Monthly Archives: October 2015
HISTORIC SCHOOL: HARVARD UNIVERSITY
* Richard Rummel’s 1906 Watercolour Rendition of Harvard University The oldest university in the United States of America is the one founded on October 28th, 1636 in what would soon be Cambridge Massachusetts. For a while it didn’t have a name beyond, ‘the university’, but in 1638, a learned (and wealthy) colonist named John Harvard […]
HISTORIC BATTLE: BATTLE OF AGINCOURT
Today is St. Crispin’s Day, and on St. Crispin’s Day, 1415, the English won a major victory in its ongoing war with France. (The one called the Hundred Years War, even though it actually lasted, on and off, for one hundred and sixteen years.) Why were they fighting – this time? Well, in 1414, England’s […]
HISTORIC STORM: LONDON TORNADO OF 1091
When you think of tornadoes ripping through a city, London, England isn’t the first place that comes to mind, but it does get them. The earliest on record blew in (literally) on October 17th, 1091, or October 23rd, 1091, depending on which calendar you care to go by. (That Julian/Gregorian change-over thing.) Moving at around […]
HISTORY TIDBIT: HALLOWEEN MASKS
Halloween masks. Those creepy looking plastic things that make the wearer too hot, get wet with condensed breath, and obstruct vision unless parents cut the eye-holes larger. Which is probably why they’re the first things kids discard at Halloween parties. They do add much to certain costumes, however. The first masks were worn at the […]
PHRASE ORIGIN: TRICK OR TREAT
The familiar Halloween cry of, “Trick or Treat!”, came into being in 1930s America, and was first referred to in print in a Portland Oregon newspaper article about the problems local police were having with Halloween pranksters. By the 1940s, kids were yelling it outside houses nationwide.
HISTORY SHARE: HALLOWEEN (OR ANYTIME) PERIOD COSTUMES
Because I don’t possess the necessary sewing skills, my mother made the costumes above for the next generation to wear to SCA tourneys and other local medieval happenings. (The footwear isn’t medieval, but that’s because they hadn’t changed into sandals when I took the picture.) If someone in your household is into sewing and looking […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: MARIE ANTOINETTE
Question: Did Marie Antoinette really say “Let them eat cake?” in reference to France’s starving poor having no bread? Answer: There’s no real evidence, and if she did, she wasn’t the first. According to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the statement was made a century earlier by Marie-Therese, Spanish bride of King Louis XIV. It has […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: CANADIAN NON-VOTERS
Question: Who are the only people over the age of eighteen who absolutely cannot vote in a Canadian federal election? Answer: The Chief Electoral Officer of Canada and the Assistant Chief Electoral Officer, as they must remain impartial at all times. Most everyone else over eighteen is eligible to vote. Now. As with most countries, […]
Time Travelling With Kids 