America's 1890s Parachute Queen


Book Description

Death-defying pioneer parachute artist Miss Hazel Keyes earned renown across America, leaping from her balloon in the 1890s. Drawing spectators to her parachuting performances by the thousands for more than a decade jumping with her monkey, Miss Jennie Yan Yan, Hazel endured relentless hardship and injury to earn her living and claim her slice of fame. Suffering assault by friends, family, strangers, and the earth, she survived her perilous occupation for more than a decade. Following her career, the skydiving queen again garnered fame. She blazed a new trail as she battled her husbands, sons, government officials, and "bad actors" to maintain her wealth, sanity, and property. The rock-tough woman persevered despite gunshot wounds, emotional anguish, and betrayal. Her tale of fortitude stands remarkable in the annals of American history. WORDS OF PRAISE A leader in his local history community, award-winning author, historian, and humanitarian, William Kalt III continues to contribute to Western literature and give history a future. Dedicated to sharing factual accounts, his unique stories of long ago earned him a Historic Preservation Award, and his exciting writing style brings the tales to life. I highly recommend anything he writes. Dr. Kenneth V. Karrels, Chairman, Southern Arizona Transportation Museum




The Hijacking of American Flight 119


Book Description

In 1971, "D. B. Cooper" pulled off what some call the crime of the century, skyjacking a Boeing 727 and parachuting into history and legend. Here's a book that offers a gripping account of that still-unsolved case, based on never-before-published interviews, showing how it launched one of the most extraordinary eras in American aviation history. In November 1971, an unidentified man later anointed by the media as "D.B. Cooper" pulled off one of the most audacious crimes in aviation history, hijacking a Northwest Airlines flight over the Pacific Northwest and parachuting from the Boeing 727 with $200,000 in ransom. "D. B. Cooper" was never to be seen again and the FBI, which kept his case open for forty years, finally determined it would never be solved. Unsolved, perhaps, but much admired. Over the next seven months, a number of air pirates imitated Cooper's crime. None were more daring than the hijacker of American Airlines Flight 119. After commandeering the flight from St. Louis with a machine gun and collecting $502,500 in ransom, the Flight 119 hijacker parachuted into the night over Indiana. Unlike Cooper, he was found. These two crimes were part of a wave of hijackings that occurred between 1961 and 1972, "D. B. Cooper" may have been the most famous, but he was far from alone. One hijacker ran across the tarmac in Reno, Nevada with a pillowcase over his head, gun in hand, to seize a United Airlines flight. Another collected a large ransom in Washington, D.C. before jumping over Honduras. Motivations in many cases remain murky, an admixture of politics, greed, derring-do, and boredom. What they had in common was how they transfixed the nation's attention, bringing about a transformation in the ways that commercial airlines were run and how the laws of the skies were enforced. With its focus on the parachute hijackers, beginning with "D. B. Cooper," John Wigger's book gathers together the stories of this period of daring criminality and recounts them in gripping fashion, showing their effect on the public, the media, and law enforcement. Using never-before published interviews and first-hand accounts, he brings one of the most chaotic periods in U.S. commercial aviation to life.




The Standard Poland-China Record


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The American Stud Book


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Containing full pedigree of all the imported thorough-bred stallions and mares, with their produce.




Hawaii's Story


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A Leap from the Clouds


Book Description

In the late nineteenth century, circus aerialists collaborated with show balloonists to perform death-defying stunts, initially by suspending themselves from trapeze bars beneath a balloon, later by jumping from the balloons using fabric parachutes. By the 1890s, these performances became a worldwide craze, remaining in rural fairs and fetes for decades. Many of the original balloon-parachute pioneers went on to play key roles in the creation of airships, test flying the first gliders and airplanes. Based on extensive historical research, this unusual account explores how a nineteenth-century daredevil act united with the desire to achieve human flight. These performers' contributions did not come without a price: dozens, if not hundreds, of people died in horrifying events witnessed by thousands of spectators. This book chronicles the act that had no practical purpose other than entertainment, which eventually evolved into the development of the free-fall parachute pack--a key aviation need--and the foundation of a new activity known as skydiving.




Queen's Park


Book Description

Dismissed by planners in the 1950s as fit only for demolition and replacement with tower blocks, Queen's Park is now one of London's most vibrant and thriving communities: culturally diverse, with a vigorous campaigning spirit as well as being home to world-renowned actors, writers and musicians. This is its story From ancient Britain to the current day, defiant suffragettes to neo-Nazi arsonists, and First World War fighter aces to the Windrush generation, Queen's Park: A History is a meticulously researched book that brings the past to life. Uncover mysteries, scandals, horrors and heroes – and discover how a London community ebbed and flowed to take the shape it has today.




Punch and Judy in 19th Century America


Book Description

The hand-puppet play starring the characters Punch and Judy was introduced from England and became extremely popular in the United States in the 1800s. This book details information on nearly 350 American Punch players. It explores the significance of the 19th-century American show as a reflection of the attitudes and conditions of its time and place. The century was a time of changing feelings about what it means to be human. There was an intensified awareness of the racial, cultural, social and economical diversity of the human species, and a corresponding concern for the experience of human oneness. The American Punch and Judy show was one of the manifestations of these conditions.




The American Stationer


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