“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!”

On December 7, 1941 — which President Franklin D. Roosevelt would memorably name “a date which will live in infamy” on the following day — hundreds of Japanese warplanes made a…

Queen Elizabeth’s “Annus Horribilis” and it’s ancestor, the “Annus Mirabilis”…

On November 24, 1992, Elizabeth II gave a speech in London to mark the 40th anniversary of her Accession as Queen of England and “the Commonwealth realms.” The speech immediately…

“Your eyes are full of hate, Forty-one.” … In Ben-Hur, that's good.

Screenwriter, playwright and novelist Gore Vidal is linked to two famous quotations about whipping. One is a funny quip about the old form of corporal punishment called “birching” (whipping someone…

How “God Bless America” created a musical duel between Woody Guthrie and Irving Berlin

In 1917, during World War I, American songwriter Irving Berlin was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was already a successful songwriter at that point, known for huge hits like…

“Business as usual”

It’s not uncommon to see credible sources claim that the phrase “business as usual” was coined by Winston Churchill. For example, a glossary of World War I words and phrases…

“Not fade away…”

[An updated version of a previous post. Thanks to the readers who emailed corrections to me.] On October 27, 1957, American Rockabilly and rock music pioneer Buddy Holly and his…

The day Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” made the earth move…

On October 21, 1940, Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published by Charles Scribner’s Sons. It’s a classic war story about an American, Robert Jordan, who…

“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.”

It’s difficult to pigeonhole Teddy Roosevelt. He was a Republican for most of his political career, including his two terms as President of the United States from 1901 to 1909.…

“Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but…”

The Izaak Walton League is one of America’s oldest conservation groups. It was founded in 1922 by sport fishermen who wanted to preserve fish and wildlife habitat for future generations.…

“The physician can bury his mistakes…”

Many books of quotations include a famous humorous quote by the eminent American architect Frank Lloyd Wright:       “The physician can bury his mistakes, but the           architect can only…