4 September: Manhattan

On this date in 1609, Navigator Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan. 10 things you might not know about Manhattan.

1. The original inhabitants of the island of Manhattan were Munsee, Lenape and Wappinger tribes. Even in those days it was a busy place. Members of the tribes were fishing for seafood and growing crops. Their movements around the island created pounded down trails, one of which eventually became Broadway.

2. The name of the island comes from a Lenape word which means “the place where we gather wood to make bows”, because there was a grove of hickory trees growing on the island which provided ideal wood for bowmaking.

3. In 1624, the Dutch established a permanent European presence in Manhattan with a trading post. Then, in 1626, according to legend, they bought the island from the Native Americans for goods valued at something like a thousand dollars in today’s Money.

4. Manhattan is 22.7 square miles (59 km²) in area, 13.4 miles long, and 2.3 miles wide at its widest point. It’s also one of the most densely populated locations in the world. In 2020 the population was 1,694,250, or 72,918 residents per square mile.

5. Manhattan has over 520 million square feet of office space. Many offices are housed in the characteristic skyscrapers, made possible by strong and deep bedrock beneath. The Skyscrapers even act like a kind of Stonehenge twice a year when the sunset aligns perfectly with the east-west street grid.

6. The layout of the streets in a grid system was established by the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, which called for 12 avenues running north-south and 155 streets running east-west. The Borough of Manhattan’s Main Street, however, is located on a different island, Roosevelt Island, across the East River.

7. As for the Traffic Lights, it is possible, if you drive up First Avenue at 28mph, to get a string of green traffic lights. If you’re on foot, pressing the button at a crosswalk is probably pointless – over half of them don’t do anything, because the lights have been automated since the late 1980s. The buttons are still there so you think you have some control over them.

8. It is illegal in Manhattan to put on a puppet show in your window and there was once a fine for flirting with someone on the street. You also need a license to hang out washing on a clothesline.

9. There’s a statistic which says than in Manhattan, you are ten times more likely to get bitten by a human being than by a Shark.

10. Some of the parks in Manhattan are former cemeteries. Washington Square Park is one such; in the 18th century it served as a burial ground for people who couldn’t afford private funerals.

18 August: Lewis and Clark

This date in 1774 was the birthdate of Meriwether Lewis, American explorer, known as one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition which took place between 14 May 1804 and 23 September 1806. Some facts about their trip:

1. First of all, why did they go? The voyage of discovery was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, on the heels of the Louisiana purchase in 1803. Jefferson wanted to find out about what lay to the west, whether there was a navigable river route to the Pacific, whether there were Native American tribes to trade with. There was also the political motivation of establishing American claims to the lands and stopping those pesky Europeans from trying to get a look in.

2. The expedition discovered 122 new species of animal and 200 new species of plant (at least, they were new to the Americans in the East – Native Americans had known about them forever), but scientific discovery was only a secondary purpose to those listed above. Their botanical specimens included bitterroot, ponderosa pine, and Douglas fir, and the new animals included grizzly Bears, prairie dogs, coyotes, jackrabbits, and pronghorn. Jefferson, however, was allegedly somewhat disappointed that they didn’t find a live mastodon.

3. The pesky Europeans did try to mess things up. Spain owned a huge amount of land in North America, and the Spanish government wanted to protect their claim to Gold in the Southwest, so when they got wind of the expedition, thanks to coded messages from one of their spies (James Wilkinson, a former Revolutionary War general known as Agent 13) set out to sabotage it. Spanish forces set out to coerce Lewis and Clark into going home, or to take them prisoner – but never managed to actually find them.

4. Lewis had served under Clark in the military but for the purpose of this trip, requested that they’d be equal co-leaders. The military weren’t having that, and said no, but once out in the wilderness the two men ignored the orders and referred to one another as “Captain” so the rest of the party wouldn’t know any different. There were also members of the party who, at home, would never get a say in anything, but whose expertise and opinions has as much weight as anyone else’s out on the trail.

5. These included the one African-American man in the party, whose name was York. He was Clark's “body servant,” or slave. York was allowed to help with the hunting although he’d never have been allowed to handle a gun at home and had a vote in expedition matters. The Indian tribes they encountered along the way were fascinated by a man with much darker skin and thought he had special powers. Sadly, when York asked for his freedom in exchange for giving up two years of his life and having to be away from his wife for such a long time, Clark refused.

6. There was also one woman in the party, who was also just 16 years old and pregnant. She was the daughter of a chief and her name was Sacagawea who had been traded to a French-Canadian trapper who lived with the tribe. Lewis and Clark hired this trapper as an interpreter, and he brought his young wife along, since she could speak even more languages. Not only that, she knew her way around parts of the unexplored country, having lived there all her life, and she also knew which plants were safe to eat. Even after she gave birth to a son while the company hunkered down for the winter, Sacagawea continued to travel with them, baby and all. It’s possible the company thought a woman and a baby would make them seem less threatening.

7. There was a pet Dog, too. Prior to departure, Lewis bought a Newfoundland dog for $20 and named him Seaman. Seaman was a beloved pet who is mentioned several times in Lewis’s journal. He saved men from drowning many times. When Seaman got attacked by a Beaver, Lewis feared his dog might die; but nursed him back to health. When Native Americans wanted to trade for the dog, Lewis refused. He also named a creek after Seaman, although the name didn’t stick and it’s called Monture Creek today. Although there were times when the party was so short on food they had to resort to eating candle tallow and dog meat, Seaman was strictly off the menu.

8. Although it was a potentially dangerous mission in uncharted territory, only one man died during it. He wasn’t killed by weather or starvation or hostile Native Americans or drowning or wild animals, but from an illness which it’s believed was likely to have been a ruptured appendix, which in those times was a death sentence even back home in the city. His name was Sergeant Charles Floyd, who was fit and healthy when they set off, and was educated and popular. He fell ill three months into the trip. William Clark sat up all night long watching over and trying to help Floyd, but to no avail. They buried him on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri River, placing a red cedar marker at his grave. Floyd River and Floyd Bluff were named for him.

9. York was the only man who’d left a wife at home, and the only woman in the party was spoken for, but that didn’t mean there was no nookie to be had. Some of the Native American tribes believed the party had special powers which, if they had sex with a woman, she would retain them and when she went home she would pass the powers on to her husband in the same way. Hence the party were often gifted with women for the night. That said, there was an incident where the fling was not sanctioned by the woman’s husband and Clark had to give away a pile of trinkets to stop the husband from stabbing his wife’s lover to death. It’s likely members of the party fathered a few children along the way, but unfortunately most of them ended up with sexually transmitted diseases as well.

10. Lewis died when he was just 35, three years after the expedition. The cause was being shot in the head and abdomen, which rather suggests foul play by bandits, as he was on another trip at the time and staying in an inn. That said, Lewis was known to drink heavily and suffer from depression, and had a history of being suicidal. He’d even made a will before setting off. Hence historians don’t know if it was suicide or murder.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

5 May: Carnegie Hall

On this date in 1891, Carnegie Hall, one of the world's most renowned concert halls, opened in New York. 10 things you might not know about Carnegie Hall.

1. The opening event was an orchestral concert, and one of the conductors was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who conducted five of his own pieces. During his visit he kept a notebook which he called Trip to America, which was found after his death. In it, he listed a number of things he wondered about prior to the trip, such as whether it was safe to drink the water, what kind of hats people wore and whether he could get his laundry done.

2. The hall is situated 881 Seventh Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and has a footprint of 27,618 square feet (2,565.8 m2).

3. There are three auditoriums with a total of 3,671 seats. 2,790 of these are in the Stern Auditorium which was named after violinist, cultural ambassador, social advocate, and civic leader Isaac Stern. The other two are Zankel Hall, and Weill Recital Hall.

