Posts Tagged European History

D-Day in Pictures: Part I

You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely….The free men of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

- General Dwight D. Eisenhower giving the D-Day order on June 6, 1944.

On June 6, 1944, the Normandy landings began. “D-Day” marked the Allied invasion into German-controlled France. There are two parts to D-Day, the airborne assault and the amphibious landing. Around midnight, American, British, Canadian and Free French airborne troops parachuted into France to help secure the flanks and approaches for the beach landings. At 6:30am, Allied troops stormed the 50-mile stretch of coast which the Germans had heavily fortified. Over 150,000 Allied troops fought with the help of more than 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft support. D-Day became the largest amphibious landing in history. The cost of the invasion was high with around 9,000 Allied soldiers wounded or killed. As a military move, D-Day was successful, it allowed the Allies a foothold in France and to the eventual downfall of Nazi Germany.

Chalk 17 poses for a photograph before departing for Normandy. This image shows the paratroopers and air crewmen of Pathfinder Team #2 of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment/82nd Airborne Division on the evening of Monday, June 5, 1944 shortly before taking off to go to France. They are posing in front of aircraft #42-93096, a Douglas C-47A that is in the collection of The National WWII Museum. Photo Credit: The National WWII Museum

Image Credits: National Archives; The National WWII Museum; U.S. Army; Wikimedia Commons; Daily Mail

President Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of Freedom at a White House Ceremony, 1985. Photo Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/Source

“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”

- Mother Teresa

Poem from Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415. Photo Credit: BBC

The oldest existing Valentine card is believed to be housed in the manuscript collection of the British Library. In 1415, Charles, duke of Orléans, gave his wife a valentine while being held prisoner in the Tower of London.  The French nobleman was wounded and captured at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Year’s War.  The valentine poem that Charles writes to his wife while in prison was not the typical happy-go-lucky valentine that we may be use to. Instead, the note was of somber yearning.

Je suis desja d’amour tanné Ma tres doulce Valentinée…

I am already sick of love My very gentle Valentine…

The duchess died before the poem could reach her. Over the duke’s 25 year imprisonment, he wrote his wife 60 love poems that are often said to have been the first “valentines.”

History of Valentine’s Day

[Zim’s Side Note: The Battle of Agincourt was the centerpiece of William Shakespeare’s Henry V. Charles, duke of Orléans appears in the classic play as well.]

BBC

The Notre Dame de Paris in Paris, France, is perhaps the most famous example of Gothic Architecture, 2007. (Source)

Nave of Reims Gothic Cathedral (France) looking west. (Vassil/Source)

Gothic architecture arose in Western Europe from the 12^th to 15^th century. Marked by groined vaulting, pointed arches and the flying buttress, Gothic is one of the most familiar and utilized styles in Europe’s notable cathedrals, abbeys and churches. It was also used outside of religious structures in castles and town halls.

Evolved from Romanesque architecture, Gothic design, at a glance, bares little resemblance to its predecessor. Simple construction, heavy walls and rounded “Romanesque” arches dominated European architecture in the 10th and 11th centuries under Romanesque architecture. Whereas Gothic structures used rich ornamentation while the buildings themselves seem lighter and taller than anything before. However, Gothic utilized  vaulting and arches, albeit pointed instead of round, as did the Romanesque buildings but in a more intricate way. Overall, Gothic architecture is considered far “busier” than Romanesque even though there are fundamental similarities.

The pointed arches were more than decoration. They redistributed weight and allowed structures to be taller with slender columns. Additionally this paved the way for buildings to have more decorative stain glass windows and gave the interior an airier feel. As with other architectural styles, Gothic design varied based on its location in Europe.

• French Gothic was dominated by flying buttresses, heavy ornamentation and the introduction of the rose window. One of the most famous cathedrals in the world was built in Paris between 1163 and 1250 – Notre Dame de Paris.

Reims Cathedral in Reims, France is a good example of French Gothic incorporating the rose window (located in the center of the cathedral). (Source)

• English Gothic was slower than France Gothic in incorporating elaborate ornamentation but did eventually. Lasting from the late 13th to early 16th centuries, English Gothic featured the iconic flying buttresses with more slender columns and high, stained-glass window, to name a few. The early-English Gothic style can be seen all around the country, but the Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England is a great example. For famously, the Westminster Abbey in London was created in early 16th century with late-Gothic being the main design influence.

