Foes
September 4th in History
Emperor Taizong 626 Li Shimin, co-founder of the Tang Dynasty, posthumously known as Emperor Taizong of Tang, assumed the throne of China. One of the greatest rulers in Chinese history, his accomplishments, both economic and military, were required study for subsequent emperors. Under his reign, China included modern Viet Nam, Mongolia, and central Asia to Kazakhstan. He ruled as Tian Kehan, which translates as 'Heavenly Khan". His sister, Princess Pingyang commanded her own army in establishing the Tang Dynasty, overthrowing the preceding Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty lasted from 613 to 907, with a brief interruption when another Empress, Wu Zeitan, seized the throne and ruled in her own right as the 2nd Zhou Dynasty.
1260 The Senese Ghibellines, supported by the forces of King Manfred of Sicily, defeat the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti. The conflict was part of the larger Investiture Controversy, the largest conflict between church and state in the middle ages. It was temporarily resolved by the Concordat of Worms in 1122. At issue was the secular powers and appointments of bishops and other church officials. For example, it wasn't until 1059 that the College of Cardinals became the sole electors of the Pope in the Roman Catholic church. There was an ongoing tension between the jurisdictions of clerical courts and secular courts. In 1075 the Dictatus Papae claimed for the pope the sole power to depose an emperor, while Kings and Emperors appointed bishops within their borders. The 'Welfs', italianized Guelphs, supported the papal / secular power faction, while the Wibbelingens, italianized to Ghibellines, supported the Holy Roman Emperors secular power faction. This conflict dragged on until the Guelphs finally won in 1289, after which they continued fighting with each other as black Guelphs and white Guelph factions. The Ghibellines used as their symbol the war banner of the
Chinese Emperor Wanli,
Ming Dynasty
1563 Birth of Wanli, Emperor of China in the Ming Dynasty, from 1572 at the age of 9, to his death in 1620. During his reign in China, he repelled new invasions of Mongols, defeated the Japanese invasion of Korea, and put down the Yang Yinlong rebellion. While his reign began well, he was a less conscientious and successful ruler at the end of his reign, when the Manchu began to conquer and occupy the edges of his territory. It was also during the reign of Wanli that the first Jesuit missionary arrived in China.
1781 Los Angeles, California, is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers.
1784 Death of César-François Cassini de Thury, Comte de Cassini, French astronomer and cartographer, member of the French Academy of Science, the third generation of the famous family of astronomers. (b. 1714)
1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor, an V, in France. The coup was another bloody episode in the French Revolution (Napoleon Bonaparte had a part in it). Fructidor was one of the new months that were created as a result of the Revolution, the twelfth month of the French Republican Calendar, used from 1793 to 1805.
Some of the innovations, like the changes to the weights and measures system, which later evolved into the metric system made sense, but the calendar changes never really caught on. It replaced months of approximately 4 weeks, and weeks of 7 days each, with 12 months with new names, having three weeks in them, and weeks were 10 days long. The 'an V' of the coup translates as 'year 5'; they started counting years all over again as well, from the revolution.
horloge republicaineThere were no longer 24 hours in a day, there were 10, and hours lasted 100 decimal minutes, and minutes lasted 100 decimal seconds. They had to make special decimal clocks to accommodate the change, and this was mostly abandoned by 1795, although some cities used it until 1801------which led to a lot of confusion in France, and everywhere else.
During the beginning of the new year, fall had the new months Vendemiare (from Latin vindemia / grape harvest), Brumaire (from French brume, fog), and Frimaire(from French frimas, frost); winter was Nivose (from Latin nivosus, snowy), Pluviose (from Latin pluvius, rainy) and Ventose (from Latin ventosus, windy); spring was Germinal (from Latin germen, germination), Floreal (from Latin flos, flower), and Prairial (from French prairie, pasture) and summer ended the year with Messidor (from Latin messis, harvest), Thermidor / some calendars, Fervidor, (from Greek thermon, summer heat), and ended with Fructidor,(from Latin fructus, fruit). The British response was more fun; they mocked the new French calendar, calling the months Wheezy, Sneezy and Breezy, Slippy, Drippy, and Nippy, Showery, Flowery, and Bowery, and Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety.
Weeks were now called decades, and the new days were named primidi (first day), duodi (second day), tridi (third day), quartidi (fourth day), quintidi (fifth day), sextidi (sixth day), septidi (seventh day), octidi (eighth day), nonidi (ninth day), and decadi (tenth day). Five or six (leap year) days were tacked on to the end of the year each fall as celebration days.
You really, really don't want to know what they did to replace holidays and saint's days...
1812 The Siege of Fort Harrison begins when the fort is set on fire in the War of 1812. The fort was hastily built specifically for this war, and named in honor of General Harrison, who later became President William Henry Harrison. Another commander of the U.S. forces was Zachary Taylor, who became a later president as well, and as both Harrison and Taylor commanded the fort it was sometimes known as the 'fort of the two presidents'. Native Americans fought against the Americans with the British, from the Miami, Potawatomi, Kickapoo (yes, they're real), and Winnebago tribes. The War of 1812 had gone badly for the United States; this was the first major land victory in the war for the U.S.
1862 General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North in the Civil War in the Maryland Campaign, aka the Antietam Campaign. The Battle of Antietam, fought between the Confederate forces of General Lee and the Union forces of General McClellan was the bloodiest single day of fighting in the entire Civil War.
Napoleon III1870 Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared. The Third Republic, (which used conventional calendars and clocks), was the government of France from 1870 to 1940 when the Nazis imposed the Vichy government. Napoleon III was the earlier Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, and he was named Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte like his uncle was involved in extensive wars, including the Crimean War, Conquest of Senegal in Africa, the Second Opium War, the Cochinchina War which resulted in the French conquest of Viet Nam, the Second Italian War of Independence, invasion of Mexico, putting in place the French Emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlotta, the Second Italian War of Independence, the Taiping Rebellion, the Korean campaign, the Boshin War, and his final military effort, the Franco-Prussian War which Napoleon III lost, ceding Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire. Napoleon III's Second Republic was overthrown 3 days later.
Geronimo photo1884 The United Kingdom ends its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales in Australia.
1886 After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.
1888 George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.
1894 In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions.
Shenandoah1923 Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship,a dirigible, the USS Shenandoah ZR-1.
1941 A German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship, the USS Greer.
1949 The Peekskill Riots erupt after a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York. Over 140 people were injured, and vehicles severely damaged by rioters chanting 'go back to Russia, you niggers', 'white niggers', as police observed without intervening to stop the violence. Some of those alleged to have `committed the violence were members of Veterans of Foreign War chapters and American Legion chapters, expressing rabid anti-communist and racist sentiments. Robeson had been outspoken on behalf of civil rights and against the Klu Klux Klan. Included in the shouted slogans of the protesters were anti-Semitic and racist slurs.
1951 The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, California, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.
1956 The IBM RAMAC 305 is introduced, the first commercial computer to use magnetic disk storage.
One of the Little Rock 9,
with National Guardsthe Edsel1957 Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent the nine African American students, known as the Little Rock Nine, from enrolling in Central High School in defiance of a unanimous decision of the SCOTUS. Faubus later moderated his position on segregation, and in 1984 supported Jesse Jackson in the presidential primaries Debut of the Ford Edsel.
Schweitzer1965 Death of Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician and missionary, theologian, humanitarian, organist, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1875)
1972 Swimmer Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.
1975 The Sinai Interim Agreement relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict is signed.
1977 The Golden Dragon Massacre took place in San Francisco, California. The Massacre was the result of a failed assassination attempt at the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 2:40 A.M. Five people were killed including two tourists, 11 were injured as the result of gang warfare between two Asian gangs, the Joe Boys, and the Wah Ching. None of the people killed or injured in the massacre were gang members. The incident led to the formation of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force.
1984 Brian Mulroney leads the Canadian Progressive Conservative Party to power in the 1984 federal election, ending 20 years of nearly uninterrupted Liberal rule.
1995 The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
1998 Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
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1260 The Senese Ghibellines, supported by the forces of King Manfred of Sicily, defeat the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti. The conflict was part of the larger Investiture Controversy, the largest conflict between church and state in the middle ages. It was temporarily resolved by the Concordat of Worms in 1122. At issue was the secular powers and appointments of bishops and other church officials. For example, it wasn't until 1059 that the College of Cardinals became the sole electors of the Pope in the Roman Catholic church. There was an ongoing tension between the jurisdictions of clerical courts and secular courts. In 1075 the Dictatus Papae claimed for the pope the sole power to depose an emperor, while Kings and Emperors appointed bishops within their borders. The 'Welfs', italianized Guelphs, supported the papal / secular power faction, while the Wibbelingens, italianized to Ghibellines, supported the Holy Roman Emperors secular power faction. This conflict dragged on until the Guelphs finally won in 1289, after which they continued fighting with each other as black Guelphs and white Guelph factions. The Ghibellines used as their symbol the war banner of the
Chinese Emperor Wanli,
Ming Dynasty
1563 Birth of Wanli, Emperor of China in the Ming Dynasty, from 1572 at the age of 9, to his death in 1620. During his reign in China, he repelled new invasions of Mongols, defeated the Japanese invasion of Korea, and put down the Yang Yinlong rebellion. While his reign began well, he was a less conscientious and successful ruler at the end of his reign, when the Manchu began to conquer and occupy the edges of his territory. It was also during the reign of Wanli that the first Jesuit missionary arrived in China.
1781 Los Angeles, California, is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers.
1784 Death of César-François Cassini de Thury, Comte de Cassini, French astronomer and cartographer, member of the French Academy of Science, the third generation of the famous family of astronomers. (b. 1714)
1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor, an V, in France. The coup was another bloody episode in the French Revolution (Napoleon Bonaparte had a part in it). Fructidor was one of the new months that were created as a result of the Revolution, the twelfth month of the French Republican Calendar, used from 1793 to 1805.
Some of the innovations, like the changes to the weights and measures system, which later evolved into the metric system made sense, but the calendar changes never really caught on. It replaced months of approximately 4 weeks, and weeks of 7 days each, with 12 months with new names, having three weeks in them, and weeks were 10 days long. The 'an V' of the coup translates as 'year 5'; they started counting years all over again as well, from the revolution.
horloge republicaineThere were no longer 24 hours in a day, there were 10, and hours lasted 100 decimal minutes, and minutes lasted 100 decimal seconds. They had to make special decimal clocks to accommodate the change, and this was mostly abandoned by 1795, although some cities used it until 1801------which led to a lot of confusion in France, and everywhere else.
During the beginning of the new year, fall had the new months Vendemiare (from Latin vindemia / grape harvest), Brumaire (from French brume, fog), and Frimaire(from French frimas, frost); winter was Nivose (from Latin nivosus, snowy), Pluviose (from Latin pluvius, rainy) and Ventose (from Latin ventosus, windy); spring was Germinal (from Latin germen, germination), Floreal (from Latin flos, flower), and Prairial (from French prairie, pasture) and summer ended the year with Messidor (from Latin messis, harvest), Thermidor / some calendars, Fervidor, (from Greek thermon, summer heat), and ended with Fructidor,(from Latin fructus, fruit). The British response was more fun; they mocked the new French calendar, calling the months Wheezy, Sneezy and Breezy, Slippy, Drippy, and Nippy, Showery, Flowery, and Bowery, and Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety.
Weeks were now called decades, and the new days were named primidi (first day), duodi (second day), tridi (third day), quartidi (fourth day), quintidi (fifth day), sextidi (sixth day), septidi (seventh day), octidi (eighth day), nonidi (ninth day), and decadi (tenth day). Five or six (leap year) days were tacked on to the end of the year each fall as celebration days.
You really, really don't want to know what they did to replace holidays and saint's days...
1812 The Siege of Fort Harrison begins when the fort is set on fire in the War of 1812. The fort was hastily built specifically for this war, and named in honor of General Harrison, who later became President William Henry Harrison. Another commander of the U.S. forces was Zachary Taylor, who became a later president as well, and as both Harrison and Taylor commanded the fort it was sometimes known as the 'fort of the two presidents'. Native Americans fought against the Americans with the British, from the Miami, Potawatomi, Kickapoo (yes, they're real), and Winnebago tribes. The War of 1812 had gone badly for the United States; this was the first major land victory in the war for the U.S.
1862 General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North in the Civil War in the Maryland Campaign, aka the Antietam Campaign. The Battle of Antietam, fought between the Confederate forces of General Lee and the Union forces of General McClellan was the bloodiest single day of fighting in the entire Civil War.
Napoleon III1870 Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared. The Third Republic, (which used conventional calendars and clocks), was the government of France from 1870 to 1940 when the Nazis imposed the Vichy government. Napoleon III was the earlier Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, and he was named Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte like his uncle was involved in extensive wars, including the Crimean War, Conquest of Senegal in Africa, the Second Opium War, the Cochinchina War which resulted in the French conquest of Viet Nam, the Second Italian War of Independence, invasion of Mexico, putting in place the French Emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlotta, the Second Italian War of Independence, the Taiping Rebellion, the Korean campaign, the Boshin War, and his final military effort, the Franco-Prussian War which Napoleon III lost, ceding Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire. Napoleon III's Second Republic was overthrown 3 days later.
Geronimo photo1884 The United Kingdom ends its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales in Australia.
1886 After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.
1888 George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.
1894 In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions.
Shenandoah1923 Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship,a dirigible, the USS Shenandoah ZR-1.
1941 A German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship, the USS Greer.
1949 The Peekskill Riots erupt after a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York. Over 140 people were injured, and vehicles severely damaged by rioters chanting 'go back to Russia, you niggers', 'white niggers', as police observed without intervening to stop the violence. Some of those alleged to have `committed the violence were members of Veterans of Foreign War chapters and American Legion chapters, expressing rabid anti-communist and racist sentiments. Robeson had been outspoken on behalf of civil rights and against the Klu Klux Klan. Included in the shouted slogans of the protesters were anti-Semitic and racist slurs.
1951 The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, California, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.
1956 The IBM RAMAC 305 is introduced, the first commercial computer to use magnetic disk storage.
One of the Little Rock 9,
with National Guardsthe Edsel1957 Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent the nine African American students, known as the Little Rock Nine, from enrolling in Central High School in defiance of a unanimous decision of the SCOTUS. Faubus later moderated his position on segregation, and in 1984 supported Jesse Jackson in the presidential primaries Debut of the Ford Edsel.
Schweitzer1965 Death of Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician and missionary, theologian, humanitarian, organist, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1875)
1972 Swimmer Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.
1975 The Sinai Interim Agreement relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict is signed.
1977 The Golden Dragon Massacre took place in San Francisco, California. The Massacre was the result of a failed assassination attempt at the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 2:40 A.M. Five people were killed including two tourists, 11 were injured as the result of gang warfare between two Asian gangs, the Joe Boys, and the Wah Ching. None of the people killed or injured in the massacre were gang members. The incident led to the formation of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force.
1984 Brian Mulroney leads the Canadian Progressive Conservative Party to power in the 1984 federal election, ending 20 years of nearly uninterrupted Liberal rule.
1995 The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
1998 Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
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Categories: Foes
Wishing all of our Penigma readers a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.
In celebration of the holiday, here is a Labor Day trivia quiz, questions courtesy of the holiday zone
1. When is Labor Day observed in the United States and Canada?
A. September 1
B. the first Monday in September
C. the second Monday in September
D. May 1
2. Which of these countries celebrates Labor Day on May 1st?
A. China
B. Canada
C. New Zealand
D. Japan
3. Who is widely believed to be the father of Labor Day in America?
A. Henry Ward Beecher
B. Peter McGuire
C. Abraham Lincoln
D. Samuel Gompers
4. Which President signed the bill making Labor Day a National Holiday?
A. William McKinley
B. Benjamin Harrison
C. Chester Arthur
D. Grover Cleveland
5. Which city in the United States was the first to celebrate Labor Day?
A. Atlanta, Georgia
B. Chicago, Illionois
C. San Francisco, California
D. New York City, New York
6. What nickname was assigned to 19th century labor activist Peter McGuire?
A. Disturber of the Public Peace
B. The People's Spokesperson
C. The Voice of the Multitudes
D. Rabblerouser
7. When is the first labor strike in U. S. history believed to have occurred?
A. 1636
B. 1872
C. 1886
D. 1829
8. When was the first Labor Day parade held in America?
A. 1776
B. 1872
C. 1882
D. 1902
You can either follow the link to the source of this labor day trivia quiz for the answers, or read them at the end of the day on Monday here on Penigma. Enjoy!
