aircraft of the Vietnam War. It was also designed to have a reconnaissance [...]
William Shakespeare: The Poacher’s Plays
1564-1616 STRATFORD-ON-AVON, ENGLAND William Shakespeare was a great English dramatist and poet, the writer of 36 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems. Shakespeare’s works of the 16th and 17th centuries include “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Hamlet,” “Henry VI,” “Julius Caesar,” “King Lear,” “Macbeth,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Othello,” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Like many of [...]
Whooping Crane: Spectacular Dancers
Unique to North America, whooping cranes (“Grus americana”) stand about five feet tall, have sinewy necks, long legs, and a wing span of about seven-and-a-half feet. Their snow-white bodies are contrasted by jet-black wing tips and a red-and-black head.
American Revolution Ends
The Yorktown Campaign in Virginia in 1781, marked the last great military action in the American Revolution and assured that America would be a free nation. In late summer 1781, General George Washington, in camp near New York City, learned that the British commander in the southern Colonies, Lord Charles Cornwallis, had failed to destroy [...]
America's Love Affair With Corn
Corn has been the food of sustenance for Native Americans as far back as records can be found. Some Native Americans refer to themselves as “children of the corn.” When European explorers and then settlers came to America, the native Indians gave them corn and showed them how to cook and eat it. The new [...]
America's Wild West Outlaws
The years following the Civil War were a time of great unrest. It was an era that gave rise to the Western outlaws. They were bandits, gunfighters, and rustlers — men guilty of a thousand crimes — but they were also to become an important part of American folklore.
American Buffalo: King Of The Prairie
In May 1894, Congress outlawed the hunting of buffalo in Yellowstone Park. This was the first step by the United States government toward protecting an animal that earlier American settlers had tried to eliminate. Before white people arrived, buffalo were abundant on the plains and prairies. Indian storytellers recall the days when a person could [...]
America's Bicentennial: 1776 – 1976
America threw herself a grand birthday party on July 4, 1776, as she turned 200 years old. In 1776, America got the Declaration of Independence as her first birthday present. In 1976, America gave herself many parades, firework displays, pie-eating contests, and a pat-on-the-back for preserving the government in the face of many perils over [...]
America In World War I
Saying that “the world must be made safe for democracy,” President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress on April 2, 1917 to declare war on Germany. Congress voted ‘yes’ and America entered into the “Great War,” later called World War I.