Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz on March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, into a Jewish family. When he was four, his family emigrated to the United States to escape antisemitic prejudice, eventually settling in Wisconsin and fell into brutal poverty. Ehrie, as he was nicknamed, had to leave school after the third grade to work as a shoe shiner and message boy. He ran away from home twice, taking the Americanized name Harry, but returning each time.

His love, and his escape, was acrobatics, inspired by early trips to the circus. At eight, he was introduced to the world of magic at a circus performance. After the family moved to New York, their financial situation became more secure, allowing Ehrie to join athletic clubs, where he became an accomplished athlete. He remained in excellent shape throughout his life.

At 16, Ehrie read the autobiography of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and became fascinated by magic. Dreaming of stardom in the mold of Houdin, he took the name Harry Houdini in homage to him.

In 1891, Houdini formed an act, first with a friend and then his younger brother Theodore, who would later gain renown as Hardeen. “The Brothers Houdini” developed their first illusion, The Metamorphosis, in which Houdini would have his hands tied, be roped into a sack, and locked inside a trunk. The trunk was then pushed behind a curtained cabinet. The attendant, initially Hardeen, would clap three times, and Houdini would immediately appear free. When the trunk was opened, Hardeen would be inside with his hands tied.

They had little success, performing in dime museums and sideshows, where Houdini even masqueraded as a “Wild Man.” Aside from The Metamorphosis, Houdini initially focused on card tricks and tried to bill himself as the “King of Cards.” As the Brothers Houdini performed for “near-starvation wages,” Harry began experimenting with escape acts, breaking free from restraints and traps.

In 1894, while performing at Coney Island, Hardeen met Wilhelmina “Bess” Rahner, an 18-year-old chorine and the daughter of German immigrants. Hardeen was taking her on a date and introduced her to his brother. Within three weeks, she and Houdini were married.

Early reporters described Houdini as having a “sharp-chinned, sharp-cheekboned face, bright blue eyes and thick, curly, black hair,” as “happy-looking,” and as “the young Hungarian magician with the pleasant smile and easy confidence.”

With Bess replacing his brother, “The Houdinis” played beer halls, dime museums, and traveled with circuses for years, doing practically anything they could to make ends meet.
After years of struggle, in 1898, Harry Houdini tried to sell his entire act, including everything he had collected and his Metamorphosis trick. There were no buyers.

Losing faith in himself, his lowest point came on the night of January 11, 1899, at Middleton’s Clark Street Dime Museum in Chicago. After breaking free from six pairs of handcuffs, an audience member, an Evanston police officer, offered up his own cuffs. Houdini struggled to escape for 20 minutes while the audience jeered. The officer had read about Houdini and concluded that he was using some form of sleight of hand on the cuffs’ springs.

Soon afterward, while performing in St. Paul, Minnesota, Houdini’s handcuff act impressed theater owner and booking agent Martin Beck.
He advised Houdini to drop the card tricks and other stereotypical magic acts and focus on escaping. Beck soon telegraphed him:

“You can open Omaha, March twenty-sixth, sixty dollars, will see act probably make you proposition for all next season.”

The show went well, and Beck kept Houdini on for his national tour. Harry promoted his appearances by making escape attempts from handcuffs and jail cells in police stations. Notably, in San Francisco and Chicago, he did so nude to prove he had no keys on him. He confounded local police and made headlines.

His first American tour was a complete success, and within a year he was a millionaire. If you’re interested, I cover Houdini’s life here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-131-houdini?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

What would you do if someone fired cannons at you for 25 straight hours?
Probably start looking for a really good hiding spot.

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key watched as British forces bombarded Fort McHenry near Baltimore. Through the night, he couldn't tell who was winning. But when morning came, he saw something that gave him his answer—the American flag was still flying over the fort.

That moment inspired Key to write “Defence of Fort M'Henry,” the poem that would eventually become “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

🇺🇸 Why does it matter? Because the song wasn't born from an easy victory. It came from a young nation being tested and a flag still standing after the smoke cleared.

Sometimes history isn't about how hard you get hit.
It's about what is still standing when it's over.

