Archive for Historical
50 Years of 50 States: Oklahoma
Posted by: | CommentsNickname: Sooner State
Date Ratified: November 16, 1907 (46th)
Capital: Oklahoma City
Map of Oklahoma
- Oklahoma’s first newspaper was the Cherokee Advocate. First published in 1844, it was available in both English and Cherokee.
- Anadarko is home to the only authentic Indian city in the United States.
- Okmulgee holds the world records for largest pecan pie, pecan cookie, pecan brownie, and biggest ice cream and cookie party.
- The nation’s only lighter museum is in Gurhie, where there are over 20000 lighters on display.
- Clinton Riggs designed the yield sign, and it was first tried out in Tulsa.
- Homesteading was first permitted on April 22, 1889. More than 50,000 people swarmed into the area, those who tried to beat the noon starting gun were called Sooners, hence the state’s nickname.
- Oklahoma has the largest Native American population of any state in the U.S., and is the tribal headquarters for 39 tribes. Oklahoma was the original location of the Indian territory, where 5 tribes from the southeastern U.S. were located in the 1830s and 1840s.
- The first flag of Oklahoma, adopted 4 years after achieving statehood, was a red flag with a large white star with the number “46″ in it. The Daughters of the American Revolution sponsored a contest to redesign the flag in 1924 because red flags were considered a symbol of communism. The winning design was adopted in 1925, and the words Oklahoma were added to it in 1941. As for the symbolism:
The Osage shield is covered by two symbols of peace: the peace pipe or calumet representing Native Americans, and the olive branch representing European Americans. Six golden brown crosses, Native American symbols for stars, are spaced on the shield. The blue field represents the first official flag flown by any Native American Nation, the Choctaw flag of the American Civil War (from Wikipedia).
Flag of Oklahoma
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50 Years of 50 States: Nevada
Posted by: | CommentsNickname: Silver State
Date Ratified: October 31, 1864 (36th)
Capital: Carson City
Map of Nevada
- In 1859, prospectors found the biggest deposit of silver ore at Comstock Lode, under Virginia City.
- In 1960, there were roughly 16000 slot machines in Nevada. By 1999, that number grew to over 205, 000, which is about 1 slot machine per every 10 residents.
- The Pair-O-Dice club opened in 1931 on Highway 91. This was the first casino on what would later become The Las Vegas Strip.
- Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state. The highest point is Boundary Peak, at a height of over 13000 feet.
- Nevada is the largest gold-producing state in the country. Only South Africa produces more gold than Nevada.
- The largest single public works project in the United States is the Hoover Dam. It contains 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete; enough to pave a two-lane highway between New York and San Francisco.
- The state flag of Nevada was originally adopted in 1929. However, due to some legal snafus, it was not officially adopted until 1991. The ribbon, which says “Battle Born” is meant to reflect Nevada’s being the only territory to become a state during the Civil War.
Flag of Nevada
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4 Upcoming Movies You Should See
Posted by: | CommentsSummertime may be the season for the blockbuster, but the fall is the time for the insightful documentary and the based on a true story biopic. So, without further adieu, I present to you 4 upcoming movies that may pique your interest.
An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story – 1/500th of a second to get the shot… a lifetime to forget it. Eddie Adams photographed 13 wars, 6 American Presidents, and virtually every cultural and historical figure of the last 50 years. History would be changed through his lens. But the photo that made Eddie famous would haunt him for his entire life (Released July 31st):
Walt & El Grupo chronicles the amazing ten-week trip that Walt Disney and his hand-picked group of artists and filmmaking talent (later known as “El Grupo”) took to South America in 1941 at the behest of the U.S. Government as part of the Good Neighbor Policy (Releases September 11th):
Earth Days is a feature length documentary about the origins of the modern environmental movement, told through the eyes of nine Americans who were inspired to act on what they believed was the most important challenge facing mankind (Releases August 14th):
Bright Star is a riveting drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats’ untimely death at age 25 (Releases September 18th):
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John Quincy Adams Joins Twitter
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Image via Wikipedia
Twitter may be a 21st century invention, but that’s not going to stop John Quincy Adams, the nation’s 6th president, from joining in on the fun. Thanks to the Massachusetts Historical Society, that is. Seems that like many historical figures, Mr. Adams kept a series of one-line, Twitter-friendly diary entries during his lifetime. I’m following him, now, and you can follow him, too. Just swing on over to http://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS and start following his updates. While you’re at it, you might also consider following Abraham Lincoln as he tweets during the Battle of Gettysburg.
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Stories You Should Read
Posted by: | CommentsSeeing as how this is a history-related website, I thought I’d share with you a group of history-related articles. ENJOY!
“For the intrepid scuba diver, many parts of the South Pacific are like a living, underwater history museum. Imagine a major WWII battle in the European Theater after which no one had bothered to come in and pick up all the ruined tanks and jeeps, broken equipment, dropped trash.”
mental_floss Blog » Learning about WWII at 120 Feet
“Just like a parent, every inventor has to send their child out into the world. Sometimes that child becomes a doctor or a movie star. Other times that child ends up in a clock tower with a rifle… With that in mind [Cracked] presents some of history’s greatest inventors who lived to see their inventions take on unexpected, terrifying lives of their own…”
6 Geniuses Who Saw Their Inventions Go Terribly Wrong | Cracked.com -
UNC won the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Monday night, and UConn won the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Tuesday night. “Here’s the scoop on the NCAA championship hardware, plus the cups, statues, and trophies other athletes famously strive to claim.”
mental_floss Blog » The Stories Behind 8 Championship Trophies
“Save the Words is a website dedicated to keeping underused English language words in the dictionary. Pick an underused word and pledge to save it from extinction.”
Lifehacker – Adopt a Word to Save it From Extinction – Dictionary
“Sometimes in our haste to find a villain in every situation, we wind up painting some people as cackling cartoon villains when they were really just random guys, or even pretty awesome. Here are a few names you might want to give a second chance.”
6 Historical Villains Who Were Actually OK Guys | Cracked.com
