“Love was considered a reason not to get married. It was seen as lust, as something that would dissipate.”
For most of recorded human history, marriage was an arrangement designed to maximize financial stability. Elizabeth Abbott, the author of “A History of Marriage” explains that in ancient times, marriage was intended to unite various parts of a community, cementing beneficial economic relationships. “Because it was a financial arrangement, it was conceived of and operated as such. It was a contract between families. For example, let’s say I’m a printer and you make paper, we might want a marriage between our children because that will improve our businesses.” Even the honeymoon, often called the “bridal tour,” was a communal affair, with parents, siblings, and other close relatives traveling together to reinforce their new familial relationships.”
To Govern a Republic, One Must Know the Minds That Created It …while a nation goes speculation crazy the people neglect to think of fundamental principles.
These were the words of Franklin Roosevelt in the months leading into the Democratic National Convention of 1932.
Roosevelt knew that the fight for the United States Presidency was not simply a game of political machines and punditry, but that this coming fight demanded a leader who understood the historic enemy of the United States and the founding principles of the nation.
“JAZZ begins in New Orleans, nineteenth century America’s most cosmopolitan city, where the sound of marching bands, Italian opera, Caribbean rhythms, and minstrel shows fills the streets with a richly diverse musical culture. Here, in the 1890s, African-American musicians create a new music out of these ingredients by mixing in ragtime syncopations and the soulful feeling of the blues. Soon after the start of the new century, people are calling it jazz.
Tonight, meet the pioneers of this revolutionary art form: the half-mad cornetist Buddy Bolden, who may have been the first man to play jazz; pianist Jelly Roll Morton, who claimed to have invented jazz but really was the first to write the new music down; Sidney Bechet, a clarinet prodigy whose fiery sound matched his explosive personality; and Freddie Keppard, a trumpet virtuoso who turned down a chance to win national fame for fear that others would steal the secrets of his art.
The early jazz players travel the country in the years before World War I, but few people have a chance to hear this new music until 1917, when a group of white musicians from New Orleans arrives in New York to make the first jazz recording. They call themselves the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and within weeks their record becomes an unexpected smash hit. Americans are suddenly jazz crazy, and the Jazz Age is about to begin. ”
In the Dominican Republic, Professor Gates explores how race has been socially constructed, and how the country’s troubled history with Haiti informs notions about racial classification. In Haiti, Professor Gates tells the story of the birth of the first-ever black republic, and finds out how the slaves hard fight for liberation became a double edged sword.
“In 1908, the Frenchbanker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched one of the most ambitious projects in the history of photography. A pacifist, internationalist and utopian idealist, Kahn decided to use his private fortune to improve understanding between the nations of the world. To this end, he created what he called his Archive of the Planet. For the next two decades, he dispatched professional photographers to document the everyday lives of people in more than 50 countries all around the world. Kahn’s wealth enabled him to supply his photographers with the most advanced camera technology available. They used the autochrome – the first user-friendly camera system capable of producing true-colour photographs.
Some of the most important of all the 72,000 colour images in Kahn’s Archive were shot during three separate visits (in 1908, 1912 and 1926) to Japan. As an international financier, Kahn had established a network of contacts that included some of the most prominent members of Japan’s business, banking and political elites. Consequently, Kahn’s photographers were granted privileged access to places that would have otherwise been off limits – including some of the royal palaces, where they shot colour portraits of the princes and princesses from Japan’s Imperial family. But some of their most fascinating images capture moments from the lives of ordinary Japanese people at work and play. This film showcases Kahn’s treasury of films and autochromes of silk-farmers, Shinto monks, schoolchildren, porcelain merchants, Kabuki stars and geishas – pictures that were recorded at a time when this fascinating country was going through momentous changes”
FROM “INDEPENDENT LENS”
Initially formed as a splinter group which believed that peaceful protests were ineffective, the Weathermen were widely criticized for their use of violence as a means of social and political change. Some accused the group of terrorism, while others accused it of giving all activists, both militant and more mainstream, a bad name.
