I remember seeing it as a kid but I would understand and appreciate it a lot more today. Certainly a major part of my area's history and heritage.

In 1721 the English went to war with the Indian tribes of the future northeast states of the US and the Maritime provinces of Canada. The MikMaq tribe, which had lived in harmony with the Acadians in Nova Scotia, had learned European sailing and ship building from the Acadians. At the start of the war they used a couple of sloops and began raiding British shipping, seizing scores of English vessels. They were assembling this fleet and intended to attack the English capital of Nova Scotia at Annapolis but called off the attack due to the British taking MikMaq hostages. They continued using the fleet for pirating English shipping until they were ultimately subdued three years later.

BQ78 said:

---

In 1721 the English went to war with the Indian tribes of the future northeast states of the US and the Maritime provinces of Canada. The MikMaq tribe, which had lived in harmony with the Acadians in Nova Scotia, had learned European sailing and ship building from the Acadians. At the start of the war they used a couple of sloops and began raiding British shipping, seizing scores of English vessels. They were assembling this fleet and intended to attack the English capital of Nova Scotia at Annapolis but called off the attack due to the British taking MikMaq hostages. They continued using the fleet for pirating English shipping until they were ultimately subdued three years later.

---

As a descendant of some of those Acadians that lived peacefully with the Mikmaq, including intermarriages, I am delighted to learn of this. Thirty four years later those same Brits committed genocide against my ancestors by disposessing them of land and properties they had been living on and improving for over 100 years.

It's pretty amazing that kicking the Acadians out came up seriously twice before it happened. The first time after King Phillips War (killed as too expensive to execute) and again after the War of Spanish Succession ( killed because no one would be available to farm the land).

BQ78 said:

---

It's pretty amazing that kicking the Acadians out came up seriously twice before it happened. The first time after King Phillips War (killed as too expensive to execute) and again after the War of Spanish Succession ( killed because no one would be available to farm the land).

---

Didn't know that. Thanks.

The Brits eventually offered up those now vacant properties to entire communities in the other colonies.

It's how one of my ancestors wound up leaving Massachusetts for Nova Scotia in the 1750's-1760's. IIRC. They had been in MA since the beginning.

Ancestry history can be fascinating.

Ha, FTAco and I will have to have a discussion whether to sic the Miqmas on you for revenge or open up an illicit trade with you.

The whole Acadian history and dynamic with New England is fascinating. John Alden was big on illicit trade with the Acadians and during heightened tensions between England and France, the Miqmas stole his entire cargo. When the governor of New England complained, the Acadians reimbursed him for his loss. It was not too onerous a tax because they paid no tribute normally due to their independence and penchant for neutrality. But they also bought the stolen cargo from the Miqmas while John Alden watched.

Lithuania was once the largest country in Europe, and after the battle of Grunwald the Prussian Confederation was established opposed to lordship/the Teutonic Order (who had already been kicked out of Jerusalem and then Transylvania/Hungary).

🚨Amazing Historical Facts (Day 1)
🏰Grand Duchy of Lithuania 🏰

Did you know? At its peak in the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest state in Europe, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. 🌊🏞️

It was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state that… pic.twitter.com/v7sVkFkN51

— StefanZL Maps And History☦️ (@StefanZlatkov12) December 17, 2024

The USCGC Eagle was built as the German sail training ship Horst Wessel in 1936 at the Blohm und Voss shipyards. 15 days after her launch the Bismarck's keel was laid down in the same shipyard 2 slips down.

StockHorseAg said:

---

My FIL got to sail on the USCGC Eagle from Denmark to New London back when he was in the Coast Guard Academy. He said it was a really neat experience and has some interesting stories from it.

---

That's interesting. I have known three different graduates of the Academy, all of whom sailed on the Eagle, and all of whom said it was a miserable experience. I guess that simply goes under the generalization of different strokes for different folks.

StockHorseAg said:

---

My FIL got to sail on the USCGC Eagle from Denmark to New London back when he was in the Coast Guard Academy. He said it was a really neat experience and has some interesting stories from it.

---

I was in key west visiting the the Boy Scout sea base and we got to go on board the Eagle and asked for a short tour which they granted. The United States confiscated it after WW2 from the Germans. It is also one of two sailing ships commisioned (the Constitution) by the US military and the only active sailing vessel.

The trip that summer for the cadets was going from new London, Connecticut to Galveston and back. I think I remember them saying that they had to use the motors most of the way at 4 kph since there was no wind. Top speed with sails was 7.5 kph when they got wind that summer.

This years trip goes from New London, Connecticut to Cartagena, Columbia - island hops carribean then back to Nova Scotia and down to New London, Connecticut.

I've always wondered about this, as I had read that right-hand driving is safer on the basis of less head on collisions/emergency response isn't as likely to be to pull into opposing traffic.

Do you know the reason why some countries drive on the left hand side of the road?

It all goes back to medieval times. You have probably heard why staircase’s in castles spiral in a clockwise direction. It was designed so enemy forces would have a difficult time fighting their… pic.twitter.com/VKTZMXHHD8

— Scipio Africanus (@ScipioX__) December 18, 2024

I don't buy that. No road in medieval times looked anything like that. Most "roads" were essentially narrow paths.

Furthermore, the majority of countries that had knights, and the countries with the majority of knights, now drive on the right-hand side.

LOL, I guess you'd have to take it up with Pope Boniface then. Note, the image in the tweet is obviously AI, imho.

Quote:

---

There is an historical reason for this; it's all to do with keeping your sword hand free!

In the Middle Ages you never knew who you were going to meet when travelling on horseback. Most people are right-handed, so if a stranger passed by on the right of you, your right hand would be free to use your sword if required. (Similarly, most Norman castle staircases spiral in a clockwise direction going upwards, so the defending soldiers would be able to stab down around the twist but those attacking (going up the stairs) would not.)

Indeed the 'keep to the left' rule goes back even further in time; archaeologists have discovered evidence suggesting that the Romans drove carts and wagons on the left, and it is known that Roman soldiers always marched on the left.

This 'rule of the road' was officially sanctioned in 1300 AD when Pope Boniface VIII declared that all pilgrims travelling to Rome should keep to the left.

This continued until the late 1700s when large wagons became popular for transporting goods. These wagons were drawn by several pairs of horses and had no driver's seat. Instead, in order to control the horses, the driver sat on the horse at the back left, thus keeping his whip hand free. Sitting on the left however made it difficult to judge the traffic coming the other way, as anyone who has driven a left-hand drive car along the winding lanes of Britain will agree!

These huge wagons were best suited to the wide open spaces and large distances of Canada and the US, and the first keep-to-the-right law was passed in Pennsylvania in 1792, with many Canadian and US states following suit later.

In France a decree of 1792 ordered traffic to keep to the "common" right and Napoleon later enforced the rule in all French territories.

In Britain there wasn't much call for these massive wagons and the smaller British vehicles had seats for the driver to sit on behind the horses. As most people are right-handed, the driver would sit to the right of the seat so his whip hand was free.

Traffic congestion in 18th century London led to a law being passed to make all traffic on London Bridge keep to the left in order to reduce collisions. This rule was incorporated into the Highway Act of 1835 and was adopted throughout the British Empire.

---

Some of this stuff seems pretty arcane to me, as with all British history, from things like weights/measurements to currency etc.

Don't get your history from Twitter.

https://www.newcastlecastle.co.uk/castle-blog/spiral-stairs?format=amp

https://nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/ufaqs/why-do-we-drive-on-the-left-side-of-the-road-in-the-uk-but-most-other-countries-drive-on-the-right/

Driving on the right has interesting roots in class conflicts and the French Revolution. The Pope's order is an interesting little tidbit but very hard to show it was somehow decisive in the development of road rules.

Newsweek recent-ish article. It really is an idea that has been batted around for millennia:

Quote:

---

The idea of a bridge crossing the strait is an old one. The Romans considered building a bridge joining Calabria and Sicily made of boats and barrels. Pliny the Elder, a philosopher and Roman military leader born in 23 AD, wrote of a plan to bridge the strait with a series of connecting boats. The idea was abandoned, as it was clear that more traffic plied the strait in a north-south than east-west direction, so any structure on water could not be permanent.

Charlemagne considered joining the two sides with a series of bridges. This idea was revived by the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard in the 11th century and by Roger II of Sicily in the 12th. In 1876, Giuseppe Zanardelli was convinced that the strait could be linked by either a bridge or a tunnel. In 1866, public works minister Stefano Jacini gave Alfredo Cottrau, an internationally recognised engineer, the task of drawing up plans for a bridge between Calabria and Sicily. Later, in 1870, Navone proposed building a tunnel based on Napoleon's idea of a tunnel under the English Channel. This tunnel was to start at Contesse and was to pass below Messina and Ganzirri at a depth of 150 m (490 ft), crossing the strait to Punta Pezzo and resurfacing at Torre Cavallo.

---

That would be a pretty cool 10k or there about road race. Go back and forth on the bridge.

