Although many aspects of its history seem to be obscured, Malaga Island was the site of a mixed-race community from the Civil War until their forced expulsion in 1912.

The black and white settlers had formed a fishing village with a school on the island, and they lived peacefully for 50 years until the state of Maine purchased the island in 1911.

The idea of a mixed community was at odds with the prevailing eugenics theory of the area, and local and state politicians used the Malaga Island community as a wedge issue.

Eight settlers were committed to the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded. The remaining 45 residents were evicted from the island, their school was moved to a different island, and Malaga Island's graveyard was dug up and redeposited on the mainland.

Source: Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold radio documentary and Strange Fruit, Volume I graphic novel by Joel Christian Gill

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Located at this address in sunny Calgary, Canada, is the Transcanada Corp office.

Transcanada is the brain trust that is shoving the XL Keystone pipeline down America's throat via an insecure Congress desperate to prove that they can get something- no matter how ill-conceived and unbeneficial to Americans- done.

The US $12.2 billion project is set to bring tar sands oil from Alberta that is rich in sulfur and other tasty stuff to the only shit pot in North America that will process it- Houston, TX.

But what about the jobs created? The number of actual jobs gets hyper-inflated with the zealousness of the proponent, but a recent Forbes article shows that Transcanada's own applications state they expect (on the top end) only 6,000-6,500 short term jobs created for the complete construction and approximately 35 full time jobs once it's online.

In comparison, Amazon.com is hiring 80,000 short term jobs for the holiday season (view source here).

We, the energy thirsty masses, get to bear the brunt of increased air pollution from the processing and the risk of leaks, contamination, and spills that a 1,200 mile (1,900 km) pipeline brings.

But environmental disasters related to industrial energy use rarely occur, unless you count the Gulf BP oil spill, or the Exxon Valdez, or the Fukushima nuclear power plant, or Chernobyl, or Three-Mile-Island or this rather long and depressing list of recent oil spills.

And then there’s that whole global warming thing that we didn’t get to talk about...

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Built in 1915 as a residential hotel, this building was purchased by Vienna immigrant Charles Schimmel in 1920 and turned into the Blackstone Hotel. The luxury hotel served as a point of elegance on the Lincoln Highway, and the restaurants in the building consistently received top awards.

The Reuben sandwich was invented in at the Blackstone Hotel by Reuben Kulakofsky in 1925 (as far as one popular version of the story goes). In addition, butter brickle ice cream was invented and served at the Blackstone as well.

The location is now the Blackstone Center with a number of different shops and restaurants.

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On the day that Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, a group of Springfield citizens began plans to build a monument for him in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

After several shifts in location, and a botched attempt by Chicago thieves in 1876 to steal his remains, Lincoln was laid to rest in a concrete vault beneath the monument with Mary Todd and three of his four sons in 1901.

Today, it is considered good luck to rub the nose of the Lincoln bronze sculpture (made by sculptor Gutzon Borglum).

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Legendary outlaw William "Billy the Kid" Bonney (birth name: Henry McCarty) was buried in the Old Fort Sumner cemetery after he was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881.

The tombstone is surrounded in a cage since it's been stolen three times. The placement is a guess, since the original wooden marker washed away in a flood.

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