Herbert Hoover

EARLY LIFE

Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German  and Swiss ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn (1849–1884), was of English and Irish ancestry. Both of his parents were Quakers.

Herbert Hoover birthplace cottage, West Branch, Iowa. By Billwhittaker at English Wikipedia, 

At about age two "Bertie", as he was then called, contracted the croup. Little Bertie was so ill that he was momentarily thought to have died, until he was resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn

As a child,  young Bertie was often called by his father "my little stick in the mud", since he repeatedly was trapped in the mud while crossing an unpaved street.

1877 Herbert Hoover Tintype

Bertie's father died in 1880. After working to retire her husband's debts, retain their life insurance, and care for the children, his mother died in 1884, leaving Hoover (aged nine), his older brother, and his younger sister as orphans Fellow Quaker Lawrie Tatum was appointed as Hoover's guardian.

EDUCATION

Hoover entered Stanford University in 1891, its inaugural year. While at the university, Hoover was the student manager of both the baseball and football teams and was a part of the inaugural Big Game versus rival the University of California (Stanford won).

He earned his way through four years of college working at various jobs on and off campus, including the Arkansas and United States Geological Survey.

Hoover graduated in 1895 with a degree in geology.

WORKING LIFE

Hoover went to Western Australia in 1897 as an employee of Bewick, Moreing & Co., a London-based gold mining company. He worked at gold mines in Big Bell, Cue, Leonora, Menzies, and Coolgardie.

Herbert Hoover, aged 23; taken in Perth, Western Australia, in 1898

Later, Hoover worked as chief engineer for the Chinese Bureau of Mines, and as general manager for the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation.

In 1908, Hoover became an independent mining consultant, traveling worldwide until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He left Bewick, Moreing & Co and, setting out on his own, eventually ended up with investments on every continent and offices in San Francisco, London, New York City, St. Petersburg, Paris and Mandalay, Burma.

By 1914, Hoover was a wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $4 million.

MARRIAGE

Herbert Hoover met Lou Henry at Stanford University and they started courting. When Hoover graduated from Stanford in June 1895, they decided to delay wedding plans while she continued her education and he pursued his engineering career in Australia. In 1898, the year Lou graduated from Stanford, Hoover cabled a marriage proposal, which she promptly accepted by return wire.

First Lady of the United States

Both Herbert and Lou were 24 years old when they married on February 10, 1899, at the home of the bride's parents in Monterey, California.

Although raised an Episcopalian, Miss Henry decided to become a Quaker. But because there was no Quaker Meeting in Monterey, they were married in a civil ceremony performed by Father Ramon Mestres, a Roman Catholic priest of the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo.

The day after their marriage, the Hoovers sailed from San Francisco for Shanghai, China, where they spent four days in the Astor House Hotel. The newlyweds soon settled into their first home, a large house in Tianjin. Hoover's job required extensive travel throughout remote and dangerous areas, which they did together.

 President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Henry standing at the back of a train in Belvidere, Illinois.

They had two sons together Herbert and Allan. Lou died of a heart attack in New York City on January 7, 1944. She predeceased her husband by 20 years,

POLITICAL CAREER 

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration.

Herbert Hoover established one meatless, two wheat-less and two pork-less days each week. This program helped reduce consumption of foodstuffs needed overseas and avoided rationing at home.

As a United States Commerce Secretary in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, Hoover promoted economic modernization.

The first long distance public television broadcast in America on April 7, 1927 from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displayed the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.

In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination. The nation was prosperous and optimistic, leading to a landslide for Hoover over the Democrat Al Smith.

Herbert Hoover was the first US president born west of the Mississippi.

President Hoover and his wife would talk in Mandarin Chinese to prevent White House staff from eavesdropping.

The custom of taking a "stretch" after the seventh inning during a baseball game started when Herbert Hoover, who was attending a game had to leave before it was finished. It so happened that his departure coincided with the end of the seventh inning. Seeing their president leave, all spectators got up to pay him respect. Thus the "stretch" originated, which has been observed at that very juncture of every game ever since.

53 years after the invention of the phone, a line was finally installed in the White House for Herbert Hoover in 1929.

A few months after Hoover was elected president, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.

Many things were named after President Hoover during the Great Depression. There were the shanty towns named 'Hoovervilles', a horse drawn automobile was a 'Hoover wagon', worn out shoes were patched with cardboard known as "Hoover leather", and an empty out turned pocket was a "Hoover flag". 

Due to his failure to fix the Great Depression, Hoover lost the 1932 election to Franklin Roosevelt.

