#OTD in 1951, D.C. Commissioners made March 19 the "Song for Washington" day, after the search for an anthem worthy of the nation's capital came to an end. #DCHistory https://t.co/SzvR5HTJI6 #OTD in 1951, D.C. Commissioners made March 19 the "Song for Washington" day, after …
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In 1966, the University of Maryland hosted the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four at Cole Field House. Some enterprising students sold tickets for as much as $50! #MDHistory https://t.co/ApmsUoYzk2 In 1966, the University of Maryland hosted the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four…
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Quote of the Day: "Plodding wins the race." - Aesop
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In 1973, rockstars Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis played a show at the University of Maryland with an opening act from someone who would go on to become one of the biggest superstars in rock: Bruce Springsteen. #DCHistory https://t.co/OfETJRiiN5 In 1973, rockstars Chuck Ber…
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Home to Go-Go music and Sousa marches, Washington, D.C. is also famous the classic "Washington," composed by Jimmie Dodd. Dodd later went on to lead the Mouseketeers in the original “Mickey Mouse Club.” #DCHistory #JimmieDodd https://t.co/SzvR5HTJI6 Home to Go-Go music and S…
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#OTD in 1943, the Washington Bears became the first undefeated African-American basketball team to win a championship in the World Professional Basketball Tournament. #DCHistory https://t.co/BBRyvytOoC #OTD in 1943, the Washington Bears became the first undefeated African-Am…
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Artemis I in Moonlight via NASA https://t.co/JxVgtOkdkf https://t.co/N8fJbUSQ1F
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Here are five stories that moved us this week, and the reasons why.
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Sasha Archibald | The Public Domain Review | March 9th, 2022 | 2,500 words
The news of 2022 is like an anvil weighing down on our collective psyche. This week, I found myself hungry for a read that felt like a relief — a collection of words that would inspire delight, not despair. This essay delivered. It’s the quintessential example of a factoid-filled piece you read and then find yourself immediately (and perhaps annoyingly) telling people about. Me to a friend: “Did you know that seaweed collecting in 19th-century England was a feminist activity?” Also me: “It’s possible that seaweed collecting inspired George Eliot to start writing fiction.” Me again: “Tweens once exchanged seaweed albums like kids now trade Pokemon cards!” Sasha Archibald writes with grace and humor, and she shows how, far more than just a charming pastime, the bygone practice of seaweed collecting intersected with the wider currents of history. It’s a breath of sea air. —SD
Michael W. Clune | Harper’s Magazine | March 4th, 2022 | 6,731 words
I’ve always been fascinated by my dreams. I’ve made attempts to become more attuned to them over the years, but the books on lucid dreaming I’ve bought or the notepads I’ve kept on my nightstand to jot down middle-of-the-night notes end up collecting dust. These days, I’ve given up viewing sleep as a state I can control: my experiences with sleep paralysis — and my sleep apnea, whose treatment requires bulky hardware — make me feel completely powerless. So I read Michael W. Clune’s essay on dream incubation, the shaping of dreams according to a dreamer’s chosen words or images, with great interest. Clune takes us along for the ride as he tries a prototype of the Dormio, a device that enables you to shape the images that appear during hypnagogia, the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. He explores thought-provoking questions about the mind and its potential for creativity once we’ve lost conscious control of our own thoughts, and what this might mean for the future — including more dystopian possibilities. I’ll end with a line I haven’t stopped thinking about: “Just below the surface of wakeful awareness, just a minute or two under it, everything is change.”—CLR
Danyel Smith | The New York Times Magazine | March 11th, 2022 | 2,391 words