4. The hall itself is named after steel magnate Andrew Carnegie who stumped up the cash to pay for it. It was designed by American architect William Burnet Tuthill, who’d never designed a concert hall before, but got the job through serving on a board with Carnegie. Tuthill also happened to be an amateur cellist. The style is Renaissance Revival, originally developed in Florence in the 14^th century.

5. When it was first built, it was known as the Music Hall and it was intended to make a profit (it’s a non-profit organisation today). Carnegie’s wife and conductor Walter Damrosch nagged him to build a concert hall to rival those in Europe. The need to make money affected how the building looks today. An original mansard roof was removed in 1894 to make room for studios musicians could rent in order to cover a deficit. It still wasn’t enough so an extra tower was added. This was designed by a different architect, Henry Hardenbergh, because Tuthill had got a bit pissed off that his masterpiece was being tampered with. The beams from the original roof are now a feature of the building’s offices.

6. The area in which the hall was built was known at the time as Goat Hill, where there was a brewery, which had been built there to take advantage of a natural spring. The brewery was demolished to make way for the hall’s extension. There were fears at the time that it was too far uptown to be a popular venue.

7. It fell into disrepair in the 1950s and at one point was scheduled to be demolished and a skyscraper built on the site. Civic leaders lobbied the city of New York to buy the venue for $5 million and establish the non-profit Carnegie Hall Corp. to manage it.

8. Many iconic classical works had their world premieres at Carnegie Hall, including Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World); Symphonia Domestica by Richard Strauss, conducted by the composer; Concerto in F by George Gershwin with the composer on piano, and Variations on a Theme of Corelli by Sergei Rachmaninov, also with the composer on piano.

9. Zankel Hall was an art house cinema for a while and was allegedly showing porn movies in the 1970s.

10. There’s also a museum called the Rose Museum, which is open to the public, concert schedule’s permitting. People with tickets to events at Stern can also visit the museum in the hour before the concert starts.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

24 April: The Library of Congress

On this date in 1800, US Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress in Washington DC. 10 facts about the Library of Congress.

1. It’s America’s oldest federal cultural institution, dating back to President John Adams, who, on this date, approved the act of Congress which moved the US Government to Washington DC from Philadelphia. The act included $5,000 to provide books for members of Congress to use. The library was originally housed in a spacious central room in the Capitol.

2. It has been hit by serious fires twice. On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building and 3,000 books were lost. The following year, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950 to replenish the library.

3. Two thirds of Jefferson’s books were lost in the next serious Fire on Christmas Eve, 1851. It wasn’t the pesky Brits this time, but a faulty Chimney flue. Congress appropriated $168,700 to replace the lost books, a project which could still be ongoing: in 2008, the librarians of Congress had found replacements for all but 300 of the works documented as being in Jefferson's original collection.

4. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. It has over 164 million items in its inventory and adds 10,000 items to its collection each working day. It’s not just books, either. The collection also includes Newspapers, comic books, Maps, microfilm, sheet Music, sound recordings, photographs, works of art and even musical instruments: a couple of Stradivarius Violins and George Gershwin’s Piano.

5. It also maintains the National Film Registry. Up to 25 entries are chosen each year by a board of industry professionals to be added to the archives, a climate-controlled storage space where they can theoretically last for centuries. The only rule is that the films chosen must be over 10 years old. It’s quite an eclectic mix which includes The Big Lebowski, Jurassic Park and Ghostbusters to The Story of Menstruation and The Sex Life of the Polyp.

6. In terms of books and documents, some are obvious inclusions like a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, and a vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Other things are less expected, such as Bob Hope’s joke collection, Rosa Parks’s Peanut butter pancakes recipe and the contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets the night he was shot.

7. The smallest book is Old King Cole, measuring 1/25” x 1/25”, about the size of a full stop. At the other end of the scale, the largest measure 5 feet by 7 feet, which was made from a digital collection of images of Bhutan.

