Subject: Re: On this day in history Wed 04 Jul 2018, 06:45
Today, 4th July, is of course the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on 4th July 1776. But by complete coincidence it is also the date that two signers of the document, John Adams (2nd president of the United States) and Thomas Jefferson (3rd president of the United States), both died within just a few hours of each other, in 1826, exactly 50 years after the original Declaration of Independence.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Wed 04 Jul 2018, 22:16
Meles meles wrote:
Today, 4th July, is of course the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on 4th July 1776. But by complete coincidence it is also the date that two signers of the document, John Adams (2nd president of the United States) and Thomas Jefferson (3rd president of the United States), both died within just a few hours of each other, in 1826, exactly 50 years after the original Declaration of Independence.
Yes Meles meles, you can have strange coincidences and although they are rare, they happen.
My mother brought to my attention that my father and two of his brothers died on the same date although of different years. I even don't remember that date...will seek for it...as I am not superstitious...and it can be that the two who later died were that intensively thinking at their brother's death at that particular date that they died too on that date from psychological effect on their heart...perhaps your two too
Kind regards from Paul.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Wed 04 Jul 2018, 22:34
PaulRyckier wrote:
Mentioned by Nielsen on the Tumbleweed Café about George Orwell:
"As I've forgotten how to find and thus resurrect old threads, I hereby offer to the 'On this day in history' that today, a 115 years ago Erik Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell was born in then Motihari, Bengal Presidency in British India - present day East Champaran, Bihar, India." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
What a fantastic person (with fantastic I mean the informal connotation of "very exciting") As I am so interested in social interacting in society I read a lot about him. When I have time I will try to show my personal evaluation of him.
Kind regards from Paul.
Nielsen,
started today with the Orwell
His life reads as a book...tormented person if you ask me...as all those radical (socialists)or anarcho socialists...as he joined the POUM, which was betrayed during the Spanish Civil war by the Stalinist Communists...I wrote the whole history somewhere on a forum...
Posts : 595 Join date : 2011-12-31 Location : Denmark
Subject: Re: On this day in history Tue 10 Jul 2018, 17:01
On this day in history in 1086 the Danish King, Canute IV, was slain with some of his supporters before the high altar of St. Alban's church in Odense. He was later appointed a saint by the Catholic Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canute_IV_of_Denmark#Ancestry
According to what I was taught when I went to school, the free peasants rebelled against him for imposing taxes upon them in peacetime, and for keeping the 'leding' - the fleet and army - called up for longer time than was necessary for both defense and attack in Viking raids, thus keeping the peasants from attending the harvesting.
Accidentally the king's wife, Adela of Flanders, fled to that part of the world with her son Charles, who eventually became Count of that area and was killed in yet another rebellion in Bruges 1127. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I,_Count_of_Flanders
Edited because of factual mistakes and mis-spellings.
PaulRyckier Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Tue 10 Jul 2018, 22:55
Nielsen wrote:
On this day in history in 1086 the Danish King, Canute IV, was slain with some of his supporters before the high altar of St. Alban's church in Odense. He was later appointed a saint by the Catholic Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canute_IV_of_Denmark#Ancestry
According to what I was taught when I went to school, the free peasants rebelled against him for imposing taxes upon them in peacetime, and for keeping the 'leding' - the fleet and army - called up for longer time than was necessary for both defense and attack in Viking raids, thus keeping the peasants from attending the harvesting.
Accidentally the king's wife, Adela of Flanders, fled to that part of the world with her son Charles, who eventually became Count of that area and was killed in yet another rebellion in Bruges 1127. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I,_Count_of_Flanders
Edited because of factual mistakes and mis-spellings.
Nielsen,
excuses for not elaborating further on Orwell. Always a short of time. And again now, while it was the history of the city of Bruges...and I made already a study for Authun on Historum of the relationship between the city and the Franc Bruges... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugse_Vrije
Read it in all its gruesome details: the barons and those from Ghent besiege the murderers and their companions... Someone his hands cut off but still go to his house...someone killed and massacred and shown with his genital parts in the view of the besieged...its like a novel... read Galbert's story day per day and learn about medieval war siege... And will tomorrow phone to the arcaeological service of Bruges to ask where the "castle of Bruges" was...some links speak about the "castrum" of Baldwin V... https://www.brugge.be/inventaris-archeologische-zone-brugse-binnenstad
and that was my evening on the Res...no time to speak anymore to Vizzer about the coming duel England-France
Kind regards from your friend Paul.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 21 Jul 2018, 21:58
PaulRyckier wrote:
PaulRyckier wrote:
Mentioned by Nielsen on the Tumbleweed Café about George Orwell:
"As I've forgotten how to find and thus resurrect old threads, I hereby offer to the 'On this day in history' that today, a 115 years ago Erik Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell was born in then Motihari, Bengal Presidency in British India - present day East Champaran, Bihar, India." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
What a fantastic person (with fantastic I mean the informal connotation of "very exciting") As I am so interested in social interacting in society I read a lot about him. When I have time I will try to show my personal evaluation of him.
