Beware the Ides of March?

That is, if you're Julius Caesar. March 15 has been associated with disdain ever since the Roman dictator was assassinated in 44 BCE by his fellow statesmen. Superstitious people may be wary of the day, convinced awful things will happen to them because it wasn't a great day for Caesar. However, many interesting historical things happened on March 15, so read below to learn about a few of them!

Batter up! 

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In 1869, the Cincinnati Reds became the world's first professional baseball team. The "Big Red Machine" has since one five world series titles.

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Rolling in Style

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (made between 1907-1925)
Photo Credit: Malcolm Asquith

Rolls-Royce Limited, the English car manufacturing company was founded on March 15, 1906 by Charles Rolls and Sir Frederick Royce. Their first car, the six cylinder Silver Ghost was considered to be "the best car in the world". 

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"We shall overcome"

Pres Johnson meets Martin Luther King, Jr
 meet at the signing of the Voting Rights Act August 6, 1965

In 1965, shortly after the Selma to Montgomery marches, President Lyndon B Johnson addressed Congress to expand voting rights legislation. This eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was introduced two days later. 

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Information Highway

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On this day in 1985, Symbolics.com became the first registered .com domain in the world. Since then, hundreds of millions of domains are in use, but the Symbolics Computer Corporation had their feet in the pool first!

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There are many more cool events that happened on the Ides of March, so don't be afraid of this day any longer!

Person Spotlight: Carter G Woodson

To better understand why we celebrate Black History Month, learn a little about Carter G Woodson, the man commonly known as "The Father of Black History".

Image Courtesy of Ancella Bickley Collection, West Virginia State Archives

 Woodson was born in 1875 in Virginia, he worked hard at academics and completed high school in just two years. He then attended Berea College in Kentucky and then worked for the U.S. government as an education superintendent in the Philippines. Woodson returned to the United States and earned his bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Chicago and went on to receive a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912—becoming the second African American to earn a Ph.D. from the prestigious institution, after W.E.B. Du Bois. 

 After finishing his education, Woodson dedicated himself to the field of African-American history, working to make sure that the subject was taught in schools and studied by scholars. For his efforts, Woodson is often called the "Father of Black History." He penned several books but is perhaps most known for the publication of Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). Mis-Education—with its focus on the Western indoctrination system and African-American self-empowerment—is a particularly noted work and has become regularly course adopted by college institutions.