1915 – Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight boxing champion, loses his title to ‘great white hope’ Jess Willard.
On This Day
1429 – During the Hundred Years’ War with England, French heroine Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges the town of La Charité.
1572 – Death of John Know, Scottish protestant reformer, whose ‘Confession of Faith’ was adopted by the Scottish church in 1560.
1835 – The Texas Provincial Government establishes a horse-mounted police force, the Texas Rangers. Now known as the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
1922 – Nine Irish Republican Army members are executed by an Irish Free State firing squad, including famed English author Erskine Childers, arrested for illegally carrying a revolver. Childers will shake hands with each member of the firing squad.
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Quick Shot Videos
A short, sharp hit of history in video format. Acclaimed Irish playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde was the toast of London society in the 1890s until things came decidedly unstuck through an association with a young British aristocrat, Lord Alfred Douglas, known as ‘Bosie’.
The source for this HistoryWow video is: Oscar and Bosie - A Fatal Passion by Trevor Fisher; General Historical Texts.
More Quick Shot Videos on HistoryWow's YouTube Channel: 
Who Am I?
- I was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, United Kingdom, in 1830.
- Originally a bookseller, I emigrated to California in 1852. I became a professional photographer and later chief photographer for the US government, focusing on action sequence shots.
- In 1880 I devised the zoopraxiscope to show my picture sequences, a basic form of cinematography. My “Zoopraxographical Hall” in Chicago (1893) was considered by some the first motion picture theatre.
- I also carried out an extensive survey of the movements of animals, publishing Animal Locomotion in 1887.
- I retired in 1900, after which I returned to the UK. I died in 1904.
Last week’s answer:
Thomas Kyd (1558-94)
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Highlighted Historical Quotation
‘This melancholy London. I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.’
W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet and dramatistSource: Letters to Katherine Tynan by W.B. Yeats
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Featured Historical Figure of Note
Canute the Great (ca. 995-1035)Viking king. He united the English and Danish people to become the first ruler since the fall of Rome to rule over all of England. He ruled England through a combination of English and Scandinavian customs.
More at: History