But for the Weathermen, violent action was nothing short of necessary in a time of crisis, a last-ditch effort to grab the country’s attention. And grab attention they did—in March 1970, just days after Bernardine Dohrn publicly announced a “declaration of war.” When an accidentally detonated bomb killed three Weathermen in the basement of a Manhattan townhouse, the group suddenly became the target of an FBI manhunt, and members were forced to go into hiding. The bomb had been intended to be set off at a dance at a local Army base.
How did the Weathermen arrive at this point? Some of the group’s former members, interviewed in THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, cite the murder of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in a December 1969 Chicago police raid as a turning point. What many believed to be a government-sanctioned killing in an effort to wipe out militant groups such as the Panthers was, for the Weathermen, the final straw.
In 1960, nearly 50 percent of America’s population was under 18 years of age. This surplus of youth set the stage for a widespread revolt against the status quo: against previously upheld structures of racism, sexism and classism, against the violence of the Vietnam War and America’s interventions abroad. At college campuses throughout the country, anger against “the Establishment’s” practices turned to protest, both peaceful and violent.
As the decade continued, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an organization founded by Martin Luther King, Jr. in order to promote nonviolent protest, grew increasingly militant—as did the mostly white, middle-class “New Left,” which took cues from the civil rights movement, protested policies both home and abroad, and sparked factions like the Weathermen. By the late 1960s, activist movements had also mobilized among Asian Americans, Native Americans, Chicanos and Puerto Ricans, as well as a second wave of activism among women, gay and lesbians and the disabled.
1964: The Civil Rights Act passes, while America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam escalates.
1965: Berkeley Free Speech Movement spurs massive student protests against the Vietnam War. The first SDS anti-war march in Washington attracts 15,000 people.
1966: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California.
1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated. Anti-war demonstrations turn violent at the Chicago Democratic Convention and shut down Columbia University.
1969: Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark die in a Chicago police raid. The Weathermen form.
1970:
March: Three Weathermen are killed when bomb manufacturing goes awry. The organization becomes the Weather Underground as key players including Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Kathy Boudin go into hiding.
Bernardine Dohrn gives a tour of her underground hideout on the San Francisco Bay View Video
July: Thirteen Weathermen are indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to engage in acts of terrorism. A New York bank is bombed in retaliation.
September: Timothy Leary issues a statement from the underground after escaping from prison with the help of the Weathermen.
1971: 50,000 anti-war protesters march on Washington, D.C.
1973: Cease-fire accord in Vietnam.
1977: Weathermen Mark Rudd and Cathy Wilkerson emerge from years of hiding and surrender to the police, receiving two years of probation and three years in prison, respectively.
1980: Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers resurface from the underground, pleading guilty to bail-jumping charges from a 1969 anti-war protest. Dohrn is fined $1,500 and given three years’ probation.
1981: The unofficial end of the Weather Underground occurs when Kathy Boudin resurfaces to participate in an armed robbery in Nanuet, New York, which results in the shooting deaths of three men. Boudin is sentenced to 22 years in prison, and is released in 2003.
The Lewis and Clark expedition was sent out by President Jefferson to cross the continent of America. They were to make scientific discoveries and contact the native Americans. Because they were to be gone for so long it was necessary to train them in medicine so that they could treat illness and injury. Benjamin Rush, famous doctor and founding father, was a key advisor. He was a keen advocate of purgatives and laxatives. To clear out the bowels of the expedition he provided them with his own invention, Bilious Pills. These contained a large amount of mercury. They were so effective as laxative that the expedition termed them Thunder Clappers. The problem with mercury is that it remains in the environment for a very long time. When the expedition used the pills they left such large amounts of mercury in the ground that later archaeologists have been able to identify the path of the expedition by the levels of the metal still remaining from the Thunder Clapper purges.
9
Politics is Too Rough Today?
It is a common complaint, especially in election years, that politics has become too divided. Today even slight criticisms are thought to be devastating. In the past politics was a lot less dainty. When Senator Sumner made a speech attacking “the harlot Slavery” Senator Preston Brooks, representing the pro-slavery South Carolina, took offense. Two days later, on the floor of the senate chamber, Brooks approached Sumner and began to thrash him with a heavy walking stick. When other senators attempted to stop the beating, an accomplice of Brooks held them off with a pistol. Sumner was beaten unconscious, the injuries he suffered affecting him for the rest of his life. It was three years before Sumner was able to return to his duties. Brooks was re-elected and hailed as a hero in the pro-slavery south.
Because Brooks had broken his cane in the attack he was inundated with gifts of replacement walking sticks by admirers.
8
Death by Protocol
In many cultures certain people are held to be taboo; that is, they are not to be touched. In 19th century Siam, it was absolutely forbidden for a commoner to touch the queen. To break this rule carried the death penalty. One day Queen Sunandha Kumariratana was in a boat which capsized, plunging her into a river. Though there were many people who might have come to her aid it would have meant their own death to touch the royal body. She died at the age of 19 along with her daughter.
7
Purple
In the ancient world the color purple was a rarity. The word purple derives from the Latin Purpura, and that from the Greek Porphrya. The Greeks knew only one source of a purple dye, a secretion of a certain type of sea snail. To make up any significant amount of dye it was necessary to harvest vast quantities of snails. This made the resulting dye hugely expensive. For centuries only the very rich could afford purple. In many cultures the color became so associated with royalty that commoners were banned from wearing it.
6
First Person Born on a Continent
Only one person can claim to be the first person to have been born on a continent. Emilio Palma was born at the Esperanza Base in the Antarctic in 1978. His birth was planned by the Argentine government to bolster their claim to a region of Antarctica. When heavily pregnant, his mother was flown to the base for the birth. Unfortunately it failed to have much effect on the international scene, though made for an interesting anecdote.
On a side note of continental births: the first European to be born in the Americas was born around 1005 in the Norse settlement of Vinland. He went by the great name of Snorri Thorfinnsson.
It is well known now that the people of the ancient world were well aware that the Earth was not flat. Even looking at the horizon of the sea it was possible to see the curvature of the Earth as ships fell below the horizon. What is less well known is how accurately they knew the circumference of the planet. Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician who lived in the 3rd century BC, using only sticks and the shadows they cast, was able to calculate the circumference of the Earth to a size of 25,000 miles. This compares to the actual (polar) circumference of 24,860 miles.
4
Why Clocks Move Clockwise
We all know what the terms clockwise and anti-clockwise mean. But why do clocks move in the direction they do? The answer is based on tradition. Long before mechanical clocks were invented, sundials were the best way of estimating the time of day. In the Northern Hemisphere, the direction of a shadow on a sundial will move clockwise due to the Earth moving in an anti-clockwise direction when viewed from the North Pole. When mechanical clocks were invented they were modeled to be similar to sundials and so we still use the movement of the sun in the way we read the time.
3
The Shortest War
The Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896 is the shortest war on record lasting an exhausting 38 minutes. After the death of the pro-British sultan Hamad he was succeeded by his nephew Bargash. The British favored another candidate. With Bargash in the sultan’s palace refusing to abdicate the British gathered a fleet in the harbor beside it. An ultimatum was delivered requiring Bargash to step aside by 9am on the 27th of August. When no reply was received the British opened fire at 9:02. The entire fleet of Zanzibar, a single royal yacht, was sunk and the palace caught fire. The sultan’s flag was removed and the firing stopped at 9:40. By the afternoon the pro-British Hamud bin Muhammed was in place as the new sultan. The supporters of Bargash’s short sultanate were forced to pay for the cost of the shells shot by the British.