The early English Gothic style is seen in the Salisbury Cathedral located Salisbury, England. The cathedral has the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom. (Source)

• In Italy and Germany, it was important for them to try and keep their architectural autonomy. However, they liked the idea of Gothic vaulting which allowed for higher ceilings and grander space. They took it a little further than the French and English architects, by also raising the side aisles to the same height as the main nave (the central area leading to the high altar or the main body of the church). The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany is a great example of the German Gothic style with its side aisles raised to almost be the same height as the main nave. During World War II, Cologne was heavily bombed by Allied Forces and the Cologne Cathedral withheld 70 hits but did not collapse. It has been said that Allied aircraft purposely did not destroy the cathedral in the later years of the war because the high twin spires could be used easily as a navigational landmark.

Cologne Cathedral in Germany shows how German architects interpreted the Gothic style with raised aisle columns along with the second-tallest spires and largest facade of any church in the world. Additionally, it is the cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. (Source)

Cologne Cathedral stands undamaged while entire area surrounding it is completely devastated. Railroad station and Hohenzollern Bridge lie damaged to the north and east of the cathedral. Germany, April 24, 1945. (National Archives)

By the 15th century the Renaissance style began to flourish in Italy. Gothic architecture gave way to this new architectural design that emphasized classic style and artistic prestige through patronage. In the mid-1700′s, the movement – Gothic Revival (also known as Neo-Gothic or Victorian Gothic) started in England and its popularity grew quickly into the early 19th century. The movement also spread into the United States. Gothic Revival declined sharply in the early to mid-20th century, but it can still be seen in some structures to this day.

Sources
A Digital Archive of Architecture
Victoria and Albert Museum
Sarah Cunliffe, Sara Hunter & Jean Loussier, eds.,  Architecture: A Spotter’s Guide, New York: Metro Books, 2010, 68-75.

Cocaine toothache drops were popular with children and with their parents. Not only would the medicine numb the pain, but it could also put the user in a “better” mood. (Department of Psychology/University at Buffalo)

“I was making frequent use of cocaine at that time … I had been the first to recommend the use of cocaine, in 1885, and this recommendation had brought serious reproaches down on me.”

- Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams*

Cocaine is now a Class A drug but, at one point in history, it was a popular painkiller and local anesthetic.

Sigmund Freud, the famous Vienna psychoanalyst, used cocaine in the treatment of morphine addiction in the 1880s. Additionally, he thought cocaine was an all-around drug that could help with fatigue, indigestion and depression.

William Halsted in 1922 (Photo by John H. Stocksdale/U.S. National Library of Medicine)

He suggested to Carl Koller, a German eye surgeon, that cocaine could be used as a local anesthetic for eye surgery since it blocks pain.

After experimenting, Koller released medical reports and findings that affirmed Freud’s assumption that cocaine could be used as a local anesthetic because, not only could it blocked pain, it also numbed tissue.

Branching off of Koller’s work, William Halsted, an American doctor, began to inject it into nerves and under the skin for small operations. During his experimentation with cocaine as a local anesthetic, Halsted, himself, became addicted and he documented the drug’s addictive qualities.

In his attempt to kick the habit, Halsted was sent to Butler Sanatorium in Providence, Rhode Island. In order to get him off cocaine, morphine was substituted instead. It did not help. For the rest of his life, Halsted was dependent on both cocaine and morphine.

*When cocaine was shown to be addictive and had very harmful side effects, Freud’s medical reputation somewhat suffered.

Dr. Naomi Craft. The Little Book of Medical Breakthroughs. New York: Metro Books, 2010, 78-79.
wired.com

There are many theories about origins of trick-or-treating, but the widely accepted version is that the practice of going door to door originated in ninth-century Europe. At first it was called “souling” and would occur on All Soul’s Day. Christians would walk from town to town asking for square biscuits with currants, called “soul cakes.” The beggars would promise to offer prayers for the giver’s dead relatives in purgatory. The generosity of the donor affected the number of prayers the beggars would give.

