The Haitian Revolution (1791 – 1804) had left Haiti independent from its old colonial master, France which itself had only recently felt the convulsions of civil insurgency itself. Yet it also left the country divided in to north and south. In the north, a remarkable yet despotic man came to be known as Henry I, King of Haiti (left) and held sway for a number of years. He decreed that a palace be constructed to be the centerpiece of his power. Sans-Souci, as it was named, was to be his…

From Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago, by Philip Bowring (I.B. Tauris, 2018), Kindle p. 193: The establishment of Melaka and rise of Demak and other Muslim-dominated communities on the north coast of Java coincided with a power struggle within the Majapahit realm. Islam presented a challenge to Java’s Hindu-Buddhist kingship notions. Internal dissension was also apparent, possibly caused by conversion of some of the aristocracy to Islam, and by intermarriage with…

In 2014 I posted an item about a photograph of St. Vincent's Hospital that appeared in a 1908 book Views of Birmingham. That photograph turned up on the second postcard included here. I thought I would discuss it and two others postcards of the hospital from my collection in this piece.St. Vincent's, now a part of the UAB Health System, was founded in 1898 and occupied the building shown here in 1900. Within a few years the facility had begun serving over 1000 patients annually, paying and…

Like a king towering over his subjects! A red-topped UH-3H Sea King helicopter flies near three aircraft carriers moored at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, on Aug. 27, 2004. The carriers are (left to right) USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), USS George Washington (CVN 73), and USS Enterprise (CVN 65). The helo was assigned to the Search and Rescue unit at Naval Air Station Oceana, a detachment of the “Fleet Angels” of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 2 (HC-2). (DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st…

Dig those M1903s with long M1905 bayonets, M1917 Brodie helmets, Great War style leggings, and M2 gas masks, seen some 85 years ago this month on the eve of the U.S. entrance to WWII. NARA Local Identifier 126-PG-5G-7 Official period caption: Members of the Puerto Rican National Guard During Maneuvers. September 1941. San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gas masks and bayonets are the order of the day in Puerto Rico as Europe is plunged into a new war, and plans for the completion of…

The outcome of the insubordination of John the Sanguinary created a dangerous precedent. General Narses disagreed with General Belisarius' approach to the conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths, and was motivated to disobey the orders from the man who was supposed to be sole commander of the Byzantine forces. Procopius wrote "And from that time both these men [Belisarius and Narses] began to regard each other with great suspicion."One example of the army splitting was at a siege of Urbino.…

William Scott’s 1978 kinetic sculpture “Vigil” stands on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Plaza in Oklahoma City. Designed to rotate with the wind, the reflective stainless-steel panels famously survived the 1995 bombing, enduring as a powerful symbol of strength and memory. The post Resilience in Steel appeared first on 75CentralPhotography.

On this day in 1939, Britain declared war on Germany, and we were launched into the Second World War. In London, sirens blared out, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Elsewhere on the home front, things were quieter...

Hon Son is an island about 65km west of Rach Gia in An Giang Province in Vietnam. The island has an area of 11.5 square km, and there are no private cars on the island. Hon Son is one of several islands of the Nam Du archipelago in the Gulf of Thailand. The islands are in the same province as Phu Quoc and the An Thoi Archipelago, but there are no ferries between the two island groups. This relative isolation has helped keep a lid on Hon Son tourism numbers. [View map of Hon Son.] I got a ferry…

Fascinating, entertaining, harrowing. I was not aware that more greeks than brits were killed in WWII, almost all of the greek causalities were civilians. I soon learned why in this exhilarating and devastating account written by George Psychoundakis, a dirt-poor peasant resistance fighter in crete. He had hardly left his village before the terrifying invasion by nazi paratroopers during the battle of crete. The constant brutal harassment and murderous reprisals by the occupying force is tough…

From Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago, by Philip Bowring (I.B. Tauris, 2018), Kindle p. 182: Kertanegara’s expansion goal was intended partly to pre-empt designs that the Mongol Yuan dynasty, which had already attacked Japan and Vietnam, might have for a southern maritime empire. He also sought to thwart further southward expansion by the Siamese. But he paid a high price. He only subdued Jambi and Palembang after a long fight and his hold there remained tenuous.…

Cicero, On Old Age 19.67 (tr. William Armistead Falconer): And yet is there anyone so foolish, even though he is young, as to feel absolutely sure that he will be alive when evening comes? br> quamquam quis est tam stultus, quamvis sit adulescens, cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum? J.G.F. Powell ad loc.: cui sit exploratum ... victurum Cf. Fin. 2.92 an id exploratum cuiquam potest esse, quomodo se hoc habiturum sit corpus, non dico ad annum, sed ad vesperum?, §74 and note;…

I thought we'd elaborate a little on the conflict mentioned yesterday about the taking of Ariminum (modern Rimini) by a Byzantine force under a general called John, also known as John the Sanguinary. Emperor Justinian I was invading Italy to take control of the Western Roman Empire from the Ostrogoths.Originally tasked by Justinian to bring supplies to Rome, where General Belisarius was surrounded by the forces of King Vitiges, John decided to raid other Ostrogothic territory and capture…

Soho is one of London’s most eclectic areas packed with art, creativity and history. It also has some wonderful architectural survivors. Just off the busy Soho Square and down Frith Street you can find a row of three charming Georgian townhouses. Today these make up Hazlitt’s Hotel. Hazlitt’s has been a favourite of many visitors […] The post Writers, Radicals And Rescuers: A History Of Hazlitt’s Hotel appeared first on Living London History.

Click here to book for The Gentle Author’s Tours Today I publish a selection from Peta Bridle’s exhibition London Day by Day which opens tomorrow, September 3rd, at Southwark Cathedral and runs until 14th October. The show takes its title from Geoffrey Fletcher’s former weekly newspaper column as a tribute to the peripatetic artist who inspired Peta’s own travels with a sketchbook in the capital. At Turnips, Borough Market ‘The beautiful and diverse mushroom varieties on display at Turnips, the…

Möhren-Apfel-Salat und auch Kohlrabisalat, das gibt es alles schon auf diesem Blog, aber eine Kombi aus Beidem tatsächlich noch nicht, dabei schmeckt sie so richtig gut, schön leicht und erfrischend.Da mein Julienneschneider ziemlich garstig scharf ist, habe ich mir übrigens einen Schnittschutzhandschuh zugelegt. Den gibt es für kleines Geld und er hat mir schon so manche Fingerkuppe gerettet,

Ab dem 16. Oktober zeigt das Museum Folkwang in Essen Werke von Herbert W. Franke in der Ausstellung Kunst und Konstruktion. Im gleichnamigen Sachbuch erörterte Franke schon 1957 die Idee, dass der Computer als künstlerisches Medium verstanden werden kann. Diese Notiz ist vor allem eine Erinnerung an mich, dass ich da unbedingt hin muss! Bis zum 10. Januar 2027 habe ich Zeit. Der Ausstellung ging eine umfangreiche Schenkung von Werken Frankes voraus, dessen Nachlass durch seine zweite Frau…

Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus 1.9.20-21 (tr. W.A. Oldfather): Why shall one man envy another? Why shall he admire those who have great possessions, or those who are stationed in places of power, especially if they be both strong and prone to anger? For what will they do to us? As for what they have power to do, we shall pay no heed thereto; as for the things we care about, over them they have no power. Who, then, will ever again be ruler over the man who is thus disposed? διὰ τί ἄλλος ἄλλῳ…

Rothenburg ob der Tauber steht für Fachwerk, Stadtmauer und vermeintlich unberührtes Mittelalter. Doch zwischen all den bekannten Fotomotiven dieser mittelalterlichen Idylle liegt eine zweite Geschichte, die man leicht übersieht: Seit dem 12. Jahrhundert lebten Jüdinnen und Juden in der Stadt. Rothenburg war zeitweise ein bedeutendes Zentrum jüdischer Gelehrsamkeit – und zugleich wiederholt Schauplatz von Verfolgung, Vertreibung und Mord. Mit diesem Beitrag beginne ich auf dem Blog einen neuen…

