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1177 BCE: The Sea Peoples contribute to the Late Bronze Age Collapse

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1177 BCE: The Sea Peoples contribute to the Late Bronze Age Collapse

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Episode 68

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What Role Did the Sea Peoples Play in the Bronze Age Collapse? | TheCollector

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The Sea Peoples were a collection of tribes that ravaged the eastern Mediterranean around 1200 BCE. Their role in the collapse of the Bronze Age is a source of debate.

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495 BC: Pythagoras Dies, Insists Fava Beans are Friends

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495 BC: Pythagoras Dies, Insists Fava Beans are Friends

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Episode 66

The Death of Pythagoras https://philosophynow.org/issues/78/The_Death_of_Pythagoras

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Episode 29

~70 BC - 79 AD

What the Graffiti of Ancient Pompeii Teach Us About Our Modern Selves https://blog.degruyter.com/graffiti-ancient-pompeii-teach-us-modern-selves/

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Graffiti are part of the contemporary urban fabric; they colourfully cover buildings and trains, remain as traces left behind by visitors at tourist sites, or reveal the names of lovers at romantic spots. As such, graffiti can be perceived both as acts of vandalism or occupation as well as a means of expression or form of ornamentation. Oscillating between art and misdemeanour, they are officially allowed only in areas specifically provided for this purpose, often as parts of social projects intended to enliven or bring colour to certain buildings or quarters, such as segments of the Berlin Wall, or the "Freiraumgallerie" in the former East German city of Halle.

In the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, visitors can create virtual graffiti via the Autography App instead of writing on the actual walls. Here, the tourists' desire to leave their mark is taken for granted, but, instead of a prohibition - which might provoke the graffiti-inclined even more -, the city has simply shifted the space to be inscribed from the physical surface to the internet.

The history of Tagging

"Tagging", or leaving your own name on spots you have passed or visited, can be observed in all present and past societies that use script. Even though the form of tags - their script, images, naming systems, etc. - has varied throughout history, the practice of tagging seems to be deeply rooted in human nature. "So-and-so was here" can announce a personal connection to a place, document an emotionally important situation, display a visit, or be nothing more than a doodle - but it is always a form of self-commemoration and self-display.

"The practice of tagging seems to be deeply rooted in human nature."

In view of the fact that graffiti is today illegal in most cities or, at best, banned to designated areas, it is easy overlook the long history of leaving marks on walls and the possibly different perception of this 'habit' in other eras and cultures. Excavations in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome have revealed a rich corpus of graffiti scratched into the floors and walls of public and private buildings, and incised in everyday objects like ceramic vessels. But one thing remains constant across time and place: the majority of these inscriptions consist of names, most likely those of the writers and frequently combined with the phrase "... was here".

Displaying a Slice of Life

Over 5000 wall graffiti have been found in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii alone. These contain mostly name tags (37%), but also include greetings, messages, obscenities, quotes from famous literary works, drawings of animals and gladiators, numbers, dates, and prices. In short, they reflect everyday life: the greetings of a certain Tyrannus (possibly a slave) to Cursor (his friend?), the multiple signatures of a certain Rufus in the garden of the large Casa del Menandro, gossip about the girl Romula who "had 1000 men", a message from Severus to Successus claiming the girl Iris for himself, numbers documenting business transactions in shops, a customer complaining about too much water mixed into wine, the gladiator Oceanus winning against his opponent Aracintus.

In the theatre of Pompeii, where a large number of graffiti are concentrated, graffiti often imitate one another. This probably is the same phenomenon that we can observe in modern touristic hotspots: graffiti accumulate in heavily trafficked places, with one graffito inspiring others. This, too, reflects a typical behavioral pattern: people do what other people do; a wall is much more likely to be tagged when there are already tags present to reduce the possible inhibition associated with marking public property.

The walls of Pompeii seem to have been used for daily interactions, and reveal little stories about neighbourhood characters and life in the town. Such local anecdotes might not be of interest for those studying the main events and vicissitudes of history, but they do help us understand how people communicated publicly about private things, left marks on spots they passed, and displayed personal connections such as friendship and love, but also anger and rivalry, on the wall. In the brothel of Pompeii, dozens of (male) visitors even left commemorations of their visits, visible to all following clients.

An Ancient form of Social Media?

In this respect, ancient graffiti were not that different from modern social media as a form of self-display and self-commemoration. They differ, however, despite the homonymy, from modern (sprayed) graffiti in important ways. They were, for example, smaller and visually more discreet, so that they must have been rather difficult to spot if you did not know where to look or what to look for. The fact that the preponderance of Pompeian graffiti was made inside houses calls into question our modern assumption - shaped by contemporary graffiti - of graffiti-writing as an illegal practice.

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As with modern social media, Pompeian graffiti were also subject to phases and trends: gladiators and ships belonged to the favourite motifs for sketches, and writing names in the shape of a ship soon caught on as well; the same lines from popular literature were written on the walls over and over again, and greetings mostly repeat the same, fixed phrase that we also find in Roman letters. When a certain Aemilius began to write his name backwards, two other men, Curvius and Sabinus, took up the practice as well, until all three of them were messaging each other in this manner on the walls of one particular house. The word "Menedemerumenos", whose meaning we do not know, also came into fashion at some point and spread all over town, perhaps as a kind of riddle or game.

"Meant as an individual self-display, the graffiti clearly reveal patterns of human behavior."

Although these marks, messages, and stories incised into Pompeian buildings are personal expressions, they are, at the same time, often formulaic to the point of redundancy. Meant as an individual self-display, the graffiti clearly reveal patterns of human behaviour in general as well as local writing fashions. The same tendency can be observed in modern social media, where trends affect content, design, and marketing strategies; social media is dominated by the latest meals and travels people share online with the whole world, leaving the impression that our society consists of happy, wealthy people who spend their life travelling to beautiful destinations and eating beautifully arranged food.

The message of mass

I am myself a blogger; I use Facebook and Twitter to promote my own research, and I have just recently discovered Instagram for private purposes. I am, however, still compelled to wonder why people would be interested in the least at looking at my breakfast table. Am I worth being recognized and remembered? This question is closely connected to the question of how authentic we are by simply following given patterns and by being fully aware of the audience we have. Is it still us we represent online, or is it merely an image or fictional character which we create of ourselves and which is tailored to social expectations and current fashions? With hundreds of names scratched into the walls of Pompeii, each one of them is part of a large, uniform mass in the same way that I am just one of many millions of people dedicated to social media, however unique I try - or imagine myself - to be.

"Is it still us we represent online, or is it merely a fictional character which we create of ourselves and which is tailored to social expectations and current fashions?"

What does the mass of often redundant, formulaic graffiti from Pompeii tell us? Amongst other things, it tells us something about how graffiti was seen by Roman society at large. Graffiti were mostly placed in highly frequented spaces, including the central rooms of private residences. This suggests that graffiti were, if not welcomed, at least tolerated, probably in part because they were not visually disturbing. Being scratched into the wall-plaster (and therefore also into the frescoes which covered the walls!), graffiti give us a new understanding of the perception of space and decoration in antiquity: it reminds us that that which we call art and today treat as sacrosanct was, in antiquity, a functional object, a surface to be used for writing.

Carved Memory

Pompeian graffiti not only quoted literary texts and used popular phrases, but also imitated parts of their surroundings, such as nearby buildings or parts of wall-paintings; sometimes they employed wall-paintings as a visual framework to highlight the inscriptions, and they took delight in playing with their audience in the same way that children like to address their readers: "whoever reads this is stupid". A closer study of the writers and addressees of the Pompeian graffiti also reveals that women are highly underrepresented as writers in this genre, a fact that might point to the different levels of literacy in Roman society. Only in erotic texts and love messages do women play decisive role; these texts remind us of what one today finds in public toilets or on school tables, but they can also evoke what some people even like to post online.

Sharing one's private life, thoughts, and opinions online has become normal thanks to social media. This, without doubt, bears many dangers, from companies spying on their employees to teenagers committing suicide because of private videos having gone viral. A careless or injudicious use of social media can negatively affect the rest of one's life, a danger that should not be underestimated. As a private individual, I therefore try to find the right balance between sharing personal thoughts and experiences, and keeping my privacy. As a professional, however, I appreciate everything people publicly post, whether online or as a graffito on wall, because studying material remains and written traces of (past) societies is a key part of my profession as an archaeologist. These are the very materials which allow us to understand and analyse past and present societies.

However banal ancient graffiti might seem, they are a boon for scholarship, and as an archaeologist and researcher, I am grateful for every kind of memory scratched into the walls of Pompeii: these are rare traces of the lives of average persons. Whether something is worthy of remembrance or not is always a subjective decision, and scholarship has not always had a serious interest in the extant Pompeian graffiti. Regarded as stupid scribbles, the informal inscriptions have, in large part, long been neglected. As scholarly interest began to shift from the history of great men to a reconstruction of daily life in all parts of society, graffiti research has, especially within the past years, experienced a new peak. The phenomenon of graffiti-writing in antiquity does not only make us reflect on modern practices of wall-writing, but also on our habits of self-display, and on the connection between the two.
Complement this story with Konstantinos Kapparis on Prostitution in Ancient Greece and Manuel Knoll on What Plato Would Have Said About Trump and Brexit. [Title Image by David Soanes via gettyimages]

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What the Graffiti of Ancient Pompeii Teach Us About Our Modern Selves - De Gruyter Conversations

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Graffiti are part of the contemporary urban fabric; they colourfully cover buildings and trains, remain as traces left behind by visitors at tourist sites, or reveal the names of lovers at romantic spots. As such, graffiti can be perceived both as acts of vandalism or occupation as well as a means of expression or form of ornamentation.

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Episode 4

The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-little-known-legend-of-jesus-in-japan-165354242/

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A mountain hamlet in northern Japan claims Jesus Christ was buried there

Smithsonian Magazine |

On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a farmer's daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids and died at the ripe old age of 106. In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he's remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai. The rest of the world knows him as Jesus Christ.

It turns out that Jesus of Nazareth-the Messiah, worker of miracles and spiritual figurehead for one of the world's foremost religions-did not die on the cross at Calvary, as widely reported. According to amusing local folklore, that was his kid brother, Isukiri, whose severed ear was interred in an adjacent burial mound in Japan.

A bucolic backwater with only one Christian resident (Toshiko Sato, who was 77 when I visited last spring) and no church within 30 miles, Shingo nevertheless bills itself as Kirisuto no Sato (Christ's Hometown). Every year 20,000 or so pilgrims and pagans visit the site, which is maintained by a nearby yogurt factory. Some visitors shell out the 100-yen entrance fee at the Legend of Christ Museum, a trove of religious relics that sells everything from Jesus coasters to coffee mugs. Some participate in the springtime Christ Festival, a mashup of multidenominational rites in which kimono-clad women dance around the twin graves and chant a three-line litany in an unknown language. The ceremony, designed to console the spirit of Jesus, has been staged by the local tourism bureau since 1964.

The Japanese are mostly Buddhist or Shintoist, and, in a nation of 127.8 million, about 1 percent identify themselves as Christian. The country harbors a large floating population of folk religionists enchanted by the mysterious, the uncanny and the counterintuitive. "They find spiritual fulfillment in being eclectic," says Richard Fox Young, a professor of religious history at the Princeton Theological Seminary. "That is, you can have it all: A feeling of closeness-to Jesus and Buddha and many, many other divine figures-without any of the obligations that come from a more singular religious orientation."

In Shingo, the Greatest Story Ever Told is retold like this: Jesus first came to Japan at the age of 21 to study theology. This was during his so-called "lost years," a 12-year gap unaccounted for in the New Testament. He landed at the west coast port of Amanohashidate, a spit of land that juts across Miyazu Bay, and became a disciple of a great master near Mount Fuji, learning the Japanese language and Eastern culture. At 33, he returned to Judea-by way of Morocco!-to talk up what a museum brochure calls the "sacred land" he had just visited.

Having run afoul of the Roman authorities, Jesus was arrested and condemned to crucifixion for heresy. But he cheated the executioners by trading places with the unsung, if not unremembered, Isukiri. To escape persecution, Jesus fled back to the promised land of Japan with two keepsakes: one of his sibling's ears and a lock of the Virgin Mary's hair. He trekked across the frozen wilderness of Siberia to Alaska, a journey of four years, 6,000 miles and innumerable privations. This alternative Second Coming ended after he sailed to Hachinohe, an ox-cart ride from Shingo.

Upon reaching the village, Jesus retired to a life in exile, adopted a new identity and raised a family. He is said to have lived out his natural life ministering to the needy. He sported a balding gray pate, a coat of many folds and a distinctive nose, which, the museum brochure observes, earned him a reputation as a "long-nosed goblin."

When Jesus died, his body was left exposed on a hilltop for four years. In keeping with the customs of the time, his bones were then bundled and buried in a grave-the same mound of earth that is now topped by a timber cross and surrounded by a picket fence. Though the Japanese Jesus performed no miracles, one could be forgiven for wondering whether he ever turned water into sake.

***

This all sounds more Life of Brian than Life of Jesus. Still, the case for the Shingo Savior is argued vigorously in the museum and enlivened by folklore. In ancient times, it's believed, villagers maintained traditions alien to the rest of Japan. Men wore clothes that resembled the toga-like robes of biblical Palestine, women wore veils, and babies were toted around in woven baskets like those in the Holy Land. Not only were newborns swaddled in clothes embroidered with a design that resembled a Star of David, but, as a talisman, their foreheads were marked with charcoal crosses.

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The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan

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Smithsonian Magazine | On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a farmer's daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids and died at the ripe old age of 106.

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Episode 32

Year of the Five Emperors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Five_Emperors

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The Year of the Five Emperors was AD 193, in which five men claimed the title of Roman emperor: Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus, and Septimius Severus. This year started a period of civil war when multiple rulers vied for the chance to become emperor.

The political unrest began with the murder of Emperor Commodus on New Year's Eve 192. Once Commodus was assassinated, Pertinax was named emperor, but immediately aroused opposition in the Praetorian Guard when he attempted to initiate reforms. They then plotted his assassination, and Pertinax was killed while trying to reason with the mutineers. He had only been emperor for three months. Didius Julianus, who purchased the title from the Praetorian Guard, succeeded Pertinax, but was ousted by Septimius Severus and executed on 1 June. Severus was declared Caesar by the Senate, but Pescennius Niger was hostile so he declared himself emperor.

This started the civil war between Niger and Severus; both gathered troops and fought throughout the territory of the empire. Due to this war, Severus allowed Clodius Albinus, whom he suspected of being a threat, to be co-Caesar so that Severus did not have to preoccupy himself with imperial governance. This move allowed him to concentrate on waging the war against Niger. After Severus defeated Niger at the battle of Issus in 194, he turned on Albinus and defeated him at the battle of Lugdunum in 197.

Most historians count Severus and Albinus as two emperors, though they ruled simultaneously. The Severan dynasty was created out of the chaos of AD 193.

Commodus' sanity began to unravel after the death of his close associate, Cleander. This triggered a series of summary executions of members of the aristocracy. He began removing himself from his identity as ruler ideologically by resuming his birth name instead of keeping the names that his father gave him when he succeeded to imperial rule. His behavior decayed further as he became more paranoid. He carried out a particularly large massacre in Rome during New Year's Eve AD 192, so that he could become the sole consul. Three nobles, Eclectus, Marcia, and Laetus, fearing that they would be targeted, had Commodus strangled before he could do so. The assassins then named Pertinax the new Caesar.

The identity of the person who planned the murder of Commodus is still a debated topic. Some sources name Pertinax as the mastermind of the assassination because he obtained imperial rule once Commodus was killed. However, the accusations against Pertinax appear to have come from his enemies, an effort to damage his reputation; in reality, these accusers appear not to have known who masterminded the assassination.

Bust in the National Museum of the Union, possibly of Pertinax

Pertinax gained his position by rising through the military ranks. He became proconsul of Africa, making him the first of several emperors who began their political careers in Africa. Since most of the nobles had been murdered in the New Year's Eve massacre, Pertinax was one of the few high-ranking officials left to become the new emperor. He faced early difficulties due to the empire's crumbling financial situation and accusations that he was complicit in the assassination of Commodus. He may also have been accused of the murder of Cleander, Commodus' associate, whose murder had triggered Commodus' paranoia.

Pertinax's discipline made a great contrast to Commodus, but he lost the favor of the Praetorian Guard when he refused to pay their donativum and began revoking their privileges under Commodus. When confronted by the Praetorians, he was unable to negotiate a peace and was killed.

Following his death, the Praetorian Guard proceeded to auction off the throne to the highest bidder.

Didius Julianus gained power as proconsul of Africa, succeeding Pertinax in that position. Julianus was not just given the position of emperor after Pertinax's death. He had competition in Pertinax's father-in-law, Sulpicianus, but Julianus outbid him by promising even higher pay for the Praetorian Guard. Julianus was widely suspected of Pertinax's murder. Two public figures used the public's fear to take advantage of this crisis: Pescennius Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius Severus, who declared himself emperor twelve days after Pertinax's death. The anti-Julianus mobs called on Pescennius Niger for assistance, but Severus, in Pannonia, was closest to Rome. He reached the capital first with his troops and executed Julianus on 1 June, just two months after Pertinax.

Niger began 193 as the governor of Syria. Once the mobs started to clamor for him, he declared himself emperor in rivalry with Severus. With allies in the eastern part of the empire, he gathered an army and fought Severus throughout the empire for two years. He eventually lost the civil war during a battle near the city of Issus in 194.

Coin of Clodius Albinus. This coin celebrates Saeculum Frugiferum, the embodiment of a "fruitful era", probably Ba'al Hammon, a Phoenician divinity worshipped in North Africa, whence Clodius came.

Clodius Albinus came into contention for the imperial office in 193, when he was asked to become emperor after the death of Commodus, but rejected the proposition. He eventually gained the title of Caesar as a second to Severus, ruling the empire while Severus was on campaign against Niger. Severus and Albinus were considered enemies at the time, but they made a compact or treaty which gave Albinus administrative power and the title of Caesar. Albinus controlled Britain, and the agreement gave him Gaul and Spain. Some sources say that this agreement was fully under the control of Severus, who retained ultimate imperial power. Albinus continued as Caesar for three years before a civil war broke out between the two, resulting in Severus becoming sole emperor after the battle of Lugdunum in 197 in which Albinus was killed.

Septimius Severus at Glyptothek, Munich

Severus was, practically speaking, the emperor after Pertinax was assassinated. Some sources tie Severus and Pertinax together as allies, which would explain how Severus became so powerful during this chaotic year. He had originally thought to take the throne after Commodus' murder, but was forestalled when the assassins hastily named Pertinax emperor. Twelve days after the 28 March assassination of Pertinax, Severus made himself ruler with the Senate's backing. He had Didius Julianus executed and made enemies of the other powerful nobles who aspired to the throne, Niger and Albinus.

For the first few years of his reign, he was preoccupied with the civil war against Niger in the east, so he allied with Albinus despite their rivalry, granting Albinus the title of Caesar but not the real military power. However, once Severus defeated Niger, he set his sights on Albinus and waged a successful civil war against him. After defeating both enemies, Severus purged their followers to consolidate his position as sole Caesar, founding the Severan dynasty.

References

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The Year of the Five Emperors was AD 193, in which five men claimed the title of Roman emperor: Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus, and Septimius Severus. This year started a period of civil war when multiple rulers vied for the chance to become emperor.

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922: Ahmad ibn Fadlan Journeys with Vikings

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922: Ahmad ibn Fadlan Journeys with Vikings

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Episode 11

“The Rus” (An Arab among the Vikings) https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/12938.ch01.pdf

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1296: First War of Scottish Independence Begins

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1296: First War of Scottish Independence Begins

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Episodes 23, 24, 58, 59, 67

Edward I (Longshanks) wages a years-long war at the Scottish borders.

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First War of Scottish Independence - Wikipedia

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1302: Richard of Pudlicott Robs England's Treasury

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1302: Richard of Pudlicott Robs England's Treasury

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Episode 23

August 1302

The One Where England’s Treasury War Robbed https://medium.com/@madmedic11671/the-one-where-englands-treasury-war-robbed-9727181fc8b

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The One Where England’s Treasury War Robbed

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In the history of heists, there are a few that stand out for the astonishing amount of money that was stolen, The Dar Es Salaam Bank heist…

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1303: King Philip VI Tries to Kidnap Pope Boniface VIII

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1303: King Philip VI Tries to Kidnap Pope Boniface VIII

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Episode 67:

In 1303 the French King Sent Goons to Attack and Kidnap the Pope https://www.history.com/articles/french-king-kidnapping-pope-philip-iv-boniface-vii

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1400: The Zeno Brothers Claim They Discovered New World First

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1400: The Zeno Brothers Claim They Discovered New World First

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Episode 46

The Zeno Voyage https://archive.org/details/voyagesofvenetia00zenorich/page/n33/mode/2up?view=theater

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1589: Trial and Execution of Peter Stumpp

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1589: Trial and Execution of Peter Stumpp

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Episode 8

Confessions of a Werewolf: The Trial of Peter Stump https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/a-german-werewolfs-confessions-horrified-1500s-europe

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Episode 18

November 7, 1637

The Trial of Anne Hutchinson https://www.famous-trials.com/hutchinson/2395-hutchinson-1637-account

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Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)

America was not always the "Land of Liberty." In the 1630s, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, questioning Puritan dogma could bring you a world of trouble. It could get you shunned, it could get you ex-communicated, it could even get you criminally convicted and banished. Anne Hutchinson found all this out in 1637. But Hutchinson's trial and conviction also, in ways that would have surprised her detractors, helped set American on a path towards greater toleration for religious differences. ... Continued
From "God in America: How Religious Liberty Shaped America" (Episode 1)(PBS, 2010).

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Welcome to Famous Trials, the Web's largest and most visited collection of original essays, trial transcripts and exhibits, maps, images, and other materials relating to the greatest trials in world history. "Famous Trials" first appeared on the Web in 1995, making this site older than about 99.97% of all websites.

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1671: Colonel Thomas Blood Steals Crown Jewels

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1671: Colonel Thomas Blood Steals Crown Jewels

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Episode 22

May 9, 1671

The Irish Man Who Stole the Crown Jewels https://britishheritage.com/history/man-steals-crown-jewels

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Colonel Thomas Blood Steals Crown Jewels

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1684: 'Aristotle's Masterpiece' is Published

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1684: 'Aristotle's Masterpiece' is Published

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Episode 54

When the Birds and the Bees Were Not Enough https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/when-the-birds-and-the-bees-were-not-enough-aristotle-s-masterpiece/

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1804: Napoleon Declares Himself Emperor of the French

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1804: Napoleon Declares Himself Emperor of the French

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Episode 68

After beginning his rise to power in 1799, Napoleon crowns himself emperor and installs his siblings in positions of power all over Europe.

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Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 - 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French emperor and military commander who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and briefly again in 1815. His political and cultural legacy endures as a celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many enduring reforms, but has been criticized for his authoritarian rule. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and his wars and campaigns are still studied at military schools worldwide. However, historians still debate whether he was responsible for the Napoleonic Wars in which between three and six million people died.

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica into a family descended from Italian nobility. He was resentful of the French monarchy, and supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the French army, trying to spread its ideals to his native Corsica. He rose rapidly in the ranks after saving the governing French Directory by firing on royalist insurgents. In 1796, he began a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring decisive victories, and became a national hero. Two years later he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. In 1804, to consolidate and expand his power, he crowned himself Emperor of the French.

Differences with the United Kingdom meant France faced the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with victories in the Ulm campaign and at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him. Napoleon defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, marched the Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in June 1807 at Friedland, forcing the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to accept the Treaties of Tilsit. Two years later, the Austrians challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram.

Hoping to extend the Continental System, his embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted in the Peninsular War aided by a British army, culminating in defeat for Napoleon's marshals. Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the catastrophic retreat of Napoleon's Grande Armée. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, resulting in a large coalition army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. In France, the Bourbons were restored to power.

Napoleon escaped in February 1815 and took control of France. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51.

Napoleon had a lasting impact on the world, bringing modernizing reforms to France and Western Europe and stimulating the development of nation states. He also sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803, doubling the size of the United States. However, his mixed record on civil rights and exploitation of conquered territories adversely affect his reputation.

Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, fought for Corsican independence under Pasquale Paoli, but after their defeat he eventually became the island's representative to the court of Louis XVI.

Napoleon's family was of Italian origin. His paternal ancestors, the Buonapartes, descended from a minor Tuscan noble family that emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century and his maternal ancestors, the Ramolinos, descended from a minor Genoese noble family. His parents Carlo Maria Bonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino maintained an ancestral home called " Casa Bonaparte", known nowadays as Maison Bonaparte, in Ajaccio. Napoleon was born there on 15 August 1769. He was the family's fourth child and third son. He had an elder brother, Joseph, and younger siblings Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme. Napoleon was baptized as a Catholic, under the name . In his youth, his name was also spelled as Nabulione, Nabulio, Napolionne, and Napulione.

Napoleon was born one year after the Republic of Genoa ceded Corsica to France. The state sold sovereign rights a year before his birth and the island was conquered by France during the year of his birth. It was formally incorporated as a province in 1770, after 500 years under Genoese rule and 14 years of independence. Napoleon's parents joined the Corsican resistance and fought against the French to maintain independence, even when Maria was pregnant with him. His father Carlo was an attorney who had supported and actively collaborated with patriot Pasquale Paoli during the Corsican war of independence against France; after the Corsican defeat at Ponte Novu in 1769 and Paoli's exile in Britain, Carlo began working for the new French government and in 1777 was named representative of the island to the court of Louis XVI.

The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child. Later in life, Napoleon said, "The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother." His maternal grandmother had married into the Swiss Fesch family in her second marriage, and Napoleon's uncle, the cardinal Joseph Fesch, fulfilled a role as protector of the Bonaparte family for some years. Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time.

Statue of Bonaparte as a schoolboy in Brienne, aged 15, by [Louis Rochet fr] (1853)

When he turned 9 years old, he moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in Autun in January 1779. In May, he transferred with a scholarship to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château. In his youth he was an outspoken Corsican nationalist and supported the state's independence from France. Like many Corsicans, Napoleon spoke and read Corsican (as his mother tongue) and Italian (as the official language of Corsica). He began learning French in school at the age of around 10. Although he became fluent in French, he spoke with a distinctive Corsican accent and never learned to spell in French. Consequently, Napoleon was routinely bullied by his peers for his accent, birthplace, short stature, mannerisms, and inability to speak French quickly. He became reserved and melancholy, applying himself to reading. An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography ... This boy would make an excellent sailor".

