Welcome to the history tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

And here is your 30-second summary.

The author Nora Ephron said,

Catherine was a painfully shy, little brown wren, forced by tragedy to take over the family business and become one of the most powerful women of her time.

The end.

Good news, excellent news, field trip season is upon us, at least the preparation for it.

Now, our trip to Paris is all sold out, but the second trip for 2025 is going to be

opening registration today. And that trip is to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The dates are June 18th

through the 22nd, and you need to go to like minds travel. There'll be a link on our website

and in all of our social media to go get more information and sign up. And now on with the show.

Let's talk about Catherine Meyer Graham. But first, let's drop her into history. In 1938,

the organization we now know as the March of Dimes was founded to research and combat polio.

With 250,000 people in attendance and another 100,000 stuck in traffic, the Eternal Light Peace Memorial at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was lit.

Christelnacht, the night of broken glass, was a night of violent anti-Semitic actions that occurred

throughout Germany.

It was followed by laws, taxes, and actions against Jewish citizens.

Thornton Wilders play Our Town premiered and won a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

DuPont began manufacturing the first nylon-bristled

toothbrushes and later in the year, one of their chemist invented Teflon, completely by accident,

when working on a new coolant gas. A 500-ton meteorite exploded above Western Pennsylvania

and H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds aired. Edda James, Judy Bloom, and Natalie Wood were all born. Max Factor and typhoid Mary

Mallon both died. And in 1938, the future Catherine Graham began work at the family

...