Professor Walter's History Lessons

On July 12, 1854 George Eastman was born in Waterville, New York. He would grow up to become the creator of the modern film camera industry with the founding of the Eastman Kodak Company and the invention of roll film. Eastman remained involved with the company throughout his life, but preferred to

The classic A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first Peanuts animated television special. It became an instant Christmas classic, winning both an Emmy and a Peabody award. Done on a shoestring budget, it became a holiday staple which has been shown every year since its initial release in 1965. It als

Edward "Ned" Kelly was born in 1854 or 1855 in Victoria, Australia, the son of an Irish convict. Kelly would become a symbol of the Irish-Australian resistance against the British ruling class, an Irish-Australian Bushranger who gained a reputation as a hero as well as a villain. A bit of a then mod

Marie and Pierre Curie have advanced the field of science beyond measure. Their collaboration led to discoveries throughout the field of radiation, including coining the term radioactivity itself. At the time it was assumed that anything as energetic as radiation had to be a good thing, and radioact

Throughout the course of the Civil War, most large cities in the Confederacy were reduced to smoking ruins. Mobile, Alabama survived mostly intact, surrendering to Union forces on April 12, 1865 as the end of the war neared. The city quickly returned to being a bustling seaport, with thousands of ba

The United States was in a critical state. Factions from the South were calling for secession. During this tumultuous time in 1857, Mexican-American war hero Jefferson Finis Davis won the senate seat in Mississippi (the second time he was elected for this position). These tensions came to a head in

In April 1861, Virgina brought together its delegates to vote on whether the state should secede from the Union. Of the 31 delegates from western Virgina, only 5 voted to secede. However, the majority of the remaining delegates statewide voted for secession, and Virginia separated from the United St

Today we live in the era of the smart phone with touch screens and flip keybaords. But all of these devices can trace their heritage back to IBM. In 1992, at COMDEX, IBM introduced the Simon, made in partnership with Bellsouth. By removing the keypad and incorporating a touch-sensitive LCD,, it brok

Promoted by Yugoslavian physician Stevan Durovic, Krebiozen was touted as a miracle cancer cure. It's chief U.S. advocate was Dr. Andrew Ivy, who referenced studies showing amazing recoveries in patients who injected the drug. Announcing the drug at a press conference in 1951, Ivy claimed that of th