On completion of his studies at Brienne in 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the École Militaire in Paris. He trained to become an artillery officer and, when his father's death reduced his income, was forced to complete the two-year course in one year. He was the first Corsican to graduate from the École Militaire. He was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace.

Early career

Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fère artillery regiment. He served in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Bonaparte was a fervent Corsican nationalist during this period. He asked for leave to join his mentor Pasquale Paoli, when Paoli was allowed to return to Corsica by the National Assembly. But Paoli had no sympathy for Napoleon, as he deemed his father a traitor for having deserted the cause of Corsican independence.

When Corsica declared formal secession from France and requested the protection of the British government, Napoleon and his commitment to the French Revolution came into conflict with Paoli, who had decided to sabotage the Corsican contribution to the Expédition de Sardaigne by preventing a French assault on the Sardinian island La Maddalena. Bonaparte and his family were compelled to flee to Toulon on the French mainland in June 1793 because of the split with Paoli.

Siege of Toulon

In July 1793, Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet, Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire), which gained him the support of Augustin Robespierre, the younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. With the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed senior gunner and artillery commander of the republican forces that arrived at Toulon on 8 September.

He adopted a plan to capture a hill where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the British to evacuate. The assault on the position led to the capture of the city, and during it Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh on 16 December. Catching the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, he was put in charge of the artillery of France's Army of Italy. On 22 December he was on his way to a new post in Nice, promoted from colonel to brigadier general at the age of 24. He devised plans to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of France's campaign against the First Coalition.

13 Vendémiaire

Some contemporaries alleged that Bonaparte was put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the Robespierres following their fall in the Thermidorian Reaction in July 1794. Bonaparte's secretary Bourrienne disputed the allegation in his memoirs. According to Bourrienne, jealousy was responsible, between the Army of the Alps and the Army of Italy, with whom Bonaparte was seconded at the time. Bonaparte dispatched an impassioned defence in a letter to the commissar Saliceti, and was acquitted of any wrongdoing. He was released within two weeks (on 20 August), and due to his technical skills, was asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions in the context of France's war with Austria. He also took part in an expedition to take back Corsica from the British, but the French were repulsed by the British Royal Navy.

By 1795, Bonaparte had become engaged to Désirée Clary, daughter of François Clary. Désirée's sister Julie Clary had married Bonaparte's brother Joseph. In April 1795, he was assigned to the Army of the West, which was engaged in the War in the Vendée-a civil war and royalist counter-revolution in Vendée, a region in west-central France on the Atlantic Ocean. As an infantry command, it was a demotion from artillery general-for which the army already had a full quota-and he pleaded poor health to avoid the posting.

Journée du 13 Vendémiaire, artillery fire in front of the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris, Rue Saint-Honoré

He was moved to the Bureau of Topography of the Committee of Public Safety. He sought unsuccessfully to be transferred to Constantinople to offer his services to the Sultan. During this period, he wrote the romantic novella Clisson et Eugénie, about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to Bonaparte's own relationship with Clary. On 15 September, Bonaparte was removed from the list of generals in regular service for refusing to serve in the Vendée campaign. He faced a difficult financial situation and reduced career prospects.

On 3 October, royalists in Paris declared a rebellion against the National Convention. Paul Barras, a leader of the Thermidorian Reaction, knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulon and gave him command of the improvised forces in defence of the convention in the Tuileries Palace. Bonaparte had seen the massacre of the King's Swiss Guard there three years earlier and realized that artillery would be the key to its defence.

He ordered a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat, to seize large cannons and used them to repel the attackers on 5 October 1795- 13 Vendémiaire An IV in the French Republican Calendar. 1,400 royalists died and the rest fled. He cleared the streets with "a whiff of grapeshot", according to 19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle in The French Revolution: A History.

First Italian campaign

Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole, by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, (c. 1801), Musée du Louvre, Paris

Two days after the marriage, Bonaparte left Paris to take command of the Army of Italy. He immediately went on the offensive, hoping to defeat the forces of Kingdom of Sardinia (1720-1861) before their Austrian allies could intervene. In a series of rapid victories during the Montenotte Campaign, he knocked Piedmont out of the war in two weeks. The French then focused on the Austrians for the remainder of the war, the highlight of which became the protracted struggle for Mantua. The Austrians launched a series of offensives against the French to break the siege, but Bonaparte defeated every relief effort, winning the battles of Castiglione, Bassano, Arcole, and Rivoli. The decisive French triumph at Rivoli in January 1797 led to the collapse of the Austrian position in Italy. At Rivoli, the Austrians lost up to 14,000 men while the French lost about 5,000.

The Treaty of Leoben, followed by the more comprehensive Treaty of Campo Formio, gave France control of most of northern Italy and the Low Countries, and a secret clause promised the Republic of Venice to Austria. Bonaparte marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending 1,100 years of Venetian independence. He authorized the French to loot treasures such as the Horses of Saint Mark. On the journey, Bonaparte conversed much about the warriors of antiquity, especially Alexander, Caesar, Scipio and Hannibal. He studied their strategy and combined it with his own. To a question from Bourrienne, asking whether he preferred Alexander or Caesar, Bonaparte said that he placed Alexander in the first rank, the main reason being his campaign in Asia.

His application of conventional military ideas to real-world situations enabled his military triumphs, such as creative use of artillery as a mobile force to support his infantry. He said later in life: "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning. Look at Caesar; he fought the first like the last".

Bonaparte could win battles by concealing troop deployments and concentrating his forces on the "hinge" of an enemy's weakened front. If he could not use his favourite envelopment strategy, he would take up the central position and attack two cooperating forces at their hinge, swing round to fight one until it fled, then turn to face the other. In this Italian campaign, Bonaparte's army captured 150,000 prisoners, 540 cannons, and 170 standards. The French army fought 67 actions and won 18 pitched battles through superior artillery technology and Bonaparte's tactics.

Bonaparte sent General Pierre Augereau to Paris to lead a and purge the royalists on 4 September-the Coup of 18 Fructidor. This left Barras and his Republican allies in control again but dependent upon Bonaparte, who proceeded to peace negotiations with Austria. These negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Campo Formio. Bonaparte returned to Paris on 5 December 1797 as a hero. He met Talleyrand, France's new Foreign Minister-who served in the same capacity for Emperor Napoleon-and they began to prepare to invade Britain.

Egyptian expedition

Bonaparte Before the Sphinx (c. 1886) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Hearst Castle

After two months of planning, Bonaparte decided that France's naval strength was not yet sufficient to confront the British Royal Navy. He decided on a military expedition to seize Egypt and thereby undermine Britain's access to its trade interests in India. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East and join forces with Tipu Sultan, the Sultan of Mysore, an enemy of the British. Bonaparte assured the Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions". The Directory agreed in order to secure a trade route to the Indian subcontinent.

In May 1798, Bonaparte was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. His Egyptian expedition included a group of 167 scientists, with mathematicians, naturalists, chemists, and geodesists among them. Their discoveries included the Rosetta Stone, and their work was published in the Description de l'Égypte in 1809. En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached Malta on 9 June 1798, then controlled by the Knights Hospitaller. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim surrendered after token resistance, and Bonaparte captured an important naval base with the loss of only three men.

Bonaparte and his expedition eluded pursuit by the Royal Navy and landed at Alexandria on 1 July. He fought the Battle of Shubra Khit against the Mamluks, Egypt's ruling military caste. This helped the French practise their defensive tactic for the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July, about 24 km (15 mi) from the pyramids. Bonaparte's forces of 25,000 roughly equalled those of the Mamluks' Egyptian cavalry. Twenty-nine French and approximately 2,000 Egyptians were killed. The victory boosted the French army's morale.

On 1 August 1798, the British fleet under Sir Horatio Nelson captured or destroyed all but two vessels of the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile, preventing Bonaparte from strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean. His army had succeeded in a temporary increase of French power in Egypt, though it faced repeated uprisings. In early 1799, he moved an army into the Ottoman province of Damascus (Syria and Galilee). Bonaparte led these 13,000 French soldiers in the conquest of the coastal towns of Arish, Gaza, Jaffa, and Haifa. The attack on Jaffa was particularly brutal. Bonaparte discovered that many of the defenders were former prisoners of war, ostensibly on parole, so he ordered the garrison and some 1,500-5,000 prisoners to be executed by bayonet or drowning. Men, women, and children were robbed and murdered for three days.

Bonaparte began with an army of 13,000 men. 1,500 were reported missing, 1,200 died in combat, and thousands perished from disease-mostly bubonic plague. He failed to reduce the fortress of Acre, so he marched his army back to Egypt in May. To speed the retreat, Bonaparte was alleged to have ordered plague-stricken men to be poisoned with opium. Back in Egypt on 25 July, Bonaparte defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir.

Ruler of France

While in Egypt, Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs. He learned that France had suffered a series of defeats in the War of the Second Coalition. On 24 August 1799, fearing that the Republic's future was in doubt, he took advantage of the temporary departure of British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France, despite the fact that he had received no explicit orders from Paris. The army was left in the charge of Jean-Baptiste Kléber.

Despite the failures in Egypt, Bonaparte returned to a hero's welcome. He drew together an alliance with Talleyrand and members of the Council of Five Hundred: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, his brother Lucien, Roger Ducos and Joseph Fouché. They overthrew the Directory by a coup d'état on 9 November 1799 ("the 18th Brumaire" according to the revolutionary calendar), closing down the Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon became "first consul" for ten years, with two consuls appointed by him who had consultative voices only. His power was confirmed by the new " Constitution of the Year VIII", originally devised by Sieyès to give Napoleon a minor role, but rewritten by Napoleon, and accepted by direct popular vote (3,000,000 in favour, 1,567 opposed). The constitution preserved the appearance of a republic but, in reality, established a dictatorship.

French Consulate

Bonaparte, First Consul, by Ingres. Posing the hand inside the waistcoat was often used in portraits of rulers to indicate calm and stable leadership.

Silver coin: 5 francs_AN XI, 1802, Bonaparte, First Consul

Bonaparte established a political system that historian Martyn Lyons called "dictatorship by plebiscite". Worried by the democratic forces unleashed by the Revolution, but unwilling to ignore them entirely, Bonaparte resorted to regular electoral consultations with the French people on his road to imperial power. He drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul, taking up residence at the Tuileries. The constitution was approved in a rigged plebiscite held the following January, with 99.94 percent officially listed as voting "yes".

In the spring of 1800, Bonaparte and his troops crossed the Swiss Alps into Italy, aiming to surprise the Austrian armies that had reoccupied the peninsula when Bonaparte was still in Egypt. After a difficult crossing over the Alps, the French army entered the plains of Northern Italy virtually unopposed. While one French army approached from the north, the Austrians were busy with another stationed in Genoa, which was besieged by a substantial force. The fierce resistance of this French army, under André Masséna, gave the northern force some time to carry out their operations with little interference.

After spending several days looking for each other, the two armies collided at the Battle of Marengo on 14 June. General Melas had a numerical advantage, fielding about 30,000 Austrian soldiers while Bonaparte commanded 24,000 French troops. The battle began favourably for the Austrians as their initial attack surprised the French and gradually drove them back. Melas stated that he had won the battle and retired to his headquarters around 3 pm, leaving his subordinates in charge of pursuing the French. The French lines never broke during their tactical retreat. Bonaparte constantly rode out among the troops urging them to stand and fight.

Late in the afternoon, a full division under Desaix arrived on the field and reversed the tide of the battle. A series of artillery barrages and cavalry charges decimated the Austrian army, which fled over the Bormida River back to Alessandria, leaving behind 14,000 casualties. The following day, the Austrian army agreed to abandon Northern Italy once more with the Convention of Alessandria, which granted them safe passage to friendly soil in exchange for their fortresses throughout the region.

Although critics have blamed Bonaparte for several tactical mistakes preceding the battle, they have also praised his audacity for selecting a risky campaign strategy, choosing to invade the Italian peninsula from the north when the vast majority of French invasions came from the west, near or along the coastline. As David G. Chandler points out, Bonaparte spent almost a year getting the Austrians out of Italy in his first campaign. In 1800, it took him only a month to achieve the same goal. German strategist and field marshal Alfred von Schlieffen concluded that "Bonaparte did not annihilate his enemy but eliminated him and rendered him harmless" while attaining "the object of the campaign: the conquest of North Italy".

Bonaparte's triumph at Marengo secured his political authority and boosted his popularity back home, but it did not lead to an immediate peace. Bonaparte's brother, Joseph, led the complex negotiations in Lunéville and reported that Austria, emboldened by British support, would not acknowledge the new territory that France had acquired. As negotiations became increasingly fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau and the French swept through Bavaria and scored an overwhelming victory at Hohenlinden in December 1800. As a result, the Austrians capitulated and signed the Treaty of Lunéville in February 1801. The treaty reaffirmed and expanded earlier French gains at Campo Formio.

Temporary peace in Europe

After a decade of constant warfare, France and Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, bringing the Revolutionary Wars to an end. Amiens called for the withdrawal of British troops from recently conquered colonial territories as well as for assurances to curtail the expansionary goals of the French Republic. With Europe at peace and the economy recovering, Bonaparte's popularity soared to its highest levels under the consulate, both domestically and abroad. In a new plebiscite during the spring of 1802, the French public came out in huge numbers to approve a constitution that made the Consulate permanent, essentially elevating Bonaparte to dictator for life.

Whereas the plebiscite two years earlier had brought out 1.5 million people to the polls, the new referendum enticed 3.6 million to go and vote (72 percent of all eligible voters). There was no secret ballot in 1802 and few people wanted to openly defy the regime. The constitution gained approval with over 99% of the vote. His broad powers were spelled out in the new constitution: Article 1. The French people name, and the Senate proclaims Napoleon-Bonaparte First Consul for Life. After 1802, he was generally referred to as Napoleon rather than Bonaparte.

The brief peace in Europe allowed Napoleon to focus on French colonies abroad. Saint-Domingue had managed to acquire a high level of political autonomy during the Revolutionary Wars, with Toussaint L'Ouverture installing himself as de facto dictator by 1801. Napoleon saw a chance to reestablish control over the colony when he signed the Treaty of Amiens. In the 18th century, Saint-Domingue had been France's most profitable colony, producing more sugar than all the British West Indies colonies combined. However, during the Revolution, the National Convention voted to abolish slavery in February 1794. Aware of the expenses required to fund his wars in Europe, Napoleon made the decision to reinstate slavery in all French Caribbean colonies. The 1794 decree had only affected the colonies of Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe and Guiana and did not take effect in Mauritius, Reunion and Martinique, the last of which had been captured by the British and as such remained unaffected by French law.

In Guadeloupe slavery had been abolished (and its ban violently enforced) by Victor Hugues against opposition from slaveholders thanks to the 1794 law. However, when slavery was reinstated in 1802, a slave revolt broke out under the leadership of Louis Delgrès. The resulting Law of 20 May had the express purpose of reinstating slavery in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, and restored slavery throughout most of the French colonial empire (excluding Saint-Domingue) for another half a century, while the French transatlantic slave trade continued for another twenty years.

Napoleon sent an expedition under his brother-in-law General Leclerc to reassert control over Saint-Domingue. Although the French managed to capture Toussaint Louverture, the expedition failed when high rates of disease crippled the French army, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines won a string of victories, first against Leclerc, and when he died from yellow fever, then against Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, whom Napoleon sent to relieve Leclerc with another 20,000 men. In May 1803, Napoleon acknowledged defeat, and the last 8,000 French troops left the island, and the slaves proclaimed an independent republic that they called Haiti in 1804. In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France. Seeing the failure of his efforts in Haiti, Napoleon decided in 1803 to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States, instantly doubling the size of the U.S. The selling price in the Louisiana Purchase was less than three cents per acre, a total of $15 million.

The peace with Britain proved to be uneasy and controversial. Britain did not evacuate Malta as promised and protested against Bonaparte's annexation of Piedmont and his Act of Mediation, which established a new Swiss Confederation. Neither of these territories were covered by Amiens, but they inflamed tensions significantly. The dispute culminated in a declaration of war by Britain in May 1803; Napoleon responded by reassembling the invasion camp at Boulogne and declaring that every British male between eighteen and sixty years old in France and its dependencies to be arrested as a prisoner of war.

French Empire

During the consulate, Napoleon faced several royalist and Jacobin assassination plots, including the Conspiration des poignards (Dagger plot) in October 1800 and the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise (also known as the Infernal Machine) two months later. In January 1804, his police uncovered an assassination plot against him that involved Moreau and which was ostensibly sponsored by the Bourbon family, the former rulers of France. On the advice of Talleyrand, Napoleon ordered the kidnapping of the Duke of Enghien, violating the sovereignty of Baden. The Duke was quickly executed after a secret military trial, even though he had not been involved in the plot. Enghien's execution infuriated royal courts throughout Europe, becoming one of the contributing political factors for the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars.

To expand his power, Napoleon used these assassination plots to justify the creation of an imperial system based on the Roman model. He believed that a Bourbon restoration would be more difficult if his family's succession was entrenched in the constitution. Launching yet another referendum, Napoleon was elected as Emperor of the French by a tally exceeding 99%. As with the Life Consulate two years earlier, this referendum produced heavy participation, bringing out almost 3.6 million voters to the polls.

A keen observer of Bonaparte's rise to absolute power, Madame de Rémusat, explains that "men worn out by the turmoil of the Revolution [...] looked for the domination of an able ruler" and that "people believed quite sincerely that Bonaparte, whether as consul or emperor, would exert his authority and save [them] from the perils of anarchy."

Coronation

Napoleon's throne room at Fontainebleau

Napoleon's coronation, at which Pope Pius VII officiated, took place at Notre Dame de Paris, on 2 December 1804. Napoleon wore a golden laurel wreath throughout the proceedings, representing victory, peace and civic virtue. For the coronation, he raised a replica of Charlemagne's crown over his own head in a symbolic gesture, but did not wear it atop the wreath. All present rose spontaneously, the men waving their hats. Joséphine, Napoleon's wife, knelt in front of him to receive her crown on her head, the event commemorated in the official painting by Jacques-Louis David. Joséphine became only the second queen to be crowned and anointed in French history, other than Marie de' Medici.

War of the Third Coalition

Napoleon in his coronation robes by François Gérard, c. 1805

Great Britain had broken the Peace of Amiens by declaring war on France in May 1803. In December 1804, an Anglo-Swedish agreement became the first step towards the creation of the Third Coalition. By April 1805, Britain had also signed an alliance with Russia. Austria had been defeated by France twice in recent memory and wanted revenge, so it joined the coalition a few months later.

Before the formation of the Third Coalition, Napoleon had assembled an invasion force, the Armée d'Angleterre, around six camps at Boulogne in Northern France. He intended to use this invasion force to strike at England. They never invaded, but Napoleon's troops received careful and invaluable training for future military operations. The men at Boulogne formed the core for what Napoleon later called La Grande Armée. At the start, this French army had about 200,000 men organized into seven corps, which were large field units that contained 36-40 cannons each and were capable of independent action until other corps could come to the rescue.

A single corps properly situated in a strong defensive position could survive at least a day without support, giving the Grande Armée countless strategic and tactical options on every campaign. On top of these forces, Napoleon created a cavalry reserve of 22,000 organized into two cuirassier divisions, four mounted dragoon divisions, one division of dismounted dragoons, and one of light cavalry, all supported by 24 artillery pieces. By 1805, the Grande Armée had grown to a force of 350,000 men, who were well equipped, well trained, and led by competent officers.

Napoleon knew that the French fleet could not defeat the Royal Navy in a head-to-head battle, so he planned to lure it away from the English Channel through diversionary tactics. The main strategic idea involved the French Navy escaping from the British blockades of Toulon and Brest and threatening to attack the British West Indies. In the face of this attack, it was hoped, the British would weaken their defence of the Western Approaches by sending ships to the Caribbean, allowing a combined Franco-Spanish fleet to take control of the English channel long enough for French armies to cross and invade. However, the plan unravelled after the British victory at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in July 1805. French Admiral Villeneuve then retreated to Cádiz instead of linking up with French naval forces at Brest for an attack on the English Channel.

Napoleon and the Grande Armée receive the surrender of Austrian General Mack after the Battle of Ulm in October 1805. The decisive finale of the Ulm Campaign raised the tally of captured Austrian soldiers to 60,000. With the Austrian army destroyed, Vienna would fall to the French in November.

Austrian commander Karl Mack had gathered the greater part of the Austrian army at the fortress of Ulm in Swabia. Napoleon swung his forces to the southeast and the Grande Armée performed an elaborate wheeling movement that outflanked the Austrian positions. The Ulm Maneuver completely surprised General Mack, who belatedly understood that his army had been cut off. After some minor engagements that culminated in the Battle of Ulm, Mack finally surrendered after realizing that there was no way to break out of the French encirclement. For just 2,000 French casualties, Napoleon had managed to capture a total of 60,000 Austrian soldiers through his army's rapid marching. Napoleon wrote after the conflict: "I have accomplished my object, I have destroyed the Austrian army by simply marching."

The Ulm Campaign is generally regarded as a strategic masterpiece and was influential in the development of the Schlieffen Plan in the late 19th century. For the French, this spectacular victory on land was soured by the decisive victory that the Royal Navy attained at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October. After Trafalgar, the Royal Navy was never again seriously challenged by a French fleet in a large-scale engagement for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars.

Following the Ulm Campaign, French forces managed to capture Vienna in November. The fall of Vienna provided the French a huge bounty as they captured 100,000 muskets, 500 cannons, and the intact bridges across the Danube. At this critical juncture, both Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II decided to engage Napoleon in battle, despite reservations from some of their subordinates. Napoleon sent his army north in pursuit of the Allies but then ordered his forces to retreat so that he could feign a grave weakness.

Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, by François Gérard, 1805. The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's many victories, where the French Empire defeated the Third Coalition.

It imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the defeated Habsburgs and allowed the fleeing Russian troops free passage through hostile territories and back to their home soil. Napoleon went on to say, "The battle of Austerlitz is the finest of all I have fought". Frank McLynn suggests that Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz that he lost touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one". Vincent Cronin disagrees, stating that Napoleon was not overly ambitious for himself, "he embodied the ambitions of thirty million Frenchmen".

Middle-Eastern alliances

Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East in order to put pressure on Britain and Russia, and perhaps form an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. In February 1806, Ottoman Emperor Selim III recognized Napoleon as Emperor. He also opted for an alliance with France, calling France "our sincere and natural ally". That decision brought the Ottoman Empire into a losing war against Russia and Britain. A Franco-Persian alliance was formed between Napoleon and the Persian Empire of Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar. It collapsed in 1807 when France and Russia formed an unexpected alliance. In the end, Napoleon had made no effective alliances in the Middle East.

War of the Fourth Coalition and Tilsit

The initial military manoeuvres began in September 1806. In a letter to Marshal Soult detailing the plan for the campaign, Napoleon described the essential features of Napoleonic warfare and introduced the phrase le bataillon-carré ("square battalion"). In the bataillon-carré system, the various corps of the Grande Armée would march uniformly together in close supporting distance. If any single corps was attacked, the others could quickly spring into action and arrive to help.

Following his triumph, Napoleon imposed the first elements of the Continental System through the Berlin Decree issued in November 1806. The Continental System, which prohibited European nations from trading with Britain, was widely violated throughout his reign. In the next few months, Napoleon marched against the advancing Russian armies through Poland and was involved in the bloody stalemate at the Battle of Eylau in February 1807. After a period of rest and consolidation on both sides, the war restarted in June with an initial struggle at Heilsberg that proved indecisive.

On 14 June Napoleon obtained an overwhelming victory over the Russians at the Battle of Friedland, wiping out the majority of the Russian army in a very bloody struggle. The scale of their defeat convinced the Russians to make peace with the French. On 19 June, Tsar Alexander sent an envoy to seek an armistice with Napoleon. The latter assured the envoy that the Vistula River represented the natural borders between French and Russian influence in Europe. On that basis, the two emperors began peace negotiations at the town of Tilsit after meeting on an iconic raft on the River Niemen. The very first thing Alexander said to Napoleon was probably well-calibrated: "I hate the English as much as you do". Their meeting lasted two hours. Despite waging wars against each other the two Emperors were very much impressed and fascinated by one another. "Never," said Alexander afterward, "did I love any man as I loved that man."

Alexander faced pressure from his brother, Duke Constantine, to make peace with Napoleon. Given the victory he had just achieved, the French emperor offered the Russians relatively lenient terms-demanding that Russia join the Continental System, withdraw its forces from Wallachia and Moldavia, and hand over the Ionian Islands to France. By contrast, Napoleon dictated very harsh peace terms for Prussia, despite the ceaseless exhortations of Queen Louise. Wiping out half of Prussian territories from the map, Napoleon created a new kingdom of 2,800 square kilometres (1,100 sq mi) called Westphalia and appointed his young brother Jérôme as its monarch.

Prussia's humiliating treatment at Tilsit caused a deep and bitter antagonism that festered as the Napoleonic era progressed. Moreover, Alexander's pretensions at friendship with Napoleon led the latter to seriously misjudge the true intentions of his Russian counterpart, who would violate numerous provisions of the treaty in the next few years. Despite these problems, the Treaties of Tilsit at last gave Napoleon a respite from war and allowed him to return to France, which he had not seen in over 300 days.

Peninsular War and Erfurt

The settlements at Tilsit gave Napoleon time to organize his empire. One of his major objectives became enforcing the Continental System against the British forces. He decided to focus his attention on the Kingdom of Portugal, which consistently violated his trade prohibitions. After defeat in the War of the Oranges in 1801, Portugal adopted a double-sided policy.

Unhappy with this change of policy by the Portuguese government, Napoleon negotiated a secret treaty with Charles IV of Spain and sent an army to invade Portugal. On 17 October 1807, 24,000 French troops under General Junot crossed the Pyrenees with Spanish cooperation and headed towards Portugal to enforce Napoleon's orders. This attack was the first step in what would eventually become the Peninsular War, a six-year struggle that significantly sapped French strength. Throughout the winter of 1808, French agents became increasingly involved in Spanish internal affairs, attempting to incite discord between members of the Spanish royal family. On 16 February 1808, secret French machinations finally materialized when Napoleon announced that he would intervene to mediate between the rival political factions in the country.

Marshal Murat led 120,000 troops into Spain. The French arrived in Madrid on 24 March, where wild riots against the occupation erupted just a few weeks later. Napoleon appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as the new King of Spain in the summer of 1808. The appointment enraged a heavily religious and conservative Spanish population. Resistance to French aggression soon spread throughout Spain. The shocking French defeats at the Battle of Bailén and the Battle of Vimiero gave hope to Napoleon's enemies and partly persuaded the French emperor to intervene in person.

