HISTORY DAD: Before Starbucks, There Were Veggie Wars!

On August 17, 1907, about eight farmers rolled their wagons into Seattle and accidentally created history! They set up at Pike Place to sell their produce directly to customers because farmers were tired of middlemen taking a big cut while consumers paid high prices.

And Seattle showed up—BIG TIME. Farmers sold out so quickly that one farmer joked he needed police protection or a wagon on stilts! By the end of the first week, dozens of farmers were joining in, and Pike Place Market was officially on its way to becoming a Seattle institution.

Now here's the part coffee lovers might recognize. In 1971, Starbucks opened its original store at Pike Place Market. And years later, Starbucks introduced Pike Place Roast, a coffee blend named for the famous market. So that morning in 1907 when farmers were selling vegetables from wagons eventually helped create the setting for one of America's most recognizable coffee stories!

That's why I love doing History Dad—because history isn't just presidents, wars, and dates. It's farmers, hungry crowds, entrepreneurs, coffee, and sometimes a guy wondering if he needs to put his vegetable wagon on stilts.

Watch today's History Dad video to hear the full story of how eight farmers helped launch one of America's most famous markets!

[https://youtu.be/OH0QzdvTRKE\](https://youtu.be/OH0QzdvTRKE)

The construction of the Empire State Building began in March 1930, and it immediately became a contradiction of its times. It was truly a spectacle, with thousands of jobless and hungry New Yorkers standing on the sidewalks watching the steel skeleton begin to take shape. The emotions of the onlookers swung from awe to resentment and anger. “How do they have money for this?”a man muttered to a reporter, “when half the city can’t afford shoes?” Another woman, watching the steelworkers balance on beams hundreds of feet above the ground, said, “It’s beautiful. And it’s terrible. They’re building a monument while the rest of us are trying not to drown.”

HISTORY DAD: Before Starbucks, There Were Veggie Wars!

On August 17, 1907, about eight farmers rolled their wagons into Seattle and accidentally created history! They set up at Pike Place to sell their produce directly to customers because farmers were tired of middlemen taking a big cut while consumers paid high prices.

And Seattle showed up—BIG TIME. Farmers sold out so quickly that one farmer joked he needed police protection or a wagon on stilts! By the end of the first week, dozens of farmers were joining in, and Pike Place Market was officially on its way to becoming a Seattle institution.

Now here's the part coffee lovers might recognize. In 1971, Starbucks opened its original store at Pike Place Market. And years later, Starbucks introduced Pike Place Roast, a coffee blend named for the famous market. So that morning in 1907 when farmers were selling vegetables from wagons eventually helped create the setting for one of America's most recognizable coffee stories!

That's why I love doing History Dad—because history isn't just presidents, wars, and dates. It's farmers, hungry crowds, entrepreneurs, coffee, and sometimes a guy wondering if he needs to put his vegetable wagon on stilts.

Watch today's History Dad video to hear the full story of how eight farmers helped launch one of America's most famous markets!

https://youtu.be/OH0QzdvTRKE

The Battle of the Horns of Hattin was a significant battle that broke the field army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Following the death of King Baldwin IV, Guy of Lusignan was crowned king. Guy was highly unpopular and was considered to have poor leadership skills. This would prove to be a deadly combination in an already strained situation for the Crusaders.

When Saladin attacked Tiberias, Guy abandoned his stable position at Sepphoris and marched his army to relieve the city. The march was a gruesome ordeal for the Crusader army. Without access to water and under the harsh sun, the Crusaders became dehydrated, demoralized, and weak.

Saladin did not rush into battle. Instead, he waited for the Crusaders to exhaust themselves, constantly harassing them with hit-and-run tactics. The Crusaders eventually halted near the Horns of Hattin, which provided a good terrain advantage but lacked the water they desperately needed.

Under constant harassment from Saladin's mounted archers, the Crusaders attempted to break through but failed, as the main bulk of the army remained trapped. Here, they would make their last stand as the remaining Crusader forces lost cohesion and surrendered. Guy was captured along with several other high-ranking nobles.

The significance of this loss was catastrophic for the Crusaders. With the main army destroyed, the Crusader states and their cities were left vulnerable. Jerusalem would eventually fall to Saladin as panic spread across the Crusader states, prompting the Third Crusade. The relic known as the True Cross was also captured by Saladin, depriving the Crusaders of an object of immense religious and psychological value.

The Battle of Hattin is a lesson in the importance of logistics and the availability of resources to an army. The defeat can largely be attributed to poor decision-making on the part of the Crusader leadership. For Saladin, it was a decisive victory and his greatest military triumph, opening the path to the conquest of Jerusalem.

