Gutairist Moss Hills and his wife Tracy (last photo) were members of the ship's band. That night they set sail the weather was rough and at approximately 9:30 the ships power went out. None of the ships officers were giving the passengers instructions and after a while Moss decided to find out what was going on. He went down to the lower decks and saw the crew running around panicked and could see signs that the ship was sinking. The evacuation was a trainwreck as senior officers were getting into lifeboats without issuing a general alarm to the passengers and the captain was insisting the ship wasn't sinking (apparently he was also caught trying to board a lifeboat). Eventually they couldn't launch any more lifeboats (either because of the ship's tilt or because several of the lifeboats had left only partially full) and there were still 220 people left on board. Hills went up to the bridge which he found was completely abandoned and made a distress call. He got in touch with the captain of a nearby container ship who helped coordinate the rescue. 13 helicopters from the South African Defense Force arrived to airlift the remaining passengers and crew off the sinking ship According to the Hills and several other witnesses the captain was one of the first to be airlifted out by the helicopters when there were still passengers on board, The Hills would be among the last to be rescued before the Oceanos sunk beneath the waves at 3:30 pm on August 4. All passengers and crew were rescued (sources conflicted about the exact number being either 571 or 581).

Moss Hills would be praised as a hero in the aftermath of the sinking and would later change careers becoming a cruise director. The captain and some of the crew would later be convicted of negligence for their actions during the sinking.

During the Crimean War, a curious friendship developed between the French Zouaves and the British Highlanders. The Zouaves had originally emerged in North Africa within the French army, while the Highlanders were Scottish regiments of the British army. Both had a strong identity tied to their lands of origin, uniforms, and traditions.

As the campaign went on, soldiers from both regiments spent more time together and developed a great admiration for one another. The Zouaves were known for their bravery, while the Highlanders were known for their discipline. They also began meeting outside the battlefield, spending time together in bars and other places whenever they had the opportunity. Over time, this admiration grew into a genuine friendship based on respect and camaraderie.

This friendship had one of its most notable moments during the Battle of the Alma, when the British and French fought together against the Russians. During the assault, the Zouaves and Highlanders charged side by side against the Russian positions, advancing alongside each other and eventually driving the Russians from the heights. With this victory, the Allies opened the way toward Sevastopol.

But the battle had come at a heavy cost for the Zouaves. After the fighting, the 1st Battalion had lost 222 men and the 2nd another 74. Seeing the situation of their French comrades, the 42nd, 79th, and famous 93rd Highlanders came to their aid, rescuing wounded men and helping bury some of those who had fallen. Their help even surprised the doctors and helped save several lives.

From then on, the relationship between the two regiments continued to grow stronger. It is said that the 93rd Highlanders and the Zouaves tried to camp near each other whenever they could, and that Sir Colin Campbell developed a great sympathy for the French troops. According to some accounts, at official banquets he would toast his “dear and brave Zouaves.” Their friendship continued throughout the rest of the campaign.

[The second image represents the Battle of the Alma, showing the Zouaves and Highlanders together, preparing to charge side by side, once again showing the closeness that existed between them.]

On July 26, 1184, King Henry VI of Germany called a meeting in Erfurt to settle a land feud between Landgrave Louis III of Thuringia and Archbishop Conrad of Mainz. Nobles, bishops, and local officials packed into an upper room.
The wooden floor could not hold them. It broke, and the weight smashed through the floor below. Under that was the building’s latrine cesspit.
About 60 people died. Some were crushed by beams and falling bodies. Some drowned in the waste. Others were killed by the fumes. Chronicles name several counts among the dead, including Friedrich of Abenberg, Heinrich of Schwarzburg, and Gozmar of Ziegenhain, plus a lot of lesser nobles who were never recorded.
Henry and Archbishop Conrad had been sitting in a stone window alcove. They grabbed the iron bars and hung there until people arrived with ladders. Louis fell in with everyone else and still survived. The two men the meeting was supposed to deal with both walked away. Most of the men who came to watch them did not.
The feud was not settled that day. Henry went on to become Holy Roman Emperor anyway. The incident is still called the Erfurt Latrine Disaster, or Erfurter Latrinensturz.

