The Salem Tomato Trials:
Everyone knows about the Salem Witch Trials, in fact we all read about them in English this year, but hardly anybody has ever heard of the "Tomato Trials" that happened. In fact so few people have heard about it, that there is hardly any information to be found on the internet with regards to it. (It also was not really a trial, but it sounds way more interesting when it is phrased that way). Regardless, there is a story about Robert Gibbons Johnson (1771-1850), an American colonel, farmer, horticulturist and judge, and how he introduced tomatoes to the New England area.
By 1820, it had commonly been believed in Britain and the subsequent colonies that the tomato was actually poisonous. However, Colonel Johnson, who at the time lived in Salem, New Jersey (not Massachusetts like the Witch Trials) sought to disprove this absurd belief by standing in front of a crowd at the local courthouse and eating a basket of tomatoes. In the end, he emerged from the demonstration healthy and word spread that tomatoes were okay to eat.
It is unknown whether the story is actually true, but it does make for some nice storytelling.
The United States Flag was Designed as a School Project
Unlike the previous story, this one is definitively true. In 1958, Robert G. Heft was given a high school assignment to design a new flag for 50 states, as there was a lot of talk about Alaska and Hawaii joining the Union. Robert turned in his assignment to his teacher who in turn gave him a B- on the project saying that it lacked originality. Despite the bad grade, Robert's teacher offered to raise the grade for him if he could get Congress to accept it as the new flag. Sure enough, Robert sent his flag to his representative in Ohio who then was actually able to get the design accepted in 1959. As a result, the flag flown all around America today was nonetheless designed by a 17 year old kid.
Robert quickly set his sites on the future and designed a flag with 51 stars in the weeks immediately following his project just in case another state was ever admitted, and that design is still sitting with the current Ohioan representative. Today, Robert tours all over the world speaking about how he designed the flag at spreading a message of patriotism.
Adelsverein - German Colonization of Texas
Also known as the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, Adelsverein was a company founded by 21 German noblemen in 1842 with the goal of establishing a German colony in the territory of Texas. This was out of both philanthropy and economic gain. The founders thought that by sending laborers German laborers to the rich lands of Texas they could help to alleviate the surplus of labor present in Germany. Beyond this, they understood the benefit that the colony would provide, like establishing a stable market for German industry, a reliable source of raw materials for Germany, as well as large profits for themselves.
Ultimately, the project was a failure due to bad planning, poor business related skills and mistrust within the community. In the end, 7,000 Germans had immigrated to Texas and the owners of the company were forced to sign over all their properties and colonization rights to its creditors. Despite the failure of the venture, it is rather strange to think about Texas being a German colony. Imagine if the colonization had been successful, the World Wars definitely would have been a lot different.
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Bibliography:
http://allthatsinteresting.com/american-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gibbon_Johnson
http://www.usflag.org/flagdesigner.html
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ufa01
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