January 25th Today in 1890 Nellie Bly completes her around the world trip in 72 days. She was a hoot. If you didn’t check out here writing when I posted the start of the trip check it out now here and here, good stuff.

January 24th: Today in 41AD Caligula gets assassinated by his guards giving birth to both one of the best scenes in I Claudius and a terrible porn movie.

January 23rd: On this morning in 1879 the defenders of Rorke’s Drift spent the morning cleaning up from the overnight seige that was depicted in the movie Zulu. Great film, many details wrong, but Michael Caine was just brilliant. The actual seige was a pretty impressive defense, but it did point out why the [...]

January 22nd: Speaking to the new ‘Natives are Restless’ theme, yesterday in 1879 was of one of the worst defeats in the history of the British army, Isandlwana. On the morning of the 22nd a Zulu army destroyed a British force of nearly 1,200 men.

Internet connections have been rare this week, but I will try to get some stuff up this coming week. The broadining in travel doesn’t refer to the availability of broadband all the time…..

January 20th: Today in 1885 inventor L.A. Thompson patented the Roller Coaster.

January 19th: Today in 1847 Charles Bent, the first territorial govenor of New Mexico is killed and scalped in front of his family at the start of the Taos Rebellion. Taos had also played a leading part in the rebellion against the spanish in 1680.

January 18th: Today in 1778 Jame Cook becomes the first known european to ‘discover’ Hawaii. The Hawaiians of course sort of knew where it was by then, but hey, point for effort and all. Anyway the legend goes the Hawaiians thought Cook was a god, became more than a bit suspicious when he sailed off, [...]

This is interesting, it appears that a contemparary portrait may have been found of Lady Jane Grey.
Via Cronaca

January 17th: Today in 1781 American troops under Daniel Morgan defeat a British force decisivly in the battle of Cowpens. For a great moment by moment history of the battle look for Larry Babbits’s Devil Of A Whipping, it is excellent.