History, anything goes, including pictures

[RnR]

View attachment 169094
Giant Mark Twain Redwood, California, 1892
N.E. Beckwith
note the saw that was used

Such a huge tree, I wonder how old it was. Sad to see the ancient giants brought down IMO. My dad was similar and is pictured below with a very large felled tree on our property in central NSW Australia in the 1950s.

 

[RnR]

14 June 1789 – HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km journey in an open boat.

The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty took place in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789. Led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, disaffected crewmen seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh. Fletcher Christian cast Bligh and 19 men adrift in a 23-foot launch, so crowded it was dangerously low in the water. They were supplied with about five days' food and water, a sextant, compass and nautical tables and Purcell's tool chest. At the last minute the mutineers threw four cutlasses down into the boat.

Bligh hoped to find water and food on Tofua, then proceed to the nearby island of Tongatapu to seek help from King Poulaho, whom he knew from his visit with Cook, in provisioning the boat for a voyage to the Dutch East Indies. Ashore at Tofua, there were encounters with natives who were initially friendly but grew more menacing as time passed. On 2 May, four days after landing, Bligh realised that an attack was imminent. He directed his men back to the sea.

Fletcher Christian and the mutineers turn Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 others adrift, painting by Robert Dodd, 1790. Bligh's open-boat voyage, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Their best chance of salvation, Bligh reckoned, lay in sailing directly to the Dutch settlement of Coupang in Timor, using the rations presently on board. This was a journey of some 6,500 km to the west, beyond the Endeavour Strait. Bligh endeavoured to continue his journal throughout the voyage, observing, sketching, and charting as they made their way west. To keep up morale, he told stories of his prior experiences at sea, got the men singing, and occasionally said prayers.

On 14 June 1789, with a makeshift Union Jack hoisted, Bligh's craft sailed into Coupang harbour.

 

[RnR]

14 June 1946 – Donald Trump, American businessman, television personality and 45th President of the United States is born.

Donald Trump's ancestors originated from the German village of Kallstadt in Palatinate on his father's side, and from the Outer Hebrides isles of Scotland on his mother's side. All his grandparents, and his mother, were born in Europe. Donald's mother Mary Anne MacLeod was born in Tong, Lewis, Scotland. In 1930, at age 18, she emigrated to New York where she worked as a maid.

Fred Trump. Mary Anne MacLeod in 1935. Donald Trump's childhood home.

Trump's father Fred was born in 1905 in the Bronx, and started working with his mother in real estate when he was 15, shortly after his father's death. Their company, Elizabeth Trump and Son, was primarily active in the New York boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Fred eventually built and sold thousands of houses, barracks and apartments. Fred and Mary were married in 1936.

Donald Trump left in a family portrait with his siblings.

Donald Trump was born on 14 June 1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens, New York City. He was the fourth of five children born to Fred and Mary Anne Trump. Trump grew up with three elder siblings—Maryanne, Fred Jr., and Elizabeth—as well as a younger brother named Robert.

 

[mellowyellow]

Such a huge tree, I wonder how old it was. Sad to see the ancient giants brought down IMO. My dad was similar and is pictured below with a very large felled tree on our property in central NSW Australia in the 1950s.

Great photo RnR

 

[RadishRose]

Interesting posts, all!

 

[Buckeye]

Happy Birthday President Trump!

 

[mellowyellow]

Adolf Hitler with a unit of the Luftwaffe Fallschirmjager called "The Green devils" who captured the belgian fort at Eben Emael on 11 May , June 1940

Unusual uniforms.
They were designed to fit under a parachute as it was felt that as airborne infantry would spend most of their time jumping from planes towards key targets. From analyzing combat in 1940, it was felt that the airborne should have uniforms more suited for extended combat than jumping so by 1942 the Luftwaffe (as well as the American and British airborne units who stole the design) had replaced the reinforced crotch on the coat to simply reinforcing the crotch on their pants.

 

[RnR]

15 June 1215 – King John of England puts his seal to the Magna Carta.

John (1166–1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. When John's attempt to defeat Philip II of France in 1214 failed and he returned to England, he faced a rebellion by many of his barons, who were unhappy with his fiscal policies and his treatment of many of England's most powerful nobles. On 15 June 1215, on the banks of the Thames in Runnymede, the embattled King met the English barons, who had backed his failed war against the French and were seeking to limit his powers. The weakened monarch had little choice but to witness the sealing of what some say is the world’s most important document, one that, symbolically at least, established a new relationship between the king and his subjects.

King John and the barons at Runnymede, the signing. Woodcut, 1864.

