History with Descriptions - A through Z

[Carnal_Flower]

The Old Fashioned

(From Wiki)

The Old Fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters, then adding alcohol, such as whiskey or brandy, and a twist of citrus rind. It is traditionally served in a short, round, 8–12 US fl oz (240–350 ml) tumbler-like glass, which is called an Old Fashioned glass, named after the drink.

The Old Fashioned, developed during the 19th century and given its name in the 1880s, is an International Bartenders Association Official Cocktail. It is also one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

The first documented definition of the word "cocktail" was in response to a reader's letter asking to define the word in the May 6, 1806, issue of The Balance and Columbian Repository in Hudson, New York. In the May 13, 1806, issue, the paper's editor wrote that it was a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar; it was also referred to at the time as a bittered sling. J.E. Alexander describes the cocktail similarly in 1833, as he encountered it in New York City, as being rum, gin, or brandy, significant water, bitters, and sugar, though he includes a nutmeg garnish as well.

By the 1860s, it was common for orange curaçao, absinthe, and other liqueurs to be added to the cocktail. The original concoction, albeit in different proportions, came back into vogue, and was referred to as "old-fashioned".

The Old Fashioned is the cocktail of choice of Don Draper, the lead character on the Mad Men television series, set in the 1960s.

 

[JKendallDane]

Portnoy's Complaint

A 1969 American novel that turned its author Philip Roth into a major celebrity. It sparked a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality including detailed depictions of masturbation using various props including a piece of liver.

The novel tells the humorous monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language." Many of its characteristics (comedic prose; themes of sexual desire and sexual frustration; a self-conscious literariness) went on to become Roth trademarks

Definitely one of the books targeted during the infamous book burnings of the day.

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[Hard_Rom]

Quinine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine

The Jesuits were the first to bring cinchona to Europe. The Spanish were aware of the medicinal properties of cinchona bark by the 1570s or earlier: Nicolás Monardes (1571) and Juan Fragoso (1572) both described a tree that was subsequently identified as the cinchona tree and whose bark was used to produce a drink to treat diarrhea.

Quinine has been used in unextracted form by Europeans since at least the early 17th century. It was first used to treat malaria in Rome in 1631. During the 17th century, malaria was endemic to the swamps and marshes surrounding the city of Rome. Malaria was responsible for the deaths of several popes, many cardinals and countless common Roman citizens. Most of the priests trained in Rome had seen malaria victims and were familiar with the shivering brought on by the febrile phase of the disease.

The Jesuit brother Agostino Salumbrino (1564–1642), an apothecary by training who lived in Lima, observed the Quechua using the bark of the cinchona tree for that purpose. While its effect in treating malaria (and hence malaria-induced shivering) was unrelated to its effect in controlling shivering from rigors, it was still a successful medicine for malaria. At the first opportunity, Salumbrino sent a small quantity to Rome to test as a malaria treatment. In the years that followed, cinchona bark, known as Jesuit's bark or Peruvian bark, became one of the most valuable commodities shipped from Peru to Europe.

When King Charles II was cured of malaria at the end of the 17th Century with quinine, it became popular in London. It remained the antimalarial drug of choice until the 1940s, when other drugs took over.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

It did, of course, present a few problems in areas holoendemic in malaria. People already genetically protected against malaria by abnormal hemoglobins generally suffered severe anemia as a reaction to quinine. Served as "tonic water" in conjunction with gin, it became the foundation of the British Empire. The quinine protected the colonists from malaria while the gin eased the boredom.

 

[SamScribble]

It did, of course, present a few problems in areas holoendemic in malaria. People already genetically protected against malaria by abnormal hemoglobins generally suffered severe anemia as a reaction to quinine. Served as "tonic water" in conjunction with gin, it became the foundation of the British Empire. The quinine protected the colonists from malaria while the gin eased the boredom.

Let's not forget that gin was originally issued to English soldiers in The Lowlands as a prophylactic - it was thought to protect them against chills and ills. (Make mine a double. )

 

[Handley_Page]

It did, of course, present a few problems in areas holoendemic in malaria. People already genetically protected against malaria by abnormal hemoglobins generally suffered severe anemia as a reaction to quinine. Served as "tonic water" in conjunction with gin, it became the foundation of the British Empire. The quinine protected the colonists from malaria while the gin eased the boredom.

Let's not forget that gin was originally issued to English soldiers in The Lowlands as a prophylactic - it was thought to protect them against chills and ills. (Make mine a double. )

Given the terrible taste of quinine, the addition of gin might be seen as beneficial.
If you've got to take your medicine, a drop of gin can render it palatable, in the same manner as a "spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down".

 

[Hard_Rom]

Robert Sherman

The oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin and came into commercial use in 1961. The oral vaccine is the origin of the song 'A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down'.

