That's Dr. Robert Goddard, and the image came from NASA's GRIN (Great Images In Nasa) site, an amazing resource for historical photos about aerospace and space.

Each image is available for downloading in several sizes and resolutions, and also have additional information about the photos.

From the site description of this photo:

Dr. Robert H. Goddard at a blackboard at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1924. Goddard began teaching physics in 1914 at Clark and in 1923 was named the Director of the Physical Laboratory. In 1920 the Smithsonian Institution published his seminal paper A Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes where he asserted that rockets could be used to send payloads to the Moon. Declaring the absurdity of rockets ever reaching the Moon, the press mocked Goddard and his paper, calling him "Moon Man." To avoid further scrutiny Goddard eventually moved to New Mexico where he could conduct his research in private. Dr. Goddard, died in 1945, but was probably as responsible for the dawning of the Space Age as the Wrights were for the beginning of the Air Age. Yet his work attracted little serious attention during his lifetime. However, when the United States began to prepare for the conquest of space in the 1950's, American rocket scientists began to recognize the debt owed to the New England professor. They discovered that it was virtually impossible to construct a rocket or launch a satellite without acknowledging the work of Dr. Goddard.

Check it out, tons of history and pictures.

Posted by: Ted at 09:24 PM | category: Space Program
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Another archeological find.

"This is the location of one of the biggest battles in Greek history ... where a huge army from the east was assembled against Rome," the official, Vassilis Aravantinos, said.

The site near Orchomenos, about 75 miles northwest of Athens, was recorded by the Greek historian Plutarch. But the actual location of the long-sought monument — originally believed to stand 23 feet — was a mystery until last month, when the farmer plowing his fields stumbled upon a buried column that led researchers to uncover the monument's stone base.

When my neighbor digs, he hits the gas line and the neighborhood is evacuated.

Posted by: Ted at 12:57 PM | category: History
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In far northern California is the little rural town of Weaverville. In Weaverville is a beautiful little part of the California State Parks system called The Joss House (refresh that link for more pictures too).

The temple is the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California. On display are art objects, pictures, mining tools, and weapons used in the 1854 Tong War. This Taoist temple is still a place of worship and a fascinating look into the role played by Chinese immigrants in early California history. The temple was built in 1874 as a replacement for another that had burned.

My family visited the Joss House occasionally because the head ranger there was an old friend of my dad.

The temple and museum contain some striking pieces of Chinese history. Check out this page for some beautiful pictures of the temple and it's contents, especially the traditional Lion headdress (scroll to the the bottom).

Related sites and more information can be found here and here.

There's more in the extended entry about the 1854 Tong War and life for early Chinese immigrants. more...

Posted by: Ted at 07:20 AM | category: History
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Some interesting choices, and as with any list, mucho room for argument.

I put their top 50 in the extended entry (still looking for a link to the whole thing). more...

Posted by: Ted at 02:23 PM | category: History
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TV Dinners celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Thanks to Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 04:39 PM | category: History
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In September I posted here about a search for the mysterious Spider Pool. Seen in numerous vintage nude photo sets, some members of the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.vintage have been piecing together clues and photographs like a long-forgotten puzzle. Photo archives have been searched and sets identified, sometimes with little more than the pattern on a ladies skirt in two different photos. The fact that the pool may be dated from the 1930's or even earlier only added to the challenge.

Slowly, the pieces started to fit, and then last weekend, the Spider Pool was found.

(more in the extended entry) more...

Posted by: Ted at 07:25 PM | category: History
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Twenty five years ago today, radical Islam declared war on America by attacking the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Sixty six Americans were taken hostage and held for more than a year.

We didn't start this war, and it took a while for most of us to actually believe it was happening, despite the evidence right in front of our eyes. Beruit, USS Cole, Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the bomb in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center, Khobar towers bombing and many many more. 9/11 was the date of their most successful attack, not their first.

Posted by: Ted at 05:45 AM | category: History
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I found them while searching for old baseball cards, but there's so much more. Hours of fascination for those with a love of history.

The US Library of Congress Online Collections Finder.

Posted by: Ted at 05:43 AM | category: History
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Courtesy of the Library of Congress, 2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914.

And here's a nifty site that includes some 30,000 vintage baseball card photos (click the "OBC Specials" button), and an article about Topps, the all-time king of baseball cards, and some of their more obscure card sets and collections (click their "Library" button, then select the "Topps Insert, Test And Supplemental Baseball Issues 1949-1980"). It sounds dry, but there's a ton of interesting history to be found inside.

Years ago (1938 to be precise) four brothers, Abram, Ira, Joseph and Philip Shorin, erstwhile cigar manufacturers, established a chewing gum company in Brooklyn (where else?). Wanting to select a name that would let the public know how good their gum was and they settled on Topps (the extra "p" was for effect) and unwittingly created what was to become the largest bubble gum card entity in the Western Hemisphere. At some point, most probably toward the end of World War II, or just after, they began marketing their famous Bazooka bubble gum and yet another American institution was born. Looking for ways to increase product exposure, Abram hit upon the idea of packaging their bubble gum with trading cards. This was in 1948 and things have never been the same...

Posted by: Ted at 05:28 AM | category: History
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Just for fun, I googled the phrase "Baseball Oddities" and here's a sampling of what popped up.

"Despite my enduring respect, there are many attributes of the game that make me scratch my head." -- Aaron Arkin.

Four things that don't really make sense: Pitchers that can't hit, arguing balls and strikes, coaches in uniforms and pitchers wearing a windbreaker when they run the bases.

Here's a quiz about odd baseball stats and trivia. It's tough, I only scored 6 correct out of 15!

In May, 2001, Baseball Digest printed an article about the Nine Strangest Major League Games. Good stuff.

This next one had me laughing. A Day at the Ballpark - with Middle-Schoolers. In it, the author talks about a surreal day watching the Oakland A's taking on the Boston Red Sox.

Middle schooler: How much for the sodas?

Vendor: Three dollars.

Middle schooler (with a very sarcastic look on his face): No, for reals, how much?

Vendor : (remains silent, but obviously thinking of a very bad word)

Posted by: Ted at 05:46 AM | category: History
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Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy changed his last name and became forever known as Connie Mack. After eleven seasons as a catcher in the major leagues, he managed for a couple of years and then bought the Philadelphia Athletics in 1901. When New York Giants manager John McGraw called the Athletics "a white elephant nobody wanted," Mack adopted a white elephant as the team's logo, which the Athletics have used off and on ever since.

Connie Mack loved baseball, but he never let himself forget that it was a business.

... he once confided that it was more profitable to have a team get off to a hot start, then ultimately finish fourth. "A team like that will draw well enough during the first part of the season to show a profit for the year, and you don't have to give the players raises when they don't win," he said. The most famous example of Mack's tight-fistedness came on July 10, 1932, when the Athletics played a one-game series with the Cleveland Indians. To save train fare, Mack only brought two pitchers. The starting pitcher was knocked out of the game in the first inning, leaving only knuckleballing relief pitcher Eddie Rommel. Rommel pitched 17 innings and gave up 33 hits, but won the game, 18-17.

In the 1890's, the Baltimore Orioles were first a National League team before moving to the American League. Their 3rd baseman during those years was John McGraw. He displayed a talent for innovation within the game and his desire to win was fierce. Among his credits, he helped develop the hit-and-run and suicide squeeze play. McGraw was an excellent player, hitting over .320 nine seasons in a row and leading the majors in runs scored twice.

After retiring from the field, he took charge as manager of the New York Giants. In 31 years as manager, his teams won 10 pennants, finished second 11 times and took home three World Series trophies.

His 2,840 wins rank only behind Connie Mack in baseball history. On July 6, 1933, John McGraw came out of retirement to manage the NL in the first All-Star Game. He died less than a year later.

One interesting article I found while researching this talks about John McGraw and the Negro Leagues.

McGraw was a man ahead of his time. He tried to sneak a man past baseball's Color Barrier nearly fifty years before Branch Rickey. In 1901 as a manager of the old Baltimore Orioles McGraw brought second baseman Charlie Grant to training camp. Claiming that Grant was actually "Chief Tokohama," a Native American, McGraw hoped to use Grant's talents in the coming year's pennant chase. The problem with this was that Grant was by no means a Native American. He had played the previous year for the Columbia Giants, a Negro Leagues outfit. Charles Comiskey caught wind of this and the hammer came down. That season Charlie Grant again played for the Columbia Giants.

Posted by: Ted at 05:07 AM | category: History
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In 1934, the St. Louis Cardinals fielded possibly their best-ever team. Loud, bold and brash, they became known as "The Gashouse Gang", and can be summed up thus:

"It ain't braggin' if you can do it." --Dizzy Dean

The Gashouse Gang won the World Series in seven games over the Detroit Tigers, with each Dean brother picking up two wins.

In 1947, six years after retiring from baseball, Dizzy Dean was the sportscaster for the St. Louis Browns. The Browns were terrible year after year, and probably best known for bringing in a pinch-hitting midget. In exasperation, Dizzy one day stated on the air that he could do better than the team on the field. Management took him up on the boast and allowed him to start the last game of the season. Dizzy Dean took the mound, allowed no runs in four innings, and rapped a double in his only at bat.

Posted by: Ted at 05:46 AM | category: History
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Forever identified in baseball lore for "Merkle's Boner", 19 year old Fred Merkle was first baseman for the New York Giants when the blunder happened.

The play itself was clouded by contradictory affidavits by players, conflicting opinions by various baseball officials, and protests lodged by both teams over the umpires' handling of the incident.