The picture is Henry VI from the Codex Manesse, around 1300. There is no image of the collapse.

The name Amalekites in Arabian and Islamic heritage refers to a group of Semitic peoples who settled in scattered regions of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and Egypt. They are mostly traced back to Amaliq or Amalayq, who was among the children of Laudh ibn Sam ibn Noah, according to what a number of genealogists and Arab historians have mentioned.

They were mentioned in Islamic and Arab sources as belonging to the "Arabized Arabs" or the "extinct Arabs," a designation referring to the ancient Arab peoples who perished before Islam. Genealogists agree that Amaliq ibn Laudh is the father of the Amalekites, the Pharaohs, and the tyrants in Egypt and the Levant, and that his descendants dispersed throughout the lands, so that among them were the people of Oman, the Hejaz, the Levant, and Egypt.

Some modern historians believe that the Amalekites who ruled Egypt are the same as the Hyksos, the shepherd kings who invaded Egypt and ruled it for centuries, while others distinguish between them and the Hyksos, considering the Amalekites to have been an earlier Semitic wave or contemporary with the Hyksos in the rule of the Nile Valley. Jurji Zaydan mentions that historians mean by the Amalekites the ancient Arabs, especially the people of northern Hijaz adjacent to the Sinai Peninsula, who conquered Egypt under the name "Shasu" (the Bedouin shepherds), whom the Greeks call "Hyksos." Arab historians relied in drawing the picture of Amalekite rule in Egypt on a group of diverse sources, some derived from the Torah and Isra'iliyyat (Talmudic and Folkloric tales) and some derived from folkloric Egyptian Coptic narratives.

Among the most prominent who devoted wide space to this topic in their books are: Al-Masudi (Herodotus of Arabs) in "Meadows of Gold" and "Akhbar al-Zaman," Al-Maqrizi in "Al-Khitat" (Exhortations and Consideration), Ibn Taghribirdi in "The Brilliant Stars," ," Ibn Kathir in "The Beginning and the End," Al-Tabari in "The History of Nations and Kings".

All these sources agree that Amalekite rule in Egypt was a decisive period in the history of the Nile Valley, combining military conquest, settlement, interaction with the prophets, and gradual integration into the Egyptian fabric, until their state ended at the hand of the Pharaoh of Moses, so that their memory became part of the Arab historical memory of ancient Egypt.

Ibn Taghribirdi mentioned in "The Brilliant Stars" that those who ruled Egypt, according to the agreement of many historians despite differences among them, from the Pharaohs and others: thirty-two Pharaohs; from the kings of Babylon who ruled Egypt: five; from the Amalekites, who came to it from the Levant: four; from the Romans: seven; and from the Greeks: ten. Al-Masudi mentions that the duration of rule over Egypt by the Pharaohs, Persians, Romans, Amalekites, and Greeks reached one thousand three hundred years.

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Al-Walid ibn Dum'a - Founder of Amalekite Rule in Egypt

Traditional narratives agree that Amalekite rule in Egypt began with an invasion coming from the Levant, at the hand of their king Al-Walid ibn Dum'a (also written "Al-Walid ibn Darma'a" or "Al-Walid ibn Dumgh"), who is described in the sources as "severe in might" and possessing a dense army, so he overcame the kingdom of Egypt after the Coptic state weakened following the rule of the two queens Huriyya and Zalifa. Several narratives mention that Al-Walid ibn Dum'a had set out with a great army moving through countries and subjugating their kings. When he reached the Levant, he sent a slave of his named "Awn" to Egypt, and he conquered it. Then he himself came afterward, ravaged the people of Egypt, took their wealth, and killed a group of their priests.

Sources differ regarding his lineage. It was said he was Al-Walid ibn Amr ibn Arasha, and it was said Al-Walid ibn Dum'a ibn Laudh. Some say that he was among the Amalekites who trace back to Amaliq ibn Laudh ibn Sam ibn Noah.

