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The Correspondence That Led To Charles M. Schulz Creating A Black Peanuts Character In 1968
The Correspondence That Led To Charles M. Schulz Creating A Black Peanuts Character In 1968


The 'Good Old Days' When Pretty Much Anything Could Be Cured By Using Dr Young's Rectal Dilators
Dr. Young's Ideal Rectal Dilators, marketed in the United States from the late 19th century through at least the 1940s, were part of the growing industry of patent and proprietary medicines and devices during that era. These dilators were sold in sets of four, resembling torpedoes, made of hard rubber initially, later transitioning to plastic. Ranging from 1⁄2 to 1 inch in diameter and 3 to 4 inches in length, they were detailed in a retrospective piece in The American Journa


Bo Diddley And His Tips On Surviving Life (Including Smelling Good, Guns, Drugs and Lawyers)
Below, Bo Diddley offers wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of navigating the complexities of the music industry and beyond, sharing his personal insights and tips for survival in an ever-changing world. Whether it's drugs, guns or women, Uncle Bo has got you covered! Alcohol and Drugs: Only drink Grand Marnier, and that’s to keep the throat from drying up in a place where there’s a lot of smoke. As for drugs: a big NO! Food : Eat anytime, anything you can get your hands on. I m


Padaung Women (Referred to as "Giraffe Women" Visit London In 1935
At a time when circuses and exhibitions reigned supreme, offering people a glimpse into the exotic and the unknown, London was visited by...


Taylor Camp: Inside Hawaii's Burned-Down Hippie Treehouse Village
In 1969, a man who looked like he'd wandered off the set of Sinbad the Sailor sold everything he owned, sailed his family from Oahu to Kauai, and bailed thirteen strangers out of jail on a whim. Within a few years, the beach he handed them had grown into a treehouse village of over a hundred people, with its own church, its own free grocery store, and exactly one law. It lasted eight years before the state burned it to the ground. A Modernist Dream House That Never Got Built


Frances Clalin Clayton: The Story of a Civil War Heroine
Frances Louisa Clayton, also known as Frances Clalin, emerges as a compelling figure in American history, though her narrative remains...


The Gorgeous Egyptian Photography Produced By The Zangaki Brothers In The Late 1800s
The Zangaki brothers were a pair of Greek photographers operating in Egypt during the late 1870s to the 1890s, crafting prints tailored for the burgeoning tourist market. Despite creating some of the era's most exquisite depictions of Victorian Egypt, scant details are available about their lives. While they are presumed to be Greek Cypriots, speculation exists that they hailed from Crete. Prior to the emergence of their photographic works in Egypt, little is documented about


The Busy Love Life of Charles II And His Many Mistresses
Charles II earned the nickname 'The Merry Monarch' not only for his love of wine, song, and music but also for his extensive womanising, surpassing any other British monarch in history in the number of mistresses he kept (that we know of). Despite being married to Catherine of Braganza, a reserved Queen, she chose to overlook her husband's extramarital affairs. Their marriage remained childless, yet Charles fathered more than 11 illegitimate children with 14 mistresses and br


Albert Einstein's Desk, Photographed A Day After His Death In 1955
Albert Einstein’s office – just as the Nobel Prize-winning physicist left it, taken mere hours after Einstein died, Princeton, New Jersey, April 1955. Albert Einstein, whose groundbreaking theories revolutionised our understanding of the universe, passed away on April 18, 1955, due to heart failure at the age of 76. His funeral and cremation were kept remarkably private, with only one photographer, Ralph Morse of Life Magazine, managing to document the events of that remarkab


Peter Rachman: The Notorious Slumlord of Notting Hill
Peter Rachman died in 1962, but his name outlived him in the strangest possible way: "Rachmanism" entered the Oxford English Dictionary as shorthand for the exploitation and intimidation of tenants by their landlord, a rare case of a slumlord's surname turning into a permanent fixture of the English language. What rarely makes it into the story is how directly his empire of overcrowded, subdivided houses fed into one of postwar Britain's ugliest weeks: the Notting Hill race r


Chrese Evans: How Stalin's Granddaughter Became a Tattooed Buddhist Antique Dealer in Portland
She's tattooed, Buddhist, and runs an antique shop in Portland, Oregon. Chrese Evans is Joseph Stalin's granddaughter and she couldn't be more different. Here's her remarkable story.


