Great Scot
The little black dog scampered across the deck of the USS Baltimore, barking repeatedly as he reached the galley. Some of the galley sailors...
Happy Franksgiving?
Toward the end of the 1942 movie Holiday Inn staring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (this movie introduced Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”), a November...
The Lindberghs’ Summer Excursion Part 1
By 1931 Charles Lindbergh had acquired the aura of the world’s greatest aviator and hero. He had also acquired a young wife, and one...
Wartime Baseball
On a cold January day six weeks after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt answered a letter from baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis...
The Middle of an Era
Sometimes the best place to start is in the middle. By the Spring of 1937, half of this fascinating era had already unfolded and...
Seabiscuit’s Triple Crown
During the 1930s the great horse Seabiscuit won races. Now in the twenty-first century the famous thoroughbred’s chroniclers have brought home an entertainment triple...
Christmas 1941
War and Christmas are the antithesis of each other. In December 1941, Americans had to endure one while trying to enjoy the other. Since...
The Bund
A 60-foot likeness of George Washington hung from the rafters at Madison Square Garden on the night of February 20, 1939. Also hanging from...
Tragic Tale of the Normandie Part 2: Salvaged in Vain?
Like metals to magnets, are humans to tragedies. On Tuesday, February 10, 1942, the day after the Normandie fire, the New York Times estimated...
Midnight Ride Through Georgia: Passing the GI Bill
From the conception of the “GI Bill of Rights” in late 1943 to its spring passage in the Senate (50 to 0) and House...