Strike while the iron is hot! Step back into the 1800s and learn the basics of historic blacksmithing in our the forge at Frontier Village & Museum. Village Blacksmith Steven Mildward of Blackdog's Foundry will guide you through real historic blacksmithing techniques using traditional tools, as well as forge mechanics and safety.

Lt. Col. William “Bill” B. Freeman was born on December 5, 1917, to Bess Vincent Smith and James A. Freeman in Fannin County, TX. He had two siblings. Bill graduated from Bonham High School then attended East Texas State University (now East Texas A&M University) and Texas A&M University. He joined the Marine Corps and entered flight school in Corpus Christi, TX, graduating on December 5, 1941, two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This Memorial Day, we want to remember all who have sacrificed their lives in service to our nation in the military. We remember each one and give thanks for
their selfless sacrifice on our behalf.

With the Texas population continuing to grow, more and more projects are popping up to address congestion and improve safety. Crews at these sites just want to get the job done and come home safe to their families. But drivers are actually more often the people getting hurt in work zones. Last year 190 people were killed in work zones, and 77% were drivers or their passengers.

Today, the grave is flowered,
decorated and festooned.
But the grief is raw and red,
as an open wound.

1961 – Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of the U.S. Congress, that the United States "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. At a meeting of the US House Committee on Science and Astronautics one day after Gagarin's flight, many congressmen pledged their support for a crash program aimed at ensuring that America would catch up. Kennedy was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make a commitment on America's response to the Soviets. On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. Johnson responded approximately one week later, concluding that "we are neither making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country is to reach a position of leadership." His memo concluded that a crewed Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first. On May 25, 1961, twenty days after the first American crewed spaceflight Freedom 7, Kennedy proposed the crewed Moon landing in a Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs: "Now it is time to take longer strides—time for a great new American enterprise—time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. ... I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish." The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), and all three landed safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Approximately 650 million people worldwide watched this first landing on television. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last, Apollo 17, in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon.