J-M's History Corner

The majority of history goes unrecorded – or is considered unimportant enough that the records of it are eventually lost.  This is one of the lesser-known events in history; a horrible and tragic shipwreck on the coast of New Zealand in 1884, that of the Clyde . From the Sydney Morning Herald ‘s report: TERRIBLE SHIPWRECK AND GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. By the steamer Hauroto, which arrived from Wellington (N. Z.) last evening, we have received fuller particu- lars of the wreck of the barque Clyde, and the loss (with tho exception of a lad) of all on board, at Akaroa Heads. From the Wellington Evening Post we gather the following particulars, which were telegraphed to that journal from Dunedin and Christ- church. The first telegram is dated Dunedin, November 6, and reads : “The barque Clyde, which left here yesterday morning for Lyttelton, is ashore at Duvanchelles Bay, near Akaroa Heads.” A later telegram was received; as fol...

Part 1: https://jmshistorycorner.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/giants-in-america-part-1/ From Beyond Science TV: Are giants real? At some point in our distant past, were there ancient people of enormous size that walked the earth and dominated the planet as humans now do? So much knowledge of the world’s past has been lost throughout the ages – some destroyed by war, some ruined by natural disasters, some neglected by mankind’s ignorance and lack of appreciation, and some simply disappeared as a natural consequence of the passage of time. But while much has been lost, much also remains to be discovered. And the clues to answering questions like whether or not giants once existed on the planet could actually be found in what lies beneath our feet. In recent years, due to the number of mysterious findings around the world supporting the idea that giants walked on earth a long, long time ago, more and more people are seriously considering the possibility that these gigantic human-like cre...

A little over a century ago, it was once common knowledge that giants had once inhabited North America.  The Indians had many legends of these beings.  Several of the early European explorers actually saw & interacted with tribes of giants.  Giant bones were not uncommon, especially in burial mounds.  This was an accepted historical & scientific fact. Then the Smithsonian came along, and destroyed much of the evidence (that's actually not just a conspiracy theory, but an established historical fact), and the still-unproven Theory of Evolution did the rest. Here is an article by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe on the subject: Perhaps the most intriguing and widely known tale of real giants in the age of exploration began with an account concerning none other than the great Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Between the years of 1519 and 1522 Magellan embarked on his most famous voyage, a Spanish expedition to search for a good route to the Mal...

Commonplace Fun Facts After the sinking of the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage, many people asked how such a tragedy could have been avoided. Over the more than 100 years since that fateful night in 1912, much has been written about the size of the ship’s rudder being too small, the inadequacy of the flood controls, and the insufficiency of the lifeboats. While all of these were certainly factors in the calamity, the incident itself might have been avoided altogether if it hadn’t been for one missing key. View original post 334 more words

Jeanne Calment on her 121st birthday in 1996 Jeanne Louise Calment (1875-1997) is widely considered the oldest person in history – at least, the oldest verified by Guinness’ World Records’ stringent standards.  (There appear to be others who are/were older , but there usually isn’t enough documentation to absolutely prove it.)  She lived for an impressive 122 years, 164 days . However, a theory has been making the rounds in the media recently – and gaining in popularity – is that the French supercentanarian was a fraud, that she was really Calment’s daughter Yvonne (1898-1934).  The theory goes that Yvonne didn’t die in 1934, but her mother did instead, and that she took her identity, dying at the age of 99.  This theory is nothing new, but has been largely dismissed until recently.  Her age is one of the most well-documented in history.  The new proponent – Nikolay Zak – has presented an interesting case; but gets some of his fa...