As the holidays approach, feelings of joy and merriment begin to seep into our hearts. Even if we’re more than ready to bid the year ado, we can’t help but get sucked into the holiday spirit. It turns out, that spirit can also live on in an active war zone. In 1914, just a few months into World War I, nearly 100,000 troops from opposing sides engaged in a series of impromptu ceasefires, dubbed the Christmas Truce of 1914. 

Instead of mortar fire, there was caroling. No man’s land became filled with enemies exchanging gifts and swapping stories. The (exaggerated) accounts of football matches have become the stuff of legend. 

The Christmas Truce, albeit brief, lives on as a symbol of peace and comradery in the darkest of times. 

Singing From the Trenches

On Christmas Eve, 1914, a British machine gunner named Bruce Bairnsfather, was crouched in a muddy trench in Belgium – a “horrible clay cavity” – as he called it. Suddenly, he and many other British soldiers heard an extraordinary sound: Singing from the German trenches. 

After some rival carolers joined in on the British side, along with some friendly shouting, enemy soldiers actually began climbing out of the trenches! On what was once a stage of death, soldiers became revelers, shaking hands, trading tobacco and wine, and enjoying one another’s company. 
The Christmas Truce also became a time to safely gather fallen comrades for proper burial. The many accounts from different soldiers paint a picture of spontaneous fellowship in the midst of a bloodbath that would soon rage on.

Before the Christmas Truce of 1914

During the first two months of the Great War (no, not that Great War), French and British troops steadily pushed back the German attack that was tearing through Belgium and into France. In order for both sides to maintain their manpower and establish firm positions, they dug miles of trenches from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier. 

In the weeks leading up to the truce, there had been many efforts made to establish peace by groups like the British women suffragettes, and even Pope Benedict XV. On December 7, 1914, the Pope pleaded with the warring governments to establish an official truce. The nations declined. 

With both sides firmly dug in, the harsh winter weather brought damp and muddy conditions that turned to a sudden hard frost. Morale plummeted across the Western Front and the thought of Christmas bringing anything other than more bloodshed was ludicrous. 

Until Christmas finally arrived, and with it, a moment of peace.

When Christmas Came 

It remains a mystery just how widespread the Christmas Truce was. When Christmas came, there were still numerous accounts of fighting across Europe.

In some instances, soldiers who attempted to fraternize with the enemy were shot by commanding officers, whose superiors had grown horrified by these increasingly peaceful attitudes. 

Then, there were the Russian Orthodox soldiers who celebrated Christmas on January 7, with fewer accounts of fraternization. One estimate suggests that the truce most likely extended across two-thirds of the British-held trench line through Belgium. 

While the higher-ups wanted war no matter the holiday, the Christmas Truce was an unplanned event appearing almost magically out of a collective desire to salvage some of the humanity that was being chipped away. 

But as history tells us, this magic did not last long. World War I claimed the lives of nearly 15 million people. The war forever altered the global political and military landscape, not to mention the scars torn across hearts and minds for generations to come.

The post The Christmas Truce of 1914 first appeared on History In Memes.

Nobody likes being confronted on the street, catcalled, or corralled into paying attention to someone that they have no interest in. Sadly, street harassment, which disproportionately affects women, is nothing new. It also doesn’t appear to be vanishing anytime soon. But, for a brief moment in history, Anti-Flirt Club led an effort to criminalize this behavior in an attempt to protect women and girls in cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York. 

The Anti-Flirt Club led the charge to inform women of an increasingly annoying, if not downright dangerous, problem of men relentlessly hitting on women. 

The answer? Don’t Flirt.

Drive-by Flirting 

The Anti-Flirt Club was formed in the 1920s in Washington, D.C. Women were sick and tired of being rolled up on by strange men when they were just trying to walk down the street. 

The Anti-Flirt Club’s mission centered around a specific type of harassment born out of the automobile boom of the 1920s: Drive-by flirting. 

According to an article published in the Washington Post on February 28, 1923, titled: “10 Girls Start War on Auto Invitation,” the heart of the problem was that “too many motorists are taking advantage of the precedent established during the war by offering to take young lady pedestrians in their cars, Miss Helen Brown […] declared yesterday.”

According to Brown, who was the secretary of the Anti-Flirt Club, these motorists were responsible for the bulk of the harassment because they were mobile, empowered and pretty much everywhere. 