In Scotland and Ireland, trick-or-treating was originally called “guising” since children went from house to house in disguise. The children would receive food or money as they went door to door. The earliest recorded mention of guising in Scotland was in 1895, now though, it has become common among Scots and Irish to use “trick-or-treat” instead.

Children out trick-or-treating, 1950

In North America, trick-or-treating was not a country-wide tradition until the early 1950s. The term “trick-or-treat” wasn’t seen until around that time as well. It started to become a Halloween tradition in the years leading up to World War II. However, with the sugar rationing during the war it stopped, only to be taken up again in the early 1950s.

And the rest, as they say, is history!

Random Trick-or-Treat Facts:

•  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates there will be 41 million trick-or-treaters ages 5 to 14 in America this year [2012]. Parents are expected to spend $1 billion on children’s costumes—and if they’re on trend, most of the cash will go towards princess, witch, pirate or Spider-Man get-ups.
  

  Trick-or-Treating, 1948

• In 1950, Philadelphia-based trick-or-treaters traded in a sweet tooth for a sweet action. In lieu of candy, residents collected change for children overseas and sent it to UNICEF. Subsequently, the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program was born.
• It was just tricks—no treats—for Charlie Brown in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. In the 1966 TV special, he utters, “I got a rock,” while trick-or-treating. The phrase went on to become one of the most famous lines in Peanuts history.
• Due to safety concerns, trunk-or-treating was introduced in 2000 as an alternative to hitting the pavement for candy on Halloween night. Cars are parked in a circle at a school or church parking lot, with event-goers decorating their open trunks and dressing in costume in order to hand out treats.
• In 2010, Belleville, Illinois, became the latest city to ban trick-or-treating for kids over 12. Teens can face fines from $100 to $1,000 for going door-to-door (although according to officials, more often than not, over-age Halloween-goers are just given a warning).
•  The best place for trick-or-treating in America? Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., according to a 2011 index of Halloween hauls.
• A quarter of all U.S. candy sales each year occur around Halloween. This year’s top seller: Snickers.

Sources
Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, New York: Harper, 1989, 64.
“Parade,” October 28, 2012, 4.
Woman’s Day

Photos
Pumpkin
Both Trick-or-Treat via Vintage Everyday.

The specific origins of Halloween are often debated. Like many historical events created in ancient times, much of how we celebrate Halloween today is a compilation of hundreds of years including the input of many different people. The most agreed upon version is that it began as a festival for witches, goblins and ghosts.

Ancient Celtic Origins
Originating with ancient Celts in the 5th century B.C. who were among the firsts to celebrate October 31st. They called it “All Hallows Eve.” The day itself had two meanings. First, it marked the official end of summer and the Celts were honor the sun god for the summer’s harvest. Secondly, the last day of October was believed to also be a day of supernatural forces. It was a day that the spirits of those who died the previous year could transfer into a living person or animal. By transferring into a body for the next year, it was believed that the spirit would then be able to move into the afterlife peacefully.

On “All Hallows Eve,” Celtic houses would be deliberately made cold in order ward off undesired spirits. Additionally to help deter and scare unwanted ghouls, family members dressed as witches, hobgoblins and demons. They would parade inside the home before moving outside. During their parading, it was important to be as noisy as possible and to partake in pranks and trickery. The parade continued through the village until they arrived at a large bonfire created by a Druid priest outside the village. The bonfire honored the sun god for the summer harvest but it was also a means to ward off furtive spirits. If a person was already believed to be possessed, they could be sacrificed as an example to the spirits thinking of possessing human body.

Roman and the Christianity Adaption
As the Roman Empire began to conquer Celtic territory around 43 A.D., they also adopted Celtic Halloween practices. However, they quickly outlawed human sacrificing around 61 A.D. The Romans added two major items to the Halloween celebrations, the first being to honor the passing of the dead. Secondly, they honored Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees, by incorporating apples as a symbol of the goddess. They would use apples in various forms during their celebration. One activity still practiced today would be the tradition of “bobbing” for apples. Additionally, as time passed the belief in spiritual possession waned. Instead, celebrations still included the parading, costuming and trickery but it was more for amusement than as a method to deter unwanted spirits.

