Category: history

Calendar: May 18

A Year: Day to Day Men: 18th of May

A Bright New Day

May 18, 1927 marks the opening day of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California.

Grauman’s Chinese Theater is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame. After the success of his Egyptian Theater, Sid Grauman secured a long-term lease on the property site at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard from Francis Bushman, the owner of the existing mansion located at that address. The firm of Meyer and Holler, with Raymond Kennedy as the principal architect, was contracted to design a “palace-type theater” of Chinese design. Grauman financed the theater’s two million dollar cost and owned one-third interest in the theater. His partners, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Howard Schenck owned the remaining two thirds.

During construction, Grauman hired Jean Klossner to formulate an extremely hard concrete for the forecourt of the theater. Norma Marie Talmadge, the American actress and film producer of the silent era, is traditionally recognized as the first person to put a footprint in the concrete. The theater’s third founding partner, Douglas Fairbanks, was the second celebrity to be immortalized in the concrete. Nearly two hundred Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints and autographs are now imprinted in the concrete of the theater’s forecourt.

The exterior of Grauman’s theater is meant to resemble a giant, red Chinese pagoda. The design features a huge Chinese dragon across the facade, with two authentic Ming Dynasty guardian lions guarding the main entrance and the silhouettes of tiny dragons along the sides of the copper roof.

One of the highlights of the Chinese Theatre has always been its grandeur and décor. In 1952, John Tartaglia, the artist of nearby Saubt Sophia Cathedral, became the head interior decorator of the Chinese Theatre, as well as the theatre chain then owned by Fox West Coast Theaters. Celebrities also contributed to the theater’s decor. Xavier Cugat painted the trees and foliage between the pillars on the side walls. Keye Luke painted the Chinese murals in the lobby. The lobby features programs from some of the Hollywood premieres that have been hosted there, as well as a collection of classic movie costumes.

The Chinese Theatre was declared a historic and cultural landmark in 1968, and has undergone various restoration projects in the years since then.In 2000, Behr Browers Architects, a firm previously engaged by Mann Theaters, prepared a restoration and modernization program for the structure. The program included a seismic upgrade, new state-of-the-art sound and projection, new vending kiosks and exterior signage, and the addition of a larger concession area under the balcony.

Calendar: May 17

A Year: Day to Day Men: 17th of May

A Piece of Ginger

May 17, 1682 was the birthdate of Bartholomew Roberts, a Welsh pirate know after his death by the nickname of Black Bart.

Bartholomew Roberts was born John Roberts in Casnewydd-Bach, Wales. He is thought  to have gone to sea when he was thirteen in 1695; however, there is no further record of him until 1718 when he was mate of a Barbados sloop. In 1719, Roberts was second mate on the slave ship Princess serving under Captain Abraham Plumb.

In early June of 1719, the Princess was anchored at Anomabu situated on the Gold Coast of West Africa, when she was attacked and captured by pirates. The two pirate ships, the Royal Rover and the Royal James, were led by captain Howell Davis. Roberts and several others of the Princess crew were forced to join the pirates. Captain Davis, also a Welshman, discovered Robert’s abilities as a navigator and took to consulting him and confiding information to Roberts in Welsh. Roberts was reluctant to become a pirate but soon saw the advantages to his new lifestyle.

The Royal Rover with Davis and Roberts on board hoisted a British flag and entered the harbor of the island of Principe, intending to hold the governor of the island hostage for ransom. Davis invited the governor to lunch on board the Royal Rover and sent boats to transport the governor. However, the Portuguese garrison on the island had discovered that their visitors were pirates, ambushed the landing party, and shot Davis dead. A new captain had to be selected. Despite his being with the crew for only six weeks, Roberts was elected captain.

Roberts and his crew crossed the Atlantic and spent nine weeks off the coast of Brazil. About to leave for the West Indies, the encountered a fleet of 42 Portuguese ships waiting for two men-of-war ships to escort them to Lisbon. The richest ship, Sagrada Familia with 40 guns and a crew of 170, was boarded and captured. The Sagrada Familia contained 40,000 gold coins and jewelry designed for the King of Portugal, including a cross set with diamonds- a very rich prize for the pirates.