1. When is Labor Day observed in the United States and Canada?
A. September 1
B. the first Monday in September
C. the second Monday in September
D. May 1
2. Which of these countries celebrates Labor Day on May 1st?
A. China
B. Canada
C. New Zealand
D. Japan
3. Who is widely believed to be the father of Labor Day in America?
A. Henry Ward Beecher
B. Peter McGuire
C. Abraham Lincoln
D. Samuel Gompers
4. Which President signed the bill making Labor Day a National Holiday?
A. William McKinley
B. Benjamin Harrison
C. Chester Arthur
D. Grover Cleveland
5. Which city in the United States was the first to celebrate Labor Day?
A. Atlanta, Georgia
B. Chicago, Illionois
C. San Francisco, California
D. New York City, New York
6. What nickname was assigned to 19th century labor activist Peter McGuire?
A. Disturber of the Public Peace
B. The People's Spokesperson
C. The Voice of the Multitudes
D. Rabblerouser
7. When is the first labor strike in U. S. history believed to have occurred?
A. 1636
B. 1872
C. 1886
D. 1829
8. When was the first Labor Day parade held in America?
A. 1776
B. 1872
C. 1882
D. 1902
You can either follow the link to the source of this labor day trivia quiz for the answers, or read them at the end of the day on Monday here on Penigma. Enjoy!
Categories: Foes
September 3rd in History
Coronation Procession, Richard Lionheart1189 Richard I of England is crowned at Westminster. He earned the soubriquet of Lionheart in the crusades, or as the Saracens called him, Melek-Ric.
Before that he was Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Ireland, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, Overlord of Brittany. Although he was born in England, Richard spent very little time in England, he actually spent little time there and spoke very little English.
Richard's coronation was an eventful episode in English history, not only for the usual reasons. He had barred women and Jews from attending, it was a superstition at the time that it was bad luck to have Jews present for the ceremony. When Jewish leaders attempted to present gifts to the new king, he had them stripped, flogged, and thrown out. This led to a rumor that Richard had issued an order for Jews to be killed, which in turn led to a massacre of London Jews. Some were robbed and beaten to death, some were burned alive when houses in the Jewish ghetto, and businesses were burned to the ground with people inside them. Those who tried to leave the burning buildings were killed. A few Jews were forcibly baptised. Jacob of Orleans, considered one of the most learned men of his era was among those killed, becoming a Jewish martyr. Richard punished some of the rioters, hanging those who accidentally burned down Christian houses by mistake. While romanticized historic novels have portrayed the medieval Jews of England as having willingly donated large sums to ransome Richard Lionheart back to England, coerced large donations were closer to the truth.
Burned out stone remains of
Clifford's Tower, site of the
March 1290 Jewish Massacre of YorkRichard did issue a writ that Jews were not to be persecuted, but there was another massacre, this time in York only six months later, as well as at Lynn, Bury St. Edmonds, Lincoln, Colchester, Thetford, Ospinge. In the York massacre, the local Jews had taken refuge in a tower that was mobbed by local rioters seeking their forced conversion. Rather than give up their religion, the Jews under the guidance of their leaders followed the tradition of the Masada with the male head of the household killing their wives and children and then the leader killing the remaining men. A few Jews survived this mass suicide, and instead surrendered and were proimsed safe passage out of the tower, but were instead killed when they came out, and then the tower itself was burned. Jews were expelled from England entirely in 1290.
Mameluke Cavalry Training
Manual Illustration1260 The Mamluks defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking their first decisive defeat and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire. Mamluks or Mameluks, were slaves who converted to Islam, usually white Christians. They became a prominent and powerful military caste within this period, seizing the Sultanate of Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517. They not only fought off the Mongols, they successfully fought on behalf of the Moslems in the crusades. Despite being slaves, many of the Mameluks held positions of trust and power greater than those of free Moslems. They were noted in particular for their excellence in horsemanship as well as their overall military prowess.
Sir Edward Coke1634 Death of Sir Edward Coke, English jurist and Member of Parliament (b. 1552) Coke wrote formative legal opinions on common law which continued to be influential long after his death. He became Solicitor General, and Attorney General, under Queen Elizabeth I. He was the prosecutor of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in the historic treason trial. He was later made an important Judge in different positions, including Lord Chief Justice of England. James I didn't like him as much as the earlier monarchs, removing him from the bench. So Coke (pronounced COOK) moved over to Parliament, to the House of Commons, where he was an author of the document limiting the powers of the Monarchy, the Petition of Right, a sort of 1628 English predecessor to the U. S. Bill of Rights, affirming Enlightenment political philosophy opposing royal absolutism. The Petition of Right stipulated: No Taxation without Parliament's consent No Forced loans
No Arbitrary arrest
No Imprisonment contrary to Magna Carta
No Arbitrary interference with property rights
Enforcement of habeas corpus
No Forced billeting of troops
No Imposition of martial law in peace time
No Exemption of officials from due process
Coke also wrote an 11 volume Coke's Reports still used in English legal practice, and the 4 volume Institutes of the Lawes of England.
1651 Third English Civil War, in the Battle of Worcester, the Charles II of England is defeated in this final major battle.
1658 Death of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from malaria (b. 1599) and possible septicemia from an infection secondary to kidney stones. Charles II returned to the throne of England in 1660, and in 1661 had the remains of Cromwell exhumed, and posthumously executed for having signed the warrant for the execution of Charles I, on the anniversary of the execution of Charles I. Cromwell's body was hanged in chains at Tyburn, and his decapitated head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. Cromwell's head had a series of owners, including a sale in 1814 to Josiah Wilkinson; it was eventually buried (without the rest of his body) at Sidney Suxxex College, Cambridge, in 1960. Also posthumously executed along with Cromwell were John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton who was Cromwell's son-in-law, another signatory to the execution of Charles I, and John Bradshaw, the chief presiding judge at Charles I's trial. Bradshaw and Ireton were, like Cromwell, also beheaded and their severed heads put on display outside Westminster Hall.
1783 The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1803 English scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.
1811 Sin, Sex, Salvation, and Silverware - Birth of John Humphrey Noyes, American political and religious figure (d. 1886) He founded the Oneida Community in Oneida, New York in 1848. Noyes believed, by careful calculation, that the second coming of Christ had occurred already, back in 70 A.D. He coined the term 'free love', and was an American utopian socialist. At various times his beliefs, both religious and sexual caused him trouble with the local authorities, including an arrest for adultery, and pursuit for statutory rape. His religious community encompassed a number of successful businesses and industries, engaged in plural marriage, and believed that they could lead lives without sin, philosophy called perfectionism. They believed they could bring about Christ's millenial kingdom, along with a list of what might charitably be called unusual beliefs and practices in the communities.
The Oneida Community formally dissolved, and converted to a joint stock company in 1881. The communities' industries were consolidated under Noye's son Pierrepont, and became the largest producer of flatware for most of the 20th century.
1838 Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a Free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boards a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery.
1855 In Nebraska, 700 soldiers under United States General William S. Harney avenged the Grattan Massacre, attacking a Sioux village, killing 100 men, women, and children.
1861 Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
1875 Birth of Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian automotive engineer (d. 1951)
1929 The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 381.17, the pre-crash stock market high.
1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph
1941 Karl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon B in the gassing of Soviet POWs.
1942 In response to news of its coming liquidation, Dov Lopatyn leads an uprising in the Lakhva Ghetto.
1944 Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving three days later.
1962 Death of E. E. Cummings, American poet (b. 1894)
1967 Dagen H in Sweden: traffic changes from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight without major accidents.
1976 The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
1994 Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
2003 Death of Paul Jennings Hill, American anti-abortion murderer (b. 1954)
2005 Death of William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1924)
Before that he was Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Ireland, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, Overlord of Brittany. Although he was born in England, Richard spent very little time in England, he actually spent little time there and spoke very little English.
Richard's coronation was an eventful episode in English history, not only for the usual reasons. He had barred women and Jews from attending, it was a superstition at the time that it was bad luck to have Jews present for the ceremony. When Jewish leaders attempted to present gifts to the new king, he had them stripped, flogged, and thrown out. This led to a rumor that Richard had issued an order for Jews to be killed, which in turn led to a massacre of London Jews. Some were robbed and beaten to death, some were burned alive when houses in the Jewish ghetto, and businesses were burned to the ground with people inside them. Those who tried to leave the burning buildings were killed. A few Jews were forcibly baptised. Jacob of Orleans, considered one of the most learned men of his era was among those killed, becoming a Jewish martyr. Richard punished some of the rioters, hanging those who accidentally burned down Christian houses by mistake. While romanticized historic novels have portrayed the medieval Jews of England as having willingly donated large sums to ransome Richard Lionheart back to England, coerced large donations were closer to the truth.
Burned out stone remains of
Clifford's Tower, site of the
March 1290 Jewish Massacre of YorkRichard did issue a writ that Jews were not to be persecuted, but there was another massacre, this time in York only six months later, as well as at Lynn, Bury St. Edmonds, Lincoln, Colchester, Thetford, Ospinge. In the York massacre, the local Jews had taken refuge in a tower that was mobbed by local rioters seeking their forced conversion. Rather than give up their religion, the Jews under the guidance of their leaders followed the tradition of the Masada with the male head of the household killing their wives and children and then the leader killing the remaining men. A few Jews survived this mass suicide, and instead surrendered and were proimsed safe passage out of the tower, but were instead killed when they came out, and then the tower itself was burned. Jews were expelled from England entirely in 1290.
Mameluke Cavalry Training
Manual Illustration1260 The Mamluks defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking their first decisive defeat and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire. Mamluks or Mameluks, were slaves who converted to Islam, usually white Christians. They became a prominent and powerful military caste within this period, seizing the Sultanate of Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517. They not only fought off the Mongols, they successfully fought on behalf of the Moslems in the crusades. Despite being slaves, many of the Mameluks held positions of trust and power greater than those of free Moslems. They were noted in particular for their excellence in horsemanship as well as their overall military prowess.
Sir Edward Coke1634 Death of Sir Edward Coke, English jurist and Member of Parliament (b. 1552) Coke wrote formative legal opinions on common law which continued to be influential long after his death. He became Solicitor General, and Attorney General, under Queen Elizabeth I. He was the prosecutor of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in the historic treason trial. He was later made an important Judge in different positions, including Lord Chief Justice of England. James I didn't like him as much as the earlier monarchs, removing him from the bench. So Coke (pronounced COOK) moved over to Parliament, to the House of Commons, where he was an author of the document limiting the powers of the Monarchy, the Petition of Right, a sort of 1628 English predecessor to the U. S. Bill of Rights, affirming Enlightenment political philosophy opposing royal absolutism. The Petition of Right stipulated: No Taxation without Parliament's consent No Forced loans
No Arbitrary arrest
No Imprisonment contrary to Magna Carta
No Arbitrary interference with property rights
Enforcement of habeas corpus
No Forced billeting of troops
No Imposition of martial law in peace time
No Exemption of officials from due process
Coke also wrote an 11 volume Coke's Reports still used in English legal practice, and the 4 volume Institutes of the Lawes of England.
1651 Third English Civil War, in the Battle of Worcester, the Charles II of England is defeated in this final major battle.
1658 Death of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from malaria (b. 1599) and possible septicemia from an infection secondary to kidney stones. Charles II returned to the throne of England in 1660, and in 1661 had the remains of Cromwell exhumed, and posthumously executed for having signed the warrant for the execution of Charles I, on the anniversary of the execution of Charles I. Cromwell's body was hanged in chains at Tyburn, and his decapitated head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. Cromwell's head had a series of owners, including a sale in 1814 to Josiah Wilkinson; it was eventually buried (without the rest of his body) at Sidney Suxxex College, Cambridge, in 1960. Also posthumously executed along with Cromwell were John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton who was Cromwell's son-in-law, another signatory to the execution of Charles I, and John Bradshaw, the chief presiding judge at Charles I's trial. Bradshaw and Ireton were, like Cromwell, also beheaded and their severed heads put on display outside Westminster Hall.
1783 The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1803 English scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.
1811 Sin, Sex, Salvation, and Silverware - Birth of John Humphrey Noyes, American political and religious figure (d. 1886) He founded the Oneida Community in Oneida, New York in 1848. Noyes believed, by careful calculation, that the second coming of Christ had occurred already, back in 70 A.D. He coined the term 'free love', and was an American utopian socialist. At various times his beliefs, both religious and sexual caused him trouble with the local authorities, including an arrest for adultery, and pursuit for statutory rape. His religious community encompassed a number of successful businesses and industries, engaged in plural marriage, and believed that they could lead lives without sin, philosophy called perfectionism. They believed they could bring about Christ's millenial kingdom, along with a list of what might charitably be called unusual beliefs and practices in the communities.
The Oneida Community formally dissolved, and converted to a joint stock company in 1881. The communities' industries were consolidated under Noye's son Pierrepont, and became the largest producer of flatware for most of the 20th century.
1838 Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a Free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boards a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery.
1855 In Nebraska, 700 soldiers under United States General William S. Harney avenged the Grattan Massacre, attacking a Sioux village, killing 100 men, women, and children.
1861 Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
1875 Birth of Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian automotive engineer (d. 1951)
1929 The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 381.17, the pre-crash stock market high.
1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph
1941 Karl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon B in the gassing of Soviet POWs.
1942 In response to news of its coming liquidation, Dov Lopatyn leads an uprising in the Lakhva Ghetto.
1944 Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving three days later.
1962 Death of E. E. Cummings, American poet (b. 1894)
1967 Dagen H in Sweden: traffic changes from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight without major accidents.
1976 The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
1994 Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
2003 Death of Paul Jennings Hill, American anti-abortion murderer (b. 1954)
2005 Death of William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1924)
Categories: Foes
September 2nd in History
harvested fennel, root, stem
and leaves 490 BC Death of Pheidippides, (530 BC - 490 BC) the ancient Greek hero of the Battle of Marathon during the First Persian Invasion of Greece under Darius I. Pheidippides, as an official herald, ran from Athens to Sparta, a distance of 150 miles, in two days. He then ran another 25 miles from the Marathon battlefield where the Persians had landed, back to Athens with the news of a Greek victory, according to legend dropping dead on the spot after uttering the word in Greece for 'we have won'. The story of Pheidippides extraordinary feats were compiled by Herodotus, the 'Father of History' some 50 years later from multiple less-than-reliable sources. The Greek word 'marathon' translates as fennel, the herb common in Mediterranean cooking, medicine (and later in specialty beverages like absinthe).
According to Herodotus' version, on his way to Sparta, Pheidippides met the Greek God Pan, who wanted to know why he wasn't accorded more respect and attention from the Athenians. In return for promises of more honor to him from the Athenians, Pan then in turn supposedly fought on the side of the Athenians by using one of his special attributes, the ability to instill unreasonable fear - or PANic - in the enemy combatants. In appreciation, the Athenians afterwards held an annual festival that included sacrifices - and a race. This legend was the inspiration for the 'marathon' race in the modern Olympics, and other long races of 26 miles and 385 yards. Although a great legend, it does not have a very good probability of being factual. (Not to be confused with the comic character of Pheidippides in Aristophanes' 'The Clouds'.)
1031 Death of Saint Emeric of Hungary, variants Emmerich, Emericus or Americus. He was killed while hunting wild boar, and afterwards healing miracles were attributed to his grave site. So his bones were dug up and he was canonized, along with other members of his family.
