Forums Forums General Forums A - Z Lifestyle On This Day in HIstory

26th December 1862

Largest Mass Hanging in US History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862#Execution

Execution[edit]

One of the 39 condemned prisoners was granted a reprieve.[23]:252–259[28] The Army executed the 38 remaining prisoners by hanging on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. It remains the largest mass execution in American history.

The mass execution was performed publicly on a single scaffold platform. After regimental surgeons pronounced the prisoners dead, they were buried en masse in a trench in the sand of the riverbank. Before they were buried, an unknown person nicknamed "Dr. Sheardown" possibly removed some of the prisoners' skin.[29] Small boxes purportedly containing the skin later were sold in Mankato.

At least two Sioux leaders, Little Six and Medicine Bottle, escaped to Canada. They were captured, drugged, and returned to the United States. They were hanged at Fort Snelling in 1865.[30]

Medical aftermath[edit]

Because of the high demand for cadavers for anatomical study, several doctors wanted to obtain the bodies after the execution. The grave was reopened in the night and the bodies were distributed among the doctors, a practice common in the era. William Worrall Mayo received the body of Maȟpiya Akan Nažiŋ (Stands on Clouds), also known as "Cut Nose".

Mayo brought the body of Maȟpiya Akan Nažiŋ to Le Sueur, Minnesota, where he dissected it in the presence of medical colleagues.[31]:77–78 Afterward, he had the skeleton cleaned, dried and varnished. Mayo kept it in an iron kettle in his home office. His sons received their first lessons in osteology based on this skeleton.[31]:167 In the late 20th century, the identifiable remains of Maȟpiya Akan Nažiŋ and other Indians were returned by the Mayo Clinic to a Dakota tribe for reburial per the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

1874

Boxing Day was officially recognized in Britain as a Bank Holiday. The name originates from the custom of Christmas boxes being given to a lord's serfs and dates back to the middle ages.

1900

A relief crew arrived at the the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, only to find that the previous crew of three lighthouse keepers had all disappeared without a trace. The mystery has never been resolved, but rumours and myths still abound.

1831 English naturalist Charles Darwin sailed from Plymouth on board his ship, HMS Beagle. His scientific voyage of discovery lasted five years and led to the publication (in 1859) of his highly controversial book The Origin of Species which fuelled the 'creation versus evolution' debate. In recognition of Darwin's outstanding work, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, next to his friend and eminent scientist John Herschel and close to Isaac Newton. Darwin was born in Shrewsbury -

1965 Thirteen people were killed when Britain's first North Sea drilling rig (Sea Gem) capsized

1977 Thousands of people flocked to UK cinemas to watch the long-awaited blockbuster, Star Wars.

1984 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was voted Woman of the Year, on Radio 4's Today programme. According to a Gallup Poll she was the woman most admired by the American people; the third consecutive year that the 'Iron Lady' had received that honour.

Thanks for that granny. Re Mrs Thatcher maybe Therese May will get one if she gets away from the EU successfully.

She might do, but at the moment it seems highly unlikely , dingle !

Handpicked a few more, and was hoping that others might contribute and add any events they can find or know about .

1065 Westminster Abbey was consecrated. Its founder Edward the Confessor could not attend due to illness. He died on 5th January l066 and was buried in a shrine before the High Altar in his new church.

1879 The Tay railway bridge collapsed whilst the Edinburgh to Dundee train was crossing. The original crossing was the longest railway bridge in the world but during the storm the wind was said to have blown the iron girders in the central section away 'like matchwood. The engine and carriages plummeted into the icy river below killing 59 people. In 1979 British Rail commissioned a special train to take people across the new bridge at the exact time of the original accident ....... 19:15 GMT. On 28th December 2013 granite memorials to commemorate the disaster were unveiled on both sides of the river.

1957 The Stanley abattoir in Liverpool (one of Britain's largest) closed down after foot and mouth disease was found in cattle.

Looks as if this is not a good time of year for Sicily !!

On this day in 1908

Worst European earthquake


At dawn, the most destructive earthquake in recorded European history strikes the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, leveling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on the Italian mainland. The earthquake and tsunami it caused killed an estimated 100,000 people.

Sicily and Calabria are known as la terra ballerina–“the dancing land”–for the periodic seismic activity that strikes the region. In 1693, 60,000 people were killed in southern Sicily by an earthquake, and in 1783 most of the Tyrrenian coast of Calabria was razed by a massive earthquake that killed 50,000. The quake of 1908 was particularly costly in terms of human life because it struck at 5:20 a.m. without warning, catching most people at home in bed rather than in the relative safety of the streets or fields.

The main shock, registering an estimated 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, caused a devastating tsunami with 40-foot waves that washed over coastal towns and cities. The two major cities on either side of the Messina Straits–Messina and Reggio di Calabria–had some 90 percent of their buildings destroyed. Telegraph lines were cut and railway lines were damaged, hampering relief efforts. To make matters worse, the major quake on the 28th was followed by hundreds of smaller tremors over subsequent days, bringing down many of the remaining buildings and injuring or killing rescuers. On December 30, King Victor Emmanuel III arrived aboard the battleship Napoli to inspect the devastation.

Meanwhile, a steady rain fell on the ruined cities, forcing the dazed and injured survivors, clad only in their nightclothes, to take shelter in caves, grottoes, and impromptu shacks built out of materials salvaged from the collapsed buildings. Veteran sailors could barely recognize the shoreline because long stretches of the coast had sunk several feet into the Messina Strait.

The day before today , on the :

15 January 2019. Prime Minister's Brexit Deal was defeated by 230 votes. 432 'Noes' to the left. 202 ' ayes' to the right. So the Noes had it,... the Noes had it.. !

History in the making.

460 years ago, on 15 January 1559, Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey.

Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in England on 8 February 1587, after 19 years of imprisonment, when she was found guilty of conspiring with Catholics to plot the assassination of her cousin, Elizabeth I.


Six feet tall , from what someone said the other day.. don't know if it's true or not.

Brush up on history

http://tudortimes.co.uk/people/mary-queen-of-scots-appearance-and-character

Not a very pretty woman, but I love the detail in the old paintings.

Robert the Bruce murdered his leading political rival, John Comyn, in front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries on 10 February 1306, sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence.


https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/a...2e_xY1S_Tb6BGjNWKLjamABAbxCbTBZHClViNPRY

The first official photographic sitting with The Queen after her accession was granted to the society photographer Dorothy Wilding. It took place on 26 February 1952, just 20 days after she became Queen. A total of 59 photos were taken by Wilding, showing The Queen dressed in a variety of gowns designed by Norman Hartnell and wearing jewellery including the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara.

The images taken during this sitting were the basis of The Queen's image on postage stamps from 1953 until 1971, as well as providing the first official portrait of The Queen, which was sent to every British Embassy in the world

1616 : Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.

1914: HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.