76th Issue: Joe Lee Kiyoomia
Warning for torture, war, death, etc. Today I am thinking about Joe Lee Kiyoomia. He was a Navajo soldier who fought during World War II. He was fighting in...
75th Issue: Ennigaldi-Nanna's Museum, Nasubi, and Gangubai Kothewali
Welcome back to another issue of my newsletter! I’ll jump right into it. I’ve been interested in reality TV lately, and I ran across this guy called Tomoaki...
74th Issue: Margaret George and Solomon Bibo
Today I’ll be telling you about two different people I learned about recently who I thought were interesting. The first is Margaret George, a commander of...
73rd Issue: Hans Rey, Ruth First, and Mochizuki Chiyome
You may have noticed that this is no longer a newsletter on Tinyletter. Mailchimp bought it and they wanted me to pay. So I moved to Buttondown, which seems...
72nd Issue: John Rabe and E.J. Bellocq
Hello! I’m back again! Today I'll be talking about two very different men, both of whom I find interesting. I’m starting out with a man named John Rabe. He...
71st Issue: Joan Hinton and her Family
Everyone’s talking about nepo babies lately, well I’m going to get in on this trend. I found this woman named Joan Hinton, and turns out her whole family...
70th Issue: Edward Rose and Sarah Winnemucca
Edward Rose was an explorer and fur trapper who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the United States. His origins are unknown, but he was...
69th Issue: The Abbasid-Carolingian Alliance and Kermit Roosevelt
Today’s newsletter is another grab bag of people, places, and things that have caught my interest lately. The first is the Abbasid-Carolingian Alliance. As...
68th Issue:
Here are four different people who I thought were kind of interesting. I hope you do too. If not though, it will not hurt my feelings. William Dampier I was...
67th Issue: Cassie Chadwick
Hi everyone! Yes you get another newsletter so soon after the last one. I will leave you alone for a couple months after this though, I promise. I’ve been...
66th Issue: The Mercury 13
I have been watching this show called For All Mankind. Well, I’ve only watched six episodes so far but it’s pretty good. It’s about an alternate history...
65th Issue: Drukpa Kunley and Phallus Worship
I was reading the latest Anthony Bourdain book – it was actually meant to be a collaboration with him and someone else and then he died so the book isn’t...
64th Issue: Radio Broadcasters of World War II Propaganda
Today’s topic is various radio broadcasters who went on the radio to deliver anti-American propaganda in English. There were quite a few people who did this,...
63rd Issue: Fun Facts
Hi! Sorry it’s been so long since the last issue, I was busy writing a book or maybe even two. I couldn’t find any one topic I wanted to delve into this...
62nd Issue: Women in (American) Football
Today I watched a documentary about women in baseball, and that made me curious about women in (American) football. Like how softball is the ‘girl’ version...
61st Issue: Mary Baker Eddy
Today I will write about Mary Baker Eddy. She founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, which is also known as Christian Science. I think it’s very...
60th Issue: Ziryab
A friend on Twitter suggested this topic to me, and then I saw that Puppet History covered it, but not everyone here follows that and also I don't watch that...
59th Issue: Clara Lemlich Shavelson
Today I learned about Clara Lemlich Shavelson. Clara was born in 1886 in Ukraine. She grew up in a Yiddish speaking Jewish village, and raised money for...
58th Issue: Cannibals and Child Soldiers
Warning for cannibalism, murder, rape and suicide. I’m kind of in a cranky mood tonight, so here are two kind of depressing stories. The first is about...
57th Issue: Natacha Rambova
Content warning for statutory rape, and domestic violence. Natacha Rambova was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy on January 19, 1897, in Salt Lake City,...
56th Issue: L. Frank Baum, Maud Baum, and Matilda Gage
Just FYI before I start, I mention some pretty racist statements a historical figure made about Native Americans in this issue. If you would like to skip...
55th Issue: The Kowloon Walled City
Perhaps you knew about it, but I did not know about the Kowloon Walled City. It was located in Hong Kong, and was formed in 1898. By 1990, over fifty...
54th Issue: Action Dads and Spunky Daughters
I was watching a movie on Netflix called Project Power the other day, and it has a teenage girl who is taken under the wing of two father figures – one who...
53rd Issue: Ernest Perron
My apologies for this issue being quite short, but rest assured there is more coming. I just found this guy's Wikipedia page and thought it was really...
52nd Issue: Edgardo Mortara and Maria Hertogh
Hello! I hope you are dealing with social distancing, self isolation, or quarantine as best as you can! I am doing alright myself so I hope you are the same....
