The post Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Once Tried to Reunite The Beatles appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Despite becoming the most successful band in history, the Beatles members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—decided to part ways in 1970. Several factors played a role in the breakup, but the most important were the strained relationships between the four musicians and the death of their manager, Brian Epstein.
Shortly after The Beatles disbanded, all sorts of promoters tried to get Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr back together. However, despite proposing enticing offers, some of which ranged upwards of $100 million, the former bandmates were determined to continue their separate ways. That is until Ali stepped in.
At the suggestion of inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher, Ali decided to get involved in the duo’s efforts to reunite The Beatles in 1977. After all, he was the perfect person to try the unlikely feat, being among the most famous people in the world, a fan of the band, and already having a connection with the band members.
Ali, then named Cassius Clay, and The Beatles met for the first time in 1964 at Miami Beach, coming together for a photoshoot. Ali was preparing to fight Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Champion title at the time while The Beatles were fresh from their famed appearance at The Ed Sullivan Show.
Amron and Sacher proposed the idea of The Beatles’ reunion as a charity event. Their goal was to collect $200 million that would be used for a charity fund. Ali was on board, and he soon reached out to representatives of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr while also making his efforts public and creating a media frenzy.
While Ali didn’t get an immediate response, he managed to chat with Lennon, which made him quite optimistic. The two attended the inaugural gala for new U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Ali made his pitch. Lennon didn’t accept on the spot, but he did invite Ali to meet him at New York City’s The Dakota, where he was staying with his wife Yoko Ono.
Ali was convinced that the Beatles reunion was close to happening that night, but unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that way. The representatives of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr quickly got involved, which led to a series of behind-the-scenes meetings that eventually ended the entire plan. As a result, Ali and Lennon never got to have their meeting at The Dakota, and the Beatles never reunited.
The post Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Once Tried to Reunite The Beatles appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Historical Facts That Are So Unbelievable They Sound Fake appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Video game giant Nintendo was founded in February 1889 in Kyoto, Japan, as a company that produced handmade playing cards. On the other side of the globe, the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper was still terrifying the citizens of London, UK, having committed his most recent murder just two months before.
Oxford University is one of the most famous educational institutions in the world. But a lot of people don’t realize that it has been around for almost 1,000 years, having been found in 1096. On the other hand, the Aztec Empire, which is lauded for its highly-developed society, large contributions to human civilizations, and keen approach to art, was founded in 1428.
This unbelievable fact just demonstrates how long Ancient Egyptian civilization actually lasted. The entire Giza Pyramids complex was built between 2600 and 2500 BC. Cleopatra, the last and arguably the most famous ruler of Ancient Egypt, ended her reign in 30 BC. This means that she ruled some 500 years closer to the opening of the first Pizza Hut restaurant in 1958 than the construction of the Giza pyramids.
We are not saying that samurai, famous Japanese warriors, were sending fax messages. But they could have if they wanted. Samurai were abolished in 1876, several years after the end of the feudal system in Japan, while the first version of the fax machine was invented in 1843.
The post 4 Historical Facts That Are So Unbelievable They Sound Fake appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Stewardess Named Violet Jessop Survived Sinking of Titanic and Its Two Sister Ships appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Jessop, who was born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, started working as a stewardess on an ocean liner RMS Olympic in 1911. The start of her career didn’t get to the best of starts as Olympic crashed with the British warship HMS Hawke in September of the same year and was heavily damaged.
In April 1912, Jessop transferred to Olympic’s sister ship, RMS Titanic, to continue serving in the same role. She was part of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, which tragically hit an iceberg and sank on April 16, 1912. Fortunately for Jessop, she managed to get off the ship in a lifeboat before it got underwater.
According to Jessop’s accounts, she was handed a baby while boarding the lifeboat and later managed to reunite it with its mother after Titanic survivors were rescued by RMS Carpathia.
Surviving two tragedies didn’t stop Jessop from returning to the sea several years later, but this time under different circumstances. During World War I, Jessop became a stewardess for the British Red Cross and became part of the crew of the hospital ship Britannic, which was the younger sister ship of both the Olympic and Titanic.
Britannic ended up facing the same fate as its sister ships, sinking in November 1916 after coming across a German naval mine. But Jessop survived once again, although she suffered a serious head injury in the process.
You would think that Jessop would finally say goodbye to the sea after this and remain on land. But that wasn’t the case. She continued to work as a stewardess on various ocean liners until her retirement in 1950.
