In 1917, two ships collided in Halifax harbor, resulting in the largest explosion in history up to that time.
The Halifax Explosion
Monthly Archives: October 2019
Jack Kerouac House, Orlando FL
In 1944, three aspiring writers, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, met on the campus of Columbia University in New York City. At that time, Greenwich Village was the “hip” place to be—with its low rents and proximity to the University, it was a haven for artists, writers, and political bohemians. Kerouac was there on a football scholarship, but he quickly quit the team. Ginsberg was gay and Burroughs was bisexual, which in those days made them criminals as well as social outcasts. All of them felt alienated from what they perceived as tight-laced American society, and spoke together of a “New Vision”. They adopted the moniker “The Beat Generation”, from an African-American expression “beat down to my socks”, referring to a tired and worn-out person with no money and no hope.
A Shameless Plug: My Newest Books
All of my diaries here are draft chapters for a number of book series that I am working on for Red and Black Publishers. Several of these series are now available, both in paperback and as Kindle eBooks, at Amazon, and as ebooks at the Apple iBooks store. The newest are:
Museum Pieces 6: An Additional Collection of Forgotten History, Science, And Mystery Behind Some of the Most Interesting Museum Exhibits And Historical Places in the World
(Amazon Kindle and Print)
“The unknown story behind historical places and exhibits from some of the most famous museums in the world. Includes: Last Voyage of the “Arabia”; Black Sox, How the 1919 World Series Was Rigged; Kingfish, The Colorful career of Huey Long; Saving Pere David’s Deer; The Minnesota Iceman; Fort Christina and New Sweden; and more. Illustrated.”
Mission San Luis, Florida
The Mission San Luis was established in 1656 as a Spanish administrative center for western Florida and as a Catholic church to convert the native Appalachee tribes. Today it has been reconstructed as a living history museum.
The Council House
The Experimental Submarine USS Albacore
During the Second World War, the submarine proved its effectiveness as a weapon. The German U-boats nearly brought England to its knees in the Battle of the Atlantic, while in the Pacific, the US submarine force crippled Japan’s maritime shipping, cutting off its raw materials and sinking over half of its tonnage losses.
USS Albacore on display in Portsmouth NH
Samuel Slater’s Textile Mill
A few years after the end of the Revolutionary War, a British textile apprentice named Samuel Slater immigrated to the US. Unknown to anyone, Slater was breaking the law and risking hanging.
Arkwright spinning machine
Birmingham 16th Street Church Bombing
In 1963, during a civil rights campaign in Birmingham AL, Klansmen blew up a church and killed four little girls. It was a defining event in the civil rights era.
Hidden History 