Amelia Earhart once took Eleanor Roosevelt on a nighttime ride.
Although her aviation career lasted just 17 years, Amelia Earhart remains one of the most famous people ever to take to the sky.
In addition to being renowned for her many firsts, including being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first person to fly alone from Hawaii to the mainland U.S.
Over the years, studies have shown that gift wrap can even positively influence the perception of a gift, a fact that was clearly understood in some ancient cultures.
When paper first emerged in ancient China around the second century BCE, it was primarily used for wrapping medicine and delicate goods.
Most grade school students can tell you that the first airplane was flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903.
But the origins of the parachute go back further, much further, depending on your criteria.
May 1 used to be moving day for everyone in New York City.
The crowds at Manhattan's Rockefeller Center get crazy during the holidays.
Imagine the majority of the city's population packing the streets with beds and other personal belongings on a single day of the year.
Because of the incredibly advanced craftsmanship of ancient Rome’s architects, as well as their remarkably long-lasting building materials, many of the ancient empire’s most marvelous construction projects can still be seen by millions of tourists today.
Some 6 million people visit the Colosseum each year alone. However, the most amazing engineering achievement might be Rome’s eye-catching aqueducts, one of which still supplies Rome with water millennia after it was built.
By all accounts, Baber’s call was much like millions made from cellphones every day — except that the renowned British climber was standing on the summit of Mount Everest.
Pumpkin itself is native to North America and was first cultivated around 5500 BCE.
The winter squash was almost certainly introduced to European settlers by the Wampanoag people of Massachusetts, who helped the newly arrived colonists at Plymouth survive their first winter.
In October 1705, the Connecticut settlement of Colchester was facing an early winter.
While New England was known for its cold snaps, this one was unusually premature and severe, with temperatures so low that nearby waterways froze.
On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail of how “the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.
It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
But before the ingenious founding father became the first U.S. postmaster, there was another important mail manager: a tavern owner by the name of Richard Fairbanks.
About 136 years before Franklin’s post office management, Fairbanks’ tavern became the first post office in the United States.
But fermented beverages have played a vital role in human culture for perhaps almost as long as society has existed, providing nutrients, enjoyment, and often a safer alternative to drinking water before the advent of modern sanitation.
Scholars disagree over exactly when beer was first introduced — although the earliest hard evidence for barley beer comes from 5,400-year-old Sumerian vessels that were still sticky with beer when archaeologists found them.
However, not every President has entered the White House with a spouse ready to take on the demanding job of First Lady. Four Presidents — Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and Chester A. Arthur — entered the executive office as widowers, and one (James Buchanan) never married.
For these men, the supporting role was instead filled by someone other than the President’s wife, such as a female family member, friend, or even a Cabinet member’s relative.
The Statue of Liberty is a world-famous symbol of freedom, given in 1886 by France to the United States in celebration of American Independence.
Nearby Ellis Island was the first stop for millions of immigrants to the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The national monument recalls this period of massive immigration to the United States.
Inside the statue, a plaque added in 1903 is engraved with words from "The New Colossus", an 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus:
State of New Jersey is known for its beach boardwalks, saltwater taffy, and colonial American history.
But many people don’t know that the tiny East Coast state was also once home to Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s eldest brother and the former king of Naples and Spain.
How the royal went from governing entire countries to living in the New Jersey countryside is thanks to his brother’s military conquests.
After abdicating the French throne in 1814, Napoleon escaped exile and attempted to retake his former role.
However, the campaign ended with the Battle of Waterloo, where his troops were defeated by the British. Knowing his brother would likely return to exile, Joseph Bonaparte feared he was also at risk of banishment. His solution: flee Europe, in disguise, by way of a ship heading to New York.
