Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
On 24 December 1895, Kingstown lifeboat disaster: 15 crew are lost when their life-boat capsizes, while trying to rescue the crew of the SS Palme off Kingstown (modern-day Dún Laoghaire), near Dublin, Ireland.
On 24 December 1895, George Washington Vanderbilt II officially opens his Biltmore Estate, inviting his family and guests to celebrate his new home in Asheville, North Carolina.
On Monday, 24 December 1945, Five of nine children become missing after their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is burned down.
On Wednesday, 24 December 1980, Woolworths’ Town Hall store in the centre of Sydney is devastated by a bomb blast 1980; the chain’s third store to be targeted in nine days. Authorities received only 10 minutes’ warning of the bombing, which miraculously caused no serious casualties after 2,000 shoppers and staff were evacuated from the area.
On Monday, 24 December 1990, Ramsewak Shankar is ousted as President of Suriname by a military coup.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch