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History Thread

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watching this really interesting doco drama titled '37' days. it's about the days between the assasination of franz ferdinand and the start of the first world war. really fascinating both as a story and characterization, and also as a kind of tiny history lesson in a way. i remember listening to that dan carlin hardcore history podcast and i do recall him talking about some of this, but it was nice to get a new perspective, even if it was in the form of this.
 
Re Watergate - have you read the book?Fabulous, thrilling.

You have a knack for hitting stuff that is interesting @reepbot.

I have a history addiction, and am tempted to pay for TV just for the history channel, but there is enough on freeTV.

I did a history elective at uni, and wished I had time to study history more, it was so interesting, teaching methods and aims so different from high school.

Medieval and ancient stuff I love, the King Arthur legends I have read everything I can get a hold of.

And of course women's history.

Here is a beauty -
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Aristocrats gone wild! How princess and a countess fought a topless duel over FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS
  • Austrian nobles Princess Pauline von Metternich and Countess Anastasia Kielmansegg agreed to a topless duel in the summer of 1892
  • The duel went down in history as the first 'emancipated duel' because it involved female participants, female seconds' and a female medic
  • Baroness Lubinska from Warsaw, who had a medical degree, oversaw the duel and advised the women to sword fight topless to avoid infection
  • She explained that many minor dueling injuries became septic due to strips of clothing being forced into a wound by a pointed sword

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She won...

Paul Mall Gazette, August 23, 1892

No small sensation has been made by the report of a duel between two ladies of the high Austrian nobility. The Princess Pauline Metternich, the Honorary President of the Vienna Musical and Theatrical Exhibition and the Countess Kilmannsegg, the wife of the Statthalter of Lower Austria, and President of the Ladies' Committee of the Exhibition has a fearful quarrel over some arrangements at the Exhibition, The affair was regarded as so serious that it could only be settled by blood.

The ladies traveled to Vaduz, the capital of the little principality of Lichentenstend, on the Swiss frontier, the town which Prince Alois of Lichtenstein some time ago offered to the Pope as a city of refuse in the even of his being obliged to leave the Vatican.

The duel was fought with rapiers. At the third round the Princess was slightly wounded on the nose, and the Countess on the arm. There up the two seconds, Princess Schwarzenberg and Countess Kinsk, advised them to embrace, kiss, and make friends; which accordingly they did.

Their woulds were attended to by Baroness Lubinska, a Polish lady who has studied medicine and obtained a doctor's degree, whom they had prudently sent for from Warsaw to attend the duel.

Source: A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Dueling: As Practiced by All European Nations from the Middle Ages to the Present Day by Carl A. Thimm
 
One of the most thrilling investigative genre books I have ever read.
Even though you know the outcome it doesn't matter, it is so well written.

And what is striking is they sort of fell into the mess, and were a bit reluctant and flabbergasted at first, and it was dangerous. They just could not believe what was happening, and good grief... as it dawns on them it goes ALL THE WAY .





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All the President's Men
by Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

This landmark book details all the events of the biggest political scandal in the history of this nation--Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein kept the headlines coming, delivering revelation after amazing revelation to a shocked public. Black-and-white photograph section.
Paperback, 480 pages
 
Some of the remarkable women of history

SPORTS
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Gertrude Ederle after becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926



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In 1967, Katherine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. As you can see, the race organizer was none too happy about it.

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Roller girls 1950s

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Ellen O'Neal, one of the first female professional skateboarders in 1976.

WARS
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Turkish aviator Sabiha Gökçen in the plane that she used to become the first female fighter pilot in 1937.

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Female pilots during World War II.

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A female samurai from the 1800's.

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American nurses in Normandy, France in 1944.

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Meet the “Chinese Joan of Arc,” Qiu Jin (秋瑾) (1875-1907), a radical women’s rights activist who defied tradition to become the leader of a revolutionary army. Qiu Jin boldly challenged traditional gender roles and demanded equal rights and opportunities for women. She was the first woman to lead an armed uprising against the corrupt Qing Dynasty, for which she was arrested and executed. She became the first female martyr for China’s 1911 Revolution and is celebrated as a national heroine today.


COOL
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Margaret Bourke-White climbing on the Chrysler Building to take a photograph in 1934.





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Afghan women studying medicine in 1962.

 
10 Famous Women Scientists in History

1- MARIE CURIE
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Polish-born French physicist and chemist best known for her contributions to radioactivity.

[Her achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres...wiki]

2- JANE GOODALL
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British primatologist and ethologist, widely considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees.

[She found that, "it isn't only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought [and] emotions like joy and sorrow."........ These findings suggest that similarities between humans and chimpanzees exist in more than genes alone, but can be seen in emotion, intelligence, and family and social relationships. (BUT) Goodall's research at Gombe Stream is best known to the scientific community for challenging two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians...wiki]

3- MARIA MAYER
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German-born American physicist who received Nobel Prize for suggesting the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus.

(Also contributed to the Manhattan Project during WW2 which developed the first nuclear weapons)

4- RACHEL CARSON
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American marine biologist and conservationist whose work revolutionzied the global environmental movement.
(Author of Silent Spring 1962).

[The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly....wiki]

(Her work eventually led to the banning of DDT in the USA, a synthetic pesticide used widely in 50's without understanding its toxic impacts to the environment and human health. The survival/ repopulation of the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon are attributed to this ban).

5- ROSALIND FRANKLIN
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British biophysicist best known for her work on the molecular structures of coal and graphite, and X-ray diffraction.

[Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College, London, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Wilkins, but the Nobel Committee does not make posthumous nominations... wiki]

More about the others.
 
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