Kind regards from Paul.
Nielsen,
started today with the Orwell
His life reads as a book...tormented person if you ask me...as all those radical (socialists)or anarcho socialists...as he joined the POUM, which was betrayed during the Spanish Civil war by the Stalinist Communists...I wrote the whole history somewhere on a forum...
And as a side note: I met in the Orwell entries a word "kip" and I suppose it is the same meaning of our dialect word "kip"...that is a "kip" with bad name...or that is a "kip" where you can meet some ladies...or just that is a "kip" wher you have to be
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooley_Street#George_Orwell George Orwell lived as a tramp to gain a first-hand view of poverty. He befriended a man called Ginger in the hop-fields of Kent. They came to a "kip" (doss-house) in Tooley Street and stayed there from 19 September to 8 October 1931.[3] Orwell wrote rough notes in the kip then went further along Tooley Street to Bermondsey Library where he wrote them up into the book Down and Out in Paris and London. The library building was demolished in the 1980s and the site is now part of the open space called Potter's Fields.[4]
"came to a "kip" (doss-house) in Tooley Street "
Kind regards from Paul.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Wed 25 Jul 2018, 21:15
Paul, I remember mentioning something about "kip" on another thread a while ago but I'm not sure where now. Anyway, from "kip" as in doss-house we sometimes use an expression in English slang "to have a kip" meaning to have a sleep, or maybe a short sleep, a nap. I did come across (and mentioned it in the thread I have forgotten - or was it earlier in this thread) that the Irish writer Patrick MacGill quite early in the 20th century had one character call another (who was down on her luck and had turned to prostitution through poverty) a "kip shop wench" as I suppose an alternative name for a prostitute though I've never heard it used myself. Then again, a "kipper" is an English name for a smoked herring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper The herring fishing trade was a contributory cause (though by no means the sole reason) for the (sometime) mistrust between the English and the Dutch in the seventeenth century. Though this may not be the correct thread for that but I will add a link in any case. http://www.deruyter.org/uploads/media/5acf9125b45c4.pdf
Caro Censura
Posts : 1515 Join date : 2012-01-09
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 05 Aug 2018, 02:54
3.8.1888: The small town of Reefton becomes the first place in the Southern Hemisphere to get electicity and have electric lighting. In the 2013 census it had just over 1000 inhabitants and I think in the 1880s it was only slightly higher. It was a gold-mining town at that stage, and the West Coast where it is still relies on extraction industries, coal mostly, for its work.
Vizzer Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 05 Oct 2018, 21:09
5th October 1968
A march of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in Derry ends in violence as police baton charge the protesters:
An earlier march in neighbouring County Tyrone on 24th August had passed off with little incident. This second march, however, was proscribed by the authorities (against the advice of the local police chief) and is seen by some historians as marking the start of the Troubles which would last for 30 years.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 05 Oct 2018, 22:25
Vizzer wrote:
5th October 1968
A march of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in Derry ends in violence as police baton charge the protesters:
An earlier march in neighbouring County Tyrone on 24th August had passed off with little incident. This second march, however, was proscribed by the authorities (against the advice of the local police chief) and is seen by some historians as marking the start of the Troubles which would last for 30 years.
Yes Vizzer "the Troubles"
it reminds me about the troubles in France, the Algerian war and the OAS...perhaps there are parallels...and that indiscriminate use of violence...one speaks sometimes about the nowadays terrorist attacks of Islam fundamentalists... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_arm%C3%A9e_secr%C3%A8te
"The OAS was formed out of existing networks, calling themselves "counter-terrorists", "self-defence groups", or "resistance", which had carried out attacks on the FLN (Algerian National Liberation Front) and their perceived supporters since early in the war. It was officially formed in Francoist Spain, in Madrid in January 1961, as a response by some French politicians and French military officers to the 8 January 1961 referendum on self-determination concerning Algeria, which had been organised by General de Gaulle. By acts of bombings and targeted assassinations in both metropolitan France and French Algerian territories, which are estimated to have resulted in 2,000 deaths between April 1961 and April 1962, the OAS attempted to prevent Algerian independence. This campaign culminated in a wave of attacks that followed the March 1962 Evian agreements, which granted independence to Algeria and marked the beginning of the exodus of the pieds-noirs, and in Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry's 1962 assassination attempt against president de Gaulle in the Paris suburb of Le Petit-Clamart. Another prominent target was the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who supported the FLN."
