Midsummer Night Celebrations in Kirunavaara, Sweden, Where the Sun Doesn’t Set During Summer, 1901

In Kiruna, the sun doesn’t set for 47 days during the summer. This phenomenon, known as midnight sun, is at it’s hight around midsummer, which is always celebrated near the summer solstice.

Kirunavaara is the name of the mountain that the crowd is standing on. Kirunavaara means “mountain of the ptarmigans” in the Sámi language and gave it’s name to the nearby mining town Kiruna. The mountain has changed shape radically over the years due to extensive mining.

Kiruna in Swedish Lapland is a world full of contrasts, colors and light. The period where we have midnight sun is the counterpart to the polar night that we experience in December. The period from late May to the middle of July is an intense period and it has a deep effect on all life when the daylight never ends.

When can I see the midnight sun?

The midnight sun glows in the sky from the 27th of May until the 14th of July. During this period, it never slides below the horizon. The sun is at its lowest at the time 00:40. So the sun is up continuously for 47 days at Kiruna’s latitude. The periods prior to and following that of the midnight sun are also very bright. This is why they usually talk about having 100 days without night.

The midnight sun is the same sun seen during daytime, it just doesn’t go below the horizon. This means that you don’t see a rapid sunset and sunrise. This phenomenon can be experienced anywhere in Kiruna.

African American Children in the Civil War Through Amazing Photos

The Civil War touched the lives of children in both similar and vastly different ways. The Civil War molded children’s lives as adults and shaped their attitudes, opinions, and prejudices that would pass from generation to generation.

African American children during the Civil War

The children of the Civil War shared enthusiasm for the war, were burdened with greater responsibilities, and endured physical and emotional hardships. The end of the war for a Northern child meant victory, excitement, and success. The end of the war for a Southern child meant defeat, disappointment, and a transformed way of living.

For enslaved African American children, the end of the Civil War meant freedom and hope, which did not come without years of tremendous sacrifices, challenges, changes, and hardships.

Here below is a set of amazing photos from The Library of Congress that shows portraits of African American children during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

Nathan Jones, Camp Metcalf, Virginia, circa 1961

Two unidentified escaped slaves wearing ragged clothes, circa 1861

A Virginia slave child, 1863

Charley Taylor, formerly enslaved child from New Orleans, seated with book in front of painted backdrop showing seascape, 1863

Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, a redeemed slave child, 5 years of age. Redeemed in Virginia, by Catherine S. Lawrence, baptized in Brooklyn, at Plymouth Church, by Henry Ward Beecher, May 1863

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Historical Photographs of Seattle Regrades at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Starting in 1897 and continuing through 1930, Seattle undertook a series of regrades to flatten the city’s terrain. Many of these regrades focused on the Denny Hill. City officials, including City Engineer R.H. Thompson, reasoned that Denny Hill’s steep slope prevented Seattle’s northern expansion from the business core downtown.

In 1898, the Engineering Department took the first steps to address this problem, regrading First Avenue between Pike and Denny Way. The first phase of the Denny Regrade began in 1903 and addressed the area on the western side of 5th Avenue. The first phase lasted 8 years and was completed in 1911. During this period, additional work was done to regrade Jackson Hill (in 1907) and Dearborn (1909-1912).

Between 1929 and 1930, the city completed the remainder of the regrade work on Denny Hill on the eastern side of 5th Avenue. In his autobiography, That Man Thompson, R.H. Thompson stated that over 16 million cubic yards of earth were moved as a result of the combined regrades.

The Denny Hotel (later called the Washington Hotel) stands on the south summit of Denny Hill before being torn down, 1905.

Trains move loose earth at the south summit of Denny Hill near the under-construction New Washington Hotel, at the corner of Second Avenue and Stewart Street, 1907.

Third Avenue north of Marion Street is flattened out in the first Denny regrade, 1907.

Looking west down Spring Street during the first Denny regrade, 1907.

Horse teams march up Marion Street, 1907.

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Before Becoming an Actor and President, Ronald Reagan Was a Proud Lifeguard

Ronald Reagan is the only U.S. President to ever be a movie star before he was President. But long before he served two terms as the 40th President of the United States of America. Ronald Wilson Reagan worked as a lifeguard.

