Voting by secret ballot is a recent development in American elections. From colonial times to the late 19th century, voting was often done by voice vote or using ballots that used different colored paper or ink to indicate which party … Continue reading →
Thomas Jefferson caught grief from his political opponents over wasteful government spending. Voters were told that Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase would cost each of them $4. Since it granted America ownership of the port of New Orleans and gave the U.S. … Continue reading →
In the autumn of 1621, the settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts were finishing their first year on the American continent. In that time, they had built a village, withstood a mysterious sickness that claimed many lives, learned to fish and hunt, … Continue reading →
[A note: shortly after this article appeared in the March 2010 issue of the Almanac, a newspaper expose came out claiming that John Gutzon Borglum had joined the Ku Klux Klan while in Georgia working on the Stone Mountain project. A … Continue reading →
Railroads and telegraphs were new technologies in the 19th century, and they were objects of fascination for many boys. Inventor Thomas Edison gravitated toward these fields. He became a newsboy on a train at the age of twelve, selling newspapers … Continue reading →
One hundred years ago, San Francisco was rebuilding after the earthquake and fire of 1906. But that wasn’t enough to occupy the energies of its citizens; talk in town spread about putting on a world’s fair. In 1910, a public … Continue reading →