Raleigh hated Catholicism and was very vocal about it before a very Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. We can say that Raleigh was accumulating brownie points with the Queen. The Queen became enamored of Raleigh and in fact, made him one of her court favorites. The story goes that Raleigh once laid his expensive cloak over a puddle the queen was to walk over. He just couldn’t let her feet get wet. But this is just a story, which may very well be a Victorian fable.

During Elizabeth’s reign, Raleigh made the mistake of falling in love and secretly marrying one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, Throckmorton “Bess,” who was was eleven years younger than him. Raleigh was imprisoned. It took several years for the scandal to simmer down and for Raleigh to regain favor at court. But Raleigh and Bess remained together, devoted, and had two children, Walter and Carew.

Sir Walter Raleigh & son Walter

When Elizabeth died in 1603 Raleigh was implicated in a plot to overthrow the new king, James I. Raleigh was tried for treason, & imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1616. It is during this time he writes, The Historie of the World, a book about ancient Greece and Rome. When released, he led an expedition to South America to find the lost city of El Dorado. In this expedition he attacked the Spanish settlement at San Thome, and in this battle his son Walter is killed.

As if the death of his son was not enough punishment, the Spanish Ambassador convinces James I to reinstate Raleigh’s death sentence. Raleigh is beheaded at Whitehall on October 29, 1618. Before putting his head on the block, he asked to see the ax, and looking at it said, “This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases.” His devoted Bess, still grieving the death of her son, Walter, must now grieve her husband. She had his head embalmed and kept it in a red leather bag, by her side, all the time. And according to a biography written on Raleigh, “Shepherd of the Ocean,” by J. H. Adamson, & H. F. Holland, Bess was in the habit of “frequently inquiring of visitors if they would like to see Sir Walter.”

Bess died twenty-nine years later at age eighty two, and Raleigh’s head was inherited by his son, Carew, who kept it until his death. On January 1, 1668 Carew was buried with the head, alongside the body of Raleigh. It had taken fifty years for Raleigh’s head to finely rest.

sources: Wikipedia,

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/sir-walter-raleigh.htm

Curious Events in History, Michael Powell, Sir Walter Raleigh, by Frederick Albion Ober

Although happy to be home, he could not sleep. He was tormented by dreams and visions. He heard a voice that told him to return to the land of his kidnappers and preach the word of Christ to the lost in the savage land. He needed no more convincing that he had to go, and that he did. The boy lived in what is now England. His kidnappers were Celtic tribesmen from across the water..what is now Ireland. The young Briton Patricius grew into an old Irishman named Patrick, St Patrick. So the patron saint of Ireland was an Englishman by birth! Patrick is credited with driving the idol-worshipping Druid religion out of Ireland and converting almost an entire population to Christianity.

Patrick who was once a slave in the flourishing slave trade in Ireland became their liberator. One of Patrick’s accomplishments was to put an end to this horrible slave trade. The Celts would kidnap hundreds at a time. The boys were used as sheepherders and girls as sex slaves. What the young Patrick thought to be a dark time turned out to be light and liberty for so many.

Sources: Who was St. Patrick? http://www.history.com/topics/who-was-saint-patrick

The Greatest Stories Never Told, by Rick Beyer

In 1834 he invented the very first sewing machine in the United States. However, during this time, the US was going through a depression and the last thing people wanted to buy was a machine that would render more people unemployed! Discouraged, he didn’t patent his invention, which was a bad move. Within a few years of Hunt’s invention, Elias Howe invented and patented a similar sewing machine and made a fortune! Hunt’s passion to invent did not die, he went on to invent the first fountain pen and the first repeating rifle, but failed at making these feasible products. But the worse misfortune was yet to occur. One lazy afternoon he played with a piece of wire. In a matter of 4 hours he managed to twist the wire into a pin with a spring on one end and a clasp on the other end, what we know as today, a safety pin. A million-dollar idea, and Hunt must have thought the same because he patented this marvelous product. But the question is, did he become rich with this? No, he didn’t! Hunt was broke, and quickly needed to get cash. He sold this million-dollar baby (patent) for a mere $100!

Hunt did manage to get some fame during his life, and a little credit for the invention of the sewing machine. In fact, in 1858 Isaac Singer agreed to pay Hunt $50,000 for his original design to end the sewing machine patent controversy. But as fate would have it for poor Hunt, Hunt died before Singer made payments. Hunt’s family did get some money from another invention, namely the paper shirt collar. Although he patented 25 inventions, not a one, provided financial security for him and his family. I have to hand it to Hunt, not one disappointment stopped his tenacity to invent. In fact, he died at a workbench while trying to develop a diver apparatus at the age of 63.

A lot of his inventions are used today, and have made our lives easier, yet the inventor struggled every inch of the way. The struggle was not only financial, I can only imagine the mental toll on him and his family. So the next time you are sewing on a sewing machine, or using the safety pin, or simply wearing a favorite outfit, think of Hunt, and I think you will appreciate it more than before.

Sources: The Greatest Stories Never Told, Rick Beyer

‘Why Didn’t I Think of That?: 101 Inventions that Changed ‘ by Anthony Rubino Jr.

On Line: Answers.com

http://www.madehow.com/inventorbios/90/Walter-Hunt.html

Originally, of course, all writing was done by hand.

The first ever person to patent a typewriter was Henry Mill. His idea is entered in the records in the British Patent Office in 1714. Unfortunately Henry Mill never got around to manufacturing his machine due to impatience with manufacturing it.

More types of typewriters were invented after this, but were huge and heavy, some resembling the size of a piano, and took actually longer to use than handwriting itself, which obviously defeated the object!

The first person to actually manufacture the first practical typewriter was Christopher Scholes, who patented his second model in 1868 (this machine finally exceeding the speed of handwriting), along with the help of S.W. Soule and G. Glidden.

Scholes sold the rights of the typewriter over to Densmore, and Densmore improved the typewriter and its usability by using Philo Remington to market the machine. It was not an instant success however. The first Scholes and Glidden typewriter was offered for sale in 1873. It was not until a few years later that Remington’s engineers worked on the device and improved it, that it became a success and sales rocketed. The first typewriter sold for $125. About 5000 were sold in the next four years and about 6 different models evolved in that time due to improvements. On some machines the return (carriage return) could be used by a foot pedal.

The keyboard then was designed in a way that the most commonly used letters were next to each other and thus, It was found that the keys jammed easily. A business associates, James Densmore suggested separating the most commonly used keys away from each other to slow down typing, and this is how we got today’s keyboard arrangement, the QWERTY (the first six letters on the keyboard).

Typewriters became common in offices in the late 1880s. Initially the typewriter could only produce capital letters but it later was later modified with upper and lower case letters. A typewriter has (and still does on modern typewriters) a carriage containing a large roller which is used to return, (hence the name carriage return) and a small roller to hold the paper in place. If you made a mistake it required a lot of rubbing out (including the carbon copies), or starting all over again.

Tippex was not invented until the 1950s and even then it was a powdery paper type of substance (not like the fluid we have now). But before you used it you had to still had to tub out the mistake on all of the carbon copies first. And then it still made a bit of a mess, so accuracy was paramount.

In the 1970’s a Remington was still used and most students had to complete an RSA Certificate of competence in typing. This took a lot of time and care and if an error was made Tippex was used to correct errors. In the 1980s computers became more and more advanced and of course today we have the modern computer (thank goodness for that)!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Catherine_Bennett

Nast was America’s most influential political cartoonist from the Civil War to about the turn of the last century. Nast, a staunch Republican, used the jackass to portray what he thought were the Democrats: hardheaded, and downright stubborn. Surely the Democrats didn’t like it, but the symbol stuck, and they made the best of it. They kept the symbol, but called it a donkey, not an ass.

