A Brief History On July 24, 1901, short story writer, William Sydney Porter, was released from prison in Ohio after serving three years for embezzlement. You know him better by his pen name, O. Henry. Digging Deeper Many famous writers have spent time in the slam, including: Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, jailed for sedition in 1703 and again another time for anti-establishment writing. The Marquis de Sade ran afoul of sodomy laws and found himself in and out of jail, finally ending up in an insane asylum in 1801, continuing to write while locked up. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the…
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A Brief History On July 17, 1984, President Reagan signed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, requiring all states to raise the legal age for buying alcoholic beverages from 18 to 21. The penalty for states that did not comply would be a reduction in Federal highway funds. Digging Deeper In the Vietnam War era, a shift in public opinion regarding the age when an American could be considered an adult came about largely based on the argument that if an 18 year old could fight and possibly die for his country, then surely that same 18 year…
A Brief History On July 6, 2022, a granite monument in Elberton, Georgia was heavily damaged by a bomb set by a vandal, leading to the dismantling of the “monument” which has not been replaced. Known as the Georgia Guidestones, the 19 foot tall stone pillars were inscribed with “guidelines” for human survivors of any imminent apocalyptic event. Digging Deeper Consisting of six slabs weighing almost a quarter million pounds total, the inscriptions contained 10 guidelines repeated in eight different languages. Completed in 1980, the monument was the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and rumors, including allegations that some sort…
A Brief History On June 25, 1906, heir to a railroad and coal fortune, Harry Kendall Thaw of Pittsburgh shot and killed famed architect Stanford White. Thaw shot the man in front of hundreds of witnesses at the theater on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden. Digging Deeper Why would Thaw throw away a life of luxury by shooting a man? For a variety of reasons, including White’s prior involvement with Thaw’s wife, the notion that White was blocking Thaw’s social climb, and due to mental illness, shown by Thaw’s successful use of the insanity defense. You may wonder why…
A Brief History On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court handed down a blockbuster ruling that would become a major bragging point for then former President Donald Trump, the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a right all across the United States. Digging Deeper The case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization found that abortion was not a right guaranteed by the US Constitution, a 6-3 decision in which the three Trump appointees to the Supreme Court made a major difference in making that decision. Reveling in the victory of overturning Roe v.…