On Flag Day (June 14), the townspeople of Frederick, Maryland will host a big celebration to kick off the year leading up to the 200th anniversary of the composition of The Star Spangled Banner.

The poem that became the anthem was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key (1780-1843),...

"The road to success is always under construction," aptly quotes Cheryl McKissack Daniel, President and CEO of McKissack & McKissack, a New York construction company involved in many major infrastructure projects.

In her position as company head, Cheryl Daniel represents the fifth generation of the oldest family-run minority and...

"If a place doesn't exist, it's hard to tell the story," says Adrian Scott Fine, director of Advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy, as we toured Terminal Island.

In the late 1800s, the island was an artists' colony known as Brighton Beach, but starting at the turn...

During last weekend's Big East Women's Basketball Championship held at the XL Center in Hartford, visitors got an additional bonus: a viewing of materials related to the All American Red Heads (1936-1986). The memorabilia belongs to John Molina, whose grandmother played for the Red Heads many years ago. Molina has...

MAKERS: Women Who Make America is debuting on PBS on Tuesday night, February 26, at 8 p.m. and has established a strong and ongoing web presence at www.makers.org . Thus far, the media coverage has focused on Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. She is included in the...

Just as Steven Spielberg filmed a little-known story of Lincoln and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, two other filmmakers, screenwriting duo Nina and Salvador Litvak, found themselves fascinated by another untold story of Lincoln -- the one told by his dear friend and self-appointed bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon.

On Thursday, January 10, 2013 at the Bard Graduate Center Galleries on Manhattan's Upper West Side, David Carlyon Ph.D will present a program on the culture of clowning. Carlyon's program, "Herman Ootics, the Clown: History, Culture, and Clowning," is designed to challenge the clichés surrounding this comedic art.

This...

In late November 2012 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the results of a new seat belt survey. While there are statistical variations by region and "day of the week," the overall take-away from the survey is that passengers of today use seat belts 86 percent of...

In commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) partnership has launched an initiative of national significance called the Living Legacy Project. The plan is to dedicate a tree for each of the more than 620,000 soldiers who died during the American Civil...

For Americans, the mere mention of "Four score and seven years ago..." brings to mind President Lincoln giving the address he delivered at Gettysburg 149 years ago on November 19, 1863.

But what else do we know about the occasion?

Just as Steven Spielberg used his just-released film...

The mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle is known the world over.

What isn't as well known is what first led to the belief that this triangular cut of ocean--from Miami to Bermuda to the island of Puerto Rico--had preternatural powers to suck in any man-made thing that came its...

NYC restaurateur Celeste Carlesimo adored ice cream so much so that she wanted to be able to eat it every single night.

Like other New Yorkers in the early 1980s, Carlesimo was health conscious so she knew her waistline required that ice cream be an occasional treat. But she...

In the early days of rock 'n' roll, before MTV and the Internet, iTunes and Spotify, record companies began to gravitate to advertising their musical groups on billboards along Los Angeles' famous Sunset Strip. These billboards were not digital or computer-generated vinyl wraps, they were one-of-a-kind, hand-painted signs, replaced monthly.

Over the weekend The Los Angeles Times ran a story generated by two Latino organizations, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda. The two want to create public awareness that the Kennedy Center Honors Awards largely exclude Latinos.

As most Americans...

Sometimes an author doesn't have to choose a subject; sometimes the subject chooses the author. This was the case for author and historian Greta Nettleton who has worked as professional writer, editor, and researcher for clients ranging from the World Bank to Microsoft.

Like other families, Nettleton's family saved...

How many innovative and important women from the late 19th and early 20th century remain in the shadows of history?

In the field of cosmetics, we know the name Helena Rubinstein (1870-1965) but few know how she started with a single cream and built an international company;...

Recently news organizations reported on the $2.2 million project that was mounted this summer to use new clues and equipment to try to uncover what happened to Amelia Earhart, who along with her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, in Earhart's Lockheed Electra airplane.

The...

In 1886 a steamship from San Francisco, the Santa Rosa, arrived in San Diego, and among those who got off the boat was a stowaway ... a dog described as a St. Bernard-Spaniel mix.

Someone began calling him "Bum" and the name stuck. He quickly adapted to life on land...

When looking for amazing stories about dogs, I came upon Shanda, a golden retriever, who served as mayor of Guffey, Colorado from 1993-1998. Sadly, she died in office.

As with most Internet stories, a paragraph about Shanda cycles from site to site with some changes. This is a...

"A man's best friend is his dog."

Dog lovers know this is true, but few know where the saying comes from.

The declaration dates to a court case in Missouri; the year was 1869. Southerners were trying to return to living normally after the hardships of life during the...