Before going to Iberia, Napoleon decided to address several lingering issues with the Russians. At the Congress of Erfurt in October 1808, Napoleon hoped to keep Russia on his side during the upcoming struggle in Spain and during any potential conflict against Austria. The two sides reached an agreement, the Erfurt Convention, that called upon Britain to cease its war against France, that recognized the Russian conquest of Finland from Sweden and made it an autonomous Grand Duchy, and that affirmed Russian support for France in a possible war against Austria "to the best of its ability".

Napoleon then returned to France and prepared for war. The Grande Armée, under the Emperor's personal command, rapidly crossed the Ebro River in November 1808 and inflicted a series of crushing defeats against the Spanish forces. After clearing the last Spanish force guarding the capital at Somosierra, Napoleon entered Madrid on 4 December with 80,000 troops. He then unleashed his soldiers against Moore and the British forces. The British were swiftly driven to the coast, and they withdrew from Spain entirely after a last stand at the Battle of Corunna in January 1809 and the death of Moore.

Napoleon would end up leaving Iberia in order to deal with the Austrians in Central Europe, but the Peninsular War continued on long after his absence. He never returned to Spain after the 1808 campaign. Several months after Corunna, the British sent another army to the peninsula under Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. The war then settled into a complex and asymmetric strategic deadlock where all sides struggled to gain the upper hand. The highlight of the conflict became the brutal guerrilla warfare that engulfed much of the Spanish countryside. Both sides committed the worst atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars during this phase of the conflict.

The vicious guerrilla fighting in Spain, largely absent from the French campaigns in Central Europe, severely disrupted the French lines of supply and communication. Although France maintained roughly 300,000 troops in Iberia during the Peninsular War, the vast majority were tied down to garrison duty and to intelligence operations. The French were never able to concentrate all of their forces effectively, prolonging the war until events elsewhere in Europe finally turned the tide in favour of the Allies. After the invasion of Russia in 1812, the number of French troops in Spain vastly declined as Napoleon needed reinforcements to conserve his strategic position in Europe. By 1814 the Allies had pushed the French out of the peninsula.

War of the Fifth Coalition and Marie Louise

After four years on the sidelines, Austria sought another war with France to avenge its recent defeats. Austria could not count on Russian support because the latter was at war with Britain, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire in 1809. Frederick William of Prussia initially promised to help the Austrians but reneged before conflict began. A report from the Austrian finance minister suggested that the treasury would run out of money by the middle of 1809 if the large army that the Austrians had formed since the Third Coalition remained mobilized. Although Archduke Charles warned that the Austrians were not ready for another showdown with Napoleon, a stance that landed him in the so-called "peace party", he did not want to see the army demobilized either. On 8 February 1809, the advocates for war finally succeeded when the Imperial Government secretly decided on another confrontation against the French.

In the early morning of 10 April, leading elements of the Austrian army crossed the Inn River and invaded Bavaria. The early Austrian attack surprised the French; Napoleon himself was still in Paris when he heard about the invasion. He arrived at Donauwörth on the 17th to find the Grande Armée in a dangerous position, with its two wings separated by 120 km (75 mi) and joined by a thin cordon of Bavarian troops. Charles pressed the left wing of the French army and hurled his men towards the III Corps of Marshal Davout.

In response, Napoleon came up with a plan to cut off the Austrians in the celebrated Landshut Maneuver. He realigned the axis of his army and marched his soldiers towards the town of Eckmühl. The French scored a convincing win in the resulting Battle of Eckmühl, forcing Charles to withdraw his forces over the Danube and into Bohemia. On 13 May, Vienna fell for the second time in four years, although the war continued since most of the Austrian army had survived the initial engagements in Southern Germany.

After the setback at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon took more than six weeks in planning and preparing for contingencies before he made another attempt at crossing the Danube. From 30 June to the early days of July, the French recrossed the Danube in strength, with more than 180,000 troops marching across the Marchfeld towards the Austrians. Charles received the French with 150,000 of his own men. In the ensuing Battle of Wagram, which also lasted two days, Napoleon commanded his forces in what was the largest battle of his career up until then. Napoleon finished off the battle with a concentrated central thrust that punctured a hole in the Austrian army and forced Charles to retreat. Austrian losses were very heavy, reaching well over 40,000 casualties. The French were too exhausted to pursue the Austrians immediately, but Napoleon eventually caught up with Charles at Znaim and the latter signed an armistice on 12 July.

The French Empire at its greatest extent in 1812:

The resulting Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809 was the harshest that France had imposed on Austria in recent memory. Metternich and Archduke Charles had the preservation of the Habsburg Empire as their fundamental goal, and to this end, they succeeded by making Napoleon seek more modest goals in return for promises of friendship between the two powers. While most of the hereditary lands remained a part of the Habsburg realm, France received Carinthia, Carniola, and the Adriatic ports, while Galicia was given to the Poles and the Salzburg area of the Tyrol went to the Bavarians. Austria lost over three million subjects, about one-fifth of her total population, as a result of these territorial changes.

Napoleon turned his focus to domestic affairs after the war. Empress Joséphine had still not given birth to a child from Napoleon, who became worried about the future of his empire following his death. Desperate for a legitimate heir, Napoleon divorced Joséphine on 10 January 1810 and started looking for a new wife. Hoping to cement the recent alliance with Austria through a family connection, Napoleon married the 18-year-old Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis II. On 20 March 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to a baby boy, whom Napoleon made heir apparent and bestowed the title of King of Rome. His son never actually ruled the empire but given his brief titular rule and cousin Louis-Napoléon's subsequent naming himself Napoléon III, historians often refer to him as Napoleon II.

Invasion of Russia

In 1808, Napoleon and Tsar Alexander met at the Congress of Erfurt to preserve the Russo-French alliance. The leaders had a friendly personal relationship after their first meeting at Tilsit in 1807. By 1811, however, tensions had increased, a strain on the relationship became the regular violations of the Continental System by the Russians as their economy was failing, which led Napoleon to threaten Alexander with serious consequences if he formed an alliance with Britain.

By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. On receipt of intelligence reports on Russia's war preparations, Napoleon expanded his Grande Armée to more than 450,000 men. He ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 24 June 1812 the invasion commenced.

In an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, Napoleon termed the war the Second Polish War-the First Polish War had been the Bar Confederation uprising by Polish nobles against Russia in 1768. Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of Poland to be joined with the Duchy of Warsaw and an independent Poland created. This was rejected by Napoleon, who stated he had promised his ally Austria this would not happen. Napoleon refused to manumit the Russian serfs because of concerns this might provoke a reaction in his army's rear. The serfs later committed atrocities against French soldiers during France's retreat.

The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time. Although the French had won, the Russian army had accepted, and withstood, the major battle Napoleon had hoped would be decisive. Napoleon's own account was: "The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible".

The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander would negotiate peace. Moscow was burned, rather than surrendered, on the order of Moscow's governor Feodor Rostopchin. After five weeks, Napoleon and his army left. In early November Napoleon became concerned about the loss of control back in France after the Malet coup of 1812. His army walked through snow up to their knees, and nearly 10,000 men and horses froze to death on the night of 8/9 November alone. After the Battle of Berezina Napoleon managed to escape but had to abandon much of the remaining artillery and baggage train. On 5 December, shortly before arriving in Vilnius, Napoleon left the army in a sledge.

The French suffered in the course of a ruinous retreat, including from the harshness of the Russian Winter. The Armée had begun as over 400,000 frontline troops, with fewer than 40,000 crossing the Berezina River in November 1812. The Russians had lost 150,000 soldiers in battle and hundreds of thousands of civilians.

War of the Sixth Coalition

There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812-13 while both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces; Napoleon was able to field 350,000 troops. Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813.

Napoleon after his abdication in Fontainebleau, 4 April 1814, by Paul Delaroche

Napoleon withdrew into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers and little cavalry; he faced more than three times as many Allied troops. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother, abdicated as king of Spain on 13 December 1813 and assumed the title of lieutenant general to save the collapsing empire. The French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. By the middle of January 1814, the Coalition had already entered France's borders and launched a two-pronged attack on Paris, with Prussia entering from the north, and Austria from the east, marching out of the capitulated Swiss confederation. The French Empire, however, would not go down so easily. Napoleon launched a series of victories in the Six Days' Campaign. While they repulsed the coalition forces and delayed the capture of Paris by at least a full month, these were not significant enough to turn the tide. The coalitionaries camped on the outskirts of the capital on 29 March. A day later, they advanced onto the demoralized soldiers protecting the city. Joseph Bonaparte led a final battle at the gates of Paris. They were greatly outnumbered, as 30,000 French soldiers were pitted against a combined coalition force that was five times greater. They were defeated, and Joseph retreated out of the city. The leaders of Paris surrendered to the Coalition on the last day of March 1814. On 1 April, Alexander addressed the . Long docile to Napoleon, under Talleyrand's prodding it had turned against him. Alexander told the Sénat that the Allies were fighting against Napoleon, not France, and they were prepared to offer honourable peace terms if Napoleon were removed from power. The next day, the Sénat passed the Acte de déchéance de l'Empereur ("Emperor's Demise Act"), which declared Napoleon deposed.

Napoleon had advanced as far as Fontainebleau when he learned that Paris had fallen. When Napoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his senior officers and marshals mutinied. On 4 April, led by Ney, the senior officers confronted Napoleon. When Napoleon asserted the army would follow him, Ney replied that the army would follow its generals. While the ordinary soldiers and regimental officers wanted to fight on, the senior commanders were unwilling to continue. Without any senior officers or marshals, any prospective invasion of Paris would have been impossible. Bowing to the inevitable, on 4 April Napoleon abdicated in favour of his son, with Marie Louise as regent. However, the Allies refused to accept this under prodding from Alexander, who feared that Napoleon might find an excuse to retake the throne. Napoleon was then forced to announce his unconditional abdication only two days later.

In his farewell address to the soldiers of Old Guard in 20 April, Napoleon said:

"Soldiers of my Old Guard, I have come to bid you farewell. For twenty years you have accompanied me faithfully on the paths of honor and glory. ...With men like you, our cause was [not] lost, but the war would have dragged on interminably, and it would have been a civil war. ... So I am sacrificing our interests to those of our country. ...Do not lament my fate; if I have agreed to live on, it is to serve our glory. I wish to write the history of the great deeds we have done together. Farewell, my children!"

Exile to Elba

The Allied Powers having declared that Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, which he is not ready to make in the interests of France.
Done in the palace of Fontainebleau, 11 April 1814.

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the Allies exiled Napoleon to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 10 km (6 mi) off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain the title of Emperor. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried after nearly being captured by the Russians during the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age, however, and he survived to be exiled, while his wife and son took refuge in Austria. He was conveyed to the island on HMS Undaunted by Captain Thomas Ussher, and he arrived at Portoferraio on 30 May 1814. In the first few months on Elba he created a small navy and army, developed the iron mines, oversaw the construction of new roads, issued decrees on modern agricultural methods, and overhauled the island's legal and educational system. A few months into his exile, Napoleon learned that his ex-wife Joséphine had died in France. He was devastated by the news, locking himself in his room and refusing to leave for two days.

Hundred Days

Separated from his wife and son, who had returned to Austria, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba in the brig Inconstant on 26 February 1815 with 700 men. Two days later, he landed on the French mainland at Golfe-Juan and started heading north.

The 5th Regiment was sent to intercept him and made contact just south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within gunshot range, shouted to the soldiers, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish." The soldiers quickly responded with, "Vive L'Empereur!" Ney, who had boasted to the restored Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, that he would bring Napoleon to Paris in an iron cage, affectionately kissed his former emperor and forgot his oath of allegiance to the Bourbon monarch. The two then marched together toward Paris with a growing army. The unpopular Louis XVIII fled to Belgium after realizing that he had little political support. On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw. Four days later, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia each pledged to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.

Napoleon returned to Paris and found that both the legislature and the people had turned against him. Realizing that his position was untenable, he abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son. He left Paris three days later and settled at Joséphine's former palace in Malmaison (on the western bank of the Seine about 17 kilometres (11 mi) west of Paris). Even as Napoleon travelled to Paris, the Coalition forces swept through France (arriving in the vicinity of Paris on 29 June), with the stated intent of restoring Louis XVIII to the French throne.

When Napoleon heard that Prussian troops had orders to capture him dead or alive, he fled to Rochefort, considering an escape to the United States. British ships were blocking every port. Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland on HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.

Exile on Saint Helena

Napoleon on Saint Helena, watercolour by Franz Josef Sandmann, c. 1820

Napoleon was held in British custody and transferred to the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,870 km (1,162 mi) from the west coast of Africa. Napoleon and 27 followers arrived at Jamestown, Saint Helena, in October 1815 on board HMS Northumberland. The prisoner was guarded by a garrison of 2,100 soldiers while a squadron of 10 ships continuously patrolled the waters to prevent escape. In the following years, there were rumours of escape plots, but no serious attempts were made.

Napoleon stayed for two months at Briars pavilion before he was moved to Longwood House, a 40-room wooden bungalow. The location and interior of the house were damp, windswept, rat-infested and unhealthy. published articles insinuating the British government was trying to hasten his death. Napoleon often complained of his living conditions in letters to the island's governor, Hudson Lowe, while his attendants complained of "colds, catarrhs, damp floors and poor provisions".

Napoleon insisted on imperial formality. When he held a dinner party, men were expected to wear military dress and "women [appeared] in evening gowns and gems. It was an explicit denial of the circumstances of his captivity". He formally received visitors, read, and dictated his memoirs and commentaries on military campaigns. He studied English under Count Emmanuel de Las Cases for a few months but gave up as he was poor at languages.

Napoleon also circulated reports of poor treatment in the hope that public opinion would force the allies to revoke his exile on Saint Helena. Under instructions from the British government, Lowe cut Napoleon's expenditure, refused to recognize him as a former emperor, and made his supporters sign a guarantee they would stay with the prisoner indefinitely. Accounts of the mistreatment led, in March 1817, to a debate in parliament and Lord Holland's call for an inquiry.

Napoleon's health continued to worsen and in March 1821 he was confined to bed. In April he wrote two wills declaring that he had been murdered by the British, that the Bourbons would fall and that his son would rule France. He left his fortune to 97 legatees and asked to be buried by the Seine.

On 3 May he was given the last rites but could not take communion due to his illness. He died on 5 May 1821 at age 51. His last words, variously recorded by those present, were either France, l'armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine ("France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine"), or qui recule... à la tête d'armée ("who retreats... at the head of the army") or "France, my son, the Army."

Antommarchi and the British wrote separate autopsy reports, each concluding that Napoleon had died of internal bleeding caused by stomach cancer, the disease that had killed his father. A later theory, based on high concentrations of arsenic found in samples of Napoleon's hair, held that Napoleon had died of arsenic poisoning. However, subsequent studies also found high concentrations of arsenic in hair samples from Napoleon's childhood and from his son and Joséphine. Arsenic was widely used in medicines and products such as hair creams in the 19th century. A 2021 study by an international team of gastrointestinal pathologists concluded that Napoleon died of stomach cancer.

In 1840, the British government gave Louis Philippe I permission to return Napoleon's remains to France. Napoleon's body was exhumed and found to be well preserved as it had been sealed in four coffins (two of metal and two of mahogany) and placed in a masonry tomb. On 15 December 1840, a state funeral was held in Paris before a crowd of 700,000 to one million who lined the route of the funeral procession to the chapel of the Esplanade des Invalides. The coffin was later placed in the cupola in St Jérôme's Chapel, where it remained until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti was completed. In 1861, Napoleon's remains were entombed in a sarcophagus in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides.

Napoleon was baptized in Ajaccio on 21 July 1771. He was raised as a Catholic but never developed much faith, though he recalled the day of his First Communion in the Catholic Church to be the happiest day of his life. As an adult, Napoleon was a deist, believing in an absent and distant God. However, he had a keen appreciation of the power of organized religion in social and political affairs, and he paid a great deal of attention to bending it to his purposes. He noted the influence of Catholicism's rituals and splendors. Napoleon once said "religion is a sort of inoculation or vaccine which, while satisfying our sense of the supernatural, guarantees us from the charlatans and the magicians".

Napoleon had a civil marriage with Joséphine de Beauharnais, without religious ceremony. Napoleon was crowned Emperor on 2 December 1804 at Notre-Dame de Paris in a ceremony presided over by Pope Pius VII. On the eve of the coronation ceremony, and at the insistence of Pope Pius VII, a private religious wedding ceremony of Napoleon and Joséphine was celebrated. Napoleon's half-uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, performed the wedding. This marriage was annulled by tribunals under Napoleon's control in January 1810. On 1 April 1810, Napoleon married the Austrian princess Marie Louise in a Catholic ceremony. Napoleon was excommunicated by the pope through the bull Quum memoranda in 1809, but later reconciled with the Catholic Church before his death in 1821. While in exile in Saint Helena, he is recorded to have said "I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man." He also defended Muhammad ("a great man") against Voltaire's .

Seeking national reconciliation between revolutionaries and Catholics, Napoleon and Pope Pius VII signed the Concordat of 1801 on 15 July 1801. It solidified the Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status. The hostility of devout Catholics against the state had now largely been resolved. The Concordat did not restore the vast Church lands and endowments that had been seized during the revolution and sold off. As a part of the Concordat, Napoleon presented another set of laws called the Organic Articles.

Arrest of Pope Pius VII

In 1809, under Napoleon's orders, Pope Pius VII-who had excommunicated Napoleon that year, following his annexation of the Papal States-was placed under arrest in Italy. In 1812 the prisoner pontiff was transferred to France, being held in the Palace of Fontainebleau. Because the arrest was made in a clandestine manner, some sources describe it as a kidnapping. In January 1813, Napoleon personally forced the pope to sign a humiliating "Concordat of Fontainebleau" which was later repudiated by the pontiff. The pope was not released until 1814, when the Coalition invaded France.

Religious emancipation

He stated, "I will never accept any proposals that will obligate the Jewish people to leave France, because to me the Jews are the same as any other citizen in our country. It takes weakness to chase them out of the country, but it takes strength to assimilate them". He was seen as so favourable to the Jews that the Russian Orthodox Church formally condemned him as " Antichrist and the Enemy of God".

One year after the final meeting of the Sanhedrin, on 17 March 1808, Napoleon placed the Jews on probation. Several new laws restricting the citizenship the Jews had been offered 17 years previously were instituted at that time. However, despite pressure from leaders of a number of Christian communities to refrain from granting Jews emancipation, within one year of the issue of the new restrictions, they were once again lifted in response to the appeal of Jews from all over France.

Personality

Pieter Geyl wrote in 1947, "It is impossible that two historians, especially two historians living in different periods, should see any historical personality in the same light." There is no dispute that Napoleon was ambitious, although commentators disagree on whether his ambition was mostly for his own power and glory or for the welfare of France. Historians agree that Napoleon was highly intelligent with an excellent memory, and was a superior organizer who could work efficiently for long hours. In battle, he could rapidly dictate a series of complex commands to his subordinates, keeping in mind where major units were expected to be at each future point.

He was an inspiring leader who could obtain the best from his soldiers and subordinates. The Duke of Wellington said his presence on the battlefield was worth 40,000 soldiers. He could charm people when he needed to but could also publicly humiliate them and was known for his rages when his plans were frustrated. Historian McLynn sees him as a misogynist with a cruel streak which he often inflicted on women, children and animals.

There is debate over whether Napoleon was an outsider who never felt at home in France or with other people. Taine said Napoleon saw others only as instruments and was cut off from feelings of admiration, sympathy or pity. Arthur Lévy replied that Napoleon genuinely loved Joséphine and often showed humanity and compassion to his enemies or those who had let him down. He had the normal middle class virtues and understood the common man.

Similarly, historians are divided over whether Napoleon was consistently ruthless when his power was threatened or surprisingly indulgent in some cases. Those arguing for a ruthless personality point to episodes such as his violent suppression of revolts in France and conquered territories, his execution of the Duc de Enghien and plotters against his rule, and his massacre of Turkish prisoners of war in Syria in 1799. Others point to his mild treatment of disloyal subordinates such as Bernadotte, Talleyrand and Fouché.

Many historians see Napoleon as pragmatic and a realist, at least in the early years of his rule. He wasn't driven by ideology and promoted capable men irrespective of their political and social background, as long as they were loyal. As an expert in military matters, he valued technical expertise and listened to the advice of experts in other fields. However, there is a consensus that once he dominated Europe he became more intolerant of other views and surrounded himself with "yes men". Towards the end of his reign he lost his realism and ability to compromise.

Various psychologists have attempted to explain Napoleon's personality. Alfred Adler cited Napoleon to describe an inferiority complex in which short people adopt over-aggressive behaviour to compensate for lack of height; this inspired the term Napoleon complex. Adler, Fromm and Reich ascribed his nervous energy to sexual dysfunction. Harold T. Parker speculated that rivalry with his older brother and bullying when he moved to France led him to develop an inferiority complex which made him domineering.

Appearance and image

A friend who first met him as a young man said Napoleon was only notable "for the dark color of his complexion, for his piercing and scrutinising glance, and for the style of his conversation". He also said that Napoleon was serious and sombre. Johann Ludwig Wurstemberger, who accompanied Napoleon in 1797 and 1798, noted that "Bonaparte was rather slight and emaciated-looking; his face, too, was very thin, with a dark complexion... his black, unpowdered hair hung down evenly over both shoulders", but that, despite his slight and unkempt appearance, "[h]is looks and expression were earnest and powerful."

Denis Davydov considered him average in appearance:

His face was slightly swarthy, with regular features. His nose was not very large, but straight, with a slight, hardly noticeable bend. The hair on his head was dark reddish-blond; his eyebrows and eyelashes were much darker than the colour of his hair, and his blue eyes, set off by the almost black lashes, gave him a most pleasing expression ... The man I saw was of short stature, just over five feet tall, rather heavy although he was only 37 years old.

During the Napoleonic Wars, he was depicted by the British press as a dangerous tyrant, poised to invade. A nursery rhyme warned children that Bonaparte ate naughty people; the " bogeyman". He was mocked as a short-tempered small man and was nicknamed "Little Boney in a strong fit". In fact, at about 170 cm (5 ft 7 in), he was of average height.

In his later years he gained weight and had a sallow complexion. Novelist Paul de Kock, who saw him in 1811, called Napoleon "yellow, obese, and bloated". A British captain who met him in 1815 stated "I felt very much disappointed, as I believe everyone else did, in his appearance ... He is fat, rather what we call pot-bellied, and although his leg is well shaped, it is rather clumsy ... He is very sallow, with light grey eyes, and rather thin, greasy-looking brown hair, and altogether a very nasty, priestlike-looking fellow."

Napoleon instituted numerous reforms, many of which had a lasting impact on France, Europe and the world. He reformed the French administration, codified French law, implemented a new education system, and established the first French central bank, the Banque de France. He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, which sought to reconcile the majority Catholic population to his regime. It was presented alongside the Organic Articles, which regulated public worship in France. He also implemented civil and religious equality for protestants and Jews. In May 1802, he instituted the Legion of Honour to encourage civilian and military achievements. The order is still the highest decoration in France. He introduced three French constitutions culminating in the reintroduction of a hereditary monarchy and nobility.

Administration

After several attempts by revolutionary governments, Napoleon officially introduced the metric system in France in 1801 and it was spread through western Europe by his armies. The new system was unpopular in some circles, so in 1812 he introduced a compromise system in the retail trade called the mesures usuelles (traditional units of measurement). In December 1805, Napoleon abolished the Revolutionary calendar, with its ten-day week, which had been introduced in 1793.

Napoleonic Code

Napoleon's civil code of laws, known from 1807 as the Napoleonic Code, was implemented in March 1804. It was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, the Second Consul. Napoleon participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. The code introduced a clearly written and accessible set of national laws to replace the various regional and customary law systems that had operated in France.

In the field of military organization, Napoleon borrowed from previous theorists such as Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, and from the reforms of preceding French governments, and then developed what was already in place. He continued the Revolutionary policies of conscription and promotion based primarily on merit.

Napoleon was regarded by the influential military theorist Carl von Clausewitz as a genius in the art of war, and many historians rank him as a great military commander. Wellington considered him the greatest military commander of all time. Cobban states that he showed his genius in moving troops quickly and concentrating them on strategic points. Conner states that his principles were to keep his forces united, keep no weak point unguarded, seize important points quickly, and seize his chance. Owen Connelly, however, states, "Napoleon's personal tactics defy analysis." He used his intuition, engaged his troops, and reacted to what developed.

Napoleon's educational reforms laid the foundation of a modern system of secondary and tertiary education in France and throughout much of Europe. He synthesized academic elements from the Ancien Régime, The Enlightenment, and the Revolution. His education laws of 1802 left most primary education in the hands of religious or communal schools which taught basic literacy and numeracy for a minority of the population. He abolished the revolutionary central schools and replaced them with secondary schools and elite lycées where the curriculum was based on reading, writing, mathematics, Latin, natural history, classics, and ancient history.

He retained the revolutionary higher education system, with grandes écoles in professions including law, medicine, pharmacy, engineering and school teaching. He introduced grandes écoles in history and geography, but opposed one in literature because it wasn't vocational. He also founded the military academy of Saint Cyr. He promoted the advanced centres, such as the École Polytechnique, that provided both military expertise and advanced research in science.

Female education, in contrast, was designed to be practical and religious, based on home science, the catechism, basic literacy and numeracy, and enough science to eradicate superstition.

Memory and evaluation

There is debate over whether Napoleon was "an enlightened despot who laid the foundations of modern Europe" or "a megalomaniac who wrought greater misery than any man before the coming of Hitler". He was compared to Adolf Hitler by Pieter Geyl in 1947, and Claude Ribbe in 2005. Most modern critics of Napoleon, however, reject the Hitler comparison, arguing that Napoleon did not commit genocide and did not engage in the mass murder and imprisonment of his political opponents. Nevertheless, Bell and McLynn condemn his killing of 3,000-5,000 Turkish prisoners of war in Syria.

A number of historians have argued that his expansionist foreign policy was a major factor in the Napoleonic wars which cost six million lives and caused economic disruption for a generation. McLynn and Barnett suggest that Napoleon's reputation as a military genius is exaggerated. Cobban and Conner argue that Napoleon had insufficient regard for the lives of his soldiers and that his battle tactics led to excessive casualties.

