Americana
Jackie Robinson’s Major League Debut
On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport …
Eternal Patrol and Sacrifice
On this day, April 10, 1963, USS Thresher (SSN-593) began a series of sea trial exercises, accompanied by the submarine escort ship Skylark. The exercises were conducted at the end of a major ship overhaul performed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard …
Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Berets”
It is due in large part to Hollywood, that America’s collective memory of the Vietnam War is now inextricably linked with the popular music of that era. Most of those links are with the music of the late-60s counterculture and …
Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway completes his short novel The Old Man and the Sea. He wrote his publisher the same day, saying he had finished the book and that it was the best writing he had ever done. The critics agreed: …
The Medal of Honor
The earliest military action to be revered with a Medal of Honor award is performed by Colonel Bernard J.D. Irwin, an assistant army surgeon serving in the first major U.S.-Apache conflict on this day, Feb 13th, 1861.
COL Irwin, an …
Hometown History
It is amazing to me that sometimes history sits right before our eyes and we fail to realize it. I grew up in North Carolina and often drove across a bridge on 421 over the Yadkin River and have even …
Inauguration Day
Though it was not celebrated this year, the inauguration of the president of the United States is a ceremonial event marking the commencement of a new four-year term of a president of the United States. The day a presidential inauguration …
Unveiling the Corvette
On this day in 1953, a prototype Chevrolet Corvette sports car makes its debut at General Motors’ (GM) Motorama auto show at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The Corvette, named for a fast type of naval warship, would …
Benny goes to Carnegie
Jazz has been called “America’s classical music,” This label both recognizes its American origins and makes a strong case that jazz is worthy of aesthetic consideration alongside music usually thought of as “classical.” In the current era, when programs of …
Recent Comments