The Anti-Flirt Club Rules

As with any movement that hopes to make an impact, you need rules. The Anti-Flirt Club’s philosophy was that “flirting” should essentially be criminalized. The rules were as follows: 

1. Don’t flirt; those who flirt in haste oft repent in leisure. 
2. Don’t accept rides from flirting motorists—they don’t all invite you in to save you a walk.
3. Don’t use your eyes for ogling—they were made for worthier purposes.
4. Don’t go out with men you don’t know—they may be married, and you may be in for a hair-pulling match.
5. Don’t wink—a flutter of one eye may cause a tear in the other.
6. Don’t smile at flirtatious strangers—save them for people you know. 
7. Don’t annex all the men you can get—by flirting with many you may lose out on the one. 
8. Don’t fall for the slick, dandified cake eater—the unpolished gold of a real man is worth more than the gloss of a lounge lizard.
9. Don’t let elderly men with an eye to a flirtation pat you on the shoulder and take a fatherly interest in you. Those are usually the kind who want to forget they are fathers.
10. Don’t ignore the man you are sure of while you flirt with another. When you return to the first one you may find him gone.

With the Club’s orders public, President Alice Reighly and co. organized the first (and last) Anti-Flirt Week. This movement was far from revolutionary, but there were other Anti-Flirt Clubs that sprouted up in Chicago and New York. These groups tended to focus on “mashers” – or aggressive male flirts – who approached women on the street. 

“Jail the Flirt” 

Surprisingly, the New York iteration of the Anti-Flirt Club was formed by men, including George Carroll, a “theatrical man” and James Madison, a “broker.” 

Their slogan: “Jail the Flirt.”

This attempt to incarcerate mashers and “lounge lizards,” (well-dressed men who troll bars and clubs), didn’t exactly materialize. While some flirters were arrested, it’s unclear how long they were detained or what specific law they were actually breaking. 

By the 1930s, the “Anti-Flirt” movement faded away. Unfortunately, the mashers, lounge lizards, and all-around creeps, are still going strong. 

The post The Anti-Flirt Club of the 1920s first appeared on History In Memes.

When you think about juggling, you’re probably imagining a circus or a talent show, a man with clown make-up and bowling pins – not a gladiatorial battle. But Combat Juggling is just that: a fight to the last person standing, or in this case, last person juggling. 

Combat Juggling transforms the rather benign skill of maintaining three objects in the air, into a team sport where members must stay juggling while destroying their opponent’s ability to do the same. Easy enough, right? 

Actually, the advent of Combat Juggling, as with any sport, has evolved to incorporate a litany of tactics, strategies and techniques to rack up points and secure wins. 

Read on to learn how juggling turned rugged!

How Combat Juggling Works

The basic rules of Combat Juggling are as follows: The players all begin juggling three clubs at the same time. Players are allowed to interfere with opponents’ juggling patterns, typically by launching one club high into the air to give the attacking player enough time to knock out one of the other player’s airborne clubs. To make things a bit more interesting, there are a variety of ways to play Gladiator.

Aggregated 5 on 5

Two teams, 5 players on each team. Three players from each team begin combat, with the remaining players entering upon their teammates’ elimination. When a team runs out of players, their opponent wins. 

Sumo Combat

5 minute rounds. Each team lines up outside a 10-foot-diameter circle (combat area). One player from each team enters the circle, losing only if they drop a club or get pushed out of the circle. This game mode is extra feisty because pushing with your body is allowed!

Breach

10 minute rounds. A team picks a player to protect, while he or she tries to cross the end line of the opponent’s field. If there’s a touchdown, they change position. The only way to win is by knocking the runner down. 

Zombie

5 players from each team. If you drop a club, then you’re a “zombie” (you can’t move your feet). But you can attack players in range, or assist other zombies by tossing them clubs to interfere with other opponents. 

360 Combat

This one’s got a bit more pizazz. 3 rounds, one minute each in one-on-one combat. The team that completes the most pirouettes wins. 

If this already sounds quite involved, buckle up because there are even more ways to play! 

How Combat Juggling Started

Contrary to popular reports that Combat Juggling (or “Gladiator,” as it is often called) was invented by Jason Garfield, it was most likely invented by the technical and comedy juggler, Edward Jackman. 