On the 10th of February, 1722, The Royal Navy ship HMS Swallow delivered two broadsides to Robert’s ship at Cape Lopez on the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Grapeshot struck Roberts in the throat while he stood on deck. Before his body could be captured, Roberts’s wish to be buried at sea was fulfilled by his crew, who wrapped his body in the ship’s sail, weighted it down and threw it overboard. It was never found. Bartholomew Roberts was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy as measured by vessels captured, taking over 400 prizes in his career.

Calendar: May 15

A Year: Day to Day Men: 15th of May

Awaiting an Answer

On May 15, 1492 German mercenaries kill 232 people during the Bread and Cheese Revolt in Holland.

The Bread and Cheese Revolt was an uprising of people from Kennemerland and West-Friesland in the province Holland in the year 1491-1492. The name “bread and cheese rebellion” comes from the emblems on the rebel banners. The main reason for the rebellion was a tax raise; but an economic crisis and a food shortage stimulated the rebellion. The tax oppression and the garrison policy of John III of Egmont, the steward of Maximilian I, who had secured the Lowlands by marriage to Mary of Burgundy, further inflamed the discontent of the suffering citizens..

The rebels attacked several cities and killed the most hated tax collectors including the bailiff of Kennemerland, Claes van Ruyven in the town of Haarlem. The peasants with the support of the urban lower classes seized the cities of Hoom, Alkmaar, and Haarlem. The rebels also stormed and destroyed two castles.

Count John III van Egmont first tried to quell the uprising by making some promises to the rebels but they were not impressed. John III called in an imperial army under the control of Albert III, Duke of Saxony, and Governor of the Netherlands. The imperial army defeated the rebel army on the cemetery of Heemskerk.

Two hundred and thirty-two peasants were killed by mercenaries at the city of Alkmaar in the Netherlands during the uprising. The captured leaders of the rebellion were executed and the cities which supported the rebellion were stripped of their city walls, received fines, and had garrisons installed in their midst.

Calendar: May 7

 

A Year: Day to Day Men: 7th of May

A Man with Attitude

On May 7, 558, the great dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople completely collapsed.

Hagia Sophia is a cathedral located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. The original cathedral was finished in 360 A.D., but due to a future of riots, rebellions, and the fall of empires, the structure was rebuilt multiple times, each version more grand than the last. Due to this rich history, the cathedral has crowned the bodies of both the Christian and the Muslim world.

The size and measurements of the Hagia Sophia are much larger than other religious buildings of its time. This structure is world renown for the colossal dome that sits over its central space. The dome is 56 meters from ground level, 32 meters from North to South and 31 meters from East to West. It was the largest pendentive dome in the world until the completion of Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1626, and has a much lower height than any other dome of such a great diameter.

Earthquakes in August 553 and December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and eastern half-dome. The main dome collapsed completely during a subsequent earthquake on May 7th in the year 558, destroying the altar steps, the altar, and the structural canopy over the altar. The collapse was due mainly to the unfeasibly high bearing load and to the enormous sheer load of the dome, which was too flat. These caused the deformation of the piers which sustained the dome.

Emperor Justian I ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who rebuilt with lighter materials than previously used and elevated the dome by another thirty feet– giving the building its current interior height. Moreover, Isidorus shaped the new cupola like a scalloped shell or the inside of an umbrella, with ribs that extend from the top down to the base. These ribs allow the weight of the dome to flow between the windows, down the pendentives, and ultimately to the foundation.

Hagia Sophia is famous for the light that reflects everywhere in the interior of the nave, giving the dome the appearance of hovering above. This effect was achieved by the insertion of forty windows around the base of the original structure. The insertion of the windows in the dome structure, beside letting more light enter, lessened its weight upon the underlying structure. This reconstruction of the Hagia Sophia dome, giving the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The rededication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius occurred on December 23, 562.

Calendar: May 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of May

The Full Stretch

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock.

The Hindenburg, Luftschiff Zeppelin #129, had a duralumin structure, incorporating fifteen Ferris wheel-like main ring bulkheads along its length, with sixteen cotton gas bags fitted between them. The airship’s outer skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the bags from light damage and overheating from the sun. There were small passenger quarters in the middle flanked by large public rooms  Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks.

Helium was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest being not flammable. Despite a U.S. ban on the export of helium under the Helium Control Act of 1927, the Germans designed the airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the US government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National Munitions Control Board would refuse to lift the export ban, they were forced to re-engineer Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. No alternative lighter than air gases could provide sufficient lift.

