A Brief History On this day, July 6, 1893, the town of Pomeroy, Iowa, was almost completely destroyed by a massive tornado! Digging Deeper Named for landowner and congressman Charles W. Pomeroy (September 3, 1825 – February 11, 1891), the town’s history dates back to at least the 1870s when a railroad was planned to be built through the Iowa settlement.  As the town’s official website notes, this railroad “bridged the gap between small rural towns and larger cities” by taking “passengers to Fort Dodge and” hauling “cattle to Chicago.” After a couple decades of prosperity, tragedy descended upon the town on July 6, 1893.  In the heat…

A Brief History On July 1, 1874, E. Remington and Sons placed the first successful typewriter on the market, a model also known as the Remington No. 1 and invented by Christopher Sholes, Samuel Soule, and Carlos Glidden. Digging Deeper Not particularly easy to manufacture, the inventors had sold out to Remington after failing to easily produce the machine.  Remington did not find an immediate market, as the machines were costly to make and still had some shortcomings such as the inability to type lower case letters.  It did however, introduce the familiar QWERTY 4 row keyboard, which despite appearances made typing much faster than an ABCtype…

A Brief History On June 30, 1994, Tonya Harding was banned for life from participating in figure skating events.  She is currently competing on season twenty-six of Dancing with the Stars, titled Dancing with the Stars: Athletes.  The season premiered on April 30, 2018 on the ABC network.  The four-week season, the shortest ever, features a cast of current and former athletes. Digging Deeper Shortly before the 1994 national figure skating championships which were being held in Detroit, Nancy Kerrigan was hit in the knee in what would become known as the “whack heard round the world”. The attack was…

A Brief History At the time of Richard’s birth, no one could have foreseen that he would one day be king for he was the 12th of his parents’ 13 offspring and only the fourth son to reach adulthood, with two of his elder brothers having children of their own. Digging Deeper So how was Richard able to become king? Actually quite legally and surprisingly peacefully. Unlike his kinsmen who attained the throne through battle, conquest or even murder, Richard was asked by the citizens of London to assume the throne after they had drawn up a petition. His right to reign…

A Brief History On June 25, 1843, Marie Anne Lenormand, France’s most famous fortune teller and cartomancer (card reader), died. Digging Deeper Born in 1772 and educated at a convent school in Alençon, she moved to Paris sometime between 1786 and 1790 and set up a type of office for clairvoyance. Early clients included the heads of the French Revolution (Marat, Robespierre and Saint-Just). She is said to have predicted their violent demise. Her imprisonment by the Committee of Public Safety which had been created by the National Convention and which formed the de facto executive government during the Reign…