Unruly History in the News #25
The theme is that there is no theme.
Hey folks!
I wish I had something exciting to report about this week, but I just don’t. I worked hard all week, and that’s about all I have to say. What did you get up to this week? Did you read or do anything interesting? Tell me all about it in the comments!
Don’t forget to check out my recent episode on Polly Adler. Plus, the discussion thread:
This week, in history acting unruly…
No, cats and the Pope didn’t get together to cause the Black Death! This is some weird, far-right conspiracy theory about shadowy masters controlling society like a puppet and I’m really glad that
is setting the record straight.Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding historical artifacts be returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, even if doing so would probably destroy them. This is also a weird hill to die on and it makes me wonder why he’s trying to cozy up to the Russian Orthodox Church right now.
Earlier this week, several irreplaceable objects were stolen from the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, UK. Police are seeking the thieves and the objects.
You know Ellis Island, but are you familiar with Angel Island? The US West Coast’s immigration station, which was the main point of entry for immigrants from Asia, was designed to keep people out.
Japanese passengers are examined by U.S. officials aboard the Shimyo Maru. Taken circa 1931. Source: EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL. AND, the emergence of Chinatowns in the face of American racism. Today they’re tourist destination, but in the late nineteenth century, they were a necessary tool for Asian communities to survive—and, eventually, thrive.
Spinosaurs are a new type of dinosaur breaking all the rules. They lived on land but hunted in the water, they had jaws like a crocodile for holding onto struggling prey… They better be in the next Jurassic Park, is what I’m saying.
Here are five ancient cities that were flourishing while Rome was falling in the fifth century CE.
Is India campaigning for the repatriation of several objects currently held in the UK or not? It was reported that they were seeking the return of thousands of stolen items, but now there’s pushback from the Indian government. Apparently, they’re “specifically seeking the return of the Amaravati Marbles, a group of centuries-old limestone sculptures that were removed by Sir Walter Elliott in the 1840s. They have often been compared to the Parthenon Marbles.”
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote about the prejudices that were hindering girls’ education. Unfortunately, a lot of what she wrote is still relevant today!
I have long been under the impression that the marathon race is modeled after the distance an ancient Greek courier ran to announce their victory against the Persians. Apparently, this is incorrect. We run 26 miles because of a French historian who wanted to introduce the race at the Olympics basically ~for the aesthetic.~ (Well, I don’t know about “we.” I will simply never run this distance.)
What even is the history of abortion in the US? We think we know it, but is it maybe a less intense story than we think? Has the drama grown over time?
We know the Titanic. Did you know the wreckage was discovered during a covert Cold War mission?
The rusted prow of Titanic rests on the ocean floor of the North Atlantic. Photo by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection. During a routine valuation, an employee at Christie’s discovered two previously unknown Rembrandt portraits. The two works have never been displayed publicly, but were held in private by a family for generations. They’re going on sale at Christie’s in July.
Hebrew wasn’t spoken for 2,000 years. Here’s how it was recovered—and spread to become a global language.
These prehistoric baby hands are, well, not baby’s hands. Long thought to be hands of infants painted onto a cave wall, it was anthropologist Emmanuelle Honoré who recognized that the fingers were too long to be a baby’s.
How old is the longest-lasting alliance in the world? If you said 649 going on 650, you’re correct. In just a couple of weeks, England and Portugal will celebrate 650 years of the Anglo-Portugeuse Alliance.
That time the Nazis accidentally killed Stalin’s oldest son. They did their best to keep it a secret, but the papers were removed to England during the collapse of the Third Reich.
Someone bought vases at a thrift shop for $25. They turned out to be Qing treasures.
A pair of Chinese doucai "lotus and chrysanthemum" jars from the Qing Dynasty. Image courtesy of Roseberys London. Historians discovered a forgotten witch hunt in France in 1582. We know that witch hunts tend to happen in weak states, so what does this say about the state of France at the time? Pssssst, our girl Catherine de Medici was effectively ruling France at this time! Check out this episode for my coverage of it.