The post Stewardess Named Violet Jessop Survived Sinking of Titanic and Its Two Sister Ships appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Facts About Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Director Wolfgang Petersen reportedly was offered to direct the Academy Award-winning movie Gladiator but turned it down. After seeing the success of Gladiator, which ended up being directed by Ridley Scott, Petersen jumped on the opportunity to direct Troy as a way to redeem himself.
Brad Pitt, who played Greek hero Achilles in the movie, tore his Achilles tendon while shooting the movie. In Greek mythology, Achilles is invulnerable in all of his body except his heel. The Achilles tendon, a tendon that connects calf muscles with the heel, is named after him.
Troy was filmed at various locations in Malta and Mexico. However, producers were offered a chance to shoot the movie at the site of an ancient Greek city that is considered to have been the real Troy in Hisarlik, Turkey. Turkish government even offered to sponsor the movie but was unsuccessful in their bid.
The Trojan Horse replica used in the movie was used in the promotional campaign and was displayed at various locations around the world. However, it eventually made its way to Canakkale, a Turkish city located 20 miles from the site of the real Troy.
The critics are not the only ones who didn’t like the movie. Pitt also shared his dislike for Troy in one interview, saying that he wasn’t satisfied with the way it turned out and revealing that he only did it because of a contractual obligation to the studio.
The post 5 Facts About Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Quick Facts About the Sydney Opera House appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The officials launched an international competition in 1956 in order to find a design for the Sydney Opera House. A total of 233 entries from 32 countries were submitted, with Danish architect Jørn Utzon being declared the winner and earning a compensation of 5,000 Australian pounds.
The estimated budget for the construction of the Sydney Opera House was A$7 million. However, by the time the building was finished in 1973, the cost ballooned to A$102 million. Adjusted for inflation, it would be A$1.082 billion ($700 million) today.
From a distance, it might seem like the “sails” of the Sydney Opera House are made from a single solid piece of material. However, the roof of the building is made out of more than one million tiles, which were imported from Sweden.
Aside from its roof, another thing that makes the Sydney Opera House unique is its heating and air-conditioning system. The system uses seawater that runs through 22 miles of pipes and powers the heating and air cooling units.
American concert artist and actor Paul Robeson is credited as the first act to perform at the Sydney Opera House. During a two-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1960, Robeson visited the construction site of the venue and performed a short show for the construction workers.
The post 5 Quick Facts About the Sydney Opera House appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Mystery of Bronze Age Axe Heads Mailed to the National Museum of Ireland Has Been Solved appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>After receiving the package, the museum experts found that the axe heads were from the Early Bronze Age and date back to 2150-2000 BC. They pleaded with the anonymous donor to step forward and provide further info so they could learn more about the artifacts.
The plea was successful, as a farmer named Thomas Dunne, from Westmeath county, recently revealed that he was the one who found the axe-heads.
According to Dunne, who was interviewed by Irish media outlet RTÉ News, he was working in his field when a piece of a mower broke off. Worried that the metal piece could result in future headaches, Dunne hired a metal detectorist to look for it.
While looking for the piece, the metal detectorist discovered several other pieces of metal, including the two axe heads. While Dunne initially believed they were scrap, metal detectorists found them unusual and decided to send them to the National Museum of Ireland for examination.
Dunne only realized that the items found on his field had historical significance several weeks later after the plea from the National Museum of Ireland made the news.
“I couldn’t believe that they came out of my field,” Dunne told RTÉ News.
While experts might be interested to see what else Dunne’s field may be hiding, the farmer doesn’t have plans for further excavations.
“It’s just an ordinary, green field. There are no monuments or anything else around it,” he added.
The post Mystery of Bronze Age Axe Heads Mailed to the National Museum of Ireland Has Been Solved appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Did You Know the United States Air Force Wanted to Nuke the Moon? appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>In 1958, the United States Air Force developed a top-secret project called Project A119, or A Study of Lunar Research Flights. The main goal of the project was to detonate an atomic bomb on the Moon.
There were several reasons why the U.S. military entertained this idea. The first one was to make the explosion visible with the naked eye from Earth, which they thought would lift the morale of the American people and also show the dominance of the United States.
Additionally, it would mean getting a leg up in the “Space Race” against the Soviet Union. The United States Secret Service got a tip that the Soviets were entertaining an idea to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon, and the U.S. military wanted to beat them to the punch.
