Franklin D. Roosevelt remains the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to stay in the White House for more than two terms. The 32nd president of the United States stayed in office from 1933 until his death in 1945, and several factors contributed to his long reign.

Roosevelt spent his initial two terms in office combating the Great Depression, and the surveys often rank him among the top three presidents for leading the country out of this crisis. He shifted focus to America’s involvement in World War II during his third and fourth term, but he never managed to see it through after passing away in April 1945, just a few months before the war came to a close.

Roosevelt’s record will most likely never be broken, thanks to the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was ratified in 1951 and prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again.

The post Only One U.S. President Served More Than Two Terms & Here’s Who! appeared first on History Chronicle.

Although the idea of the doctor telling mourners that he could bring Washington back to life may seem crazy today, back then, people took him quite seriously. “He was a figure of the Enlightenment, a Thomas Jefferson-type character who believed that science and reason could solve almost every problem,” historical author Jonathan Horn explained.

Born in the West Indies in 1759, Thornton attended medical school in Scotland before arriving in the United States. He rigorously studied sleep and recorded dozens of cases where animals and people in states of suspended animation were revived after appearing to be dead. As a result, when he saw Washington’s body, it reminded him of a case he read about a fish being brought back to life.

He suggested he would reopen Washington’s lungs, promising to “inflate them with air, to produce an artificial respiration.” What’s more, he would transfuse Washington with lamb’s blood. Ultimately, no one else at Mount Vernon shared Thornton’s hopes, and instead, Washington was laid to rest for good.

The post The Attempt to Bring George Washington Back to Life appeared first on History Chronicle.

Deep in the heart of Montana lies Garnet, a town seemingly frozen in time. Once a bustling mining hub, now a place of silence and secrets. While a government initiative offers free living, there’s something keeping people away. What secrets does Garnet hide, lurking in its shadowy ruins?

The post Anyone Can Live In This Town For Free, But Something Chilling Keeps Them Away appeared first on History Chronicle.

Jefferson Inspired a Style of Architecture

Thomas Jefferson was a self-taught architect who designed buildings of the University of Virginia and the Virginia State Capitol. His designs, which were greatly influenced by Renaissance architects and Neo-Classicism, inspired a new architectural style known as Jeffersonian architecture.

Jefferson Was an Avid Reader

Thomas Jefferson was an avid reader and compiled an impressive personal library during his life. After retiring, he sold his book collection, which contained approximately 6,500 volumes, to the Library of Congress.

Jefferson Owned Two Vineyards

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was appointed as Minister to France. During his time in the country, he developed a keen liking for French wine. This prompted him to build two vineyards at his Monticello estate and serve as an advocate for wine.

Jefferson Once Went on a Hunger Strike

After the British blocked the Boston Harbor following the events of the Boston Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson went on a day-long hunger strike and encouraged others to join him. The act was meant to show support for the citizens of Boston and encourage Virginia citizens to stand alongside their compatriots in Massachusetts.

The post 4 Interesting Facts About Thomas Jefferson appeared first on History Chronicle.

Babe Ruth

One of the greatest baseball players in history, Babe Ruth was a stanch Democrat. In addition to claiming that President Wilson was a good friend of his, Ruth also formed a close bond with President Warren G. Harding. While Harding was a Republican, he and Ruth saw eye-to-eye, with Ruth even calling Harding a “personal friend” in a letter honoring the president upon his passing. Ruth’s most controversial political moment came when he was asked to pose for a photograph with Herbert Hoover, to which Ruth replied that he was supporting his opponent Al Smith.

Sammy Davis Jr.

Despite his enormous fame, Sammy Davis Jr.’s political influence was not as positive as he hoped. During the 1972 Republican National Convention’s Young Voters Rally, the iconic singer hugged President Richard Nixon from behind. “This completely ruined Davis’s relationship with the Black community and he was nearly booed off the stage at a Chicago rally for Jesse Jackson’s charity Rainbow PUSH a few months later,” NYU professor Laurence Maslon noted.