8. At one time there was a tunnel connecting the library to the Capitol with an electric conveyor for moving books between the two, so if a Congressperson wanted a book they could have it on their desk in five minutes without anyone having to cross the street. The tunnel was about 6 feet high and 4 feet wide, big enough for a human being to get down there to fix it if it broke down. Pneumatic tubes were used to deliver the orders, and later, books, even faster, at 28 seconds. The tunnel is no longer there as the space was needed in the 2000s for the underground Capitol Visitor Center.

9. If you’ve been on Twitter, some of your words are in there. In 2010, Twitter agreed to donate every public tweet in its archive to the Library of Congress – several hundred million tweets a day. The idea is that it would be a data source for tracking language and societal trends, although for now, the Library has yet to come up with a way to organise it all, so most of the tweets are languishing on a hidden server.

10. A library needs a librarian, of course and this one is no different. The Librarian of Congress is appointed by the president and need not be qualified librarians. They are often scholars, historians or academics. At time of writing there have been 14 and the current holder of the position is Carla Hayden, one of just three to have experience as a librarian. She is also the first woman and the first African American to hold the position.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

29 March: John Tyler

This date in 1790 was the birthdate of the 10th president of the United States, John Tyler. Ten facts about him:

1. He was the first vice president to become president without an election, on the death of his predecessor William H Harrison in 1841. The US Constitution wasn’t clear about what should happen if a president died in office. Some, like John Quincy Adams believed the vice president should be an acting president, but Tyler declared that he was president and nobody was able to challenge it successfully. His opponents referred to him as “His accidency”.

2. Tyler fathered more children than any other American president. He married his first wife, Letitia Christian, on his 23rd birthday in 1813 and they had eight. Letitia died of a stroke in September 1842 and in 1844 he married Julia Gardiner and had seven more with her. Julia was 30 years his junior and five years younger than his eldest daughter, who wasn’t well pleased about the marriage. There’s speculation that he could have fathered even more with his slaves and then sold the babies. Hence there are a number of African American families today who claim to be his descendants although none of them have been able to prove it.

3. He claimed to be against slavery, but he’d grown up on a plantation and kept slaves himself, never freeing any of them. He believed it was up to individual states to decide whether slavery should be legal, not the federal government. We don’t know how well he treated his slaves, but historians surmise he treated them well and wasn’t violent towards them.

4. Tyler studied law with his father, gaining admission to the bar in 1809. He was only 19 at the time, and therefore too young to be eligible, but the admitting judge didn’t ask his age.

5. His presidency was somewhat turbulent. He’d defected from the Democrats to run with Harrison as a Whig, but when he became president, the Whigs decided they didn’t trust him and threw him out. For the remainder of his presidency, Tyler was, as he himself said, a man “without a party.” He was the only American president whose party expelled him while he was president.

6. He was also the only president to have had virtually all of his cabinet resign in protest over his veto of a tariff bill; all but his Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, resigned in protest.

7. He was influential in Texas’s journey to statehood. Though the Senate refused to ratify a treaty which would have made Texas statehood possible, Tyler did manage to get them to agree to an annexation bill which he signed three days before he left office.

8. In 1844 he entered the election, but since the Whigs had thrown him out and the Democrats didn’t support him either, he entered as a member of his own party, made up of people loyal to him. His candidacy attracted little support and in August 1844 he withdrew and the winner of that election was James K. Polk.

9. Tyler retired to a Virginia plantation which was called Walnut Grove, but Tyler renamed it Sherwood Forest because he saw himself as being outlawed by the Whig party and therefore identified with Robin Hood.

