The Morse Code on This Day in History

 

On this day in 1794 Samuel Morse, the inventor of the Morse code was born. Morse Code is now often called the Victorian Internet. 

Did you know that Morse Code has also been used as an alternative form of communication for people with disabilities or whom have their abilities to communicate impaired by stroke, heart attack, or paralysis. There have been several cases where individuals have been able to use their eyelids to communicate in Morse Code by using a series of long and quick blinks to represent the dots and dashes.

The most famous signal in Morse Code is the SOS distress signal. "The inception of this signal emerged in the early 20th century, during a period when burgeoning global communication necessitated a standardized, unmistakable cry for aid.

Contrary to popular belief and the annals of maritime folklore, the abbreviation 'SOS' was never intended as an acronym for phrases such as 'Save Our Souls' or 'Save Our Ship.' Instead, its selection was far more pragmatic.

The chief merit of the SOS sequence lies in its distinctiveness—the simplicity and rhythm of its three short signals, followed by three long and then three short again, rendered it unmistakably clear in even the most adverse conditions.

At the 1906 Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference, the SOS signal was formally introduced as an international distress call, superseding previous, more convoluted signals. It was hoped that such a distinct pattern would minimize any risk of misinterpretation across the vast expanses of the world's oceans and tumultuous airwaves." Source

Also, there is a Morse Code translator online. https://morsecode.world/international/translator.html

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The Loch Ness Monster on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail on this day in 1934.

From Wikipedia:

The "surgeon's photograph" is reportedly the first photo of the creature's head and neck. Supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, it was published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934. Wilson's refusal to have his name associated with it led to it being known as the "surgeon's photograph". According to Wilson, he was looking at the loch when he saw the monster, grabbed his camera and snapped four photos. Only two exposures came out clearly; the first reportedly shows a small head and back, and the second shows a similar head in a diving position. The first photo became well known, and the second attracted little publicity because of its blurriness.

For 60 years, the photo was considered evidence of the monster's existence, although skeptics dismissed it as driftwood, an elephant, an otter or a bird. The photo's scale was controversial; it is often shown cropped (making the creature seem large and the ripples like waves), while the uncropped shot shows the other end of the loch and the monster in the centre. The ripples in the photo were found to fit the size and pattern of small ripples, rather than large waves photographed up close. Analysis of the original image fostered further doubt. In 1993, the makers of the Discovery Communications documentary Loch Ness Discovered analyzed the uncropped image and found a white object visible in every version of the photo (implying that it was on the negative). It was believed to be the cause of the ripples, as if the object was being towed, although the possibility of a blemish on the negative could not be ruled out. An analysis of the full photograph indicated that the object was small, about 2 to 3 foot long.

Since 1994, most agree that the photo was an elaborate hoax. It had been described as fake in a 7 December 1975 Sunday Telegraph article that fell into obscurity. Details of how the photo was taken were published in the 1999 book, Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed, which contains a facsimile of the 1975 Sunday Telegraph article. The creature was reportedly a toy submarine built by Christian Spurling, the son-in-law of Marmaduke Wetherell. Spurling admitted the photograph was a hoax in January 1991. Wetherell had been publicly ridiculed by his employer, the Daily Mail, after he found "Nessie footprints" that turned out to be a hoax. To get revenge on the Mail, Wetherell perpetrated his hoax with co-conspirators Spurling (sculpture specialist), Ian Wetherell (his son, who bought the material for the fake), and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent). The toy submarine was bought from F. W. Woolworth, and its head and neck were made from wood putty. After testing it in a local pond the group went to Loch Ness, where Ian Wetherell took the photos near the Altsaigh Tea House. When they heard a water bailiff approaching, Duke Wetherell sank the model with his foot and it is "presumably still somewhere in Loch Ness". Chambers gave the photographic plates to Wilson, a friend of his who enjoyed "a good practical joke". Wilson brought the plates to Ogston's, an Inverness chemist, and gave them to George Morrison for development. He sold the first photo to the Daily Mail, who then announced that the monster had been photographed.

