In the year 1636, King Christian of Denmark gives an order that all beggars able to work must be sent to build ships or to work as galley rowers (Mar 5), the Massachusetts Bay Colony organises militia to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians, later recognized as the founding of the United States National Guard (Dec 23), the shōgun forbids Japanese to travel abroad, and those abroad from returning home, Rhode Island is founded, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) goes on - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Today’s name in First Names First is Dean. So take your pick, and find some inspiring stories behind the names. Give this a couple of minutes - for lives lived have all something worthwhile to tell us. Let them! Dean Rusk* politician – Cherokee County, GA USA (1909) Dean Brooks* physician/actor (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) – Colony, KS USA (1916) Dean Martin* actor/singer/producer – Steubenville, OH USA (1917) Continue reading

Authentic gas lamps in Gornji Grad in Zagreb, Croatia - lit twice a day by lamplighters. Picture credit: Jorge Láscar You are now reading the first article of Occupations, a whole new category here in Journeys of Life! We look here at different occupations that people have had throughout history. Many of which continue to this day and are therefore well-known to anyone. Then many which are pretty obscure since they don’t exist anymore except as notes in historical context. Continue reading

Cape Horn Monument in Chile (1992), paying homage to sailors who perished attempting to round Cape Horn. Picture credit Jens Bludau In the year 1616, English diplomat Sir Thomas Roe presents his credentials to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, opening the door to the British presence in India (Jan 10), Dutch captain Willem Schouten rounds the southern tip of South America and names it Kaap Hoorn (Jan 29), William Shakespeare dies (Apr 23), Pocahontas arrives in England with her family and the colonial governor of Virginia, never to see home again (Jun 12), the Tokugawa shogunate forbids foreigners other than Chinese from traveling and trading freely in Japan (Aug 8), the Blue Mosque in Istanbul is completed, Dutch traders smuggle the coffee plant out of Mocha - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

instant baby formula has been around for centuries? And the first ones were not based on cow milk at all, but plant-based - made of corn and nuts? From the stories of Elizabeth Hanson who was captured by the Native American Abenaki in 1724, we get to know of her troubles of breastfeeding her daughter, two weeks old at the time of the kidnapping. The lack of nourishment and clothing resulted in inadequate milk production. Continue reading

Brenner Pass at today’s Austria-Italy border. Photo credit: Sönke Kraft aka Arnulf zu Linden This time in our series 1000 Years Ago Today, the exact date is unknown. But sometime in November 1021, King Henry II of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor and also known as Saint Henry the Exuberant, the last ruler of the Ottonian line, conducts his fourth Italian military campaign. He crosses the Brenner Pass, a mountain pass through the Alps with a 60,000-strong army, and reaches Verona in the Kingdom of Lombardia in northern Italy. Continue reading

Time for another Who Said That! Try to guess or remember who is behind the quotation below, and if you don’t know, you’ll see who at the very end of the article. Remember to scroll slowly. So, who said: You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge! Whatever it is, you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge! Be it addiction (drugs, food, sex, gambling etc), obsession, co-dependency, any other emotional issue or bad habit, you have to face yourself in order to change the way you live. Continue reading

In the year 1631, the Reval Gymnasium is founded in Estonia by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf (Feb 16), John Winthrop becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts (May 18), William Claiborne sails from England to establish the first English settlement in Maryland (May 28), the first French newspaper, La Gazette, is founded (May 30), the death in childbirth of Mumtaz Mahal causes her husband Shah Jahan to commission the Taj Mahal at Agra, as a mausoleum for her (Jun 17), for the first time in several centuries, Mount Vesuvius at Pompeii erupts (Dec 16) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Mother tongue. The first language we learn, and usually by our mother, and father. Sometimes we get to learn two languages at once if the parents are from different linguistic background. And sometimes the third language enters the picture early on as we enter the school and the language of the land is not that of our parents. So, whatever else we may call the mother tongue - first language, native tongue, parent tongue - it will be the language of feelings and self-expression more than any other language we may learn. Continue reading

One nice thing about watching old movies (or movies depicting old times) is that we get to see all those fancy car models from the past - don’t you think? Here is another way of looking at that. Let’s see what kind of cars people thru ages might have driven. Whether they drove the car themselves or just saw it passing by on the street - here’s what they might have seen. Continue reading

