[May 7th, 1985] Rupert Murdoch, Australian publisher, promises to "never be boring". He owns numerous newspapers and magazines, and recently bought half of 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. for $162 million.

#history #OTD #1980s

A #history video I made last weekend about James Wallace black and the oldest surviving aerial photograph.

This is only the 2nd short-format video I've created, but I like it so much more than the first one. youtube.com/shorts/V3frt... 🗃️ #skystorians #signalboost

The story of aerial reconnaissance began with hot air balloons, revolutionizing how armies saw the battlefield. From the French Revolution to the American Civil War, balloons played a key role in military intelligence. 🗃️ #history #skystorians

It's easy to take for granted the wealth of knowledge that 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 has afforded us just in the last century and a half. But it is only through archaeological excavation that we've truly begun to grasp the intricate process of civilization's emergence. 🏺🗃️🧵

Following the lead of @herberthistory.bsky.social: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #1 completely changed the way I look at history:

I became curious about the past as a kid riding through the emptied, narrow store fronts on the Main Streets of old Texas towns. After my first son was born, I wanted to know my family history; that led to wanting to know the context for the lives of my ancestors who I was learning about.

This Slovenian site is a beautiful example of an archaeological palimpsest. It's like a layer cake of history: 18th-century church ➡️ medieval castle ➡️ Roman fort ➡️ Iron Age settlement! One location showing how different cultures reused the same spot over time. #archaeology #skystorians

🧵Well-known ghost towns like Bodie, California, have retained many of their structures and become popular tourist attractions. But others have left to no little trace of what they once were. Thankfully, some of these lost towns have been preserved in historic aerial images. 🗃️ #skystorians

🧵In May 1957, an F5 tornado tore through the Ruskin Heights neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, leaving 44 dead, over 500 injured, and a path of destruction that reshaped the landscape. The path of the tornado is clearly visible in this image from HistoricAerials.com. 🗃️ #skystorians

Here's an old photo from 1900 of the Fohn-Bless Store, in Hondo, Texas, which has managed to stick around so that we can still see it today. texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/m... #history 🗃️

If a civil word or two will render a man happy, he must be wretched, indeed, who will not give them to him. Such a disposition is like lighting another man's candle by one's own, which loses none of its brilliancy by what the other gains. #signalboost texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/m...

Noah Smithwick came to #Texas in 1827, embarking on an adventure of more than 3 decades. From early Anglo settlement up to the Civil War's outbreak, he witnessed, and influenced, the state's #history. His Unionist sympathies led him to California in 1861, where he lived until his death in 1899. 🗃️

Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Texas history knows about Stephen F. Austin, Mexico's first empresario given the opportunity to settle Anglo-American families with their slaves in Texas. When Austin first came to Texas, he crossed the Sabine from Louisiana on the El Camino Real.

The Texas Medical Center has changed so much in a century. Herman Hospital, seen in this 1926 photo, is now dwarfed by larger additions, as seen on Google Earth. From its humble beginnings it has grown into a cornerstone of Houston's medical community, continuously expanding and innovating. #history

I'm always looking for traces of history in satellite imagery. If I see something interesting, I try to find out what it is. On a property near what is now George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, I spotted an ovular shape that seems to have been a racetrack.