Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Note the harp…

There are few things in life sweeter than self important people being made to look silly. The picture above is one of this blogger’s favourite. The subject is, of course, Benito Mussolini, in the mid, late 1930s.* A group of Fascist dignitaries are prancing up some steps at the Foro Italico: but not all is […]

Here is a Scottish account from 1833 (Anon) of what were apparently river mermaids. What is most interesting here is certainly the reaction of the community, though the resolution of the mystery has some entertainment value. Some time back, the inhabitants of some hamlets, situated near the Tay, a little below Dunkeld, had been kept in […]

Late 1500s

A busy day in paradise, so Beach thought he would limit himself to sharing this charming parrot story. Mr Braham was John Braham (obit 1856), an early nineteenth-century opera singer: ‘he sang before Napoleon’s Josephine and gave lessons to Nelson’s wife.’ Part of the charm of the story is the parrot in the presence of two […]

The half million club is a select group of nine human settlements that managed to break the half million population mark in Antiquity or in the Middle Ages: the biggest cities around before the discovery of the New World. To give some sorts of limit to this exercise six chronological moments have been chosen at […]

A woman with a key around her neck haunts the French saloons. What is her story? Beach is always looking for Victorian urban legends (this one is 1870) and particularly sexual ones. Ask yourself this. Would this tale have appeared in a British newspaper if it had been set in London rather than Paris? The […]

The moon shines then the head disappears…

This story appeared in a British newspaper in September of 1861. It relates to Gubbio in Umbria: the unity of Italy has just happened. A rural parish in the region of Agubbio, which was relieved last year of the Pope’s temporal rule, but which still endures the evils of ignorance and superstition consequent on many […]

Filming of the wizard

Julian Amery, conservative politician, canvassing on the beach.

Lee Harvey Oswald being shot Two readers sent this in: thanks!

An autobiographical post. Six months ago  I detailed some experiences in Shiatsu. In the last eight weeks the same practitioner gave me a series of treatments in Reiki as part of her training. Reiki for the uninitiated, in which I would still include myself, is the laying of hands on or, for the most part, […]

Looks genuine… Nathaniel writes, 6 Nov :’As you said, the Ku Klux Klothes advertisement does look genuine: It seems odd that a racist organization would be involved with (or lend its name to) a clothing business. But apparently, the 1920s KKK was mostly a fraudulent pyramid scheme.

In 1834 a British paper ran with this story (1834) in early August: A fisherman at St Valery-sur-Somme (France), a few days since, caught in his net a fish exactly resembling the description given of the Mermaid. The head and breast are of the human form, and, when half the body is out of the […]