History, anything goes, including pictures

[JonDouglas]

The Very Brief History Of An Old Schoolhouse: Several days ago, I was up in NH getting pictures of an old town meetinghouse dating back to 1775, which was around the time the Battle of Bunker Hill was being fought. As old meetinghouses go, this one's a classic. It is shown below.

The photo also captured a little red building on the left of the picture. After landing and putting away the drone, I took the picture below. This was the town's schoolhouse that was built in 1822 for $200. It has been largely preserved as it was, including the hard bench seats used for sitting and writing.

Give this some thought: Generations of children went to schools like this with only primitive facilities and materials. Winters were cold and discipline was generally strict - you could get swatted or paddled for misbehaving or doing something stupid. . Also missing were lights, water fountains, lockers, lunchrooms, playgrounds and playground equipment, There was no dean, school nurse, school psychologist, guidance counselor, etc. - only one extremely dedicated person trying to shape childrens' minds and attitudes.

And yet, out of little schools houses like this came a generation of people who shaped a fledgling nation into an industrial and economic powerhouse. How did that happen?

 

[mellowyellow]

A portrait of John D. Rockefeller circa 1900 after he had built Standard Oil into the largest oil company in the USA.

“Rockefeller’s fortune peaked in 1912 at almost $900,000,000, but his estate totaled only $26,410,837 when he died,” Parr writes, “making him the biggest philanthropist ever to live.”

In a 1937 obituary, he is described as the “founder of one of the world’s most colossal private fortunes and benefactor of humanity.” He was 98 when he died, and according to his obituary, had “a peaceful, painless death.”

 

[mellowyellow]

This 2,000-year-old shoe was found in a well at the Saalburg ancient Roman fort in Germany.

 

[mellowyellow]

Colourised photo of a man standing on a colossal figure of Ramesses II at the temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt,1865.

 

[RnR]

9 July 1877 – The inaugural Wimbledon Championships begins.

The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts.

The inaugural Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London from 9–19 July 1877. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or "Major".

Contemporary engraving of the first Wimbledon Championship at Worple Road, London, in July 1877. Note the higher net, 5 ft.

Spencer Gore was the winner of the inaugural Wimbledon Championship.

 

[RnR]

10 July 138 – Emperor Hadrian dies of heart failure at Baiae; he is buried at Rome in the Tomb of Hadrian beside his late wife, Vibia Sabina.

Hadrian (24 January 76 – 10 July 138 AD) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus, probably at Italica, near Santiponce in modern-day Spain. His father was of senatorial rank, and was a first cousin of the emperor Trajan. Hadrian's parents died in 86, when he was ten years old. Rome's military and Senate approved Hadrian's succession.

Rather than following Trajan’s expansionist policy, Hadrian preferred to invest in the development of stable, defensible borders, and the unification, under his overall leadership, of the empire's disparate peoples. He is known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia.

Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian’s Wall, at 73 miles long crossed northern Britain from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west, was made a World Heritage Site in 1987.

The most distinctive aspect of Hadrian's reign was that he was to spend more than half of it outside Italy and engaged in peaceful pursuits. Obviously, other emperors had often left Rome for long periods, but then mostly to go to war, returning soon after conflicts concluded. Hadrian died in the year 138 on the 10th of July, in his villa at Baiae at the age of 62.

The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome. It was initially commissioned by Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle and is now a museum.

 

[RnR]

10 July 1856 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist and engineer is born.

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Tesla emigrated to the United States in 1884, where he would become a naturalised citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless-controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and would demonstrate his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures.

A multiple exposure picture of Tesla sitting next to his "magnifying transmitter" generating millions of volts.

Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla went on to try to develop a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, he lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. On 7 January 1943, at the age of 86, Tesla died alone in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. Today, his ashes are displayed in a gold-plated sphere on a marble pedestal in the Nikola Tesla Museum.

 

[RnR]

11 July 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee first published on 11 July 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbours and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The story is told by the six-year-old Jean Louise Finch.

To Kill a Mockingbird, first edition book cover. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962 film.

The primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Though Lee had only published this single book, in 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature.

 

[mellowyellow]

USS Indianapolis in 1945

The Worst Shark Attack in History
In 1945, a U.S. naval ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine, but the ship’s sinking was just the beginning of the sailors’ nightmare

…………..The first night, the sharks focused on the floating dead. But the survivors’ struggles in the water only attracted more and more sharks, which could feel their motions through a biological feature known as a lateral line: receptors along their bodies that pick up changes in pressure and movement from hundreds of yards away. As the sharks turned their attentions toward the living, especially the injured and the bleeding, sailors tried to quarantine themselves away from anyone with an open wound, and when someone died, they would push the body away, hoping to sacrifice the corpse in return for a reprieve from a shark’s jaw. Many survivors were paralyzed with fear, unable even to eat or drink from the meager rations they had salvaged from their ship. One group of survivors made the mistake of opening a can of Spam—but before they could taste it, the scent of the meat drew a swarm of sharks around them. They got rid of their meat rations rather than risk a second swarming.

The sharks fed for days, with no sign of rescue for the men…………………

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worst-shark-attack-in-history-25715092/

 

[RnR]

View attachment 173258
USS Indianapolis in 1945

The Worst Shark Attack in History
In 1945, a U.S. naval ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine, but the ship’s sinking was just the beginning of the sailors’ nightmare

…………..The first night, the sharks focused on the floating dead. But the survivors’ struggles in the water only attracted more and more sharks, which could feel their motions through a biological feature known as a lateral line: receptors along their bodies that pick up changes in pressure and movement from hundreds of yards away. As the sharks turned their attentions toward the living, especially the injured and the bleeding, sailors tried to quarantine themselves away from anyone with an open wound, and when someone died, they would push the body away, hoping to sacrifice the corpse in return for a reprieve from a shark’s jaw. Many survivors were paralyzed with fear, unable even to eat or drink from the meager rations they had salvaged from their ship. One group of survivors made the mistake of opening a can of Spam—but before they could taste it, the scent of the meat drew a swarm of sharks around them. They got rid of their meat rations rather than risk a second swarming.

The sharks fed for days, with no sign of rescue for the men…………………

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worst-shark-attack-in-history-25715092/

What a terrifying ordeal.

The USS Indianapolis had delivered the crucial components of the first operational atomic bomb to a naval base on the Pacific island of Tinian. On 6 August 1945, the weapon would level Hiroshima. On July 28, the Indianapolis sailed from Guam, without an escort, to meet the battleship USS Idaho in the Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and prepare for an invasion of Japan. Shortly after midnight the next day, a Japanese torpedo hit the Indianapolis in the starboard bow. Still traveling at 17 knots, the Indianapolis began taking on massive amounts of water; the ship sank in just 12 minutes.

Of the Indianapolis’ original 1,196-man crew, only 317 remained. Estimates of the number who died from shark attacks range from a few dozen to almost 150. It’s impossible to be sure. But either way, the ordeal of the Indianapolis survivors remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. naval history.

 

[mellowyellow]

John Lennon signing an autograph for Mark David Chapman, the man who would kill him five hours later, NYC, 1980

 

[mellowyellow]

Himmler was taken to the headquarters of the Second British Army in Lüneburg, where doctor Wells conducted a medical exam on him. When the doctor saw a dark object in a gap in Himmler’s lower jaw, he ordered him to come closer to the light and tried to remove the glass capsule. Suddenly Himmler bit on the cyanide capsule and at the doctor’s fingers. Himmler fell to the ground and someone shouted “The bastard beats us!”.

The smell of prussic acid spread through the room. “We immediately upended the old bastard and got his mouth into the bowl of water which was there to wash the poison out”, noted Major Whittaker in his diary. “There were terrible groans and grunts coming from the swine”. Himmler’s tongue was secured in an attempt to prevent him from swallowing the poison.

Doctor Wells tried resuscitation but it was in vain. He was dead within 15 minutes.

 

[RadishRose]

an industrial and economic powerhouse. How did that happen?

greed.

 

[RnR]

12 July 1493 – The Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel, one of the best-documented early printed books, is published.

The Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated biblical paraphrase and world history that follows the story of human history related in the Bible; it includes the histories of a number of important Western cities. The Chronicle was first published in Latin on 12 July 1493 in the city of Nuremberg. Written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German, translated by Georg Alt, it is one of the best-documented early printed books and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text.

The city of Nuremberg, a hand-coloured woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle.

