American Suffrage Protest

July 4, 2025

Women protesting outside the White House in 1917 demanding voting rights for women.

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Emmeline Pankhurst Arrested

July 4, 2025

Emmeline Pankhurst, Leader of the Women's Social Political Union (WSPU), being arrested outside Buckingham Palace in May 1914.

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Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury on a points decision for the second time in seven months and retained his unified heavyweight world titles on Saturday, 21 December 2024.

Source: the-history-of-fighting.tumblr.com

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Saint Nicholas

December 21, 2024

Saint Nicholas of Myra (270 – 343 CE) also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people and students. He was born into a wealthy Greek family and after his parents died, is said to have distributed his inheritance to the poor. In one instance, he heard of a man with three daughters who were unable to get married as their father could not afford the dowry, which would have led to them becoming prostitutes. Nicholas went to the man’s house and threw bags of gold into the garden which allowed them to marry their suitors.

He is said to have been imprisoned and tortured by the Romans during the last and worst period of the persecution of Christians in around 303 CE but was later freed by Constantine the Great after his converted to Christianity. Saint Nicholas is also said to have learned that three innocent men had been sentenced to death after a juror had accepted a bribe. Just before they were put to death, he disarmed the executioner, pushing his sword to the ground and freed the men from their chains before angrily chastising the juror.

Another legend states that he slapped the heretic Arius because he did not believe in the Holy Trinity. Nicholas was imprisoned for this but was visited by Jesus and the Virgin Mary, who freed him after he explained that he was incarcerated ‘for loving you.’ A story that circulated about the Saint in the Middle Ages had him visit a famine-hit town where he came across a butcher who had murdered three children and had them pickled in a jar intended to sell them off as ham. On seeing this, Nicholas made the sign of the cross which instantly restored the children back to life.

Although most of the stories of Saint Nicholas are unsubstantiated and may not be historically accurate, tales of his generosity, gift-giving, protectiveness over children and his sense of justice have undoubtedly been a major influence on Christmas over the years and show why he is one of the main influences behind Santa Clause.

Source: wikipedia.org

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Bendigo

April 20, 2024

Bendy’s Sermon Poem by poem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about Bendigo, the well-known Nottingham bare-knuckle boxer and gangster that went on to convert to Christianity and become a preacher:

You didn’t know of Bendigo! Well, that knocks me out!

Who’s your board school teacher? What’s he been about?

Chock-a-block with fairy-tales full of useless cram,

And never heard o’ Bendigo, the pride of Nottingham!

Bendy’s short for Bendigo. You should see him peel!

Half of him was whalebone, half of him was steel,

Fightin’ weight eleven ten, five foot nine in height,

Always ready to oblige if you want a fight.

I could talk of Bendigo from here to kingdom come,

I guess before I ended you would wish your dad was dumb.

I’d tell you how he fought Ben Caunt, and how the deaf ‘un fell,

But the game is done, and the men are gone and maybe it’s as well.

Bendy he turned Methodist—he said he felt a call,

He stumped the country preachin’ and you bet he filled the hall,

If you seed him in the pulpit, a-bleatin’like a lamb,

You’d never know bold Bendigo, the pride of Nottingham.

His hat was like a funeral, he’d got a waiter’s coat,

With a hallelujah collar and a choker round his throat,

His pals would laugh and say in chaff that Bendigo was right,

In takin’ on the devil, since he’d no one else to fight.

But he was very earnest, improvin’ day by day,

A-workin’ and a-preachin’ just as his duty lay,

But the devil he was waitin’, and in the final bout,

He hit him hard below his guard and knocked poor Bendy out.

Now I’ll tell you how it happened. He was preachin’ down at Brum,

He was billed just like a circus, you should see the people come,

The chapel it was crowded, and in the foremost row,

There was half a dozen bruisers who’d a grudge at Bendigo.

There was Tommy Piatt of Bradford, Solly Jones of Perry Bar,

Long Connor from the Bull Ring, the same wot drew with Carr,

Jack Ball the fightin gunsmith, Joe Murühy from the Mews,

And Iky Moss, the bettin’ boss, the Champion of the Jews.

A very pretty handful a-sittin’ in a string,

Full of beer and impudence, ripe for any- thing,

Sittin’ in a string there, right under Bendy’s nose,

If his message was for sinners, he could make a start on those.

Soon he heard them chaflin’; “Hi, Bendy! Here’s a go!”

“How much are you coppin’ by this Jump to Glory show?”

“Stow it, Bendy! Left the ring! Mighty spry of you!

Didn’t everybody know the ring was leavin’ you.”

