History With Mrs Johnson

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Catherine the Great | HISTORY Explore eight surprising facts about the famous Russian ruler.

How Jesse Owens Foiled Hitler's Plans for the 1936 Olympics | HISTORY The African American track star hardly derailed N**i plans for global disruption, but Jesse Owens did emerge as the standout figure of the Fuhrer's signature Olympic Games.

In 1960, Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, visits the attic where his family hid from the Germans during World War II. Sadly, he is the only survivor, as the rest of his family fell victim to the Holocaust.

The Franks, a Jewish family in the Netherlands, hid from German troops during a time when Jews were being sent to concentration camps. Anne Frank's diary, documenting their life in hiding, school, and fears, became famous.

It has sold over 30 million copies and translated into 70 languages. Despite being betrayed or discovered by German troops, the Franks, hidden for 761 days, were eventually found. Anne and her sister Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died in 1945 from Typhus fever, just weeks before the camp's liberation.

Their parents, Otto and Edith, faced Auschwitz Birkenau. Edith succumbed to starvation weeks before liberation, while Otto survived and lived until 1980. Edith was later buried beside Otto, but the bodies of their daughters were never found.

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⛵ The Mysterious Flying Dutchman ⛵



⛵ The Flying Dutchman was a part of the Dutch East India Company’s fleet of ships, sailing between the Netherlands and the East Indies, carrying silks, spices, dyes, and other exotic items from Asia to Europe.

The ship was caught in a storm while returning to Amsterdam.

⛵ As the vessel started to round the Cape, a terrible storm hit, putting the ship in danger of capsizing. Though sailors argued Captain to turn around, he ordered his crew to go ahead.

The ship and its crew were lost to a watery grave...

According to mythology, this angered the gods, who punished his soul by trapping him in the ship for eternity.

The crew became immortal, and cannot be killed until released from service.
Also, the more they stayed on the ship, they forgot who they were, ultimately becoming one with the ghost ship

⛵ In other versions, the devil overheard him and condemned him to sail forever in his boat.
However, the devil gave him a way out to redeem himself through the love of a faithful woman.

Hence, every seven years, the Captain is allowed to come to land to search for his one true love, and find salvation through her.

⛵ Of all the ghost ships perceived to be seen, the spectre of the Flying Dutchman is considered the worst.

Haunted ships have always been typecast as omens of ill luck and potentially fatal incidents.

⛵ The Flying Dutchman, is a legendary ghost ship doomed to sail the oceans forever, since it can’t make port.

Originated in the 17th century, there are several stories about the myth of the Flying Dutchman.

Some point to a cursed vessel, while a few suggest the Dutchman refers to the ship’s Captain, who was destined not to make land despite all his efforts.

⛵ The Flying Dutchman has been captured in paintings, television series, and movies such as 'At World’s End', and 'Dead Man’s Chest' from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films.

⛵ While the Flying Dutchman might be a fable, warning people of arrogance and recklessness at seas, many claimed to have sighted the ghost ship.

There have been references to the Flying Dutchman for more than two centuries.

Sighting accounts differ as few claim it was a spectral schooner seen under full sail; some witnessed it sailing through the fog or rough water, while many claims to encounter the ghost ship making significant headway in the calm waters.

⛵ Right from the time the myth emerged in the 1600s, various sightings of the ghost vessel were reported on the Cape of Good Hope.

All these sightings happened when the weather was extremely stormy, and the gales lashed hard.

According to the narrations, the ghost vessel came across as being caught in the storm, and almost on the verge of colliding with rocks before vanishing into the darkness.....

⛵ The Dutchman became the harbinger of death and impending doom for vessels that have sighted it.

It has also been retold countless times that letters and messages used to be passed onto those ships that passed the Dutchman in their route.

The crew’s opening of these letters and messages resulted in the vessels’ destruction and the crew

⛵ Prominent amongst these reports of sightings is the one seen by the H.M.S. Bacchante, a British Royal Naval vessel, in 1881.