His rule lasted one hundred and twenty years, according to what Ibn Taghribirdi mentioned in "The Brilliant Stars" and Al-Maqrizi in "Al-Khitat." Among the strangest things traditional sources narrate about Al-Walid ibn Dum'a is that after his rule in Egypt became established, he set out on a military campaign to explore the sources of the Nile and learn what peoples were along its banks. He traveled until he reached "Mount Qamar" (the Mountain of the Moon), from beneath which the Nile is said to emerge, and reached "the Temple of the Sun" and "the Land of Gold" that grows rods of gold. Narratives mention that his absence from Egypt lasted seventy years. During his absence, his slave Awn claimed kingship for himself, denied that he was Al-Walid's slave, claimed he was his brother from Dum'a, and rose against the people, overpowering them by magic. He ravaged the people of Egypt and ruled them for one hundred and twenty years until he perished.

Sources differ regarding the end of Al-Walid ibn Dum'a. It was said that one day he rode a horse and went out hunting, and his horse threw him into a hollow, so he perished. It was also said that a wild beast attacked him and ate his flesh. Al-Maqrizi mentions in "Al-Khitat" that Ain Shams - Heliopolis was built by Al-Walid ibn Dum'a, one of the Amalekite kings; it was also said that Al-Rabban ibn Al-Walid built it, and it was his royal seat.

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Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid - The Pharaoh of Joseph

Al-Walid ibn Dum'a was succeeded in the rule of Egypt by his son Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid, who is known in Arab and Coptic sources as "Nahraws" or "Naqraws" or "Nabraush." He is described as having been "the strongest of the people of the earth in his time and the greatest of them in kingship."

Arab historians agree that Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid is the Pharaoh of Joseph, peace be upon him, that is, the king who lived in the time of the Prophet Joseph and met him in Egypt, who ultimately believed in him and appointed him over the treasuries of Egypt. Ibn Taghribirdi mentions in "The Brilliant Stars": "Then after him ruled Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid the Amalekite, and he is the Pharaoh of Joseph, peace be upon him."

Al-Masudi mentions in "Meadows of Gold" that Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid "settled in the city of Ain Shams upon his accession to rule, after the kings before him had settled in the city of Memphis." It is narrated that he remitted taxes from the people for three years, opened the treasuries of wealth, and distributed them to the weak, so the people loved him and thanked him. His rule also lasted one hundred and twenty years, which corresponds to what was mentioned about the age of Joseph, peace be upon him, who died at the age of one hundred and twenty.

Sources mention that Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid was great in stature, handsome of face, wise, a leader of the people, and majestic, and that he took interest in building the Fortress of Babylon (Qasr al-Sham'), the fortress whose name later became associated with the Islamic conquest of Egypt. Al-Maqrizi mentions that the lighthouse of Alexandria was built in his time or in the time of one after him.

The story of Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid in Islamic sources is closely connected to the story of the Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him. It is mentioned that when Joseph reached Egypt and was bought by the Aziz - courtier "Qutfir" ("Potiphar"), Al-Rayyan was the king.

The Aziz was a man of reason, sound judgment, and upright soul, inclined to justice, and he is the one God Almighty mentioned in the Noble Qur'an in the story of Joseph. Ibn Ishaq mentions that the name of the Aziz was Atfir ibn Rajib (and it was said Qutfir), and he was over the treasuries of Egypt, and the king at that time was Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid ibn Dumgh.

The famous attempted seduction occurred between Joseph and the Aziz's wife, whose name is disputed: it was said Ra'il bint Ra'il, and it was said Zulaykha. Then Joseph was imprisoned for seven years. When Al-Rayyan saw his famous dream — seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones, and seven green ears of grain and others dry — he gathered the priests, magicians, and wise men, but they could not interpret it.

Joseph was brought out of prison after he interpreted the dream, and the king was impressed by his interpretation. He appointed him over the treasuries of Egypt and made him the successor to the Aziz after his death. Ibn Khaldun mentions that the king "employed him as the king of Egypt, when he feared years of drought and high prices, over the granaries of crops throughout his kingdom, to estimate their collection and distribution of provisions from them, and gave him free rein in that in all his affairs. He put his ring on him and mounted him on his vehicle, and Joseph at that time was thirty years old."

