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Aerial photo of Woodstock, 1969

Bob Marley's final words were "Money can't buy life."

History LGBT Tragedy T he Stonewall Riots begin. Just after 3 a.m., police raided the Stonewall Inn—a gay club located on New York City’s Christopher Street. The incident turned violent as patrons and local sympathizers begin rioting against the police. Although the police were technically within their legal purview in raiding the club, which was serving liquor without a license, New York’s gay community had grown weary and wary of the police department frequently targeting gay clubs specifically because of their clientele. It is claimed that activist Marsha P Johnson yelled "I got my civil rights," and threw a shot glass at the wall, referred to as "the shot glass heard ‘round the world.” As the two groups faced off against each other, the protest spilled over into the neighboring streets, and order was not restored until the deployment of New York’s riot police. The Stonewall Riots were followed by several days of demonstrations in New York and was ...

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler orders a bloody purge of his own political party, assassinating hundreds of Nazis whom he believed had the potential to become political enemies in the future. The leadership of the Nazi Storm Troopers (SA), whose four million members had helped bring Hitler to power in the early 1930s, was especially targeted. Hitler feared that some of his followers had taken his early “National Socialism” propaganda too seriously and thus might compromise his plan to suppress workers’ rights in exchange for German industry making the country war-ready. It was referred to as "The Night of the Long Knives." Image Credit:  German Federal Archive.

Photo legend history, a fire breaks out under the Hartford, Connecticut big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus. The disaster killed 167 people and left 682 injured. The cause of the fire was unknown, but it spread at incredible speed, racing up the canvas of the circus tent. Scarcely before the 8,000 spectators inside the big top could react, patches of burning canvas began falling on them from above, and a stampede for the exits began. Many were trapped under fallen canvas, but most were able to rip through it and escape. However, after the tent’s ropes burned and its poles gave way, the whole burning big top came crashing down, consuming those who remained inside. Within 10 minutes it was over, and because of a picture that appeared in newspapers of clown Emmett Kelly holding a water bucket, the event became colloquially known as "the day the clowns cried." An investigation later revealed that the tent had undergone a treatment with flammable paraffin thinne...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness"

T he Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which will last three and a half months, begins. After the occupation of France by Germany, Britain knew it was only a matter of time before the Axis power turned its sights across the Channel. And on July 10, 120 German bombers and fighters struck a British shipping convoy in that very Channel. Although Britain had far fewer fighters than the Germans–600 to 1,300–it had a few advantages, such as an effective radar system, which made the prospects of a German sneak attack unlikely. Britain also produced superior quality aircraft. Its Spitfires could turn tighter than Germany’s ME109s, enabling it to better elude pursuers; and its Hurricanes could carry 40mm cannon, and would shoot down, with its American Browning machine guns, over 1,500 Luftwaffe aircraft. But in the opening days of battle, Britain was in immediate need of two things: a collective stiff uppe...

The Seneca Falls Convention begins. The first ever women’s rights convention held in the United States–convened with almost 200 women in attendance. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. As women, Mott and Stanton were barred from the convention floor, and the common indignation that this aroused in both of them was the impetus for their founding of the women’s rights movement in the United States. For proclaiming a women’s right to vote in their Statement of Sentiments and Grievances, the Seneca Falls Convention was subjected to public ridicule, and some backers of women’s rights withdrew their support. However, the resolution marked the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in America. The Seneca Falls Convention was followed two weeks later by an even larger meeting in Rochester, N.Y. Thereafter, national woman’s rights conv...

I ce cream has been around in some form since 2nd century B.C., but until the 1800s it remained a rare treat only enjoyed by elites. It was eventually sold by street vendors and after prohibition, when the popularity of soda fountains and malt shops surged, in storefronts as well. The first ice cream trucks, as we know them, emerged in the 1920s as street vendors made use of automobiles. The rest is, as they say, history.  Do you have a favorite ice cream treat?

Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. News of their achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country’s future. Mount Everest sits on the crest of the Great Himalayas in Asia, lying on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Called Chomo-Lungma, or “Mother Goddess of the Land,” by the Tibetans, the English named the mountain after Sir George Everest, a 19th-century British surveyor of South Asia. The first recorded attempt to climb Everest was made in 1921 by a British expedition that trekked 400 difficult miles across the Tibetan plateau to the foot of the great mountain. A raging storm forced them to abort their ascent, but the mountaineers, among them George Leigh Mallory, had seen what appeared to be a feasib...

Humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross. Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War and became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her tireless dedication. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war, and with the extensive records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp. She was in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross. In 1873, she returned to the United States, and four years later she organized an American branch of the International Red Cross. The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federa...

The Gorilla Foundation announced the passing of their beloved Koko on Tuesday, June 19th, 2018 at the age of 46. Throughout her life, Koko's abilities made international headlines. She was chosen as an infant to work on a language research project with psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson, and was coined the famous “sign language talking Gorilla.” In 2001, Koko made a fast friend in comedian Robin Williams. Years later, in 2014, Koko was one of many who mourned Williams' passing. Koko amazed scientists in 2012, when she showed she could learn to play the recorder. That alone revealed mental perspicacity but also that primates could learn to control their breathing — something that had been assumed to be beyond their abilities. Her ability to interact with people made Koko an international celebrity. But she also revealed the depth and strength of a gorilla's emotional life, sharing moments of glee and sadness with researchers. Rest in Peace, Koko.

Throwback t ravel thursday takes us to Roman ruins located in Morocco. It’s the city of Volubilis, first built in 3rd century BC. Roman rule supercharged the city’s expansion and it grew to cover roughly 100 acres during the 1st century. The city was one of Rome’s most remote outposts and Roman control over the city only lasted until around 280 AD as local tribes took over. It was inhabited by many other groups though the centuries but by the 11th century was essentially abandoned. In 1997 it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and now many come to marvel at the preserved ruins that remain.

5 years ago, aerialist Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk a high wire across the Little Colorado River Gorge near Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It was the highest walk of his career, and he completed it in just less than 23 minutes. Wallenda made the quarter-mile traverse on a 2-inch-thick steel cable some 1,500 feet above the gorge… without a safety harness! In June of the previous year, Wallenda, a member of the famous Flying Wallendas family of circus performers, also became the first person to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Nik Wallenda made his professional debut as an aerialist at age 13. He went on to set a number of Guinness World Records, including the longest tightrope crossing on a bicycle and the highest eight-person tightrope pyramid. In 2011, Wallenda he and his mother successfully completed the high-wire walk in Puerto Rico that had killed his great grandfather Karl Wallenda.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of our friend Richard ‘The Old Man’ Harrison, a beloved member of the HISTORY and ‘Pawn Stars’ family. He will be greatly missed for his wisdom and candor. Our thoughts are with the Harrison family during this difficult time.

On 1950, North Korean forces enter South Korea, setting off the Korean War. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly sprang to the defense of South Korea and fought a bloody and frustrating war  for the next three years. 

When six U.S. Marines raised a flag over Iwo Jima in February 1945, they were laying claim to the slopes of a mountain, part of a strategically important chain of volcanic islands south of Tokyo. The Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin Islands, were largely uninhabited. But during World War II, they offered a place where the invasion of Japan could be staged. The islands themselves weren’t empty—they were home to thousands of Japanese people, many of them with British and American ancestry. And, the American victory turned most of them into refugees over the next 23 years of U.S. occupation. In 1962, the United State abruptly gave the islands back to Japan. As the islands once again fell under Japanese control, islanders reconnected with their long-lost friends and family members and refugees returned. Even years after the handover, some Ogasawara residents are ambivalent about the change. “There are people who are very sad about the handover,” Yoko Tahash...

On This Day in History 1967, the Detroit Riots began following an early morning police raid on a “blind pig,” or an illegal after-hours club.  What happened first is hard to say but police and demonstrators clashed in one of the most violent and destructive riots in U.S. history. Only the New York Draft Riots of 1863 and the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 caused more destruction. After five days of fire and bloodshed, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned and some 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had been called into service in the city. In the aftermath of the Newark and Detroit riots, President Johnson appointed a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission. Seven months after the Detroit Riots had ended, the commission released its 426-page report. Ominously, the report declared that “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disord...

Steve Jobs giving IBM the finger in 1983!