The earliest appearance of Combat Juggling occurred in 1970s Los Angeles, CA. As the story goes, Edward Jackman and his friend, 11-year-old Daniel Rosen, attended the 1976 IJA Festival. It was soon after this experience that Rosen would officially begin his juggling career. He later credited Edward Jackman as one of the original creators. 

Rosen said: “It was Edward and us (the Los Angeles juggling community) at UCLA when we were kids in the mid-70s. I left school and juggled there all day with him. He started Combat Juggling with me.”

While it has been disputed that Edward Jackman was the sole creator of Combat Juggling, it cannot be denied that he revolutionized and popularized the sport. Jackman turned Combat Juggling into a visually striking, competitive contact sport. He even got the World Juggling Federation to air Combat Juggling on ESPN3 !!!

The “Combat” of Juggling

This game probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has if you were allowed to physically injure your opponent. In the spirit of good jugglemanship (is that a word?) the act of “kicking, tripping, spitting, head butting, puking, or any body contact other than arm-to-arm” is strictly forbidden. 

So, no funny business! This is all very serious… 

Think you’re up for it? Grab a few pins and see what you’re made of!

The post The Wild Sport of Combat Juggling  first appeared on History In Memes.

Film animation, from Pixar to The Avengers, is so common within modern film that its novelty tends to wear off. It can be easy to forget that animation in its early forms was actually a marvel of ingenuity, timing and technological advancement. Most notably, rotoscope animation pushed the limits of what film and photography could become.

It depicts human experience (our thoughts, emotions and behaviors) through a combination of live-action and illustration, to make the artist’s vision a moving reality. Rotoscoping in many ways is the foundation of modern animation, a technique that, in its execution, can be difficult. But in principle, it is quite straightforward.

What is Rotoscoping? 

Rotoscoping is a technique used by animators to trace over motion picture footage. The artist will draw over the footage, frame by frame, to portray realistic movement and action when played through. 

This technique was invented by Polish-American animator Max Fleischer. In 1915, Fleischer invented this with the goal of creating animation that had more realistic movement and texture. He would project photographs of live-action onto a glass panel and trace over them. 

The rotoscope is the equipment he used to pull it off (see below).

A Breakthrough in Rotoscope Animation

Earlier forms of animation were more like herky-jerky drawings rather than the fluid movement seen in movies like in Disney’s first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 

Early rotoscope animation really was a breakthrough because it allowed for more complex movements to be depicted, while saving a lot of time. Why? Because not everything had to be drawn by hand. 

Rotoscoping is also used in live-action films, when filmmakers create a matte to extract an object or individual from a scene so it can be used in a different background. Examples of this can be seen in films today like Guardians of the Galaxy or A Scanner Darkly.

Rotoscope is synonymous with Max Fleischer. He famously filmed his brother Dave dancing in a clown suit to capture the first rotoscoped cartoon ever: “Koko the Clown.”

This dancing clown was an animation marvel because Fleischer’s predecessors were never quite able to capture the realistic qualities of body movement, depth of field and dimensionality that he did with Koko. 

In this video you can see how realistic Koko’s movements are: 

Rotoscope Animation Today 

Fleischer’s patent expired in 1934, which meant that anyone and everyone was free to use his technique. Rotoscoping today has come a long way from tracing photos over glass. 

Now, there’s plenty of rotoscope animation software available for aspiring filmmakers and pros like James Gunn, who relied heavily on a real-life raccoon named Oreo to portray the precise movements of the raccoon in the film. 

This combination of live-action footage with rotoscoping techniques is where rotoscoping today is most commonly seen. Partial rotoscoping allows artists to use tracings from live- action footage and then supplement it with caricature drawings to exaggerate certain features and body movements. This enables them to create realistic animated characters while maintaining a unique drawing style. 

Early rotoscoping remains one of the most fascinating origins of modern film and illustration. The blending of drawing and live-action footage has helped create some of the most unique and powerful films to date!

The post Early Rotoscope Animation  first appeared on History In Memes.

The Diary of Anne Frank is arguably the most famous accounts of the Holocaust ever published. The experiences her writing recounts are well-known. And, her tragic demise is an eternal reminder of the dangers of fascism and anti-semitism. However, the story that has not been as widely told is about Anne’s father, Otto Frank. Otto was the sole surviving, Frank family member after the Holocaust horrors.