And the odd thing was although we saw it on TV and read it in the paper as it happened only a few miles from our border, that border only some 30 km from where we lived seemed a bit far a way and not taking place in "our" world. The Northern Irish Troubles were more followed, perhaps due to the better "communication" and modern "journalism"...but still it wasn't "chez nous"...it is unbelievable how one can stay in his "cocoon"...till it happens over here in Brussels some two years ago...and already that is forgotten perhaps again...perhaps better as life has to go further?...
Kind regards from Paul.
Caro Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Mon 05 Nov 2018, 01:35
Nov 4, 1918: NZ forces storm the town of Le Quesnoy to free its people and earn their enduring gratitude. No French people died, but 140 New Zealanders did. I feel that they play the NZ National anthem every night, though I don't see that in the website. But my son visited Le Quesnoy once and because he is a NZer he and his wife were invited to meet the mayor. They didn't have time so had to refuse the invitation. Le Quesnoy
Triceratops Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Mon 05 Nov 2018, 14:13
And a YouTube:
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 10 Nov 2018, 09:17
I didn't know about the New Zealanders freeing Le Qesnoy, Caro, though of course I'd heard of troops from what became the Commonwealth taking part in both world wars.
What I came to post about was that Google Doodle directed me today to Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu born on 10 November 1887 and that she was one of the earlier female engineers of modern times. Wikipedia doesn't say a lot about her but it seems as though she became involved in the peace movement in later life.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisa_Leonida_Zamfirescu I don't know if there were any female engineers in ancient times - or if the names of any there were have come down to us.
Caro Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 24 Nov 2018, 01:34
Nov 24, 1639: The Transit of Venus was first observed by astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks. This has significance for New Zealand, as the best place to observe it (it was thought) was Tahiti. This wasn't particularly successful but the government of Britain was eager to find the major continent they felt sure must be there to balance the northern one, so the expedition went on to look for it. Fortunately for European NZers Tahiti was where they picked up Tupaia who could communicate with Maori enough to prevent major misunderstandings, with the result that Cook's visit to Aotearoa went off mainly peacefully, and later visitors were welcome too, though not so much the forthcoming colonization of the place.
We were in Sheffield when the 2004 Transit took place and I remember the middle of the town had a marquee set up with information and photos of the event. I can't find the photos now, sorry.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 24 Nov 2018, 18:08
I had a look on Wikipedia about the Transit of Venus, Caro. It's one of those subjects I've heard of but don't really have much knowledge about - well I know a little more now. Seems we have had the two transits for this century!
Meles meles Censura
Posts : 5079 Join date : 2011-12-30 Location : Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 25 Nov 2018, 17:58
The 1769 transit of Venus that involved Cook’s mission to Tahiti is interesting as, together with the 1761 transit, it represented an almost unprecedented international scientific effort. The aim was to measure Venus’s path across the sun from widely different viewpoints, primarily in order to determine the distance of the Earth from the Sun; an academic endeavour rather than of any immediate practical benefit. Cook’s voyage was just one of several expeditions coordinated by European countries to send scientific observers to places around the globe (expeditions were also sent to British Canada, Spanish California, French Haiti, the extreme North of Norway, and several locations in both Russia and the Thirteen American Colonies) in addition to numerous observations made across Europe. Once all the data was finally put together some months later the combined results gave an estimate for the distance to the sun that was within 1% off to-day's established value.
But what I find particularly interesting is that this was a truly international scientific collaboration between nations that were frequently at war with each other. As during the 1761 transit when, despite the ongoing Seven Years War, the British Admiralty granted safe passage for the French astronomer Alexandre Guy Pingré on his way to Madagascar, in 1769 the French government instructed all its warships not to impede Cook's ship Endeavour on route to Tahiti since it was,"out on enterprises of service to all mankind".
Clearly the crowned heads and ministers of all those European nations thought the advancement of science was at least as important as territorial gains, short-term material advantage, and diplomatic one-upmanship. George III was so interested in the project that he even had a special observatory built near his summer residence at Richmond Lodge, so that he and the Astronomer Royal could observe the transit and contribute their own measurements.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Wed 28 Nov 2018, 21:33
I know I'm "a bit late to the party" here, MM, but have you one of your intriguing recipes to complement the transit of Venus?
Meles meles Censura
Posts : 5079 Join date : 2011-12-30 Location : Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Subject: Re: On this day in history Thu 29 Nov 2018, 08:14
Well there's always that fishy Cornish speciality, star-gazey pie; or maybe those naughty bon-bons that feature briefly in the film 'Amadeus', capezzoli di venere, 'nipples of Venus' - roman chestnuts in brandied sugar; but we've already had both of those as Dish-of-the-Day some time ago. One could perhaps do something with venus clams, which are a delicious mollusc genus eaten all around the world and so perhaps suitable to reflect the pan-mondial effort that went into the Venusian observations. Or how about a punning Austrian Wienerschnitzel? Made particularly thin, perhaps, to reflect the very small angular precision of the planetary measurements?
