How a king became 42,000 bullets
For six years, a gilded equestrian statue of King George III had stood in Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan. By the evening of July 9, 1776,…
Category: Briefs
The signer who paid the price
When the 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” For Richard Stockton of New Jersey,…
The $4 frame that held a treasure
In the summer of 1989, a financial analyst from Philadelphia stopped at a flea market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. According to the Los Angeles Times, he…
Jefferson’s odd July 4 shopping trip
July 4, 1776, was a busy day in Philadelphia. The Continental Congress had just voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, a document Thomas…
The Declaration’s missing 168 words
In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson included a fiery 168-word passage in his draft of the Declaration of Independence that condemned slavery as “piratical…
Ben Franklin missed the Declaration because of gout
Benjamin Franklin was appointed to the Committee of Five tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence in June 1776. He barely participated. Laid…
Colin Jost versus the bobsled
Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost, reporting from the 2026 Winter Olympics for NBC, agreed to ride in a bobsled. It did not go well. “I thought my back was…
Couch Potato turns 50 in 2026
“Couch potato” was coined on July 15, 1976, when Tom Iacino, a member of the tongue-in-cheek California group the Boob Tubers, called his friend,…
The Patron Saint of Wi-Fi
The Catholic Church officially has a millennial saint. Carlo Acutis, canonized by Pope Leo XIV in September 2025, is believed to be the first saint born…
A Raccoon’s Excellent Adventure
It started innocuously enough. A raccoon in Ashland, Virginia found a gap in the ceiling of a state liquor store, squeezed through, and helped himself…