Sheer beauty — a beautiful Euhoplites ammonite from Folkstone, UK. I've been really enjoying looking at all oil-in-water colouring and chunkiness of these ammonites.Euhoplites is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod from the Lower Cretaceous, characterized by strongly ribbed, more or less evolute, compressed to inflated shells with flat or concave ribs, typically with a deep narrow groove running down

The Navy just received the final ship in the six-hull Expeditionary Sea Base program, transferring in the delivery ceremony of the 106,664-ton (not a misprint) USNS (future USS) Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8) last week. No other fleet in the world has anything that even comes close, not to mention having a half-dozen of them… Expeditionary Sea Base USNS Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8) A peek into the hangar opening at the front of the huge topside aviation deck. You can store (at least) four…

Some 75 years ago this month, aboard Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco, September 1951. How about a sharp original period Kodachrome of a beautiful Grumman (G-38) Goose amphibian JRF-5G, USCG Hull No. 4792 (MSN B-87, Navy BuNo 84792). Photo by William T. Larkins, via WikiCommons Powered by Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-6 radials, the USCG contracted for 24 JRF-5Gs beginning in early 1941, following up on 10 JRF-2/3s purchased in the late 1930s. The Navy also purchased 160 of the type and…

King Vitiges of the Ostrogoths besieged Rome, that had been taken and inhabited by the Byzantine forces of Justinian I, led by General Belisarius. Rome had not even put up a fight against Belisarius, so there had been no attack and no damage to the walls.The Ostrogoth forces besieged Rome for an entire year without success, from March 537 to March 538. They couldn't take down the walls, and Belisarius did not have enough soldiers to leave Rome and defeat the army surrounding them.In April 537,…

Keeping on with the construction photos of the St. Regis Hotel under its temporary name “the Astor Building”… Unlike my previous dive into the construction photos of the Equitable Trust Building on Broad Street, the main sequence photos here (which are numbered and dated) begin with the superstructure steel being erected. There are two foundation photos in the scrapbook digitized by the New York Public Library, and they offer some hints but not a full picture. The first photo is almost…

1962 Napoleonic naval fiction, tenth written and third by internal chronology. It's 1802, and the Peace of Amiens is breaking down; Commander Hornblower is given a sloop and sent to the blockade of Brest.

“Is there a mystic and fatal influence which has its dwelling in the tile-floored, modern bathroom at Fourth & Sycamore streets?”That was the question posed by the Cincinnati Enquirer [8 November 1898] when the nude body of a woman was discovered at the Alta Flats. The city gasped as details emerged about the unfortunate casualty, drowned in the bathtub of an apartment in which she did not reside.The Alta Building, constructed in 1883, was a respectable residence on the southwest corner of…

An exhibit on the German soldiersSaratoga National Historical Park visitor centerphotographed 16 August 2026This is the first blog post I've written this year about a Loyalist ancestor, for the 250th anniversary of the United States. Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman was born at Hammersleben, Magdeburg, about 1751 and came to North America with Baron de Riedesel's Brunswick Regiment in 1776. Magdeburg is on the Elbe river in Germany, in Saxony-Anhalt. He was my fourth great grandfather, and would have…

The earliest written source related to the inhabitants of the Venetian lagoons, is a letter from Cassiodorus, written in 537.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. II, Chapter 21, § 249 (tr. Adrian Del Caro and Christopher Janaway): Dilettantes, dilettantes! This is what those who pursue knowledge or art out of love for them and joy in them, ‘for their pleasure’, are disparagingly called by those who are in it for profit, because they are delighted only by the money that can be earned through them. This disparagement is based on their wretched conviction that no one would seriously engage in…