Though Herbert Hoover was a scapegoat for the Great Depression, he was regarded by many as a humanitarian, helping save millions from starvation after World War 1 by heading an American relief operation in Europe and Russia.

Herbert Hoover, turned over all the Federal salary checks he received to charity during the 47 years he was in government.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

Herbert Hoover had a Belgian shepherd dog called King Tut.

Hoover liked to drive his car, accompanied by his wife or a friend. He would go on wandering journeys, visiting Western mining camps or small towns where he often went unrecognized, or heading up to the mountains, or deep into the woods, to go fishing in relative solitude.

Herbert Hoover weighed 200 pounds when he entered the White House in 1929. His physician Joel Boone invented a game called Hooverball in which two teams of three players throw a 6-pound medicine ball back and forth over an 8-foot net on a tennis-like court. Hoover lost 21 pounds in his term.

He wrote extensively after his presidency, including The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson, the first biography of one president written by another,

A year before his death, his own fishing days behind him, Hoover published Fishing For Fun—And To Wash Your Soul, the last of more than sixteen books in his lifetime.

DEATH

Herbert Hoover died following massive internal bleeding at the age of 90 in his New York City suite at 11:35 a.m. on October 20, 1964.  At the time, no former president had lived as long.

Source Wikipedia

Thomas Hooker

The puritan pastor and gifted preacher Thomas Hooker (1586-1647) had fled England to escape the persecution of the High Church Archbishop William Laud for non-conformity. After a period as first minister of the First Parish in Cambridge in 1636 he led his 100-strong congregation away to found a new settlement in Hartford, Connecticut. There he was much instrumental in the establishment of a written constitution for the government of the Colony. This was the first ever written Constitution known to history, that created a government and for this reason he is sometimes known as the father of American democracy. 

Hood

The common people of Rome wore a cloak with an attached hood.

Some kind of hood continued to be worn outdoors by both men and women throughout the early Middle Ages. If it was separate from the cloak or cape it was called a chaperon. If it was attached, it was a cowl, or capuchon.

The hooded cloak came into widespread use during the early part of the last millennium. It was worn by clerics, religious pilgrims, and shepherds.

With the emergence of the friars in the twelfth century, Francis of Assisi and Dominic devised a tunic that had an extensive hood attached. Friars, when turning to prayer would simply pull their hood over their heads. This was their withdrawal from the immediacy of the world within which they ministered.

The academic hood can be traced to a shoulder covering worn in the Middle Ages by begging Friars. Apart from keeping the itinerant monks warm on cold days, it served as a cloth receptacle and carrier bag for gifts presented to them by the pious.

The hood achieved its greatest popularity in the 15th century, when it was lengthened into the liripipe --a long, narrow band at the crown that almost touched the ground.

In about 1500, women began to wear hoods, highly jeweled and embroidered. Some form of hood or lace cap continued to be worn until the late 1700s.

Today, fashion hoods are generally soft headcoverings which form part of robbing a larger garment, such as an overcoat, shirt or cloak; an exception is a rain hood which is not part of a larger garment.

Source Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.

Hong Kong

The refusal of the Chinese Qing authorities to support opium imports caused the outbreak of the First Opium War between the British Empire and the Qing Empire in 1839. Qing's defeat resulted in the occupation of Hong Kong Island by British forces on January 20, 1841.

The picture below shows East India Company iron steam ship Nemesis, commanded by Lieutenant W. H. Hall, with boats from the Sulphur, Calliope, Larne and Starling, destroying the Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, on January 7, 1841.

Britain and China signed the Treaty of Nanking, an "unequal treaty" to end the First Opium War, on August 29, 1842. The island that is now the site of Hong Kong was ceded to Britain. The cession of Hong Kong to Britain had long-lasting effects, shaping the region's history and development until its eventual return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

The Hong Kong Police Force may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of this bustling metropolis, but it has a fascinating history. Established on May 1, 1844, it was the second modern police force in the world and the first in Asia. Its founding was a response to the rapid growth of the British colony of Hong Kong, which had become a key trading hub in the region.

When China leased to Britain the New Territories of Hong Kong in 1898, British diplomat Claude MacDonald secured a 99-year lease only because he thought "it was good as forever." Britain did not think they would ever have to give the territories back.

The Japanese Empire attacked Hong Kong on the same morning as Pearl Harbor, only four hours after the attack, which led to the Battle of Hong Kong. After 18 days of fierce fighting against the overwhelming Japanese forces, the British Empire surrendered on December 25, 1941, a day which would be later referred to as Black Christmas. The occupation lasted for three years and eight months until Japan surrendered at the end of World War II.

  The arrest of western bankers in Hong Kong by the Japanese

                            
The MTR, the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong, opened on October 1, 1979. The first trains from Shek Kip Mei Station to Kwun Tong Station, initially in a four-car configuration. The first train drivers were trained on the London Underground.

HK Tung Chung Line Train. By User:Honeybee - Wikipedia Commons

The United Kingdom transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China on July 1, 1997 concluding 156 Years of British Rule. The territory became China's first provincial-level special administrative region with a high degree of autonomy under the principle of one country, two systems.

Since its replacement on July 1, 1997, the former flag of Hong Kong (see below) has been used as a symbol of protest against perceived Chinese interference in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. (The husband's lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.)

Hong Kong is the city with the most Rolls Royces per capita.

Hong Kong is considered the world's worst city for light pollution owing to its numerous spotlights and LED billboards. A 2013 study found that Tsim Sha Tsui was the worst polluted area, with readings on average 1000 times brighter than the benchmark "normal dark sky".

There is one restaurant for every 300 people in Hong Kong, the highest per capita concentration on Earth.

McDonald's staff in Hong Kong are not allowed to throw people out, so many "McRefugees" live there rather than pay steep rent prices.

The words 'Hong Kong' can be spoken without moving your lips.

Hong Kong has more skyscrapers, than any other city on earth. Its 1,294 such edifices, easily outstrips New York City, Dubai and other global metropolises.

Southern Kowloon and Victoria, Hong Kong, 2014. By Estial - Wikipedia Commons

Hong Kong has the most people living at the 15th floor or higher, and the most buildings of at least 100 m (328 ft) and 150 m (492 ft) height in the world.

Some apartments in Hong Kong are so small they are called "coffin homes". They are so small that the UN called it an "insult to human dignity" with some being around 15 square feet".

Standing side by side, the entire world population could squeeze into Hong Kong.

Each evening, at least 44 skyscrapers and buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour light up in a synchronized show called A Symphony of Lights, named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest permanent light and sound festival in the world.

Some buildings on the coast of Hong Kong have holes in them to let dragons pass through.

Hong Kong is the only known place on Earth that can be pronounced without moving your tongues or lips.

Honeymoon

Four thousand years ago in Babylonia, the bride's father would give his son-in-law all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and since the Babylonian calendar was lunar, this period was called the "honey month." Today it's called a "honeymoon."

In the Old Testament, a newly married couple was encouraged to spend a year-long honeymoon at the homes of their families. "For one year he (a recently married man) is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married." Deuteronomy 24:5.

In 1812  the scientist Sir Humphry Davy married a wealthy Scottish widow, Jane Apreece , three days after being knighted. She disapproved of science especially after her husband took a chemical chest on their honeymoon.

English artist John Constable first started painting the sea on his honeymoon in Dorset.

The debt-laden Fyodor Dostoyevsky married Anna Grigorieva Snitkina on February 15, 1867 in Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg. The 7,000 rubles Dostoyevsky had earned from the recently published Crime and Punishment did not cover their debts, forcing Anna to sell her valuables. On April 14, 1867 they began a delayed honeymoon in Germany with the money gained from the sale.

Thomas Hardy and Emma Gifford married on September 17, 1874 at St Peter's Church, Paddington, London. The Hardys went on honeymoon to Dartington Hall, in the west country, Queen's Road, in Brighton, then sailed to Dieppe and travelled by train to Rouen and Paris.

The 60-year-old George Eliot married the 40 year-old American banker George Cross at St Georges, Hanover Square, London. Cross jumped out of the window of their hotel bedroom into Venice's Grand Canal on their honeymoon, but survived.

Root Beer began as an herbal tea made of various roots, berries, and herbs for cough and mouth sores. It was created by pharmacist Charles E. Hires on his honeymoon.

There were 13 newly-wed couples celebrating their honeymoon on the Titanic.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were married in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. They honeymooned at the Biltmore Hotel in New York until asked to leave because of their behaviour.

Queen Elizabeth II was given her first corgi as an 18th-birthday gift in 1944. The then-princess named the dog Susan and adored her pet corgi so much that she took her on honeymoon.

During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel between March 25- 31 1969.

The world’s longest honeymoon, taken by Mike and Anne Howard, from New York clocked up six continents, 33 countries and 302 places. It took 675 days.

Honey

HONEY HISTORY

The earliest illustration we have of honey being gathered is approx 15,000 years old and appears in a painting on the walls of a rock shelter in eastern Spain.

Honey was  used in most ancient Egyptian households as a sweetening agent as far back as 4000 BC.

Honey was valued highly by the Egyptians, it was used to feed sacred animals and as a tribute or payment.

