Porteous Riot
"History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." - Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)May 20, 1927: Charles Lindbergh embarks from New York on a nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
TIME magazine’s “Man of the Year” tradition began when they graced the American aviator Charles Lindbergh with the title, in honor of his momentous solo flight from New York to Paris. Prior to this flight, this native of Detroit had trained as a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Forces and worked as a deliverer of airmail. In fact, after his 1927 flight, Lindbergh would use his newly-acquired celebrity status to promote the U.S. Air Mail Service across Latin America.
Eight years prior, a French-American hotel owner named Raymond Orteig offered up $25,000 (over $300,000 in today’s money) to any pilot who could fly nonstop from New York to Paris, or vice-versa. At this time, aviation technology was still too primitive for any serious attempts to be made, and several well-known pilots were even killed or lost in their endeavors. By the mid-1920s, however, technology had advanced enough so that even an unknown U.S. Air Mail employee could seek to achieve the task.
In 1927, twenty-five-year-old Charles Lindbergh set off from New York in the Spirit of St. Louis, and he was flyingsolo - though this was not one of Orteig’s requirements. When he landed in Paris thirty-three hours later to meet some 150,000 spectators, Lindbergh had not only won his prize but international fame as well. “Lucky Lindy” was later awarded the Medal of Honor and a Congressional Gold Medal for his exploits.
May 9, 1874: Howard Carter is born.
Eight years before Egypt came under British control, the future discoverer of the tomb of King Tut was born in London. Howard Carter first traveled to Egypt in 1891, still a young man - but he came not as a student of archaeology, but as an artist. He worked under archaeologists at sites across Egypt, from Thebes to Beni Hasan to Abu Simbel. In 1907, he was hired by one Lord Carnarvon to lead and supervise excavations pf Egyptian nobles’ tombs. It was per the financial backing of this Lord Carnarvon that Carter was able to begin an excavation in the Valley of the Kings, and it was here that years of fruitless searching paid off when he finally discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
The tomb was remarkably intact and full of ”wonderful things”, as Carter described them: the boy-king’s sarcophagus, naturally, but also thrones and other pieces of furniture, jewelry, pottery, weapons, sculptures and statues, and hundreds of other items that Carter and his associates meticulously cataloged and photographed. Excavation of the site lasted a full decade, but the work paid off. Not only was the field of Egyptology revitalized, but both the tomb and its discoverer earned places in history - the former as the greatest archaeological find of modern times, and the latter as the man who made it.
Chi Rho Iota Page from the Book of Kells - made in Iona, Scotland, late 8th or early 9th century.
Preparator Adam Hermann with Diplodocus, Apatosaurus and Allosaurus hind limbs at the American Museum of Natural History.
French science fiction writer Albert Robida has been lost in the shadow of Jules Verne, but in the 1880s he was widely popular for a trilogy of illustrated novels imagining life in the 20th century. He predicted social upheavals around the time of our two world wars and foresaw transatlantic air travel, home shopping, video telephones, and a feminist revolution. But his greatest innovation was one we haven’t reached yet — a president made of wood.
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Hazel Lee [1912-1944]
Experienced women pilots, like Lee, were eager to join the WASP, and responded to interview requests by Cochran. Members of the WASP reported to Avenger Field, in wind swept Sweetwater, Texas for an arduous 6-month training program. Lee was accepted into the 4th class, 43 W 4.[2] Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the United States military.
Although flying under military command, the women pilots of the WASP were classified as civilians. They were paid through the civil service. No military benefits were offered. Even if killed in the line of duty, no military funerals were allowed. The WASPs were often assigned the least desirable missions, such as winter trips in open cockpit airplanes. Commanding officers were reluctant to give women any flying deliveries. It took an order from the head of the Air Transport Command to improve the situation.
Upon graduation, Lee was assigned to the third Ferrying Group at Romulus, Michigan. Their assignment was critical to the war effort; Deliver aircraft, pouring out of converted automobile factories, to points of embarkation, where they would then be shipped to the European and Pacific War fronts. In a letter to her sister, Lee described Romulus as “a 7-day workweek, with little time off.” When asked to describe Lee’s attitude, a fellow member of the WASP summed it up in Lee’s own words, “I’ll take and deliver anything.”
