Rod Serling may have been known as the “angry young man” of Hollywood for his clashes with executives and sponsors but, before he became famous for writing and narrating The Twilight Zone, Serling had far more formidable foes.
Serling began supporting the war effort as early as high school when, as editor of his school paper, [...]

Tony Curtis, at the age of 17, was inspired to join the Navy after seeing it glamorized on the silver screen. He said “As a youth, I remember seeing Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo and Tyrone Powers in Crash Drive. I knew right then and there that I wanted to be a submariner.”  Choosing to [...]

April 25, 1995: Actress Ginger Rogers, best known for the 10 films she made with her dance partner Fred Astaire, dies at the age of 83.
Born in Missouri, Rogers began taking dance and singing lessons as a toddler. By age five, she was appearing in commercials. At age 15, she won a Charleston dancing contest [...]

Actor Ernest Borgnine is known for his role as the titular character in McHale’s Navy and as Sgt Fatso Judson in From Here to Eternity among many others. These two roles were perhaps a little more reflective of his real life than many realize because, from 1935-1945, Borgnine was a member of the United States [...]

This Procter & Gamble commercial honors everything that all moms do to help their children succeed by showcasing the amazing moms behind Olympic athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The hardest job in the world is truly the best job in the world.

April 23, 1954: Hank Aaron knocks out the first home run of his Major League Baseball career. Twenty years later, Aaron becomes baseball’s new home run king when he broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing record of 714 career homers.
A native of Mobile, Alabama, Aaron began his professional baseball career in 1952 in the Negro League and [...]

With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth.
On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed for [...]

Jimmy Stewart is perhaps the best known of the celebrities who served, partially because he chose to serve while already a successful movie star. However, having come from a military family (both of his grandfathers had fought in the Civil War, and his father served in both the Spanish-American and World War I), he saw [...]

April 15, 1947: Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Robinson’s [...]

April 7, 1970: The legendary actor John Wayne wins his first–and only–acting Academy Award, for his star turn in the director Henry Hathaway’s Western True Grit.
Wayne appeared in some 150 movies over the course of his long and storied career. He established his tough, rugged, uniquely American screen persona most vividly in the many acclaimed films [...]

In 1918, a young Humphrey Bogart found himself with nothing to do. He had left prestigious preparatory school Phillips Academy, although stories differ as to why. Some say that he was expelled, either for throwing a staff member into a lake on campus or poor grades and behavioral problems. Others say that his parents removed [...]

April 1 1700: English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other.
Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when [...]

On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was inducted into the United States Army. He received a deferment during the Korean War (he was still in high school) and again when he was filming his third movie King Creole. However, 54 years ago, Uncle Sam called on Elvis and he responded. He was stationed both in [...]

This post originally appeared at History.com
March 19, 2005, John DeLorean, an innovative auto industry executive and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, dies at the age of 80 in New Jersey. In the early 1980s, the DeLorean Motor Company produced just one model, the DMC-12, a sleek sports car with gull-wing doors that opened [...]

This post first appeared at History.com
March 17 in 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.
Much of what is known about Patrick’s legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years. Born in Great Britain, probably in Scotland, to a well-to-do Christian [...]

This post originally appeared on BigJournalism.com
With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.
Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.
We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.
Andrew lived boldly, [...]

This article originally appeared at: stevenkiel.com
Once every decade or so a sports star emerges from out of nowhere and captures the attention of people who aren’t regular followers. Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks is the latest example, and boy is it inspiring. He was a star at Harvard before playing a total [...]

It’s that time of year again. Time for children to dress up as ghouls and goblins, princesses and superheroes. However, how much of what we really know about Hallowe’en is true?
One myth about Hallowe’en is that is comes from the ancient Celtic Lord of the Dead named Samhain and is, therefore, evil. Most of us [...]

In the early 1950s, Americans were enjoying peace and prosperity. World War II was over, the baby boom was drawing to a close, and our love affair with the road was speeding up…literally. Manufacturers had been experimenting with sports cars for years, but 1953 brought us the Chevrolet Corvette, and it changed everything. It was [...]

American Exceptionalism may have been a founding value, but without American ingenuity and hard work, the dream would have died out long before we became the shining city on the hill. The American Dream doesn’t come cheaply; it’s achievement relies on every American’s willingness to work.
We celebrate Labor Day in honor of the American workers [...]

For most people, their exposure to the genius of F. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller is limited to photos of Spaceship Earth, the massive, golf-ball like structure that welcomes visitors into Disney’s EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida. The structure, known as the “Geodesic Dome,” a marvel of architecture, mathematics and technology was actually invented by Fuller and [...]

Obviously, the world of fashion is constantly evolving. Designers are forever challenged to create new concepts, new designs and new trends and with stiff bi-annual deadlines (both fall and spring shows across the globe), innovation is an integral part of the fashion industry. Without constant change and artistic development, the fashion industry and those in [...]

We’ve handled some of the bigger superheroes in the lexicon, but what about the ones with less of a rich history? Even though I worshipped Batman growing up, the superhero I’ve come to enjoy reading about the most over the last decade is, undoubtedly, Iron Man. To me, there is no superhero that epitomizes American [...]

On Monday we talked about Captain America being emblematic of American Exceptionalism, but that got us thinking. Is he really the only superhero in the Marvel and DC universes that represents the American vision? When we thought about it critically, we noticed that nearly every one of the major players in the comic book galaxy [...]

This week, amidst all of the excitement at San Diego’s Comic-Con – a mecca for comic book and sci-fi enthusiasts – Marvel will relaunch the Great American Hero, propelling a lost history onto the big screen in Captain America: The First Avenger. Through his long comic book life, Captain America, or Steve Rogers as he’s [...]

In just less than two weeks, I’ll be traveling to Hawaii to say goodbye to a relative. Although she died months ago, she’ll be interned at Punchbowl National Cemetary on Oahu alongside her husband, a Japanese-born, second-generation American, called a nisei – who fought bravely for the United States in World War II as part [...]