2
William Bligh’s Other Mutinies
Poor William Bligh has gone down in history as a tyrannical captain, mainly due to various film depictions of him. The mutiny on the Bounty in 1789 is the one fact that has become associated with him. Most people at the time blamed the mutiny not on Bligh being too strict with his men but rather being too lax. Unfortunately Bligh seems to have been a magnet for rebelliousness. In 1797 his crew again rebelled, as part of a larger mutiny. After this was settled there was a second mutiny in 1797 which involved Bligh’s ship. While neither of these mutinies focused on anything Bligh was responsible for, it set up a pattern which was to shape his memory. Perhaps because of his now extensive experience with rowdy crews he had hardened his style of command. The now harsh Bligh was made governor of New South Wales in 1806. He antagonized several important people in the colony and in 1808, in a mutiny known as the Rum Rebellion, Bligh was arrested and held captive for two years.
Had these mutinies not occurred Bligh would be best known today for the transplantation of the bread fruit to the West Indies.
1
White House Pets
I recently wrote a list with unusual facts about the US presidents. While the human occupants of the White House have been occasionally bizarre there have been an equal number of strange animal residents. John Quincy Adams used to keep an alligator, a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette, in a bathtub. Calvin Coolidge kept a pygmy hippo called Billy, an ancestor of many of the pygmy hippos to be found in US zoos today. It should perhaps be no surprise that the legendarily pugnacious Andrew Jackson kept fighting cocks. The hungry President Taft was the last president to keep cows, called Mooly Wooly and Pauline Wayne, at the White House and enjoyed drinking their milk. It would probably liven up press conferences today if the sitting president would keep bears as his predecessors Jefferson and Coolidge did.
“This news has saddened me,” Ben Shelly, the Navajo president, said in a post Wednesday on his Facebook page. “Our Navajo code talkers have been real life heroes to generations of Navajo people.”
Smith died Tuesday, Shelly said, and the Navajo Nation’s flag is flying at half-staff until Sunday night to commemorate his life.
The Navajo code talkers participated in every assault the U.S. Marines carried out in the Pacific between 1942 and 1945.
The code talkers themselves were forbidden from telling anyone about the code — not their fellow Marines, not their families — until it was declassified in 1968.
“They have brought pride to our Navajo people in so many ways,” Shelly said. “The nation’s prayers and thoughts are with the family at this time as they mourn the passing of a great family man who served his country and protected his people.”
“The discovery of a skeleton in a shallow grave has raised new questions about Wales in the age of the Vikings.
The skeleton, found at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey, has forced experts to revise the theory that five earlier skeletons were the victims of a Viking raid.
Evidence now suggests the men may have spent the first part of their lives in Scandinavia.
Experts say artefacts discovered confirm Llanbedrgoch as a 10th Century manufacture and trade centre.
The site was discovered in 1994, and in the late 1990s, five bodies – two adolescents, two adult males and one woman – were found.
The bodies were thought to be victims of Viking raiding, which occurred throughout the Viking period (850 to 1,000).
However, the new skeleton discovered this summer was buried in a shallow grave, which National Museum Wales archaeologists say was unusual for the period.
They say the “non-Christian orientation of the body” and its treatment “point to distinctions being made in the burial practices for Christians and other communities during the 10th Century”.
Analysis indicates the males were not local to Anglesey, but may have spent their early years – at least up to the age of seven – in north west Scotland or Scandinavia.
Excavations this year also produced 7th Century silver and bronze sword and scabbard fittings.
Archaeologists believe it suggests the presence of a “warrior elite and the recycling of military equipment” during a period of rivalry and campaigning between kingdoms Northumbria and Mercia.
Excavation director, Dr Mark Redknap, said: “Other finds from the excavation, which include semi-worked silver, silver-casting waste and a fragment of an Islamic silver coin – exchanged via trade routes out of central Asia to Scandinavia and beyond – confirm Llanbedrgoch’s importance during the 10th Century as a place for the manufacture and trade of commodities.”
Every schoolboy used to know that at the height of the empire, almost a quarter of the atlas was coloured pink, showing the extent of British rule.
But that oft recited fact dramatically understates the remarkable global reach achieved by this country.
