This Day in History: January 1st- Betsy

This Day In History: January 1, 1752 In the summer of 1776, the story goes that General George Washington paid a visit to a newly widowed seamstress regarding the design for their new nation’s flag. A basic lay-out using six-pointed stars had already been devised by the Continental Congress, but the seamstress supposedly pointed out that using five-pointed stars would […]

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Who Invented the Fahrenheit and Celsius Temperature Scales and What Zero Degrees Fahrenheit Signifies

B. Halpern asks: 0 degrees Celsius is the freezing point of water. So what is 0 degrees Fahrenheit? Who came up with Celsius and Fahrenheit? Firmly entrenched in American society, the seemingly capricious nature of the Fahrenheit temperature scale could lead one to think that its Dutch inventor, Daniel Fahrenheit, pulled the number for the freezing point (32°F) of water out […]

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What are Blue Laws?

Jen asks: What are “Blue Laws” and how did they come to be? Rooted in the basic Christian tenet that Sunday is to be reserved as “the Lord’s day,” blue laws were originally enacted across the United States to encourage church attendance and restrict activity only to that worthy (at least according to some) of observation on the Sabbath. Transformed […]

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This Day in History: December 29th- The Murder of the Archibishop of Canterbury

This Day In History: December 29, 1170 “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” –Henry II On the cold winter’s night of December 29, 1170, one of the most notorious murders of the Middle Ages occurred. To please their King, four knights crept into Canterbury Cathedral to assassinate the Archbishop Thomas Becket. This brutal event provoked a wave […]

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The Sacred Band of Thebes, What Monkees Do With Money and More, in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

Quick Fact 881: On February 10, 1355 in Oxford, England, Walter Spryngeheuse and Roger de Chesterfield, two students at Oxford University, got in an argument with tavern owner John Croidon over the quality of the drinks he was serving.  In the end, drinks were thrown in the face of Croidon, after which the two students attacked him.  Soon the fight […]

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