# data[].attributes.headline
Native Americans: Period Characteristics 

# data[].attributes.subject
Native Americans: Period Characteristics 

# data[].attributes.body
Oral story were popular like legends, fairy tales, Poems, and Songs.
Stories were often used to convey messages and advice.
They also had a deep respect for nature and animals.

# data[].attributes.body
2200 BC: Tower of Babel.

# data[].attributes.body
1600 AD: Founding of Jamestown

# data[].attributes.body
Native Americans had over 600 different dialects.

https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/code-talkers/native-languages/#:~:text=Historically%2C%20about%20500%20distinct%20Native,speakers%20of%20their%20tribes'%20languages.

# data[].attributes.body
Before colonization, 17 million native Americans walked the U.S now it is down to 3 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_history_of_Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas#:~:text=While%20it%20is%20difficult%20to,a%20high%20of%2018%20million.

# data[].attributes.headline
Puritanism and Early Settlement  of First "American" colonies 1600-1800

# data[].attributes.subject
Puritanism and Early Settlement  of First "American" colonies 1600-1800

# data[].attributes.headline
Puritism and Settlers: Period Characteristics 

# data[].attributes.subject
Puritism and Settlers: Period Characteristics 

# data[].attributes.body
1. Wrote mostly diaries and histories, which expressed the connections between God and their everyday lives.
2. South to "purify" the Church of England by reforming to the simpler forms of worship and church organization described in the New Testament.
3. Saw religion as a personal, inner experience.
4. Believed in original sin and "elect" who would be saved.
5. Used a plain style of writing.

# data[].attributes.body
1507: Early Settlement of the first American colonies - Jamestown

# data[].attributes.body
William Bradford
-"Of Plymouth Plantation"

Anne Bradstreet (poetry)

John Edwards
-"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Edward Taylor
-"Huswifery"

# data[].attributes.body
1692: Salem Witch Trials

# data[].attributes.body
It took 144 days to reach Jamestown

# data[].attributes.body
By the mid 1700s Jamestown's was deserted

# data[].attributes.body
1741: Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

# data[].attributes.headline
The Age of Reason: Period Characteristics

# data[].attributes.subject
The Age of Reason: Period Characteristics

# data[].attributes.body
1. Mostly comprised of philosophers, scientists, writing speeches and pamphlets

2. Human beings can arrive at truth (God's rules) by using deductive reasoning, rather than relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or intuition

# data[].attributes.body
1607 Early Settlement—Jamestown

# data[].attributes.body
1775-1783 Revolutionary War

# data[].attributes.body
Benjamin Franklin
—Autobiography

Patrick Henry
—"Speech to the Virginia Convention"

Thomas Paine
—"The Crisis"

Phyllis Wheatley
—poetry

The Constitution

The Bill of Rights

The Declaration of Independence

# data[].attributes.body
The Americans Used invisible Ink to write messages

# data[].attributes.body
The American Government Hired Pirates to Hurt the British Navy

# data[].attributes.body
1. Mostly comprised of philosophers, scientists, writing speeches and pamphlets

2. Human beings can arrive at truth (God's rules) by using deductive reasoning, rather than relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or intuition

# data[].attributes.body
1775-1783 Revolutionary War

# data[].attributes.body
Benjamin Franklin
—Autobiography

Patrick Henry
—"Speech to the Virginia Convention"

Thomas Paine
—"The Crisis"

Phyllis Wheatley
—poetry

The Constitution

The Bill of Rights

The Declaration of Independence

# data[].attributes.body
Fighting did not end in 1781, it ended in 1783

# data[].attributes.body
Paul Revere didn't do his ride alone, about 40 men participated

# data[].attributes.headline
The American Renaissance: Period Characteristics 

# data[].attributes.subject
The American Renaissance: Period Characteristics 

# data[].attributes.body
1. Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul.

2. People can use their intuition to behold God's spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls.

3. Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and link conformity to tradition.

4. Important social and political movements include the Abolitionist, Utopian, and Women's Suffrage Movements

# data[].attributes.body
1840-1860
Transcendentalism

# data[].attributes.headline
The American Renaissance: Famous Authors and Works

# data[].attributes.subject
The American Renaissance: Famous Authors and Works

# data[].attributes.body
Ralph Waldo Emerson
—Nature
—"Self-Reliance"

Henry David Thoreau
—Walden
—Life in the Woods

Louisa May Alcott
—Little Women

# data[].attributes.body
Isaac Newton was a Transcendentalist

# data[].attributes.body
Transcendentalism came up with Mind Over Matter

# data[].attributes.body
1. Valued feeling, intuition, idealism, and inductive reasoning.

2. Placed faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination.

3. Shunned the artificiality of civilization and sought unspoiled nature as a path to spirituality.

4. Championed individual freedom and the worth of the individual

5. Saw poetry as the highest expression of the imagination

6. Dark Romantics: used dark and supernatural themes/settings (Gothic style)

# data[].attributes.body
Washington Irving
—"Rip van Winkle"

Emily Dickinson
—poetry

Walt Whitman
—Leaves of Grass

Edgar Allan Poe
—"The Raven"

Nathaniel Hawthorne
—The Scarlet Letter

# data[].attributes.body
The War of 1812
1812-1815

# data[].attributes.body
Romanticism: 1800-1860

# data[].attributes.body
Gold Rush: 1848–1855

# data[].attributes.body
The Gold rush was the Largest mass migration in US history

# data[].attributes.body
In the war of 1812 15,000 Americans died

# data[].attributes.body
His Great Great Grandfather John Hathorne was a leading Judge at the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel was so ashamed of this that he changed his last name.
https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-nathaniel-hawthorne

# data[].attributes.body
Nathaniel Hawthorne was so into politics that it influenced many of his works. He was fired from his government job and started writing The Scarlett Letter. He also worked as an American Diplomat in Liverpool, England

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-nathaniel-hawthorne

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1. He was the college classmate of another famous writer-and a president.

In addition to meeting future president Franklin Pierce while attending Maine's Bowdoin College, Hawthorne was a fellow member of the class of 1825 with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The pair remained lifelong friends. Longfellow served as a pallbearer at Hawthorne's funeral and later penned the poem "The Bells of Lynn" in his honor.

2. He changed his last name in part to hide his family's dark past.

The novelist's great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was a leading judge of the Salem witch trials, and Hawthorne was haunted by his ancestor's shameful past. Some believe that shortly after graduating from Bowdoin, the author added a "w" to his last name in part to make the spelling match the pronunciation and also to disassociate himself from a figure of whom he wrote was "so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him."

3. Hawthorne was the founding member of a utopian commune.

In 1841, Hawthorne became a charter member of Brook Farm, an agricultural collective founded by Unitarian minister George Ripley near Boston. The author expected that farm life would free up more time for him to write, but he quickly soured on the Transcendental commune as he laboriously cut straw, milked cows and shoveled a hill of manure that Ripley called the "gold mine." Hawthorne's blistered hands hampered his writing, and he wondered how anyone could "expect pretty stories from a man who feeds pigs." Disillusioned, he left after just a few months at the commune, which later inspired his 1852 novel The Blithedale Romance.

4. He lived in the same houses as two other famed Transcendental authors.

In 1842, Hawthorne and his newlywed wife, Sophia, moved into the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, a homestead in which Ralph Waldo Emerson had previously composed the first draft of "Nature," the essay that launched the Transcendental movement. Another Transcendental leader, Henry David Thoreau, planted an heirloom vegetable garden for the Hawthornes when they moved into the Old Manse. A decade later, the Hawthornes moved into another Concord house with a literary past-the Wayside, the childhood home of author Louisa May Alcott.

5. Zachary Taylor's election led to the publication of The Scarlet Letter.

Struggling financially as a writer, Hawthorne through his connections with the Democratic Party procured a political appointment in 1846 to be a Custom House surveyor in his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts. Following the 1849 inauguration of Zachary Taylor, the president's fellow Whig Party members accused Hawthorne of "corruption, iniquity and fraud." Hawthorne's fierce fight to retain his government job was covered by partisan newspapers around the country, but he was ultimately let go in June 1849. After his dismissal, the novelist immersed himself for months in writing The Scarlet Letter, considered by many to be his best work.

6. The Scarlet Letter was an instant bestseller-but not for the reason you think.

When The Scarlet Letter was published in the spring of 1850, the initial print run of 2,500 copies sold out in only 10 days. However, given the publicity that had surrounded Hawthorne's firing the year before, readers were initially less interested in the tale of Hester Prynne than they were in the novel's introduction, "The Custom-House," in which Hawthorne's barbed pen skewered his political enemies.

7. He served as an American diplomat.

Shortly after Hawthorne completed writing Tanglewood Tales in 1853, the Senate approved his nomination by the newly inaugurated Pierce to be a United States consul in Liverpool, England, among the most lucrative of diplomatic positions. During his four years in the diplomatic corps, Hawthorne did not publish any major works.

8. Hawthorne's youngest daughter has been proposed for sainthood.

Rose Hawthorne, who initially pursued a literary career like her father, converted to Roman Catholicism with her husband. Following the death of her 5-year-old boy and her husband, she moved into a tenement in an impoverished New York City neighborhood and began nursing incurable cancer patients. She then joined a religious order and became a nun, Mother Mary Alphonsa. In 1900, she co-founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne to continue her work with impoverished cancer patients. In 2003, she was nominated for sainthood.

9. Hawthorne was separated from his wife for 142 years.

Seven years after Sophia Hawthorne buried her husband in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, she passed away in London. She was interred an ocean away from her husband along with their daughter Una when she died in 1877. In 2006, the bodies of Hawthorne's wife and daughter were unearthed from London's Kensal Green Cemetery and reinterred next to his side.

10. A former president of the United States discovered Hawthorne dead.

With the author's health failing in the spring of 1864 as a likely result of gastrointestinal cancer, Hawthorne's old college friend, former president Franklin Pierce traveled with him to New Hampshire's White Mountains with the hope that the region's rarified air could be an elixir. On the evening of May 18 inside the Pemigewasset House hotel in Plymouth, New Hampshire, Hawthorne retired early after a dinner of toast and tea. During the night, Pierce awoke to check on his friend in the adjoining room. The former president placed his hand upon Hawthorne's forehead and found that he was dead. Pierce's presence fulfilled a passage in Hawthorne's novel The Blithedale Romance: "Happy the man that has such a friend beside him, when he comes to die!"

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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10 Things You May Not Know About Nathaniel Hawthorne | HISTORY

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Explore 10 surprising facts about the famed American novelist.

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1.  extreme paranoia of communism
2. a rise in tensions with russia

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The Crucible
-Arthur Miller

# data[].attributes.body
Cold War (1947-1991)

# data[].attributes.body
Joseph Stalin Death March 5, 1953

# data[].attributes.body
Nobody was ever convicted from McCarthyism

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Facts-About-McCarthyism

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Many Actors were Blacklisted as a result of Mccarthyism. One of these being Charlie Chaplin.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Facts-About-McCarthyism.

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1. Mending Wall
2. The Road Not Taken
3. Fire and Ice
4. Nothing Can Stay Gold

# data[].attributes.body
He was a two time college dropout.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91352/11-facts-about-robert-frost

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He has the record for the most pulitzer prizes's won by a poet.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91352/11-facts-about-robert-frost

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He was the First poet to read at a president's inauguration

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91352/11-facts-about-robert-frost

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There’s more to Robert Frost than “The Road Not Taken”—and according to him, we’ve all been interpreting that poem wrong anyway.

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She never published anything under her own name.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89564/11-poetic-facts-about-emily-dickinson

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She Wasn't a fan of Traditional punctuation

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89564/11-poetic-facts-about-emily-dickinson

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She had Vision problems in her thirties

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89564/11-poetic-facts-about-emily-dickinson

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Emily Dickinson lived nearly her entire life in Amherst, Massachusetts. She wrote hundreds of poems and letters exploring themes of death, faith, emotions, and truth. As she got older, she became reclusive and eccentric, and parts of her life are still mysteries. Here are 11 things you might not know about Dickinson's life and work.

1. Emily Dickinson wasn't a fan of traditional punctuation.

Dickinson's approach to poetry was unconventional. As her original manuscripts reveal, she interspersed her writing with many dashes of varying lengths and orientations (horizontal and vertical), but early editors cleaned up her unconventional markings, publishing her poems without her original notations. Scholars still debate how Dickinson's unusual punctuation affected the rhythm and deeper meaning of her poems. If you're interested in seeing images of her original manuscripts, dashes and all, head to the Emily Dickinson Archive.

2. Emily Dickinson was a rebel.

Besides punctuation, Dickinson rebelled in matters of religion and social propriety. Although she attended church regularly until her thirties, she called herself a pagan and wrote about the merits of science over religion. Dickinson neither married nor had children, and she largely eschewed in-person social interactions, preferring to communicate with most of her friends via letters.

3. Emily Dickinson never published anything under her own name.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Dickinson's friend and mentor, praised her writing ability and innovation but discouraged her from publishing her poems, probably because he thought that the general public wouldn't be able to recognize (or understand) her genius. Between 1850 and 1878, 10 of Dickinson's poems and one letter were published in newspapers and journals, but she didn't give permission for any of these works to be published, and they weren't attributed to her by name. Although Dickinson may have tried to get some of her work published-in 1883, for example, she sent four poems to Thomas Niles, who edited Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women-she instead let her closest friends read her poems, and compiled them in dozens of homemade booklets. The first volume of Dickinson's poetry was published in 1890, four years after her death.

4. Emily Dickinson had vision problems in her thirties.

In 1863, Dickinson began having trouble with her eyes. Bright light hurt her, and her eyes ached when she tried to read and write. The next year, she visited Dr. Henry Willard Williams, a respected ophthalmologist in Boston. Although we don't know what Williams's diagnosis was, historians have speculated that she had iritis, an inflammation of the eye. During her treatment, the poet had to eschew reading, write with just a pencil, and stay in dim light. By 1865, her eye symptoms went away.

5. Emily Dickinson lived near family for her entire life.

Although Dickinson spent most of her adult life isolated from the world, she maintained close relationships with her brother and sister. Her brother, Austin, with his wife and three children, lived next door to her in a property called The Evergreens. Dickinson was close friends with Austin's wife, Susan, regularly exchanging letters with her sister-in-law. And Dickinson's own sister, Lavinia, also a spinster, lived with her at the Dickinsons' family home.

6. The identity of the man Emily Dickinson loved is a mystery.

Dickinson never married, but her love life wasn't completely uneventful. In the three " Master Letters," written between 1858 and 1862, Dickinson addresses "Master," a mystery man with whom she was passionately in love. Scholars have suggested that Master may have been Dickinson's mentor, a newspaper editor, a reverend, an Amherst student, God, or even a fictional muse. Nearly two decades later, Dickinson started a relationship with Judge Otis Lord, a widowed friend of her father's. Lord proposed to the poet in 1883, didn't get an answer, and died in 1884.

7. Emily Dickinson may have suffered from severe anxiety.

Historians aren't sure why Dickinson largely withdrew from the world as a young adult. Theories for her reclusive nature include that she had extreme anxiety, epilepsy, or simply wanted to focus on her poetry. Dickinson's mother had an episode of severe depression in 1855, and Dickinson wrote in an 1862 letter that she herself experienced "a terror" about which she couldn't tell anyone. Mysterious indeed.

8. It's a myth that Emily Dickinson only wore white.

Due to her reclusive nature, legends and myth about Dickinson's personality and eccentricities spread. Before her death, Dickinson often wore a white dress and told her family that she wanted a white coffin and wished to be dressed in a white robe. But the widespread rumor that she only wore white was false. In a letter, she made a reference to owning a brown dress, and photos of her show her wearing dark clothing. For several decades, the Amherst Historical Society and Emily Dickinson Museum have displayed the poet's well-known white dress (as well as a replica).

9. Her brother's mistress edited and published her poetry.

In 1883, Dickinson's brother Austin started an affair with a writer named Mabel Loomis Todd. Todd and Emily Dickinson exchanged letters but never met in person. After Dickinson's death, the poet's younger sister, Lavinia, asked Todd to help arrange Dickinson's poems to be published. So Todd teamed up with Thomas Higginson to edit and publish Dickinson's work, creating an awkward family dynamic between Dickinson's brother, sister, and sister-in-law. After publishing the first volume in 1890, Todd and Higginson published a second collection of Dickinson's poetry the next year. Todd even wrote articles and gave lectures about the poems, and she went on to edit Dickinson's letters and a third volume of her poems.

10. Emily Dickinson had a big green thumb.

Throughout her life, Dickinson was a major gardener. On her family's property, she grew hundreds of flowers, planted vegetables, and cared for apple, cherry, and pear trees. She also oversaw the family's greenhouse, which contained jasmine, gardenias, carnations, and ferns, and she often referred to plants in her poetry. Recently, the Emily Dickinson Museum, located on the Dickinsons' former property, led a restoration of Dickinson's garden and greenhouse. Archaeologists restored and replanted apple and pear trees on the property, and they're hoping to find seeds from the 1800s to use for future planting.

