Archived Stories
Colonel Sanders’ Recipe for Success
Everybody in town knew that Harlan Sanders made great fried chicken because he sold it at the gas station he operated in Corbin, Kentucky. But in 1955, when the new interstate highway system passed him by, Sanders knew that traffic at his hometown business...
Irving Berlin: The Man Who Wrote “God Bless America”
Believe it or not, the man who wrote the song God Bless America was born in Russia! That's right, Irving Berlin, one of America's greatest songwriters, didn't move to America until he was five years old. Berlin wrote some of America's favorite songs, including the...
The Statue of Liberty
If you go to New York City, one of the first things you'll probably see is the Statue of Liberty. It's a huge reminder of the freedoms that Americans should never take for granted. The statue, which was built piece-by-piece over several years, was a gift from the...
James Naismith: The Inventor of Basketball
In 1891, while he was teaching at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, James Naismith received instructions from his boss. Naismith was given 14 days to come up with an indoor game that students could play during the harsh New England winters. So,...
Bessie Coleman: A Pioneering Pilot
In 1892, Bessie Coleman was born in a very small town called Atlanta, Texas (It's not to be confused with Atlanta, Georgia, which is a very big town!). Bessie was the 10th of 13 children. When she was six, she went to school in a one-room schoolhouse where she was a...
Walt Disney: He Built a Magic Kingdom
From the time he was a child, Walt Disney loved to draw. At first, he wanted to draw cartoons for newspapers, but as a young man, he discovered his love of animation, so he started making short cartoon movies in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Eventually, Walt...