In 1874 and a few weeks before the election, Nast drew a cartoon of a rogue elephant for Harper’s Magazine. The rogue elephant represented the Republican voters, who he felt were being panicked by the Democrats. Apparently, some Democrats were spreading fears of the then running Republican president Ulysses S. Grant, who had been thinking of running for a 3^rd term. At the time, the system of a two term presidency, set by George Washington, and a tradition in Washington since, was a code that no one should violate. If you did violate it, you were stigmatized and considered ,or condemned as someone seeking an undemocratic grab of imperial power. I find it amusing that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, was the first and only one to violate that code in the 30’s & 40’s. Nast’s rogue elephant was a rebuke at Harper’s Magazine’s editor James Gorden Benett who in a series of articles had criticized Grant’s thoughts of running for a 3^rd term.

Well, the Republicans kept the elephant as their symbol, after all, they liked to be thought of as tough, hoofed mammals having very thick skin, so the the elephant stuck. For the record, Nast is also responsible for shaping our image of Santa Claus. He created the face of the Santa Claus we’ve all come to know and love. And if you can believe it, Van Gogh was influenced by this cartoonist. It is said that Van Gogh had a collection of Nast illustrations in a bound volume which he referred to from time to time.

The issues of the late 1800’s have long gone, but the donkey and elephant are still here, and remain our political reference point whenever we see them.

References: The Greatest Stories Never Told, harpweek.com

It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s.

Now looking at this fact, do you really think MLK would have had anything to do with the Democratic party? I really don’t think so. It’s a no brainer. I think today, many want to believe he was, but all facts point to the contrary. You don’t have to take my word for it. After I read Rice’s article I am thoroughly convinced that MLK was a Republican. Not only for religious reasons, but also because the Republican party stood for the very same principles he stood and  fought for.

Sources: Frances Rice’s Article, MLK was a Conservative-Republican

Ooh, just the thought of that makes me cringe! Horace Wells takes his wife out on a date on December 10, 1844. Horace was a dentist who more than likely had been using the crude methods of the day when he removed teeth. The show he and his wife were going to see was going to be performed by a “Professor” Gardner Quincy Colton. Part of the act was having volunteers from the audience inhale laughing gas. And we all know what happens when you inhale laughing gas. You basically act drunk, have uncontrollable laughter, and say and do stupid things. This amused the audience. On this night, one of the participants ran into the audience chasing an imaginary enemy. When he returned to his seat, he realized he had a lacerated leg, but didn’t start to feel pain until the effects of the gas wore off.

Horace immediately thought how this laughing gas could be used in dentistry. He asked the Professor to come to his practice so they could perform a tooth extraction using nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Horace had a patient who had a troublesome tooth and used him as the guinea pig. The professor administered enough gas to render the poor soul unconscious. One of Horace’s assistants removed the tooth successfully without any pain to the patient. After this success the professor and Horace become partners and collaborate to perform pain-free operations on several patients. They used a crude method to administer the gas, but it worked, and it appeared complication-free.

After about a dozen operations Horace’s assistant, William Morton urges him to go public with it. Reluctantly he agrees to give a lecture and demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital. But unfortunately, it was a major flop. When the gas was administered to the patient, they had removed the gasbag too soon. The patient was in a twilight sleep, but not completely unconscious when his tooth was extracted. The patient testified that he felt pain, although not as bad as when he wasn’t given any anesthetic. He couldn’t repeat the demonstration as there were no other patients present. The doctors brushed him off, and considered the demonstration a “humbug affair.” They booed him out the lecture hall. Embarrassed and defeated he returned home and sold his practice. He became even more morose when he finds out his assistant, Morton had developed an ether-based anesthesia and was using it in hospitals with great success.

He lived in France for a while, but couldn’t revived his career. He moved back to the states and started to experiment with chloroform which made him increasingly unhinged. He attacks two prostitutes with sulfuric acid and is sent to prison, where he commits suicide. He cut a large artery in his leg, after inhaling chloroform to stop the pain. He used his anesthesia research to help him commit his own painless death.

The 1920’s or the Jazz age has always fascinated me. So much happened, so quickly to change the world. One of the things that happened was the birth of the Flapper. The Flapper embraced all things new and modern. Out with the Victorian rules, and in with the modern, young, and the carefree. WW I birthed the flapper and the flapper ways. Many came back from the war disillusioned. When they returned from the war the old world order crammed their style.

