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Created in 1995 by John Baur and Mark Summers, International Talk Like a Pirate Day in honor of the Golden Age of Piracy. In observance of the holiday, EiH will “speak in pirate” on all blog posts this weekend. For more info on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, check out the official site!

Categories : On This Day
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I like to think of EiH as more than just a blog, if for no other reason than that I hate the word (I prefer online magazine). So, in an effort to keep EiH from being just another blog, there are now multiple ways to access the site.

  • EverythingIsHistory.mobi – The mobile version of the site, which renders beautifully on an iPhone, Android, or touch BlackBerry. Perfect for getting your EiH fix on the go.

    EverythingIsHistory.mobi

    EverythingIsHistory.mobi

  • RSS – This is the syndicated version of EiH, which can be read in your favorite RSS reader, or even delivered directly to your inbox.RSS Icons Set
  • RSS on the Kindle – If you’re lucky enough to own a Kindle, then you can read EiH on it.
  • Twitter – Similar to RSS, but also featuring links to other interesting sites. Also, and this is my favorite feature, I post hourly on this day tweets.HistoryOfAll Twitter Screenshot
  • Posterous – I use this as an extension of Twitter because 140 characters isn’t always enough. For this reason, the EiH Posterous site is a great respository of quotes.Everything Is History Posterous Screenshot
  • Facebook Group – This is a group dedicated to the discussion of potential EiH articles, or current articles. Actually, you’re welcome to discuss anything you want in the Facebook group.Everything Is History Facebook Group Screenshot
  • Newsletter – This is your source for inside info about EiH, plus access to other exclusive EiH news. Wanna know what’s going on behind the scenes? The EiH newsletter is for you!
  • Technorati – If you’re a fellow online magazine writer…ok, fine…blogger, then you can find EiH on Technorati. EiH is also listed in other blog directories, which you can find in the sidebar on the right.

There you have it, Everything Is History is available just about anywhere you are. Just give it a matter of time, and I’ll have a channel on Youtube. Yup, EiH is gonna take over the video scene next.

Categories : Site News & Updates
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“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” -Ben Franklin

The above quote is one that my grandmother repeated almost daily during my formative years, although I didn’t fully understand what it meant until I reached adulthood. I’d probably never fully understand it if not for the great disaster that was 9/11 that happened during my 20th year on this planet. Like most people, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 Incident, I was shocked, hurt, and most of all, full of vengeance. As that subsided, however, I came to realize that we, the American people, may have been duped. The greatest crime of all time may very well have not been perpetrated in the manner in which we’ve been told. Now, I’m not saying it was an inside job because I honestly don’t know. That is why I’m posting this; 8 years later, the greatest crime in American history shouldn’t have so many unanswered questions. This post is not meant to disrespect the victims of the 9/11 attacks, it is merely a quest to shine light where there is darkness. There are countless more questions that could be asked, but here’s a few that I hope will get you started.

