PRINTER FRIENDLY | EMAIL THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND!

HISTORY: unwrapped – May 2006

Browse The Archives

Bob Richards, affectionately known as the “Vaulting Vicar” because he was an ordained minister, won two Olympic gold medals in the pole vault (1952 and 1956), the first and only person to do so. Richards was the second man to clear 15 feet. That doesn’t seem like much when you consider that today’s pole vault record is over 20 feet. Richards did it with a steel pole. Steel, unlike fiberglass, does not bend and therefore does not have the catapult effect of fiberglass. Getting over the bar was the major concern of every vaulter, but landing was especially hazardous. Unlike today’s massive pits that vaulters can fall into as they drop on their back, pits in Richards’ day were saw dust. A vaulter had to land on his feet or risk serious injury. Richards was the first athlete to appear on a Wheaties box in 1958. Richards ran for president in 1984 backed by the Populist Party.

Richards had two sons who also were outstanding pole vaulters. Brandon broke the national high school record in 1985 (18’ 2”) that stood until 1999.

“The Battle of Britain,” said Winston Churchill on the 18th of June 1940, “is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.” Churchill saw something in his nation’s history and moral composition that made him identify Christianity with the preservation and advance of civilization. England had a long history of Christian influence that resulted in the advance of civilization around the world. America’s earliest founders did not break from their English heritage. In fact, they sought to establish old England in New England. Samuel Eliot Morison writes the following in his Builders of the Bay Colony:

New England was founded consciously, and in no fit of absence of mind. Patriots seeking the glory of England first called the attention of their countrymen to these shores. Commercial enterprise made the first attempts at settlement. Puritanism overlaid these feeble beginnings by a proud self-governing commonwealth, dedicated to the glory of God and the happiness of a peculiar people. These three main streams in the life of old England, the patriotic, the commercial, and the religious, mingled their waters on every slope.

It’s no wonder that John Winthrop described colonial America as a “City on a Hill,” a light to the nations.

Monopoly is one of the most played board games in the world. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single seller. The game is supposed to have originated with Lizzie Magie who invented the Landlord’s Game and had it patented in 1904. Other shortened versions of the game spread becoming known as “Auction Monopoly.” The property names were replaced by street names from the cities where the players lived. By the 1920s, the game was known simply as “Monopoly” and was played much as it is today.

In 1934, Charles Darrow was unemployed like countless others during the height of the Depression. He showed his Monopoly game to Parker Brothers who rejected it. Darrow began making sets of Monopoly by hand with the help of his wife and son and distributed the game himself. He sold 5,000 of the handmade sets but couldn’t keep up with the demand. Parker Brothers changed its mind by accepting Darrow’s game and promoted him as the game’s sole inventor. In 1983 a trademark suit was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court which brought to light the game’s history—a different history than the one promoted by Parker Brothers. The game continues to be localized for cities and countries in which it is played all over the world. The most exclusive Monopoly set created was priced at two million dollars. A San Francisco jeweler made the board from 23 carat gold and rubies and sapphires are set in the chimneys of the solid gold houses and hotels. The dice have 42 cut diamonds in place of the black spots. Whatever version of Monopoly you play, cardboard or gold, it remains one of the favorite board games of all time.

The town of Leadville, Colorado was in the doldrums. Its glory days as a silver-mining center were ending. In an effort to keep their city alive, the citizens decided to stage a winter carnival. Workmen worked day and night using 5,000 tons of ice to build an ice palace for the carnival. On New Year’s Day, 1896, the town turned out for the grand opening. The huge ice palace covering three acres had been completed costing more than $40,000. The towers that flanked the entrance were 90 feet high. The inside contained a 16,000-square-foot ice rink, dance floor, curling rink, restaurant, gaming room and other activity areas. It was illuminated with a dazzling array of electric lights and adorned with gleaming search lights with wonderful prismatic colors illuminating the walls of ice outside.

One woman viewing the fireworks reflecting off the palace walls looked away saying that it was “too unearthly a vision” to gaze upon. By the end of March, the vision was melting away. The thousands of visitors coming from far and wide had spent very little money, but the townspeople felt it had all been worthwhile.

The idea of using balloons for transportation had always intrigued George Washington from the time of the first manned flight in Paris in 1783. When the greatest of the aeronauts, Jean Pierre Blanchard, crossed the Atlantic to give a demonstration, Washington was present. The site chosen for the lift-off was the Walnut Street Prison courtyard in Philadelphia, the nation’s capital at the time. Arriving at 9:00 A.M., Washington presented Blanchard with a passport he himself had signed. Not knowing how far the balloonist might travel, Washington had thoughtfully prepared a passport, just in case. It would seem that the nation’s president had high hopes for Blanchard’s flight.