Ancient Egyptian confectioners uses honey as a sweetener and mixed it with various fruits, herbs, nuts, and spices. The candy was then used as an offering to the Egyptian gods.

Honey was the most used medicine in ancient Egypt. Of the more than 900 medical remedies we know about for that time, more than 500 were honey based.

The ancient Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans all considered honey to be a gift of the gods. They hoped for magic, healing and life-enhancing properties from honey cake.

In Greek mythology, it is said that cupid dipped his arrows in honey to fill the lovers heart with sweetness.

The Ancient Greeks made little honey cakes from flour, honey and oil, sometimes baked with fresh flowers inside them, as supplications to their gods. They considered honey to be an important food as well as a healing medicine.

Democritus (460-370 BC), a Greek philosopher and physician, chose a diet rich in honey and lived until he was 109 years old.

The Teutonic peoples in pre-Christian Europe prized honey cake especially around the winter solstice as protection against evil spirits who were abroad during the twelve nights of Christmas.

In the Bible, honey was dubbed "the heavenly food."  When God gave the Israelite people their promised land, it was called a land flowing with milk and honey—a fertile agricultural area that could produce amazing foods—including bees with raw honey.

In biblical times, John the Baptist lived on a diet of wild locust and honey.

In the first century AD, Apicus, a wealthy Roman gourmet, wrote a series of books in which more than half the recipes included honey.

Physicians in ancient Rome used honey to help their patients fall asleep.

For thousands of years, honey and fruits were the only sweeteners in Europe.

People have been calling their sweeties “honey” since the 1350s

FUN HONEY FACTS

Honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life.

Honey is the only food that does not go bad. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

There isn't enough water in honey for microorganisms to live on, which is why honey never goes bad.

The average worker bee makes just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

It would take two tablespoons of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world.

The Jewish New Year is welcomed with honey cake or apples dipped in honey, to insure a sweet life in the year ahead.

Manuka honey, which bees make from a New Zealand flower, is so good at killing bacteria that it can be used to heal wounds and burns.

There is in Nepal a honey called 'mad honey' which is produced by bees pollinating rhododendron plants. The honey is psychoactive and its effects can range from euphoria and lightheadedness to being similar to a full-blown acid trip with hallucinations. Honey hunters in Nepal make dangerous vertical climbs to harvest it since it sells for $60-80 a pound.

A group of bees in France produced green and blue honey by feasting on the discarded M&M candy shells from a nearby processing plant.

There have been no beehive losses in Cuba. Unable to import pesticides due to the embargo, the island now exports valuable organic honey.

The average person consumes 93 pounds of honey in their lifetime.

The reason infants can't eat honey is because it contains botulism spores which their digestive systems aren't developed enough to prevent from developing.

An African bird called the greater honeyguide is famous for leading people to honey. It will, untrained and uncoerced, lead humans to honeycombs that would be otherwise difficult for a human to locate without their help. This teamwork not only benefits the human but also the honeyguide bird who feasts on the grubs and beeswax that are left behind.

Sources Goldenblossomhoney.com, Daily Mail, Food For Thought by Ed Pearce

Honduras

Christopher Columbus became the first European to visit Honduras when he landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the country's coast on July 30, 1502, during his fourth voyage.

Honduras literally means "depths" in Spanish. The country's name may refer to Columbus's alleged quote that "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas Honduras" ("Thank God we have departed from those depths").

Honduras became independent from Spain in 1821 and was for a time part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823 when it became part of the United Provinces of Central America federation. After 1838 it was an independent republic and held regular elections.

In the late nineteenth century thousands of workers came to the north coast of Honduras to work in the banana plantations. The banana exporting companies built an enclave economy in northern Honduras, controlling infrastructure and creating self-sufficient, tax exempt sectors that contributed relatively little to economic growth. In 1904 writer O. Henry coined the term "Banana republic" to describe Honduras.

In 1969 Honduras and El Salvador fought what would become known as the Football War. The relationship between the two neighbors was already acrimonious and reached a low when El Salvador beat Honduras in an elimination match as a preliminary to the World Cup. Tensions escalated and on July 14, 1969 the Salvadoran army launched an attack on the Honduran army. After the week-long war as many as 130,000 Salvadoran immigrants were expelled.

Honduras had a population of 8,143,564 in 2011. The population comprises 90% Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European), 7% Amerindian, 2% Black, 1% White.

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. There were a total of 7,172 murders in Honduras in 2012, a rate of 90.4 per 100,000 population.

San Pedro Sula in Honduras was the most dangerous city in 2015 with a homicide rate of 171 in 100,000.