American Civics

Carl Cannon's Great American Stories

• Great American Stories: JKF's Quote
  05/29/2020
  It's Friday, May 29, 2020, the day of the week when I reprise a quotation intended to be instructive or ...
• Great American Stories: Casualties of War
  05/28/2020
  Yesterday I wrote about the lovely letters written 76 years ago this week by U.S. Army Cpl. Frank Elliott to ...
• Great American Stories: Last Letter Home
  05/27/2020
  Seventy-six years ago today, a 24-year-old U.S. soldier far from home wrote a letter to his wife, Pauline, who was ...
• Great American Stories: Montana State of Mind
  05/26/2020
  On this date in 1864, the U.S. president who described America as the "last, best hope of Earth," took a ...
• Great American Stories: Memorializing John Logan
  05/25/2020
  On a day America mourns her war dead -- and honors the military service of those who answered their country's ...
• Great American Stories: Quote of the Week
  05/22/2020
  His name was John S. Carroll and he was old school all the way. I mean that in the best ...
• Great American Story: Nanny Knows Best
  05/21/2020
  On this date in 1901, the state of Connecticut passed the first speed limits for motor vehicles. This was an ...
• Great American Stories: Home Sweet Home
  05/20/2020
  On this date 158 years ago, a wartime U.S. president signed legislation that was of interest to the men under ...
• Great American Stories: American Hero
  05/19/2020
  Forty-seven years ago today, the Preakness Stakes record was broken at Pimlico by a colt known affectionately by his handlers ...
• Great American Stories: "Greed Is Good"
  05/18/2020
  This year, graduation rituals at most colleges have been cancelled, postponed, or relegated to online ceremonies. It's a loss. Commencement ...
• Great American Stories: Cormac McCarthy's Quote
  05/15/2020
  Except maybe at Kentucky Derby time, which was postponed this year, thoroughbred horse racing is passé among most Americans these days. This ...
• Great American Stories: Uncommon Valor
  05/14/2020
  When the United States entered the First World War, a young New Yorker named Henry Johnson was one of those ...
• Great American Stories: 'Toil, Tears and Sweat'
  05/13/2020
  Eighty years ago today, in her darkest hour, Great Britain turned to Winston Churchill as her leader. Hitler's invasion of Poland eight ...
• Great American Stories: Twain's World
  05/12/2020
  On this date in 1883, Boston publishing house James R. Osgood and Co. issued a new work, "Life on the ...
• Great American Stories: Little Richard
  05/11/2020
  Good morning, it's Monday, May 11, 2020. Yesterday was a glorious day on the East Coast, and Americans who've been ...
• Great American Stories: Journalist Ed Kennedy
  05/08/2020
  It's Friday, May 8, 2020, the day of the week when I reprise a quotation intended to be educational or ...
• Great American Stories: What Friends Are For
  05/07/2020
  Sixteen years ago this week, NBC aired the final episode of "Friends" to a national audience estimated at 52.5 million. ...
• Great American Stories: No. 24 is No. 1
  05/06/2020
  This is Willie Mays' birthday. Yes, the "Say Hey" Kid turns 89 today. During the current lockdown, everybody has things ...
• Great American Stories: A Champ Like No Other
  05/05/2020
  Today is Cinco de Mayo, one of the holidays I cherish most, albeit an unlikely cause for celebration in the United ...
• Great American Stories: Four Dead in Ohio
  05/04/2020
  Fifty years ago today, the number of Americans killed in Vietnam had surpassed 50,000. Most of those who gave their last full ...
• Great American Stories: Quote of the Week
  05/01/2020
  It's Friday, May 1, 2020, the day of the week when I reprise a quotation intended to be educational or ...
• Great American Stories: Leaving Vietnam
  04/30/2020
  It was April 30 in 1789 when George Washington took the inaugural oath as the first president of this -- ...
• Great American Stories: Frozen Asset
  04/29/2020
  No American is alive today who attended the St. Louis World's Fair, which opened this month in 1904, but those ...
• Great American Stories: Misunderstood Marie
  04/28/2020
  The United States is closing in on 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases. As I write these words, the death toll ...
• Great American Stories: The Original Rocky
  04/27/2020
  Today is the birthday of Ulysses S. Grant, born 198 years ago on this date in Point Pleasant, Ohio. His ...
• Great American Stories: Mark Twain's Quote
  04/24/2020
  At his daily White House coronavirus briefing/2020 campaign rally earlier this week, President Trump induced much merriment among the assembled ...
• Great American Stories: Poetic Presidents
  04/23/2020
  April is National Poetry Month. Perhaps you already knew that, but it might surprise you to learn how many U.S. ...
• Great American Stories: Birthing Earth Day
  04/22/2020
  Good morning, it's Wednesday, April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Even ardent environmentalists couldn't have foreseen how we're ...
• Great American Stories: 'Mourning Victory'
  04/21/2020
  On this date in 1861, 27-year-old Asa Melvin, a Concord farmer, was just getting to know his new comrades in ...
• Great American Stories: 'Minute Man' Valor and Values
  04/20/2020
  On this date in 1875, centennial festivities in New England had concluded, President Grant had returned to Washington, and residents ...
• Great American Stories: Country Above Credit
  04/17/2020
  After the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April 1961, John F. Kennedy's third month in office, the president reluctantly accepted ...
• Great American Stories: Staying Afloat
  04/16/2020
  Yesterday, while writing about the doomed ship Titanic, I mentioned the White Star Line's early-20th-century competition with Cunard Line. Competition ...
• Great American Stories: Titanic Lessons
  04/15/2020
  Americans didn't always have to pay income taxes, you know. It took a constitutional amendment to even make it legal. ...
• Great American Stories: Lincoln's Last Day
  04/14/2020
  Today, Ford's Theatre is quiet -- as are the famous stages on Broadway and elsewhere in the country. The place ...
• Great American Stories: Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Passing
  04/13/2020
  President Franklin D. Roosevelt had planned to deliver a radio address on April 13, 1945, from his curative getaway in ...
• Great American Stories: Dr. Mark Hamilton
  04/10/2020
  At Episcopal High School in Bellaire, Texas, Mark Hamilton lettered in soccer as well as in baseball. Baseball America magazine ...
• Great American Stories: Bobby Sands and COVID-19
  04/09/2020
  More than 3,800 Americans have died in the last two days from the coronavirus that has shut down America. That's ...
• Great American Stories: Three Greats, Now Gone
  04/08/2020
  Today the RealClear family of sites welcomes a new member, one focused on a topic receiving scant attention in our ...
• Great American Stories: Rodgers and Hammerstein
  04/07/2020
  Long before "Hamilton," there was "South Pacific," which opened on Broadway 71 years ago today. I've written about this musical ...
• Great American Stories: What We Are Missing
  04/06/2020
  In an alternative universe, which is to say, the normal reality that we've enjoyed for the past 80 years, the ...
• Great American Stories: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  04/03/2020
  Mason Temple in Memphis was packed with listeners on this date in 1968. They had come to hear Martin Luther ...
• Great American Stories: Albert Einstein's Trip to America
  04/02/2020
  On this date in history, Albert Einstein came to the United States for the first time. The famed scientist has ...
• Great American Stories: Football Legend Knute Rockne
  04/01/2020
  Today's history lesson is about coping with loss, although it was loss on a human scale, which is to say ...
• Great American Stories: JFK and Hemingway
  03/31/2020
  On this date in 1938, Ernest Hemingway returned to Barcelona for the third time during the bloody civil war between ...
• Great American Stories: Ronald Reagan Survives Attempted Assassination
  03/30/2020
  On Friday, I wrote about heroism. I’ll continue in that vein this morning by highlighting the actions of an American ...
• Great American Stories: Bob Dole's Courageous Act
  03/27/2020
  In wartime, and that's what this feels like, sentient citizens find themselves contemplating the true meaning of courage and its ...
• Great American Stories: Dr. Jonas Salk
  03/26/2020
  On March 26, 1953, Dr. Jonas E. Salk announced on CBS radio that he had developed a vaccine for the ...
• Great American Stories: Poet Allen Ginsberg
  03/25/2020
  One would be foolish to minimize the threat of this pandemic. And still, an event that took place 63 years ...
• Great American Stories: Dr. Anthony Fauci
  03/24/2020
  Yesterday, I wrote at length about the life and times of reporter and author Randy Shilts during the earliest days ...
• Great American Stories: How Reporter Randy Shilts Saved Lives
  03/23/2020
  Thirty-seven years ago today, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a bracing story based on a study done by two local ...
• Great American Stories: Abraham Lincoln's Memorable Quote
  03/20/2020
  Yesterday, a friend and I were commiserating (digitally, of course) about the uncertainty -- and, in some places, misery -- ...
• Great American Stories: President Clinton's Mother, Virginia Kelley
  03/19/2020
  On this date in 1993, two months after Bill and Hillary Clinton moved into the White House, Hillary’s father suffered ...
• Great American Stories: First Female U.S. Senator, Rebecca Felton
  03/18/2020
  It seems so long ago, but a large and unruly roster of candidates assembled themselves at the outset of this ...
• Great American Stories: Shamrock Diplomacy
  03/17/2020
  The big St. Patrick’s Day parades were canceled in Europe as well as the United States. Ireland’s prime minister cut ...