November 1st was eventually assigned as “All Saints Day.” Allegedly, this Christian feast was created to deter people from practicing the pagan traditions of Halloween. Instead the first of November honored every Christian saint, particularly those that do not have their own devoted day. The idea did not fully happen, however over time, many of the traditional deity worship done in the ancient “All Hollows Eve” rituals diminished. In the 9th century, the church tried again to weaken Halloween by establishing “All Souls Day” on November 2nd. “All Souls Day” was a day in which the living would pray for the souls of the dead. Again, the church was powerless in its attempt to create a secular church holiday that would overshadow Halloween.

Halloween comes to America
Halloween was not a popular holiday observed by the early settlers in the United States. The Protestants in the New England area were against it because it was considered a Pagan, Catholic or Episcopalian holiday and not acceptable. It was not until around the 1840s when Irish immigration greatly increased due to those fleeing the Great Famine (potato famine) that Halloween started to spread. Irish immigrants brought with them the Halloween customs of costume and mischief on a larger scale than was previous seen.

At the turn of the century, both children and adults celebrated with Halloween parties focused on games, food and costumes. In the 1920s and 1930s, the holiday became community-centered with parades and large parties. The town of Anoka, Minnesota is believed to be the first town in the country to host a Halloween parade in 1920. In an effort to deter the mischief of the town’s youth, who were known to let the cattle loose and turn over outhouses on Halloween, started this annual tradition. By the 1930s, it was estimated around 20,000 people attended the parades.

As the years passed, Halloween has become increasingly more popular. In the United States, Halloween has moved past its origins as a pagan spiritual festival and into a secular celebration. Commercialization has emphasized costumes, trick-or-treat and food as well as turning it into a holiday children and adults alike.

Sources
Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, New York: Harper, 1989, 62-63.
Anoka, MN website
Halloween History
History Channel
Photos: 2nd, 3rd, 4th

Definition: Usually refers to the household breadwinner or one who “brings home the cash” or it can mean someone who “returns with a victory.”

Origins: Oddly enough the origin of this popular phrase is closer to the phrase itself than the modern definition of it. In fifteenth century England, bacon was literally awarded to a happily married couple through a competition with other couples. Records have shown that the church of Donmow, in Essex County, England, that bacon was the prize between couples competing over which couple, after a year of marriage, has lived in greater harmony and fidelity. The earliest date recorded for this custom was 1445, but it had been done for at least two hundred years prior. The rules for proving the couples’ harmony and fidelity in these earlier competitions are not known, but by the sixteenth century more is known about this mouth-watering contest. Each couple would face questions by a jury consisting of six bachelors and six maidens. The jury would then choose who they believed gave the best answers and that couple would be rewarded the bacon. The competition continued on and off through the late nineteenth century.

Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, New York: Harper, 1989, 93.

By   Christopher Wanjek

10/10/2011 12:46:50 PM ET

Monday is Columbus Day, time to buy appliances on sale and contemplate other things that have nothing to do with Christopher Columbus. So much of what we say about Columbus is either wholly untrue or greatly exaggerated.

Here are a few of the top offenders.

1. Columbus set out to prove the world was round.

If he did, he was about 2,000 years too late. Ancient Greek mathematicians had already proven that the earth was round, not flat.

Pythagoras in the sixth century B.C. was one of the originators of the idea. Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. provided the physical evidence, such as the shadow of the Earth on the moon and the curvature of the Earth known by all sailors approaching land. And by the third century B.C., Eratosthenes determined our planet’s shape and circumference using basic geometry. In the second century, Claudius Ptolemy wrote the “Almagest,” the mathematical and astronomical treatise on planetary shapes and motions, describing the spherical Earth. This text was well known throughout educated Europe in Columbus’ time.

Columbus, a self-taught man, greatly underestimated Earth’s circumference. He also thought Europe was wider than it actually was and that Japan was farther from the coast of China than it really was. For these reasons, he figured he could reach Asia by going west, a concept that most of educated Europe at the time thought was daft — not because the earth was flat, but because Columbus’ math was so wrong. Columbus, in effect, got lucky by bumping into land that, of course, wasn’t Asia.

The Columbus flat-earth myth perhaps originated with Washington Irving’s 1828 biography of Columbus; there’s no mention of this before that. His crew wasn’t nervous about falling off the earth.