Bendy fairly sweated as he stood above and prayed,

“Look down, O Lord, and grip me with a strangle hold!” he said.

“Fix me with a strangle hold! Put a stop on me!

I’m slippin’, Lord, I’m slippin’ and I’m clingin’ hard to Thee!”

But the roughs they kept on chaffin’ and the uproar it was such

That the preacher in the pulpit might be talkin’ double Dutch,

Till a workin’ man he shouted out, a-jumpin’ to his feet,

“Give us a lead, your reverence, and heave ’em in the street.”

Then Bendy said, “Good Lord, since first I left my sinful ways,

Thou knowest that to Thee alone I’ve given up my days,

But now, dear Lord”—and here he laid his Bible on the shelf –

“I’ll take, with your permission, just five minutes for myself.”

He vaulted from the pulpit like a tiger from a den,

They say it was a lovely sight to see him floor his men;

Right and left, and left and right, straight and true and hard,

Till the Ebenezer Chapel looked more like a knacker’s yard.

Platt was standin’ on his back and lookup at his toes,

Solly Jones of Perry Bar was feelin’ for his nose,

Connor of the Bull Ring had all that he could do

Rakin’ for his ivories that lay about the pew.

Jack Ball the fightin’ gunsmith was in a peaceful sleep,

Joe Murphy lay across him, all tied up in a heap,

Five of them was twisted in a tangle on the floor,

And Iky Moss, the bettin’ boss, had sprinted for the door.

Five repentant fightin’ men, sitting in a row,

Listenin’ to words of grace from Mister Bendigo,

Listenin’ to his reverence all as good as gold,

Pretty little baa-lambs, gathered to the fold.

So that’s the way that Bendy ran his mission in the slum,

And preached the Holy Gospel to the fightin’ men of Brum,

“The Lord,” said he, “has given me His message from on high,

And if you interrupt Him, I will know the reason why.”

But to think of all your schooling clean wasted, thrown away,

Darned if I can make out what you’re learnin’ all the day,

Grubbin’ up old fairy-tales, fillin’ up with cram,

And didn’t know of Bendigo, the pride of Nottingham.

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Ishikawa Goemon

March 23, 2024

Ishikawa Goemon (1558 –1594) was a ninja from Iga in Japan and is seen as a Robin Hood-type figure and legendary Japanese outlaw (who at least probably existed) and is said to have stolen from daimyo, wealthy merchants, and rich temples and given the proceeds to the poor. In 1594, Goemon tried to assassinate the Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi but when this failed, he was boiled alive. In some versions of the tale, his five-year-old son was also thrown into the cauldron, but he held him above his head until Hideyoshi took pity on the child and removed him from the cauldron.

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Tyson, Ali & Jackson

February 17, 2024

Michael Jackson with Mike Tyson (top) and Muhammad Ali (bottom).

Via Film Scenes

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Richard Bong

February 10, 2024

Richard "Dick" Ira Bong (1920 – 1945) was a United States Army Air Forces major who won the Medal of Honour for his aviation exploits in World War Two. He was America’s top fighter pilot during the war, with forty confirmed Japanese aircraft down by his Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter.

Bong considered himself to be a poor shot so to compensate, he would get very close to his target, sometimes even flying through the debris of exploding planes. His exploits include:

He was once caught alone by nine Japanese zeros. He turned to face them, took out three and managed to send the rest into retreat.

When escorting a small boat over the pacific, he noticed a large crocodile following it. He promptly dropped down to sea level and blew the creature out of the water with his 20mm autocannon.

In 1942, he was temporarily grounded along with three other pilots for looping over the Golden Gate Bridge and flying so low down a street in San Francisco that he blew the clothes off a woman’s clothesline. When reprimanding him, his commanding officer General George C. Kenney said:

“If you didn't want to fly down Market Street, I wouldn't have you in my Air Force, but you are not to do it anymore and I mean what I say.” Kenney later wrote, “We needed kids like this lad.”

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Lady Archers

February 3, 2024

"In 1787, “several young ladies” who shot with the Royal British Bowmen – the first British sporting society to admit women – were said to have “added to their conquests the hearts of young gentlemen of honour and fortune”, with the society responsible for the marriage of “not a few happy couples”, according to a newspaper report ...The more spectacular archery tournaments were usually held on private grounds of the landed gentry and were seen very much as a wider opportunity for socialising and courtship. Large tournaments invariably ended with a full-dress ball.

In other words, the sport had become something not followed for its own sake, but as an excuse for a large party and a respectable arena where men and women could meet. The novel Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope, written in 1857, describes a country house fete with romance against the backdrop of an archery tournament."

worldarchery.sport

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