Czar Peter was one of the greatest leaders that Russia has ever had. After much conflict in the royal family, Czar Peter had full control of Russia in 1694. Russia at the time was blinkered and isolated. Czar Peter called for reform and modernization of Russia. He embarked on a 2 year tour of Europe before implementing any reforms. The two year tour was not for leisure, but rather to learn the ways of the West. He recruited Western engineers, miners, shipbuilders, architects, and other skilled workers and brought their expertise to Russia. He himself learned dentistry, seamanship, and shipbuilding and used this knowledge to build an impressive and modern Navy.

Czar Peter built the city of St Petersburg, but at a heavy price. The city is also known as “the city built on bones.” He changed the educational system, opened up trade routes and imported Western goods. He even changed fashion. He told his nobleman to wear clothes rather than the traditional Oriental costumes. He demanded they have no beards. In fact, in 1698 he assembled the chief officials and personally clipped off their beards and moustaches. On top of the demand, he demanded a “beard tax” from all men with the exception of peasants. He started a committee to specifically think of ways to tax people. He taxed virtually everything such as: beehives, boots, candles, chimneys, hats, horses and last, but not least, drinking water! He may have reformed Russia, but at a heavy price.

The year is 1938, the night October 30th, and millions in America are sitting around their Radio. Sunday evenings at 8:00 PM was prime time in the Golden age of Radio. A young 23-year-old radio announcer by the name of Orson Welles decides to update H.G. Wells’ 19th- century science fiction novel “War of The Worlds” for national radio. Although young, Orson Welles had been in radio for several years prior to this, and was well known by listeners as the voice of the “The Shadow.”

Orson did not know his realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth would cause a great panic across America. The show starts off:

A voice announced: “The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in ‘War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells.”

Now remember I said that 8:00 PM was prime time, well most Americans were listening to another popular show at 8:00 PM called “Charlie McCarthy,” on NBC, and only tuned in to CBS at 8:12 PM and by then the story of the Martian invasion was underway.

I can see how this all turned out the way it did. At first Welles introduces his radio play with a spoken intro. A weather report follows, and seemingly abandoning the storyline, the announcer took listeners to “the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.” The music kept playing and then an announcer breaks in with this report: “Professor Farrell of the Mount Jenning Observatory” had detected explosions on the planet Mars. Music returns and again interrupted with an alert announcing that a large meteor had crashed into a farmer’s field in Grovers Mills New Jersey. He then begins to describe a Martian emerging from a “Martian cylinder.”

“Good heavens,” he declared, “something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here’s another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me … I can see the thing’s body now. It’s large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it …it … ladies and gentlemen, it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it’s so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate.”

The announcer goes on to say that the Martians mounted walking war machines and fired “heat-ray” weapons at the puny humans gathered around the crash site. They annihilated a force of 7,000 National Guardsman, and after being attacked by artillery and bombers the Martians released a poisonous gas into the air. Soon “Martian cylinders” landed in Chicago and St. Louis.

The radio play was extremely realistic. Welles used great sound effects and his actors put on a show as terrified announcers and other characters. They made it sound as if this invasion was really happening. They described widespread panic, and thousands trying to flee. Little did they know that that was true.

It is said that as many as a million listeners believed that the invasion was happening. They took to the streets, jammed highways, ran away from the Martians and sought refuge. People begged police for masks to save them from toxic gas. They called the electric companies to turn off all lights so that that the Martians wouldn’t see them. One woman ran into an Indianapolis church where evening services were being held and yelled, “New York has been destroyed! It’s the end of the world! Go home and prepare to die!” It was even rumored that some committed suicide, but that was never proved.

CBS finally gets wind of the panic and Welles goes on the air to remind listeners that it was all fiction. The FCC investigated and found that no law was broken. Networks took this as a lesson in using more caution in their programming. Welles thought that his career was over, but what this actually did was get him a contract with a Hollywood studio, and in 1941 he starred, directed, wrote, and produced the greatest movie in history, “Citizen Kane.”

source: history.com

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) a hero of the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt served as governor of New York and, later, as vice president under William McKinley. After McKinley’s assassination, he became the 26th president of the US. His administration was marked by the regulation of trusts, the building of the Panama Canal, and a foreign policy based on the motto “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” In 1906, he became the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1955 on this day, at the tender age of 24, James Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wuetherich, got in his Porsche 550, nicknamed “Little Bastard,” and headed out to a car race in Salinas, California. What was probably thought of as a leisurely ride to the races turned out to be Dean’s last day on earth. His car was involved in a head-on collision. The other car involved was driven by a 23-year-old college student named Donald Turnaspeed. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, and pronounced dead at 5:59 p.m. Turnspeed who was thrown from the car, survived with minor injuries. No charges were ever filed against Turnspeed.

Achievements to note:

• Dean beat out Paul Newman for the role of Cal Trask in East of Eden …an incredible feat.

• Dean was the first actor to be awarded a posthumous Academy Award nomination for his role in East of Eden.

When I was a kid in school studying history, I’d always imagine Benjamin Franklin like this: a chubby man flying a kite in the middle of a nasty storm. “What was everyone fussing about?” I thought. I grew up and got wiser and now know better.

Benjamin Franklin was a founding father, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and Statesman. Born January 16, 1706, Franklin left school at the tender age of 10 to help with the family candle-making business. At the age of 12 he entered into an apprenticeship to his older brother’s print shop. Problems with his brother led young Ben to run away to Philadelphia.

With a passion for reading, he taught himself to speak and write in five languages. He also taught himself: Algebra, geometry, grammar and logic. At the age of 22 he opened his own print shop with which he had great success. He later bought a failing newspaper and made it prosperous.