A new study has found that at various times the British have invaded almost 90 per cent of the countries around the globe.
The analysis of the histories of the almost 200 countries in the world found only 22 which have never experienced an invasion by the British.
Among this select group of nations are far-off destinations such as Guatemala, Tajikistan and the Marshall Islands, as well some slightly closer to home, such as Luxembourg.”
”TIME PERIOD: Introduction
“For about two thousand years the name Palestine has been used internationally for the lands on both sides of the Jordan River… The name Palestine will here be used…to refer to the area from southern Syria (the Beqa Valley) to Egypt and the Sinai, and from the Mediterranean to the Arabian desert.
The Greek historian Herodotus called Cisjordan [the land west of the Jordan River] the Palestinian Syria or sometimes only Palaestina. Thus, there is a tradition from at least the fifth century B.C. for the use of this name…
Another well-known name for Palestine, which is the most common one in the Bible, is Canaan. The earliest known reference to this name, read as ‘Canaanites‘, is in a letter from [the kingdom of] Mari (on the Euphrates) [see 700 mile radius map] to Iasmah-Adad from the eighteenth century B.C… The letter does not give any information about the territory of these Canaanites… In many Egyptian texts Canaan refers to southern Syria and Palestine…
The Sinai peninsula is not part of Palestine, but because of its geographical location between Egypt proper and Palestine it has a place in a history of Palestine.”
Gosta W. Ahlst”http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000642…
In July 1853 Russia occupied territories in the Crimea that had previously been controlled by Turkey.Britainand France was concerned about Russian expansion and attempted to achieve a negotiation withdrawal. Turkey, unwilling to grant concessions declared war on Russia.
After the Russians destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope in the Black Sea in November 1853, Britain and France joined the war against Russia. On the 20th September 1854 the Allied army defeated the Russian army at the battle of Alma River (September 1854) but the battle of Balaklava (October 1854) was inconclusive.
Roger T. Stearn has argued: “Unwelcomed and obstructed by Lord Raglan, senior officers (except de Lacy Evans), and staff, yet neither banned, controlled, nor censored, Russell made friends with junior officers, and from them and other ranks, and by observation, gained his information. He wore quasi-military clothes and was armed, but did not fight. He was not a great writer but his reports were vivid, dramatic, interesting, and convincing…. His reports identified with the British forces and praised British heroism. He exposed logistic and medical bungling and failure, and the suffering of the troops.”
His reports revealled the sufferings of the British Army during the winter of 1854-1855. These accounts upset Queen Victoria who described them as these “infamous attacks against the army which have disgraced our newspapers”. Prince Albert, who took a keen interest in military matters, commented that “the pen and ink of one miserable scribbler is despoiling the country.” Lord Raglan complained that Russell had revealed military information potentially useful to the enemy.
William Howard Russell reported that British soldiers began going down with choleraand malaria. Within a few weeks an estimated 8,000 men were suffering from these two diseases. When Mary Seacoleheard about the cholera epidemicshe travelled to Londonto offer her services to the British Army. There was considerable prejudice against women’s involvement in medicine and her offer was rejected. When Russell publicised the fact that a large number of soldiers were dying of cholera there was a public outcry, and the government was forced to change its mind. Florence Nightingalevolunteered her services and was eventually given permission to take a group of thirty-eight nurses to Turkey.
Russell’s reports led to attacks on the government by the the Liberal M.P. John Roebuck. He claimed that the British contingent had 23,000 men unfit for duty due to ill health and only 9,000 fit for duty. When Roebuck proposal for an inquiry into the condition of the British Army, the government was passed by 305 to 148. As a result the Earl of Aberdeen, resigned in January 1855. The Duke of Newcastle told Russell ” It was you who turned out the government”.
