First Man to Fly the Atlantic Solo - 10 Fascinating Facts About Charles Lindbergh

Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist. Famed for his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927 at the age of 25, from Roosevelt Field located in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles, in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.

Charles Lindbergh in the open cockpit of airplane at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri in 1923

The 33.5-hour crossing vaulted Lindbergh to international stardom, but he was later visited by tragedy in 1932, when his 20-month-old son was kidnapped and murdered in what was dubbed “the Crime of the Century.”

Below, 10 surprising facts about the heroic and controversial life of the aviator known as “The Lone Eagle.”


1. His father was a U.S. Congressman.

When Lindbergh was four years old, Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District elected his father, Charles August Lindbergh, to the U.S. House of Representatives. The elder Lindbergh would serve five terms in Congress, where he won a reputation for his independent stances and fierce opposition to the Federal Reserve System. Congressman Lindbergh was among the few members of the House to speak out against U.S. involvement in World War I, and was later censored and accused of sedition after writing an anti-war pamphlet called “Why is Your Country at War?”

Charles Lindbergh and father, Charles. A. Lindbergh. 1909

Aviator Charles Lindbergh and his mother in 1930

Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Morrow were married on May 27, 1929

2. He worked as a daredevil and stunt pilot.

After learning to fly at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation in Lincoln, Lindbergh spent two years years as an itinerant stuntman and aerial daredevil. During “barnstorming” excursions through the American heartland, the young aviator wowed audiences with daring displays of wing-walking, parachuting and mid-air plane changes. After purchasing his own plane, he became one of the nation’s top stunt pilots, often twisting his machine into complicated loops and spins or killing the engine at 3,000 feet and gliding to ground. Despite the hazardous nature of stunt flying, “Lucky Lindy’s” closest brushes with death would come during his time as a U.S. Army flier, test pilot and airmail pilot, when he survived a record four plane crashes by bailing out and parachuting to safety.

Portrait of young Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh, 1927

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12 Crazy Facts About Life in the 1910s America

These pictures will definitely make you appreciate where you came from and also make you appreciate where you are now. Life was quite a bit different back in the 1910s. People had way more pressing things to worry about other than being able to connect to wifi!

Talk about perspective. We really do live an exceedingly comfortable life compared to those who lived 100 years ago. Check it out.

1. The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

2. 14% of the homes had a bathtub.

3. 8% of the homes had a telephone.

4. There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

5. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10-12 mph.

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Victorian Postmortem Photography: The Myth of the Stand Alone Corpse

Victorian postmortem photos did exist, no one denies that, however, they were never taken in a standing pose using a stand. It was impossible to take a life like standing postmortem photo, especially using a posing stand. The posing stand could never support the weight of a corpse, even a child, and they were never made to hold a person’s weight. A corpse in rigor mortis could not be posed and, a corpse not in rigor would be limp and heavy. The subject could not hold its own head and arms up, nor could it support it’s own weight on its feet with the help of a stand.

Posing stands were ONLY used to help a person keep still during long shutter exposures that could last up to a minute. Victorian postmortem photos were always taken in a reclining position, either leaning back in a seated position or lying flat. You may find some of children sitting in a parent’s lap, but they are never photographed standing or sitting up straight on their own. For some good information on how the posing stand was really used visit this website.

Although they’ve been identified as dead on many websites, no one from these images is deceased.

1. Girl Holding Money

This little girl look anxious about having her photo taken but she is not deceased. She is even holding some money in her left hand. It was probably given to her to calm and distract her during the photo session. You can also see a large motion blur on her left foot. She was definitely alive.


2. Mysterious Woman

Some say this is the corpse of a famous clairvoyant. However, it is a sculpture by Christine Elfman made of plaster and paper mâché. The dress is made of torn pieces of paper with the story of her family. Zoom and you can see the words. Not a postmortem.


3. Well Dressed Boy

This is another one that mystifies us. We see nothing that suggests this boy was dead. He's alert, holding his head up, and looking at the camera.


4. Not Victorian, But Quite A Story

This couple was not Victorian, and they were not dead. Someone made up a big story about the woman being dead two days, and the man , being in denial, and having a photo made. It is actually a photo booth photo that has been tinted.


5. The Bride

This bride is stiffly posed but she was alive, with her groom standing next to her. Her dried flowers do not mean death. They were an accepted embellishment, especially in the hot summer months when it was hard to keep flowers fresh.

