April 2019
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: 106 years ago today as the Titanic was sinking,band leader Wallace Hartley decided to stay on the ship together with his fellow musicians. Why? I don’t really know, but I think it was to give that glimmer of hope to those who were facing their last minutes before their…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Most of you know I have a keen interest in all things WWII and you are probably expecting an epic tale of a WWII Dogfight over the skies of Nuremberg. Alas you are mistaken, this particular ‘aerial combat’ took place on either the 4th or 14th of April 1561(it…
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This is a small deviation from my usual more dramatic historical blogs, but since today is marked as Record Store day I felt compelled to do a blog celebrating this day. Record Store day is a bi-annual event inaugurated in 2008 and held on one Saturday every April and every “Black Friday” in November to
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Two years after the invasion of the Netherlands all Jews age six and older were required to wear a so-called yellow star visible on the left side of their clothing. It was yet another measure to isolate and exclude Jews from Dutch society. The word Jood (Jew) appears in the middle of…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: You often hear the term ‘the coldest winter,or hottest summer on record etc’ but the oldest ongoing instrumental record of temperature in the world is the Central England Temperature record, started in 1659. Although I am not disputing the climate change, the fact is there have been climate changes or…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Some Jewish children gave away their toys when they had to report for transport or went into hiding. Marbles were a child’s prized possession. The night before they were transported, a few children in the South of Amsterdam were known to have said: ‘Let’s just toss them!’ They threw…
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What a lot of people don’t realize is that Camp Westerbork was actually established as a refugee camp for Jews escaping the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria.and who had illegally entered the Netherlands. It was established by the Dutch government in the summer of 1939. In July 1942, the Nazis took over the camp
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: In the months following the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940, the Germans wanted daily life to continue as normal as possible. So entertainment was of great importance. And who better to help with this than the popular twosome of Snip and Snap. For years the comedy reviews of…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: It was the commission of a lifetime—an invitation from the president himself to visit his vacation home for a long weekend to paint a life-sized portrait that would be displayed for all to see. It wasn’t the first time Elizabeth Shoumatoff had raised her brush to capture the likeness…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia at 3:35 pm. The President was 63 and serving his fourth term. Vice President Harry Truman took the Presidential Oath of Office at 7:09 pm in the Cabinet Room in…
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