When the 46-minute flight ended in New Jersey, 15 miles away, Blanchard was met by two astonished farmers, one carrying a gun! Blanchard, who didn’t understand English, waved the paper with the presidential signature and produced a bottle of spirits. Fortunately for Blanchard, his actions lessened the tension, and he was given a warm reception and passage back to Philadelphia. The balloonist presented Washington with the first flag literally to fly over U.S. soil.

On April 6, 1896, King George I of Greece opened the first International Olympic Games in Athens. They were officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad. These were the beginning of the modern-day Olympic Summer Games and the first since the Roman emperor had banned the Ancient Olympic Games in 393 as part of the Christian campaign against paganism. The event was the idea of a Frenchman who had traveled the world gathering support for his dream of bringing nations together in the name of sports. These first Olympics might have taken place in Hungary if not for the generosity of Greek businessmen whose donations helped Athens prepare for the event. Fourteen nations participated, but most of the athletes were Greek. The highlight of the Olympics was the marathon on day eleven to commemorate the Ancient Olympic games. The race was run from Marathon to Athens, approximately 26 miles, and a Greek athlete won the event. After the Games, many including King George and some of the American competitors petitioned the International Olympic Committee to make Athens the permanent home of the international festival. It had been decided to hold the Olympics around the world and Paris had already been selected to host the 1900 Summer Games. Athens would not host the Games again until the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Charles M. Sheldon (1857–1946), a Congregational minister, wrote In His Steps in 1896 and read a chapter at a time to the young people in his congregation. The book was also serialized in the Chicago Advance. Because of copyright irregularities, the story entered the public domain immediately. It's not clear whether Sheldon received all the royalties due to him on the millions of copies sold over the years. In a 1935 authorized edition, Sheldon shows his appreciation to those publishers "that have kindly permitted him a share in the financial sales of the book." Sheldon seems to infer that not everyone paid for the use of his original work. The book is now everywhere, and so are WWJD wrist bands, necklaces, and hats. Dozens of web sites carry the full text of the novel and sell WWJD paraphernalia. I wonder if these enterprising folk are paying royalties to the Sheldon estate? I doubt it. Apparently for some, What Would Jesus Pay? (in royalties) doesn't come under the demands of WWJD ethic.

You've heard of Stonehenge in England. But did you know that there are similar configurations outside England, including throughout the northeast United States? In New Hampshire there is a place called Mystery Hill covering about twenty acres where large stones have been arranged in a strange pattern. Some of the stones are built up to make odd rooms and passages. It is speculated that Mystery Hill, and other sites like it, were once places of pagan worship and astronomical ceremony. Ancient words have been found inscribed on its stones. One translation of the inscription reads, "To Baal of the Canaanites, this in dedication."

The pyramid-shaped temples of some Native American tribes were not unique to their times. Ancient Babylon and even more ancient Sumeria are just two cultures who built these tiered ziggurats to worship their pagan gods. These massive buildings were constructed of mud bricks forming multiple stories, with a great, steep staircase leading to the top. In fact, ziggurat is the Assyrian world for "mountain top." You are probably already familiar with one famous (or infamous) ziggurat-type building: the Tower of Babel.

If the guillotine had not put a bloody halt to the plan, the Pennsylvania backwoods might have become home to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France. When the French Revolution exploded in 1789, thousands of aristocrats fled to America, many congregating in Philadelphia. Several of these exiles hoped to create a haven for the royal family and other French refugees. Marquis de Lafayette’s brother-in-law purchased 2,400 acres on the Susquehanna River and lots up to 400 acres were offered to the French for two or three dollars an acre.

Just as the project was launched, the king was guillotined, but the French exiles still hoped to save their queen. One of the first houses to be built was for her—a grand two-storied structure with 16 fireplaces. The new colony was called Azilum (pronounced “asylum”), which reflected its stated purpose. The colony soon had 50 houses and 250 residents. But the queen was not among them. She lost her head before she could escape. After a few years, the French, who preferred a more elegant life than what the rustic frontier offered, learned that they could obtain pardons. The exodus from Azilum began as they returned to their native France.

A conniving governor helped introduce a new word into American politics. In 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry and the Republican legislature carved Massachusetts into new voting districts. In one county, twelve towns were strung together in such a way that the heavy Republican vote in one of them would overbalance the Federalists in the other eleven towns. On a map, this district looked like a squatting salamander. An engraver added claws, wings, and fangs to the map and published it in the Boston Weekly Messenger as “The Gerry-Mander!” While Elbridge Gerry pronounced his name with a hard G as in “gate,” the word “gerrymander” is usually pronounced with a soft G, as in “gem.”

