Unruly History in the News #68
Hey folks,
Anyone else feel like summer is winding down? Technically we’ve got another month or so—and temps here in the northern hemisphere are only getting hotter—but something about August always feels like back-to-school to me.
Also, sorry that this is a day late! With all the traveling for my book reading, I just didn’t get a chance to sit down and look at last week’s news until today.
Don’t forget, there’s a couple more days left on this poll to vote for how you want future episodes of Unruly Figures to drop!
All right, now for history acting unruly in the news…
We’re still well into the Olympics so I’m back with other Olympic history: Apparently the Olympic Village is about more than partying with world-class athletes: During the 1960 Rome Olympics, it was the setting for US athletes who were trying to recruit USSR’s athletes to defect.
THIS WEEKEND: The Perseids are back. These are one of the easiest meteor showers for casual viewers—and people have been watching them for hundreds of years. Connect with history and nature by stepping outside on August 11th.
Very elaborately decorated pistols once owned by Napoleon just sold at auction for nearly 2 million. But now the French government is declaring them national artifacts, meaning they can’t leave the country. (The irony of France owning lots of other country’s national artifacts is, uh, not lost on me.)
We usually remember Cleopatra as an uncomparable idol of beauty, but she still had rivals for Mark Antony’s love. Namely, his wives Fulvia and Octavia, and they were determiend to lure him back out of Egypt.
Post that selfie! There might be a long-lost portrait in the background that an expert will be able to see and identify, which is exactly what happened with this once-lost portrait of Henry VIII.
Henry VIII, possibly by Hans Holbein the Younger. Image credit: Warwick Shire Hall In literary history…
How journalists are preserving history and taking archiving into their own hands.
Jane Austen once celebrated her birthday and went to a dance at the Dolphin Hotel. Now it might be turned into student dorms. Folks are worried we’re losing a piece of history.
Speaking of authors, when postcards first became popular, scenes of folks reading were a popular image.
John Andrew Jackson sought help from Harriet Beecher Stowe during his escape from enslavement. She later wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin loosely based on his story. Now we know more about him.
This week 49 years ago, the term “global warming” was first put in writing.
Inside one man’s quest to restore the very first Air Force One, the plane ridden by US Presidents.
Who was Germanicus, why was he considered the Golden Boy of Rome, and was his cause of death actually murder?
Speaking of historical murders—was Ramses III murdered? If so, by who?
