Caribbean
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“The Motorcycle Queen of Miami” Bessie Stringfield
To say she was an amazing woman would be an understatement. She was the first African-American woman to ride across the United States solo, and during World War II she served as one of the few motorcycle dispatch riders for the United States military. Stringfield was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1911 to a black Jamaican father and a white Dutch mother. The family migrated to Boston when she was still young. Her parents died when Stringfield was five and she was adopted and raised by an Irish woman. At the age of 16 Stringfield taught herself to ride her first motorcycle, a 1928 Indian Scout. In 1930, at the…
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The St. Pierre Snake Invasion – The Eruption of Mt. Pelee
In the late 1890’s and early 1900’s, St. Pierre, Martinique was known as the “Paris of the West Indies”. It was renown for its red-tiled cottage, beautiful tropical plants and charming streets. Although most of the population of 20,000 were native Martiniquans, most of the wealthy were Creoles or French colonial officials. The only thing marring this paradise was the volcano looming over its picturesque streets. Citizens of the area were so use to the volcanic activity on the ‘bald mountain’, that no one took it seriously when the fresh steaming vent-holes and earth tremors stared during April 1902. On April 23, 1902, minor explosions began at the summit of…
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Fidel Castro
In 2006, President George W. Bush said, “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away.” On November 25, 2016, to the delight of Cubans both on the beautiful island nation and all over the world, Raul Castro announced the death of his brother, 90-year old dictator and former Cuban President Fidel Castro. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, a village in the province of Holguín to a wealthy family. His father was a well-respected and successful farmer – in fact, he owned a 23,000 acre plantation in the village. Castro then went on to study law at the University of Havana…
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The bizarre case of Clarvius Narcisse
Narcisse age 40, arrived at a Haitian hospital on April 30, 1962. He was suffering from a fever, and he felt like bugs where crawling on his skin. Doctors noted a general physical deterioration, and immediately gave Narcisse a room. On May 2, 1962, he was pronounced dead. His family laid his body to rest in a cemetery near his village, l’Estere. He was placed in a coffin, nailed shut, and set within the earth. This should have been the end of his story. In 1980, sixteen years later, Narcisse reappeared with a strange and hard to believe tale. He tells that after his funeral, late at night, his body…
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FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO BARBADOS (VIA CORNWALL) -The strange fate of the last Byzantines
On the 29th of May 1453 Constantine XI Palaeologus, last Emperor of the Byzantines, died fighting the Ottoman Turks besieging his capital. With his death, the 1,000 year history of the Eastern Roman Empire came to an end but not all the imperial family perished in the Fall of Constantinople. Some of the surviving Palaeologus clan ended up in Italy and in the late 1570s, a young man calling himself Theodore Palaeologus was banished from the Adriatic city of Pesaro after becoming mixed up in a murderous vendetta. Theodore, who claimed descent from the last Byzantine emperor’s brother, then vanishes from sight for several years but he reappears on the…