Critics also cite Napoleon's exploitation of conquered territories. To finance his wars, Napoleon increased taxes and levies of troops from annexed territories and satellite states. He also introduced discriminatory tariff policies which promoted French trade at the expense of allies and satellite states. He institutionalized plunder: French museums contain art stolen by Napoleon's forces from across Europe. Artefacts were brought to the Musée du Louvre for a grand central museum; an example which would later be followed by others.

Many historians have criticized Napoleon's authoritarian rule, especially after 1807, which included censorship, the closure of independent newspapers, the bypassing of direct elections and representative government, the dismissal of judges showing independence, and the exile of critics of the regime. Historians also blame Napoleon for reducing the civil rights of women, children and people of colour, and reintroducing the legal penalties of civil death and confiscation of property. His reintroduction of an hereditary monarchy and nobility remains controversial. His role in the Haitian Revolution and decision to reinstate slavery in France's overseas colonies adversely affect his reputation.

Propaganda and memory

In England, Russia and across Europe-though not in France-Napoleon was a popular topic of caricature.

Hazareesingh (2004) explores how Napoleon's image and memory are best understood. They played a key role in collective political defiance of the Bourbon restoration monarchy in 1815-1830. People from different walks of life and areas of France, particularly Napoleonic veterans, drew on the Napoleonic legacy and its connections with the ideals of the 1789 Revolution.

Las Cases, who was with Napoleon in exile, eventually published The Memorial of Saint Helena which depicted Napoleon a liberal, visionary ruler for European unification, deposed by reactionary elements of the Ancien Régime.

Datta (2005) shows that, following the collapse of militaristic Boulangism in the late 1880s, the Napoleonic legend was divorced from party politics and revived in popular culture. Concentrating on two plays and two novels from the period- Victorien Sardou's Madame Sans-Gêne (1893), Maurice Barrès's Les Déracinés (1897), Edmond Rostand's L'Aiglon (1900), and André de Lorde and Gyp's Napoléonette (1913)-Datta examines how writers and critics of the Belle Époque exploited the Napoleonic legend for diverse political and cultural ends. International Napoleonic Congresses take place regularly, with participation by members of the French and American military, French politicians and scholars from different countries. In January 2012, the mayor of Montereau-Fault-Yonne, near Paris-the site of a late victory of Napoleon-proposed development of Napoleon's Bivouac, a commemorative theme park at a projected cost of 200 million euros.

Long-term influence outside France

Napoleon was responsible for spreading the values of the French Revolution to other countries, especially through the Napoleonic Code. After the fall of Napoleon, not only was it retained by conquered countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, parts of Italy and Germany, but it has been used as the basis of certain parts of law outside Europe including the Dominican Republic, the US state of Louisiana and the Canadian province of Quebec. The code was also used as a model in many parts of Latin America. The reputation of Napoleon in Poland has been favourable, especially for his support of independence, opposition to Russia, his legal code, the abolition of serfdom, and the introduction of modern middle class administration.

Dieter Langewiesche described the Napoleonic code as a "revolutionary project" that spurred the development of bourgeois society in Germany by the extension of the right to own property and an acceleration towards the end of feudalism. Napoleon reorganized what had been the Holy Roman Empire, made up of about three hundred Kleinstaaterei, into a more streamlined forty-state Confederation of the Rhine; this helped promote the German Confederation and the unification of Germany in 1871.

The movement toward Italian unification was similarly precipitated by Napoleonic rule. These changes contributed to the development of nationalism and the nation state.

Napoleon directly overthrew remnants of feudalism in much of western Continental Europe. He liberalized property laws, ended seigneurial dues, abolished the guild of merchants and craftsmen to facilitate entrepreneurship, legalized divorce, closed the Jewish ghettos and made Jews equal to everyone else. The Inquisition ended as did the Holy Roman Empire. The power of church courts and religious authority was sharply reduced and equality under the law was proclaimed for all men.

Napoleon indirectly began the process of Latin American independence when he invaded Spain in 1808. The abdication of King Charles IV and renunciation of his son, Ferdinand VII created a power vacuum that was filled by native born political leaders such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. Such leaders embraced nationalistic sentiments influenced by French nationalism and led successful independence movements in Latin America.

From 1796 to 2020, at least 95 major ships were named for him. In the 21st century, at least 18 Napoleon ships are operated under the flag of France, as well as Indonesia, Germany, Italy, Australia, Argentina, India, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

By wanting to make his dynasty the most ancient in Europe, Napoleon ousted numerous houses in favor of his own family. Talleyrand commented that "either these newly created sovereigns respected his overarching plan and became its satellites, which made it impossible for them to take root in the country entrusted to them; or they must reject it. ... Each new creation thus became a source of dissolution in Napoleon's fortune."

Wives, mistresses, and children

Napoleon was first engaged to Désirée Clary, the younger sister of his brother Joseph's wife, in 1795. After meeting Joséphine ( Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie) later that year, he broke off the engagement to Désirée. He then married Joséphine in 1796, at the age of 26.

Joséphine was a 32-year-old widow whose first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, had been executed during the Reign of Terror. Five days after Alexandre de Beauharnais' death, the Reign of Terror initiator Maximilien de Robespierre was overthrown and executed, and, with the help of high-placed friends, Joséphine was freed. Until she met Bonaparte, she had been known as "Rose", a name which he disliked. He called her "Joséphine" instead, and she went by this name henceforth. Bonaparte often sent her love letters while on his campaigns. He formally adopted her son Eugène and second cousin (via marriage) Stéphanie and arranged dynastic marriages for them. Joséphine had her daughter Hortense marry Napoleon's brother Louis.

Joséphine had lovers, such as Lieutenant Hippolyte Charles, during Napoleon's Italian campaign. Napoleon learnt of that affair and a letter he wrote about it was intercepted by the British and published widely, to embarrass Napoleon. Napoleon had his own affairs too: during the Egyptian campaign he took Pauline Bellisle Fourès, the wife of a junior officer, as his mistress. She became known as "Cleopatra".

On 11 March 1810 by proxy, he married the 19-year-old Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, and a great-niece of Marie Antoinette. Thus, he had married into a German royal and imperial family. Louise was less than happy with the arrangement, at least at first, stating: "Just to see the man would be the worst form of torture". Her great-aunt had been executed in France, while Napoleon had fought numerous campaigns against Austria all throughout his military career. However, she seemed to warm up to him over time. After her wedding, she wrote to her father: "He loves me very much. I respond to his love sincerely. There is something very fetching and very eager about him that is impossible to resist".

Napoleon acknowledged one illegitimate son: Charles Léon (1806-1881) by Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne. Alexandre Colonna-Walewski (1810-1868), the son of his Polish mistress Maria Walewska, although acknowledged by Walewska's husband, was also widely known to be his child, and the DNA of his direct male descendant has been used to help confirm Napoleon's Y-chromosome haplotype E1b1b1c1*. He may have had further unacknowledged illegitimate offspring as well, such as Eugen Megerle von Mühlfeld by Emilie Victoria Kraus von Wolfsberg and Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte (1816-1907) by Albine de Montholon.

1. He established a system of public education, abolished the vestiges of ^ feudalism, emancipated Jews and other religious minorities, abolished the Spanish Inquisition, enacted legal protections for an emerging middle class, and centralized state power at the expense of religious authorities.

2. He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and jailed critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in France's colonies except for ^ Haiti, banned the entry of blacks and mulattos into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility, and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule.

3. Although the ^ 1768 Treaty of Versailles formally ceded Corsica's rights, it remained un-incorporated during 1769 until it became a province of France in 1770. Corsica would be legally integrated as a département in 1789.

4. Aside from his name, there does not appear to be a connection between him and ^ Napoleon's theorem.

5. ^ He was mainly referred to as Bonaparte until he became First Consul for life.

6. This is depicted in ^ Bonaparte Crossing the Alps by Hippolyte Delaroche and in Jacques-Louis David's imperial Napoleon Crossing the Alps. He is less realistically portrayed on a charger in the latter work.

7. One night, during an illicit liaison with actress ^ Marguerite Georges, Napoleon had a major fit. This and other more minor attacks have led historians to debate whether he had epilepsy and, if so, to what extent.

1. Parker, Harold T. (1971). "The Formation of Napoleon's Personality: An Exploratory Essay". French Historical Studies. 7 (1): 6-26. doi:10.2307/286104. JSTOR 286104.

2. ^ Carlyle, Thomas (1896). "The works of Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution, vol. III, book 3.VII". Archived from the original on 20 March 2015.

3. ^ Holt, Lucius Hudson; Chilton, Alexander Wheeler (1919). A Brief History of Europe from 1789-1815. Macmillan. p. 206. August 1802 referendum napoleon.

4. De Rémusat, Claire Elisabeth, ^ Memoirs of Madame De Rémusat, 1802-1808 Volume 1, HardPress Publishing, 2012, 542 pp., ISBN 978-1-290-51747-8.

5. ^ Chandler 1966, p. 328. Meanwhile, French territorial rearrangements in Germany occurred without Russian consultation and Napoleon's annexations in the Po valley increasingly strained relations between the two.

6. Richard Brooks (editor), ^ Atlas of World Military History. p. 156. "It is a historical cliché to compare the Schlieffen Plan with Hannibal's tactical envelopment at Cannae (216 BC); Schlieffen owed more to Napoleon's strategic maneuver on Ulm (1805)".

7. ^ Hope, John; Baird, D. (28 January 1809). "Battle of Corunna". Vol. 15, no. 4. Cobbett's political register. pp. 91-94.

8. ^ John Lynch, Caudillos in Spanish America 1800-1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1992, pp. 402-403.

9. Todd Fisher & Gregory Fremont-Barnes, The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. p. 144.

10. David Watkin, ^ The Roman Forum. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2012. 183.ISBN 978-0-674-06367-9 books.google.com/books?id=cRrufMNLOhwC&pg=PA183

11. ^ Latson, Jennifer (26 February 2015). "Why Napoleon Probably Should Have Just Stayed in Exile the First Time". Archived from the original on 25 June 2016.

12. ^ "Hundred Days | Napoleon, Waterloo, Reforms | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Louis XVIII fled to Ghent on March 13, and Napoleon entered Paris one week later.

13. Lugli, Alessandro; et al. (4 March 2021). "The gastric disease of Napoleon Bonaparte: brief report for the bicentenary of Napoleon's death on St. Helena in 1821". Virchows Archiv. 2021 (479): 1055-1060 - via Springer.

14. ^ Bennett, Michael (2020). War Against Smallpox: Edward Jenner and the Global Spread of Vaccination. Cambridge University Press. p. 168.

15. ^ Confidential Correspondence of the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine: Including Letters from the Time of Their Marriage Until the Death of Josephine, and Also Several Private Letters from the Emperor to His Brother Joseph, and Other Important Personages. With Numerous Illustrative Notes ... Mason Brothers. 1856. p. 359. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him

16. Nigel Aston, ^ Religion and revolution in France, 1780-1804 (Catholic University of America Press, 2000) pp. 279-315

17. Nigel Aston, ^ Christianity and revolutionary Europe, 1750-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2002) pp. 261-262.

18. ^ Parker, Harold T. (1971). "The Formation of Napoleon's Personality: An Exploratory Essay". French Historical Studies. 7 (1): 6-26. doi:10.2307/286104. JSTOR 286104.

19. ^ Hallock, William; Wade, Herbert T (1906). "Outlines of the evolution of weights and measures and the metric system". London: The Macmillan Company. pp. 66-69.

20. ^ Hastings, Max (31 October 2014). "Everything is Owed to Glory". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014.

21. Sudhir Hazareesingh, "Memory and Political Imagination: the Legend of Napoleon Revisited". French History, 2004 18(4): 463-483

22. ^ Laurent, Ottavi (8 February 2012). "A New Napoleonic Campaign for Montereau". Foundation Napoleon. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013.

23. ^ Talleyrand, Chares-Maurice de (1953). Mémoires du Prince de Talleyrand (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Henri Javal. pp. 41-50.

24. ^ Lucotte, Gérard; Macé, Jacques & Hrechdakian, Peter (September 2013). "Reconstruction of the Lineage Y Chromosome Haplotype of Napoléon the First" (PDF). International Journal of Sciences. 2 (9): 127-139. ISSN 2305-3925. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2014.

References

Biographical studies

Historiography and memory

Specialty studies

Dwyer, Philip (2015b). "'Citizen Emperor': Political Ritual, Popular Sovereignty and the Coronation of Napoleon I". History. 100 (339): 40-57. doi:10.1111/1468-229X.12089. ISSN 1468-229X.

Fulghum, Neil (2007). "Death Mask of Napoleon". University of North Carolina. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013.

Glover, Richard (1967). "The French Fleet, 1807-1814; Britain's Problem; and Madison's Opportunity". The Journal of Modern History. 39 (3): 233-252. doi:10.1086/240080. S2CID 143376566.

Hindmarsh, J. Thomas; Savory, John (2008). "The Death of Napoleon, Cancer or Arsenic?". Clinical Chemistry. 54 (12): 2092. doi:10.1373/clinchem.2008.117358.

Watson, William (2003). Tricolor and crescent. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-97470-1.

External links

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Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 - 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French emperor and military commander who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars.

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Episode 3

April 3, 1817

Princess Caraboo arrives on scene

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Caraboo

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1820: Joseph Bonaparte Jersey Devil Sighting

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1820: Joseph Bonaparte Jersey Devil Sighting

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Episode 68

Napoleon's brother sees a cryptid after moving to Jersey.

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King Bonaparte and the Jersey Devil History Collection

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Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte ended up New Jersey after the Battle of Waterloo, and met the Jersey Devil In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte faced enemy armies advancing upon France from all quarters, a country exhausted from decades of war, and key political allies and chief military lieutenants turning on him. So he threw in the towel and abdicated. The former emperor who had dominated Europe and dreamt of conquering…

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Episode 16

Jonathan the Tortoise https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-oldest-living-land-animal-a-tortoise-named-jonathan-turns-191-180983392/

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Episode 21

August 25, 1835

Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/the-great-moon-hoax/

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During the week of August 25, 1835, the world was treated to a fantastic story of scientific discoveries by the famous British astronomer, Sir John Herschel. He had realized the speculations of his father, astronomer Sir William Herschel, as he discovered life on the moon.[1] Or so the readers of The New York Sun were told, in a series of articles now known as the Great Moon Hoax.

When we think of stories about life on other worlds and visits to or from those worlds presented as truth rather than fiction, we usually think of legends, news reports, or hoaxes of the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Similarly, the problem of sorting out fact from fiction in news items, especially those passed along through internet news sites and social media, seems quite modern. But speculation about life on the moon or planets in the solar system is older than the written word. News hoaxes also have a long history. Publisher Benjamin Franklin was a famous source of both legitimate news and hoaxes.[2]

Folklorists have an interest in news hoaxes, alongside interest in legends of extraordinary events and the supernatural. News hoaxes succeed when they are written in the news style of the day and draw from contemporary factual news, while legends are stories with origins in oral traditions. But the two often parallel each other and may even include versions of the same stories. Russell Frank discussed modern "newslore" in his book talk at the Library of Congress, " Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on the Internet. "

Leading up to the Great Moon Hoax was another story published in June, 1835. Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story in the Southern Literary Messenger, told as if true: " Hans Phaall, a Tale." It described the return of an explorer to his native Holland with stories of life and adventures on the moon. In his day, a satire was counted as successful if a good portion of its readers thought it to be true. But in this case Poe's sense of humor betrayed him and his article was quickly recognized as fiction by many of his readers. The Southern Literary Messenger was a periodical of fact and fiction that was only ten months old when Poe wrote this story, so it did not have a wide circulation at that time.

But someone, likely a writer on the staff of The New York Sun, either read Poe's story or was thinking along the same lines. There was excitement about the return of Comet Halley expected in the fall and a predicted transit of Mercury, as well as astronomer John Herschel's expedition to catalog the stars of the southern hemisphere. In the world of philosophy, the Scottish minister, amateur astronomer, and popular author, Rev. Thomas Dick, was making imaginative claims about intelligent life on other worlds. For example, he calculated the population of the solar system at over twenty-one trillion. This was a time of exciting events, theories, and claims. Stories playing on curiosity about astronomy could sell newspapers.

The author of the Great Moon Hoax series, unlike Poe, composed the serialized article as if reported by an astronomer who had accompanied Herschel on his expedition, the fictitious Andrew Grant. He included many quotes from Herschel, reporting discoveries made through close observation the moon. The articles cited the Edinburgh Journal of Science as the source for the story and was written in a style similar to that of both William and John Herschel. They may even have been inspired by an 1824 article by the German astronomer Baron Franz von Paula Gruithuisen, with a title that translates into English as " Discovery of Many Distinct Traces of Lunar Inhabitants, Especially of One of Their Colossal Buildings " (in German).

While Poe had begun his story with the dramatic appearance of a balloon-like craft arriving from the moon, the author of the Moon Hoax articles reeled his readers in slowly, beginning with the reasons for the expedition to South Africa and an elaborate description of a new type of telescope invented by Herschel. This grounded the story in some facts. Herschel had gone to South Africa, taking with him a large reflecting telescope he had built, though Herschel's telescope was not combined with the latest in microscope technology as described in the story. Towards the end of the second installment, the forests and plants of the moon were described with a few birds and mammals, including a unicorn-like creature. At this point other newspapers began reprinting the story from the beginning. In the third installment, the author described the geography, flora, and fauna of the moon in greater detail, with miniature bison and beavers that stood on two legs. A live volcano was described, which corresponded to William Herschel's report of what seemed to be volcanoes in his observations in 1787.[3] The segment concluded with a description of an island with cliffs studded with sapphires. This had Americans talking. In the fourth installment on August 28, 1835, the world learned that Herschel and his team had discovered humanoids: "We could then perceive that they possessed wings of great expansion, and were similar in structure to this of the bat, being a semi-transparent membrane expanded in curvilineal divisions by means of straight radii, united at the back by the dorsal integuments. But what astonished us very much was the circumstance of this membrane being continued, from the shoulders to the legs, united all the way down, though gradually decreasing in width." Two more exciting installments followed, ending with an unfortunate accident in which the powerful lens of the telescope causes a fire, disrupting the research. (The full text may be found on the Museum of Hoaxes website.)

What happened next is a mix of history and legend, as the Moon Hoax itself has legends attached to it. One idea about this story from the time of its publication until the present day it was widely believed and represents an example of the gullibility of the public. But the hoax was carefully crafted to appear to be a genuine scientific report of its day. Hershel, who actually was doing research in South Africa, was not able to respond quickly to deny the claims. The August 28th edition describing winged people did tip the scales, and led many to stop believing the reports. On the 29th several papers cried hoax. The New York Evening Post, (page 3) a competing paper, ran an editorial that began "If Jonah swallowed a whale, according to one version of the story, he did not take down a larger mouthful than some of the sage conductors of the [illegible] quarter of the world show themselves capable of doing when they swallow, without a wry face, the ingenious hoax about certain lunar discoveries, a portion of which was published yesterday, and give another portion this forenoon." On the same day the Massachusetts paper, The Gloucester Telegraph, not only informed its readers that the account was probably a hoax, but named papers that believed the articles to be authentic and those that "speak of it as mere moonshine" (page 2).

Many believed that the author of the hoax was the British-born journalist Richard Adams Locke, and he was accused in the press. On August 31, the date of the last installment of the article, Locke replied to his accusers with a letter to The New York Evening Post, which was widely reprinted, expressing shock that anyone would think he was the author of the story. He wrote, "I beg to state, as unequivocally as the words can express it, that I did not make those discoveries and it is my sincere conviction, founded on a careful examination of the internal evidence of the work in which they first appeared, that, if made at all, they were made by the great astronomer to whom all Europe, if not an incredulous America, will undoubtedly ascribe them. " On September 5th, Philadelphia's Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post, reprinted Locke's non-denial denial, followed by an advertisement for a real estate auction for "nine thousand building lots situated in the territory recently discovered by Sir John Herschel. The tract composed of three lots is that in which the vegetable gold is found. It has hitherto been sold as pasture land, giving nourishment to large flocks of sheep with one horn and a flap over their eyes, which will be sold with the lots, if desired...." [4]

The popularity of the story as it traveled across the globe was likely also fueled by the conflicting claims of truth or hoax. This is what everyone was talking about. Those who believed and those who disbelieved were equally eager to read the next installment. Some papers reprinted the story with editorials or disclaimers, and as seen from the above examples, some of these were entertaining as well. But it took several weeks for the cries of "hoax" to begin to catch up with the "news" of the discovery. Even long after the initial event, the story was reprinted in the US and abroad, because now it was news as one of the great journalistic hoaxes of all time.

The late Linda Dégh famously wrote that legends are crafted to excite debate on subjects of great importance. Legends, she argued, invite those who believe and those who disbelieve to test the boundaries of our knowledge. Disclaimers and attempts to disprove legends can often spread the story further. Hoaxes sometimes work in much the same way, perpetuated as much by the interest of those who disbelieve a story as those who believe it.[5]

Poe suspected his own story idea had been stolen and reworked for The Sun, and he was sure that Richard Adams Locke was the culprit. Historians today generally agree that Locke was the most likely author. But The Sun did not retract the story or reveal the name of the author. This became a story in itself, a story about how newspapers should behave. An occasional hoax might be forgiven, but there were objections to the failure of the editors of The Sun to own up to the truth once the hoax was unveiled.

Edgar Allan Poe, whose own story had been eclipsed by the hoax, did get even in a number of ways. He wrote another story, "The Great Balloon Hoax," based on the Great Moon Hoax, which was more successful at fooling some of his readers. Better still, it was published by Richard Adams Locke. Today Poe's story about Hans Phaall is considered an early example of science fiction. Jules Verne, a fan of Poe, had read the story of Hans Phaall and "The Balloon Hoax" and is thought to have been inspired to write his novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the World in Eighty Days by these early works by Poe.

Notes

1. In his 1795 article, "On the Nature and Construction of the Sun and Fixed Stars," William Herschel presented his speculations on life on planets, moons, and even the sun. This may be one of the reasons his son was a target of this hoax. (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 1795-01-01, 85:46-72.)

2. Franklin, Benjamin (1935). Satires and hoaxes of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, illustrated by Herb Roth. Peter Pauper Press, frequently reprinted.

3. Herschel, William (1787). "An Account of Three Volcanoes on the Moon," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Vol. LXXVII, pp. 229-232. What Herschel saw may have been natural a phenomenon, but not active volcanoes.

4. Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post (1831-1839); Sep 5, 1835; XIV, 736; p. 3.

5. Dégh, Linda (2001). Legend and Belief: The Dialectics of a Genere. Indiana University Press. See chapter 2, "Is there a Definition for the Legend," pp. 23-97. GR78 .D44 2001.

Further Reading
Dégh, Linda (2001). Legend and Belief: The Dialectics of a Genere. Indiana University Press.

Goodman, Matthew (2008). The Sun and the Moon : The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-bats in Nineteenth-Century New York. Basic Books.

Griggs, William N. (1852). The Celebrated "Moon Story," Its Origins and Incidents with a Memoir of the Author and an Appendix. Bunnell and Price. Includes the full text of the "Moon Hoax" story, attributed to Richard Adams Locke.

Newland, Rebecca (2015). " Primary Sources and April Fool's Day: The Great Moon Hoax of 1825," Teaching with the Library of Congress. (Suggestions for using primary source materials related to this hoax in the classroom.)

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Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax | Folklife Today

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During the week of August 25, 1835, the world was treated to a fantastic story of scientific discoveries by the famous British astronomer, Sir John Herschel. He had realized the speculations of his father, astronomer Sir William Herschel, as he discovered life on the moon.[1] Or so the readers of The New York Sun were ...

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1840s: Dr. Robert Liston Named 'Fastest Knife on West End'

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1840s: Dr. Robert Liston Named 'Fastest Knife on West End'

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Episode 40

The fastest knife in the West End’: The history of one of London’s most famous surgeons Robert Liston https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7326303/The-history-one-Londons-famous-surgeons-amputate-leg-30-seconds.html

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Episode 13

Who Killed Louis Le Prince? On the forgotten father of film https://harpers.org/archive/2022/04/who-killed-louis-le-prince-on-the-forgotten-father-of-film/

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Who Killed Louis Le Prince?, by Nat Segnit

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1854: Citizens Rebel to Form State of 'Jefferson'

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1854: Citizens Rebel to Form State of 'Jefferson'

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Episode 61

State of Jefferson https://www.ijpr.org/state-of-jefferson

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Episode 64

April 21, 1855

The Lager Beer Riot: Chicago’s ‘First North Side War’ https://brewedculture.org/2017/05/04/the-lager-beer-riot-chicagos-first-north-side-war/

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The Lager Beer Riot: Chicago’s ‘First North Side War’

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Chicago’s complicated relationship with alcohol is older than classic Old Style signs, Al Capone, or local option. The city was barely twenty-one before alcohol began permanently changing its…

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Episode 34:

How Fertilizer Madness Sparked a Turd War and Turned Guano Into Gold https://www.thedailyscoop.com/news/retail-business/how-fertilizer-madness-sparked-turd-war-and-turned-guano-gold

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1869: Big Jim O'Leary is Born in Chicago

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1869: Big Jim O'Leary is Born in Chicago

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Episode 55

The Irish American Gangster Whose Family Rose from Chicago's Ashes https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/big-jim-oleary-chicago-crime-boss

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Crime boss Big Jim O'Leary became one of Chicago's biggest gangsters but many don't know his humble and tragic roots.
One of the most successful Irish American crime bosses in turn of the century Chicago was James Patrick O'Leary, whose criminal career arose from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, of October 1871.

James O'Leary was born to Irish emigrants Patrick and Catherine O'Leary on January 23, 1869, in their home at 137 DeKoven Street, Chicago, Illinois. It was at this address, that the Great fire of Chicago started two years later. An event that would shape the lives and destiny of the entire O'Leary family.

Chicago in 1871 was growing rapidly and was a warren of streets and side alleys of wooden buildings.
Read more: These are the most Irish metropolitan areas in the US
October of that year was unseasonably dry and on the night on the evening October the 8 th a fire began in a barn at the O'Leary family home. A high-wind and the dry conditions created a firestorm that destroyed thousands of buildings, killed over 300 people and caused $200 million in damages.

In the aftermath of the devastation, the Chicago Tribune was quick to attribute blame. One of its reporters, Michael Ahern, published a story that claimed that the great fire had been started by a cow kicking over a lantern while it was being milked. Ahern did not name the owner of the cow, but as the fire had started in the O'Leary's barn, Catherine O'Leary was soon everyone's chief suspect.
Read more: An Irishwoman was blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire
The local newspapers began printing caricatures of Catherine milking the cow and starting the fire.