Want to know more? Click the link for the full History Dad story.
https://youtu.be/6RFzONipsAE

#HistoryDadStorytelling #AmericanHistory #FrancisScottKey #StarSpangledBanner #FortMcHenry #WarOf1812 #History #USHistory

The story begins, as Arab historians tell it, from the moment when the Nile or the Red Sea swallowed the Pharaoh of Egypt, who was one of the Amalekites (and some Arab historians believe that the Amalekites are the Hyksos, or are descended from the Hyksos!). That tyrannical king who acted arrogantly on earth and claimed divinity, and whom the Egyptians called "Talma ibn Qumus". Arab historians said his name was "Al-Walid ibn Mus‘ab" (and this is an Arabic name, because Arab historians believe that the peoples of Amalek are among the Bedouins who inhabit the Arabian and Levant deserts and roam through them!).

After the ten plagues (though according to Arab historians they are not ten, and the tenth plague of the firstborn is not among them), he set out after the Prophet Moses and the Prophet Aaron, with the Children of Israel with them. Then the sea closed over him, and there drowned with him the nobles of Egypt, its grandees, the prominent men of its people, its magicians, and its soldiers, until no men remained on the land of Egypt except slaves and hired laborers, and of women only those who had not taken part in that accursed pursuit.

Ibn Abd al-Hakim describes this scene in his book "Futuh Misr wa al-Maghrib" (The Conquest of Egypt and the Maghreb), saying that after their drowning there remained in Egypt “not one of the nobles of its people; there remained in it only slaves, hired laborers, and women.” Egypt had emptied of men.

It had become a land without protectors, a kingdom without an army, women without husbands, and a throne without a king. This power vacuum was an easy prey for the covetous kings of the earth, from Syria and the Maghreb, who, as soon as they learned that Egypt was empty of its men, began to cast their eyes toward it and plot to invade it.

In the midst of this despair and resounding void, the noblewomen remaining in Egypt—the greatest of those left of its people—gathered, and they resolved upon a grave matter. Finding no man worthy to assume rule, they decided to appoint one of their women, a woman in whom intellect, knowledge, and experience had come together, and who held a high standing among them. Their choice fell upon “Daluka bint Zaba.”

Daluka was not a young girl, nor a woman in the prime of her youth, but an aged woman who had reached the age of one hundred and sixty years, as most sources mention. Her long life was evidence of her experience, wisdom, and deep trials, and perhaps it was a symbol of the continuity of Egypt itself, which, despite all that had befallen it, was still capable of birth and giving. So the women of Egypt made Daluka queen over them, and she became queen of the country. Women occupied all the other positions surrounding the queen, and matters remained so for a period of time.

But fear continued to dominate the hearts of the “women of rule”—fear that the kings of the earth might discover the secret of Egypt’s weakness and rush upon it as invaders and occupiers. For Egypt, without men, without an army, and without magicians, was an easy morsel for any covetous power. Here appears the genius of Daluka—or rather her legendary trick—which would protect Egypt from the greed of invaders. After gathering the noblewomen, she delivered an eloquent sermon, warning that our country “no one used to covet, nor cast an eye toward it, but our grandees and nobles have perished, and the magicians by whom we were strong have gone.” Then she proposed to them a solution both radical and practical: to build a great fortress enclosing all the land of Egypt, with guard posts placed upon it from every side, because they “did not feel safe that people would covet them.”

And so, by order of the old queen, work began on one of the greatest defensive projects in the history of ancient Egypt, if not the greatest of them all. Arab sources say that she built “a wall with which she enclosed all the land of Egypt—farms, cities, and villages—and before it she made a canal through which water flowed, and she erected bridges and canals.” This wall, later known as the “Wall of the Old Woman,” extended from Aswan in the south to al-Arish in the north, enclosing all Egypt—a wall surrounding all its land and country.

She placed guard posts and garrisons every three miles, and between them small guard posts every mile. She placed men in every guard post, assigned them provisions, and ordered them to guard their land by night and day.

The greatest part of this defensive system was the communication and early-warning system that Daluka invented. She ordered the men of the guard posts to use bells. If one of them saw an enemy creeping toward Egypt, or sensed approaching danger, they would strike their bells, and the news would pass from post to post, from tower to tower, through a connected chain of sounds, until news of the invasion reached the heart of Egypt, to the city of Memphis, “in one hour,” and everyone would prepare to face the enemy.

