iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 19h

I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 19h

Image—from the Chicago History Museum—is an 1871 photograph by John Jex Bardwell Jr. showing workers cleaning up the ruins of the Great Central Railroad Station in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire. (5/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 19h

One of the deadliest wildfires in history started that same evening in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing between 1200 and 2500 people, but it has been mostly ignored in history because its story was overshadowed by the reports about the Chicago fire. (4/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 19h

Because of the rumors started by a newspaper reporter’s conjecture, Mrs. Catherine O’Leary was condemned by the people of Chicago and died a recluse in 1895. Mrs. O’Leary was officially exonerated by the Chicago City Council more than a century later. (3/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 19h

The cause of the fire was never determined, but some rumors said that the O’Leary’s cow had kicked over a lantern in the barn while being milked by Mrs. O’Leary, and others said that Daniel “Peg-Leg” Sullivan drunkenly knocked over a lantern trying to steal milk from the barn. (2/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 19h

Fire! On this day in history, 155 years ago, October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire began near the O’Leary family’s barn at approximately 8:30 p.m., and it burned for two days, killing an estimated three hundred people and leaving more than one hundred thousand homeless. (1/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Image—from Lynette Woodard’s web page—is a photograph of Lynette Woodard while she was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. (4/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

After two years, Woodard left the Globetrotters and had a professional basketball career with the UFO Schio team in Italy and the Daina Securities team in Japan. In 1997—the first year of the WNBA—Woodard signed with the Cleveland Rockers and in 1998 with the expansion team Detroit Shock. (3/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Woodard was inspired to take up basketball by her cousin, Huber Eugene “Geese” Ausbie, who played for the Globetrotters from 1961 to 1985 and had inherited the title of “Clown Prince of Basketball” after the retirement of Meadowlark Lemon in 1983. (2/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ms. Globetrotter: On this day in history, 41 years ago, October 7, 1985, Lynette Woodard was chosen out of 60 applicants to become the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters after being captain of the gold-medal–winning U.S. basketball team in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. (1/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Image—from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library—is Iva Toguri’s 1946 mug shot from Sugamo Prison in Tokyo. (7/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Iva was rearrested by military authorities in 1948 and returned to the United States to stand trial, where she was unable to overcome the overwhelming prejudice against Japanese-Americans at the time. She was officially pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1977 and died in Chicago in 2006. (6/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

After Japan’s surrender, Iva was held prisoner for a year in the Sugamo Prison in Japan but was released for lack of evidence and married Portuguese citizen Felipe d’Aquino. The d’Aquino’s only child was born in Japan but died shortly afterward. (5/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The radio station pressured Iva to speak on a program known as “Zero Hour,” on which she was known as Orphan Ann, introducing American jazz recordings, during which she used sarcasm not understood by the Japanese to reassure the American troops that she supported them. (4/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Toguri was born on the Fourth of July in 1916 in Los Angeles. Toguri visited Japan in June 1941 and was unable to leave after the attack on Pearl Harbor six months later, so she took a job as a typist at Radio Tokyo. (3/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Toguri had been convicted despite the FBI having determined that there was no person known as Tokyo Rose, and that the name Tokyo Rose had never been used in the broadcasts from Radio Tokyo. Toguri’s lawyer Wayne Mortimer Collins labeled the verdict “guilty without evidence.” (2/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Tokyo Rose: On this day in history, 77 years ago, October 6, 1949, Iva Ikuko Toguri d’Aquino, allegedly known as “Tokyo Rose,” was sentenced to ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine for “broadcasting treasonable statements to American troops from Radio Tokyo.” (1/7)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Image shows the iconic foot that comes crashing down in the “Monty Python” credits, which is Cupid’s foot from the 1545 Agnolo Bronzino painting “Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time,” now hanging in the National Gallery in London. (4/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” continued for four seasons, ending its run in 1974, then continued with three full-length movies with original material, as well as several movie compilations of previous material. (3/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The stars of the show had previously collaborated on several other television shows, including “The Frost Report,” starring journalist David Frost, who had previously made his mark in Britain by hosting the satirical “That Was the Week That Was.” (2/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