1666 The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul's Cathedral. The fire started at the bakery of one Thomas Faryner on a street with the prosaic name "Pudding Lane". Because of the inaction of the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, it spread, becoming a firestorm (a technical term with a very specific meaning) when wind spread the fire to buildings built too close together, and nearly all made of wood with thatched roofs that were highly combustible. Accusations that the fire had been set by 'foreigners' intent on a diversion to promote invasions led to the lynchings of French and Dutch immigrants. In the recent civil wars, and the 'restoration' era of Charles II, there were also fears of another Guy-Fawkes-like Gun Powder Plot. (Where have we heard in our own time of irrational and unsubstantiated fear of immigrants, and even resultant threats and violence, or crazy conspiracy theories?) The fire was eventually stopped in part because it ran out of city to burn, and because the wind stopped, -- and because of some nifty fire-fighting by the Tower of London garrison creating fire-breaks using gun-powder for effective demolition of areas creating zones the fire couldn't jump.
illustration of the Great London Fire firestormAnd then London was rebuilt with pretty much all of the same characteristics that had made it a fire-trap in the first place.
1752 Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.
1789 The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
1792 During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Church bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.
1807 The English Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its Dano-Norwegian fleet to Napoleon - so the British could seize it. At the time, Denmark included not only modern Denmark, but also Iceland, and Schleswig-Holstein, and could have potentially completely closed the Baltic to the English shipping, navy, and access to the English allies against Napoleon, Sweden (which at the time included modern Finland), Prussia, and Russia. The English forces were commanded by ....General Wellesely, who hadn't been elevated to the Duke of Wellington title yet. (see a recent 'day in history, the Peninsular Wars).
1820 Death of Jiaqing, Sixth Qing dynasty Emperor of China (b. 1760). He was significant in Chinese history for his relationship with Europeans, especially in his efforts to prevent opium being smuggled into China by the British to offset their balance of trade deficits from importing tea. (See Opium Wars) From 1796 to 1804 Jiaquing contended with the White Lotus Rebellion, an uprising primarily in the southwestern Szechuan province, that started as a tax protest by a secret 'White Lotus Society', with overtones of religion promising personal salvation to its followers, and advocating a sort of nationalistic patriotism desiring to restore an earlier 'more Chinese' dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, to power. The White Lotus Society also predicted the coming of the Buddhist 'Maitreya' which has some parallels to the modern western 'end days' eschatology. Although the Jiaqing military was effective in ending the White Lotus Rebellion, it cost the lives of 16 million people, and weakened the country which never fully recovered.
U. S. Marines overthrowing
the Hawaiian Government
in 1893, in front of the
Honolulu Hotel 1838 Birth of Liliuokalani of Hawaii, last Queen of Hawaii (d. 1917) In 1887, the 'Bayonet Constitution' was forced on Hawaii by militant anti-monarchist white settlers. It created a constitutional monarchy which stripped actual power from the reigning traditional native Hawaiian dynasty. The principle author of the Bayonet Constitution was Lorrin A. Thurston, grandson of the first American Christian missionaries to Hawaii, and a member of the 'Hawaiian League' which was pressing for annexation by the United States. Thurston became the Interior Minister in the new government that was created. Provisions of the new constitution removed the previously existing right to vote from Asian males, restricting it to American, European and Hawaiian males who met certain financial and literacy requirements. Native Hawaiians comprised half or less of the total population. Under the Bayonet Constitution criteria for the franchise, about 75% of Native Hawaiians were denied the vote. In 1893, Thurston and his co-conspirators overthrew the government entirely in an American led coup d'etat, supported by U. S. marines. In 1898, the U.S. formally annexed Hawaii. In 1993, 100 years later, Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, Public Law 103-150, known as the 'Apology Resolution', an official apology for the role of the U.S. government in the overthrow of the lawful government of Hawaii.
1859 A solar super storm affects electrical telegraph service.
1862 American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1885 Rock Springs massacre: In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who are struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
1898 Battle of Omdurman – British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen and establish British dominance in Sudan.
1901 Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
1910 Death of Henri Rousseau, French painter (b. 1844) A post-impressionist, he was self-taught. Some of his favorite subjects were very mannered, stylized jungle scenes, although Rousseau never left France. He was inspired by botanical gardens and conservatories with exotic plants, and from taxidermied exotic animals in museums. The painting at right is his final work, The Dream, from 1910, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. The painting was accompanied by this poem:
Yadwigha, falling into sweet sleep,heard in a lovely dreamthe sounds of a musetteplayed by a kind enchanter.While the moon shoneon the flowers, the verdant trees,the wild snakes lent an earto the instrument's gay airs.To view the complete works of Henri Rousseau, see them here
1918 Birth of Martha Mitchell, nee Beall, notorious Watergate figure. Wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, Martha became famous for her phone calls to the press about the events the Watergate co-conspirators were trying to keep secret. In the famous David Frost interviews, President Richard Nixonsaid, "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate.", a sentiment both unfair, and unduly optimistic.The epitome of the proverbial loose cannon, Martha lived up to the verse in her high school year-book:
I love its gentle warble,I love its gentle flow,I love to wind my tongue upAnd I love to let it go. 1925 The U.S. Zeppelin the USS Shenandoah crashes, killing 14.
1939 World War II: Following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany.
1944 Navy pilot George H.W. Bush was shot down by Japanese forces as he completed a bombing run over the Bonin Islands. The future president was rescued by a U.S. submarine.
1946 Interim Government of India is formed with Jawaharlal Nehru as Vice President. The Nehru-inspired jacket were a fashion fad failure in later years in the west.
1948 Birth of Christa McAuliffe, American schoolteacher and astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
Death of Sylvanus Morley, American archaeologist specializing in the pre-Columbian Mayan era, and World War I spy in Mexico and Central America (b. 1883)
1960 The first election of the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration, in history of Tibet. The Tibetan community observes this date as the Democracy Day.
1963 Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.
1970 NASA announces the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15 (the designation is re-used by a later mission), and Apollo 19.
characteristic Hobbit-ually hairy feet 1973 Death of J. R. R. Tolkien, CBE, British philologist and professor, poet and fantasy writer (b. 1892) Trivia points (this is especially for my dear colleagues, Pen, ToE, TTuck) if you can correctly identify what the initials J. R. R. stand for in Tolkien's name. A question for readers - how old were you the first time you read Tolkein? If you've read the author more than once - when was the last time you read him?
1991 The United States recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
1992 The United States and Russia agreed to build a space station.
1998 The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide
2005 A National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled into New Orleans four days after Hurricane Katrina.
Categories: Foes
September 1st in History
Welcome to September - which used to be the seventh month, back when the calendar year started in March, but that changed when the beginning of the year was moved back to January, and the month of July for Julius Cesar, and August, for Augustus, were inserted into the Calendar. For a more complete explanation, I refer our readers to the September "Hot Word Blog" blog link on our blog roll from dictionary.com.
891 - Count Arnulf the Great of Flanders, grandson of Alfred the Great of England, and part of the Carolingian dynasty which descended from Charles Martel aka Charles the Hammer, as one of the Carolingian dynasty - which also included Charlemagne (which translates roughly as Charles the Magnificent), so he came by his immodest name familialy. He was named - his first name - for another ancestor, St. Arnulf of Metz. Names had a lot to do with legitimacy. In 891, Arnulf defeated the Vikings from Scandinavia at the battle of Louvain in Belgium. Arnulf spent more of his reign in Flanders fighting the Normans as he expanded his borders than he did fighting Vikings from Scandinavia. And when he wasn't fighting the Normans, he was playing politics with Charles the Simple, King of France, son of Louis the Stammerer, and successor of Charles the Fat, from another branch of the prolific and colorful Carolingians, who were dominant in the early middle ages in Europe.
1532 Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marchioness of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.Louis XIV
1715 Death of King Louis XIV of France, le Roi Soleil, the Sun King, dies after a reign of 72 years—the longest of any major European monarch. The French monarchy did not survive the 18th century.
1772 Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa founded in San Luis Obispo, California. Named for the Spanish version of the name of the French saint, Saint Louis of Anjou, Bishop of Toulouse. It is one of the oldest buildings in the modern state of California, a remnant of an extensive chain of missions which were part religious buildings, part military forts in the Christianizing militant colonialism of the Spanish in the 'New World'. It was the fifth mission built by legendary Father Junipero Serra.
1804 Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, was discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.
a younger, pre-exile Aaron Burr1807 Former Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason in what is known as the Burr conspiracy. Prominent political figures involved in the event included Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and President Thomas Jefferson. At issue for Chief Justice John Marshall were claims of executive privilege in providing documents in response to subpoenas, in the context of separation of powers and the checks and balances of the executive and judiciary branches. The absence of documents requested by Chief Justice Marshall were part of Burr being found innocent, and the precedent that the President of the United States IS subject to subpoenas from the SCOTUS were key elements of subsequent juris prudence. (perhaps colleague ToE will find the time to elaborate). This gets more interesting when one considers that Thomas Jefferson had been the second Vice President of the United States under John Adams, and that Aaron Burr had been the third Vice President under Thomas Jefferson, and that Aaron Burr as Vice President had presided over the Senate impeachment of one of the Supreme Court Associate Justices as part of an attempt to remove lifetime SCOTUS justices in order to replace them with his own nominations. This did not mean that Aaron Burr had been Jefferson's running mate; it meant he became VP by losing out in a vote in the House of Representatives at the time settling a tie vote. That there may have been a bit of political pay-back going on is suggested by the allegations that Burr intended to overthrow President Jefferson in his subsequent re-election with Vice President George Clinton replacing Burr. (It is also interesting in unrelated history that the office of VP was vacant after Clinton from April 1812 to March 1813.) After all of this, Burr exiled himself to Europe for most of the remainder of his life.
Englebert Humperdinck, 1910
1810 John J. Wood patented the first plow with interchangeable parts.
1854 Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (d. 1921) No. The other one.
1858 The East India Company's government of India ended with the British crown taking over its territories and duties.
1859 rail car1859 The Pullman sleeping car, built by George Pullman's company with help from Ben Field, was put into service.
1870 Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan was fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory, and the capture of Emperor Napoleon III (for those who thought there had been only one Emperor Napoleon).
'Molly Maguires' meeting1875 A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Irish anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", to disband. The Molly Maguires evidence relied on the allegations of a prominent industrialist, Franklin B. Gowan who was president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and the largest mine owner, and the testimony of a single Pinkerton detective he had hired. There is some indication that the claims may have been the result of both bribery and coercion. Vigilantes went after not only miners trying to get better treatment for miners, but their families, and those vigilantes may have been working either directly or indirectly on behalf of mine owners and industrialists. Anti-Roman Catholic sentiments by successful Protestants was another factor in opposition to the labor protests by coal miners.
Elmo Lincoln,
as Tarzan Birth of Edgar Rice Burroughs, prolific American writer, and World War II war correspondent (d. 1950). He was the creator of the Tarzan of the Apes series of books and stories, which were later made into movies, as well as the John Carter of Mars series, and many others, writing a total of 70 novels, and numerous short stories. The city of Tarzana grew up in the vicinity and is named after Burrough's Tarzana Ranch; the city of Tarzan, Texas was named for the silent film of Tarzan starring Elmo Lincoln; and the Burroughs Crater on Mars is named after him.
1878 Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she was recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.
1887 A patent was filed for by Emile Berliner for his invention, the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone; better known as the record player. Emile got the patent, but the glory went to Thomas Edison for making his American invention work.
Main Street of Hinckley after the fireanother view of the fire devastation
1894 More than 400 people, possibly as many as 800, die in the Great Hinckley Fire, including Civil War hero Boston Corbett, the Union soldier who killed John Wilkes Booth. The forest fire in and around Hinckley, Minnesota completely destroyed Mission Creek, Hinckley, and Brook Park and three other towns, and partially destroyed the town of Sandstone, Minnesota in a matter of three or four hours, incinerating approximately 420 square miles. Smoke was so heavy it disrupted navigation on the Great Lakes. Several factors contributed to the creation of a firestorm, reaching temperatures of 1000 F, including a method of lumber harvesting, a temperature inversion, and a two month drought with temperatures in the 90s. In a firestorm like this, energy is released equivalent to multiple Hiroshima atomic bombs. Thanks to the collection of Macalaster College for the photos.1902 poster, "A Trip to the Moon"
First Subway, open-style car1897 The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
1902 A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
1906 The International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys is established.
1906 Birth of Eleanor Burford Hibertt, prolific historical fiction, gothic fiction, and even romances as an author under the names Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt, Philippa Carr, Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anne Percival and Ellalice Tate(d. 1993). In her lifetime she sold over 100 million books.
1914 St. Petersburg, Russia, changes its name to Petrograd, (which later changes to the current name of Leningrad).
Martha the last passenger pigeon The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo. The passenger pigeon was one of the most proflific birds in North America, systematically killed as a meat source in massive numbers. It became extinct largely due to ruthless and cruel overhunting, but also in part due to loss of habitat through extensive deforestation. It is significant that attempts to keep the species from becoming extinct were unsuccessful, in part due to lack of concern at species extinction; at the time people didn't really believe it could happen. It is an example of extinction due entirely to human actions in a relatively short space of time. 'Martha' is in the Smithsonian collection, preserved by taxidermy for posterity.
1923 The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing about 105,000 people.
Zog 1 of Albania1928 Ahmet Zogu declares Albania to be a monarchy and proclaims himself king as Zog I.
1939 World War II: Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning the war in Europe.
George C. Marshall becomes Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
The Wound Badge for Wehrmacht, SS, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe soldiers is instituted. The final version of the Iron Cross is also instituted on this date.
Switzerland mobilizes its forces and the Swiss Parliament elects Henri Guisan to head the Swiss Army (an event that can happen only during war or mobilization).
Japanese American Internment Camp1942 A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals. One of the most shameful events of American History, it is an action currently being praised by conservative extremist Michelle Malkin in her new book, and an action for which in 1988 President Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Congress extended an apology, and $1.6 billion in reparations. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann used unfounded fears of subsequent Census data for internment of citizens as a fear tactic in 2009, in advance of the 2010 census.
1945 The United States received official word of Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II. In Japan, it was actually September 2nd.
1951 The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
1961 The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate.
1968 Birth of Mohamed Atta, Egyptian terrorist (d. 2001), ring leader of the 9/11 terrorists.
1970 Attempted assassination of King Hussein of Jordan by Palestinian guerrillas, who attacked his motorcade. Death of François Mauriac, French writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1885)
SR-71 Blackbird1974 The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds.
1979 The American space probe Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
1981 Albert Speer, a close associate of Adolf Hitler who ran the Nazi war machine, died at a London hospital at age 76.
1982 Canada adopts the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of its Constitution.
1982 The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
Titanic1983 Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
1985 A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
1991 Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Uzbekistan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
1992 The Constitution of Slovakia is ratified
Some of the dead children2004 Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia. More than 1,100 people were taken hostage by heavily armed Chechen militants at a school in Beslan in southern Russia; nearly 400 people, most of them children, were killed during the three-day ordeal.
2006 Luxembourg becomes the first country to complete the move to all digital television broadcasting.
2007 Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, announced that he would resign in the wake of fallout over his guilty plea in a Minnesota airport gay sex sting. (Craig later reversed his decision, saying he would serve out the rest of his term.)
Categories: Foes
Eggzactly!
free range (uncaged) large poultry operationMinnesota is a 'fly-over' state, one which is active in producing the food supplies for the entire nation and beyond. In this context, I contacted the office of one of our Minnesota senators, junior Senator Al Franken. My response to that contact was extraordinarily prompt, and as has been my experience when contacting his office on other matters, his response was also substantive and to the point - not some 'blow-off' generic / one-size-fits-all reply. I found the content of that response sufficiently interesting in view of the current egg-recall and related large number of illness, and the subsequent findings of sanitation-related problems with the mega-factory farming operation in our adjoining state of Iowa to be worth sharing here,
minus my redacted personal email information etc.:
Thank you for contacting me about food safety. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with me on this important issue.
While the U.S. food supply is one of the safest in the world, public health officials estimate that each year millions of people (including thousands of Minnesotans) become sick -- and thousands more die -- from foodborne illnesses. The current system relies too heavily on reacting to outbreaks after they have occurred, instead of preventing their occurrence in the first place. There's a lot of room for improvement.
That's why I introduced the Food Safety Enforcement Act. This bill would increase the sentences that prosecutors can seek for people who knowingly contaminate the nation's food supply and endanger Americans' lives. Companies that knowingly sell contaminated or unsafe food need to face serious consequences. In 2009, three Minnesotans died from contaminated peanut butter. Anyone who puts profits before safety is a criminal and needs to be prosecuted as such.
Minnesota is regarded as the national leader in early detection of foodborne diseases, and we have a long record of working effectively with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on food safety. However, the FDA does not currently have all the tools it needs to ensure the safety of our food. S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, builds on what works in Minnesota and would address many of these inadequacies. Overall, this bill would improve the safety and security of our food and enhance our foodborne illness surveillance systems.
While safety is of critical importance, it is equally important that Minnesotans are still able to go to their neighborhood farms and farmers' markets to purchase food directly from producers. As a member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), I worked with Senator Merkley from Oregon to include provisions in S. 510 that ensure small farms and organic farmers would not be overburdened by this legislation. These changes ensure that small farms and markets would be exempt from any additional and duplicative food safety record keeping requirements under the bill.
On December 18, 2009, S. 510 was reported favorably out of the HELP Committee. As a member of this committee, I was proud to vote for it. The bill is now expected to come before the full Senate in the near future. As Congress finalizes food safety legislation, I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that any legislation will bring safer food to all Minnesotans.
Al Franken, U.S. Senator
In contrast to the track records for introducing successful legislation - or in the case of Michele Bachmann, for comparison, failing to introduce ANY substantive AND successful legislation - I hope our Penigma readers will also find this of interest, both for the content relating to the immediate issue, and as food for thought in the larger context of what our legislators in representative government SHOULD be doing for their constituents. Thank you Senator for the prompt response from your office; this indicates the kind of representation that constituents deserve but do not always receive. Thank you as well, Senator, for putting in the time at what you are supposed to be doing on our behalf instead of grandstanding anywhere but Congress or your home state. Thank you Senator, for being so conscientious and thoughtful in researching and proposing this legislation. I was particularly impressed with the attention given to the differences in regulation appropriate to small business and family farm agricultural operations which could become onerous, as distinct from the issues of food safety regulation appropriate to the risks of big business 'factory farming' operations that Senator Franken demonstrated.
"factory" / caged poultry farming
(the white shape in the center foreground
appears to be a dead chicken)Well done, Senator Franken. Well done.
minus my redacted personal email information etc.:
Thank you for contacting me about food safety. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with me on this important issue.
While the U.S. food supply is one of the safest in the world, public health officials estimate that each year millions of people (including thousands of Minnesotans) become sick -- and thousands more die -- from foodborne illnesses. The current system relies too heavily on reacting to outbreaks after they have occurred, instead of preventing their occurrence in the first place. There's a lot of room for improvement.
That's why I introduced the Food Safety Enforcement Act. This bill would increase the sentences that prosecutors can seek for people who knowingly contaminate the nation's food supply and endanger Americans' lives. Companies that knowingly sell contaminated or unsafe food need to face serious consequences. In 2009, three Minnesotans died from contaminated peanut butter. Anyone who puts profits before safety is a criminal and needs to be prosecuted as such.
Minnesota is regarded as the national leader in early detection of foodborne diseases, and we have a long record of working effectively with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on food safety. However, the FDA does not currently have all the tools it needs to ensure the safety of our food. S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, builds on what works in Minnesota and would address many of these inadequacies. Overall, this bill would improve the safety and security of our food and enhance our foodborne illness surveillance systems.
While safety is of critical importance, it is equally important that Minnesotans are still able to go to their neighborhood farms and farmers' markets to purchase food directly from producers. As a member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), I worked with Senator Merkley from Oregon to include provisions in S. 510 that ensure small farms and organic farmers would not be overburdened by this legislation. These changes ensure that small farms and markets would be exempt from any additional and duplicative food safety record keeping requirements under the bill.
On December 18, 2009, S. 510 was reported favorably out of the HELP Committee. As a member of this committee, I was proud to vote for it. The bill is now expected to come before the full Senate in the near future. As Congress finalizes food safety legislation, I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that any legislation will bring safer food to all Minnesotans.
Al Franken, U.S. Senator
In contrast to the track records for introducing successful legislation - or in the case of Michele Bachmann, for comparison, failing to introduce ANY substantive AND successful legislation - I hope our Penigma readers will also find this of interest, both for the content relating to the immediate issue, and as food for thought in the larger context of what our legislators in representative government SHOULD be doing for their constituents. Thank you Senator for the prompt response from your office; this indicates the kind of representation that constituents deserve but do not always receive. Thank you as well, Senator, for putting in the time at what you are supposed to be doing on our behalf instead of grandstanding anywhere but Congress or your home state. Thank you Senator, for being so conscientious and thoughtful in researching and proposing this legislation. I was particularly impressed with the attention given to the differences in regulation appropriate to small business and family farm agricultural operations which could become onerous, as distinct from the issues of food safety regulation appropriate to the risks of big business 'factory farming' operations that Senator Franken demonstrated.
"factory" / caged poultry farming
(the white shape in the center foreground
appears to be a dead chicken)Well done, Senator Franken. Well done.
Categories: Foes
August 31st in History
Caligula 12 Birth of the infamous Roman Emperor, Gaius Caligula, (d. 41)
Commodus 161 Birth of Commodus, another Roman Emperor (d. 192) Commodus fancied himself a gladiator, staging spectacles in which it was always arranged for him to win. He was assassinated after behaving in excessive, violent, and grotesque ways, different than the excesses of Caligula, but equally disturbing, prompting the drastic action of his opposition. Historian Edward Gibbon, in his comprehensive 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' cites Commodus' reign as 'the beginning of the decline' of the Roman Empire.
1218 Al-Kamil becomes Sultan of Egypt, Syria and northern Mesopotamia on the death of his father Al-Adil. He was of Kurdish ethnicity, of the Sunni Ayyubid Sultanate and his territory also included a good part of northern Africa, Israel, Jordan, and parts of modern Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Al Kamil defeated the Fifth and Sixth Crusades. Al Kamil also had a very positive and constructive meeting with St. Francis of Assisi, which later in the Franciscan order being recognized as 'Custodians of the Holy Land' on behalf of Christianity.
Henry VI1422 Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months. His reign, under regents, included the conflicts in France with Joan of Arc. His reign spanned from 1422 to 1437 under regents, and under his own authority from 1437 to 1461, and again from 1470 to 1471. He had regents ruling again from 1453 to 1454 because he had a nervous breakdown. In the course of the War of the Roses, another civil war between branches of the House of Lancaster - Henry - and the House of York, led by his cousin, Edward of York, York won. Henry VI was kept prisoner in the Tower of London from 1465 until his death in the Tower of London in 1471, where he was possibly murdered by his successor Edward of York, aka Edward IV. Shakespeare in his history plays, Henry VI and Richard III, accuses Richard III, Edward VI's younger brother, of Henry VI's murder. Shakespeare also wrote a three-part history play of the life of Henry VI, as well as the more famous Henry V history play with the famous scenes of Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt, territory lost by Henry VI.
1569 Birth of Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1627). His mother was a Rajput Princess of Jaipur, a Hindu. While he expanded the Mughal empire, he was tolerant of religions; he held Hindu law applied to Hindus and Muslem laws to Muslems in civil cases, to respect the different traditions; with one law applied to everyone in criminal cases.
1803 Lewis and Clark start their expedition to the west by leaving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 11 o clock in the morning. This was the third recorded transcontinental crossing of North America, after the Cabeza de Vaca expedition of 1536, and the Sir Alexander Mackenzie expedition of 1789. Lewis and Clark did not complete their return trip until 1806.
Goya painting of the Peninsular War1813 At the final stage of the Peninsular War, in the larger group of Napoleonic Wars, the British-Portuguese troops capture the town of Donostia-San Sebastian, resulting in a rampage and eventual destruction of the town. It was the Peninsular War for control of Spain and Portugal which gave rise to the modern word Guerillas, from the use of guerilla warfare, also termed asymmetrical warfare. The French forces were driven back over the Pyrenees, weakened by Napoleon's ill-conceived war against Russia which reduced the numbers of the 'grand armee' in Spain. The Peninsular War nominally ended with the Treaty of Valencay, but did not really end until the abdication of Napoleon at the Peace of Fontainbleau in 1814. It was in the Peninsular War against Napoleon that the British forces were led by Arthur Wellesley, who earned multiple battlefield honors, and was eventually made the first Duke of Wellington. Wellesley pursued Napoleon into France, eventually defeating him at the Battle of Waterloo. The destabilization of the various nations involved in European conflicts eventually resulted in some of the colonial possessions breaking away from the respective Eurpoean empires in the 19th century.
1864 During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia. Sherman conducted a 'scorched earth'' policy, which included ordering the evacuation of Atlanta, followed by much of Atlanta being burned to the ground.
BaudelaireLes Fleurs du Mal1867 Death of Charles Baudelaire, French poet, essayist, art critic, early translator of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (b. 1821), one of my favorite French poets. "Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed.” - Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal
(for my long-time friend and sometimes 'day in history' reader, JH)
1876 Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed after a reign of only 93 days, due to mental illness, and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
1886 An earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.
1888 Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's known victims.
1897 Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
1907 Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the St. Petersburg Convention, which results in the Triple Entente alliance, which became the 'Allied' side of the war in WW I against the Central Powers.
1920 First radio news program broadcast by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
Birth of Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d. 1998)
1939 Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II in Europe.
1940 Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia. The CAB investigation of the accident was the first investigation to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.
1943 The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.
1945 The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
1949 The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat in mountain Grammos marks the end of the Greek Civil War.
1958 A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, failed to kill Sihanouk of Cambodia.
Braque Landscape 1963 Death of Georges Braque, French painter in the Cubism movement. (b. 1882)
1978 William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
Sally Rand1979 Death of Sally Rand, American fan and bubble dancer, ecdysiast, and silent film actress (b. 1904), aka Billie Beck, aka Helen Harriet Beck. Her stage name, Sally Rand, was given to her by famous director Cecil B. DeMille in the 1920s when she was acting in silent films.
1980 Solidarity strikes in sympathy with the shipyard workers on strike in Gdansk, Poland, followed by more strikes in 1982 leading to the Polish August Agreement. Effectively organized labor overthrew the dictatorial, corrupt Communist regime. The August Agreement is celebrated by the 'Day of Solidarity and Freedom'.
Moore sculpture1986 Death of Henry Moore, (OM, CH, FBA), English sculptor noted for his massive bronze modern figural works (b. 1898)
1991 Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union; this day continues to be celebrated as Kyrgyzstan Independence Day.
1992 White separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that claimed the lives of Weaver's wife and son and a deputy U.S. marshal. This 'Ruby Ridge' incident later is cited as one of the causes for the Oklahoma City Bombing by Timothy McVeigh.
1994 Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century. The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
1998 North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, its first satellite.
1999 The first of a series of bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others. Called the Russian Apartment Bombings, the series of bombings killed 293 people, and injured another 651, and was carried out by Chechen Islamist militias in conjunction with the Invasion of Dagestan (see 'Make a New Plan, Stan').
2005 A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
2006 Iran defied a U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium.
Categories: Foes
You Sir, are no Jack Kennedy
In the 1988 Presidential Election, Senator Lloyd Bentson of Texas debated then Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. In one of the more famous lines, Bentson rebuked Quayle for likening himself to John F. (Jack) Kennedy. Quayle went on to be elected Vice President as George H. W. Bush's running mate. He also went on to ignominy as a result of being eviscerated weekly on a television show "Murphy Brown" by Candace Bergen, and also due to his many speaking faux pas' which seemed to belie a shallow, vapid man. Since then, the reply "and you Sir, are no Jack Kennedy" has been a political insider's retort to anyone who gets a little too full of him or herself.
Fast forward 22 years and in reading about the Senate election in Wisconsin between Russ Feingold and Ron Johnson. Russ Fiengold has been one of the best examples (imho) of a politician who is not for sale. He worked with John McCain to get finance reform passed in the face of massive opposition and has been (again imho) a tireless worker for the middle-class as well as being one of the most honest Senators in the Senate (yes, I know faint praise). Feingold took on his own party and reached across party lines to get things passed.
Ron Johnson is someone I don't know - he's a plastics executive who currently is in a statistical dead-heat with Feingold. Over the weekend Johnson commented that Feingold's support for a high-speed rail line between Madison (WI) and Milwaukee was, "yet another example of big government spending."
Now, not withstanding that a high-speed rail line is greatly desired by an enormous number of politicians, communities, and businesses, and would be of tremendous economic support if completed through to Minneapolis at some point, I have one reply.
"No, Mr. Johnson, $700 Billion in a needless war, with $5B left behind in Iraq in unfinished redevelopment projects - THAT is big government, wasteful, stupid spending."
Fast forward 22 years and in reading about the Senate election in Wisconsin between Russ Feingold and Ron Johnson. Russ Fiengold has been one of the best examples (imho) of a politician who is not for sale. He worked with John McCain to get finance reform passed in the face of massive opposition and has been (again imho) a tireless worker for the middle-class as well as being one of the most honest Senators in the Senate (yes, I know faint praise). Feingold took on his own party and reached across party lines to get things passed.
Ron Johnson is someone I don't know - he's a plastics executive who currently is in a statistical dead-heat with Feingold. Over the weekend Johnson commented that Feingold's support for a high-speed rail line between Madison (WI) and Milwaukee was, "yet another example of big government spending."
Now, not withstanding that a high-speed rail line is greatly desired by an enormous number of politicians, communities, and businesses, and would be of tremendous economic support if completed through to Minneapolis at some point, I have one reply.
"No, Mr. Johnson, $700 Billion in a needless war, with $5B left behind in Iraq in unfinished redevelopment projects - THAT is big government, wasteful, stupid spending."
Categories: Foes
August 30th in History
Ming Musketeers illustration1363 Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang—are pitted against each other in what is one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty that had been founded by Kublai Khan and his Golden Horde.
It was Kublai Khan who constructed the capital of China at Beijing, although he called it Dadu (not to be confused with the summer capital at Xanadu). There were three main groups separately struggling to defeat each other before they could defeat the Mongol Yuan forces, who themselves had as a larger group been weakened by factionalism. In this battle, the Ming forces beat the Han forces, and after the subsequent defeat of the Yuan Dynasty, founded the Ming Dynasty which lasted from 1368 until 1644. The Chinese had invented gunpowder somewhere in the 800's AD, and had used it against Kublai Khan, whom Marco Polo met in his travels. In contrast, gunpowder had been used ineffectively at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 in western Europe, where it was still a relative novelty. The military use in the accompanying illustration demonstrates the very different military use of gunpowder in the earlier era, between east and west. By 1350, some form of guns were equally prevalent in both east and west.
The Golden Temple1574 Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Sikh Guru Master. Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, founded in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. It was founded in the 15th century, and is monotheistic, teaching belief in a single, universal, non-anthropomorphic God, based on the teachings of eleven Gurus. He founded the sacred city of Sikhism, Amritsar, and the Golden Temple, the Harmandir Sahib.
folding screen painting of Edo Castle1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. Ieyasu was the Shogun in power at the time of the voyage of English navigator William Adams, the real life model for the fictional James Clavell character in the book and miniseries 'Shogun'. Tokugawa Ieyasu founded the Tokugawa shogunate, which lasted from 1603 to 1868, is known as the Edo period of Japan's history, from the name of the city Edo (now Tokyo).
portrait of Capt. Bligh
HMS Bounty1791 HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day on the Great Barrier Reef. The Pandora was sailing the Pacific looking for the mutineers and the HMS Bounty, and had captured 14 prisoners on the Island of Tahiti before sinking, losing 31 of the crew and 4 of the 14 prisoners to drowning. Captain Edward Edwards never found the sunken Bounty or Pitcairn Island, and the remaining mutineers.
Gabriel 'Prosser'1797 Birth of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English writer (d. 1851), author of Frankenstein in 1816.
1800 Gabriel Prosser organizes a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. Gabriel (he was not actually named Prosser) was a literate blacksmith slave. He and 26 others in the rebellion were hanged; they never actually started the rebellion.
Information was leaked before it took place. Restrictions as a result of the almost-slave rebellion limited free blacks as well as the hiring out and educating of black slaves.
1835 Melbourne, Australia is founded, and renamed after William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourn in 1837. The original city was founded by Dutch settlers from Tasmania, which had been named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, and then renamed Van Diemen's Land. Melbourne had originally been called Bearbrass. Queen Victoria declared Melbourne a city in 1847, and it became the capital of the colony of Victoria in 1851. Today Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia.
Burgess Shale fossil1909 Burgess Shale fossils discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The fossils, mid-Cambrian, are some 505 million years old, and unique for preserving not only fossilized bone but also fossilizes soft tissue. Walcott himself collected 65,000 fossil specimens in his 14 years of excavation. It was not understood until the 1960's that these fossils couldn't be categorized into modern taxonomic classifications, and are distinctly unlike any known modern species. For more information, see both the Smithsonian museum and the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation.
Fanny Kaplan1918 Fanny Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror. Kaplan hit Lenin in the jaw and shoulder, and he is thought never to have fully recovered; it is possible that the lack of medical care Lenin received at the time of his injuries contributed to his death from strokes later. The 'Red Terror' was an official campaign of mass executions and arrests, and subsequent imprisonment of anyone suspected of counter-revolutionary sympathies. It was an opposition move specifically to counter the earlier 'White Terror' anti-Revolutionary similar mass violence.
1945 Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces. Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, and General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
1962 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1963 Hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
Justice Marshall1967 Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
1974 A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 8 killed, 378 injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
1984 The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
1995 NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
Categories: Foes
August 29th in History
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama1498 Vasco da Gama decided to leave Calicut in southwest India, and returned to Portugal. Portuguese trade and imperial expansion encountered conflict with the rival Ottoman Empire in the Indian Ocean and around the Horn of Africa for control of trade routes with India.
Ottoman Navy in the Indian Ocean1521 The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
1526 Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia The Jagiellonian dynasty were kings of Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia. Hungary was divided between the Austrian Habsburgs, the Principality of Transylvania, and the Ottoman Empire. A modest soul, Suleiman held the impressive titles "Imperial Majesty, Grand Sultan, Commander of the Faithful, Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe, Protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, Emperor of the Three Cities of Constantinople, Adrianople and Bursa, and of the Cities of Damascus and Cairo, and went on to a longer laundry list of countries - Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Greece, somewhere called Bogdania, Turkistan, Circassia, Georgia, and too many others to list here fully. Suleiman the Magnificent had advanced as far west as Vienna, most of the middle east, and northern Africa as far west as Algeria. His navy dominated not only the Mediterranean, but as far south and east as the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Suleiman was a polymath, spoke four languages (Persian, Arabic, Serbian, and Uighur Turkish). This was the height of the Ottoman Empire, and the push west and north into Europe. He drove the Knights of Rhodes out of their island fortress, relocating to Malta.
1533 The last Incan king, Atahualpa, was murdered on orders from Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.
1541 The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom, half of Buda Pest. Buda was named for the nephew of Attila the Hun, Bleda aka Buda the Hun, part of the 'Great Migration' from central Asia into Europe that finished off the ancient Roman Empire. The capture of Buda was a further expansion eastward by the Moslem Turkish empire.
John Locke1632 Birth of John Locke, English philosopher, physician, and empiricist, died 1704. He was known as the Father of Liberalism, one of the principle advocates for the Enlightenment concept of government as a social contract between the governed and their government. His ideas were central to the Declaration of Independence. He also originated the theory of mind as a basis for a sense of individual identity and awareness or consciousness, and was intrigued by the relationship of the human mind to the human body. Politically, Locke was a strong advocate for separation of church and state.
1655 Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
1769 Death of Edmund Hoyle, English author and teacher, and famous compiler of the rules for card games. (b. 1672)
1786 Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1831 Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1833 The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.
1842 Treaty of Nanking signing ends the first Opium Wars, giving Hong Kong to England, and opening 5 ports to international trade with Europe and the U.S. The Treaty was one of the 'unequal' treaties imposed on Asian countries by European countries expanding their colonial empire. England, in an effort to reduce trade imbalances created by the Chinese monopoly on exporting their tea, began growing opium in India specifically to send to China where the problems of opium use, and abuse, expanded dramatically. Attempts to prevent drug addiction in China by ending the opium trade failed. An estimated 2 million Chinese had become addicted. The illegal opium trade was effectively and enthusiastically supported through the UK military backing of the East India Company. The first and second Opium Wars, and drug addiction profits, have interesting parallels in modern 'drug wars', including the origins of growing opium poppies in places like Afghanistan.
1885 Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle.
1891 Death of Pierre Lallement, inventor of the bicycle
1907 The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
1910 Japan changes Korea's name to Chōsen and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.
1916 The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
1936 Birth of John McCain, American politician.
1944 Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
1949 Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
1957 Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended the longest filibuster in Senate history after talking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against a civil rights bill.
1981 Death of Lowell Thomas, American writer and pioneer broadcaster (b. 1892)
1991 Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
2005 Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $80 billion in damage.
2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base.
Categories: Foes
RUSH - Row 6
Sold, crisp, clean!! No other group mimics their studio performances on a live stage as well is the three man band form Toronto!
Amazing Stage presence!
Sell out crowd:
Rest of the pics are here!
Can't wait till next time!
Flashhttp://centrisity.com Being right, even tho you lean Left
Amazing Stage presence!
Sell out crowd:
Rest of the pics are here!
Can't wait till next time!
Flashhttp://centrisity.com Being right, even tho you lean Left
Categories: Foes
August 28th in History
Tiffany stained glass window of St. Augustine 430 Death of Augustine of Hippo, North African saint and theologian (b. 354) Augustine lived in the Roman African Province which was at one time Carthage, and is now Tunisia. He is considered a founding church father of Christianity and is considered the originator of the concepts of original sin and just war in church doctrine.
489 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy. Both Theodoric and Odoacer were German invaders, marking the end of the Roman Empire, and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Acre crusader castle interior1189 Third Crusade: the Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan, more of that conflict between Christian and Moslem political ambitions.
1521 The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade, part of the military, political and religious expansion of Islamic empire into Europe, in an ongoing conflict between Islamic and Christian political and territorial ambitions.
De Gama print1542 Turkish-Portuguese War (1538-1557) Battle of Wofla: the Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed. Christovao de Gama was the son of famous explorer Vasco de Gama. The Battle of Wofla took place in Ethiopia, part of the ongoing conflict, see above.
1609 Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
1619 Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, a party to the Thirty Years War which involved most of the countries of Europe, and which changed colonial European empires.
1749 Birth of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher
Juniper Serra1784 Death of Junípero Serra, born 1713, Spanish missionary responsible for founding an extensive chain of Spanish Roman Catholic missions in California, including the still-extant Mission San Juan Capistrano, the oldest building in California. He was beatified in 1988. Serra learned the language of the Pame Indians, and translated the catechism into their language. During the American Revolutionary War, Serra took up a collection of $137.00, and sent it to George Washington. Serra converted approximately 5,309 from 1770 to 1784.
Herschel1789 Sir Frederick William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn. Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany, and emigrated to England as a child with his family because his father was a musician in the employ of George II when he ascended the throne of England. George I of the house of Hanover ascended the English throne on the death of Queen Anne of England, the last of the Stuarts. The German House of Hanover, which later gave us George III and the American Revolution, ascended to the English throne because while 50 potential monarchs were closer by blood to inherit, the Act of Settlement of 1701 prohibited Roman Catholics from being King or Queen of England. William Herschel at first followed his father as a royal musician, before switching to astronomy where he became one of the most exceptional astronomers of his day. He also wrote 24 symphonies, numerous concertos, and was an accomplished player of oboe, harpsichord, organ, violin and cello. Herschel's interest in mathematics, astronomy, and specifically lenses, led him to build his own reflecting telescopes for his astronomy, but also microscopes for the study of cellular structures. Herschel was an extraordinary polymath and polyhistor, eventually in 1782 was appointed King's Astronomer. His sister Caroline shared his interest in astronomy, and was one of the most successful female astronomers in a field dominated by men.
1830 The Tom Thumb presages the first railway service in the United States. The 'Tom Thumb' was an early steam engine which helped steam engines become the primary form of rail power.
1845 The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.
1859 A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as far away as Japan.
1867 The United States takes possession of the, at this point unoccupied, Midway Atoll. Midway Atoll is now an unincorporated territory of the United States, and was significant for the June 1942 naval Battle of Midway that was significant in turning the tide of WW II in the Pacific theater.
Cetshwayo1879 Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British. This was part of the same Anglo-Zulu war Battle of Roarke's Drift in the movie Zulu. He was nephew of the more well known Shaka Zulu. The Zulus were part of the conflict between the English and the Dutch farmers and settlers in the Boer Wars that shaped the country which became South Africa.
first Pepsi poster1898 Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola". Bradham was a North Carolina pharmacist who experimented with creating soft drinks for his soda fountain, a part of his drug store. The success led him to devote himself to the beverage business full time. The artwork for his posters, right, was done by a neighbor.
1903 Birth of Bruno Bettelheim, American psychologist (d. 1990)
Death of Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect, designer of Central Park (b. 1822)
1914 World War I: the Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
World War I: German troops conquer Namur.
1916 World War I: Italy declares war on Germany, after having been neutral. Italy had signed the Treaty of London in 1915, joining the 'Triple Entente' after having previously been part of the 'Triple Alliance with Germany and Austro-Hungary" known as the Central Powers in WW I. It had been a specific alliance dating back to 1882, renewed in 1902, and in other forms, as the Holy Roman Empire before that. What Italy got for secretly signing the Treaty of London was an expansion of their northern border into the Tirol area of the Alps, part of Austria and Hungary, parts of Slovenia and Croatia / Montenegro, a bunch of Greek Islands - the Dodecanese, part of Albania, parts of the Ottoman Empire, and parts of the German empire in Asia and Africa. The pact was supposed to be kept secret, but after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, it was published in Izvestia in November 1917. More than 650,000 Italian soldiers died in WW I, the economy collapsed, and Italy only gained a very few border territories, not what was promised in the Treaty of London. WW I and the Russian revolution directly contributed to the rise of the Fascists in Italy under Mussolini, and eventually to the politics that led to WW II.
1917 Ten Suffragettes are arrested while picketing the White House. The term 'Suffragette' was intended to be derogatory, coined by the tabloid UK newspaper 'The Daily Mail' in the late 19th century. It was originally applied to UK women who were attempting to gain the right to vote. The action by Suffragettes in 1917 was in part to gain recognition for the support roles, both traditional and non-traditional, which women in the U.S. had assumed during WW I, as an illustration of women having the same competence and capability as their male counterparts. Women in the UK gained the vote in 1918, while it was not changed in the U.S. until 1920; however, there were limitations on the UK rights of women to vote which did not become equal until 1928.
1924 The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
1937 Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
1953 Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
1955 Black teenager Emmett Till is murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.
1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech
Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream Speech"Whitmore, left;
Robles, right Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan flat, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights. Known as the 'Career Girls' murder, an innocent man, George Whitmore, Jr. was accused of these murders and another attempted rape and murder. Police misconduct in coercing a confession by beating Whitmore, led to the Miranda Rights guidelines being issued by the U. S. Supreme Court. George Whitmore, Jr. was black; the actual murderer was a white drug dealer, Richard Robles. This case was also significant in the ending of the death penalty in New York.
1964 The Philadelphia race riot begins.
1968 Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention, over issues of race related in part to the assassination of Martin Luther King earlier in 1968, and in part as a protest against the Viet Nam War.
1981 The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. These will soon be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
Jerry A. Whitworth1986 United States Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union, along with another Navy officer, Chief Warrant Officer, John Anthony Walker, Jr. and his son Michael Walker. Walker and Whitworth spied for the soviets during the Cold War from 1968 to 1985. They helped the Soviet Union decipher more than a million encrypted naval messages. The New York Times described them as "the most damaging spy ring in history".
1990 Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province, leading to the subsequent Gulf War.
1991 Ukraine declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
Collapse of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
1996 Democrats nominated President Bill Clinton for a second term at their national convention in Chicago.
1998 Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.
2003 An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London's underground rail network to a halt.
Mayor Ray Nagin in a LIFE magazine
photo from September 2005, with
Vice Admiral Thad Allen
of the U.S. Coast Guard (now known for
his efforts in the BP Oil spill disaster)2005 New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered everyone in the city to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Katrina.
2008 Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination with a speech at Invesco Field in Denver.
Categories: Foes
August 27th in History
contemporary bas relief of one of the
Persian 'Achamenid' Kings, probably
either Xerxes I or his father Darius I
from Persepolis479 BC In the Greco-Persian Wars, Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea. This was part of the ancient wars between the city states of Greece and Perisa, first under the legendary Persian King, Darius, and later under his son Xerxes. It was during the two separate invasions that the famous battles of Marathon, which they won, and Thermopylae, which they lost. The army Battle of Plataea and the subsequent navy Battle of Mycale effectively ended 50 years of war between Greece and Persia. It was the conquest of parts of Greece, and the establishment of Persian rulers over their occupation which gave rise to the word tyrant. Interestingly, the word originally had a very different meaning from the later one, and simply indicated imposed outside authority as distinct from what the Greeks considered legitimate, native Greek authority rather than a term for a harsh or abusive ruler. It is the subject of some of the earliest recorded histories of the ancient world, principally by the 'Father of History", the ancient Greek Herodotus. This is considered the Hellenic period of ancient Greece, meaning before Alexander the Great; the export of Greek philosophy, art, and language outside Greece, by Alexander and later, is encompassed by the word Hellenistic. I would point out that the historic representations look nothing like the grotesque artistic liberties that have been taken in rendering the historic figures in modern film, video and other portrayals.
663 Battle of Baekgang: Remnants of the Korean Baekje Kingdom and their Yamato Japanese allies engage the combined naval forces of the Tang Chinese and Silla Koreans on the Geum River in Korea. This is from the three kingdom era of Korea, Baekje and Silla were two of the the three (the third was Goguryeo), which lasted from 57 BC to 668. Silla won, and established two new kingdoms, effectively an early North Korea, the Balhae Kingdom and South Korea, the Silla Kingdom - although obviously not with a border defined by the 38th parallel. Silla was actually more east, and Baekje more on the western side of the Korean peninsula. After the Silla Kingdom defeated Baekgang, they subsequently defeated the other Kingdom in Korea, the Goguryeo. The expanded Silla Kingdom lasted until 935. The Balhae Kingdom lasted from 698 to 926.
1172 Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned as junior king and queen of England. Henry was the son of Henry II and Elinor of Aquitaine. He predeceased his father at the age of 28; his father was considered the 'senior king', the senior / junior king arrangement was a French tradition. He was superseded by his brothers King Richard the Lionheart, who was his next oldest brother; and Bad King John Lack-land, his youngest brother. Margaret was not originally crowned with her husband Young Henry - he never got a number of his own - so a second coronation was staged which included her. She was unable to provide heirs to Henry, was alleged to have had an affair with the famous knight Sir William Marshal, and subsequently became Queen of Hungary after she was no longer Queen of England, which entailed the return of the French province of the Vexin which had been her diary.
1538 Venus of Urbino1577 – Death of Titian, Italian artist, aka Tiziano Vecelli, Venetian School painter of the Italian Renaissance. Noted for his use of color, his mastery of brushstroke, and http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/his fondness for painting women with a certain shade of auburn hair, sometimes referred to as 'titian'. For a complete collection of his works, and an expansion on his life, see the Titian Foundation, http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/
1689 – The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing empire, establishing a new Russian/Chinese border.
1776 The Battle of Long Island, in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington. It was the first major battle of the American Revolution, and the largest.
1798 Wolfe Tone's United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connaught, which lasted about 13 days.
1828 Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks brokered by Great Britain between Brazil and Argentina during the Argentina-Brazil War.
1859 Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.
1896 Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
1916 Romania declares war against Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations. It spent the first two years of WW I as a neutral country, and had previously been a signatory to treaties supporting the Central Powers, including Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1921 The British install the son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali (leader of the Arab Revolt of 1916 against the Ottoman Empire) as King Faisal I of Iraq.
1928 The Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by the first fifteen nations to do so. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it. Also called the General Treaty for the Renunciation of War, it didn't quite work out as planned, see WW II. The initial signing countries were.. the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan. The Pact was named for U.S. Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg, and French foreign minister, Aristide Briand.
1939 First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft.
1962 The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
1965 Death of Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (b. 1887) leading figure in the Modern Architectural movement known as the International style. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer, and furniture designer. His nickname 'Corbusier' means crow like. His actual name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris.
