Recently Added Articles

In the attached VANITY FAIR article, Duchamp let's it be known that he crossed the submarine-infested waters of the Atlantic to see American art.


What is Next for Europe? (Literary Digest, 1933)

"'Can we trust him?'"

That is the question asked by some British and French editors as they consider Chancellor Adolf Hitler's speech on the disarmament question in which, while he firmly champions the German case for equality in armaments, 'he broke no diplomatic china'"

The Defense of Bastogne (Combat Studies Group, 1986)

Attached is the concluding essay from a U.S. Army report written in 1986 concerning the spirited defense that was offered by the 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge.

"At Bastogne, well-coordinated combined arms teams defeated uncoordinated armored and infantry forces committed to an unrealistic plan."

Another article about this battle can be read by clicking here...


Oscar Wilde: a Personal Remembrance (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919)

One writer's reminiscence of attending a London party and being introduced to Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) and the object of his affection, John Gray. The author insists, as has been documented in other places, that Gray was the model for Wilde's character "Dorian Gray":

"Once at a Private View in the New Gallery, as I came downstairs, I came on Wilde, in the midst of his admirers, showing more than ever his gift of versatility. Seeing me he made a gesture, and as I went up he introduced me to John Gray, then in what is called 'the zenith' of his youth. The adventure was certainly amusing..."

An additional article about Wilde can be seen here.

Click here to read a 1940s article about American sodomy legislation.

Those Who Inspired Mark Twain (American Review of Reviews, 1910)

This is a brief look at the up-bringing of Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835 - 1910), accompanied by two 1910 magazine photographs of the people who inspired the writer to create "Becky Thatcher" and "Huckleberry Finn". Also interviewed was the the man who instructed the author in the skills required to pilot the Mississippi River.

The historian Henry Steele Commager chose to rank Mark Twain at number 4 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned - click here to understand his reasoning (does this still hold true?)...

Late War Combat Training: Camp Wheeler (Yank Magazine, 1945)

The attached article weighs the way infantry basic training was conducted at the beginning of the war and how it had changed as the war progressed, evolving into something a bit different by 1945. The training period was originally a 13 week cycle in 1941, yet in time after carefully watching the soldiers in the field and finding that infantrymen needed a broader understanding of the tools at hand, the infantry training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, had been extended an extra two weeks. One of the obvious factors involved a far wider pool of combat veterans to rely upon as instructors.

This article was used to support a point in an honors thesis at the Army Command and General Staff College.

You might also like to read this article about W.W. II cavalry training.
Statistical data concerning the U.S. Army casualties in June and July of 1944 can be read in this article.

1912 Evidence that Global Climate Change is not of Man's Making (Popular Mechanics, 1912)

The attached article is from 1912 and it might make more of us question the popular concept as to whether global warming is a man-made phenomenon rather than seemingly random temperature changes that take place from time to time on the earth's surface.

Printed during a time when the flatulent cow population was far lower, and the number of smoke-belching factories nowhere near the high count that can be numbered in our own time, this article reported that:

"The icebergs of the Southern Ocean, according to the Monthly Meteorological Chart of the Indian Ocean, published by the British Meteorological Office, attain dimensions far exceeding those of similar formations in the Northern hemisphere, and also greater in number. As many as 4,500 different icebergs have been counted in a run of two thousand miles..."

Six weeks after this article appeared the TITANIC would hit one of them.

From Amazon:

Click here to read a 1947 article about the battle against air pollution (which is man-made).

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism

Also from Amazon:

The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them


Training the Doughboy (U.S. Gov. 1931)

Two remarkably brief paragraphs concerning the required military training of the average American Doughboy throughout the course of America's blessedly short participation in the First World War:

"The average American soldier who went to France received six months of training in this country before he sailed. After he landed overseas he had two months of training before entering the battle line. The part of the battle line that he entered was in a quiet sector and here he remained one month before going into an active sector and taking part in hard fighting."

Click here to read a 1918 magazine article about the Doughboy training camps.


U.S. Presidential Trivia Quiz

A printable trivia test of odd presidential facts regarding the assorted chief executives who have governed the United States at one time or another. Assembled herein is a list of real zingers that will put to the test your knowledge of U.S. history; do you know:

• Who the shortest president was?
• Which president first predicted a one-world government?
• Which president was the greatest student of the Bible?
• Which president kissed 34 little girls at his Inaugural parade?
(HINT: It wasn't Clinton)

Five U.S. presidents were members of the Unitarian faith...

The Plot to Assassinate Eisenhower Foiled by Cartoons...(Lion's Roar, 1946)

An interesting W.W. II story was passed along by actor, announcer, producer and screenwriter John Nesbitt (1910 - 1960), who is best remembered as the narrator for the MGM radio series "Passing Parade", which concentrated on seldom remembered historic events and outright trivia. Five months after the end of the war, Nesbitt relayed to his audience that during the Battle of the Bulge, U.S.-born Nazi agents, having been ordered to kill General Eisenhower, did not even come close to fulfilling their mission, suffered incarceration among other humiliations - all due to a lack of knowledge where American comic strips were concerned. Read on...

Here is another "Now it Can be Told" article...