“And Now for Something Completely Different” On this day in history, 57 years ago, October 5, 1969, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”—with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, and Terry Gilliam—made its debut on the BBC television network. (1/4)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Image—from the Flickr photostream of Leo Boudreau—shows “The Saturday Evening Post” debut cover of Willie Gillis on October 4, 1941, titled “Willie Gillis’ Package from Home.” (5/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The character of Willie Gillis appeared on eleven covers of “The Saturday Evening Post,” the final showing “Willie Gillis in College”—with his discharge papers showing he had achieved the rank of Master Sergeant—taking full advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights. (4/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Bob Buck was exempt from the military draft, but he enlisted as an aviator in the U.S. Navy on May 9, 1943, feeling that serving his country was his patriotic duty, so Normal Rockwell lost his model and had to rely on photographs and memories for his remaining Willie Gillis covers. (3/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Norman Rockwell based his depiction of Willie on Robert Otis “Bob” Buck, a 15-year-old boy he found at a square dance in Arlington, Vermont, who epitomized Rockwell’s vision of an innocent young draftee’s life in the military. (2/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Willie’s Debut: On this day in history, 85 years ago, October 4, 1941, Willie Gillis Jr.—a fictional U.S. Army Private created by Norman Rockwell and more commonly referred to as Willie Gillis—made his debut appearance on the cover of “The Saturday Evening Post.” (1/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Image—from page 30 of the “The Chicago Defender” on Saturday, September 9, 1950—shows a publicity photograph of the “Beulah” television show prior to its premiere. (5/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Although ground-breaking in having a Black star, “Beulah” was attacked by many critics—including the NAACP—for its stereotypical portrayals of Black characters. (4/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ethel Waters quit playing Beulah half-way through the first season of the television show and was replaced by Louise Beavers. Hattie McDaniel played Beulah for the third season but died of breast cancer that year, so Louise Beavers was cast again for the final season. (3/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

“Beulah” was based on a 1945 radio show of the same name that had two different white male actors portraying the voice of Beulah until Hattie McDaniel assumed the title role in 1947. (2/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The Beulah Show: On this day in history, 76 years ago, October 3, 1950, “Beulah” debuted on ABC TV, the first television series to star a Black actor, Ethel Waters, who had also been the first Black actor to star in a television special in 1939. (1/5)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Image—from the Library of Congress—is a photograph from Harris & Ewing Photographic Studio showing Edith Wilson looking over Woodrow Wilson’s shoulder as he signs a paper at the Presidential desk in June 1920. (6/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Wilson was hoping to run for an unprecedented third term as the Democratic candidate, but when his health prevented it, Republicans Warren G. Harding and running mate Calvin Coolidge were elected in 1920 over Democrats James M. Cox and running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt. (5/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Wilson had been in poor health for most of the previous year while the Treaty of Versailles was being negotiated, a fact that was not made public until the unveiling of Dr. Grayson’s personal documents at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in December 2006. (4/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Edith Wilson and Woodrow Wilson’s personal secretary Joseph Tumulty and physician Cary T. Grayson were the only people allowed access to Wilson for many months. Vice President Thomas Marshall refused to assume the Presidency unless Congress passed a resolution declaring the office vacant. (3/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

First Lady Edith Wilson began prioritizing what issues would be presented to the convalescing President, but she insisted that all decisions were made by her husband, although some historians refer to Edith during this time as “the first female President of the United States.” (2/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Presidential Stroke: On this day in history, 107 years ago, October 2, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson—shortly after cutting short his tour of the country promoting the League of Nations—suffered a debilitating stroke, which was kept secret from the public for four months. (1/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Image—from an Amazon listing—shows the front cover of Peter Adams’s 2023 book, “The Insurrectionist: Major General Edwin A. Walker and the Birth of the Deep State Conspiracy” (LSU Press), which features a news photograph of Walker’s 1962 arrest in Mississippi. (6/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Walker was later the inspiration for the character General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war movie “Dr. Strangelove,” as well as the character General Bull Right on the television show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” Walker died of lung cancer on Halloween in 1993. (5/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Walker, along with the John Birch Society, organized a protest against Ambassador Adlei Stevenson on October 24, 1963, and then proceeded to file lawsuits against several media outlets who reported on his actions. (4/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Walker was the object of an assassination attempt on April 10, 1963, apparently carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald (corroborated by Oswald’s widow), who was involved later that year in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (3/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy demanded a psychiatric evaluation, but Walker was released after five days. A grand jury failed to indict Walker, but dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning that charges could later be reinstated within five years. (2/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Arrest of Edwin Walker: On this day in history, 64 years ago, October 1, 1962, former Major-General Edwin Walker was arrested for conspiracy to incite an insurrection after the protest he organized against the desegregation of the University of Mississippi turned into a violent 15-hour riot. (1/6)

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Eric Christensen @echristensen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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