Florence Nightingale found the conditions in the army hospital in Scutari appalling. The men were kept in rooms without blankets or decent food. Unwashed, they were still wearing their army uniforms that were “stiff with dirt and gore”. In these conditions, it was not surprising that in army hospitals, war wounds only accounted for one death in six. Diseases such as typhus, cholera and dysentery were the main reasons why the death-rate was so high amongst wounded soldiers.
Military officers and doctors objected to Nightingale’s views on reforming military hospitals. They interpreted her comments as an attack on their professionalism and she was made to feel unwelcome. Nightingale received very little help from the military until she used her contacts at The Times to report details of the way that the British Army treated its wounded soldiers. John Delane, the editor of newspaper took up her cause, and after a great deal of publicity, Nightingale was given the task of organizing the barracks hospital after the battle of Inkerman and by improving the quality of the sanitation she was able to dramatically reduce the death-rate of her patients.
Although Mary Seacolewas an expert at dealing with cholera, her application to join Florence Nightingale’s team was rejected. Mary, who had become a successful business woman in Jamaica, decided to travel to the Crimea at her own expense. She visited Nightingale at her hospital at Scutari but once again Mary’s offer of help was refused.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Mary Seacole started up a business called the British Hotel, a few miles from the battlefront. Here she sold food and drink to the British soldiers. With the money she earned from her business Mary was able to finance the medical treatment she gave to the soldiers.
Whereas Florence Nightingaleand her nurses were based in a hospital several miles from the front, Mary Seacole treated her patients on the battlefield. On several occasions she was found treating wounded soldiers from both sides while the battle was still going on.
Sevastopo fell to the Allied troops on 8th September 1855 and the new Russian Emperor, Alexander II, agreed to sign a peace treaty at the Congress of Paris in 1856.
“Delve into the Prince of Motown‘s violentchildhood to uncover the root of Marvin’s strained relationship with his strict father and to understand his struggle with drugs.
This compelling documentary series unlocks the hidden secrets, psychological flaws and events that result in the tragic deaths of famed notorious and the iconic. Every episode maps out the final 24 hours of a different famous person’s life. The series weaves the star’s back-story with events from their last day, which lays bare the threads of fate that led inextricably from childhood to the moment of death. These are no ordinary biographies. They’re psychological detective stories attempting to uncover the mystery of why the celebrity died. On his last day alive soul superstar Marvin Gaye is depressed and paranoid. He’s abandoned his latest tour and is holed up at his parents’ house in Los Angeles, California. His excessive drug use escalates and with it, the tension in the home. Soon, his lifelong power struggle with his father explodes in a violent climax as Marvin provokes his father into shooting him twice. We delve into the Prince of Motown’s violent childhood to uncover the root of Marvin’s strained relationship with his strict father and to understand his struggle with drugs.”
Criminal ancestors in the family tree may be less than ideal, but the records of their conviction and imprisonment can often be a gold mine of information. As part of your convict research, don’t miss the wealth of historical prison records and inmate records available online.
Search or browse historic stories and photos from the Anamosa State Penitentiary in Iowa, established in 1872. This unofficial history site only includes information on select historical inmates, and nothing on current inmates, but does provide a fascinating look at the history of this maximum security prison.
This free searchable database includes information on criminals imprisoned on Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco, California. Many of the entries are annotated, and there is also a list of famous prisoners such as Al Capone, Alvin Karpis, etc. Elsewhere on the site you can explore historical background of Alcatraz, maps and floorplans of The Rock, official inmate statistics, convict biographies, historical document transcripts and more.
Search 100 years of prison admissions in this free searchable database of prisoners admitted to Arizona territorial and state prisons prior to 1972. Additional historical background on the prisons, plus a database of life imprisonment and death sentences from 1875-1966, is also available online.
From 1873 through 1896, eighty-six men were executed on the gallows at Fort Smith, Arkansas, all convicted of rape and murder which carried a mandatory federal death sentence during this time period. The National Park Service site for Fort Smith includes a timeline and biographies of the hangings.