On the fateful May 1937 trip, the Hindenburg took off on time, it ran into delays crossing the Atlantic due to headwinds and approaching storm fronts. The crew radioed Lakehurst announcing they would delay their arrival time by 10 to 12 hours, from 6 a.m. on May 6 to late afternoon. This allowed the airship to float over the Boston and New York City skies during daylight hours, which was not part of the original schedule.

The airship arrived at Lakehurst at about 4:15 p.m., only to begin circling again because of bad weather. By 6:15 p.m., the storm had subsided and Lakehurst’s commanding officer told the ship’s captain to land as soon as possible to beat another approaching storm. Shortly after 7 p.m., the Hindenburg neared the mooring mast, but the tail felt heavy and the winds prevented the ship from being level. In response, the captain released hydrogen from cells 11 to 16 for 30 seconds in hopes of reducing the buoyancy of the bow and keeping the ship in level trim.

At the same time, the winds shifted, leaving the airship little room to maneuver. So the crew executed a sharp turn to align with the mooring mast. In the end, it was a lot of adjusting, leveling and quick decision-making that all could been factors what ended up happening. At 7:21 p.m, with the airship 180 feet in the air, the forward landing ropes were dropped. Then the airship caught on fire; at 7:25 pm, little was left but rubble.

Hindenburg left Frankfurt with ninety seven people onboard; 62 survived the crash at Lakehurst, although many suffered serious injuries. Thirteen of the thirty-six passengers, and twenty-two of the sixty-one member crew, died as a result of the crash, along with one member of the civilian landing party.

Calendar: May 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of May

The Distance of Space

On May 4, 1953, Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction works. Three of his novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.

In late September of 1921, Hemingway married Hadley Richardson; the couple then moved to France. In Paris, Hemingway met American writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, Irish novelist James Joyce, American poet Ezra Pound and other writers. He was introduced to the expatriate artists and writers of the Montparnasse Quarter referred to as the “Lost Generation”—a term Hemingway popularized with the 1926 publication of his debut novel “The Sun Also Rises”. At Stein’s salon he met influential painter such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Juan Gris.

In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize jurors voted unanimously for Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 book “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Everyone was in favor of the book except for Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and ex-officio chairman of the board. Butler vetoed the jurors’ choice, deeming the book offensive and profane. He said, “I hope that you will reconsider before you ask the University to be associated with an award for a work of this nature.” There was no fiction winner that year.

However, Hemingway did go on to win the Pulitzer on May 4, 1953 for his novel, “The Old Man and the Sea”. Some have interpreted Hemingway’s eventual Pulitzer more as a nod to his overall career than as an award for “The Old Man and the Sea”—generally considered a lesser work to “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Shortly after the publication of “The Old Man and the Sea”, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of the rest of his life.

In October 1954, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Because hs was suffering pain from the African accidents, he decided against traveling to Stockholm. Instead he sent a speech to be read: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”

Calendar: May 1

A Year: Day to Day Men: 1st of May

Reaching Forward

On May 1, 1776, the Illuminati in Upper Bavaria was established by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.

Johann Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher and professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt, Bavaria. He began his education at the age of seven at a Jesuit school. He later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated in 1768 at age 20 with a doctorate of law. In 1772 he became a professor of law at that university.

After Pope Clement XIV’s suppression of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law, a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time. In 1775 Weishaupt was introduced to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Feder, a philosopher and author. Feder’s philosophy was based on the premise that knowledge was only deduced or inferred by one’s sense-based experience, from which one can then  develop universal concepts.

Johann Adam Weishaupt founded the “Illuminati” in the Electorate of Bavaria on the first day of May in 1776. References vary on the goal of the Order: some saying the Order was not democratic internally, but sought to promote the doctrines of equality and freedom throughout society; others say the aim was to combat religion and superstition and foster rationalism in its place. Contrary to the the Enlightenment movement’s dictum that the passage of man out of his immaturity was done by using his own reason without the guidance of others, Weishaupt’s Order of Illuminati prescribed in detail everything which the members had to read and think.

Weishaupt’s radical rationalism and vocabulary did not succeed. Writings that were intercepted in 1784 were interpreted as seditious, and the Society was banned by the government of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, in 1784. Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled Bavaria. After Weishaupt’s Order of Illuminati was banned and its members dispersed, it left behind no enduring traces of an influence, not even on its own members, who went on in the future to develop in quite different directions

Calendar: April 30

A Year: Day to Day Men: 30th of April

The Mesh Pouch

April 30, 1952 was the date for the first advertisement of a toy on national television in the United States.

