“Rich diamond and Pearl and Gold in evry Place was seen. Rare Splendors, Yellow, Blew,Red, White and Green, Mine eyes did evry where behold.” —Thomas Treherne’s “Wonder” Welcome to Russia, 1885-1917. Come inside to the world of Peter Carl Faberge. He was born May 18, 1846 and passed this life
Information will be available for readers to celebrate, investigate, and engage with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment! Jane Addams Hull-House Museum Chicago, four Illinois libraries and the RAILS (Reaching Across Illinois Library System) in a virtual suite of exhibits and programs will make the celebration
October 8 Flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary and ignite a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 residents, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless, and causes an estimated $200 Million, equivalent of $3.8 Billion in today’s dollars, in damages. – 1871. A massive
October 1 An act of Congress creates Yosemite National Park. U.S. president Benjamin Harrison paved the way for generations of hikers, campers, and nature lovers, along with countless “Don’t Feed the Bears” signs. – 1890. T.E. Lawrence, a legendary British soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia and instrumental commander in
September 24 The prophet Muhammad completes his Hegira, or flight, from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. In Medina, Muhammad set about building the followers of his religion, Islam, into an organized community and Arabian power. The Hegira later would mark the beginning (year 1) of the Muslim calendar. –
The face mask, in the view of the Aurora Historical Society, will become the icon of the Covid-19 era. For historians it will be the pictorial marker of a time and a symbol standing for how Aurora and the world strove to deal with a public health menace. It will
It was a lovely, warming, September day, that month of 1965, and the hills were a great vibrant green stretching far into the distance. The girls all were excited because they were riding their bikes into town for such adventure. Molly, Patrice, and Bridgit, were cousins who lived close to
I began writing this piece because I was appalled by what Donald Trump had said about our veterans, calling them “losers” and “suckers.” In the back of my mind I had an inkling it might be old news by the time it made it into print, because another Trump scandal
September 17 At a New York convention of the National Labor Congress, Susan B. Anthony calls for the formation of a Working Women’s Association. As a delegate to the Congress, she persuades the committee on female labor to call for votes for women and equal pay for equal work. But
September 10 A 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person to be arrested for drunk driving after he slams his cab into a building. Smith later pled guilty and was fined 25 shillings. -1897. September 11 Approximately 75,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia,
“The voice of the last cricket across the first frost is one kind of good-by. It is so thin a splinter of singing.” Carl Sandburg It was September 1977. Annunciation School in Aurora. My kindergarten class of 32 with no aide. How I loved the children. We shared that year
September 3 The American Revolution officially comes to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain, and France sign the Treaty of Paris. – 1783. Twenty-five workers die, unable to escape a fire at the Imperial Poultry processing plant in Hamlet, N.C.. Managers had loacked fire doors
Invited to share the ironmonger’s dinner of black bread and soup and sour red wine, Galileo was already searching for a patron for his inventions. The ironmonger had let Galileo forage for parts from his stockpile of junk items. Galileo was too poor to continue his medical studies. He wondered
August 27 The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau, called Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited volcanic island west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions throw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, create 120-foot tsunamis, and kill 36,000 humans. Fine
The city of Aurora has been designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of 1,000 places in the United States that have seen history made by women. The action came after the Aurora Historical Society nominated Maud Powell, the 19th Century violinist from Aurora who rose above
August 13 After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city. – 1521. In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government representatives of East Germany begin building the
We want to believe that more information will bring clarity, but we are experiencing just the opposite these days. Throughout all of this year, we’ve been deluged with data about a virus, but our overall level of understanding seems to have fallen precipitously, along with our ability to trust others,
August 6 At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. – 1890. At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the
When Robert Louis Stevenson, romancer, essayist, writer of adventure stories, analyst of the moral ambiguities of man, tried to explain his ideas about the differences between morality and religious institutions to his father, he tried in vain. Stevenson said he accepted the ideals of Christian morality while repudiating the Church
July 30 Two years after inserting “under God” into the pledge of allegiance, president Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the Nation’s official motto, to replace E pluribus unum “Out of many, one,” used by the founding fathers – 1956. President Lyndon
