Creative History

  By 1503 King Louis XII of France and King Ferdinand I of Spain (then known as Ferdinand II of Aragon) have spent the past two years, aided by mercenaries and knights loyal to local rulers, warring with one another up and down the Italian Peninsula.   Both Louis XII of France and Ferdinand I of Spain assert familial claims to the thrones of the Italian city states of Naples and Milan and each has dispatched a formidable army to Italy to drive home the point. Originally allies who had agreed to split the newly conquered Kingdom of Naples between themselves in 1501, Louis XII and Ferdinand I had a falling out over how to equally divide the spoils soon after their combined Franco-Spanish army had defeated the Neapolitans and a state of war has existed between France and Spain ever since.   Caught in the middle of this late-medieval struggle between two of Europe’s greatest powers, Italian rulers have variously thrown their support behind both Spain and France as the tides of war have s

            Bernard John Dowling Irwin wan an Irish-born American army surgeon who on February 13, 1861 found himself the unlikely commander of a contingent of 14 soldiers of the United States Army’s 7th Infantry Division dispatched on a rescue mission to save 60 American cavalrymen who were surrounded and under siege by the great Apache warrior chief Cochise. For his brave actions on that day Assistant Surgeon Bernard Irwin would go on to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.  And although, the Medal of Honor was not established as an award for bravery and valor above and beyond the call of duty in service to the United States until 1862 at the height of the American Civil War, Irwin’s deeds in defeating the great Apache warrior Cochise and rescuing his fellow cavalrymen on February 13, 1861 while surrounded by hostile Apaches, would make his Medal of Honor the earliest awarded for bravery in combat by date of action as it pre-dated the outbreak of the American Civil War by ne

  A crowd of 5,000 angry and hungry New Yorker’s gathered outside City Hall on the frigid afternoon of February 13, 1837. For days anger had been mounting across New York, stirred up by pamphlets and posters throughout the city that exhorted the populace to take immediate action to rectify the city’s food shortages. During the mid 1830’s an economic depression, a “Panic” in the parlance of the times, settled over the nation and as a result food prices and the cost of living skyrocketed.  By February of 1837 America’s largest city was in crisis.   Rumors had been going around town that the City only had enough flour left on hand for another three weeks supply.  Newspapers were reporting that vast stockpiles of food and flour were being hoarded by wealthy merchants in an effort to artificially drive up prices and increase their already lucrative profits. Economic conditions in New York City were being blamed on, “an atrocious and wicked conspiracy by rich speculators...verita

  The Salem County Courthouse in Salem, New Jersey, was built in 1735.  It is the oldest continually operating courthouse in New Jersey and the second oldest in all of the United States.  In 1774 the Salem County Courthouse was the site of a petition denouncing King George III on behalf of the colonists of New Jersey for unfair and unlawful taxation. On September 26, 1820 on the steps of that same red brick historic courthouse the tomato stood trial before a crowd of upwards of 2000 spectators all of whom had gathered that day believing that they might see a well known local celebrity and somewhat eccentric man drop dead. Standing atop the steps that morning, with a wicker basket full of tomatoes at his feet, is Salem farmer, historian, horticulturist, judge and former soldier, Robert Gibbon Johnson, known affectionately at the time as Colonel Johnson for his past military service to the residents of Salem. Earlier in the week Robert Gibbon Johnson had announced that he would p