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Travolta Dress: The Story Behind the Dress Princess Diana Wore to Dance With John Travolta at the White House in 1985

When Princess Diana visited President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, at the White House on November 9, 1985, she stepped onto the ballroom dance floor — with a man known for his electrifying moves on the big screen.

“I put my hand in the middle of her back, brought her hand down so that it wouldn’t be so high and gave her the confidence that we would do just fine.” – John Travolta

Diana took the hand of John Travolta, star of Grease and Saturday Night Fever, and the pair gracefully spun around the checkered floor for nearly 30 minutes. The dance would become one of the most iconic moments of her life — and the velvet dress she wore for the occasion instantly assumed its place in her hall-of-fame looks.

Designed by London-born Victor Edelstein, the “Travolta dress” is an off-the-shoulder midnight blue velvet evening gown. It was inspired by Edwardian fashion, giving it a “slight sweep of costume drama”. The journalist Jackie Modlinger described it as “dramatic in style” and “regal in fabric”.

The Princess of Wales wore the dress again in Germany in December 1987 and at the premiere of the film Wall Street in April 1988. She wore it for her last official portrait photograph, taken by her former husband's uncle, the Earl of Snowdon, in 1997.

Shortly before her death in August 1997, Diana requested that the dress be sold in a charity auction. Florida-based businesswoman Maureen Dunkel bought it for £100,000 in New York in June 1997, along with nine other dresses formerly owned by the Princess. The Travolta dress was the most expensive one sold at the auction. When she went bankrupt in 2011, Dunkel was forced to put them up for auction, but the Travolta dress was one of six that were not sold. It was finally auctioned off by Kerry Taylor in London on 19, March 2013, fetching £240,000 ($362,424) and again being the most expensive auctioned dress. It was bought by “a British gentleman as a surprise to cheer up his wife”.

During the gala, Princess Diana also taking to the floor with Tom Selleck and Clint Eastwood on that glittering night at the White House in November 1985.

Diana dances with then-President Ronald Reagan.

Diana and Tom Selleck.

Diana and Clint Eastwood.

Meet the Real Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin in 1926

It's probably been a while since you read a Winnie-the-Pooh story or watched an animated film featuring the humble bear, but here's a series of vintage photos centering on author A. A. Milne's famous character.

The images of Milne's son Christopher Robin — the inspiration for Milne's character of the same name who was Pooh's best pal — were taken in 1926 and in 1928 (photos of Christopher Robin and his father.) Mini Milne and his stuffed bear — named Edward, a gift he received on his first birthday — sometimes come across semi-creepy, but in that charming, vintage-photo way.

There is a dark side to the young Milne's life, however. Later in life, he grew to resent dear old dad for thrusting him into the public eye and essentially exploiting his childhood — or so he felt. He published a series of his own books describing the difficulties of growing up Pooh. He also became an atheist, which is kind of ironic considering the religious associations people often make with Pooh. Fans who cherished Milne's childhood book series were disappointed by his reactions, but new generations have found much to love about the classic character.

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George Washington’s False Teeth: He Only Had One Real Tooth Remained in His Mouth When He Inaugurated President

George Washington suffered from poor dental health throughout his adulthood; beginning in his twenties he experienced regular toothaches, decay, and tooth loss. These problems were likely due to factors common during Washington's era, including a poorly balanced diet and disease, as well as genetics. As a result, he spent his life in frequent pain and employed a variety of tooth cleaners, dental medicines, and dentures.

These dentures are in the collection at Mount Vernon – the only remaining full-set in existence.

Contrary to later legend, none of Washington's false teeth were made of wood. Prior to Washington's service in the Revolutionary War, Dr. John Baker, the first dentist to fashion false teeth for Washington, fabricated a partial denture with ivory that was wired to Washington's remaining real teeth. In the 1780s, Washington employed the services of Jean-Pierre Le Mayeur, a French dentist living in America, but it is unclear precisely what dental services Le Mayeur performed.

Le Mayeur probably fashioned a partial set of false teeth for Washington; the Frenchman also advertised he was experienced at "transplanting... put[ting] natural teeth instead of false," but no definitive evidence indicates he attempted such operations on Washington. Le Mayeur and Washington quickly became friends, and Le Mayeur was a guest at Mount Vernon on multiple occasions in the mid-1780s.