Eddie Mannix: Old Hollywood's Notorious Fixer
Eddie Mannix spent nearly forty years making MGM's problems disappear. Pregnancies, deaths, drunk driving, morals charges, none of it was too big for him to smooth over, bury or spin into something the studio could live with. He was also, by the accounts of at least one woman who knew him personally, capable of beating someone half to death and simply walking away from it. Both things are true about the same man, and understanding Hollywood's studio era means understanding ho


Bizarre Movie Posters From Africa That Are So Bad, They’re Good. Lets All Catch a Film in Ghana!
Discover the wild world of Ghanaian and Nigerian hand-painted movie posters. Created by local artists in the 1980s and 1990s, these bold, surreal artworks turned Hollywood films into folk art masterpieces that are so bad they’re brilliant.


These Photographs Document The Time When The Survivors Of The Titanic Found Safety
Surviving crew, from left to right, first row: Ernest Archer, Frederick Fleet, Walter Perkis, George Symons and Frederick Clench. Second row: Arthur Bright, George Hogg, John Moore, Frank Osman and Henry Etches. The White Star Line's Titanic holds a brief yet significant place in history. Anticipation surrounded its launch and maiden voyage, with the world captivated by its grandeur and unprecedented luxury. For those unfamiliar with the tale, here's a concise overview: The R


Violet Jessop; The Survivor Of Three Shipwrecks, The Titanic, the Britannic, and the Olympic.
Violet Jessop, renowned as an ocean liner stewardess and nurse, is famously remembered for surviving the catastrophic sinkings of both the RMS Titanic in 1912 and its sister ship, the HMHS Britannic, in 1916. Remarkably, she had also been aboard the RMS Olympic when it collided with a British warship in 1911. Born on October 1, 1887, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Jessop was the eldest daughter of Irish immigrants, William and Katherine Jessop. She grew up alongside eight sibl


Einstein And His Stance On Segregation In America
In the final 20 years of Albert Einstein's life, he rarely accepted invitations to speak at universities or accept honourary degrees as he found the presentations “ostentatious.” In May 1946, however, he accepted an invitation to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania which was also the first school in America to grant degrees to African American Students. “There is a separation of coloured people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of coloure


Children Watching The Story of “Saint George and the Dragon”
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for...


'Major Bob' - Idi Amin's Trusted Advisor And The 'White Rat' of Uganda
Few people had knowledge of the inner workings of Uganda during Idi Amin's brutal regime, one such person that navigated this dangerous world was 'Major' Bob Astles, a British-born confidant of Amin, held a position in close proximity to the epicentre of terror. As Amin's principal aide, Astles operated as a versatile figure, assuming roles spanning espionage, diplomacy, and even smuggling. Within the complex web of Amin's regime, he emerged as perhaps the most reviled Caucas


The College Kids From The 1920s That Had a Penchant For Fur
Ivy League Students From The 1920s A peculiar phenomenon in American fashion emerged with American Ivy League students and young undergraduates donning thick, long raccoon coats. This craze in men's fashion during the 1920s and 30s led to a widespread desire for this luxurious garment. Owning a fur coat became a symbol of status, embraced by bankers, salesmen, and students seeking to enhance their social standing. If you were an Ivy League undergraduate in the 1920s with a c


Eadweard Muybridge And His Waltzing Couple, 1884
Before the advent of the film camera, a decade preceding the iconic Roundhay Garden Scene of 1888 and twelve years ahead of the Lumiere...


Ryan White: The Teenager With The Aids Diagnosis That Was Banned From His School And Ostracised By Society.
In Kokomo, Indiana, during the mid 1980s, a teenage boy found himself at the centre of a national argument about fear, science, and basic human rights. Ryan White didn't set out to become a public figure. He was a haemophiliac who wanted to return to school after recovering from a serious illness. Instead, he became one of the most recognisable faces of the AIDS crisis in the United States. His story unfolded at a time when knowledge about HIV was still developing, and publi


The Day Brigitte Bardot and Pablo Picasso Spent Together
In May 1956, during the usual mix of screenings, press calls, and Riviera social life that came with the Cannes Film Festival, Brigitte Bardot made a short trip away from the crowds to visit Pablo Picasso at his studio in Vallauris. It was not arranged as anything formal, just one of those visits that tended to happen in the south of France at the time, where artists, actors, and journalists moved in the same loose circles. Bardot was 21 and already working regularly, with 17


The Long And Cruel Persecution Of Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday had a voice that critics compared to a cracked bell and a horn player's phrasing all at once, and it's a voice that still stops people cold nearly seventy years after her death. But the story of how the United States government spent two decades hunting her down is just as unforgettable, and a lot uglier than most people realise. A rough start in Philadelphia and Baltimore She was born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia in 1915, to Sarah "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence
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