My friend here has quite a few videos of his memories and this is typical of them, wonderful stuff...
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
15.6.11
Rocky Marciano and Three Knockouts
This is a YouTube video from an online friend of mine who is a boxing fan. There are not many people around who talk about having been to classic boxing matches in the 1940's/1950's and have a perfect recollection of it.
My friend here has quite a few videos of his memories and this is typical of them, wonderful stuff...
My friend here has quite a few videos of his memories and this is typical of them, wonderful stuff...
9.6.11
A WW1 Soldiers Letter To His Sweetheart - On Display At Galway Museum..
This was a post I made on a forum I frequent - back a few months ago...I think it deserves a reposting here..
While roaming around Galway museum we (Mrs Doug and myself) found this..
What looked like a service manual for radiators or something was sitting on a shelf, it had a black cover, and no writing to say it was anything important, and it wasnt inside a cabinet or anything...just randomly left on a shelf....I didnt pay it much attention as I went by it.....but I looked back a couple of minutes later and 'Mrs Doug' was reading through it...she called me over to show me what was inside...a soldiers* letter to his sweetheart in 1918....they were both from Galway, but he had found himself injured from battle in a hospital in Egypt, and she had found herself in America, the reason why she was in America wasnt clear, but it appears it is temporary..
*he was a member of The Connaught Rangers ("the Devil's Own") - an Irish Regiment of the British Army during WW1.
...anyhoo....this is hardly readable...due to batteries having died on my good camera and this was snapped with our crappy little point and shoot thing...this isn't readable so i have re-typed what it says...and i think it is very much worth reading.
This was donated to the museum by the grandson of the couple...they eventually married and settled back home in Galway after the war ended.
(to read what it says and the rest of the post click on the 'read more' link below..)
.
While roaming around Galway museum we (Mrs Doug and myself) found this..
What looked like a service manual for radiators or something was sitting on a shelf, it had a black cover, and no writing to say it was anything important, and it wasnt inside a cabinet or anything...just randomly left on a shelf....I didnt pay it much attention as I went by it.....but I looked back a couple of minutes later and 'Mrs Doug' was reading through it...she called me over to show me what was inside...a soldiers* letter to his sweetheart in 1918....they were both from Galway, but he had found himself injured from battle in a hospital in Egypt, and she had found herself in America, the reason why she was in America wasnt clear, but it appears it is temporary..
*he was a member of The Connaught Rangers ("the Devil's Own") - an Irish Regiment of the British Army during WW1.
...anyhoo....this is hardly readable...due to batteries having died on my good camera and this was snapped with our crappy little point and shoot thing...this isn't readable so i have re-typed what it says...and i think it is very much worth reading.
This was donated to the museum by the grandson of the couple...they eventually married and settled back home in Galway after the war ended.
(to read what it says and the rest of the post click on the 'read more' link below..)
.
8.6.11
June 8th - The Day That Mallory And Irvine Tried To Conquer Everest
It was on this day, June 8th in 1924 that George Mallory and Andrew Irvine lost their lives on an attempt to climb the then-unclimbed Mount Everest.
When a team of Everest climbers found Mallory's body in 1999 it was aparent that Mallory had fallen from a much higher ridge...but he had his 'goggles' in his pocket which would suggest that he wasnt facing the sun, which would in turn suggest he was coming back from the summit, or as near as they got to it..
..or...would it ??
On his attempt a few days earlier, Edward Norton (a soldier and head of his expedition) had suffered serious snow-blindness because he did not wear his goggles, so Mallory would be unlikely to have dispensed with them in daylight, and given their known departure time and movements, had they not attempted the summit pyramid it is unlikely that they would have still been out by nightfall. An alternative scenario is that Mallory may have carried an extra pair and the pair he was wearing was torn off in his fall.
It would be another 29 years before Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay climbed the mountain.
Did they make it ??...Were they the first ??
..more on the 1924 Everest expedition here
When a team of Everest climbers found Mallory's body in 1999 it was aparent that Mallory had fallen from a much higher ridge...but he had his 'goggles' in his pocket which would suggest that he wasnt facing the sun, which would in turn suggest he was coming back from the summit, or as near as they got to it..
