Filed under: Cool Site of the Day, Freedom, Heartwarming, History, The United States | Tags: A Little History, Library of Congress, President Calvin Coolidge
The Daily Caller has “10 Awesome photos of Calvin Coolidge” today, and they are indeed awesome. (from the Bain Collection/Library of Congress) Don’t miss it.
Filed under: Education, History, Military | Tags: A Little History, All True, Odd Facts
—1646: The Act for Setting Schools was established in Scotland. By the end of the 18th Century, Scotland’s literacy rate was higher than any other country. Scotland became Europe’s first modern literate society. Intellectuals wrote for a genuine reading public. By 1750 nearly every town of any size had a lending library.
—The period from 1817 to 1844 has been referred to as the Canal Era, in which some 4,000 miles of American canals were constructed at a cost of $200 million. The earliest and best were built by private businesses such as the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts and the Santee and Cooper in South Carolina. The Erie Canal was the most famous, its completion so anticipated that it collected an advance $1 million in tolls. It was 4o’ wide, 4′ deep, and 363 miles long, all bordered with towpaths and 86 locks to raise and lower boats 565′.
I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal,
She’s a good old worker,
And a good old Pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie CanalWe’ve hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal and hay
And we know ev’ry inch of the way
From Albany to BuffaloLow bridge! Ev’rybody down!
Low bridge, cause we’re coming to a town.
And you’ll always know your neighbor,
You’ll always know your pal
If you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal
—In 1933, the Army of the United States totaled 137,000 men. The U.S. Army was sixteenth in size in the world. The French Army totaled 5 million men.
—The U.S Census of 1790 found that only 60 percent of the white population of well over three million remained English in ancestry. There were 700 thousand of African descent, and tens of thousands of native Indians. All the peoples of Europe were present in the country: 9% German, 8% Scots, 6% Scots-Irish, 4% were Irish, over 3 percent Dutch. The remainder were French, Swedes, Spanish, and people of unknown ethnicity.
—The M1A1 Abrams tank weighs 70 tons. It is 11′ wide, and goes for ½ mile on a gallon of gas (30% less on ethanol). For every ton of tank, we must ship 4 tons of fuel which cannot be airlifted. It must go by rail, and then ship.