In light of the F-18 being shot down by friendly fire last night...

The deadliest friendly-fire accident in US history happened during Operation Husky, the Invasion of Sicily on July 9-10, 1943, where US Naval and land-based anti-aircraft batteries by the hundreds fired on a flight of C-47s carrying elements of the 82nd Airborne, believing the C-47 twin-engine transports to be German twin-engine Ju 88 bombers. Many were shot down with large loss of life. The accident was caused by an improper ability to identify friendly aircraft from enemy, especially as the "Star and Bar" USAAF marking was very difficult to see even at a low level. 318 American paratroopers or aircrew-men were killed. 23 C-47s were shot down.

The 81,000 ton Queen Mary, while transporting ~10,000 American Troops from the US to UK, collided with the 4200 ton escort cruiser HMS Curacao broadside while making ~28 knots. She split the cruiser in half and ~337 Officers and men of her crew were lost.

agrams said:

---

The 81,000 ton Queen Mary, while transporting ~10,000 American Troops from the US to UK, collided with the 4200 ton escort cruiser HMS Curacao broadside while making ~28 knots. She split the cruiser in half and ~337 Officers and men of her crew were lost.

---

Lots of that type of accident has taken place. I would not call them "friendly fire" though very deadly none the less.

You also have to think about the untold number of US Navy aviators who were shot down during WWII in the Pacific. Anything that flew over a Task Force while the Task Force was under attack was fair game.

agrams said:

---

The 81,000 ton Queen Mary, while transporting ~10,000 American Troops from the US to UK, collided with the 4200 ton escort cruiser HMS Curacao broadside while making ~28 knots. She split the cruiser in half and ~337 Officers and men of her crew were lost.

---

Am I crazy or is another aspect of this story that they couldn't/wouldn't stop after the collision due to U boat danger?

The years 1982, 1984 and 1985 all saw the deaths of Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, respectively.

In the period of potential political disturbance after each death, Russian TV began to play Swan Lake on a loop. While the goal was perhaps to distract and calm viewers, the ballet actually became associated with the deaths of leaders and with political instability.

In August 1991, Swan Lake again returned to Russian TV. But this time, it wasn't signaling that someone had died.

The political situation in the Soviet Union, or USSR, in August 1991 was shaky. Food was scarce, and inflation was incredibly high. Moreover, there were deep divisions about the political direction the union had been taking.


On 19th August, the Vice President of the Soviet Union, Gennady Yanayev, and seven other political leaders imprisoned Gorbachev in his country home in Crimea and attempted to institute a coup. This group, later known as the 'Gang of Eight', called themselves the 'State Committee on the State of Emergency'. Their goal was to halt and reverse Gorbachev's policies.

That morning, Swan Lake played again on Soviet state television. Russians instantly understood that it was not a good sign.

However, this time the ballet did not play alongside the death of a leader. Gorbachev survived his detainment in his house, and the coup attempt failed after only three days. Boris Yeltsin's role proved pivotal. He famously stood on a tank outside the parliament building in Moscow and gave a speech that dissuaded soldiers from entering the building to support the coup.

Unveiling the Mysteries of Oley Hills: An Ancient Ceremonial Stone Complex in Pennsylvania

The Oley Hills site in Berks County, Pennsylvania, is an enigmatic complex featuring dry stone walls, shaped rock piles (cairns), perched boulders, and uniquely formed natural stones. Some… pic.twitter.com/R0L7jxiQAq

— Red Feather Relics (@red_relics) December 31, 2024

Quote:

---

Unveiling the Mysteries of Oley Hills: An Ancient Ceremonial Stone Complex in Pennsylvania

The Oley Hills site in Berks County, Pennsylvania, is an enigmatic complex featuring dry stone walls, shaped rock piles (cairns), perched boulders, and uniquely formed natural stones. Some of these structures are thought to resemble animal and human forms. A notable feature is the "split-wedged boulder," a split rock with another stone wedged into the gap.

Luminescence analysis suggests that the cairns were constructed around 570 BC, possibly by the Adena culture, which was centered in the Ohio River Valley. The site's extensive and elaborate nature, covering approximately 46 acres in the central area with additional outliers along the ridge, indicates it was unlikely created for field clearing. Instead, it may have served ceremonial purposes, reflecting the spiritual and cultural practices of early Native American societies.

The Oley Hills site offers valuable insights into the ceremonial landscapes of pre-Colonial Native American cultures, highlighting their sophisticated understanding of stone construction and spiritual expression.

