Republic of Ezo 1868

It was a short-lived state formed by former Tokugawa retainers in Hokkaido, the northernmost, sparsely populated island of modern Japan. In 1868, they set up the Republic of Ezo, based on the American model, and elected Enomoto as its sosai. (Sosai means, roughly, “president” or “director-general”.) These were the first elections ever held in Japan. [...]

Tumbleweeds Began to Roll, Late 19th Century

From my writing journals:Research for my Victorian era story led me to the former badlands around Nevada one year. With enough history for even the most jaded buff, I fell in love with its ghost towns and lineage from the Gold Rush.
I wasn’t jaded, yet, and couldn’t stop exploring. Nevada had [...]

Irish Emigration During the Victorian Era – Part II

Although the Irish immigrants arriving in America had come to escape hunger and oppression, they found that life for them didn’t change all that much.

By the height of the potato famine, an Irish immigrant wrote home saying that, “My master is a great tyrant, he treats me as badly as if I was a common [...]

Victorian Christmas

In 1843 Charles Dickens (officially) published A Christmas Carol in England. All 6,000 copies sold out by the 22nd. That’s the kind of sales I’d love to have. of course, the book was priced at 5 shillings, so profits were low. The story was originally written as a potboiler so he could pay off a [...]

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker

Opened today in 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Tchaikovsky didn’t like the ballet, considered it a less successful piece.
http://www.nutcrackerballet.net/html/nutcracker_music.htmlhttp://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/music1/nutcracker.html

Victorian Secret Service Agents & Spies: Flip Sides of the Same Hollow Coin, Part I

Secret service agencies were sprouting up from spy networks, by 1866, as well as from protection service agencies. Although secret service agencies were around in some form as early as Shakespeare’s times, they were often private enterprises hired out to governments and private houses of distinction, alike.
In Europe during Queen Victoria’s reign, protecting [...]

What do you do…?

During the Holiday season, what do you do? Do you write? Do you even have time? Or do you take a 6 week break to get things ready? Does January 2 begin your writing year and November 20 end it?
I don’t have to do much during the holidays that doesn’t involve shopping and wrapping. OK, [...]

Glasgow Subway

It opened in 1896, and is the third oldest subway system after the London Underground (January 1863) and the Budapest Metro (May 1896). Originally, it was a cable railway, but was later electrified. However, its one circular line has never been expanded. To this day, it is one of only three underground railways in the [...]

The Great Hunger (an Gorta M’or): Ireland 1845-1850
There are many fallacies about the Irish Famine. One of them is that there was no food to be had in Ireland at this time.
In truth, there was plenty of food in Ireland at the time. Many Irish families existed on little but the potato, mixed with a [...]

First Atlantic Wireless Transmission 1901

Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and radio pioneer, succeeded in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean. By doing so, he disproved detractors who believed that the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less.
His all important record setting message? The Morse Code signal for the letter s. A little [...]