Perhaps it’s appropriate at this time to note that April 5 was the birthday of Joseph Lister, considered the father of antiseptic medicine. Lister was born in 1827 in Upton, England. He graduated with honors from University College in London in 1852 and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and house surgeon
Since reading is such a safe quarantine pastime, who would you think was the world’s first known author? So far as we know now, our first credited author was Enheduanna, a woman who lived in the 23rd century BCE in Mesopotamia. According to the archaeological evidence, she was remarkable figure: a princess, a priestess and
In an era when Nationalism appears to be the ascending political philosophy, I ran across what I think is a good example of how international cooperation can make a small but meaningful difference in our lives. This is an entry in the March 27 issue of The Writer’s Almanac — On this day in 1912, President
The more I study history, the more I realize how much important information never appears in most textbooks. For example, the role of women. I’ve just stumbled across the story of Lise Meitner, who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1878. She was the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Vienna.
If you don’t believe good ideas can come from anywhere, here is some proof. On October 4, 1957 (when I was nine years old), the USSR launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. To say this unexpected breakthrough shook up the U.S. scientific community would be an understatement. Two of those who took notice were
Here is something to think about as you follow the news about the coronavirus outbreak. In 1665, a tailor from the English village of Eyam received a box of materials from London. He needed the contents to make clothes for the villagers. But the box contained more than cloth; it also delivered fleas carrying the
No, this is not a joke. An Egyptian has spoken for the first time in 3000 years. It was only one syllable, but still… As you must have guessed, the person was actually the mummy of a priest named Nesyamun who lived three millennia ago. And yet scientists were able to reproduce his speech. How
One of the fascinations of being a history nerd is the personal stories you come across. For example, the mess attendant who was gathering laundry aboard the battleship West Virginia in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When the ship was hit by Japanese torpedoes, this sailor helped his mortally wounded commanding officer, manned a
I remember the first time I saw a TV commercial featuring a black family. It was a Crest toothpaste commercial, set in a typical house in the suburbs, with an exasperated mother chasing a child who had left home without having brushed his teeth. Except the mother and child were black. Our family’s reaction was
Not only is this a new year, this is a new decade. Speaking of new decades, I’ve been surprised at the number of news articles revisiting the Year 2000 problem at the turn of the century, otherwise known as Y2K (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem) . In case you don’t remember or are very young, as we approached the
