In 1893 a sensational trial in the District of Columbia pitted a young woman against a powerful US Congressman. The salacious allegations captivated the nation, and went to the very heart of the power structure of the Gilded age. The Breckinridge-Pollard affair is nearly forgotten today, but at the time it was, as a contemporary account of the trial explained, “The Most Noted Breach of Promise suit in the history of court records.”
The so-called “Torpedo Crisis” afflicted German U-boats in a critical part of the war, giving the allies much-needed time to improve anti-submarine tactics, and thus might have changed the course of the entire war.
Since 1928 the figures on bills printed for the general public have remained the same - Our familiar Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Franklin. But the United States has had many different kinds of federally printed paper money, and many different people have adorned it.
On February 4, 1859 a “ Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, between the United States of America and the Republic of Paraguay” was signed. But the two nations had a rather rocky path to friendship, involving an up to then unprecedented deployment of the United States Navy.