Luckily, the project was canceled after one year.
It was concluded that the consequences would be devastating for the Earth’s population if something went wrong. Additionally, there was a possibility that a nuclear detonation would prevent further research on the Moon.
The post Did You Know the United States Air Force Wanted to Nuke the Moon? appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Art Historian Discovers Lost Portrait of Henry VIII Thanks to Social Media appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Busiakiewicz was browsing his X feed when he came across a post from a reception in Warwick’s Shire Hall shared by Tim Cox, the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire. The post featured a photo of Lieutenancy ambassadors, but the thing that caught Busiakiewicz’s attention was a framed painting of Tudor monarch Henry VIII.
Busiakiewicz identified the painting as one of 22 portraits commissioned by British politician Ralph Sheldon in the 1590s. Sheldon employed an anonymous artist known as Sheldon Master to make portraits of influential contemporary figures, mostly kings and queens, so he could hang them at his house. The paintings were later auctioned off, with the majority of them disappearing without a trace.
Busiakiewicz later visited Warwick’s Shire Hall alongside local art historian Aaron Manning in order to examine the painting. Based on all the physical evidence, he is certain that the portrait is indeed the same one that Sheldon commissioned.
Busiakiewicz is now on a mission to learn more about the anonymous painter of the portrait and trace back the painting’s provenance. It was acquired by the Warwick City Council in 1951, but little is known beyond that.
“Further details on the reverse of the painting, inaccessible during my visit, may provide further clues as to the exact provenance of this work. Work is ongoing in this respect, and further work including dendrochronology (comparing to other samples taken from other surviving Sheldon panels) and infrared could provide more clues as to its creation and perhaps creator,” Busiakiewicz concluded in a blog post.
The post Art Historian Discovers Lost Portrait of Henry VIII Thanks to Social Media appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Quick Facts About the Leaning Tower of Pisa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>From the very start of the construction of the tower in the 12th century, it became clear that the soft ground of the area couldn’t properly support the weight of the construction. After being completed in the 14th century, the tower was already leaned, and the issue worsened in the following centuries. But thanks to efforts in the 1990s and 2000s, the tower was significantly stabilized.
The construction of the tower started in 1173, but the various conflicts that the Republic of Pisa engaged in the ensuing decades significantly slowed down its completion. The construction took place in three major phases and concluded 199 years later with the addition of the bell chamber in 1372.
If you look closely, you will notice that the Tower of Pisa is also curved. This was a result of attempts to correct the leaning in the early days of its construction.
You would expect that leaning constructions are not particularly resistant when it comes to seismic events. However, the Tower of Pisa managed to survive several earthquakes and emerge unscathed. This is thanks to the same soft ground that causes its leaning.
The previously mentioned stabilizing efforts managed to straighten out the tower and prevent further leaning. However, experts predict that it will start leaning again in 200 years, at which point another intervention will be necessary.
The post 5 Quick Facts About the Leaning Tower of Pisa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Weird History: Albert Einstein’s Brain Was Stolen appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Einstein is often considered one of the smartest people to have ever lived. This is why it isn’t surprising that scientists wanted to study his brain. Einstein himself wasn’t very fond of the idea and left instructions to cremate his body after his death. His wish was granted, but not entirely.
Following Einstein’s death on April 18, 1955, at Princeton Hospital, pathologist Thomas Harvey, who was called to perform the autopsy, decided to remove the brain of the legendary scientist. He did so without anyone asking him or having any permission to do so.
Once his actions were discovered, Harvey managed to get approval from Einstein’s son, Hans. Reluctantly agreeing, Hans added a stipulation that any study of his father’s brain has to be done for scientific purposes.
Don’t think it can get weirder than this?
While Harvey got the approval, he was soon fired from Princeton Hospital. He took the brain with him, took detailed photos, and later sliced it up into pieces. The pieces were preserved in a celloidin. At one point, Harvey kept the pieces of Einstein’s brain in his basement.
Years later, Harvey and a team of researchers have published several studies about their findings from examining Einstein’s brain. The studies mainly concluded that Einstein’s brain looked different compared to most other brains, but never got traction in the scientific community.
The pieces of Einstein’s brain were later returned to his heirs, who donated them to Philadelphia’s Mütter Medical Museum.
