On this day in 1896 George Washington Carver, a recent graduate of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, now Iowa State University, accepted an invitation from Booker T. Washington to head the agricultural department at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, now Tuskegee University. During a tenure that lasted nearly 50 years, Carver elevated the …
An Engine of Freedom
On this day in 1787 a constitutional convention convened in Philadelphia with representatives from seven states. Though the meeting was not authorized by Congress, they were among the most eminent men in the young American republic—and several were actually members of Congress. Their purpose was to draft amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Under other circumstances, the meeting might have been considered a coup …
Cleveland at 216
April 19, 2012: First settled on this day in 1796, Cleveland remained a sleepy little village at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the shores of Lake Erie for nearly two decades. But the nearby exploits of naval commander Oliver Perry during the War of 1812 highlighted its strategicposition. The completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832 and the …