Uniquely history

Ruby Bridges was the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960.

This movie made me cry, I was so heart broken by how Ruby Bridges was treated! She was only 6, but was so strong. She is a very brave girl and she did not care what the white folks called her.

People are simply disgusting to minimize people by skin color!

Ruby Bridges in 2010 

“As Bridges describes it, “Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.“ Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, “She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn’t whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we’re all very very proud of her.“ 

U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school

As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, “as if she were teaching a whole class.”

Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her; because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, allowed Ruby to eat only the food that she brought from home.

Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said “scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.” At her mother’s suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.”

More info on Ruby Bridges on Wikipedia

THIS SHIT WAS ONLY 58 YEARS AGO. PEOPLE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS RACIST TERRORISM AND ACTS LIKE IT ARE STILL ALIVE, AND THEIR KIDS ARE IN THEIR 40′S AND 50′S. 

This is literally how she looks in 2017. 

This was the deadliest antisemitic attack in all 364 years of American Jewish history. Jews all over the world are shaken, upset, and scared. We know that this could have been any of us, but beyond that, this attack struck at the heart of our people. We were attacked in a place of safety and sanctity. We were reminded that as Jews, we are not safe in America. And we lost eleven Jewish souls.

Some of us are grieving, some of us are angry, some of us are devastated, some of us are numb, some of us are crying, some of us are terrified, some of us are anxious, and some of us can barely walk up the stairs because this doesn’t make any sense and yet it makes so much sense because we all, on some level, imagined this was coming. Our history has taught us that our safety is never guaranteed, and over the past two years we have watched the sickening rise of Nazism and antisemitism all over the world, including in America, where, despite our history, many of us had been lulled into believing it could never happen here.

We lost a third of the world’s Jewish population within living memory. So many Jewish families, in every country, fled antisemitic violence within the past few generations. The tragedy we just experienced is visceral, it’s terrifying, it’s devastating.

I grew up believing that women had contributed nothing to the world until the 1960′s. So once I became a feminist I started collecting information on women in history, and here’s my collection so far, in no particular order. 

Lepa Svetozara Radić (1925–1943) was a partisan executed at the age of 17 for shooting at German soldiers during WW2. As her captors tied the noose around her neck, they offered her a way out of the gallows by revealing her comrades and leaders identities. She responded that she was not a traitor to her people and they would reveal themselves when they avenged her death. She was the youngest winner of the Order of the People’s Hero of Yugoslavia, awarded in 1951

23 year old Phyllis Latour Doyle was British spy who parachuted into occupied Normandy in 1944 on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for D-day. She relayed 135 secret messages before France was finally liberated. 

Catherine Leroy, War Photographer starting with the Vietnam war. She was taken a prisoner of war. When released she continued to be a war photographer until her death in 2006.

Lieutenant Pavlichenko was a Russian sniper in WWII, with a total of 309 kills, including 36 enemy snipers. After being wounded, she toured the US to promote friendship between the two countries, and was called ‘fat’ by one of her interviewers, which she found rather amusing. 

Johanna Hannie “Jannetje” Schaft was born in Haarlem. She studied in Amsterdam had many Jewish friends. During WWII she aided many people who were hiding from the Germans and began working in resistance movements. She helped to assassinate two nazis. She was later captured and executed. Her last words were “I shoot better than you.”. 

Nancy wake was a resistance spy in WWII, and was so hated by the Germans that at one point she was their most wanted person with a price of 5 million francs on her head. During one of her missions, while parachuting into occupied France, her parachute became tangled in a tree. A french agent commented that he wished that all trees would bear such beautiful fruit, to which she replied “Don’t give me any of that French shit!”, and later that evening she killed a German sentry with her bare hands. 

After her husband was killed in WWII, Violette Szabo began working for the resistance. In her work, she helped to sabotage a railroad and passed along secret information. She was captured and executed at a concentration camp at age 23. 

Grace Hopper was a computer scientist who invented the first ever compiler. Her invention makes every single computer program you use possible. 

Mona Louise Parsons was a member of an informal resistance group in the Netherlands during WWII. After her resistance network was infiltrated, she was captured and was the first Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the Nazis. She was originally sentenced to death by firing squad, but the sentence was lowered to hard lard labor in a prison camp. She escaped. 

Simone Segouin was a Parisian rebel who killed an unknown number of Germans and captured 25 with the aid of her submachine gun. She was present at the liberation of Paris and was later awarded the ‘croix de guerre’. 

