Adela
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Jean Lafitte
Little is known of Lafitte’s early life, but records show that by 1809 he and his brother Pierre appeared to have established themselves in New Orleans, Louisiana. They started a blacksmith shop that was actually serving as a depot for smuggled goods and slaves brought ashore by bands of privateers. From around 1810 to 1814 this group probably formed what would become Lafitte’s illicit colony on the secluded islands of Barataria Bay south of the city. Holding privateer commissions from the republic of Cartagena (in modern Colombia), Lafitte’s group preyed on Spanish commerce, eventually disposing of its plunder through merchant connections on the mainland. Barataria Bay was a very important…
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Pat Garrett
Patrick Floyd Garrett was born in Cusseta, Alabama, and grew up on a Louisiana plantation near Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish, just below the Arkansas state line. His parents were John Lumpkin Garrett and Elizabeth Ann Jarvis. Garrett would always stand out because he was well over six feet tall. He is probably most famous for being the man who killed “Billy the Kid”. Garrett left home in 1869 and found work as a cowboy in Dallas County, Texas. In 1875, he left to hunt buffalo. In 1878, Garrett shot and killed a fellow hunter who charged him with a hatchet during a disagreement over buffalo hides. As he lay…
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Jayne Mansfield
Vera Jayne Palmer was born on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She was the only child of Herbert William Palmer and Vera (Jeffrey) Palmer. She was an American actress in film, theatre, and television and was also a nightclub entertainer, a singer, and one of the early Playboy Playmates. She was a major Hollywood sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s and 20th Century Fox’s alternative to Marilyn Monroe who came to be known as the “Working Man’s Monroe”. She was one of Hollywood’s original blonde bombshells. Mansfield became a major Broadway star in 1955, a major Hollywood star in 1956, and a leading celebrity in 1957.…
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Marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II
Eleanor of the House of Poitiers was born somewhere between 1122 and 1124, the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Aenor de Chatellerault. At a young age she was granted title of Duchess of Aquitaine, and by the age of thirteen/fifteen, on the death of her father in 1137, Eleanor inherited the Duchy in her own right. William had anticipated her value and had her betrothed to the soon to be Louis VII who was approximately two years older, the marriage took place in July of 1137, around which time both William and Louis VI passed away, and the Aquitaine lands passed as dowry to her husband. The…
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October
October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. It was originally the eighth month in the old Roman calendar, which is why October retained its name (from the Latin octō meaning “eight”) once January and February were inserted into the calendar it became the tenth month. October is commonly associated with the season of Autumn in the Northern hemisphere and spring in the Southern hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa. In the Western world, October is also commonly associated with Halloween (All Hallows Eve), which initiates the season of Allhallowtide. October’s birthstones are the…