With his new found wealth, Ben married and started a family, 2 boys and a girl. At about age 26 Franklin also published a witty almanac which became so popular it was the most widely read material in the colonies second only to the bible.

Other accomplishments: Helped establish the University of Pennsylvania, started the first volunteer fire fighters, started the first public library in Philadelphia, invented bifocal glasses; the cast iron stove and more.

And I thought all he did was fly a kite…a wonder of a man indeed.

I know you’ve heard the phrase “the dog days of summer,” dozens of times, but where did this phrase come from? The ancient Romans coined the phrase, calling the hot sultry weather of early July through September “caniculares dies” or “days of the dogs” after the constellation of Canis Major, within which Sirius, the Dog Star, is found. As the hottest and most humid days of summer generally coincided with the period Sirius rose and set with the sun, the Romans believed that heat from Sirius was increasing the heat of the sun.

We some times believe or think that history started when we were born. You’d be surprised how long phrases have been used and who coined them.

Fashion in a sense is dictated to the masses. For the fashion conscious types, the styles are dictated, and they become “slaves to fashion.” Thankfully that happens by choice today. Back in the 19th century men could not be seen in public without a top hat. It didn’t matter whether they were conducting business, or pleasure, they had to wear a top hat. The black hat was allowed anytime of the day. The gray hat was only to be worn in the daytime. However, when the hat was first made and worn by its designer in public, (the day’s runway) it caused a stir.

John Hetherington was a London haberdasher, and is thought to be the designer of the first top hat in 1797. What he did was make modifications to the day’s riding hat, which was round, and flat. He increased the height and size of the brim, used silk instead of the traditional beaver fur used on the riding hat. He wanted to show the world his new design, and he did to his detriment.

The haberdasher walked proudly down the streets of London and noticed women looking, but then screaming and fainting. Men would take one look and practically booed him out of London. Pup dogs yelped and ran away. A mob trampled a boy and broke his little arms. Finally a crowd surrounded the poor pioneering designer.

The riot was caused by the hat’s height and shininess. The public found his hat atrocious, offensive, and disturbing. The designer was taken to court and charged with disturbing the peace by, get ready for this, “appearing on the public highway wearing upon his head a tall structure having a shining luster and calculated to frighten timid people.” He was found guilty and fined 50 pounds, a lot for the day. A new law was also passed, “The Haberdasher Act,” no just kidding, but a law was passed which forbade people from ever wearing top hats.

It took another 22 years before the public was ready for top hats, and even then they had to be made of beaver fur. It wasn’t until the 1850’s when the public relaxed and allowed silk to be used on top hats. All I can say is, what would these “timid people,” do if they saw today’s fashion?

The man which was convicted and executed for killing President James Garfield back in 1882 argued that he didn’t kill the president because the president died due to his own doctor’s neglect. Was he right?

Guiteau shot the president with two bullets on the morning of July 2, 1881. Guiteau was a religious fanatic who figured if he shot the president he would unite the Republican Party and save the nation. One bullet grazed the president’s arm and the other was lodged somewhere in his body. The president was taken immediately to the White House to be treated by the “best emergency doctors.” But what happened for the next 10 weeks in the White House would prove to be the worst case of medical negligence and incompetence.

Garfield had several doctors treat him, they all guessed, and it was their guessing that killed him. The first doctor Willard Bliss put an unsterilized finger in the wound, and then inserted a probe to try and locate the bullet; this making the wound much larger. When the second set of doctors came the wound was much larger, and they themselves misdiagnosed where the bullet was. They claimed the bullet was lodged in the president’s liver. The third set of doctors which were surgeons poked around around the wound with unsterilized hands and actually punctured the liver!

The doctors were clueless, enter an inventor, Alexander Graham Bell was called. Mr. Bell came up with a crude metal detector which would be used to find the bullet. The surgeons operated when Mr. Bell declared that he had found the bullet. What he really found were the coil springs of the mattress! But before we burn Bell at the stake, coil springs were a rare and expensive luxury in the day, in fact, very little people knew what coil springs were. Graham was one of them.

By the time the surgeons operated, the wound had gone from three inches to twenty. The wound was horribly infected, and the president ended up dying of a massive heart attack. But the plot thickens; the surgeons said that the president died of a ruptured blood vessel in his stomach. However, the autopsy revealed that the bullet was in a fairly harmless position, well away from his spine. What is the irony here? The president would have lived if they had just left him alone.

One of history’s worse despot, the Emperor of Rome Caligula was so distraught about his sister Drusilla’s death that he imposed a national year of mourning. The citizens of Rome were not allowed to conduct business, eat with family, cut their hair, or even take a bath! Not for a day, or week, but for an entire year! Do you think the citizens obeyed? I would think so, if they didn’t he’d have them killed.

Caligula is best remembered for his weirdness, depravity, and cruelty. When he first became Emperor of Rome he called for “change” and everything seem promising. He later went on a downward spiral. Caligula got drunk on power. He is alleged to have had incestuous relationships with 3 of his sisters. But his favorite was Drusilla. He appointed his horse, Incitatus a member of the senate! In fact, he wanted Incitatus in a position of consul. When Rome ran out of convicts in the gladiator games, Caligula would throw a few spectators into the den of lions instead. In the late evening hours he’d pace the palace floors commanding the sun to rise. These are just a few of the Emperor’s insane actions. Basically Caligula terrorized his own country for a short, but in a sense long, 4 years.

Caligula was assassinated by his own guards in A.D. 41.