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Friday
Apr 6, 2012
According to The Great War and Modern Memory, the following postcard was the first instantiation of the ubiquitous modern form.
to History by fool
Friday
Mar 19, 2010
What happened to memepool?
to History by crikey
Tuesday
Apr 25, 2006
On the moring of April 26th, 1986, V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station had a major accident in it's number 4 reactor. We still aren't sure what the total damage was, but it looks like the evacuated area around the site would make a nice park.
to History by caspian
Thursday
Apr 20, 2006
I've always been skeptical of people who list participate in reenactments as a hobby. I guess I just don't see the point in spending my weekend doing something unpleasant like reliving the Civil War -- without the undesirable food, inadequate shelter, and debilitating battlefield diseases and injuries, of course. I suppose it's preferable to a lot of other ways to spend a weekend. I find a lot more value reenacting happier moments we have witnessed that are worth remembering and re-creating.
to History by rich
Monday
Mar 27, 2006
The Historic American Buildings Survey and Historic American Engineering Record is a project which documents historic landmarks, as well as structures which are likely to be demolished or lost due to neglect. Slowly they are putting their documents online at the Library of Congress. It seems that structures are often documented just before they are demolished with some support from the owners, perhaps as a condition of permitting.
to History by shadow
Saturday
Mar 25, 2006
On March 26, 2006, VH1 will air the music video for Nena's "99 Red Balloons" continuously from 2pm EST to 3pm EST. The song, originally recorded in 1983 as a Cold War protest by German pop singer Nena, tells the story of 99 red balloons floating in the air on a summer's day which are mistaken for a Soviet first strike. Coincidentally, on March 23, we just celebrated the anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's famed 1983 "Star Wars" speech in which he called for "the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete." I wonder if the Great Communicator preferred the English or the German version.
to History by rich
Thursday
Jan 26, 2006
Plan 59 presents a gallery of terrifying spokeschildren and child mascots from the '50s. Aieee!
to History by riotnrrd
Friday
Dec 9, 2005
Henry 'Box' Brown's life story brings entire new meaning to the phrase living in a box.
to History by fool
Tuesday
Nov 15, 2005
Learn more about everybody's favorite creepy vaudville genre: the ventriloquism act.
to History by riotnrrd
Friday
Nov 4, 2005
Looking like something out of a steampunk novel, the Maunsell Army Sea Forts were built to help protect the Thames from aircraft during WWII. Only two clusters of the multi-building forts remain, so if you live in England you should take a boat tour of these fascinating old ruins before they're gone forever.
to History by riotnrrd
Wednesday
Apr 13, 2005
Typewriters (and their keyboards) seem like such a simple and obvious invention. Yet how do you deal with a non-alphabetic language? You become extremely creative.
to History by riotnrrd
Tuesday
Apr 12, 2005
Check out the gams on that broad, daddy-o! Vintage Girl Wactchers takes you back in time to the 50's when dames were dames and men were creepy sexual predators.
to History by riotnrrd
Friday
Mar 4, 2005
During the Cold War, Canada developed a device called the "Fruit Machine" to root out homosexuals from public service positions. This is not to be confused with the Fruit Fucker.
to History by isosceles
Thursday
Mar 3, 2005
Become as strong as a Marine! Learn meat-cutting at home in your spare time! Make money with hamsters!
to History by riotnrrd
Thursday
Feb 24, 2005
When wealthy plantation owner Julien Poydras died, he left legacies all over Louisiana, including money for a college and an orphanage. Though both of those are gone, he is still remembered for a peculiar endowment to the people of Pointe Coupee Parish. He originally emigrated to Louisiana because of a broken heart. The girl he loved could not marry him because her family had no money for a dowry. Upon his death, he gave a sum of money "[to] be given to all the girls ... who get the chance of being married, and those who are in pitiable circumstances shall always be given the preference." In addition to a recent NPR story, this appears to have inspired at least one film.
to History by yoyology
Friday
Jan 21, 2005
Once, it was the most terrifying encryption device in the world, now it's just another PDF.
to History by riotnrrd
Thursday
Jan 20, 2005
There were many ways in which slaves in the pre-Civil War South attempted escape. Henry "Box" Brown accomplished one of the most elegant. With the help of a white shoemaker, Henry simply shipped himself to Philadelphia in a large packing crate. Later, he became a celebrated abolitionist speaker, and published his autobiography.
to History by yoyology
Monday
Jul 26, 2004
Oh, the horror! The sweet, sweet horror!
to History by yoyology
Thursday
May 13, 2004
I do not consider this erotica, nor do I understand the urge to collect such relics, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
to History by pyrrhuloxia
Sunday
May 2, 2004
Fly the abandoned skies, with this guide to abandoned airports around the United States.
to History by riotnrrd
Friday
Feb 27, 2004
This site about presidents is perhaps not as complete as some, but it has an interesting a well documented accounting of which presidents were distant cousins.
to History by keith
Thursday
Feb 26, 2004
If you consider yourself to be a budding Svankmeyer or Quay brother (or just another goth who needs some home decor), steer your barouche over to the Victorian Taxidermy Company Limited, and peruse their stuffed and mounted wares.
to History by riotnrrd
Monday
Jan 26, 2004
Alternate histories bring wonderful premises, like the dream dollars of the lost colony of Nadira, or the Victorian automatons: Boilerplate (sometimes a soldier), the Electric man, the Steam man, and the Automatic man.
to History by isosceles
Friday
Dec 5, 2003
"All hair lasts forever and can be handed down limitlessly to future generations where autographs fade through the years especially if exposed to sun light."
to History by fatherdan
Wednesday
Nov 19, 2003
Footwear of the Middle Ages: Tools, Terms, Styles, and Shaping.
to History by yoyology
Tuesday
Sep 16, 2003
Smash the state, old school style, with this collection of historical anarchist texts.
to History by riotnrrd
Monday
Sep 15, 2003
Take a trip down a very nerdy memory lane by browsing through this huge archive of computer magazines from the 80's.
to History by riotnrrd
Thursday
Sep 11, 2003
Don't worry. The University of Minnesota's collection of old social hygiene posters will help you navigate life's difficult situations.
to History by riotnrrd
Wednesday
Aug 20, 2003
You can build your own version of an early mechanical television.
to History by gator
Wednesday
May 28, 2003
In celebration of the big anniversary, folks are going all-out. TV specials, charity events, extreme sports, even multi-anniversary combinations. But why bother to climb the big rock when you can see the view online?
to History by yoyology
Monday
Apr 14, 2003
Out of the complete collection of 2,300 Japanese Historical Maps now held at UC Berkeley's East Asian Library, just over 100 are available online. 29 of those have been integrated with current GIS data for Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.
to History by yoyology
Thursday
Mar 27, 2003
Just to show that there's nothing new under the sun, Samuel Pepys is republishing his 17th Century diary as a weblog.
to History by yoyology
Monday
Feb 24, 2003
Why bother fighting Iraq when we can just as well attack someone we know we can beat?
Pourquoi prenez la peine de combattre l'Irak quand nous pouvons aussi bien attaquer quelqu'un nous nous connaissons pouvons battre?
to History by yoyology
Wednesday
Feb 12, 2003
Gay Stamp Collecting does not necessarily mean that the philatelists are gay, only that the subjects on the stamps are.
to History by yoyology
Tuesday
Dec 10, 2002
This past week in Washington, the U.S. Navy announced it would name CVN-77, the tenth and last Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be built, after George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, decorated naval aviator, one-time CIA director, Commander-in-Chief during Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama, and Operation Desert Storm, and alleged war criminal. Meanwhile, in Oslo, Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, one-time peanut farmer, and architect of the Camp David Peace Accords, the SALT II nuclear weapons control treaty, and the Panama Canal Treaty, accepted the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, 'for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.'
to History by rich
Tuesday
Oct 8, 2002
The phrase "race riot" may bring up images of Watts, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, or a host of other places, but most people would not think of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1921, Tulsa's prosperous Greenwood neighborhood was called "The Black Wall Street". In June of that year, black residents rose up to resist an imminent lynching, and white Tulsans responded by burning Greenwood to the ground. Though many in Tulsa would like to forget, the repercussions are still being felt.
to History by yoyology
Tuesday
Oct 1, 2002
Best known for his system, Melvil Dewey (or Dui) essentially created the profession of librarianship, giving us an association, a publication, and an education. However, he does have his detractors.
to History by yoyology
Thursday
Aug 29, 2002
In Ambrose Bierce's entry in the Devil's Dictionary for trial we find that: "In 1451 a suit was brought against the leeches infesting some ponds about Berne, and the Bishop of Lausanne, instructed by the faculty of Heidelberg University, directed that some of 'the aquatic worms' be brought before the local magistracy. This was done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered to leave the places that they had infested within three days on pain of incurring 'the malediction of God.'"
to History by fool
Monday
Aug 26, 2002
Leni Riefenstahl, who gained notoriety for her films made for the Nazis, recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Although her public image has softened over time she still has to face up to her association with the Third Reich.
to History by lucky
Tuesday
Aug 6, 2002
From Creationism to Evolution, everyone has their own big damn idea about how it all began.
to History by fatherdan
Friday
Jun 28, 2002
The Beale Papers have been pondered and perused by some of the best cryptographers of the past century or so. They have also been hotly debated by others. Some claim thet they were a hoax, but others claim to have found the treasure that the encrypted letters point to.
to History by caspian
Thursday
Jun 13, 2002
Ned Kelly: 19th century bushranger, Australian hero/antihero, and creator of a really cool-looking bulletproof suit.
to History by fatherdan
Tuesday
May 14, 2002
Looks like I'm descended from Charlemagne. And so are you.
to History by isosceles
Monday
Apr 29, 2002
Tired of reading the same old World War Two textbooks? Boring. That is, until you throw in Superpowers!
to History by cyberpyro
Monday
Apr 15, 2002
The ETA Systems ETA 10 was the only commercial liquid-nitrogen-cooled computer. Both the LN2-cooled and the later air-cooled models generated plenty of memories
to History by gator
Wednesday
Mar 6, 2002
Dino Kingdom Nakasato showcases dinosaur fossils from a small village in southern Japan, including footprints and the amazing Mongolian fighting dinosaurs!
to History by riotnrrd
Tuesday
Feb 19, 2002
Margaret Sanger, feminist icon and the founder of Planned Parenthood is usually accorded unquestioned respect and praise. However, she was also a crypto-racist supporter of eugenics who championed sweeping sterilization laws. Naturally, these views have been downplayed by abortion supporters and exaggerated by abortion foes, but should be kept in mind before handing out awards in her name.
to History by riotnrrd
Wednesday
Feb 13, 2002
Sir John A. Macdonald, commonly known as "Sir John Eh?", was the first prime minister of Canada, and as "colorful" a politician as you could wish on your worst enemy. Drunken, corrupt, and immensely popular, he held office from 1865 to 1873 until his administration was felled by scandal.
to History by riotnrrd
Tuesday
Jan 22, 2002
Most digit displays today are vacuum fluorescents, 7-segment LEDs, and LCDs. In the good old days, though, there were a variety of vacuum display devices, including the dekatron counter/display, and the nixie tube. DIY hardware hackers are still building clocks with them today.
to History by gator
Monday
Jan 21, 2002
Sometimes I think that the Soviets gave a medal for just about everything.
to History by cadastral
Saturday
Jan 19, 2002
Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority... but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of providence, determined still to do our best to the last ... Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale... Robert Falcon Scott, 1912
to History by cadastral
Sunday
Jan 6, 2002
Sure, sure, we've all heard about planespotting, but wreckchasing, or "Aviation Archaeology" seems more my speed.
to History by gator
What do a witch (Elizabeth Blanchard Garlick), a bitch (Lizzie Grubman), and electromagnetic mind control and the manipulation of space and time (Camp Hero) have in common? They're all linked to The Hamptons -- a series of affluent beachfront communities on the south shore of Long Island. Believe it or not.
to History by rich
Wednesday
Dec 26, 2001
"My great-great-great-great-great granddad came over on the Mayflower." "Big deal. My great-great-great-great-great granddad killed him."
to History by fatherdan
Friday
Dec 21, 2001
What would Abraham Lincoln want to say to us today?
to History by tregoweth
Wednesday
Nov 21, 2001
Apparently, the Dixie Apparel Company and Dixie Outfitters create clothes that stress pride in one's Southern heritage without seeming "rednecky." And a proud heritage it is.
to History by fatherdan
Friday
Nov 9, 2001
Utility owners often request that you call before you dig in order to prevent backhoe fade and other accidents. Though some of these accidents are horrible, they can't compare in magnitude with the time a Texaco rig accidentally drilled a hole from Lake Peigneur into the top of a Diamond Crystal salt mine. The entire lake drained into the mine in a matter of hours.
to History by gator
Wednesday
Oct 31, 2001
Lena Sjööblom, Playboy Playmate from November 1972, has accidentally become one of the most recognized faces in the field of computer imaging. (Take that, Danni Ashe.) Originally scanned over 25 years ago at the University of Southern California for use in the testing and comparison of different compression algorithms, use of this picture spread, and it soon became a standard benchmark. What does Lena herself think? She's confused but amused. What does Playboy think? At first upset by the use of their copyrighted image, they soon realized that it did no harm (and gained them lots of free publicity). Not surprisingly, however, there has been some controversy on the politics of using porn images in a heavily male-dominated field.
to History by riotnrrd
Sunday
Oct 28, 2001
"The Elephant House" is more appropriately described as "The Elegant House." A worthy domicile for Mr. Joseph Merrick, who, despite his grotesque appearance, could be described as "beautiful" in terms of refinement, intellect, and grace.
to History by fatherdan
Wednesday
Oct 24, 2001
Workable and unworkable perpetual motion machines.
to History by fool
Friday
Oct 19, 2001
What does Afghanistan have in common with Haiti, Japan, Zaire, Germany, China and the rest of the world?
to History by nucleus
Thursday
Oct 11, 2001
The Association of Lincoln Presenters is a union of men and women dedicated to bringing Abraham and Mary Lincoln to life. "We are ready, willing, and Abe L."
to History by tregoweth
Wednesday
Sep 26, 2001
Time was when all that stood between you and radioactive fallout were the gallant, white-helmeted men of the Civil Defense.
to History by fatherdan
Wednesday
Sep 5, 2001
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who would help us remember the past pretend to re-enact it.
to History by monde
Thursday
May 24, 2001
Next time your grandpa regales you with immigration stories, why not check up and see if he REALLY came through Ellis Island?
to History by che
Saturday
May 12, 2001
Ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. ALL their dead. Ergo, they also turned their beloved pets and sacred animals into mummies. Adopt one today!
to History by wheezer
Monday
Apr 30, 2001
As we head towards a future where cloning and genetic engineering will be a reality, it is important that we remind ourselves about our past, particularly the American Eugenics Movement.
to History by kade
Wednesday
Apr 18, 2001
Divorced, beheaded, died - Divorced, beheaded, survived. Intermarriage & infidelity certainly make a royal geneology interesting.
to History by lampbane
Wednesday
Mar 28, 2001
Picturephone was the 1960's vision of today's web cam world.
to History by gen
Monday
Mar 5, 2001
I find modern ruins -- fairly recent buildings abandoned and neglected -- absolutely fascinating. There are ruins of industry, such as an abandoned Alcoa plant in New Jersey, a former insane asylum, or the old Carrie Furnaces in Rankin, Pa. There are the ruins on the water, such as the 1950's stately ocean liner, the U.S.S. United States, or Bannerman's Island, in the Hudson River. There are also ruins of towns, such as Centralia, Pa., noted for the mine fire that's been burning underneath it since 1961, or the equally infamous Love Canal, NY.
to History by moose
Wednesday
Feb 14, 2001
"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realised. But if needs be, my lord, it is an ideal for which I am ready to die." Nelson Mandela (RealAudio) at the Rivonia trial, 20 April 1964, before he was sentenced to life in prison.
to History by gen
Monday
Jan 29, 2001
The phone phreaks amongst us will love this uber-complete History of the Phone Company, which also happens to be the first web page I've seen thats nice enough to make me want to order a copy of it on CD-ROM.
to History by mrbill
Wednesday
Jan 10, 2001
In 1942, Bell Labs built a digital encrypted speech transmission system with one-time-pads stored on 16" records.
to History by gator
Sunday
Dec 24, 2000
Ghost Dog is an entertaining, sometimes poetic movie about an inner-city Mafia hitman who follows the Samurai code, as he understands it from Yamamoto Tsunetomo's 1716 book Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai. But Bushido (the way of the warrior) was an idealization, not a reality, and even scholars in Tsunetomo's time questioned the worth of warrior advice from someone who had never personally seen combat. So why has this collection of hypothetical advice become so popular with the influential? Could it be because Tsunetomo joins the ranks of Confucius, Plato and countless other upper-class writers who propose that the most noble act a lower-class person can perform is to obey superiors without question, even if it means death?
to History by cricket
Friday
Dec 22, 2000
The Eastern Sierra doesn't usually make the list of places to see in California, but it is worth a visit. Camping is free on BLM land, and theAlabama Hills and Lone Pine still serve as Hollywood's wild west. The area is also home to the more controversial aspects of California's past. The Manzanar internment camp still stands, and the bitter, sometimes violent, fights over water rights in Calfornia started here. Owens Valley, now part of the City of Los Angeles, no longer has a lake , but continues to have health problems due to the particles of arsenic, cadmium and other toxins swept from the parched lakebed during windstorms.
to History by birgitte
Monday
Dec 11, 2000
So, a revolution overthrows the current regime and is replaced by a military dictator who brutally enforces a misguided economic regime, promoting suffering and eliminating human rights until he gets kicked out by the will of the people. Communist Russia? Nope, Laissez-Faire Chile.
to History by mpc
Tuesday
Dec 5, 2000
The Hanford Site spent most of the cold war war producing plutonium and uranium for the US Nuclear weapons program. After a both productive and checkered past, it is now among the most polluted sites on the planet. Millions of gallons of radioactive and toxic waste are stored in 177 enormous underground tanks. 149 of these tanks have only one shell, and many of the tanks are leaking waste plumes into ground near the Columbia River. Tank 106-C had so much strontium 90 in it that it would regularly heat up and require cooling water, though it's a bit better now, even if it may still give off flammable gases. The DOE has documented some of the site's history and some of the lessons learned during the cleanup in their extensive website. Unfortunately, not all is well at Hanford, and the Government Accountability Project has also had to document other facets of the site's history. The Tri-City Herald also has an archive of local news about the Hanford cleanup.
to History by gator
Tuesday
Oct 3, 2000
Great CGI of what the seven wonders of the ancient world probably looked like in their prime. Best of all, most of the images support 3-D glasses.
to History by skallas
Thursday
Sep 28, 2000
Wong Fei-Hung was a Chinese healer, martial artist, and genuine folk hero of the late 19th and early 20th century who is also the father of modern Hung-Gar kung fu. Kwan Tak-Hing portrayed him in hundreds of movies. More recently, he has been seen in films such as Once Upon a Time in China (where Jet Li kicks the crap out of Americans exploiting China) and Drunken Master II (where Jackie Chan kicks the crap out of Brits exploiting China).
to History by nyarl
Sunday
Jun 18, 2000
If you're ever planning a wedding, you might try something beyond the traditional and have a Roman ceremony.
to History by laurel
Monday
May 1, 2000
Early in the 19th century, a young German man named Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg. Initally taken to prison, it was eventually discovered that, for reasons unknown, he had been kept in a dark dungeon since early childhood, and denied any senosry input or human contact. Conspiracy theories were as popular then as they are now, and it was a belief of many that he was the the lost son of the Grand Duke of Baden, hidden away by political rivals. Passing from caretaker to caretaker, Kaspar eventually learned to read and speak, and became a celebrity; famous not only for his mysterious origin, but also for his innocence and "christ-like compassion". At the age of 21, however, he was assissinated and his true origins never discovered. His story lives on, though, in a recent play as well a movie by Werner Herzog.
to History by riotnrrd
Happy May Day!
to History by boneyard
Sunday
Apr 30, 2000
HyperHistory Online is an interesting way to look at an overview of history. It may lack a little bit of depth in quite a number of places, but it's got quite a lot of breadth.
to History by keith
Sunday
Apr 23, 2000
From the 1932 until the end of WWII, The Japanese ran Manchuria as a puppet state known as Manchukuo; under the figurehead reign of Pu Yi, Manchukuo had most of the trappings of a real state, including a postal system, currency, and railway system
to History by mpc
Sunday
Mar 19, 2000
Wright Brothers 2003TM: This time, it's personal.TM
to History by tregoweth
Tuesday
Mar 7, 2000
Pittsburgh native son Grady Stiles II (aka The Lobster Boy), like many other members of his family, was born with malformed hands and legs and was raised as a circus freak, travelling around the United States in some of the biggest carnivals from the '40s through the '80s. He eventually married and and had four children, but when one of his daughters tried to elope with a boyfriend of whom he did not approve, Grady shot the man dead at point blank range. Amazingly, the courts did not jail him for committing this murder, and for the rest of his life the Lobster Boy abused and terrorized his family. So chronic was his abuse that in 1992 his wife and one of the children eventually hired a hitman who killed Grady as he sat in his trailer in Gibsonton, Florida.
to History by riotnrrd
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive is a pretty astonishing repository of information. They have biographies of hundreds of mathematicians and an index of famous curves (the mathematical kind). Read all about Einstein or the circle.
to History by keith
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