It Could Be Amazing

I like stories about ordinary people who've done something out of the ordinary. My favourite year in history is 1912.

[vintagegirlonabike]

We don’t exactly know when Anne Frank died but today, on the 12th of March, we remember her death.

Rest in peace, Anne Frank.

[momqueer]

May her memory be for a blessing

[todayinhistory]

December 24th 1826: Eggnog riot begins On this day in 1826, the so-called ‘Eggnog Riot’ began at the West Point military academy in New York. Whiskey and rum had recently been banned at the academy by Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, the new superintendent of West Point. Wishing to continue an annual tradition, and reveling in the Christmas spirit, several cadets smuggled large quantities of alcohol into West Point to make eggnog for a party. The party that began in one small room in the barracks quickly escalated out of control, eventually involving one third of West Point’s cadets, and resulted in the assault of two officers and destruction to the North Barracks. After the festivities had been interrupted by the officers, some party-goers, emboldened by their eggnog, decided to arm in defence of the barracks and fighting broke out between the cadets and officers in what was essentially a mutiny. Christmas morning dawned with many disheveled and still inebriated cadets appearing for training. A month of inquiries, established by Thayer, aimed to punish the ringleaders of the shenanigans and led to the court-martialing of twenty cadets. The trials of the accused lasted three months, featuring the testimonies of future Confederate military leaders Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis in defense of the cadets, and resulted in the dismissal of eleven cadets from the illustrious academy. In fact, the future Confederate President Davis took part in the Eggnog riots, which did not help his reputation for poor behavior at the academy.

[onceuponatown]

New York.  Santa Has an Emotional Crisis, Schenectady, 1953.

Snowed under with more than 10,000 letters from tiny friends, Santa Claus wants to know “how can I Acknowledge all this mail before Christmas.” For weeks now he has been taking time out from his workshop everyday to read the names of the youthful letter-writers over the General Electric television station WRGB, and radio station WGY. Each week, however, the backlog becomes worse. Now he says, “some of the little folk are writing second letters when they think I’m overlooking their first.”

[dichotomized]

Chernobyl - A liquidator wearing a gas mask and protective clothing, takes a baby in a pram back to his home. The child, found in the 30 km “no-go” zone in the village of Tatsenki, had been left in an abandoned house where the liquidator was measuring radiation levels.

[olga-romanov-deactivated2014091]

From the recently released high quality GARF albums: Grand Duchess Maria

[nrw-p7wyt]

An ancient Egyptian “griffin” with the body of a leopard, head of a hawk, wings, and a human head on its back (because… Why not?).

From the tomb of the Middle Kingdom provincial governor Khnumhotep at Beni Hassan. 

[historical-nonfiction]

A vision of 2000, drawn by Jean-Marc Côté and other French artists to be used on cigar boxes and postcards, for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. It’s actually kind of sad how little of this we have. Who wouldn’t want to travel by whale?

[picturesfromgrandpa]

The Jewish Community in Ansbach, Germany gathers for a wedding.  The bride and groom had both been recently liberated from the camps.  Germany, 1946.

[ughpsh]

[itcouldbeamazing]

Pablo Picasso photographed in his studio near Cannes, France in 1956. The Thonet rocking chair in the distance appears in many of his paintings.

[diasporadash]

Three women from Guadeloupe, on Ellis Island, about 1910, by Augustus Sherman - Source: New York Public Library 

Curated by Carlos Miguel Jimenez

[itcouldbeamazing]

21st July 2007 - The last Harry Potter novel is published.

[swaginageorge]

seeing a hot guy walk by like

[atlasnerd]

Reblogging for the sheer hilarity of the gif.

[mahlarchuck]

It would be a mistake not to

[cheesychillfries-deactivated201]

"Four score and one booty ago damn that’s a fine ass"

[itcouldbeamazing]

'GERMS make nerous and physicl wrecks of normal women'

- Interesting advert from the 1920's.

[itcouldbeamazing]

April Fools Day: World War 1 - 1915. On April 1, 1915, in the midst of World War I, a French aviator flew over a German camp and dropped what appeared to be a huge bomb. The German soldiers immediately scattered in all directions, but no explosion followed. After some time, the soldiers crept back and gingerly approached the bomb. They discovered it was actually a large football with a note tied to it that read, “April Fool!”

[weirdvintage]

Soccer team of British soldiers with gas masks, somewhere in Northern France during World War I, 1916 (via Retronaut)

[itcouldbepeachy-blog]

I’ve got a doctors appointment at 4.20. Blaze it.

[todayinhistory]

March 16th 1912: Lawrence Oates dies On this day in 1912 Lawrence Oates, a member of Robert Falcon Scott’s British team to the South Pole, left his tent never to be seen again. Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition was his second attempt and aimed to become the first group to reach the South Pole. The group succeeded in reaching the Pole on 17th January 1912, only to discover that they had been beaten by Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition. Sadly, Scott’s entire party of five men died on the return journey. Oates was one of those who died first. He was suffering from severe frostbite and, in an apparent act of self-sacrifice, simply walked out of his tent into a blizzard. He had asked them to leave him behind as his condition worsened, and it is likely he felt that he was holding his group back and limiting their chances for survival. Thus on March 16th he walked out of the tent saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time." The others died soon after and their bodies were found by a search party in November, along with some of their equipment and personal effects. Oates’s body was never found, but he and his companions are remembered as brave men and national heroes.

"We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.” - Entry in Scott’s diary about Oates

[itcouldbeamazing]

Captain Oates is one of my favourite people EVER.