In the early 1940s, Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner came up with the idea of inserting small, pronged body and face parts into fruits and vegetables to create a “funny face man”. Lerner would often take potatoes from his mother’s garden and, using various other fruits and vegetables as facial features, he would make dolls with which his younger sisters could play. The grape-eyed, carrot-nosed, potato-headed dolls became the principal idea behind the plastic toy which would later be manufactured.

In the beginning, Lerner’s toy proved controversial. With World War II and food rationing a recent memory for most Americans, the use of fruits and vegetables to make toys was considered irresponsible and wasteful. After several years of trying to sell the toy, Lerner finally convinced a food company to distribute the plastic parts as premiums in breakfast cereal boxes.

in 1951, Lerner showed the idea to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who conducted a small school supply and toy business called Hassenfeld Brothers which later changed its name to Hasbro, Inc.. Realizing the toy was quite unlike anything in their line, they paid the cereal company to stop production and bought the rights. Lerner was offered an advance of $500 and a 5% royalty on every kit sold. The toy was dubbed “Mr. Potato Head” and went into production.

On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. The campaign was also the first to be aimed directly at children; before this, commercials were only targeted at adults, so toy adverts had always been pitched to parents. This commercial revolutionized the field of marketing, and caused an industrial boom. Over one million kits were sold in the first year.

In 1953, Mrs. Potato Head was added, and soon after, Brother Spud and Sister Yam completed the Potato Head family with accessories reflecting the affluence of the fifties that included a car, a boat trailer, a kitchen set, a stroller, and pets called Spud-ettes. Although originally produced as separate plastic parts to be stuck into a real potato or other vegetable, a plastic potato was added to the kit in 1964.

Calendar: April 27

A Year: Day to Day Men: 27th of April

Natural Extension into Space

April 27 1791 was the birthdate of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the American painter and inventor.

In England, Morse perfected his painting techniques under the watchful eye of notable artist Washington Allston; by the end of 1811, he gained admittance to the Royal Academy. At the Academy, he was moved by the art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist produced his masterpiece, “The Dying Hercules” after first making a sculpture as a study for the painting.

In 1825, Samuel Morse decided to explore a means of rapid long distance communication. While returning by ship from Europe in 1832, he encountered Charles Thomas Jackson, a man from Boston well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson’s electromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph. In time the Morse code, which he developed became the primary language of telegraphy in the world. It is still the standard for rhythmic transmission of data.

Morse encountered the problem of getting a telegraphic signal to carry over more than a few hundred yards of wire. His breakthrough came from the insights of Professor Leonard Gale, who taught chemistry at New York University. With Gale’s help, Morse introduced extra circuits or relays at frequent intervals and was soon able to send a message through ten miles (16 km) of wire. This was the great breakthrough he had been seeking. Morse and Gale were soon joined by Alfred Vail, an enthusiastic young man with excellent skills, insights, and money.

At the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New York,  on January 11, 1838, Morse and Vail made the first public demonstration of the electric telegraph. Although Morse and Alfred Vail had done most of the research and development in the ironworks facilities, they chose a nearby factory house as the demonstration site. The first public transmission, with the message, “A patient waiter is no loser”, was witnessed by a mostly local crowd.

On May 24, 1844, a 38 mile line financed by Congress and stretching between Washington D.C. and Baltimore,  was officially opened.  Samuel Morse sent the now-famous words, “What hath God wrought” from the Supreme Court chamber in the basement of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to the B&O’s Mount Clare Station in Baltimore.

Calendar: April 26

A Year: Day to Day Men: 26th of April

Hanging at the Park

On April 26, 1478  the Pazzi Conspiracy occurred in Florence, Italy.

The Pazzi conspiracy was a plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the de’ Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence, Italy. The Salviati, Papal bankers in Florence, were at the center of the conspiracy. Pope Sixtus IV was an enemy of the Medici family. He had purchased from Milan the lordship of Imola, a trade route stronghold on the border between Papal and Tuscan territory. Lorenzo de’ Medici also wanted this stronghold for the city of Florence. The purchase was financed by the Pazzi bank, even though Francesco de’ Pazzi had promised Lorenzo they would not aid the Pope.