11. Emily Dickinson's niece added "called back" to her tombstone.

On May 15, 1886, Dickinson died at her home in Amherst of kidney disease or, as recent scholars have suggested, severe high blood pressure. Her first tombstone in Amherst's West Cemetery only displayed her initials, E.E.D. (for Emily Elizabeth Dickinson). But her niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, later gave her deceased aunt a new headstone, engraved with the poet's name, birth and death dates, and the words "Called Back," a reference to an 1880 novel of the same name by Hugh Conway that Dickinson enjoyed reading. In the last letter that Dickinson wrote (to her cousins) before she died, she only wrote "Called Back."
A version of this piece ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2021.

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11 Fascinating Facts About Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson lived nearly her entire life in Amherst, Massachusetts. She wrote hundreds of poems and letters exploring themes of death, faith, emotions, and truth. As she got older, she became reclusive and eccentric, and parts of her life are still mysteries. Here are 11 things you might not know about Dickinson's life and work.

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He used to make sculptures out of dead animal parts, he would put these animals in his books.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/63-facts-about-the-world-of-dr-seuss-1.4557340

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63 facts about the world of Dr. Seuss | CBC Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904. The American children’s book author and illustrator is known for more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss.

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When writing his first book he rejected 500-1000 pages from his book.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/63-facts-about-the-world-of-dr-seuss-1.4557340

# data[].attributes.body
He has a collect of books that were much darker and mean for an older audience that didn't release until his death.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/63-facts-about-the-world-of-dr-seuss-1.4557340

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Civil War
1861-1865

# data[].attributes.body
Reconstruction Era
1865-1877

# data[].attributes.body
1. Feelings of disillusionment.
2. Common subjects: slums of rapidly growing cities, factories replacing farmlands, poor factory workers, corrupt politicians.
3. Represented the manner and environment of everyday life and ordinary people as realistically as possible (Regionalism).
4. Sought to explain behavior (psychologically/socially).

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Mark Twain
-Huckleberry Finn

Jack London
-Call of the Wild
-"To Build a Fire"

Stephen Crane
-"The Open Boat"

Ambrose Bierce
-"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

Kate Chopin
-"Story of an Hour"
-The Awakening

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2% of the american population died during the civil war.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-civil-war/civil-war-facts

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Casualties

"Bloody Lane", Antietam, MD, 1862 | Library Of Congress

More than 3 million men fought in the war.

Two percent of the population-more than 620,000-died in it.

In two days at Shiloh on the banks of the Tennessee River, more Americans fell than in all previous American wars combined.

During the Battle of Antietam, 12,401 Union men were killed, missing, or wounded-double the casualties of D-Day, 82 years later. With a total of 23,000 casualties on both sides, it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

At Cold Harbor, Virginia, 7,000 Americans fell in 20 minutes.

Disease was the chief killer during the war, taking two men for every one who died of battle wounds.

During the Battle of Antietam, Clara Barton tended the wounded so close to the fighting that a bullet went through her sleeve and killed a man she was treating.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., future chief justice, was wounded three times during the Civil War: in the chest at Ball's Bluff, in the back at Antietam, and in the heel at Chancellorsville.

On May 13, 1865, a month after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana became the last man killed in the Civil War, in a battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas. The final skirmish was a Confederate victory.

Leadership

Ulysees S. Grant

Senator John J. Crittendon of Kentucky had two sons who became major generals during the Civil War-one for the North and one for the South.

Ulysses S. Grant was not fond of ceremonies or military music. He said he could recognize only two tunes. "One was 'Yankee Doodle,'" he grumbled. "The other one wasn't."

On July 4, 1863, after 48 days of siege, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The Fourth of July would not be celebrated in Vicksburg for another 81 years.

In November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was invited to offer a "few appropriate remarks" at the opening of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg. The main speaker, a celebrated orator from Massachusetts, spoke for nearly two hours. Lincoln offered just 269 words in his Gettysburg Address.

In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general, a rank previously held by General George Washington, and led the 533,000 men of the Union army, the largest in the world. Three years later, he was made president of the United States.

On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln attended Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., to see The Marble Heart. An accomplished actor, John Wilkes Booth was in the cast.

On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term. Yards away in the crowd was John Wilkes Booth with a pistol in his pocket. His vantage point on the balcony, he said later, offered him "an excellent chance to kill the President, if I had wished."

Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black man ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He filled the seat last held by Jefferson Davis.

Economy and Power

Back side of the one-dollar "greenback", series 1862-63 | Courtesy of Wikipedia and The National Numismatic Collection of the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian).

At the start of the war, the value of all manufactured goods produced in all the Confederate states added up to less than one-fourth of those produced in New York State alone.

In March 1862, European powers watched in worried fascination as the Monitor and Merrimack battled off Hampton Roads, Virginia. After these ironclads opened fire, every other navy on earth was obsolete.

In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized the first paper currency, called "greenbacks."

In both the North and South, potential recruits were offered awards, or "bounties," for enlisting, as much as $677 in New York. Bounty jumping soon became a profession-men would sign up, desert, and then enlist again elsewhere. One man repeated the process 32 times before being caught.

The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.

Andersonville Prison in southwest Georgia held 33,000 prisoners in 1864. It was the fifth-largest city in the Confederacy.

Battle and Troop Movements

Provost Guard of the 107th Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran, part of the defenses of Washington | Library Of Congress

Missouri sent 39 regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: 17 to the Confederacy and 22 to the Union.

Confederate Private Henry Stanley fought for the 6th Arkansas; he was captured at Shiloh, but survived to go to Africa to find Dr. Livingstone.

George Pickett's doomed infantry charge at Gettysburg was the first time he took his division into combat.

African Americans constituted less than 1 percent of the northern population, yet by the war's end made up 10 percent of the Union army. A total of 180,000 black men, more than 85 percent of those eligible, enlisted.

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had 30 horses shot from under him and personally killed 31 men in hand-to-hand combat. "I was a horse ahead at the end," he said.

By the end of the war, Unionists from every state except South Carolina had sent regiments to fight for the North.

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The Civil War | Ken Burns | PBS | The Civil War | Facts, Casualties, and More | Ken Burns | PBS

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Browse key Civil War facts on this page including casualties, leadership, economy and power, battle and troop movements and more.

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The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-civil-war/civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Casualties

"Bloody Lane", Antietam, MD, 1862 | Library Of Congress

More than 3 million men fought in the war.

Two percent of the population-more than 620,000-died in it.

In two days at Shiloh on the banks of the Tennessee River, more Americans fell than in all previous American wars combined.

During the Battle of Antietam, 12,401 Union men were killed, missing, or wounded-double the casualties of D-Day, 82 years later. With a total of 23,000 casualties on both sides, it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

At Cold Harbor, Virginia, 7,000 Americans fell in 20 minutes.

Disease was the chief killer during the war, taking two men for every one who died of battle wounds.

During the Battle of Antietam, Clara Barton tended the wounded so close to the fighting that a bullet went through her sleeve and killed a man she was treating.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., future chief justice, was wounded three times during the Civil War: in the chest at Ball's Bluff, in the back at Antietam, and in the heel at Chancellorsville.

On May 13, 1865, a month after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana became the last man killed in the Civil War, in a battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas. The final skirmish was a Confederate victory.

Leadership

Ulysees S. Grant

Senator John J. Crittendon of Kentucky had two sons who became major generals during the Civil War-one for the North and one for the South.

Ulysses S. Grant was not fond of ceremonies or military music. He said he could recognize only two tunes. "One was 'Yankee Doodle,'" he grumbled. "The other one wasn't."

On July 4, 1863, after 48 days of siege, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The Fourth of July would not be celebrated in Vicksburg for another 81 years.

In November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was invited to offer a "few appropriate remarks" at the opening of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg. The main speaker, a celebrated orator from Massachusetts, spoke for nearly two hours. Lincoln offered just 269 words in his Gettysburg Address.

In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general, a rank previously held by General George Washington, and led the 533,000 men of the Union army, the largest in the world. Three years later, he was made president of the United States.

On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln attended Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., to see The Marble Heart. An accomplished actor, John Wilkes Booth was in the cast.

On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term. Yards away in the crowd was John Wilkes Booth with a pistol in his pocket. His vantage point on the balcony, he said later, offered him "an excellent chance to kill the President, if I had wished."

Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black man ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He filled the seat last held by Jefferson Davis.

Economy and Power

Back side of the one-dollar "greenback", series 1862-63 | Courtesy of Wikipedia and The National Numismatic Collection of the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian).

At the start of the war, the value of all manufactured goods produced in all the Confederate states added up to less than one-fourth of those produced in New York State alone.

In March 1862, European powers watched in worried fascination as the Monitor and Merrimack battled off Hampton Roads, Virginia. After these ironclads opened fire, every other navy on earth was obsolete.

In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized the first paper currency, called "greenbacks."

In both the North and South, potential recruits were offered awards, or "bounties," for enlisting, as much as $677 in New York. Bounty jumping soon became a profession-men would sign up, desert, and then enlist again elsewhere. One man repeated the process 32 times before being caught.

The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.

Andersonville Prison in southwest Georgia held 33,000 prisoners in 1864. It was the fifth-largest city in the Confederacy.

Battle and Troop Movements

Provost Guard of the 107th Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran, part of the defenses of Washington | Library Of Congress

Missouri sent 39 regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: 17 to the Confederacy and 22 to the Union.

Confederate Private Henry Stanley fought for the 6th Arkansas; he was captured at Shiloh, but survived to go to Africa to find Dr. Livingstone.

George Pickett's doomed infantry charge at Gettysburg was the first time he took his division into combat.

African Americans constituted less than 1 percent of the northern population, yet by the war's end made up 10 percent of the Union army. A total of 180,000 black men, more than 85 percent of those eligible, enlisted.

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had 30 horses shot from under him and personally killed 31 men in hand-to-hand combat. "I was a horse ahead at the end," he said.

By the end of the war, Unionists from every state except South Carolina had sent regiments to fight for the North.

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The Civil War | Ken Burns | PBS | The Civil War | Facts, Casualties, and More | Ken Burns | PBS

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Browse key Civil War facts on this page including casualties, leadership, economy and power, battle and troop movements and more.

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Mark Twain was his actual name, it is a alias. His real name is né Samuel Langhorne Clemens

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/565150/mark-twain-books-facts

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Mark Twain is widely considered the author of the first great American novel-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-but his rollicking tales aren't the only legacy he left behind. His poignant quotes and witticisms have been told and retold (sometimes erroneously) over the last century and a half, and his volume of work speaks for itself. Over the course of his legendary career, Twain-real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens-wrote more than a dozen novels plus countless short stories and essays and still found time to invent new products, hang out with famous scientists, and look after a house full of cats.

Like many of history's literary greats, Mark Twain (né Samuel Langhorne Clemens) decided to assume an alias early on in his writing career. He tried out a few different names-Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom, and, more plainly, Josh-before settling on Mark Twain, which means two fathoms (12 feet) deep in boating jargon. Where Mark Twain picked up the name has long been debated. According to one popular 19th-century story, he'd walk into a bar and call out "mark twain!," prompting the bartender to take a piece of chalk and make two marks on a wall for twain-two-drinks. Twain denied this, however, saying that he swiped it from a captain named Isaiah Sellers who used it at the New Orleans Picayune. But according to the LA Review of Books, there's no evidence Sellers used that name, and stories of it being used while Mark Twain was a steamboat pilot are unlikely. Instead, it's possible that stole it from an 1861 maritime sketch in a magazine or some as yet unknown origin.

Shortly after his stint on The Big Muddy, Twain headed west with his brother to avoid having to fight in the war. He took up work as a miner in Virginia City, Nevada, but the job wasn't for him. (He described it as "hard and long and dismal.") Fortunately for Twain, he didn't have to work there long. In 1862, he was offered his first writing job for Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise newspaper, where he covered crime, politics, mining, and culture.

Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress), Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

In 1864, Twain headed to Calaveras County, California in hopes of striking gold as a prospector (he didn't). However, it was during his time here that he heard the bartender of the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp share an incredulous story about a frog-jumping contest. Twain recounted the tale in his own words in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, originally called Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog. It was published in 1865 in The New York Saturday Press and went on to receive national acclaim.

Twain started writing the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, but he wasn't too pleased with his progress. After writing about 400 pages, he told a friend he liked it "only tolerably well, as far as I have got, and may possibly pigeonhole or burn" the manuscript. He put the project on the back burner for several years and finally finished it in 1883 following a burst of inspiration.

While Twain was putting off writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was busy working on a game he dubbed Memory Builder. It was originally supposed to be an outdoor game to help his children learn about England's monarchs, but he ended up turning it into a board game to improve its chances of selling. However, after two years of work, it was still too convoluted to be marketable and required a vast knowledge of historical facts and dates. That didn't stop him from patenting the game, though.

Memory Builder wasn't Twain's only invention; he also patented two other products. One was inspired by his love of scrapbooking, while the other came about from his hatred of suspenders. He designed a self-adhesive scrapbook that works like an envelope, which netted him about $50,000 in profits. His "improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments" also ended up being useful, but for an entirely different purpose than Twain originally intended. According to The Atlantic, "This clever invention only caught on for one snug garment: the bra. For those with little brassiere experience, not a button, nor a snap, but a clasp is all that secures that elastic band, which holds up women's breasts. So not-so-dexterous ladies and gents, you can thank Mark Twain for that."

Only one video of Twain exists, and it was shot by none other than his close friend Thomas Edison. The footage was captured in 1909-one year before the author died-at Twain's estate in Redding, Connecticut. He's seen sporting a light-colored suit and his usual walrus mustache, and one scene shows him with his daughters, Clara and Jean. On a separate occasion that same year, Edison recorded Twain as he read stories into a phonograph, but those audio clips were destroyed in a fire. No other recording of Twain's voice exists.

When you think of Mark Twain, you probably picture him in an all-white suit with a cigar or pipe hanging from his lips. It's true that he was photographed in a white suit on several occasions, but he didn't start this habit until later in life. According to The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, "In December 1906, he wore a white suit while appearing before a congressional committee regarding copyright. He did this for dramatic emphasis. Several times after that he wore white out of season for effect." He also refused to trade his white clothes for "shapeless and degrading black ones" in the winter, no matter how cold it got. So take that, people who subscribe to the "no white after Labor Day" rule.

Twain really, really liked cats-so much so that he had 19 of them at one time. And if he was traveling, he would "rent" cats to keep him company. In fact, he had a much higher opinion of felines than humans, remarking, "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." He also had a talent for coming up with some great cat names; Beelzebub, Blatherskite, Buffalo Bill, Sour Mash, Zoroaster, Soapy Sal, Pestilence, Bambino, and Satan were just a few of the kitties in his brood.

Twain is one of the most misquoted authors in history. According to one quote wrongfully attributed to him, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." What Twain actually said was, "[He] was endowed with a stupidity which by the least little stretch would go around the globe four times and tie." There are many, many examples of these.

When he was born on November 30, 1835-mere weeks after Halley's Comet was at perihelion, or closest to the sun. It appears roughly every 75 years, and Twain predicted he would die the next time it graced the sky. As he put it in 1909, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Oh, I am looking forward to that." He ended up passing away at his Connecticut home on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet's perihelion.
For more fascinating facts and stories about your favorite authors and their works, check out Mental Floss's new book, The Curious Reader: A Literary Miscellany of Novels and Novelists

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Mark Twain is widely considered the author of the first great American novel-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -but his rollicking tales aren't the only legacy he left behind. His poignant quotes and witticisms have been told and retold (sometimes erroneously) over the last century and a half, and his volume of work speaks for itself.

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It took Mark Twain 7 years to write Huckleberry Finn

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/565150/mark-twain-books-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mark Twain is widely considered the author of the first great American novel-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-but his rollicking tales aren't the only legacy he left behind. His poignant quotes and witticisms have been told and retold (sometimes erroneously) over the last century and a half, and his volume of work speaks for itself. Over the course of his legendary career, Twain-real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens-wrote more than a dozen novels plus countless short stories and essays and still found time to invent new products, hang out with famous scientists, and look after a house full of cats.

Like many of history's literary greats, Mark Twain (né Samuel Langhorne Clemens) decided to assume an alias early on in his writing career. He tried out a few different names-Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom, and, more plainly, Josh-before settling on Mark Twain, which means two fathoms (12 feet) deep in boating jargon. Where Mark Twain picked up the name has long been debated. According to one popular 19th-century story, he'd walk into a bar and call out "mark twain!," prompting the bartender to take a piece of chalk and make two marks on a wall for twain-two-drinks. Twain denied this, however, saying that he swiped it from a captain named Isaiah Sellers who used it at the New Orleans Picayune. But according to the LA Review of Books, there's no evidence Sellers used that name, and stories of it being used while Mark Twain was a steamboat pilot are unlikely. Instead, it's possible that stole it from an 1861 maritime sketch in a magazine or some as yet unknown origin.