But Governor Gerry’s scheme did not work, and he was defeated for re-election only to be elected vice president on the Madison ticket later the same year. How quickly the voters forget! Today, Gerrymandering is alive and well in twenty-first-century America. Voting districts snake and meander all over the map in order to make solid Democrat or Republican voting districts. They are most often designed to insure minority representatives are elected to office.

American hymn writer and poetess, Fanny Crosby, wrote over 9,000 hymns in her lifetime. She lost her sight when only six weeks old but never complained about her blindness. Crosby’s father died when she was only a year old. She was raised by her grandmother while her mother worked as a maid to support them. These two women grounded Crosby in the Christian principles that would remain with her for the rest of her life. She attended the New York School for the Blind, and later joined the faculty teaching English and history. Crosby married a blind fellow teacher and musician. Their only daughter died in infancy. Crosby began writing poetry from the time she was eight, and published her first work at age 24. In 1863, she wrote her first hymn for a composer and over the years, continued to write for other composers. Crosby was well known and met many famous people, including presidents and generals. She played at President Grant’s funeral. She became a popular public speaker later in life. Before her death in 1915, Crosby had written the words to some of the most memorable hymns of the American church. They included “Jesus Our Blessed Redeemer,” “Blessed Assurance,” “Near the Cross,” and “To God Be the Glory.” Many see more clearly because of Fanny Crosby.

The most widely used textbook series used in public schools from 1836 to 1920 were William Holmes McGuffey's Eclectic Readers. More than 120 million Readers were sold during this period. The Readers stressed religion and its relationship to morality and the proper use of knowledge. In an introduction for a reissue of the Fifth Reader, historian Henry Steele Commager writes:

What was the nature of the morality that permeated the Readers? It was deeply religious, and . . . religion then meant a Protestant Christianity. . . . The world of the McGuffeys was a world where no one questioned the truths of the Bible or their relevance to everyday contact. . . . The Readers, therefore, are filled with stories from the Bible, and tributes to its truth and beauty.

Competing textbooks of the same era contained varying amounts of biblical material, but McGuffey contained the greatest amount—“more than three times as much as any other text of the period.” Subsequent editions of the Readers—1857 and 1879—led to a reduction in the amount of material that came from the Bible. Even so, the 1879 edition contained the Sermon on the Mount, two selections from the Book of Psalms, the Lord's Prayer, the story of the death of Absalom (2 Sam. 18), and Paul’s speech on the Areopagus (Acts 17). The Bible was still referred to as “‘the Book of God,’ ‘a source of inspiration,’ ‘an important basis for life,’ and was cited in support of particular moral issues.”

In 1504, while shipwrecked in Jamaica, Columbus and his crew had a tough time trading with the natives for food. The Indians quickly became tired of the hawk bells and trinkets the Spaniards had brought with them, and their food supply became scarce. Columbus knew he had to take drastic measures. He told the Indians that if they did not keep his crew supplied with food, his God would get angry and make the Moon “die.” The Indians were skeptical. Was Columbus bluffing? Columbus turned to his copy of the Regiomontanus Ephemerides Astronomicae, or “Astronomical Diary.” This book was printed in Nuremberg, Germany, in the late 1400s and complied by Johann Müller von Königsberg (1436–1476), and was best known by the Latin pseudonym Regiomontanus, or “King’s Mountain.” After consulting the almanac Columbus was able to calculate that in three days (on February 29, 1504) there would be a total eclipse of the Moon. The Moon did “die,” and the astonished natives agreed to keep this “sorcerer” happy and well-fed.

The French thought they had stumbled onto something when they attempted to remake the calendar basing everything on the number ten—ten days to make a week, three ten-day weeks to make a month, and ten thirty-day months to make a year. There was a day of rest built into the new ten-day week (décade), but you had to work nine days before you could enjoy it. Some had proposed a ten-hour day, but it did not catch on. As long as you lived in France, the calendar could be followed, but doing business with other nations was a nightmare. The French had to create conversion calendars to match it with the Gregorian Calendar that the rest of the world follows. The calendar was finally abandoned in 1806.