The confusion started when Merkle, the runner on first, failed to touch second after an apparent game-winning base hit. Instead, he turned back toward the dugout, as was customary at the time, when he saw the run cross the plate. As the happy Polo Grounds crowd filed across the field towards the centerfield gate, second baseman Johnny Evers got the ball and stepped on second, claiming a forceout which negated the winning run. With the fans already crowding the field, the game could not be played to a decision, and had to be replayed.

Fred Merkle played in three World Series with the NY Giants, another with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and a fifth with the Chicago Cubs, and all ended up losing. In 1926 he was a coach for the New York Yankees when they made it to the World Series, and they lost too.

Fred Merkle never won the World Series, but he made it there six times. Not many players can say that.

If you're feeling a sense of deja vu about this post, it's because I covered the exact same subject last year during the World Series. Doh!

Posted by: Ted at 04:39 AM | category: History
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Who? Just four of the guys who played on the last Boston Red Sox team to win a World Series, in 1918.

From the book Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox, by Allan J. Wood:

In 1918, the United States was struggling through the first World War. An epidemic of influenza took the lives of more than 650,000 Americans. Fuel shortages and food rationing were daily facts of life. Against this chaotic backdrop, the Red Sox began their quest for an unprecedented fifth World Series title. And a young Boston player named Babe Ruth began his historic transformation from ace pitcher to the greatest slugger the game has ever known.

This page links to the box scores for the series (in six games over the Cubs), and here's a chronological list of baseball happenings that year.

Grab a dog and a brew, and enjoy some baseball history.

Posted by: Ted at 06:10 AM | category: History
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Last night on the History Channel I watched a show that touched on the famous battle between the ironclads Monitor and the Merrimac.

For some reason (ok, it's my limited imagination, satisfied?), I never thought of the Monitor as anything but a one-off, a unique design that fit the circumstances of the moment. I knew that because of the low freeboard - only 12" above the surface of the water - the original Monitor sank during an attempt to navigate the open ocean. What I didn't know was that because of the success of the original Monitor, six further classes of that type of warship were built by the US.

The nine ships of the Canonicus class displaced 2,100 tons and were supposed to have a top speed of 8 knots, though they never quite reached it. Armament consisted of two 15-inch Dahlgren guns mounted in a revolving armored turret, and ship's crew was 100 officers and men. Like all monitors, they were designed for river and close coastal work.

From this nice site about Civil War Monitors:

Five of these nine ships saw action during the Civil War. The Canonicus operated in the James River, then in blockade service, and in attacks on Fort Fisher: the Saugus saw extensive service in the James River and in the assault on Wilmington; the Tecumseh operated in the James River, then in the Gulf of Mexico. It was mined in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864 and sunk almost immediately; the Manhattan operated also in the Gulf of Mexico, including attacks on Mobile Bay; the Mahopac participated in the attacks on Charleston and Wilmington, and also operated in the James and Appomattox Rivers. The Wyandotte, the Ajax, the Catawaba and the Oneota were never commissioned.

Peru later bought two of the US ironclads, which participated (rather ineffectually) in their war against Chile.

There are some fine photographs here of various classes of monitors, showing the variations and evolution that they underwent during their run. If for no other reason, they are remarkable for transforming modern naval warfare from the classic "steer the entire boat to aim a broadside" into the flexible tactics allowed by turretted arms used ever since.

The last of the type, the USS Cheyenne, was decommissioned in 1937.

Posted by: Ted at 06:57 AM | category: History
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Or maybe it was just truth in advertising. Either way, enjoy these authentic vintage produce labels (in the extended entry - pinup quality stuff, no nudity). more...

Posted by: Ted at 05:49 AM | category: History
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Mount St. Helens may erupt again.

Last time she did, here's what happened - before and after.

The rest of the photo gallery is here. Thanks to My Pet Jawa for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 06:03 AM | category: History
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While this is not even close to the scope of the CBS story, this one's been going on quite a bit longer. A group of collectors over on the alt.binaries.pictures.eroctica.vintage newsgroup have been having a grand ol' time for several years, trading old postcards and scanning girlie magazines from way back when. I visit occasionally, and contribute once in a blue moon, and you've seen some of their work here on Rocket Jones in various pinups and book covers. There's some real historical knowledge there, as well as a few inevitable trolls and nitwits.

So anyways, a while back someone got curious about a specific series of photographs taken at a location that's come to be known as the "spider pool". There's a picture (safe for work) in the extended entry, along with the rest of the story. more...

Posted by: Ted at 05:24 AM | category: History
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How about a complete Jimi Hendrix concert filmed in 1968 in Stockholm, Sweden?

That meets my definition of buried treasure.

Posted by: Ted at 01:55 PM | category: History
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Here's a nifty post about General Tso's chicken, the ubiquitous dish (my personal favorite) that's available at every Chinese restaurant I've ever been to. Meet the General's relatives - yes, he was real - and you'll be surprised at what they say about the recipe that bears his name.

Thanks to Simon and his Asia by Blog link-o-rama.

Posted by: Ted at 06:01 AM | category: History
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