History Hound Travels

I told you I would have something a little different today! I just looked over the issue of History Magazine that I picked up over the weekend. I didn’t have as much time to spend with it as I would have liked, but I did learn a couple of things I wanted to share with you.

Remember when I said history was about the people and not the dates? Today I read the story of the pay telephone. It was invented by William Gray. William Gray’s wife was sick, and he needed to call a doctor for her. He went to a local factory and asked to use their phone to summon a doctor, but was repeatedly refused. The office workers told him the phone was not for public use, and it was only after speaking to a manager that Gray was allowed to call a doctor for his ill wife. The year was 1887, and William was granted a patent in 1888 for a booth enclosing a coin-operated phone.

Raise your hand if you think Lizzie Borden was guilty of killing her father and step-mother. An hour ago I would have raised mine, but the fact is that Ms. Borden was found not guilty both at her original trial in the 1890s, and again at a mock trial held at Stanford law School in 1997. And the poem we all know? Hogwash! Mrs. Borden was whacked just 18 times, and Mr. Borden only 11.

I hope you enjoyed today’s tidbits. I’ll see you one Friday with a discussion of the last few chapters of Adam and His Kin.

Technorati Tags: History Magazine, pay telephone, William Gray, Lizzie Borden

On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. If you have never read a biography of this president, you should run to your local library, and spend the rest of the day curled up on the couch getting to know this man. Mr. Lincoln was president from 1861 until his death in 1865. He was a self-educated man, and it is worth noting that he was a Republican. It’s also worth noting that although his Gettysburg Address said that the United States was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”, his Emancipation Proclamation only declared slavery unlawful in the rebelling southern states.

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