Barbra Streisand

The multitalented singer and actress Barbra Streisand has been politically active for decades. Having supported Bill Clinton’s 1996 election campaign, Streisand decided to endorse his wife, Hillary, when she ran in the Democratic primaries in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election.

The post Iconic Celebrities That Have Endorsed U.S. Presidential Candidates appeared first on History Chronicle.

McCurdy was a former United States Army soldier who decided to resort to a life of crime after being discharged in 1910. He took advantage of his army training in the use of nitroglycerin for demolition purposes to rob banks and trains, becoming quite a familiar face on the wanted posters.

However, McCurdy’s outlaw career didn’t last long. In 1911, after a robbery of a passenger train in Oklahoma, he was cornered by deputy sheriffs in his hideout and killed by a single gunshot to the chest.

McCurdy’s body was taken to an undertaker in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, who proceeded to embalm it. This was a standard practice to preserve the condition of the body of the deceased who had no familiar relatives.

After no one picked up McCurdy’s body for some time, the undertaker decided to display it in his funeral home as an attraction. It remained there for several years before two men, claiming to be McCurdy’s brothers, came to pick it up. However, it turned out that the men were actually owners of a traveling carnival who wanted the body as an attraction.

McCurdy’s body would go on to be featured in various shows, undergoing further preservation efforts with wax. It later spent 15 years at storage in Los Angeles before being sold to Hollywood Wax Museum in 1968 and then resold to the owner of The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California.

McCurdy’s body hung from the ceiling at one of the attractions in The Pike for years before a crewmember of the television series The Six Million Dollar Man bumped into it during the shooting. The arm from the body fell off, and when a crewmember, thinking it was a mannequin, went to fit it in place, he discovered hanging bones and human tissue.

After an investigation, the body was put to rest in 1977. As a precaution, McCurdy’s grave was poured over with two feet of concrete.

The post Weird History: Outlaw Elmer McCurdy Became a Traveling Carnival Star After His Death appeared first on History Chronicle.

Getting Married

On August 26, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order stating that married men whose wedding came after August 26 would no longer be exempt from military service like their predecessors. As a result, young couples across America tied the knot in the late hours of the day in order to register their marriage in time to save the husband from going to war.

Become a Conscientious Objector

Some people were actually exempt from the military on religious grounds. Amish, Jehova’s Witnesses, Mennonites, and Quakers were all eligible to legally avoid the draft on the basis of being a conscientious objector. Around 170,000 men’s services were deferred thanks to their conscientious objector status, including 61,000 in 1971 alone.

Attending College

Throughout the war, college students were exempt from serving in the military. As a result, it came as no surprise that college admissions rose by up to six percent during the late 1960s.

The post Wacky Ways Americans Dodged the Vietnam Draft appeared first on History Chronicle.

In 1824, straw polls were conducted to see how people would be voting in the election. These polls were conducted at all sorts of grand juries, celebrations, and other public events. While newspapers reported the results, these weren’t taken as predictions of the election outcome, but rather as interesting information for readers to digest.

In 1916, that all changed when The Literary Digest published a nationwide straw poll that accurately predicted the outcome of the upcoming election. Woodrow Wilson was reelected as president, while the follow-up poll correctly named Warren G. Harding as the election winner. Three more polls were also correct, listing Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the winners. Suddenly, these polls piqued the interest of George Gallup.

With his aunt running to become Iowa’s first female secretary of state in 1932, Gallup conducted a poll that accurately predicted that she would win. He subsequently founded the American Institute of Public Opinion, later known simply as Gallup. In 1936, The Literary Digest predicted that Kansas Governor Alf Landon would win the upcoming election. Gallup challenged the poll, claiming that his polling methods were superior and that Roosevelt would win re-election. When Roosevelt won a landslide election, Gallup was seen as the ultimate polling authority, thus beginning the modern polling era.

The post Here’s How The Presidential Polling Craze Began appeared first on History Chronicle.

