A Brief History On January 3, 1933, history was made in North Dakota when Minnie D. Craig became the Speaker of the State House of Representatives.  As such, Craig became the first female speaker of any House of Representatives in the United States, an entire 74 years before Nancy Pelosi was selected for that position at the national level! Digging Deeper As Speaker during the time of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, she had a difficult 2 years.  An activist, she encouraged women to participate in the political process.  In all,  Craig served six consecutive sessions in the North Dakota state…

A Brief History On January 2, 2009, Maria de Jesus of Portugal died in her home at age 115.  At the time of her death, she was the oldest living person in the world and the 20th oldest recorded person ever to live.  Maria ate fish, but not meat, and never drank alcohol or smoked.  Digging Deeper Every so often, you hear of a centenarian who drank and smoked every day of his or her life right up to the end, which was not the case with Maria.  So what does the trick?  Did Maria live so long due to her healthy diet and habits? …

A Brief History On January 1, 1902, Pasadena, California hosted the Rose Bowl, the first college football “bowl” ever.  In case you have ever wondered why sportscasters refer to the Rose Bowl as “The Grandaddy of ‘em all,” this is why.  It was the first and is still arguably the most prestigious college football bowl game. Digging Deeper Billed as a contest of East vs. West, the first Rose Bowl game was played between Michigan and Stanford, the representatives of the Big 10 and Pacific Coast Conferences. (The former PCC is now the Pac 12.)  Traditionally, this annual championship game is…

A Brief History On December 31, 1695, a tax on windows went into effect in England, which resulted in many people boarding up or bricking up their windows so that they would not be subject to the tax.    In a never-ending quest to take every penny, farthing, ruble, peseta, pfennig, shekel and sou from every last working person, governments all around the world show unlimited ingenuity when it comes to dreaming up things to tax, no matter how stupid. Digging Deeper Russia made a bid for a spot in this article by passing a tax on beards in 1698, which was an effort to force…

A Brief History On December 30, 1813, during the War of 1812, arson-happy British troops set the small city of Buffalo, New York ablaze as a means of punishing the upstart Americans.  Less than a year later, the British also ignited Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. Digging Deeper In fact, the British threated to burn towns down in an effort to extract ransoms from the townsfolk in exchange for not torching the buildings.  In this case, however, perhaps the British ire was somewhat justified because it was the U.S. that had declared war on Great Britain in the first place.  Of course, there…