The Nuremberg Chronicle is one of the most densely illustrated and technically advanced works of early printing. It contains 1809 woodcuts produced from 645 blocks. Michael Wolgemut and his son-in-law Wilhelm Pleydenwurff executed the illustrations in around 1490, a time when their workshop was at its artistic peak. The views of towns, some authentic, some invented or copied from older models, are of both artistic and topographical interest.

The construction of Noah’s Ark from the Nuremberg Chronicle.

 

[RnR]

12 July 1561 – Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is consecrated.

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is a church in Red Square in Moscow, Russia. The building, now a museum, was built from 1555–1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600. The building, originally known as "Trinity Church", was consecrated on 12 July 1561.

Saint Basil's Cathedral today.

The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no parallel in Russian architecture. The church acquired its present-day vivid colours in several stages from the 1680s to 1848. Russian attitude towards colour in the 17th century changed in favour of bright colours; icon and mural art experienced an explosive growth in the number of available paints, dyes and their combinations. The original colour scheme, missing these innovations, was far less challenging. It followed the depiction of the Heavenly City in the Book of Revelation.

 

[RnR]

12 July 1962 – The Rolling Stones perform their first concert at London's Marquee Jazz Club.

The Rolling Stones formed in London in 1962. In June 1962 the line-up was as follows: Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman. According to Richards, Jones christened the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked for a band name Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor. One of the LP's tracks was "Rollin' Stone".

Jagger, Richards and Jones with Stewart and Dick Taylor on bass played a gig billed as “The Rollin' Stones" on 12 July 1962, at the Marquee Club, 165 Oxford Street, London.

Their material included the Chicago blues as well as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley songs. Bassist Bill Wyman joined in December 1962 and drummer Charlie Watts the following January 1963 to form the band's original rhythm section.

 

[JonDouglas]

greed.

Uh, no. Not even close

 

[mellowyellow]

Soviet and American soldiers share a dance upon their meet-up at the River Elbe near Torgau, Saxony. Germany, April 26th, 1945.

Elbe Day, 25 April 1945 is the day Soviet and American troops first met at the Elbe River, near Torgau in Germany, marking an important step toward the end of WWII in Europe. This contact between the soviets, advancing from the Ease and the Americans, advancing from the West, meant that the two powers had effectively cut Germany in two.

 

[JonDouglas]

With all the problems of lawlessness in the streets of some of the big cities, it might be interesting to revisit what they did about it during the industrial revolution. Back in the mid 1800s, child reform schools came of age in conjunction with the industrial revolution and its associated, more-dense population centers around mills. Governments, charities and religious organizations formed rudimentary welfare safety nets for children who were delinquent or homeless and had committed or were likely to commit crimes. Reform and industrial training schools were part of that welfare net. The building below is one of a number of similar structures of a girls' reform school built in 1856 in Lancaster, MA. It was the country's first reform school for girls, moving away from imprisonment to a corrections/reform paradigm. Some scholars think this worked better than today's welfare and justice systems for children.

The building above was just one of a number of "residential cottages" that had common spaces on the ground floor, and sleeping rooms for both students and staff on upper floors. First floor common spaces included a dining room, kitchen, sewing room, laundry, parlor, and classroom. There were several key aspects to these reformatories/industrial schools. One, they removed young people from the environment in which they grew troubled. Two, they were forced to learn both basic academics and social skills. Over time, most of these schools became penal institutions. The whole facility is now abandoned and on the block

Several days ago, I took the following aerial picture of the building pictured above.

What you see above is a mold infested, asbestos filled structure that later became a medium security prison that failed. The buildings will be soon eaten by weather and foliage if nothing is done. That the facility is on the national register of historic places probably won't save it and here we are 100 plus years later with the same problems this facility was supposed to help solve.

 

[Aunt Marg]

With all the problems of lawlessness in the streets of some of the big cities, it might be interesting to revisit what they did about it during the industrial revolution. Back in the mid 1800s, child reform schools came of age in conjunction with the industrial revolution and its associated, more-dense population centers around mills. Governments, charities and religious organizations formed rudimentary welfare safety nets for children who were delinquent or homeless and had committed or were likely to commit crimes. Reform and industrial training schools were part of that welfare net. The building below is one of a number of similar structures of a girls' reform school built in 1856 in Lancaster, MA. It was the country's first reform school for girls, moving away from imprisonment to a corrections/reform paradigm. Some scholars think this worked better than today's welfare and justice systems for children.

The building above was just one of a number of "residential cottages" that had common spaces on the ground floor, and sleeping rooms for both students and staff on upper floors. First floor common spaces included a dining room, kitchen, sewing room, laundry, parlor, and classroom. There were several key aspects to these reformatories/industrial schools. One, they removed young people from the environment in which they grew troubled. Two, they were forced to learn both basic academics and social skills. Over time, most of these schools became penal institutions. The whole facility is now abandoned and on the block

Several days ago, I took the following aerial picture of the building pictured above.

What you see above is a mold infested, asbestos filled structure that later became a medium security prison that failed. The buildings will be soon eaten by weather and foliage if nothing is done. That the facility is on the national register of historic places probably won't save it and here we are 100 plus years later with the same problems this facility was supposed to help solve.

Love your pictures as a whole, Jon, but that drone with camera you use is the real kicker. Just such a different perspective seeing the landscape and old building from above, truly makes for a stunning photo.

Some of these old building would sure make for grand homes with a little love.

 

[RnR]

13 July 1863 – New York City draft riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription begin three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in United States history.

The New York City draft riots of 13–16 July 1863, known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racially charged insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.

A drawing from a British newspaper showing armed rioters clashing with Union Army soldiers in New York City.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln diverted several regiments of militia and volunteer troops after the Battle of Gettysburg to control the city. However, the military did not reach the city until the second day of rioting, by which time the mobs had ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings, two Protestant churches, the homes of various abolitionists or sympathisers, many black homes, and the Coloured Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was burned to the ground.

The rioters were overwhelmingly working-class men, who feared free black people competing for work and resented that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300, equivalent to $9,157 in 2017, commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft. Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into a race riot, with white rioters, predominantly Irish immigrants, attacking black people throughout the city. The official death toll was listed at either 119 or 120 individuals.

On August 19, the government resumed the draft in New York. It was completed within 10 days without further incident. Fewer men were drafted than had been feared by the working class: of the 750,000 selected nationwide for conscription, only about 45,000 were sent into active duty.

 

[RnR]

13 July 1923 – The Hollywood Sign is dedicated in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.

The Hollywood Sign (formerly the Hollywoodland Sign) is a landmark and American cultural icon located in Los Angeles, California. It is situated on Mount Lee, in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains. The sign overlooks Hollywood, Los Angeles. The sign was officially dedicated on 13 July 1923.

The sign was erected in 1923 and originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND." Its purpose was to advertise the name of a new segregated housing development in the hills above the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. The Crescent Sign Company was contracted to erect 13 letters on the hillside, each facing south. The sign company owner, Thomas Fisk Goff designed the sign. Each letter was 30 feet wide and 50 feet high, and the whole sign was studded with some 4,000 light bulbs. The four last letters were dropped after renovation in 1949.

The sign was intended only to last a year and a half, but after the rise of American cinema in Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the sign became an internationally recognised symbol and was left there.

 

[mellowyellow]

Jasper "Jack" Daniel, Jack Daniels Founder, 1800's




In 2016, Jack Daniel’s announced the company would make changes to its official history. They planned to honor Nathan “Nearest” Green, the African American man who taught the real Jack Daniel to make whiskey in the mid-1800s. Green had been enslaved on the farm of a preacher and distiller named Dan Call; Jack Daniel, 30 years younger than Green, was a chore boy on the same farm. It fell on Green to teach Daniel how to work the still and use a charcoal filtration process that likely originated in West Africa. (That process, charcoal mellowing, is what separates Tennessee whiskey from other types.)

 

[Pappy]

 

[RnR]

14 July ... Bastille Day, France.

Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on the 14th of July each year. In French, it is formally called la Fête nationale and commonly and legally le 14 Juillet French National Day.

The French National Day is the anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, a turning point of the French Revolution, as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790.

The Fête d e la Fédération as seen from behind the King's tent, 14 July 1790.

Celebrations are held throughout France, one that has been reported as "the oldest and largest military parade in Europe" is held on 14 July on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, along with other French officials and foreign guests.