  1. Why were plans finalized on September 10, 2001, to attack Afghanistan and remove the Taliban from power? Both Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell admit that without 9/11, there would be very little domestic support for an incursion against the Taliban.
  2. Why did World Trade Center towers 1 and 2 collapse so quickly, so cleanly, and in free-fall speed? The first plane struck Tower 1 at 8:46 AM, and it collapsed at 10:28 AM; 1 hour 42 minutes later. Tower 2  was struck at 9:03 AM and collapsed at 9:59 AM; 56 minutes later. Once the towers fell, they each took approximately 10 secs to collapse in on their own footprint. It was the first time in history that a steel-trussed building collapsed from fire, and it hasn’t happened since.
  3. Why did 7 World Trade Center collapse at all? 7 World Trade Center was a 47 story office building located across the street from the World Trade Center Plaza, tall enough to stand out in just about any other city’s skyline. It collapsed at 5:20 PM, supposedly from fire and debris from Towers 1 and 2. This one is decidedly more suspicious because only 8 floors were on fire, only 2 of which were visible from outside the window. However, it too collapsed in on itself at near free-fall speed. Here’s a side-by-side comparing a controlled demolition to the collapsed of WTC7: Interesting Note: The NE Regional Headquarters of the Securities and Exchange Commission was located at WTC7. The SEC was in the midst of its investigation into Enron, one of the biggest corporate accounting scandals in history. Enron was George W. Bush’s biggest political backer, former CEO Kenneth Lay was a close friend of Bush, and Bush frequently flew on Enron’s corporate jets during his 2000 campaign. With the collapse of WTC7, most of Enron’s SEC filings were likely lost.
  4. Why wasn’t there more extensive damage at the Pentagon? A photo of the immediate aftermath at the Pentagon shows no scars or skid marks on the lawn immediately in front of the impact site. Also, that hole in the building is awfully small considering a Boeing 757 has a wingspan of 124 ft. 10 in.
    The Lawn at the Pentagon on 9/11
  5. If the hijackers were such terrible pilots and opted not to learn to land, how did they strike the Pentagon in such a manner as to be able to penetrate to the 3rd ring of the Pentagon without skidding the ground?
  6. What’s the deal with Flight 93? We’ve all heard the heroic story of the passengers taking it to the hijackers, whereby the plane crashes in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It really is a powerful, emotional story, but it obscures the facts. Where were the bodies and the debris? Every plane crash in history, even the fiery, explosive ones have left behind bodies, yet Flight 93 only yielded bone and tissue fragments. As the Shanksville Medical Examiner put it, “I stopped being coroner after about 20 minutes because there were no bodies there.” And what of the debris. Here’s a view of the Flight 93 crash site (notice the lack of debris, lack of flames, and the single, relatively small crater):
    Flight 93 Crater at Shanksville
    And here’s one from the 1988 crash of Pan AM Flight 103 in Lockerbie Scotland:
    Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie Scotland
  7. How come the FBI never changed the suspected hijackers’ list despite the fact that none of the hijackers’ names were on the passenger manifests, and at least 7 people are alive who claim ownership of those identities?
  8. If Osama bin Laden is responsible for 9/11, why isn’t he wanted for it? Bin Laden is on the FBI’s most wanted fugitive list, as well as the most wanted terrorist list for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings, not for 9/11. Here’s the exact text from his wanted poster:

    Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These attacks killed over 200 people. In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world.

    On September 12, 2001, Al Qaeda denies involvement in the attacks. On September 16, Osama bin Laden personally addresses the accusation against him and denies involvement. On September 28, in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper, bin Laden again denies involvement in the 9/11 Incident.

  9. Why hasn’t there been a criminal investigation into 9/11? The closest thing was the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, more popularly known as the 9/11 Commission, which was made up of politicians appointed by George W. Bush and Congress. It was only meant to tell the story of 9/11 and provide recommendations for the future. Of note, it completely ignored the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, and had other serious omissions, including the testimony of former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, that there were serious cover-ups at FBI Headquarters. Furthermore, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney refused to testify under oath, Bush and Cheney testified together, and Condoleeza Rice, then National Security Advisor, was not required to testify.
  10. Would elements of the government kill me in order to foster international support for a war? Ever heard of Operations Northwoods?

“It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts… For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.”

-Patrick Henry

Categories : The Skeptic
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Today's Prize: How the States Got Their Shapes

Today's Prize: How the States Got Their Shapes

I can’t believe we are already over halfway through our wonderful adventure through the 50 states. I hope you have found some information that has shed some new light on this wonderful country. Today, you have the opportunity to win an incredible book; one which I have read and definitely recommend. It’s called How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein, and it could be yours simply by answering the following question.

Who was the first American-born citizen to be canonized by the Catholic church, and what state were they from?

As has been the case the last 2 days, the answer lies in the states I wrote about today. If you think you know the answer, submit it in the comments for your chance to win How the States Got Their Shapes. The winner will be selected at random from those who answered correctly. You have until 11:59 PM Eastern tonight to answer. Oh, and if you won before, you can’t participate again until the grand finale later this week.

You will have more chances to win through the end of the week, so subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow EiH on Twitter, or you could miss out!

