May 4, 2011 By DENNIS OVERBYE In a tour de force of technology and just plain stubbornness spanning half a century and costing more than $750 million, a team of experimenters from Stanford University reported on Wednesday that a set of orbiting gyroscopes had detected a slight sag and an even slighter twist in space-time. The finding confirms some of the weirdest of the many strange predictions — like black holes and the expanding universe — of Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity. “We have completed this landmark experiment of testing Einstein’s universe,” Francis Everitt, leader of the project, known as Gravity Probe B, said at a news conference…

Published: MAY 2, 2011 The Secret Unit That Killed Bin Laden Sources are reporting that Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader who avoided capture for nearly a decade after engineering the attacks of September 11, 2001, was killed by an elite counterterrorism unit of the U.S. military known as DevGru. Find out more about the origins and past operations of these highly trained Navy SEALs. A Navy SEAL observes enemy movements. (Credit: Getty Images) Originally known as SEAL Team Six, the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru) is one of several publicly disclosed units under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), an elite and highly classified group that…

*Transcript of Recipe: George Washington’s Beer Recipe (Note: Following this recipe exactly will result in a beer with an alcohol content of about 11 percent — making it at least twice as potent as most of today’s commercially brewed domestic beers.) To Make Small Beer: Take a large siffer full of bran hops to your taste-boil these 3 hours. Then strain our 30 gall[o]n into a cooler put in 3 gall[o]n molasses while the beer is scalding hot or rather draw the molasses into the cooler. Strain the beer on it while boiling hot, let this stand till it is little more than blood warm. Then put in a quart…

Research History May Newsletter COPYRIGHT © 2007-2011 Research History Website, At The Helm, LLC   Historical Poster $14.99/San Francisco Earthquake 1906 Research Requests Texas Cherokee Chiefs Indian American History Cherokee Chiefs Pages 1900 Texas Oklahoma Map About Us Donations Welcomed Historical Posters History Topics Home Kids’ History Corner by 4th grader Lindsey Request a Workshop Research Request Research Request Delivery About Us We here at the Research History Website have extensive experience in research methods. We have responded throughout our careers to numerous requests on various topics. William D. Welge – In addition to William Welge’s research expertise he also  is a Published Author, Certified in Archival Preservation and has done…

January 12, 2006 In 1961, the Freedom Riders set out for the Deep South to defy Jim Crow laws and call for change. They were met by hatred and violence — and local police often refused to intervene. But the Riders’ efforts transformed the civil rights movement. Oxford University Press A “Freedom Bus” in flames, six miles southwest of Anniston, Ala., May 14, 1961. (Birmingham Public Library) Raymond Arsenault is the author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. The book details how volunteers — both black and white — traveled to Mississippi and Alabama to fight segregation in transit systems. Despite being backed by recent federal…

Audrey Hepburn Biography Audrey Hepburn was a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century and one of the most beloved actresses of all time. She enchanted the world with elegance and innocent charm, and portrayed some of the most memorable characters in film. Although she was one of the few actresses to win an Emmy, Tony, Grammy, and Academy Award, Audrey was modest about her talents, often claiming she had no acting technique. She redefined glamour with elfin features and a waif-like figure that inspired timeless designs by Hubert de Givenchy. Raised in the Netherlands during World War II, Audrey never forgot her own struggles during the German occupation…

May 4, 1979:  Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, is sworn in as Britain’s first female prime minister. The Oxford-educated chemist and lawyer was sworn in the day after the Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in general parliamentary elections. Margaret Hilda Roberts was born in Grantham, England, in 1925. She was the first woman president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and in 1950 ran for Parliament in Dartford. She was defeated but garnered an impressive number of votes in the generally liberal district. In 1959, after marrying businessman Denis Thatcher and giving birth to twins, she was elected to Parliament as a Conservative for Finchley, a north London…

THE MAY 4 SHOOTINGS AT KENT STATE UNIVERSITY: THE SEARCH FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY BY JERRY M. LEWIS and THOMAS R. HENSLEY INTRODUCTION On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics. In The Ends of Power, Haldeman (1978) states that the shootings at Kent State began the slide into Watergate, eventually…

May 4, 1886: What begins as a peaceful labor protest in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, turns into a riot, leaving more than 100 wounded and 8 police officers dead. After Chicago authorities arrested and detained nearly every anarchist and socialist in town, eight men, who were either speakers in or organizers of the protest, were charged with murder. The day before the riot, a couple of people were killed and others were wounded in an unprovoked attack by police officers firing into a crowd of striking workers at the nearby McCormick Reaper Works. Despite tension the following day, the crowd at Haymarket Square was listening quietly to speakers advocating…

American Revolution May 4, 1776: Rhode Island declares independence On this day in 1776, Rhode Island, the colony founded by the most radical religious dissenters from the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony, becomes the first North American colony to renounce its allegiance to King George III. Ironically, Rhode Island would be the last state to ratify the new American Constitution more than 14 years later on May 29, 1790. Rhode Island served as a mercantile center of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. West Indian molasses became rum in Rhode Island distilleries, which was then traded on the West African coast for slaves. After taking their human cargo…