Savvy Cafe Answers » History

Who Was Madame La Force?

Jennifer — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:07:32 +0000

Confederate National Flag since Mar 4 1865

The American Civil War threw up a number of spies of both genders; and Madame La Force was a spy helping the Confederates.

On June 28, 1861 the Confederate vessel St Nicholas sailed out of Baltimore, Maryland carrying on board a somewhat strange passenger. The passenger, a foreign lady named Madame La Force kept the passengers and crew entertained by outrageously flirting with them. Her antics diverted their attention from other men who were embarking, bringing aboard what looked like military trunks and toolboxes.

Immediately the ship set sail, Madame La Force retired to her cabin from which she did not emerge till the vessel docked at Point Lookout on the southern tip of Maryland. The Madame emerged on deck and resumed her disgraceful flirting while some more men came aboard. Once more when the ship resumed its journey, she retired below decks. She reappeared shortly after the vessel sailed but this time had thrown off what was a disguise. She now emerged as a full-fledged, fully armed Confederate Colonel, Col Richard Thomas. He immediately took charge of the men who had come aboard as passengers. From the military trunks and boxes they unloaded weapons with which they rounded up the passengers and crew and placed them below decks under guard. The captain of the vessel was ordered to sail to Coan River where they were to pick up a Lt Lewis and his men. One of the men in the new contingent was a Confederate commander, George N. Hollins.

The St Nicholas in the normal course was scheduled to stop alongside the union warship Pawnee to collect mail and deliver supplies. When it was learned that the Pawnee had been diverted to Washington, Hollins order the captain to set course for Fredericksburg, Virginia. Enroute, Hollins and his men captured three union ships loaded with ice, coal and coffee all in short supply with Confederacy troops. Part of Hollins men sailed the captive ships to Fredericksburg while the Pawnee and her cargo was towed by the St Nicholas.

10 days later at Fredericksburg, Colonel Richard Thomas was captured and incarcerated, kept in solitary for two years. In a prisoner exchange he was released after which he fled to France never to return. Col. Thomas was a ‘Zouave’, one of the foreign soldiers who fought in the American Civil War.

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It Was Grand When it Left Belfast! What Exactly Sank the Titanic?

Jennifer — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:30:23 +0000

RMS Titanic before departing Southampton, England.

They said she was unsinkable, they said that she was the greatest ship to have ever sailed. Yet, she never even completed her maiden voyage, floundering in the icy waters of the Atlantic, four hundred miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland for the White Star Line, she was the largest passenger ship in the world and as the famous Belfast wits maintain, she was grand when she left Belfast. And grand she was, she had it all – a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Turkish bath, two libraries and a squash court. The first class compartments were works of art and did not come cheap, the most expensive retailing at eighty thousand dollars in today’s money! And that was only for one way! A whole lot of wedge! She first set sail from Southampton, England on 10 April 1912 bound for New York City. Five nights later she was to meet her Waterloo with the tragic loss of 1,517 lives. Theories abound as to the cause of the sinking, investigations into the disaster still take place; from which countless analyses have being derived.

At 13:45 on the day of the sinking, a message was received by one of the Marconi wireless operators aboard the Titanic from the steamer Amerika, warning of large icebergs in the Titanic’s path. However, the Marconi operators were employed solely to transmit messages to and from passengers and the vital warning ridiculously never made it to the bridge. Indeed, another ship, the Mesaba sent similar warnings later that evening but these too failed to be passed on to the captain. At 23:40, the ship struck an iceberg and seawater began flooding into the forward compartments, by the time the watertight doors were shut, five of the forward compartments were already filling with water, one too many, the ship could stay afloat with four flooded but not with five. The five water-filled compartments weighed down the ship so that the tops of the forward watertight bulkheads fell below the ship’s waterline, allowing water to begin pouring into the additional compartments. It was inevitable, the unthinkable was going to occur, the unsinkable Titanic was sinking.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net
http://www.visitscotlandtours.com

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In what year did the Vietnam War end?

Sirena Van Schaik — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:00:07 +0000

When I first learned about the Vietnam War, I was always surprised with how long it lasted and the fact that it had only ended a year and a half before my birth. For some reason, I always believed it was a war that didn’t go on during the time of any of my siblings but sadly that wasn’t the case.

Now, even though I have shared this little insight into my childhood, I should mention the real reason why you are reading this blog post. The Vietnam War ended in 1975 and to be more exact, the last American Soldiers were removed from Saigon at 8:35am on April 30, 1975. The war had ended and the American force was no longer present in the country.

Throughout the war, which spanned from 1959 to 1975, over 58,000 people were killed and over 300,000 were injured in the American Forces alone. The total for Cambodia and the Lao is between 1.5 to 2 million casualties and the Vietnamese saw between 4 to 5 million casualties.

For more information on the Vietnam war, I would strongly recommend these two sites; VietnamWar.com and The Vietnam War.

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What Kind of Dog was Laika?

Sirena Van Schaik — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:18:14 +0000

If you are looking for a specific breed for the dog Laika, you won’t find one. For those of you who are aware of the dog, you’ll know that she was the first living creature to be sent into space aboard the Russian spacecraft Sputnik 2. The momentous flight was launched November 3, 1957 with Laika only surviving for a few hours in space, although this time span is debated and many claim she lived for several days.