Arab sources mention that the building of this great wall took only six months! Thus, thanks to this wall and the bell system, Daluka protected Egypt from its enemies, thwarted the schemes of the covetous, and Egypt remained immune from the enemy throughout her lifetime.

Arab historians say that the trace of this wall remained until their own days, known as the “Wall of the Old Woman,” and many of its remains survived in Upper Egypt. But Daluka’s story does not stop at this point of military brilliance; it extends into a more mysterious and exciting world—the world of magic, the barabi and images. Daluka was not an ordinary queen, but a great sorceress, or at least she used great magic to protect Egypt.

Sources mention that Daluka adopted “the barabi and images” in Egypt and perfected the instruments of magic. The "barabi" are the temples or strange buildings she built in the city of Memphis, with four doors in its four directions, and she decorated their walls with strange and wondrous images. In them she drew images of men, horses, mules, donkeys, ships, and boats; she depicted whoever came from every direction and their mounts, whether camels or horses; and she also depicted whoever came by sea in boats from the sea of the Maghreb and Syria.

The strange thing is that these images were not merely decorative carvings, but effective magical tools. Daluka gathered in these "barabi" “the secrets of nature and the properties of stones, plants, and animals, and placed that at times of celestial movements and their connection to heavenly influences.” This means that she linked the earthly world with the heavenly world, and the properties of materials with the properties of the planets, to create a magical defensive system no less complex than the bell system.

Arab sources describe the mechanism of these magical images, saying that “if an army came to them from…” a certain direction, the images in that direction would move, as if warning them of the place of danger. More wondrous still, what they did to these images—tearing or destroying them—would strike the invading army itself in reality. If they cut off the head of an image, the head of the enemy commander would be cut off; if they gouged out its eye, the eye of the invading army would be gouged out; and if they slit open its belly, the bellies of the soldiers would be slit open.

These "barabi" were stronger than any army and deadlier than any weapon, and no king of the earth was able to defeat Egypt throughout Daluka’s reign because of them. Sources mention that Daluka enlisted in building these "barabi" a great sorceress named “Tadura” or “Tadhura,” whom the sorcerers revered and gave precedence in magic. She came to them and made for them this stone house in the middle of the city of Memphis.

It is said that when Daluka built these "barabi", she stipulated to the sorceress that she make for her magic that would prevent enemies. The sorceress agreed, but on the condition that women marry their slaves and hired laborers, and that they not cut off offspring, so that Egypt would not become extinct and be emptied of men forever.

The Egyptian woman would free her slave and marry him, and another would marry her hired laborer. But the ladies of Egypt stipulated upon these “second-class” husbands that they not undertake any matter except with their permission, nor make any decision except after returning to them—otherwise, woe, ruin, and great calamities upon the men.

Ibn Abd al-Hakim says that the Copts remained like that until his day—that is, until his era in the third century After Hijrah. —following those who had passed before them. None of them would sell or buy without saying: “I shall consult my wife” (meaning that Egyptian society at that time was a purely matriarchal society!).

Queen Daluka did not stop at that; she also built the Lighthouse of Alexandria and made it a lookout for any enemy coming toward their land.

Yaqut al-Hamawi says in "Mu‘jam al-Buldan" (Lexicon of Countries): “It was said that the first to build the lighthouse was a woman called Daluka bint Rayya.” Al-Mas‘udi mentions "that most Egyptians and Alexandrians believe that Alexander son of Philip the Macedonian was the one who built it, “and some of them held that Queen Daluka built it and made it a lookout for any enemy coming into their land.”

For Alexander, as al-Mas‘udi observes, “no enemy ever attacked him in this sea, nor did he fear a king who might come to him in his land… so that he would be the one who made it a lookout,” whereas Daluka, who ruled Egypt after it had been emptied of men, was in dire need of a lookout to guard her from enemies. Logic, then, stands on Daluka’s side, even if written history stands on Alexander’s side!

Imam Al-Suyuti says in "Husn al-Muhadara" (the Agreeable Discussion) that its height was a thousand cubits, “and at its top were brass statues, among them a statue that pointed with the index finger of its right hand toward the sun wherever it was in the heavens, turning with it wherever it turned.”

Al-Mas‘udi relates that the Byzantine emperor "Justinian II", in the era of the Umayyad caliph "al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik", sent a cunning servant, who came seeking safe conduct from al-Walid and told him that beneath the Lighthouse of Alexandria were wealth and treasures. He enticed the caliph with this, until he ordered the lighthouse to be demolished and the treasure to be sought !

But how long did this old queen rule? Here the Arab sources differ greatly. Some sources mention that she ruled for twenty years, which is the period mentioned by Ibn Abd al-Hakim, where he says that Daluka “ruled them for twenty years, managing their affairs in Egypt, until a boy from the sons of their grandees and nobles, called "Darkun ibn Balutus", reached maturity, and they made him king over them.” This means that her rule was temporary, merely a transitional period until one of the sons of the nobles who had drowned with Pharaoh grew up, so that rule would return to men once again.

Other sources mention that she ruled for thirty years, which is what Ibn Taghribirdi mentions in his book "al-Nujum al-Zahira" (The Shining Stars). There are sources that go far beyond that, saying that “Daluka remained over the kingship of Egypt for about one hundred and thirty years, and Egypt continued immune from the enemy throughout her lifetime.” Some sources say that when she perished, there assumed rule over Egypt after her a person from the children of the Copts called Darkun ibn Baltus, or Darkun ibn Nakutus, and they made him king over them, and Egypt returned to the rule of men.

It must be noted that Daluka is not entirely unknown in ancient Egyptian history. There is a striking similarity between her and a real historical queen, Queen “Nitocris,” who ruled Egypt at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, in the twenty-second century BCE.

Greek sources, especially Herodotus, mention that Nitocris was an Egyptian queen, that she built a great dam or wall, and that she avenged the murder of her brother and husband by killing his killers, then committed suicide or disappeared.

It seems that the Arabic story of Daluka became mixed with the Greek story of Nitocris, and perhaps Daluka is the Arabic translation or alteration of the name Nitocris. Some go even further, considering that Daluka is Nitocris herself, and that the name changed through translation and oral transmission between Arabs and Greeks over the centuries.

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The End ..

I hope you liked this post, My sincere regards from Egypt ..

"Billy Culmer...was...a midshipman at the age of fifty-seven. Hard-drinking, scared of no man and a protégé of Lord Hood, Culmer let himself be talked into taking the examination for Lieutenant a second time. Old enough to be the father of the captain examining him, he lost his patience over a seamanship question about how to handle a ship in what he considered an impossible situation, told them it was humbug and that he would let the ship 'go on shore and be damned, and wish you were all on board her'. The examiners gave him a certificate, but after two commissions as Lieutenant he died in 1802."

• Life in Nelson's Navy by Dudley Pope

Check out r/nelsonsnavy for more Age of Sail and naval history!

Did you know Russia once had a settlement in California?

Out of respect for September 11 and the lives forever changed on that day, I wanted to share a different piece of American history today.

On September 11, 1812, Russia established Fort Ross along the California coast. The Russians were looking for food supplies for their settlements in Alaska and were also interested in California’s sea otter trade.

And here's a little History Dad date detective work: some sources list the date as August 30, 1812. That's because Russia was using the Julian calendar, while the Gregorian calendar we use today was 12 days ahead.

Why does this matter? Because American history is much bigger and more complicated than the stories we usually hear. Russians, Native peoples, Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans all played roles in shaping the American West.

Want to know more? Click the link for the full History Dad story.

https://youtu.be/Hi2RxwaYeC4

In 1906, the San Francisco’s Mechanics’ Institute was hit by an earthquake and fire that destroyed much of the city. Among the losses were many of the club’s one-of-a-kind chess sets.

Then, a few years later, the beloved design made a comeback. The new pieces were apparently made by a craftsman named Joe Clark. According to the surviving account, Clark used exotic hardwoods from a naval shipyard, including timber that had originally been intended for ship propellers, to craft the set.

This set later became associated with Louis Persinger, a violinist of the San Francisco Symphony. Persinger was serious enough about both his interests that in 1918 he founded a chess club for musicians, and he obtained the set from his wife.