1969 Israeli commando force penetrates deep into Egyptian territory to stage a mortar attack on regional Egyptian Army headquarters in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt.
1971 An attempted coup fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.
1979 An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another bomb near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
1982 Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide claim responsibility, saying they are avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
1990 Death of Stevie Ray Vaughan, American guitarist (b. 1954)
1991 The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the USSR. Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
Ostankino fire2000 540-metre (1,772 ft)-tall Ostankino Tower - tallest in Europe, and 4th tallest building in the world - in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed. The fire started from outdated wiring; the fire shut down Moscow radio and television broadcasting, because of loss of the tower.
2003 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
2007 Bluegrass Army Depot Sarin(GB) leak in Lexington, Kentucky. Officials reported the Sarin levels 85 times above the safe limit. There was a second leak of the nerve gas in 2008.
Categories: Foes
August 26th in History
Chittorgarh fort, national symbol and tourist attraction1303 Alauddin Khilji, Muslim Sultan of Delhi, captures Hindu Chittorgarh, the largest medieval era fort in India, ostensibly out of fascination for the beauty of the Queen/ Rani Padmini, wife of King Rawal Ratan Singh. Rani Padmini threw herself to a fiery death to escape Alauddin Khiliji. That is the romanticized interpretation of historic events; the more pragmatic is
that the Sultan was conquering a rich territory with strategic location value in what is now the largest (by territory) state in India, Rajasthan (there's that suffix 'stan' again) bordered by modern day Pakistan to the west. It remains a largely Hindu region. The real history is that the Mameluk Dynasty expanded south and east from the middle east, and the Delhi Sultanate expanded and contracted its territorial boundaries in conflict with Hindu political rule. The Khiliji was the second of these Moslem dynasties from the west and north. They have left their mark on the regions history in the form of the significant Moslem component of India's multi-ethnic, multi-religious population, which continues to have conflicts into the modern era. Alauddin Khiliji in turn had to contend with the Mongol Expansion that was pushing into the Middle East, Central and Eastern Russia and Europe. Alauddin Khiliji was a Pashto or Pashtun, to give it context with those who have followed the Afghan War and its overflow into Pakistan. Alauddin Khiliji came to power by killing the first Khiliji king/khan/sultan, who was both his uncle and father-in-law, entering Delhi with the first Sultan's head on a pike. To thin out the competition for power, he had his wife's brother, heir to the throne of his decapitated father, blinded; and he imprisoned his mother-in-law. The Hindu and Sikh practice of noble women (and children) throwing themselves on funeral pyres in mass suicide to avoid dishonor, called Jauhar, was supposed to encourage and enrage their husbands and fathers to a special kind of greater valor called saka. Jauhar differed from Sati, in that Sati applied only to widows, while Jauhar applied to wives, children, and sometimes related men of the living and only in times of war. It puts into a larger geographic and multi-religious context both Moslem and Hindu honor killings of women.
Crecy1346 Hundred Years' War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
La Pieta1498 Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà. It is currently housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, but was originally commissioned as a funeral monument for French Cardinal Jean de Billheres. It is the only statue Michelangelo ever signed. As a work of art it is significant for the way in which it balances the proportions of Mary with the somewhat small body of Christ after crucifixion, and for portraying Mary as young rather than more mature. Michelangelo did other Pietas, but this was his first, and arguably his best known, compared to the Rodanini and Palestrina Pietas.
beginning of lighter than air flight1740 Birth of Joseph Montgolfier, French inventor of the hot air balloon. (d. 1810)
1743 Birth of Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (d. 1794)
1748 The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the
Citizen1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by National Assembly at Palace of Versailles. Later superseded by the 1793 version. It was prepared by the Marquis de Lafayette, and expresses the similar political philosophy of the Enlightenment that were the basis for the American Revolution and subsequent Constitution., and shares some aspects of the American Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence was at the time the U.S. Ambassador to France, and corresponded with the National Assembly members. The Declaration of the Rights of Man is noted for combining the principles of social contract in the writings of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the 'universal rights of man', sometimes called the 'natural rights of man' which do not derive from religious authority or doctrine in contrast to the divine right of kings, and the concept of separation of powers promoted by Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. It is the foundation for modern human rights documents, but does not, like the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, address either the equality of women, or slavery. It is ironic that suffrage for women in the U.S. begins on this day in 1920, 131 years later than this document, 144 years after the Declaration of Independence, 58 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and 52 years after the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Krakatoa, before completely blowing to oblivion1883 The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, an island that used to be in the Strait of Sundra between Java and Sumatra, begins its final, paroxysmal, stage completely destroying the island. Explosions could be heard 100 miles away, with some heard as far as 2,200 miles away; plumes of ash from multiple vents and volcanic cones reached 17 miles high. There were accompanying earthquakes, pyroclastic lava flows, and tsunamis. The largest explosions sent ash 50 miles high into the atmosphere. Approximately 1,000 people were killed in Sumatra from the ash fall, similar to the ash fall from Mount St. Helen's eruption in 1980, from the lateral blast. Estimates of total dead from the volcano eruption range from 36,417 to 120,000. Dead bodies from the volcano and resulting tsunamis were washed up in Africa and India up to a year later, along with volcanic pumice from the volcano. In the year after the volcano, global temperatures dropped 2.2F, and did not return to more normal patterns for five years. Sulfur dioxide was present in unusual quantities, as acid rain, from the chemicals in the plume reaching the upper atmospheric Jet Stream world wide. The sky turned 'blood red', and was recorded in paintings by various artists, including in Edvard Munch's 'The Scream', and produced a phenomena known as 'the Bishop's Ring', a hazy halo around the sun first recorded after this eruption, named for observer Rev. Serano Bishop of Honolulu, Hawaii.
1906 Birth of Polish-American scientist Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the Polio vaccine.
Suffragettes picket the White House
before passage of the Amendment1920 The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote. The ratification of the Amendment was certified on this date by Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby. The state of Tennessee provided the last state ratification necessary for the Amendment to the Constitution on August 18, 1920. Connecticut didn't ratify it until September 1920; and Vermont in February 1921; Delaware didn't ratify it until 1923. Maryland didn't ratify it until 1941, and it wasn't certified until 1958. Virginia didn't ratify it until 1952, and Alabama didn't ratify it until 1953. Florida and South Carolina ratified in in 1969; although South Carolina wasn't certified until 1973. Georgia and Louisiana finally ratified it in 1970, and North Carolina in 1971. Mississippi, sadly last in so many things, ratified the 19th Amendment in 1984.
anti-suffragette political cartoonLeser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130, in 1922 challenged the Amendment on the grounds that it violated states rights in modifying state electorates, that it violated several state constitutions so those states could not ratify it, and they wanted to throw out the ratifications of Tennessee and West Virginia on procedural technicalities. SCOTUS upheld the constitutionality of the Amendment. So while in current times, women having the vote seems an obvious matter, it was far more controversial, and less obvious, at the time of the Amendment. See the Declaration of the Rights of Man (but not, apparently, of Women) above. The 19th Amendment provides an interesting historical context to why we have a black U.S. President before we have a woman U.S. President.
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
1940 Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.
1942 Holocaust in Chortkiv, western Ukraine: At 2.30 am the German Schutzpolizei started driving Jews out of their houses, divided them into groups of 120, packed them in freight cars and deported 2000 to Belzec death camp. 500 of the sick and children were murdered on the spot.
1957 The USSR announces the successful test of an ICBM – a "super long distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket ... a few days ago," according to the Soviet news agency, ITAR-TASS.
1970 The then new feminist movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality.
1971 The United States Congress declares August 26th as an annual Women's Equality Day (even in North Carolina and Mississippi - see above).
1978 Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut on board the Soyuz 31 spacecraft.
Harvey's Resort Hotel and
Casino, before Birges' bomb1980 Millionaire John Waldo Birges, Sr. planted a 1,000 lb. bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, in the Lake Tahoe area, successfully blowing it up despite attempts by the FBI to disarm the bomb. Birges was an interesting character, a Hungarian immigrant who had flown for the Luftwaffe in WW II, then been captured by the Soviet forces who sentenced him to 25 years of hard labor in a soviet Gulag. He blew his way out of the Gulag, emigrating to California. Birges tried to use the bomb to extort $3,000,000 from Harvey's resort and casino, which he claimed was the amount he had lost there gambling. Other estimates put the figure closer to half that. The explosion also damaged parts of Harrah's Casino. Birges was tried and convicted; he died in a Nevada prison sixteen years and 1 day later.
1987 President Ronald Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day.
1997 Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed, as part of a series of massacres during the Civil War in Algeria after independence from France, between the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front, attempting to establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law and the military-supported secular government.
2003 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Investigators concluded that NASA's overconfidence and lack of safety as a priority contributed to the space shuttle Columbia loss as much as the actual flight damage.
Categories: Foes
Doing Nothing, Simply Because We Can
There was a news story in the local paper a couple of days ago about "straw" gun buyers. In the story, police authorities note that perhaps 90% of gun crimes are committed with guns coming from straw buyers. The gun dealer in the article didn't appear to voice any objection to the laws requiring him to ensure that if he notes a gun will not be used by the buyer but instead by another party, that he not sell such a gun. He also noted that he hands any prospective buyer a federal registration form, something I believe came as an outgrowth of the Bradey law and used to document and confirm the identify of the buyer.
In the same story, there was a comment about the loop-hole in the registration law which allows for private gun-show sellers to not document buyers at such shows. The comment from the National Rifle Association's spokesperson Rachel Parsons, was that such requirements would otherwise prevent a "Grandfather from giving a gun to his grandson." Further, that it's not a problem because only 1% of crimes appear to be related to private gun-show sales. Her recommendation was that the government should enforce the laws already on the books rather than close this loop-hole.
My reaction is.. "HOGWASH!"
First, it's utter nonsense to say that Grandpa couldn't give a gun to his grandson. If I chose to give my son a car, all I have to do is fill out the title transfer section on the title of the car. It takes 5 minutes. I certainly don't see any reason such a transfer document couldn't exist for transferring ownership of a firearm, and it could easily document who the recipient was.
Second, while the story didn't clarify why the NRA felt that Grandpa was somehow prevented, so we are left only to guess. The reaon which comes to mind most quickly is that as a minor "Johnny" can't easily be registered because Johnny may be a minor. If that is the reason, then overriding fact is that Johnny (as a minor) can't legally own that firearm (or anything else really). The weapon (and any other gift generally) is the property of his parents. Any transfer could easily be done by having Grandpa fill out the title transfer to the father or mother, and then give "Johnny" the gift just as he always did before. The legal owner is the parent either way. So this is just a nonsense unless you feel documenting a firearms transfer should be less onerous than something which takes 5 minutes to complete. It MIGHT require someone to update a federal firearms database after the sale, but if so, so what? Is that any different than what is required for a licensed dealer to do in sales from a store? If it isn't, why have any difference at all? Clearly Grandpa can still give Johnny a gun.
Lastly, with respect to "enforcing the laws that exist," this is the height of hubris and hypocrisy coming from the NRA. They vehemently oppose the Bradey law and national registration. Given their choice there wouldn't be any compelling law tracking (or therefore preventing) straw buyers. For them to say that "big gov'mint" should now use that law which they object to entirely to go after straw buyers is them suggesting that they think an authority they don't like should do something they don't want to enforce a law they don't want in the first place. I believe this is just smoke and mirrors from the NRA and their zealous members. It seems they don't want anything done to close the loop-hole, so they've come up with a bogus objection which can easily be dealt with through a process no more difficult than giving someone a car. They don't want crime, and they want straw buyers stopped (supposedly), but they want to repeal the law which would allow authorities to do so.
The Heller decision and the McDonald decision after it made it clear that regulating and documenting gun ownership is fully constitutional so long as gun ownership isn't unfairly prevented. Preventing those who cannot legally own guns from getting them is in everyone's best interests, yet the NRA and other supposed 2nd Amendment defenders would rather we do nothing at all, and will tell us either bogus reasons or lie and suggest we enforce laws which they are working hard to get rid of rather than allow for us to move forward with closing loop-holes. Even if the loop-hole only leads to 1% of crimes, is that any real reason to not act to simply require a private seller to do the same thing a licensed store must do? Consistency in the law is something all of us say we support, there isn't any meaningful reason not to support it here. Well, that is, unless you prefer nothing be done with respect to keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. In the case of the NRA, what seems equally plausible is that they are also opposed because they have consistently shown bent toward making it easier for gun-makers to sell more guns. The 2nd Amendment "zealots" talk about stopping crime and personal protection, but when it comes to adhering to the Constitution or stopping criminals from getting guns, it certainly appears they'd rather we didn't act at all. If there are any of you free and easy gun ownership types out there, please correct this impression if you like, tell me which laws you feel fully comfortable having, which you think the NRA is wrong to try to overturn that attempt to restrict gun buying to those which truly are allowed to buy them for their use, and then give me a good reason not to require private shows to do the same thing other sellers do, for the reason the NRA gave to me is nothing less and nothing more than smoke.
In the same story, there was a comment about the loop-hole in the registration law which allows for private gun-show sellers to not document buyers at such shows. The comment from the National Rifle Association's spokesperson Rachel Parsons, was that such requirements would otherwise prevent a "Grandfather from giving a gun to his grandson." Further, that it's not a problem because only 1% of crimes appear to be related to private gun-show sales. Her recommendation was that the government should enforce the laws already on the books rather than close this loop-hole.
My reaction is.. "HOGWASH!"
First, it's utter nonsense to say that Grandpa couldn't give a gun to his grandson. If I chose to give my son a car, all I have to do is fill out the title transfer section on the title of the car. It takes 5 minutes. I certainly don't see any reason such a transfer document couldn't exist for transferring ownership of a firearm, and it could easily document who the recipient was.
Second, while the story didn't clarify why the NRA felt that Grandpa was somehow prevented, so we are left only to guess. The reaon which comes to mind most quickly is that as a minor "Johnny" can't easily be registered because Johnny may be a minor. If that is the reason, then overriding fact is that Johnny (as a minor) can't legally own that firearm (or anything else really). The weapon (and any other gift generally) is the property of his parents. Any transfer could easily be done by having Grandpa fill out the title transfer to the father or mother, and then give "Johnny" the gift just as he always did before. The legal owner is the parent either way. So this is just a nonsense unless you feel documenting a firearms transfer should be less onerous than something which takes 5 minutes to complete. It MIGHT require someone to update a federal firearms database after the sale, but if so, so what? Is that any different than what is required for a licensed dealer to do in sales from a store? If it isn't, why have any difference at all? Clearly Grandpa can still give Johnny a gun.
Lastly, with respect to "enforcing the laws that exist," this is the height of hubris and hypocrisy coming from the NRA. They vehemently oppose the Bradey law and national registration. Given their choice there wouldn't be any compelling law tracking (or therefore preventing) straw buyers. For them to say that "big gov'mint" should now use that law which they object to entirely to go after straw buyers is them suggesting that they think an authority they don't like should do something they don't want to enforce a law they don't want in the first place. I believe this is just smoke and mirrors from the NRA and their zealous members. It seems they don't want anything done to close the loop-hole, so they've come up with a bogus objection which can easily be dealt with through a process no more difficult than giving someone a car. They don't want crime, and they want straw buyers stopped (supposedly), but they want to repeal the law which would allow authorities to do so.
The Heller decision and the McDonald decision after it made it clear that regulating and documenting gun ownership is fully constitutional so long as gun ownership isn't unfairly prevented. Preventing those who cannot legally own guns from getting them is in everyone's best interests, yet the NRA and other supposed 2nd Amendment defenders would rather we do nothing at all, and will tell us either bogus reasons or lie and suggest we enforce laws which they are working hard to get rid of rather than allow for us to move forward with closing loop-holes. Even if the loop-hole only leads to 1% of crimes, is that any real reason to not act to simply require a private seller to do the same thing a licensed store must do? Consistency in the law is something all of us say we support, there isn't any meaningful reason not to support it here. Well, that is, unless you prefer nothing be done with respect to keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. In the case of the NRA, what seems equally plausible is that they are also opposed because they have consistently shown bent toward making it easier for gun-makers to sell more guns. The 2nd Amendment "zealots" talk about stopping crime and personal protection, but when it comes to adhering to the Constitution or stopping criminals from getting guns, it certainly appears they'd rather we didn't act at all. If there are any of you free and easy gun ownership types out there, please correct this impression if you like, tell me which laws you feel fully comfortable having, which you think the NRA is wrong to try to overturn that attempt to restrict gun buying to those which truly are allowed to buy them for their use, and then give me a good reason not to require private shows to do the same thing other sellers do, for the reason the NRA gave to me is nothing less and nothing more than smoke.