51st Issue: Gender Verification in Sports
This issue of the newsletter will discuss with a controversial topic (which shouldn’t be controversial, as the obvious answer is that it is bad and should be...
50th Issue: The Soong Sisters
Hi! Today I am going to tell you about the Soong sisters. They’re pretty famous so you may already know about them, but I didn’t, so I am going to assume...
49th Issue: The Canterbury Female Boarding School
Today’s issue of the newsletter is about a school for young girls in the mid 1800s in Canterbury, Connecticut. A local Quaker teacher, Prudence Crandall, was...
48th Issue: The Garman Sisters
Today we are going to learn about the Garman sisters. I will discuss the three of them – Mary, Kathleen and Lorna. They lived in London at the turn of the...
47th Issue: The 1904 Summer Olympics
I have many half-written newsletter articles but none that have been finished! My apologies! I have been busy with many things! However, right now, I would...
46th Issue: Tippi Hedren and the Making of Roar
Antonio Banderas gave an interview yesterday in which he said that his stepdaughter, Dakota Johnson (best known for Fifty Shades of Grey) called him Paponio...
45th Issue: Fandom Drama
Lately the news is depressing so let’s talk about stuff that is a lot lighter and sillier. Let’s talk about fandom. I feel like most people who are reading...
44th Issue: Lesley Gore
Lesley Sue Goldstein, better known as Lesley Gore, was a singer known for “It’s My Party” and “You Don’t Own Me”, as a teenager in the 1960s. She also worked...
43rd Issue: Mary Seymour, Montague Summers, and Googie Architecture
Hello! Today is a grab bag of three random people and concepts that I found while browsing Wikipedia that were not long enough for their own issue. Enjoy!...
42nd Issue: Frederick Russel Burnham and Stephanie St. Clair
This issue of the newsletter is about two people who had extremely different lives, though both were fascinating, at least to me. Please be warned that the...
41st Issue: Santa Muerte and Jewish Parachutists
If you don’t know Santa Muerte, you are about to. Her full name is Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte . She is a folk saint in Mexican Catholicism. She is the...
40th Issue: Classic Disney Stars
My apologies, this issue may be a little shorter than usual, but I will make up for it by writing another one sooner rather than letting a whole month go by!...
Thirty Ninth Issue: Marie Equi
Marie Equi was the first publicly known lesbian on the West Coast of the United States. Marie was born in 1872, and was one of the first doctors in the...
Thirty-Eighth Issue: A Civil Rights Activist, A Pilot, and A Princess
This issue I will be talking about three different people. They don’t really have anything much connecting them except that I found them interesting. If you...
Thirty-Seventh Issue: Diplomats during the Holocaust
I am always inspired by stories of individuals making a difference during times of great peril. This issue is about nine diplomats from countries all around...
Thirty Sixth Issue: Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta lived a few hundred years later than Ibn Sina, and he was more of a traveler and explorer than a scholar. He wrote a book of his journeys which...
Thirty Fifth Issue: Ibn Sina
I know I said I was going to talk about China, but I realized I had bitten off more than I could chew, so I will get to that eventually, but first I want to...
Thirty-Fourth Issue: The Golden Age of Islam
I know I JUST sent a newsletter last week, but I read a really cool book called When Asia Was the World and got really excited to share what I learned. It...
Thirty-Third Issue: Brigitta Scherzenfeldt, Boy, Boanthropy, and Missed Calls
This issue is just a bunch of random stories and anecdotes I’ve found on Wikipedia lately. Sorry it's a bit shorter than usual. I think the next issue may be...
Thirty-Second Issue: Natalie Clifford Barney and Her Lovers
Natalie Clifford Barney was a writer who was American but lived in Paris and ran a salon, where tons of writers and artists from the US, France, and Britain...
Thirty-first Issue: The Partition of India
Before I start, I want you to know I’m going to be talking about genocide and rape. If you don’t want to read about that sort of thing don’t read this issue....
Thirtieth Issue: Fearsome Critters
In my adventures on Wikipedia, a few years ago I came across a page called ‘Fearsome Critters’. These are cryptids (creatures whose existence cannot or has...
Twenty-Ninth Issue: Isabelle Eberhardt
Hello! I hope you had a good new year and holiday season! I can’t believe it’s been a year since I’ve been writing this newsletter. I’m thankful that all of...
Twenty-Eighth Issue: Soapy Smith
Hello! This week I will be talking about a man named Soapy Smith. He was quite a character in the American west around the time where someone would find gold...
Twenty-Seventh Issue: Winnaretta Singer
Winnaretta Singer had a pretty cool life. Her dad was Isaac Singer, of singer sewing machines, and her mom was French. She and her twenty three siblings...