Dynamic Directory - November 22, 2024

After Patriots forced General Howe and his fleet out of Boston, the Brits sailed into New York Harbor in June of 1776.

In this disastrous battle, from the patriots perspective, a tired and outnumbered British force (led by Banastre Tarleton) routed the Americans (led by Abraham Buford) near the border of North and South Carolina.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Continental Congress authorized a new form of currency to be used throughout the United Colonies.

Born Hugh Smithson, Lord Percy was the 2nd Duke of Northumberland and a Member of Parliament. His half-brother willed funds to America which the government used to found the Smithsonian.

How did Charles Dickens, who released his famous Christmas story on 13 December 1843, become such a famous writer?

On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse successfully tests an electrical telegraph. So why did it take years longer to send the first message?

Oliver Wendell Holmes is known for some of his free-speech decisions which he wrote while serving as a Supreme Court Justice.

Major Henry Reed Rathbone and his fiancé, Clara Harris, attended a play with Abraham and Mary Lincoln on the night the President was shot. Booth lunged at Rathbone with a knife, injuring but not killing him. Learn how the assassination claimed more victims, years later, when Rathbone himself lost his mind.

On August 16, 1896 prospectors find gold in Alaska. The Trump fortune got its start as a result.

Learn the story behind one of the most-famous photos of the U-boat War: The attack of U-569.

As Alan Turing and his Bletchly Park colleagues worked feverishly to break the Enigma code, they caught a break when the Royal Navy captured U-110 on May 9, 1941. Onboard was a working Enigma machine and secret codes for the following month. Initially towing the disabled U-boat to Iceland, the crew with the secret treasure was redirected to Scotland.

Before he became a pope, Giuseppe Sarto had a great deal of experience living among his parishoners. As Pope Pius X, he strongly opposed the outbreak of WWI.

Before the Pearl Harbor bombing, Japanese-Americans lived and worked on Terminal Island. After the bombing, their homes were destroyed and their way of life was gone forever.

Ansel Adams, one of America's greatest photographers, started his professional life as a pianist. What made him decide to switch profressions?

Professor Wiles has won the Abel Prize for solving Fermat's Last Theorem. How long did it take to solve it? How did he do it?

December-January of 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the Ardennes Offensive, also known as the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler meant the major German offensive to turn the tide of war against the Allies. Instead, despite Germany's initial gains, the opposite happened.