2. Columbus discovered America.

Tourists walk by the tomb of Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus in the Cathedral of Seville, Spain. Spanish researchers recently determined that Columbus' remains are indeed buried in the tomb, based on DNA results. Another Columbus tomb is located in the Dominican Republic, but DNA tests have not been conducted on the remains buried there. (Cristina Quicler/AP file)

Yes, let’s ignore the fact that millions of humans already inhabited this land later to be called the Americas, having discovered it millennia before. And let’s ignore that whole Leif Ericson voyage to Greenland and modern-day Canada around the year 1000. If Columbus discovered America, he himself didn’t know. Until his death he claimed to have landed in Asia, even though most navigators knew he didn’t.

What Columbus came across was the archipelago of the Bahamas and then the island later named Hispaniola, now split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America. He never got close to what is now called the United States.

So why does the United States celebrate the guy who thought he found a nifty new route to Asia and the lands described by Marco Polo? This is because the early United States was fighting with England, not Spain. John Cabot (a.k.a. Giovanni Cabot, another Italian) “discovered” Newfoundland in England’s name around 1497 and paved the way for England’s colonization of most of North America. So the American colonialists instead turned to Columbus as their hero, not England’s Cabot. Hence we have the capital, Washington, D.C. — that’s District of Columbia, not District of Cabot.

3. Columbus introduced syphilis to Europe.

This is hotly debated. Syphilis was present in pre-Columbus America. Yet syphilis probably existed for millennia in Europe as well, but simply wasn’t well understood. The ancient Greeks describe lesions rather similar to that from syphilis. Perhaps by coincidence, an outbreak of syphilis occurred in Naples in 1494 during a French invasion, just two years after Columbus’ return. This sealed the connection.

But aside from descriptions of syphilis-like lesions by Hippocrates, many researchers believe that there was a syphilis outbreak in, of all places, a 13th-century Augustinian friary in the English port of Kingston upon Hull. This coastal city saw a continual influx of sailors from distant lands, and you know what sailors can do. Carbon dating and DNA analysis of bones from the friary support the theory of syphilis being a worldwide disease before Columbus’ voyages.

4. Columbus died unknown in poverty.

Columbus wasn’t a rich man when he died in Spain at age 54 in 1506. But he wasn’t impoverished. He was living comfortably, economically speaking, in an apartment in Valladolid, Crown of Castile, in present-day Spain, albeit in pain from severe arthritis. Columbus had been arrested years prior on accusations of tyranny and brutality toward native peoples of the Americas. But he was released by King Ferdinand after six weeks in prison. He was subsequently denied most of the profits of his discoveries promised to him by Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

After his death, though, his family sued the royal crown, a famous lawsuit known as the Pleitos colombinos, or Columbian lawsuits, lasting nearly 20 years. Columbus’ heirs ultimately secured significant amounts of property and other riches from the crown. Also, most European navigators understood by the end of the 15th century, before his death, that Columbus had discovered islands and a large land mass unknown to them.

5. Columbus did nothing significant.

With all this talk of a hapless Columbus accidentally “discovering” the New World, as well as the subsequent genocide of native cultures, it is easy to understand the current backlash against Columbus and the national holiday called Columbus Day, celebrated throughout North and South America. This isn’t entirely fair.

While Columbus was wrong about most things, he did help establish knowledge about trade winds, namely the lower-latitude easterlies that blow toward the Caribbean and the higher-latitude westerlies that can blow a ship back to Western Europe. Also, while Columbus wasn’t the first European to reach the Western Hemisphere, he was the first European to stay. His voyages directly initiated a permanent presence of Europeans in both North and South America.

News of the success of his first voyage spread like wildfire through Europe, setting the stage for an era of European conquest. One can argue whether the conquest was good or bad for humanity: that is, the spread of Christianity, rise of modernism, exploitation and annihilation of native cultures, and so on. But it is difficult to deny Columbus’ direct role in quickly and radically changing the world.

Christopher Wanjek is the author of the books “Bad Medicine” and “Food At Work.” His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on LiveScience.

MSNBC 

Welbike - folding 2-stroke motorcycle - as used by 1st Airborne Division, 29 August 1942.

