It's National Dog Day, so let’s talk about a dog who definitely found a way to carry on during World War II: Rip the dog, who rescued Londoners from rubble after Nazi bombing raids.
Today in 1944, D-Day, the largest invasion force ever. There were hundreds of thousands of troops, tens of thousands of vehicles, over 100,000 tons of equipment, and at least one guy playing bagpipes.
Today in 1945, George Nissen received the patent for a “tumbling device” which we now call the trampoline. And during World War II that invention became a key part of training fighter pilots.
This week in 1945, a fascinating fact for anyone who didn’t have to live it firsthand: wartime airplane mechanic Margaret Horton accidentally ended up airborne on the tail of a plane.
Today in 1919 (or, by some accounts, 1922), the birthday of Veronica Lake, a movie star whose iconic hairstyle won over millions of fans, even when she gave up that trademark look to help the US win World War II.
In 1941, one of the United States recognized a state of war for a very technical reason, months before the country formally entered the second World War.
Oscar was adopted by a nursing home to be a therapy cat. But staff noticed that whenever he chose to sit next to somebody, that somebody soon became a body.
Today in 1943, Norman Rockwell's painting "Rosie the Riveter" was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. But that's not the image that we think of today as Rosie, and just as there were multiple depictions of the character, there were multiple real-life inspirations for those depictions.
Today in 1943, the US announced it would start rationing shoes to save rubber and leather for the troops in World War II. People on the home front found ways to make shoes out of alternative materials.
It's National Banana Day, so we've got the story of people in the UK who went to great lengths to simulate having bananas when the real deal was off limits during World War II.
