These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis, in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. How were Japanese children treated in internment camps? The camps were surrounded by barbed-wire fences…
The animals were a common sight outside diggers’ tents, where they were stationed to protect any gold, food, mining equipment or horses. They were also an important investment for the goldfields’ butchers, whose slaughteryards were often the target of theft – both by people and other dogs. Dogs were particularly…
Nearly every store of any size sold them. In the early 1800s, a home with a clock was very rare. By 1900, a home without one was also very rare. Treasures stacked to the ceiling in a former antique shop owner’s home are set to sell for more than £50,000…
Ancient Chinese cosmogonists defined four types of dragons: the Celestial Dragon (TianlongTianlongThe term tianlong combines tian 天 “heaven” and long 龍 “dragon”. Since tian literally means “heaven; the heavens; sky” or figuratively “Heaven; God; gods”, tianlong can denote “heavenly dragon; celestial dragon” or “holy dragon; divine dragon”. Tianlong 天龍 is…
The history of American comics began in the 19th century in mass print media, in the era of sensationalist journalism, where newspaper comics served as further entertainment for mass readership. The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to…
A typical sixteenth-century compass consisted of a large magnetized needle fastened to the underside of a circular card on which the several directions were drawn. The compass rose, as it was sometimes called, usually had thirty-two points 11.25 degrees apart – north, north by east, north by northeast, and so…
The IBM 5100 became the first portable computer when released in September 1975. The computer weighed 55 pounds and had a five-inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9 MHz PALM processor, and 64 KB of RAM. In 1975, software developer Will Crowther wrote Colossal Cave Adventure, the first text adventure game.…
In the 1940s, computers took up entire rooms, like the ENIAC, which was once called a “mathematical robot.” John Mauchly created the ENIAC during World War II to help the Army with ballistics analytics. The machine could calculate thousands of problems each second. The Colossus machines were electronic computing devices…
The Kenbak-1, released in early 1971, is considered by the Computer History Museum to be the world’s first personal computer. It was designed and invented by John Blankenbaker of Kenbak Corporation in 1970, and was first sold in early 1971. The first prototype was created in 1957. The system, made…
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic (509 to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the highest level of the cursus honorum (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspired). Power in Ancient Rome. In order to understand what is a…