#OnThisDay, 24 Feb 1968, Jocelyn Bell Burnell - along with her male supervisor and three other men - published a paper confirming the discovery of pulsars. She had built the array, picked up the signal and argued it was not an anomaly. Hewish received the Nobel prize for it in 1974: Bell Burnell did not.
In 2018 Bell Burnell received a £3m prize for her work. She's using it to set up a foundation to improve the diversity in STEM.
In 1943, U.S. forces in Britain expected to export racial segregation. When white American Military Police (MPs) insisted a local pub segregate, the owner said he would. When MPs returned next day, they were met with “Blacks Only” signs & British barmaids telling white soldiers to wait their turn when they thiught they would be served before black soldiers. This set the stage for the epic Battle of Bamber Bridge.
#OnThisDay, 22 Feb 1943, Sophie Scholl is sentenced to death and immediately executed, alongside her brother and a friend, for distributing anti-Nazi literature at her university in Munich, Germany.
Her cellmate said her last words to her were “how can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause... It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go.”
Largely forgotten until now, between 1933 and 1945 hundreds and hundreds of Jewish women and men performed individual acts of resistance in Nazi Germany.
Jews of all ages destroyed Nazi symbols, protested in public, disobeyed Nazi laws and defended themselves against insults and physical attacks.
Pictured: Lizi Rosenfeld, a Jewish woman, sits on a park bench bearing a sign that reads, ‘Only for Aryans,’ in August 1938 in Vienna ⬇️
102 years ago, on June 15, 1921, Bessie Coleman achieved a significant milestone as the FIRST Black woman in history to earn a pilot's license, 2 years before Amelia Earhart. With great courage and determination, “Brave Bessie,” as she would later be called, pursued her own path, striving always to fulfill her mother's aspiration for her children to “amount to something.”
Onesimus, a Boston enslaved man, saved hundreds of people from the horrors of smallpox in 1721. His contributions to science reverberate to this day b/c his knowledge led to what became the 1st vaccine-related study in America. Onesimus’s story illustrates the degree to which reputable men of science depended on the testimony & experience of Africans in dealing with a dreaded disease.
Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, has roots in a tradition established by Black-Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. On May 1, 1865, the formerly enslaved, with profound gratitude for Union soldiers who fought and died for their emancipation, began commemorating that sacrifice by decorating Union graves. This remembrance and gratitude eventually gained support from communities across America.
In WW2, the movement of millions of American troops to Britain, known as the “friendly invasion,” brought to light stark differences concerning racial segregation. Many Britons struggled to understand or accept the institutionalized discrimination that Black soldiers faced in White America, leading to tensions between the two allied nations on the matter of civil rights.
On June 2, 1863, 160 years ago today, Harriet Tubman commanded 300 Black soldiers in the audacious Raid on Combahee Ferry. With the Union Army backing , The General, as she was called, liberated 800 people, destroyed supplies, and struck a blow against the Confederacy. She became the FIRST woman in U.S. history to plan and execute an armed expedition, inspiring joy and freedom among over 800 enslaved people.
Because of his willingness to play for segregated audiences, throughout much of his life, Louis Armstrong was called a sellout and an Uncle Tom by many Black Americans, But, in 1957, Satchmo blew up-—blasting Eisenhower to bits for not condemning treatment of Black American students in the South. His passionate words made world headlines, alienated many white fans, and divided Black America.
In 1920, Mamie Smith became the FIRST Black American to record a Blues song. "Crazy Blues” ushered in a new era of "race records.” Previously, white singers copied Black vocal styles in blues recordings, while Black entertainers like Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, & Bessie Smith were confined to the "Chitlin Circuit." Mamie Smith’s success paved the way for black blues & jazz musicians to thrive.
“For the horrors of the American Negro’s life,” wrote James Baldwin in 1962, “there has been almost no language.” The history is clear. America gave Black Americans nothing. What freedom we have was earned through blood, toil, grit, perseverance, & courage. After the deadliest insurrection in American history, Black-New Yorkers rebuilt their lives, shaped their destinies & contributed to the ongoing freedom struggle.
A significant number of white Americans opposed fighting in a civil war that would grant freedom to Black Americans. Their concern was former slaves, whom they considered inferior, would compete for jobs at lower wages. Consequently, in July of 1863, a white mob, furious with conscription, targeted Black New Yorkers in an attempt to eradicate them from the landscape. The Union was not as united as it is often portrayed.
Leaders of the U.S.House of Representatives & the head of the United States Postal Service today unveiled the new stamp honoring late civil rights leader, Rep. John R. Lewis. The stamp design features a 2013 photograph of the Georgia Democrat taken by Marco Grob for Time magazine.
"Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
British Caribbean slavery, cornerstone of the British empire, was characterized by extreme & brutal exploitation. It yielded substantial wealth for a privileged few and the British government, but inflicted immense suffering on the majority of enslaved individuals, making them the most overworked & harshly treated people in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. This history had enduring consequences.
In 1961, a mob of armed KKK attacked the Monroe NC neighborhood of NAACP leader, Robert F. Williams. But they messed with the wrong ones that day. Williams & his followers engaged in an intense confronration that sent the Klan bolting. Contrary to the prevailing narrative that they were hapless victims of violence, Black Americans regularly handled business protecting themselves & their families from KKK & other racist mobs.
Today is the 159th anniversary of Ulysses Grant's defeat of the US secessionist slavery movement's paramilitary arm. Please celebrate accordingly. #History#CivilWar#Histodons
While figures like Martin Luther King Jr. & Rosa Parks are well-known, there were countless local leaders who galvanized their communities. People like Fannie Lou Hamer (MS), Ella Baker (VA), and Amelia Boynton (Selma AL), who emphasized the importance of grassroots organizing, were pivotal to the success of the Civil Rights Movement in America.
Image: Amelia Boynton knocked unconscious during Bloody Sunday.
#OnThisDay, 4 Oct 1936, women join the Battle of Cable Street, in London's East End, protesting against a fascist march through the area. Of the 79 people arrested, eight are women, including Blanche Edwards (pictured).
As a poet, author, and lecturer, Baltimore, Maryland–born Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was a household name in the 19th century. Not only was she the first Black American woman to publish a short story, but she was also an influential abolitionist, suffragist, and reformer who co-founded the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs.
#OnThisDay, 7 Jan 1939, French physicist Marguerite Perey discovers element 87, which she later names francium. It was the last element to be discovered naturally.
Perey was a student of Marie Curie, and was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize but never received it.
Here is a small printed "s" waiting to become an illuminated initial in a print from 1503. The small "s" indicates: please include a colored big "S" after the print run. The reason for this: early printed books in Europe, around 1500, kept this illuminating tradition from the manuscript age - the book makers imitated the layout rules of scribal handwriting for decades.
The images show an unfinished and finished initial of the same page from a different copy. #bookhistory for the win. #histodons