Tag: 1800s
-
The South African Boer War Began Involving Britain and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. October 11, 1899.
Image: Clockwise from left: Frederick Roberts entering in Kimberley; Boer militia at the Battle of Spion Kop; Boer women and children in a British concentration camp. (Public Domain) On this day in history, October 11, 1899, the Second South African Boer War began involving Britain and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.…
-
Wild West Wednesday – Outlaw Dirty Dave Rudabaugh
Image: Dave Rudabaugh (Public Domain) Nicknamed “Dirty Dave” because he scarcely bathed and wore filthy clothes, Dave Rudabaugh was a cowboy, outlaw, and gunfighter in the American Old West. Dave Rudabaugh was born on July 14, 1854, and was a young boy living in his birth state of Illinois when his father was killed during the…
-
The Great Chicago Fire Begins. October 8, 1871.
Image: The Currier & Ives lithograph shows people fleeing across the Randolph Street Bridge. Thousands of people literally ran for their lives before the flames, unleashing remarkable scenes of terror and dislocation. “The whole earth, or all we saw of it, was a lurid yellowish red,” wrote one survivor. “Everywhere dust, smoke, flames, heat, thunder…
-
Brothers John and Simeon Reno and Frank Sparkes Hold the First Train Robbery in United States History, Stealing $16,000 From an Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Train in Jackson County, Indiana. October 6, 1866.
Image: The Reno Gang 1860s. (Public Domain) On this day in history, October 6, 1866, brothers John and Simeon Reno and Frank Sparkes hold the first train robbery in United States history, stealing $16,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana. The Reno brothers’ influence on criminal history was to halt…
-
The Dalton Gang Attempted to Hold Up Two Banks at the Same Time When Five Members of the Gang Rode Into the Town of Coffeyville, Kansas. It Ended Badly. October 5, 1892.
Image: Memento Mori of the Dalton Gang following the 1892 Coffeyville, Kansas raid. Left to right: Bill Powers; Bob Dalton; Grat Dalton, Dick Broadwell. (Public Domain) On this day in history, the Dalton Gang attempted to hold up two banks at the same time when five members of the Dalton Gang (Grat Dalton, Emmett Dalton, Bob Dalton,…
-
Wild West Wednesday: Outlaw Belle Starr
(Image: A studio portrait of Belle Starr probably taken in Fort Smith in the early 1880s. Public Domain.) Belle Starr was born Myra Maybelle Shirley near Carthage, Missouri, on February 5, 1848. She was called May by her family. Her father, John Shirley, thrived raising wheat, horses, corn, and hogs, though he was viewed as…
-
The United States Army Executed By Hanging Four Native Americans Found Guilty of Killing American Civil War General Edward Canby during the Modoc War in Oregon. October 3, 1873.
Image: Major General Edward Canby (Public Domain). On this day in history, October 3, 1873, the United States Army executed by hanging four Native Americans found guilty of killing American Civil War general Edward Canby during the Modoc War in Oregon. Canby was the highest-ranking army officer and the only general ever murdered by Native…
-
Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow Drowns Off the North Carolina Coast When a Yankee Vessel Runs Her Ship Aground, and She Falls in While Holding $2000 in Gold. October 1, 1864.
Image: Rose O’Neal Greenhow with her youngest daughter and namesake, “Little” Rose, at the Old Capitol Prison, Washington, D.C., 1862. (Public Domain) On this day in history, October 1, 1864, Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow drowns off the North Carolina coast when a Yankee vessel runs her ship aground, and she falls in while holding…
-
While Traveling From New York from Liverpool, England, the SS Arctic Struck the SS Vesta, a Small Fishing Boat, 50 Miles Off the Coast of Newfoundland – 322 Souls would Perish. September 27, 1854.
Original caption: “Wreck of the U.S.M. Steam Ship ‘Arctic’. Off Cape Race Wednesday September 27th 1854. On her homeward voyage from Liverpool, during a dense fog, she came in collision with the French iron propeller ‘VESTA,’ and was so badly injured that in about 5 hours she sunk stern foremost by which terrible calamity nearly…
-
Wild West Wednesday, Part 4 – The Death of Billy the Kid
Image: The only surviving authenticated portrait of Billy the Kid, 1880. This tintype portrait sold at auction in June 2011 for USD $2,300,000 to William Koch. (Public Domain.) On April 9, 1881, after a one-day trial, Henry McCarty, aka “Billy the Kid,” or William H. Bonney, was found guilty of murdering the Lincoln County, New…
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 