The History Guy

[thehistoryguyyt]

The H-Bomb Patent

Patent S-5292X, “Improvements in method and means for utilizing nuclear energy” by John Von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs and is a story of two brilliant scientists, of one of the greatest scientific programs ever undertaken, and of Cold War espionage and intrigue.

[thehistoryguyyt]

USS Nimitz, 1981: "Night of Flaming Terror"

On May 26, 1981, during night operations off Pensacola, Florida, a Marine Corps EA-6B "Prowler" crashed on the deck of the Nuclear powered Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, igniting a fire and causing a string of explosions that resulted in the death of 14 members of her crew.

[thehistoryguyyt]

Portuguese Musketeers Save Ethiopia

When the Ethiopian Empire found itself near total destruction at the hands of a Muslim power, the Portuguese found a reason to send military aid, in a little remembered battle for the fate of Christian kingdom in far-off Africa.

[thehistoryguyyt]

SS Robin Moor and the War Before the War

On May 21, 1941, more than six months before the US entry into the war, the SS Robin Moor became the first US flagged merchant ship to be sunk by a German U-boat, all part of the long path towards US entry into the largest war in human history.

[thehistoryguyyt]

The story of the first Victoria Cross to be awarded to an Australian in the Great War deserves to be remembered.

[thehistoryguyyt]

In the early morning hours of May 9, 1837 the steamboat Ben Sherrod, traveling from New Orleans to Louisville, caught fire. The public was shocked as details of the tragedy emerged,. The tragedy of the burning, sinking, and explosion of the Ben Sherrod should never have happened.

[thehistoryguyyt]

While America said “Remember Pearl Harbor,” in Australia they said “Avenge the Nurses.”

[thehistoryguyyt]

The strange nexus of North Dakota, Honduras, the Cayman islands, and potatoes set the stage for the great spud scam of 1986.

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

The Kiss of the oceans - postcard from 1923

[thehistoryguyyt]

On the seventh of May, 1798, In a little remembered battle, a vastly outnumbered force of British sailors and marines faced down a substantial French invasion fleet in what might be described as a dress rehearsal for an invasion of the British isles. The Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf represents one of those brave stands where the few stood against the many.

[thehistoryguyyt]

Among some of the more interesting possible animals, Washington's Eagle or the "Great Sea Eagle" was described by John James Audubon as the largest eagle in North America, with a ten foot wingspan. But did it exist? Audubon isn't the only person who described the creature, although he is the probably the most respected ornithologist who did so. Audubon also described actually shooting the bird and preparing specimens of it, but if the specimens existed they have never been found. The bird was also the first new species described by Audubon, and helped launch is career with the book "Birds of America". Sightings were always rare, and the veracity of his description was questioned as early as 1870. The general consensus now is that Audubon invented the bird - possibly even plagiarizing the painting of it - in a ruse meant to draw subscriptions to his book. A paper by Matthew R Halley (published several years after this video was made) purports to prove that the eagle was invented by Audubon.

[the1920sinpictures]

1910s Loving couple postcard. Pinterest.

[memories-of-ancients]

Dynasties of China

[thehistoryguyyt]

Grant's strategy for 1864 included the bruising Overland Campaign. The bloodshed of the campaign of attrition began on May 5, in a field in Virginia.

[classicalcanvas]

Train in the Snow or The Locomotive (1875) by Claude Monet

[ltwilliammowett]

Swedish ship of the line Öland fighting a British squadron in 1704, by Jacob Hägg, 1914

[thehistoryguyyt]

These are the famous - and short lived - "Educational Series" of silver certificates. Produced in 1896, they are considered by many to be some of the most beautiful bills ever produced by the US government. Each has an allegorical scene on its obverse: The $1 bill is "History Instructing Youth", the $2 is "Science presenting steam and electricity to Commerce and Manufacture", and the $5 "Electricity as the Dominant Force in the World". The $1 also contains the names of prominent Americans like Lincoln, Irving, Adams and Faragut. They each have the faces of prominent Americans on their reverse: George and Marth Washington on t $1, Robert Fulton and Samuel Morse on the $2, and Ulysses Grant and Philip Sheridan on the $5. The bills were designed by muralists, and were extremely detailed. They were controversial, but less for their detail and more because of the naked breast visible on the $5. Designs were being prepared for a $50 bill, but the idea was canned for more utilitarian designs in 1899.