The Magna Carta’s importance lies in the fact that it was essentially the first written constitution in European history. Although the restrictions it put on the king were quite mild in hindsight, it was vital for showing that a monarch’s power could be curtailed and he had to answer to his people. The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn. The Magna Carta influenced the early American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies and the formation of the American Constitution in 1787, which became the supreme law of the land in the new republic of the United States. The charter remained a powerful, iconic document, even after almost all of its content was repealed from the statute books in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Magna Carta still forms an important symbol of liberty today, often cited by politicians and campaigners, and is held in great respect by the British and American legal communities, Lord Denning describing it as "the greatest constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot".

 

[RnR]

15 June 1844 – Vulcanised rubber is patented by Charles Goodyear.

Customers had eagerly purchased the first shoes, boots, raincoats, and other items made of rubberised cloth. However it soon became apparent that these products performed particularly badly in the harsh American environment. In the heat of summer the rubber goods turned into a gooey, foul-smelling mess; in the winter, they froze stiff. These problems set off the "Great India Rubber Panic" of the 1830s causing most of New England's rubber factories to close. Determined to find a way to make rubber stable and pliable, Goodyear moved his family to Massachusetts.

On 15 June 1844, after a decade of hardship and perseverance, Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanised rubber. After a series of failures, finally, on a winter's day in 1839, Goodyear hit on a formula that worked. He either dropped or placed some of his sulfur and rubber concoction onto a wood burning stove, and the leather-like form that resulted was the world's first vulcanised rubber.

Although he was hailed as a great inventor at international expositions in the 1850s, Charles Goodyear was barely solvent when he died in 1860. Today, vulcanisation refers to a range of processes for hardening rubbers, originally it referred to Goodyear's treatment of natural rubber with sulfur.

 

[RnR]

15 June 1904 – A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in New York City's East River kills over 1,000.

The General Slocum was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions.

On 15 June 1904, General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River of New York City. At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church to a church picnic. This was an annual rite for the local German group, which had made the trip for 17 consecutive years. The passengers, mostly women and children, had boarded General Slocum, which was to sail up the East River and then eastward across the Long Island Sound to Locust Grove, a picnic site on Long Island.

An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died.

 

[RnR]

16 June 1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.

In 1779 during the American War of Independence, France and Spain signed the Treaty of Aranjuez wherein they agreed to aid one another in recovering lost territory from Britain

On 16 June 1779, Spain declared war on Great Britain, France having done so the year before. France and Spain sought to secure Gibraltar, which was a key link in Britain's control of the Mediterranean Sea, and expected its capture to be relatively quick, just a precursor to a Franco-Spanish invasion of Great Britain.

The Great Siege of Gibraltar at three years and seven months, is the longest siege endured by the British Armed Forces and one of the longest sieges in history. Panorama of the Grand Assault by French and Spanish warships, showing one ship exploding with the infantry and artillery on land in right foreground.

The Siege of Gibraltar was the largest action fought during the war in terms of numbers, particularly the Grand Assault of 18 September 1782 which involved huge numbers - 60,000 men, 49 ships of the line and ten specially designed newly invented floating batteries against 5,000 men of the Gibraltar garrison. This assault was a disastrous failure which caused heavy losses for the Bourbon allies.

 

[RnR]

16 June 1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (1938–1993) was a Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer. He danced with The Royal Ballet in London and was director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989 and its chief choreographer until October 1992. Named Lord of the Dance, Rudolf Nureyev is regarded as one of ballet's most gifted male dancers. In addition to his technical prowess, Rudolf Nureyev was an accomplished choreographer.

Rudolf Nureyev contemplative in Paris after his defection. Nureyev in his dressing room circa 1974.

On 16 June 1961 the Mariinsky group had gathered at Le Bourget Airport in Paris to fly to London. Mariinsky's artistic director Konstantin Sergeyev took Nureyev aside and told him that he would have to return to Moscow for a special performance in the Kremlin. Nureyev became suspicious and refused. Next he was told that his mother had fallen severely ill and he needed to come home immediately to see her, Nureyev refused again, believing that on return to the USSR he was likely to be imprisoned. With the help of French police and a Parisian socialite friend – Clara Saint, Nureyev got away from his KGB minders and asked for asylum.

Rudolf Nureyev died in France from AIDS complications at age 54 on 6 January 1993.

 

[RnR]

17 June 1631 – Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.

Mirza Shahabuddin Baig Muhammad Khan Shah Jahan was the fifth Mughal emperor who ruled ruled the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent. The period of his reign was considered the golden age of Mughal architecture. Shah Jahan erected many monuments, the best known of which is the Taj Mahal at Agra, built as a tomb for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.

Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan.

Mumtaz Mahal died on 17 June 1631 in Burhanpur, Deccan, during the birth of her fourteenth child, a daughter named Gauhara Begum.

The Taj Mahal is considered to be a monument of "undying love".

Its structure was drawn with great care and architects from all over the world were called for this purpose. The building took twenty years to complete and was constructed from white marble underlaid with brick.

 

[RnR]

17 June 1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States and was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built in France by Gustave Eiffel. As the project evolved Bartholdi made alterations in the design. In 1877, Bartholdi concentrated on completing the head, which was exhibited at the 1878 Paris World's Fair.

The right arm and torch on display at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. The completed head of the Statue of Liberty was showcased at the Paris World's Fair in 1878. The Statue of Liberty arriving in New York Harbor on 17 June 1885.

On 17 June 1885, the French steamer Isère, laden with the Statue of Liberty, reached the New York port safely. Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the Isère. New Yorkers displayed their new-found enthusiasm for the statue, as the French vessel arrived with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board.

 

[mellowyellow]

You’ve seen the famous Lunch atop a skyscraper photo, here is Charles C. Ebbets the man who took it

Formerly attributed to "unknown", and often misattributed to Lewis Hine, it was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003. Evidence confirming his authorship held in the Ebbets' Estate archives include original work orders showing invoices to Rockefeller Center for the time period surrounding the photo, letters of recommendation from his work at Rockefeller Center when the photo was taken, a copy of the original article from the NY Herald Tribune when the photo first appeared in 1932 in his own scrapbook of his work, photos from his office in NY taken in 1932 showing the image on a bulletin board display of his work, and a negative of him at work on the site that day.

 

[RnR]

View attachment 169591
You’ve seen the famous Lunch atop a skyscraper photo, here is Charles C. Ebbets the man who took it

Formerly attributed to "unknown", and often misattributed to Lewis Hine, it was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003. Evidence confirming his authorship held in the Ebbets' Estate archives include original work orders showing invoices to Rockefeller Center for the time period surrounding the photo, letters of recommendation from his work at Rockefeller Center when the photo was taken, a copy of the original article from the NY Herald Tribune when the photo first appeared in 1932 in his own scrapbook of his work, photos from his office in NY taken in 1932 showing the image on a bulletin board display of his work, and a negative of him at work on the site that day.

View attachment 169590

Wow ... love those photos, thanks Mellowyellow.

 

[RnR]

18 June 1812 – The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison.

An Act Declaring War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Dependencies Thereof and the United States of America and Their Territories was passed by the United States Congress on 18 June 1812, thereby beginning the War of 1812. President James Madison, after receiving heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress, signed the American declaration of war into law.

War of 1812 clockwise from top: Damage to the U.S. Capitol after the Burning of Washington; the mortally wounded Isaac Brock spurs on the York Volunteers at the battle of Queenston Heights; USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere; The death of Tecumseh in 1813; Andrew Jackson defeats the British assault on New Orleans.

At home, the British faced mounting opposition to wartime taxation and demands to reopen trade with America. With Napoleon’s first abdication on 4 April 1814 and the blockade of France ended, the British were then able to increase the strength of the blockade on the United States coast, annihilating American maritime trade and bringing the United States government near to bankruptcy.

Peace negotiations began in August 1814 and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24 as neither side wanted to continue fighting.

 

[RnR]

18 June 1815 – Napoleon is defeated in The Battle of Waterloo ending the Napoleonic Wars.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: a British-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

"The morning after the battle of Waterloo”. John Heaviside Clark, 1816. Harrowing scenes on the battle-field the morning after the Napoleon's defeat.

The French army of around 69,000 consisted of 48,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry, and 7,000 artillery with 250 guns. Wellington’s troops consisted of 67,000 men: 50,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry, and 6,000 artillery with 150 guns. Two and a half Prussian army corps, or 48,000 men, were engaged at Waterloo. Waterloo cost Wellington around 15,000 dead or wounded and Blücher some 7,000. Napoleon's losses were 24,000 to 26,000 killed or wounded and included 6,000 to 7,000 captured with an additional 15,000 deserting subsequent to the battle and over the following days.

Napoleon abdicated for the second time four days later, and on 7 July coalition forces entered Paris. The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile.

 

[RnR]

18 June 1908 – Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato Maru.

The first Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, as of 2009 there were approximately 1.6 million people of Japanese descent in Brazil, and estimated at just under 1.5 million as of 2014.

The first Japanese immigrants, 790 people, mostly farmers, came to Brazil on the Kasato Maru arriving on 18 June 1908.