The post Weird History: Albert Einstein’s Brain Was Stolen appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Once Tried to Reunite The Beatles appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Despite becoming the most successful band in history, the Beatles members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—decided to part ways in 1970. Several factors played a role in the breakup, but the most important were the strained relationships between the four musicians and the death of their manager, Brian Epstein.
Shortly after The Beatles disbanded, all sorts of promoters tried to get Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr back together. However, despite proposing enticing offers, some of which ranged upwards of $100 million, the former bandmates were determined to continue their separate ways. That is until Ali stepped in.
At the suggestion of inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher, Ali decided to get involved in the duo’s efforts to reunite The Beatles in 1977. After all, he was the perfect person to try the unlikely feat, being among the most famous people in the world, a fan of the band, and already having a connection with the band members.
Ali, then named Cassius Clay, and The Beatles met for the first time in 1964 at Miami Beach, coming together for a photoshoot. Ali was preparing to fight Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Champion title at the time while The Beatles were fresh from their famed appearance at The Ed Sullivan Show.
Amron and Sacher proposed the idea of The Beatles’ reunion as a charity event. Their goal was to collect $200 million that would be used for a charity fund. Ali was on board, and he soon reached out to representatives of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr while also making his efforts public and creating a media frenzy.
While Ali didn’t get an immediate response, he managed to chat with Lennon, which made him quite optimistic. The two attended the inaugural gala for new U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Ali made his pitch. Lennon didn’t accept on the spot, but he did invite Ali to meet him at New York City’s The Dakota, where he was staying with his wife Yoko Ono.
Ali was convinced that the Beatles reunion was close to happening that night, but unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that way. The representatives of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr quickly got involved, which led to a series of behind-the-scenes meetings that eventually ended the entire plan. As a result, Ali and Lennon never got to have their meeting at The Dakota, and the Beatles never reunited.
The post Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Once Tried to Reunite The Beatles appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Historical Facts That Are So Unbelievable They Sound Fake appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Video game giant Nintendo was founded in February 1889 in Kyoto, Japan, as a company that produced handmade playing cards. On the other side of the globe, the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper was still terrifying the citizens of London, UK, having committed his most recent murder just two months before.
Oxford University is one of the most famous educational institutions in the world. But a lot of people don’t realize that it has been around for almost 1,000 years, having been found in 1096. On the other hand, the Aztec Empire, which is lauded for its highly-developed society, large contributions to human civilizations, and keen approach to art, was founded in 1428.
This unbelievable fact just demonstrates how long Ancient Egyptian civilization actually lasted. The entire Giza Pyramids complex was built between 2600 and 2500 BC. Cleopatra, the last and arguably the most famous ruler of Ancient Egypt, ended her reign in 30 BC. This means that she ruled some 500 years closer to the opening of the first Pizza Hut restaurant in 1958 than the construction of the Giza pyramids.
We are not saying that samurai, famous Japanese warriors, were sending fax messages. But they could have if they wanted. Samurai were abolished in 1876, several years after the end of the feudal system in Japan, while the first version of the fax machine was invented in 1843.
The post 4 Historical Facts That Are So Unbelievable They Sound Fake appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Stewardess Named Violet Jessop Survived Sinking of Titanic and Its Two Sister Ships appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Jessop, who was born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, started working as a stewardess on an ocean liner RMS Olympic in 1911. The start of her career didn’t get to the best of starts as Olympic crashed with the British warship HMS Hawke in September of the same year and was heavily damaged.
In April 1912, Jessop transferred to Olympic’s sister ship, RMS Titanic, to continue serving in the same role. She was part of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, which tragically hit an iceberg and sank on April 16, 1912. Fortunately for Jessop, she managed to get off the ship in a lifeboat before it got underwater.
According to Jessop’s accounts, she was handed a baby while boarding the lifeboat and later managed to reunite it with its mother after Titanic survivors were rescued by RMS Carpathia.
Surviving two tragedies didn’t stop Jessop from returning to the sea several years later, but this time under different circumstances. During World War I, Jessop became a stewardess for the British Red Cross and became part of the crew of the hospital ship Britannic, which was the younger sister ship of both the Olympic and Titanic.
Britannic ended up facing the same fate as its sister ships, sinking in November 1916 after coming across a German naval mine. But Jessop survived once again, although she suffered a serious head injury in the process.
You would think that Jessop would finally say goodbye to the sea after this and remain on land. But that wasn’t the case. She continued to work as a stewardess on various ocean liners until her retirement in 1950.
