In 1587 a small company made up of 90 men, 17 women and 9 children colonized the island of Roanoke just off the coast of North Carolina. John White, the governor of the second colony, went back to England to gather more supplies. He intended to return to Roanoke Island right away, but war between England and Spain delayed him. Three years later when returning with supplies the colony was gone. The only clue the word “Croatan” was carved on a tree.

On November 5, 1872 the Mary Celeste set sail from New York for Italy. A month later on December 5th it was discovered as a derelict. The ship was in perfect order with no sign of trouble and still carried ample supplies. The captain, his family and its 14-member crew have never been found.

In 1913 author Ambrose Bierce joined the army of Pancho Villa as an observer of the Mexican Revolution. It is known that he accompanied Villa’s army as far as Chihuahua since a letter to a close friend was sent from there on December 26, 1913. Afterward he vanished and investigations into the disappearance provided no answers.

On August 6, 1930 New York Supreme Court associate justice Joseph F. Crater was seen walking out of a New York restaurant. He entered a taxi after waving goodbye to some friends and was never seen again. In October, a grand jury began looking into the case and ended up calling 95 witnesses and amassing 975 pages of testimony. Some of the evidence uncovered was that a safe-deposit box had been emptied and two briefcases missing. The conclusion was: “The evidence is insufficient to warrant any expression of opinion as to whether Crater is alive or dead, or as to whether he has absented himself voluntarily, or is the sufferer from disease in the nature of amnesia, or is the victim of crime.”

On March 4, 1983 13-year-old Shannon Lee Potter of Parkville, Maryland climbed out of her bedroom window to attend a party. She has not been seen since.

While not a disappearance, the Legend of the Lost Dutchman’s mine in the Superstition Mountain of Arizona has caused a few disappearances with people lost trying to discover its location. In the 1870’s Jacob Waltz is said to have located a mine that he worked with his partner Jacob Weiser. Waltz was German, mistaken for Dutch, and he is the Dutchman where the name originated. Most stories place the mine in the vicinity of Weaver’s Needle, a well-known landmark in the mountains.

Now the oldest living American is now Neva Morris, of Ames, Iowa. When this post first appears on March 09, 2010 she is 114 years, 217 days.

The oldest person in the world is Japan’s Kama Chinen at age 114 years, 302 days.

As the days past it is becoming more obvious that very few people are still alive that lived in the 19th Century, or to be more precise born on or before December 31, 1899. Any one born in the 19th century would now be over 110 years of age.

The oldest man in the world and also the United States is Walter Breuning, who was born on September 21, 1896. Presently he is the 7th oldest verified person in the world.

Daisy Bailey also died on March 7, 2010. Not that March 7th was any special day for deaths. Only Daisy Bailey was also born in the 19th Century, March 30, 1896.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was originally published in 1865. Lewis Carroll was the name listed as the author, but that was a pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Along with his writings Dodgson was mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon. Nearly all of his writings are considered to be in the genre of literary nonsense.

During the late 1850’s and early 1860’s while working at Christ Church, one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, he became friends with the Liddel family. Henry George Liddell was the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church. Dodgson would spend many hours with the children of Liddel, including their daughter, Alice.

One day while taking a boat ride in 1862, he told a story of a girl named Alice who followed a white rabbit down a rabbit hole and into an amazing adventure. Alice asked for him to write it down. He presented to her a illustrated manuscript entitled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground in November 1864.

Alice Pleasance Liddell was born on May 4, 1852 and died on November 16, 1934. She was the fourth child of Henry Liddell and his wife Lorina Hanna Liddell. At the age of 28 she married Reginald Hargreaves on September 15, 1880.

There has been much debate on whether Alice was based on her. Dodgson, Lewis Carroll, said that iAlice wasn’t based on any real person. The two girls were not alike, however they did share some common elements. The name Alice, of course, as well as birth date. He dedicated the book to “to Alice Pleasance Liddell”. And the poem in Through the Looking Glass commonly known as “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky” which spells her name when taking the first letter of each line.