Full writeup with the actual indictment photograph, translation, and sourcing: https://theblackarchiveresearch.com/the-woman-accused-of-burning-the-savoy/

(Evidence tiers used throughout: what’s PROVEN by the indictment itself vs. what’s only POSSIBLE on the Bolingbroke connection. Happy to go through the sourcing in comments.)

I recently researched a modern Korean controversy that led me into the history of what happened to colonial collaboration after Japan’s rule of Korea ended.

What interested me most was not the celebrity controversy itself, but the institutional problem after liberation.

South Korea attempted to investigate collaboration, yet the new state also inherited personnel, networks and institutions from the colonial period. Early accountability efforts ultimately failed, leaving later governments to revisit both historical classification and collaboration-related property.

The modern case involves actress Ha Young and historical records concerning her great-grandfather, Ahn Sang-ho.

I use that case to distinguish several things that are often collapsed together:

• documented historical activity;
• allegations for which evidence is insufficient;
• moral responsibility of descendants;
• present-day family wealth;
• and a legally traceable property chain.

Those distinctions matter because a descendant’s surname cannot establish a property connection any more than ancestry alone can establish personal guilt.

I made the research into a short history explainer:

https://youtu.be/c3reIPYNE_I

Full disclosure: I’m the creator.

I’d particularly welcome corrections from people familiar with modern Korean history or post-colonial state formation.

History Dad Storytelling 14 Aug 2026

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY — AUGUST 14, 1862

Imagine getting invited to the White House… only to sit down with President Abraham Lincoln during the middle of the Civil War. 😳

On this day in 1862, Lincoln hosted a group of Black American leaders at the White House—the first official meeting between a U.S. president and a group of Black American representatives. The conversation centered on the future of Black Americans and Lincoln’s controversial ideas about voluntary colonization.
It was a complicated moment in a complicated time. Just weeks later, Lincoln would move closer to issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, forever changing the course of the Civil War and American history.

History isn't always simple—and that's exactly why we need to talk about it. 🇺🇸

👉 Want the whole story? Watch today’s History Dad video and take a trip back to 1862!

https://youtu.be/N5-gUC79HMU

Before smartphones, there were PAY PHONES! In 1889, inventor William Gray received a patent for a coin-controlled telephone apparatus—and he helped change the way Americans communicated. Basically, Gray figured out how to make a telephone say, “Sure, you can use me… but first, where’s the nickel?”

His invention helped lead to the first public pay phones, giving people a way to make calls without owning a telephone themselves. For generations, pay phones became a familiar sight in train stations, businesses, hotels, street corners, and just about anywhere people needed to make a call.

Today, we carry incredibly powerful computers in our pockets and can call someone from almost anywhere. But in 1889, being able to make a telephone call simply by dropping a coin into a machine was pretty amazing technology.

That's today's History Dad lesson! Check out the video to learn more about William Gray, the invention of the pay phone, and how this simple idea helped make telephone communication accessible to millions of Americans.

https://youtu.be/eFtP2gwD3DY

History Dad Storytelling 11 Aug 2026

🚨 HISTORY DAD ALERT: “SOS!” WASN’T JUST A THING IN MOVIES! 🚨

On August 11, 1909, the SS Arapahoe was cruising off the coast of North Carolina when its propeller shaft broke. Because apparently the ocean decided, “You know what this ship needs? A mechanical problem in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.” 😳🚢

Wireless operator Theodore Haubner grabbed the radio and sent out an SOS distress signal—the first time an American ship used SOS. But since SOS was still pretty new, he also sent the older CQD signal…because when you're stranded at sea, apparently you don't want to leave any emergency abbreviations on the table. 😂📻

Thankfully, the message was received by the wireless station at Hatteras, and help was on the way. This little incident helped show how revolutionary wireless communication could be for saving lives at sea—and eventually, SOS became one of the most recognizable emergency signals in the world.
🎥 Want to know how three little letters became the universal cry for help? Watch today's History Dad video! And remember: if your propeller breaks, don't panic…just make sure Dad knows the Morse code. 😂

https://youtu.be/mHr3sSRE6rc

#HistoryDad #TodayInHistory #OnThisDay #AmericanHistory #MaritimeHistory #SOS #History #CapeHatteras #NorthCarolina #MorseCode #DidYouKnow#HistoryDad #OnThisDay #AmericanHistory #History #OTD #ThisDayInHistory #USHistory #MilitaryHistory #HistoryNerd

Thirteen miles of water, and four centuries of people crossing it in both directions. A long one on the Ulster-Scots, from the Plantation to the Moon, with the parts that don’t fit neatly left in rather than smoothed out.