Theodore Roosevelt Witnessed Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Procession

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was one of the most shocking and profoundly impactful events in American history. While thousands of countrymen laid eyes on the fallen leader’s funeral procession, perhaps none proved to be more famous than Theodore Roosevelt. Just 6 years old at the time, young Roosevelt gazed down at Lincoln’s casket from the second story of his family’s home on Broadway in New York City. As the late President passed the Roosevelt mansion on April 25, 1865, a perfectly timed photograph captured the image of two young boys — Teddy and his brother Elliot — looking out from the window. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt was one of the most renowned Presidents in U.S. history, though their similarities didn’t end there. While on the campaign trail in 1912, Roosevelt was struck by the bullet of a would-be assassin, but he was miraculously saved when the projectile hit a folded speech that Teddy had tucked in his breast pocket.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

  As the world has gotten smaller due to the advancement of travel and communications everything has become more complicated. Technology has allowed the growth of industry and that has promoted great wealth. The unfortunate part of that is the wealth seems always to be in the hands of a very few, and most of them seem to be corrupted by the wealth they acquired.

  This wealth has brought about the same world that existed before in as much as those holding the wealth run the program. These individuals are buying all the resources that govern nations. Politicians are told how to vote, judges are told who to prosecute and who not to. It is not just rich people from our country, we have Russians and who knows who else is on the push the button and make the puppet jump practice.

  There are lots of foreign influences in our politics and most of them are not there to help us as a nation. The way world markets are set up the foreign influence started with money invested and then the purchasing of power either legally or otherwise. The influence and the influencer’s are focused on self gain and little else. They seek more power and more benefits for themselves and if that costs the rest of us it is of little interest to those in high places.

  When that horn blows because there is a higher being that has seen enough of mankind or if it is the last polluted breath earth can stand to take before catastrophe strikes we may never know, but one thing is for certain, at that moment whether your residence is in the penthouse or the dumpster in the alley it will make no difference. The denial of global warming and the habit of polluting for the sake of profit is only bringing that conclusion more quickly.

  If we are to continue to prosper and populate the stars as a species we need to come together and put our resources into advancement of stepping off this planet and into the next solar system before this one burns out. It is impossible to imagine that we as a species will save ourselves from the normal destruction of our sun burning out when we cannot even get past accepting the differences we have based on religion, belief and or skin color. Questing offers the chance to study and make changes if needed be it in science or religion or whatever, bigotry and prejudice are of no value at all.

  This may have made no sense to anyone but the writer, so thank you for taking the time to read it.

As Always Comments Welcome.

Original photo by yipengge/ iStock

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. In 2020, the average American coffee drinker downed more than three cups per day, and Americans overall drank 517 million daily cups. First introduced to America in the mid-17th century, coffee grew in popularity after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which encouraged patriots to swap over-taxed tea for coffee. In the time since, soldiers have relied on coffee to boost morale overseas, children of U.S. Presidents have founded their own coffee houses, and American coffee brands have expanded across the globe. Can’t get enough coffee? Discover six amazing facts you might not know about this beloved morning beverage.

1of 6

Coffee Beans Aren’t Actually Beans

It turns out that the name you’re familiar with for those tiny pods that are ground and brewed for a fresh cup of joe is a misnomer. Coffee “beans” are actually the seeds found within coffee cherries, a reddish fruit harvested from coffee trees. Farmers remove the skin and flesh from the cherry, leaving only the seed inside to be washed and roasted.

Coffee farming is a major time investment: On average, a tree takes three or four years to produce its first crop of cherries. In most of the Coffee Belt — a band along the equator where most coffee is grown that includes the countries of Brazil, Ethiopia, and Indonesia — coffee cherries are harvested just once per year. In many countries, the cherries are picked by hand, a laborious process.

Make Every Day More Interesting

Receive Facts Directly In Your Inbox. Daily.

By subscribing you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

2of 6

Decaf Coffee Is Still a Tiny Bit Caffeinated

Decaf coffee has helped coffee drinkers enjoy the taste of coffee without (much of) the jolting effects of caffeine, but its creation was entirely accidental. According to legend, around 1905 German coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius received a crate of coffee beans that had been drenched with seawater. Trying to salvage the beans, the salesman roasted them anyway, discovering that cups brewed with the beans retained their taste (with a little added salt) but didn’t have any jittery side effects. Today, the process for making decaf blends remains relatively similar: Beans are soaked in water or other solvents to remove the caffeine, then washed and roasted. However, no coffee is entirely free of caffeine. It’s estimated that 97% of caffeine is removed during preparation, but a cup of decaf has as little as 2 milligrams of caffeine — compared to regular coffee’s 95 milligrams.

3of 6

Bach Wrote an Opera About Coffee

Johann Bach is remembered as one of the world’s greatest composers, known for orchestral compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos. But one of Bach’s lesser-known works is Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (“Be Still, Stop Chattering”) — a humorous ode to coffee popularly known as the Coffee Cantata. Written sometime in the 1730s, Bach’s opera makes light of fears at the time that coffee was an immoral beverage entirely unfit for consumption. In the 18th century, coffee shops in Europe were known to be boisterous places of conversation, unchaperoned meeting places for young romantics, and the birthplaces of political plots. A reported lover of coffee, Bach wrote a 10-movement piece that pokes fun at the uproar over coffee. The opera tells the story of a father attempting to persuade his daughter to give up her coffee addiction so that she might get married, but in the end, she just becomes a coffee-imbibing bride.

4of 6

The First Webcam Was Invented For a Coffee Pot

We can credit coffee-craving inventors for creating the first webcam. In the early 1990s, computer scientists working at the University of Cambridge grew tired of trekking to the office kitchen for a cup of joe only to find the carafe in need of a refill. The solution? They devised a makeshift digital monitor — a camera that uploaded three pictures per minute of the coffee maker to a shared computer network — to guarantee a fresh pot of coffee was waiting the moment their mugs emptied. By November 1993, the in-house camera footage made its internet debut, and viewers from around the globe tuned in to watch the grainy, real-time recording. The world’s first webcam generated so much excitement that computer enthusiasts even traveled to the U.K. lab to see the setup in real life. In 2003, the coffee pot sold at auction for nearly $5,000.

5of 6

Coffee Was Frequently a Staple in the Oval Office

Coffee has a long political history in the U.S. — colonists who tossed heavily-taxed tea into the Boston Harbor switched to drinking the caffeinated brew as part of their rebellion. But even after the Revolutionary War’s end, American leaders held an enduring love for the beverage. George Washington grew coffee shrubs at his Mount Vernon estate (though because of climate, they likely never produced beans), while Thomas Jefferson loved coffee so much that he estimated using a pound per day at Monticello during retirement. Similarly, Theodore Roosevelt reportedly consumed an entire gallon of coffee each day, and George H.W. Bush was known for imbibing up to 10 daily cups.

6of 6

Your Genes Might Determine How Much Coffee You Drink

If you can’t get through the day without several cups of coffee, you may have your genes to blame. A 2018 study suggests inherited traits determine how sensitive humans are to bitter foods like caffeine and quinine (found in tonic water). Researchers found that people with genes that allow them to strongly taste bitter caffeine were more likely to be heavy coffee drinkers (defined as consuming four or more cups daily). It seems counterintuitive that people more perceptive to astringent tastes would drink more coffee than those with average sensitivity — after all, bitter-detecting taste buds likely developed as the body’s response to prevent poisoning. But some scientists think that human brains have learned to bypass this warning system in favor of caffeine’s energizing properties. The downside? Constant coffee consumers are at higher risk of developing caffeine addiction.

Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin aren’t just famous figures in American history — they were also accomplished athletes. Honest Abe has been honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, while Franklin earned a spot in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Standing 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Lincoln was a formidable opponent in amateur wrestling. At age 19, he reportedly defended his stepbrother’s river barge by throwing potential hijackers overboard. In 1831, he wrestled and defeated Jack Armstrong, the leader of a local gang in New Salem, Illinois. While some reports claim the pair may have actually fought to a stalemate, the bout earned Lincoln respect and a reputation for being tough. Lincoln continued to wrestle while studying law, and legend has it that he amassed more than 300 victories during a 12-year period, losing just one time. Lincoln was honored with the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Outstanding American award in 1992.

Franklin, meanwhile, was posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1968. During his life, he was an avid swimmer and spent time teaching and coaching the sport in Europe and America. Franklin even proposed that all schools in Philadelphia institute swimming programs. As a scientist and experimenter, the founding father is also credited as an inventor or early adopter of many swimming-related innovations, including kites for kitesurfing, hand paddles, and flippers.

Message from Gabby Gifford

Today marks eleven years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

On this devastating day, twenty innocent children were robbed of the chance to grow up. Six teachers who were simply doing their job never made it home from work.

I wanted to take a moment today to ask you to join me in keeping the families impacted by the tragedy in your hearts. This unfathomable loss is one that we will never, ever forget.

Shortly after the tragedy, I traveled to Newtown to spend time with families grieving an unspeakable loss.

We gathered in a living room filled with parents of some of the children killed in their classrooms, as well as family members of some of the teachers who lost their lives. After talking to every family there that day, tearing up at every picture of the innocent victims who lost their lives, I remember walking to a chair in the corner, collapsing into it and saying, “Enough.”

A few short weeks later, we launched our gun safety organization, then known as Americans for Responsible Solutions. I could have never guessed that ever since that day, we would have built a coalition of millions of people—just like you—committed to our mission to save lives from gun violence.

In the eleven years since the Sandy Hook tragedy, I can tell you confidently that the work we’ve done together has changed hearts, changed minds, and changed laws. But the fight isn’t over yet. We must keep up our work to demand more from our elected officials and get commonsense gun safety legislation passed.