Soon publications all over the United States followed suit and the blame for the destruction was now lying firmly at the feet of Catherine O'Leary.

At the official inquiry into the disaster, Catherine fervently denied being at fault. She testified under oath that she had been asleep in bed when the fire had started and was unaware of the danger.

This was reinforced by the testimony of the first person to raise the alarm a man with an unusual name Daniel 'Pegleg' Sullivan.

Pegleg was a neighbor of the O'Leary's and he testified that he had gone to visit them at around 6pm and that while he talked to Mr. O'Leary, his wife was absent, asleep in bed.

He left the O'Leary house at around 8pm. On his way home he paused to light his pipe on the corner of the O'Leary's property and it was then he first spotted the flames coming from their barn. Despite having only one leg, he claimed to have run to help, shouting fire!

He reached the barn and freed the animals inside and then roused the O'Leary's who he claimed were still unaware of the fire.
"Whether it originated from a spark blown from a chimney on that windy night, or was set on fire by human agency, we are unable to determine".
However, the Chicago Tribune story and anti-Irish sentiment, still strong at the time made scapegoats of Catherine O'Leary and her family. Outrageous stories soon circulated. One claimed she was drunk at the time of the fire and had hidden the evidence of her crime. Others that all the incriminating evidence had been hidden to protect the O'Leary's.

The official report from the inquiry did not blame Catherine O'Leary simply saying:

However, the idea that the O'Leary's cow had started the fire caught the popular imagination further stimulated by Ahern's Chicago Tribune article.

Michael Ahern would later admit in 1893 that he had made the whole story up! However, it was too late for the O'Leary's whose reputation had been tarnished and finances ruined.

They were forced to move with the infant James and his 2 siblings to a southside Chicago slum where James would grow up haunted by the stigma of the false allegations against his family.

Read more: Chicago cop tells of racism inflicted on Irish Famine women and children

Alone and grafting

It was in these rough streets that James grew up watching his mother gradually die heartbroken from acute pneumonia on July 3 1895. James was determined that he would drag himself up from this poverty and unwanted notoriety.

Leaving school early, James was never the less a very intelligent young man and he soon started working for local bookmakers. He decided to strike out on his own and set up his own bookmaking business based out of Long Beach Indiana, which was an off-track betting resort.

This venture didn't last long and he soon went bankrupt and he was forced to work as a meatpacker in the Union Stockyards to make ends meet. It was while working there he was given the nickname that would stay with him for the rest of his life, Big Jim.

O'Leary married Annie McLaughlin, whose family lived next to the O'Leary's at the time of the fire. They were the parents of two sons and three daughters.

Ever the entrepreneur and determined to make something of himself, Big Jim O'Leary left the stockyards in 1892 and opened a Saloon bar which included Turkish baths, a restaurant, a billiard room, and a bowling alley.

Going back to his bookmaker roots, he also posted detailed race track results and other betting information near the entrance to the Stock Yards, which proved highly lucrative.

As his empire began to grow, O'Leary expanded further, opening a pool hall and another bookmakers in the rear of his saloon.

Big-time bullet-proof bookie

He quickly became one of the leading gamblers in Chicago and was known for taking bets on everything from presidential candidates to changes in the weather.
"Fireproof, bomb-proof, and police-proof."
O'Leary had a reputation for fair dealing. Chicago's longtime alderman-vice lord, Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, said of him, " He was a square shooter. Big Jim never welshed on a bet. He was a good loser and his patrons had confidence in him that he would always pay off if he lost".

O'Leary refused to bribe police, instead, he had his business fortified including the construction of an iron and zinc layered oak doors to his bar which were according to Jim himself was:

Jim became tired of constant police harassment and requests for bribes and decided to try something novel. He bought a steamship 'the City of Traverse' and began to run illegal gambling on Lake Michigan.

Continually raided by the police the venture only lasted until 1907.

O'Leary was continually under surveillance by the authorities and under attack from rival gambling gangs.

However, big Jim was always one step ahead of them all and though he was indicted a number of times for gambling he was only ever convicted once in 25 years, this was at the age of 53, and as it was a first offense he was only fined $100!

Perhaps one reason that Big Jim evaded conviction for so long was the fact his son James Jr was married to the daughter of the Chicago chief of police! O'Leary also had a network of informers and was usually tipped off about any police raid.

One year before his riverboat venture failed in 1906, Mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne briefly revoked O'Leary's saloon license.

Again Big Jim was as the Irish say too cute for them. He arranged to "sell" his Saloon to a trusted employee who then reapplied for a license.

Once this was granted Big Jim was back in business.

The authorities were not the only problem Big Jim faced. During 1907 and into 1908 a war erupted between the gambling factions in Chicago. O'Leary's Saloon was bombed in 1907 and twice in 1908 but undeterred Big Jim rebuilt every time and meted out bloody retribution in return.

The war ended with the death of Chicago crime lord Michael Cassius MacDonald's death.

The path was now clear for Big Jim to take over complete control of the gambling on Chicago's southwest side around his old stamping ground of the Union Stockyards. He duly did so also branching out into supplying illegal whiskey during prohibition.

No man who reached such heights could do so without ruthlessness and despite his genial appearance Big Jim was capable of violence. He was strongly suspected of involvement in one of the most infamous murders in Chicago criminal history, the death of mob boss James Colosimo.

Colosimo immigrated to Chicago from Italy in 1895. Starting as a barman, he cleverly cultivated connections with the police and corrupt politicians to quickly rise through the ranks of the Italian crime gangs. Within a few years, Colosimo controlled 200 brothels using the profits to expand into gambling and the protection rackets.

By 1909, Colosimo's success was under threat from the other gangs in Chicago and he realized he needed extra muscle. He recruited Johnny "The Fox" Torrio from Brooklyn and made him his second in command.

When prohibition went into effect in 1920, Torrio pushed for the gang to enter into bootlegging, but Colosimo refused as he felt prostitution was easier and safer. Torrio decided that if he was to reap the massive rewards of prohibition then Colosimo had to die.

Big Jim, was a serious suspect for 2 reasons:

Firstly O'Leary was delivering whiskey on a regular basis and would not be suspected by Colosimo and secondly and more importantly he wished to create an alliance with the rising man in the Italian mafia, Jonny Torrio and what better way to do that than to help eliminate the obstacle to Torrio's rise to the top.

A life in crime

Late in life, O'Leary mused to a reporter about his success: "How much have I cleaned up? I'm satisfied with the results. I've got enough to take a trip around the world when I sell my shop. Then I'm going to settle down in some little town."

Big Jim never got to do that, as he died of natural causes at the age of 56 in his home at 726 West Garfield Boulevard, on January 23, 1925. When Jim died his entire estate was valued at $10,200 this is despite having made millions of dollars over the years. But Big Jim O'Leary knew you had to keep up a good front and he always wanted to show his family had risen from the ashes of the great fire.

Jim and his wife are buried next to his parents in a Chicago cemetery.

After his death, the O'Leary gambling house continued to be run by a business partner for a few years, until, somewhat ironically, the place burned down in the second-biggest fire in Chicago history, the 1934 Stockyards fire.

Today, the Chicago Fire Department training academy is located on the site of the O'Leary property where the Great Chicago Fire started. In 1997, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution exonerating Catherine O'Leary, an Irish immigrant who died in 1895, and her cow.
*Originally published in 2020. Updated in 2025. This article was submitted to the IrishCentral contributors network by a member of the global Irish community. To become an IrishCentral contributor click here.
I'm sure Big Jim would have been pleased his family was finally cleared.

Read more: Ireland's little-known Mermaid Saint

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Irish American gangster's family rose from Chicago's ashes

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Crime boss Big Jim O'Leary became one of Chicago's biggest gangsters but many don't know his humble and tragic roots. One of the most successful Irish American crime bosses in turn of the century Chicago was James Patrick O'Leary, whose criminal career arose from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, of October 1871.

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1872: Victoria Woodhull Runs for US President

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1872: Victoria Woodhull Runs for US President

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Episode 42

Notorious Victoria: The First Woman to Run for President https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/20/notorious-victoria-first-woman-run-for-us-president

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1873: Nasir al-Din Shah Embarks on European Tour

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1873: Nasir al-Din Shah Embarks on European Tour

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Episode 57

Nasir Al-Din Shah And The Art Of Indifference https://new.bidoun.org/articles/redolent-delusions

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“In the spring of the year 18-, the Shah-in-Shah, the great exalted and holy monarch, the absolute ruler and overlord of all the lands of Persia, began to feel a sense of malaise of a kind he had never experienced before”…

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Episode 19

June 25, 1874

Rose O’Neill : Artist and Suffragist https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/rose-oneill

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1876: Mark Twain Tries to Prevent Building of New Post Offices

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1876: Mark Twain Tries to Prevent Building of New Post Offices

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Episode 55

Mark Twain Had a Lifelong Feud with the United States Postal Service https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mark-twain-had-a-lifelong-feud-with-the-united-states-postal-service

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Mark Twain Had a Lifelong Feud with the United States Postal Service

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What made the celebrated author hate the mail service so much?

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1876: 40 Foot Crocker Spite Fence is Built

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1876: 40 Foot Crocker Spite Fence is Built

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Episode 56

The Man Who Built a 40-Foot Spite Fence Around His Neighbor’s Home https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94298/crocker-spite-fence-san-francisco

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Nicholas Yung considered himself a lucky man. A German who immigrated to the United States in 1848, Yung had worked hard to carve out a living for himself and eventually prosper as the owner of a mortuary in San Francisco. The business allowed him and wife Rosina to purchase a modest lot on the top of California Street Hill, where they built a quaint, cottage-style home and planted a beautiful garden. Every day, California sunlight and fresh air would stream in through their windows.

Yung had no reason to believe that anything could interrupt his idyllic life, or that any one person could somehow deprive him of the beautiful days he had worked so hard to enjoy. But Yung also hadn't accounted for Charles Crocker, a very rich and very petty man who would eventually become both his neighbor and the bane of his existence. With enough lumber to build a 40-foot-tall, blighting fence around much of Yung's property, Crocker and his spite fence became a legendary revenge tale, a tourist attraction, and a lesson in the danger of escalating tempers.

At 6 feet tall and 300 pounds, Charles Crocker cut an imposing figure. He had filled his bank account by being one of the "Big Four" barons behind the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. By the 1870s, he could afford whatever he desired. And what he wanted was to loom over San Francisco like a gargoyle.

Crocker and his wealthy partners began scouting California Street Hill for its scenic views and proximity to the city's financial district. One of his "Big Four" associates, Leland Stanford-former governor of California and future founder of Stanford University-suggested that the area would make for a beautiful residential plot if a cable car could bring residents up and down the hill. Stanford arranged to have one installed, and soon a group of wealthy men, including Crocker, were buying up all the homes on their chosen blocks. By the time Crocker was finished, he had erected a 12,000-square-foot mansion. With its new, wealthy inhabitants, California Street Hill was renamed Nob Hill.

Spite fence enthusiast Charles Crocker. | Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

As the project neared completion in 1876, there was one nagging detail: Nicholas Yung was reluctant to sell his space on the northeast corner of the block. His cottage was dwarfed by the mansions going up, but he had come to enjoy the neighborhood.

There are varying accounts of what happened next. Some say Crocker offered Yung $6000 for his slice of the block. After some deliberation, Yung agreed to sell the land for $12,000. Crocker countered with $9000; Yung declined. The other story is that Yung became irascible, agreeing to a $3000 transaction and then bumping up his price every time Crocker capitulated, first to $6000, then $9000, and finally $12,000. At this latter figure, Crocker was said to have balked, spewing profanity and walking away from negotiations.

With one or both men causing acrimony, the end result was that Yung was not moving. Crocker's workers were busy razing the entire block, creating a steamroller of activity that should have seen them swatting Yung's cottage down like a cardboard box. In an ominous sign of his frustration, Crocker ordered his workers to arrange their dynamite blasts so that rock debris would pelt Yung's house.

If the goal was to drive Yung away, it had the opposite effect. Yung doubled down, refusing to move. Crocker refused to raise his offer. The two men were at a stalemate. Although Yung's obnoxious negotiating methods didn't make him blameless, it was Crocker who had the means to provide a real disruption.

At a reported cost of $3000, Crocker had his workers construct a wooden fence on his land that towered over three sides of Yung's home. With its 40-foot-tall panels, the enclosure acted like a window shade, blotting out the sun and cool air and immersing Yung in darkness.

While Crocker gleefully had gardeners decorate his side with ivy, Yung saw his beautiful garden wilt. Despite the obvious interruption of Yung's environment, Crocker's "spite fence," as the papers came to call it, was perfectly legal.

Without other recourse, Yung threatened to install a flagpole that would fly a skull and crossbones, an act of defiance that might help blight Crocker's view; he also wanted to place a coffin on his roof, ostensibly for advertising his business, but clearly to agitate Crocker as well. He had some members of the media on his side, who condemned "Crocker's Crime" and criticized the financier for using his immense wealth to bully a family of more modest means. The San Francisco Chronicle later called it a "memorial of malignity and malevolence." Tourists would take the cable car and ride up to Nob Hill just to gawk at the massive fence. But Crocker wouldn't budge.

In October 1877, the pro-labor Workingmen's Party of California (WPC) organized a protest rally near Crocker's home to condemn his hiring of Chinese immigrant. Organizers led 2000 men through a demonstration; one man, known only as Pickett, stood up and admonished Crocker for the spite fence, telling him it would be torn down by Thanksgiving or the WPC would do it for him. But when WPC leader Denis Kearney was arrested on another site for inciting a riot, he told the press that his group had no reason to target Crocker or his fence.

If Yung harbored any hope that some vigilante justice would resolve the situation, it never came to pass. He and his family threw in the towel and moved out-but they still refused to sell the land to Crocker.

Crocker may have thought the feud would end with Yung's death in 1880. It didn't.

His widow, Rosina, continued to rebuff offers to sell the now-vacant land, which was slowly becoming a place for empty cans and other garbage. After Crocker passed away in 1888, his heirs were just as unsuccessful in persuading Rosina to let the land go. In 1895, she tried to appeal to the city's Street Committee, arguing that the fence was a nuisance and rendered her property worthless.

The city agreed, but their legal counsel didn't: There was no justification for having the Crockers remove the fence, which had been cut down to 25 feet after strong winds had repeatedly threatened to topple it over. (In or around 1956, California would put a law on the books prohibiting the construction of fences meant for the express purpose of irritating neighbors and/or obstructing their views. Most states cap the height of a fence at 6 feet for similar reasons.)

When Rosina died in 1902, the rivalry appeared to die with her. Her four daughters finally gave in to Crocker's descendants in 1904, selling the land-said to be worth $80,000-for an undisclosed sum. With no more neighbors to spite, the fence was torn down in 1905.

The Yung/Crocker feud would ultimately prove pointless. In 1906, an earthquake and related fire swept through San Francisco, gutting the Crocker mansion and neighboring buildings. Rather than rebuild, the family decided to donate the block to charity. And in a strange twist, the place where Crocker had once built a monument to spite and malice became a home for compassion and warmth. In donating the site, the Crockers opened an opportunity to erect Grace Cathedral, an Episcopalian place of worship.
This story originally ran in 2017; it has been updated for 2021.

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The Man Who Built a 40-Foot Spite Fence Around His Neighbor's Home

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When Nicholas Yung wouldn't sell his land to railroad baron Charles Crocker, Crocker built a 40-foot fence around his house and blotted out the sun.

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1884: 'The Latest Tanuki Entertainments' is Published

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1884: 'The Latest Tanuki Entertainments' is Published

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Episode 24

Testicular Tanuki Tales: Japanese Folk Humor for Children with a Ribald Satirical Twist https://blogs.princeton.edu/cotsen/2017/09/tanuki/

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Japanese woodblock prints – Cotsen Children’s Library

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1884: Crew of the Mignonette Eats Richard Parker

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1884: Crew of the Mignonette Eats Richard Parker

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Episode 59

May 1884

Cannibalism at Sea: The Starving Victorian Sailors Who Ate a Cabin Boy https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/cannibalism-at-sea-sailors-ate-the-cabin-boy/

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Episode 2

All about Phossy Jaw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phossy_jaw

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In the early 19th century, it was discovered that adding yellow (now called white) phosphorous to matchstick heads made them easier to ignite. The demand for the new 'strike-anywhere' matches was enormous, creating a profitable international industry. It also led to a new industrial disease that lasted until roughly 1906, when the production of phosphorous matches was outlawed by the International Berne Convention.

By 1858, detailed medical reports of a disease involving the slow progression of exposed jaw bone started to appear. Phosphorus necrosis of the jaw, commonly called 'phossy jaw', was a really horrible disease and overwhelmingly a disease of the poor. Workers in match factories developed unbearable abscesses in their mouths, leading to facial disfigurement and sometimes fatal brain damage. In addition, the gums developed an eerie greenish white 'glow' in the dark.

In 1857, James Rushmore Wood wrote an article about his experience of operating on a patient with 'phossy jaw', called 'Removal of the entire lower jaw' which included illustrations of the results. The first half is a detailed case history of his patient, 16 year old Cornelia. She'd worked eight hours a day in the packing department of a New York match factory for two and half years. In May 1855, she was seized with toothache and swelling on the right side of her lower jaw. To relieve the pain, first her gums were lanced and later a tooth was extracted, but the swelling gradually increased until a spontaneous opening formed under her jaw which continuously discharged pus. Despite this, she continued to work in the factory until a week before she was admitted to Bellevue Hospital on 17 th December 1855.

When she was admitted, her general health and appetite were described as good but it was difficult and painful for her to chew. Her jaw hurt, her face was swollen and the bone of her lower jaw was damaged. After investigation, Wood decided to operate and remove the dead bone on the right side of Cornelia's jaw on 19 th January 1856. No anaesthetic was used. As the operation progressed, Wood used a chain saw (a piece of equipment that looks more like a cheese wire) to divide the bone; unfortunately the chain broke and he had to use forceps to remove the entire right side of her lower jaw.

By the 26 th of January the wound had healed, but the left side of her jaw was diseased and discharging pus, so a second operation was carried out on 16 th February to remove the remaining part of Cornelia's lower jaw. She was given twenty drops of laudanum to produce sleep; a few days later four ounces of wine were ordered "to be given during the day along with a daily lead and opium wash". On the 23 rd February the swelling had subsided and the contour of her face is described as perfect but importantly, the movement of her tongue and mouth had been retained. The patient recovered well and Wood was particular proud of the appearance of this patient after the operation. He describes an operation that nowadays would be carried out by a specialist Maxillo-Facial Surgeon with considerably more equipment antibiotics than he had available, as well as more recent developments such as antibiotics.
Susan Isaac, Information Services Manager
The second half of the tract is an overview of the existing international knowledge about the disease, citing French, English and German writing. He outlines the general course of the disease and treatments before finishing with eight shorter case histories. All the victims are in their 20s and some had worked in the industry since childhood. The international spread of the disease is reflected in the RCS collection of tracts and pamphlets, which contains items on the subject from England, France, Germany and the United States.

These tables, taken from De la périostite et de la nécrose phosphorique by Haltenhoff in 1866, give the ages, duration of time worked in the factories and the duration of the illness of the victims. Haltenhoff had made a close study of Telat's 1857 work, De la nécrose causée par le phosphore : thèse de concours pour l'agrégation, section de chirurgie. Both contain case studies and autopsy reports.

In England, Charles Dickens wrote about 'phossy jaw' in Household Words as early as 1852, while Annie Besant organised the London matchgirls' strike in 1888, protesting against the use of phosphorus in the manufacturing process. The disease could be prevented by using the safer but more expensive red phosphorous and following good occupational hygiene. William Booth, Salvation Army founder, opened a factory to sell boxes of matches advertised as "Lights in Darkest England", applying moral pressure to his competitors. European countries started to ban the use of white phosphorous from 1872, but there wasn't a total ban until 1910.

21,496 items from the Library's 19th Century Tracts and Pamphlets Collection were digitised between 2015-2016 as part of the UK Medical Heritage Library (UKMHL) project. This made the majority of the collection freely accessible online to everyone. The entire collection will soon be available on SurgiCat+, the Library catalogue, to make them even easier to find.

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"Phossy jaw" and the matchgirls: a nineteenth-century industrial disease - Royal College of Surgeons

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Phossy jaw was a horrific industrial disease of Victorian match makers. Victims suffered toothache, abscesses & swollen gums as their jaws decayed, glowing in the dark. Read about surgery to remove the lower jaw bone of one match girl in New York.

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Episode 5 & 6

May 31, 1889

This Dam Break Was One of the Worst Man Made Disasters in American History. It Could Have Been Prevented. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a42384940/johnstown-flood/

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The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water.

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1892: Le Pétomane Performs Flatulence Act at Moulin Rouge

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1892: Le Pétomane Performs Flatulence Act at Moulin Rouge

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Episode 65

The True Story of Roland the Farter, and How the Internet Killed Professional Flatulence https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/roland-the-farter-professional-flatulence

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1897: Rube Waddell Begins Baseball Career

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1897: Rube Waddell Begins Baseball Career

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Episode 62

September 8, 1897

Rube Waddell https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/rube-waddell/

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1898: Biograph Studios Opens, Patent Wars Begin

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1898: Biograph Studios Opens, Patent Wars Begin

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Episode 14

Thomas Edison: The Unintentional Founder of Hollywood https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/03/thomas-edison-the-unintentional-founder-of-hollywood

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1899: Charles Dellschau Crafts his First Notebook

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1899: Charles Dellschau Crafts his First Notebook

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Episode 51 & 53

1899-1922

Did An Artist's Flights Of Fancy Depict Early Aviation? https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/native-texan/article/Did-an-artist-s-flights-of-fancy-depict-early-5909915.php

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1900: Icelandic Translation of 'Dracula' is Published

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1900: Icelandic Translation of 'Dracula' is Published

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Episode 34

The Literary Mystery of the Icelandic Dracula by Valur Grettison https://grapevine.is/mag/2022/05/09/the-literary-mystery-of-the-icelandic-dracula/

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From Iceland — The Literary Mystery Of The Icelandic Dracula

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a book that needs no introduction. The vampire’s cultural impact on the world is immense and…

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1904: Cosplay Pioneer, Myrtle R Douglas, is Born

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1904: Cosplay Pioneer, Myrtle R Douglas, is Born

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Episode 27

June 20, 1904

Myrtle R Douglas: Mother of Convention Costuming https://youtu.be/DasGQQkj-xY?si=VfZUtkyjqRuSZL23

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Myrtle Rebecca Smith Gray Nolan ( Douglas; June 20, 1904 - November 30, 1964), known to science fiction history as Morojo or sometimes Myrtle R Douglas, was a science fiction fan, fanzine publisher, and cosplay pioneer from Los Angeles.

Morojo, along with Forrest J Ackerman, was heavily involved in the production of Voice of the Imagi-Nation (which in 1996 would be awarded the Retro Hugo for Best Fanzine of 1946; and has also been nominated for the 1939, 1941 and 1943 Best Fanzine Retro Hugos) and Novacious (nominated for the 1941 Retro Hugo), as well as Jack Speer's Fancyclopedia. She contributed to fanzines by Ackerman and others, and published her own fanzine Guteto from 1941 until 1958 for the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (of which she was a founding member).

Her niece and fellow fan, Patti Gray, known by the Esperanto nickname of "Pogo", in 1940 edited what is credited as "what appears to be the first all-female zine (or femmefan zine), Pogo's STF-ETTE", whose contributors included Morojo and (in its second issue) Leigh Brackett. Morojo served as treasurer and in other roles for the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society for many years. Like Ackerman, Morojo was an avid Esperantist (they met through the Esperanto movement), and the name by which she was known in fandom is a variation of her initials as spelled out in Esperanto, plus Ackerman's middle initial "J".

She and Ackerman broke up in the early 1940s (originally over her continuing to smoke, though that spat was quickly settled) and remained estranged until her death.

Together with then-boyfriend Ackerman, she attended the 1939 1st World Science Fiction Convention (Nycon or 1st Worldcon) in New York City dressed in "futuristicostumes", including green cape and breeches, based on the pulp magazine artwork of Frank R. Paul and the 1936 film Things to Come, which were designed, created and sewn by Douglas. Ackerman later stated that he thought everyone was supposed to wear a costume at a science fiction convention, although only he and Douglas did. (At the convention she also distributed copies of her own fanzine Stephan the STFan, created especially for the Nycon.)

Fans liked the concept, and the 2nd Worldcon, in Chicago in 1940, had both an unofficial masquerade held in Morojo's room and an official masquerade as part of the program, with participants (besides Ackerman and Morojo, who performed a brief skit in the costumes they had premiered the year before) including E. E. Smith, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Jack Speer, Wilson Tucker, Robert Lowndes and David Kyle. In 1941, at the Denvention (3rd WorldCon) she wore a frog-faced mask devised for her by a young costume maker named Ray Harryhausen.

In 2016, the International Costumers' Guild (ICG) recognized Morojo as the "Mother of Convention Costuming" with a video award presentation at MidAmeriCon II, the 74th Worldcon.

Douglas was born June 20, 1904, in Phoenix, Arizona to Robert Douglas and Lillie Dell (Kilpatrick) Schutz.

She was married three times: to Virgil Van Buren Smith, Henry Willis Gray, and, lastly, to John Arthur Nolan. She had a son, Virgil Roger Douglas ( Smith). She died November 30, 1964, aged 60, in Patton, California, from undisclosed causes, and was buried at Twentynine Palms Cemetery.

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Myrtle Rebecca Smith Gray Nolan ( Douglas; June 20, 1904 - November 30, 1964), known to science fiction history as Morojo or sometimes Myrtle R Douglas, was a science fiction fan, fanzine publisher, and cosplay pioneer from Los Angeles.

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Episode 21

August 30, 1904

The 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been the Strangest Ever https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever-14910747/

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1907: Alligator Joe Opens California Alligator Farm

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1907: Alligator Joe Opens California Alligator Farm

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Episode 30

When Kids Played With Alligators in Los Angeles https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/alligator-farm-los-angeles-180957172/

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Photographs of the Los Angeles Alligator Farm (ca. 1907)

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These images of the LA Alligator Farm depict a level of casual proximity unthinkable today.

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1908: Joseph Mikulec Begins American Journey to Collect Autographs

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1908: Joseph Mikulec Begins American Journey to Collect Autographs

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Episode 27

The Man Who Walked Around the World, Collecting the Autographs of the Rich & Famous https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-walked-around-the-world-collecting-the-autographs-of-the-rich-and-famous-180979841/

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Episode 68

July 26, 1908

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On July 26, 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is born when U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte orders a group of newly hired federal investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the Department of Justice. One year later, the Office of the Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation, and […]

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1910: Frederick Burnham Proposes the American Hippo Bill

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1910: Frederick Burnham Proposes the American Hippo Bill

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Episode 54

September 19, 1910

American Hippopotamus https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/

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1917: Nikolai Vavilov is Named Director of Bureau of Applied Botany

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1917: Nikolai Vavilov is Named Director of Bureau of Applied Botany

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Episode 45

The Tragedy of the World’s First Seed Bank https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-tragedy-of-the-worlds-first-seed-bank/

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1924: The Dennison Sisters Innovate Penny Arcades

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1924: The Dennison Sisters Innovate Penny Arcades

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Episode 37

Penny Arcades Would Be Nothing Without the Pioneering Dennison Sisters https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/penny-arcade-dennison-sisters

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A fleet of old arcade machines line the upper landing at Abbey House Museum in Leeds, England. Among them stands a curious 1934 glass-fronted automaton. The diorama within perfectly renders a museum in miniature. Tiny artifacts pack display cases. To one side, a pocket-sized crimson sarcophagus is covered in intricate hieroglyphs. Yet, that's not what draws the eye: Slumped in a chair, a small corpse stares blankly out from the scene.

A sign atop the machine's mahogany case proclaims its name: "Murder in the Museum." Drop an old British penny into the slot, and the scaled-down world springs to life.

A detective eyes a crew of onlookers. A couple whispers together. A woman rifles in her large handbag. Suddenly, the door of the sarcophagus swings open, and the murderer emerges, pistol raised. A single shot fires. The detective-his gun concealed behind his hat all along-is quicker than the killer. The villain, fatally wounded, falls back into the Egyptian tomb. The coffin door slams shut. Then, as quickly as it started, the whirring stops: The case is solved.

"Thirty-five seconds of joy," pronounces Kitty Ross, curator at the museum. Before being auctioned off in the mid-1960s and finding its way to Abbey House, Murder in the Museum was one of around 50 arcade machines, known as "working models," occupying the upper floors of Blackpool Tower, an Eiffel Tower look-alike first opened in 1894 that still welcomes visitors to the seaside town of Blackpool.

These machines were once wildly popular, but the three trailblazing sisters who handcrafted each one have been almost entirely forgotten. Their work was unparalleled. Now a handful of dedicated collectors are helping rescue and restore the surviving machines to enthrall a new generation.

Providing affordable thrills was crucial for making it in Blackpool. In 1801, this sleepy town on England's northwest coast had a population of 500. By the end of the century, millions of tourists, largely from nearby mill towns, were visiting each season. "Blackpool was the first British resort to really take off with huge numbers," says Allan Brodie, visiting fellow at Bournemouth University and author of Blackpool's Seaside Heritage.

Brodie explains the town was always looking for ways to retain its popularity by cherry-picking innovations from elsewhere. Blackpool drew inspiration from Chicago's Ferris Wheel, Coney Island's rides, Berlin 's trams, and, most notably, by constructing its 518-foot version of the Eiffel Tower. Building the Tower was "audacious and a bit crazy," says Brodie. "Blackpool is always looking for the next big thing to separate the holidaymaker from their pennies."

Amid this whirl of innovation, John Dennison, a fitter and finisher at a Leeds-based engineering firm, found an appetite for his eccentric new arcade machines. Dennison had started creating jerky automatic models as a hobby in his 20s. By the 1870s, his coin-operated clockwork models of ships and agricultural machinery drew crowds at exhibitions across the country.

In 1891, Dennison, now the father of a growing family, started stocking the small arcade at Dr. Cocker's Aquarium, Aviary, and Menagerie on Blackpool's seafront. A few years later, the decision was made to replace Dr. Cocker's with a three-story redbrick entertainment complex topped by the soaring ironwork Blackpool Tower. Dennison retained his contract, becoming the tower's supplier of penny-operated working models and fortune tellers, including morbid novelties named "Execution No.19" and "The Dying Child." Some of the moving dioramas had been made in France, with Dennison placing them within a penny-operated casing to make a profit. Others he built by hand. Although he didn't invent coin-operated arcade machines, Dennison's business acumen meant he became the first recorded person in the world to make a living from them.

For around $2.5o in today's money, Tower patrons could not only visit Dennison's penny arcade but also tour the complex's grand saloon, roof gardens, aquarium, monkey house, aviary, menagerie housing big cats, bear cage, and seal pond. For a little extra, they could perch agog the 3,000-seat circus or ascend the Tower itself. "Although it's affordable, it's got a very high-quality finish inside," says Brodie. "You've got real opulence for a mere six pennies."

Following Dennison's death in 1924 at age 77, his daughters, Florence, Alice, and Eveline, were determined to keep the business going. Although the sisters lacked their father's engineering background, they understood the importance of sating the thirst for novelty amid the Tower's many attractions. So they started developing their father's model collection from their suburban home in Leeds.

The three of them made an impressive team. Florence, at age 36, took over the business side of things. Alice, then 34, who had previously worked as a governess and dressmaker, turned her hand to the machine themselves, mastering their fiddly mechanics, as well as stitching costumes that didn't constrict the figures' movements. At 28, Eveline became responsible for creating the scenery and props. With art school training, and often Alice as her model, she handcrafted characters from wood and clay, often using pins and manicure tools.

They began by renovating some of their father's models to include more movement and exciting plots and reveals. By 1929, they made their first model from scratch: "The Haunted Grange," where a miniature manor house becomes the setting of a supernatural killing. Then, in 1930, while making their next machine the "Spook House"-complete with a levitating telephone and resident pint-sized ghost-the sisters made the change from clockwork to electricity. This switch removed the need for a staff member to wind the machines, maximizing profits. Each of the sisters' machines took between three to six months to complete.

Eveline also wrote and illustrated the messages for their fortunetelling machines. In 1935, The Mirror Newspaper ran "Fate of Thousands in Hands of Three Sisters." The piece outlined how the trio had already prophesized 50,000 fortunes and designed portraits of 25,000 sweethearts.

Yet it was the ghoulish models that most captivated the hoards of early 20th-century holidaymakers. "The most popular models we created were always those with a morbid flavour-'Super with Death' [where a luxurious country estate dinner turns deadly], 'Midnight in the Haunted Graveyard' [where ghosts surprise mourners], and 'Murder in the Museum,'" the sisters later noted in a 1963 newspaper article. "Anyone who imagines that children prefer fairy stories are way off beam."

Brodie estimates that around three to four million people a year were visiting the Tower by the 1930s. "If even a tenth of them used the machines, that's an awful lot of income," he says.

The Abbey House Museum's curator Kitty Ross knows precisely how well the sisters did. Florence, the last surviving of the three, donated a notebook documenting all their designs, newspaper clippings, and earnings to Abbey House Museum shortly before she died in 1976. The notebook shows that when they took over the business in 1924, the sisters had annual takings of £1,586 (roughly $83,500 today). By the time they had crafted Murder in the Museum a decade later, this had risen to £2,624 (approximately $170,500 today). In 1943, as wartime Blackpool attracted soldiers on leave, civil servants from London, and evacuated women and children, they made £6,831 (around $311,500 today).

With more women now able to vote and increasingly working outside the home following World War I, Ross explains that the sisters' pioneering attitude was in keeping with the mood of the time. All the same, as unmarried, self-taught, successful entrepreneurs, they were trailblazers.

In a 1935 article, entitled "Girls Provide The Brains," the Reynolds Newspaper reported that "like poets and artists, the girls are always on the lookout for new ideas" for their dark miniature tales. They found them everywhere-in plays, historic ruins, and true crime cases. For Murder in the Museum, their inspiration came from the title of an American B-movie released earlier that year.

"It's incredible the ingenuity and attention to detail," says Robert Hind-Smith, a collector, restorer, and museum conservator of working models, who also runs a traditional penny arcade at Woodbank Garden Centre in Yorkshire, England. Hind-Smith revived Murder in the Museum when its motor ground to a halt after 80 years of action. He describes the sisters' machines as the "Rolls Royce" of the genre compared to the cruder copies that sprang up in seaside amusements across the country. Yet, he also notes that: "A lot of the electrics in them are quite lethal."

"[Murder in the Museum] is quite a complex machine," says Hind-Smith, referring to its system of irregular rotating cylinders, called cams, and undulating levers. "When a lever goes over a bump, it pulls them in and out to make the movements," he explains. And, as in the best crime dramas, it's all about the timing. A cam with a steel spring makes the click of the gun; Simultaneously, a switch flashes a hidden lightbulb on and off to recreate the powder flash; Next, a lever drops the fatally wounded man's head forward, only to quickly push it up again to stop it rubbing on the closing sarcophagus. "There is an important sequence-or else something happens before it should," Hind-Smith says.

What makes the machines more remarkable is that their intricate mechanisms were all handmade. "You couldn't buy them off the shelf," says Hind-Smith. "The Dennison sisters were so talented in their artwork, dressing of the scenes, and engineering."

In 1944, following their most profitable years, the sisters decided to sell the whole collection to the Tower for an undisclosed sum and live out their years in leisure. The machines retained their huge popularity over the next two decades. Yet the women behind them were soon forgotten.

On July 11, 1963, the Blackpool Gazette, on the request of the Blackpool Tower Company, published "The Mystery of the Penny Shows," asking anyone with information about the origins of the well-loved machines to come forward. In the end, the reply came from the sisters themselves, now in their 60s and 70s. "During the 20 years we held the business, we learned a lot about human nature," the sisters told the Gazette.

Even today, the limited literature about working models often mentions the Dennison sisters as a footnote, choosing instead to focus on their father's more basic models. However, collectors understand their worth. Whenever one of the sisters' "lost" machines reappears on the market, it is often subject to fierce bidding wars.

Ross confirms Murder in the Museum remains one of Abbey House's most popular attractions, with children and adults alike still getting a delicious shiver from watching the jolting little half-lit drama. No doubt the sisters would be delighted to know that, 90 years on, their machine can still entice visitors to part with their pennies.

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How Three Sisters Revolutionized England's Penny Arcades

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The Dennison sisters amassed a small fortune with their morbid "working models."

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1928: Ol' Rip is Exhumed from 31 Years of Hibernation

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1928: Ol' Rip is Exhumed from 31 Years of Hibernation

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Episode 47

February 18, 1928

The strange tale of Old Rip, the horned toad on display in a Texas courthouse https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texana/2018/10/05/the-strange-tale-of-old-rip-the-horned-toad-on-display-in-a-texas-courthouse/

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1930: Helene Adelaide Shelby Patents a Skeleton Lie Detector

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1930: Helene Adelaide Shelby Patents a Skeleton Lie Detector

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Episode 38

The 1920s Lie Detector That Forced Suspected Criminals to Confess to a Skeleton https://www.openculture.com/2023/05/the-1920s-lie-detector-that-forced-suspected-criminals-to-confess-to-a-skeleton.html

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"In the criminal justice system," the evergreen s opening credits remind us, "the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders."

They fail to mention the life-sized skeleton with ghastly glowing eyes and a camera tucked away inside its skull.

That's because no police department ever saw fit to put Helene Adelaide Shelby's 1930 patent for a highly unusual " apparatus for obtaining criminal confessions and photographically recording them " into practice.

Ms. Shelby's vision sought to transform the police interrogation room into a haunted house where the sudden appearance of the aforementioned skeleton would shock a guilty suspect into confession.

(Presumably an innocent person would have nothing to fear, other than sitting in a pitch black chamber where a truth-seeking skeleton was soon to manifest before their very eyes.)

The idea may have seemed slightly less far-fetched immediately following a decade when belief in Spiritualism flourished.

False mediums used sophisticated stagecraft to convince members of a gullible public that they were in the presence of the supernatural.

Perhaps Ms. Shelby took inspiration from Mysteries of the Seance and Tricks and Traps of Bogus Mediums: A Plea for Honest Mediums and Clean Work by "lifelong spiritualist" Edward D. Lunt. The section on "form materialization" provides plenty of concrete ideas for enacting such trickery.

Ms. Shelby's proposed apparatus consisted of a "structure divided into two chambers:"

...one chamber of which is darkened to provide quarters in which the suspect is confined while being subjected to examination, the other chamber being provided for the examiner, the two chambers being separated from each other by a partition which is provided with a panel upon one side of which is mounted a figure in the form of a skeleton, the said skeleton having the rear J portion of the skull removed and the recording apparatus inserted therein.

The examiner was also tasked with voicing the skeleton, using appropriately spooky tones and a well-positioned megaphone.

As silly as Ms. Shelby's invention seems nearly a hundred years after the patent was filed, it's impressive for its robust embrace of technology, particularly as it pertains to capturing the presumably spooked suspect's reaction:

of the film, the central section of the film being arranged to receive the pictures, the variations in the light intensities of the bulbs being governed by means of the microphones, and selenium cells (not shown), which are included in the light circuit and tend to cause the fluctuations of the current to vary the intensity of the light for sound recording purposes, the density of the light film varying with the intensity of the light thus transmitted. The rear portion of the skull of the skeleton is removed and a camera casing is mounted in the panel extending into the skull, said camera being preferable of the continuously-moving film-type an having provisions for simultaneously recording pictures and sound waves, or reproducing these, as may be desired or required, the said camera impression upon the having an objective adapted to register with the nose, or other opening, in the skull. The eye-sockets are provided with bulbs adapted to impress different light intensities on the margins

Ms. Shelby believed that a suspect whose confession had been recorded by the skeleton would have difficulty making a retraction stick, especially if photographs taken during the big reveal caught them with a guilty-looking countenance.

Writing on officer.com, Jonathan Kozlowski applauds Ms. Shelby's impulse to innovate, even as he questions if "scaring a confession out of a guy by being really really creepy (should) be considered coercion:"

Shelby doesn't seem to have gotten any credit for it and nor am I sure that Shelby was even the first to think of the idea, BUT if you remove the skeleton figure and the red lightbulbs staring into the criminal's soul was this the inspiration of a mounted surveillance camera?

Allow me to push it even further ... imagine your department's interview room. If you've got the camera in the corner (or multiple) let that be. Instead of the skeleton figure just put an officer standing in the corner with a recording body camera. The officer is just standing there. Staring. Sure that's a MASSIVE waste of time and money - of course. I may be wrong, but if I'm being honest this seems like .

It also strikes us that the element of surprise would be a challenge to keep under wraps. All it would take is one freaked-out crook (innocent or guilty) blabbing to an underworld connection, "You wouldn't believe the crazy thing that happened when they hauled me down to the station the other night..."

What sort of horrific special effect could force a guilty party to confess in the 21st century? Something way more dreadful than a skeleton with glowing red eyes, comedian Tom Scott 's experiment below suggests.

Having enlisted creative technologist Charles Yarnold to build Ms. Shelby's apparatus, he invited fellow YouTubers Chloe Dungate, Tom Ridgewell, and Daniel J Layton to step inside one at a time, hoping to identify which of them had nicked the cookie with which he had baited his crime-catching hook.

The participants' reactions at the critical moment ranged from delighted giggles to a satisfying yelp, but the results were utterly inconclusive. Nobody 'fessed up to stealing the cookies.

That's not to say the apparatus couldn't work with a subset of criminals on the lower end of elementary school age. Did they or didn't they? Why not scar 'em for life and find out?
via Atlas Obscura Related Content Carl Sagan's "Baloney Detection Kit": A Toolkit That Can Help You Scientifically Separate Sense from Nonsense The Polygraph: The Proto-Photocopy Machine Machine Invented in 1803 That Changed Thomas Jefferson's Life The Strange Story of Wonder Woman's Creator William Moulton Marston: Polyamorous Feminist, Psychologist & Inventor of the Lie Detector

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The 1920s Lie Detector That Forced Suspected Criminals to Confess to a Skeleton

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"In the criminal justice system," the evergreen Law & Order's opening credits remind us, "the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders." They fail to mention the life-sized skeleton with ghastly glowing eyes and a camera tucked away inside its skull.

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Episode 1

How the Italian Mob Changed Pizza Forever https://thedigestonline.com/dining/how-the-italian-mob-changed-pizza-forever/

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How the Italian Mob Changed Pizza Forever

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The mob has had a lot of influence, but did you know that the Italian-American Mafia changed the very pizza we eat today?

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1933: George Shufelt Seeks Lizard People of LA

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1933: George Shufelt Seeks Lizard People of LA

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Episode 33

The Underground Catacombs of L.A.'s Lizard People https://lamag.com/news/citydig-the-underground-catacombs-of-las-lizard-people

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1937: Cynthia the Gaba Girl is Featured in Life Magazine

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1937: Cynthia the Gaba Girl is Featured in Life Magazine

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Episode 28

Cynthia the Mannequin: A Curious Star Is Born https://time.com/3877720/life-with-cynthia-the-world-famous-mannequin/

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In 1937, LIFE magazine launched the career of an up-and-coming starlet in a multiple-page photo spread that, overnight, made "Cynthia" a household name. In very short order she became an A-list celebrity; was given her own television talk show and starred on the silver screen; was sent jewels and dresses by top fashion houses; was briefly engaged to one of radio's biggest stars; and became one of the most recognizable faces in the fashion world.

There was just one minor catch: Cynthia was a mannequin. Not a mannequin in the way a runway model is a mannequin. But a mannequin mannequin. A made-of-plaster mannequin.

Cynthia's story begins in a small Midwestern town in the early part of the 20th century. Her creator, Lester Gaba, was a Hannibal, Missouri, shopkeeper's son with dreams of a grand life in the big city. He achieved it through his uncanny skill at one of the Great Depression's quirkier national crazes - soap sculpting. Buoyed by the fame he earned as a soap sculptor, Gaba moved first to Chicago, then to New York City in 1932, where he went into fashion and retail and pioneered the design of department-store windows. (One story has it that moved to New York to be close to his reputed lover, the stage and film director Vincent Minnelli.)

Only years before Gaba came on the scene, mannequins were often still ponderously heavy, relatively unrealistic creations of wax. They melted in the summer heat, and even sometimes bore frightening rictus grins of real human teeth. Upper-class women preferred to see how their clothes looked by having them modeled on young, human women. Gaba was one of a wave of pioneers making modern mannequins that combined style with realism - his so-called "Gaba Girls."

Gaba boasted that his mannequins were nearly indistinguishable from well-dressed human women, and pointed out that his creations had charming imperfections just as real women did, such as freckles and different-sized feet.

But the undisputed magnum opus of Gaba's career came in the form of a 5′ 6″, 100-pound doll he dubbed Cynthia. He brought her with him to nightclubs and social events. She became something of a New York nightlife fixture. Meanwhile, the country's finest stores lavished Cynthia with attention - and free gifts of dresses, shoes, furs and jewelry. Saks Fifth Avenue even issued her a credit card.

Once she achieved a certain level of fame, gossip columnists began writing about Cynthia as if she were a living, breathing socialite. When partygoers tried to engage the mannequin in conversation, Gaba begged off by claiming she was suffering from a touch of laryngitis.

But, as with the fame that sometimes descends on flesh-and-blood humans, Cynthia's was not to last. Her time in the spotlight proved fleeting, and the next decade saw her begin to fade from public view. In 1942, Gaba was inducted into the army. He sent Cynthia to stay with his mother in Missouri. Though the rest of the nation had moved on to other fads, Gaba insisted that Cynthia be treated like a celebrity, and instructed his mother to take the mannequin to the beauty parlor regularly.

Cynthia's current whereabouts, if she's still in one piece (or multiple pieces) are today a mystery. Ultimately, she even remained an enigma to the man who had lavished so much of his talent and his time on her. Years later Gaba admitted to the New York Times ' Gay Talese that, in the end, "Cynthia never made any sense." To this day, there's no satisfactory answer to the question of why a plaster, unsmiling mannequin once thoroughly seized the American popular imagination. Maybe, just maybe, we're all dummies.

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Cynthia the Mannequin: A Curious Star Is Born

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In 1937, LIFE magazine helped launch the career of an up-and-coming mannequin -- yes, a real, lifeless mannequin -- named Cynthia.

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Episode 40

August 1, 1939

California's coastline used to be covered with 'sin ships' https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/los-angeles-gambling-ships-history-mob-prohibition-19612830.php

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Column One: The secret history of L.A.’s glitzy gambling boat kingpin — and the raid that sank him

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Water-cannon gangsters, booze-soaked vice dens: How 1939’s ‘Battle of Santa Monica Bay’ brought down L.A.’s floating casinos.

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1940: The Crypt of Civilization is Sealed

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1940: The Crypt of Civilization is Sealed

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Episode 15

May 25, 1940

The Crypt of Civilization https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/crypt-of-civilization/

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Crypt of Civilization - New Georgia Encyclopedia

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The Crypt of Civilization, a multimillennial time capsule, is a chamber that was sealed behind a stainless steel door in 1940 at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. The crypt is the “first successful attempt to bury a record of this culture for any future inhabitants or visitors to the planet Earth,” according to the Guinness Book […]

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Episode 5

December 7-13, 1941

An insane adventure that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor

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Aerial view of Niʻihau looking southwestward from the north, where the incident took place

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1941: Scientists Protect Seed Bank from the Siege of Leningrad

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1941: Scientists Protect Seed Bank from the Siege of Leningrad

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Episode 46

The Heroic Story of Nikolai Vavilov and The Saviors of the Seeds https://campfirestoriespodcast.medium.com/the-heroic-story-of-nikolai-vavilov-and-the-saviors-of-the-seeds-c46e9efb076a

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The inspiring scientists who saved the world’s first seed bank

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The long read: During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger

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Episode 11

June 6, 1944

Allied Forces on D-Day Used a Popular Tourist Guide to Help Liberate France

https://www.military.com/history/allied-forces-d-day-used-popular-tourist-guide-help-liberate-france.html

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Allied Forces on D-Day Used a Popular Tourist Guide to Help Liberate France

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Whether you’re looking for tires, top restaurants or how to invade Hitler’s Fortress Europe, look no further than Michelin.

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Episode 28

Why 76 Beavers Were Forced to Skydive into the Idaho Wilderness in 1948 https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/running-ponies/why-76-beavers-were-forced-to-skydive-into-the-idaho-wilderness-in-1948/

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Why 76 Beavers Were Forced to Skydive into the Idaho Wilderness in 1948

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Some time in the late 1940s, a very patient, elderly beaver called Geronimo was put in a box, flown to an altitude of between 150 and 200 metres, and tossed out the side of an aeroplane.

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1948: 'Psychological Warfare', by Paul Linebarger, is published

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1948: 'Psychological Warfare', by Paul Linebarger, is published

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Episode 35

Throngs of Himself https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2018/fall/cordwainer-smith-paul-linebarger/

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1948: 'Psychological Warfare', by Paul Linebarger, is published

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1950s: CIA Stages Vampire Attack in Philippines 

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1950s: CIA Stages Vampire Attack in Philippines 

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Episode 60

False Fang: When the CIA Staged a Vampire Attack https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/cia-philippines-vampire-attack

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1950: Cordwainer Smith's First Sci-Fi Story is Published

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1950: Cordwainer Smith's First Sci-Fi Story is Published

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Episode 36

The Sci-Fi Writer who Invented Conspiracy Theory https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/science-fiction-conspiracy-theory-psyops/678195/

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Episode 58

December 1950

The Students Who Stole The Stone Of Destiny https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-63130942

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1954: Milicent Patrick Designs Iconic Monster in 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon'

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1954: Milicent Patrick Designs Iconic Monster in 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon'

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Episode 43

Milicent Patrick & Her Enduring Design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon https://www.jahernandez.com/posts/milicent-patrick-her-enduring-design-of-the-creature-from-the-black-lagoon

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Milicent Patrick & Her Enduring Design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon | Into Horror History | J.A. Hernandez

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Did you know that a woman named Milicent Patrick designed “the Creature”—also known as Gill-man—the monster in the 1954 film The Creature from the Black Lagoon?

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1954: Meteor Crashes, Strikes Ann Hodges

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1954: Meteor Crashes, Strikes Ann Hodges

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Episode 33

November 30, 1954

For the Only Person Ever Hit by a Meteorite, the Real Trouble Began Later https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/only-person-ever-hit-meteorite-real-trouble-began-later-180961238/

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Episode 63

November 8, 1960

14 US Presidents And Their Favorite Restaurants https://www.tastingtable.com/1717213/us-presidents-favorite-restaurants/

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1960s - Hobby Tunnelist William Lyttle Begins Digging

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1960s - Hobby Tunnelist William Lyttle Begins Digging

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Episode 1

Hackney, London

Nicknamed the "Mole-Man of Hackney", he dug tunnels under his home for 40 years until sinkholes opened up, swallowing cars and revealing his secret.

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1956: Frank Dux, of 'Bloodsport' Fame, is Born

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1956: Frank Dux, of 'Bloodsport' Fame, is Born

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Episode 20

April 6, 1956

Frank Dux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Dux

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1960s: Tom Monaghan Invents Pizza Delivery Box

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1960s: Tom Monaghan Invents Pizza Delivery Box

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Episode 66

Mid 1960s

The Low-Tech Genius of the Cardboard Pizza Box https://www.eater.com/2016/9/28/13065010/pizza-box-design

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1965: 'Supermarket Sweep' Airs First Episode

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1965: 'Supermarket Sweep' Airs First Episode

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Episode 60

December 20, 1965

How to Become a Fan of the Supermarket Sweep TV Game Show https://www.wikihow-fun.com/Become-a-Fan-of-the-Supermarket-Sweep-TV-Game-Show

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Supermarket Sweep

Genre

Game show

Created by

Al Howard

Directed by

Lloyd Gross (1965-67)
Peter Molnár (1965-67)
Chris Darley (1990-95, 2000-03)

Presented by

Bill Malone (1965-67)
David Ruprecht (1990-95, 2000-03)
Leslie Jones (2020)

Narrated by

Wally King (1965-66)
Richard Hayes (1966-67)
Johnny Gilbert (1990-95, 2000)
Randy West (2000-03)

Theme music composer

Christopher Rhyne

Country of origin

United States

No. of seasons

2 (ABC original run)
5 (Lifetime)
3 (PAX)

No. of episodes

1,111

Production

Executive producer(s)

Leonard Stern (1965-67)
Al Howard (1990-95; 2000-03)

Producer(s)

Jerome Schnur (1965-67)
Joel Stein (1990-95)
Mark Maxwell-Smith (2000)
Jim Rossi (2001-03)

Production location(s)

Food Fair (1965-67)
Hollywood Center Studios
Hollywood, California (1990-95)
Santa Clarita Studios
Santa Clarita, California (2000)
NBC Studios
Burbank, California (2000-03)

Running time

22-26 minutes

Production company(s)

Talent Associates (1965-67)
Al Howard Productions (1990-95, 2000-03)

Distributor
Fremantle

Release

Original network

ABC (1965-67; 2020)
Lifetime (1990-95)
PAX TV (2000-03)

Original release

ABC:
December 20, 1965-July 14, 1967
Lifetime:
February 5, 1990-June 16, 1995
PAX:
April 3, 2000-May 23, 2003

Supermarket Sweep is an American television game show. The format combined an ordinary team-based quiz show with the novel concept of a live, timed race through a supermarket. In the timed race, cameras followed the teams with shopping carts through a large vacated supermarket with several aisles; the value of items thrown into the cart determined the winning team. The original show was broadcast on ABC from December 20, 1965 to July 14, 1967. Revivals aired on Lifetime from February 5, 1990 to June 16, 1995 (with reruns until August 14, 1998, and on PAX TV from April 5, 1999 to March 31, 2000), and later from April 3, 2000 to May 23, 2003, with reruns airing until March 26, 2004.

ABC's Supermarket Sweep was broadcast from Food Fair supermarkets, mostly around New York City. For the Lifetime version, a mock supermarket was created at Hollywood Center Studios. It was modeled after a Hughes Family Market (which was later merged into the Ralphs chain in 1998). The first season of the PAX version was taped at Santa Clarita Studios in Santa Clarita, California. Beginning on November 20, 2000, the show moved to NBC Studios, with that series' set modeled after a Unified Western Market.

The host for the ABC version was Bill Malone. The announcers were Wally King from 1965 to 1966 and Richard Hayes from 1966 to 1967. The host for the Lifetime and PAX versions was David Ruprecht. The announcer was Johnny Gilbert from 1990 to 1995 and again from April to June 2000, with Randy West taking over for Gilbert in July 2000 and continuing for the rest of the series.

Leslie Jones will host a new version of the show on ABC, which will begin filming in the spring of 2020.

ABC version

Three teams competed. Each team began with a base time of 1:30. In the first round of the game, one contestant from each team was shown a grocery item and were asked to guess its retail price. The team who came the closest won the item and an additional 15 seconds to their time. Four items were played.

In the second round of the game, the contestant from each team who did not play the first round went on a shopping spree through the market, using the time accumulated. Bonus items worth $10-$100 were also spread throughout the store. All teams kept every item they picked up, with the team with the highest total in groceries, bonus prizes and other items winning the right to return to the show and play in the next game. Teams remained on the show until they were defeated or until they reached the winnings cap of $20,000.

Lifetime/PAX versions

The gameplay of the Lifetime/PAX version of Supermarket Sweep consisted of three segments: the question round, the Big Sweep, and the Bonus Sweep. The game was played between three teams of two related individuals, such as a parent and child, spouses, siblings, or best friends, initially called to play by an object they were holding (in the studio audience for the Lifetime version, backstage for the PAX version). Beginning with the Big Sweep, the team members would put on sweatshirts of the same color, with each team ranked depending on how much time they earned in the question rounds. In the first season, the sweatshirt colors for teams 1, 2, and 3 were light blue, red, and yellow, respectively; the sweatshirt colors of teams 1 and 2 were swapped in subsequent seasons.

Three new pairs of contestants appeared in each episode, with no running "returning champions;" select winners could make a second appearance in the show's recurring tournaments.

Question rounds

Similar to the original version, all three teams started with a base time of 1:30. Through a series of three rounds, contestants were asked a series of questions, usually centered around knowledge of products found in a grocery store. Each correct answer added 10 seconds to a team's time bank. The first two question rounds were played by one team member, with team members swapping positions after the first round. Questions included identifying a product that was missing letters, determining the brand of a product via an edited picture, and identifying a product based on a series of facts. Occasionally, questions centered around pop culture, movies, or stories found in checkstand tabloids.

Other questions centered around identifying the price of an item. This was accomplished in several different ways; two popular methods included determining which item in a set of three did not fit the designated criteria (e.g. +/- $3.00), or which item was incorrectly priced. A mainstay in the second round gave contestants the opportunity to add 30 seconds to their time banks if all three contestants gave the correct answer.

Occasionally, the second question round was replaced with one of the following games:

"30-Second Shootout" - At the beginning of the second segment of the question round, both contestants on a team played an individual game, which banked the team 30 seconds of Sweep time. Each team took turns by playing the game individually. The format usually consisted of a contestant guessing a series of words (usually five to seven letters) using clues given by his or her partner. The first letter of each correct answer was a letter in the name of a brand name or item from the market, which the guesser then had to determine to earn the Sweep time. Each of the teams had 30 seconds to achieve this and if a word was inadvertently revealed by the clue-giver, the team forfeited the opportunity to add additional time. On some episodes, an alternative format was used with a picture of a product shown. Each clue changed the product's picture, and gave the team 10 seconds for each correct guess, up to 30 for all three.

"Snack Attack Movie Game" - Three questions about movies worth 10 seconds each were asked. The contestant who answered the last of the three questions correctly earned the right to take a taste test of a food item in the market; correctly identifying the item earned that team a $50 bonus for the Big Sweep. If the contestant guessed right on a second chance (multiple choice at that point, and consisting of a maximum three choices), that team earned $25. Originally, the question related to the item only had two choices and only the correct choice earned the $50 bonus.

The final round was the "round robin" game. This round feature both team members alternating questions; each correct answer added an additional 10 seconds to their time bank. The most common format featured a brand name that had its letters scrambled. The emcee would then offer a maximum of three clues to help contestants zero in on the correct answer. Occasionally, an alternate format was used that omitted the word scramble; instead, the host would offer five clues.

Beginning in the show's second season in 1991, a Mini-Sweep was played at the beginning of the first round. A toss-up question (usually a rhyming couplet) was asked with a particular product as the answer. The team that correctly answered the question earned 10 seconds, as well as a chance for one team member to run into the market to retrieve a package of that product marked with the show's logo. If the product was returned within 30 seconds, the team won $50 towards their Sweep total. Failing to find the marked package, returning it after time ran out, or bringing back an unmarked package or one of an incorrect product, awarded no bonus. Originally, players were just asked to bring back any one package of the item in question.

A year after its debut, the bonus was doubled to $100 if the product was brought back within 20 seconds. Starting with the fifth season, a second Mini-Sweep was added at the beginning of the second round; while this was later discontinued as a regular feature, it would be used during special weeks on the PAX version.

The "Big Sweep" was the chance for the teams to run throughout the supermarket and take products from the shelves with the seconds they had earned in the front game. One player for each team was designated as the "runner," with the job of collecting items in a shopping cart, and the teams were assigned numbers based on their accumulated time: 1 for the most, 2 for the second-most, 3 for the least.

The clock for the Big Sweep was set to the leading time, and it started when Team 1 was sent into the market. Teams 2 and 3 were sent in when the clock displayed their respective times. If any of the teams were tied, they were sent into the market at the same time.

A camera operator would follow each shopper throughout the Big Sweep. In each finished episode, the footage was spliced together to create one near-real-time highlight reel, and the announcer would add a play-by-play commentary to the reel, describing the items being placed in each contestant's cart.

At any time, runners could bring full carts back to their partners' checkout counters and exchange them for empty ones. With the exception of certain bonuses, items had to be in a team's cart (either the runner's current one, or a full one already delivered to the checkout) when time ran out in order to count toward their total.

The main rules for the Big Sweep were:

The teams could only take up to five of each item.

If an item was knocked off a shelf or otherwise upset or damaged, the runner who did so either had to replace the item on the shelf or put it in his/her cart, or take a $25 penalty for each item. Teams were also penalized for running into supermarket displays, cameramen or any other personnel.

Only the runners could be in the market; their partners were required to remain at the checkout counter behind a red restraining line and unload the groceries. The partners could cross the line only with permission from the producers, typically to pick up a dropped item or bonus or to take part in a bonus activity that required their participation.

The product limit, which was absent in the original ABC version of the show, was added to prevent a team from overloading their carts with expensive items, such as poultry, laundry detergent or over-the-counter drugs. The store was stocked with at least 15 items of each product, ensuring anyone could have as many of a given item as they were allowed if they chose it.

In most episodes early in the show's first season on Lifetime, costumed characters such as Frankenstein's monster, a gorilla or a creature named Mr. Yuck ran through the aisles during the Sweep. If the character came near a contestant or vice versa, the contestant had to turn around and go in the other direction; if the contestant's cart hit the character, a penalty was also imposed.. The characters were dropped later in the season.

A variety of opportunities to earn additional cash were available during the Big Sweep. Examples included completing a shopping list of items provided by the emcee, grinding a designated amount of coffee beans, or finding a mystery product. One constant throughout the run was retrieving what the show termed a "bonus item". Examples of bonus items were stuffed animals, giant signs, or inflatable versions of consumer products; each team could only take one such item. Each bonus item had a sticker that disclosed its value-the maximum value of a bonus item was initially $200; later raised to $250. Special tournament episodes had an additional bonus item worth $300. (Ruprecht referred to the $250 item as the "super bonus" and the $300 item as the "super super bonus.")

Once time expired, a bell rang to signify the end of the Big Sweep and the runners had to stop whatever they were doing and return to the checkout counters. All of the products were scanned while the show took a final commercial break, and the grand totals of each team's takes were revealed when the show returned, beginning with Team 3, and ending with Team 1. Each team's groceries were tallied and any bonuses/penalties were applied to determine the final totals. The team with the highest score won their Sweep total in cash and advanced to the Bonus Sweep for a chance to win an additional $5,000. The other teams received parting gifts. Sweep totals included cents in the first season, but were subsequently rounded to the nearest dollar.

Bonus Sweep

In the Bonus Sweep, the winning team was sent on a treasure hunt and given 60 seconds to find three different items in succession. Ruprecht read a clue to lead the team to the identity of the first item, and once he was done the team darted into the market to try to find it as the clock started. The correct item was tagged with a large circular token bearing the show's logo and a clue for a second item to be found. This item in turn had a clue for a third item, which had a bundle of $5,000 in cash hidden behind it. In order to win, the team had to find all three items and have their hands on the money before time ran out. If they fell short, they received $200 for each item they had found.

Originally, if the team found the final product and the $5,000 before either of the other two, they automatically forfeited the bonus round. However, after the first two seasons, this was changed so that an overhead announcement was made reminding the team to find the first two products, then return to the third product and claim the cash.

Tournaments

During both runs of the show, special tournaments were held periodically, as well as other individual shows in which former teams were invited back for a chance to win more money, a trip aboard a cruise, or a pair of automobiles. In some of the special tournaments, the bonus round was not played; instead, the show's conclusion came after Ruprecht announced the winner. The Friday show always acted as the final.

Seven episodes of the 1960s version survived (the rest were destroyed to recycle film). The Lifetime/PAX version remains completely intact. On April 11, 2015, the pilot episode for the Lifetime version was posted on YouTube by Wink Martindale as part of his "Wink's Vault" series of rare game show findings.

Fremantle owns the worldwide format rights, including the American productions which it acquired in 2018. As of April 8, 2020. Fremantle's American digital subchannel Buzzr airs the 1990s series that originally aired on Lifetime. Buzzr also airs the PAX episodes from the 2000s. Episodes from the Lifetime/PAX revival are available on Amazon Video through Buzzr.

On October 13, 2017, it was announced that Fremantle had acquired the global rights to the format and that a revival of the show was in the works. Fremantle stated that the new incarnation of the show would incorporate "modern technology" into the program which reflects 21st century shopping habits. On August 27, 2019, Deadline reported that Leslie Jones had signed on as the revival's host and executive producer. Several networks, including ABC, NBC, and Fox, as well as Netflix, were said to be interested in acquiring the revived series. On January 8, 2020, Deadline confirmed ABC had picked up the series with Jones as host.

A board game based on the original ABC version was manufactured by Milton Bradley in 1966.

A video slot machine based on the Lifetime/PAX version was released to North American casinos by WMS Gaming.

Legend:

(3) Currently airing

(12) No longer airing

Country

Name

Host(s)

TV station

Premiere

Finale

Arab League

El-Sawaq السواق

Ali Mahmoud

GEM TV

2019

Argentina

Sume y Lleve

Doris del Valle
Emilio Disi

Canal 9

1987

1988

Ana María Campoy
Daniel Castex

Clink Caja

Beruga Carámbula

1996

1996

Australia

Supermarket Sweep Australia

Ian Turpie

Nine Network

February 10, 1992

February 4, 1994

Brazil

SuperMarket [pt]

Ricardo Corte Real [pt]

Band

August 30, 1993

June 8, 1998

RecordTV

September 18, 2000

January, 2001

Belgium

Iedereen Beroemd
De winkelkarquiz

Frederic van Landeghem (Votum)

Één

2012

2012

Canada

Supermarket Sweep (English)[9]

Tino Monte

Syndication

1992

1995

Global Television Network

L'épicerie en folie Metro (French)

Christian Tétreault

TQS

1994

1995

Chile

Supermarket

Pablo Krögh

Canal 13

August 21, 1995

November 21, 1997

Juan La Rivera

Greece

Σούπερ Μάρκετ
Soúper Márket

Pounentis Matt

ANT1

1993

1994

Michael Tsaousopoulos

Japan

一攫千金!!スーパーマーケット [ja]
Ikkaku senkin!

Kazuki Kosakai

Nippon TV

April 7, 1991

September 29, 1991

Spain

Supermarket

Enrique Simon [es]

Antena 3

February 24, 1992

1992

Turkey

Süpermarket

Erdinç Doğan

Kanal 6 [tr]

1993

1994

Yiğit Alici

Kanal D

2009

2009

Ukraine

Шоу Шара
Shou Shara

Gennady Popenko
Yulia Kovaleva

ICTV

2013

present

United Kingdom

Supermarket Sweep

Dale Winton

ITV

September 6, 1993

September 6, 2001

February 12, 2007

August 31, 2007

Rylan Clark-Neal

ITV2

September 9, 2019

United States

Arrasa con Todo con Kmart (Spanish)

Carlos Calderon
Carolina Delgado

Univision

February 7, 2011

August 13, 2011

Vietnam

Siêu thị may mắn

Lucky Supermarket

Thanh Bạch

HTV7

June 5, 2005

February, 2012

Quyền Linh

Minh Quân

Minh Béo (as Thần Tài)

Hồng Thiên Phúc (as Thần Tài Con)

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Supermarket Sweep Genre Game show Created by Al Howard Directed by Lloyd Gross (1965-67)Peter Molnár (1965-67)Chris Darley (1990-95, 2000-03) Presented by Bill Malone (1965-67) David Ruprecht (1990-95, 2000-03) Leslie Jones (2020) Narrated by Wally King (1965-66)Richard Hayes (1966-67) Johnny Gilbert (1990-95, 2000) Randy West (2000-03) Theme music composer Christopher Rhyne Country of origin United States No.

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1966: 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' Airs

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1966: 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' Airs

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Episode 41

October 27, 1966

We Need a Blockbuster, Charlie Brown! The Making of The Great Pumpkin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qu8_pwQKHE

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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown - Wikipedia

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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American animated Halloween television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. The third Peanuts special, and the second holiday-themed special, to be created, it was written by Schulz along with director/animator Bill Melendez and producer Lee Mendelson. The cast included Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Christopher Shea as Linus Van Pelt, Sally Dryer as Lucy Van Pelt, and Melendez as Snoopy. The special features music composed by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, whose contributions include the theme song “Linus and Lucy”. It aired on broadcast television every year from its debut in 1966 until 2020, when it became an Apple TV+ exclusive.

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1968: Dr Calhoun Builds Mouse Utopia, Universe 25

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1968: Dr Calhoun Builds Mouse Utopia, Universe 25

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Episode 69 (nice)

Coins the term "behavioral sink"

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Biologist John Calhoun’s rodent experiments gripped a society consumed by fears of overpopulation.

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Episode 2

A 45 foot long, 8 ton sperm whale washed ashore at a Florence, Oregon Beach and was blown up with dynamite by the Highway Division

How do you get rid of a beached whale before it explodes? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/17/how-do-you-get-rid-of-a-beached-whale-before-it-explodes

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1972: Pat Nixon Accepts Pandas Into National Zoo

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1972: Pat Nixon Accepts Pandas Into National Zoo

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Episode 7

April 20, 1972

A Chinese cigarette tin launched D.C.’s 50-year love affair with pandas https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/16/pandas-china-nixon-dc/

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Episode 10

January 1973

Ghosts on the Glacier https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/09/world/americas/aconcagua-mountain-expedition-photos.html

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Decades after the unexplained deaths of two American climbers in Argentina, a camera belonging to one of them was found in the snow. The film held astonishing images, but the mystery endures.

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Episode 44

June 4, 1974

Remembering 10-Cent Beer Night, one of baseball’s most infamous fiascos https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/04/10-cent-beer-night-1974-cleveland-indians-texas-rangers/

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1975: Tippi Hedren Facilitates Vietnamese Nail Industry

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1975: Tippi Hedren Facilitates Vietnamese Nail Industry

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Episode 65

Tippi Hedren's humanitarian work with Vietnamese refugees inadvertently created a multi-billion dollar industry.

Nailed It https://tubitv.com/movies/629631/nailed-it

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How Tippi Hedren made Vietnamese refugees into nail salon magnates

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After the fall of Saigon, refugees from Vietnam fled to California, where actress Tippi Hedren changed their lives - and the beauty industry in Los Angeles.

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Episode 15

September 19, 1976

1976 Tehran UFO incident http://www.iiaf.net/tehran-dogfight-incident/

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1980s: Mohammad Khordadian's First Dance Video is Released

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1980s: Mohammad Khordadian's First Dance Video is Released

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Episode 26

Early 1980's

Keeping Up with the Khordadian https://www.bidoun.org/articles/keeping-up-with-the-khordadian

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Since the 1980s, Khordadian has built up a dance and exercise and dance-as-exercise career that has made him the most famous Iranian mail-order entertainer on earth, beloved for his camp renditions of everything from Iranian folk dance to Arabian belly…

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1981: Reagan Deregulates Marketing for Children

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1981: Reagan Deregulates Marketing for Children

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Episode 42

The Great Marketing Deregulation https://bettermarketing.pub/the-great-marketing-deregulation-2125a0efe094

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Despite the bombardment in advertising we all, especially children, face every day - there was a time when people were on the lookout for their "promotional well-being."

Rules had been in place since the 1960s, when advertisers discovered how television would be the perfect gateway to get their products in front of as many young eyes as possible. This was important because children dictate so much of a family's spending.

Ronald Reagan instituted the deregulation of advertising at the start of the 1980s. This allowed companies to market as much as they wanted to children, leading to an explosion of new toys, cartoons, junk food, fast food, and breakfast cereals.

This article is a look back at deregulation and how it changed the world of marketing to kids forever.

Meals, movies, entertainment - they're usually all determined by what the kids want. Children can influence 95% of selecting a restaurant, 89% in what beverages a family buys, and 80% of where a family vacation will be.

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Despite the bombardment in advertising we all, especially children, face every day - there was a time when people were on the lookout for their "promotional well-being." Rules had been in place since...

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Episode 12

Hollywood's real Tiger King: Insane big cat movie Roar getting VOD rerelease https://ew.com/movies/roar-movie-vod/

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Episode 58

Game Breaking: How Cheat Codes Changed Video Games Forever https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a33650224/cheat-code-history/

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Episode 12

Inside The Nintendo Power Hotline https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/02/22/inside-the-nintendo-power-hotline

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Episode 10

Six bull sharks inadvertently made their home on an Australian golf course. Then they vanished https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/18/sport/carbrook-bull-sharks-australia-golf-course-spt-spc-intl/index.html

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Six bull sharks inadvertently made their home on an Australian golf course. Then they vanished | CNN

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For golfers, staying out of the water could be the difference between winning and losing. At one course in Australia, it was the difference between life and death.

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1991: John Orr publishes 'Points of Origin'

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1991: John Orr publishes 'Points of Origin'

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Episode 56

He Was Both Fire Captain And Prolific Arsonist. His Novel Put Him In Prison. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-29/john-orr-glendale-fire-captain-prolific-arsonist

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1991: John Orr publishes 'Points of Origin'

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1992: Helge Meyer Drives Ghost Camaro into Sarajevo to Provide Aid

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1992: Helge Meyer Drives Ghost Camaro into Sarajevo to Provide Aid

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Episode 35

1992-1995

The Real Transporter – Helge Meyer And His Ghost Camaro https://www.motorpunk.co.uk/carclub-18-30/the-cars/real-transporter-helge-meyer-ghost-camaro/

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1993: Sandia National Laboratories Publishes Guidance on Nuclear Semiotics

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1993: Sandia National Laboratories Publishes Guidance on Nuclear Semiotics

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Episode 53

Inverse Archaeology: Sending a Message to the Future https://www.stochastication.com/2016/06/13/inverse-archaeology/amp/

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Long-term nuclear waste warning messages are intended to deter human intrusion at nuclear waste repositories in the far future, within or above the order of magnitude of 10,000 years. Nuclear semiotics is an interdisciplinary field of research, first done by the American Human Interference Task Force in 1981.

A 1993 report from Sandia National Laboratories recommended that such messages be constructed at several levels of complexity. They suggested that the sites should include foreboding physical features which would immediately convey to future visitors that the site was both man-made and dangerous, as well as providing pictographic information attempting to convey some details of the danger, and written explanations for those able to read it.

A 1993 report from Sandia National Laboratories aimed to communicate a series of messages non-linguistically to any future visitors to a waste site. It gave the following wording as an example of what those messages should evoke:

This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!

Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

The danger is to the body, and it can kill.

The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.

The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

The Sandia report further recommended that any such message should comprise four levels of increasing complexity:

Level I: Rudimentary Information: "Something man-made is here"

Level II: Cautionary Information: "Something man-made is here and it is dangerous"

Level III: Basic Information: Tells what, why, when, where, who, and how

Level IV: Complex Information: Highly detailed written records, tables, figures, graphs, maps and diagrams

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has done extensive research in development of written or pictorial messages to warn future generations. Since today's written languages are unlikely to survive, the research team has considered pictograms and hostile architecture in addition to them. Texts were proposed to be translated to every UN written language. In 1994, Level II, III, and IV messages in English were translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Navajo, with plans to continue testing and revision of the original English text and subsequent eventual translation into further languages.

Conceptual designs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant included an "Information Center" at the geometric center of the site. The building would be an open structure of solid granite or concrete, measuring 40 by 32 by 10 feet (12.2 m × 9.8 m × 3.0 m), and contain Level IV messages. The plans included a suggestion that the building be designed so as to create a distinctive whistling sound when wind blew through it, drawing attention to itself.

Working as part of the Human Interference Task Force in 1981, Vilmos Voigt from Eötvös-Loránd University ( Budapest) proposed the installation of warning signs in the most important global languages in a concentric pattern around any terminal storage location. As time passed, further signs would be added translating the earlier signs, with the earlier ones remaining in place.

The Sandia report explored designs for physical markers which conveyed the concepts of dangerous emanations, shapes that evoke bodily harm, and the concept of "shunned land" that appears destroyed or poisoned. The designs suggested included:

Landscape of Thorns

A mass of many irregularly-sized spikes protruding from the ground in all directions.

Spike Field

A series of extremely large spikes emerging from the ground at different angles.

Spikes Bursting Through Grid

A large square grid pattern across the site, through which large spikes protrude at various angles.

Menacing Earthworks

Large mounds of earth shaped like lightning bolts, emanating from the edges of a square site. The shapes would be strikingly visible from the air, or from artificial hills constructed around the site.

Black Hole

An enormous slab of basalt or black-dyed concrete, rendering the land uninhabitable and unfarmable.

Rubble Landscape

A large square-shaped pile of dynamited rock, which over time would still appear anomalous and give a sense of something having been destroyed.

Forbidding Blocks

A network of hundreds of house-sized stone blocks, dyed black and arranged in an irregular square grid, suggesting a network of "streets" which feel ominous and lead nowhere. The blocks are intended to make a large area entirely unsuitable for farming or other future use.

To determine how to convey long-term nuclear warning messages, the " Zeitschrift für Semiotik" ( Tübingen, Germany) issued a poll in 1982 and 1983 asking how a message might be communicated for a duration of 10,000 years. The poll asked the following question: "How would it be possible to inform our descendants for the next 10,000 years about the storage locations and dangers of radioactive waste?" leading to the following answers.

Thomas Sebeok

The linguist Thomas Sebeok was a member of the Bechtel working group. Building on earlier suggestions made by Alvin Weinberg and Arsen Darnay he proposed the creation of an atomic priesthood, a panel of experts where members would be replaced through nominations by a council. Similar to the Catholic church - which has preserved and authorized its message for almost 2,000 years - the atomic priesthood would have to preserve the knowledge about locations and dangers of radioactive waste by creating rituals and myths. The priesthood would indicate off-limits areas and the consequences of disobedience.

This approach has a number of critical problems:

1. An atomic priesthood would gain political influence based on the contingencies that it would oversee.

2. This system of information favors the creation of hierarchies.

3. The message could be split into independent parts.

4. Information about waste sites would grant power to a privileged class. People from outside this group might attempt to seize this information by force.

Stanisław Lem

Polish science-fiction author Stanisław Lem proposed the creation of artificial satellites that would transmit information from their orbit to Earth for millennia. He also described a biological coding of DNA in a mathematical sense, which would reproduce itself automatically. Information Plants would only grow near a terminal storage site and would inform humans about the dangers. The DNA of the so-called atomic flowers would contain the necessary data about both the location and its contents.

Lem acknowledged the problem with his idea that humans would be unlikely to know the meaning of atomic flowers 10,000 years later, and thus unlikely to decode their DNA in a search for information.

Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri

French author Françoise Bastide and the Italian semiotician Paolo Fabbri proposed the breeding of so-called "radiation cats" or "ray cats". Cats have a long history of cohabitation with humans, and this approach assumes that their domestication will continue indefinitely. These radiation cats would change significantly in color when they came near radioactive emissions and serve as living indicators of danger. In order to transport the message, the importance of the cats would need to be set in the collective awareness through fairy tales and myths. Those fairy tales and myths in turn could be transmitted through poetry, music and painting. The story of this original project was depicted in the 2016 short documentary "The Ray Cat Solution".

In 2014, musician Emperor X wrote a song called "Don't Change Color, Kitty", designed to be "so catchy and annoying that it might be handed down from generation to generation over a span of 10,000 years".

