Postcards from Crabland

After 90 Years, a Dictionary of an Ancient World

(NYTimes) Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume dictionary of the language of ancient Mesopotamia and its Babylonian and Assyrian dialects, unspoken for 2,000 years but preserved on clay tablets and in stone inscriptions deciphered over the last two centuries, has finally been completed by scholars at the University of Chicago.
This was the language that Sargon the Great, king of Akkad in the 24th century B.C., spoke to command what is reputed to be the world’s first empire, and that Hammurabi used around 1700 B.C. to proclaim the first known code of laws. It was the vocabulary of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the first masterpiece of world literature.
Nebuchadnezzar II presumably called on these words to soothe his wife, homesick for her native land, with the promise of cultivating the wondrous Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Continued

Daniel Boone Day

(LoC) On June 7, 1769, frontiersman Daniel Boone first saw the forests and valleys of present-day Kentucky. For more than a century, the Kentucky Historical Society has celebrated June 7 as "Boone Day."
Born on November 2, 1734, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Daniel Boone spent much of his youth hunting and trapping on the North Carolina frontier. By the late 1760s, Boone had ventured into the Cumberland Gap region, which was little known to whites. Although the westward opening in the Appalachian Mountains had been identified by Virginian explorer Thomas Walker in 1750, the French and Indian War discouraged exploration and settlement of the Kentucky territory. After the war, lacking the manpower or resources to protect their empire's trans-Appalachian frontier, the British prohibited westward migration. Boone was among the many settlers who ignored the Crown's ban. Continued

D-Day: Operation Overlord

(LoC) In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Americans received word that three years of concerted war efforts had finally culminated in D-day--military jargon for the undisclosed time of a planned British, American, and Canadian action. During the night, over 5,300 ships and 11,000 planes had crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy. The goal of every soldier and civilian involved in that effort was to drive the German military back to Berlin by opening a western front in Europe.
General Dwight David Eisenhower was in command of the invasion, which was code-named Operation Overlord. Continued

York County set to digitize veterans records as old as 18th century

York, PA (YDR) York County has its share of veterans' memorials. But the most comprehensive one is never seen by the public.
It resides in a walk-in safe in a locked room of the York County Department of Veterans Affairs. And it consists of tens of thousands of index cards, each one of which bears the name of a deceased York County veteran.
The veterans listed on those cards fought in conflicts ranging from the 18th century's French and Indian War all the way up to modern engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to York County Director of Veterans Affairs Phil Palandro.
Soon, the county will start on a project that will involve scanning all of those cards and putting them in digital form. Continued

Photo: Old veterans playing cribbage at Soldiers' Home, Washington, D.C., ca. 1900 (Library of Congress).

Sinking of Clara Nevada had mysterious connection to Baltimore

(Baltimore Sun) The wreck of the Clara Nevada in Alaskan waters at the height of the Klondike gold rush in 1898 has a Baltimore connection and is the subject of a recently published book, "The Clara Nevada: Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska's Inside Passage." "It's a fairly well-known story in southeast Alaska," said Steven C. Levi, an Anchorage freelance and technical writer. "They tell it on the ferries, and the first time I heard about the Clara Nevada, I didn't believe it and decided to look into it, and the more research I did, the stranger the story became," he said in a telephone interview last week. Continued

Photo: NOAA

Fort Necessity

(LoC) On June 4, 1754, twenty-two-year-old Colonel George Washington and his small military force were busy constructing Fort Necessity, east of what is known today as Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Washington's men built the fort to protect themselves from French troops intent on ousting the British from the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Washington's troops were surrounded at Fort Necessity, and forced to surrender to the French on July 3, 1754. Continued

Photo: General view of Fort Necessity site, Theodor Horydczak Collection (Library of Congress).

MTA administrator disavows curbs on photography

(Baltimore Sun) Two photographers who were detained by Maryland Transit Administration police this year and told they were forbidden to take pictures of MTA facilities expressed relief Wednesday after the head of the agency flatly repudiated the officers' actions.
Administrator Ralign T. Wells disavowed police efforts to restrict photography on or around MTA property and said he would take action to head off a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland before it can be filed.
Wells said MTA officers were not properly representing agency policy when they ordered two amateur photographers to stop taking pictures and video of light rail trains earlier this year. Wells said he would apologize to the photographers and make sure that officers respect the First Amendment rights of photographers. Continued

Note: Falmanac had the same problem with the MTA at a light rail station several years back. We've also had similar problems in Perryville, Brunswick, and Locust Point.

Disunion: Captain Hannum Attends the Philippi Races

(NYTimes) ... The engagement was widely publicized as an overwhelming Union victory, proof that the war would be a quick one. The New York Tribune proclaimed the affair “The Philippi Rout.” Others mocked the fleeing Confederates when they styled it “The Philippi Races.” ... Sardonic soldier-author Ambrose Bierce, who served in Company C of the Ninth at Philippi, wrote with characteristic bitterness after a visit to the town four decades later, “that battery of ours did nothing worse than take off a young Confederate’s leg. He was living near there a year ago a prosperous and respectable gentleman, but still minus the leg; no new one had grown on.” Continued

Photo: Ambrose Bierce

Battle of Cold Harbor

(LoC) On June 3, 1864, the second battle of Cold Harbor began. After securing a costly victory at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Union General Ulysses S. Grant encountered Confederate troops as he made his way to Richmond. The Confederates, under command of General Robert E. Lee, were entrenched behind earthworks at Cold Harbor, a crossroads ten miles northeast of the Confederate capital. Over the course of the next nine days, the Union lost 7,000 men while the Confederates suffered 1,500 casualties. Continued

Photo: Cold Harbor, Va. African Americans collecting bones of soldiers killed in the battle, Reekie, John, photographer, April 1865 (Library of Congress).

40 years of Amtrak history at Perryville station

(The Record) Mark on your calendar for the first weekend in June to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Amtrak. See the history of Amtrak and the Marc trains at the Perryville Marc Train Station June 4 and 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This event will feature a special anniversary train with historic locomotives and recent renovated baggage cars. This special train is traveling all over the country and will be quite special to see. Also, there will be special children's corner and displays, including vintage advertising, past menus, dinnerware, uniforms and other memorabilia. Don't miss this special weekend in the life of our train systems. Continued

Special tours offered to save historic Port Deposit landmark

(The Record) Port Deposit town administrator Erika Quesenbery will personally give visitors a walking tour of the historic riverfront town for $5. She'll drop that to $2 with a lunch receipt from one of the town's restaurants.
Why the largesse? Quesenbery wants to raise money to restore Beach Fountain, which sits at the corner of South Main Street and Jacob Tome Highway. Continued

Grover Cleveland Marries Frances Folsom

(LoC) President Grover Cleveland wed Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony on June 2, 1886. Daughter of Cleveland's late law partner, the bride was twenty-seven years younger than her husband.
The self-educated Cleveland came from a poor family. After reading law and clerking at a Buffalo, New York law firm, he was admitted to the bar in 1859. A Democrat, he entered Buffalo's political arena in 1862 and was elected mayor in 1881 and governor of New York State in 1882. As governor, his opposition to patronage raised his national standing, even as it rankled New York City's Democratic machine. Continued

James Buchanan

(Wikipedia) James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the 18th century.
To date he is the only President from the state of Pennsylvania and the only to remain a lifelong bachelor. As President he was a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party.
A popular and experienced politician when he took office, Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides. As the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War, Buchanan's opinion was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal; hence he remained inactive. Continued

Circus coming to Harford Thursday

(Aegis) World celebrated Kelly-Miller Circus brings thrills, chills, and fabulous, affordable family fun to Harford County this Thursday, June 2, for the benefit of Level Volunteer Fire Company.
Tigers, elephants, camels, clowns, dogs, ponies, aerialists, acrobats and many more acts in what sponsors say is “marvelous magic in America’s one-ring wonder.” Continued