The Real Marie Callender

 

The Ripper?

 

One of the possible Jack the Ripper suspects is Chicago's own H.H. Holmes, who oversaw the horrific killings of countless tourists at his famed murder castle. His known movements at the time indicate that he may have been in England during the Ripper's reign of terror, though many discount the possibility.

Christmas in History

 

Building Liberty...

 

The Barrison Sisters

 

The Real Black Friday

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The True Pilgrims

 

The True Pilgrims

 

The True Pilgrims

 

#RIPSharonJones

 

Making History in Hitsville, U.S.A

 

An Empire Begins...

Mickey Mouse premiered on 11/18/1928 at New York's Colony Theater.

 

The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance

 

Drunk History Quotes

 

The Baltimore Plot

Abraham Lincoln was not popular in the southern states. As he planned to make his way to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration, it became clear that the southerners were not going to make his journey an easy one.

 

Officials became aware of a plot to kill Mr. Lincoln before he could take office. At the time, the Secret Service didn't exist, so Lincoln was left to his own devices to protect himself. He enlisted the services of the Pinkerton Agency to protect him, and no less than Alan Pinkerton himself pledged to keep him safe.

 

Through clever subterfuge, Pinkerton was able to safely get Abraham Lincoln to Washington. The southern states decided to implement their backup plan- secession. While Lincoln's life was under constant threat, he continued with his plan to put down the southern rebellion and eliminate slavery once and for all.

 

The Business Plot

The early 20th Century was a turbulent period of time around the world. Tsarist Russia was overthrown by a socialist revolution; various colonial outposts were faltering and the United States economy fell into a deep depression. Herbert Hoover, the Republican president who oversaw the economic meltdown, felt that the economy could recover on its own. When that didn't happen, voters swept him out of office, electing Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

 

Roosevelt enacted a sweeping set of laws to establish a safety net for Americans. The idea was to stabilize the economy and prevent the sort of revolutions seen overseas. To the wealthy, this was tantamount to communism. Instead of seeing the benefit of stabilizing the economy and thus preventing the working class from rising up against them, a cabal of wealthy financiers and industrialists began talking about staging a quiet coup to replace FDR with someone who would roll back his reforms and policies.

 

The alleged plan, known as "The Business Plot" was exposed by the man who claimed he had been brought in to lead it- Major General Smedley Butler, who testified that he was brought into the plot because he had switched his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat and thus would not be suspected of supporting such a plot.

 

One of the alleged conspirators was Prescott Bush, who would ironically be the father and grandfather of two future presidents. At the time, the elder Bush was merely a wealthy banker, though he would later insert himself into the world of politics. A congressional committee was convened, but unlike the later hearings into alleged communist ties, none of these conspirators were ever called before the commission, nor were the accusations heavily publicized. Some newspapers even labeled it a hoax. 

In any case, World War II intervened and the case dropped out of the public eye. Smedley Butler passed away in 1940 at the relatively young age of 58. After the war, the country's attention turned to hunting communists, and the conservatives who fought against the New Deal were only too eager to shift the spotlight of scrutiny elsewhere.

26 Miles Across the Sea...

 

The Chief Holds Court

 

The 1930's Were Tough Out There For a Baby

 

A Real Life Storybook Castle...

 

The Neptune Pool

 

U.S. Election Day

 

1966 Gems from the Sears Wish Book

 

 

 

Southern California Car Culture Goes Around the World

Los Angeles has always loved cars; in fact, the entire region was developed with the idea that people would drive everywhere. Whether that's a good thing is a subject for a different post, but with this ingrained love of cars, is it any wonder that a large proportion of fast food restaurants began life there?

Drunk History Quotes

Drunk History Quotes

Catalogs of Christmases Past

Phoebe Hearst the Berkeley Benefactress and Julia Morgan

It was never easy being a female architect; it was even worse being a female architect from Berkeley. Famed architect Julia Morgan found herself battling the man who trained her just to get an opportunity to design buildings for her alma mater. Luckily she knew wealthy benefactress Phoebe Hearst, who had millions of dollars to spend on building tributes to her late husband on the Berkeley campus.

Ms. Hearst loved the idea of hiring a woman to do what was considered to be men's work at the time and (some say more importantly) wanted to keep Julia Morgan's talents away from her son, who she was certain would use them to build a boondoggle mansion in San Simeon. While Julia's mentor at Berkeley was a bit sexist and resistant to letting her design any buildings, the formidable Phoebe Hearst ensured that campus officials knew that her beneficence would only flow to Julia Morgan designed projects and they were loathe to turn down her donations.

Ms. Hearst would not live to see her prophetic prediction come true; her body wasn't yet cold in her grave before Julia was pulled from her Hearst financed Berkeley projects and semi-permanently installed in San Simeon, working on the most impossible project she would ever undertake- construction of Hearst's beloved Casa Grande- Hearst Castle.

The Historic Saint Nicholas

The real Saint Nicholas who inspired the modern idea of Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas of Myra, a Greek Catholic bishop. He was born into a wealthy family in 270 and was religious from a young age. When he devoted his life to religion, he used his immense inherited wealth to benefit the poor, paying dowries for young ladies so that they wouldn't have to engage in prostitution and provided much support for the less fortunate. His generosity was what led to him becoming associated with the gift giving of the Christmas season; eventually inspiring the idea of Santa Claus.

The Sistine Chapel

On this day in 1512, Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is unveiled to the public for the first time.