The potato has been around a long time. One would think that someone would have gotten the idea of slicing it real thin—chipping it like they do with ham (Isley’s in Pittsburgh is the best)—and frying it in oil. But, it took a ticked off chef to invent the greasy but addictive chip. George Crum was the head chef at Moon's Lake House, a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, when one of his customers had the audacity to complain that Crum’s French fries were “too thick and soggy” and “not salty enough.” The temperamental and vindictive chef decided he would show this amateur food critic what real thin and crispy were all about. He sliced the potatoes paper-thin and dropped them in hot oil until they turned a crisp brown color. The customer liked salt on his fries, so Crum poured on the salt. The finicky eater loved them. Crum, who was probably having a bad day when he turned on his customer, put the new entrée on the menu as Saratoga Chips. Crum would really be having a bad day if he knew that that his spur-of-the-moment culinary concoction had become a billion-dollar industry and he didn’t get any of the action.

The Star Chamber was a room in the palace at Westminster, England, where the king's council met. The room was named because of the star-decorated ceiling. From medieval times the king's council had ruled on specific legal cases that were beyond the jurisdiction of the common courts. By an act of Parliament in 1487, Henry VII strengthened the power of the council so nobles could be put on trial. In 1540 Henry VIII put the committee under his direct control that came to be known as the Court of Star Chamber. There was no jury and any punishment could be inflicted except the death penalty. The Star Chamber forced people to testify against themselves. By the time of Charles I, the Star Chamber had the reputation of being a "legal" way for the king to get rid of his political enemies. The authority of the Star Chamber was taken away by the Long Parliament in 1641 and restored the concept of "lawful judgment" of a defendant by "his peers or by the law of the land." The Courts of High Commission served a similar purpose but were directed at the clergy, especially Puritan ministers. They, too, were abolished in 1641.

Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook starred in the movie The Star Chamber (1983). When cases must be dismissed because of technicalities, a small cadre of judges resort to establishing a secret tribunal—a star chamber—to try cases and pass their own sense of justice. At first, justice seems to prevail. But before too long, things go awry. Open tribunals, as frustrating as they may be, are better than any star chamber no matter how perfectly conceived.

Homosexuality and the military have never been compatible bedfellows. During the Clinton administration, a “Don’t Ask—Don’t Tell” policy was put into effect. Liberal groups are trying to open the military to self-professed and practicing homosexuals. At a General Court Marshall, on March 10, 1778, a Lieutenant Enslin was “tried for attempting to commit sodomy with John Monhort.” He was also tried for “Perjury in swearing to false Accounts.” Enslin was “found guilty of the charges exhibited against him, being breaches of 5th. Article 18th. Section of the Articles of War.” He was dismissed from the service “with infamy. His Excellency the Commander in Chief [George Washington] approve[d] the sentence and with Abhorrence and Detestation of such infamous Crimes order[ed] Lieutt. Enslin to be drummed out of the Camp . . . by all the Drummers and Fifers in the Army never to return.”

The Church of England would not authorize his work, so Reformer William Tyndale went to Germany to continue translating the Bible into common English. While in Germany, Tyndale became friends with John Rogers, an orthodox Catholic priest. Rogers eventually converted to Protestantism and when Tyndale’s work led to his arrest and death, Rogers completed Tydale’s translation. Rogers returned to England where he boldly preached against the idolatry and superstition of the Roman Catholic Church. The staunch Roman Catholic Mary had ascended the throne just three days before Rogers preached his message. He soon was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. Offered a pardon if he would return to Catholicism, Rogers refused. The prisoner was bound to the stake and the fire lit. Mary’s reign of terror had begun.

“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don’t care if I never get back.” So the line goes in Jack Norworth’s 1908 “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” It’s not often that a snack food is immortalized in song. According to legend, a unique popcorn, peanuts, and molasses confection that was the forerunner to Cracker Jack’s caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced by F. W. Rueckheim and his brother to a snack-craving public in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s first World’s Fair. The trick was keeping the stuff from sticking together. Louis Rueckheim, F.W.’s brother and partner solved the problem with a secret process. When Louis gave the treat to a salesman, he exclaimed, “That’s crackerjack!,” slang for “awesome” or “really great.” The name stuck and was trademarked. “A Prize in Every Box” became an advertising slogan when toys and baseball cards were inserted into every package. More than 23 billion toys have been given out since they were first introduced in 1912. Some old Cracker Jack prizes are valued at more than $7,000. Some of the earliest toys were made of metal. A complete series of the 1915 baseball cards, original and in near mint condition, has been valued as high as $60,000. There are no longer any toys in Cracker Jacks. A choking scare forced the company to replace the toys with a “Surprise inside.” It sure is a surprise—it’s made of paper! Well, Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo are still on the box, I mean, bag. Is nothing sacred?

