American Revolutionary war letters

Clements Library at the University of Michigan has posted a large number of scanned letters from the Sir Henry Clinton collection. The letters are all reports detailing troop movements and strategic information gathered by spies on both sides of the war. Really amazing stuff.

Check it out: Spy Letters of the American Revolution

Via Presurfer

What happened today in the past?

The History channel website has a great page that will tell you what significant events happened on this date in the past. It automatically shows you today's date, but it also allows you to enter any date you want.
For a big history fan like me, I was a history minor in college, this site is great! Did you know that on this date in 1911, the first around the world telegram was sent? Or that on this date in 1975 the Viking 1 probe to mars was launched?

Check it out: This Day In History

The first 100 .Com domain names

A blogger has gone through the trouble of tracking down the first 100 .Com domain names registered. So if you were wondering which companies were the first to jump on the Internet bandwagon your in luck. The list is pretty interesting, both because of who is on it, as well as who isn't.

Check it out: The 100 oldest domains on the internet.

Via WebbAlert: Webb Alert

US inflation calculator

The inflation calculator allows you to take any dollar amount and two years between 1800 and 2006. It then gives you an estimate of how much that money would be worth based on inflation. It calculates it both directions. So $100 in 1800 would be equivalent to $1143.21 in 2006. And $100 in 2006 would be equivalent to $8.75.

The data for the calculations comes from two US government documents, Historical Statistics of the United States and Statistical Abstracts of the United States So it is pretty accurate in it's estimates.

The Inflation Calculator

Historical speeches in MP3 format

Found this very useful site full of historical speeches and sounds. All af them are in MP3 format and can be downloaded and listened to on any music player that supports MP3. The best part is that they are all completely free!

Free Information Society: Historical Sounds

[Edit] Found another site with more speeches. American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches