Today is the anniversary of the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. The event was precipitated by the conflict between the Roman Catholic king and emperor and the Protestant nobility and gentry. At a meeting to try to resolve the issue, two of the Catholic regents, Count Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice and Count Vilem Slavata of Chlum, together with their secretary, Philip Fabricius, were thrown out the window of the Bohemian Chancery by Protestants led by Count von Thurn.
they survived the 70-foot (21-metre) fall from the third floor. Catholics maintained the men were saved by angels or by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who caught them; later Protestant pamphleteers asserted that they survived due to falling onto a dung heap, a story unknown to contemporaries and probably coined in response to divine intervention claims. Philip Fabricius was later ennobled by the Emperor and granted the title Baron von Hohenfall (literally ‘Baron of Highfall’).
The event precipitated the 30 Years’ War, one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%.
On this day in 1892, toothpaste was first sold in a collapsible tube by dentist Washington Wentworth Sheffield. Sheffield was an American dental surgeon best known for inventing modern toothpaste in the 1870s. With the help of his son Lucius T. Sheffield, he was also the first to sell the paste in collapsible tubes. He was considered one of the most skilled dentists in New England and the United States, making important contributions to the fields of dentistry and dental surgery.
Sheffield conceived of a ready-made tooth crème in the mid-1870s and was using it on his patients with great praise from them. To this crème, he added various extracts of mints that left a very pleasing taste in the mouth of his patients which caused them to request samples of the toothpaste. Initially, Sheffield was making toothpaste batches at his dental office at the corner of State Street and Green Street in New London, Connecticut. Demand grew rapidly and he was forced to build a laboratory and manufacturing facility behind his residence.
Sheffield and his son called this product “Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Angelique Dentifrice”. This product was the first toothpaste and it was sold in collapsible tubes. In 1986, the company was purchased by the Faria family, who continue to operate in New London, Connecticut. In 2016, Sheffield began distribution in China of its Dr. Sheffield’s brand toothpaste.
Debra has thoughts about…dolls.
voodoo dolls…
Juxtaposition can be weird…
Thanks, Bob!
Today is the birthday, in 1950, of Bernie Taupin, English lyricist, poet, and singer and Elton John’s long-time song writing partner. Rod Stewart, Cher, The Motels, John Waite, Starship and Alice Cooper have all recorded his songs. In 1967, Taupin answered an advertisement placed in the UK music paper New Musical Express by Liberty Records, a company that was seeking new songwriters, Elton John responded to the advertisement, and the pair were brought together. Taupin wrote the lyrics for “Rocket Man”, “Levon”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Honky Cat”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Candle in the Wind”, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”, “Bennie and the Jets”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”, “The Bitch is Back”, “Daniel”, and 1970’s “Your Song”, their first hit. Hits in the 1980s include “I’m Still Standing”, “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues”, “Sad Songs”, and “Nikita”. In the 1990s, Taupin and John had more hits, including “The One”, “Simple Life”, “The Last Song”, “Club at the End of the Street” and “Believe”. In September 1997, Taupin rewrote the lyrics of “Candle in the Wind” for “Candle in the Wind 1997”, a tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf2Te1IfjuA
On this day in 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross after learning of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1869, she went to Europe and became involved in the work of the International Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian War. She was determined to bring the organization to America.
The Red Cross was not her only accomplishment. In her early life she was an educator. While teaching in Hightstown, New Jersey, Barton learned about the lack of public schools in Bordentown, the neighboring city. In 1852, she was contracted to open a free school in Bordentown, which was the first ever free school in New Jersey. She was successful, and after a year she had hired another woman to help teach over 600 people. Both women were making $250 a year. This accomplishment compelled the town to raise nearly $4,000 for a new school building. Once it was completed, Barton was replaced as principal by a man elected by the school board. They saw the position as head of a large institution to be unfitting for a woman.
In 1855, she moved to Washington, D.C., and began work as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office; this was the first time a woman had received a substantial clerkship in the federal government and at a salary equal to a man’s salary. For three years, she received much abuse and slander from male clerks.[12] Subsequently, under political opposition to women working in government offices, her position was reduced to that of copyist.
She provided medical care and nursing support to Union Soldiers during the Civil War. She was known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” after she came to the aid of the overwhelmed surgeon on duty following the battle of Cedar Mountain in Northern Virginia in August 1862. She arrived at a field hospital at midnight with a large number of supplies to help the severely wounded soldiers. This naming came from her frequent timely assistance as she served troops at the battles of Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Charleston, Petersburg and Cold Harbor.
After the end of the American Civil War, Barton discovered that thousands of letters from distraught relatives to the War Department were going unanswered because the soldiers they were asking about were buried in unmarked graves. She established and ran the Office of Missing Soldiers, at 437 ½ Seventh Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Gallery Place neighborhood. The office’s purpose was to find or identify soldiers killed or missing in action. Barton and her assistants wrote 41,855 replies to inquiries and helped locate more than 22,000 missing men.
On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. The Act offered 160 acres of surveyed Federal Land to any US citizen or intended citizen who paid a small filing fee and lived on and cultivated the land for five years.
In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km2; 250 thousand sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, were given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 ended homesteading; by that time, federal government policy had shifted to retaining control of western public lands. The only exception to this new policy was in Alaska, for which the law allowed homesteading until 1986.
Elizabeth (Betty) Clouse-Smith was the last woman homesteader to successfully prove up land in her own name. She was among a group of people, including her son William J. Smith, who filed for homestead west of Big Delta, Alaska. On October 18, 1984, she received a patent for her 116-acre claim (47 ha).
The last claim under this Act was made by Ken Deardorff for 80 acres (32 ha) of land on the Stony River in southwestern Alaska. He fulfilled all requirements of the homestead act in 1979 but did not receive his deed until May 1988. He is the last person to receive a title to land claimed under the Homestead Acts.
Henry Holm’s sod house in Custer Country, Nebraska. Library of Congress
BADA BING!
The new Pope has a degree in mathematics from Villanova. This guy doesn’t just understand sin. He understands cos and tan.
You can either expect me to work well with other or pass a drug test. But not both.
Trump accuses Librarian of Congress of having pro-book bias.
I’ve decided my body is not a temple; it’s a haunted house! It’s slowly falling apart, makes weird noises, and contains the spirit of an old man who’s always mad at something.
Two Irishmen were in a graveyard. Paddy reads a gravestone and says, “This guy was 95 when he died!” “Who was it?” the Mick asks. “Somebody named O’Toole from Kerry,” Paddy replies. Mick says, “Never mind him. There’s a feller here called Murphy who was 102 when he died! From Castletown. “Well that’s nothing!” says Paddy. “This chaps stone says 147!” “147? That’s amazing!” says Mick. “Who was he?” “According to the stone, its somebody called Miles from Dublin!”
Tablets were replaced by scrolls, and scrolls were replaced by books. Now we scroll through books on tablets. Times change.
I’m officially at the age where everything that feels like only a couple years ago was actually a couple decades ago.
Old age has come at a terrible time, just as I was starting to know it all, I’m now forgetting everything I knew.
Many top scientists are on the autism spectrum. So technically, autism causes vaccines.
I’d picked up lots of skills during all my years at work, but learning when I shouldn’t make sarcastic comments is not one of them.
Be with someone who gives you the same feelings you get when you see your food coming at a restaurant.
I still can’t believe Aldi sells shopping carts for $.25. I’ve got 8 of them now but don’t really have a use for them. But it’s just to good a deal to pass up.
I asked my wife if she loved me for my face or my body. She laughed and said it was for my sense of humor.
There should be a summer camp for adults where you just go and sleep for 2 weeks.
Last week I walked into a revolving door and just kept going. I did four laps before I realized what was going on.
Today is the birthday, in 1944, of Joe Cocker, English singer and musician who had the 1968 UK No.1 single with his cover of The Beatles With a Little Help from My Friends, plus he had 8 other UK Top 40 singles and appeared at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. He scored the 1982 US No.1 single with Jennifer Warnes ‘Up Where We Belong’. In 2007 he was awarded a bronze Sheffield Legends plaque in his hometown and in 2008 he received an OBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. Cocker died of lung cancer on 22 December 2014 in Crawford, Colorado. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgwrdYUQ2A
On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded. She was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation. The King’s determination to end his marriage with Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn led directly to the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.
As Queen, Anne gave birth to one daughter, who would become Elizabeth I, but, to Henry’s exasperation, and despite several miscarriages, did not produce a male heir. Henry became infatuated with his new favorite, Jane Seymour and soon Anne was arrested and charged with treason and adultery.
She was found guilty and condemned to death. Henry commuted Anne’s sentence from burning to beheading, and rather than have a queen beheaded with the common axe, he brought an expert swordsman from Saint-Omer in France to perform the execution.
On the morning of Friday 19 May, Anne was taken to a scaffold erected on the north side of the White Tower. She wore a red petticoat under a loose, dark grey gown of damask trimmed in fur, and a mantle of ermine. The ermine mantle was removed, and Anne lifted off her headdress and tucked her hair under a coif. After a brief farewell to her weeping ladies and a request for prayers, she knelt down; one of the ladies tied a blindfold over Anne’s eyes. She knelt upright, in the French style of beheadings. Her final prayer consisted of her continually repeating, “Jesu receive my soul; O Lord God have pity on my soul.”
Possibly, this is not exactly true…
Cats back then…
Today is the birthday, in 1947, of Greg Herbert, from jazz-rock American music group Blood Sweat & Tears. They scored the 1969 US No.2 single ‘Spinning Wheel’, and the 1969 US No.12 single ‘You’ve Made Me So Very Happy’. They had a US No.1 with their second album Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1968. Herbert died of an accidental drug overdose 31st January 1977. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK62tfoCmuQ
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