The post Stewardess Named Violet Jessop Survived Sinking of Titanic and Its Two Sister Ships appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Facts About Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Director Wolfgang Petersen reportedly was offered to direct the Academy Award-winning movie Gladiator but turned it down. After seeing the success of Gladiator, which ended up being directed by Ridley Scott, Petersen jumped on the opportunity to direct Troy as a way to redeem himself.
Brad Pitt, who played Greek hero Achilles in the movie, tore his Achilles tendon while shooting the movie. In Greek mythology, Achilles is invulnerable in all of his body except his heel. The Achilles tendon, a tendon that connects calf muscles with the heel, is named after him.
Troy was filmed at various locations in Malta and Mexico. However, producers were offered a chance to shoot the movie at the site of an ancient Greek city that is considered to have been the real Troy in Hisarlik, Turkey. Turkish government even offered to sponsor the movie but was unsuccessful in their bid.
The Trojan Horse replica used in the movie was used in the promotional campaign and was displayed at various locations around the world. However, it eventually made its way to Canakkale, a Turkish city located 20 miles from the site of the real Troy.
The critics are not the only ones who didn’t like the movie. Pitt also shared his dislike for Troy in one interview, saying that he wasn’t satisfied with the way it turned out and revealing that he only did it because of a contractual obligation to the studio.
The post 5 Facts About Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Quick Facts About the Sydney Opera House appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The officials launched an international competition in 1956 in order to find a design for the Sydney Opera House. A total of 233 entries from 32 countries were submitted, with Danish architect Jørn Utzon being declared the winner and earning a compensation of 5,000 Australian pounds.
The estimated budget for the construction of the Sydney Opera House was A$7 million. However, by the time the building was finished in 1973, the cost ballooned to A$102 million. Adjusted for inflation, it would be A$1.082 billion ($700 million) today.
From a distance, it might seem like the “sails” of the Sydney Opera House are made from a single solid piece of material. However, the roof of the building is made out of more than one million tiles, which were imported from Sweden.
Aside from its roof, another thing that makes the Sydney Opera House unique is its heating and air-conditioning system. The system uses seawater that runs through 22 miles of pipes and powers the heating and air cooling units.
American concert artist and actor Paul Robeson is credited as the first act to perform at the Sydney Opera House. During a two-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1960, Robeson visited the construction site of the venue and performed a short show for the construction workers.
The post 5 Quick Facts About the Sydney Opera House appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Mystery of Bronze Age Axe Heads Mailed to the National Museum of Ireland Has Been Solved appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>After receiving the package, the museum experts found that the axe heads were from the Early Bronze Age and date back to 2150-2000 BC. They pleaded with the anonymous donor to step forward and provide further info so they could learn more about the artifacts.
The plea was successful, as a farmer named Thomas Dunne, from Westmeath county, recently revealed that he was the one who found the axe-heads.
According to Dunne, who was interviewed by Irish media outlet RTÉ News, he was working in his field when a piece of a mower broke off. Worried that the metal piece could result in future headaches, Dunne hired a metal detectorist to look for it.
While looking for the piece, the metal detectorist discovered several other pieces of metal, including the two axe heads. While Dunne initially believed they were scrap, metal detectorists found them unusual and decided to send them to the National Museum of Ireland for examination.
Dunne only realized that the items found on his field had historical significance several weeks later after the plea from the National Museum of Ireland made the news.
“I couldn’t believe that they came out of my field,” Dunne told RTÉ News.
While experts might be interested to see what else Dunne’s field may be hiding, the farmer doesn’t have plans for further excavations.
“It’s just an ordinary, green field. There are no monuments or anything else around it,” he added.
The post Mystery of Bronze Age Axe Heads Mailed to the National Museum of Ireland Has Been Solved appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Did You Know the United States Air Force Wanted to Nuke the Moon? appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>In 1958, the United States Air Force developed a top-secret project called Project A119, or A Study of Lunar Research Flights. The main goal of the project was to detonate an atomic bomb on the Moon.
There were several reasons why the U.S. military entertained this idea. The first one was to make the explosion visible with the naked eye from Earth, which they thought would lift the morale of the American people and also show the dominance of the United States.
Additionally, it would mean getting a leg up in the “Space Race” against the Soviet Union. The United States Secret Service got a tip that the Soviets were entertaining an idea to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon, and the U.S. military wanted to beat them to the punch.
