Curated category
Culture of the United States
- BatmanIn early 1939, Bob Kane drew a character with red tights and bat wings. Bill Finger suggested a cowl and cape instead. They watched a bat fly through the…
- McDonald'sRichard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant at 1398 North E Street in San Bernardino, California on the 15th of May 1940.
- The SimpsonsMatt Groening sat in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office on a day in 1987, sketching a dysfunctional family that would become The Simpsons.
- SupermanIn January 1933, a young writer named Jerry Siegel published a short story titled The Reign of the Superman in his amateur science fiction magazine.
- Wonder WomanIn October 1941, a comic book titled All Star Comics #8 hit newsstands with a cover featuring a woman in red, blue, and gold.
- Coca-ColaJohn Stith Pemberton, a Confederate Colonel wounded in the American Civil War and addicted to morphine, created Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
- Sesame StreetIn 1966, television producer Joan Ganz Cooney sat across from Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett to discuss a radical idea.
- BarbieRuth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls in the 1950s. She noticed that Barbara often gave them adult roles instead of infant ones.
- Rock musicIn 1951, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience. He is credited with first using the phrase rock…
- DC ComicsIn 1935, entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications at 432 Fourth Avenue in Manhattan.
- Marvel ComicsMartin Goodman opened his comic book operation from a cramped office at 330 West 42nd Street in New York City during the autumn of 1939.
- Native Americans in the United StatesThe Eurasian migration to the Americas began over millennia via Beringia, a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska. Archaeological evidence suggests these…
- American footballOn the 6th of November 1869, Rutgers and Princeton faced each other in the first recorded American football game. The match used soccer rules with a round…
- Super BowlIn 1960, the American Football League formed as a direct rival to the National Football League. AFL commissioner Joe Foss sent an invitation letter on the…
- JuneteenthOn the 19th of June 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of more than 2,000 federal troops.
- American nationalismIn 1754, the Albany Plan proposed a union between the Thirteen Colonies. Residents of these colonies identified with Britain until the mid-18th century when…
- Cinema of the United StatesThe first commercial motion-picture exhibition in the United States took place in New York City during 1894. Thomas Edison used his kinetoscope and…
- Country musicIn the early 1920s, a young fiddler named Henry Gilliland stood in a small studio in Bristol, Tennessee. He held his instrument tight as he prepared to…
- Empire of LibertyThomas Jefferson used the phrase Empire of Liberty in 1780 while the American Revolution was still being fought. His goal was to create an independent state…
- AmericanizationIn 1902, the British journalist William Stead published a book titled The Americanization of the World. This early work discussed the growing popularity of…
- Uncle SamA midshipman named Isaac Mayo wrote in his journal on the 24th of March 1810 about a stomach ache that made him wish for Uncle Sam to lose a sailor.