Categories : Origins
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Yesterday, at the end of the post,  I asked readers to find one event that happened on that day, and post it in the comments. One of them, the only one that posted actually, came across an interesting problem. My friend Julie writes:

I’ve been enjoying your blog, and wanted to find an event that happened today (that hadn’t been posted by EiH yet;)). Researching took me down something of a rabbit hole, however. I discovered an interesting fact: August 15 (1865) is considered the day Sir Joseph Lister “discovered” the antiseptic process for surgery, and reduced post-surgical mortality from 50% to 15%. Pretty darn important! (In fact the mouthwash Listerine and the bacteria Listeria are named for him). However, what does it mean to “discover” such a process on a particular day? I couldn’t find an answer. Rather, Lister underwent his first antiseptic surgery procedure on Aug. 12 of that year (using carbolic acid to sterilize wounds, hands and instruments).
So I questioned August 15th, and looked to the source of that date and information. I was continually led back to “The Associated Press.” Interesting.
Maybe there really IS some correlation to today’s date and the “discovery” of antiseptic surgery. But what if there isn’t? What if the guy or gal writing today’s factoids for the AP, about to be published in newspapers around the world, was a few days off? What if THEIR source was a few days off? And furthermore…..does it even matter?

Julie brings up some very valid points. One thing to consider when dealing with the invention/discovery of processes, is that others have probably used the process, but the person we know is the one that gets the credit. Lister could have watched a farmer disinfecting in order to save his animals, which would then save him money, then Lister ran with it and used it on people. Maybe Lister *discovered* his process on the 15th because his patient actually survived for three days. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because the important part is that surgical mortality dropped, and has led to the technological advances that we have today. I personally enjoy on this day factoids because it shows us how far we’ve come. But that’s just my opinion. Tell us in the comments, what do you think? Do you care?

Categories : On This Day
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apollo 11 flagEverybody knows that on July 20, 1969 the first men set foot on the moon, you know Apollo 11 and all. But since the advent of the Gregorian calendar there have been over 400 July 20th’s, so lets see what else has happened, shall we?

  • 1656: Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
  • 1738: North America: French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
  • 1810: Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.
  • 1864: American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
  • 1871: British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
  • 1881: Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota.
  • 1903: Ford Motor Company ships its first car.
  • 1917: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-World War I Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
  • 1921: Air mail service begins between New York City and San Francisco.
  • Also in 1921: Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives.
  • 1924: Teheran, Persia comes under martial law after the American vice-consul, Robert Imbrie, is killed by a religious mob enraged by rumors he had poisoned a fountain and killed several people.
  • 1929: Soviet troops attempt to cross the Amur River into Manchuria near Blagoveschensk as tensions mount between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.
  • 1932: In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.
  • 1934: Labor unrest in the U.S., as police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, wounding fifty; Seattle police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen, and the governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
  • 1940: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Hatch Act of 1939, limiting political activity by Federal government employees.
  • 1944: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the July 20 plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg; an event so huge that Tom Cruise made a terrible movie about it.
  • 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the Democratic Party nomination for the fourth and final time at the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
  • 1945: The US Congress approves the Bretton Woods Agreement (and your money’s been worthless ever since).
  • 1948: 12 leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Alien Registration Act. Despite most of the convictions under the act being ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the law remains on the books to this day.
  • 1954: At Geneva, Switzerland, an armistice is signed that ends fighting in Vietnam and divides the country along the 17th parallel. Elections held a year later which would have unified the country with leadership from the North is nullified by South Vietnamese (American-backed) leader Ngo Dinh Diem. The country would subsequently remain in a state of war for another 21 years.
  • 1960: Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world’s first elected female head of government.
  • 1968: The Special Olympics is founded, almost on cue, the nations first black president makes an inappropriate joke about the event on national television 40 years later.
  • 1973: First coast-to-coast black-owned and operated radio network: The National Black Network (NBN) begins operations.
  • 1976: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars. See, not every space event is about the moon.
  • Also in 1976: Hank Aaron hits his 755th and final home run of his career.
  • 1977: The CIA releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
  • 1980: The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the one notable abstention being the United States which 20 years later was still trying to put an embassy in Jerusalem
  • 1984: Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse publishes nude photos of her.
  • 1986: In South Africa, police fire tear gas into a church service for families of those held under the government’s emergency decrees.
  • 1989: Burma’s ruling junta puts opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
  • 1995: The Regents of the University of California vote to end all affirmative action in the UC system by 1997.
  • 2000: The leaders of Salt Lake City’s bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering.
  • 2005 – Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal Assent.

