Browsing: April 15

A Brief History On April 15, 1955, McDonald’s hamburger and fast-food chain claims their founding by Ray Kroc in Illinois when he opened a franchise restaurant of the hamburger stand brand founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald in California.  Since Kroc made McDonald’s the fast-food giant that it is, it is not surprising he would use the date of his involvement as the “founding” date. Digging Deeper Some interesting McDonald’s facts include: Mickey D’s has over 40,000 locations in at least 119 countries. The runners up in most fast-food locations is Subway, followed by Starbucks, KFC, and Burger King. McDonald’s…

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A Brief History Today, I wish a Happy Birthday to any of my friends, students, and subscribers who were born on April 15th. Digging Deeper Some notable historical figures who were born on April 15th include Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Empress Catherine I of Russia (1684–1727), the American-British author of the ghost story titled The Turn of the Screw Henry James (1843–1916), French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), American actress and star of Bewitched Elizabeth Montgomery (1933–1995), the English actress best known for portraying Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series Emma Watson (born 1990), and the English…

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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on April 15th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On April 15, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to join the US Army to put down the rebellion known later as the American Civil War. On April 15, 1952, a milestone in aviation history was crossed when the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress made its first flight, a flight directly headed to First Place in the pantheon of bomber aircraft. On…

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A Brief History On April 15, 2016, we ran an article acknowledging April 15th as the day your income tax return must be filed by each year in the United States, and used that fact to list five days people really look forward to and five other days many people may dread.  Today, we do it all again, with an updated list for both columns that takes into account the changing nature of our society, or as you may have guessed already, coronavirus.  As always, we welcome your input on days we could have added to the list or should…

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A Brief History On April 15, 2019, we have the sad duty to inform our readers that one of the great historical cathedrals in the world, Notre Dame in Paris, France, has been burning for the past few hours and is virtually destroyed.  Built from 1163 to 1345, the Gothic Catholic cathedral is formally known in France as Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the most famous church buildings in the entire world, drawing 12 to 13 million visitors per year Digging Deeper While authorities have no comment on the possible cause of the massive blaze, there has been no indication…

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