Browsing: January

A Brief History On January 29, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, the Baltimore writer of such classics as “The Telltale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Goldbug,” published his famous poem, “The Raven,” certainly one of if not the most renowned poem in American literature, and ranks among the most famous of poems. Today we list 10 great works of American Literature that feature a bird in the title. Digging Deeper 1. “The Raven,” Edgar Allan Poe, 1845. This poem is the work that got Poe widespread fame and acclaim, although unfortunately that fame never translated into wealth. The…

A Brief History On January 28, 1956, Elvis Aron Presley, all-American boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, made his first television appearance on CBS’s Stage Show, the day after “Heartbreak Hotel” was released as a single. Elvis would quickly become “The King” of rock and roll, and the best selling single artist of all time. On the other hand, many great records were made by people that had only one major success, known as “one hit wonders.” Today we list our “greatest” (our favorites) list of those one hit wonders that came to our shores from artists in other countries. Digging Deeper…

A Brief History On January 27, 98 AD, Trajan became Emperor of Rome, succeeding his (adoptive) father Nerva as Emperor. Trajan ruled until his death in 117, a time when Rome saw its greatest military and territorial success. Digging Deeper Many readers may immediately think of Gaius Julius Caesar when the subject of “greatest Roman emperors” comes up, but in fact, Julius Caesar was not emperor, as that office did not exist at that time. The first person to be considered Emperor of Rome was Augustus, the great nephew (and adopted son) of Julius Caesar. Born Gaius Octavius, Augustus was…

A Brief History On January 26, 1965, the Constitution of India was amended to make Hindi the official language of Government in India, with English relegated to a “subsidiary official language.” Although the Indian constitution recognizes 22 “scheduled” languages, there are actually many more dialects spoken throughout the country, about 780, perhaps the second most linguistically diverse nation on Earth (after new Guinea with over 800 languages). Digging Deeper According to the official census of India, there are 122 “major” languages and an additional 1599 languages spoken there (presumably dialects). At least 30 of the languages are spoken by a…

A Brief History On January 25, 1915, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call spanning the continental United States, placing a call from New York to his assistant, Thomas Watson in San Francisco. This man was the same Thomas Watson that Bell had placed the first telephone call to back in 1876. Digging Deeper The famous words of the first phone call, “Watson, come here! I want to see you.” may or may not be the actual words, but they are the words History remembers. Bell was not the only person working on inventing a telephone, as…