1900s

Women’s fashion is a complicated subject, but one doesn’t usually think of it as deadly. However, the fatal dance between health and beauty was a reality for Washington women wearing corsets in the 19^th century.

Even Washington D.C. couldn’t hold Harry Houdini, the original handcuff king. On New Years Day in 1906, the infamous Houdini broke out of what was said to be the strongest and toughest jail in the city.

On June 13, 1902, Mary Custis Lee was arrested on a streetcar in Alexandria after refusing to move from a seat reserved for Black passengers. Was she taking a principled stand against segregation? 

Long before frozen daiquiris became a summer staple, a Washington-based navy doctor brought the rum-and-lime concoction home after tasting it in Cuba during the Spanish American war. Johnson introduced the drink to the Army and Navy Club, where it became a regular part of the menu and spread across the U.S.

In 1903, just weeks before Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully flew their Wright flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Smithsonian secretary Samuel Langley launched a daring, government-backed attempt to fly a motorized craft off a houseboat in the Potomac River. Langley's Aerodrome promptly crashed, but — much to the Wright Brothers' dismay — that didn't stop the Smithsonian from crediting Langley with creating the first motorized, manned craft “capable of flight.”