Simon Mann June 25, 2011 – 12:14AM GETTYSBURG is not where you expect to find Adolf Hitler’s monogrammed, silver grooming set – brush, comb and hand-held mirror. Nor Eva Braun’s chemise. Nor, for that matter, a shrine to John F. Kennedy that includes a cane rocking chair, made to order for a commander-in-chief with a crook back. But there they are on display in the little Museum of History on Baltimore Street, along with thousands of Civil War artefacts – weapons, shrapnel, bullets, uniforms and manuscripts, even Abraham Lincoln’s wallet – that provide a reassuring geographical reference. The eclectic hoard evolved from proprietor Erik Dorr’s early fascination with history. At…

By HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON June 23, 2011 (AP) For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies. Preliminary census estimates also show the share of African-American households headed by women — made up of mostly single mothers — now exceeds African-American households with married couples, a sign of declining U.S. marriages overall but also continuing challenges for black youths without involved fathers. The findings, based on the latest government data, offer a preview of final 2010 census results being…

http://news.discovery.com/history/pyramid-hieroglyph-markings-archaeologist-110607.html By Rossella Lorenzi | Tue Jun 7, 2011 12:19 PM ET Mysterious hieroglyphs written in red paint on the floor of a hidden chamber in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza are just numbers, according to a mathematical analysis of the 4,500-year-old mausoleum. Shown to the world last month, when the first report of a robot exploration of the Great Pyramid was published in the Annales du Service Des Antiquities de l’Egypte (ASAE), the images revealed features that have not been seen by human eyes since the construction of the monument. Researchers were particularly intrigued by three red ochre figures painted on the floor of a hidden chamber at the end of…

http://news.discovery.com/human/humans-first-wore-clothing-170000-years-ago.html By Jennifer Viegas | Thu Jan 6, 2011 01:35 PM ET Humans began to wear clothing 170,000 years ago, concludes a new study that suggests our ancestors first put on clothes after the second-to-last Ice Age, when being nude must have been too cool for comfort. The evidence comes from seemingly very unfashionable lice, since scientists tracked when head lice evolved into clothing/body lice around 170,000 years ago. So lice have been with us since the world’s first clothes were made. (Viking attire circa 900 A.D. By this advanced stage, humans had created very sophisticated and colorful ways to clothe themselves. Credit: Annika Larsson) The study, published in this…

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110616-fathers-day-entertainment-gifts-quotes-history/June 19, 2011 Father’s Day traditionally takes a backseat to Mother’s Day, and, for the most part, dads are cool with that, experts say. Nevertheless, as traditional roles around the house gradually change, fathers are gaining more attention on their special day, at least as measured in the monetary value of Father’s Day gifts estimated to be given on June 19, 2011, when the holiday will be celebrated in dozens of countries. First celebrated 101 years ago, Father’s Day was, in a way, born of Mother’s Day. After a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Spokane, Washington, resident Sonora Smart-Dodd—one of six children being raised by a single dad—wanted to honor…

On June 18, 1923, the first Checker Cab rolls off the line at the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Morris Markin, founder of Checker Cab, was born in Smolensk, Russia, and began working when he was only 12 years old. At 19, he immigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago, where two uncles lived. After opening his own tailor’s shop, Markin also began running a fleet of cabs and an auto body shop, the Markin Auto Body Corporation, in Joliet, Illinois. In 1921, after loaning $15,000 to help a friend’s struggling car manufacturing business, the Commonwealth Motor Company, Markin absorbed Commonwealth into his own enterprise and…

By The Associated Press June 16, 2011 (AP) Key dates in the history of IBM: —1911: The company that would later become IBM is formed as the Computing Tabulating Recording Co. —1914: Thomas Watson Sr., a former executive at National Cash Register Co., joins the company. Watson becomes the company’s guiding force over the next four decades. —1924: Company renamed International Business Machines. —1936: Helps administer the new Social Security program with its punch card system. —1944: The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), the first machine able to execute long computation automatically, is presented to Harvard. Eight feet high and 50 feet long, the electromechanical switches of “Mark I” could…

Summary Box: 100 Years of “Think” at IBM By The Associated Press June 16, 2011 (AP) THE MILESTONE: International Business Machines Corp. turns 100 on Thursday. THE CONTRIBUTIONS: Everyday tasks of technology, such as computer storage drives, bar codes used in supermarkets and the magnetic stripes on the back of credit cards. THE FUTURE: While IBM’s Watson attracted buzz by beating two human “Jeopardy!” champions, the company wants to put it to real-world use as a medical diagnostic tool and work on other big data projects.