Fountains Abbey Cistercian Monastery
North Yorkshire, England
Established 1132AD.
Posts Tagged ‘History’
Easter
Sunday, 4 April 2021Three Women in China
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Three women in the pillory, China, Anonymous, c.1875
Earliest Tineye image search results link to various Chinese websites (deleted or defunct) ca. February 2008. One source claims these women were accused of witchcraft, which suggests that the picture may have been related to religious persecutions that occurred during the Taiping Rebellion and/or the later Boxer Rebellion.
Religious persecutions persist in modern day communist China, and they are brutal:
“Rooted in atheism and materialism, the communist regime has been brutally suppressing Uyghur Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners for years. Those who refuse to comply with the CCP’s orders are detained and taken to secretive “re-education camps” where they are subjected to unimaginable abuses, including gang rape and electrocution.” [Source]
[Image found here.]
John L. Burns
Monday, 1 March 2021
“On the afternoon of July 1, 1863, as the tide of gray soldiers pushed forward towards town, a 69 year old defender confidently strode towards the expanding struggle. A veteran of the War of 1812, John Burns could not simply stand idly by as his home became a hotly contested battle ground. Moving in with the somewhat incredulous men of the Iron Brigade, the near 70 year old Burns fought along side men 50 years his junior. With them he would remain until wounded. Although the Southerners would capture the ground of the McPherson farm that he helped to defend, with assistance from his Union Army comrades, Burns found his way home where he recovered from several wounds received that day. A few months later, John Burns would have the honor of meeting and walking with President Abraham Lincoln when, in November of that year, Lincoln offered his few appropriate remarks to the dedication of the soldiers national cemetery.
Union Lieutenant Frank Haskell, also present for the battle, wrote of his brief contact with Burns. “I saw “John Burns,” the only citizen of Gettysburg who fought in the battle, and I asked him what troops he fought with. He said: “O, I pitched in with them Wisconsin fellers.” I asked what sort of men they were, and he answered: “They fit terribly. The Rebs couldn’t make anything of them fellers.”
And so the brave compliment the brave. This man was touched by three bullets from the enemy, but not seriously wounded.”
According to Burns’s biography in Appleton’s Cyclopedia, during the last two years of his life his mind failed, and his friends were unable to prevent his wandering about the country. He was found in New York City on a cold winter’s night in December 1871, in a state of destitution, and was cared for and sent home, but died of pneumonia in 1872.
[More about John L. Burns here. Colorized image found here, story here. Not sure why the farmhouse photo is distorted.]
Christ Being Led to the Praetorium
Thursday, 21 January 2021
“Christ Being Led to the Praetorium,” from “The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry,” Folio 143, back; between 1412 and 1416, by the Limbourg brothers. Tempera on vellum. Condé Museum, France.
[Found here.]
Die Schnabelperchten
Tuesday, 5 January 2021
12 drummers drumming won’t stop them.
With a gentle “Ga Ga Ga”, they make their way from house to house, checking that homes have had the appropriate upkeep, whether the floor has been properly swept and every corner has been dusted. Heaven forbid you don’t clean your house correctly – the ancient version of the legend says that, if that’s the case, the Schnabelperchten will slice open your stomach with a long pair of shears and empty all of the rubbish inside!
Let it be said, however, that the Schnabelperchten are generally welcome guests – especially since they bring happiness and blessings for the coming year.
Schnabelperchten (more than one beaked Perchta) roam around the Alpine region of Austria in midwinter, appearing on or before the eve of the Twelfth Night, the last of the “Twelve Days” of Christmas, the “Haunted Season.”
[h/t Mme. Jujujive. Top image and caption found here. More Perchta lore here and here.]
Update: Just spotted this, and I wasn’t even looking for it.
Remember Always – 7 December 1941
Monday, 7 December 2020
In a flooded drydock, the destroyer USS Cassin lies partly submerged and leaning against another destroyer, the USS Downes, with the battleship USS Pennsylvania relatively undamaged in the rear, following surprise Japanese attack. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/US Navy)
[Image from USNI Proceedings January 1961. Related posts here.]
Armistice Day: The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month of 1918
Wednesday, 11 November 2020[Previously posted here. Related posts here.]
