Dynamic Directory - April 2, 2025

Herb Block, who would ultimately become a famous political cartoonist at the Washington Post, created this illustration in 1929.

One of Australia's most popular writers - before he died in 1938 - was given a very long name at birth: Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis.

Young women were involved with circus life, including working with large animals like elephants.

Five brothers, whose last name was Ringling, formed an American circus during the late nineteenth century.

Zachary Taylor, a war hero during the US/Mexican war, became America's 12th President.

A view of Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau lived in a small cabin between 1845-1847.

Beyond rationing gas for their cars, people helped in the war effort by removing their metal car bumpers and replacing them with wooden ones.

"Out of the blue," as survivors recall, the Battle of Britain begins on September 7, 1940. Hundreds of German bombers fly to England from their bases in occupied Northern France.

Henry Essex Edgeworth - an Irish cleric who was living in France - became Louis XVIs spiritual advisor during his final days. Although he (and others) feared for his safety, Edgeworth stayed with the doomed King until he was beheaded.

Image of a painting, called Louis XVI Writing His Will at the Temple, by Danloux Henri-Pierre.

Killing Louis XVI took very little time on the morning of January 21, 1793.

Jacques Necker (1732 - 1804) was trusted by the French people and, for a time, served as Louis XVI's Minister of Finance.

Although they lived in the same building - the Temple prison in Paris - the French royal family was not allowed to be together unless the revolutionary government allowed it.

When he arrived at the place of his execution, Louis XVI spoke to the gathered crowd.

Robespierre dies, by guillotine, on July 28, 1794. During the French Revolution, he was known by his supporters as "The Incorruptible," but it was he who masterminded the "Reign of Terror."

A disaster occurs, for captured Africans, when a water shortage aboard a slave ship results in the deliberate killing of people (whom the crew and ship owners call "cargo")..

Group of Starving African Men and Boys Removed from a Captured Dhow.

Determined that Marie Antoinette would be condemned to death, French-Revolution leaders put her through a trial on October 14, 1793.