Otto Frank’s story is one of defiance, resilience and sorrow. Moreover, it is a story that still resonates in today’s climate. Let’s learn the untold story of another brave Frank family member.

Otto Frank and His Life Before the War

Otto Frank was born in Germany on May 12, 1889. His parents, Michael Frank and Alice Betty Stern, raised Otto in a liberal Jewish family.

When Otto grew up, he began his own family. Otto met his wife, Edith, at an engagement party. The pair then married two months later. The Frank family expanded with the birth of their two daughters, Anne and Margot. 

In 1933, waves of anti-semitic rhetoric and attacks were coursing through Germany, fomented by the new Nazi regime. As a Jewish family, Otto and Edith understood these acts as warning signs of further, emerging danger. So, that year, they decided to pack up their family and move to the Netherlands. 

After arriving safely in Amsterdam, Otto became managing director at Opekta. Opekta was a pectin and spice company that made jellies and jams. Once the family was situated, he then enrolled his daughters into school.

While these years were relatively peaceful, Hitler was growing more and more aggressive. On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The consequences of this proved dire for Otto and his family. His ongoing efforts to secure U.S. and Cuban visas were stopped because the Nazis closed the consulates. 

On July 6, 1942, the Frank family began to hide in the Secret Annex. They hid alongside four other people for two years. But on August 4, 1944, they were ultimately discovered and arrested by Dutch police. 

A Family Torn Apart

After spending a few days in prison, the group was taken by train to the Westerbork transit camp. It was a staging area for sending Jewish people to concentration camps across Nazi-occupied terrorities. 

Upon entering Westerbork, Otto was separated from his family and put to work during the day. Fortunately, he was allowed to see them at night. But only a few short weeks later, his family would be torn apart forever. 

Otto and his family were again forced onto a train, but this time was different. They were heading east to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. After three days on a tightly packed train, without adequate food and water, they arrived at the camp. 

Upon exiting onto the train platform, the men were separated from the women. And that was the last time Otto ever saw his wife and daughters.

Otto Frank and His Fight to Survive

When the group was being separated, the Secret Annex men stuck together. They worked in different Kommandos, where they would process gravel and build roads. Soon after, the weather was too frigid to continue outdoor work. So, Otto was given the small respite of peeling potatoes. 

 However, after suffering a beating and being severely malnourished, Otto was critically ill. During this time, he only weighed 52 kilos, or 114 pounds. Luckily, his friends and fellow inmates managed to get Otto admitted to the sick barracks. 

In 1945, the Soviets liberated Auschwitz. Though Otto was too sick to move, miraculously, he survived both his ailments and the flight home. Those who were healthy enough to walk were forced to leave with the Nazis – where they were eventually shot.

Ten months after his arrest, Otto returned to Amsterdam on June 3, 1945. Upon his return, he began the search for his daughters. Otto was hoping they had escaped the fate that Edith had suffered. 

Otto met with the Brilleslijper sisters, who were Anne and Margot’s inmates at Bergen-Belsen. Tragically, they revealed to Otto the horrible conditions of his daughters’ deaths. Anne and Margot had died due to illness and exhaustion.  

Upon hearing about Otto’s immeasurable loss, his secretary, Miep Gies, gave him Anne’s surviving diary and other notebooks. Two years after the war, he published Anne’s writing. Her writing shared the Holocaust tragedies with the world.

The post Anne Frank’s Father: Otto Frank  first appeared on History In Memes.

There’s an almost magical quality to cats that we sometimes take for granted. Their incredible flexibility, sensory awareness, and uncanny ability to always land on their feet when they fall make cats some of the most unique creatures around. There’s an actual scientific reason for this! This is all thanks to something called “cat righting reflex.”

But how do they pull it off? Whether it’s falling off a seven-foot fridge or your couch, they always manage to right themselves before hitting the ground. While we’ve seen animals do some extraordinary things, these little feline acrobats are pretty impressive!

Let’s dive and look at the science behind cats always landing on their feet!

What is Cat Righting Reflex? 

Cat righting reflex is a cat’s innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet. This ability appears when the cat is still a kitten, around 3-4 weeks of age. 

Cats have two physical advantages to perfect this reflex. 

First, cats have an unusually flexible backbone and no clavicle (collar bone). While the cat’s tail is also an effective tool for maintaining balance, cats without tails also have this righting reflex. 