Age

In order to become president, you need to be at least 35 years of age. While age does not necessarily equal competence, the Founding Fathers determined at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that there should be a minimum age for federal officers. These were 25 years old to serve in the House of Representatives, 30 for the Senate, and 35 for the presidency. For whatever reason, these stipulations remain in effect today.

Citizenship

Any candidate for the U.S. presidency must be a “natural-born citizen”, meaning that they were born within the United States or were born abroad to parents who are U.S. citizens. An American citizen who was naturalized after immigrating to the country is not eligible to run for the nation’s highest office.

A Resident of the Land

While being an American citizen is key to becoming president, it’s not enough to secure your candidacy on its own. Anyone who wants to run for president needs to have lived within the United States for at least 14 years in total throughout their life.

The post 3 Qualifications That Must Be Met to Run for U.S. President appeared first on History Chronicle.

In 1997, Franklin’s house at 36 Craven Street was subject to renovation works as part of efforts to turn it into a museum. But once the workers reached the basement, they found a pit that contained human bones. After further excavation, more than 1,200 human bone pieces were unearthed.

At first, it was believed that the pit might have served as a burial for victims of a serial killer. But upon further forensic examination, it was discovered that the bones, belonging to at least 15 different persons, were dated back to the 18th century, approximately around the time Franklin lived there. This posed a question of whether the Founding Father had a dark side no one previously knew about.

It turned out that there was quite a simple explanation for this. The bones were actually part of the anatomy practice that anatomist William Hewson, who was the son-in-law of Franklin’s landlady, was running at 36 Craven Street.

Anatomy was still in its infancy in the 18th century and largely frowned upon by the public and scientific community. Hewson was likely obtaining bodies from gravediggers and studying them in the basement before burying the remains to avoid the risk of being ousted. It was a perfect location for his experiment, as he knew his mother-in-law and Franklin, with whom he developed friendship, wouldn’t tell on him.

Experts believe that Franklin didn’t take part in Hewson’s research, although as a curious man he was, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he had checked one or two sessions.

The post The Basement of Benjamin Franklin’s House in London Contained Skeletons of 15 People appeared first on History Chronicle.

Franklin D. Roosevelt remains the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to stay in the White House for more than two terms. The 32nd president of the United States stayed in office from 1933 until his death in 1945, and several factors contributed to his long reign.

Roosevelt spent his initial two terms in office combating the Great Depression, and the surveys often rank him among the top three presidents for leading the country out of this crisis. He shifted focus to America’s involvement in World War II during his third and fourth term, but he never managed to see it through after passing away in April 1945, just a few months before the war came to a close.

Roosevelt’s record will most likely never be broken, thanks to the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was ratified in 1951 and prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again.

The post Only One U.S. President Served More Than Two Terms & Here’s Who! appeared first on History Chronicle.

Although the idea of the doctor telling mourners that he could bring Washington back to life may seem crazy today, back then, people took him quite seriously. “He was a figure of the Enlightenment, a Thomas Jefferson-type character who believed that science and reason could solve almost every problem,” historical author Jonathan Horn explained.

Born in the West Indies in 1759, Thornton attended medical school in Scotland before arriving in the United States. He rigorously studied sleep and recorded dozens of cases where animals and people in states of suspended animation were revived after appearing to be dead. As a result, when he saw Washington’s body, it reminded him of a case he read about a fish being brought back to life.

He suggested he would reopen Washington’s lungs, promising to “inflate them with air, to produce an artificial respiration.” What’s more, he would transfuse Washington with lamb’s blood. Ultimately, no one else at Mount Vernon shared Thornton’s hopes, and instead, Washington was laid to rest for good.

The post The Attempt to Bring George Washington Back to Life appeared first on History Chronicle.

Deep in the heart of Montana lies Garnet, a town seemingly frozen in time. Once a bustling mining hub, now a place of silence and secrets. While a government initiative offers free living, there’s something keeping people away. What secrets does Garnet hide, lurking in its shadowy ruins?

The post Anyone Can Live In This Town For Free, But Something Chilling Keeps Them Away appeared first on History Chronicle.

