It seems over the last few years main stream media has increasingly taken the position that main stream media is “professional” and that bloggers and podcasters are “amateurs”. When did “amateur” become a dirty word? I am an amateur, after all I have a podcast that proudly proclaims myself the “Amateur Traveler“. But what’s so ...

“Here’s to George Baily”!, or should we say comrade Baily? In 1947, the FBI considered this anti-cosummerist message as subsersive Communist propaganda. The FBI thought the movie smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man. read more | digg story

If you have ever been sitting around the house wondering how large the Empire of Sargon got then you need this site with historic maps.

I am not a big fan of war, but the best named war in history started on this day in 1739 when Robert Jenkins’s ear was cut off, sparking the War of Jenkins’s Ear between Spain and England. Jenkins’s Ear, War of, 1739–41, struggle between England and Spain. It grew out of the commercial rivalry ...

On this day in 1931 The “Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the national anthem of the United states. So before 1931 baseball games started with that awkward pause before “play ball!”.

The Free Information Society has an interesting collection of propaganda posters from World War II.

On this date in 1973 Baseball’s American League adopted the “designated hitter” rule which allowed another player to bat for the pitcher, starting the slow decline of the American civilization. Disco also came out of the 1970s, clearly those were the days that tried men’s souls.

On this day in 1940 California opened its first freeway. As it turns out World War II would start in less than a year. During World War II the government implemented gas rationing. So there may have been sometime that LA’s Freeways were not crowded, but not in 1940. The Arroyo Seco Parkway runs between ...

My personal understanding of the history of computer’s was rewritten with this artcicle Many encyclopedias and other reference works state that the first large-scale automatic digital computer was the Harvard Mark 1, which was developed by Howard H. Aiken (and team) in America between 1939 and 1944. However, in the aftermath of World War II ...

On this day in history the great Chicago fire started. It may not have been started by Mrs O’Leary’s cow as legend states. But we do know that a couple of hundred people were killed and 90,000 people lost their homes. What I did not know was that on the same day the largest forrest ...