The History Thread!

That's pretty moving.

You know, I actually visited Beaumont-Hamel, where over 90% of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was destroyed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The field is basically a small pasture today with the trenches still there on the edges that you can walk in 5-10 minutes.

I've discovered that apparently my male line used to be from France. However, they fled to the British Isles during the French Revolution

Smart thing to do, back then!

I discovered my grandparents have the old coat of arms, on my dad's side.

A really old piece of paper with it on there, and an inscription.

Wasn't able to read the meaning before we had to leave, though.

edited 2nd Jul '16 4:30:58 AM by RandomWriter413

The American Revolution was a Huge Victory for equality liberals should celebrate it The whole era is a bit of a culture cringe in certain circles.

Edit: Cross posted in the US politics thread

edited 3rd Jul '16 8:35:11 AM by JackOLantern1337

Today in history: On July 3, 1863, the United States is at the tipping point of its Civil War. The second attempt by the rebel slave states to invade the North ends in defeat after the rebels attempt to break the Union army's defensive position with the largest artillery barrage ever launched on North America and send their infantry to exploit the gap and roll up the Union flanks. The Union forces endure the barrage and unleash their own devastating rain of death on the advancing insurgents, all the way up until the rebels reach their lines and hand-to-hand fighting ensues.

It is the High-Water Mark of the Confederacy, the closest, it is felt, the rebels will ever come to winning the war through military means. The Union soldiers rally and break the rebel attack, and the battle ends with an inglorious retreat for the forces of secession, having lost a third of their army and, ultimately, the initiative to carry out full scale invasions like these for the rest of the war.

On the same day in 1940, the Royal Navy launched the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir.

On this day in history...

July 4th, 1776 — King George III wrote in his diary: "Nothing of importance happened today."

(Of course, with the mail service being as slow as it was in the 18th century, he had no way of knowing...)

edited 4th Jul '16 8:45:42 AM by pwiegle

You have to wonder if he ever reread his diary and appreciated the irony.

Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans! A happy day to the rest of you as well!

The Fourth, as told from a Britisher's perspective!

"Americans are optimistic people who believe the sky is the limit. Whereas in Britain, we are painfully aware of our limits. In fact, just look at the British sky itself. Even the sun is incapable of asserting itself there,"

And more for Britain, it turns out the name Robin Hood showed up on a muster-roll of mercenary archers serving on the Isle of Wight in the 1330s. An interesting glimpse, this: the muster roll is in Anglo-Norman (and hence one where it was conventional to use full Christian names instead of diminutives, like "Jack" for "John" or "Robin" for "Robert"). This is well after the Robin Hood legend was established, so its appearance on the muster roll lets us take a look at some features of Medieval English society at the time: it seems likely the name the clerk recorded was a deliberate allusion to the greenwood archer.

It was probably a nom de guerre — an alias that the archer enlisted under, rather than use his real name. Nowadays, the equivalent might be "John Rambo."

That's the likely thing. The real interest is what historians are discovering about what could be called the veteran situation—the large numbers of demobilized archers and their self-image.

Remind me to never watch Austin from Shoddy Cast any time he tries anything historical. I made the mistake of watching his Swords vs Arrow bit and I almost injured my self with a face palm.

I knew a guy whose name really was John Rambo. He looked nothing at all like the movie character.

More details on the Somme memorial a few days ago.

Were any of the governments of France's former West African colonies as bad as the governments in Latin America the US backed?

How many of people's names originally came from The Bible?

You mean given names? Not mine. My name is from the earliest Greek mythology from the Minoan civilization (Melissa)

I post this from Gettysburg. Got a bicycle tour of the battlefield lined up in a few minutes: it's small enough to explore dismounted but too big to really do so in one day, especially with a multi-hour transit.

I dare you to be up at night and start conversations with the ghosts.

edited 12th Jul '16 12:41:16 PM by FluffyMcChicken

Sabre: Very cool. I hope you get some pictures. I wish I got pics from when I visited the location of Custer's Last stand. Some of the scrapes where they tried to dig in are still there.

No pics, sadly, first because I'm a terribad photographer but also because I don't want to do selfies with a potato-quality camera.

Still. Amazing tour guide, we hit Little Round Top, Sickles' positions (Devil's Den, Wheat Field, and Peach Orchard), and ended the tour at Pickett's Charge. On my own I wandered Culp's and Cemetery Hills. Just wish I'd had a little more time so I could've checked out the first day battlefields, especially where Buford made his stand.