Jefferson Inspired a Style of Architecture

Thomas Jefferson was a self-taught architect who designed buildings of the University of Virginia and the Virginia State Capitol. His designs, which were greatly influenced by Renaissance architects and Neo-Classicism, inspired a new architectural style known as Jeffersonian architecture.

Jefferson Was an Avid Reader

Thomas Jefferson was an avid reader and compiled an impressive personal library during his life. After retiring, he sold his book collection, which contained approximately 6,500 volumes, to the Library of Congress.

Jefferson Owned Two Vineyards

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was appointed as Minister to France. During his time in the country, he developed a keen liking for French wine. This prompted him to build two vineyards at his Monticello estate and serve as an advocate for wine.

Jefferson Once Went on a Hunger Strike

After the British blocked the Boston Harbor following the events of the Boston Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson went on a day-long hunger strike and encouraged others to join him. The act was meant to show support for the citizens of Boston and encourage Virginia citizens to stand alongside their compatriots in Massachusetts.

The post 4 Interesting Facts About Thomas Jefferson appeared first on History Chronicle.

Babe Ruth

One of the greatest baseball players in history, Babe Ruth was a stanch Democrat. In addition to claiming that President Wilson was a good friend of his, Ruth also formed a close bond with President Warren G. Harding. While Harding was a Republican, he and Ruth saw eye-to-eye, with Ruth even calling Harding a “personal friend” in a letter honoring the president upon his passing. Ruth’s most controversial political moment came when he was asked to pose for a photograph with Herbert Hoover, to which Ruth replied that he was supporting his opponent Al Smith.

Sammy Davis Jr.

Despite his enormous fame, Sammy Davis Jr.’s political influence was not as positive as he hoped. During the 1972 Republican National Convention’s Young Voters Rally, the iconic singer hugged President Richard Nixon from behind. “This completely ruined Davis’s relationship with the Black community and he was nearly booed off the stage at a Chicago rally for Jesse Jackson’s charity Rainbow PUSH a few months later,” NYU professor Laurence Maslon noted.

Barbra Streisand

The multitalented singer and actress Barbra Streisand has been politically active for decades. Having supported Bill Clinton’s 1996 election campaign, Streisand decided to endorse his wife, Hillary, when she ran in the Democratic primaries in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election.

The post Iconic Celebrities That Have Endorsed U.S. Presidential Candidates appeared first on History Chronicle.

McCurdy was a former United States Army soldier who decided to resort to a life of crime after being discharged in 1910. He took advantage of his army training in the use of nitroglycerin for demolition purposes to rob banks and trains, becoming quite a familiar face on the wanted posters.

However, McCurdy’s outlaw career didn’t last long. In 1911, after a robbery of a passenger train in Oklahoma, he was cornered by deputy sheriffs in his hideout and killed by a single gunshot to the chest.

McCurdy’s body was taken to an undertaker in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, who proceeded to embalm it. This was a standard practice to preserve the condition of the body of the deceased who had no familiar relatives.

After no one picked up McCurdy’s body for some time, the undertaker decided to display it in his funeral home as an attraction. It remained there for several years before two men, claiming to be McCurdy’s brothers, came to pick it up. However, it turned out that the men were actually owners of a traveling carnival who wanted the body as an attraction.

McCurdy’s body would go on to be featured in various shows, undergoing further preservation efforts with wax. It later spent 15 years at storage in Los Angeles before being sold to Hollywood Wax Museum in 1968 and then resold to the owner of The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California.

McCurdy’s body hung from the ceiling at one of the attractions in The Pike for years before a crewmember of the television series The Six Million Dollar Man bumped into it during the shooting. The arm from the body fell off, and when a crewmember, thinking it was a mannequin, went to fit it in place, he discovered hanging bones and human tissue.

After an investigation, the body was put to rest in 1977. As a precaution, McCurdy’s grave was poured over with two feet of concrete.

The post Weird History: Outlaw Elmer McCurdy Became a Traveling Carnival Star After His Death appeared first on History Chronicle.