This free online index from the National Archives, Southeast Region, includes names and inmate numbers for prisoners held in the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta between 1902 and 1921. With this information you can request inmate files from the National Archives which may also include details on the prisoner’s sentencing and incarceration, a fingerprint card, mug shot, physical description, citizenship, birthplace, level of education, birthplace of parents, and age at which the inmate left home. While the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta did not open until 1902, inmate case files may contain documentation from as early as 1880 for prisoners who were previously incarcerated by the federal government in other locations.
Browse by name in this free alphabetical index to historical inmate records from the Colorado State Penitentiary. The index provides the prisoner name and inmate number which you can use to request the corrections record from the Colorado State Archives. Available information may include biographical details, as well as information about the prisoner’s crime, sentence and parole or pardon. Prisoner mug shots are also available for most penitentiary inmates.
If you had a male ancestory in Colorado who got an early start on his criminal career, then you may find his name in this free online database from the Denver Public Library. The Colorado State Reformatory provided special programs for youthful male offenders, generally 16 to 25 years of age, who were convicted of crimes other than murder or voluntary manslaughter. The online index provides each prisoner’s name, inmate number and prison record volume number. Complete inmate information is available from the Colorado State Archives.
The Weathersfield State Prison opened in 1827 with the transfer of eighty-one prisoners from Newgate Prison. This free online index to Warrants of Commitment, 1800-1903 includes information on inmates admitted to Wethersfield, as well as some who were transferred there from Newgate, including prisoner’s name, aliases, residence, crime committed, victim (if known), sentence, court, and date of issue.
This comprehensive PDF catalog produced by the Idaho State Historical Society includes historical and statistical information on the prison, as well as both alphabetical and case number indexes to the thousands of inmates who passed through the prison between 1864 and 1947. Also available is a smaller expanded index including information such as the inmate’s year of birth and crime committed, for Inmates Associated with the Mining Industry, 1865-1910.
This free searchable database chronicles 11,000+ homicides in the city of Chicago, Illinois, during the years 1870-1930 with case summaries describing the victim, the defendant, the circumstances of the homicide, the charges and the legal verdict. The website also chronicles 25 interesting Chicago homicide cases from start to finish.
(CBS News60 MINUTES) The exodus from the Holy Land of Palestinian Christians could eventually leave holy cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem without a local Christian population, Bob Simon reports. Why are they leaving? For some, life in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become too difficult.
“From 6o Minutes:
For Israel, there could be serious economic consequences. According to Israeli government figures, tourism is a multi billion dollar business there. Most tourists are Christian. Many of them are American. That’s one reason why Israelis are very sensitive about their image in the United States. And that could be why Ambassador Oren phoned Jeff Fager, the head of CBS News and executive producer of 60 Minutes, while we were still reporting the story, long before tonight’s broadcast. He said he had information our story was quote: “a hatchet job.”
Michael Oren: It seemed to me outrageous. Completely incomprehensible that at a time when these communities, Christian communities throughout the Middle East are being oppressed and massacred, when churches are being burnt, when one of the great stories in history is unfolding? I think it’s– I think it’s– I think you got me a little bit mystified.
Bob Simon: And it was a reason to call the president of– chairman of CBS News?
Michael Oren: Bob, I’m the ambassador of the State of Israel. I do that very, very infrequently as ambassador. It’s just– that’s an extraordinary move for me to complain about something. When I heard that you were going to do a story about Christians in the Holy Land and my assum– and– and had, I believe, information about the nature of it, and it’s been confirmed by this interview today.
Bob Simon: Nothing’s been confirmed by the interview, Mr. Ambassador, because you don’t know what’s going to be put on air.
Michael Oren: Okay. I don’t. True.
Bob Simon: Mr. Ambassador, I’ve been doing this a long time. And I’ve received lots of reactions from just about everyone I’ve done stories about. But I’ve never gotten a reaction before from a story that hasn’t been broadcast yet.
Michael Oren: Well, there’s a first time for everything, Bob.”
The skeleton was found in a shallow grave
”TIME PERIOD: Introduction
I Love History...and Research 