Born in New York City in 1902, Marian Anderson was the first American of African descent to perform with New York’s Metropolitan Opera. For many years, she performed mostly for European audiences because the larger American venues prohibited blacks from appearing in them, even one as musically gifted as Miss Anderson. She never complained and endured the snubs with great dignity. The elegant singer’s most trying incident went very public when Howard University in Washington D.C. invited her to perform in 1939. The university needed a place large enough to accommodate the expected crowds and chose Constitution Hall, owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The DAR refused date after date submitted to them, and it was discovered that the dates really were available, only not to Negroes. The music world was shocked and spoke up in support of Miss Anderson. Eleanor Roosevelt revoked her DAR membership. Other prominent women did likewise. The U.S. Department of the Interior offered the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday for an outdoor concert instead. Miss Anderson performed before 75,000 people whose wild applause at the concert’s end overwhelmed her. Four years later, in 1943, a mural of that concert was unveiled at the Department of the Interior, and the following day, Marian Anderson sang at Constitution Hall at the request of the DAR.

Using celebrities to endorse products is common practice today. Find some famous sports or movie stars, put them in front of a camera, and watch them do their magic with the new product. Before radio and television, the only way to communicate was through oratory and print media. Then there’s the issue of what’s worth pitching and how to pay for it. In colonial America, British law prohibited Bibles from being printed without permission of the crown. Editions of the Bible in the Indian and German languages were permitted, but English translations were verboten. All printing had to take place in England. This all changed after the success of the War for Independence. In 1791, the year the Bill of Rights was adopted and ratified, John Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible was published in New York. Editions of Brown’s Bible had sold well in England. It was only natural to bring its publication to America. Brown, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, selected portions from several well-known commentaries, including those of Matthew Henry’s multi-volume set, to help the general reader better understand the text.

Funds were raised for the project through private “subscriptions” (contributions), and the names of the subscribers were listed alphabetically at the beginning of the volume, along with their occupation and the town where they lived. They came from all walks of life: shoemaker, baker, tailor, butcher, minister, lawyer, and many others. The name heading the list is “GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” The prestige of Washington’s name associated with the Bible’s publication was a fat endorsement that was sure to attract other subscribes and buyers. Also listed as “subscribers” are Henry Knox (Secretary of War), Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of the Treasury), and John Jay (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), and numerous other notable founders. The Frontispiece offers a perspective on how the Constitution was viewed in light of the Bible. There is an engraving of a female figure holding an open Bible illuminating another female the Constitution rolled up in her hand. Between them stands a woman holding a pole with a Liberty Cap. In the background, the façade of a building includes these words: “Sacred to Liberty, Justice, and Peace.”

The bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 spurred construction of the Alaskan Highway. Alaska was perceived as vulnerable to a Japanese invasion, and the highway was built as a supply route. The 1,523-mile-road was completed in 1942. Regiments of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the highway. Civilian engineers and equipment were trucked thousands of miles north. Construction workers learned to heed the white spots on fellow workers faces warning of frostbite. When a vehicle broke down or became stuck in the mire, the driver often had to walk miles to get to shelter. Some lost fingers or worse from the cold temperatures. Three of the regiments sent north were all black regiments. Some military leaders didn’t think that these regiments were up to the task, but the black regiments built the Alaskan portion of the highway, which was the most difficult. One black regiment built a bridge in record time. Instead of completing the bridge within the given five days, the men did it in three, using just basic tools since the heavy construction equipment was not available to them. Workers battled mud and mosquitoes, endured bitter cold, ice, and snow, bridged raging rivers, cut through dense sub-arctic forests, and conquered mountain tops. The construction feat performed in 8 months and 12 days was one of the boldest homeland security measures ever undertaken and reflects the true American spirit.

In the book, "1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium," Johannes Gutenberg (1394?–1468), inventor of the printing press, is first on the list. The first book that came off his press was the Bible.The process of preparing a press for printing a book has not always been as easy as it is today. By the tenth century, the Chinese were printing books using carved wooden blocks. Medieval European printers followed a similar method. This was a long and tedious process. The Chinese tried to speed up the process by making ceramic characters. Since thousands of such characters were needed, the project was abandoned. Gutenberg’s printing press was revolutionary because it featured movable metal type that kept its shape after numerous impressions. Individual letters were cast from master molds and could be put together in any combination to form any word. The type was then inked and pressed down onto paper with a large wooden screw. Although still a slow process (by today's standards), Gutenberg's press paved the way for modern mass media, although almost no one today uses hard type to typeset books. Most if not all books are typeset electronically. Gutenberg captured the true significance of his invention with these words: “Religious truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts, which guard the common treasures instead of expanding them. Let us break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multiplied everlastingly by a machine which never wearies—to every soul which enters life.”