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Thomas Adams The Man Who Put the Chicle in Chiclets In 1870, Thomas Adams, a photographer, glassmaker and inventor, was discussing a business proposition with his houseguest, the infamous General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Santa Anna was the man responsible for the massacre of Texans at the Alamo 34 years earlier and the former president of Mexico. He was living in exile in the United States and trying to raise money so he could build an army to march on Mexico City and seize power.   Santa Anna had a plan to sell Mexican chicle, made from the sap of the sapodilla tree, to Americans who he thought could use it as an additive to natural rubber to reduce it's cost. Natural rubber was very expensive and if anyone could figure out a way to reduce the cost of rubber goods they would become very wealthy. Santa Anna had brought a large quantity of chicle, and wondered if Adams would give it a try. Adams spent over a year trying to make things like automobile tires, rain boots, toys and...

    The History of Barbecue From Barbocoa to Brique t Cooking was a big innovation for early humans and it occurred shortly after the discovery of fire. Whether that happened because someone accidentally dropped a piece of meat into a fire and then retrieved it or someone came upon an animal that had died in a brushfire and decided to eat it, we'll never know, but humans quickly realized that meat tastes a lot better cooked than it does raw. Word spread quickly and soon nearly everyone was "barbecuing" their meat.      Times were tough back then and people didn't have propane fired stainless steel grills but they managed to get along fine with just an open flame. During the Middle Ages, the use of iron pots in Europe became widespread, and Europeans discovered the ease of using large pots to boil meat, usually with vegetables and often with dumplings or pasta. Iron also permitted cooks to construct permanent or semi permanent cooking devices, so that cooki...

The Rise and Fall of Bank of America     Protest at Bank of America Center in Chicago on Dec. 10, 2008   In recent years Bank of America (BOA) has strayed very far from the high standards set by its founder, AP Giannini. During the 1990s BOA quickly expanded by buying up several other banking corporations with hundreds of branches across the country. BOA soon become the largest U.S. bank holding company, with combined assets of $570 billion, and 4,800 branches. BOA also began acquiring assets in the financial services industry; FleetBoston Financial, credit card giant MBNA, The United States Trust Company from the Charles Schwab Corporation, Countrywide Financial, and Merrill Lynch. Both Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch were teetering on the brink of insolvency because of bad investments and numerous lawsuits, but BOA apparently thought they were getting a bargain.   BOA's acquisition binge finally backfired during the global financial meltdown of 2008. As the...

The Assassins History's First Terrorists The word assassin was derived from hashashin (user of hashish) and originated in Europe during the Middle Ages. It was used to describe a member of a secret order of the Ismaili sect of Islam founded by Hasan ibn al-Sabbah in 1090, that were infamous for their use of murder to intimidate or eliminate their enemies. Hasan and his followers first took control of a mountain fortress called Alamut, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. He then sent out missionaries who spread the order throughout Persia and Syria, and so was able to establish a power base among the outer tribes and mountain people.   As Hasan's influence grew, he wanted to expand his empire and protect himself from his enemies as well. He did not have the military power to confront his enemies directly, so he simply had them eliminated by killers who were able to infiltrate the enemy defenses by disguise and deception. Sometimes they would even join the enemy leader'...

  A. P. Giannini Banker for the Little Guy   A P Giannini was the first to challenge the unwritten rule that banks should only lend money to people who don't need it.   Amadeo Pietro (Peter) Giannini was born on a small farm in San Jose, California in 1870, the son of Italian immigrants. He was only seven years old when he saw his father killed in a fight with another man over a dollar. His mother remarried, and his new stepfather was in the produce business. A. P. quit school at the age of 14 to help his stepfather, and soon impressed the stepfather so much that he was made a partner in the business.    A. P. Giannini, the founder of Bank of America A. P. Giannini built his reputation and the produce business by being fair and honest in dealing with people. He did so well that he was able to retire at age 31, by selling his half of the business to his employees. His retirement didn't last long though, because he was asked by a group of San Francisco businessmen...

The History of Dogs From Wolf to Woof!   Today there are over 53 million dogs in the United States (600 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization). How did dogs become man's best friend? Dogs evolved from wolves but they were a product of human selection and not natural selection. Wolves' bones have been found in association with humans as far back as 400,000 years ago, but scientists believe that man's relationship with wolves predates that by several hundred thousand years.   Early humans probably first used wolves as food. But wolves would also have been using humans, scavenging through their garbage dumps and over time moving closer and closer to the center of camp and the human's food source--the campfire. Eventually, the more docile wolves were accepted by the humans as part of the group.  The wolf's social nature and the similarity between wolf packs and early human hunter-gatherer social organizations helped to make the relationship a suc...

John Ford "I make Westerns" In the annals of American film, no name shines more brightly than that of John Ford. Director and filmmaker for more than a half a century, he stands pre-eminent in his craft -- not only as a creator of individual films of surpassing excellence, but as a master among those who transformed the early motion pictures into a compelling new art form that developed in America and swept the world. As an interpreter of the Nation's heritage, he left his personal stamp indelibly printed on the consciousness of whole generations both here and abroad. In his life and in his work, John Ford represents the best in American films and the best in America.   Thus spoke the commendation that accompanied the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to John Ford in 1973. However, John Ford was also one of Hollywood's most demanding and irascible directors. Many in the film industry considered him cruel and sadistic, and refused to have anything to do with him, b...

The Cherry Capital of the World Traverse City, Michigan   Cherry orchards line the eastern shore of Lake Michigan from Benton Harbor to the Traverse City area. Michigan's cherry production is about 250 million pounds, and represents about 75 percent of the tart cherries and 20 percent of the sweet cherries grown annually in the United States. The sandy soil and temperate weather conditions along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan are excellent for growing fruit. That's because Lake Michigan was formed during the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago by retreating glaciers that dug deep trenches in sandy areas that were once a sea bed. Much of that sandy soil remains along the eastern shoreline. The winds blowing from Lake Michigan help to moderate the area's weather by cooling the orchards in the summer and warming them during the winter. A Presbyterian missionary named Peter Dougherty first had the idea to plant cherry trees in the Traverse City area in 1852. The local India...