This is the marker for Moore’s Creek Bridge. The location of the first revolutionary war battle in colonial North Carolina. It was early 1776 and British loyalists began to prepare for a landing of British regulars along the North Carolina coast.
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It was toward the end of the Great War that Congress passed the first Daylight Saving Time law. It was initiated on March 31, 1918. In addition to saving daylight, the “Standard Time Act” defined time zones in the U.S. for the very first time. The time change was so unpopular that it was repealed in 1919.
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On September 28, 1918, around 200,000 people crammed the streets of Philadelphia to watch the two mile Liberty Loan Parade, meant to raise funds for the war effort. Within a week, every bed in Philadelphia’s 31 hospitals was filled with 45,000 citizens afflicted with influenza.
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In April 1919, Wilson traveled to the Paris Peace Conference for talks on ending the Great War. Soon after arriving, the president of the United States collapsed. Wilson became ill with a fever. It was the dreaded Spanish Flu!
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The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic killed over 50 million people worldwide. It became evident to research scientists that understanding the exceptional contagious properties of this invisible virus could aid in the prediction of future influenza pandemics. A small ocean-side village in Alaska would become crucial to the re-discovery of the 1918 virus.
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There were 56 signers to the Declaration of Independence. Seven signers were from Virginia, the most famous being Thomas Jefferson. But what about the other rebel from Virginia named Thomas?
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She was born on a cotton plantation in rural Louisiana to former slaves. And orphaned by the age of seven. She married at 14, a mother at 17 and a widow at 20. A single mother living in poverty. Who was this woman named Sarah Breedlove? Why did she change her name to Madam C.J. Walker and how did she become one of America’s first female self-made millionaire?
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This is the historic marker for the Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base, located here in Scotland County, North Carolina. During World War Two, this airbase was the largest glider base in the world. Three long 6,500-ft runways were constructed in a triangle configuration to account for changing wind directions. Over 40 Army and Air Force units trained at the base by the end of the war in 1945, including both the 82d Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions.
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This is the historical marker for Bill Dickey. Located here in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas on their historic baseball trail. So who was Bill Dickey? He roomed with Lou Gehrig and taught Yogi Berra how to become a better catcher. He set the record by catching 100 games or more in 13 consecutive seasons. He won seven World Series as a player and six more as a coach. Who was this 11 time all-star catcher nicknamed, The Man Nobody Knows?
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He grew up in abject poverty in the slums of New Orleans. When he was twelve, he ended up in the Colored Waifs Home for Boys — where he learned to play the cornet. Later he became a world famous musician and a singer who kicked the Beatles off the number one Billboard spot with “Hello Dolly.” We are talking about Louis Armstrong, the maestro of Jazz.
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Here in the US we have definitely had our share of contagious outbreaks over the years. How did we cope with these diseases back then? You will be surprised to learn. It’s the history of quarantine in America. From 1783 to 1971, officers working at the Staten Island station boarded and inspected thousands of ships coming into New York Harbor each year to prevent the spread of infectious diseases
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Every July 4th, we celebrate our independence from British rule. As we eat our hot dogs, chug our beer and watch the fireworks, let’s review thirteen facts about July 4th that you may not know.
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As space flight was being developed, NASA engineers recognized the need for the astronauts to navigate their way in space. On a map of our universe, the only street signs are constellations and stars. So how do you learn to read this kind of celestial map? You train with the most advanced star machine on the planet. And in 1960, this machine was located at the Morehead Planetarium, located in North Carolina. It was at this Planetarium where the astronauts learned their stars on their way to winning the space race.
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This is the historical marker for the Pony Express, located here in San Francisco, California. From April 1860 to Oct 1861, young fearless horseback riders carried the mail in swift relay teams from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
On March 4, 1861, the company’s riders set their fastest time delivering Lincoln’s inaugural address to San Francisco by traveling over 1900 rough and dangerous miles in less than eight days. Although ultimately short-lived and unprofitable, the Pony Express captivated America’s imagination. It contributed to the economy of the towns on its route and served the mail-service needs of the American West in the days before the telegraph or a reliable transcontinental railroad.
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