Secondly, a cat’s ears actually play a significant role in why they always land on their feet. As it turns out, their inner ear holds the vestibular apparatus. This is a sensory system that helps with balance and spatial awareness so a cat can tell up from down.

The Techniques 

According to University of North Carolina Physics Professor Greg Gbur, cats can employ a series of different techniques when they fall. 

First technique: “Tuck and Turn”

A cat tucks in a pair of its paws so it can twist rapidly before hitting the ground. 

Second technique: “Falling Figure Skater”

Proposed by nineteenth century physicist James Clerk Maxwell, a cat can shift its angular momentum by retracting or extending its paws in a flash. 

Third technique:  “Bend and Twist”

The front half of the body rotates on a different axis from the back half.

Fourth technique:  “Propeller Tail”

This may be the most hysterical of the techniques. This is when the cat rotates its tail in the opposite direction of its body to right itself. Let that image sink in for a second. 

While these furry trapeze artists use a combination of all of these techniques to avoid a splat, their bodies also have low terminal velocity. Meaning, their small size, light bone structure and thick fur decreases the maximum speed at which they can fall through the air.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat!

I mean, who wouldn’t want the ability to always land on their feed?

But beyond their gravity-defying ability, cats are unique, and sometimes mysterious, animals.

For example, cats can purr for a variety of reasons and you may not be able to tell exactly why. They might be purring because they want you to keep petting them, because they’re sick, or, if they’re a younger kitten, they may be persuading their mother to keep nursing them. If you’re not paying close attention to their behavior, it can be impossible to tell. 

This complexity relates to their cat righting reflex as well. Some cats are longer than others, fatter, skinnier, older, younger. – you name it! All these factors are at play, leaving that precise certainty of why cats always land on their feet still a bit up in the air

The post Why Cats Always Land on Their Feet first appeared on History In Memes.

Divorces are usually pretty messy: Families unravel, mutual friends are forced to choose sides and children get caught in the crossfire. Medieval Germany took “messy” to a whole new level. In 1467,German fencing master Hans Talhoffer created the “Fechtbuch” or “Fight Book.” This combat manual contained various detailed images of men and women fighting to the death. These “divorce duels” were a last resort in settling marital disputes or ensuring a judge’s impartiality. 

The images, attached with specific combat instructions,  are quite shocking. The images provide both genders with tips and strategies to thwart their spouse-turned-opponent. 

Historical analysis shows that divorce duels were real and actually kind of common. Let’s take a look through the intense history of spousal combat!

The Origins of Judicial Duels

According to University of Oklahoma Associate Professor Kenneth L. Hodges, trial by combat started to fade out as the Middle Ages drew to a close. But, it was still a part of the accepted legal theory throughout the Renaissance.

You may be wondering: Why would an established legal system still allow duels at all? One of the reasons is that judges operated as extensions of the king. Therefore, accusations of treason pitted the defendant against the sovereign himself. 

So, in order to keep things fair and square, the accused could demand trial by combat. This trial was an impartial battle against whoever the king put up to fight. Guilt or innocence was determined by the survivor. 

Why Women Chose Divorce Duels

Hodges research also showed it was very common for men and women to settle marital disputes in state-sanctioned combat. But there are some skeptics who find this claim surprising, if not unlikely. 

This is for a couple of reasons:First, the woman was at an obvious physical disadvantage. In addition, women were subjugated to an overwhelming amount of religious and political discrimination that would never allow them a real shot at hurting a man. 

But, Talhoffer’s manual and further research revealed understandable reasons why a woman might want or have to take the risk. 

For example, the man she would normally pick to fight on her behalf is the man she’d *currently* be trying to kill. So, she has to fight instead. Also, the legal system went through almost comical lengths to provide an “even” playing field. 

Talhoffer’s images show the man positioned in a hole with a club and the woman standing above him with a rock-filled cloth. Sure, seems fair enough… 

The idea was that both weapons would be the same length. And the woman would be given an advantage in mobility. But, Talhoffer’s descriptions of how the fights could occur were even more crazy.

Talhoffer’s Tips on Divorce Duels

As a combat expert, Talhoffer was definitely qualified to imagine and document all of the different strategic moves a battling husband and wife could use to settle a dispute. Divorce duels in medieval Germany must have been a sight to behold (as seen below in Talhoffer’s descriptions).

Scroll and take a look at these combat photos! 

If only these couples had the guys from Wedding Crashers to help mediate!

