Holidays
Thanksgiving History Facts and Trivia
Thanksgiving may be America’s most beloved national holiday, but its history is all over the place. Even the details of the famous feast between the Plymouth Colony settlers and the Wampanoag Indians in November of 1621 are sketchy. The best account we have is a ...read more
Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. A blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture, the holiday ...read more
Watch Roosevelt's 'Somber' Independence Day Speech from 1941
History Flashback takes a look at historical “found footage” of all kinds—newsreels, instructional films, even cartoons—to give us a glimpse into how much things have changed, and how much has remained the same. At 5 o’clock in the evening on July 4, 1941, activities in the U.S. ...read more
The Man Who Inspired Father’s Day Was a Single Dad and a Civil War Vet
William Jackson Smart was a twice-married, twice-widowed Civil War veteran and father of 14 children, one of whom dedicated her life to the creation of Father’s Day in honor of her devoted and selfless dad. The story goes that William’s daughter, Sonora Smart Dodd, was attending ...read more
How Times Square Became the Home of New Year’s Eve
The biggest night of the year was quickly approaching, and Adolph S. Ochs needed to find new entertainment for his New Year’s Eve party. For the previous three years, the New York Times publisher had set the skies above Manhattan ablaze with a midnight fireworks show launched ...read more
Quirky Vintage Photos of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become as much of an American tradition as turkey and stuffing. Every year since 1924 the streets of New York have been dazzled by floats, marching bands and later, oversized balloons and the Rockettes. These photographs ...read more
Thomas Jefferson’s Complicated Relationship with Thanksgiving
Since the United States became a nation, people have come together to count their blessings, feast on bountiful foods and give thanks with family and friends. These days, Thanksgiving celebrations usually involve turkey, pie and a food coma; in the past, they involved fasting, ...read more
The War on Christmas
The War on Christmas begins around the same time each year, when stores start peddling plastic Christmas trees and giant Santa Claus inflatables. Depending on which media talking head is speaking, the war is either a subversive effort by left-wing liberals to erase all traces of ...read more
The Ancient Origins of Diwali, India’s Biggest Holiday
Every year around October and November, Hindus around the world celebrate Diwali, or Deepavali—a festival of lights that stretches back more than 2,500 years. Diwali 2020 occurs on Saturday, November 14. In India, the five-day celebration traditionally marks the biggest holiday ...read more
These Photos of History’s Worst Traffic Jams Will Give You Road Rage
There are few things in life as frustrating as being caught in a traffic jam. Trapped and forced to helplessly wait at a standstill, the sound of music drowned out by the back-and-forth honking of horns. According to a recent analysis done by INRIX, a company dedicated to ...read more
8 Things You Should Know About Hanukkah
1. What does Hanukkah celebrate? Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem during the second century B.C., following the triumph of a small group of Jewish rebels, known as the Maccabees, against their oppressors the Greek-Syrians, who had defiled ...read more
Groundhog Was Once on Punxsutawney’s Menu
On February 2, 1887—a few months after an inferno had reduced a third of the commercial buildings in Punxsutawney to ashes—a small group of men ascended a wooded area a mile outside the small western Pennsylvania coal town in search of a local rodent said to possess ...read more
Celebrate a Southpaw, It’s Left-Handers’ Day
Scientists have been unable to pinpoint a definitive timeline for when man developed distinctive handedness. While some primates today show a clear preference for one hand over the other, there is less concrete evidence about our prehistoric ancestors. It’s believed that by the ...read more
A Brief History of Penmanship on National Handwriting Day
Borrowing aspects of the Etruscan alphabet, the ancient Romans were among the first to develop a written script for transactions and correspondence. By the fifth century A.D. it included early versions of lowercase letters and sometimes flowed like modern cursive. After the Roman ...read more