Today is Global James Bond Day and is the 50th anniversary of the release of the first James Bond film, “Dr. No.” Because of that I’m feeling a bit James Bondish and I decided to do a quick post about an interesting bike I came across years ago.

The Welbike is shown being lifted out of the container and, in the background, ridden. This is a staged shot as there is no parachute hook up to the container.

For my senior paper in college I researched female spies in World War II. It’s hard to study espionage without looking at the gadgetry they utilized. Among them was the Welbike, a small, portable motorcycle that could be folded into a parachute container. It was popular among agents and paratroopers (as well as with other special operations forces).

Needing a vehicle that could be dropped by parachute, the Welbike was developed in Britain between 1942 and 1943. It was created by The Excelsior Motor Company of Birmingham, with help from SOE (Special Operations Executive). Evidence has shown that Excelsior Motor Company produced around 3,853 bikes. The goal of the bike was that if could be dropped behind enemy lines and assembled quickly so the person could make a speedy escape before getting detected.

Paratroopers retrieve a Welbike (lightweight folding motorcycle) from an equipment container on the drop-zone, during a large-scale airborne forces exercise, 22 April 1944.

Because of its small design, it was the smallest motorcycle used by the British Armed Forces. It weighed 70 pounds without gas and could only go up to 30 mph. On one tank of gas, the Welbike could travel around 90 miles. When folded down, to fit into the parachute container, the bike’s measurements were 4’3″ x 15″ x 12″ and could be taken out of the container and assembled in ten seconds.

The Royal Marine Commandos carried Welbikes ashore during Normandy and were said to have been used during Operation Market Garden. Even though the bikes were created for SOE agents, they were used more by the British Armed Forces. That is not to say that agents did not use them, Welbikes were reportedly used around Europe as well the Malayan jungle.

The Welbikes had some drawbacks, it had no suspension or lights, which limited its use. Because the weight of the parachute container was heavier than other containers, it often landed in a different area. If it was too far off-course, it could risk detection and could not be found and assembled quick enough. Additionally, by the time Welbikes were in full operations, larger military gliders were produced and they were able to carry full-sized motorcycles, jeeps and other vehicles.

Welbike in action. Royal Marine Commandos landing at Juno 'Nan Red' Beach from LCI(S) landing craft, Normandy, France, 6 Jun 1944. You can see two commandos carrying what seems to be a Welbike in the middle of the photo. Also note the commando at the top of the ramp holding one as well as what appears to be a bike of some sort out of focus at the top of the far ramp.

Sources

“Airborne Wheels the Welbike”

WWII Welbikes

The CIA Museum

Top Three Photos via The Imperial War Museum (1, 2, 3)

Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

“Patrons view Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre, 1953.”

Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

“Cleaning painting, which is upside down, a Louvre restorer tackles the central portion of Gericault’s gigantic canvas, The Raft of the Medusa.”

Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

“Children take notes during a discussion of ancient Greek pottery at the Louvre, 1953.”

Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

“Married couple and their young daughter view the crown of King Louis XV at the Louvre, 1953.”

Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

“Loading statue, worker places Roman carving of athlete on carriage to be taken to workshop where legs, put on by an earlier restorer, will be removed.”

Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

“Artists scrutinize their versions of a Titian portrait (left) and the Mona Lisa (right), Louvre, 1953.”

More photos here.

Here is a timeline for some of the major events in modern Olympic years:

1896

• Athens hosts the first modern Olympics, with 14 countries participating. James Brendan Connolly, a triple jumper from Boston, becomes the first Olympic champion in more than 1,500 years.

1900

• Women make their first appearance in Olympic competition, when a handful of female athletes compete in lawn tennis and golf at the Paris Games.

Women competed for the first time at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, although the International Olympic Committee did not officially approve of their inclusion. Women's events included sailing, tennis, and golf.

1904

• The gold medal is introduced. Previous top winners in the modern Games took home a silver medal and an olive wreath, because Greece’s Crown Prince Constantine didn’t want it to seem as if the athletes were being paid.

1908

• The Games are moved from Rome to London after the 1906 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The London Olympics are credited with restoring much-needed credibility to the Games.

1911

• The Winter Games are established, but because of World War I they do not take place until 1924, in Chamonix, France.

