Daily Colonial Quote More words of wisdom can be found in the Colonial Quotes section
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
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01/26/12
2 Broadsheets added 6 Timeline and/or Link entries added/edited
01/25/12
2 Broadsheets added 2 Timeline and/or Link entries added/edited
01/24/12
2 Broadsheets added 5 Timeline and/or Link entries added/edited
01/23/12
2 Broadsheets added 3 Timeline and/or Link entries added/edited
This Day in Colonial History -- January 27th: Hover over for links to additional information; or go to the Timeline for more events
• 1538
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States of Gelderland accepts Willem van Kleef as viceroy
• 1556
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Willem of Orange becomes knight of Guilder Flies
• 1593
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Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno, accused among other things, of believing in the existence of a plurality of worlds
• 1662
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First American lime kiln begins operation (Providence RI)
• 1671
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Pirate Henry Morgen lands at Panama City
• 1710
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Czar Peter the Great sets first Russian state budget
• 1736
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Abdication of Stanislas, last king of Poland
• 1756
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born
• 1778
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Piccinni's opera Roland premieres in Paris
• 1785
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First U.S. state university chartered in Athens Georgia
• 1823
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President Monroe appoints first U.S. ambassadors to South America
Latest Broadsheets -- Daily news from around the world concerning the Colonial Era Older articles can be found in the Broadsheet Archive
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/26/2012 Residents Evacuated as Fire Breaks out at 18th Century Building January 21, 2012, The Independent (Ireland) by Breda Heffernan and Mark O'Regan RESIDENTS were evacuated from a five-storey apartment block after a fire broke out yesterday afternoon.
...The traditional stone building and former wool store dates from the 18th century. Yesterday, 20ft-high flames rose from the building while thick, black smoke hung over the surrounding area.
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/26/2012 ASI Slammed Over Mosque Neglect January 17, 2012, The Telegraph (India) by Bijoy KR Sharma Rangamati Mosque, the oldest mosque in Assam, preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is suffering for lack of maintenance and apathy.
Also known as the Panbari Mosque, it was built during the 17th century by Hussain Shah, the Governor of Bengal and is a fine example of pre-Mughal architecture.
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/25/2012 Leonardo da Vinci may be at the Heart of a Real Art Mystery January 19, 2012, The Boston Herald by Jason Felch At three o’clock on a cold December morning, a team of researchers huddled together on scaffolding 25 feet high in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, holding a tablet computer up to a huge 16th century fresco.
But the researchers weren’t interested in the dramatic battle scene, the work of Renaissance artist Georgio Vasari.
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/25/2012 Voltaire English Letters Discovered by Oxford Academic January 19, 2012, BBC (UK) by Sean Coughlan An Oxford academic has uncovered letters by Voltaire which reveal how much this icon of French writing profited financially and intellectually from a stay in England.
They include a signed acceptance from the 18th Century writer for a £200 grant from the Royal Family.
The bard's death mask will be shown at the University of Edinburgh's Anatomy Museum from January 28, when it unveils a macabre collection of medical artefacts to the public.
Presently on loan from the William Ramsay Henderson Collection, the famous face will soon find a permanent home at the museum.
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/24/2012 16th Century Mumbai Museum Manuscript to be Restored January 18, 2012, India Gazette by Staff A 16th century illustrated manuscript in a Mumbai museum will be restored with funds from Bank of America through its conservation project, officials said here Wednesday.
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, (CSMVS Museum) will receive vital funding for the conservation of Anvar-i Suhayli, a 16th-century illustrated manuscript with a compilation of delightful fables from the Panchatantra.
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/23/2012 "Our Little Baby is Dead" January 19, 2012, Letters of Note by Charles Dickens On April 14th of 1851, Dora Dickens, the ninth child of Charles Dickens and his wife, Catherine, died unexpectedly after suffering convulsions. She was just 8-months-old. The next morning, Charles wrote the following letter to Catherine — miles away from home recuperating from an illness, oblivious to the situation — and, in an effort to break the news gently, delicately informed her that their daughter was gravely ill and to expect the worst
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/23/2012 Flushed with Pride: 1850s Bathroom Boasts Early Plumbing Technology January 18, 2012, LiveScience by Stephanie Pappas In 1850s America, most people relied on privies and outhouses for their bathroom needs. But the Davis family of Natchez, Miss., had something few other Americans did: indoor hot-and-cold running water and an indoor toilet.
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/22/2012 Ron Paul Invokes the ... Millard Fillmore Doctrine? January 17, 2012, ForeignPolicy.com by Uri Friedman Let's face it. When Millard Fillmore, the undistinguished, uninspiring 13th president of the United States, comes up in political conversation these days, it's usually as the butt of jokes. "When five of your six candidates could not be elected president if they were running against Millard Fillmore, I think you can presume there will not be much serious issue discussion," New York Times columnist Gail Collins quipped last week in a primer on the upcoming South Carolina primary. If only the rags-to-riches Whig, whose 212th birthday was recently celebrated with much fanfare in his native Western New York, were around to defend his record.
But last night, during the GOP debate in South Carolina, Ron Paul issued a full-throated endorsement of Fillmore's approach to foreign policy, whether he realized it or not. "If another country does to us what we do to others, we aren't going to like it very much," Paul explained in the context of his opposition to war with Iran. "So I would say maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy," he continued placidly, as he was eaten alive by boos and jeers. "We endlessly bomb these other countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us?" Paul has trotted out this Golden Rule line several times during the campaign, drawing laughter in New Hampshire after asking, "What if the Chinese came into the Gulf of Mexico and took over the Gulf of Mexico? I know we in Texas would be pretty annoyed."
OK, but what does all this have to do with Millard Fillmore? The former president, it turns out, expressed nearly the same sentiments in 1850 during his first State of the Union address, in a formulation of foreign policy that sounds an awful lot like Paul's noninterventionist, empire-shunning worldview (key lines in bold):
posted on Colonial Sense: 01/22/2012 Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Take on the Bible Reissued January 17, 2012, The Guardian (UK) by David Shariatmadari He was one of the men who laid the foundations for God's own country, but Thomas Jefferson had his own revolutionary ideas about the Bible.
The third US president's unwillingness to swallow miracles such as the virgin birth led him to cut out parts of the Gospels he did not agree with and compile his own version.
The result, known informally as The Jefferson Bible, has been published in a new edition by Tarcher, part of Penguin USA, this month.