It’s July 31; do you have a pot full of plant ash soaking in water? You know, to make that really great fertilizer for your garden? The stuff called “pot-ash”? Okay, you almost certainly don’t, but in any case today’s the day, in 1790, that the first US patent was issued, and it was for… Continue reading

After WWII, there was something of a recognition in western culture that the world had gotten a great deal more organized — administratively organized — than it had been before. Time Magazine called it “the widespread 20th century malady — galloping orgsmanship.” It was as if the vast mobilization for the war somehow convinced everyone that… Continue reading

With so many people working at home and meeting over videoconferences, kids have taken a more prominent role. Maybe not as prominent as some kids in the history of July 29, though. Take the year 238 in Rome. It was July 29 when the Praetorian Guard — the secret police of the Roman Emperors (think… Continue reading

July 26 In 1921, the “Laugh-O-Gram Studio” opened in Kansas City, Missouri. It produced animated films from the second floor of a nondescript brick building on East 31st Street — the building is still standing, and you’d never give it a second look, unless you knew about its history. The studio had a contract for… Continue reading

One of the things you learn in school in the US is that the Revolutionary War took place in North America, mostly involved colonial troops versus the British (or their mercenaries), and ended when George Washington defeated General Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. Not a single one of those things are true.  The final battle… Continue reading