In 1911 John Mahoney, a freight handler at Chicago’s South Walker Street terminal, was overcome by heat prostration. That isn’t in itself unusual, heat stroke is not uncommon in Chicago’s hot and humid summers. What was unique about Mr. Mahoney is that he was overcome while working on November 11. His was, newspapers reported, the first incidence of heat prostration ever recorded in Chicago in the month of November. What is, perhaps, even more bizarre, the very next day two men were found in the city frozen to death.
The road to plentiful aluminum was long, and literally dozens of important scientists were involved over a period of centuries in the effort to purify the metal. In the end, the solution would come almost simultaneously from two scientists, each just 22 years of age.
While little known in the US today, In the early 1900s, a Basque sport that had been played for centuries seemed poised to enter America’s mainstream.
On February 27, 1942 a three decades old US Navy ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sunk. It was a difficult time for the allies, many ships were lost that day. But the sinking of USS Langley represented the end of one of the most consequential ships is the Navy's history.