..or...would it ??
On his attempt a few days earlier, Edward Norton (a soldier and head of his expedition) had suffered serious snow-blindness because he did not wear his goggles, so Mallory would be unlikely to have dispensed with them in daylight, and given their known departure time and movements, had they not attempted the summit pyramid it is unlikely that they would have still been out by nightfall. An alternative scenario is that Mallory may have carried an extra pair and the pair he was wearing was torn off in his fall.
It would be another 29 years before Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay climbed the mountain.
Did they make it ??...Were they the first ??
..more on the 1924 Everest expedition here
8.8.10
Three amazing photos of Lewis Payne (a.k.a. Lewis Powell) in April 1865...
These three, amazing for the time period, views of Lewis Payne (a.k.a. Lewis Powell) in April 1865, were taken three months before his execution by hanging - he was 21 years old...
He was executed for his attempt to assassinate the then USA Secretary of State William Seward at the same time as John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln...
more on the story of his life and death *here*
..click on these pictures for a much higher resolution, which are really worth viewing considering they were taken 145 years ago...
He was executed for his attempt to assassinate the then USA Secretary of State William Seward at the same time as John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln...
more on the story of his life and death *here*
..click on these pictures for a much higher resolution, which are really worth viewing considering they were taken 145 years ago...
18.7.10
The Christmas Truce of 1914
A pretty amazing event.
On Christmas Eve 1914, during World War 1, the soldiers on both the German and British sides formed an unofficial pause in battle to wish each other a Happy Christmas..
After exchanging handshakes, cigarettes, some gifts, and Christmas wishes, and playing football they had to ultimately return to their trenches. Neither side wanted to start shooting at the other, with whom they just spent Christmas. But with all their hesitance, the shelling started, as well as the bullets flying, under threat of punishment from the higher ranks if they refuse orders to start fighting each other again.
On Christmas Eve 1914, during World War 1, the soldiers on both the German and British sides formed an unofficial pause in battle to wish each other a Happy Christmas..
After exchanging handshakes, cigarettes, some gifts, and Christmas wishes, and playing football they had to ultimately return to their trenches. Neither side wanted to start shooting at the other, with whom they just spent Christmas. But with all their hesitance, the shelling started, as well as the bullets flying, under threat of punishment from the higher ranks if they refuse orders to start fighting each other again.
Lina Medina
Lina Medina (pictured with her doctor and her child in 1940), from Peru, was the youngest mother in history, giving birth to a son when she was just five years old in 1939.It was thought, in her home town, that due to her abdominal swelling she must have had an 'evil snake' or parasite growing in her stomach and she was brought to an exorcist, which had no effect.
Lina's father, with no other obvious answers for his daughters condition, carried her to the nearest doctor, which was 70km away...when the doctor examined the little girl he couldn't believe what he thought he had found, he re-examined numerous times to be sure, and when he was sure he promptly contacted the police to have Lina's father arrested on suspicion of child rape....he was thrown into cells but released a few days later due to lack of evidence.
Doctors had no explaination as to why before she was 4 years old, Lina had already developed visibly her breasts, pubic hair and had her menstruation.
Lina was given a cesarean section, due to her size not allowing her to give birth naturally, on May 14 - Mother's Day in her country of Peru.
The news became a big global story, but only briefly due to the start of WW2...the family were offered a lot of money from various media for their story but resisted the offers, including one for $4,000 a month plus expenses if the girl travelled to New York for a year to be exhibited as freaks in the World Fair.
Her son grew up healthy, but developed a bone marrow disease and died at the age of 40, a disease that had nothing to do with the extraordinary circumstances of his birth....Lina married at the age of 33 and had another son, she currently lives with her husband in a very poor region of Peru.
The father of Lina's baby remains unknown.
13.7.10
Amazing Photograph from the Albert Kahn WW1 Collection...
This is an amazing photo from Albert Kahn's WW1 photographic archive {Albert Kahn info *here*}....I couldn't find a photo online of it...but here's a little youtube I uploaded from a video I have...
It's a bit gory this mind...
It's a bit gory this mind...
25 Years Ago Today...
2 billion viewers, across 60 countries, watched this....'The Global Jukebox' - the concert for starving people in Ethiopia, and surrounding regions which raised £150 million sterling.
It was the day that the world came together in the spirit of music and charity..
It was the day that the world came together in the spirit of music and charity..
12.7.10
The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest
I was reading 'Empire' magazine over the weekend and there is a piece about a new documentary film based on the 1924 Mount Everest summit attempt of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine....the film goes on release on 6th August.
It has always been a great source of debate whether the duo made it to the top or not...their bodies were found 800 feet from the summit, but were they going up or on their way back down ??.....it was aparent that mallory had fallen from a much higher ridge...but he had his goggles in his pocket which would suggest that he wasnt facing the sun, which would in turn suggest he was coming back from the summit, or as near as they got to it..or would it??...it's an 86 year old mystery at this stage...
..don't like the way Liam Neeson {who narrates the new film} says in the trailer - "George Mallory and his fellow climber"....why not say "George Mallory and Andrew Irvine"??
It has always been a great source of debate whether the duo made it to the top or not...their bodies were found 800 feet from the summit, but were they going up or on their way back down ??.....it was aparent that mallory had fallen from a much higher ridge...but he had his goggles in his pocket which would suggest that he wasnt facing the sun, which would in turn suggest he was coming back from the summit, or as near as they got to it..or would it??...it's an 86 year old mystery at this stage...
..don't like the way Liam Neeson {who narrates the new film} says in the trailer - "George Mallory and his fellow climber"....why not say "George Mallory and Andrew Irvine"??
8.7.10
The Mongoose VS The Rock
Archie Moore was 42 years old and was boxing's current light-heavyweight champion of the world when he challenged the legendary Rocky Marciano for the heavyweight title...there were only 8 weight divisons in those days, and only 1 champion in each division..
The fight took place in 1955...Moore had been a professional boxer for 17 years !! ..and going into the Marciano fight his record was 167 fights, 22 losses, 6 draws, with 111 KO's.
The largest crowd ever to see Marciano fight, 61,574 fans showed up at Yankee Stadium while hundreds of thousands crammed closed-circuit-television theaters across the country to see the fight.
The fight would gross $ 2,248,117 - at the time, the second highest grossing fight in boxing history..
Although Moore was beaten inside of nine rounds by Marciano, who retired after the fight, he was one of only two men to ever put Rocky down...Marciano retired undefeated and went on to become part of boxing folklore..
The fight took place in 1955...Moore had been a professional boxer for 17 years !! ..and going into the Marciano fight his record was 167 fights, 22 losses, 6 draws, with 111 KO's.
The largest crowd ever to see Marciano fight, 61,574 fans showed up at Yankee Stadium while hundreds of thousands crammed closed-circuit-television theaters across the country to see the fight.
The fight would gross $ 2,248,117 - at the time, the second highest grossing fight in boxing history..
Although Moore was beaten inside of nine rounds by Marciano, who retired after the fight, he was one of only two men to ever put Rocky down...Marciano retired undefeated and went on to become part of boxing folklore..
Arnim Dahl
His name was Arnim Dahl.
(12. March 1922- 3 August 1998)
-Was the most popular stuntman from Germany.
-Lay more than 40 times in a hospital, and had more than 100 fractures.
-Stayed in total more than 4 years of his life in a hospital.
-Jumped from a 47 meter high crane into the water of the Hamburg harbour.
-Was the double of the moviestars in more than 50 films.
(12. March 1922- 3 August 1998)
-Was the most popular stuntman from Germany.
-Lay more than 40 times in a hospital, and had more than 100 fractures.
-Stayed in total more than 4 years of his life in a hospital.
-Jumped from a 47 meter high crane into the water of the Hamburg harbour.
-Was the double of the moviestars in more than 50 films.
the description on the video below is wrong, it's later than 1930....i'd also love to know what the song is...
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