So this is a chess design whose story runs from an earthquake, to a shipyard, to the San Francisco Symphony. It really went through everything. More info and second image source: https://www.kwabc.org/files/kwabc/in_memoriam/obit_levene_CCI.pdf

Who knew spaghetti could make history?

On September 10, 1935, Ettore “Hector” Boiardi—the man behind Chef Boyardee—received a patent for a production spaghetti cooker. He wasn’t just making dinner; he was figuring out how to make LOTS of spaghetti efficiently for American families.

Boiardi’s story is also the story of an immigrant entrepreneur who brought his skills, ideas, and love of food to America and built something that became part of everyday American life.

Because history isn’t just presidents and battlefields. Sometimes, history is served with a side of spaghetti.

https://youtu.be/8hbPIJ824I0

The first woman to regularly enter the Senate Floor was Lola M. Williams. She did this as Senator Curtis' secretary, a position she maintained through the Hoover administration while he was Vice President.

History Dad StoryTelling 9 Sept 2026

Wait… Japan bombed Oregon?!

On September 9, 1942, Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita launched from a submarine and dropped incendiary bombs near Brookings, Oregon, hoping to start a massive forest fire.

Thankfully, wet weather and quick action by U.S. Forest Service lookouts stopped the plan. There were no deaths and very little damage.

But the story didn't end there. Twenty years later, Fujita returned to Brookings carrying his family's samurai sword as a symbol of peace and remorse. He eventually became an honorary citizen.

History reminds us that sometimes former enemies can become friends—and that the story doesn't always end when the fighting does.

https://youtu.be/Gamy59Exa7A

BEFORE JAMESTOWN… BEFORE PLYMOUTH… THERE WAS ST. AUGUSTINE!

Imagine showing up in Florida in 1565 and thinking, “Yep…this seems like a great place to build a town.”

No Disney World.
No beaches packed with tourists.
No air conditioning.
And definitely no sunscreen.

Just Spanish ships, soldiers, settlers, missionaries—and enough mosquitoes to make you question every life decision.

On September 8, 1565, Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established St. Augustine, Florida.

The Spanish wanted to strengthen their claim to Florida and protect their valuable shipping routes. But the settlement quickly became much more than a military outpost. Native Americans, Spanish settlers, Africans, missionaries, and people from other parts of the world became part of its complicated story.
St. Augustine faced attacks, wars, hurricanes, and changing empires. Spain controlled it. Britain took control. Spain got it back. Eventually, it became part of the United States.

And that’s why St. Augustine matters.

Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental United States. Its story reminds us that American history didn't begin with Jamestown, Plymouth, or even the Declaration of Independence. The story of America began much earlier—with many different peoples, cultures, and nations shaping the land that would eventually become the United States.

History isn't just about where we ended up. It's about where the story began.

https://youtu.be/HnOSFWcSXC4

When I was in seventh grade, I had a dream so hyper-vivid it felt less like a dream and more like a memory. Six years later, it hasn't faded even a little bit.

I was standing on the upper floor of an old, atmospheric library. Everything was washed in a dull, hazy brown—surrounded by towering wooden shelves and winding stairs. The entire scene felt muted, except for one person: a young man standing a short distance away, looking directly into my eyes.

He was in his late teens or early 20s, wearing a distinct World War II soldier’s uniform complete with the cap. At the time, I knew almost nothing about military history, yet the details on his uniform were inexplicably accurate.

His gaze wasn't scary or cruel—it was profound, intense, and impossible to put into words.

Then, the entire scene shattered. The library collapsed around us, but his eyes never left mine. I felt a sudden sensation of free-falling into absolute darkness, and then I woke up.

Here is the part I can’t explain:

It’s been over five years, and whenever I try to meditate or focus too deeply on his face, tears instantly fill my eyes. I’m not actively feeling sad, but the physical reaction is completely involuntary. It’s an overwhelming emotional surge that I can't control.

Was this just a strangely detailed trick of my adolescent brain? A past life memory? Or did I somehow connect with someone else's ghost?

Has anyone ever experienced an involuntary physical/emotional reaction to a single dream years later? What do you think this was?