History at home.

December 16, 2007 7:02 AM

What historic moments have happened at home?

I'm looking for examples of historic moments that happened in normal domestic settings. Stories akin to Archimedes taking a bath or Doc Brown hitting his head on the sink.

posted by popcassady to Society & Culture (14 answers total)

Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president of the US by his father at his home in Plymouth Vermont following McKinley's death.
posted by jessamyn at 7:14 AM on December 16, 2007

The death of Marat. He died in his bathtub, but I can't find any record if his bathtub was in his house - I don't know how many people in France had their own baths then, but it is a possibility at least.
posted by xetere at 7:47 AM on December 16, 2007

I suppose you could make a case for the births of any number of historical figures, before the advent of routine hospital births.

I just visited the Darwin exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. Included in the exhibit is a reconstruction of Darwin's study, where he wrote The Origin of Species.

Is that the kind of thing you're looking for?
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:56 AM on December 16, 2007

Response by poster: Any occasion that mixed the domestic — as opposed to battlefields, offices, palaces... — with the historic. The Coolidge answer was spot on.
posted by popcassady at 8:43 AM on December 16, 2007

Bell's first telephone call to Watson wasn't at home, but it wasn't in a lab either. They had rented a couple of rooms in a boarding house for secrecy. The first 'long distance' call was placed from Bell's house.
posted by Gungho at 8:44 AM on December 16, 2007

Jesse James was shot in his living room while hanging/adjusting/dusting a picture.
posted by wfrgms at 8:51 AM on December 16, 2007

Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, was at home recuperating from a carriage accident the night of the president's assassination when one of Booth's co-conspirators tried to kill him in his bed. The attempt failed, maybe making this an historical non-event that almost happened at home.
posted by faceonmars at 9:40 AM on December 16, 2007

Lee surrendered to Grant at Wilmer McLean's home in Appomattox Court House (a village, not a court house).
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:17 AM on December 16, 2007

Pretty sure Archimedes was in the public baths, and not at home
posted by jpdoane at 11:47 AM on December 16, 2007

If you count the arts, many things have been created at home. And most folk, including the powerful and famous, used to die at home.

If you want scientific and technical eurekas, look for home laboratories. Joseph Priestley (maybe) discovered oxygen at home. William Perkins concocted mauve at home. Lee de Forest invented the vacuum tube at home. Or so says a quick and sloppy google.
posted by pracowity at 11:54 AM on December 16, 2007

Christian Kent Nelson invented the Eskimo Pie at home.
posted by pracowity at 12:07 PM on December 16, 2007

Also try googling "famous dreams" and the like--some people invent in their sleep: "I fell into a reverie, and lo, the atoms were gamboling before my eyes!"
posted by pracowity at 12:38 PM on December 16, 2007

The first meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous were held at Dr Bob Smith's home.
posted by essexjan at 1:13 PM on December 16, 2007

Before the twentieth century, almost everyone was born at home.
posted by Asparagirl at 2:28 PM on December 16, 2007