Category: History
abandoned
On 30 August a Pentagon spokesman said that around 600 still remain in the country. “We didn’t get out everyone that we wanted to get out.”
31 AUGUST 2021
May God Save the Innocents.
Independence Day
The Star Spangled Banner, The Diamond Four (ca. 1898) Berliner 4258, 7-inch 70 rpm record found here. Under the Berliner Gramophone trademark, German inventor and audio recording pioneer Emile Berliner began marketing 7-inch diameter disc records in the United States in 1894. The Diamond Four recorded several other songs for Berliner.
Stars And Stripes Forever, Kendle’s First Regiment Band (1901)Possibly the first recording of John Philip Sousa‘s “The Stars And Stripes Forever March.” Sousa wrote in his autobiography that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896, while crossing the Atlantic, after he learned of the death of his band’s manager. In 1987 an Act of Congress declared the song to be the Official National March of the United States of America.
Yankee Doodle Boy, Billy Murray (1906)The song was adapted and written ca. 1755 by Dr. Richard Shuckburgh(?); rewritten in 1776 by Edward Bangs(?); rewritten again in 1903 by George M. Cohen. [More history here and here.]
Also known as (I’m A) Yankee Doodle Dandy, the melody goes back to folk songs of Medieval Europe. The earliest words of Yankee Doodle came from a Middle Dutch harvest song of the same tune, possibly dating back as early as 15th-century Holland. It contained mostly nonsensical words in English and Dutch.
In 1978 Yankee Doodle was adopted as the Official Song of the State of Connecticut.
[Independence Day Archive here.]
I’m sure it meant something.
From Lustige Blätter 1919.
Funny papers was the title of a German-language satire magazine. After a brief start-up phase in Hamburg, the magazine was published as a weekly newspaper from 1886 to 1944 in Berlin. It was founded and published by the writer Alexander Moszkowski.
[Image found here. Note that there is no Wikipedia entry for Lustige Blätter in English.]
Ancient Masonry
6 June 1944
The Past in the Present – George, Ben & Abe
4 May 1970 Kent State
Indiana Bell Building 1930
“In 1930 the Indiana Bell Building was rotated 90°. Over a month, the 22-million-pound structure was moved 15 inches/hour, all while 600 employees still worked there. There was no interruption to gas, heat, electricity, water, sewage, or the telephone service they provided. No one inside felt it move.”
Built in 1907, the 8-story, 11,000-ton building was moved to provide room for a larger facility, all while providing uninterrupted telephone service to the State of Indiana. It was relocated 52 feet (16 m) to the south and 100 feet (30 m) west of its original location. The move began 14 October and was complete on 12 November 1930.
Most of the power needed to move the building was provided by hand-operated jacks assisted by a steam engine. Each time the jacks were pumped, the house moved 3/8ths of an inch.
