Search
The Rare & Early Newspapers Hobby
Receive the Newsletter
Buy Historic Newspapers
Lava flowing on the moon?
March 14, 2016 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post
| 
Print This Post
It can be easy to understand the limits of astronomy prior to our modern age when you read a report like the one found in “The Bath Chronicle” from England, June 14, 1787, which reports an observation by one of the more noted astronomers of the era. It begins: “Our great astronomer Mr. Herschel has lately discovered three volcanoes in the moon. The principal one, which is now burning, ejects great quantities of smoke and lava…” (see image).
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- Great Headlines Speak for Themselves… The First Moon Walk…
- Snapshot 1969… Gaylord Perry and The Man on the Moon…
- What got the juices flowing for Thomas Paine…
- There must be a man in the moon…
- Veterans – War’s end is rarely met with the end to their battles…
The “Long Day of Joshua” on steroids…
March 10, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
Many are familiar with the Biblical account aptly named “The Long Day of Joshua” where Joshua, through the power of God and on behalf of the allied Israelite and Gibeonite armies, commands the sun to stand still in order to give them more time to complete the rout of their enemies – which results in a miraculous extension of the day. The publishers of The Kansas State Journal must have had a pretty amazing need for an even greater expansion of time as they apparently didn’t just annex hours, but entire days to the calendar in January of 1862 (see below). Oh ye of little faith. Amazing!
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- The worst kind of “ism”…
- Double-dated newspapers: the Julian and Gregorian calendars…
- Jack the Ripper’s Identity Revealed?
- This Day in “News” History… January 26th…
- This Day in “News” History… January 23…
The Traveler… Stamped out…
March 7, 2016 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
Today, by the means of The Edinburgh Advertiser dated March 7, 1766, I traveled to Scotland where I found that they received a letter from Bristol dated March 1st containing a report of a premature celebration in England of the repeal of the Stamp Act. Although the repeal was official on March 16, early readings in Parliament of the repeal bill gave notice that it would happen soon. “Never was joy more general or citizens hearts more sensibly touched than ours on Monday last on hearing the favourable turn of the American affairs. The bells throughout the city rang incessantly…”
~The Traveler
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- The Traveler… the Goree Merchants… Weales or Weasles…
- The Traveler… not quite the intended effect…
- The Traveler… ah, this bloody weather…
- The Traveler… the coronation… out of the mouths of babes…
- The Traveler… tired of pirating… checking out early?…
FACT or fiction? Ol’ Rip still alive after being entombed for 30+ years…
March 3, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
Eastland, Texas surged into the national spotlight in early 1928 when a time capsule, which had been entombed in the cornerstone of the old courthouse, was opened during the courthouse’s demolition. To everyone’s surprise out came a horned-toad lizard – still alive after 31 years! Hoax or not, a tour of the now legendary reptile included a visit to Washington, D.C. to meet President Calvin Coolidge. More can be read about Ol’ Rip via Wikipedia. The image shows the report of his “unearthing” which appeared in the New York Times dated February 20, 1928. Sadly, he would not survive another 12 months as he died of pneumonia on January 19, 1929 as reported in the New York Times of the following day.
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- First reference to “Ivy League”?
- A Three Stooges skit on the House floor…
- Amazing Stories… The Loch Ness Monster…
- The Traveler… Battle of Baltimore…
- Security taken for Kennedy’s visit to Dallas…
A March stroll thru time – 50, 100, 150, 200, & 250 years ago…
March 3, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
What news was reported in the month of March – 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 years ago? Such a walk back through time via the eyes of those who read the daily and weekly newspapers of the period can be quite revealing. This is why we often say, “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” The following links will take you back in time to show the available newspapers from the Rare & Early newspapers website. There’s no need to buy a thing. Simply enjoy the stroll.If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- A May, 2016 stroll back thru time – 50, 100, 150, 200, & 250 years ago…
- A January stroll thru time – 50, 100, 150, 200, & 250 years ago…
- A July, 2016 stroll back thru time – 50, 100, 150, 200, & 250 years ago…
- A June, 2016 stroll back thru time – 50, 100, 150, 200, & 250 years ago…
- A September, 2016 stroll back thru time – 50, 100, 150, 200, & 250 years ago…
Oxford girls in 1923 cannot be thwarted…
February 29, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
When we think of college fraternity life, scenes of Animal House (whether we’ve seen the movie or not) likely play in our minds as we imagine, among other things, guys relentlessly exploring ways to covertly enter (and eventually exit) woman’s dormitories or sorority houses late at night. The young testosterone-inflamed males are always the pursuers, with the estrogen-nourished females the pursued. While the burning of brassieres marking the throwing off of gender roles and stereotypes did not become popular until the 1960’s, the front page of the New York Times for January 25, 1923 had an interesting article regarding the young woman of Oxford which foretold of things to come. Perhaps the idiom “You just can’t keep a good (wo)man down” is appropriate in this instance. Enjoy.