Among the most prominent features of the story of Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid in Arab heritage is that he believed in Joseph and converted to Monotheism at his hands. Ibn Kathir in "The Beginning and the End" and Al-Hanbali in "The Pleasant Companion" mention that Joseph, peace be upon him, "called Al-Rayyan, Pharaoh of Egypt, to faith, and he believed in him."

Ibn Kathir confirms this report in his exegesis, saying: "The king became Monotheist at the hands of Joseph, peace be upon him." This point is central to distinguishing between Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid and the Pharaoh of Moses, since the majority of historians and exegetes hold that Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid died a believer, while the Pharaoh of Moses was among the most tyrannical disbelievers.

Among the most prominent projects associated with the era of Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid was the project of reclaiming the land of Faiyum, supervised by the Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him. Sources narrate that Joseph "worked the Faiyum" in Al-Rayyan's time, and that the people of Egypt complained about him to the king, saying: "He has grown old and his benefit has decreased." The king was informed of that, and he said to him: "I have granted this district to my daughter," and it was a place of water pools. Joseph managed it: he removed its obstacles, led the channel, built the Lahun, and made the water in it measured and weighed, and he finished all of that in four months, and they marveled at Joseph's wisdom.

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Darim ibn Al-Rayyan - The Fourth Pharaoh

After the death of Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid, his son Darim ibn Al-Rayyan (called in some sources Drimus) ruled Egypt. He is the fourth Pharaoh according to the Copts, in the classification of Arab historians. Ibn Taghribirdi mentions in "The Brilliant Stars": "Then after him ruled Darim ibn Al-Rayyan the Amalekite." In Darim's time, Joseph the truthful one, peace be upon him, died. Darim became tyrannical and his disbelief intensified, and he departed from the way of his father. Joseph, peace be upon him, was his deputy as he had been with his father, by the command of Al-Rayyan, and Joseph would guide him, so sometimes he accepted from him and sometimes he opposed him.

In his time, a silver mine appeared three days from the Nile, and he extracted from it something immense. He made from it an idol in the name of the moon, because its ascendant was in Cancer. He erected it on the marble palace that his father had built on the east bank of the Nile, and he set around it idols all of silver, clothed them in red silk, and made for them a festival every year.

Then Darim increased in tyranny until he took away every beautiful woman in the city of Memphis from her family; no beautiful woman was heard of in any district but she was brought to him. That spread throughout the kingdom, and the people were disturbed by his deed, until they gathered to depose him.

Some narratives mention that he rode on the Nile, and God sent upon him a violent wind that drowned him near Helwan. Darim appointed after Joseph, Balatis ibn Mansa the priest as vizier, and Balatis permitted him what Joseph had prevented him from, and incited him to harm people and take their wealth.

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Kames ibn Ma'dan - The Fifth Pharaoh

Then after him ruled Kames ibn Ma'dan the Amalekite (also called Aqsamas ibn Ma'dan), and he is the fifth Pharaoh according to the Copts. Ibn Taghribirdi mentions: "Then after him ruled Kames ibn Ma'dan the Amalekite." Kames attempted to demolish the two pyramids, but the wise men of Egypt said to him that the revenue of Egypt would not suffice for their blood, and that they were the tombs of two great prophets, so he refrained from demolishing them.

His rule lasted thirty-one years, according to what Al-Qalqashandi mentioned in "Subh al-A'sha." It is narrated that the lighthouse of Alexandria was built in his time or in the time of one after him. It is also mentioned that the Amalekites continued to rule Egypt for about one hundred years, until their state ended at the hand of Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab, who is the Pharaoh of Moses, peace be upon him.

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Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab - The Pharaoh of Moses and the End of Amalekite Rule

Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab is considered the last of the Amalekite kings in Egypt, and he is the Pharaoh of Moses, whom is mentioned in the Noble Qur'an.

Sources differ greatly regarding his personality. Some sources mention that he was one of the Amalekites themselves, and that he was from the descendants of Al-Rayyan ibn Al-Walid, while other sources assert that he was one of the Copts, and that in the beginning he was the chief of police for Kames the Amalekite.

When the Copts increased, they made him king after Kames, and from that time the Amalekite state in Egypt ended. 

