Mark's Almanac
Monday through Friday
Mark's Almanac is a 90-second trip back in time that highlights the world's history from the very serious to the sometimes sublime.
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It was on this date in 1960 that Jack Paar left the Tonight Show as host live on-air. And it was on this date in 1963 that Julia Child started the tv show, The French Chef. -
It was on this date in 1971 that Carole King's album, Tapestry debuted. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. -
It was on this date in 1895 that William Morgan showed off the game he invented - volleyball. And it was on this date in 1964 that Hasbro released the first G.I. Joe action figure. -
It was on this date in 1861 that the Confederate States of America was formed. This was also the date in 1945 that Coach Paul Brown was offered a job with the All-American Football Conference. The team he coached would become the Cleveland Browns. -
It was on this date in 1943 that shoes became rationed for the war effort of the Second World War. -
It was on this date in 1854 that a name was suggested for a new political party based on abolishing slavery in the western territories - the Republican Party. And it was on this date in 1859 that one of the oldest bibles was unearthed. The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. -
It was on this date in 1876 that Albert G. Spaulding invested $800 in a sporting company that eventually manufactured the first official baseball. And it was on this date in 1930 that former President William Howard Taft resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court and passed away a little over a month later. -
It was on this date in 1349 that it is said that the Black Death was at its peak in London. Plague deaths averaged about 200 deaths a day in the city. -
It was on this date in 1862 that Ralph Waldo Emerson met President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. And it was on this date in 1964 that Governor Matthew Welsh of Indiana banned the song "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen. -
It was on this date in 1949 that the first American television soap opera aired on NBC. It was called These Are My Children and centered on an Irish widow and her struggles to run a boarding house as well as help her three children and new daughter-in-law. And it was on this date in 1950 that President Harry S. Truman announced to the world that America would develop the hydrogen bomb.
