Benjamin Warner (1857 - 1935)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Benjamin's lifetime.

In 1857, in the year that Benjamin Warner was born, on December 16th, a 7.0 earthquake struck the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - Southern Italy. It had a maximum Mercalli intensity of 11 (Extreme) and killed about 10,000 people..

In 1876, at the age of 19 years old, Benjamin was alive when on July 4th, the United States celebrated its centennial. There were parades, music, speeches and fireworks - even in Union Square in New York City. Suffragettes also marched for equal rights and the vote for women.

In 1899, by the time he was 42 years old, the meaning of Chinese "oracle bones" was rediscovered. Farmers in China had been turning up the bones in their fields for generations but most often they were ground up and sold as medicine. The chancellor of the Imperial Academy and a friend noticed, before they ground the bones, that they had writing. The bones had been used around the second millennium BC for divination.

In 1902, he was 45 years old when the world famous Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, made the first gramophone recording by a popular singer. Accompanied by only a piano, his voice recordings became a big seller and did much to popularize the new-fangled gramophone. He had to sing into a metal "horn" that relayed his voice to a metal disc. And the songs had to be under 4 and a half minutes!

In 1935, in the year of Benjamin Warner's passing, on September 8th, Louisiana Senator Huey Long was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss. Weiss was shot and killed immediately by Long's bodyguards - Long died two days later from his injuries. Long had received many death threats previously, as well as threats against his family. He was a powerful and controversial figure in Louisiana politics (and probably gained power through multiple criminal acts). His opponents became frustrated with their attempts to oust him and Dr. Weiss was the son-in-law of one of those opponents. His funeral was attended by 200,000 mourners.