Time Tunnel Collective

In 1764, Horace Walpole published The Castle of Otranto, the book considered to be the first Gothic Novel. With this he initiated the genre which ushered in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and also....a peculiar form of fashion. 

Another stop in 1764: Secret passages, ghostly apparitions, death, betrayal, stabbing, darkness of soul, darkness of candle lit hallways, damp darkness, deathly darkness, cavernous darkness, skulls abundant, secrets, mist and mystery, tortured tormented souls, people name Horace, Manfred, Friar XXX...T'is the year when the (first) gothic novel was published: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Otranto

In 1764, Mozart and his family were touring London when his father, Leopold, was struck down with an illness. Young Wolfgang wasn’t allowed to touch the piano, so he had to find other ways to occupy himself. The result? He quickly penned his Symphony No. 1 in E flat major. His father criticized the piece for being too basic and pointed out three mistakes in the music theory, but it’s not bad for an eight-year-old… True, it’s not one of Mozart’s best works, but it’s a sign of things to come.

April 27 1764 – Eight-year-old child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performs a private concert before King George III and Queen Charlotte in Great Britain, and has an encore on May 19.

There are accounts claiming that the Royals’ personal physician, Baron Christian Friedrich von Stockmar, described her as having “a true mulatto face”.

“However, the most popular proponent of ‘Queen Charlotte had African roots’ theory is historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom. Cocom traces a long maze of genealogical roots to claim that “Queen Charlotte, wife of the English King George III, was directly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a Black branch of the Portuguese Royal House. Six different lines can be traced from English Queen Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa, in a gene pool which because of royal inbreeding was already minuscule, thus explaining the Queen’s unmistakable African appearance.”

Hark! We have a guest touring 1764 with us today! The wonderful Orit Bergman takes us to the death bed of Hogarth, William Hogarth. 

If you ever visit his tomb (or Wikipedia) , you'll find this inscription: 

Farewell great Painter of Mankind Who reach'd the noblest point of Art Whose pictur'd Morals charm the Mind And through the Eye correct the Heart. If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay, If Nature touch thee, drop a Tear: If neither move thee, turn away, For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.

The year 1764 marks the birth of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, after whom it is assumed the Earl Grey tea blend is named. He was British Prime Minister in the 1830s and author of the Reform Bill of 1832 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. He reputedly received a gift, probably a diplomatic prerequisite, of tea flavoured with bergamot oil, as a result of his ending the monopoly held by the East India Company on trade between Britain and China.

July 26 – In what is described 250 years later as "The first documented United States school shooting", a group of four Delaware Native Americans invade a schoolhouse near what is now Greencastle, Pennsylvania and kill ten schoolchildren and their teacher, Enoch Brown.

The massacre happens in the course of Pontiac's War, as retaliation against white settlement of Native American lands in central Pennsylvania. One student, Archie McCullough, manages to escape the carnage.

July 26 – In what is described 250 years later as "The first documented United States school shooting", a group of four Delaware Native Americans invade a schoolhouse near what is now Greencastle, Pennsylvania and kill ten schoolchildren and their teacher, Enoch Brown. The massacre happens in the course of Pontiac's War, as retaliation against white settlement of Native American lands in central Pennsylvania. One student, Archie McCullough, manages to escape the carnage.

1764-Approximate date of Birth of Alexander Mackenzie (explorer), Scottish explorer of northern Canada.

Maurice Sendak passed away in 2012. Sendak was a major figure in children’s literature and the recipient of The Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration in 1970. His most celebrated book, Where The Wild Things Are, was the recipient of the prestigious Caldecott Medal. There are stories that as a young boy, Sendak had been deeply impressed by the visitation of his Orthodox uncles. Their strange dress and appearance both frightened and struck him with a sense of awe and wonder, which in turn influenced the creation of The Wild Things. This makes me, in a sense, a kin to the wild things. This illustration is a self portrait and homage to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak

In October 2012 I was a student living in NYC. My uncles had just landed for a week long visit from Tel Aviv so I took them to one of my favorite places in the city “The Antique Cookbook Store” before the 8pm curfew. We spent hours browsing the treasures inside and hadn't noticed that night had fallen and Hurricane Sandy was about to hit the city with 80++ mph winds. I had just pulled out a handful bunch of dried leaves from a giant Time Life cookbook which coincided with the naked branches of a tree waving violently through the window and alerting us to the storm. We bolted back home and I wished I had bought that giant book so I would have something to anchor me to the ground.  At one point we had to crawl on our bellies like snakes to keep from getting pushed into the road where cars and traffic lights were swinging recklessly. 2012 was also the year I learned of Michael Phelps and combined with that experience of “hovering” back home, I began having recurring dreams that I could swim-fly. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy

The first time I read about lonely George was when I was 10 years old. I remember vividly how I was amazed by his absolute loneliness. The last turtle of his kind in the world. When I read that lonely George died  I was really sorry, but also hopeful that he maybe flew off to meet his kind in turtle heaven or something and he is not alone anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_George

June 24, 2012 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies, dies in Galápagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.

Wisława Szymborska, was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Szymborska died of lung cancer in her sleep at home in Kraków in 2012, aged 88. In her poem, “Cat in an empty apartment,“ Szymborska described death from the perspective of a cat that has lost its master.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisława_Szymborska

In July 2012, "Gangnam Style" by PSY, took the world by storm with a catchy tune and an even catchier dance. The music video accompanying the song became the world's most "liked" video on Youtube of all times and stayed on top for 3 years. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnam_Style