Shortly after his stint on The Big Muddy, Twain headed west with his brother to avoid having to fight in the war. He took up work as a miner in Virginia City, Nevada, but the job wasn't for him. (He described it as "hard and long and dismal.") Fortunately for Twain, he didn't have to work there long. In 1862, he was offered his first writing job for Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise newspaper, where he covered crime, politics, mining, and culture.

Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress), Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

In 1864, Twain headed to Calaveras County, California in hopes of striking gold as a prospector (he didn't). However, it was during his time here that he heard the bartender of the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp share an incredulous story about a frog-jumping contest. Twain recounted the tale in his own words in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, originally called Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog. It was published in 1865 in The New York Saturday Press and went on to receive national acclaim.

Twain started writing the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, but he wasn't too pleased with his progress. After writing about 400 pages, he told a friend he liked it "only tolerably well, as far as I have got, and may possibly pigeonhole or burn" the manuscript. He put the project on the back burner for several years and finally finished it in 1883 following a burst of inspiration.

While Twain was putting off writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was busy working on a game he dubbed Memory Builder. It was originally supposed to be an outdoor game to help his children learn about England's monarchs, but he ended up turning it into a board game to improve its chances of selling. However, after two years of work, it was still too convoluted to be marketable and required a vast knowledge of historical facts and dates. That didn't stop him from patenting the game, though.

Memory Builder wasn't Twain's only invention; he also patented two other products. One was inspired by his love of scrapbooking, while the other came about from his hatred of suspenders. He designed a self-adhesive scrapbook that works like an envelope, which netted him about $50,000 in profits. His "improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments" also ended up being useful, but for an entirely different purpose than Twain originally intended. According to The Atlantic, "This clever invention only caught on for one snug garment: the bra. For those with little brassiere experience, not a button, nor a snap, but a clasp is all that secures that elastic band, which holds up women's breasts. So not-so-dexterous ladies and gents, you can thank Mark Twain for that."

Only one video of Twain exists, and it was shot by none other than his close friend Thomas Edison. The footage was captured in 1909-one year before the author died-at Twain's estate in Redding, Connecticut. He's seen sporting a light-colored suit and his usual walrus mustache, and one scene shows him with his daughters, Clara and Jean. On a separate occasion that same year, Edison recorded Twain as he read stories into a phonograph, but those audio clips were destroyed in a fire. No other recording of Twain's voice exists.

When you think of Mark Twain, you probably picture him in an all-white suit with a cigar or pipe hanging from his lips. It's true that he was photographed in a white suit on several occasions, but he didn't start this habit until later in life. According to The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, "In December 1906, he wore a white suit while appearing before a congressional committee regarding copyright. He did this for dramatic emphasis. Several times after that he wore white out of season for effect." He also refused to trade his white clothes for "shapeless and degrading black ones" in the winter, no matter how cold it got. So take that, people who subscribe to the "no white after Labor Day" rule.

Twain really, really liked cats-so much so that he had 19 of them at one time. And if he was traveling, he would "rent" cats to keep him company. In fact, he had a much higher opinion of felines than humans, remarking, "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." He also had a talent for coming up with some great cat names; Beelzebub, Blatherskite, Buffalo Bill, Sour Mash, Zoroaster, Soapy Sal, Pestilence, Bambino, and Satan were just a few of the kitties in his brood.

Twain is one of the most misquoted authors in history. According to one quote wrongfully attributed to him, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." What Twain actually said was, "[He] was endowed with a stupidity which by the least little stretch would go around the globe four times and tie." There are many, many examples of these.

When he was born on November 30, 1835-mere weeks after Halley's Comet was at perihelion, or closest to the sun. It appears roughly every 75 years, and Twain predicted he would die the next time it graced the sky. As he put it in 1909, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Oh, I am looking forward to that." He ended up passing away at his Connecticut home on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet's perihelion.
For more fascinating facts and stories about your favorite authors and their works, check out Mental Floss's new book, The Curious Reader: A Literary Miscellany of Novels and Novelists

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Mark Twain is widely considered the author of the first great American novel-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -but his rollicking tales aren't the only legacy he left behind. His poignant quotes and witticisms have been told and retold (sometimes erroneously) over the last century and a half, and his volume of work speaks for itself.

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At one point he had 19 cats, He loved cats so much that when he was traveling and lonely he would rent cats to spend time with him.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/565150/mark-twain-books-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mark Twain is widely considered the author of the first great American novel-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-but his rollicking tales aren't the only legacy he left behind. His poignant quotes and witticisms have been told and retold (sometimes erroneously) over the last century and a half, and his volume of work speaks for itself. Over the course of his legendary career, Twain-real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens-wrote more than a dozen novels plus countless short stories and essays and still found time to invent new products, hang out with famous scientists, and look after a house full of cats.

Like many of history's literary greats, Mark Twain (né Samuel Langhorne Clemens) decided to assume an alias early on in his writing career. He tried out a few different names-Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom, and, more plainly, Josh-before settling on Mark Twain, which means two fathoms (12 feet) deep in boating jargon. Where Mark Twain picked up the name has long been debated. According to one popular 19th-century story, he'd walk into a bar and call out "mark twain!," prompting the bartender to take a piece of chalk and make two marks on a wall for twain-two-drinks. Twain denied this, however, saying that he swiped it from a captain named Isaiah Sellers who used it at the New Orleans Picayune. But according to the LA Review of Books, there's no evidence Sellers used that name, and stories of it being used while Mark Twain was a steamboat pilot are unlikely. Instead, it's possible that stole it from an 1861 maritime sketch in a magazine or some as yet unknown origin.

Shortly after his stint on The Big Muddy, Twain headed west with his brother to avoid having to fight in the war. He took up work as a miner in Virginia City, Nevada, but the job wasn't for him. (He described it as "hard and long and dismal.") Fortunately for Twain, he didn't have to work there long. In 1862, he was offered his first writing job for Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise newspaper, where he covered crime, politics, mining, and culture.

Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress), Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

In 1864, Twain headed to Calaveras County, California in hopes of striking gold as a prospector (he didn't). However, it was during his time here that he heard the bartender of the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp share an incredulous story about a frog-jumping contest. Twain recounted the tale in his own words in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, originally called Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog. It was published in 1865 in The New York Saturday Press and went on to receive national acclaim.

Twain started writing the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, but he wasn't too pleased with his progress. After writing about 400 pages, he told a friend he liked it "only tolerably well, as far as I have got, and may possibly pigeonhole or burn" the manuscript. He put the project on the back burner for several years and finally finished it in 1883 following a burst of inspiration.

While Twain was putting off writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was busy working on a game he dubbed Memory Builder. It was originally supposed to be an outdoor game to help his children learn about England's monarchs, but he ended up turning it into a board game to improve its chances of selling. However, after two years of work, it was still too convoluted to be marketable and required a vast knowledge of historical facts and dates. That didn't stop him from patenting the game, though.

Memory Builder wasn't Twain's only invention; he also patented two other products. One was inspired by his love of scrapbooking, while the other came about from his hatred of suspenders. He designed a self-adhesive scrapbook that works like an envelope, which netted him about $50,000 in profits. His "improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments" also ended up being useful, but for an entirely different purpose than Twain originally intended. According to The Atlantic, "This clever invention only caught on for one snug garment: the bra. For those with little brassiere experience, not a button, nor a snap, but a clasp is all that secures that elastic band, which holds up women's breasts. So not-so-dexterous ladies and gents, you can thank Mark Twain for that."

Only one video of Twain exists, and it was shot by none other than his close friend Thomas Edison. The footage was captured in 1909-one year before the author died-at Twain's estate in Redding, Connecticut. He's seen sporting a light-colored suit and his usual walrus mustache, and one scene shows him with his daughters, Clara and Jean. On a separate occasion that same year, Edison recorded Twain as he read stories into a phonograph, but those audio clips were destroyed in a fire. No other recording of Twain's voice exists.