1913

• American Jim Thorpe, who dominated the 1912 games and took the gold in decathlon and pentathlon, is stripped of his medals when officials learn he had played professional baseball, going against the IOC rules that athletes should not be paid. His medals are restored posthumously in 1982.

1916

• The Summer Games in Berlin are cancelled due to World War I.

1928

• The Olympic flame returns at the Amsterdam Summer Games. The flame was lit during ancient Games to represent the story of when Prometheus stole Zeus’ fire.

1936

• In a blow to Adolf Hitler’s plan to have the Berlin Olympics prove Aryan superiority, black U.S. track and field star Jesse Owens becomes the first Olympian to win four gold medals.

Although the Olympic flame was first instituted at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the 1936 games in Nazi Germany marked the debut of the torch relay. Here, the final relay runner approaches the Olympic flame at the swastika-festooned Lustgarten in Berlin.

1940

• Summer and Winter Games scheduled to take place in Japan are switched to Germany and Finland after Japan invades China, then cancelled altogether due to the start of World War II.

1944

• Summer Games in England and Winter Games in Italy are cancelled due to World War II.

1948

• The IOC bans both Germany and Japan from competing as punishment for their actions during the war. They return to the Games in 1952.

1964

• South Africa is banned from the Olympics because of apartheid, and is not welcomed back until the segregationist system is abolished in 1992. Similarly, Rhodesia was banned due to its racist practices in 1972; it returns in 1980 as the new nation of Zimbabwe.

1968

• Drug testing and gender verification testing make their debut at the Mexico City Olympics. A Swedish pentathelete is disqualified for having consumed too much alcohol.

1972

• Palestinian terrorists attack Israelis at the Munich Games. Following a 21-hour standoff, 11 Israel athletes and coaches, five terrorists and one police officer are dead. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz wins a record seven gold medals. Spitz, a Jew, leaves before the closing ceremony.

The Olympic flag hangs at half-mast at a memorial ceremony during the 1972 games in Munich, Germany.

1976

• Nadia Comaneci, a 14-year-old Romanian, scores the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics, at the Games in Montreal. She receives the top score seven times, earning three gold medals.

1980

• The United States boycotts the Moscow Olympics, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Several other nations join in. It’s the second major boycott of the Olympics; in 1976, 22 African nations stayed home because New Zealand’s national rugby team had competed in South Africa.

1984

• The Soviet Union boycotts the Los Angeles Olympics in retaliation for America’s 1980 boycott.

1992

• In the first year professionals are allowed to compete in men’s basketball, the U.S. “Dream Team,” including Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, wins the gold in Barcelona.

1996

• A bomb left in a backpack at Centennial Olympic Park explodes during the Atlanta Games, killing one woman and injuring 111 people. Accused serial bomber Eric Rudolph, who is also a suspect in bombings at abortion clinics and a gay nightclub, is charged in the case.

The centennial 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, are remembered for, among other things, their extravagance (they cost nearly $1.7 billion to stage) and for the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park that killed one person and injured dozens. Here, Native Americans gather at a memorial in the park for the victims.

2004

• The Games return to their birthplace, Athens, after 108 years. The Panathenian stadium is reused for events including archery and the finish of the Marathon. The Zappeion, the first indoor Olympic arena, was utilized as the Olympic Press Centre. Participation records were broken, with 201 nations and 10,625 athletes taking part in 301 different events. The U.S., Russia and China lead the medal count.

Timeline via CBS

Photos via National Geographic

Anglo-Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) writing in notebook at time of first production of his play “Pygmalion.” (LIFE)

“I hear you say ‘Why?’ Always ‘Why?’ You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’”

- George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright, wrote this in his 1921 play Back to Methuselah.

In this photograph . . . soldiers are shown digging a trench, viewed between strands of barbed wire. The men have only dug to about knee level and are very exposed, so it seems probable that they were not within sight of enemy trenches. Nearer the front line, trench digging was done under cover of night.

Barbed wire was used by both sides as a deterrent to slow an enemy attack as it approached the front of the trenches. It had been invented in 1873 in America as cattle fencing, but its nickname there seems even more apt to its use in warfare. It was called ‘The Devil’s Rope’.

(via the-seed-of-europe; source National Library of Scotland)