hyperallergic:

This is believed to be the only known portrait of the last survivor of the Beothuk people of the area now known as Newfoundland, Canada.

The above portrait was painted by William Gosse and it is titled “A female Red Indian of Newfoundland” (1841). It is believed to be a portrait of Shanawdithit, the last recorded Beothuk woman. She died in 1829 and with her death the Beothuk people became officially extinct as a separate ethnic group. Some say that her death marks the first total genocide in North America.

It is unclear if the portrait was done based on sketches from her lifetime or oral accounts of people who had known her.

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and first democratically elected President of South Africa

The Romanov Children- The Last Imperial Family of Russia

Tsar Nicholas II, Last Emperor of Russia

“Nicholas inherited from his ancestors not only a giant empire, but also a revolution. And they did not bequeath him one quality which would have made him capable of governing an empire. Or even a country.”

-Leon Trotsky

fuckyeahthewildwest:

Edward Drinker Cope, key player in the Bone Wars.

On this day in history, Wild West celebrity “Calamity Jane” (born Martha Jane Canary) was born in 1852 in Missouri. At 13 she moved with her family to Montana, where she learned to ride and shoot, often dressing as a man to avoid the limitations placed on women. While much of her presumed exploits remain unfounded, she is said to have been an army scout for General Custer and a participant in the gold rush expedition into the Black Hills. Her performance stunts, such as riding a bull through the main street in Rapid City, painted her as a lasting figure of the fading days of the Wild West. She continued to appear as a Wild West performer as Calamity Jane despite struggling with alcoholism. It is said that shortly before her death, she was found drunk and sullen in a bordello in Montana, wishing that the world would “leave me alone and let me go to hell on my own route.” She died on August 1, 1903.

Anne Bonney, born in County Cork, Ireland, was the illegitimate daughter of lawyer William Cormac and his housemaid. They immigrated to America after Anne’s birth in the late 1600s and settled on a plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. A headstrong young woman “with a fierce and courageous temper,” she eloped with a young ne’er-do-well, James Bonney, against her father’s wishes. James took her to a pirates’ lair in New Providence in the Bahamas, but in 1718, when Bahamian Governor Woodes Rogers offered the King’s pardon to any pirate, James turned informant. Anne was disgusted with his cowardice and soon after, she met and fell in love with the swaggering pirate Captain Jack Rackham. Disguising herself as a male, she began sailing with him on his sloop Vanity, with its famous skull-and-crossed-daggers flag, preying on Spanish treasure ships off Cuba and Hispaniola. It is reported that she became pregnant by Jack and retired from piracy only long enough to have her baby and leave it with friends in Cuba before rejoining him.

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“Tomorrow I die because I lusted not for flesh, but to command my own destiny. This is not a womanly act, I know, but I have oft thought that in this way my spirit is much the same as a man’s. In this world a woman is born with one master who is her father. He rules her life until he hands her to a husband, who rules her till death. Many preachers preach that women have no souls. But some perverse twisting in my self has always kept me from obedience from men. I was but a girl when I first counted my self their worthy opponent. I defied them all - father, Cardinal Wolsey, Henrey. Held my ground like some knighted soldier on a battle ground. Mustered my forces, advanced, retreated, fought many skirmishes, practiced diplomacy won some great battles. And lost the war.”

-Anne Boleyn, in her last letter to Elizabeth

from The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell