World War II didn’t dull the shine of Hoosier Hospitality
By CONNIE ZIEGLER / Contributing editor The United States declared war on Japan on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Dec. 11, 1941, …
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Protests: Part II / As Vietnam War drug on, opposition began to increase
By CONNIE ZEIGLER / Contributing editor During the early years of American participation in the Vietnam War Indianapolis was not a center of anti-war activity. But by 1969 activity was …
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Vietnam anti-war protests were slow to materialize here
First of two parts By CONNIE ZEIGLER / Contributing editor For the decade from 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson put the first American troops on the ground in Vietnam, …
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The mostly forgotten life of a monumental sculptor
By CONNIE ZEIGLER / Contributing editor Rudolph Schwarz, the sculptor of the stone figures of the city’s most famous landmark, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, died “practically penniless,” on April …
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A smallpox outbreak and the battle for vaccines
By CONNIE ZEIGLER Contributing editor ON APRIL 6, 1848, George A. Chapman, co-owner of the Indiana State Sentinel with his brother Jacob Page Chapman, published a notice on the front …
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History 301: Illegal abortions made several headlines in the 1950s
By CONNIE ZEIGLER, Contributing editor In 1958 Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute published a report titled Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion. In the report, according to February 1958 coverage in The Indianapolis …
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History 301: How our historian’s columns became a Historical Society book
This story appeared in the October 2024 print edition of Urban Times. By CONNIE ZEIGLER, Contributing editor I’ve been writing this monthly history column in Urban Times since 2007. Nine …
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History 301: Kurt Vonnegut’s journey to create ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’
By CONNIE ZEIGLER, Contributing editor On March 26, 1945, not for the first time, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – the youngest son of a well-known architect from a well-known Indianapolis family …
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History 301: Suffragists had an impact here
By CONNIE ZEIGLER, Contributing editor In November 1878 – 146 years before the United States will hold a second election in which one of the presidential candidates is a woman …
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Pro wrestlers body-slammed their way to huge popularity
By CONNIE ZEIGLER, Contributing editor What about professional wrestling? Let’s look back at the era that wrestling mavens call the “First Golden Age” of professional wrestling. Spawned from carnival acts, …
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