Luckily, the project was canceled after one year.
It was concluded that the consequences would be devastating for the Earth’s population if something went wrong. Additionally, there was a possibility that a nuclear detonation would prevent further research on the Moon.
The post Did You Know the United States Air Force Wanted to Nuke the Moon? appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Art Historian Discovers Lost Portrait of Henry VIII Thanks to Social Media appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Busiakiewicz was browsing his X feed when he came across a post from a reception in Warwick’s Shire Hall shared by Tim Cox, the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire. The post featured a photo of Lieutenancy ambassadors, but the thing that caught Busiakiewicz’s attention was a framed painting of Tudor monarch Henry VIII.
Busiakiewicz identified the painting as one of 22 portraits commissioned by British politician Ralph Sheldon in the 1590s. Sheldon employed an anonymous artist known as Sheldon Master to make portraits of influential contemporary figures, mostly kings and queens, so he could hang them at his house. The paintings were later auctioned off, with the majority of them disappearing without a trace.
Busiakiewicz later visited Warwick’s Shire Hall alongside local art historian Aaron Manning in order to examine the painting. Based on all the physical evidence, he is certain that the portrait is indeed the same one that Sheldon commissioned.
Busiakiewicz is now on a mission to learn more about the anonymous painter of the portrait and trace back the painting’s provenance. It was acquired by the Warwick City Council in 1951, but little is known beyond that.
“Further details on the reverse of the painting, inaccessible during my visit, may provide further clues as to the exact provenance of this work. Work is ongoing in this respect, and further work including dendrochronology (comparing to other samples taken from other surviving Sheldon panels) and infrared could provide more clues as to its creation and perhaps creator,” Busiakiewicz concluded in a blog post.
The post Art Historian Discovers Lost Portrait of Henry VIII Thanks to Social Media appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Quick Facts About the Leaning Tower of Pisa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>From the very start of the construction of the tower in the 12th century, it became clear that the soft ground of the area couldn’t properly support the weight of the construction. After being completed in the 14th century, the tower was already leaned, and the issue worsened in the following centuries. But thanks to efforts in the 1990s and 2000s, the tower was significantly stabilized.
The construction of the tower started in 1173, but the various conflicts that the Republic of Pisa engaged in the ensuing decades significantly slowed down its completion. The construction took place in three major phases and concluded 199 years later with the addition of the bell chamber in 1372.
If you look closely, you will notice that the Tower of Pisa is also curved. This was a result of attempts to correct the leaning in the early days of its construction.
You would expect that leaning constructions are not particularly resistant when it comes to seismic events. However, the Tower of Pisa managed to survive several earthquakes and emerge unscathed. This is thanks to the same soft ground that causes its leaning.
The previously mentioned stabilizing efforts managed to straighten out the tower and prevent further leaning. However, experts predict that it will start leaning again in 200 years, at which point another intervention will be necessary.
The post 5 Quick Facts About the Leaning Tower of Pisa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Weird History: Albert Einstein’s Brain Was Stolen appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Einstein is often considered one of the smartest people to have ever lived. This is why it isn’t surprising that scientists wanted to study his brain. Einstein himself wasn’t very fond of the idea and left instructions to cremate his body after his death. His wish was granted, but not entirely.
Following Einstein’s death on April 18, 1955, at Princeton Hospital, pathologist Thomas Harvey, who was called to perform the autopsy, decided to remove the brain of the legendary scientist. He did so without anyone asking him or having any permission to do so.
Once his actions were discovered, Harvey managed to get approval from Einstein’s son, Hans. Reluctantly agreeing, Hans added a stipulation that any study of his father’s brain has to be done for scientific purposes.
Don’t think it can get weirder than this?
While Harvey got the approval, he was soon fired from Princeton Hospital. He took the brain with him, took detailed photos, and later sliced it up into pieces. The pieces were preserved in a celloidin. At one point, Harvey kept the pieces of Einstein’s brain in his basement.
Years later, Harvey and a team of researchers have published several studies about their findings from examining Einstein’s brain. The studies mainly concluded that Einstein’s brain looked different compared to most other brains, but never got traction in the scientific community.
The pieces of Einstein’s brain were later returned to his heirs, who donated them to Philadelphia’s Mütter Medical Museum.
The post Weird History: Albert Einstein’s Brain Was Stolen appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>