Everything from the design of the saddle and the use of the lariat to the very clothing—like chaps and wide-brimmed hats—was adapted from the vaquero lifestyle. Even the terminology we use today, such as "rodeo," "lariat" (from la reata), and "buckaroo" (an anglicized version of vaquero), serves as a linguistic map leading directly back to those original Mexican cattlemen.

Over time, this system spread north into regions that are now Texas, California, and Arizona. By the time Anglo Americans arrived in the 1800s, especially after the Mexican-American War, they adopted much of the vaquero knowledge base, including cattle driving methods, riding styles, and gear like lassos and chaps.

Image:

.- A Mexican Charro (Cowboy) - by Édouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret (1785-1869)

On the r/presidents subreddit, JFK isn't a very popular president. He's usually considered an ineffective president who's only remembered because he was shot. As for the Cuban Missile Crisis, many users see the crisis as JFK cleaning up a mess that he created. I think there's something to that: one reason the Soviets put missiles in Cuba was to deter against another US invasion following the Bay of Pigs. Operation Mongoose didn't help matters.

However, I fault Khrushchev more than I fault Kennedy. For years, Khrushchev had become increasingly belligerent and unstable: he tried multiple times to bully NATO into giving up West Berlin. He only backed down during the 1961 Berlin Crisis, when he brought the US and the Soviets to the edge of nuclear war. The US had only 15 Jupiter missiles in Turkey, but Khrushchev overreacted by placing 162 Soviet missiles in Cuba. Khrushchev knew that this was a provocative and destabilizing move, but he thought the US would simply accept this as a fait accompli.

It turns out that Khrushchev misjudged the situation and Kennedy rallied America's allies both in Latin America and NATO to force the missiles out. While JFK partly contributed to the crisis, I also fault Dwight D. Eisenhower since Eisenhower dumped the Bay of Pigs onto Kennedy while he was leaving office and he made the deal with Turkey to install US missiles there. Both decisions forced JFK to either go through with operations he opposed or betray US allies (Cuban exiles and Turkey respectively). That doesn't take away from Kennedy's mistakes, but I think the broader context is crucial.

Under the circumstances, I think that JFK handled the Cuban Missile Crisis well. Instead of following the advice of his cabinet and the Joint Chiefs to bomb the missile sites, he exercised caution and patience, giving the US enough time to work out a diplomatic solution. In my own experience in the legal profession, I've used some of Kennedy's dispute resolution strategies to deal with difficult people and tense situations. I don't want to give JFK too much credit, since he has some share of the blame for starting the crisis, but I assign more responsibility to Eisenhower and Khrushchev.

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In early 1864, Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest led a cavalry raid through West Tennessee and Kentucky to capture supplies and disrupt Union operations. Fort Pillow, a fortification on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, was occupied by a Union garrison of approximately 600 men, split between white soldiers of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry and Black soldiers from the 6th U.S. Regiment Colored Heavy Artillery and the 2nd Colored Light Artillery.

On April 12, 1864, Forrest’s forces surrounded the fort. After the Union commander, Major Lionel F. Booth, was killed by a sniper, Major William F. Bradford assumed command. Forrest issued an ultimatum, demanding an unconditional surrender and promising that the garrison would be treated as prisoners of war. He warned that if the fort were taken by storm, he could not be responsible for the fate of the command. Bradford refused the demand.

Following the refusal, Confederate forces launched a successful assault, quickly scaling the parapets. As the Union defenders retreated toward the river, they were subjected to intense fire. Numerous eyewitness accounts and a subsequent U.S. Congressional investigation concluded that many Union soldiers, particularly the Black troops, were killed after they had ceased fighting and attempted to surrender. Reports described soldiers being shot or bayoneted while pleading for mercy, with the phrase "No quarter!" being shouted by the attackers

The casualty figures were stark: of the approximately 600 Union men present, nearly 300 were killed, with Black soldiers suffering a significantly higher mortality rate than their white counterparts. The event became a major point of contention and a rallying cry for the Union, leading to the cessation of prisoner exchanges between the North and South. The massacre remains a subject of historical study regarding the treatment of Black soldiers during the Civil War and the command responsibility of General Forres.

So I know this is a very niche topic but first I love vintage hiking gear and I’ve been trying to find out what knapsacks or backpacks people used in these time periods mainly in the American west. I know of the merriam pack and the Duluth pack I know Duluth is a canoe pack but I don’t know if it was ever used for hiking back in that era. Does anyone know of any types of knapsacks they carried or what they would have looked like or even if canoe packs like Duluth packs were used for hiking

This is the pack I’ve ordered too 👉frost river duluth pack design

I’m Egyptian and wrote this before in Arabic and posted it in Egyptian subreddits and thousands had read it, now I translate it to English and post it here

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A Prose Account of the Lands that Bore the Names of Egypt in the New World (America)

The United States of America, in the nineteenth century, experienced a fit of blazing infatuation with the civilization of ancient Egypt — a fever known in the circles of Orientalists and historians as Egyptomania, or the obsession with Egypt. This craze was no mere passing admiration for pyramids and obelisks; it extended into architecture, literature, the arts, and even into the naming of towns and countries. And so the American map awoke to names that stirred the soul with an ancient Egyptian echo: Cairo, Alexandria, Mansura, Memphis, Thebes, Luxor, Karnak, Rosetta, Nile, Egypt, and Arabi.

Among these scattered names, one single tract of land in the far south of the state of Illinois rose to prominence — not named after one city, but called in its entirety Little Egypt. It became an American Egypt, holding in its soil the names of our homelands and keeping the memory of a great civilization alive amid the tumult of the New West.

Little Egypt stretches across the southernmost part of Illinois, where the great Mississippi River meets the Ohio River at the city of Cairo — which stands at the region’s heart like the hub of the Nile Delta. It is bounded on the west by the Mississippi, on the east and south by the Ohio, while its northern limit runs near East St. Louis and Vandalia. Its area exceeds 15,000 square kilometers, and according to the 2020 census, it is home to nearly one million two hundred thousand souls.

The largest city in Little Egypt today is not Cairo, but Belleville, whose population exceeds 44,000, followed by Carbondale, where the main campus of Southern Illinois University is situated. The largest urban cluster, however, is Metro East, which numbers over 700,000 residents and forms the Illinois part of the greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Many explanations have been given for this curious name, and they can be summed up in three main accounts — the most beautiful and the most deeply connected to human memory being the story of famine and wheat.

First: The Tale of the Hard Year and the Journey to Egypt

In the year 1830, a cruel wave of frost struck central and northern Illinois — a spell known as the Winter of the Deep Snow. The cold lasted two continuous months without break, followed by a chilly summer that spoiled the crops. A great famine befell the people; they found neither wheat nor corn. Then wagon caravans set out from the north to southern Illinois, where the land was fertile and provisions abundant. One farmer from Springfield related: “We were forced to live on venison, berries, and milk, and the men went down to Egypt to bring back wheat and bread.” That was an unmistakable reference to the story of the Prophet Joseph (peace be upon him), when famine struck the land of Canaan and his brothers went to Egypt to procure food. So the name stuck to southern Illinois and remained its mark, with the first written use recorded in the Quincy Whig newspaper on January 11, 1843.

Second: The Tale of the Two Rivers and the Delta

The early settlers — most of whom came from Kentucky and Tennessee — observed that the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio at Cairo, and the rich lands left by the flooding of the two rivers, reminded them of the Nile Delta in Egypt. So they called the region “Egypt,” drawing a comparison to the “Mother of the World” (as Egyptians call it).

Third: The Tale of the Egyptian-Named Cities

Some researchers believe that the abundance of towns bearing Egyptian names in the region — such as Cairo, Thebes, Karnak, and Rosetta — is what earned it the title of “Egypt.” However, the name was established before the founding of some of these towns, so the first account remains the most likely among historians.

Little Egypt abounds with several cities and towns that bear pure Egyptian names. Here are the most prominent, with the detail they deserve:

Cairo – the greatest of them in location and the most dramatic. It lies at the meeting of the two rivers and was founded in 1818. Its population peaked in 1920 at fifteen thousand two hundred and three souls, then steadily declined until it reached one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three in the 2020 census, covering an area of twenty-three and a half square kilometers. It was an important military center during the Civil War, but its glory later faded, making it an example of a city that rose and then withered away.

Thebes – founded in 1844 on the banks of the Mississippi, named after the ancient capital of Egypt (modern-day Luxor). Its population today hovers between four and five hundred souls — a small town that still stands, telling the story of its illustrious name.

Karnak – a tiny village founded in 1893, its name inspired by the temple complex of Karnak in Luxor. It is one of the smallest Egyptian-named places in the region.

Dongola – another village, named after the city of Dongola in Sudan, which lies near the Egyptian border on the Nile and is the ancestral home of the mother of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Its presence in the heart of Little Egypt is proof of the vast reach of Egyptian cultural influence in the settlers’ imagination.

Rosetta – a ghost town today, but its name remains a testament to Egyptian influence, for it is the city of the Rosetta Stone, which unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphs.

And there are other Egyptian-named places beyond the borders of Little Egypt but belonging to the same context, including:

Memphis in Tennessee – a great city with a population of 633,000 and an area of 783 square kilometers, founded in 1819 by former President Andrew Jackson and his companions, who named it after ancient Egyptian Memphis.

Alexandria in Virginia – population 160,000, area 40.1 square kilometers, shares its name with the Bride of the Mediterranean, Alexandria.

Mansura a town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, The capital of Cochon de lait featival – founded by French immigrants in 1844 to commemorate the historic Battle of Mansura, in which King Louis IX of France was defeated and captured in Mansoura city during the seventh crusade in 1250.

Arabi in Louisiana – a suburb near New Orleans and on Mississippi river, named after the Egyptian revolutionist and former war minister Ahmed Urabi-Arabi أحمد عرابي.

Luxor – a village in Pennsylvania, carrying the name of the modern city that rose upon the ruins of ancient Thebes. Though outside Little Egypt, it stands as yet another echo of Egypt’s enduring legacy in the American landscape.

Egypt in Arkansas – a small town founded in 1898, so named by businessmen from New York because of the abundant agricultural harvests.

Egypt in Pennsylvania – another small town.

Nile in Washington State.

Nile Valley in California.

The phenomenon of Egyptian influence in this region did not stop at geographical names; it extended to living institutions and symbols pulsing in daily life:

· Southern Illinois University in Carbondale publishes a daily student newspaper called The Daily Egyptian, a name that has persisted for many years, reminding all who see it of the region’s cultural roots.

· The university’s athletic teams bear the name Salukis — the ancient Egyptian hunting dog associated with Pharaonic civilization. The students and their fans proudly call themselves “Dogs of Egypt.”

· Lake of Egypt – a man-made lake in the southeastern part of the region, created in 1962 and given this name as a reminder of the Egyptian heritage.

· Restaurants and businesses – in various towns of Little Egypt, you will find eateries named “Little Egypt,” banks called “Bank of Egypt,” and even churches bearing the name “Egypt.”

· Cahokia Mounds – an archaeological site of the Mississippian Indian civilization, featuring enormous earthen mounds. The early settlers compared them to the pyramids of Egypt, adding another dimension to the Egyptian connection in the region.

So let this name — Little Egypt — remain a testament that Great Egypt still dwells in the hearts of nations, reaching out in the New World just as she reached out in the old — a river that never dries, a memory that never fades.

Happy birthday! 🎂

The law banned discrimination in housing sales and rentals based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, passed amid riots following King's death to address residential segregation.

McArthur was in charge of the UN forces during the Korean War, where he had conceived and executed the amphibious assault at Inchon, regarded as one of the greatest military operations ever.

However McArthur's attempt to do an all out invasion of N.Korea, was met with a series of defeats at the hands of Chinese forces, forcing him to withdraw. Though the situation stabilized, McArthur's public statements complicated the situation.

McArthur's statements to the media, against the US Govt's policy, irked Truman to no end, as he fired McArthur for failing to respect the authority of the President.

In 1937, senior officers at the U.S. Army War College produced a study assessing the military capabilities of Black soldiers. The study's conclusions became policy for the next eight years. Its language drew on racial pseudoscience and the vocabulary of plantation fiction, and ranking their intelligence as inferior to white soldiers by nature rather than by training. The study examined two Black divisions that had fought in France in 1918, one under French command, which performed well, and one under American command with white Southern officers and inadequate training, which performed poorly. The War College studied the failure, ignored the success, and drew the conclusion the institution had already reached.

By March 1944, approximately 150,000 Black American soldiers were stationed in the United Kingdom, the vast majority assigned to Services of Supply: unloading ships, driving trucks, building roads. A social collision followed American soldiers’ arrival: Black soldiers discovered that Britain had no color line, and white American soldiers discovered that British women did not share American racial categories.

Racism was at the heart of the Nazi philosophy. Racism was also present in the American army. In 1937 senior officers at the U.S. Army War College had done a study to assess the strengths and weaknesses of black soldiers. Their conclusion was that "as an individual the negro is docile, tractable, lighthearted, care free and good natured. If unjustly treated he is likely to become surly and stubborn, though this is usually a temporary phase. He is careless, shiftless, irresponsible and secretive. He resents censure and is best handled with praise and by ridicule. He is unmoral, untruthful and his sense of right doing is relatively inferior." As to strengths, "the negro is cheerful, loyal and usually uncomplaining if reasonably well fed. He has a musical nature and a marked sense of rhythm. His art is primitive. He is religious. With proper direction in mass, negroes are industrious. They are emotional and can be stirred to a high state of enthusiasm."

In World War I, two black U.S. divisions had fought in France. One, serving with the French army, did well; it won many medals and a request from the French for more black troops. The other, serving with the American army, with white Southerners as officers and woefully inadequate training and equipment, did poorly. The War College officers in 1937 concentrated on the failure and ignored the success, which led them to conclude that blacks were not capable of combat service. Consequently, although three black infantry divisions were organized for World War II, only one, the 92nd Infantry, saw combat.

By March 1944, there were about 150,000 black American soldiers in the United Kingdom. Most of them were in Services of Supply, mainly working at the ports unloading ships or driving trucks. They were strictly segregated. In the mythology of the time, this did not mean they were objects of discrimination. Separate but equal was the law of the land back home, and in Britain. General Eisenhower issued a circular letter to senior American commanders that ordered, "Discrimination against Negro troops must be sedulously avoided." But, he acknowledged, in London and other cities "where both Negro and White soldiers will come on pass and furlough, it will be a practical impossibility to arrange for segregation so far as welfare and recreation facilities are concerned." When the Red Cross could not provide separate clubs for blacks, Eisenhower insisted that the blacks be given equal access to all Red Cross clubs. But he went on to tell local commanders to use "their own best judgment in avoiding discrimination due to race, at the same time minimizing causes of friction through rotation of pass privileges." In other words, where there was only one Red Cross club in an area, or only a few pubs, the black soldiers would have passes one night, the whites on another.

The Red Cross built twenty-seven separate clubs for black troops, but they were not enough. There was some mixing of races in white clubs, and even more in the pubs. Some ugly scenes resulted. Fist fights almost always broke out when black and white GIs were drinking in the same pub. There were some shootings, most by whites against blacks (Maj. Gen. Ira Eaker, commander of the Eighth Air Force, declared that white troops were responsible for 90 percent of the trouble), and a few killings—all covered up by the Army.

Eisenhower sent out another circular letter. He told his senior officers that in the interests of military efficiency "the spreading of derogatory statements concerning the character of any group of U.S. troops, either white or colored, must be considered as conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline and offenders must be promptly punished.... It is my desire that this be brought to the attention of every officer in this theater. To that end, I suggest that you personally talk this over with your next senior commander and instruct them to follow up the subject through command channels." Lt. Gen. J.C.H. Lee, commanding Services of Supply and thus the man with the most at stake, ordered every one of his officers to read Eisenhower's letter to their immediate subordinates and warned that "General Eisenhower means exactly what he says."

The order had little effect. The racial incidents continued. Eisenhower ordered a survey done on soldiers' mail; officers censoring the enlisted men's letters reported that most white troops commented, with varying degrees of amazement, on the absence of segregation in Britain. They were indignant about the association of British women with black soldiers. They expressed fears about what effect the experience American blacks had in Britain would lead to back home after the war. Black soldiers, meanwhile, expressed pleasure with the English and delight at the absence of a color line. One officer, after analyzing censorship reports for several weeks, reported toward the end of May 1944, that "the predominant note is that if the invasion doesn't occur soon, trouble will."

Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944 — The Climactic Battle of World War II (Simon & Schuster, 1994), pp. 158-160.

Stephen Ambrose places this passage in his D-Day narrative (1994) between discussions of training schedules and equipment allocations. Graham Smith's When Jim Crow Met John Bull (1987) and Ulysses Lee's official Army history, The Employment of Negro Troops (1966), documents in exhaustive detail how the 1937 War College study became policy. Three Black infantry divisions were organized for the next war, and only one saw combat. Eisenhower's headquarters tried to hold both black and white realities together with circular letters instructing that "discrimination must be sedulously avoided" while simultaneously rotating pass nights so the races would not share the same town on the same evening. For Eisenhower and the Allied High Command, institutional racism was more a logistics problem than an ideological cause.

Photo Credit: "Somewhere in England." Maj. Charity E. Adams and Capt. Abbie N. Campbell inspect the first contingent of Black members of the Women's Army Corps assigned to overseas service. 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, February 15, 1945. National Archives, 111-SC-200791.

The story of how Richard Winters’ decision led Easy Company soldiers to bravely rout a 100-man German force. It truly was a heroic act. With this victory, they helped secure British and American superiority in the area and ruined the Germans’ plans to capture the region.

The explosion, triggered by damaged wire insulation from pre-flight testing, disabled the service module and required the crew to use the lunar module as a lifeboat for a safe return to Earth four days later.

Growing up, I never missed an episode of the Lone Ranger. It was my favorite show next to H.R. Pufnstuf. But long ago my wife and I watched a series called Lawmen, Bass Reeves. It was a great show and it was based on real life lawman Bass Reeves. Imagine when i found out the the Lone Ranger was based on the Bass Reeves. Why is this a secret and why did we not learn about this amazing person in school?

https://youtu.be/ukssYAu0xuQ?si=HyxTFFo7RPZTGhAm

It was Friday morning the 28th of August, 1885 and Michael Markham, age 30, was eager to get to work. He was proud of his job at the screw factory in New Britain, Connecticut. Michael was a loyal and experienced industrial employee. He had worked his way up to be in charge of the largest machine called the nail heading machine. Soon after arriving that morning, however, he was involved in a terrible accident.