The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and subsequent major tremors along the San Andreas Fault prompted California scientists to explore ways to predict the next "big one. "England's first attempt to colonize the New World in 1585 at…
Another history lesson filled with surprising facts, figures and stories from five American states. Texas hit the jackpot in 1901 with the discovery of oil at Spindletop Well in Beaumont. Puritans came to Massachusetts to escape religious…
Travel back to the origins of New York City at New Amsterdam, the 16th century Dutch merchant colony. Discover how French Acadians fled Canada in 1873 to settle in Louisiana, developing the "Cajun" subculture. The Oregon Trail opened in…
Crossing the icy Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776, allowed George Washington to surprise the British at Trenton, a critical American victory in the Revolutionary War. One of the world's most recognizable natural landmarks, the…
Ground Hog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, dates back to 1886 and an ancient European holiday called Candlemass Day. Garrison Keeler and his A Prairie Home Companion radio program export a comic, down-home image of Minnesota to a…
Hurricanes, lightning and alligator-filled swamps made Florida an unwelcome candidate for statehood, yet it continues to draw more and more people annually. In 1900, Indianapolis, not Detroit, was the center of the auto industry, and…
The Cahokia civilization thrived in the region known today as Illinois, from 700 to 1400 AD, but when the culture mysteriously disappeared, it left behind pyramids that rivaled those of ancient Egypt. Changing with the times,…
Virginia was not only the home of the first permanent British colony; it was the birthplace of eight presidents of the United States. "The Gravity Grand Prix" has been an annual event in Akron, Ohio, since the 1930s and today draws 500…
Michigan's logging industry helped build fortunes, but over-harvesting also threatened the environment. Davy Crocket, the coonskin-capped congressman from Tennessee, became more legend than reality thanks to 19th century political…
Stone Mountain, Georgia, a monument to three heroes of the Confederacy, dwarfs Mt. Rushmore. The Denver Mint in Colorado, which produces the most coins in the world, started out during Colorado's gold and silver boom of the 1860s as a…
