Monthly Archives: October 2009

Sam Houston: First President of the Republic of Texas

  By tpscolorado | October 22, 2009 - 11:38 am | Blog Leave a comment

173 years ago today, Sam Houston was elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas. He served from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838, and served a second term from December 12, 1841 to December 9, 1844. After Texas was annexed by the U.S. in 1845, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.  He served from February 21, 1846, until March 4, 1859. Here is a link to a quick biography of … Read more… →

Tagged , , ,

How a Little Girl Grew a Beard and Changed History

  By tpscolorado | October 15, 2009 - 9:39 am | Blog Leave a comment

Thanks to Keith for finding the topic of today’s post. According to the “On This Day” section of The New York Times, in 1860 a girl named Grace Bedell wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln stating that she believed Lincoln could improve his appearance if he grew a beard. I thought this was interesting story so Keith and I began searching the entire Internet and came across some really interesting primary sources regarding this event.  … Read more… →

Tagged , , ,

Today in History: Chicago Fire of 1871

  By tpscolorado | October 8, 2009 - 10:55 am | Blog 2 Comments

On this day, 138 years ago, a massive fire ripped through the city of Chicago, killing 300 people and leaving 90,000 homeless.  It caused $200 million worth of damage and destroyed 4 square miles of the city.  Using the website Measuring Worth to calculate the amount adjusted for the worth of today’s dollar, the damage would be equal to $3,636,875,000.00.  That’s almost $3.7 billion dollars. Below are some primary sources from The Library of Congress … Read more… →

Tagged , ,