Bell’s experiments with the telegraph was an attempt to transmit multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. He felt that this could be done if each signal would have it’s own different pitch.

On the same day, February 14, 1876, Bell and Elisha Gray with his Western Electric Manufacturing Company, submitted their patients to the United States Patient Office in Washington DC. Bell’s paperwork with application fee was completed first, Gray’s caveat was entered first, but his filing fee was entered after Bell’s. On March 7, 1876, three days before the successful experiment, Bell received Patent Number 174,465.

Gray would file lawsuits challenging Bell’s patent. He would lose them all, mainly because it was determined that because he failed to take actions to complete his caveat until others had demonstrated a working unit. Gray still wasn’t left in the dark since he did receive a patent for the telautograph, a way to transmit handwriting through telegraph systems. It can be called the first fax machine

The Bell Telephone Company was created in 1877 and by 1886, 10 years after the first voice transmission, over 150,000 people in the United States owned telephones.

There really isn’t a sole inventor of the telephone. Bell’s ideas closely resembled Gray’s. The telephone’s transmitter was greatly improved when Edison’s carbon microphone was introduced. Not to mention that the entire idea of the telephone is really just an improvement and enhancement of Morse’s telegraph.

They first began to work together in 1935 at the Eltinge burlesque theater on 42nd Street in New York. Abbott had been working in burlesque for years, usually as the straight man. Costello had tried to become a film actor, but after his failure there, began work on burlesque circuit. In 1936 they formally made the partnership. Their act was built by refining sketches from vaudeville and burlesque with Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the stumbling, comprehension-challenged laugh-getter.

In the late 1930’s they worked on radio as regulars for 2 years on the Kate Smith Hour. It was there that Costello began using a high-pitched childish voice since it had been difficult for listening to tell them apart.

In 1940 they appeared in their first movie, One Night in the Tropics, in a supporting capacity. They were the hit of the film and Universal signed them to a long-term contract. The duo made over 30 films between 1940 and 1956 and in many ways saved Universal Studios. Between 1942 and 1952 they were a top 10 box office attraction. Also in the 1940’s they appeared on their own radio program. The Abbott and Costello Show mixed comedy with musical interludes.

In 1951 they moved into television, first as frequent hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour, a live hour of vaudeville. This gave new sparkle to their old routines. Then in 1952 they began a film ½ hour comedy casting the duo as unemployed wastrel, similar to their radio program.

By the mid 50’s their popularity was waning, due in part to them glutting the market with the same routines. Universal dropped them in 1955 and after making one last independent film (Dance with me Henry) Abbott retired. In 1956 they were charged by the IRS for back taxes, which forced them to sell most of their assets.

The Phillies are the oldest continuous one-name, one-city franchise in American professional sports. They have however used alternate nicknames throughout its history.

The Phillies had held record for the longest World Series championship drought in baseball at 97 years (1883-1980). The Chicago Cubs broke this record in 2005, which last won in 1908.

One of the most disappointing as well as one of the biggest collapses in baseball history came upon the Phillies in 1964. With 12 games remaining in the season they held a 6.5 game lead on the Cincinnati Reds. They endured a 10 game losing streak and ended the season in a tie for second place a game behind the pennant winning Cardinals.

The Phillies on July 15, 2007 recorded their 10,000th team loss. The the most losses by a professional team in sports history. Even with this they did the playoffs that year and again in 2008 and 2009, making the World Series in both of those years. They won the World championship in 2008 however they were not able to repeat since they lost to the New York Yankees in 2009.

The Phillies have retired the uniform numbers; 1-Richie Ashburn, 14-Jim Bunning, 20-Mike Schmidt, 32-Steve Carlton, 36-Robin Roberts. They have also honored Grover Cleveland Alexander who played prior using uniform numbers and Chuck Klein, who wore several different numbers with the Phillies.