10. He died of a stroke in 1862 at the age of 71. Tyler's death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially recognised in Washington, because of his allegiance to the Confederate States. Confederate President Jefferson Davis organised a grand funeral even though Tyler had asked for a simple one. His coffin was draped with a Confederate flag, making him the only U.S. president ever buried under a flag not of the United States.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

8 February: The Hollywood Walk of Fame

On this date in 1960, construction on the Hollywood Walk of Fame officially began. 10 facts about the Hollywood Walk of fame:

1. It started as a marketing tactic by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The idea was first suggested by that organisation’s volunteer president E. M. Stuart in 1953 to “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.” In January 1956 an official proposal was submitted to the Los Angeles City Council. Initially, the proposal was to have a caricature of the star honoured rather than a star, and placed along Brown and Blue sidewalks. The caricature idea was rejected because it would be too complicated and the colours because they’d clash with a building being erected along the route at the time.

2. Who the recipient of the first star was depends on what you count. Before the official inauguration, a temporary installation to raise awareness and support was unveiled in August 1958. Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward were the stars to receive the honours. Joanne Woodward is sometimes said to have been the first, although in truth that was probably because she happened to be the first to have her picture taken with her star. The first star to be installed in the Walk of Fame proper was Film-maker Stanley Kramer, whose star was put in place on 28 March 1960.

3. In August 2025 there were 2,818 stars at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals along the sidewalk. Wikipedia describes the stars as “five-point, coral-pink terrazzo rimmed with brass and inlaid into a 3-by-3-foot (0.91 by 0.91 m) charcoal-coloured terrazzo background. The honoree's name is inlaid in brass block letters in the upper portion of each star, and below the name, a round inlaid brass emblem indicates the category of the honoree's contributions.” There are also several hundred blank stars, as placeholders for future recipients. Stars face east or west on Hollywood Boulevard and north or south on Vine Street so that whichever direction you walk there will be stars facing you.

4. That said, not all the stars are in the sidewalk and not all of them are stars. Four of the plaques are moons, dedicated to the astronauts and TV coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing; and one star is in a wall. That one is for boxer Muhammad Ali who, since he shares his name with a certain prophet, requested that the star be placed where it would not be walked on.

5. There are seven categories for which a star can be awarded: motion pictures; Television; recording/Music; live performance/theatre; Radio; sports entertainment and a special category for other achievements the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce deem worthy of inclusion, like the Apollo 11 astronauts. Muhammad Ali, incidentally, received his star before the sports entertainment category was introduced in 2023 – boxing was deemed to be a kind of live performance in order to allow him the star. Two sports teams have been honoured since: the Harlem Globetrotters and Los Angeles Dodgers.

6. A star can request a location for their star. A few are placed in quite ironic locations. Carol Burnett’s is in front of the cinema where she was fired as an usherette for advising a couple of latecomers to wait for the next showing of the movie as seeing the ending might spoil it for them; Jay Leno requested his star be near Hollywood and Highland because he was twice picked up by police for vagrancy there; Mike Myers's star was placed outside an adult store called the International Love Boutique; Roger Moore's and Daniel Craig's are located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard. Michael Jackson refused to attend the unveiling of his star if it wasn’t outside Grauman's Chinese Theater. The Chamber agreed, and the unveiling of his star turned out to be a record breaker with around five thousand people turning up to watch.

7. As of October 2025, 44% of the stars were in the motion pictures category, 25% in television, 19% in audio recording or music, 9% in radio, fewer than 3% in theatre/live performance, and fewer than 1% in sports entertainment and the "special category" combined. 5.1% honoured African-Americans, 3.4% honoured Hispanic people, and 0.4% honoured Asians, all significantly less than those minorities' percentage of the overall population.

8. Gene Autry is the star nominated in the most categories: five. Bob Hope and Roy Rogers have been honoured in four. The family with the most individuals recognised is the Barrymores, with five. The line up also includes three dogs: Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Lassie was the first fictional character to be included, although some claim Lassie was an animal actor in her own right although she was often portrayed by a male canine actor called Pal. If you don’t count Lassie, the first fictional character included was Mickey Mouse. They have since been joined by many more, including Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Minnie Mouse and Batman, the first superhero to receive a star. Inventors who influenced the entertainment industry and have been recognised with stars include George Eastman, inventor of roll film; Thomas Edison for the phonograph, motion picture camera and lightbulb; and Ray Dolby, pioneer in surround sound. One inventor also has a star in the motion picture category: actress Hedy Lamarr, co-inventor of a frequency-hopping radio guidance system that was a precursor to Wi-Fi networks. There are two murderers: Spade Cooley and Gig Young. There are politicians there, too, unsurprisingly, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ignacy Paderewski, Prime Minister of Poland between World War I and II, is the only foreign head of government represented. Even Trump has one, for his work on the Miss Universe pageant and The Apprentice although there have been a lot of protests and calls for his star to be revoked, including one from West Hollywood City Council, who made a statement: "The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an honour. When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities or women – the honour no longer exists." His star has also been vandalised many times, including by one protester who let his dog poo on it and posted the result on Twitter.

9. The nomination process is strict. Anyone can make a nomination, including fans, although the nominee or their management must be in agreement and there is a hefty fee to pay. Nominees must have a history of "charitable contributions" and a minimum of five years' experience in their category; and they must agree to attend the unveiling of their star or the nomination will be rejected. In the case of deceased honorees, (who must have been dead for at least two years) a member of their family must agree to attend. I’m not sure what happens in the case of fictional characters! Some stars have declined to have stars on the walk, including Madonna (because she thinks it’s cheesy), Clint Eastwood and Prince. Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, and Denzel Washington all ruled themselves out by refusing to attend their ceremonies.

10. There are two pairs of stars bearing the same name but representing different people. There are two Harrison Fords, one for the silent film actor and the other for the present-day actor, and two Michael Jacksons, one for the pop singer and the other for the radio personality. There might have been three, but for the correction of a typo. Actor Don Haggerty was awarded a star in 1960 that was wrongly engraved as Dan Haggerty. The star was replaced, and in 1994 an actor who was actually called Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) received a star, too. Typos do happen. Julia Louis-Dreyfus's star read "Julia Luis Dreyfus". Dick van Dyke's star misspelled his last name as "Vandyke". Both stars were said to be amused rather than angry. Van Dyke took a marker pen and corrected the mistake. Both stars were replaced with the correct names in due course but a handful of mistakes live on. Carmen Miranda was honoured in the motion picture category but her star bears the television emblem, and four names remain mispelled: Lotte Lehmann (spelled as "Lottie"), Merian C. Cooper ("Meriam"), Auguste Lumière ("August"), and Mary Livingstone ("Livingston").

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

26 January: Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He was born on this date in 1880.

1. Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and was the youngest of three sons born to Arthur MacArthur, Jr., who’d fought in the US civil war for the Union, and Mary “Pinky” Hardy, daughter of a Cotton merchant whose brothers fought for the Confederacy.

2. As a military family the MacArthurs moved to various military posts across the United States. MacArthur recorded in his memoirs that “I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read or write—indeed, almost before I could walk and talk." While at the same time, his mother dressed him in skirts and kept his hair curly and long until he was eight!

3. MacArthur attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1903 with the highest honours in his class.

4. He was then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His first duty assignment was to the Philippines.

5. On his return to the US, he served as an aide to President Theodore Roosevelt for a while, then got posted to Vera Cruz in Mexico. His mission there was to venture into enemy territory to locate locomotives that the army could commandeer to transport troops and supplies. MacArthur and his guides were attacked by bandits several times. On one occasion MacArthur killed seven attackers with just a .38 calibre revolver, while escaping with no more than four bullet holes in his clothes. This got him nominated for the Medal of Honor, but it was denied.

6. He married twice. His first wife was Louise Cromwell Brooks, a wealthy socialite. She hated army life, however, and they divorced, citing his inability to provide for her, although she was rich enough to move into an entire floor of a hotel, clearly perfectly capable of providing for herself! In 1937, MacArthur married Jean Marie Faircloth, another wealthy socialite, but she must have been more favourably disposed to army life as they stayed together until MacArthur died. They had a son, Arthur IV.

