History Dispatches

For untold years the tropical paradise of Lord Howe Island was home to the enormous insect called the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, or Land Lobster - an 8-inch long bug endemic to the island. But they went extinct shortly around 1918 - at least until 2001, when just a few dozen were found on a virtually uninhabitable rock a dozen miles away.

Sources

"Rediscovery of the ‘extinct’ Lord Howe Island stick-insect (Dryococelus australis (Montrouzier)) (Phasmatodea) and recommendations for its conservation" by David Priddel et al.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-15/lord-howe-island-stick-insect-discovery-balls-pyramid/106381564

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

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Howe_Island_stick_insect_Dryococelus_australis_10June2011_PalmNursery.jpg

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In World War II the United States took a unique turn in their quest for delivering fast, secret communications in combat situations. This was by using Native American language speakers and translators to deliver simple, yet unbreakable coded messages on the front lines. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers.

Sources

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/n/code-talkers.html

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers

https://www.intelligence.gov/publics-daily-brief/publics-daily-brief-articles/navajo-nation-inventors-of-the-unbreakable-code

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

File:Navajo_Indian_communication_men_with_the_Marines_on_Saipan_landed_with_the_first_assault_waves_to_his_the_beach._-_NARA_-_532526.tif?page=1

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When Paraguay invaded its much larger neighbors in 1864, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay responded in force. For the next five years these nations waged the deadliest war ever seen on the continent. It was a war that saw 20 percent of Paraguay's entire population die. This is the story of the Paraguayan War.

Sources

https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3585/1/B28_-_The_Paraguayan_War_%281864-1870%29.pdf

https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/brazil/section/0c2155f3-0885-42c3-afda-319d122d8b63

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batalha_de_Campo_Grande_-_1871.jpg

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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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