
From 1890 to 1900 was the greatest era in the history of chewing gum in the United States. The press, the pulpit, and the medical profession were largely occupied in denouncing the “vulgar” habit as detrimental to mankind.
The Penny Farthing bicycle came after the development of the ‘Hobbyhorse’, and the French ‘Velocipede’ or ‘Boneshaker’, all versions of early bikes. However, the Penny Farthing was the first truly efficient bicycle, consisting of a small rear wheel and large front wheel attached to an iron tubular frame with tires made of rubber. It was…
Prize fighting, or pugilism or bare-knuckle boxing John Lawrence Sullivan Prize fighting, or pugilism or bare-knuckle boxing as it is also known as, is one of the oldest known sports. Two-thousand-year-old paintings on the walls of Egyptian tombs depict ancient Sumerians competing in boxing matches. Boxing was an Olympic sport in 688 B.C. In ancient…
Board games have been played for thousands of years. A board game dated from 3500 B.C. to 4000 B.C., along with its ivory game pieces, was found in a Mesopotamian cemetery. We know that Egyptians played a board game called senet, the forerunner to modern backgammon games, on a board divided into squares with sticks…
In 1893, the United States was introduced to a radical new form of dance. Although the public was initially shocked to see the sensual and titillating movement of the dancer, the Hoochie Coochie (or Hootchie Kootchie) belly dance caught on and became the precursor to the striptease type dances that would arrive generations later.
Croquet’s origins The origin of croquet is unknown. Although the game has been played in roughly its present form for about one hundred years, its antecedents extend back many centuries. As long ago as the fourteenth century, peasants in Brittany and Southern France amused themselves playing a game called Paille Maille, in which crude mallets…