Getting Married

On August 26, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order stating that married men whose wedding came after August 26 would no longer be exempt from military service like their predecessors. As a result, young couples across America tied the knot in the late hours of the day in order to register their marriage in time to save the husband from going to war.

Become a Conscientious Objector

Some people were actually exempt from the military on religious grounds. Amish, Jehova’s Witnesses, Mennonites, and Quakers were all eligible to legally avoid the draft on the basis of being a conscientious objector. Around 170,000 men’s services were deferred thanks to their conscientious objector status, including 61,000 in 1971 alone.

Attending College

Throughout the war, college students were exempt from serving in the military. As a result, it came as no surprise that college admissions rose by up to six percent during the late 1960s.

The post Wacky Ways Americans Dodged the Vietnam Draft appeared first on History Chronicle.

In 1824, straw polls were conducted to see how people would be voting in the election. These polls were conducted at all sorts of grand juries, celebrations, and other public events. While newspapers reported the results, these weren’t taken as predictions of the election outcome, but rather as interesting information for readers to digest.

In 1916, that all changed when The Literary Digest published a nationwide straw poll that accurately predicted the outcome of the upcoming election. Woodrow Wilson was reelected as president, while the follow-up poll correctly named Warren G. Harding as the election winner. Three more polls were also correct, listing Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the winners. Suddenly, these polls piqued the interest of George Gallup.

With his aunt running to become Iowa’s first female secretary of state in 1932, Gallup conducted a poll that accurately predicted that she would win. He subsequently founded the American Institute of Public Opinion, later known simply as Gallup. In 1936, The Literary Digest predicted that Kansas Governor Alf Landon would win the upcoming election. Gallup challenged the poll, claiming that his polling methods were superior and that Roosevelt would win re-election. When Roosevelt won a landslide election, Gallup was seen as the ultimate polling authority, thus beginning the modern polling era.

The post Here’s How The Presidential Polling Craze Began appeared first on History Chronicle.

Age

In order to become president, you need to be at least 35 years of age. While age does not necessarily equal competence, the Founding Fathers determined at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that there should be a minimum age for federal officers. These were 25 years old to serve in the House of Representatives, 30 for the Senate, and 35 for the presidency. For whatever reason, these stipulations remain in effect today.

Citizenship

Any candidate for the U.S. presidency must be a “natural-born citizen”, meaning that they were born within the United States or were born abroad to parents who are U.S. citizens. An American citizen who was naturalized after immigrating to the country is not eligible to run for the nation’s highest office.

A Resident of the Land

While being an American citizen is key to becoming president, it’s not enough to secure your candidacy on its own. Anyone who wants to run for president needs to have lived within the United States for at least 14 years in total throughout their life.

The post 3 Qualifications That Must Be Met to Run for U.S. President appeared first on History Chronicle.

In 1997, Franklin’s house at 36 Craven Street was subject to renovation works as part of efforts to turn it into a museum. But once the workers reached the basement, they found a pit that contained human bones. After further excavation, more than 1,200 human bone pieces were unearthed.

At first, it was believed that the pit might have served as a burial for victims of a serial killer. But upon further forensic examination, it was discovered that the bones, belonging to at least 15 different persons, were dated back to the 18th century, approximately around the time Franklin lived there. This posed a question of whether the Founding Father had a dark side no one previously knew about.

It turned out that there was quite a simple explanation for this. The bones were actually part of the anatomy practice that anatomist William Hewson, who was the son-in-law of Franklin’s landlady, was running at 36 Craven Street.

Anatomy was still in its infancy in the 18th century and largely frowned upon by the public and scientific community. Hewson was likely obtaining bodies from gravediggers and studying them in the basement before burying the remains to avoid the risk of being ousted. It was a perfect location for his experiment, as he knew his mother-in-law and Franklin, with whom he developed friendship, wouldn’t tell on him.

Experts believe that Franklin didn’t take part in Hewson’s research, although as a curious man he was, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he had checked one or two sessions.

The post The Basement of Benjamin Franklin’s House in London Contained Skeletons of 15 People appeared first on History Chronicle.