The NYT Magazine‘s annual music issue hit a special gear this year, from Hanif Abdurraqib’s “sad bangers” paean to Jody Rosen’s exegesis of scam rap. However, one piece in particular was so dialed in, so sleek and powerful, that I had to get up and walk it off once I’d gotten to the end — and I’m not speaking metaphorically. Danyel Smith’s bonafides have long been indisputable: from running Vibe and Billboard to the recent “Black Girl Songbookpodcast,” she’s been part of the music journalism firmament for more than 30 years. And here, she takes the measure of aggression and identity within hip-hop (I am a fan, and I want all the smoke, she writes early on), tracing it from today’s young nihilists back to her own early engagements with the genre. The magic isn’t simply in the threads she extends, yarn-mapping Moneybagg Yo and Kash Doll to Golden Age artists like LL Cool J and Queen Latifah, but in how she traces the underlying terrain that made that map necessary. Spoiler alert: The bombast is a response, a defense, a pose, a stance, she writes. It’s magic, and it seduces. But it’s labor. Under threat of a variety of harms, you have to camouflage your soul. So if I’m tired — of always staying ready, so I never have to get ready — imagine the music-makers themselves. Make time today. —PR
Victoria Livingstone | Joyland | March 15th, 2022 | 1,524 words
As Victoria Livingstone recounts the early days of the pandemic and the uncertainties about being around people — even outdoors — she retraces the many steps she took in a local park, observing others as they too navigated a familiar communal space that at the time, felt like uncharted territory. As the pandemic continued, Livingstone walks and walks. As her young daughter emerges from a stroller to take her own first tentative steps, Livingstone mulls the varying shapes and directions her essay could take as well as the simple and oh-so-necessary pleasures of discovery: “By spring of 2021, when pandemic restrictions briefly eased, she was running: a bouncing toddler run, more up and down than forward. She ran towards the swing-set or to the dandelions or to someone walking a dog or to a park bench or to a piece of trash that looked like a treasure or to the geese sitting in the middle of the field. Her direction was often impossible to predict…I struggled to write this essay even when I believed I was the singular author. Now my daughter continually reminds me that our steps intersect with the movements of those around us in illegible patterns. The rhetoric of walking resists order. “ —KS
Drew Magary | Defector | March 7th, 2022 | 2,443 words
As a teenager, I loved the Baz Luhrmann song “Everyone’s Free to Wear Sunscreen,” but it was not until much later that I learned to appreciate the line, “Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they are gone.” A couple of ski accidents and a knee surgery later, I sure do miss those springy youthful knees. These lyrics were in my head reading this beautiful essay. Like the song, it is a lesson on how to get the most out of life — even when your body does not work in the way it once did. It’s a gentle piece — Drew Magary simply reminiscing about skiing with his Dad, his friends, and his family — but the writing draws you in, letting you share his happiness. Over the years, this joy becomes peppered with frustrations as new limitations appear: “I could feel my thighs and spine ready to burst as I held crucial turns. When I felt myself going too fast, I reflexively dragged my poles behind me, as if that would slow me down any. Skiing will expose you like that.” But, even while dragging his poles, Magary is still awed by simply being on a mountain and declares he will keep skiing even as his body and ability deteriorate, “It’s not about conquering the mountain. It’s simply about going there. A mountain is a god.” A sentiment with which I concur — even with my dodgy knees, I also still ski. —CW
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Adorning Dumbarton Bridge (Buffalo Bridge) in Washington are 56 replicate busts modeled on Kicking Bear, best known for his resistance to the U.S. government’s advance into tribal lands. #DCHistory https://t.co/qATEXWrGXT Adorning Dumbarton Bridge (Buffalo Bridge) in Washing…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 18, 2022
In 1917, Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman assigned to active duty in the U.S. Navy who was not in the Nurse Corps. #DCHistory https://t.co/OtHx1aoDTe In 1917, Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman assigned to active duty in the U.S. Navy who was not in…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 17, 2022
#OTD in 2003, tobacco farmer Dwight Watson single-handedly gridlocked downtown Washington when he drove his tractor into the pond at Constitution Gardens and claimed to have a bomb. #DCHistory https://t.co/YMkR3Hp8Gj #OTD in 2003, tobacco farmer Dwight Watson single-handedly…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 17, 2022
Today in History - March 11 https://t.co/RAEwREZF6L During March and April of 1865, troops under command of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston fought General William T. Sherman’s 60,000-man force as it marched north through the Carolinas during the final weeks of the Civ…
