Ben Franklin was the first person to invent and test swim fins.
Growing up in Boston, Ben loved to swim. He wanted to find a way to make swimming easier. When he was eleven, he built a set of wooden swim paddles for his hands, similar to the fins of a fish. The paddles worked, but swimming with them eventually hurt his wrists.
Ben went back to work and made a second set for his feet. He then tried out both sets together. Unfortunately, he found that he could swim better without the paddles. He later found that floating in the water could be easily accomplished when holding onto a kite.
Today, we use flexible swim fins based on the same principle Ben used. We can swim faster and easier with them.
Read about his swim fins in:
Ben Franklin’s Big Splash
By Barb Rosenstock, Illustrated by S.D. Schindler
As an adult, Ben continued inventing practical objects. He invented the Franklin Stove, bifocals, the lightning rod, a musical instrument called the Glass Armonica, the Long Arm for reaching books off a high shelf, the library chair, the second hand clock, and the odometer — only the Glass Armonica is rarely used today.
Read about his inventions in:
Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin
By Gene Barretta
And of course — he discovered that electricity is the same as lightning.
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In January 1925, only a dog sled run could stop a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska. The necessary medicine was over 600 miles away in Nenana, Alaska. Sled teams raced in relays passing the serum from one team to the next.
Sixty-seven miles from Nome, musher Gunnar Kasson and his dog team led by Balto, took the serum and tried to wait out a blizzard. When the blizzard continued, he had no choice. Gunnar took off heading for the next team, thirty-four miles away. They crossed the Topok River in winds reaching eighty miles an hour. Gunnar couldn’t see. It was up to Balto to find the way. He raced in whiteout conditions, over ice, and in darkness with the temperature falling to -36 degrees.
When they reached the relay station there were no lights on and their replacement team was asleep. Exhausted, Gunnar, Balto, and their team had to keep going. They had to reach Nome, twenty-one miles away.
On February 2, Balto led the team into Nome bringing the lifesaving serum. He and Gunnar Kassen became heroes overnight. Newspapers across the country told their story the next day.
A statue stands in Central Park in New York commemorating Balto and the 1925 serum run. On the plaque are these words: Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxins 660 miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief stricken Nome in the winter of 1925.
Images Courtesy of Wiki Commons
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During the Great Depression, Americans needed cheering up. They found Seabiscuit, the little racehorse with the big heart.
Seabiscuit, born in 1933, was the grandson of Man o’ War, one of the greatest racehorses. His original owners expected that he would be a winning Thoroughbred too. But he was small for a racehorse, had a bit of a bad temper, and preferred sleeping to running. He lost his first seventeen races, eventually winning some, but was inconsistent. Then, Charles and Marcela Howardbought him and hired the right trainer, Tom Smith.
Tom Smith
Tom Smith treated him gently. He let him sleep when he wanted to, fed him better quality hay, and talked to him in a quiet voice. Tom even moved, Pumpkin, a yellow horse, Pocatell, a spotted dog, and, Jo Jo, a spider monkey into Seabiscuit’s stall. The animals seemed to calm him. Then Tom found just the right jockey, Red Pollard.
Red Pollard
Seabiscuit liked Red right away. With Red aboard, he won big races. Soon, he was featured in popular magazines and movie newsreels. Americans loved him. He was like them, overcoming obstacles to succeed. When he won a race, Americans felt they were winning too.
Seabiscuit’s greatest challenge came in 1938, when he faced the tall, sleek Thoroughbred racehorse War Admiral. In 1937, War Admiral won horse racing’s highest honor, the Triple Crown. Seabiscuit, a four-year-old that year could not compete against War Admiral in the Triple Crown events, only for three-year-olds. But Americans wanted to see the two horses race.
They met on November 1, 1938. Red Pollard was injured and could not ride that day. He advised, George Woolf, his replacement how best to ride Seabiscuit. His advice worked. After running head to head for a good part of the race, Seabiscuit sped away from War Admiral to win in an exciting finish.
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Watch them in action in this exceptional video from PBS’s American Experience:
President Franklin Roosevelt’s Scottish terrier, Fala, appeared in newspaper photos around the world. He was so well-known that the Secret Service gave him the code name “The Informer.” When people spotted him,they knew the president was close by. Fala traveled everywhere with the president by ship, train, and car.
Posing for photographers
Fala was born on April 7, 1940. A gift to President Roosevelt, he moved into the White House in November that year. The president named him Murray the Outlaw of Falahill after a Scottish ancestor. But the puppy was too small for such a big name. The president immediately shortened it.
An exceptionally friendly dog, Fala received lots of attention. He liked to show off his tricks to White House visitors: rolling over, jumping up, speaking, lying down, and his favorite, begging. But he never let the attention go to his head. He was a down-to-earth dog.
Fala liked to dig holes in the White House lawn, burying and digging up his bones. And he was always ready to chase the White House squirrels. At night, he slept beside the president’s bed. In the morning he enjoyed a dog biscuit when the president ate his breakfast.
He received lots of fan mail, especially from children. He starred in two short films produced by MGM. His biography, The True Story of Fala was published when he was only two years old. He was also named an honorary army private. And he was given the title President of Barkers for Britain. He had campaigned to have American dog owners donate money to help the British people in World War II.
At Hyde Park with the president and a caretaker’s daughter
Fala died on April 5, 1952. He is buried in the rose garden at Hyde Park. In 1997, a memorial to President Roosevelt was dedicated near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A statue of Fala is forever at President Roosevelt’s side.
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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Christopher Robin Milne, the son of A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, first met London Zoo’s famous bear Winnie when he was three or four years old. According to his father, Christopher Robin ran right up to Winnie and said, “Oh, Bear!” while hugging her. “The bear hugged Christopher Robin,” his father said. “They had a glorious time together rolling about and pulling ears and all sorts of things.”
Christopher Robin and the Real Winnie
Winnie was a very tame bear. She played with London’s children by giving them rides on her back. The children fed her oranges and a “Winnie cocktail” — sweet milk mixed with golden syrup. Winnie rocked back and forth to say thank you. Winnie even had her own “signed” publicity photo.
Sometime after meeting Winnie, Christopher Robin decided to rename his teddy bear, from Edward Bear (similar to the generic Teddy Bear) to Winnie-the-Pooh. He combined the name Pooh, the name he had given to a swan, with Winnie, the bear’s name, to create the original name Winnie-the-Pooh, a name known throughout the world.
Winnie, an American black bear, was found at a train station by Lt. Harry Colebourn, a Canadian Veterinary soldier, when she was about seven months old. He traveled to England for training in WWI and when sent to the front in France, temporarily gave Winnie to London Zoo. In December 1919, he decided to donate Winnie to the zoo in gratitude for the excellent care she received.
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Books For Kids:
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear
By Lindsay Mattick, Illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Winnie:
The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh
By Sally M. Walker, Illustrated by Jonathan D. Voss
The Incredible Life of Balto