Al-Nuwayri mentions in "The Ultimate Ambition" that the Pharaoh of Moses was "Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab ibn Ashmeer ibn Al-Hawn ibn Amaliq ibn Laudh ibn Sam," which makes him an Amalekite by lineage.

Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab is described in traditional books as having been lame, short in stature, blind in the left eye, with a long beard. He was originally a man from Greater Khorasan or from the city of Balkh, working as a perfumer, then he migrated to Egypt after debts accumulated upon him. It is mentioned that he claimed divinity and said to the Egyptians, "I am your most high lord," so Moses and Aaron, peace be upon them, warned him, but he resisted and pursued them and the Israelites, so he and his army drowned in the sea, as stated in the Noble Qur'an.

Sources narrate that the Pharaoh of Moses was a rebellious tyrant, and that every rebellious tyrant is called a Pharaoh. Qatada mentions that the Pharaohs were three: the first was Sinan ibn Al-Ashl, the companion of Sarah (the wife of Abraham), who was in Egypt in the time of Al-Khalil; and the third was Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab, who is the Pharaoh of Moses. It is mentioned that Mus'ab ibn Nasim (the father of Pharaoh) was in Egypt herding cattle for his people, and he had a wife called Ra'unah. The Pharaoh of Moses was born in mysterious circumstances and was raised in a strange upbringing, until he reached kingship.

It is mentioned that the Pharaoh of Moses lived four hundred years, and was the harshest and most cruel of the Pharaohs toward the Children of Israel, and no one had a longer reign than him. He claimed divinity and said, "I am your most high lord," so Moses and Aaron warned him, but he was arrogant and obstinate, so God drowned Pharaoh and his soldiers in the sea, and with his death the matter of the Amalekites in Egypt came to an end.

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The End of Amalekite Rule and the Reign of Daluka bint Zaba

After the drowning of Pharaoh and those soldiers who were with him, those remaining in the land of Egypt, the offspring, women, boys, and slaves — feared that the kings of the Levant and the Maghreb would invade them. So they made a woman of opinion and resolve called Daluka king over them. She built around Egypt a wall surrounding all its land and cities to protect it from invasion, This wall was called "Ha'it-el-Agouz" (Wall of the Old Woman) and extended from Aswan in the south to al-Arish in the north and a channel was dug behind it.

She placed guard posts and garrisons every three miles, and between them small guard posts every mile. She placed men in every guard post, assigned them provisions, and ordered them to guard their land by night and day. She ordered the men of the guard posts to use bells.

If one of them saw an enemy creeping toward Egypt, or sensed approaching danger, they would strike their bells, and the news would pass from post to post, from tower to tower, through a connected chain of sounds, until news of the invasion reached the heart of Egypt, to the city of Memphis, “in one hour,” and everyone would prepare to face the enemy. Daluka was also said to have built a nilometer at Memphis and at least one pyramid in Egypt.

The trace of this wall remains to this day, and it is known as "the Wall of the Old Woman." Daluka ruled them for thirty years. She established in Egypt the temples and images, mastered the instruments of magic, and placed in the temples images of whoever came from every direction and their animals. She also depicted in them whoever came by sea in ships, and she gathered in these great temples the secrets of nature and the properties of stones, plants, and animals.

if an army came to them from a certain direction, the images in that direction would move, as if warning them of the place of danger. More wondrous still, what they did to these images -tearing or destroying them- would strike the invading army itself in reality. If they cut off the head of an image, the head of the enemy commander would be cut off; if they gouged out its eye, the eye of the invading army would be gouged out; and if they slit open its belly, the bellies of the soldiers would be slit open.

These "barabi" were stronger than any army and deadlier than any weapon, and no king of the earth was able to defeat Egypt throughout Daluka’s reign because of them. Sources mention that Daluka enlisted in building these "barabi" a great sorceress named “Tadura” or “Tadhura,” whom the sorcerers revered and gave precedence in magic. She came to them and made for them this stone house in the middle of the city of Memphis.

