History
Here we bring you the fascinating world of history: U.S. history; archeological, anthropological, natural, and evolutionary history; plus historical figures and military history. To know where we are going we must first understand where we have been.
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How the First 10 US Presidents Helped Shape the Role of the Nation’s Top Office
Lindsey Konkel / H / history.com
Over a span of six decades, the first 10 presidents of the United States—from George Washington to John Tyler—helped define the role of the executive branch.
George Washington Term: 1789-1797, Party: none
During his two terms as president, the U.S. government was in its infancy, and George Washington was critical in guiding the new government through its organization. He oversaw the passage of the first 10 amendments, called the Bill of Rights, to the United States Constitution. He established a Cabinet of presidential advisers and appointed the first Supreme Court and district court judges.
In foreign affairs, Washington signed the Jay Treaty in 1795. It was an attempt to defuse mounting tensions over British military posts along America’s northern and western borders and to prevent another costly war between the United States and Great Britain. Read more here.
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Ancient Roman Ship Coating Reveals Secrets Hidden for 2,200 Years
By Frontiers – SciTechDaily
A new study of a 2,200-year-old Roman shipwreck reveals that ancient sailors used sophisticated organic coatings to waterproof their vessels.
Since the earliest seafaring journeys, people have needed ships that could resist saltwater, stay watertight, and endure damage from marine organisms such as worms. Despite this long history, research into non-wood materials used in ship construction received little attention until the mid-20th century, and waterproofing materials remain poorly studied today.
A new study published in Frontiers in Materials focuses on the protective coating of the Roman Republic shipwreck Ilovik–Paržine 1, which sank about 2,200 years ago off the coast of present-day Croatia. Researchers from France and Croatia analyzed the ship’s surface layers to better understand ancient waterproofing methods. Read more here.
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Walt Disney Visited a Ford Factory in 1948. What He Witnessed There Laid the Groundwork for What Would Become Disneyland
Roland Betencourt / Author, Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth/ Smithsonian magazine
On August 23, 1948, Walt Disney arrived in Detroit with a colleague, the animator Ward Kimball. The pair had spent the past four days traveling to the Chicago Railroad Fair,an exposition commemorating a century of rail operations in the city. Their next stop was the Ford Motor Company complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The men spent the morning perusing a collection of antique automobiles and locomotives, and the late afternoon at Greenfield Village, an outdoor living history museum.
In his diary, Kimball recounted how he and Disney had their photo taken “in [an] old tintype shop” and rode through the “village in [a] horse-drawn buckboard wagon.” They also visited what was perhaps the most impressive marvel in the complex: Ford’s River Rouge plant. “Good god!” Kimball wrote. “What a sight! My mouth hung open!”
Disney’s 1948 trip with Kimball has been widely identified as the spark for the development of Disneyland, which opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955. The…Read more, see photos and video here.
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Missing Medieval Relic of Legendary English King Found After Being Missing for 40 Years
By Andrew Merrington, University of Exeter – SciTechDaily
A rediscovered royal seal reveals how Edward the Confessor drew on Byzantine and European influences to shape early English rule.
A rare royal seal from the 11th century, once used by Edward the Confessor, has resurfaced after vanishing for more than 40 years.
Edward, who ruled England from 1042 to 1066 and was later canonized as a saint, is often remembered as the last Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman Conquest and for overseeing the construction of Westminster Abbey.
The object, known as the ‘Saint-Denis seal,’ had been housed in Paris’s Archives Nationales for nearly two centuries before it disappeared in the 1980s, leaving historians with no clear explanation and little hope of recovery.
As the best-preserved example among the three known seals used by Edward, its loss…Read more here.
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