Today marks the 132nd anniversary of the beginning of the eruption of Krakatoa in what is now Indonesia. Here are some things you may not have known about the eruption: The island of Krakatoa is located in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra. Krakatoa is located at the subduction zone of…

Today is the 85th birthday of actor Sean Connery. Here are some things you may not have known about him: Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a truck driver and his mother was a cleaning woman. He began bodybuilding at the age of 18 and according to his official website he finished…

August 24 is the anniversary of two historic crossings. In 1875, Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, while in 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States. Here are a few facts about both that you might not have known. At the age…

Today is the 54th anniversary of the first No. 1 hit for Motown Records, “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes. Here are some things you may not have known about Motown and the Marvelettes. Motown was founded by Barry Gordy in 1959 in Detroit  and was originally known as Tamla Records. The first release was…

Today is the 105th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Fire of 1910, the largest forest fire in American history. Here are some things you may not have known about “The Big Burn.” The fire burned three million acres in northeast Washington, northern Idaho and northwestern Montana. It took the fire just two days…

Today is the 95th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which gave women the right to vote. Here are some things you may not have known about the amendment. The 19th amendment was introduced in 1878 by Senator Aaron A. Sargent of California, but was not…

On this date in 1945, George Orwell’s novella “Animal Farm” was published in Great Britain. Here are some things you may not have known about Orwell and “Animal Farm.” Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a response to the British public’s admiration for Joseph Stalin as an ally during World War II. Orwell used the character…

Today is the 70th anniversary of the announcement of Japan’s surrender which ended World War Two. Here are some things you may not have known about what has come to be known as VJ Day. The surrender came nine days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and…

Today is International Left-Handers Day. Here are some things you may not have known about southpaws. Left-handers make up about seven to ten percent of the world’s population. About 70-90 percent is right-handed. For centuries cultures have favored right-handers over lefties and that extends to language. The fact that Right also means correct, is no accident.…

Today is the 34th anniversary of the release of the IBM Personal Computer. Here are some things you might not have known about the machines. First, a base model original IBM PC cost $1,565 and had 16 kilobytes of RAM and no disk drives and no monitor. The model with 64 kilobytes of RAM, a…