For a deeper exploration of ceremonial stone landscapes in Pennsylvania, including the Oley Hills site, you might find this video informative:

---

In 1522 in Autun France, a group of rats found their way into the town's barley stocks and ate it all.

The Town Fathers, nervous over potential famine and peasant revolts, decided to put the rats on trial in the local ecclesiastical court with the local Bishopry arguing the rats were sent by a dark force to sow chaos. The rats were charged with theft and destruction of property.

The Rats were successfully defended by Barthlemy de Chasseneuz.

Chasseneuz argued that the court had failed the single announcement of the trial was inadequate to inform the defendants who lived all over the region and trying the accused in absentia was a violation of ecclesiastical legal ethics and code.

So the court sent notices all over the region to meet their obligation. Rats still didn't show for their rescheduled trial, and Chasseneuz then objected noting that the court had not provided adequate safety for the accused rats who faced the threat of death as they had to navigate hungry cats as part of the journey to their trial.

The court actually agreed and dropped charges.

nortex97 said:

---

Unveiling the Mysteries of Oley Hills: An Ancient Ceremonial Stone Complex in Pennsylvania

The Oley Hills site in Berks County, Pennsylvania, is an enigmatic complex featuring dry stone walls, shaped rock piles (cairns), perched boulders, and uniquely formed natural stones. Some… pic.twitter.com/R0L7jxiQAq

— Red Feather Relics (@red_relics) December 31, 2024

Quote:

---

Unveiling the Mysteries of Oley Hills: An Ancient Ceremonial Stone Complex in Pennsylvania

The Oley Hills site in Berks County, Pennsylvania, is an enigmatic complex featuring dry stone walls, shaped rock piles (cairns), perched boulders, and uniquely formed natural stones. Some of these structures are thought to resemble animal and human forms. A notable feature is the "split-wedged boulder," a split rock with another stone wedged into the gap.

Luminescence analysis suggests that the cairns were constructed around 570 BC, possibly by the Adena culture, which was centered in the Ohio River Valley. The site's extensive and elaborate nature, covering approximately 46 acres in the central area with additional outliers along the ridge, indicates it was unlikely created for field clearing. Instead, it may have served ceremonial purposes, reflecting the spiritual and cultural practices of early Native American societies.

The Oley Hills site offers valuable insights into the ceremonial landscapes of pre-Colonial Native American cultures, highlighting their sophisticated understanding of stone construction and spiritual expression.

For a deeper exploration of ceremonial stone landscapes in Pennsylvania, including the Oley Hills site, you might find this video informative:

---

---

Proof positive Afghans were here before us...

7 US presidents have been born in log cabins. In order, they are Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and James Garfield. A reconstruction of the Lincoln log cabin is operated as a museum.

Separately, James IV of Scotland is remembered for being a 'Renaissance' Scots king. He valued the education of language, and decided to conduct a controversial linguistic experiment with his subjects. In 1493, James sent two newborns and a deaf-mute woman to live in isolation upon the Island of Inchkeith. James wanted to see what language the kids would end up speaking, convinced that those raised without the interference of society would be vested with the "true" language of God.

His method was…fruitless and with no success, as the children clapped and gesticulated with their hands, thus communicating with signs instead of some other expected language.

It is not known what happened to the children on Inchkeith Island. A prominent Scottish poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott, suspected that since the children had no other choice but to mimic the sounds from the island animals or the environment, thus rendering the whole experiment fruitless. Apparently, some Scottish folk say that the children learned perfect Hebrew, which is highly unlikely.

The experiment by James IV was not the first time it had been tried.

Language deprivation experiments

The experiment by Frederick II supposedly involved 5 children. In addition to language deprivation, they were also denied human touch other than being washed and fed. All 5 babies supposedly died.

That result is somewhat corroborated by the results from the Romanian orphanages during Ceauescu's dictatorship where the children were denied adult human touch and emotion. Thousands died and lmost all of kids who did survive emerged really messed up.

Wasn't the same thing done in Romania during the AIDS epidemic? Infants warehoused in orphanages with minimal staffs and limited human contact.

I seem to recall that Americans tried to adopt some of the kids, and they had terrible problems.

CanyonAg77 said:

---

Wasn't the same thing done in Romania during the AIDS epidemic? Infants warehoused in orphanages with minimal staffs and limited human contact.

I seem to recall that Americans tried to adopt some of the kids, and they had terrible problems.

---

See my post above.

One of my sisters adopted a Romanian orphan during that time period, which made me aware of the horrors of their orphanages and the permanent destruction it caused to the children. Watching my sister's son grow up, I came to wonder if it's possible for a living human not to have a soul.

I think you added that second part after I read it