JULIUS CAESAR IS BORN – JULY 13, 100 BC Image via The Mad Monarchist Gaius Julius Caesar (13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. In 60…
1ST REPUBLICAN PARTY CONVENTION HELD – JULY 6, 1854 First notable appearance of Republican Elepahnt | Illustration by Thomas Nast, Harper’s Magazine 7 Nov. 1874 The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists…
ST-HILAIRE TRAIN DISASTER – JUNE 29, 1864 The St-Hilaire train disaster was a railroad disaster that occurred on June 29, 1864 near the present day town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. A Grand Trunk train carrying between 354 and 475 passengers, many of them German and Polish immigrants, were travelling from Quebec City…
Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS Unveiled at the General Motors Highways and Horizons pavilion at the 1939-40 World’s Fair in New York, the Pontiac ‘Ghost Car’ was buit on the chassis of a 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six. In collaboration with Rohm & Haas, a chemical company that had recently developed Plexiglass, the…
DELTA KAPPA EPSILON FOUNDED – JUNE 22, 1844 Delta Kappa Epsilon (also pronounced D-K-E or “Deke”) is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies (Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon). They therefore…
WASHINGTON APPOINTED COMMANDER IN CHIEF – JUNE 15, 1775 George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) commanded the Continental Army in American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and was the first President of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. Because of his central role in the founding of the…
THE DEATH OF MUHAMMAD, PROPHET OF ISLAM – JUNE 8, 632 Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel. Miniature illustration on vellum from the book Jami’ al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din, published in Tabriz, Persia, 1307 A.D. Muhammad (also spelled Muhammed or Mohammed) (ca. 570/571 – June 8, 632), was…
FIRST DOCUMENTED BATCH OF SCOTCH WHISKY IS MADE – JUNE 1, 1494 John Cor is the name of the friar/distiller referred to in the first known written reference to a batch of Scotch Whisky on June 1, 1494. “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae…
William Stanley Moore – Photograph by The Sydney Justice & Police Museum The Sifter recently stumbled upon an incredible collection of vintage mugshots housed by the Historic Houses Trust. Many of these intriguing photographs are also accompanied by a description of the person and the crime(s) they have committed. For example, the image…
JOHN T. SCOPES INDICTED FOR TEACHING EVOLUTION – MAY 25, 1925 Formally known as The State of Tennessee v. Scopes and informally known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, it was a landmark American legal case in 1925 in which high school biology teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler…