THE DAMNEDEST, FINEST RUINS

On April 18th 1906 a massive earthquake struck northern california. In three teriible days, San Francisco, "the paris of the pacific" was wiped from the earth. Narrated by acclaimed actor Peter Coyote, THE DAMNEDEST, FINEST RUINS paints a riveting portrait of courage and chaos. James Dallesandro, author of the best delling novel, 1906, uses rare photos and actual film of the disaster to create a riveting story of human courage and political incompetence, underscored by the music of Italian tenor, Enrico caruso, who performed five hours before the diaster and barely made it out alive

1906 San Francisco earthquake News Reel

Aftershock!—Voices from the 1906 Earthquake and Fire

The Oakland Museum of California remembers the seismic catastrophe that rocked the Bay Area 100 years ago with Aftershock! Voices from the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, April 1–August 13, 2006. The 4,000-square-foot exhibition, with more than 250 artifacts and photographs, is the largest in California dedicated to the centennial of the earthshaking events of April 18, 1906.

Aftershock! focuses on the earthquake’s impact on the people living in the Bay Area a century ago. The 7.8-magnitude quake cut a swath of destruction from Santa Rosa to San Jose, displacing 200,000 people in San Francisco alone. The quake and three-day fire wiped out three-fifths of the city’s housing, as well as its municipal buildings and landmarks. Overnight, the financial capital of the West was in ruins. Areas founded on swamps and landfill were the hardest hit. An estimated 3,000 people perished in the fire and quake, some in cheap lodgings that collapsed as they slept.

The exhibition recounts how individuals withstood and rebounded from the calamitous 1906 events. It goes beyond the familiar images and statistics to tell the stories of a cross section of Bay Area citizens, including Dennis Sullivan, the fire chief whose death in the quake contributed to the unfocused and ineffective fire-fighting efforts; Flora Allen, a survivor and longtime participant in the annual commemoration at Lotta’s Fountain, who died recently at age 100-plus; the Quan family, who sponsored “paper sons”—male immigrants without legal documentation—after the quake destroyed citizenship records; and the renowned Spanish dancer La Estrellita, who performed in the Panama Pacific International Exhibition, a ten-month celebration of the rebirth of San Francisco; among many others

Visitors to Aftershock! can experience a simulated earthquake via a “shake-table” under the floor of a re-created Victorian room that rolls and pitches. A documentary of digitally enhanced photographs and archival film footage helps visualize the impact of the temblor, which caused damage estimated at 500 million in 1906 dollars.

The exhibition includes one of the original tents erected as temporary shelter for the newly homeless. The fourteen-by-twelve-foot canvas structure features images from the tent cities that sprang up in the earthquake’s aftermath.

Private and government relief began arriving by April 19. Los Angeles sent provisions, medicine, and volunteers. Boston and other U.S. cities sent aid, and China provided relief specifically to Chinese San Franciscans. Relief came by ferry, ship, car, and train.

Aftershock! documents how San Francisco tried to downplay the severity of the disaster and protect its commercial future. The real estate board met a week after the earthquake and passed a resolution that the phrase “the great earthquake” should no longer be used; it would be known instead as “the great fire.” Thousands of men were quickly hired to clear the rubble and begin reconstruction. Rebuilding the city was both a physical and a marketing endeavor.

By 1909 San Francisco was ready to reclaim its metropolitan status. It hosted the Portolá Festival, to mark the 140-year anniversary of Don Gaspar de Portolá’s discovery of the Bay and celebrate the city’s recovery. Six years later the city was host to the Panama Pacific International Exposition, in what is now known as the Marina and the Palace of Fine Arts. The Exposition was ostensibly held to mark the completion of the Panama Canal and serve as the 1915 World’s Fair. It drew 18 million visitors and, with the Portolá Festival, publicly moved the city’s reputation beyond the earthquake era and into the future.

The Aftershock! exhibition also covers contemporary life in earthquake country, Californians embrace of “quake culture,” memories and photographs of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, and current seismologic technology.

Visitors to Aftershock! can experience a simulated earthquake via a “shake-table” under the floor of a re-created Victorian room that rolls and pitches. A documentary of digitally enhanced photographs and archival film footage helps visualize the impact of the temblor, which caused damage estimated at 500 million in 1906 dollars.

The exhibition includes one of the original tents erected as temporary shelter for the newly homeless. The fourteen-by-twelve-foot canvas structure features images from the tent cities that sprang up in the earthquake’s aftermath.

Private and government relief began arriving by April 19. Los Angeles sent provisions, medicine, and volunteers. Boston and other U.S. cities sent aid, and China provided relief specifically to Chinese San Franciscans. Relief came by ferry, ship, car, and train.

Aftershock! documents how San Francisco tried to downplay the severity of the disaster and protect its commercial future. The real estate board met a week after the earthquake and passed a resolution that the phrase “the great earthquake” should no longer be used; it would be known instead as “the great fire.” Thousands of men were quickly hired to clear the rubble and begin reconstruction. Rebuilding the city was both a physical and a marketing endeavor.

By 1909 San Francisco was ready to reclaim its metropolitan status. It hosted the Portolá Festival, to mark the 140-year anniversary of Don Gaspar de Portolá’s discovery of the Bay and celebrate the city’s recovery. Six years later the city was host to the Panama Pacific International Exposition, in what is now known as the Marina and the Palace of Fine Arts. The Exposition was ostensibly held to mark the completion of the Panama Canal and serve as the 1915 World’s Fair. It drew 18 million visitors and, with the Portolá Festival, publicly moved the city’s reputation beyond the earthquake era and into the future.

The Aftershock! exhibition also covers contemporary life in earthquake country, Californians embrace of “quake culture,” memories and photographs of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, and current seismologic technology.

India 1912

A 2 minute footage of the british army in India

President APJ Abdul Kalaam's Video Conference

President APJ Abdul Kalaam Videoconferences with the South Asian Society on atherosclerosis and Thrombosis International at their semi annual conference being held in Hyderabad, India in the year 2004.

A new India August 15 1947

The above video is a news reel announcing India's Independence to US audiences on August 15 1947. The first part deals with the Pakistan's Independence the previous day. The video shows Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his first "Tryst with Destiny" speeech to the assembly in Delhi with Lord and Lady Mountbatten in attendence.

Statues That Do not Follow the Rule

MAJ. GEN. PHILIP KEARNY

MAJ. GEN. ANDREW JACKSON

GEN. SIMON BOLIVAR: 18th at C and Virginia NW (1959). One hoof raised; died in peace of tuberculosis.
MAJ. GEN. NATHANIEL GREENE: Stanton Square, Maryland and Massachusetts NE (1877). One hoof raised; died in peace, unwounded.
MAJ. GEN. ANDREW JACKSON: Lafayette Park (1853). Two hooves raised; died in peace.
LT. GEN. THOMAS J. (STONEWALL) JACKSON: Manassas (1940). All hooves on ground; wounded by own men and died.
MAJ. GEN. PHILIP KEARNY: Arlington National Cemetery (1914). One hoof raised; died in battle.
MAJ. GEN. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN: Connecticut Avenue and Columbia Road NW (1907). One hoof raised; died in peace, unwounded.
BRIG. GEN. JAMES B. McPHERSON: McPherson Square, 15th between K and I streets NW (1876). One hoof raised; shot and killed in battle.
BRIG. GEN. COUNT CASIMIR PULASKI: 13th and Pennsylvania NW (1910). One hoof raised; died in battle.
LT. GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON: Washington Circle, at 23rd and K and Pennsylvania and New Hampshire NW (1860). One hoof raised; died in peace of cynache trachealis. Washington Cathedral (1959). One hoof raised.

Given that the alleged statuary code consists of three poses (no hooves raised, one hoof raised, and two hooves raised), the odds that a rider's manner of death would correspond to his horse's pose through plain chance are one in three, which is the proportion we find when surveying the equestrian statues in America's capital — that is, only about ten out of thirty statues in Washington, D.C., follow the "traditional" pattern.

The connection between statuary horses hooves' and the manner of deaths of their riders is not "tradition," but — like the well-known but mundane list of "coincidences" between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations — an attempt to create an interesting piece of information (in this case, something akin to a "secret code") by finding patterns in randomness through the expedient of simply ignoring or explaining away all the cases that don't fit the pattern.

Once again, proof that folklore never dies — it simply gets updated in time and place to keep it relevant to modern audiences

Many Statues that followed the rule

John Wesley

FRANCIS ASBURY

FIELD MARSHAL SIR JOHN DILL

GEN. ULYSSES S. GRANT

GEN. PHILIP H. SHERIDAN

FRANCIS ASBURY: 16th and Mount Pleasant NW (1924). All hooves on ground; died in peace.
FIELD MARSHAL SIR JOHN DILL: Arlington National Cemetery (1950). All hooves on ground; died of leukemia.
GEN. ULYSSES S. GRANT: Union Square, at the east end of the Mall (1922). All hooves on ground; died in peace.
MAJ. GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK: Seventh and Pennsylvania NW (1896). One hoof raised; wounded in battle.
MAJ. GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN: Logan Circle, Vermont Avenue, 13th and P Streets NW (1901). One hoof raised; died in peace, twice wounded.
LT. GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT: Scott Circle, 16th and Massachusetts and Rhode Island NW (1874). All hooves on ground; died in peace.
GEN. PHILIP H. SHERIDAN: Sheridan Circle, 23rd and Massachusetts NW (1908). All hooves on ground; died in peace.
GEN. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN: 15th and Pennsylvania and Treasury Place NW (1903). All hooves on ground; died in peace, pneumonia.
MAJ. GEN. GEORGE H. THOMAS: Thomas Circle, 14th and Massachusetts NW (1879). All hooves on ground; died in peace.
JOHN WESLEY: Wesley Theological Seminary (1961). All hooves on ground; died in peace.
These statues follows the rule

Statue of Limitations

The number of hooves lifted into the air on equestrian statues reveals how the riders died.
Is this true.
So I wanted to check on this before I can anyway accept the claim. Well so i have to do a pretty good research to find this out.
So lets check what the folks say about this and think about this...

Folk wisdom has it that equestrian statues contain a code whereby the rider's fate can be determined by noting how many hooves the horse has raised. The most common theory has it that if one hoof is raised, the rider was wounded in battle (possibly dying of those wounds later but not necessarily so); two raised hooves, death in battle; all four hooves on the ground, the rider survived all battles unharmed.

The hoof code mostly holds true in terms of Gettysburg equestrian statues, but there is at least one exception. James Longstreet wasn't wounded in this battle yet his horse has one foot raised.

Even the most cursory look at the statues around Washington, D.C. quickly disproves that the hoof code at all holds sway in that locale.

Washington is home to more equestrian statues than any other city in the nation, and it's significant that perhaps only 10 out of 30 or more follow the convention. Here's a quick look-see at various equestrian statues in Washington and how they fit or don't fit this theory.