Print of John Greenwood, from the American Journal of Dental Science, 1839. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

When Washington was inaugurated President in 1789, only one real tooth remained in his mouth. Dr. John Greenwood—a New York dentist, former soldier in the Revolution, and a true pioneer in American dentistry—fashioned a technologically advanced set of dentures carved out of hippopotamus ivory and employing gold wire springs and brass screws holding human teeth. Greenwood even left a hole in the dentures to accommodate Washington's single tooth as he believed a dentist should "never extract a tooth... [when] there is a possibility of saving it." When Washington finally lost this tooth as well, he gave it to Greenwood who saved this cherished item in a special case.

All of Washington's dentures caused him pain and produced facial disfigurement, described by George Washington Parke Custis as "a marked change... in the appearance... more especially in the projection of the under lip." This physical change can be viewed in the well-known portraits painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796. Washington complained that even the expertly constructed dentures made by Greenwood "are both uneasy in the mouth and bulge my lips out" and that the teeth "have, by degrees, worked loose."

Courtesy of the New York Academy of Medicine who generously lent this partial pair of dentures to Mount Vernon, September 2009 – June 2013.

Not surprisingly, Washington found his ivory and metal contraptions difficult to use while eating or speaking. The ivory dentures also tended to stain easily, requiring extensive maintenance such as cleaning with wax and "some chalk and a Pine or Ceder stick" and "soake[ing]... in Broath."

Presently, a few of Washington's false teeth still exist. Part of a denture made by Greenwood is owned by the New York Academy of Medicine as is the decorative case holding Washington’s last tooth. The only complete set of Washington's dentures that still survives is preserved by the Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens and is made of animal and human teeth, lead, and ivory.

(This original article was published on George Washington's Mount Vernon)

8 Things You May Not Know About the Hollywood Sign

Erected sometime in 1923, the Hollywood sign has long welcomed aspiring actors looking to make it big in Los Angeles. And despite decades of run-ins with vandals, pranksters and developers, among others, it has managed to hang on to its prime location near the summit of Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills. Explore some surprising facts about this famed symbol of the U.S. movie industry.

1. The Hollywood sign is only slightly younger than the district itself.

This is what Hollywood looked like at the turn of the 20th century.

Harvey and Daeida Wilcox founded Hollywood in 1887 as a community for likeminded followers of the temperance movement. No one knows for sure why they chose that name. One theory is that Daeida met a woman on a train with a summer home called Hollywood. Alternatively, it may have been a reference to the area’s abundant toyon, a red-berried shrub also known as California holly. Either way, Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903 and merged with Los Angeles in 1910, the year before the first film studio moved there.


2. The sign was created as a real-estate advertisement.

A 1929 publicity photo for the Hollywoodland groundbreaking shows a plow, mules and surveyors.

By 1923 Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler had decided to invest in an upscale real-estate development called Hollywoodland, which capitalized on the growing recognition of Hollywood as a movie-industry mecca. In order to promote the project, Chandler and his partners put up $21,000 (over $250,000 in today’s money) for 45-foot-high white block letters that were anchored to telephone poles and illuminated by 4,000 light bulbs. At night the billboard flashed in four stages: “Holly,” then “Wood,” then “Land” and then the entire word, “Hollywoodland.” Newspaper articles from the time show that the sign was completed in 1923; however, the exact date is disputed.


3. A struggling actress took her life there.

NEW YORK TIMES, September 20, 1932 Page 2 has one column heads including: "PEG ENTWISTLE DIES IN HOLLYWOOD LEAP" "Actress Ends Life by Jumping Off Fifty-Foot Sign After Failure in the Movies" and more with a photo of Entwistle.

Although the Hollywood sign symbolizes glamour and stardom, it can also represent broken dreams. In spring 1932 stage actress Peg Entwistle moved from New York City to Los Angeles to try her luck with movies. Soon after she received a part in a murder-mystery film, but the studio reportedly did not renew the option on her contract upon its completion. That September the 24-year-old allegedly climbed a ladder to the “H” on the Hollywoodland sign and jumped off. Her body was later discovered in a ravine downhill. Various newspapers cited her failing acting career as the reason she killed herself. Ironically, a letter had been mailed to her just before her death offering her the lead role in a play about a young woman who commits suicide.


4. Four letters on the sign were eventually removed.

The "OLLYWOODLAND" sign, 1949.

