Creative History

  The media called it the “Fight for America” and like almost every single major prize fight ever since with high stakes involved, and even higher public interest, the bout was dubbed “The Fight of the Century”--the Fight of the 19th Century that is!   Ten thousand dollars and some would say the future of what it even meant to be called an “American” were on the line that day when on February 7, 1849 at a farm in Maryland, located forty miles from Baltimore on a desolate snow covered island, what the press called “The Fight for America” and what the public referred to as “The Fight of the Century” took place in front of less than 200 spectators, mostly gamblers and former fighters themselves, because at that time boxing despite its underground popularity, and its popularity as a legitimate sport in the United Kingdom, was illegal almost everywhere in the United States of America. It was definitely not an auspicious place or time of year to hold an outdoor boxing match...

  “There may be visitors from Mars, fearful, at the least, of invading the planet that they have been seeking.”  -- St. Louis Post Dispatch April 1897 Gaslights flicker as a soft late Autumn rain descends to the ground in San Francisco California.  It is a few minutes past midnight on November 21, 1896. Suddenly, at about a thousand feet above ground just beneath the clouds, a bright light begins to move slowly across the sky.  The brightness of the light cuts through the overcast night sky with the intensity of a high powered searchlight. Trailing slowly behind the bright light is the shadow of an elongated cigar shaped craft.  The craft is moving so deliberately that it almost appears to be suspended, or hovering, in mid-air.  Those awake at this time of night gaze upwards in amazement and perplexity.  People on the ground start to point, murmur and to even gasp in wonder as this strange flying object drifts by over their heads. No one has ev...