Laika is actually a Russian word for “dog” and it generally refers to any breed that is similar to the husky. Laika, the dog, was believed to be a mongrel that may have been a cross between a husky and possibly a terrier breed, although any number of Nordic breeds could have contributed to the dog’s lineage.

Lakia was originally named Kudryavka and she had many nicknames over the course of her training. Although Laika died during the flight, her remains burning up in the atmosphere on April 14, 1958, the memory of that sweet little dog ignited a debate over the treatment of animals in the race for science.

Today, Lakia is remember in many places including literature and songs and the little monument found in Russia of a little dog perched atop a rocket.

Photo Credit: http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Sputnik/Sputnik2.php

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What was a person’s soul called in Egypt?

Sirena Van Schaik — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:35:30 +0000

When I was first out of high school, I became enthralled with the world of Ancient Egypt, or rather, I became enthralled with their language. This urged me to purchase and read the entire Book of the Dead and somewhere along the way, I quickly lost my interest in it. This isn’t to say that I didn’t find it interesting but I probably shouldn’t have read that specific book at so early a stage.

Fast forward several years and I have the delight of having a son that aspires to be an archaeologist and specifically wants to work in either an Ancient Mayan or Ancient Egyptian site. This led to the renewal of my interest in Ancient Egypt so I was very happy to have the opportunity to answer this question for you.

To get down to business, Ancient Egyptians did not have a universal word for soul as a whole. In their culture, they believed that the soul consisted of several different parts, or more specifically of 5 parts.

All of these represented some part of the person or the person’s soul. These parts are:

The “Ka”: Most people are aware of this word but for those who aren’t, the “Ka” is basically the life force of the person. It was believed that the “Ka” was formed at birth but continued to live on after death. It was the force that could restore life to the dead body and was the ultimate reason for food offerings being left in the tombs.
The “Ba”: This may be what we equate as the soul since it was the part of the soul that made the journey back to its body on a nightly basis. If the “Ba” did not reunite with the “Ka”, then the body could not survive.
The “Akh”: The “Akh” was considered to be the spirit of the person. It was believed that this part of the soul could influence the world in both good and bad ways.
The “Ren”: This is the person’s name, which was believed to be a living part of a person.
The “Shewt”: Like a person’s name, a person’s shadow was also believed to be a living part of a person. Both the “Ren” and “Shewt” were believed to live on after the person had died.

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What did the Haida make their paints out of?

Sirena Van Schaik — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:35:03 +0000

Growing up in British Columbia, I always had an interest in Haida art and that spark was nurtured during a school visit to the UBC Museum where I saw many different examples of Haida art that was absolutely breathtaking. For me, that art represented what it meant to be from the Northwest coast and there was so much beauty in each carving and work of art that I looked at.

But that isn’t what the question is about so I should get down to the answer. Haida used many different materials to create their paint and all of them were from nature. Generally, the Haida mixed a naturally occurring pigment with a binder. This was a substance, like chewed salmon eggs, that gave the pigment a paint like quality. Here are a few naturally occurring pigments that gave the chewed salmon eggs its color.

Black: Bone that has been burned to charcoal or magnetite, which is an iron ore.
Blue/Green: Celadonate or Glauconite. This was also known as “green earth,” which is very rare.
Red: comes from an iron ore called hematite.

For more information on Haida Art, visit The Respect to Bill Reid Pole Project

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What was Lady Bird Johnson’s maiden name?

Sirena Van Schaik — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:39:19 +0000

Before I answer the question, I would first like to point out who Lady Bird Johnson was. Although I could write a full report on Lady Bird Johnson, the short version is that she was the First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Her husband was President Lyndon Johnson.

Despite her claim as the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson accomplished many other things in her life. Her views on the beautification of national cities and on the conservation of the natural resources found in the United States made her a lifelong advocate. As the First Lady, she created the modern structure for the office of First Lady and later in life she founded the National Wildflower Research Center.

She was born in Karnack, Texas on December 22, 1912 and died July 11, 2007 at the age of 94.

Her maiden name was Taylor and her full name was Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson.

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Where did the Holocaust take place?

Cindy — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:38:42 +0000

The horror that was the holocaust ended in 1945, but left more than six million Jews dead in its wake. The events that make up the Holocaust took place all over Europe. Concentration camps could be found in Germany, Austria, Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Italy and many other Nazi occupied countries. Some were labor camps while others existed for no other reason than to murder those who were brought there.

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Where was Albert Einstein born?

Cindy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:15:47 +0000

Albert Einstein was the most notable physicist of the 20th century. Born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879, he attended schools in Germany and Switzerland. He renounced his German citizenship in 1933, and moved to the United States. He accepted a professorship at Princeton University and obtained his U.S. citizenship in 1940. He received numerous awards for his work including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey on April 18, 1955.

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Where was Thomas Edison born?

Cindy — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:19:19 +0000

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He was born in the home designed by his father, Samuel. The family sold the house in 1854, but after Edison’s death members of his family purchased the home with the intention of turning it into a museum. Today, the Edison Birthplace Museum houses examples of many of his early inventions. Many know that he invented the telephone, voice recorder and the motion picture camera. He also invented paraffin paper, nickel plating, the alkaline battery. and an electric vote recorder. In all his patents total 1,093.

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