Browsing: October 31

A Brief History On October 31, 1864, the people of the United States got a big  treat in their Halloween basket, the newly minted State of Nevada, the 36th state of the Union, appropriately known as “The Silver State.”  Right in the middle of the bloodiest war in US history, for good measure. Digging Deeper At the time of admission as a state, Nevada only had about 14,000 people.  Only 4 years earlier the number was a paltry 6857 souls.  For such a large area (the 7th largest state by area) Nevada has for most of its existence been quite…

A Brief History On October 31st, we celebrate Halloween around the world!  On honor of the holiday most popularly associated with almost all things creepy, we list some of the creepiest videos found on YouTube!  Yesterday, we listed videos concerning various urban legends.  Today, we feature various short films made by talented directors without any commentary by us so as not to spoil anything!  You can, however, read up on some of these in a related list over on TopTenz.  They are listed in the order they appeared on YouTube. Digging Deeper 1.  “agamemnon counterpart” by fividtelefuzzerator (uploaded on June…

A Brief History On October 31, 1968, in a political move intended to help Hubert Humphrey win the Presidential election, President Lyndon Johnson made an announcement that became known as “The October Surprise,” in which he stated that all bombardment of North Viet Nam would be halted.  The reason publicly given for this halt was that North Viet Nam had supposedly shown good faith in negotiations toward ending the Viet Nam War. Since then, the term “October Surprise” has been used to describe news events that have been deliberately created to influence the outcome of elections, in particular the U.S. presidency. Digging…

A Brief History Many of our readers are probably preparing for their Halloween parties this weekend.  As such, we have some recommendations for fun and interesting drinks to share with fellow revelers on October 31st!  The items featured in this article are non-alcoholic because we here at History and Headlines want your fun time to be safe as well. Digging Deeper First off, the millions of Harry Potter fans around the world will surely appreciate Pumpkin Juice. Universal Studios sells this “spicy sweet pumpkin beverage…attractively packaged with a removable, reusable pumpkin cap cover” on their official website. Speaking of witchcraft and wizardry, another…

A Brief History The first record of dressing up in costumes on Halloween in North America goes back to 1911 when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported how the neighborhood children were “guising.”  It was not until the 1930s, however, that companies began mass-producing Halloween costumes for commercial sale.  Early costumes were scary in nature and were often of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mummies, witches, etc.  Later costumes moved on from the ghoulish characters and expanded to include non-scary figures ranging from superheroes to cowboys and Indians to fairy princesses to athletes to animals.  In recent years, it has become a popular trend for women to…