Black text and a red illustration of a hand with its thumb pointing down

Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 1872 painting ‘Pollice Verso’ is thought to have introduced the concept of the thumbs-up gesture as a sign of approval and the thumbs-down gesture as a sign of disapproval.

In ancient Rome, when Gladiators competed with each other in combat for entertainment, the crowd often decided if the Gladiator was to live to fight another day by giving a thumbs-down which meant swords down. If the crowd gave a thumbs-up, swords up, then it was a fight to the finish with one Gladiator dead and the winner alive.

The I heart NY logo was created in 1977 by Milton Glaser for an ad campaign created by advertising agency Wells Rich Greene. The marketing campaign was sought by then-Deputy Commissioner William S. Doyle to increase tourism in the state of New York. The campaign was a wild success. The original sketch of the logo is permanently on display at the MOMA.

The logo has become iconic in pop-culture and has been imitated in many forms around the world.

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The 1965 Minnesota Twins, a Major League Baseball team, won their first pennant and advanced to the World Series to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. During the 1960's, the Twins, named after twin cities Minneapolis and St. Paul, had recently moved to Minnesota from Washington (Senators). The pennant success helped to create a foothold and local support in the area, where they still play to this day. The 1965 Twins won 102 games and advanced to the World Series, before losing in seven games to the Dodgers.

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Illustration of a man and two women side by side on a yellow background with blue text around the outer edge.

American cartoonist Rube Goldberg created the "I've got a pair of queens" image, featuring Augustus Mutt from cartoonist Budd Fisher's comic Mutt and Jeff. The image was used as an insert card for Sweet Caporal Little Cigars, Derby Little Cigars, Sweet Caporal Tobacco Wrapper, and Sovereign Little Cigars produced by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. 

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The 1920 Labor Day celebration in Des Moines, Iowa, took place on September 6, 1920. This was celebrated with a parade of organized laborers led by police officers in the morning, which ended in Riverview Park where basket lunches were enjoyed. At 3 p.m., there was an athletic event to open the afternoon programs, followed by two speakers, and a band concert finale.

Blue text on an offwhite background with an illustration of a woman in a bonnet on a yellow background with a metal bell attached by string

Hood’s Brigade was a Texas brigade in the U.S. Civil War led by Confederate general John Bell Hood. Hood became known as an aggressive leader during the Seven Days Battles in 1862, leading a charge that broke the Union line. Many men from Bryan, Texas, served in Hood’s Brigade. The Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History, formerly the Carnegie Library, in Bryan served as the brigade’s last headquarters. Veterans of the brigade regularly met at the building in the years following the war.

Illustration of blue mountains with green sky and white text over it

Park County Montana is located in the south-central region of the state. The nearly 3,000 square-mile county was estimated to be home to just over 16,000 in 2017. The county is surrounded by four mountain ranges — the Absarokas, Bridger, Gallatin, and the Crazy Mountains. It is home to Custer Gallatin National Forest, Granite Peak (the highest point in Montana), and a small portion of Yellowstone National Park, among other natural features.

Red, white and blue striped star drawing on a white background with black text around the outer edge

In 1976, The U.S. government wanted to commemorate the Bicentennial of the American Revolution (1776) with a set of stamps highlighting the event. President Gerald Ford commissioned artist Bruce N. Blackburn to design the Bicentennial logo (seen on this button) as the first stamp. The series of 114 stamps lasted until 1983 when the last stamp featured a commemoration to the Treaty of Paris (1783) that established the United States as a sovereign nation. The image has since been used on a variety of memorabilia from stamps, buttons, collectible coins, to postcards.