7. He was living in the Philippines with his family when the US entered world war II. The Japanese didn’t just attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, they also attacked the Philippines. MacArthur found himself in charge of the defence of the Philippines against a Japanese invasion. While he managed to hold off the invasion for a while, it did happen eventually and he led the resistance of the US forces on Bataan Peninsula and the Island of Corregidor.

8. In 1932, a group of veterans calling themselves the "Bonus Army" marched to Washington. MacArthur supported them at first, supplying them with food and tents, but then President Herbert Hoover ordered MacArthur to "surround the affected area and clear it without delay". As clashes between demonstrators and the army go, it was relatively non-violent, despite the opposing groups facing each other down with bayonets, sabres, Bricks and rocks. They were cleared out using tear gas and the only casualty was someone killed by a fire started by the gas canisters. This event made MacArthur unpopular with the American people but the right wing republicans loved him for it.

9. After the war, he was placed in charge of the administration of the Occupation of Japan, and helped to rebuild the country. In spite of everything he was quite popular with the Japanese people, as he refused American pressure to strip Emperor Hirohito of his throne and gave women the vote. He also made sure that food and supplies were sent to Japan.

10. It seemed he didn’t always get on well with the presidents he worked with. He had a flaming row with Roosevelt over cuts to the army, but Roosevelt refused to accept his resignation. The argument was apparently so volatile that MacArthur left the White House and puked on the front steps. It was President Truman who eventually fired him in 1951 for insubordination and differences of opinion over the Korean war. He returned to the US for the first time since he married Jean – their 13 year old son, Arthur, had never visited the US. He gave a parting speech to Congress which became famous as his “Old Soldiers Never Die” speech. It went on for much longer than the 36 minutes it would have taken to say the words, because it was interrupted at least 50 times by applause and standing ovations.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

7 January: Millard Fillmore

This date in 1800 was the birth date of the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore. 10 facts about him:

1. He was born in a log cabin in the Finger Lakes region of New York. He was the second of eight children. He was given the name Millard because it was his mother’s maiden name. The family weren’t well off and he was persuaded, at 14, to leave school, not enlist in the army and to start work as apprentice to a clothmaker.

2. In due course, his parents realised he could do much better and managed to get him a job working for their landlord, Judge Walter Wood, as a law clerk. Fillmore worked as a teacher so that he could buy out his apprenticeship. His job as a law clerk only lasted 18 months, because he fell out with his boss after he’d advised a farmer in a law suit without Wood’s help. Wood tried to persuade him not to act unaided again, but Fillmore refused and quit. He went back to teaching and taking on small law cases which didn’t require him to be fully qualified.

3. He moved to Buffalo the following year and continued his study of law. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar. One of his teachers was a lady called Abigail Powers, who was just two years older than he was. They bonded over a mutual love of learning, fell in love and married in 1826.

4. He declined offers from the law firms in Buffalo, preferring to move to a small town and work independently as the only lawyer in town. He also claimed he didn’t feel confident enough to practice in a larger place.

5. Six years later, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly and then to Congress where he served for ten years. He was comptroller of New York from 1848 until he was nominated as the vice presidential candidate under Zachary Taylor. He became president when Taylor died in office in 1850 and never gave an inaugural address.

6. Fillmore and his wife established the first White House library, and Abigail had the first "running-water Bathtub" installed.

7. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party and also the last not to be either a republican or a Democrat. At the end of his term, he ran for a second term, though not as a Whig as the party had fallen apart by then. Instead he ran for the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party, having refused to join the republicans, and lost to James Buchanan.

8. Fillmore was the first president to return to private life without independent wealth or possession of a landed estate. He intended to go on a grand tour of the south with Abigail and then return to practising law. The plans were scuppered, however, when Abigail died of pneumonia. A year later his daughter died of cholera. Eventually he re-married, a rich widow called Caroline McIntosh, which meant he no longer needed to work and the couple could concentrate on entertaining and supporting philanthropic causes like the Buffalo General Hospital, which he helped found.

