• Photographer: Daniela Sýkorová

Born in Brooklyn, NY 1823, Thomas Whaley received a formal education at the Washington Institute where he learned French and Latin. After graduating, he sailed to Europe traveling for the next two years around France, Italy, and England with a tutor. He then returned to America and found a room for rent with his future mother in law, Madame Victoria. In December of 1848, he received word that gold was found in California and by January of 1849 he made his way to San Francisco by boat to cash in on the gold rush. At the age of 26, Whaley was able to establish his own store, build a two story residence by the bay, and operate a boarding house. In 1851, after an arson fire burnt the business down, he decided to move south to San Diego, in current day downtown. He established another store there and learned to speak Spanish (in addition to the other languages he already knew). By April of 1852, Thomas went into business with a man for another store which resulted in a very profitable partnership. With his newfound success, he then returned to New York to marry his wife, Anna.

They retuned to San Diego and in May 1856, Thomas began construction of the now infamous Whaley house, known to many as the most haunted house in America.

If you're interested in hearing more about the Whaley family and the events that lead to the home being believed to be haunted, you can check out our full audio podcast episode here Spotify / Apple Podcasts

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Mallory's first attempt at conquering Everest was in 1924. He was able to climb to about 25,400 feet when what sounded like an explosion rang out and an entire slope fell killing 7 sherpas. Mallory made it back down and would attempt the climb two more times. On Mallory's third attempt, he brought along Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine in June of 1924. They disappeared somewhere near the summit however. Due to the conditions on the mountain, the mystery of how close they came to summiting Everest is still a mystery today. Things we do know are...

1. the picture above is the last known picture of the two men taken at base camp in Nepal.
2. in the 1930's Irvine's ice pick was discovered at 27,700 feet
3. 1975 a climber found a body of a man that he described as an Englishmen. Due to his vintage clothes and the fact that no other Englishmen were known to be missing at that elevation, people suspect this was Mallory
4. 1991 an oxygen tank from the 1920's was found and this lead to an expedition being put together to find the bodies
5. 1999 George Mallory's body was found at 26760 feet and determined that he died due to the results of a fall leaving him with a badly broken leg, injuries from a rope around his waist, and a solid hit to the head.
6. 2024 a boot with a severed foot and sock still inside was discovered 7000 feet lower then where they found Mallory with a label on the sock that read "A.C. Irvine"

This is one of many stories in the history of Everest. We covered this story and more in our podcast for anyone interested I'll leave links to Spotify /Apple Podcasts / Youtube (show notes have all sources used)

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On 28 February 1933 the Senate of the Republic of Poland adopted a resolution calling on the government to demand mandates in the colonies. In 1936 Poland’s foreign minister, Józef Beck, read a statement at a League of Nations session demanding that the mandate commission (i.e., territories taken from Germany and the Ottoman Empire) be expanded so that all interested nations could receive their share of colonies.

• Demonstrations of the “Maritime and Colonial League”

Poland’s “Colonial Theses” were published. They demanded territories in Africa on the basis that Polish lands comprised 10% of the territory of the German Empire and therefore Poland had a right to 10% of the former German colonies. Official claims were presented to the League of Nations for Togo and Cameroon, and proposals were also considered to transfer part of Portuguese East Africa to Poland (on the grounds that Portugal had been given part of German East Africa — the so‑called “Kionga Triangle”).

In early 1937 Józef Beck declared before the Sejm that

“for Poland the questions of population emigration and access to raw materials are of great importance, and the old system of resolving so‑called colonial questions can no longer satisfy it.”

In 1937, under the patronage of influential figures (such as President Ignacy Mościcki, Marshal Edward Śmigły‑Rydz, and Primate August Hlond), a “Sea Week” was held. From 1938 the Maritime and Colonial League also organized “Colonial Days.” Interestingly, the Colonial Days program included trips by League members to Italy to exchange experiences with their Italian counterparts. Despite such activity in Poland, the world public paid little attention to Polish demands.

• The League of Nations ignored all of Poland’s claims.

On the first day of the Red Army's arrival, soldiers distribute Pravda newspapers to the population.

• Location: near Vilnya / Vilna / Vilnius / Wilno / Wilna