Mary Edwards Walker is the only woman to have ever won an American Medal of Honor. She earned it for her work as a surgeon during the Civil War. It was revoked in 1917, but she wore it until hear death two years later. It was restored posthumously. 

Italian neuroscientist won a Nobel Prize for her discovery of nerve growth factor. She died aged 103. 

A snapshot of the women of color in the woman’s army corps on Staten Island

This is an ongoing project of mine, and I’ll update this as much as I can (It’s not all WWII stuff, I’ve got separate folders for separate achievements). 

Annie Jump Cannon was an american astronomer and, in addition to possibly having one of the best names in history, was co-creator of one of the first scientific classification systems of stars, based on temperature. 

Melba Roy Moutan was a Harvard educated mathematician who led a team of mathematicians at NASA, nicknamed ‘Computers’ for their number processing prowess. 

Joyce Jacobson Kaufman was a chemist who developed the concept of conformational topology, and studied at Johns Hopkins University before it officially allowed women entry in 1970. 

Vera Rubin is an astronomer and has co-authored 114 peer reviewed papers. She specializes in the study of dark matter and galaxy rotation rates. 

Mary Sherman Morgan was a rocket scientist who invented hydyne, a liquid fuel that powered the USA’s Jupiter C-rocket. 

Chien-Siung Wu was a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, as well as experimental radioactive studies. She was the first woman to become president of the American Physical Society. 

Mildred Catherine Rebstock was the first person to synthesize the antibiotic chloromycetin.

Ruby Hirose was a chemist who conducted vital research about an infant paralysis vaccine. 

Hattie Elizabeth Alexander was a pediatrician and microbiologist who developed a remedy for Haemophilus influenzae, and conducted vital research on antibiotic resistance. 

Marie Tharp was a scientist who mapped the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and provided proof of continental drift. 

Mae Jamison is an astronaut who holds a degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University and was the first black woman in space.

Ada Lovelace was a mathematician and considered to be the world’s first computer programmer. 

Patricia E Bath is ophthalmologist and the inventor of the Laserphaco Probe, which is used to treat cataracts. 

Barbara McClintock won a Nobel prize for her discovery that genes could move in and between chromosomes.

Mary Ellis blazed a trail for female aviators, as one of the first women to fly Spitfires, heavy bombers and jet aircraft. She was a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), which employed civilians to deliver planes from factories to airfields during the Second World War. Mary Ellis died on Tuesday at the age of 101.

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man.

 Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. 

The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight D Eisenhower, message to Allied troops prior to the invasion of Normandy, June 6th 1944. 

Scholars will take a fresh look at the authenticity of a rock purporting to reveal the fate of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.

On a fall morning in 1937, an Emory University geologist was walking down a hallway in the alumni building when he bumped into a middle-aged man carrying a rock. The man explained that he was a tourist who had found the 21-pound stone near the North Carolina–Virginia border. He was looking for someone to explain the strange markings on its gray surface.

When a team of Emory scholars deciphered the carved message, they were stunned to find a heartrending plea from a grieving daughter to her father, detailing the bloody murder of her husband and child—and potentially solving the nation’s oldest mystery.

8 May 1945 | 72 Years since V.E. Day!

Now, one of the major causes of getting the plague was poor hygiene. This proved very effective for the plague because everyone threw their poop into the streets because there were no sewers, and literally no one bathed because it was against their religion. Unless they were jewish, who actually bathed relatively often. When all the jews moved to Poland, they brought bathing with them, and so the plague had little effect there.

The tool that built the Roman Empire — The Dolabra

The gladius gets the most fame and glory for being the implement of empire building when it comes to ancient Roman history. However, credit for literally building the Roman Empire is more deserved for a handy multi purpose tool called the dolabra. With a pick on one end and an axe head on the other, the dolabra has filled many roles and purposes throughout Roman history. It could be used for chopping down trees or chopping wood, breaking up stone, breaking up tough soil, and could be wielded as a formidable weapon. It has been used by Roman woodsman, carpenters, miners, farmers, shipbuilders, construction workers, engineers, soldiers, it was even used by ritual priests to slaughter large animals for sacrifices.

For the Roman legions the Dolabra was an indispensable tool and weapon. While Roman soldiers are famed for being among the best soldiers in the ancient world, Roman soldiers were also master builders. When in war the Romans built extensive fortifications. When on the march, the Romans would surround their nightly encampment with a stockade so that they could rest within the safety of a fortified camp. During the Siege of Alesia in 52 BC, soldiers under Julius Caesar built an 11 mile long wall around Alesia to besiege the defenders. Simultaneously, they built another 13 mile long wall to protect themselves from outside counterattack. This wall included a palisade with battlements and towers, a series of trenches, and various booby traps.

