July 9th is the anniversary of one of the most famous political speeches in history, the “Cross of Gold Speech” by William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925). Bryan, one of America’s most…
Year: 2024
“I never promised you a rose garden.”
THE ORIGIN OF THE FAMOUS LINE: “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” Hannah Green (pen name of Joanne Greenberg; 1927–1996) American author Title of her 1964 novel This novel, first published on April…
“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall…”
When Columbia Records released the first, self-titled album by Bob Dylan in 1962 it went largely unnoticed by the general public. Only about 5,000 copies were sold at the time.…
Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” quote
On May 17, 2012, Republican presidential candidate, Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), said something that was later cited as one of the factors that caused him to lose the election…
“Like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.”
The British stage actor Edmund Kean (1789-1833) was like the James Dean of his time. He gained celebrity and fame at a young age. His performances were fiery and highly…
“My man Friday.”
The book by Daniel Defoe that is usually referred to with the shortened name Robinson Crusoe became a bestseller soon after it was first published on April 25, 1719. The…
“The shot heard round the world”
The famous phrase “The shot heard round the world” was coined by American essayist, lecturer and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) in 1837. It’s the last line in the first…
“Houston, we have a problem” — and “failure is not an option”…
On June 30, 1995, the movie Apollo 13 was released to theaters in the US. This epic film about the near-disastrous Apollo 13 lunar mission in April 1970 was directed…
The story behind “Dixie,” the blackface minstrel song that may have been stolen from black musicians…
The American Civil War is bracketed by two songs with lyrics that are familiar to most people. The metaphorical end of that war has become associated with The Band’s 1969…