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April 22: 140th Anniversary of Thomas Stevens setting off
Mr. Stevens was, of course, the first person to ride a velocipede (a 50-inch Columbia penny-farthing) across the USA and over the next two years, around the world.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...30e1929f3e.png https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5a9de8f985.png He was a product of his times, but it's instructive to see how the young man changed as he experienced travel and the world. It's all written up in his voluminous travelog, Around the World on a Bicycle. That such an audacious undertaking was successful right at the dawn of cycletouring shocked the world with the possibilities of the bicycle. Get out on your bike for a commemorative ride! Wow, I'm Old Department: I was in San Francisco on April 22, 1984, for the start of the 100th Anniversary TransAm Ride. |
Why not Vietnam??
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Originally Posted by GamblerGORD53
(Post 23220424)
Why not Vietnam??
By 1884, the entire country was under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated into the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887.[91][92] The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society.[93] A Western-style system of modern education introduced new humanist values.[94] Most French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina, particularly in Saigon, and in Hanoi, the colony's capital.[95] During the colonial period, guerrillas of the royalist Cần Vương movement rebelled against French rule and massacred around a third of Vietnam's Christian population.[96][97] After a decade of resistance, they were defeated in the 1890s by the Catholics in reprisal for their earlier massacres.[98][99] Another large-scale rebellion, the Thái Nguyên uprising, was also suppressed heavily.[100] |
A group gathered yesterday at Mr. Stevens' gravesite in London to raise a glass in remembrance. Present were members of the Pickwick Bicycle Club, The Wheelmen, The IVCA, and the V-CC Highwheel Group. Images courtesy League of Ordinary Riders International Penny Farthing Group.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d6d2661fbf.png I spot some period-correct riding helmets: the military pith and a bowler, both types worn by Stevens at various times on his ride. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...458b1596bc.png |
Originally Posted by GamblerGORD53
(Post 23220424)
Why not Vietnam??
Why not any of the ~180 countries he did not visit? Probably a combination of not getting permission to enter, no embassy support, poor or non-existent roads, hostility of local populations, outbreaks of disease, lack of regular steamship service, etc. In his travelog, Stevens mentions dealing with all these things to some degree in the countries he was able to visit. |
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