Another famous example was in 66 AD when Roman forces laid to siege to the fortress of Massada, held by Jewish rebels during the First Jewish Revolt. In order to capture the fortress, the Romans built a 375 foot tall ramp.

When not at war, Roman soldiers were often used as laborers on public works projects such as roads, bridges, walls, aqueducts, docks, and canals. Thus, the dolabra and other common tools were standard issue items for the Roman soldier.

While the dolabra was primarily used as a tool, there were many occasions when it was also pressed into service as a deadly weapon. During the Gallic Wars in 57 BC, Roman soldiers were busy building their nightly fortifications when they were ambushed by an army of Belgic tribesman. In a snap instance the Romans hastily formed battle formations and lacking time to retrieve their weapons and armor successfully fought off the assault with their building and entrenching tools. Another instance occurred in 21 AD during the Florus and Sacrovir revolt, where enemy rebels used heavily armored gladiators called crupellarii as their front ranks. The Romans could not pierce the armor of the crupellarii with their swords, so they retrieved their pickaxes and mattocks to batter the rebel gladiators into submission.

On the 24th of August, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till went to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Mississippi, to purchase some candy. Emmett was from Chicago and was in Mississippi visiting some relatives. At the store, Emmett was accused of whistling at and grabbing 21-year-old white store clerk, Carolyn Bryant. This action violated the Jim Crow social code and his fate was sealed.

In the early morning hours of the 28th of August, 1955, Carolyn, her husband, Roy, and his half-brother, John Miliam, appeared at Mose Wright’s house which was where Emmett had been staying. Emmett’s great-aunt offered them money in the hopes that they would cause no trouble but it was fruitless. They grabbed Emmett and shoved him in their truck before dropping Carolyn back home and driving out to an isolated barn. Once there, Emmett was pistol-whipped and beaten. Afterwards, he was shot dead and thrown in Tallahatchie River.

Two days later, Emmett’s body was found. His mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago. His face was so mutilated that it was unrecognisable. The brutality of his slaying sparked outrage and gave urgency to the civil rights movement. Eventually Bryant and Miliam were indicted for murder. During the trial, African American Willie Louis testified against the two white men, something Emmett’s family described as a “godsend.” At the time, his testimony would have posed great danger in the segregated south and it’s astounding that nothing untoward happened to him afterwards. Louis told the court that had spotted Emmett with Bryant and Miliam as he walked home and had heard the beating taking place in the barn. “I heard the screaming, beating, the screaming and beating,” he said.

The trial was extremely informal. Jury members were often drunk and many male white spectators carried handguns. During the trial, Bryant and Miliam confessed that they had taken Emmett that night but claimed that they had let him go. The defence had even argued that the body could have been anyone’s and not Emmett. An all white, all male jury acquitted both men. Years later, several members of the jury would acknowledge they knew the two men were guilty but didn’t see anything wrong with white men killing African Americans.

At the 60 year anniversary of Emmett’s murder, his family and friends gathered at his grave. Also in attendance was Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown Sr., the father of Michael Brown Jr. “Black lives matter. Black lives mattered when Emmett was killed. Black lives mattered when Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed. Black lives matter even today,” said U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.

Exterior of the Roman Basilica at Volubilis, Morocco

”While the Colosseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Colosseum falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, the world shall fall.“ 

women in history

↳ irene of athens

Irene of Athens was an orphaned Athenian noblewoman, who married the future Leo IV in 769. They had one child together, the future Constantine VI, before Leo’s untimely death in 780.

Following Leo’s death, Irene was made regent for their young son. During her regency she had various conflicts with the Sicilians, Franks, Slavs and Arabs. She also had Leo’s four half brothers blinded, as they were a threat.

In 787, she did the controversial act of restoring the veneration of icons and bringing the Eastern Church in line with the Catholic Church. 

When Constantine reached adulthood, mother and son began a power struggle that would end in Constantine’s imprisonment and mutilation, and Irene being crowned Empress Regnant.

Irene reigned from 797 to 802. During her reign she introduce policies and institutions that benefited the people of the empire. Pope Leo III refused to accept her as Empress, and crowned Charlemagne as Roman Emperor in 800.