When you think of Mark Twain, you probably picture him in an all-white suit with a cigar or pipe hanging from his lips. It's true that he was photographed in a white suit on several occasions, but he didn't start this habit until later in life. According to The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, "In December 1906, he wore a white suit while appearing before a congressional committee regarding copyright. He did this for dramatic emphasis. Several times after that he wore white out of season for effect." He also refused to trade his white clothes for "shapeless and degrading black ones" in the winter, no matter how cold it got. So take that, people who subscribe to the "no white after Labor Day" rule.

Twain really, really liked cats-so much so that he had 19 of them at one time. And if he was traveling, he would "rent" cats to keep him company. In fact, he had a much higher opinion of felines than humans, remarking, "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." He also had a talent for coming up with some great cat names; Beelzebub, Blatherskite, Buffalo Bill, Sour Mash, Zoroaster, Soapy Sal, Pestilence, Bambino, and Satan were just a few of the kitties in his brood.

Twain is one of the most misquoted authors in history. According to one quote wrongfully attributed to him, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." What Twain actually said was, "[He] was endowed with a stupidity which by the least little stretch would go around the globe four times and tie." There are many, many examples of these.

When he was born on November 30, 1835-mere weeks after Halley's Comet was at perihelion, or closest to the sun. It appears roughly every 75 years, and Twain predicted he would die the next time it graced the sky. As he put it in 1909, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Oh, I am looking forward to that." He ended up passing away at his Connecticut home on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet's perihelion.
For more fascinating facts and stories about your favorite authors and their works, check out Mental Floss's new book, The Curious Reader: A Literary Miscellany of Novels and Novelists

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Mark Twain is widely considered the author of the first great American novel-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -but his rollicking tales aren't the only legacy he left behind. His poignant quotes and witticisms have been told and retold (sometimes erroneously) over the last century and a half, and his volume of work speaks for itself.

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She was blind in one eye. When she was 8 she got shot by a BB gun and it blinded her.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/635875/alice-walker-facts

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10 Things You Might Not Know About Alice Walker

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From her groundbreaking essays to Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘The Color Purple,’ Alice Walker’s work explores Black American experiences.

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The first Essay she wrote won $300. She won an essay contest with the essay The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/635875/alice-walker-facts

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10 Things You Might Not Know About Alice Walker

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From her groundbreaking essays to Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘The Color Purple,’ Alice Walker’s work explores Black American experiences.

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Her marriage was the first interracial marriage in Mississippi

https://earlybirdbooks.com/fascinating-facts-about-alice-walker

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Learn more about the woman behind influential pieces of literature such as The Color Purple.

Want more great books? Sign up for the Early Bird Books newsletter and get the best daily ebook deals delivered straight to your inbox.

Want more great books? Sign up for the Early Bird Books newsletter and get the best daily ebook deals delivered straight to your inbox.

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Learn more about the woman behind influential pieces of literature such as The Color Purple. Want more great books? Sign up for the Early Bird Books newsletter and get the best daily ebook deals delivered straight to your inbox. Want more great books?

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World War I
1914-1918

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The Great Depression
1929-1939

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World War II
1939-1945

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1. Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the "American Dream": the independent, self-reliant, individual will triumph.
2. Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form over the traditional.
3. Interest in the inner workings of the human mind (ex. Stream of consciousness).

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Lorraine Hansberry
-A Raisin in the Sun

F. Scott Fitzgerald
-The Great Gatsby

William Faulkner
-"A Rose for Emily"

Eudora Welty
-"A Worn Path"

Robert Frost
-poetry

T. S. Eliot
-The Waste Land
-"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

John Steinbeck
-Of Mice and Men
-The Grapes of Wrath

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60 million people died in WW2

https://borgenproject.org/ten-facts-about-world-war-ii/

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World War II was an expansive war fought between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allied power (Great Britain, Russia and the U.S.) that lasted from 1939 until 1945. With such a complex narrative, here are only 10 facts about World War II.

1. World War II was not only fought in Europe.
In theNorth African Military Campaigns between 1940 and 1943, the Axis powers attempted to cut off Middle Eastern oil supply to the Allies. These campaigns took place in Western Egypt, Eastern Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Ultimately, the Axis powers did not achieve their goal and the Allied powers neutralized the German threat. World War II was also fought in the Pacific. On December 4th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor damaging the American Pacific fleet. Japan went on to conquer the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma. However, after 1943, American forces slowly removed the Japanese from power in the pacific front. Full Japanese surrender came after the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

2. In total WWII claimed the lives of approximately 60 million people.

3. The Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews.

4. World War II was a continuation of World War I.
At the end of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty placed most of theblame on Germany, requiring them to pay large amounts of reparations and forcing the country to disarm. This greatly angered and humiliated the German people. Hitler used the German discontent to run as German Chancellor in the 1930s in which he promised to restore Germany.

5. The immediate cause of WWII was the German invasion of Poland.
Although facts about World War II show a multitude of causes for the war, the invasion of Poland was a crucial event. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded and within weeks successfully conquered Warsaw. Germany annexed West Prussia, Poznan, Upper Silesia, and the former Free City of Danzig. As a response to the invasion, Britain andFrance declared war on Germany.

6. The U.S was involved in WWII before the Pearl Harbor attack.
At the start of WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the U.S. would practice neutrality. However, on March 11, 1941, theLend-Lease Act passed which allowed the U.S. to provide military aid to allied nations during WWII.

7. Stalingrad was a major turning point in the war.
On July 9, 1942, Hitler ordered the capture of the Soviet Union city of Stalingrad. As a response, Stalin deployed the armed forces todefend Stalingrad and prohibited the civilians from leaving the city. Multiple counter-offensive attacks lead to Soviet victory.

8. The Japanese used Kamikazes aircrafts.
Kamikazes aircrafts were manned by Japanese soldiers who were instructed to crash into Allied ships. In total, kamikazes destroyed more than 300 U.S. ships which resulted in 15,000 casualties.

9. Germany surrendered in May of 1945, while Japan did not surrender until September.

10. The Marshall P lan gave aid to Europe to rebuild after World War II.
The Marshall Plan gave $12 billion to Western European countries in economic turmoil caused by WWII.

World War II is still a popular topic today because it was one of the most violent and complex wars in history. These 10 facts about World War II only give a very brief overview.

- Karla Umanzor

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Ten Important and Fundamental Facts About World War II

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World War II was an expansive war fought between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allied power (Great Britain, Russia and the U.S.) that lasted from 1939 until 1945. With such a complex narrative, here are only 10 facts about World War II.

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During WW1 the Tanks were gendered. If a tank had a cannon it was male and if a tank had a gun it was female.

https://www.history.co.uk/article/10-little-known-facts-about-ww1

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Most of us are fairly well versed on many of the facts of Word War I with great battles such as the Somme and Battle of Passchendaele but there are some that are so quirky that they have failed entirely to make the schoolbooks. In honour of the Great War's centenary, here are the top ten little known facts about World War I that might just come as a surprise to you.

At the beginning of the war, tanks were grouped according to their 'gender'. The male tanks had cannons attached while the females carried machine guns. The prototype tank was named Little Willie.

2. Women's skin turned yellow

3. Explosions in France were heard in London

A team of miners worked in secret to dig tunnels under the trenches during the war in order to plant and detonate mines there. The detonations destroyed much of the German front line and were so great, the prime minister then heard the sound in London, 140 miles away.

4. 'Liberty sausage', 'liberty cabbage' and 'liberty dogs' were born

In America, suspicion of the Germans was so high that even German shepherd dogs were killed. The names of frankfurters, hamburgers, sauerkraut and dachshunds were all changed to American names, German stopped being taught in schools and German-language books were banned. Before the war, it had been the second most widely spoken language in the US.

5. WWI saw pioneering advances in modern medicine

Inspired by the sight of soldiers' faces ravaged by shrapnel, many of which remained covered by masks, Harold Gillies established the field of plastic surgery, pioneering the first attempts of facial reconstruction. As well as this, blood transfusions became routine to save soldiers, with the first blood bank established on the front line in 1917.

6. Dr. Doolittle was created

The Dr. Doolittle stories were born of Hugh Lofting's aversion to writing his children about the true horrors of the war and trench life. Instead, more creative letters were sent.

7. Franz Ferdinand's licence plate was the cause of a strange coincidence

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated on June 28th 1914, an event which led to the beginning of the war. Strangely, the Archduke's number plate read: A 111 118, a series that can be read as, Armistice 11 November '18.

8. Both Native Americans and African Americans served during the war

Despite the fact that they weren't granted citizenship in America until 1924, nearly 13,000 Native Americans fought during the war.

Over 200,000 African Americans also served, but only 11% in combat and this in segregated divisions.