Future King George V, who was serving as a midshipman as a part of the vessel crew, and Prince Albert Victor are said to have sighted the ghost ship in the Australian waters at around 4’o clock in the morning.

This sighing of the Flying Dutchman can reportedly be found in the Admiralty’s official publications in 'The Cruise of H.M.S. Bacchante'.

⛵ While the Prince did not encounter any fatality, the seafarer who had first reported about the ghost vessel sighting met his end after falling from the topmast.

This led to further credibility to the ominous sighting of the Dutchman among the seafarers of yore.

⛵ In another incident, a British vessel came near to having a collision with the so-called ghost ship on a stormy night in 1835, when the vessel was approaching under full sail but vanished suddenly.

The other famous incident occurred in 1939 when a group of people near Table Bay in Cape Town, on the southern coast of Africa, reported seeing the haunted vessel sailing toward shore under full sail, before disappearing.

The latest sighting of the vessel was reported during World War ll.
According to reports, a German submarine boat, under the command of N**i Admiral Karl Dönitz, sighted the Flying Dutchman during their voyage through the east of Suez.

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⛵ The Flying Dutchman from 'The Pirates of the Caribbean'

She was the dressmaker of Washington D.C., her dresses sophisticated and clean and designed to be of excellent fit, the desire of many. And to clients, she was often more than a dressmaker; she was a dear friend.
Elizabeth Keckley was born enslaved in Virginia in 1818. The only daughter of her enslaved mother, her birth father was the plantation owner. The man Elizabeth considered a father was her mother's husband, an enslaved man who lived on a plantation nearby. Twice a year on special holidays, mother, father, and daughter spent time together.
When Elizabeth was about seven years old, her father joined her and her mother, finally getting to live together. The time, however, was short-lived. Her father was taken West soon after. Of the experience, Elizabeth wrote:
"My father and mother never met again in this world. They kept up a regular correspondence for years, and the most precious mementoes of my existence are the faded old letters that he wrote, full of love, and always hoping that the future would bring brighter days. In nearly every letter is a message for me. 'Tell my darling little Lizzie,' he writes, 'to be a good girl, and to learn her book. Kiss her for me, and tell her that I will come to see her some day.' Thus he wrote time and again, but he never came. He lived in hope, but died without ever seeing his wife and child."
Life was a constant struggle for Elizabeth. In her teens, she was beaten at the whim of an owner who seemed to desire vengeance on Elizabeth. She was r***d by her owner's friend, from which Elizabeth became a mother. And in 1847, Elizabeth, her mother and son were taken to St. Louis, where Elizabeth worked as a seamstress. For twelve years, she worked many hours a day, her income going to support the family that enslaved her.
But it was also during these years of work as a seamstress that she met many women in town. Elizabeth was able to establish a network of connections. And in 1855, through a connection, Elizabeth secured a loan to purchase freedom for her and her son.
Elizabeth eventually made her way to Washington D.C., where she leveraged her skills as a seamstress, business savvy, and network to grow her business. She employed twenty seamstresses, making dresses for many women in town, including Mary Todd Lincoln, the president's wife.

🌹 On this day - 24th October 1503 🌹

🌹 BIRTH OF ISABELLA OF PORTUGAL 🌹


🌹 Isabella was born in Lisbon on 24th October 1503.
She was the second child and first daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second wife Maria of Aragon.
Isabella was second-in-line to the throne, until the birth of her brother Luis in 1506.

🌹 Isabella was well educated, her studies included mathematics, Renaissance Classics, Latin, Spanish, and French.
At the age of 14 her mother died, and she and her sister Beatrice inherited their mothers wealth and properties.

🌹 As the eldest daughter of King Manuel, Isabella was a rather attractive prospect for marriage.
The chosen candidate for her husband was her first cousin Charles, the son of Isabella's aunt Joanna of Castile.
Their marriage would bring a strong alliance between Spain and Portugal, in accordance with the wishes of their grandparents, Isabella of Castle and Ferdinand of Aragon.