The sign on the front of the truck reads, “The Kaiser’s Funeral.”
26 September 1918
“We are in a camp near Auzeville and the big drive is to start. In fact the one that finished the ‘Boches’. Then the morning of the 26th dawned but dawn was preceded by a terrific barrage which was as loud as thunder and lighted up the whole skyline for miles. We were not flying ours but were held in reserve. Hundreds of “planes” were now flying over head. One bunch had over 150 in it.
Along about 8 a.m., along comes a boche plane and he burned three of the balloons all observers landed safe but one and his parachute burned and he fell to his death.
A fellow by the name of Barnett and I started out to see the fun. Put our guns on and started for the front line trenches which were about 5 miles north. After a short while we hit the trenches but of course our boys had advanced and were chasing the boche for a fare you well. We hit several mine craters where the boche had mined the roads but already our engineers had started to budge them. After another hour’s walk and dodging a few pieces of shrapnel we hit the town of Varennes and were keen for souvenirs. The boche were still in one side of the Varennes and we were in the other.
Machine guns were crackling with a steady roar and long streams of ambulances carrying away the wounded. Dead Boche were laying every where. The roads were filled with them. Long about then a Boche 77 took my ….. but never touched us. Then we started going through the dugouts and it was there that I got the general’s helmet. Also was almost lucky enough to capture a Jerry but a doughboy beat me to it. He was hiding in a dug out. Looked like he wasn’t as old as “Bugs” and he was scared almost to death.
After monkeying around a while we hopped an ambulance and rode back toward Auzeville. So that finished the day’s fun. But you ought to have seen the dead Huns. Some had legs blown off. Some had their heads and shoulders off and some were in pieces only. A great many had been burned by mustard gas and were burned to a crisp.”
PFC Walter Myers, age 19, US Army Signal Corps
75 Years Ago Today
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
OUR 12th BLOGIVERSARY = 13 YEARS OF STUFF!
Monday, 3 August 2020
On Friday, 3 August 2007, the date of our first posted post that was posted, the world twitched imperceptibly, a global nanoflinch, an earthquake with the power of a morning fart, or less. It’s our 11th Anniversary, because this:
3 August 2007 – Whelped
3 August 2008 – 1st year Blogoversary
3 August 2020 – 12th year Blogoversary!
As of this date, there are exactly 5,099 posts in our archives, 9,002 comments and 22,991 “shares” that comprise
Steal, lift, purloin, burgle and abscond with anything you find here, just link back and give us credit for finding the stuff before you did.
We’ve featured the Top 11 Posts every year since 3 August 2008 and this year is no different.
–Previous Top 11 hits linked here–
The numbers adjacent to the titles indicate ranking for the previous 12 months, followed by the previous year’s ranking, and the third number is for all-time popularity (August 2007 – August 2020).
“NR” denotes “Not Ranked.”
Click on any image below and it’ll take you to the original post. So let’s go!
No. 11/NR/411 – Open Your Mouth, Stick Out Your Tongue and Say, “Hot Links.”
No. 10/NR/189 – How To Draw Elbows: A Tutorial
No. 09/10/259 – The .GIF Friday Post No. 472 – Cooler Pwnd, Dance Hard & Warehouse Windsurfing
No. 8/NR/93 – 11 September 2001 – Never Forget.
No. 7/5/17 – Meet The Beetles
No. 6/NR/225- Cliffside Path, China
No. 5/2/15 – The .Gif Friday Post No. 445 – Demolition Demon, Roll Survivor & Rock This Way
No. 4/6/28 – Beads, Beer, Boobs & Blues = Heureux Mardi Gras!
No. 3/NR/9 – An Expensive Ignosecond
No. 2/NR/117 – The .Gif Friday Post No. 421 – 15mph Stupid, Googly Eyes & Still Life With Monkey
And the Number One Post for the past 12 months is:
Bigass Ammonite Fossil is not a Bigass Ammonite Fossil
Posted on 18 July 2016, this wins with a score of 1/3/44. It made 1st Place in record time (well done, Redditors!)
Thanks for all your visits, favorites and linkys, and I wish you all the best.
Bunk
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