Little is known of the second photo; it is often ignored by researchers, who believe its quality too poor and its differences from the first photo too great to warrant analysis. It shows a head similar to the first photo, with a more turbulent wave pattern, and possibly taken at a different time and location in the loch. Some believe it to be an earlier, cruder attempt at a hoax, and others (including Roy Mackal and Maurice Burton) consider it a picture of a diving bird or otter that Wilson mistook for the monster. According to Morrison, when the plates were developed, Wilson was uninterested in the second photo; he allowed Morrison to keep the negative, and the photo was rediscovered years later. When asked about the second photo by the Ness Information Service Newsletter, Spurling "... was vague, thought it might have been a piece of wood they were trying out as a monster, but [was] not sure."

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French Writer Anatole France on this Day in History

 

This day in history: French poet, journalist, and novelist Anatole France was born on this day in 1844. His greatest work is a book called The Revolt of the Angels (La Revolte des Anges, 1914). Loosely based on the Christian understanding of the War in Heaven, it tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Bored because Bishop d'Esparvieu is sinless, Arcade begins reading the bishop's books on theology and becomes an atheist. He moves to Paris, meets a woman, falls in love, and loses his virginity causing his wings to fall off, joins the revolutionary movement of fallen angels, and meets the Devil, who realizes that if he overthrew God, he would become just like God. 

"God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot."

Arcade realizes that replacing God with another is meaningless unless "in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth." "Ialdabaoth", according to France, is God's secret name and means "the child who wanders".

France's political leanings — he was a socialist — heavily influenced Revolt, leading to the theme that successful revolutions always create greater tyrannies than those they overthrow. The bitterness created by the revolt is reflected in the "biting and harsh" descriptions. Joe Loewenberg has described the novel as an "imaginative narrative ... the ripest expression of Anatole France's urbane genius, a masterpiece of criticism at once ironic and eirenic".

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The Titanic on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg on this day in 1912. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.

The Titanic sinking was eerily foreshadowed in an 1898 novel by Morgan Robertson, entitled The Wreck of the Titan. In the novel, a large, luxurious and "unsinkable" ocean liner called the Titan strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The ship is carrying too few lifeboats, so many passengers drown or freeze in the ocean. The book is noted for its many similarities to the Titanic, including the name, the maiden voyage in April, the iceberg collision, the nautical position of the sinking (400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland) and the lack of lifeboats.

Journalist W. T. Stead died on the Titanic. Stead had often claimed that he would die from either lynching or drowning. He had published two pieces that gained greater significance in light of his fate on the Titanic. On 22 March 1886, he published an article titled "How the Mail Steamer went down in Mid Atlantic by a Survivor", wherein a steamer collides with another ship, resulting in a high loss of life due to an insufficient ratio of lifeboats to passengers. Stead had added: "This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats". In 1892, Stead published a story titled "From the Old World to the New", in which a vessel, the Majestic, rescues survivors of another ship that collided with an iceberg. 

See also: The 1898 Book that Predicted the Sinking of the Titanic

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Highwayman Dick Turpin on This Day in History

This day in history: Dick Turpin was hanged on this day in 1739. Richard Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.

Turpin's involvement in the crime with which he is most closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom Turpin may have accidentally shot and killed. Turpin fled from the scene and shortly afterwards killed a man who attempted his capture.

Later that year, he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the alias of John Palmer. While he was staying at an inn, local magistrates became suspicious of "Palmer" and made enquiries as to how he funded his lifestyle. Suspected of being a horse thief, "Palmer" was imprisoned in York Castle, to be tried at the next assizes. Turpin's true identity was revealed by a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law from his prison cell, which fell into the hands of the authorities. On 22 March 1739, Turpin was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Knavesmire on 7 April 1739.

Turpin was hanged using the short drop method of hanging. The short drop method of hanging meant that those executed were killed by slow strangulation, and so Turpin was left hanging until late afternoon, before being cut down and taken to a tavern in Castlegate. The next morning, Turpin's body was buried in the graveyard of St George's Church, Fishergate, opposite what is now the Roman Catholic St George's Church. On the Tuesday following the burial, the corpse was reportedly stolen by body-snatchers. The theft of cadavers for medical research was a common enough occurrence, and was possibly tolerated by the authorities in York. The practice was however unpopular with the general public, and the body-snatchers, together with Turpin's corpse, were soon apprehended by a mob. The body was recovered and reburied, supposedly this time with quicklime. Turpin's body is purported to lie in St George's graveyard, although some doubt persists as to the grave's authenticity.

Turpin became the subject of legend after his execution, romanticised as dashing and heroic in English ballads and popular theatre of the 18th and 19th centuries and in film and television of the 20th century.

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