July 26, 1928: Stanley Kubrick is born.
The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.
July 26, 1928: Stanley Kubrick is born. The screen is a magic...
↧
↧
July 27, 1890: Vincent van Gogh shoots himself. He died two days...
March/April 1887.
1887.
Spring 1887.
January 1889.
September 1889.
July 27, 1890: Vincent van Gogh shoots himself.
He died two days later, at age thirty-seven. In late 1888, van Gogh, desperate and growing increasingly unstable, had confronted his friend Paul Gauguin with a knife, before using it to cut off part of his own ear. He was taken to a hospital, where he remained in a delirious state (the locals called him “the redheaded madman”) before committing himself to an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Here, the artist painted one of his most beloved works - The Starry Night. And ironically, it was while van Gogh was in an asylum that interest in his work actually began to build, drawing attention from men like Monet and Pissaro. He left Saint-Rémy in May 1890 to stay in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he spent the last days of his life.
On July 27, 1890, van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver, though the initial impact did not kill him; in fact, he walked all the way back to the house where he had been staying before an infection began to take effect. His brother Theo, one of the few people with whom van Gogh remained in close correspondence with all his life, visited him before his death. His last words were, according to Theo:
The sadness will last forever.
In his entire lifetime, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting (Red Vineyard at Arles).
↧
Hi! I thought you might enjoy my latest post on why Martin Luther of Protestant Reformation fame was a Nazi hero. If you have time, check it out. Love your blog, by the way. Have a good weekend! -Jonathan
WELL. Thanks a lot, Martin Luther. I started laughing at “full of the devil’s feces”. It almost sounds like Julius Streicher lifted some lines from him, too.
And thanks, you too!
↧
The Olympic Games: 1896 - 2012.
The Olympic Games: 1896 - 2012.
↧
Greatest Olympic Moments: Jesse Owens, Berlin, August 1936. In...
Greatest Olympic Moments: Jesse Owens, Berlin, August 1936.
In August of 1936, American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals, setting three world records and tying a fourth in the 100 yard dash - all in front of Adolf Hitler, who had planned to use the Games as a tool to promote the physical superiority of the Aryan race.
Video here.
↧
↧
July 28, 1794: Maximilien Robespierre is executed. Robespierre,...
July 28, 1794: Maximilien Robespierre is executed.
Robespierre, one of the key figures in the Reign of Terror (which ended with his death) met his end the same way as the French king and queen, as the Girondins, clergymen, and others deemed “enemies of the Revolution”: by guillotine. He even spent his last days in the same chamber that had once held Marie Antoinette.
By the time Robespierre became President of the National Convention, fear of growing violence (which had claimed the lives of fellow revolutionaries like Georges Danton) as well as Robespierre’s growing power manifested in the form of the Thermidorian Reaction, the movement that sought to curb the excesses of the Terror. Some conspirators may have believed that Robespierre was too moderate, in fact, but whatever the case, most of them were probably fearful for their own lives. Robespierre was executed on July 28, 1794 without a trial, along with twenty-one others. This event marked the symbolic end of the Reign of Terror, and steps were taken to reduce the power of the Committee of Public Safety, which was completely abolished by 1795.
Pictured: Death Mask of Maximilien Robespierre, 1901; Source: LIFE Photo Archive, hosted by Google.
↧
If you disagree with the facts presented in a post, it’s fine to add something on (with a...
If you disagree with the facts presented in a post, it’s fine to add something on (with a source, hopefully) in a polite manner. But when people obnoxiously say “NO THIS IS TRUE NOT THAT”, especially with no source or evidence, and especially when the facts presented are disputed (I repeat: D I S P U T E D), I get really annoyed. Please. Posting etiquette. Now if the facts are entirely wrong, then feel free to correct… but there are few things in history that are definite, anyway.
↧
Propaganda posters directed at various territories of the...
Propaganda posters directed at various territories of the British Empire, from the National Archives.
↧
Your blog is my absolute favorite. Your content is quite interesting and your posts are just like, beautiful and stuff.
Thank you very much!
↧
↧
Greatest Olympic Moments: Wilma Rudolph, Rome, 1960. Wilma...
