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Picture of the Day

unwrapping mummies

Around 19th century egyptomania was so strong in europe that rich tourists would bring mummies from Egypt to unwrap them in parties.

Mummy unrollings were only one symptom of the Egyptomania sweeping England in the 19th century. Europeans had been buying mummies since Shakespeare’s times to use them as medicine, pigment or even charms; now, the Napoleonic wars and England’s colonial expanse had created a renewed interest in Egypt’s past, to the point that, as the French aristocrat and Trappist monk Abbot Ferdinand de Géramb wrote to Pasha Mohammed Ali in 1833, “it would be hardly respectable, on one’s return from Egypt, to present oneself without a mummy in one hand and a crocodile in the other.”

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Picture of the Day

Wojtek bear

Wojtek the Bear, adopted by the 22nd Transport Company’s Artillery Division in the Polish II Corps in 1942, after an Iranian boy traded the bear for food. He served alongside his human comrades during the Italian Campaign

Wojtek, often referred to as the “Soldier Bear,” was a Syrian brown bear that played a unique and heartwarming role during World War II. Found as a young cub in Iran in 1942 after it was believed his mother had been shot by hunters, Wojtek was adopted by Polish soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. As he grew under the care of the soldiers, he became more than just a mascot; he became one of them.

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Picture of the Day

The whipping post was put into use around 1885 at the Baltimore City Jail, where until 1938, many of those convicted of wife-beating were punished.

In the early 20th century, Baltimore was among the few major American cities where judicial whipping persisted, primarily for violent offenses. The Baltimore City Jail had a whipping post in use since 1885, where many convicted of wife-beating were punished. A notable incident in 1938 saw Clyde Miller, a Baltimore printer, flogged 20 times with a cat o’ nine tails. This event marked the last use of Baltimore’s whipping post, which was specifically for punishing wife-beaters.

Whipping in Baltimore sparked significant public debate. Critics viewed it as a cruel and outdated punishment, while supporters believed it deterred crime. By the mid-1950s, legal challenges and criticism led to the abolition of whipping as a judicial punishment in Baltimore.

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Picture of the Day

At 4:31 AM, an unauthorized photo taken of Stalin inside of the Kremlin shows the very moment he was informed that Germany had began their invasion of the Soviet Union. It was taken by Komsomolskaya Pravda, editor in chief. He was ordered to destroy it, but instead saved it. June 22,

By dawn on June 22, 1941, Timoshenko, Zhukov, and his deputy chief of the general staff, Vatutin, were receiving frantic communications from front commanders. All reported air attacks and requested orders. Timoshenko told Zhukov to telephone Stalin.

Stalin heard his report and proposal to order troops to retaliate. There was a long silence during which Zhukov could hear the sound of his breathing on the line. Then Stalin ordered him and Timoshenko to come to the Kremlin and to tell Poskrebyshev to summon the members of the Politburo.

At 4:30 a.m., all were assembled in Stalin’s office. He stood by the table, his face white, with an unlit pipe in his hand. He was visibly shaken.

Molotov hastened into the room from a meeting with the German ambassador. He reported that Germany had declared war.

Stalin sank into his chair and sat in silence. This was one of the most shattering moments in his whole life. He had used every means at his disposal to avert this war. He had desperately willed it to be delayed at least until the following spring. He thought he had succeeded, but he had failed. Armaments were beginning to flow to the armed forces from the defense industries, and the intensive training programs were bringing daily improvements in discipline and efficiency. Six months would have made a vast difference.

Picture of the Day

The O’Halloran sisters

The O’Halloran sisters, armed with poles and boiling water, fended off the officers evicting their family during the Irish Land War, 1889

The Second Irish Land Act of 1881 had attempted to give tenants more security by paving the way for rent reductions, guarantees of the same rent for periods of 15 years, and, in some cases, eventual proprietorship.

O’Callaghan had been charging the O’Halloran family £31, which the court ordered be reduced to £22-10 shillings, a sum the family maintained was unfair, since in their grandfather’s time the rent had been as low as £13-10 shillings.

They became one of the families to participate in the Bodyke rent boycotts, and in June 1887 they prepared to resist eviction from the land their family had lived on and tended for generations.

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Picture of the Day

Adolf Hitler informs Czech President Emil Hácha of the imminent German invasion of Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939 in Berlin. Hácha suffered a heart attack during the meeting, and had to be kept awake by medical staff, eventually giving in and accepting Hitler’s surrender terms.

In the evening of 14 March 1939, Hitler invited President Hácha to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Hitler deliberately kept him waiting for hours, while Hitler watched a film.

Finally, at 1:30 a.m., on 15 March 1939, Hitler saw the President. He told Hácha that as they were speaking, the German army was about to invade Czechoslovakia.

All of Czechoslovakia’s defences were now under German control following the Munich Agreement in September of the previous year.

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Picture of the Day

One of the Hunter Brothers doing some mid-air mechanical checkups on their Stinson SM-1 Detroiter during their 23-day-long flight without landing in 1930

Ninety years ago on June 11, 1930, the four Hunter brothers began their journey to break the world record for Duration in an airplane with a flight that was to last an incredible 23 days.

The roles of the brothers were defined as follows: John and Kenneth were the pilots of record plane the City of Chicago, while Albert and Walter worked as the refuelling crew in the Big Ben. Together, they remained airborne for 553h 41m 30s, on a distance equivalent to one and a half times around the world.

Taking off from Sky Harbour Airport, USA, on June 11, the City of Chicago, a Stinson-Detroiter aircraft, landed on July 4, 1930, at the same location, eventually forced to land because of technical issues.

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Picture of the Day

A family is forced to leave their home during the Great Depression, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, June, 1938 Photo by Dorothea Lange

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were an American born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

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