If you want to become President of the United States, you have to campaign for it. You have to be popular. You have to earn votes. Lots of them. Seriously…. You need […]
During his legal career, Abraham Lincoln represented clients from diverse backgrounds. The wealthiest and most powerful of them was unquestionably the Illinois Central Railroad. Lincoln was sent to the White House in […]
There is much about the worst maritime disaster in United States history that is counter-intuitive. For one thing, the story is largely forgotten. It has been overshadowed by events that were smaller […]
Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois is not your typical graveyard. It receives visitors from all parts of the world who come to pay their respects at the final resting place of […]
For those of us who live in one of the most divisive periods in history, we would do well to follow the example of Abraham Lincoln. He is rightly remembered as the […]
It was a chapter in American history that every decent person wishes had never been written. Slavery was legal — at least in some parts of the country. Slaves were viewed as […]
Everyone knows there is a difference between the western and eastern halves of the United States. The weather, culture, cost of living, and political preferences are so stark that it is almost […]
Even history’s greatest people can be subject to less-than-stellar love lives. It was 1842 when Abraham Lincoln tied the knot with Mary Todd, a woman whose ambition unquestionably helped propel him into […]
Few people came to political life with a quicker wit than Adlai Stevenson II (1900-1965). He made his mark in politics as governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and received the […]
The first controlled nuclear chain reaction created a huge leap forward in scientific achievement. It also created an enduring problem: what to do with the world’s first nuclear waste. The achievement and […]
Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876) lost his leg in the service of his country, and he wanted to make sure no one ever forgot it. He also lost two other legs, […]
Baseball is one sporting event that doesn’t use a clock to regulate the length of its games. Ironically, it was a clock that was very much at the heart of one of […]
Under Illinois law (410 ILCS 650/9) it is illegal to take a nap in a cheese factory.
President Ronald Reagan was not someone who let a disappointment get in the way of greatness. The opening words to his presidential memoir: “If I’d gotten the job I wanted at Montgomery […]
In 1876 a handful of mobsters botched a morbid plan to kidnap the body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it ransom. The hapless grave robbers were arrested just a few days later. […]
Commonplace Fun Facts 