The post Divorce Duels: Medieval Trial by Combat first appeared on History In Memes.

No, this isn’t a level in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. St. Liborius is a real-life church in St. Louis, Missouri, that was converted into a fully operational skate park called Sk8 Liborius.

Fed up with the separation of church and skate, craftsman Dave Blum and skate park builder Bryan Bedwell spearheaded the project with divine results. 

Sk8 Liborius, their nonprofit skate park and youth outreach center, is the product of impactful work to build a “sanctuary for fringe artists and fringe skaters,” in the city of St. Louis. 

While you probably won’t catch the Pope dropping in anytime soon, these impressive renovations transformed an abandoned 130-year-old church into skater heaven. 

Sk8 Liborius B.C.

Before Sk8 Liborius, there was St. Liborius Church. The German national parish was established in 1856 and finished construction in 1889.  The church was named after Liborius of Le Mans, the patron saint of a good death (what every skater hopes for).

In 1975, the church was declared a city landmark. But over the course of the century, the number of parishoners dwindled. St. Liborius officially closed in 1992. 

This towering, Gothic Revival building with spires piercing the sky eventually fell into ruin, with mold on the pulpit and mice in the pews. 

Vandals tore copper pipes out of the walls. Water damage left massive holes, cratering through the high-arching ceilings. Windows were blown out. The floors were rotting at the boards. 

Then, two angels appeared.

From Rags to Ramps

Co-owner of BLA Studios Dave Blum got his start as a craftsman. Specifically, he repurposed found objects and built custom items for St. Louis’ famed City Museum. At the time, his soon-to-be partnere Bryan Bedwell was running his Always Hard Concrete construction company as a skate park builder.

The pair joined forces in 2018 to create Sk8 Liborius. Together, the two hosted various events like underground concerts, plays and parties to raise funds for the construction project in the now not-so-abandoned church. Media quickly started covering their events. 

Volunteers, who worked for free skate time, helped clean out the decades-old debris and glided up and down the skate-church’s 11 by 40 foot vertical ramp. The whole building became a “giant piece of artwork” – a monument to shredding and togetherness. 

What The Future Holds

The Sk8 Liborius nonprofit is proud of its involvement in the young local community, bringing together people of all races, genders and classes. According to Bedwell, half of the kids who have skated at the church are now welders, inspired by what they witnessed on that hallowed ground. 

While Sk8 Liborius is still very much a work-in-progress, the nonprofit plans to offer skills training that underserved communities don’t often have exposure to, including construction,arts and music. 

Blum and Bedwell hope to have the church-turned-skate park fully funded in the coming years so it can be completely open to the public. Sure, the goal is steep; their GoFundMe page has a goal of $500,000. But if you’re looking for something of a miracle, a church is a pretty good place to start. 

The post Sk8 Liborius: Abandoned Church Gets Legit first appeared on History In Memes.

Privately owned, makeshift zoos have been thrust into the limelight with eccentric characters like Joe Exotic the “Tiger King” and his nemesis, Carole Baskin, dominating pop culture. But paying to interact with dangerous animals in shockingly unregulated environments is not exactly new. Welcome to the California Alligator Farm: A rather terrifying tourist attraction that opened in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, in 1907. 

While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen animals do the unexpected, the California Alligator Farm is a testament to America’s past – when things got a little wild from time to time…

Meet “Alligator Joe” Campbell

California’s alligator farms were founded by alligator king, “Alligator Joe” Campbell, and Francis Earnest, the man who owned an Ostrich Farm across the street. The price of admission? Just 25 cents!

“Alligator Joe” initially set up shop down south in Hot Springs, Arkansas. But when the bright lights of L.A. – and its hot bed of tourism – were too tempting to pass up, he loaded his gators on a train and headed West. 

In Lincoln Heights, Campbell’s impressive roster of nearly a thousand reptiles became the most complete reptile collection in the world. Over 13,000 visitors soaked in those scales every year. 

A Day at the Farm 

A typical visit to the Alligator Farm included men, women, and young children feeding, touching and even riding alligators. The alligators’ size ranged anywhere from between a few inches and 13 feet in size. 

Visitors could even buy the smaller alligators to take home!

At the nudging of the handlers, the alligators performed for the crowd. The alligators ate live chickens, rode down slides and wrestled with “trainers.” You could even visit the movie star alligator, Billy, who cameoed in various films from 1910-1940. Billy’s “star quality” came from his ability to open his jaw wide whenever meat dangled off-camera. 

Billy was the oldest reptile in the park. Because of this, he had been domesticated enough to wear a saddle that parents gladly placed their children on for a slithery ride.

There’s No Way This Ended Well, Right?

Correct. But not for the reasons you’re thinking!

Yes, it was risky to buy two acres for an alligator farm that was equipped with an incubator house – and then opening said alligator farm to children. But no serious accidents or lawsuits were responsible for the California Alligator Farm’s closure. It was actually poor attendance!

In 1953, tourists started to kse interest. The farm was relocated from LA to Buena Park, California, before closing for good in 1984. 

Even though it shut down, the park has remained a staple of Los Angeles history. Long live the days when you could put alligators on trains, ship them across the country and have people pay to hang out in pools with them. Yikes!

The post California’s Alligator Farms of the 1900s first appeared on History In Memes.

Bernie Sanders has become a household name since he launched his bid for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 Presidential Election. But what about young Bernie Sanders?

Known for his progressive politics, hoarse Brooklyn accent and penchant for being memed, the senator from Vermont is not your typical politician. His Doc Brown hair, hunched shoulders and stern mug don’t exactly scream “poster boy of a progressive youth movement.”

But Bernie’s been around a minute. 

In fact, Bernie was an active participant in the fight for equity and equality that defined the Civil Rights movement in the United States. But that participation didn’t always go over well with the law.

And it got 21-year-old Bernie Sanders arrested in 1963.

What Was a Young Bernie Sanders Protesting When He Got Arrested?

In 1963, Bernie Sanders was a student at the University of Chicago. During this time, the superintendent of Chicago’s public schools was planning to set up mobile “classrooms” in Black neighborhoods. The plan was in response to the influx of African American students entering public schools during desegregation. 

This was clearly a thinly veiled attempt to maintain segregation (white students wouldn’t be using these aluminum trailers). Superintendent Benjamin C. Willis received backlash from protesters. The protesters vehemently condemned these “Willis Wagons,” as they called them. In response, they staged numerous demonstrations to draw attention to Willis and then Mayor Richard J. Daly’s discriminatory policies. 

But Sanders, as the President of the Congress of Racial Equality at the university, was also protesting his University’s segregationist policies at university-owned apartments in Hyde Park.

In January 1962, Sanders told the Maroon, a student run newspaper: “We feel it is an intolerable situation when Negro and white students of the University cannot live together in university owned apartments.”

Sanders and his fellow students wanted the University of Chicago, an institution with its fair share of progressive history, to be held accountable for its role in segregation.

Why Did Bernie Get Arrested? 

According to the Chicago Tribune, Willis’ response to overcrowding was not to transfer students to predominantly white schools where there was space and resources available. Instead, he said he wanted to install “poorly built 20-by-36-foot aluminum trailers in vacant lots.”

This policy, along with many others, led to numerous acts of resistance and protest in the city of Chicago. One of the most publicized of these protests occurred in August 1963. Demonstrators attempted to halt the installation of the Willis Wagons in a vacant lot next to the railroad tracks at 73rd Street and Lowe Avenue. 

It was at this protest that Bernie Sanders was arrested, charged with resisting arrest, found guilty and given a $25 fine.

Were the Willis Wagons Ever Used? 

Unfortunately, yes. 

Willis installed 625 aluminum trailers across Chicago, with at least one reported instance of a trailer being used to implement segregation within the school itself. Black students were made to attend class in a wagon, while the white students were free to attend class inside the actual school building. 

But, this blatant exercise of segregation would not be tolerated by Chicagoans. On October 22, 1963, about half of Chicago Public School students skipped school in protest. Known as “Freedom Day,” roughly 225,000 students boycotted the city’s racist policies and 10,000 people protested at the steps of City Hall. 

Protestors made desegregation in Chicago a national issue. However, it ultimately did not end Mayor Daly’s policies or kick Willis to the curb. Willis Wagons continued to be filled with disenfranchised students of color and further discriminatory practices are still felt to this day.  

It would take another 25 years for the Chicago public school system to experience reforms. 

He may be an old white guy from Brooklyn, but 21-year-old Bernie Sanders played an important, if relatively small, part in the fight for racial equality in Chicago public schools.

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