In the early 20th century, Helen Keller was one of the most famous people on the planet. She toured around the world, gave personal experiences, wrote books, and advocated for social change, all despite being without sight or the ability to hear. Here are some little-known facts about Keller. • Helen Keller was not born […]
A few Major League Baseball season is underway, and all the excitement of the national pastime has returned to stadiums around the country. Something that probably won’t happen between now and the World Series: these records getting broken. Most home runs by a pitcher Since baseball players are highly specialized these days, pitchers aren’t expected […]
George Washington looms so large over American history — he helped lead troops to victory in the Revolutionary War, served as the first president, and is regarded as “the father of our country” — that a lot of myths and legends sprung up about him, both in his life and after. Here’s the truth about […]
The NCAA basketball tournaments are all about the numbers — Sweet 16s, Elite 8s, Final Fours, “One Shining Moment” and more. Here are some facts and figures regarding March Madness, past and present. UNLIKELY FINAL FOUR TEAMS Lowest seed to make the women’s final four: 9-seeded Arkansas in 1998. Lowest seed to make the men’s […]
Each year, Uncle John and his team of devoted trivia hunters track down fascinating facts, little known stories, and forgotten pop culture to fill several hundred pages of reading material. Why? To compile the annual Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, of course. Here’s the exact type of thing you’ll find — and plenty of — in […]
Sure, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders both played pro baseball and pro football, and simultaneously at that. But several other professional jocks who had what it took to make it one big league couldn’t quite cut it in another. Michael Jordan, baseball player In October 1993, shortly after winning his third straight NBA title with […]
Lesser-known Founding Father Alexander Hamilton finally got his shot at legendary status thanks to Hamilton, a hip-hop Broadway musical about his life and impact. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s project is a cultural phenomenon, and a movie adaptation has arrived. Hamilton is also the subject of one of our Show Me History! books. Here are some little-known facts […]
As the NFL playoffs end and the Super Bowl is just around the corner, a few teams and players are bound to make sports history and achieve gridiron glory. That’s the opposite of what happened with these teams, who lost the magic at the worst possible time. Houston Oilers vs. Buffalo Bills, 1993 Playoffs There’s […]
This was a wild, harrowing, and unpredictable year… and one that self-proclaimed psychics somehow didn’t see coming. Here are some events that psychics claimed were supposed to happen in 2020. The world may have avoided a catastrophic attack by this man — psychic Sidney Friedman ominously predicted that “cookies” would “disappear.” Friedman also said that […]
Many northern states banned slavery by the mid-1800s, but the immensely ugly practice continued in the South, ended only after presidential action, a constitutional amendment, and a Civil War. Until that point, enslaved Americans fleeing the South did so with the assistance of the Underground Railroad, a secret network that got people safely into the […]
This year, we resolve to write more blog posts about New Year’s resolutions. And look at that, we did it! • Ancient Babylonians started the idea of New Year’s resolutions about 4,000 years ago, although the new year in that society started in the middle of March and lined up with crop-planting season. As part […]
You know him for his boxing prowess and remarkable way with words, but how much do you really know about Muhammad Ali? Read on to find out more about “The Greatest.” By age 18, Clay had won two Amateur Athletic Union national titles, two Golden Gloves national titles, and had amassed a record of 100 […]
Can’t get enough of those true crime podcasts? Then you’re going to love Portable Press’s Strange Crime. But until it arrives, delve into these stories about the most notorious, mysterious — and unsolved — criminal acts in American history.
Here are the stories of some women who broke down barriers and literally changed the world. Hannah Slater received a patent in 1793 for a new type of cotton thread that made textile manufacture simpler and faster. That enabled her husband to develop a textile business, but Slater goes down in history as the first […]
In June 2020 — 100 years ago —women won the right to vote in all elections in the United States. It took an exceedingly long time, with a lot of progress made over more than 15 decades. 1646: Only property owners at the time could vote, and lawyer Margaret Brent attempts to cast a vote […]
Babe Ruth was one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and in his heyday, he was one of the highest paid athletes and most famous people in the world. Nowadays, he’s the subject of Portable Press’s Show Me History: Babe Ruth, the story of the slugger’s life in graphic novel form. Here are […]
This year, the world has dealt with a pandemic — an epidemic of an illness, but on a global scale — the likes of which most of us haven’t seen in our lifetimes. The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19 has changed daily life (and terrified) billions, and it’s the first time in about a century humanity […]
Here’s the little-known—and very harrowing—tale of a real Titanic survivor Violet Jessop.
