Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 30 April 2014

President Lincoln established the US Secret Service on the same day that he was assassinated

Sometimes history throws up some decidedly pointed ironies. On 14 April  1865, President Lincoln signed the legislation that created the United States Secret Service. The same evening, he made his way to Ford’s Theatre for his fateful and tragic encounter with his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

The derogatory etymology of cowbow

Some historians claims that the word ‘cowboy’ was a derogatory term for black workers on cattle ranches. Whites were more often called trail-men or ranchers. It eventually became a more general term and slowly became an acceptable badge of pride for the cow herders of the west.