“We hardly think he will be able to compete with the swallows in this harness,” sniffed the June 24, 1871 Scientific American article on W. F. Quimby’s flying machine. “We would advise him to start from some low point at first, so that, if he should fall down, it will not hurt him much.” Watson…
“During the perilous and unsettled period through which Delaware passed in 1863,” begins historian J. Thomas Scharf, “there was less disposition to enter the service of the country voluntarily than the preceding year, and it soon became evident that a draft would have to be ordered to fill up the quota.” The draft bill that…
Fleatown, DE was one of those towns whose only reason to exist was that it was a convenient halfway stopping point between two popular destinations. The distance as the crow flies from the heart of Milford, DE to the heart of Georgetown, DE is about 16 miles. Traveling between these two places today wouldn’t even…
Plenty of people throughout history have faked their death in order to get out from under debt or a bad romance. But writing an elaborate letter about being lost at sea, stuffing it in a bottle, tossing it into the ocean, then hoping someone finds it? Seems like a dicey way to announce your demise.…