Vilmos Voigt

Vilmos Voigt from Eötvös-Loránd University ( Budapest) proposed the installation of warning signs in the most important global languages in a concentric pattern around the terminal storage location. After a certain time span new signs with translations would be installed, but the old signs would not be removed. Newer signs would be posted farther away from the location, thus the warning would be understandable as languages change and it would be possible to understand the older languages through the translation.

Emil Kowalski

Physicist Emil Kowalski from Baden, Switzerland proposed that terminal storage locations be constructed in such a way that future generations could reach them only with a high technical ability. The probability of an unwanted breach would then become extremely small. Furthermore, cultures able to perform such excavations and drillings would most certainly be able to detect radioactive material and be aware of its dangers.

Trauth, K. M.; Hora, S. C.; Guzowski, R. V. (1 November 1993). "Expert judgment on markers to deter inadvertent human intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant". Albuquerque, New Mexico: Sandia National Labs. doi:10.2172/10117359. OSTI 10117359.

"Sebastian Musch: The Atomic Priesthood and Nuclear Waste Management - Religion, Sci-fi Literature and the End of our Civilization

WIPP Permanent Markers Implementation Plan for DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

WIPP PIC Appendix

"Distant Future Warnings: The challenges of communicating with eternity". . June 14, 2017.

Deep Time Reckoning, an anthropology book about how Finland's nuclear waste experts envision distant future worlds, explores the cultural dimensions of this issue.

Sebastian Musch: Hans Jonas, Günther Anders, and the Atomic Priesthood: An Exploration into Ethics, Religion and Technology in the Nuclear Age

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Long-term nuclear waste warning messages - Wikipedia

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Long-term nuclear waste warning messages are intended to deter human intrusion at nuclear waste repositories in the far future, within or above the order of magnitude of 10,000 years. Nuclear semiotics is an interdisciplinary field of research, first done by the American Human Interference Task Force in 1981.

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1995: Gray Wolves Reintroduced to Yellowstone

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1995: Gray Wolves Reintroduced to Yellowstone

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Episode 70

Gray Wolves Reintroduced to Yellowstone

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Explore the captivating synergy between wolves and ravens. Learn about their relationship and the benefits they provide to each other in their natural habitats.

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Episode 17

February 13, 1997

Lego Lost at Sea https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/whimsical-legos-are-still-washing-ashore-decades-after-they-were-lost-at-sea-180979580/

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Along the beaches of Cornwall, England's southwestern peninsula, locals and tourists alike have been finding more than just seashells along the seashore. Colorful ocean-themed Legos of octopuses with twisting tentacles, miscellaneous scuba gear, boxy whales, and other plastic pieces have been washing ashore for the last 25 years-a grim reminder of the lasting impacts of plastic pollution.

On February 13, 1997, about five million Legos were lost at sea when a rogue wave tipped a massive cargo ship dubbed the Tokio Express. Ironically, many of the kits were sea creature themed. The event, known as the Great Lego Spill, is the worst toy-related environmental disaster of all time, and beachcombers still uncover the shipwrecked plastic treasures today, reports Mindy Weisberger for Live Science.

The Lego pieces aboard the Tokio Express were among 62 shipping containers that tumbled off the vessel. The ship was en route to New York after it loaded its cargo in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, when an unpredictable 28-foot wave smashed into a cargo ship 20 miles off the mainland, reports Jackie Butler for Cornwall Live. Other items swept to sea included 10,000 disposable lighters, superglue, and other hazardous chemicals.

Ever since, collectors have gone out to look for "rare" pieces like octopuses and green dragons. Tracey Williams-a Cornwall local, beachcomber, and environmental campaigner-has documented the Lego spill for years on "Lego Lost at Sea" social media pages via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. More recently, she published Adrift: The Curious Tale of Lego Lost at Sea, a book detailing the Lego incident.

Though the wayward novelties may inspire wonder, the tiny bricks highlight plastic pollution's impact on oceans. Out of the 4,756,940 Lego pieces on board, about 3,178,807 were light enough to float and are what is commonly found across 40 beaches in Cornwall, eported Mario Cacciottolo for the BBC in 2014. For example, small plastic flowers and mini diver's flippers are regularly seen along the shores.

"What we're finding now are the pieces that sank as well as the pieces that floated," Williams tells Live Science. "It's providing us with an insight into what happens to plastic in the ocean, how far it drifts - both on the surface of the ocean but also along the seabed - and what happens to it as it breaks down."

In 2017, Rob Arnold, a local of Cornwall, and 12 other volunteers collected about six million pieces of microplastics from a beach near his home, reported Nick Lucchesi at the time. The volunteers found plenty of Lego bits among other plastic pieces, including 240 Lego divers' flippers, on beaches two decades after the cargo ship tipped.

Plastic can take centuries to degrade in the ocean, and as it deteriorates, it releases chemicals that can disrupt the reproductive systems of animals, Live Science reports. Future generations will likely continue to experience the aftermath of the Great Lego Spill. A study published in Environmental Pollution in 2020 found that after analyzing the structure of Legos with X-ray fluorescence, it would take about 1,300 years for the 1997 castaway Legos to degrade fully.

According to the IUCN, at least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year and make up 80 percent of all marine debris found in deep-sea sediments and drifting on surface waters.

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After 25 Years at Sea, Shipwrecked Lego Pieces Are Still Washing Ashore on Beaches in England

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Along the beaches of Cornwall, England's southwestern peninsula, locals and tourists alike have been finding more than just seashells along the seashore. Colorful ocean-themed Legos of octopuses with twisting tentacles, miscellaneous scuba gear, boxy whales, and other plastic pieces have been washing ashore for the last 25 years-a grim reminder of the lasting impacts of plastic pollution.

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1998: Casa Sanchez Launches Tattoo Incentive for Free Tacos

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1998: Casa Sanchez Launches Tattoo Incentive for Free Tacos

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Episode 43

In 1998, These SF Men Got a Tattoo to Snag Free Tacos for Life. https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/casa-sanchez-tattoos-free-meal-promo-san-francisco-16465800.php

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Twenty-two years ago, Casa Sanchez in San Francisco estimated that its notorious tacos-for-tattoos deal would cost somewhere in the ballpark of $5.8 million.

Martha Sanchez, who came up with the deal, arrived at that pricey estimate after the promotion was already underway. Assuming that the 50 or so inked-up people stayed in San Francisco for their lifetimes and got an eight-buck meal every week, the figure would be staggering. That number didn't even include the second round of people when Casa Sanchez revived the deal; more on that later.

But for at least two of the first people in San Francisco to get inked up in exchange for free meals, the grub was never the point.

Rewind back to 1998: Greg Tietz, then 35, had only been in San Francisco for a couple of years and was looking to plant his roots in his neighborhood when a Mexican restaurant's promotion piqued his interest.

Get a tattoo, get free Mexican food for life.

"I was just a happy-go-lucky bartender at Bottom of the Hill," Tietz, now 57 and a video logger for ESPN, told SFGATE. "And I was trying to explore areas of the Mission I hadn't been to, and found myself walking past Casa Sanchez."

By that point in time, Tietz had wanted to get his first tattoo but was wracked with indecision - a feeling that many first-time tattoo recipients can attest to.

"Like, boy this really needs to be special, really needs to mean something. I'm nervous about it."

Something about the Casa Sanchez tattoo just stuck for Tietz. The logo, a young boy riding a cob of corn-slash-rocket ship lovingly named "Jimmy the Cornman," was great. The food was, too. (He only vaguely remembered his first Casa Sanchez meal, a "deluxe" carne asada burrito with all of the fixings.)

"I caught a co-worker friend of mine who had probably a dozen or more tattoos, saying, 'You should come check this place out with me and see what you think of the offer,' and helped me find a good tattoo artist."

That friend was Guido Brenner, who now runs security at Bottom of the Hill. Brenner told SFGATE that he liked the art, and the food was quite good, even as a lifer in San Francisco who knew the Mexican food scene "like the back of [his] hand."

That same night, Tietz and Brenner became the second and third people to get the Casa Sanchez logo permanently fixed onto their bodies.

The actual first person, it turned out, was a local who got the Jimmy tattoo long before the promotion was even announced.

"She loved it so much that she came back with the logo tattooed and said, 'Hey, what do you think?' and [Martha] said, 'Oh, you get free lunch for life,'" Brenner said.

Martha's sister wasn't on board with the tats-for-tacos deal, Brenner added, taking the sign off the window whenever Martha would put it up. But Martha reportedly persisted, reprinting the sign until her sister relented. (Martha Sanchez did not respond to a request for comment for the story.)

What happened next: They went viral the old-fashioned way. It made the rounds on the San Francisco alt-weeklies, then KPIX and the San Francisco Chronicle.

That was Martha's doing, Tietz said.

"She was savvy with media, trying to publicize the offer, and she was like, 'Here's the first guy to get the tattoo.'"

Brenner recalled at least three or four other people getting the same tattoo within the next 24 hours, compelled by the story and the flash sheet still laying around in the parlor.

Tietz still remembers that first spread with photos of his ink, published in the now-defunct San Francisco Bay Guardian.

And then when the local news cycle died out, the national one came months later: The Associated Press ran a wire on the promo. CNN featured them on their news shows for weeks. "All Things Considered" had them on the air. Tietz went on "Leeza," Leeza Gibbons' talk show, sitting on a panel next to Jennifer Flavin, Sylvester Stallone's wife, and actor D.B. Sweeney.

"I was just like the guy that they kept teasing," Tietz said of his experience on the talk show, "like, 'This guy gets free food for life and wait till you hear what he had to do.'"

Then, it went global. A German travel show profiled him, Tietz said. He ended up, inexplicably, on a Chinese TV show, he said.

By no means was either of them a celebrity. Tietz only really recalled getting stopped out in public once: At a gas station on 9th Street. Brenner would occasionally get spotted while at work.

But the Casa Sanchez promo felt part and parcel of an idiosyncratic, almost quaint vision of San Francisco, that, only in this city would residents line up in droves to be marked for life with a cute small business' logo in exchange for eight bucks worth of food.

Then, Casa Sanchez revived the promotion in 2010 as the recession dragged on, branded as a "stimulus special." And, like clockwork, the media cycle began once more.

KPIX did another segment with him on. The Wall Street Journal did a feature, showing off Tietz, Brenner and a new vanguard of people who joined the tattoo-meal pact.

For as long as he lived in Potrero Hill, just a hop-skip away from the Mission, Tietz enjoyed the meals, never forgetting to put a few bucks in the tip jar.

That was big for him. In a 1999 interview with the Chronicle, he said, "You don't want to take undue advantage of something like this. It's karma."

"Generally, servers are good tippers, because we do like karma. I believe in that and it keeps the money coming back in so we can get by as service industry workers. ... I didn't want to go in there and like, you know, picking their pockets, in a sense and always showing up for free food."

And, within a month, the food paid for itself. The publicity the two of them got for the years that Casa Sanchez was in operation was a nice bonus.

But the thing that stuck with them the most, back in '99 and now, was this idea that the "tacos-for-tattoos" promo did end up in a family of sorts.

Every time a news organization wanted a story, Sanchez would corral all of the tattooed folks at the restaurant and gather them together, and every time would be like a family reunion - with everyone keeping up with each other's kids and work and relationships.

"It was a little community, of those of us that got the tattoo and also, between us and the Sanchez family," Tietz said.

The way Tietz explains it, he's lived in San Francisco for nearly as long as he's had the Casa Sanchez tattoo. He's still pals with Brenner, both tied by the bond that the tattoo provided the two of them, and by the Bottom of the Hill "family" they both were a part of.

And for Brenner, he's still in touch with Martha Sanchez, who he fondly calls Marty.

"I have gone on trips [with] her husband. ... I've gone out to Cuba with him before to interview Harley riders out in Cuba," he said.

He was also in a band with another tattooed person and her husband.

We'll never find out whether the deal cost millions; the restaurant shuttered in 2012 in a deal with another local restaurant - two years after it revived the tattoo promotion - so that the family could reorient its efforts on its thriving grocery-store snack line.

And, for those disappointed in the meals running out, no fear.

The restaurant that ultimately took over Casa Sanchez's old lease, the pupusa shop D'Maize, has it in their lease agreement that anyone with the OG tattoo is welcome to a free pupusa. (Tietz has stopped by once or twice, and Brenner's been three times, at least, but the familial aspect isn't there, they said.)

"I certainly respect their business decision, they're still like family to me," Tietz said. "I don't, I don't have any, you know, problem with them stopping the free food. But what I do miss is that the food was really good, and you know I always got to see family in there and they always made us feel extremely welcome."

The colors have faded a bit. The cob of corn has gotten a bit stale, faded to a late-day yellow as opposed to the day-glo of the original Casa Sanchez logo he got tatted on him back when he'd get a burrito once a week.

But for all intents and purposes, the tattoo the two of them got meant way more than the food or even the notoriety. The tattoo, the story behind it and the friendships he cultivated - all thanks to Casa Sanchez - will all last in perpetuity.

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22 years ago, they got a tattoo and free Mexican food for life

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This tattoo got them years of global media coverage, free Mexican food and more.

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2003: Artist Mark Smith Creates Paintings for Taco Bell

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2003: Artist Mark Smith Creates Paintings for Taco Bell

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Episode 23

One of the most unusual heists in America seems to be unfolding at Taco Bell https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/taco-bell-ebay-mark-smith-paintings-19464177.php

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When artist Mark Smith stepped off the plane from New York and arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, on that fateful day in the early 2000s, he knew he was about to enter one of the most important critiques of his entire career.

But Smith wasn't doing a studio visit with the owners of a prestigious gallery - he was meeting with the corporate executives of Taco Bell, the California fast food chain that peddles Crunchwrap Supremes and Baja Blasts to the masses.

This was back in 2002 or 2003, before the company even created these artificial masterpieces. At the time, Smith was trying to convince them to let him make three paintings that would eventually get rolled out to most, if not all, Taco Bell locations in the U.S. At first, not everyone in the room was onboard with the concept because it was so expensive: It would require making prints of his Basquiat-like paintings, stretching them on canvas and then hanging them in each store to make them feel like real art as opposed to ubiquitous branded messaging.

But, against these odds, Smith got the green light of approval, and the pieces were distributed in 2003. Over the course of his expansive career, he's been commissioned to work on projects for major clients like Absolut Vodka, DaimlerChrysler and the Olympics, cementing his status as a professional artist. Life went on, and the trio of paintings faded into memory.

Then, people suddenly started stealing them.

'I never expected this to happen'

It all began in 2015 in Westlake, Ohio, when a burglar ran off with one of his pieces and disappeared, stumping local police, Artnet reported. Four years earlier, a group of teenagers and young adults also tried stealing an unnamed "painting valued at $157" from a Taco Bell in the same location, CBS reported, though details about its provenance are scant. Following the heist, officers declared to outlets that they were "going to search every dorm room and rumpus room in a ten mile radius," though they never answered SFGATE's request for more information about the outcome.

"I never expected this to happen," Smith chuckled in a recent video interview with SFGATE. He still has one of the news articles framed on his wall because "they made it sound like they were talking about the Mona Lisa," he continued. Though Taco Bell purchased the originals for their corporate offices in 2003, he explained, the prints have scattered like seeds in the underground art market, where they're now listed for sale for as much as $10,000 apiece.

By now, Smith is well aware of this scheme, but he's still shocked by how outrageously expensive the prints have become. He doesn't know how people continue to get their hands on them, either.

But, apparently, all it takes is a little sleuthing and entrepreneurial spirit.

The unlikely black market for Taco Bell art

"I'm real nervous about this," said Blake Boesky, an eBay seller and former "international lotion salesman" who recently got his hands on some of the paintings.

"I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but the gentlemen I purchased it from renovates Taco Bells," he told SFGATE over the phone. "And he says they throw these out sometimes now because they don't know what to do with them." Though Taco Bell and Yum! Brands press representatives never responded to multiple requests for comment, this method seems to be quite common.

Deep in the trenches of Reddit, there are threads explaining how most paintings from these remodels wind up in the trash - but every now and then, they reappear on secondhand sites like Mercari and eBay for $300 to $750. Unsurprisingly, it seems like employees are in on it.

Multiple users who claimed to manage Taco Bell stores said they took the art during renovations and were willing to pawn the pieces off, while others lamented that shift leads and higher-ups ran off with them, beating their subordinates to it. This trend appears to date all the way back to one of the first heists in Westlake, Ohio: According to CBS, the thieves' getaway driver was an 18-year-old former employee.

Boesky, who first found paintings on Facebook Marketplace in Michigan, said that he'll probably keep them if no one ends up buying them for thousands of dollars. But for now, he's taking his chances.

"Sometimes I feel like you need to set the tone to create some value," he continued.

When you look at them in person, it's easy to understand why people would want to keep the artwork for their personal collections.

Originally made with layered paper, crayon and acrylic paint, the paintings possess the playfulness of Jean-Michel Basquiat, or the abstract expressionist bravado of Willem de Kooning. One appears to portray a butterfly in a sky full of stars; another resembles an abstract, otherworldly figure framed by symbols that dance and coalesce in colorful harmony - the perfect pairing for a Chalupa Supreme drowned in acidic Diablo sauce.

According to Smith, these three works - "Drive Thru Man," "Mothman," and "Empty" - each pay homage to American painter Maxfield Parrish and utilize clever motifs that have dual aesthetic and commercial purposes.

While he had plenty of artistic freedom, there were still a few basic rules he had to follow: No "subliminal images," no "devil worship" and no "displays of carnality," Smith said. He also had to make the work align with Taco Bell's "processed, plastic" color scheme. "It was a challenging palette."

"Drive Thru Man," which is dotted with gray cars that pass through a bell-shaped icon and emerge as vibrant hot rods, points to the late-night fast food culture - a natural choice for Smith, who collects cars and motorcycles. Another piece, "Mothman," quite literally represents what it feels like to be a drunk moth aimlessly floating toward Taco Bell's much-too-accessible flame. Lastly, "Empty" - the one with the distressed looking yellow figure - was designed to evoke what it feels like to be struck by hunger pangs and low blood sugar, which is represented by the fuel gauge above his head. The bell floating above him is also a light bulb: a solution to his problem.

Going outside the Cravings Box

For Smith, who was classically trained at the Pratt Institute, this project was a unique opportunity to break down the traditional barriers of the art world, which thrives on exclusivity.

Museums and galleries don't care about reaching fast food customers, Smith said, adding that very few people actually buy art. Not to mention, galleries can be intimidating, he continued. Because of this, he also had to make sure that his work didn't alienate Taco Bell's loyal customers, who eat there approximately twice a month. Though it seems trivial, Smith said it was a project that required "complete focus."

That's because paintings function much differently in a roadside Taco Bell as opposed to, say, the Louvre. While the goal was to create work that customers could discover new details in every time they returned for a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Smith also hoped it would have a broader influence that would outlast the paintings themselves.

"I believe that this project was an opportunity to create artwork for an audience as a gateway to other artistic experiences," he said. "Every artist has a point of departure - a comic book, movie lyric, riff, novel - but something often contributes to the start of the artistic journey."

These days, he's still in awe that people are giving his 20-year-old paintings new life. But the desire to live mas, it seems, is eternal.

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An unusual heist seems to be unfolding at Taco Bell

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Paintings are disappearing from Taco Bells and winding up on eBay for thousands of dollars.

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2003: 'The Auditor' Passes Away After 17 Years Near Toxic Pit

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2003: 'The Auditor' Passes Away After 17 Years Near Toxic Pit

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Episode 63

November 2003

Montana Tech Professor Memorializes Berkeley Pit dog https://www.montanaliving.com/blogs/people/76403205-montana-tech-professor-memorializes-berkeley-pit-dog

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Montana Tech professor memorializes Berkeley Pit dog

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By Glenn Himebaugh
Butte is going to the dogs.
And Holly Peterson, a professor of environmental engineering at Montana Tech of the University of Montana couldn’t be happier.
“Dogs” isn’t really accurate; this is a one-dog story. The hero is a shaggy sheepdog named Auditor who survived 17 years in the toxic neighborhood of the Berkeley Pit before dying in November 2003. Few of the 40,000 people who visit the Pit each year to marvel at the poisonous waterhole — the relics of the world’s largest open-pit copper mine — were aware of Auditor living amid the 5,000-acre Superfund site. Auditor, you see, was a dreadlocked loner. Dumped at the Pit’s viewing stand as a puppy in 1986, he earned his name by periodically disappearing, sometimes for weeks, then surprising miners by reappearing. The workers at Montana Resources, the mine’s owner, adopted the dog and built a house for him. They even brought him food. Now, Peterson, 46, hopes it won’t be long before locals and tourists spot bronze sculptures and, eventually, temporary fiberglass figures of Auditor all over Butte.
“I want to honor the dog and miners who cared for him for almost two decades,” Peterson says. “I want to spread his special story through beautiful sculpture in Butte to be enjoyed by local children and adults. I also want to develop his character into a moniker for environmental health and education.” “And,” she adds, “I want to improve the economy of Butte by giving tourists a fun new reason to visit the city. People who come here now are mainly mining, architecture or history buffs. Auditor is certain to attract a completely new part of the population—compassionate animal lovers.” Auditor has even shaped Peterson’s research. In May 2003 she had compared hair samples of 15 Butte dogs with others from Bozeman. “It became very obvious that Butte dogs were chronically exposed to much higher levels of arsenic, lead and cadmium than Bozeman dogs,” she says. “It spurred my interest to learn more. I couldn’t help but wonder what a hair sample from Auditor would show.” With the blessings of Montana Resources former president Steve Walsh, she was taken to Auditor’s dog house by employee Ron Benton in July 2003 to collect the sample. “It was a warm summer afternoon,” she remembers, “and it felt like we were driving through the Iraqi desert or a Martian landscape to reach the hand-made dog house located in the middle of the mine site.” Auditor was resting when they arrived. She gave him a Milk-Bone and snipped some hair to send to the Montana Tech lab for testing. “The report indicated elevated levels of everything imaginable,” the professor says. To date, she has sampled more than 400 dogs with the help of her graduate students at UM/Butte. She hopes to use the data they’ve collected to develop a new method of using domestic pets as ways to evaluate health risks in the environment.
Auditor is also being remembered through several large sculptures around Butte. One sculpture is permanently installed in the Butte Plaza Mall at 3100 Harrison Avenue. The artist was Andrea
Wilkinson of Kingwood, Texas, and the piece was commissioned by Los Angeles residents Melinda and Tom Peters. The two-tiered granite base was designed, shaped and sandblasted by Dave Elmore of Missoula (owner
of Trevillion-Johnson Memorial Co. in Butte and Western Montana
Monument Services in Missoula). The third bronze sculpture of Auditor is at the Broadway Cafe at 300 E. Broadway in uptown Butte. Bryan Ross of Sagle, Idaho, was the sculptor. “There is no better way to tell a story than through art, and I love how each of the three artists depicted Auditor very differently,” Peterson says.
A 300-pound sculpture in honor of Auditor will be moved to the Berkeley Pit viewing stand after landscaping of that area is completed in 2006.
To help fund the sculptures, Peterson established The Auditor Foundation as a non-profit organization that sells an “autobiography” of Auditor and a variety of merchandise bearing his likeness. Items range from T-shirts and mouse pads to travel mugs and key chains, even soap. “This project was completely inspired by Auditor and my amazement that he could survive under the conditions he did,” she says. “It’s coming along slowly but surely.”
Peterson has lined up professional artists to make additional bronzes, but she asked Don Watts, a self-taught sculptor and Montana Resources employee in Butte, to do the initial one. He relied on his memory of the dog to create the sculpture. The second bronze is under construction and will be placed at a Butte shopping center.
Fundraising remains Peterson’s major challenge. “I have days when I imagine receiving a $100,000 check from some wealthy philanthropist or movie star who is touched by Auditor,” she says. On the Web: www.mtech.edu/ee/holly/

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2004: Yes Men Issue Formal Apology for Bhopal Disaster

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2004: Yes Men Issue Formal Apology for Bhopal Disaster

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Episode 64

December 3, 2004

Meet the Yes Men Who Hoax the World https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/dec/13/mondaymediasection5

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The two men behind the Bhopal interview stunt reveal how they did it - and why they now feel sorry for the BBC. Vincent Graff reports.

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2005: World's Oldest Cat, Creme Puff,  Passes at Age 38

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2005: World's Oldest Cat, Creme Puff,  Passes at Age 38

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Episode 31

August 6, 2005

How to Raise a 165-Year-Old Cat https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-raise-a-165-year-old-cat

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2007: Cargo Truck Fire on MacArthur Maze

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2007: Cargo Truck Fire on MacArthur Maze

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Episode 18

April 29, 2007

Rebuilding The Maze https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a60433142/macarthur-maze-reconstruction-cc-myers/

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The Race to Rebuild One of America’s Busiest Bridges

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After a crucial section of a California freeway collapsed, this formidable construction boss pulled off one of the fastest, riskiest, most high-stakes reconstructions in U.S. history.

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Episode 19

May 24, 2007

C.C. Myers delivers early and builds the maze in record time.

Rebuilding The Maze p2 https://youtu.be/-TKjwblp1XI?si=pcAFthBY_vVzV0ss

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2008: UW Professor Learns That Crows Don't Forget a Face

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2008: UW Professor Learns That Crows Don't Forget a Face

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Episode 69 (nice)

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2009: Mr. Methane Bombs on 'Britain's Got Talent'

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2009: Mr. Methane Bombs on 'Britain's Got Talent'

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Episode 65

May 9, 2009

The True Story of Roland the Farter, and How the Internet Killed Professional Flatulence https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/roland-the-farter-professional-flatulence

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2009: Lost Painting Discovered in 'Stuart Little'

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2009: Lost Painting Discovered in 'Stuart Little'

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Episode 36

Stuart Little leads art historian to long-lost Hungarian masterpiece https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/27/stuart-little-art-historian-long-lost-hungarian-masterpiece

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Stuart Little leads art historian to long-lost Hungarian masterpiece

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Researcher spots Sleeping Lady with Black Vase by Robert Bereny being used as a prop in Hollywood children’s movie

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2011: 'McGruff the Crime Dog' Voice Actor Busted for Drugs and Weapons

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2011: 'McGruff the Crime Dog' Voice Actor Busted for Drugs and Weapons

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Episode 20

McGruff The Crime Dog Has Been In Prison For A Decade https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/cltr/mcgruff-the-crime-dog-prison.html https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2015746/m1/

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McGruff The Crime Dog Has Been In Prison For A Decade

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Proving that irony isn’t dead, anti-crime PSA mascot McGruff the Crime Dog actor has been enjoying life behind bars for a wild reason.

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Episode 9

How Nikola Jokić Became The World’s Best Basketball Player https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/how-nikola-jokic-became-the-worlds-best-basketball-player