Category Archives: History Through Spreadsheets

Age of Presidents at Inauguration

Posted on 27-August-2016 by mathscinotes

I was crawling around the Wikipedia looking for presidential information, and I found a list of the ages of the US presidents ordered from oldest to youngest. I threw Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump into the list (Table 1) to see where they would place – they are old by historic standards. In fact, Donald Trump would be the oldest ever. Continue reading →

Posted in History Through Spreadsheets, Personal | 5 Comments

45-Star US Flag Heirloom

Posted on 23-February-2016 by mathscinotes

A friend showed me a family photo of a 45-star US flag that was purchased in 1898, which was the year their grandfather was born. Figure 1 shows an example of the flag in their photo. The flag, which is quite large, is often used as a backdrop for a family photos. The flag is carefully stored and only taken out for special events, like reunions. I think this is a great use for an old flag. Continue reading →

Posted in History Through Spreadsheets, Personal | Comments Off on 45-Star US Flag Heirloom

Old West Cavalry Distributions of Age and Countries of Origin

Posted on 14-January-2016 by mathscinotes

When I was a boy, my father often told me stories of his grandfather, Louis Bauer, who was a member of the US Cavalry on the American Frontier. In fact, my father left my brother Tim the watch, spurs, and shaving cup that Louis used when he served in the cavalry. I used to wear the spurs for fun as a kid. Continue reading →

Posted in History Through Spreadsheets, Military History | Comments Off on Old West Cavalry Distributions of Age and Countries of Origin

WW2 Sub Skippers Were Very Young

Posted on 15-November-2013 by mathscinotes

Hollywood movies usually show WW2 sub skippers as men in their late 40s or 50s (e.g. Operation Pacific or Run Silent Run Deep). I found a list of the top scoring US submarine skippers of WW2 and was able to figure out their birthdays. Given their birthdays, I determined that they had an average age of 32 years on December 7th, 1941. The following table summarizes their ages and their post-war "ships sunk" scoring. When you think about the responsibility they had, these men were very young. Continue reading →

Posted in History Through Spreadsheets, Military History | 3 Comments

World War 2 Industrial Casualties

Posted on 15-October-2013 by mathscinotes

I like to watch authors discuss their history books on BookTV. I listen to BookTV while I work around the house. One weekend, I heard two historians (I did not write down their names) discussing World War 2 and each mentioned a statistic that sounded something like this (my wording). Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science and Technology, History Through Spreadsheets, Military History | 24 Comments