1825 - The Erie Canal opened in upstate New York. The 363-mile canal connected Lake Erie and the Hudson River at a cost of $7.6 million ($258 million today).
Fact of the Day
Beginning in the early 1900s, the government used red ribbon to bind official documents, which is where the phrase "red tape" started to be used to convey how hard bureaucratic processes are.
Nature Oddities
The Shope papilloma virus is one that can cause rabbits to grow "horns" on their head. This may have led to the myth of the jackalope.
Food and Drink
The oldest “mother dough” in the U.S. can be found at the Boudin Bakery in San Francisco. Over 400 loaves of bread a day are made from a living yeast strain that's over 160 years old. The yeast/dough mixture doubles in size every day.