This Day in History: All about King Tut

February 16, 1923: Archaeologist opens tomb of King Tut

On this day in 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen…The men began exploring the four rooms of the tomb, and on February 16, 1923, under the watchful eyes of a number of important officials, Carter opened the door to the last chamber.

Inside lay a sarcophagus with three coffins nested inside one another. The last coffin, made of solid gold, contained the mummified body of King Tut. Among the riches found in the tomb–golden shrines, jewelry, statues, a chariot, weapons, clothing–the perfectly preserved mummy was the most valuable, as it was the first one ever to be discovered. Despite rumors that a curse would befall anyone who disturbed the tomb, its treasures were carefully catalogued, removed and included in a famous traveling exhibition called the “Treasures of Tutankhamen.” The exhibition’s permanent home is the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

February 16, 2010: Study Examines Family Lineage of King Tut, His Possible Cause of Death

Using several scientific methods, including analyzing DNA from royal mummies, research findings suggest that malaria and bone abnormalities appear to have contributed to the death of Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun, with other results appearing to identify members of the royal family, including King Tut’s father and mother, according to a study in the JAMA.

They may not be King Tut, but here are some pics of the Egyptian exhibit from my recent trip to The Metropolitan Museum in New York City,

This Day in History: 1773…The birth of the Tea Parties

Lots of talk these days about Tea Parties. It was on this day in 1773 when the original Tea Party took place, on the waterfront in Boston.

From Politico,

On this day in 1773, in Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists — some thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians — boarded three British merchant vessels and, over the course of the next three hours, dumped 342 chests of tea into the water.

The midnight raid, which has gone down in history as the “Boston Tea Party,” was mounted to protest the Tea Act of 1773. The bill had been enacted by the British Parliament with the aim of saving the faltering East India Co. by lowering tea taxes and granting the firm a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. Many colonists viewed the Tea Act as another example of tax tyranny imposed from London. The raid proved to be a key event in the unfolding of the American Revolution.

The Boston Tea Party Historical Society has a really cool website which covers all aspects of the event from the causes to participants to the aftermath. It also features 8 different eyewitness accounts of what happened. Like almost every event in the history of history, people who were there had differing accounts of what happened.

This Day in History: 1984 The Bhopal disaster

Christian Science Monitor
India: Bhopal disaster lingers, 25 years later
Activists and residents protested Thursday to mark the 1984 Bhopal disaster in which a gas leak killed 4,000 Indians in one day. New Delhi researchers say water in the area is still contaminated, though the state government says it is safe.

New Delhi - It was the deadliest industrial accident in history. On Dec. 3, 1984, clouds of poisonous gas leaked from a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, and were carried on the breeze to nearby slums, killing 4,000 people in one day. Over the next few years, countless more died.

Twenty-five years later, the factory, now an abandoned wreck, still leaks toxins into the groundwater and soil.

Activists and residents of Bhopal marked the anniversary Thursday with protests for accountability and justice.

New research by a New Delhi-based think tank, the Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE), shows that less than two miles from the site, the groundwater contains nearly 40 times more pesticides than the level considered safe. Around the factory itself, the pesticide levels are 560 times higher.

The pesticides contain compounds that have been linked to serious illnesses, says CSE. Indeed, campaigners say that a quarter of a century later, Bhopal, a city in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, has an unusually high incidence of children born with birth defects.

Conservative estimates hold that 15,000 people died of illnesses caused by the leak within a few years. Activists say the health of at least 200,000 has been damaged.

This video contains disturbing images, but that is the point isn’t it, remembering what happened.

This Day in History: 1863: The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

This Day in History: Nazi’s locate Anne Frank and her family hiding in Amsterdam

Perhaps the only sobering thing about Amsterdam is the Anne Frank House. When I went over there in 2007, I took the tour and I must say it was amazing. It was truly shocking to see how they lived and what they did to survive under the Nazi’s.

This is from the official Anne Frank website, about This Day in History,

It is August 4, 1944, a lovely sunny day. An anonymous tip arrives that morning by telphone at the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD or Security Police). The SD-officer in charge, Julius Deetman, takes the call and orders the officer on duty SS-Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer to the Prinsengracht. Four Dutch Nazis go with him to assist. Silberbauer and a few of his men go into the warehouse on the ground floor of the building. They approach the ware-houseman Van Maaren who points in silence, indicating upstairs.

To read the whole story about the events of August 4, 1944, click here.

The official Anne Frank website is here.

This Day in History: Air traffic controllers go on strike, misunderestimate President Reagan

This day in history: The worst ever for the US Navy

This is the story of the USS Indianapolis,

The world’s first operational atomic bomb was delivered by the Indianapolis, (CA-35) to the island of Tinian on 26 July 1945. The Indianapolis then reported to CINCPAC (Commander-In-Chief, Pacific) Headquarters at Guam for further orders. She was directed to join the battleship USS Idaho (BB-42) at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of Japan. The Indianapolis, unescorted, departed Guam on a course of 262 degrees making about 17 knots.

At 14 minutes past midnight, on 30 July 1945, midway between Guam and Leyte Gulf, she was hit by two torpedoes out of six fired by the I-58, a Japanese submarine. The first blew away the bow, the second struck near midship on the starboard side adjacent to a fuel tank and a powder magazine. The resulting explosion split the ship to the keel, knocking out all electric power. Within minutes she went down rapidly by the bow, rolling to starboard.

Of the 1,196 aboard, about 900 made it into the water in the twelve minutes before she sank. Few life rafts were released. Most survivors wore the standard kapok life jacket. Shark attacks began with sunrise of the first day and continued until the men were physically removed from the water, almost five days later.

Whoever this young girl is that put this video together, my hats off to you. Incredibly well done.