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Piñataland
Piñataland is a Brooklyn-based musical group created by David Wechsler and Doug Stone. Their songs are often about obscure historical events and people, ''National Public Radio'' including: *The pygmy ("Ota Benga's Name") *The painter John Banvard ("The Ballad of John Banvard") *The daredevil ("The Fall of Sam Patch") *The elephant Topsy ("Coney Island Funeral") *T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Cobbett
William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign activity, and raise wages, with the goal of easing poverty among farm labourers and small land holders. Cobbett backed lower taxes, saving, reversing commons enclosures and resisting the 1821 gold standard. He opposed borough-mongers, sinecurists, bureaucratic "tax-eaters" and stockbrokers. His radicalism furthered the Reform Act 1832 and gained him one of two newly created seats in Parliament for the borough of Oldham. His polemics range from political reform to religion, including Catholic emancipation. His best known book is ''Rural Rides'' (1830, in print). He argued against Malthusianism, saying economic betterment could support global population growth. Early life (1763–1791) William Cobbett was born in Farnham, Surrey, on 9 Mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Leedskalnin
Edward Leedskalnin ( lv, Edvards Liedskalniņš) (January 12, 1887 – December 7, 1951) was a Latvian immigrant to the United States and self-taught engineer who single-handedly built the Coral Castle in Florida, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Leedskalnin was also known for developing theories of magnetism. Life Edward Leedskalnin was born on January 12, 1887, in Stāmeriena Parish, Latvia. He was the fifth son of Mini and Andrejs, who were farmers on rented land. It's during his time in Latvia that it's believed under the tutelage of his father that Leedskalnin learned stonemasonry. Little is known of his childhood, aside from the fact that his parents were not wealthy and he received only a fourth-grade formal education. Edward was a sickly boy who often spent time reading books, helping him to develop an inquisitive mind and life-long yearning for knowledge. It was suggested that he learned stonemasonry from his father and practiced this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ota Benga
Ota Benga ( – March 20, 1916) was a Mbuti ( Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo. Benga had been purchased from local African slave traders by the explorer Samuel Phillips Verner, a businessman searching for African people for the exhibition, who took him to the United States. While at the Bronx Zoo, Benga was allowed to walk the grounds before and after he was exhibited in the zoo's Monkey House. Benga was placed in a cage with an orangutan as a lampoon on Darwinism. To enhance the primitive image and presumably protect himself if need be from the ape, he was given a functional bow and arrow. He used this instead to shoot at visitors who mocked him and partially as a result of this the exhibition was ended. Except for a brief visit to Africa with Verner after the close of the St. Louis Fair, Benga lived in the United States, mostly in V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Patch
Sam Patch (1799Johnson, Paul. ''Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper'' (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003) . – November 13, 1829), known as "The Jersey Jumper", "The Daring Yankee", or the "Yankee Leaper" became the first famous American daredevil after successfully jumping from a raised platform into the Niagara River near the base of Niagara Falls in 1829. Biography Early life Sam Patch was born to Mayo Greenleaf Patch and Abigail McIntire and was the fifth child of the family that included Molly, Greenleaf, Nabby, Samuel (died as an infant), Samuel, and Issac. Sam was raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he began working as a child laborer spinning cotton in a mill. When he was not working, he entertained other boys by jumping off the mill dam. By his early 20s, he was working at a mill in Paterson, New Jersey, and was jumping off ever-higher spots. He was beginning to attract crowds for his well-advertised stunts. On September 30, 1827, he jumped off the Passaic Falls (The Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minik Wallace
Minik Wallace (also called Minik or Mene) (ca. 1890 – October 29, 1918) was an Inughuaq (Inuk) brought as a child in 1897 from Greenland to New York City with his father and others by the explorer Robert Peary. The six Inuit were studied by staff of the American Museum of Natural History, which had custody. The adults and one child died soon of tuberculosis (TB), and one young man was returned to Greenland. After deceiving Minik with a staged burial, the museum put the skeleton of his father on exhibit. Minik was adopted by William Wallace, the museum's building superintendent, and did not return to Greenland until after 1910. He returned to the United States a few years later, where he remained and worked until dying of influenza in the 1918 pandemic. Early years Minik, son of the renowned hunter Qisuk (ca. 1858–1898) and his wife Mannik, spent his early childhood in northern Greenland among his people, the Inughuit, the northernmost band of Greenlandic Inuit ( Eskimo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Campaign Song
