The Story Teller

Archive for the ‘historically speaking’ Category

Shaman is a highly trained and spiritually selected individual who is believed to be a messenger between the human word and the spirit world. He or She is said to treat ailments by mending the soul.

He or she is also believed to have the ability to travel to different dimensions in search of a solution to the problem of his or her community.

Source: Wikipedia

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Wilbur Wright, together with his brother Orville Wright, built  the first successful controllable airplane.

It flew for 12 seconds on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The following year, The Flyer II, flown by Wilbur Wright flew above Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio in November  9, 1904. The flight lasted for 5 minutes.

Source: Wikipedia

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Dracula, the famous novel written by Bram Stoker was said to be inspired by the best-known figure in the Romanian history, Vlad Dracula nicknamed Vlad Tepes which means Vlad, The Impaler.

Vlad II, his father was a member of The Order of the Dragon, thus was called Vlad Dracul which means Vlad the Dragon. Consequently, Vald III was called Vlad Dracula which means Vlad, The Son of the Dragon. As he became the ruler of Wallachia, he was nicknamed Vlad Tepes which means Vlad, The Impaler, basically because impaling was his preferred method of torture wherein a stake was inserted through an enemy’s bodies until he dies.

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Benjamin Banneker was an African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer.

He was a grandson of a slave and an indentured servant, Banna Ka/Bannaky and Molly Walsh, respectively. The couple bore children including Mary Bannaky. Mary bought a slave named Robert, freed him and eventually married him and had several children which included Benjamin.

When Benjamin was about 21 years old, he received a gift from his friend Josef Levi, it was a patent watch. Benjamin took the watch apart to see how it worked and put them back again. Then, he copied each part of the watch by carving them out of wood, thus was the first clock ever made in America. Quite remarkably, he clock has worked accurately for forty years.

,Wikipedia

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This is the St. Petersburg, the Imperial capital of Russia from 1713-1728 and 1732-1918. It was founded by Tsar Peter The Great.

In 1914, the name was changed to Petrograd, to Leningrad in 1924 and was changed back to St. Petersburg in 1991.

The Revolution of 1905, February Revolution and October Revolution all began in St. Petersburg thus acquiring the name The City of Three Revolutions.

On March 12, 1918, the Soviets transferred the government to Moscow.

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Longmen Grottoes or Longmen Caves are one of the finest example of Chinese Buddhist art. It has tens of thousands of statues of Buddha. The images were carved into caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of the Mangsham and Longensham mountains.

There are 100,000 statues within the 1,400 caves ranging from 1 inch to 57 feet in height. There are also neary 2500 stelae and inscriptions, making it the Forest of Ancient Stelae, and over 60 Buddhist pagodas.

In 2000, the site was inscribed upon UNESCO World Heritage as “an outstanding manifestation of human creativity”.

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The Terra Cotta Warriors and Heroes is a collection of (terra cotta) baked clay sculptures featuring the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the firs Emperor of China.

It was a funerary art in 210-209BC created to protect the emperor in his after life.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born Arthur Ignatius Doyle, was a Scottish physician and writer born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was more popularly known, however, as the creator of Detective SHERLOCK HOLMES who was modeled after his university professor Joseph Bell.

During the BOER WAR, Conan Doyle served as a doctor in the medical unit treating British troops. He wrote “The Great Boer War” published as “The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct” which countered the charges against the British that came out after the war, which included rape, torture and establishment of concentration camps. Consequently, he was offered to be made a knight bachelor by King Edward VII. So, on Oct. 24, 1902 he became SIR Arthur Conan Doyle.

He was married first to Louisa Hawkins who died of tuberculosis and second to Jean Elizabeth Lechie. He died of heart attack on July 7, 1930 at the age of 71. His last words, directed to his wife, were “You are wonderful.” His epitaph read:

Steel True

Blade Straight

Arthur Conan Doyle

Knight

Patriot, Physician and Man of Letters

I am not a treasure hunter nor did I ever dream to be one, but I’m a voracious reader and I am very much fascinated with myths. Among the most alluring story for me is the legendary Yamashita Treasure, or is it only a myth?

It was said that in 1961, a Filipino treasure hunter, Rogelio Roxas, met the son of a former member of the Japanese forces who mapped him the location of the Yamashita Treasure near Baguio City. In 1971, they found, in an enclosed chamber, bayonets, samurai, etc, but the most fascinating of all was “.. a 3-foot-high (0.91 m) golden-colored Buddha and numerous stacked crates which filled an area approximately 6 feet x 6 feet x 35 feet- (Wikipedia)”.

When Pres. Marcos learned about the treasure, however, he had Roxas arrested and seized the gold. When Marcos lost the presidency in 1986, Roxas was released and the treasurer hunter filed suit in 1988 against the Marcos in the Hawaiian state court  for the theft of the treasure in addition to human rights abuse. Roxas died the on the eve of the trial but left enough evidence of his claims. So, in 1996, Roxas estate and the Golden Buddha Corporation received the largest judgment awarded in history amounting to $22 billion that with interest would amount to $40.5 billion. It was, however, decreased back to $22 billion as there was no evidence of the exact quantity of the treasure.

In the end, the Golden Buddha Corporation was awarded $13,275,848.37 and Roxas’ estate obtained a $6 million judgment on the claim for human right abuse.

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“Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River”-Samuel Brannan

The CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH which went on between 1848 and 1855 started on January 24, 1848 when James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. Upon hearing the confirmation that gold was really found, about 300,000 people, half came from the sea and half came overland to California to be gold seekers called ‘Forty Niners’ to refer to 1949.

The Gold Rush brought dramatic change to California. The population of San Francisco grew from 200 residents in 1846 to 36,000 in 1852. Furthermore, California became a state of America in 1850. Sadly, however, about 100.000 California Indians died between 1848 and 1868 as a result of American Immigration.

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