Described by her fellow pilots as “calm and fearless,” Lee had two forced landings. One landing took place in a Kansas wheat field. A farmer, pitchfork in hand, chased her around the plane while shouting to his neighbors that the Japanese had invaded Kansas. Alternately running and ducking under her wing, Lee finally stood her ground. She told the farmer who she was and demanded that he put the pitchfork down. He complied.
Lee was a favorite with just about all of her fellow pilots. She had a great sense of humor and a marvelous sense of mischief. Lee used her lipstick to inscribe Chinese characters on the tail of her plane and the planes of her fellow pilots. One lucky fellow who happened to be a bit on the chubby side, had his plane dubbed (unknown to him) “Fat Ass.”
Lee was in demand when a mission was RON (Remaining Overnight) In a big city or in a small country town, she could always find a Chinese restaurant, supervise the menu, and often cook the food herself. She was a great cook. Fellow WASP pilot Sylvia Dahmes Clayton observed that “Hazel provided me with an opportunity to learn about a different culture at a time when I did not know anything else. She expanded my world and my outlook on life.”
Lee and the others were the first women to pilot fighter aircraft for the United States military.
Image (via World War II Database)
Text [click for full article] (via Wikipedia)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzvpdvTodm1qbwvhpo1_500.jpg)
Hazel Lee [1912-1944]
Experienced women pilots, like Lee, were eager to join the WASP, and responded to interview requests by Cochran. Members of the WASP reported to Avenger Field, in wind swept Sweetwater, Texas for an arduous 6-month training program. Lee was accepted into the 4th class, 43 W 4.[2] Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the United States military.
Although flying under military command, the women pilots of the WASP were classified as civilians. They were paid through the civil service. No military benefits were offered. Even if killed in the line of duty, no military funerals were allowed. The WASPs were often assigned the least desirable missions, such as winter trips in open cockpit airplanes. Commanding officers were reluctant to give women any flying deliveries. It took an order from the head of the Air Transport Command to improve the situation.
Upon graduation, Lee was assigned to the third Ferrying Group at Romulus, Michigan. Their assignment was critical to the war effort; Deliver aircraft, pouring out of converted automobile factories, to points of embarkation, where they would then be shipped to the European and Pacific War fronts. In a letter to her sister, Lee described Romulus as “a 7-day workweek, with little time off.” When asked to describe Lee’s attitude, a fellow member of the WASP summed it up in Lee’s own words, “I’ll take and deliver anything.”
Described by her fellow pilots as “calm and fearless,” Lee had two forced landings. One landing took place in a Kansas wheat field. A farmer, pitchfork in hand, chased her around the plane while shouting to his neighbors that the Japanese had invaded Kansas. Alternately running and ducking under her wing, Lee finally stood her ground. She told the farmer who she was and demanded that he put the pitchfork down. He complied.
Lee was a favorite with just about all of her fellow pilots. She had a great sense of humor and a marvelous sense of mischief. Lee used her lipstick to inscribe Chinese characters on the tail of her plane and the planes of her fellow pilots. One lucky fellow who happened to be a bit on the chubby side, had his plane dubbed (unknown to him) “Fat Ass.”
Lee was in demand when a mission was RON (Remaining Overnight) In a big city or in a small country town, she could always find a Chinese restaurant, supervise the menu, and often cook the food herself. She was a great cook. Fellow WASP pilot Sylvia Dahmes Clayton observed that “Hazel provided me with an opportunity to learn about a different culture at a time when I did not know anything else. She expanded my world and my outlook on life.”
Lee and the others were the first women to pilot fighter aircraft for the United States military.
Image (via World War II Database)
Text [click for full article] (via Wikipedia)
New York circa 1909. “Knickerbocker Hotel, Broadway & 42nd Street. (via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive)
(via lostsplendor)
Washington D.C, Winter of 1918 (via Deep Freeze | Shorpy Historical Photo Archive)
St. Basil’s Cathedral, in Moscow, was built by Ivan the Terrible in honor of Basil the Fool. The story goes that in the 1500s, an apprentice shoemaker/serf named Basil stole from the rich to give to the poor. He also went naked, weighed himself with chains, and rebuked Ivan the Terrible for not paying attention in church. Normally, this is where we would write “And Ivan had him executed” but apparently Ivan liked Basil, and instead had the cathedral built for him after Basil’s death. Ivan then had the architect executed, so he could never design a more beautiful building.