🌹 However, 18-year-old Charles was convinced by his advisors, to form an alliance with England.
Plans were made for a betrothal to the two year old Mary Tudor, the daughter of his aunt Katherine of Aragon and King Henry VIII.
By 1525, Charles was no longer interested in an alliance with England, and eager to start a family.
Charles finally sought to marry Isabella, and wasted no time in securing a papal dispensation for first cousins.
The marriage contract for an alliance with Portugal was made.
Their marriage took place just after midnight, on 11th March 1526.

🌹 Although their marriage was political, Isabella captivated Charles.
They honeymooned for several months at the Alhambra in Granada, where he ordered the seeds of a Persian flower that had never been seen before in Spain.
The seeds eventually grew into a red carnation, which Isabelle loved.
Charles then ordered thousands more to be planted in her honour, establishing the red carnation as Spain's floral emblem.

🌹 As Charles had planned, he appointed Isabella regent of Spain during his absence to lead his military campaigns, and attend the administration of his other kingdoms.
She attended meetings of the governing councils, and consulted with the ministers.
As time passed, she took a more active role in the policy-making process, suggesting her own solutions rather than merely accepting recommendations.
Isabella would tend to the kingdom, and give Charles seven children.
Only three survived, including King Philip II of Spain and Maria, future Holy Roman Empress.

🌹 For several years, Isabella and the court traveled from city to city, moving in part to avoid exposure to disease and epidemics.
There is speculation that she suffered from consumption, with a contemporary describing her:
"The Empress is the greatest pity in the world, she is so thin that she does not resemble a person".

🌹 In 1539, Isabella became pregnant for the seventh time, but contracted another fever in the third month that caused antenatal complications.
She gave birth to a stillborn son, and died two weeks later on 1st May 1539 at the age of 35, without her husband present.

🌹 Charles was left so devastated that he couldn't bring himself to accompany his wife's body to the Royal Chapel of Granada, the burial place of the Catholic Monarchs.
Charles never recovered from her death, and wore black for the rest of his life to show his mourning.
He never remarried, though he had an affair long after her death that resulted in the birth of an illegitimate son.
Charles died as a widower in 1558, while holding the same cross in his hand which Isabella held in her hand when she died.

🌹 In 1574, Isabella's body was transferred by her son to the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where she was originally interred into a small vault along with her husband Charles, directly underneath the altar of the Royal Chapel.
They remained in the Royal Chapel while the famous Basilica of the Monastery and the Royal Crypt, were still under construction.

🌹 In 1654, after the Basilica and Royal Crypt were finally completed during the reign of their great-grandson Philip IV, the couple's remains were moved into the Royal Pantheon of Kings, which lies directly under the Basilica.
On one side of the Basilica are bronze effigies of Charles and Isabella, with effigies of their daughter Maria of Austria.
Exactly adjacent to them on the opposite side of the Basilica, are effigies of their son with three of his wives and their ill-fated grandson Carlos~Prince of Asturias.

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🌹 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_Portugal

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🌹 Portrait of Isabella in 1548~By Titian

Olaudah Equiano was born in present-day Nigeria in Africa. He was enslaved when he was eleven years old. He saw active service on British naval vessels as an enslaved seaman, and his given name on the muster lists was then Gustavus Vassa. In the early 1760s, American Quaker merchant Robert King purchased Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa. Equiano used his resources and his skills to trade goods and livestock to earn money to purchase his freedom. King agreed to a price, Vassa made the payment, and the merchant signed the manumission document in July of 1766.

In 1768, Equiano had moved to England and embarked on a new vocation: he fought for the abolition of the slave trade through activism, lectures, and travels throughout Britain. In all these efforts he sold thousands of copies of his slave narrative, spreading awareness in the public sector of the immorality of the continued existence of slavery and enslaved labor. His activism inspired many to support the legal process for securing abolition of the slave trade in the British Parliament which happened in 1807, ten years after he died.

Image: Frontispiece of the two-volume 1789 edition of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African Equiano’s Story 1745-1797. Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.