Tag: 1800s
-
History Daily: August 17
BILLY THE KID KILLS HIS FIRST MAN Image: Billy the Kid 1880. (Wikimedia Commons.) Despite being a teenager at the time, on August 17, 1877, Billy the Kid shoots and injures an Arizona blacksmith who dies the next day. He was the infamous outlaw’s first casualty. Just how many men the Kid killed is unknown.…
-
The Klondike Gold Rush. August 16, 1896.
Image: Klondikers carrying supplies ascending the Chilkoot Pass, 1898. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in history, American prospector George Carmack, along with Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie – both Tagish First Nation members – discovered Yukon gold on Rabbit Creek (later renamed Bonanza Creek), a Klondike River branch that ran through both Alaskan and…
-
History Daily: August 14
CHINA DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY Image: Chinese workers during World War I (Wikimedia Commons) On August 14, 1917, as World War I entered its fourth year, China abandoned its neutrality and declared war on Germany. From its beginning, the Great War was not restricted to the European continent; in the Far East, two competing countries,…
-
History Daily: August 13
“HOUND DOG” IS RECORDED FOR THE FIRST TIME BY BIG MAMA THORNTON. AUGUST 13, 1952 Image: Big Mama Thornton (Wikimedia Commons) Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” (1956) is one of Rock and Roll’s most identifiable songs. It’s a song so closely associated with Presley that many have incorrectly accepted that Presley recorded it first. The story…
-
History Daily: August 12
KING PHILIP’S WAR ENDS Image: Indians Attacking a Garrison House, from an Old Wood Engraving This is likely a depiction of the attack on the Haynes Garrison, Sudbury, April 21, 1676. (Wikimedia Commons.) On August 12, 1676, in colonial New England, King Philip’s War ended when Philip, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, was assassinated by a…
-
History Daily: August 11
CONFEDERATE GENERAL JUBAL EARLY ABANDONS WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA On August 11, 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early leaves Winchester, Virginia, as Union General Philip Sheridan nears the city. Wary of his new enemy, Early exited the area to avoid an immediate conflict. (Image: General Jubal A. Early. The Virginia Historical Society) Since June, Early and his 14,000 soldiers had been in…
-
History Daily: August 9
CAPITULATION OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY On August 9, 1757, English Fort William Henry, New York, surrendered to French & Indians troops. Fort William Henry was a British fort at the southern end of Lake George, in the province of New York. The fort’s construction was ordered by Sir William Johnson in September 1755, during the French and Indian War, as a staging ground for…
-
Ex-French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte Sets Sail for Exile to the Mid-Atlantic Island of St. Helena on Board HMS Northumberland, Nearly Two Months After his Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. August 9, 1815.
(Image: Napoleon on Saint Helena, watercolor by Franz Josef Sandmann, c. 1820. Wikimedia Commons.) On this day in history, ex-French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte sets sail for exile from the coast of England to the mid-Atlantic Island of St. Helena on board the British ship HMS Northumberland, nearly two months after his defeat at the Battle of…
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 