A weekly thread about the past
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Since we’ve been exploring the politics of well-known American authors in recent threads, I wanted to take a slightly different track by highlighting a lesser-known writer from the 19th Century. Specifically Edith Maude Eaton … Continue reading The Spring Fragrance History Thread
The History Thread returns with another look at the politics of a Classic American Writer – in this case, Herman Melville. The author of Moby-Dick is more like Edgar Allan Poe than Nathaniel Hawthorne (who was Melville’s close friend, and … Continue reading A Whale of a History Thread
This week’s History Thread will be a little different. We talked about Edgar Allan Poe’s political beliefs in last week’s discussion, so I wanted to do a slightly deeper dive into one of his contemporaries: Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was a … Continue reading The History Thread Hearts Franklin Pierce
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today’s the anniversary of Louis XVI’s execution, so feel free to celebrate by toppling your own tyrannical monarch! Continue reading The History Thread Gets a Head
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today is the anniversary of everyone’s favorite irascible Yugoslavian dictator, Josip Broz Tito, becoming the President of Yugoslavia in 1953. As ever, he has no time for your bourgeois bullshit, but he is willing … Continue reading The Tito-Tastic History Thread
Welcome to the first History Thread of 2020! Since we haven’t had one of these for awhile, holidays and whatnot, you can use this week’s thread to catch up on what you accomplished in 2019 and what you’re looking forward … Continue reading The History Thread Looks Forward
Today’s Weekly History Thread commemorates the blackest mark on Ulysses Grant’s ledger: General Order No. 11. On December 17, 1862, Grant, frustrated by the exploitation of wartime cotton trade by civilian merchants, issued the following proclamation: The Jews, as a … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
This week’s History Thread looks back at one of the odder events in English history: a series of protests and riots over a statue of a dog in Battersea. The Brown Dog of Battersea stood at the center of a … Continue reading The Brown Dog History Thread
Today’s History Thread remembers the Battle of Eureka Stockade, a seminal event in pre-independence Australia. A series of protests among the miners of Ballarat, Victoria culminated in a full-fledged rebellion against in November 1854. The protests had been triggered by … Continue reading The Eureka History Thread
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! It’s the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s proclaiming the “first” real Thanksgiving in 1863, with scarcely a Pilgrim in sight! Discuss what you will today. Continue reading A Turkey of a History Thread
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Thanks to Sheltie for subbing last week. It’s the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a short but powerful dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, about which many myths have grown up over the … Continue reading The History Thread Will Little Note Nor Long Remember
Sheltie, subbing for Agnew, here! With the impending Thanksgiving holiday, let’s take a look back at the eating habits of one of the more obscure Roman emperors, Vitellius. Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Augustus (15-69 AD) was a proconsul turned commander of … Continue reading The November 12 History Thread Feasts Like Vitellius
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Remember, remember how today is the 414th anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ arrest for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot to destroy Parliament and restore England to a Catholic theocracy. Try to remember that before … Continue reading The Treasonous History Thread
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today’s picture: On October 28-29, 1922 Benito Mussolini and his fascist Blackshirts carried out their March on Rome, consolidating fascist power in Italy. The culmination of three years of political ferment, it was a … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Marches
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today’s picture: On October 22, 1844, the world ended. Or so predicted William Miller, a Baptist lay priest from New York who interpreted a passage from Daniel 8:14 (“Unto two thousand and three hundred … Continue reading The History Thread is a Great Disappointment
It was a cold, wet December day in Virginia. The kind of cold that seeps through layers of clothes and settles as a deep ache within your bones. George Washington had spent most of the morning and afternoon riding on … Continue reading What killed George Washington?
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Days of Rage protest in Chicago. While other antiwar organizers prepared for the National Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, a radical splinter of the Students … Continue reading The History Thread is All the Rage
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today’s picture: October 1, 1975 was one of the most famous boxing matches in modern history: the third fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila, appropriately dubbed the “Thrilla in Manila.” This … Continue reading The Thrilla in the History Threada
Welcome to the History Thread! I didn’t have time to prepare a header today, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss history in the thread below. Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
This week’s History Thread falls on two seminal days in American history: the signing of the Constitution in 1787, and the Battle of Antietam seventy-five years later. The former created the document which remains, with a number of amendments, the … Continue reading A History Thread, if You Can Keep It
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! My apologies for missing last week, I have no good excuse other than being otherwise occupied. This week’s picture: on September 10, 1897 a miner’s strike at Lattimer, PA turned violent. After the usual … Continue reading The Striking Weekly History Thread
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