History Dispatches

In 1882 a 50-year old tortoise from the Seychelles was brought to the tiny island of St. Helena as a gift to the governor. That tortoise, who was later dubbed Jonathan, is still alive and well today, making him over 190 years old, and the world's oldest living land animal.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/at-190-jonathan-the-tortoise-is-the-worlds-oldest-living-land-animal-180979514/

https://sainthelenaisland.info/jonathan.htm

Image by Luke McKernan - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jonathan_(27242406408).jpg

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In 1822, a young man, Alexis St. Martin, was accidentally shot in the stomach. Miraculously, he survived, and even more amazing was the hole between his chest and stomach became permanent. This allowed a US Army surgeon - William Beaumont - to spend a decade studying St. Martin’s digestive system, making Beaumont the "Father of Gastric Physiology". This is the very weird story of the gunshot that changed medicine.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grisly-story-human-guinea-pig-alexis-st-martin-180963520/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_St._Martin

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/probing-the-mysteries-of-human-digestion/

Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Beaumont_painting.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Alexis_St._Martin,_aged_81_Wellcome_L0011057.jpg

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They say absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while that is often true, sometimes you can get someone in power who genuinely wants to help their people. Such was the case with the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was a man who was thrust onto the imperial throne, and forced to spend his time fighting - when all he wanted to do was study philosophy and govern his people. This is the story of Marcus Aurelius: the philosopher emperor.

Sources

"Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine" by Barry Strauss

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus_Augustus#/media/File:Kunsthistorisches_Museum_Vienna_June_2006_048.jpg

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In World War II, the allies struggled to fend off U-boat attacks on shipping in the North Atlantic. A major issue was a lack of air support. Planes didn’t have the range to provide protection to the merchant fleets in the icy north. And then, someone had an idea. What if you converted an iceberg into an airbase? And even better - what if you could build an entire aircraft carrier out of ice. This is the story of Project Habakkuk.

Sources

https://albertaaviationmuseum.com/operation-habbakuk-the-iceberg-aircraft-carrier/

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

https://www.thealbertan.com/hot-summer-guide/the-iceberg-aircraft-carrier-that-almost-was-albertas-forgotten-wartime-wonder-10781370

https://www.albertaunderwatercouncil.com/single-post/2016/10/10/diving-jaspers-habbakuk-wreck

Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antarctic_Sound-2016-Iceberg_02.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lancaster_Mk_I_gun_positions.jpg

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Here is a free idea for you. If your sports team is having a bad season and no one is coming to games, throw a cheap beer night! It is a tried and true promotion method and one that the Cleveland Indians implemented in 1974. Specifically a 10 cent beer night. And it worked, drawing a crowd of thousands. The only problem was Cleveland got a little more than they bargained for when the game devolved into a full blown riot.

Sources

https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/10-cent-beer-night-an-oral-history-of-cleveland-baseballs-most-infamous-night/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Cent_Beer_Night

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Texas_Rangers_run_during_Ten_Cent_Beer_Night.jpg

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