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Helen Hayes, known as the “First Lady of American Theatre,” was beloved for her acting charm on stage. But overlooked was her role in the desegregation of the National Theatre. #DCHistory https://t.co/xEOTXy9jcN Helen Hayes, known as the “First Lady of American Theatre,” was…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 17, 2022
Often overlooked cartographic materials can provide details of women's lives. This page of a 19 c atlas shows a female landowner’s name and indications of her wealth. Other pages show their occupations and travel, among other details. https://t.co/zSSLOOJnN9 …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 17, 2022
In 1861, the Confederates hatched a plan to overtake the U.S.S. Pawnee on the Potomac. One of the key elements in the plan? Cross-dressing. #DCHistory #VAHistory #MDHistory https://t.co/AZ4quH7gWc In 1861, the Confederates hatched a plan to overtake the U.S.S. Pawnee on the …
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In the vicinity of Ninth and U Streets in Northwest Washington is the District's "Little Ethiopia," a culinary scene that emerged through a cultural collision with Ethiopian immigrants in the 1990s. #DCHistory #VAHistory #MDHistory https://t.co/PG2gpLBpY3 In the vicinity of …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 17, 2022
Artemis I First Rollout via NASA https://t.co/45cGFBWvU6 https://t.co/fK2eBnFUwA
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By Clare Egan
Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, I brace myself for a flood of articles about Ireland. Almost always, these stories rely on a series of well-worn tropes that caricature the place I call home. No doubt you’ve read stories which reference Irish people’s love of alcohol and seen images of random things dyed green. While living in the U.S., I became accustomed to talking to strangers about Ireland. I have curly red hair, blue eyes, and a freckled complexion. My Irish accent is inescapable. When you look as Irish as I do, strangers want to talk to you about it. I didn’t mind but the stereotypes did grow tiresome.
For a while, I worked with a nonprofit focused on developing leadership skills among college students from Ireland and Northern Ireland. The program was established in the ’90s in response to the sectarian violence euphemistically known as “The Troubles.” Though the island has been relatively peaceful since the late ’90s, I would occasionally meet Americans who still imagined my homeland to be a dangerous, frightening place.
St. Patrick’s Day is, in essence, a great story. According to the legend, Patrick was “a sinner, a most simple countryman.” At 16, he was kidnapped and brought to pagan Ireland. He spent six years working as a shepherd and during this time, found God. He later converted Ireland to Christianity. This simple fifth-century story was the foundation for Ireland’s identity.
In recent decades, Ireland has changed fundamentally. It is no longer the twee caricature that exists in our collective imagination. When I was born in the late ’80s, Ireland was powerfully discriminatory toward anyone who veered outside its so-called “Christian values.” Once married, women who worked in the public service were fired. Divorce was illegal. Rape within marriage was legal. Abortion was illegal, in almost all circumstances. Homosexuality was a criminal offense. In 1982, an Irish gay man named Declan Flynn was murdered in Fairview Park in Dublin. Despite two of his attackers admitting their role in his death, they served no jail time. “All of you come from good homes,” the judge said. In Northern Ireland, “The Troubles” seemed destined to continue indefinitely.
Since then, Ireland has modernized. I was 8 when, in 1995, divorce was finally made legal after a bitter referendum. It passed by the narrowest of margins: 50.28% in favor and 49.79% against. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended most of the violence in Northern Ireland, though peace remains fragile. Declan Flynn’s murder sparked a queer movement and, in 2015, 62% of people voted to allow same-sex marriage. Ireland was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage by popular vote. In 2018, 66% of people voted to allow access to abortion.
The Ireland of my youth was almost uniformly white. When I left secondary school, there was one black student in a school of more than 700 pupils. These days, Irish towns and villages are home to vibrant, diverse communities. Equally, as a child, I had almost no interaction with the Traveller community which was formally recognized as an ethnic minority in 2017. Irish Travellers have a rich cultural history which merits a list of its own. For those interested in knowing more, I’d really recommend Rosaleen McDonagh’s latest book, Unsettled.
Ireland has changed and yet, I’m not sure that international audiences have updated their mental image. To be fair, our tourism industry has long understood that there’s money to be made selling Ireland as “the land of saints and scholars.” That is part of Ireland but it’s not the complete picture. This reading list offers a more complicated portrait of Ireland. It is necessarily shaped by my sensibilities as a queer feminist. I’m white, middle class, and able-bodied, a set of experiences that have undoubtedly informed my worldview. Other Irish writers would compile a very different list and I hope they do. But this is my take.
For a tiny island on the edge of Europe, we get outsized attention today. I hope that this collection of longreads pushes people to examine their simplified notions of this country I call home.
Acclaimed Irish folk singer Christy Moore wrote a haunting song about Ann’s death.
In 1984, 15-year-old schoolgirl Ann Lovett died after giving birth to a baby boy in a grotto in Granard, County Longford. The story shocked the nation and the world. Overnight, the small village of Granard was swamped with national and international media. The community banded together, refusing to speak to the media. Her death sparked a seminal national debate on women giving birth outside marriage. Just four months before she died, two-thirds of the Irish people voted to enshrine the right to life of the unborn in the Irish Constitution. This controversial Eighth Amendment to the constitution wasn’t overturned until 2018.
Vicky Langan, the daughter of Ann’s boyfriend, wrote about the impact of Ann’s death on her family through the generations.
To mark what would have been Ann’s 50th birthday, award-winning journalist Rosita Boland spoke with her friends, and eventually her boyfriend, to remember her life and the impact her shocking death had on Irish society. This piece goes some way toward restoring Ann’s dignity as a complicated, rounded person in her own right. Ann Lovett’s name has been synonymous with Ireland’s horrific treatment of women but, as this piece shows, she was so much more than that.
Ann took the scissors out of her schoolbag, leaving the bag near the entrance. Sometime between 12.45pm and 4pm, she lay down beside the workhouse chapel railings, removed her underwear, and gave birth in the rain.
She cut the umbilical cord with the scissors she had brought from home, and wrapped her dead baby in her coat.
He was full term and weighed 6½ pounds. Then she lay down again on the wet mossy gravel, in her school uniform, in the persistent rain, without her coat, her body beginning to go into irreversible shock.
Looking at the grim statistics in Ireland, the most dangerous place for a woman is her home. Since 1996, 244 women have died violently. Of these deaths, 62% happened in their homes and 87% were killed by a man known to them. Eighteen children have died alongside their mothers and in all but one murder-suicide case, the killer was the woman’s partner. Despite this epidemic of violence against women, many Irish media outlets fail to understand the true scale of the crisis.
Colin Barrett examines the August 2016 murder of Clodagh Hawe and her three young sons Liam, Niall, and Ryan. The killer, Alan Hawe — Clodagh’s husband and the boys’ father — died by suicide. Often in Ireland, cases like these are framed as “family tragedies.” In this case, media coverage emphasized how well-respected the killer was in the local community and speculated as to some unknown mental distress he must have been experiencing. This piece rightly focuses its attention on “the invisible tyranny of domestic abuse,” situating these murders as the terminal act in an escalating pattern of violence and fear.
Language, in its quest to be accurate and as concise as possible, can be callous, and the hyphen in the term ‘murder-suicide’ is a violent coupling, a forcing together into a state of symbiotic equivalence two things that are not, of course, symbiotic or equivalent at all. The hyphen welding ‘murder’ to ‘suicide’ implies that each state is as bad, or as tragic, as the other. That the murderer who then commits suicide is, on some level, as much a victim as those he murdered, is paying a commensurate price within a larger, indivisible spectrum of suffering signified by that conjoining hyphen. But what happened to the Hawe family was not only a ‘murder-suicide’. It was, first and foremost, a multiple murder committed by a man who then committed suicide.
Nuala O’Faolain died of cancer in 2008. Before she died, she appeared on The Marian Finucane Show to talk about her terminal diagnosis. A documentary was later made about her life.