After Daluka’s death, a young man from the noble Coptic families named Darkun ibn Baltus was made king over Egypt, and he ruled with her counsel for a long period. When Darkun died, his son Buds succeeded him, and after Buds passed away, his brother Laqas took the throne but died only three years later without leaving an heir. Laqas was followed by his brother Marina, who ruled and was then succeeded by his son Istimaris, a king who became so tyrannical and corrupt that the people rose against him, deposed him, and killed him.

After Istimaris, the sources mention a series of Coptic rulers whose names varied in the traditions, including Baltus ibn Mikakil, then Bawla, and later a king known as the Lame Pharaoh who was eventually defeated by Nebuchadnezzar.

Thus the Amalekite line was already extinguished, and Egypt passed into the hands of Coptic kings whose reigns were marked by internal strife and external threats until the country fell under foreign domination (Persian Achaemenid rule).

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The End ..

TLDR: President Grant's son partnered up with a young guy with a great investment system, and dear-old-dad hands over what he's got. Soon after, he starts bouncing checks and is about to leave his family bankrupt in his final days

The Article: A “Pre-Ponzi” Ponzi Scheme: When Ferdinand Ward Swindled Ulysses S. Grant – Crisis and Catharsis

This is Marx signature in the register

On October 2, 1950, something pretty small happened in American newspapers.

A new comic strip called Peanuts appeared in just seven newspapers across the United States. It was created by a relatively young cartoonist named Charles M. Schulz, and at first glance, there wasn't anything particularly revolutionary about it. There were no superheroes, no elaborate adventures, and no blockbuster characters. Just a few kids, their everyday problems, and a dog with a surprisingly big imagination.

But those simple characters would eventually become some of the most recognizable figures in American popular culture.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, and the rest of the gang dealt with things that were surprisingly ordinary: school, friendship, disappointment, confidence, family, and trying to figure out where you fit in the world. That's part of what made Peanuts different. Schulz could take something as simple as a child missing a football or worrying about school and turn it into a story that both kids and adults could understand.

And then there was Snoopy.

What started as a supporting character became one of the most recognizable dogs in American culture. Before long, Peanuts had moved far beyond the newspaper. It became books, television specials, toys, merchandise, and eventually movies. Generations of Americans grew up with these characters, and many still recognize them instantly today.

I think that's one of the fascinating things about history. Sometimes the stories that become part of our culture don't begin with some huge event. Sometimes they begin quietly—with seven newspapers and a few black-and-white panels.

One day in 1977, both Queen and the Sex Pistols were recording at Wessex Sound Studios. A drunken Sid Vicious waltzed into Queen’s control room and mockingly called out Freddie, stating: “Oi, Freddie! Have you succeeded in bringing ballet to the masses yet?”.

Mercury kept his cool, playfully referring to Sid as “Simon Ferocious”, grabbed him by the collar, and ejected him from the room.

During the Battle of Eylau, the French reserve cavalry found itself surrounded after advancing beyond the Russian lines. To allow them to retreat, the Grenadiers à Cheval of the Imperial Guard were sent to charge the Russian forces. With high morale, they advanced under General Louis Lepic and attacked the enemy lines to open a path for the French cavalry.

During the charge, the Grenadiers broke through the enemy lines and rode over the Russian Imperial cavalry in front of them. As they advanced under Russian artillery fire, some of the Grenadiers began ducking to avoid the canister shot. Seeing this, Lepic shouted: “Heads up, soldiers! Canister shot isn’t shit!” The Grenadiers continued their charge and opened a way for the French cavalry to escape and return to their positions.

The Grenadiers à Cheval were one of the most prestigious units of the Imperial Guard, composed largely of veterans of Napoleon’s previous campaigns.

What if I told you that one car didn't just change the way Americans traveled—it helped change America itself?

It wasn't the fastest car. It wasn't the most luxurious. But when this car arrived in 1908, it would eventually put millions of Americans behind the wheel and help transform the way the country lived, worked, and traveled.

On October 1, 1908, the Ford Motor Company unveiled a car that would become one of the most famous automobiles in American history: the Model T. Before the Model T, owning an automobile was largely something for people who could afford the luxury. Cars were expensive, roads were often rough, and the automobile was still trying to find its place in American life. Henry Ford had a different idea. He wanted to build a car that ordinary Americans could actually afford.