Greatest Olympic Moments: Wilma Rudolph, Rome, 1960.
Wilma Rudolph was born premature (weighing 4.5 pounds), the 20th of 22 children, and as a child she suffered from all sorts of illnesses. The most severe of these was infantile paralysis, which rendered her left leg and foot useless and twisted and required her to wear a brace until age nine. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Rudolph tied one world record and set another, eventually taking home three gold medals. Thereafter, she was known internationally as “the fastest woman in the world”.
↧
YES, I deleted the last line from the Wilma Rudolph post. It’s still implicitly there,...
YES, I deleted the last line from the Wilma Rudolph post. It’s still implicitly there, directed at all of us who really need to get off Tumblr and do productive things, but I apologize for not realizing the ableist/offensive nature of the comment.
↧
Hi! Your blog is just amazing! It's like reading a history book, with a twist (it's a day to day trinket of history laden on a Tumblr page). Keep it up!
Gahh, thanks very much! I really appreciate it.
↧
Hiatus; the laptop broke, and I won’t have easy access to the Internet for a few days.
Hiatus; the laptop broke, and I won’t have easy access to the Internet for a few days.
↧
↧
Greatest Olympic Moments: Bob Beamon, Mexico City, 1968. So...
Greatest Olympic Moments: Bob Beamon, Mexico City, 1968.
So incredible was Bob Beamon’s long jump (8.90 meters, or 29 feet and 2.5 inches) that the athlete himself collapsed and broke down after realizing that he had shattered the previous record by nearly two feet. His world record stood until twenty-three years later, when it was broken in Tokyo, but to this day, Beamon’s “perfect jump” remains the Olympic record.
↧
existentialist-trotskyist: unhistorical: July 27, 1890: Vincent van Gogh shoots himself. He died...
July 27, 1890: Vincent van Gogh shoots himself.
He died two days later, at age thirty-seven. In late 1888, van Gogh, desperate and growing increasingly unstable, had confronted his friend Paul Gauguin with a knife, before using it to cut off part of his own ear. He was taken to a hospital, where he remained in a delirious state (the locals called him “the redheaded madman”) before committing himself to an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Here, the artist painted one of his most beloved works - The Starry Night. And ironically, it was while van Gogh was in an asylum that interest in his work actually began to build, drawing attention from men like Monet and Pissaro. He left Saint-Rémy in May 1890 to stay in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he spent the last days of his life.
On July 27, 1890, van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver, though the initial impact did not kill him; in fact, he walked all the way back to the house where he had been staying before an infection began to take effect. His brother Theo, one of the few people with whom van Gogh remained in close correspondence with all his life, visited him before his death. His last words were, according to Theo:
The sadness will last forever.
In his entire lifetime, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting (Red Vineyard at Arles).
Well everything is true except the only selling one painting thing. He sold very few during his life but he definitely sold more than one. That is just a vox populli myth. And he didn’t pain Starry Night during his time in the asylum.
The Starry Night was painted in Saint-Remy.
The selling-one-painting thing is harder to back up, but most sources list it as true. I also watched a documentary about van Gogh that stated the same thing, although if you would direct me to a source that says otherwise, that would be nice. I’d always found that claim a little strange.
↧
August 2, 1945: The Potsdam Conference ends. The Potsdam...
the conference room in Cecilienhof.
August 2, 1945: The Potsdam Conference ends.
The Potsdam Conference was attended by Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman (Roosevelt had died that year in April), and Winston Churchill (later replaced by Clement Attlee). Nazi Germany had surrendered three months prior, and Japan had yet to surrender (it would not do so until September of that year). The most pressing matter was the postwar status of Germany; the Soviet Union, who had suffered by far the largest amount of casualties, naturally demanded the heaviest reparations. Eventually, it was decided that Germany and Austria (and their respective capitals) would be divided into four occupation zones. Germany lost the territories it acquired post-1933 and populations of Germans living in disputed areas were expelled. Germany would be demilitarized, democratized, and denazified; additionally, plans were made for German war criminals to be put on trial.
