I cheated a little bit since Tom Thumb was a member of the tour and P.T. Barnum's American Museum but was not apart of an actual circus. Please forgive I could not resist doing an episode on Charles Stratton (General Tom Thumb). If you happen to have seen The Greatest Showman (As I have a dozen times) you might remember him. While I LOVE the movie the true story of General Tom Thumb is even more fantastical. Please tune in and hear about Tom's audience with the Queen and his play battle with her spaniel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Thumb History of the Circus

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Roosevelt's Zoo: Presidential Pets

Mathew Henson  Explorer
I think I am going to do a series of PLEASE SOMEONE IN HOLLYWOOD MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS PERSON Tell me at the end if you would not sit and binge an entire series about Mathew Henson one of the first people to go to the NorthPole in our Black History month for I Can’t Believe That Happened.

 Born August 8 1866 on a farm in Maryland He was the middle child with an older and a younger sister His parents were free sharecroppers who escaped to Georgetown after the KKK made southern Maryland too violent to stay. Mathew was orphaned at a young age and raised by his uncle in Washington DC. He earned money by washing dishes in a restaurant.
During the speeches of 1863 Mathew was deeply inspired by Fredrick Douglas. At the age of 12 he became a cabin boy on the Katie Hines traveling to ports in China, Japan, Africa, and the Russian Arctic.  During his time on the Hines he was educated by the ship’s captain When he returned to land he worked in a clothing store where he met Commander Robert E Peary. Once Robert learned of Mathew’s sea experience eh recruited him for a surveying tour of Nicaragua. Mathew impresses Peary on the voyage and became first man on all upcoming trips.
For twenty years the expeditions centered around the arctic where they traded heavily with the Inuit. Mathew learned their language and was said to be the only non Inuit who became skilled in driving the sled dogs and training the dogs in the Inuit way. He was a skilled craftsman who learned to build igloos from snow and other mobile housing. In 1909 Peary mounted an expedition to reach the North Pole. He and Mathew boarded the Roosevelt leaving Greenland along with four Inuit assistants, Four Inuit guides named Egingwah, Ooqueah, Ootah, and Seeglo, and were the first people to set foot on the North Pole.
Mathew was one of six chosen to make the final leg of the journey. Reports have it that Henson was no longer able to continue by foot and used the dog sled to scout ahead of the group. Henson was the one to plant the American flag.
There was much controversy about the story but their accounts are backed up by the National Geographic association as well as the Naval Affairs Subcommitee of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1912 he wrote a book about his experiences traveling widely to give speeches about his experiences. Though Henson was a very important part of the expedition it was Peary who received most of the fame and focus. Henson spent years working as a clerk.
Long overdue in 1937 Henson was given membership to the New York Explorers Club. Congress awarded him the Peary Polar Expedition Medal in 1944 He was honored by President Truman and President Eisenhower before he died in 1955
Bibliography https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/explore/notable-graves/explorers/matthew-henson https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/24/matthew-henson-arctic-explorer-first-man-to-north-pole Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Henson:  First Man on the North Pole: Black History Month I Can't Believe That Happened

Welcome to I Can’t Believe That Happened and our first episode on the History of Cursed Jewels. A quick reminder I always throw in one wrong fact.  If you find it send me and email and let me know what the right fact is and what your source is. Let’s start with the Ring of Dwarf Hill that inspired The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien What if I told you that some of his epic fantasy came from actual history?Let’s talk about: The One ring to rule them all.  The ring that had all of middle earth in a massive power struggle.  
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One Ring To Rule Them All: The Ring That InspireD J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

What is it about minerals and gemstones that we find so amazing even beyond their beauty? We give them a supernatural power from healing crystals, to purifications, to remembering our dead with memento mori, to of course curses of long-dead powerful rulers wishing to keep their riches in to the eternity of the afterlife.  We have told stories about cursed gems. There have been books and movies. You will certainly have heard of a few of the stories before or you might find out your favorite tale comes from one of these histories. When studying history we find often that the most frightening part of the tale is not the supernatural but in the way that people can set aside kindness and treat others in a way that they themselves would not wish to be treated in obtaining a symbol of power and beauty. As you might imagine the history of jewels is full of these tales. While this is meant to be a fun romp through history I want to leave you with this, never forget those in the margins of your history books and whenever you can choose kindness. Now lets go far back into a world where stones are so much more than a decoration. ............ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Surprising History of Cursed Jewels, Jewelry, and Gemstones

Mercy Otis Warren: Revolutionary Playwright, Historian, and Whistleblower July 4 Episode

 In researching the revolution so many names came up that even with my decades of love of history I had never heard. Mercy Otis is one. Which is surprising given how much she did during and after the revolution and the president’s who held her views in high regard. She not only wrote to presidents )who wrote back) but she published plays, pamphlets, and the first history of the revolution published by and American. Though the presidents admired (or mostly admired) her work she did have some critiques on them. She was anti slavery believing that such horrors were undermining to what the country was based on. She was angry at the treatments of the First Nations people and as you may expect was angered that there was no place for women in the new laws.

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Tom Thumb History of the Circus

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