Perhaps the best way to introduce Nuala O’Faolain is to recount the time she went on The Late Late Show and told the bemused host that she’d had lots of sex often just for the exercise. It was 1996 and women’s sexuality was simply never discussed. Her candor was part of what made her memoir a bestseller. She describes the Ireland of her youth as “a living tomb for women” and recounts her experiences with men, alcohol, and the Catholic Church. Many American readers with an interest in Irish literature have read male authors like Colm TóibÃn and Frank McCourt. Books by both of these men have subsequently been made into Hollywood movies, reaching even larger audiences. Irish women almost never get that opportunity. O’Faolain’s book gives an important snapshot into the life of Irish women who, in many cases, suffered while the men in their lives flourished. If she were alive today, she’d be celebrated as a virtuoso of the personal essay and an authority on living your life on your own terms.
They were Mother and Father, and does a child know any different? Sure it made me bedwet when he came home pissed and pummelled my mother. Her cries for help were heartrending, and made me try to sleep in a chest of drawers.
Throughout the Troubles, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had a policy of killing suspected informants. The case of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, was especially heinous. She was taken from her home in 1972. Her remains were eventually discovered 31 years later. A police investigation found no evidence that McConville was an informant. Many thousands of articles have been written about The Troubles. I’ve selected this piece as a useful introduction for readers interested in learning more about this long and brutal conflict. It evokes the particular cruelty of “disappearing” a young mother, leaving her children “in a purgatory of uncertainty.” Patrick Radden Keefe’s article was later expanded into a book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.
Jean McConville had just taken a bath when the intruders knocked on the door. A small woman with a guarded smile, she was, at thirty-seven, a mother of ten. She was also a widow: her husband, Arthur, had died eleven months earlier, of cancer. The family continued to live in Divis Flats—a housing complex just off the Falls Road, in the heart of Catholic West Belfast—but had recently moved to a slightly larger apartment. The stove was not connected yet, so Jean’s daughter Helen, who was fifteen, had gone to a nearby chip shop to bring back dinner. “Don’t be stopping for a sneaky smoke,” Jean told her. It was December, 1972, and already dark at 6:30 P.M. When the children heard the knock, they assumed that it was Helen with the food.
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On June 18, 1994, in the small village of Loughinisland, County Down, a pub was crowded with patrons watching the Republic of Ireland play in the World Cup. Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gunmen burst into the pub and opened fire. Six people were killed and five were wounded. Documentarian Alex Gibney set out to make a documentary about the events of that night, interviewing victims’ families, former terrorists, officers from Northern Ireland’s police force (then the Royal Ulster Constabulary), and other government officials. Despite an extraordinary amount of physical evidence and damning testimony, no one was ever charged with the crime.
While making the documentary, filmmakers uncovered evidence of collusion between police and paramilitary forces. Rather than investigating these allegations, the police arrested two of the film’s producers, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. The case attracted worldwide attention and sparked a campaign on the importance of press freedom. This article asks whether secrecy should be the price for peace and how the families impacted by The Troubles can move forward without achieving justice for their loved ones.
From the perspective of the government, keeping secrets is the price of law and order. But from the perspective of victims and survivors, a secret that hides the truth is not any kind of justice; it means getting away with murder.
The Ireland of my childhood was almost entirely white. Living in a rural area, I rarely encountered anyone who didn’t look like me. Growing up in Dublin, Emma Dabiri was having a very different experience. Through the lens of black hair, she writes movingly about how being different meant living under constant surveillance. Ireland’s identity as the “land of saints and scholars” dates back more than 600 years. In that time, it has almost always been associated with Christianity and classical learning. Dabiri’s work as an academic, broadcaster, and author expands this narrow interpretation. This piece is an extract from her book, Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture, which explores how black hair has been appropriated and stigmatized throughout history.
As a black child with tightly coiled hair, growing up in an incredibly white, homogeneous, socially conservative Ireland, I certainly wasn’t considered pretty, but that started to change in my midteens. I remember being told that I was “lucky I was pretty,” which meant I could “almost get away with being black.”
In recent decades, Ireland has become home to an increasing number of asylum seekers. Migrants seeking asylum in Ireland are forcibly housed in a series of Direct Provision centers which are often located in dilapidated buildings in isolated parts of Ireland. Asylum seekers receive a meager daily allowance and many live in shared rooms without access to a kitchen. Caelainn Hogan speaks to several people caught up in Ireland’s inhumane asylum system, which sees a small number of companies profit from human misery. Her reporting on individual stories illuminates the details of how the lives of asylum seekers are warped by a merciless bureaucratic system and shows just how difficult it is for them to establish safe and independent lives in Ireland.
The first reception centre Joy was sent to was Balseskin, the entry point for most asylum-seekers to the direct-provision system. It is known by many as the ‘camp’: a maze of Portacabins hidden off a narrow road, near to a sparse expanse of industrial estates in Finglas, close to IKEA and the airport. Most people would only pass near to it to buy furniture or to go on holiday.
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Sean Quinn’s name is ubiquitous in Ireland. In 2008, he was the richest man in the country, with business interests across health insurance, construction, and hospitality. His status in the local community was almost messianic. But by 2011, following a series of risky investments, he had filed for bankruptcy. What followed was a campaign of torture, terror, and revenge that rarely made the national news. As The Irish Times noted, if the same thing happened in Dublin, it would have been treated as a national emergency. This deeply reported story deftly reveals the complicated dynamics of rural communities, particularly in regions suffering from historic under-investment.
There has been a Mafia-style group with its own ‘Godfather’ operating in our region. Behind it all is a powerful paymaster and his criminal gang.
***
Clare Egan is a queer writer based in Dublin, Ireland. Her writing has appeared in The Irish Times, TheJournal.ie, and others. She is currently working on her first book.
Editor: Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Quote of the Day: "Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends." - William Butler Yeats
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 17, 2022
As membership in the Ku Klux Klan spiked in the 1920s, the organization took to the airwaves to spread its white supremacist message. #DCHistory #VAHistory https://t.co/Kp8CCxO6uK As membership in the Ku Klux Klan spiked in the 1920s, the organization took to the airwaves to…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
This map of the southern portion of Texas and part of Mexico depicts a proposed railroad line between Corpus Christi and Laredo, TX. Customers could have then continued into Mexico via connections in Laredo. Examine the map here: https://t.co/Nj0OqcA3Ek https://t.co/WGVPhQIrLf…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
Edgar Allen Poe rarely came to D.C. in his time. But on one notable—possibly drunken—occasion, he tried to solicit subscriptions from President John Tyler to his prospective literary magazine. #DCHistory https://t.co/i9FBB3GEBK Edgar Allen Poe rarely came to D.C. in his time…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
Remembering Visionary Heliophysicist Eugene Parker via NASA https://t.co/G1Gqup5f04 https://t.co/lxS4YfMvCr
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
This timeless post “Mapping the Suffragist Years” narrates their struggle in the U.S. with maps illustrating locations and routes of the movement and charting the voting status of women. #WomensHistoryMonth Read it here: https://t.co/uq5NxqtWtW https://t.co/KdMBqijzyt This ti…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
On the same day that the Apollo 13 crew splashed to safety in the Pacific Ocean, country singer Johnny Cash played a legendary performance at the White House. #DCHistory https://t.co/AXMrH8LRoR On the same day that the Apollo 13 crew splashed to safety in the Pacific Ocean, …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
Postcard of the Twelfth Street YMCA, at 1816 12th St NW, designed by African American architect William Sidney Pittman and completed in 1912. The building's advertised cost of over $100,000 was an indication of the Black community's success and the prestige of the new facili…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
Today in History - March 16 https://t.co/uzQZDwkyRx On March 16, 1802, Congress approved legislation establishing the United States Military Academy at West Point, one of the oldest military service academies in the world. Continue reading. James Madison, “Father of the Con…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 16, 2022
This map of the West Indies from the latter half of the 18th century depicts the colonial settlements that various European nations once had there. Take a look: https://t.co/M7N0fCserC https://t.co/7RED0oyTun This map of the West Indies from the latter half of the 18th centur…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 15, 2022
After Andrew Jackson and his supporters felt like they were robbed of the 1824 Presidential elections, the stage was set for one of the most vicious 1828 campaign seasons in American history. #DCHistory https://t.co/zTg6aDzsh2 After Andrew Jackson and his supporters felt lik…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 15, 2022
Presidents have been given a number of honors and gifts throughout American history. But among the most notable? Giant wheels of cheese. 🧀 #DCHistory https://t.co/dyapZBT9QD Presidents have been given a number of honors and gifts throughout American history. But among the mo…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 15, 2022
NASA Astronaut Breaks American Space Record via NASA https://t.co/OSAywdwjpa https://t.co/q6PagHmPNS
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 15, 2022
The real-life "Smokey the Bear," housed at the National Zoo in 1950, was the embodiment of a fire safety public awareness campaign that started during World War II. #DCHistory https://t.co/FZoAIMA9Yf The real-life "Smokey the Bear," housed at the National Zoo in 1950, was th…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 15, 2022
February 3 marks the commemoration of the Four Chaplains, who made a heroic sacrifice during the Second World War and among whom includes Washington-raised Rabbi Alexander Goode. #DCHistory https://t.co/4EHPdbf49I February 3 marks the commemoration of the Four Chaplains, who…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 15, 2022
Following the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Geary Act, the number of Chinese immigrants saw a marked increase. This boom revitalized Chinatown on H Street; the neighborhood became a place of cultural celebration, political organization, and bustling business enterp…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
Did you know that the Chinatown we know today was not the first in DC? The District’s original Chinatown was on Pennsylvania Avenue, near Capitol Hill. The neighborhood was threatened with destruction by the creation of Federal Triangle and further development of the Mall. …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
In 1888, the Washington Nationals (sort of) began the annual trend of Baseball players heading south for Spring Training. #DCHistory #MDHistory https://t.co/mNTJMA7oBz In 1888, the Washington Nationals (sort of) began the annual trend of Baseball players heading south for Sp…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
Dumbarton Bridge, a.k.a. “Buffalo Bridge, is adorned with 56 replicate sculptures modeled on Kicking Bear, an Oglala Lakota. A man who spent his entire life fighting European settlement. #DCHistory https://t.co/qATEXWrGXT Dumbarton Bridge, a.k.a. “Buffalo Bridge, is adorned …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
D.C. was home to the "Father of American Viticulture," John Adlum. The quality of his wine was so stunning that even Thomas Jefferson gave his presidential recognition for Adlum's craft. #DCHistory https://t.co/VxFrRn7VB1 D.C. was home to the "Father of American Viticulture,…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
Who Needs Pi? via NASA https://t.co/eVVcnblGfU https://t.co/NFE3CvxRqU
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
The camera must have jostled a bit, as this view of Georgia Avenue NW at Florida Avenue, taken in September 1959, is a bit blurred. Bond Bread factory can be seen in the distance on the left. https://t.co/nrlp6u15kN The camera must have jostled a bit, as this view of Georgia A…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
Quote of the Day: "Every burden is a blessing." - Walt Kelly
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 14, 2022
With the outbreak of the Civil War, every building had to be re-purposed to help accommodate soldiers. Some say one soldier never left. #DCHistory https://t.co/c4I2T1yLFd With the outbreak of the Civil War, every building had to be re-purposed to help accommodate soldiers. S…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 13, 2022
The tragic 1949 airplane crash at National Airport had lasting effects that rippled throughout the area, and highlighted the need for major change. #DCHistory https://t.co/tznG00vTtv The tragic 1949 airplane crash at National Airport had lasting effects that rippled througho…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 13, 2022
Spring training looked (and felt) a little different for the Senators during WWII, mainly because teams weren’t allowed to travel to fair-weathered Florida. #DCHistory #MDHistory https://t.co/mNTJMA7oBz Spring training looked (and felt) a little different for the Senators du…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 13, 2022
Frances Few’s diary gives us an insight into how prominent families rang in the new year in 1809, along with her opinion on the city’s politics. #DCHistory https://t.co/qVA6grnwWo Frances Few’s diary gives us an insight into how prominent families rang in the new year in 180…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 13, 2022
The high amounts of tuberculosis cases in D.C. warranted a new facility to be built for treatment. By 1937, the new facility at Glenn Dale was ready to admit its first patients. #DCHistory #MDHistory https://t.co/tMNhoWKpfF The high amounts of tuberculosis cases in D.C. warr…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Mar 13, 2022