Harley Davidson

If these old-timey hipsters only knew the impact their motorbikes would have 

on our modern culture. Arthur Davidson and William Harley were childhood friends in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1903, they designed their first motorbike. Their efforts would change the face of motorized history - in the same way the Wright Brothers would change air travel. With a stroke of inspiration, they started working on the idea of a motorized bike without pedals. Davidson was credited with the slogan, "Take the Work out of Bicycling." Along with his buddy, Harley the two worked tirelessly in a 10 x 15 foot shed to build their beloved motorized Frankenstein. Needless to say, they kept tinkering with the idea. And apparently, it caught on big time...

Titanic Menu April 14, 1912

The menu for the Titanic - on the day it started sinking. 

It went down on April 14th-April 15th, 1912

 As the unsinkable ship sunk, passengers were not only in a panic, but they also had a belly full of stewed figs and rice, smoked herring and jacket potatoes, and plum pudding. 

When Titanic began to sink, over a thousand passengers and crew were on board. The disaster shocked the world - partly due to the lack of lifeboats available. Almost all the passengers who jumped from the Titanic either drowned or died within minutes due to the temperature of the icy cold water. We've seen it happen to Leonardo DiCaprio in the James Cameron movie, Titanic. 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 Monty Python and the Holy Grail 

is almost everyone's pick for top ten comedy films of all-time. Though it turned out to be a hilarious film, nearly all the members of the Monty Python comedy troupe have said that they had a miserable time while filming the project. It was shot in cold, rainy Scotland. Funny enough, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album was partly responsible for the 1975 movie getting made. The band was such fans of Monty Python that they used royalties from the album to fund the movie. In fact, Pink Floyd was such fans of their TV show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, they would halt recording sessions just to watch. Thank you Pink Floyd for helping a great comedy cause. 

Jamie Lee Curtis

Talk about getting into the family business. 

Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, California. She got a foot up in the industry - being she is the daughter of two legendary actors. Her mom is Janet Leigh - who starred in Psycho, while her dad is Tony Curtis of Some Like It Hot fame. She got her first huge acting in 1978, when she starred in the low-budget horror film, Halloween. The movie went on to make tons of box office cash and cemented Curtis' career as a movie scream queen.  In 1983, Curtis took a comedy turn by costarring in Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. 

Buffalo Bill 1910

    Buffalo Bill Cody goes hand-in-hand with myths about the old West. 

 Buffalo Bill became a Pony Express rider by the age of 14 and served on the Union side of the Civil War from 1863 to 1865. He also served as a civilian scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars and received the Medal of Honor in 1872. As Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread he started performing in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. In 1883, the Wild West show began to tour not only in the U.S., but also in Britain and around Europe.

All Dogs Go To Heaven ~ Mark Twain

Twain used dogs as his muse up until the end. Weeks before he died, Twain wrote about approaching heaven’s gate: “Leave your dog outside. Heaven goes by favor. 

If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

Mark Twain was so famous a giant Sequoia Redwood was named after him.

In 1891 the Mark Twain Tree was felled


https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/trees/giantsequoia/history/

It tells a lot about the mentality of the time. Now the felling of the largest giant sequoias sounds like a sad and respectless waste but is understandable in the zeitgeist of the 19th century.

Think about this: in that time of limited communication a lot of stories reached the American-European east coast of the U.S. from the "Far West" during the Californian gold rush. Massive gold mountains! Gigantic trees! Huge waterfalls where the water runs to the top! The European immigrants quickly developed a "first see, then believe" mentality.
In that period there also was an unlimited optimism: by the large technological advances of the time the first railroads were constructed, large bridges, ships, and the first skyscrapers were built, canals were dug. For the first time, men got control over nature and was able to shape its environment. The fact that now it was possible for men to fell down such large trees was for some a moral obligation to do so.

A number of old growth trees were felled exactly to prove their existence (and to make money in the process). In 1891, for example, the "Mark Twain Tree" was felled. A slice of its trunk was sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and another slice to the British Museum of Natural History in Kensington, London.

Consciousness about long term preservation, that men can actually change the entire climate of our planet and the responsibility that comes with it, and the awareness that the earth's capacity to handle men's hunger for destruction and waste disposal is limited only came later.

Some of the largest living things on the planet are found in California's Yosemite National Park. Yes, we're talking the giant sequoias in Yosemite Park. The giant trees were on this earth long before we got here - and will be here (hopefully) long after we're gone. The sequoias can live to be 3,000 years old and can grow to be 300 feet high and 100 feet in circumference. Seeing them in person makes you feel like you're in a Lord of the Rings movie. These trees need to say thanks to President Abraham Lincoln. He signed the Yosemite Land Grant bill on June 30, 1864. This bill set a precedent for the preservation of the our country's wilderness.

 https://historydaily.org/42-unbelievable-retro-photos/32