A Brief History On October 24th, 1537, in a cruel twist of fate, Queen Jane Seymour died of complications following childbirth after having just 12 days earlier provided Henry VIII with his much longed-for son and heir. Digging Deeper There is a popular rhyme that people can memorize to remember the fates of Henry VIII’s six wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Jane, the only one of his wives to bear that name (the rest were either “Catherines” or “Annes”), was the one who died.  If she had not died, however, she would have been the one who survived, as…

A Brief History The first record of dressing up in costumes on Halloween in North America goes back to 1911 when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported how the neighborhood children were “guising.”  It was not until the 1930s, however, that companies began mass-producing Halloween costumes for commercial sale.  Early costumes were scary in nature and were often of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mummies, witches, etc.  Later costumes moved on from the ghoulish characters and expanded to include non-scary figures ranging from superheroes to cowboys and Indians to fairy princesses to athletes to animals.  In recent years, it has become a popular trend for women to…

A Brief History On October 23, 1939, the Japanese G4M, named the “Betty” bomber by the Allies, made its maiden flight.  Destined to be the main Japanese land-based bomber for the entire war, it was, like other Japanese planes, state of the art at the beginning of World War II but grossly outmatched by American models later in the war.  Made by Mitsubishi, the same company that made the Zero and now makes cars and trucks, its performance was roughly on par with the American B-25 as far as speed and climb, and it had better range. Digging Deeper Unfortunately for some Japanese airmen,…

A Brief History On October 22, 2014 and again on October 29, 2014, the FX channel television production American Horror Story: Freak Show features a two-faced character based on an alleged real-life human freak named Edward Mordrake. Digging Deeper With actor Wes Bentley portraying the unfortunate, two-faced man, the show takes us back to 1952 in Jupiter, Florida where a troupe of human freaks is assembled as a carnival sideshow.  If you have ever seen the iconic 1932 film Freaks, you might know that by that time in history, the public was beginning to not take too kindly to deformed humans…

A Brief History On October 22, 1964, French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre became the first person to voluntarily refuse a Nobel Prize, in his case the prize for literature.  Incredibly for a Frenchman, in 1945 Sarte had also refused the Legion of Honor (Legion d’honneur), France’s highest award. Digging Deeper Sartre said that though he was honored to be selected for the Nobel Prize, he refused to accept it because he did not want to become part of the “establishment.”  He also feared his acceptance of an award that had been issued by a Western institution might make him look as if he had taken sides…