9. The youngest authenticated combatant to serve was only 12

Many young men faked their age in order to sign up early. The youngest to do so was Sidney Lewis, who was only 12 years old at the time.

10. Woodrow Wilson ran his campaign for a second presidential term with an anti-war slogan

"He kept us out of war" was the slogan Woodrow Wilson adopted when he ran for his second term in office. However, he immediately reneged on this concept when he was sworn in, declaring war on Germany only around a month later.

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Most of us are fairly well versed on many of the facts of Word War I with great battles such as the Somme and Battle of Passchendaele but there are some that are so quirky that they have failed entirely to make the schoolbooks.

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The first work week of 40 hours and 5 days a week was implemented during this time

https://interactcom.com/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-1920s/

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The Roaring Twenties is an era unlike any other, and now, 100 years later, we are still talking about it as one of the most memorable times in history. But there are a lot of things people don't remember (or rather, never knew) about the twenties. Continue reading to find out what those 20 things are!

1. Speakeasies weren't an invention of the 1920s

The illegal sale of alcohol during prohibition wasn't technically the catalyst for the speakeasy, though it definitely sparked a huge increase. These places outside of the law could trace their beginning to the 1880s, referring to an establishment that wasn't licensed to sell alcohol and asked their customers to "speak easy"-or keep everything on the down-low-to avoid any conflict with the law.

In the heart of the prohibition era, for many speakeasies, the only advertisement used was having a green door. Chances are if you saw a green door, they sold liquor behind it. Unfortunately, a lot of that liquor was made in a bathtub.
3. The government allowed medicinal alcohol
You couldn't produce or buy booze in the US during the '20s due to prohibition, giving rise to bootleggers and gangsters. However, if your doctor thought you needed it, you could get some to treat ailments like cancer, indigestion, and depression.
4. A poorly done science experiment ended up saving millions of lives
What would have netted him an F in biology class became one of the most important medical discoveries of the century. After coming back from a two-week vacation, Alexander Fleming discovered that one of his staphylococcus culture plates developed mold that happened to prevent the growth of bacteria. That mold would go on to save an estimated 200 million lives. Oops.
5. Brands! Brands! All the Brands!
Wonder Bread, Baby Ruth candy bars, Kool-Aid, Welch's Grape Jelly, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Wheaties, Hostess Cakes... Sound familiar? These all popped up during the 1920s.
6. Wall Street was bombed and the perpetrators were never caught
On September 16th, 1920, someone piloted a horse-drawn cart into the heart of Wall Street during the lunch rush. Minutes later it exploded, killing more than 30 people and injuring 300. But because crews cleaned up the damage the next day, critical physical evidence was lost that may have helped identify who was behind the attack. Today, the FBI says the best lead they have is an Italian anarchist named Luigi Galleani, but the case could never be proven.
7. Thank the automobile for your next grilling sesh
For the Ford Motor Company, producing the automobile also meant burning a lot of wood and creating waste. Ford decided to bag that up and sell it under the name "Ford Charcoal." Later, that company took on the surname of the man who helped Ford find the timberland to supply his wood: Edward G. Kingsford.
8. Birth of the workweek
A five-day, 40-hour week of work split into 8-hour increments was a brand new idea in the middle of the 1920s. If you were lucky, you got one day per week to catch your breath and sanity. But in 1926, the Ford Motor Company instituted the 40-hour workweek for its factory workers, as well as office employees soon after. The change increased productivity and soon became standard practice throughout the US and much of the world.
9. Hey, stop sending your kids through the mail!
It had to be said in 1920. It wasn't technically illegal to send your kid via the US Postal Service's large parcel shipping. Since postage was cheaper than a train ticket, some in rural America took advantage and sent their children with the mailman to see grandma (don't worry, they weren't packed away in bags or boxes, they just had postage attached to their shirts). One such case even inspired a children's book called "Mailing May."
10. Robots were invented... Well, the word, anyway
Czech writer Karel Capek introduced the world to his play R.U.R., in which a factory produces synthetic humans who-at first-are happy to do the work for real human beings. But later, that attitude shifts quickly and they revolt, destroying the human race. Yikes. Knowing that, not surprisingly, the Czech word used to describe these synthetic humans-"robot"-means "slave" or "slave labor."

What did they say before 1928? That was the year that a Missouri baker used Otto Frederick Rohwedder's new invention to sell pre-sliced bread loaves. Oddly enough, they didn't sell very well at first because they "looked sloppy."
12. Flagpole sitting
If you thought planking was weird, the 1920s had something just as crazy. Among some of the strangest dares that turned into crazes across the country, climbing up and sitting on top of a flagpole for as long as possible became all the rage. And people took it seriously. The man credited with starting the craze, Alan "Shipwreck" Kelly, set a record in 1929 of sitting on a pole for 49 days only to have his record broken the next year by a guy who sat for 51 days until a storm forced him down.

Some people were convinced that Prohibition-"the noble experiment"-would work so well that crime would all but disappear. So, towns across the US tried to sell their jailhouses. But not only did crime increase during prohibition, the criminals themselves sometimes rose to a celebrity status of infamy.

Warren G. Harding's presidency marked a return of business-forward policies at the federal level not seen since the gilded era of the late 19th century. This would continue with Calvin Coolidge in his "laissez-faire" take on business policy. However, the Harding presidency was marred by scandals, one of which led to the first cabinet member ever sent to prison for a year on charges of accepting bribes from oil companies.

Pittsburgh's KDKA became the first commercial radio station in the US in 1920. Just three years later, there were more than 500 radio stations in the country, and radios became mass produced.

16. Jazz + Radio = The next big music style

African American musicians migrated north to larger cities like New York and Chicago to escape the pervasive racism of the south and brought jazz with them. Jazz clubs rose in popularity, and with the advent of radio, that popularity exploded. Fans no longer had to physically go down to clubs to enjoy their music; they could do so from the comfort of their own homes.
17. "Art Deco" comes to the US
What would become a dominant style of US design for decades began in Europe. "Art Deco"-short for Arts Decoratifs-refers to the design style characterized by geometric shapes and lavish curves. The style influenced architectural design as well, and can be seen in famous skyscrapers like New York City's Chrysler Building.
18. Hollywood sees a sign
Harry Chandler, a publisher and real estate mogul, put up a sign in the hills reading "Hollywoodland" for a grand total of $21,000. He really only meant it to stay for a little over a year. The Great Depression saw the sign deteriorate, but it was restored in the late 1940s (without the "land").
19. The first movie stars
Though motion picture had been around since the beginning of the century, the fame associated with actors in those films really took off in the early 1920s. Extra change in the pockets of many Americans meant more and more could go out and enjoy the new "movie palaces" that were popping up in larger cities. The undisputed king of motion pictures at the time was a man named Charlie Chaplin, whose filmography includes 80 films over the course of his life.
20. Who's this "Disney" guy...?
"Talkies," as movies with sound were called, basically changed the game for movie studios overnight with the first of its kind, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson. Animation studios soon followed suit, including a studio owned by Walt Disney. That studio released a short in 1928 called "Steamboat Willie," introducing the world to Mickey Mouse.

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20 Things You Didn't Know About the 1920s

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The Roaring Twenties is an era unlike any other, and now, 100 years later, we are still talking about it as one of the most memorable times in history. But there are a lot of things people don't remember (or rather, never knew) about the twenties.

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Speakeasies weren't invented because of Prohibition. they were a thing during the 1880s.

https://interactcom.com/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-1920s/

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The dust bowl occurred during this time. One of the dust storms were so bad it reached the Atlantic ocean.

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dust-bowl

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1. One monster dust storm reached the Atlantic Ocean.

While "black blizzards" constantly menaced Plains states in the 1930s, a massive dust storm 2 miles high traveled 2,000 miles before hitting the East Coast on May 11, 1934. For five hours, a fog of prairie dirt enshrouded landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S. Capitol, inside which lawmakers were debating a soil conservation bill. For East Coasters, the storm was a mere inconvenience-"Housewives kept busy," read a New York Times subhead-compared to the tribulations endured by Dust Bowl residents.

2. The Dust Bowl was both a manmade and natural disaster.

Beginning with World War I, American wheat harvests flowed like gold as demand boomed. Lured by record wheat prices and promises by land developers that "rain follows the plow," farmers powered by new gasoline tractors over-plowed and over-grazed the southern Plains. When the drought and Great Depression hit in the early 1930s, the wheat market collapsed. Once the oceans of wheat, which replaced the sea of prairie grass that anchored the topsoil into place, dried up, the land was defenseless against the winds that buffeted the Plains.

3. The ecosystem disruption unleashed plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers.

If the dust storms that turned daylight to darkness weren't apocalyptic enough, seemingly biblical plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers descended on the Plains and destroyed whatever meager crops could grow. To combat the hundreds of thousands of jackrabbits that overran the Dust Bowl states in 1935, some towns staged "rabbit drives" in which townsmen corralled the jackrabbits in pens and smashed them to death with clubs and baseball bats. Thick clouds of grasshoppers-as large as 23,000 insects per acre, according to one estimate-also swept over farms and consumed everything in their wakes. "What the sun left, the grasshoppers took," President Franklin D. Roosevelt said during a fireside chat. The National Guard was called out to crush grasshoppers with tractors and burn infested fields, while the Civilian Conservation Corps spread an insecticide of arsenic, molasses and bran.

4. Proposed solutions were truly out-of-the-box.

There were few things desperate Dust Bowl residents didn't try to make it rain. Some followed the old folklore of killing snakes and hanging them belly-up on fences. Others tried shock and awe. Farmers in one Texas town paid a self-professed rainmaker $500 to fire off rockets carrying an explosive mixture of dynamite and nitroglycerine to induce showers. Corporations also touted their products to the federal government as possible solutions. Sisalkraft proposed covering the farms with waterproof paper, while a New Jersey asphalt company suggested paving the Plains.

5. A newspaper reporter gave the Dust Bowl its name.

Associated Press reporter Robert Geiger opened his April 15, 1935, dispatch with this line: "Three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer's tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent-if it rains." "Dust bowl" was probably a throwaway line for Geiger, since two days later he referred to the disaster zone as the "dust belt." Nevertheless, within weeks the term had entered the national lexicon.

6. Dust storms crackled with powerful static electricity.

So much static electricity built up between the ground and airborne dust that blue flames leaped from barbed wire fences and well-wishers shaking hands could generate a spark so powerful it could knock them to the ground. Since static electricity could short out engines and car radios, motorists driving through dust storms dragged chains from the back of their automobiles to ground their cars.

7. The swirling dust proved deadly.

Those who inhaled the airborne prairie dust suffered coughing spasms, shortness of breath, asthma, bronchitis and influenza. Much like miners, Dust Bowl residents exhibited signs of silicosis from breathing in the extremely fine silt particulates, which had high silica content. Dust pneumonia, called the "brown plague," killed hundreds and was particularly lethal for infants, children and the elderly.

8. The federal government paid farmers to plow under fields and butcher livestock.

As part of Roosevelt's New Deal, the federal government purchased starving livestock for at least $1 a head. Livestock healthy enough to be butchered could fetch as much as $16 a head, with the meat used to feed homeless people living in Hoovervilles. The Soil Conservation Service, established in 1935, paid farmers to leave fields idle, employ land management techniques such as crop rotation and replant native prairie grasses. The federal government also bought more than 10 million acres and converted them to grasslands, some managed today by the U.S. Forest Service.

9. Most farm families did not flee the Dust Bowl.

John Steinbeck's story of migrating tenant farmers in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," tends to obscure the fact that upwards of three-quarters of farmers in the Dust Bowl stayed put. Dust Bowl refugees did not flood California. Only 16,000 of the 1.2 million migrants to California during the 1930s came from the drought-stricken region. Most Dust Bowl refugees tended to move only to neighboring states.

10. Few "Okies" were actually from Oklahoma.

While farm families migrating to California during the 1930s, like the fictitious Joad family, were often derided as "Okies," only one-fifth of them were actually from Oklahoma. (Plus, many of those Oklahoma migrants were from the eastern part of the state outside of the Dust Bowl.) "Okie" was a blanket term used to describe all agricultural migrants, no matter their home states. They were greeted with hostility and signs such as one in a California diner that read: "Okies and dogs not allowed inside."

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10 Things You May Not Know About the Dust Bowl

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While "black blizzards" constantly menaced Plains states in the 1930s, a massive dust storm 2 miles high traveled 2,000 miles before hitting the East Coast on May 11, 1934. For five hours, a fog of prairie dirt enshrouded landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S.

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Technicality World War 2 ended in 1974. The last Japanese soldier surrendered after hiding in a jungle for 30 years.

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/little-known-facts-about-wwii

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Many people study World War II in school as part of their history lessons, but it's not uncommon for them to forget everything they learned once those classes end.

Instead, a lot of the knowledge and understanding we have of the war comes from different kinds of media. Whether it's the iconic movie Saving Private Ryan or the infamous video game series Call of Duty, there's a good chance that you've seen something about World War II outside of your history classes.

However, there are quite a few weird facts and stories that people just don't talk about. Here are six of the most interesting, little-known facts about World War II.

1. The last Japanese soldier finally surrendered in 1974

It's not unusual for soldiers to continue fighting for a cause once their nation has surrendered. This is just the reality of what it's like to fight a conflict across multiple continents and countries. But when the last fighting soldier surrenders almost thirty years after the conflict ends, there's something awfully strange about the whole situation.

This is what happened to Teruo Nakamura, an indigenous Taiwanese soldier that joined the Japanese military at the beginning of the war. He assumed the war was still raging on while his unit fled into a jungle in Indonesia. He survived on his own, foraging for whatever food he could until he was finally found in December 1974.

2. An astonishing number of soldiers died during pilot training

WWII was one of the first major conflicts to make use of aviation. There was a massive rush to train new pilots so many of the aviation programs weren't thought out correctly or had enough safety measures in place.

As a result, over 15,000 deaths occurred during pilot training. These were mostly due to pilot error or mechanical failure. It was such a problem that the B-24 bomber was known as the most dangerous plane in the war, receiving the nickname 'the flying coffin'.

To put this into perspective, around 52,000 American flight crew members died in WWII, meaning almost 30% of pilot deaths occurred outside of conflict.

3. WWII had bizarre weapons, such as the German cannon that could shoot across the sea

WWII is known as a conflict with some very unique weaponry. However, one of the most ambitious projects was the V-3 cannon, a gigantic machine that could hurl projectiles from Germany across the sea into England.

Instead of using rockets like the V-2, the V-3 would be a stationary cannon that could shoot projectiles at distances of up to 100 miles across the sea from mainland Europe into the United Kingdom. Luckily, the cannon was never completed due to bombing runs destroying it before completion.

4. Poland had a bear that served in the military

In 1942, a company of Polish troops was evacuated from the Soviet Union and found their way to Iran. Along the way, they befriended a Syrian brown bear that they named Wojtek. They officially enlisted him as a private in the unit. The men ended up in Italy from 1943-4, bringing the bear along with them. It helped to carry heavy ammunition and quickly became a celebrity among the troops.

Wojtek was eventually discharged after the war and lived peacefully in Edinburgh Zoo until he passed away in 1963.

5. Gandhi tried to send a message of peace to Hitler

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the greatest peacemakers in the world, but most people are unaware that he was still alive during WWII. Gandhi was so committed to peace that he tried to write a letter to Hitler, referring to him as a 'dear friend' and pleading for him to stop the war. However, it's unclear whether or not the messages reached Hitler.

6. A German commander was so stressed he abandoned his post and went to a spa

Heinrich Himmler was one of Hitler's first supporters, becoming the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and eventually being put in charge of Army Group Vistula, a group of 500,000 soldiers that were assigned to protect Berlin.

Unfortunately, this task was far too much for Himmler who required daily naps and massages, and only worked a few hours a day. Eventually, Army Group Vistula was overrun and Himmler abandoned his post. He fled to the Hohenlychen Sanatorium spa to deal with his stress and even tried to negotiate a peace treaty with the advancing Allied forces.

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Many people study World War II in school as part of their history lessons, but it's not uncommon for them to forget everything they learned once those classes end. Instead, a lot of the knowledge and understanding we have of the war comes from different kinds of media.

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The first credit cards were first invented during this period.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Interesting-facts-about-the-1950s-5631125.php#photo-6613296

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Hawaii became a state during this time.

https://www.heywoodwakefield.com/25-fun-facts-about-the-1950s/

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Harlem Renaissance: Period Characteristics	

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Harlem Renaissance: Period Characteristics	

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1.Black cultural movement in Harlem, New York
2.Some poetry rhythms based on spirituals and jazz, lyrics on the blues, and diction from the street talk of the ghettos
3. Other poetry used conventional lyrical forms

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James Weldon Johnson

Claude McKay

Countee Cullen

Langston Hughes (poetry)

Zora Neale Hurston

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"The New Negro Movement"
1919-1925