Jennifer's 20th Century History Blog October 2006 Archive

In the late 19th century, a gallows was built to hang the men convicted in the Haymarket Affair. After four of the accused in the Haymarket Affair were ultimately hanged ... Read More

On Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. They panicked when they learned of the Martians' ferocious and ... Read More

In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming made a chance discovery. From a contaminated experiment, he found a powerful antibiotic, penicillin.

Mata Hari was an exotic dancer and courtesan, killed by the French for espionage during WWI. Who was Mata Hari? Was she really a spy?

In a speech given at Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing, Michigan, historian David McCullough stated, "We are raising young Americans who are by and large woefully ignorant ... Read More

A glossary of significant and key terms related to the Cold War, the hostilities between the Soviet Union and the United States following World War II.

The Brownie camera was the first hand-held camera that was cheap enough and simple enough for even children to use, making photography accessible to the masses.

The Gypsies of Europe were registered, sterilized, ghettoized, and then deported to concentration and death camps by the Nazis. Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were murdered during the Holocaust -- ... Read More

On May 7, 1915, the British passenger ship, the Lusitania, was sunk by a German U-boat. The high death toll shocked the world and the loss of American citizens swayed ... Read More

At the very beginning of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik 2 with Laika the dog on board. Laika became ... Read More

The body of Juan Peron, president of Argentina from 1946-1955 and again from 1973 to his death in 1974, has spent the last thirty years in a relatively anonymous, small, ... Read More

A newspaper mistakenly ran an obituary for Alfred Nobel which called him the merchant of death. Not wanting to go down in history with such a horrible epitaph, Nobel created ... Read More

Ever wondered where that perky, friendly, yellow smiley face that has appeared on buttons, shirts, and T.V. commercials came from? The answer: Worcester, MA. The Worcester Historical Museum has researched the history of ... Read More

After the 1906 earthquake rocked San Francisco, thousands of the city residents built temporary shacks to live in until the city rebuilt itself. A few dozen of these shacks still exist. Meant to ... Read More

During excavation work at a cemetery in Menden, Germany, a mass grave that included the bodies of twenty young children has been found. The cemetery is located near the Wimbern hospital which ... Read More