# Without looking it up, do you know of these two events? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293 "2013-08-27T13:54:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/121 "2013-08-29T02:33:05Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > John Wilkes Booth and Walt Whitman witnessed his execution. That was not exactly their last run-in either. I’ve read that a companion of Whitman’s was in the audience of _Our American Cousin_ when Lincoln was shot, and Whitman wrote “O Captain! My Captain!” after hearing the first-hand account. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/122 "2013-08-29T04:16:36Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > That old line “you never use Algebra after high school?” It’s true about History, too. Fucking useless. Not at all true. I got my BA in Political Science and History but chose to do my Master’s in foreign languages instead. Since then, I’ve worked in publishing, broadcasting, and education, and in each field I benefited greatly from my History background. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/123 "2013-08-29T04:56:20Z")
A good sense of history has proved invaluable to me over the years as well. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/124 "2013-08-29T05:00:57Z")
Me too. Just finished writing a brief for court where my history background was invaluable. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/125 "2013-08-29T05:12:16Z")
Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/126 "2013-08-29T05:17:44Z")
Yes to both. 62 year old white male, born in New York, read a lot of history but remember the March from when it happened. Not the raid so much. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/127 "2013-08-29T05:21:17Z")
Yes to both. I think I’m 56 or 57. I learned most about John Brown’s raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry from **Flashman and the Angel of the Lord**. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/128 "2013-08-29T07:33:29Z")
So, I returned to the Wikipedia page on [Harpers Ferry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia). The place has considerable natural beauty, along with layers of history. Here’s a centennial coming up in a few years: > [@](#): > > On August 15, 1906, the Niagara Movement led by author and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois, held its first meeting on American soil on the campus of Storer College, now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The three-day gathering, which was held to secure civil rights for African Americans, was later described by DuBois as “one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held.” Attendees of the 1906 meeting walked from Storer College to the nearby farm of the Murphy family, then the site of the historic fort where John Brown’s quest to free four million enslaved African Americans reached its bloody climax. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/129 "2013-08-30T02:13:12Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > So, I returned to the Wikipedia page on [Harpers Ferry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia). The place has considerable natural beauty, along with layers of history. Here’s a centennial coming up in a few years: It looks like the centennial was seven years ago. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/130 "2013-08-30T02:59:02Z")
Harper’s Ferry is also the halfway point on the Apalachian Trail, tradition dictates that through hikers consume a gallon of I ice cream there. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/131 "2013-08-30T03:38:56Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > I scored a 50%. I knew the answer to the John Brown question, but I thought the “March on Washington” was referring to the 1932 “Bonus Army” incident. ++ 53, but my son is not an American citizen. 1963 was too recent to be ‘history’ when I was learning history, and Washington and Lincoln each had their own holidays. The ‘Bonus Army’ was particularly interesting to me because (1) I have several connections to Korea, and (2) Douglas Macarthur has a fairly poor reputation in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/132 "2013-08-30T04:27:47Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It looks like the centennial was seven years ago. Oops! I was always better at History than Math… ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/133 "2013-08-30T04:36:18Z")
White male, 66. I knew both of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293.md?page=6)