Girolamo Riario, Francesco Salviati and Francesco de’ Pazzi put together a plan to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Pope Sixtus was approached for his support. He made a very carefully worded statement in which he said that in the terms of his holy office he was unable to sanction killing. He made it clear that it would be of great benefit to the papacy to have the Medici removed from their position of power in Florence, and that he would deal kindly with anyone who did this. He instructed the men to do what they deemed necessary to achieve this aim, and said that he would give them whatever support he could.

On Sunday, 26 April 1478, during High Mass at the Duomo before a crowd of 10,000, the Medici brothers were assaulted. Giuliano de’ Medici was stabbed 19 times by Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli and Francesco de’ Pazzi. As Giuliano bled to death on the cathedral floor, his brother Lorenzo escaped with serious, but not life-threatening, wounds. Lorenzo was locked safely in the sacristy and the coup d’etat failed.

Most of the conspirators were soon caught and summarily executed; five, including Francesco de’ Pazzi and Salviati, were hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria. Jacopo de’ Pazzi, head of the family, escaped from Florence but was caught and brought back. He was tortured, then hanged from the Palazzo della Signoria next to the decomposing corpse of Salviati. He was buried at Santa Croce, but the body was dug up and thrown into a ditch.

Although Lorenzo appealed to the crowd not to exact summary justice, many of the conspirators, as well as many people accused of being conspirators, were killed. Between 26 April, the day of the attack, and 20 October 1478, a total of eighty people were executed. The Pazzi were banished from Florence, and their lands and property confiscated. Their name and their coat of arms were perpetually suppressed. The name Pazzi was erased from public registers, all buildings and streets.

Calendar: April 23

A Year: Day to Day Men: 23rd of April

The Observer

The Cath Chluain Tarbh, the Battle of Clontarf, took place on April 23, 1014.

The Battle of Clontarf took place at Clontarf, near Dublin, Ireland pitting the forces of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, against a Norse-Irish alliance comprised of forces of the Kings of Dublin and Leinster and an external Viking contingent. It lasted from sunrise to sunset and ended in a rout of the Viking and Leinster forces.

It is estimated that between seven to ten thousand men were killed. Although Brian Boru’s forces were victorious, Brian Boru was himself killed, as were his son Murchad and his grandson Toirdelbach, leaving no heirs to the throne. The Leinster King Mael Morda and the Viking leaders were also slain. After the battle the the Kingdom of Dublin was reduced to just a secondary power.

Brian’s body was brought to Swords, north of Dublin. There it was met by the coarb of Patrick, the traditional head of the church in Ireland, who brought the body back with him to Armagh, where it was interred after twelve days of mourning. Along with Brian were the body of his son Murchad and the heads of Conaing, Brian’s nephew, and Mothla, King of the Déisi Muman. Máel Sechnaill, then King of Mide, was restored as High King of Ireland, and remained secure in his position until his death in 1022.

The battle was an important event in Irish history and is recorded in both Irish and Norse chronicles. In Ireland, the battle came to be seen as an event that freed the Irish from foreign domination, and Brian was hailed as a national hero. This view was especially popular during English rule in Ireland; it still has a hold on the popular imagination.

In modern times there has been a long-running debate among historians, which is now 250 years old, about Ireland’s Viking age and the Battle of Clontarf. The standard view, and the popular view, is that the battle ended a war between the Irish and Vikings by which Brian Boru broke Viking power in Ireland. However revisionist historians see it as an Irish civil war in which Brian Boru’s Munster forces and its allies defeated Leinster and Dublin, and that there were Vikings fighting on both sides.

Calendar: April 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of April

Piercing Eyes

The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 began on April 22.

On March 3, 1889, U. S. President Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land. With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular-shaped rectangle of territory. By the appointed day more than 50,000 hopeful settlers were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory.

The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical of events that happened in other places of the border. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of settlers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots.

By the end of the day of April 22, towns like Norman and Kingfisher had sprung into being almost overnight. Both Oklahoma City and Guthrie had established cities of around 10,000 people in literally half a day. The story that ran in the Harper’s Weekly, a New York based political magazine read: “At twelve o’clock on Monday, April 22d, the resident population of Guthrie was nothing; before sundown it was at least ten thousand. In that time streets had been laid out, town lots staked off, and steps taken toward the formation of a municipal government”.

Many settlers immediately started improving their new land or stood in line waiting to file their claim. Many children sold creek water to the new homesteaders waiting in line for five cents a cup, while other children gathered buffalo dung to provide fuel for cooking. By the second week, schools had opened and were being taught by volunteers paid by the pupils’ parents until regular school districts could be established. Within one month, Oklahoma City had five banks and six newspapers.