Campaign songs are songs used by candidates or political campaigns. Most modern campaign songs are upbeat popular songs or original compositions that articulate a positive message about a campaign or candidate, usually appealing to patriotism, optimism, or a good-natured reference to a personal quality of the candidate such as their ethnic origin or the part of the country they are from. In some cases, the campaign song can be a veiled attack on an opposing candidate or party. Some songs originally devised as a campaign song for a specific election have become identified with the party itself in later election cycles; for example, the Likud's campaign song for the 1992 Israeli legislative election, "The Likud is Right", has become the Party's anthem starting in the late 2000s. The use of a campaign song is primarily known in the quadrennial United States presidential election, where both major party candidates usually use one or more songs to identify with their campaign. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825. During his long diplomatic and political career, Adams also served as an ambassador, and as a member of the United States Congress representing Massachusetts in both chambers. He was the eldest son of John Adams, who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801, and First Lady Abigail Adams. Initially a Federalist like his father, he won election to the presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and in the mid-1830s became affiliated with the Whig Party. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, Adams spent much of his youth in Europe, where his father served as a diplomat. After returning to the United States, Adams established a successful legal practice in Boston. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blocks southwest of Prospect Park. Its boundaries include, among other streets, 20th Street to the northeast, Fifth Avenue to the northwest, 36th and 37th Streets to the southwest, Fort Hamilton Parkway to the south, and McDonald Avenue to the east. Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery, in a time of rapid urbanization when churchyards in New York City were becoming overcrowded. Described as "Brooklyn's first public park by default long before Prospect Park was created", p. 687. Green-Wood Cemetery was so popular that it inspired a competition to design Central Park in Manhattan, as well as Prospect Park nearby. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and was made a National Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cobble Hill Tunnel
The Cobble Hill Tunnel (also known as the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel) is an abandoned Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, running through the neighborhoods of Downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill. When open, it ran for about between Columbia Street and Boerum Place. It is the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America that was fully devoted to rail. It is also deemed the oldest subway tunnel in the world by the ''Guinness Book of World Records''. Construction and operation Originally built as an open cut, construction began in May 1844, and opened for use on December 3, 1844, but was not completely finished until mid-1845. It was built mainly to satisfy public demand for creation of a grade-separated right of way for the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad (later Long Island Rail Road) on its way to the South Ferry at the foot of Atlantic Street (later Atlantic Avenue), where passengers could catch ferries to Manhatt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Stone House (Brooklyn)
The Old Stone House is a house located in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The Old Stone House is situated within the J. J. Byrne Playground, at Washington Park, on Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. Gowanus Creek once ran nearby, but today the southeastern branch of the Gowanus Canal ends west of the house. ''Note:'' This includes ''See also:'' The current structure is a 1933 reconstruction, using some original materials, of the Vechte–Cortelyou House, which was destroyed in 1897. The original house was an important part of the 1776 Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War. At one time, the Old Stone House was the clubhouse of the Brooklyn Superbas, who later became the Brooklyn Dodgers. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. First house The current Old Stone House is a replica, using some unearthed original materials, of a Dutch stone farmhouse originally built adjacent to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Castle
Coral Castle is an oolite limestone structure created by the Latvian-American eccentric Edward Leedskalnin (1887–1951). It is located in Unincorporated area, unincorporated territory of Miami-Dade County, Florida, between the cities of Homestead, Florida, Homestead and Leisure City, Florida, Leisure City. The structure comprises numerous large stones, each weighing several Short ton, tons, sculpted into a variety of shapes, including slab walls, tables, chairs, a crescent moon, a water fountain and a sundial. It is currently a privately operated tourist attraction. Coral Castle is noted for legends surrounding its creation that claim it was built single-handedly by Leedskalnin using geomagnetic reversal, reverse magnetism or supernatural abilities to move and carve the stones. History Coral Castle's own promotional material says Edward Leedskalnin was 26 years old when he was suddenly rejected by his 16-year-old fiancée Agnes Skuvst in Latvia, just one day before the wedding. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough,2010 Gazetteer for New York State . Retrieved September 18, 2016. with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, Brooklyn is located on the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