Between the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, coffee was the main export product of Brazil. At first, Brazilian farmers used African slave labour in the coffee plantations, but in 1850, the slave traffic was abolished in Brazil. The end of feudalism in Japan generated great poverty in the rural population, so many Japanese began to emigrate in search of better living conditions. In 1907, the Brazilian and the Japanese governments signed a treaty permitting Japanese migration to Brazil.

In the first seven years, 3,434 more Japanese families totalling 14,983 people arrived. The beginning of World War I in 1914 started a boom in Japanese migration to Brazil; such that between 1917 and 1940 over 164,000 Japanese came to Brazil, 75% of them going to Sao Paulo, where most of the coffee plantations were located.

 

[RnR]

19 June 1820 – Sir Joseph Banks, British naturalist and botanist on Cook's first voyage, dies.

Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS, 24 February 1743 – 19 June 1820, was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage of 1768–1771, visiting Brazil, Tahiti, and after 6 months in New Zealand, Australia, returning to immediate fame.

Banks advocated British settlement in New South Wales and colonisation of Australia, as well as the establishment of Botany Bay as a place for the reception of convicts, and advised the British government on all Australian matters. He is credited with introducing the eucalyptus, acacia, and the genus named after him, Banksia, to the Western world. Around 80 species of plants bear his name. He was the leading founder of the African Association and a member of the Society of Dilettanti, which helped to establish the Royal Academy.

Sir Joseph Banks, as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1773. Banks painted by Benjamin West in 1773. A Australian banksia as depicted from his Endeavour voyage when Joseph Banks and fellow naturalist Daniel Solander collected over 30,000 specimens of plants.

He held the position of president of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He advised King George III on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and by sending botanists around the world to collect plants, he made Kew the world's leading botanical gardens. He is credited for bringing 30,000 plant specimens home with him; amongst them, he discovered 1,400. Banks was knighted in 1781.

Banks's health began to fail early in the 19th century and he suffered from gout every winter, but his mind remained as vigorous as ever. He died on 19 June 1820 in Spring Grove House, Isleworth, London, and was buried at St Leonard's Church, Heston.

 

[RnR]

19 June 1953 – Cold War: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who spied for the Soviet Union and were tried, convicted, and executed by the United States government on 19 June 1953. They provided top-secret information about radar, sonar, and jet propulsion engines to the USSR and were accused of transmitting nuclear weapon designs to the Soviet Union; at that time the United States was the only country with nuclear weapons.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, separated by heavy wire screen as they leave U.S. Court House after being found guilty by jury.

Other convicted co-conspirators were imprisoned, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who supplied documents from Los Alamos to Julius and who served 10 years of a 15-year sentence; Harry Gold, who identified Greenglass and served 15 years in federal prison as the courier for Greenglass. Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist working in Los Alamos and handled by Gold, provided vastly more important information to the Soviets. He was convicted in Great Britain and served nine years and four months in prison.

 

[RnR]

19 June 1978 – Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.

Garfield is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield; Jon, his owner; and Jon's dog, Odie. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals, and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.

First appearance: 19 June 1978.

Garfield is an orange, fuzzy tabby cat born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant who immediately ate all the pasta and lasagna in sight, thus developing his love and obsession for lasagna and pizza.

Garfield has inspired merchandise earning $750 million to $1 billion annually. In addition to the various merchandise and commercial tie-ins, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two animated television series, two theatrical feature-length animated films, and three fully CGI animated direct-to-video movies.

Garfield on 18 June 2018, the eve of his 40th birthday.

 

[mellowyellow]

U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) treaty in Vienna, June 18, 1979.

 

[Pappy]

 

[RnR]

20 June 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.

The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small prison or dungeon in Fort William where troops of Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war for one fatal night on 20 June 1756, after the Bengali army captured the fort.

The local ruler, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, was unhappy with the Company's political interference in the internal affairs of his province. The British merchants were undermining his political power so he ordered the immediate cessation of the reinforcement of Fort William, but the Company took no notice. In consequence to that British indifference to local Bengali authority, Siraj ud-Daulah organised his army and laid siege to Fort William.

In an effort to survive the losing battle, the British commander ordered the surviving soldiers of the garrison to escape, yet left behind 146 soldiers under the civilian command of John Zephaniah Holwell, an ex-military surgeon and a senior bureaucrat of the East India Company. The surviving defenders and civilians were captured and imprisoned in the fort’s prison, “the black hole” in soldiers' slang, a small room that only measured 4.30×5.50 metres. The conditions so cramped that many people died from suffocation and heat exhaustion.

The next morning, when the black hole was opened, at 6.00 am, only about 23 of the prisoners remained alive.