The U.S. Postal System , established on Jul 26, 1775, doesn’t have a clue why the letter to Miss R.T. Fletcher was lost for so long. The postmark on this long lost WWII-era letter is Aug. 9, 1944. It was sent to Station Hospital, Camp Roberts which ranked, at that time, as one of the world’s largest military training facilities. But since the hospital is no longer there, having been torn down, it was instead delivered to Camp Roberts Historical Museum. Read more:  Letter arrives in California 66 years after it left Alabama

  We are in the largest U.S. drought area since 1954. Two larger area droughts were during the Dust Bowl in the years of 1934 and 1939. Extended wide covering droughts are disastrous in many ways: ruining crops, shrinking water supplies and exacerbating wildfires. Read more:   Areas in worst drought categories rise by 50 percent, US says

Time magazine covered the historic flight made in October of 1971 that proved Einstein’s notion of Time dilation, an effect of Einstein’s theory relativity, takes place during everyday activities Abstract from Time article To most of the passengers on Pan American Flight 106 from Washington’s  Dulles  International Airport, it was simply a routine trip to London.  But for  Physicist Joseph C. Hafele and his companion, Astronomer  Richard Keating, it  was the beginning of a journey into the most  esoteric realms of modern science.  Occupying four seats in the big  747’s tourist compartment—two for themselves  and two for their  scientific gear—they were setting off on an extraordinary  round-the-world odyssey: an expedition to…

July 24, 1911 marks the day of Machu Picchu’s discovery by American archeologist Hiram Bingham. He wrote, “Surprise followed surprise until there came the realization that we were in the  midst of as wonderful ruins as any ever found in Peru,”. Yet there has been controversy over who actually discovered this ancient Inca settlement in Peru. Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Binghams-List-In-Dispute.html#ixzz21MXGyhM7

The desire for home ownership in America has a long history going back to 1862, when the Homestead Act came into being. Homestead Act (1862) The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to “improve” the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land. After 5 years on the land, the original filer was entitled to the property, free and clear, except for a small registration fee. Title could also be acquired after only a 6-month residency and trivial…

On this day, July 19, in 1799 the Rosetta Stone was found. It is no small stone. The black basalt slab, found in the Egyptian town of Rosetta, is almost four feet long and two-and-a-half feet wide. First found by a French soldier when the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Eygpt, it is now located at the British Museum in London and has been housed there, with the exception of a brief time during World War I, since 1802. This historic discovery and eventual translation of the hieroglyphics, by French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion, opened up the door to learning about the Ancient world of Egypt. Learn more at the History Channel