Most importantly, 6 of my friends’ birthdays are today. Happy Birthday, guys!

Happy Birthday Jocelyn, Matt, Crystal, Philip, Regan, and Joe!

Happy Birthday Jocelyn, Matt, Crystal, Philip, Regan, and Joe!

Categories : On This Day, Origins
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Income Tax History

lincolns_closeup_on_5_dollar_bill

Abraham Lincoln: Father of the Income Tax (sort of)

Did you know that the Federal Income Tax was first signed into law by Abraham Lincoln as the Revenue Act of 1861?  It was a flat tax of 3% on income over $800, and 5% for citizens living abroad.  That tax was repealed by the Revenue Act of 1862, which was made explicitly temporary; it was set to expire in 1866.  Abraham Lincoln signed another Revenue Act in 1864, which increased the tax rate on a progressive scale, and removed the temporary nature of the tax.  According to Wikipedia, the tax scale was as follows:

  • 0%: under $600 (under $13,260 in 2008 dollars or the about the same as the average of $13,425 in combined personal exemption + standard deduction for single and married taxpayers in the year 2008)
  • 5%: from $600 to 5,000 (from $13,260 to $110,496 in 2008 dollars)
  • 7.5%: from $5,000 to $10,000 (from $110,496 to $220,993 in 2008 dollars)
  • 10%: $10,000 and above ($220,993 and above in 2008 dollars)

In 1894, the federal government attempted to impose another income tax through the Wilson-Gorman Tariff, but it was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.  Then, in the court case Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., the Supreme Court found certain elements of the Revenue Act of 1864 to be unconstitutional, thus severely limiting the power of the federal government to collect income tax.

Then in 1913, the 16th amendment went into effect, and that changed everything.  The official text of the 16th amendment states:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

It is important to note that up to this point, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution, also known as the Taxing and Spending Clause, provided for the Congress to be able to levy and collect taxes.  However it imposed strict rules on how Congress could collect, and what Congress could spend the proceeds on.  The 16th amendment cleared all that up, and American citizens have been paying income tax ever since.

Income Tax Quick Facts

  • The very first income tax was a flat tax of 3% on income over $800 (~$18K when adjusted for inflation).  Today, a progressive tax scale is used, with the lowest tax bracket being 10% for income up to $16K, and 35% for income over $357K.
  • In 1913, income tax was due on March 1st, then in 1918 it was pushed back to March 15th.  The due date was not pushed back to April 15th until 1955.
  • If you’re expecting to get a refund from the IRS, your due date to file is actually October 15th, 6 months after the due date for those that have to pay.
  • Because of how Capital Gains Tax works, people like Warren Buffett are taxed at a rate of 15% (without trying to evade taxes), while Buffett’s $60k/year secretary is taxed at 30%.
  • Two-thirds of American corporations paid no income tax from 1998-2005 (Source: ABC News).
  • According to the Congressional Budget Office (link opens in PDF), individual income taxes account for only 8% of GDP, while corporate income taxes account for only 2.7% of GDP.

Tax Protestors

Income Tax Cartoon

  • According to the War Resisters’ League, 54% of federal income taxes go towards military spending, which has led to a popular group of peace activists who stopped paying their income taxes as a means to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • The 2009 Tax Day Tea Party is a nationwide series of protests against…well, from what I’ve seen it’s more of a protest against liberal spending policies than it is a protest against the income tax itself.  It remains to be seen if this will be anything more than a fad considering the only thing on the event’s about page is that it is “a grassroots effort.”  A grassroots effort to do what?  I doubt the people showing up at these rallies burned their tax returns in protest, so it appears that April 15th is really just symbolic at best.
  • The Mental Floss Blog has a collection of Notable American Tax Protestors, and they hilariously include Wesley Snipes on this list.
  • A popular conspiracy theory among tax protesters is that the 16th amendment was never actually ratified, and thus the federal income tax is unconstitutional.

For more info on this subject, check out Federal Taxation in America: A Short History

Categories : On This Day, Origins
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