The flapper cuts her hair short, the hem lines come up, they use make up, they experiment with sex, alcohol, drugs, and they danced the night away. It was a rebellion of sorts and once the flapper came out, there was no turning back.

One of the interesting things the Flapper did was to encourage the flat-chested look in women. Understand that Victorian women were robust, they were aging by this point, and the clothing and look of the flapper was out their reach.Everyone in the 1920’s wanted to have that slender flat-chested, tanned body and face of a 15-year-old. Women rushed to the beauty salons, health clubs, anybody that could help them achieve “the look.” You can imagine how hard it was for the aging Victorian women who were used to wearing the boring matronly dresses. Leaders of fashion had to change and change quick because the Flapper was all the rage.

Now if you were naturally flat-chested, you did ok, but what if you weren’t? Bras at the time were more like bodices or camisoles, they offered no support. This wasn’t going to work for the top heavy gals. The top heavy girls resorted to bandaging their breasts flat. Others would purchase a bra made at the time called Symington Side Lacer, basically a bra that laced at both sides and when pulled would flatten the chest. Women looking like boys was a fashion statement. My how things have changed huh?

Many believe that the women’s movement and the sexual revolution started back in the 60’s, I disagree, it started in the 20’s. The Flapper gave up the restricting clothing way before the liberated women burned their bras. The Women’s suffrage movement was in full swing, and women gave up a lot of the inhibitions imposed on them by society. I can’t say that all was for the good. Some good came out of this, and some bad too. But I suppose it comes with the territory.

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne decides he and his wife Sopie will visit one of the empire’s territories, Bosnia. Things are not stable in Bosnia, in fact, things are hot, and the Archduke is not popular. And among those who despised the Archduke was a 19-year-old named Gavilo Princip, a Slavic Nationalist. In Princip’s mind killing the Archduke meant freedom for the people of Bosnia, Serbia joined forces with Bosnia to rid themselves of what they thought was an oppressor of the people.

June 28^th comes, and the Archduke and his wife are in a motorcade in Bosnia. The plot is to kill him as he drives through Sarajevo. One of the would-be assassins throws a bomb at the Archduke’s car. The Archduke narrowly escapes. The story goes that the Archduke insisted on visiting an aid at a hospital, who had been hurt in the blast.  His driver completely unfamiliar with the roads makes a wrong turn and decides to ask for directions of a young man on the road. The young man on the road must’ve looked defeated, lifeless, as he, unbeknownst to the driver, was one of the conspirators involved in the foiled plot. You can imagine his surprise when he realizes, he’s got a second chance to kill the Archduke! And so he drew his pistol and killed the Archduke and his wife. And the course of events started from that point on. It was as if this part of the world was boiling for a very long time and the shot sparked a flame which started an explosion which has reverberated up on until the present day.

References: Rick Beyer, The Greatest Stories Never Told , (2003),

“Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914,” EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1998)

In 1612 Pocahontas was taken captive by the Englishmen. She asked about John Smith and was told he had died. She was told this lie by John Rolfe who unbeknownst to her wanted her for himself. And in 1614 John Rolfe married her, she learned English, and was given the Christian name of Rebecca. In 1616 she accompanied her husband to England and it is here she finds out that John Smith is in fact alive, is married and has several children. Her husband John lied to her.  John Smith went to see Rebecca and according to a note in his journal, it was a quick visit, and Rebecca was not well. He said: “After a modest salutation, without any word, she turned about, obscured her face as not seeming well contented and in that humor…we all left her…”

The day she, her son and husband were going to return to America, at the age of 21, Rebecca lapsed into a coma and died. But what killed her? Was it a broken heart? Did her husband speak the truth when he said Rebecca developed a fever the same day of her departure? Or was she murdered by a husband who became consumed with jealously? We will never know. The answer lies in an unmarked grave in St. George Church cemetery, located some twenty miles east of London.