History in my back yard.

[diaglo]

the second founding of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain

By Mary Owens ( http://www.friendsofstonemountainpark.org/kkk.html )

Klan activities go back to November 25, 1915, when a group of robed and hooded men met at Stone Mountain where "Col." Williams Simmons took oath as grand dragon of the Klan. The oath was administered by Nate Forest, grandson of Klan Founder Gen. Nathan B. Venable, and was witnessed by the owner of Stone Mountain, Sam Venable. In October, 1923, Venable granted the KKK easement with perpetual right to hold celebrations at they desired.

more info: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2145

 

[JamesDJarvis]

King Philips War

My family cut ice on "Fresh pond" in the boston area.

The Boston Tea Party

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and others.

The Battle of Lexington and Concord

A couple of blocks from my boyhood home there is a plaque commerating the life and death of an elderly man to old and weak to join the younger men as a minute man but stood on hs porch firing on the british regulars as the passed on the road, two sappers were sent in to bayonet him.

The Battle of Bunker Hill (most of which ddin't take place on bunker hill)

More of the Revolutionary War

One of my famos but remote ancestors: Nathaniel Wyeth. Look him up.

The Brinks Job, a famous robbery that a fair movie was made about.

The Boston Strangler

I lived through the Busing Crisis

I now live a couple a miles away from "Americas Stonhenge" it used to be called "Mystery Hill", i like the old name more, it is supposedly pre colonial ruins of celtic origin.

not strictly 30 miles away from home but of home based siginfigance:

Some of my english ancestors were on the 4th ship to land at the Plymouth colony.

My Itlaian great grandfather used to light the old gas streetlanps in Brooklyn.

 

[Warrior Poet]

I live in arnhem, points for people that can tell what happened around here through the ages

hint: lotsa old men with red hats in july. allthough every year there are less and less.

Well, there's Operation Market Garden, obviously. Beyond that, my knowledge of Dutch history is limited.

'round here, some examples:

There was quite the fire in 1871 that, like London's, resulted in a massive architectural overhaul of the city.

1891 hosted the World's Columbian Exposition. Some of the buildings built for it are still in use today, mostly as museums.

In 1900 they reversed the direction the local river runs.

John Dillinger was gunned down near a theater on a northside street in the 30s. A guy by the name of Al Capone used to work here.

We've got a fairly famous family mayoral dynasty.

In 1967 a giant sculpture by Picasso was installed at the Civic Center Plaza.

The local football team won the Super Bowl in 1986. The basketball team used to be one helluva team , and lately, things are looking up for them again. We had quite the baseball World Series fixing scandal in 1919.

And that's just a few of the highlights.

Warrior Poet

 

[Panthanas]

Hmmmm...there are a few things, probably more, but here is what I can think of right now:

The Battle of Newtown on August 27, 1779. General John Sullivan with his army of about 5,000 soldiers pushed northward from Pennsylvania with orders from General George Washington to drive the Indians out of the wilderness of New York, to burn their villages and destroy their crops so they could not return. The army was to push its way northward to the shores of Lake Erie and to capture the British Forts Oswego and Niagara.


Mark Twain lived here in Elmira, NY. He is buried here as well.

Ummm...not history per se, but Brian Williams from NBCs Nightly News is from here as is Eileen Collins, the first woman pilot of a Space Shuttle.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.

EDIT:
How could I forget...Elmira was a prison camp during the Civil War. My understanding is that it was one of the worst prisons and earned the name "Hell-mira".


Elmira is also home to the first Gannett Newspaper (USA Today is a Gannett paper), the Star-Gazette, although it is often referred to as the Star-Regret.

 

[Cannibal_Kender]

Fredonia NY-

First Grange.

First natural gas well.

First meeting of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (now you know where to blame for ammendment 18).

First naval engagement of War of 1812 took place on lake Erie right off coast of Fredonia.

 

[der_kluge]

That's a tough one. I know very little about Richmond, having lived here only since October. I think Edgar Allen Poe lived here for a town, or was born here maybe. There is a museum here for him.


I grew up in a small town in Arkansas named Dover. Dover is famous for Ronald Gene Simmons - a mass murderer. He murdered his whole family (one of the boys, Eddie, was in my class) and murdered a few people in town before they finally caught him. He was eventually electrocuted.

That's about all its known for.

 

[diaglo]

That's a tough one. I know very little about Richmond, having lived here only since October. I think Edgar Allen Poe lived here for a town, or was born here maybe. There is a museum here for him.

baltimore. hon. for poe.

richmond was the capitol for the Confederacy.

 

[WayneLigon]

You do realise that for a lot of the European posters here this would be an excuse to write the longest post evar!

I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from. -- Eddie Izzard.

Montgomery, Alabama

• The world's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery in 1886.
• Montgomery is the capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.
• The Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama in 1861.
• The Alabama Department of Archives is the oldest state-funded archival agency in the nation.
• In 1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing a stab wound in a young boy's heart.
• Nat King Cole was born in Montgomery in 1919.
• December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks is arrested, tried and convicted of disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man; on appeal, this leads the Supreme Court to declare segregated bus service unconstitutional.
  

 

[Captain Needles]

I live in Danvers, Mass where the Salem witch trials actually happened (it was part of Salem at the time). It works out because all the annoying goth wannabees hang out in Salem instead of my neighborhood. My town has the Danvers State hospital, on numerous lists as possibly the most haunted spot in America (see the movie session 9 to see where I'm talking about).

 

[fett527]

The Wright Brother's invented powered flight in their Dayton bicycle shop. (The bicycle shop is now located in Carillon Park). http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1899/letter.cfm (Linked this specific page- notice the Dayton, OH in the letter to the Smithsonian)

The first official game of the National Football League played between the Dayton Triangles and the Columbus Panhandles. http://www.profootballhof.com/history/release.jsp?release_id=1480

The Dayton Peace Accords which ended the Bosnian war in 1995. http://www.state.gov/www/regions/eur/bosnia/bosagree.html