Eric Christensen
@echristensen.bsky.social
love, truth, beauty, corn, and a little democracy … an old, long-haired, noble-fared, leaping gnome
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
January 9, 2026 at 6:03 PM
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
Image—from The Travelling Golfer website—is a modern photograph of a sign at Musselburgh Links, identifying it as the “The Oldest Golf Course in the World.” (4/4)
January 9, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Image—from The Travelling Golfer website—is a modern photograph of a sign at Musselburgh Links, identifying it as the “The Oldest Golf Course in the World.” (4/4)
The Guinness World Record for Oldest Golf Club was awarded to Musselburgh Links in 2009, but that record has since been awarded instead to St. Andrews Links in Fife, Scotland, which is documented to have existed in 1552. (3/4)
January 9, 2026 at 6:02 PM
The Guinness World Record for Oldest Golf Club was awarded to Musselburgh Links in 2009, but that record has since been awarded instead to St. Andrews Links in Fife, Scotland, which is documented to have existed in 1552. (3/4)
Women had been playing golf at least since the 16th Century, when Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was criticized for letting golf interfere with her royal duties, and she was rumored to have played at Musselburgh Links, although the first documentation of the course is from 1774. (2/4)
January 9, 2026 at 6:02 PM
Women had been playing golf at least since the 16th Century, when Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was criticized for letting golf interfere with her royal duties, and she was rumored to have played at Musselburgh Links, although the first documentation of the course is from 1774. (2/4)
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
January 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
Image is an illustration from an article about Packer’s parole on page 12 of the “Rocky Mountain News” on Wednesday, January 9, 1901. (5/5)
January 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Image is an illustration from an article about Packer’s parole on page 12 of the “Rocky Mountain News” on Wednesday, January 9, 1901. (5/5)
Packer spent his final years as a vegetarian living in Jefferson County, Colorado, where he died in 1907. He is memorialized at CU–Boulder’s Alferd Packer Memorial Grill (“Have a Friend for Lunch!”), which serves freshly made breakfast, lunch, and dinner to students and visitors. (4/5)
January 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Packer spent his final years as a vegetarian living in Jefferson County, Colorado, where he died in 1907. He is memorialized at CU–Boulder’s Alferd Packer Memorial Grill (“Have a Friend for Lunch!”), which serves freshly made breakfast, lunch, and dinner to students and visitors. (4/5)
Legend says that during sentencing the Judge said, “When yah came to Hinsdale County, there was siven Dimmycrats, but you, yah et five of ’em, goddam yah,” but court records do not show this language. His death sentence was overturned in 1885, so he was retried and sentenced to 40 years. (3/5)
January 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Legend says that during sentencing the Judge said, “When yah came to Hinsdale County, there was siven Dimmycrats, but you, yah et five of ’em, goddam yah,” but court records do not show this language. His death sentence was overturned in 1885, so he was retried and sentenced to 40 years. (3/5)
Packer had been convicted in 1883 of killing and eating five members of a party he was guiding through a treacherous mountain winter after they had ignored Ute Chief Ouray’s advice to spend the winter in the Ute camp. (2/5)
January 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Packer had been convicted in 1883 of killing and eating five members of a party he was guiding through a treacherous mountain winter after they had ignored Ute Chief Ouray’s advice to spend the winter in the Ute camp. (2/5)
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
January 7, 2026 at 6:35 PM
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
Image—from page 49 of “Appendix to Reference Index to Patents of Invention,” by Bennet Woodcroft (London: Great Seal Patent Office, 1855)—shows the abstract of Henry Mill’s patent for his “Machine for Transcribing Letters.” (5/5)
January 7, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Image—from page 49 of “Appendix to Reference Index to Patents of Invention,” by Bennet Woodcroft (London: Great Seal Patent Office, 1855)—shows the abstract of Henry Mill’s patent for his “Machine for Transcribing Letters.” (5/5)
This is considered to be the first patent for a typewriter, although the earliest known working typewriter was not developed until 1868, when Christopher Latham Sholes received his first U.S. Patent for his “Type Writing Machine.” (4/5)
January 7, 2026 at 6:34 PM
This is considered to be the first patent for a typewriter, although the earliest known working typewriter was not developed until 1868, when Christopher Latham Sholes received his first U.S. Patent for his “Type Writing Machine.” (4/5)
The patent was a description of a process rather than an actual machine, and there are no surviving illustrations, so a prototype was probably never built. (3/5)
January 7, 2026 at 6:34 PM
The patent was a description of a process rather than an actual machine, and there are no surviving illustrations, so a prototype was probably never built. (3/5)
Although there does not seem to be any documentation of the actual date, and the original document still needs to be found, several papers and articles give an unsourced date of January 7. (2/5)
January 7, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Although there does not seem to be any documentation of the actual date, and the original document still needs to be found, several papers and articles give an unsourced date of January 7. (2/5)
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
January 6, 2026 at 6:35 PM
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
Image—from the National Archives at College Park in Maryland—shows a 1943 series of four oil paintings by Normal Rockwell depicting the “Four Freedoms” outlined by President Roosevelt in his 1941 speech. (4/4)
January 6, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Image—from the National Archives at College Park in Maryland—shows a 1943 series of four oil paintings by Normal Rockwell depicting the “Four Freedoms” outlined by President Roosevelt in his 1941 speech. (4/4)
(1) Freedom of speech and expression; (2) freedom of every person to worship God in their own way; (3) Freedom from want, through economic understandings that secure a healthy peacetime life for each nation’s inhabitants; and (4) Freedom from fear, through reduction of armaments. (3/4)
January 6, 2026 at 6:35 PM
(1) Freedom of speech and expression; (2) freedom of every person to worship God in their own way; (3) Freedom from want, through economic understandings that secure a healthy peacetime life for each nation’s inhabitants; and (4) Freedom from fear, through reduction of armaments. (3/4)
This address has become known as the “Four Freedoms Speech,” as Roosevelt called upon Congress to recognize the need for four essential human freedoms that should be secured everywhere in the world: (2/4)
January 6, 2026 at 6:34 PM
This address has become known as the “Four Freedoms Speech,” as Roosevelt called upon Congress to recognize the need for four essential human freedoms that should be secured everywhere in the world: (2/4)
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
January 5, 2026 at 6:43 PM
I love to share the things I am learning. Sometimes my histories will cover significant events, and sometimes they will just be fun. I may not be able to be able to post a history every day, but I want to post as many as possible in response to sycophants who are desperately trying to erase history.
Image shows the cover for The Landlord’s Game as published by Parker Brothers in 1939, crediting Elizabeth Magie Phillips with creating it, an honor they had refused to grant her for her role in inventing Monopoly. (7/7)
January 5, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Image shows the cover for The Landlord’s Game as published by Parker Brothers in 1939, crediting Elizabeth Magie Phillips with creating it, an honor they had refused to grant her for her role in inventing Monopoly. (7/7)
Magie invented the original game hoping it would help teach children playing it to be suspicious of unfairness. Her own personal experience in the marketing of the game seems to reinforce the suspicion that she was hoping to instill. (6/7)
January 5, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Magie invented the original game hoping it would help teach children playing it to be suspicious of unfairness. Her own personal experience in the marketing of the game seems to reinforce the suspicion that she was hoping to instill. (6/7)