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The Discovery of Penicillin
Share Alexander Fleming 1881 – 1955 Alexander Fleming was born in a remote, rural part of Scotland. The seventh of eight siblings and half-siblings, his family worked an 800-acre farm a mile from the nearest house. The Fleming children spent much of their of time ranging through the streams, valleys, and moors of the countryside. “We unconsciously learned a great deal from nature,” said Fleming. When their father died, Fleming’s eldest brother inherited the running of the farm. Another brother Tom had studied medicine and was opening a practice in London. Soon, four Fleming brothers and a sister were living together in London. Alec, as he was called, had moved to London when he was about 14, and went to the Polytechnic School in Regent Street. Tom encouraged him to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disease, Famous Person, Medicine, Science
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Share Written by Chip Wood Saturday, 24 December 2011 http://www.thenewamerican.com/opinion/chip-wood/10330-the-man-who-invented-christmas During this season of massive over-commercialization, you may find it hard to believe there was a time when Christmas was no big deal. There were no stores full of toys, no songs playing 24 hours a day, and no Christmas trees with so many presents under them that they fill most of the room. In fact, there were no Christmas trees at all. For most of the 2,000 years since the birth of Christ, Christmas was not a special holiday. If it was commemorated at all, it was with a candlelight service at the local church or cathedral and a special dinner at home. And that was pretty much it until the middle of the 19th century, when one man’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: America, Famous Person, Holidays, Literary, United States
Dec 23, 1888: Van Gogh chops off ear
Share On this day in 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Today, Van Gogh is regarded as an artistic genius and his masterpieces sell for record-breaking prices; however, during his lifetime, he was a poster boy for tortured starving artists and sold only one painting. Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in the Netherlands. He had a difficult, nervous personality and worked unsuccessfully at an art gallery and then as a preacher among poor miners in Belgium. In 1880, he decided to become an artist. His work from this period–the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Art, Famous Person, Today in History
Sons of Liberty Dump British Tea Dec 16, 1773
Share On this day in 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships moored in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the water. Now known as the “Boston Tea Party,” the midnight raid was a protest of the Tea Act of 1773, a bill enacted by the British parliament to save the faltering British East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the company to sell its tea even more cheaply than that smuggled into America by Dutch traders. Many colonists viewed the act as yet another example of Britain’s taxation tyranny. In most American ports, the resistance group known as the Sons … Read entire article »
Filed under: American Revolution, Britian, Business, Colonial History, Today in History