In the year 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon makes the first confirmed sighting of Australia by a European (Feb 26), the first version of the Union Flag is created, to be worn as a national flag by English and Scottish ships (Apr 12), the trial in the gravedigging scandal of Frankenstein begins (the details of which may have inspired the Frankenstein story (Sep 20), Charles IX of Sweden founds the city of Vaasa on the west coast of Finland (Oct 2) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Emily - and the versions of it in other languages - is the name in today’s First Names First! So take your pick, and find some inspiring stories behind the names. Give this a couple of minutes for lives lived have all something worthwhile to tell us. Let them! Émilie du Châtelet* natural philosopher/mathematician – Paris, Kingdom of France (1706) Emilie Petersen* Swedish philanthropist – Hamburg, Germany, Holy Roman Empire (1780) Continue reading

In the year 1639, the first printing press in British North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Stephen Daye (Jan), Harvard University is named for clergyman John Harvard (Mar 13), Swedish forces defeat the army of the Holy Roman Empire in Chemnitz, allowing them to advance into Bohemia (Apr 14), Jeremiah Horrocks makes the first successful prediction and observation of a transit of Venus (Dec 4), Sakoku, the isolationist foreign policy of Japan, comes fully into effect - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1290, King Edward I of England orders all Jews to leave England by November 1 (in the Hebrew calendar this is Tisha B’Av, a day that commemorates many calamities) (Jul 18), the country of Wallachia is founded (Aug 1), King Denis of Portugal decrees that Portuguese will replace classical Latin as the official language of Portugal, construction on the Akershus Fortress of Oslo, Norway begins - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Modern Moscow with its business center The city we go this time in Streets & Squares is Moscow, the capital of Russia, first documented in 1147. From the times of Tsardom of Russia it has evolved into a very modern city, the home of some 20 million people in the metropolitan area. Vocabulary: most мост (bridge), park парк (park), pereulok переу́лок (lane), proezd проезд (passage, thoroughfare), prospekt проспект (avenue), sad сад (garden), ulitsa улица (street). Continue reading

A slightly more modern coffeehouse in Venice In the year 1640, John Punch becomes the first official slave in the English colonies as he is sentenced to life in servitude (Jul 9), the first Finnish University opens in Turku/Åbo (Jul 15), 41 Spanish delegates to Japan are beheaded in Nagasaki (Aug 9), the first book to be printed in North America - the Bay Psalm Book - is published, the first known European coffeehouse opens in Venice - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1642, Ville-Marie (the future Montreal) is founded as a permanent settlement (May 17), Abel Tasman discovers the island Van Diemen’s Land, later renamed Tasmania (Nov 24), (), Rembrandt finishes his painting, The Night Watch, some 300,000 people die when the Chinese army breaks the dams of the Yellow River in order to break a siege by rebels, the First English Civil War goes on – and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

A modern barometer. Picture credit Sally Hunter In the year 1643, a couple of months after sighting Tasmania, Abel Tasman sights Tonga (Jan 21) and then the Fiji Islands (Feb 6), Louis XIV becomes King of France, ruling 72 years, the longest reign of any European monarch in recorded history (May 14), the failed Dutch expedition to Chilean Valdivia - the last one undertaken by the Dutch on the west coast of the Americas - arrives back at Recife in Dutch Brazil (Dec 28), Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1645, fearing the spread of the Black Death, Edinburgh Town Council prohibits all gatherings except weddings and funerals (Mar 31), Oliver Cromwell is confirmed as the Lieutenant-General of the Cavalry during the ongoing English Civil War (Jun 10), Jeanne Mance founds the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first hospital in North America (Oct 8), the English Civil War (1642–1651) goes on, wallpaper begins to replace tapestries - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Emil - and the versions of it in other languages - is the name in today’s First Names First! So take your pick, and find some inspiring stories behind the names. Give this a couple of minutes - for lives lived have all something worthwhile to tell us. Let them! Emil Skoda* Czech engineer/ founder of Skoda Works – Pizén, Bohemia, Austrian Empire (1839) Émile Zola* author – Paris, France (1840) pic Continue reading