Regular maintenance on the sign stopped when the Hollywoodland real-estate development went under due to the Great Depression. The “H” even toppled over, so that it briefly read “Ollywoodland.” After ownership of the sign passed to the city in the mid-1940s, the L.A. Recreation and Parks Commission apparently wanted it razed. But the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in, and in 1949 it removed the last four letters and restored the rest.


5. A new sign replaced the old one in the 1970s.

The new Hollywood sign, circa November 1978.

Despite the 1949 restoration, the Hollywood sign eventually began to deteriorate once again. The third “O,” for example, tumbled down the side of Mount Lee, and arsonists set fire to the bottom of the second “L.” In 1978, Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner held a gala at his mansion, where he and eight other donors, including rock musician Alice Cooper, pledged nearly $28,000 each to fund a replacement. After a three-month period without a sign, construction finished up later that year. The new sign was the same size as the old one, but with structural improvements such as steel footings rather than telephone poles. Since then, it has periodically received a fresh coat of white paint, most recently in December 2012.

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To Kill a Mockingbird: 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Harper Lee's Classic 1960 Novel

To Kill a Mockingbird – what was, until recent developments, Harper Lee’s only novel – has been a staple of school reading lists for generations. Teachers and exam boards adore its essay-friendly themes of racism, justice and family values.

Mary Badham, who played Scou, and Harper Lee on the set of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Set in mid-1930s Alabama, the novel focuses on the Finch family: father (and lawyer) Atticus, his 10-year-old son Jem and six-year old Scout, the book's protagonist. When Atticus defends a black man he believes has been wrongly accused of raping a white woman, we see the dramatic events unfold – partly through the innocent eyes of a child, but also through the adult Scout's knowing narration. A side plot concerns the campaign by Scout, Jem and their friend Dill to encourage their reclusive neighbor – Boo Radley – to come out of his house. Both stories come head to head in a shocking conclusion.

Unless you’re still doing your GCSEs, the novel probably won’t be fresh in your mind, so here are 10 things you didn’t know – or might have forgotten – about Harper Lee’s classic:

1. The character of Atticus Finch was inspired by Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a newspaper editor and attorney. In 1919 he defended two black men who had been charged murder. He lost the case. After the men were convicted, hanged and mutilated, he was so disillusioned that he abandoned criminal law.

2. Lee based Scout’s friend Dill on her own childhood friend, Truman Capote, or Truman Persons as he was known then. Bookish and slightly odd children, they bonded over their love of reading and used to make up stories on Lee’s father’s old typewriter. Lee helped Capote research the Kansas murder behind his true crime classic, In Cold Blood.

3. Depression-era Maycomb, where the novel is set, bears a strong resemblance to Lee’s home town of Monroeville, Alabama. In the book, Maycomb is described as “an island in a patchwork sea of cotton fields and timber land”. In 2013, Lee brought a lawsuit against Monroeville’s museum, who she accused of exploiting her fame.

4. Boo Radley’s real name is Arthur: the children call him “Boo” because seeing him frightens them in the same way a ghost would. The Radleys are likely to have been inspired by a family who lived in a boarded-up house in the street from where Lee grew up.

5. Scout’s real name is actually Jean Louise Finch. It's never explained how she got her nickname

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10 Surprising Facts About the Hindenburg Disaster

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames while attempting to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey. In little more than 30 seconds, the largest object ever to soar through the air was incinerated and the era of commercial airship travel was dead. Explore nine surprising facts about the massive zeppelin and its fiery demise.

1. Survivors Of The Hindenburg Disaster Far Outnumbered The Victims.

Anyone who has seen the graphic newsreel video of the Hindenburg plunging to earth in flames may be amazed to know that of the 97 passengers and crew on board, 62 survived. The disaster’s 36 deaths included 13 passengers, 22 crewmembers and one worker on the ground. Many survivors jumped out of the zeppelin’s windows and ran away as fast as they could.


2. The Hindenburg Disaster Wasn’t History’s Deadliest Airship Accident.

Thanks to the iconic film footage and the emotional eyewitness account of radio reporter Herbert Morrison (who uttered the famous words “Oh, the humanity!”), the Hindenburg disaster is the most famous airship accident in history. However, the deadliest incident occurred when the helium-filled USS Akron, a U.S. Navy airship, crashed off the coast of New Jersey in a severe storm on April 4, 1933. Seventy-three men were killed, and only three survived. The 1930 crash of the British military airship R101, which claimed 48 lives, was also deadlier.


