History Shorts
The Pharaoh is DEAD!
On this day in 1452 BC, Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt
died. Aside from having one of the
coolest Pharaoh names ever (“my friends call me Thutmose, but you can call me
the Divine One”), Thutmose was also one of the best Pharaohs ever. Here’s what the old boy looked like:
Thutmose ruled Egypt for an astonishing fifty four
years. Although the first twenty-two of
those years, he had to share the throne with his (we can only presume) evil
step-mother, Hatshepsut. After she
finally died, Thutmose really came into his own. Widely regarded as one of the great military
geniuses of history, Thutmose conducted sixteen wars over a twenty-year period,
capturing 350 cities, and expanding Egypt to its greatest boundaries; from
southern Syria to the Euphrates to Nubia.
When he died, almost 3,500 years ago, he was buried in the Valley of
Kings with all due pomp and a massive tomb.
The giant obelisk that marked it was hauled off in the 300’s by
Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Great to what was then Constaninople. Only the top third survives today in what is
today Instanbul:
The greatest man of his age, Thutmose is now the specialty
of antiquarians and obscure military historians. But the (later-named) “Napoleon of Eqypt” can
still stare us in the face after three thousand years, which is more than you
can say for the actual Napoleon.
When you see the white smoke, don’t look for this name………
On this day in 417, Zosimus was elected the Bishop of
Rome, or the 41st Pope (he was consecrated on March 18th)
– whoever the cardinals pick in the upcoming week will be the 267th
Pope. He reigned for just a year, and is
now styled Pope St. Zosimus (the early Popes were all styled as Saints), but I
wouldn’t look for the next pope to take the name Zosimus II…………
It started in Pennsylvania…..
On this day in 1850, the Female Medical College of
Pennsylvania was founded in Philadelphia.
It was the first college in the world dedicated to training women in
medicine and awarding them the MD. In
1867, it changed its name to the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. In the early to mid 1900s, it underwent
several mergers and was eventually subsumed into the Drexel College of
Medicine. Here’s a portrait of students
from the later 1890s:
Fortunately we don’t need separate facilities to
educate women in medicine today. But the
pioneers of the Female Medical College deserve our gratitude – they proved they
had what it took.
It’s a Wunnerful Birthday……..
And finally, Happy 110th Birthday to
Lawrence Welk. The younger generation
may only know him vaguely as spoof material from Saturday Night Live, but from
1957 to 1982, The Lawrence Welk Show
dispensed his “champagne music” to an entirely different (and much older
generation.) That Welk’s easy-listening
music remained popular through the 1960s and 70s is a testament to the hold he
had on his generation (it didn’t hurt that, along with Ed Sullivan, he was one
of the most easily-imitated TV hosts.)
A personal anecdote - in my maternal grandparents’
house, the sole black and white TV was the exclusive province of my
grandfather, who favored westerns like The Rifleman and Gunsmoke – except for
once a week, when no matter what was on – western, championship game or international
crisis, my grandmother took control of the TV to watch the Lawrence Welk show.
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