The Potsdam Declaration, an ultimatum to Japan promising “prompt and utter destruction” if they did not surrender unconditionally, was also issued during this conference. The declaration was rejected, and four days later, the USAAF dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
↧
August 3, 1943: Operation Gomorrah ends. “Gomorrah”...
August 3, 1943: Operation Gomorrah ends.
“Gomorrah” was the name chosen for the eight-day long Allied bombing of Hamburg, after the Biblical city that incurred God’s wrath and fell to “fire and brimstone”. The name fit remarkably well. On the first night of bombing, the RAF dropped over 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs over Hamburg, killing 1,500 people; the heat of the firestorms was so intense that the asphalt itself burst into flames, and hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed.
The loss of life was also enormous - between 30,000 and 40,000 people were killed by the end of the raids. In comparison, around 43,000 are estimated to have died during the Blitz, which lasted eight months. According to Albert Speer, “Hamburg had suffered the fate Hitler and Goering conceived for London in 1940.”
↧
↧
Greatest Olympic Moments: Kerri Strug, Atlanta, 1996. The...
Greatest Olympic Moments: Kerri Strug, Atlanta, 1996.
The American women’s gymnastics team of that year’s Olympic Games was known as the “Magnificent Seven”; together in Atlanta, this diverse group defeated Russia and Romania to capture the country’s first ever gold medal for the team competition. One member of the seven - Kerri Strug - injured her ankle during her first vault attempt, but she returned (limping) to the runway for a second attempt and stuck the landing briefly, before her injury caught up to her. Thanks in part to her resilience, her team clinched the gold, denying the Russians the medal for the first time since 1948; Strug, meanwhile, had to be carried to the podium.
Clips from here.
↧
August 5, 1962: Nelson Mandela is arrested and imprisoned. In...
Mandela revisits his old cell.
August 5, 1962: Nelson Mandela is arrested and imprisoned.
In 1948, the National Party came to power in South Africa, establishing a formal system of apartheid that would remain in place (and worsen) until nearly the end of the century. In 1950, a new act was enacted that required all South Africans to be classified under one of several racial groups, facilitating the division of the country along racial lines. Until the 1960s, Nelson Mandela was dedicated to non-violent resistance, but in 1961, he led the armed wing of the African National Congress (Umkhonto we Sizwe or MK) in guerilla attacks against government targets.
Mandela was arrested near the town of Howick on August 5, 1962 and imprisoned; he would remain in prison for over twenty-seven years, eighteen of them at the now-infamous Robben Island. Over thirty years later, he and F.W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
↧
August 6, 1945: An atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. The...
August 6, 1945: An atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
The “Little Boy” bomb was the second nuclear device detonated in history. “Little Boy”” measured three meters long and less than a meter wide. It weighed around 4,400 kilograms. And it killed over 140,000 people, 60,000 as a result of the initial blast. Weeks before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and after the successful Trinity test), President Truman wrote in his diary:
We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.
The president resolved that the bomb be used only on military targets and not on innocents, calling it both “the most useful” and “most terrible thing ever discovered”. The town of Hiroshima seemed to fit the bill, containing important military headquarters and depots of military supplies… and over 300,000 civilians. The Allies hoped, perhaps, that the detonation of this new horrific weapon and the killing of a hundred thousand innocent people would thoroughly disturb and wring out of the Japanese what the Potsdam Declaration had failed to - unconditional surrender. According to many Allied leaders (Truman and Churchill included), the dropping of the bomb saved millions of lives on both sides by making invasion of the mainland unnecessary, and it was also argued that the war should be ended as quickly as possible, before the Russians became involved. Americans, for the most part, reacted positively to the bombings (at first); according to polls, 85 percent believed that they had saved American lives, though as years passed and the scope of the tragedy came to light, the public’s perception soured.
Herbert Hoover said that “the use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul”. Douglas MacArthur “saw no military justification” in its use; Chester Nimitz and Dwight Eisenhower also disputed the justification for the bombings, both believing that the Japanese would have surrendered regardless. Japanese surrender did come, anyway - eight days after Hiroshima and five days after Nagasaki.
↧