Julie Andrews was not yet committed for the part of Mary Poppins. She did not like the song that was written for her, believing it did not have enough snap to it. The original song was called "The Eyes of Love". Walt Disney instructed the Sherman Brothers to come up with something more catchy. Robert Sherman, the primary lyricist of the duo, arrived home from work one evening, having worked all day trying to come up with a song idea. As he walked in the door, his wife, Joyce, informed him that the children had gotten their polio vaccine that day. Robert asked one of his children if it hurt (thinking the child had received a shot). The child responded that the medicine was put on a cube of sugar and that he swallowed it. Realizing what he had, Robert Sherman arrived at work early the next morning with the title of the song "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down".

 

[Carnal_Flower]

S. Sacco and Vanzetti

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born US anarchists who were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company on April 15, 1920, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States, and were executed by the electric chair seven years later at Charlestown State Prison. Both adhered to an anarchist movement that advocated relentless warfare against what they perceived as a violent and oppressive government.

After a few hours' deliberation, the jury found Sacco and Vanzetti guilty of first-degree murder on July 14, 1921. A series of appeals followed, funded largely by the private Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee. The appeals were based on recanted testimony, conflicting ballistics evidence, a prejudicial pre-trial statement by the jury foreman, and a confession by an alleged participant in the robbery. All appeals were denied by trial judge Webster Thayer and eventually by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. By 1925, the case had drawn worldwide attention. As details of the trial and the men's suspected innocence became known, Sacco and Vanzetti became the center of one of the largest causes célèbres in modern history. In 1927, protests on their behalf were held in every major city in North America and Europe, as well as in Tokyo, Sydney, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg.[2]

Celebrated writers, artists, and academics pleaded for their pardon or for a new trial. Harvard law professor and future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter argued for their innocence in a widely read Atlantic Monthly article that was later published in book form. Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death in April 1927, accelerating the outcry. Responding to a massive influx of telegrams urging their pardon, Massachusetts governor Alvan Fuller appointed a three-man commission to investigate the case. After weeks of secret deliberation, which included interviews with the judge, lawyers, and several witnesses, the commission upheld the verdict. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed via electric chair on August 23, 1927. Subsequent riots destroyed property in Paris, London, and other cities.

 

[Handley_Page]

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
The arrest of this convicted murderer (a conviction still subject to debate), featured the first time the the then new Marconi Radio Equipment enabled messages to be send in time for Inspector Drew (of Scotland Yard) to board a faster ship and be in Montreal in time to meet Crippen.
The event took the media by storm and the Marconi company had a great deal of business thereafter.

Crippen was executed in November 1910.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
The arrest of this convicted murderer (a conviction still subject to debate), featured the first time the the then new Marconi Radio Equipment enabled messages to be send in time for Inspector Drew (of Scotland Yard) to board a faster ship and be in Montreal in time to meet Crippen.
The event took the media by storm and the Marconi company had a great deal of business thereafter.

Crippen was executed in November 1910.

The letter T?

 

[JKendallDane]

Transcontinental Railroad

Constructed between 1863 and 1869, this was the 1,900-mile project in the United States that connected the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The rail line was built by three private companies largely financed by government bonds and huge land grants. It was opened for traffic on May 10, 1869, with the ceremonial driving of the "Last Spike" (later often called the "Golden Spike") with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit.

http://www.ducksters.com/history/westward_expansion/transcontinental_railroad_golden_spike.jpg

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[Tio_Narratore]

Unicorns- Some think they missed the Ark, but the Noachian myth is all wet. In reality, they would only come for a virgin maid; the sexual revolution left them without a calling.

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

V -- Valkyries

"In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting half of those who die in battle, the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin "

 

[Hard_Rom]

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain. His defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britain's military heroes. In 2002, he was number 14 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

Wellesley was born in Dublin, belonging to the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. He was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. He was a colonel by 1796, and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general, won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803.

Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, and was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the allied army which defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, together with a Prussian army under Blücher. Wellesley's battle record is exemplary; he ultimately participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career.

Wellesley is famous for his adaptive defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against a numerically superior force while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, and many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world.

After ending his active military career, Wellesley returned to politics. He was twice British prime minister as part of the Tory party: from 1828 to 1830, and for a little less than a month in 1834. He oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Xolotl - the Aztec god of lightning, death, deformities, and dogs, among other things. He is the twin of the Rainbow Serpent, Quetzalcoatl, and rules over death. He protects the Sun from the dangers of the Underworld, and led his brother into that dark place to retrieve the bones of those who died in the Fourth Sun, Nahui Atl - Water Sun, so that they could become the new life of the Fifth Sun, Nahui Ollin - Motion Sun. He could appear as an Axolotl, and this has led to MichaelinChina repeatedly confounding the two.

 

[MatthewVett]

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
The arrest of this convicted murderer (a conviction still subject to debate), featured the first time the the then new Marconi Radio Equipment enabled messages to be send in time for Inspector Drew (of Scotland Yard) to board a faster ship and be in Montreal in time to meet Crippen.
The event took the media by storm and the Marconi company had a great deal of business thereafter.