9. Historians don’t rank him very highly. He has been described as weak and inept, trying to please everyone and not handling the slavery issue very well. Fillmore's name has become a byword in popular culture for easily forgotten and inconsequential presidents.

10. Millard Fillmore is one of two presidents who has double letters in his first and last names, the other is William H Harrison.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

29 November: San José

California’s oldest civilian settlement, San José, was founded on this date in 1777. 10 things you might not know about San José.

1. San José is Northern California’s largest city by population and the third largest city in California.

2. San José boasts the highest median household income in the nation.

3. In 1849, San José was made the state capital of California and was the first city of the state. The Capitol was a two-story adobe hotel, with the Assembly on the upper floor and the Senate on the lower. Unfortunately, a Fire destroyed the building in 1853.

4. The original name of the city was El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe.

5. San José laws limit the number of animals owners can have, which is five licensed animals total with no more than three Dogs.

6. It was once an agricultural community. The area has a mild climate and fertile soil, ideal for growing things. In the past, crops produced here included Wheat, Barley, Apples, Plums, Apricots and Peaches. Today it’s better known for the technology industry. It’s the birthplace of the floppy disc and eBay.

7. San José has eight sister cities: Dublin, Ireland, Guadalajara, Mexico, Okayama Japan, San José, Costa Rica, Pune, India, Tainan, Taiwan, Veracruz, Mexico, and Yekaterinburg, Russia.

8. The city’s airport was once closed for three days while Bill Murray and an Elephant named Mineta filmed scenes for a film called Larger than Life.

9. The San José Flea Market is mentioned in the bestselling novel The Kite Runner. The author, Khaled Hosseini, went to school in the city.

10. It is home to the world’s largest Monopoly board. The board is 930 square feet in size and it’s possible to rent it out and play with life sized game pieces.

Christmas is coming! 

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

3 October: Bloomingdales

On this date in 1872 Bloomingdale's Department store in New York opened. 10 facts about Bloomingdale’s:

1. Bloomingdale’s was founded by brothers Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale.

2. The first shop the family opened was a few years earlier in 1861. This shop was the Ladies' Notions Shop in New York's Lower East Side, which sold European fashions, in particular, hoop skirts.

3. The shop they opened on this date in 1872 was called Bloomingdale's Great East Side Bazaar and it was located at 965 Third Avenue, between 56th & 57th Streets. At the time, this wasn’t part of New York’s main shopping district and was a working class area, so it was a bit of a risk. The first day’s takings were $3.68.

4. It paid off, though and soon the Bazaar expanded into three nearby buildings and in due course moved into a building at 59th St. and Third Avenue, which is the flagship store to this day.

5. It was different from most boutiques at the time, because it didn’t specialise in just one type of clothing as the others did, but sold everything under one roof. Bloomingdale’s was a pioneer in window displays which attracted the attention of passers by. It was also the first store in New York to install Escalators. This attracted customers who came to gawp at this new-fangled way of getting to the upper floors, and who hopefully bought stuff while they were there.

6. One of its most famous customers was Queen Elizabeth II, who spent an afternoon there with Prince Philip in 1976.

7. There are two time capsules in the cornerstones which are due to be opened in 2130. They are said to contain an autographed baseball from Babe Ruth, and three bank books in which $25 had been deposited, which could be worth millions by now.

8. From 1979, there was a restaurant within the store called Le Train Bleu, which was modelled on the dining car of a French luxury train. It is now closed, as is the sky bridge between 59th and 60th street, one of the last remaining examples of this type of Bridge in Manhattan.

9. In 1984, Bloomingdale’s sold bags of ice chips from a 100,000 year old glacier in Greenland. “Glazonice” would set you back $7 a bag. The ice was marketed as the oldest and purest you could find anywhere on Earth. It was also said that because of the denseness, it would not dilute your cocktail.

10. Each morning, New York New York by Frank Sinatra plays as the doors open. This is the only music the store ever plays.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book