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It’s that time of year that families gather together to celebrate and give thanks for all their blessings, and look forward to spending time around a table laden with bountiful food and drink. Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, and it has been celebrated in one form or fashion since the Pilgrims made nice with the Native American Indians in the 1620’s. About 400 years of  togetherness sometimes has its benefits, and sometimes not. According to the History Channel, in November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his jour...

Several years ago a strange illness was diagnosed after many attendees of a conference in 1976 became very sick. American Legionnaires returning from a state convention in Philadelphia began to fall ill with mysterious symptoms including pneumonia and fevers up to 107 degrees. Several of the conference attendees died, and no laboratory tests could determine the cause of their illness, which quickly became known as Legionnaires’ disease. Over 30 people died. Many more were hospitalized for several weeks. It took researchers six months to determine that the illness had been caused by a bacterium, Legionella pneumophilia. Doctors now know this illness usually succumbs to the timely prescription of proper antibiotics, according to the New York Times. The bacterium, which in this case was apparently spread from the hotel’s air-conditioning system, is a cause of pneumonia and other illnesses worldwide. A more detailed background story of this illness is available at this site: http://www.ny...