Crippen was executed in November 1910.

Interesting. Sounds like Maurice Leblanc predicted such a thing 5 years earlier: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6133/6133-h/6133-h.htm#link2H_4_0001

 

[Carnal_Flower]

The Yeti is an ape-like creature said to see inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.

Aka the Abominable Snowman, it is related to but distinct from Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, the North American version of the same ape-like man.

It has been suggested that such ape-men are relics or descendants of gigantopithecus, an extinct genus of large ape that grew over 9 feet.

 

[JKendallDane]

The Zipper

Invented in 1893, the zipper was originally called "a clasp locker" and was debuted at the Chicago World's Fair to resounded snoozes from the commercial market. Inventor Whitcomb Judson is often credited with the creation, although Gideon Sunback is the one that redesigned the zipper in 1913 into the form still in use today.

The term "zipper" didn't come into typical use until 1923 when the BF Goodrich Company used it in describing their new rubber boots and the term stuck.

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[Hard_Rom]

Battle of Assaye

The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company. It occurred on 23 September 1803 near Assaye in western India where an outnumbered Indian and British force under the command of Major General Arthur Wellesley (who later became the Duke of Wellington) defeated a combined Maratha army of Daulat Scindia and the Raja of Berar. The battle was the Duke of Wellington's first major victory and one he later described as his finest accomplishment on the battlefield.

British Forces
9,500, (including two British infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment)
17 cannon

Maratha Forces
10,800 European trained Indian infantry
10,000–20,000 irregular infantry
30,000–40,000 irregular cavalry
100+ cannon

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Brébeuf, "Saint" Jean de (1593-1649) Jesuit missionary to the Wyandot (Huron), he was captured by the Iroquois, tortured and killed. The Church canonized him as a martyr to his religion, but it is more likely he was treated as a war captive for having tried to convince the Wyandot not to help form a confederacy against the Europeans.

 

[JKendallDane]

Denton True "Cy" Young

Considered to be the greatest pitcher of all time and the namesake of major league baseball's coveted annual pitching award. During his 22-season baseball career (1890–1911), he pitched for five different teams. Young established numerous pitching records, some of which have stood for more than a century.

Young grew up on a farm in rural Ohio and when visiting his parents, he often would round up the boys from neighboring farms and teach them how to throw a baseball. Three of the boys he instructed happened to be my Dad and two uncles who lived on the next farm from his parents.

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[Hard_Rom]

Dieppe Raid

During the Second World War, on 19 August 1942, the Allies launched a major raid on the small French coast port of Dieppe. Operation Jubilee was the first Canadian Army engagement in the European war, designed to test the Allies' ability to launch amphibious assaults against Adolf Hitler's "Fortress Europe." The raid was a disaster: More than 900 Canadian soldiers were killed, and thousands more were wounded and taken prisoner. Despite the bloodshed, the raid provided valuable lessons for subsequent Allied amphibious assaults on Africa, Italy and Normandy.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Eggs Benedict is an American brunch or breakfast dish that consists of two halves of an English muffin each of which is topped with Canadian bacon – or sometimes ham or bacon – a poached egg; and hollandaise sauce. The dish was first popularized in New York City. Many variations on the basic recipe are served.

Fyi, imo the EGGS SAN PIETRO at the Rose Cafe in Venice, CA are simply the best version of Eggs Benedict you can find.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Eggs Benedict is an American brunch or breakfast dish that consists of two halves of an English muffin each of which is topped with Canadian bacon – or sometimes ham or bacon – a poached egg; and hollandaise sauce. The dish was first popularized in New York City. Many variations on the basic recipe are served.

Fyi, imo the EGGS SAN PIETRO at the Rose Cafe in Venice, CA are simply the best version of Eggs Benedict you can find.

"Canadian bacon" is American usage for a form of roughly cylindrical fully cooked back bacon, usually smoked, trimmed into medallions, and thickly sliced The term "Canadian bacon" is not actually used in Canada, where the product is generally known simply as "back bacon", while "bacon" alone refers to the same streaky pork belly bacon as in the United States. "Canadian" bacon is made only from the lean eye of the loin and is ready to eat; this preparation is closer to ham than standard bacon.

The product may have arisen from a unique form of back bacon which emerged in Southern Ontario called "peameal bacon", which is unsmoked wet cured pork loin trimmed like "Canadian bacon" and traditionally rolled in ground dried yellow peas to extend its shelf life. Today it is generally rolled in yellow cornmeal.

Eggs Benny is made with peameal bacon up here. Much better and a much leaner cut. rarely is it used in the US.

 

[ishtat]

Got to nominate Galileo.
The guy who put earth going round the Sun and nearly paid for it with his life.

Except that it was Copernicus.

Galileo popularised NC's ideas.