3. The Hindenburg Disaster Wasn’t Broadcast Live On Radio.

Morrison was on the scene to record the arrival of the Hindenburg for WLS in Chicago, but he wasn’t broadcasting live. His wrenching account would be heard in Chicago later that night, and it was broadcast nationwide the following day. His audio report was synched up with separate newsreel videos in subsequent coverage of the Hindenburg disaster.


4. U.S. Law Prevented The Hindenburg From Using Helium Instead Of Hydrogen, Which Is More Flammable.

After the crash of the hydrogen-filled R101, in which most of the crew died in the subsequent fire rather than the impact itself, Hindenburg designer Hugo Eckener sought to use helium, a less flammable lifting gas. However, the United States, which had a monopoly on the world supply of helium and feared that other countries might use the gas for military purposes, banned its export, and the Hindenburg was reengineered. After the Hindenburg disaster, American public opinion favored the export of helium to Germany for its next great zeppelin, the LZ 130, and the law was amended to allow helium export for nonmilitary use. After the German annexation of Austria in 1938, however, Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes refused to ink the final contract.


5. Despite Containing Highly Combustible Gas, Passengers Were Allowed To Smoke.

Despite being filled with 7 million cubic feet of highly combustible hydrogen gas, the Hindenburg featured a smoking room. Passengers were unable to bring matches and personal lighters aboard the zeppelin, but they could buy cigarettes and Cuban cigars on board and light up in a room pressurized to prevent any hydrogen from entering. A steward admitted passengers and crew through a double-door airlock into the smokers’ lounge, which had a single electric lighter, and made sure no one left with a lit cigarette or pipe.

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10 Interesting Things You May Not Know About Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Since 1924, Macy's has held annual parades on Thanksgiving Day. First known as the "Macy's Christmas Parade," the name changed a few years later to the "Thanksgiving Day Parade."

Now many onlookers crowd Manhattan's streets each year to see Macy's signature giant floats hover over busy streets.

Below are some fun facts about the parade, which draws millions each year, according to Macy's:

1. It was originally a Christmas parade.

Macy’s has been at its current flagship location, at Broadway and 34th Street, since 1902. (The original store, incidentally, was about 20 blocks south, on Sixth Avenue near 14th Street.) Continuing expansion made the location what Macy’s called the “world’s largest store,” an entire city block with more than 1 million square feet of retail space.

In celebration, in 1924, employees organized a Christmas parade featuring “floats, bands, animals from the zoo and 10,000 onlookers,” according to a Macy’s history page. It also started way up at 145th Street, about 70 blocks north of where it begins in 2015. The parade concluded with Santa Claus and the unveiling of the store’s Christmas windows. Three years later, the Christmas Parade was renamed the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Macy’s didn’t invent the practice. Philadelphia has the oldest Thanksgiving Day parade: Its Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade, now the 6ABC – Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade, debuted in 1920.


2. Macy’s first animals weren’t filled with hot air.

The animals at the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 weren’t oversized balloons. They were real elephants, camels and lions provided by the Central Park Zoo, escorted through New York City by 400 costumed Macy’s employees.


3. Macy’s first balloons were explosively good.

The balloon attractions debuted in 1927, inspired by a balloon float. Even then, they were massive — one was a 60-foot dinosaur — and, in those days, they had more to deal with than just high winds and crazy weather: Until 1938, an elevated train ran down Sixth Avenue.

Well-known characters have been part of the parade since that 1927 outing. Felix the Cat was there from the beginning, and Mickey Mouse joined in 1934, the same year that featured a balloon based on popular entertainer Eddie Cantor. “Peanuts” characters, especially Snoopy — who made his first appearance in 1968 — are regular visitors.

One tradition didn’t last long. The balloons were originally allowed to float away, and those who found them got a gift certificate from Macy’s.


4. Politicians thought a day for Thanksgiving was ridiculous.

Think today’s politicians are dark, ungrateful souls? During the 1800s, newspaper editor Sarah Hale wrote letters to five different presidents over three decades, trying to convince them to declare a national day of thanksgiving. Thomas Jefferson actually called it “the most ridiculous idea ever.” Undaunted, she continued until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln finally proclaimed the holiday as a way of uniting America after the Civil War.


5. The parade was first broadcast on the radio.

You had to use your imagination when the first broadcasts of the parade took place in 1932; they were on the radio. The parade was first televised in 1946 in New York and then nationally on NBC the next year.

NBC once again hosts the festivities this year with the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker. Coverage started at 9 a.m. ET.

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