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- What did they do to false prophets? 1929 predicted to be a banner financial year…
- The Woman’s Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, 1848…
- FACT or fiction? Ol’ Rip still alive after being entombed for 30+ years…
- I’m New Here…Week Three
- The American Dream at Work…
Cigarettes… Fitness you can…
February 25, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments Email This Post
| Print This Post
While pairing the concept of superior athleticism with cigarette smoking as an advertising ploy would come across ridiculous in today’s “enlightened” culture, there was a time when this was not the case. In fact, professional athletes promoting cigarettes (see the ad from a NYT, October 1, 1941 shown below) was as common in early-to-mid 1900’s as the same promoting energy and “health” drinks is today. I wonder if our children’s children will look back on today wondering how we could have been (dare I say) duped by such connections. Are health drinks really healthy? Time will likely tell.
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- Are cigarettes bad for you? Thomas Edison & Philip Morris disagree…
- Snapshot 1941 – Crushing Debt’s Impact on Democracy…
- Cigarettes do not cause cancer…
- Nostalgia inspired by a Great Storyteller…
- And I thought we were the lazy generation…
Before there was the Chunnel…
February 22, 2016 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
For over twenty years now the English Channel Tunnel, of the “Chunnel” has carried passengers, by train, between England and France. Although being the first such connection to come to fruition, it was not the first proposed.
Such a connection between England and the continent has been proposed since 1802 but none, obviously came to reality. The November 30, 1889 issue of “Scientific American“ reports on a bridge that was conceived as a viable effort, detailed in the article: “The Proposed Bridge Over The English Channel” and illustrated with a caption: “The Proposed Railway Bridge Between England and France.”
It is difficult to imagine the success of an elevated railway stretching over 30 miles, which might explain why this concept never became reality, but in hindsight it is interesting to perceive the vision of engineers over 100 years ago.
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- Imagine a world without phones or the internet…
- The Traveler… Let the journeys begin…
- Where is Polypotamia today?
- It never caught on…
- Scientific American & the Harlem River… 1890…
The Attack on Pearl Harbor… Great Headlines Speak For Themselves…
February 18, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN – 1st Extra! printed on December 7, 1941:
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...
- The reprint issues of the “Honolulu Star-Bulletin” Pearl Harbor issue…
- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… Jean Harlow dies…
- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Walt Disney…
- 20th century prices realized… revisted…
- Great Headlines Speak for Themselves… The Nuremberg Trials…
The Traveler… “The Big Dipper” sets NBA record… Communism – the beginning of the end?…
February 15, 2016 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment Email This Post
| Print This Post
Today I traveled to New York City by the means of The New York Times, February 15, 1966. There I found that Wilt Chamberlain, playing for the 76’ers, had scored his 20,884th point to surpassed the record previously set by Bob Pettit.
The front page also has the reporting of “2-SOVIET AUTHORS ARE CONVICTED” with subheads “Court Finds Works Published Abroad Harmed Regime” and “Sinyavsky Is Given 7 Years, Daniel 5 at Hard Labor”. Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel were convicted of writing under pseudonym names and sending the books out of Russia for publication. “…The judgment, considered unprecedented in modern Soviet history, called it a criminal act to put into print beliefs and ideas that could be used profitably by ‘enemies of communism’…”
As historian Fred Coleman writes, “Historians now have no difficulty pinpointing the birth of the modern Soviet dissident movement. It began in February 1966 with the trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, two Russian writers who ridiculed the Communist regime in satires smuggled abroad and published under pen names… Little did they realize at the time that they were starting a movement that would help end Communist rule.” [source: Wikipedia]
~The Traveler
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...