Tag: history ftw

I will wait.

Sergeant Milunka Savic, quoted in “5 of the Fiercest One-Liners in History”

In 1912, when Milunka Savic was 24, her brother was called up to serve in the first Balkan War. We’re not sure if Milunka took his place or just went along, but we do know that she assumed a male identity and became a highly decorated soldier in the Serbian army. She apparently kept her gender a secret through the First Balkan War and into the Second, when a Bulgarian grenade wounded her so severely that her gender was revealed to the field surgeons.

Savic was called before her commanding officer. They didn’t want to punish her, because she had proven a valuable and highly competent soldier. The military deployment that had resulted in her gender being revealed had been her tenth. But neither was it suitable for a young woman to be in combat. She was offered a transfer to the Nursing division. Savic stood at attention and insisted she only wanted to fight for her country as a combatant. The officer said he’d think it over and give her his answer the next day. Still standing at attention, Savic responded, “I will wait.”

It is said he only made her stand an hour before agreeing to send her back to the infantry. She fought for Serbia through World War I, receiving honors from several different governments for her distinguished service. Some believe her to be the most decorated female in the history of warfare. She was decommissioned in 1919 and fell into a life of relative obscurity and hardship. She died in Belgrade in 1973 at the age of 84.

(via serbias)

vita-pulcherrima:

So why do we have paramedics/EMTs? We owe that to Black excellence.

image

In the 1960s, there were no ambulances. Medical emergencies were handled by police, who had no medical training or equipment. But police didn’t want to go to Pittsburgh’s mostly black Hill District. Enter Freedom House.

Freedom House was founded by Dr Peter Safar (the father of CPR) and Phil Hallen, and recruited unemployed black men, training them to provide emergency medical treatment and drive ambulances. Otherwise unemployable men–high school dropouts, alcoholics, drug users, were given a chance to earn a living while providing a valuable service.

Soon, the city of Pittsburgh took over the service, and the Freedom House emergency medical model was applied nationwide.

(NPR Article link) (and thanks to penaltybox14 for posting about this earlier!)

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Dear “But Hillary would be the first female president” people

feathersmoons:

sputnikcentury:

garden-of-debauchery:

kernalmustache:

gioseppi:

You know what Bernie Sanders would be? The first Jewish President. And alongside that (though it goes without saying) the first non-Christian President.

In a country dominated by Christians, run on their values, and where ‘because the bible says so’ is considered a valid political argument, that’s just as important (if not moreso) as a female president. And while its not ever been as prevalent as racism or mysoginy, antisemitism has played a role in American history (and Western history in general), so this would also be a way to push away from that.

Just thought I’d point this out, since no one seems to be talking about it.

I didn’t know Bernie Sanders was Jewish. This is good information to spread.

He wouldn’t be the first non Christian dummy that was JFK

JFK was Catholic which, last time I checked, is a denomination of Christianity. 🙂 He was the first non-Protestant president. But nice try!

There are seriously Protestants who insist Catholicism is not Christianity. In case anyone was wondering.

…I’m reasonably certain a couple of the “Founding Fathers” (ugh) were Deist rather than Christian?

star-anise:

kuttithevangu:

Barbara Tuchman says the widespread apparently juvenile behavior of medieval Europe should be considered in light of the fact that most of active society was in fact people in their teens and twenties

Which on the one hand is like one of those things that’s obvious once it’s pointed out

But also its funny to think there was a whole historians’ tradition of being like “why were medieval kings so overemotional” until Tuchman clears her throat and goes… “Ahem… Have you ever met an eighteen year old boy” and then everyone’s like “oooooh”

Also, vast swathes of the population probably had post-traumatic stress disorder and/or fetal alcohol exposure.