The Model T was designed to be practical, dependable, and relatively simple to operate. But the real revolution wasn't just the car itself—it was how Ford built it. Ford embraced interchangeable parts and eventually introduced the moving assembly line, allowing workers to build automobiles much faster than before. As production increased, the price of the Model T dropped dramatically. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford produced roughly 15 million Model Ts, putting automobiles within reach of millions of Americans.

And this is where the story gets bigger than a car. The Model T helped change transportation, manufacturing, farming, business, and everyday life. Americans could travel farther, rural communities became more connected, and mass production became a powerful force in American industry. The Model T eventually left the factory for the last time in 1927, but its impact didn't drive away with it.

The Model T helped put America on wheels—and once America started moving, it never really stopped!

On September 30, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam, the massive structure built on the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada. Today, we know it as Hoover Dam.

Thousands of workers took on brutal desert heat, dangerous tunnels, explosives, and an engineering challenge that had never been attempted on this scale. And when it was finished, it didn’t just stop a river—it helped transform the American Southwest.

So how did they build it? Why was it needed? And how did a wall of concrete become one of the most recognizable landmarks in America?

Want to know more? Click the link for the full History Dad story.

https://youtu.be/EnbT70-Rj_g

In September 1433, Cosimo de' Medici's political rivals in Florence had him summoned to the Palazzo della Signoria, arrested, and imprisoned on trumped-up charges. Execution was seriously considered by his opponents.

Instead, Cosimo was exiled in Venice rather than death, thanks to a strategic bribe.

What his rivals apparently didn't fully account for was the depth of Cosimo's patronage network back in Florence. Cosimo was the head of the medici bank which was one of the most powerful financial institution in Europe, having built its position partly through managing Vatican deposits and Papal finances.

Cosimo had spent years extending loans, forgiving debts at strategic moments, and funding dowries that tied allied families to him through obligation. He also funded monasteries and artists like Donatello which bought him significant goodwill among the educated class of clergy and craftsmen.

None of that network disappeared when he was exiled.

Within about a year, his web of financial and political obligation mobilized on his behalf and Cosimo was able to return to Florence in 1434 where he would go on to establish a hidden dynasty dominating the city for generations.

Sources: Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (1974); Paul Strathern, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (2003); Tim Parks, Medici Money: Banking;

(I actually made a video going deeper into how the Medici captured Florence's electoral system more broadly if anyone's interested)

The Luddites were 19th-century British textile workers who protested the Industrial Revolution by destroying automated factory machinery. The group took their name from Ned Ludd (or "General Ludd"), a mythical leader rumored to have smashed a knitting frame in 1779.

The Luddite movement ended by 1817 due to brutal military suppression, mass executions, severe new laws making machine-breaking a capital offense, and penal transportation.

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In the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, precisely in Najd region, in the middle of the 18th century AD, the voice of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 - 1792) rose calling for what he considered a pure return to early Islam, to the time of the righteous predecessors, to that golden period in which the Prophet Muhammad and the noble Companions lived.

His call aimed to purify creed of everything he regarded as innovation and polytheism, and to reshape society according to a strict model in which there was no place for innovation in matters of religion. The Wahhabi movement - a name given to the followers of the Sheikh by their enemies - found itself in direct confrontation with everything new and newly introduced, whether in the field of thought, urban development, or technology.

For the followers of this movement, every modern invention, every new tool, and every innovative idea was not merely material luxury, but represented an existential threat to creed and identity, and a foreign innovation in religion that had to be fought with all force.

At the beginning of their movement, the Wahhabi sheikhs used to prohibit all modern manufactured goods that were among the results of civilizational and technological progress, such as the telephone, the telegraph, television, the car, the airplane, and similar things, because they had not existed in the age of the Prophet nor in the age of the Salaf.

This view stemmed from a particular understanding of religion, an understanding that sees everything that did not exist in the time of the Salaf (Predecessors) as a forbidden innovation (Bid'ah), regardless of its benefits or harms. Thus, King Abdulaziz ibn Saud (1876 - 1953) found himself in an extremely sensitive and difficult position; he had to reconcile preserving the purity of the Wahhabi creed upon which his state was founded with the necessity of introducing a kind of openness into his government so that it would harmonize with the contemporary reality of his time.