On May 2, 1890, the Oklahoma Organic Act was passed creating the Oklahoma Territory.  This act included the panhandle area of Oklahoma within the territory. It also allowed for central governments and designated the city of Guthrie as the territory’s new capitol. By 1907, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma.

Calendar: April 18

A Year: Day to Day Men: 18th of April

On a Bed with Black Pillows

The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 happened on April 18 at 5:12 AM.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of northern California on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). Heavy shaking was felt for a distance of 370 miles along the coast of California.. Devastating fires started and lasted for several days. As a result, over eighty per cent of the city of San Francisco was destroyed and up to 3000 lives lost.

The San Andreas Fault is a continental fault that forms part of the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. The 1906 rupture propagated both northward and southward fo a total of 296 miles. The observed surface displacement was about 20 feet; geodetic measurements show displacements up to 28 feet. Shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada. Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000 residents.

As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were even more destructive. It has been estimated that up to 90% of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires. Within three days, over 30 fires caused by the ruptured gas mains destroyed about 25,000 buildings.

Almost immediately after the quake (and even during the disaster), planning and reconstruction plans were hatched to quickly rebuild the city. Rebuilding funds were immediately tied up by the fact that virtually all the major banks had been sites of the conflagration, requiring a lengthy wait of seven-to-ten days before their fire-proof vaults could cool sufficiently to be safely opened.

The Bank of Italy had evacuated its funds and was able to provide liquidity in the immediate aftermath. Its president also immediately chartered and financed the sending of two ships to return with shiploads of lumber from Washington and Oregon mills which provided the initial reconstruction materials. In 1929, Bank of Italy was renamed and is now known ad Bank of America.

Reconstruction was swift, and largely completed by 1915, in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition which celebrated the reconstruction of the city and its “rise from the ashes”. Since 1915, the city has officially commemorated the disaster each year by gathering the remaining survivors at Lotta’s Fountain,  a fountain in the city’s financial district that served as a meeting point during the disaster for people to look for loved ones and exchange information.

Calendar: April 10

 

A Year: Day to Day Men: 10th of April

In Cool Water

Mount Tambora’s eruptions reached a violent climax on April 10, 1815.

Mount Tambora is on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia. It experienced several centuries of dormancy before 1815, caused by the gradual cooling of the hydrous magma in its closed magma chamber. During this cooling, crystallization of the magma occurred. resulting in an over-pressurization of the chamber and a rising of the temperature. In 1812, the volcano began to rumble and generated a dark cloud.

On the 5th of April in 1815, a very large eruption occurred, followed by thunderous detonation sounds heard in Makassar on Sulawesi 240 miles away, and as far as Ternate on the Molucca Islands 870 miles away. On the morning of April 6, volcanic ash began to fall in East Java with faint detonation sounds lasting until the 10th of April. Detonation sounds were heard on  April 10th at Sumatra, more than 1,600 miles away.

At about 7 pm on April 10th, the eruptions intensified. Three columns of flame rose up and merged. The whole mountain was turned into a flowing mass of “liquid fire”. Pumice stones of up to 8 inches in diameter started to rain down around 8 pm, followed by ash at around 9–10 pm. Pyroclastic flows cascaded down the mountain to the sea on all sides of the peninsula, wiping out the village of Tambora. Loud explosions were heard until the next evening, April 11. The ash veil spread as far as West Java and South Sulawesi.

The explosion had an estimated Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7 (on a scale of 0 to 8) making it one of the most powerful in recorded history. An estimated 10 cubic miles of pyroclastic rock were ejected, weighting about 10 billion tons. This left a caldera measuring about four miles across and 2,300 feet deep. Before the explosion, Mount Tambora’s peak elevation was about 14,100 feet, making it one of the tallest peaks in the Indonesian archipelago. After the explosion, its peak elevation had dropped to 9,354 feet, about two thirds of its previous height.

The 1855 Zollinger report puts the number of direct deaths at 10,000, probably caused by pyroclastic flows. On Sumbawa island, 38,000 people starved to death; on Lombok island about 10,000 people died from disease and hunger. However, other journal reports put the combined deaths from volcanic activity and from post-eruption famine and epidemic diseases higher at 70,000 to 100,000 people. The ash from the eruption dispersed around the world, lowering global temperatures and triggering harvest failures.