A couple of days ago I started transcribing letters to Abraham Lincoln that are posted in an open forum at the Library of Congress ( Read more... )

This is really interesting.It can clearly be challenging to convey the magnitude of loss after a tragedy, particularly when that number is in the tens of millions, yet that is precisely what The Fallen of World War II, a documentary (also available as an interactive graphic) that examines the human cost of second World War, sets out to do. Written ( Read more... )

An Early Copy of the Magna Carta Was Found Forgotten in an Old Scrapbook
An archivist in England stumbled upon a 715-year-old edition of the charter credited for initiating a new framework of governance

By Laura Clark
smithsonian.com
February 10, 2015

From ThinkGeek:A dog named Robot is pretty awesome. A dog named Robot in 1940 is crazy awesome. A dog named Robot in 1940 who goes down a hole and finds 17,000 year old cave paintings? That's Lascaux for you. Today's the 74th anniversary of the day 4 teenagers (and a dog named Robot) discovered the magnificent Paleolithic cave paintings. Best dog ( Read more... )

Too bad they didn't get into King George (but maybe that's because I got that impression from Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell):
http://www.cracked.com/article_20170_the-5-most-hilariously-insane-rulers-all-time.html

My local library puts out an "on this day" notice on facebook:On this day ~ October 21
1917 - The first American troops saw action in France during World War I. The U.S. Army's First Division was assigned to Allied trenches in the Luneville sector near Nancy, France.
Just a little WWI interaction for the day.

This is one of those things where you see it in 3-D if you cross your eyes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2357366/The-3D-Stereoscopic-images-World-War-One-Canadians-attic.html

Using a take-off from Lady Gaga's song, "Bad Romance":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu3krcs8ec

I was reminded by this because my 10 year old niece just saw Holiday Inn for the first time & her mind was blown by the casual sexism. Girl needs to learn about suffrage.

"10 telling images selected from British Pathé's extensive WWI footage. 'The war to end all wars' was a war without parallel: over 70 million military personnel were involved and over 17 million people died."

http://www.britishpathe.com/gallery/ww1-telling-images

From Mental Floss: The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that killed millions and set the continent of Europe on the path to further calamity two decades later. But it didn’t come out of nowhere ( Read more... )