“These are the times that try men’s souls…”

During the Revolutionary War, getting soldiers to stay in the Continental Army was one of the biggest problems facing the American commander in chief, General George Washington. Many American soldiers…

The odd links between “Louie Louie” and Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe At Any Speed”…

It’s truly odd, but true: the renowned rock song “Louie Louie” and the history-making book about car safety by Ralph Nader, titled Unsafe At Any Speed, are connected by both…

“When it rains, it pours” started out as a good thing…

Back in November 2009, not long after I first started writing this blog, I happened to see two news stories in a row that had quotes using the saying “When…

True or false: Stephen Colbert coined the word truthiness? (Hint: you’re right!)

During the very first Colbert Report show on October 17, 2005, the witty faux Conservative media pundit Stephen Colbert unleashed the word truthiness on the world. (Click here to see…

OCTOBER 2 – The day we crossed over into The Twilight Zone

  On the evening of October 2, 1959, CBS aired the first episode of a new television series created by Rod Serling called The Twilight Zone. It became one of…

April 2, 1865 – “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”

On September 22, 1969, The Band released the great self-titled album that includes what became one of their most famous songs, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Like many…

On today’s date, the Vulcan blessing “Live long and prosper” became part of our Earthly language…

You don’t have to be a full-fledged Trekkie to be familiar with the “Vulcan blessing” from Star Trek — “Live long and prosper” — or with the splay-fingered “Vulcan salute”…

“The power of Christ compels you!” – and the power of BTS, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift

EDITOR’S NOTE: In addition to ThisDayinQuotes.com, I write the QuoteCounterquote.com blog. That one is also about quotations, but has a different format. ThisDayinQuotes.com focuses on the origins and context of…

How August 26 became “Women’s Equality Day”

Each year since 1973, August 26th has been officially recognized as “Women’s Equality Day.” It’s a commemoration of the final approval of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That…

“Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream…”

On August 8, 1966, Capitol Records released the Beatles album Revolver in the United States. (In the UK, the LP was released by Parlophone on August 5.) Revolver became an…