Starting in 1925, his sophomore year in high school, and continuing for the next 7 summers, Ronald Reagan was the proud lifeguard of Lowell Park’s swimming section of the Rock River.

Ronald Reagan serving as a lifeguard in 1927 at Lowell Park in Dixon, Illinois. (Photo: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)

When an opening for lifeguard came up, Ronald Reagan went to the YMCA to take a lifesaving course and was then hired for the position. From Memorial Day to Labor Day he worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week keeping swimmers safe. Over the course of 7 summers, he saved 77 lives, a number he kept track of by cutting a notch in a log on the river’s edge each time he pulled someone in need out of the water. Although some people jokingly say that young women almost faked as though they were in need of a lifeguard so that the young, handsome Ronald Reagan would save them. It’s not documented how many times he had to give mouth to mouth.

Ronald Reagan loved his job as lifeguard – he enjoyed helping people, working outdoors, and swimming. He always considered himself blessed to have had such steady work every summer and an opportunity to earn money for his future, even through the midst of the Great Depression.

Ronald Reagan stands on the diving board in the Little 19 (Illinois private colleges) swim meet held at St. Viator in this March 22, 1930 file photo.

Years later, Reagan recalled the challenge in getting swimmers out of the water at the end of his shift. When they wouldn’t listen to his commands to exit the river, he settled on a different tactic. The Gipper would toss a few pebbles in the water and yell, “River rat!” He would then sit back and watch the frantic rush of swimmers as they surged toward dry land, only too eager to avoid entanglement with Dixon’s water rodents.

He also learned the importance of accommodating the requests of his constituents. Although his job description only called for him to keep people from drowning, when an elderly swimmer approached Reagan with a problem, he was quick to help out. The swimmer said, “Will you please dive in? I’ve lost my false teeth.” Reagan dove in several times and finally located the sunken choppers. The grateful man gave the future president $10 for his efforts. Reagan later recalled, “That was the first time I was ever paid for doing anything.”

As his seventh summer as a lifeguard came to an end, he saved his 77th person from the Rock River and put a final notch in the wooden log he used to record the saves. He packed up his towel and left his lifeguard post for the final time. The lifeguard in him never went away, however.

(via Commonplace Fun Facts)

Intriguing Vintage Photos of London in 1973 and 1974

A decade of cultural and political change — these nostalgic and splendid images, taken by Mary Brown while she was living in London for two years in the early seventies — show the capital in an era known for feminism, high inflation levels, IRA bomb threats and widespread trade union strikes.

More of her fascinating vintage photographs could be found at Mary’s Flickr site.

Evening News.

Trafalgar Square.

Eton St.

The Cock Pit Restaurant.

Spring.

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30 Photos Capture Street Scenes of Paris in the Mid-1980s

The 1980s was the decade of change for Paris. In 1981, François Mitterand was elected President of France, and during his tenure, several development projects were started in Paris.

The old, disused Orsay railway station near the river was renovated and in 1986 was reopened as the Orsay Museum of 19th-century art and civilization. The Grand Louvre, Opéra Bastille, and the Grande Arche of La Défense were also completed at the end of the 1980s. He also raised the minimum wage and family benefits, added a fifth week of paid vacation.

These color photos were captured by Ruben Cantu that show street scenes of Paris in 1984.

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Paris

Dome des Invalides, Paris.

Dome des Invalides, Paris

Georges Pompidou Center, Paris

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Estelle Taylor: One of the Most Beautiful Silent Film Stars of the 1920s

Born 1894 in Wilmington, Delaware, American actress, singer, and model Estelle Taylor began appearing in small roles in World and Vitagraph films after her stage debut in 1919.

Taylor achieved her first notable success with While New York Sleeps (1920), in which she played three different roles, including a “vamp.” She was a contract player of Fox Film Corporation and, later, Paramount Pictures, but for the majority of her career she freelanced.

Taylor became famous and was commended by critics for her portrayals of historical women in important films: Miriam in The Ten Commandments (1923), Mary, Queen of Scots in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924), and Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (1926).

Although she made a successful transition to sound films, Taylor retired from film acting in 1932 and decided to focus entirely on her singing career. She was also active in animal welfare before her death from cancer in 1958. She was posthumously honored in 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the motion pictures category.

Take a look at these beautiful photos to see portrait of a young Estelle Taylor in the 1920s and 1930s.

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