I'll see if I can find you something more suitable.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Mon 17 Dec 2018, 13:49
I must confess I have not been all through the thread so apologies if this has been mentioned before (and if I have commented on it - I have a memory like a leaky bucket sometimes) but this is the anniversary of the day on which Wilbur and his brother "flew" https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history There are a load of things mentioned on history.net www.historynet.com/today-in-history History has yet to reveal whether MM will (a) be interested in looking at the links (b) come up with a dish of the day for one of them - or are you already working on that as I type, MM?
Vizzer Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Mon 24 Dec 2018, 09:36
Probably the most internationally famous Christmas carol of all Stille Nacht (Silent Night) was first performed 200 years ago today in Oberndorf in Austria. The popular myth behind the story of the carol’s composition involved a frantic church organist discovering on Christmas Eve that mice had nibbled their way thru the bellows of the organ thus leaving the church without any music for that evening’s service. He then barely had 12 hours in which to compose a carol for that night’s mass which could be sung without accompaniment and Stille Nacht was the beautiful child of such exigency.
Alas the reality is more prosaic with the carol being a well-crafted and polished piece 2 years in the composition. Here’s an interesting article on the history of Silent Night:
So timeless is the tune that one could be forgiven for thinking that it was not just 200, but maybe 300 years or even 400 years old.
Co-incidentally the BBC’s recent drama series The Long Song (based on Andrea Levy’s novel) featured Silent Night being played on fiddles by slaves while plantation owners and their guests assembled for a Christmas dinner in Jamaica in 1831. That year would see the Christmas Rebellion among slaves in the west of the island in what would be the last major slave rebellion before emancipation 3 years later. It would seem, however, to be quite a feat for the music to have travelled to such a remote location from Austria in only 13 years. This is particularly so when one considers that the carol wasn’t first sung in the English language until 1859. On the other hand wealthy plantation owners would have been very well connected and keen to keep up with the latest trends and fashions from Europe so it’s not impossible.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Tue 15 Jan 2019, 16:32
Google Doodle has featured an Anglo-Indian gentleman called Sake Dean Mohamed today. I couldn't copy over the link for his Wikipedia entry but he seems to have been an enterprising person. He qualified as a surgeon among other things. In 1810 it transpires he opened the first Indian restaurant in London though it was not ultimately successful. https://inews.co.uk/.../sake-dean-mahomed-google-doodle-uk-first-indian-restaurant/
Caro Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 20 Jan 2019, 01:35
19.1.1946: Restrictions imposed in Otago on movements in public places because of an outbreak of polio. People under 16 were forbidden to attend public gatherings and travelling by public transport outside the Otago and Southland areas. Schools closed until March 4th. Other health boards no doubt had similar restrictions.
By the time I started school in 1954 vaccinations against polio were in place; I remember having the injections and one girl at our school (of fewer than 20 pupils) fainted when the nurse came just to talk about it. I think there is still someone alive who has spent their life in an iron lung. Or maybe he has just died - I remember reading recently about him and how he had achieved quite high things in his field. I have forgotten the details - just my amazement that someone with such limited mobility could manage that.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 20 Jan 2019, 20:08
Caro wrote:
19.1.1946: Restrictions imposed in Otago on movements in public places because of an outbreak of polio. People under 16 were forbidden to attend public gatherings and travelling by public transport outside the Otago and Southland areas. Schools closed until March 4th. Other health boards no doubt had similar restrictions.
By the time I started school in 1954 vaccinations against polio were in place; I remember having the injections and one girl at our school (of fewer than 20 pupils) fainted when the nurse came just to talk about it. I think there is still someone alive who has spent their life in an iron lung. Or maybe he has just died - I remember reading recently about him and how he had achieved quite high things in his field. I have forgotten the details - just my amazement that someone with such limited mobility could manage that.
Caro,
it is just as if we two have yet discussed the polio, as I mentioned then that one of my nieces is dead from polio. I think it has to be start of the Fifties or end of the Fourties. And we call it in Dutch "kinderverlamming" (children paralysis). If I have time I will seek it back.
"and one girl at our school (of fewer than 20 pupils) fainted when the nurse came just to talk about it."
Up to my sixties, I had the same phenomenon. Looking to blood (from a human!), especially my own or talking in a hospital about a patient, who was nearly dead because they couldn't reach the hospital in time and when his wife said that his hands became blue, I had to ask for a sit..5 to 10% have it said the doctors to me...But during the one year kidney dialysis I came hardened to it...once the "press" from my shunt was unintentionally set free and it became warm under me...the whole bed and my throusers in blood, even my wallet in the throusers...and I all looked to it, not too disturbed...to the home with a plastic paper on the seat of my car...and then all washing it in cold water, except my wallet...seemingly one can be cured...because it is all in the brain...the brain has a reaction and the bloodpressure decreases and not enough oxygen to the brain and one faint or nearly faint...I learned in the time to lay immediately flat on a bank or on the ground and after some ten minutes it was all over...to be honest I never fainted, but many times cold sweat and a bad feeling in the stomac...
Kind regards from Paul.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 20 Jan 2019, 20:59
I also started school in 1954, Caro. I used to try and hide the letters from the school about getting the various injections but my Mum always found out and I had to have the wretched vaccinations though of course now I understand that it was in my best interests to have them. I linked something about one of the survivors of polio who became a lawyer (though that's not necessarily where you read it of course). I'll link it again (it was on the Tumbleweed Thread I think before). Paul, if I ever knew that you had a niece who died of polio I had forgotten. That's really sad when a person dies young like that. And it sounds as though you have been "through the mill" yourself.
Caro Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Wed 23 Jan 2019, 22:53
I think that's the story I saw, LIR. But not here, I don't think. Paul, it was called infantile paralysis here too, but apparently that was an incorrect description, presumably because it could also affect older people. What I find particularly sad is that people who recovered are now finding in later life that it is affecting them again. It is called post-polio syndrome and its effects according to a site I found include the following:
Unaccustomed fatigue – either rapid muscle tiring or feeling of total body exhaustion
New weakness in muscles, both those originally affected and those seemingly unaffected
Pain in muscles and/or joints
Sleeping problems
Breathing difficulties
Swallowing problems
Decreased ability to tolerate cold temperatures
Decline in ability to conduct customary daily activities such as walking, bathing, etc.
Caro Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 19 May 2019, 05:16
18th May, 1944: Monte Cassino taken by allies after 4 months. My father was at Cassino at the time, but thugh I have some of his letters home, they don't seem to include his time at Cassino. I can't imagine from the tone of his previous letters and his attitudes later that he would have been doing anything heroic. I do recall one argument between him and my grandmother (his mother) with her bemoaning the destruction of the castle and him defending the soldiers' rights to take it. My sister and I, always on my father's side (unless he was asking me to do something I didn't want to), supported its destruction, not something I would do now.
Meles meles Censura
Posts : 5079 Join date : 2011-12-30 Location : Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 19 May 2019, 08:03
Regarding the destruction of Monte Casino ... I believe many of those who were there thought that the aerial bombardment was counter-productive as the resulting rubble created perfect conditions for hidden snipers and entrenched defenders, making the final assault even more difficult. Indeed the abbey, for all its strategic position, was was not initially utilised by the Germans as part of their defensive line across Italy because of General Kesselring's regard for the historical monument. Accordingly during the principal phase of allied bombing there were actually no German troops stationed there at all, and the only casualties were Italian civilians. So if the allies had dropped paratroops rather than bombs on the first day they could probably have taken the site immediately and with negligible damage. It was only after the initial allied bombardment that German paratroopers occupied the monastery as the bombed ruins now provided excellent defensive cover.
The monastery has of course been completely rebuilt. I visited it many years ago and if I didn't know, I wouldn't have recognised it as mostly reconstructed, although that only refers to the buildings: I'm not sure they have ever re-done all the ancient frescos and wall-paintings. However most of the monastery's treasures, art-works and library had already been transferred (with German assistance) to the Vatican prior to the battle and so survived unscathed - although some claim the Germans had actually intended them all to go, as loot, to Germany.
Vizzer Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 15 Jun 2019, 15:01
15 June 1919 - John Alcock and Arthur Brown make the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic.
Setting off on the afternoon of the 14th from St John's, Newfoundland they crash landed in Connemara, Ireland on the morning of the 15th:
The town of Clifden in County Galway is holding a festival to mark the centenary:
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 20 Jul 2019, 09:51
20th July 1969 - mankind landed on the moon for the first time. (Though certain conspiracy theorists would aver 'twas all a hoax).
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Thu 15 Aug 2019, 09:12
Besides being a feast day in the Catholic Church today (15th August) is the anniversary of Indian independence back in 1947. I really only know the "skeleton" version of this momentous event. I don't know if having seen the 1980s Gandhi film counts. If people have read some of my recent(ish) posts they may know I have spent some time thinking about displaced people after World War II. There must have been families who faced upheaval after the partition of the Indian subcontinent into "India" and "Pakistan" when they had to move to abide by the new border. It might be a subject that is worth (just for myself - not necessarily for other persons) doing some background reading about.
Editing because I did some googling about books on the subject of the Indian partition and there are several. I mentioned on another thread some while ago that I had never been tempted to read any of Salman Rushdie's but it seems the Indian partition features in Midnight's Children so maybe I should "give it a whirl".
Green George Censura
Posts : 805 Join date : 2018-10-19 Location : Kingdom of Mercia
Subject: Re: On this day in history Thu 15 Aug 2019, 18:12
I'd be wary of taking Rushdie as reliable. it's fiction, and whilst it may be informed by reality, reality it certainly isn't.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 16 Aug 2019, 08:29
Maybe I'll look for something in the non-fiction line, Gilgamesh. I still have many books in the "to read" pile on diverse subjects so it may take me some time to get around to one on the subject of Indian partition.
PaulRyckier Censura
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Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 23 Aug 2019, 21:21
Green George wrote:
I'd be wary of taking Rushdie as reliable. it's fiction, and whilst it may be informed by reality, reality it certainly isn't.
Gil,
I only wanted to read one book of Rushdie as there was so much fuss about it. The Satanic Verses. Normally I don't read such stuff, but a friend of mine said you have to read it, as perhaps the Muslims are right, it is as if he deliberately is seeking to offend the Muslims and he said also that the book was not "readable". And when starting reading after some pages I already stopped, in a second attempt reading some pages here and there and in my opinion it was all the same stuff...(and I read it even in Dutch translation). It remembers me now about all the stuff that I recently read for this board about Zoroasterianism, links about Sun gods, links of relations with Hindouism and all that. And when (was it) Dirk? started then with Mithrianism, after some research, completely abandonned because my head started to hurt...
Even when we mentioned here: "Je suis Charlie" I had even a double feeling. On one side they hadn't to kill people, but on such cases, there are always stupids, look at the recent Right wing killings, while there is always a stupid exalted mass, with some killers as extremes. But again, the Charley journalistic style was a style of hurting not for a joke, but really for hurting... That said, a stupid mass is easely exited...when the Twin Towers collapsed, my sister and brother in law were in Egypt Sharm el sheik. And the people went to the streets to hail the victory of the Islam on that devilish US monster...
Kind regards from Paul.
Caro Censura
Posts : 1515 Join date : 2012-01-09
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 12 Oct 2019, 05:25
11th October, 1969: HART was formed in New Zealand/Aotearoa. It stood for Halt All Racist Tours, and was formed in response to our rugby tours to South Africa, who forbad Maori men to play in South Africa and then later said they could come as ‘honorary whites’. The main drivers behind this were John Minto and Trevor Richards and Tom Newnham. [url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400822/hart-at-50-anti-apartheid-figures-recall-group-s-impact]HART[/url] Richards later was awarded a New Zealand Queen Service Medal in around 1989 and recently was given South Africa’s highest honour for a foreigner. He has come back to New Zealand three years ago and John Minto is still involved in political issues: somewhere I read he had refused the SA honour that Richards received but the government denied he had been offered it. Tom Newnham was older and died in his 80s in 2010. Wikipedia tells me he spoke Cantonese and Mandarin and helped Chinese immigrants. He was also given a New Zealand honour, a QSM, in 1988.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 12 Oct 2019, 23:05
And yes bringing together communities and trying to ban the memory of past injustice is a difficult task. And this morning there was another link just beneath yours and now is it changed to a "NZ porno maker" This morning it was about the arrival of the Endeavour and the emotions around it. Something nearly the same: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12274473
As I had a thread about Bougainville and Lapérouse, it were a bit the same issues as with Cook. And if I understand it well from the link, the different parties are nearing to each other? The colonial heritage of all the "motherlands" is always a peculiar item in the relationship of the later countries on equal foot. I remember the long exchange with nordmann starting with "Tintin in Congo" from Hergé... Perhaps that the controversies, but each case is different, here in Belgium are now perhaps higher than in the nowadays Congo, the RDC?
Kind regards from Paul.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 22 Nov 2019, 09:06
It's 29 years since Mrs Thatcher left office. I was never a fan of hers but some people must have liked her because she remained Prime Minister for 11 years.
Caro Censura
Posts : 1515 Join date : 2012-01-09
Subject: Re: On this day in history Mon 30 Dec 2019, 03:53
December 28th - 1612, Neptune first sighted by Galileo, thinking it was a fixed star.
1842: First recorded formal game of cricket played in New Zealand/Aotearoa. Cricket is a sore point here at the moment, having been badly beaten twice by Australia.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Tue 31 Dec 2019, 11:09
Interesting Caro.
I've not long watched Sky News where they had a feature of it being 25 years since Putin came to power (the first time) in Russia.
Edit: It may have been 20 years rather than 25 years.
Caro Censura
Posts : 1515 Join date : 2012-01-09
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sat 14 Mar 2020, 21:37
15 March, 2019: the Mosque attack in Christchurch occurred. I remember we were in Invercargill town, and my husband was in a shop and came out and said I should listen to the news. I said it won't be on yet, as it's only 7 minutes to 3. He said this news would be on.
They were to have a memorial service today for it but because of Covid-19 it is not going ahead, despite NZ only having 6 cases of this and all accounted for. Maybe not a bad thing because we have heard on the news that in Islamic culture these events are not commemorated like this, being in everyone's memory all the time. (But what about Ramadam?)
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Sun 15 Mar 2020, 09:07
Hard to believe that it is already a year since the Christchurch mosque attack, Caro. I'm know little of Islamic culture and customs in their finer details despite knowing a few people of that faith - well enough to say 'Hello' to at least. Maybe it is apt, as Caro says, that the anniversary passes off (or passed off if it was yesterday) in a way that would be fitting for those who worship/worshipped at the mosque. It's not a bad thing for NZ to be cautious about Covid-19 even if there have not been many cases of the disease there (at least to date). Better safe than sorry as they say.
Triceratops Censura
Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05
Subject: Re: On this day in history Mon 04 May 2020, 13:03
50 years ago today that this happened:
Priscilla Censura
Posts : 2769 Join date : 2012-01-16
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 08:27
And on this day 75 years ago we celebrated the end if war in Europe. I had not seen my father for five years - and I had to wait another 5 months for this stranger to come back into my life For me it was a rime of uneasy reflection because there would be change and I knew not what. I sense something of the same now. Post pandemic life may vey well be different and I feel a tad uneasy about it.
Meles meles Censura
Posts : 5079 Join date : 2011-12-30 Location : Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 11:24
Yes Priscilla, it is a day to remember, even (maybe perhaps appropriately) in lockdown and under government restrictions.
My father (RAF ground crew) was then 'under lockdown' on Salisbury Plain preparing road vehicles for transport to the continent and was thus, purely by luck, stationed only 50 miles or so from his girlfriend and future wife, that is my mother. So a visit to her was occasionally possible on even a 12 hour pass - bearing in mind she too, living in a key South Coast port, was also locked-down and had her own essential job to do (she was GPO telephonist). My parents first met when he was stationed in the airbase next to her town, so saw each other quite often over a limited period of a few months before he was moved away again - but he didn't get to see his own parents in the north of England, and then only very briefly, for over a year. And as you say, P, for many others, who were on service around the globe, it would be many years before they got their first visit home.
But to come to the present crisis .... like you P, I also feel that we are now somewhat at 'an end of times' and am very uneasy.
The current pandemic is no surprise to me as I've been expecting it for several years, although I was hoping it might hold off for a few years more, or at least until I was retired. But now at least governments and international organisiations are finally waking up to how delicately-balanced and interlaced the world's systems are. While people everywhere are understandably champing at the bit for a relaxation of restrictions, I fear it ain't going to be so easy and that we, all of us globally, will be suffering the effects of this for years to come. It has to be a practical balance between the damage to society by covid-19 deaths and shutdown, and damage to the economy and society as a whole. I cannot see how any 'advanced' economy - and that's basically the whole world now - will ever get back to any sort of old 'normality' in the short term, perhaps not ever, ... other than with the long-proven adage that the rich will get richer and fatter, while the poorer get poorer, then starve and die.
So yes, I too think we are now, in an historic sense, on a very significant cusp or turning point. This will not be over by June, or by Christmas, or even by several years hence, and we all, well most of us, are going to suffer.
But, as at the end of WW2 - with the start ot the British Welfare State, the naissance of the EU and the UN, and the rebound that led to the 'good years' of 50s and 60s (for all their obvious failings too), I do already see some encourgaging signs for the future, with many people and organisations saying, as in 1945: "we can't just go back to how things were before".
EDIT : D'oh... I was a year out regarding my parents. In May 1944 they were both indeed locked down in southern England prior to D-Day. In May 1945 my Dad was stationed at Melsbroek airfield in Belgium but for the night of 8th May he was in Paris on a 48 hour leave pass. He was with his mate Harold, who had been the pianist for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra before the war and so could always improvise a tune if there was an 'old Joanna' at the back of the bar. They seem to have hav a good time for VE night in Paris.
Last edited by Meles meles on Fri 08 May 2020, 18:36; edited 13 times in total (Reason for editing : terrible spelling plus th d'oh moment)
nordmann Nobiles Barbariæ
Posts : 7223 Join date : 2011-12-25
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 11:40
Talking of voluntary self-isolation, May 8th was also the date in 1889 on which Vincent Van Gogh signed himself in to the lunatic asylum at Saint-Paul de Mausole.
Once inside he threw himself into a frenzy of painting as well as an almost daily correspondence with his beloved brother Theo. Five weeks after admitting himself as a patient in the loony bin he wrote to Theo saying that he had just completed a study of the night sky with stars that he wasn't too displeased with (normally he was his own harshest critic and scathing about recently completed work). Then, a week later, he expressed some misgivings about the same painting and hinted that he might actually paint over it as he was running out of canvases. Theo replied that he hoped he wouldn't as he had actually been looking forward to seeing it based on Vincent's earlier description. Vincent thankfully acceded to his brother's wishes and therefore we now have this:
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3301 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 12:09
I don't know about Mr Van Gogh's life in detail. I know the overall story - that he had mental issues or at least was perceived to have them but no specialised knowledge. I've heard that he was one of those artists that was as poor as a church mouse when he lived but his pictures started to sell profitably after his death. Is that correct?
nordmann Nobiles Barbariæ
Posts : 7223 Join date : 2011-12-25
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 14:13
I think he wasn't just perceived to be a bit batty. Even for the Dutch cutting one's own ear off hasn't as yet become a normal activity, at least outside of marijuana bars.
The poverty thing is relative. Compared to many other artists of his ilk he was actually doing reasonably ok, which admittedly wasn't all that distinguishable from church mice status (who also rarely starve to death but hardly live the high life either). Theo made sure his brother got commissions and got paid for them. Lunatic asylums aren't cheap you know!
Priscilla Censura
Posts : 2769 Join date : 2012-01-16
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 15:04
And today I am touched by the display in our road with bunting flags. set tea tables and plans for trumpets - and even playing of an all clear siren next door.
I am still not comfortable with air raid siren wails...… 5 years beneath a bomb run from Europe, and the over shootingof doodle bugs and high up V2's was constant. I slept in shelters, cellars, under stairs and even in the open many, many times. Even at five I knew to put out the gas and lights and cover the fire with damp ash that we always had there for it.Educated in shelters with few books and no resources but the talents of excellent teachers was not to get much better for some time. Even now I can tell by sounds of several aircraft of the time... including enemy ones that take part in air shows or perhaps filming. They flew low in those days, following the rivers - even deep inland up the Thames. I saw them once over Hurley - and if had but they had known - even we didn't at that time, Eisenhower and others were planning D Day there. We knew some of the US guards there but had no idea of what was going on. just a mile across the farm fields Recent contact with family of one of the guards has been exchanged, in fact. All this experience was to hold me in good stead for a rather exciting life abroad.
Tonight as our road celebrates I shall wear my father's medals right and my own, left. We have a quickly made and a bit tacky union jack on the door - as ever, Mr Nordmann, muddling through. I was raised on it; survival often depends upon it.
PaulRyckier Censura
Posts : 4902 Join date : 2012-01-01 Location : Belgium
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 15:15
Meles meles wrote:
Quote :
I cannot see how any 'advanced' economy - and that's basically the whole world now - will ever get back to any sort of old 'normality' in the sort term, perhaps not ever ... other than with the long-proven adage that the rich will get richer and fatter, while the poorer get poorer, then starve and die.
Quote :
But, as at the end of WW2 - with the start ot the British Welfare State, the naissance of the EU and the UN, and the rebound that led to the 'good years' of 50s and 60s (for all their obvious failings too), I do already see some encourgaging signs for the future, with many people and organisations saying, as in 1945: "we can't just go back to how things were before".
MM, I am glad that you ended with the positive note of the British Welfare state, the EU and the UN. The EU had already a forebode in London 1944 with the Benelux. (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg) and they adopted broadly the Beveridge Report as did Britain.
I am not that pessimist over the time after Covid, once the "vaccin" is there, I suppose there will be a quick recovery. But I agree nothing will be as before qua organisation of the society. I just hope that there will be no stronger invasion on our privacy and on the way we are organizing our individual life.
I hope that there will be lessons learned from the pandemic...
And perhaps there will be shown now loud and clear to everybody as in the US, where the Covid death rate of the average poorer black population is two times higher than those of the white one.
Also lessons that the "rich" when push comes to shove need the assistance from the broader population, especially of the care centers. Bojo was only but a little bit better in the NHS than the poor streetworker from the corner?
And perhaps yes as you say a bit more global cooperation as we saw recently a call from the EU by the head of the "Commission" Ursual von Der Leyen.
PS: I haven't a memory from WWII. My earliest is from 1948. But I have heard that much from my parents and their inner circle that it was nearly as if I was there. But my remembrance of the liberation in 1944 is and will not be I guess the same as the end of the Covid pandemic. It was nearly immediatley business as usual. Perhaps a bit difficulties between the so-called "good" ones and those, who had a war "past". They called it overhere "de Repressie/la Répression"
Kind regards, Paul.
Green George Censura
Posts : 805 Join date : 2018-10-19 Location : Kingdom of Mercia
Subject: Re: On this day in history Fri 08 May 2020, 15:58
If the climate change predictions are anything like correct, covid-19 is likely to prove the merest bagatelle with what we face in the next couple of decades - if, that is, I live to see them.
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