Author: Quest College

On October 21, 1879, in Highland Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison turned on his newest invention -The Light Bulb. This first light bulb stayed lit for 13 hours. Not bad for a first try.

On October 12, 1492, Columbus arrives in the new world in the Bahamas. He thought he had made it to the West Indies. When he saw the first natives, he called them “Indians.”

On October 1, 1908, Henry Ford began selling the first automobile to the public.

New York once had the second largest slave population in the United States: By 1730, 42 percent of the population owned slaves, according to the New York Public Library. While the state had passed a law shortly following the Revolutionary War ordering the gradual abolition of slavery, the slaves were not freed until July 4, 1827. This paved the way for […]

Before Texas became a member of the United States, it was its own country: The Republic of Texas. (And before that, it had been claimed by Spain, France, and Mexico.) But in 1845, things began to change, and on July 4th of that year, the Texas Congress passed an ordinance agreeing to an annexation offer from the Union. The citizens of Texas […]

Independence Day is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were no longer subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of Britain and were now united, free, and independent states.  The Congress had voted to declare independence two days earlier, on July 2, but it was not declared until July […]

June 18, 1983 – Dr. Sally Ride, a 32-year-old physicist and pilot, became the first American woman in space, beginning a six-day mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

June 5, 1783 – The first sustained flight occurred as a hot-air balloon was launched at Annonay, France, by brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier. Their 33-foot-diameter globe aerostatique ascended about 6,000 feet. In September, they repeated the experiment for King Louis XVI, using a sheep, rooster and duck as the balloon’s passengers.

On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed on the beeches of Normandy, France, and were met by heavy German resistance. Between 14,000 and 19,000 soldiers were killed during this engagement. However, this marked the turning point for the Allies (the good guys) in WWII.

Established by the United Nations in 1981, the UN requests that on this day, all hostilities cease throughout the world, and all peoples of the world celebrate peace