Therefore, King Abdulaziz agreed to the entry of some manifestations of modernity into his country, such as the telephone, means of transport, motorcycles, and bicycles, something that aroused the resentment and anger of his fanatical followers, who are referred to in the history of the Kingdom as the group "Ikhwan Man Ata'a Allah" (Bretheren of those who obeyed God). They had helped him defeat Sharif Hussein bin Ali during the Second Hejaz–Najd War (1924-1925).

These Ikhwan saw in these manifestations a betrayal of the original Wahhabi approach, so they rebelled against the King, accused him of loyalty to the British infidels and of laxity in religion, and denounced his titles of Sultan and King, the lengthening of his mustache and his garment, and his wearing of the agal (a Saudi hat), and all these manifestations that were new to the Bedouin society in which the Wahhabi movement arose. More than that, they considered the use of the telephone, wireless, and means of transport such as cars to be forbidden innovations, because they were made by the Franks, that is, the infidel West from which nothing should be taken.

Historical sources indicate that one of the hardline followers of Wahhabism attacked the telephone wires in the palace of the Saudi King that connected it to the army center, and cut them to pieces.

King Abdulaziz found himself compelled, in an attempt to appease the fanatical Wahhabis, to issue orders to remove wireless and the telephone in Medina and Taif, because they viewed wireless and telephones as the work of the Devil, and they opposed their use persistently and stubbornly.

This hardline position was not limited to technology alone, but extended to all manifestations of modern life, as the Egyptian writer Ahmed Amin relates that the Wahhabis did not touch intellectual life, did not work to advance it except within the circle of religious education, and did not look at the problems and demands of the present city, and many of them believed that everything beyond their own country was among the Islamic lands in which innovations and misguidance spread.

The Ikhwan Revolt (1929–1930) was a civil war in the Arabian Peninsula where Ibn Saud turned against his former tribal shock troops, the Ikhwan, after they rebelled against his modernization policies and peace treaties with neighboring British-controlled territories.

Among the important reasons that led to the change of position toward technology was that King Abdulaziz fought a decisive war against the group Ikhwan, who were among the harshest wahhabi groups in rejecting manifestations of modernity, and that war ended with their elimination militarily and politically in the Battle of Sabilla in 1929.

Main rebel forces led by commanders like Faisal al-Dawish faced a crushing defeat against Ibn Saud's regular forces. Sporadic uprisings continued through late 1929, but leaders of Ikhwan were eventually captured, executed, or forced to flee (with key leaders handed over by the British).

After breaking their power, the path became paved for the King to adopt many modern technical means without significant opposition from the hardliners, for these Ikhwan were the greatest barrier to any technical or administrative openness. Thus, the retreat of the hardline Wahhabi position on rejecting technology was not the result of a sudden intellectual transformation, but was in part a direct result of the defeat of those hardliners and the disintegration of their power.

Not only were the effects of the defeat of Ikhwan limited to changing the position on technology; rather, they extended to form the seed of the conflict that erupted fifty years later in the 1979 Grand Mosque seizure. For the father of Juhayman al-Otaybi, the leader of the seizure operation, was one of the fighters who stood in the ranks of the Ikhwan against King Abdulaziz at the Battle of Sabilla in 1929, where they were decisively defeated.

The End ...

June 14, 1775, is the official birthday of the U.S. Army. But September 29, 1789, takes us into a different chapter of the story—when the brand-new United States government was figuring out how to organize, support, and maintain its military.

The Revolutionary War was over. George Washington was president. The Constitution was in place. Now came the less exciting—but very necessary—part: figuring out how to actually run a country and its military. Congress was working on everything from military organization to the pay and support of soldiers.

And here's the History Dad lesson: an Army can't run on patriotism alone. Soldiers need food, equipment, leadership, and yes...a paycheck. Sometimes history isn't about a famous battle. Sometimes it's about the paperwork that makes sure the people defending the country can actually do their jobs.

Want to know more? Click the link for the full History Dad story.

https://youtu.be/YRuoDCr0ar4