Louis XV was king of France from 1715 to 1774. He was nicknamed ‘the Well-Beloved’, but his failures contributed to the crisis that brought on the French Revolution. Louis was born at Versailles on 15 February 1710. At the age of five, he succeeded his great grandfather Louis XIV as king of France. The Duke of Orleans became regent. After the duke’s death, Louis was heavily influenced by his former tutor, Andre-Hercule de Fleury, whom he later created chief minister. Fleury ensured relatively stable government for the next 17 years. In 1725, Louis was married to Maria Leczczynska, daughter of the deposed king of Poland. After Fleury’s death Louis took…

May 10, 1977:  On this day in 1977, the legendary actress Joan Crawford dies of a heart attack in her New York City apartment. Born Lucille Fay Le Sueur (her birth year has been variously recorded as 1904 or 1908), Crawford was a nightclub dancer who broke into Broadway musicals in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. She first twisted her way into Hollywood stardom as a vivacious flapper in the 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters. She made a series of similar pictures, including Dancing Lady (1933), which co-starred Fred Astaire in his silver-screen debut. Crawford’s seamless transition into the sound film era made her one of the most popular and–by the late 1930s–one of…

Purchase High Resolution Map of Transcontinental in 1901 By: Andrew Glass May 10, 2011 04:34 AM EDT  On this day in 1869, workers for the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads drove a golden spike into the rails at Promontory Summit, Utah. The event marked completion of the first transcontinental railroad, connecting the nation from coast to coast and cutting a journey of at least four months to a week. It also, in a sense, fulfilled long-standing U.S. policies.  Under the aegis of President Thomas Jefferson, The Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, prepared the first maps and reports describing the topography of the trails and passages…

Aviation History |  Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:05 pm Icy winds swept across Spitsbergen, an island group on the Arctic Circle north of Norway. In May of 1926, Spitsbergen’s barren, frozen landscape erupted with activity as two international expeditions struggled to become the first to fly over the North Pole. Famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, teaming with American adventurer Lincoln Ellsworth and a mixed Italian and Norwegian crew, planned on flying an Italian-built dirigible, Norge. At the same time, an American party commanded by Richard E. Byrd was about to attempt the flight in a trimotor skiplane. Exploring the Arctic by air was not exactly a new idea in 1926. Thomas…

The story of America is the story of its working people—their struggles and successes and their hopes for a better future for themselves and their families. The Battle of Cripple Creek These days, the town of Cripple Creek, Colo., is best known for casinos—14 of them. A century ago, Cripple Creek was famous for important, dramatic battles where workers fought to win their rights. It all began in 1894. Cripple Creek had become a boom town after gold was discovered. Some 150 mines sprang up. So did a strong miners union—the Free Coinage Union No. 19, which was part of the militant Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Workers started pouring in from around the…