Categories: Foes
August 25th in History
stylized 16th c. iconographic image of Ivan IV1530 – Birth of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, known as Ivan the Terrible in English (d. 1584) As Grand Prince of Moscow, he expanded Russian borders eastward through military conquest of what had been territory of the Golden Horde. These included the khanate of Kazan, which encompassed Tatarstan and Bashkortostan; the khanate of Astrakhan; and the Khanate of Sibir, which in English is called Siberia. These included some of the most northern ethnic groups of Muslim people, making Russia not only more ethnicly diverse but religiously diverse -- and a WHOLE lot larger. Estimates are that Ivan the Terrible expanded Russian borders through military aggression at the rate of 135 square kilometers a day. This was a sense a reversal of the direction, a push-back, of the conquests of the Golden Horde westward from Mongolia and China that attacked the eastern slavic region of Rus from the 13th century to the beginning of the 16th century. Rus was the region which gave it's name to Russia, and Belarus, and included parts of Poland, the Ukraine, and Slovakia.
Ivan the Terrible was given to violent rages attributed to mental illness; history records he assaulted his daughter in law causing her to miscarry, and that he killed his son and heir (another Ivan) by bashing his head in with his scepter when his son objected to his wife's assault and miscarriage. After his designated heir was killed, his younger son, Feodor the Bellringer, who history records as mentally retarded. His name 'bellringer' came from his habit of travelling the country, piously attending many churches, and vigorously ringing the church bells himself. Governing of the country devolved on his brother in law, Boris Godunov, who had attempted to stop Ivan the Terrible from killing Feodor's older brother. Feodor's reign ended the Rurik dynasty, which lasted from 862 to 1598. See my previous post about the 'stans.
1609 Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1718 Hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some of them settling in present-day New Orleans.
1776 Death of David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1711)
1814 White House is destroyed by British forces during the War of 1812. Dolly Madison famously escapes just ahead of the arrival of the British with some of the more precious items from the White House, including a famous portrait of George Washington, demonstrating tremendous grace under pressure.
1819 Birth of Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (d. 1884)
Great Moon Hoax illustration
accompanying the 4th of 6 articles
in the New York Sun1835 The New York Sun perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax. Preceding Orson Well's sci-fi hoax broadcast War of the Worlds about a martian invasion, the New York Sun circulated a series of six articles claiming to have discovered life and civilization on the moon, attributing the discovery to the famous real life astronomer Sir John Herschel to give it plausibility. The articles purported to be written by a fictional individual, Dr. Andrew Grant, who represented himself to be Herschel's secretary/ personal assistant. The people he claimed inhabited the moon had bat wings, and there were also unicorns and two-legged tailless beavers, among other novelties. Authorship of the six articles, which ended with the claim that the new telescope used for the discovery had accidentally set the observatory on fire by acting like a magnifying glass in the sun, is attributed to a reporter, Richard A. Locke, but has never been proven - and he never admitted it. It is suspected that it was not only a stunt to improve circulation, but also a satire poking fun at actual scientific papers that were ridiculous, like the 1842 paper by Munich Astronomy Professor Franz von Paula Gruithuisen, who published a paer in 1824 titled ""Discovery of Many Distinct Traces of Lunar Inhabitants, Especially of One of Their Colossal Buildings". The moon hoax is also thought to be a lampoon of the Rev. Thomas Dick, the "Christian Philosopher", who wrote a book claiming the solar system had more than 21 trillion inhabitants, and that the moon would have - by his precise computation - more than 4,200,000,000 inhabitants. Rev. Dick's writings were taken very seriously, and were given credence and authority by intellectuals like Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Sun never did print a retraction or an admission this was a hoax. The periodical, the Southern Literary Messenger, had published an Edgar Alan Poe account in June 1835, "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall", which claimed a man had flown a hot air balloon to the moon, and lived among the 'lunarians' for five years.
The Mars "Face" imagefrom the side, just a hillIf you think we are too sophisticated to fall for this kind of silliness in our modern era, I give you the hoopla over the supposed face on Mars in contradiction. In the mid 1970's first Viking I and then Viking II photos showed a geographic feature that some people believed to be a giant carving of a human or human-like head, leading to sensational speculation that this was a remnant of a long lost martian civilization, or an indication of extraterrestrial intelligence, visitations to Earth, etc. It turned out to be just a hill. Carl Sagan devoted a chapter about this in his book "The Demon-Haunted World", a book promoting skepticism and critical thinking.
1845 Birth of King Ludwig II of Bavaria aka Mad King Ludwig (same birthday as Ludwig I) (d. 1886)
1894 Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet. See yesterday's 'day in history', the killing of 6,000 Jews in Mainz, Germany, for supposedly causing the bubonic plague hundreds of years before.
1898 700 Greek civilians, 17 British guards and the British Consul of Crete are killed by a Turkish mob in Heraklion, Greece. Crete had been the rope in a sort of political tug of war between Greece, the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, and the British, Egypt, and others for centuries, but a major source of uprisings was religious conflict between Christians and Moslems. In 1913 Crete became an independent kingdom, for less than a year, before ending up a part of Greece again.
1900 Death of Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (b. 1844)
1912 The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
1913 Birth of Walt Kelly, American cartoonist of the strip Pogo. (d. 1973)
1916 The United States National Park Service is created.
1919 Birth of George Wallace, American politician (d. 1998)
Bond, James Bond1930 Birth of Sean Connery, Scottish actor, first to portray fictional spy James Bond in film.
1944 World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
1945 Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. His death was the inspiration for the ultra-right wing extremist group, the John Birch Society currently embraced by the Republican Party.
1946 Birth of Charles Ghigna (Father Goose), American poet and children's author
Simmons in Kiss makeup1948 The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1949 Birth of Gene Simmons, Israeli-born musician (Kiss)
1950 President Harry Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
1956 Death of Alfred Kinsey, American research biologist noted for the Kinsey Report which made the previously taboo discussion of sex less taboo. (b. 1894) Kinsey founded the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, and published the landmark studies, the two Kinsey Reports. The 2004 movie Kinsey was a biography. His work dramatically changed the understanding of sex and sexuality by applying the scientific method.
1967 Death of George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party leader (b. 1918) Rockwell had been strongly influenced by Senator Joseph McCarthy. His writings continue to be influential in the political extremist white supremacist movement. Rockwell was assassinated by one of his own American Nazi party members who shot him to death.
1981 Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.
1989 Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the outermost planet in the Solar System.
1997 Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall during the Cold War.
Categories: Foes
Make a New Plan, Stan......
I would introduce our Penigma readers to a recent blog roll addition, 'Hot Word', an adjunct to the online dictionary, "Dictionary.com". Completely apolitical, for those of us who are word junkies, as I and some of my colleagues are, I hope you will enjoy it.
'Stan mapToday is doubly fun because it deals with another interest, geography, in this case one that also ties in to the Penigma topic of politics and current events. The hot word of the day is actually the suffix 'stan', as in Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.
The suffix 'stan' in Urdu and in Persian (by which I'm assuming the blog means Farsi?) the suffix 'stan' means 'place of' and the preceding part of the name identifies an ethnic group. For example, the Afghanis = Afghanistan. Some have an actual meaning; Pakistan means the 'land or place of the pure'.
Bonus geography points if you can name the other five 'stans'. Double bonus geography points if you can find them on an unlabled map correctly.
Then Hot Word of the day introduces toponyms, a category of words which are place names. Some 'stans' are not countries, but rather regional subdivisions within larger countries. The root word in Russian means 'settlement', in some slavic languages it has come to mean 'apartment' - per Hot Word. In German it turns up as a root relating to cities.
The given name or first name Stan / Stanley doesn't derive from the above place-name 'Stans'; it is from the Old English Stone, and Leigh, another word for field.
I hope this has piqued your interest in giving 'Hot Word' a look from time to time on our blog roll.
Enjoy!
'Stan mapToday is doubly fun because it deals with another interest, geography, in this case one that also ties in to the Penigma topic of politics and current events. The hot word of the day is actually the suffix 'stan', as in Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.
The suffix 'stan' in Urdu and in Persian (by which I'm assuming the blog means Farsi?) the suffix 'stan' means 'place of' and the preceding part of the name identifies an ethnic group. For example, the Afghanis = Afghanistan. Some have an actual meaning; Pakistan means the 'land or place of the pure'.
Bonus geography points if you can name the other five 'stans'. Double bonus geography points if you can find them on an unlabled map correctly.
Then Hot Word of the day introduces toponyms, a category of words which are place names. Some 'stans' are not countries, but rather regional subdivisions within larger countries. The root word in Russian means 'settlement', in some slavic languages it has come to mean 'apartment' - per Hot Word. In German it turns up as a root relating to cities.
The given name or first name Stan / Stanley doesn't derive from the above place-name 'Stans'; it is from the Old English Stone, and Leigh, another word for field.
I hope this has piqued your interest in giving 'Hot Word' a look from time to time on our blog roll.
Enjoy!
Categories: Foes
Outfoxed Themselves
Update: Courtesy of middle east expert Juan Cole's blog, Informed Comment - see our blog roll - where a commenter posted a link to the story over on the Daily Kos - but read Juan Cole first.
(http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/24/895800/-Murdoch-published-Imam-Raufs-book-on-Islam-and-America?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29&utm_content=Twitter),
It seems that Rupert Murdoch also published Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's Book, " What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America", through his publishing house, Harper Collins. WHY would Rupert Murdoch's publishing house do that? You might as well ask why would they flip flop on the Cordoba House - which is what they called it, correctly, before calling it the 'Ground Zero Mosque' - agitating so many people. The answer is simple.
It makes them money.
It gives them political capital, political advantage. It manipulates their viewers, and the people who agree with the politics of their viewers. It gets an estimated thousand or more people out protesting on a Sunday morning, yellling ugly Islamophobic things at people who may or may not actually be muslim or pro-muslim. Murdoch is the yellow-journalism William Randolf Hearst of our times.
www.thedailyshow.com/...august-19-2010/extremist-makeover---homeland-edition
www.thedailyshow.com/watch/...august-23-2010/the-parent-company-trap
www.thedailyshow.com/...august-23-2010/moment-of-zen---prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-on-fox-news
Saudi Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal,
owner of approx. 7% of Fox News Parent Company,
with majority shareholder Rupert MurdochIn a wry twist, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart added an interesting dimension to the Faux Ground Zero Mosque debate on the Monday night, August 23rd installment. It features the assorted talking Fox "News" talking heads promoting the notion that the funding for the Cordoba House/Park Place 51 Community Center comes from an entity, the Kingdom Foundation, which "funds radical madrasas", making a direct connection to the kind of Islamic school which is alleged to produce terrorists.
What the Daily Show on Comedy Central does best, in a way which is genuinely comedic on one level, at the same time it is deadly serious on another, as is the case with all great satire, is to show the hypocrisy and glaring deliberate misrepresentations being made.
Cavuto Interview on Fox NewsBecause, you see, the source of the funding for the Cordoba House / Park Place 51? The source of the money and the control of that dreaded Kingdom Foundation? It is the largest single owner of Fox News next to Rupert Murdoch's family. It is none other than Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal.
Don't ONLY watch the opening segment of the Daily Show. Some of the very best footage on this subject comes at the end, in the closing "Moment of Zen", beginning with a clip of the Fox and Friends group making their allegations - again, followed by a clip of Fox Newsance Neil Cavuto PRAISING the Kingdom Foundation, in an interview with none other than major Fox stockholder and Kingdom Foundation King-pin, Saudi Prince Al'Waleed bin Talal. Cavuto: "His Kingdom Holding Company continues to be among the world's most successful and admired."
That would be the same individual seen in numerous photo ops of President George W. Bush as an important Saudi ally in the War on Terrorism, nephew of King Abdullah, with whom Bush was on hand holding and kissing terms. Which is kind of fun, given that one of the people sitting in for former Minnesotan, Gretchen Carlson on Fox and Friends is none other than former "W" press secretary Dana Perino, who presumably knows perfectly well who Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal IS.
So, if you believe this really is a genuinely objectionable organization behind the community center, or that the basis for any genuine concern is completely faked, ginning up this controversy for purely political means - think again. The timing of this, in context of the recent donation to the Republicans by Fox News, is anything but accidental, or coincidental. If there were any further reasonable question, I think the failure of Fox Newsance to actually mention Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal by name, skirting around his identity over and over and over and over again, strongly suggests that the omission is anything but ignorance. No one has as much information as they present themselves to have, without knowing that their major investor is the person they are referencing.
But if that weren't enough to persuade you, the Daily Show footage of Fox Newsance extolling how wonderful Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal and his Kingdom Foundation are and extolling the planned Cordoba House / 51 Park Place Community Center cinches it. Because while it might be possible for Faux news to be unaware of comments by others, it is more than fair to expect them to know what they themselves have said.
The only thing that has changed in this scenario is the donation to the RNC. NOTHING else about the community center or the imam in question is any different now from when Fox News and others - including Jewish groups, and the family and friends who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack has changed.
Ya gotta love Jon Stewart's send up of Glenn Beck, and other idiots over at Fox, above and beyond the substantive content of his show. At the same time, you have to be very very angry at those who would fan the flames of rampant Islamophobia in this country on the political right. That is clearly, demonstrably, what is happening here; the promotion of hatred, fear and suspicion for political advantage. Unless you choose to believe that Fox News and Rupert Murdoch, and prominent political figures on the right are financially and politically involved with funders of terrorism.
I trust this has connected at least some of the dots for those readers who were skeptical about what I wrote in 'Mosquerade'.
I want a "team evil" t-shirt.
(http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/24/895800/-Murdoch-published-Imam-Raufs-book-on-Islam-and-America?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29&utm_content=Twitter),
It seems that Rupert Murdoch also published Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's Book, " What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America", through his publishing house, Harper Collins. WHY would Rupert Murdoch's publishing house do that? You might as well ask why would they flip flop on the Cordoba House - which is what they called it, correctly, before calling it the 'Ground Zero Mosque' - agitating so many people. The answer is simple.
It makes them money.
It gives them political capital, political advantage. It manipulates their viewers, and the people who agree with the politics of their viewers. It gets an estimated thousand or more people out protesting on a Sunday morning, yellling ugly Islamophobic things at people who may or may not actually be muslim or pro-muslim. Murdoch is the yellow-journalism William Randolf Hearst of our times.
www.thedailyshow.com/...august-19-2010/extremist-makeover---homeland-edition
www.thedailyshow.com/watch/...august-23-2010/the-parent-company-trap
www.thedailyshow.com/...august-23-2010/moment-of-zen---prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-on-fox-news
Saudi Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal,
owner of approx. 7% of Fox News Parent Company,
with majority shareholder Rupert MurdochIn a wry twist, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart added an interesting dimension to the Faux Ground Zero Mosque debate on the Monday night, August 23rd installment. It features the assorted talking Fox "News" talking heads promoting the notion that the funding for the Cordoba House/Park Place 51 Community Center comes from an entity, the Kingdom Foundation, which "funds radical madrasas", making a direct connection to the kind of Islamic school which is alleged to produce terrorists.
What the Daily Show on Comedy Central does best, in a way which is genuinely comedic on one level, at the same time it is deadly serious on another, as is the case with all great satire, is to show the hypocrisy and glaring deliberate misrepresentations being made.
Cavuto Interview on Fox NewsBecause, you see, the source of the funding for the Cordoba House / Park Place 51? The source of the money and the control of that dreaded Kingdom Foundation? It is the largest single owner of Fox News next to Rupert Murdoch's family. It is none other than Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal.
Don't ONLY watch the opening segment of the Daily Show. Some of the very best footage on this subject comes at the end, in the closing "Moment of Zen", beginning with a clip of the Fox and Friends group making their allegations - again, followed by a clip of Fox Newsance Neil Cavuto PRAISING the Kingdom Foundation, in an interview with none other than major Fox stockholder and Kingdom Foundation King-pin, Saudi Prince Al'Waleed bin Talal. Cavuto: "His Kingdom Holding Company continues to be among the world's most successful and admired."
That would be the same individual seen in numerous photo ops of President George W. Bush as an important Saudi ally in the War on Terrorism, nephew of King Abdullah, with whom Bush was on hand holding and kissing terms. Which is kind of fun, given that one of the people sitting in for former Minnesotan, Gretchen Carlson on Fox and Friends is none other than former "W" press secretary Dana Perino, who presumably knows perfectly well who Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal IS.
So, if you believe this really is a genuinely objectionable organization behind the community center, or that the basis for any genuine concern is completely faked, ginning up this controversy for purely political means - think again. The timing of this, in context of the recent donation to the Republicans by Fox News, is anything but accidental, or coincidental. If there were any further reasonable question, I think the failure of Fox Newsance to actually mention Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal by name, skirting around his identity over and over and over and over again, strongly suggests that the omission is anything but ignorance. No one has as much information as they present themselves to have, without knowing that their major investor is the person they are referencing.
But if that weren't enough to persuade you, the Daily Show footage of Fox Newsance extolling how wonderful Prince Al' Waleed bin Talal and his Kingdom Foundation are and extolling the planned Cordoba House / 51 Park Place Community Center cinches it. Because while it might be possible for Faux news to be unaware of comments by others, it is more than fair to expect them to know what they themselves have said.
The only thing that has changed in this scenario is the donation to the RNC. NOTHING else about the community center or the imam in question is any different now from when Fox News and others - including Jewish groups, and the family and friends who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack has changed.
Ya gotta love Jon Stewart's send up of Glenn Beck, and other idiots over at Fox, above and beyond the substantive content of his show. At the same time, you have to be very very angry at those who would fan the flames of rampant Islamophobia in this country on the political right. That is clearly, demonstrably, what is happening here; the promotion of hatred, fear and suspicion for political advantage. Unless you choose to believe that Fox News and Rupert Murdoch, and prominent political figures on the right are financially and politically involved with funders of terrorism.
I trust this has connected at least some of the dots for those readers who were skeptical about what I wrote in 'Mosquerade'.
I want a "team evil" t-shirt.
Categories: Foes
August 24th in History
detail, J.N. Sylvestre's
1890 painting "The
Sack of Rome by the Visigoths
on August 24, 410" 410 The Visigoths under Alaric I begin to pillage Rome for three days; part of the "Migration Period" aka "Barbarian Invasions" from 300 to 700. Christianity had been the official religion of the Roman Empire for about 20 years; some Romans blamed the success of the Visigoths on the abandonment of the traditional Roman Gods, rather than on the other causes for the decline of the Roman Empire. Alaric was an Arian, rather than Orthodox, Christian (even the early days of Christianity had their schisms). Arian Christianity was a sometimes-heretical, sometimes not deemed heretical variation of faith that differed over the nature of the Christian trinity.
The 'other' Goths, Eastern Germanic tribes, were the Ostragoths, who also overran the Roman Empire. Also making life difficult for the Ancient Romans during this period were the Vandals - who gave their name to the word vandalism, the Huns of Attila-the-Hun fame, Franks and Friesans, Alans and Suebi, Bulgars and other Slavs.
This migration from eastern and central Asia was followed by another round of invasions/migrations into the western area of Asia Minor and Europe, by Mongols and Magyars from the east, and Vikings from the North, after 700. These two waves of migrations have created or contribute to most of the modern European ethnicities. Which was a distinct change in the direction of invasions after Alexander the Great had invaded primarily east and south from the northern Mediterranean Sea, and the Romans had invaded in all directions from Rome - east, west, north and south.
Specifically the migration of the Huns had pushed the Visigoths to migrate into the Roman Empire where they originally had attempted to settle peacefully. The German tribes had been providing mercenary military supplementation to the Roman troops for a significant period of time, called foederati. Alaric had been employed in the internal battles on the side of Flavius Theodosius, for the position of emperor. Theodosius I was the last emperor of a united Roman Empire. Not being treated well as an individual - Alaric had hoped to be made a Roman General - and not having his people, the Visigoths who had suffered a greater proportion of the losses in various battles, particularly the ones that put Theodosius I on the throne, was the 'other' precipitating factor for the Visigoths to rebel and invade. The word 'barbarian' refers not to their customs for facial hair, as is sometimes claimed, but from the proto indo european root 'barbaroi', referring to unintelligible language, and came to mean 'not greek' suggesting not cultured, or non-aryan. This detail of a painting by late 19th / early 20th century, multiple award-winning, french artist Sylvestre demonstrates the odd and faintly homo-erotic notion that barbarian warriors were nudists, with neatly trimmed facial hair. Or it could be Sylvestre's interpretation of history through the Victorian-era movement's view of 'Muscular Christianity' which stressed vigorous masculinity.
King John1200 Bad King John of England, signee of the first Magna Carta, married Isobel of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral. King John, aka "Jean-sans-terre", or "John Lack-land", aka "softsword", 1167-1216, was king of England from 1199 to 1216. John was a rather unsuccessful monarch; in 1185 he became King of Ireland; they threw him out after only 8 months on the throne. He was known for treachery in factual history, not only in the famous play and movie, "The Lion in Winter", among other things, for having tried to pay the Holy Roman Emperor to keep his older brother King Richard the Lionhearted in captivity. He also conspired against his older brother Geoffry, and his nephew Arthur, Geoffrey's son, whom he is believed to have murdered. John's marriage to Isobel of Angouleme, who had an earlier and conflicting engagement to Hugh de Lusignan, cost him the Plantagenet lands in France, except for Gascoigne. John also managed to get himself excommunicated by Pope Innocent III, and got the entire country of England interdicted. He caved to the pressure, and paid the papacy 1,000 marks a year, and made England a papal fief to lift the interdiction and excommunication, and to become a supporter of John, in 1213. John died of dysentery while on the run from an invasion by France in support of an uprising by English Barons three years later.
1215 version of
the Magna Carta
1215 Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta invalid, claiming King John signed it under duress, the pope declared the Magna Carta, aka the Great Charter, "not only shameful and demeaning, but also illegal and unjust." There was a second version of the Magna Carta in 1225, and a third and final version which became official law in 1297, and is still part of the law of England and Wales. It has been confirmed more than 40 times, mostly in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Subsequently it was largely repealed beginning in 1829, and continuing through 1969 in England and Wales, and Ireland. Only clauses 1, 9, and 29 remain as law. The Magna Carta created the right of habeus corpus, incorporated in the United States Constitution, and still in force in the U.S., more or less.
1217 Death of Eustace the Monk, French mercenary, outlaw, and pirate at the battle of Sandwich. (b. c.1170) Eustace was born the younger son of nobility; went to Toledo, Spain to study 'black magic', then returned to become a monk. In addition to becoming a monk, he served as seneschal and bailiff to the Count of Boulogne. He was accused of misusing his office, and was declared an outlaw. In retaliation he burned some buildings. After that he became a pirate in the English Channel, working for King John of England, see above, against the French from 1205 . Then he switched sides and worked against King John. When the barons began their civil war against King John, leading up to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, Eustace worked for the barons, including their french allies. He had so thoroughly antagonized the English, that when he was captured, they gave him a choice of where he was going to be beheaded - over the rail, or tied to the side of a trebuchet on deck. A later romanticized version of Eustace the Monk's exploits in 1223-24 is thought to have been part of the historical basis for the later legend of Robin Hood.
1349 Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague. The Jewish community in Mainz dated from the 10th century, and through the 13th century, the city was a center for German Jewish scholarship. By the 15th century, the relationship between the Christian citizens and the Jewish community had become less consistent, with Jews expelled in 1462 and 1474, but then invited back. The massacres of Jews was a response to as high as 60% of the population dying from the plague, causing enormous upheaval socially, politically and economically. There is a new medical assessment of the records of the black plague, which suggest that it was not the classic yersinia pestis, or black plague at all, but possibly a viral hemorrhagic fever. Jews were not the only minority blamed and persecuted but they were one of the most consistent targets, and not only in Germany. Historians credit this pattern of persecution as providing a larger historic background, as a continuum, to the anti-semitism of WW II.
1391 Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
1456 The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed, in Mainz.
1662 Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
1680 Death of Colonel Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief who tried to steal the British crown jewels in 1671. (b. 1618) He also tried to commit a murder or two, and the occasional kidnapping. He switched sides between Royalists and Roundheads, during the English civil wars. After the restoration of Charles II, he was pardoned, and was given a position at court. Blood was considered such a scoundrel that when he eventually died of natural causes, the authorities dug up his body after he was buried, just to be sure he was dead, and not faking it to avoid paying his debts.
His epitaph read:
Here lies the man who boldly hath run throughMore villainies than England ever knew;And ne'er to any friend he had was true.Here let him then by all unpitied lie,And let's rejoice his time was come to die.
1682 William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania. Delaware was named from the first colonial governor of Virginia, the 3rd Baron De La Warr. Dutch, Swedes and Finns settled the area, becoming part of, variously, New Netherland, New Sweden and New Castle. The Duke of York overpowered the earlier settlers, claiming the territory for himself and England, before passing ownership on to William Penn who wanted ocean access for his colony. Pennsylvania became to big, so Penn acted as governor for both states as separate administrate entities. At the time New York and New Jersey had a shared governor, as did Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
1690 Calcutta, India is founded, on land purchased by the East India Company.
1814 British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings, as part of the War of 1812.
1817 Birth of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
1831 Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
1857 The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history.
1858 In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
Charlie Chan and 'Number 2 son'1884 Birth of Earl Derr Biggers, American author, creator of the fictional character of Charlie Chan. He based his fictional character on a real life exceptionally gifted Honolulu detective, Chang Apana, he learned about on vacation in Hawaii. Biggers died. 1933. Biggers had intended his detective to offer a hero that contradicted the evil 'yellow peril' and 'Fu Manchu' stereotypes, although arguably Biggers contributed to more stereotypes in the nearly 50 movie adaptations of his character, including in other languages than English. A very popular series of Charlie Chan movies were made in Shanghai and Hong Kong which were very popular in China in the 1930s and 1940s.
1891 Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
1898 Count Muravyov, Foreign Minister of Russia presented a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference.
1909 Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
1912 Alaska becomes a United States territory.
1929 Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, resulted in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.
Birth of Betty Dodson, American feminist and sex educator
1949 The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
1950 Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the UN, appointed by President Harry Truman.
1954 The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commits suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
1955 Birth of Mike Huckabee, American politician, Governor/Presidential candidate
1959 Three days after Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator, while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.
1960 A temperature of −88°C (−127°F) is measured in Vostok, Antarctica — a world-record low.
1967 Led by Abbie Hoffman, a group of hippies temporarily disrupt trading at the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing a cease in trading as the brokers scramble to grab them up.
1968 France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
1970 A bomb planted by anti-war extremists exploded at the University of Wisconsin's Army Math Research Center in Madison, killing a researcher.
1981 Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
1989 Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
1992 Diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and South Korea.
1994 Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
1995 Computer software developer Microsoft releases their Windows 95 operating system.
1998 The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 Pan Am bombing.
1998 First Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.
2004 89 passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of Chechnya.
2004 Death of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926) who studied death and dying, including the grieving process for those who are terminally ill, those who grieve the loss of others. She was interested in out of body experiences, and near-death experiences.
2006 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is considered a Dwarf Planet.
2007 James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to three life terms for his role in the 1964 abduction and murder of two black teenagers in Mississippi.
Categories: Foes
The Face of Truth
This evening I met with a few of the people cheated by Trevor Cook. There is much more to say than simply these scant few words, and I hope to write more on the subject in the next few days, but I was left with a deep and abiding sorrow. Sorrow at the hurts they've received and sorrow that there is little I can do to help.
Each day in this world many people are born, many others die. There are tragedies in every town, regrets in every community, but one of the most profoundly moving things anyone can do is to take the time to become personally familiar with those who have suffered an injustice. The anguish is palpable in pain evident in the words and visible on the faces of those who've lost much, including unfortunately some of their faith in their fellow men. It was my distinct pleasure to meet and get to know these people and to put real faces, personal experience and real human emotion to what would otherwise have been yet another set of words on a page about a case of fraud resulting in human tragedies.
In coming away from that meeting above all else, I feel a duty to express on their behalf that they were not greedy, not seeking excessive remuneration or to "get rich quickly." In fact, if anything, the reverse was and is true. They simply sought safety for their life's savings in these turbulent times. They put their trust in people with whom they shared a commitment to faith, or so they believed. They were presented apparently fake credentials, seemingly fake trades, and promises of security in opulent settings. Many people trust on much less than they were shown. Many people lost money in the Madoff scandal who were very shrewd money managers. Madoff fooled even the SEC which failed to further investigate Madoff after allegations were made that it wasn't possible for the returns he was promising and showing to have been real.
The point is this, before you assume it might not have been you, that you'd have been more careful. Trust that these were cautious people who did their level best to be careful, who'd not have been involved but for the uncertainty of other market opportunities and who only put forward their money based on the assurances of people whom they trusted. Then, think again about those folks who lost money with Enron, or Global Crossing/MCI, or Merril Lynch, and to be clear, that isn't alleging any of the above companies engaged in anything illegal - but rather that their investors lost money even though they invested in companies they thought were safe. All of those investors, like these folks, simply made the best choice they could at the time. Any of us could have been such a victim, it is only the Grace of God which kept us from being one this time. Perhaps when we question why their are too few investigators, or when we insist that their not be too much government intrusion, we can bring ourselves to remember that prevention is better than cure and to not quibble quite so much about a little tax or a little intrusion to protect our neighbors from those people like Cook who would pose as honest and upright people in order to steal their money and their dreams.
But most of all, when Trevor Cook is sentenced tomorrow, hope that he finds the compassion in his heart to tell the truth, and pray that those who suffer because of his acts may find justice and peace.
Each day in this world many people are born, many others die. There are tragedies in every town, regrets in every community, but one of the most profoundly moving things anyone can do is to take the time to become personally familiar with those who have suffered an injustice. The anguish is palpable in pain evident in the words and visible on the faces of those who've lost much, including unfortunately some of their faith in their fellow men. It was my distinct pleasure to meet and get to know these people and to put real faces, personal experience and real human emotion to what would otherwise have been yet another set of words on a page about a case of fraud resulting in human tragedies.
In coming away from that meeting above all else, I feel a duty to express on their behalf that they were not greedy, not seeking excessive remuneration or to "get rich quickly." In fact, if anything, the reverse was and is true. They simply sought safety for their life's savings in these turbulent times. They put their trust in people with whom they shared a commitment to faith, or so they believed. They were presented apparently fake credentials, seemingly fake trades, and promises of security in opulent settings. Many people trust on much less than they were shown. Many people lost money in the Madoff scandal who were very shrewd money managers. Madoff fooled even the SEC which failed to further investigate Madoff after allegations were made that it wasn't possible for the returns he was promising and showing to have been real.
The point is this, before you assume it might not have been you, that you'd have been more careful. Trust that these were cautious people who did their level best to be careful, who'd not have been involved but for the uncertainty of other market opportunities and who only put forward their money based on the assurances of people whom they trusted. Then, think again about those folks who lost money with Enron, or Global Crossing/MCI, or Merril Lynch, and to be clear, that isn't alleging any of the above companies engaged in anything illegal - but rather that their investors lost money even though they invested in companies they thought were safe. All of those investors, like these folks, simply made the best choice they could at the time. Any of us could have been such a victim, it is only the Grace of God which kept us from being one this time. Perhaps when we question why their are too few investigators, or when we insist that their not be too much government intrusion, we can bring ourselves to remember that prevention is better than cure and to not quibble quite so much about a little tax or a little intrusion to protect our neighbors from those people like Cook who would pose as honest and upright people in order to steal their money and their dreams.
But most of all, when Trevor Cook is sentenced tomorrow, hope that he finds the compassion in his heart to tell the truth, and pray that those who suffer because of his acts may find justice and peace.
Categories: Foes
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