Today in History...

[LongestHorn 759]

5 hours ago, El Diablo said:

Had SPAM on Tuesday so this hits close to home. I was told/heard years ago that SPAM stood for Select Parts And Meats. No idea if it's true.

Hormel todays says spiced ham.  Prior to that was shoulder of pork ham.  And yes, the Monty Python skit is why we called unsolicited emails spam.  themoreyoukwow.gif

[Steamboat1874 4066]

On 6/1/2018 at 1:22 PM, Onboard 2.0 said:

Biased avatar checks out.

 

John Lennon meets Paul McCartney

John Lennon meets Paul McCartney

 Saturday 6 July 1957  Live, People  27 Comments1

6 July 1957 was a pivotal day for the history of modern music: it was the day that John Lennon met Paul McCartney for the first time.

In the afternoon the Quarrymen skiffle group played at the garden fete of St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool. The performance took place on a stage in a field behind the church. In the band were Lennon (vocals, guitar), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Colin Hanton (drums), Rod Davies (banjo), Pete Shotton (washboard) and Len Garry (tea chest bass).

The group arrived on the back of a lorry. As well as music, there were craft and cake stalls, games of hoop-la, police dog demonstrations and the traditional crowning of the Rose Queen. The fete was a highlight of the year for the residents of the sleepy Liverpool district.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Steamboat1874

[Armybrat 40850]

Today is the 100th birthday of the Royal Air Force.

An English friend, who lives in Staffordshire, posted on another forum this story about her  dad's WWII service with the RAF:

There have been a lot of Military aircraft flying over me today, West to East. Happily, today that does not signify any tension in that direction, today they are on their way to London for a fly past to celebrate 100 years of the Royal Air Force. 
I thought it would be appropriate (and a little self indulgent) to celebrate Flying Officer H., my dad.

When dad was 12 years old, a group of US Barnstormers formed a Flying Circus which performed over fields near his house. He was completely hooked. In 1940, aged 18 , he left home and his father's dreams of his becoming a bank clerk, and joined the volunteer flying corps. After basic training he was transferred to Swift Current, Saskatchewan where he started his flying career, in a Tiger Moth...


Two months later, with a phenomenal 45 hours flying behind him, he moved on to his next stage of training  Medicine Hat, Alberta. Here he trained on Oxfords and Avro Anson aircraft, twin propellers. Age 19 he returned to England where he began operational training. He had a couple of forced landings, and one crash, but without injury. (His navigational skills were always iffy!) 
In October 1943, aged 21, dad joined Bomber Command and began training in the Wellington, Stirling and Lancaster Bombers. He was assigned to 514 Squadron,  based at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire. His ops were always in Lancaster Mk 2 Bombers .
On March 18th, 1944, after 935 hours, 25 minutes of flying,  Flying Officer H. piloted his first bombing raid. It was a night operation over Frankfurt . He had a crew of 6 with him - navigator, bomb aimer, rear gunner , forward gunner, mid air gunner, radio operator. Three nights later the same crew flew again for a second raid over Frankfurt. Two nights later the squadron flew to Essen. Those three bombing operations were the first of 27 in total. In between there was constant training. The losses are recorded in his log book, 12 aircraft missing, 29 aircraft missing, 5 missing. But he always made it back....once it was touch and go!

This was dad's plane after a raid over a tactical target in Dreux in the Paris area on June 10th 1944.(the RAF were instructed to avoid dropping anything but leaflets on Paris itself) , during which 18 aircraft went missing, including the Flight Commander. His plane was attacked by a Junkers 88, and received damage by shells to the main spar and windshield. Dad had a deep scalp injury and sadly his navigator was killed. He flew low back over the channel and managed to land at base. He went to see the plane in daylight the next day and passed out cold. He refused to ditch in the English Channel because he hated swimming out of his depth! He was mentioned in despatches and in The London Gazette for his bravery, which means that his name was given to the King, and read out in Parliament. I have a framed letter signed by the King thanking him. He was back on operations on June 17th. I should mention that the 2nd pilot/ flight engineer/radio operator with dad on all these missions and training flights was always Sergeant McIntyre -Mac. Generally the same crews stayed together except when there were casualties. The rear gunner was in the most dangerous position, and on average could last five ops without injury or worse. 

Following DDay 514 Squadron was assigned to support the allied forces in Normandy. 
The logbook entry just says "Operation Villers Bocage"






Sco, Wobbly, we will probably be driving through that area at some point. There was severe damage and the town was virtually rebuilt to the south. Civilian casualties were not heavy. We visited Villers Bocage in 1958, and were welcomed with open arms, food, accommodation , wine and more wine.
From there 514 Squadron were assigned to bombing Flying Bomb sites in occupied Northern Europe. 

Flying Officer H. flew his 27th and final operation on August 1st 1944. His crew has completed 30, which was the maximum . He was assigned to training new pilots in Wellington and Oxford Bombers. 
He was demobbed in May 1946 , with a grand total of 1524 hours, 35 minutes flying time recorded. And a 3 month old son. In 1948 he was recalled to training duty until 1952, by which time he had a 6 year old son and a 2 year old daughter. 
The RAF was always in his blood, he remained a reserve officer until the late 1960s, and maintained his pilot's licence until he was in his 70s, then went up in gliders until the Dr told him enough was enough.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Armybrat

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 10, 1921, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the second of three "Bloody Sunday" incidents marked the beginning of four days of violence in which 22 people were killed and at least 70 more were badly wounded. The conflict began just 24 hours before a scheduled truce between Sinn Fein and the British administration.

Now referred to as "Belfast's Bloody Sunday" this incident set an all-too common pattern for mob behavior in Northern Ireland in the 20th century -- a three way battle raged between Protestant "Unionists" and Catholic youth sometimes under the auspices of the Irish Republican Army, but more often simply acting on their own, and, of course, British paramilitary police who did not have a clear mission, and were not well regulated even if they were to have had proper chain-of-command.

The incident most Irish refer to when speaking of "Bloody Sunday" is more commonly the events in Dublin in November 1920 or Derry in January 1972. Though there is no explicit mention in Rock Band U2's popular song by that name, the odds are pretty good they were referring to the Derry violence when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march against internment, killing 14. 

If you're looking for a "good guy" in the sad history of Northern Ireland, good luck. There's plenty of bad guys, though, particularly in the ranks of English politicians and absentee landlords.

[LongestHorn 759]

On this day in 1804, Hamilton was canceled by Aaron Burr. 

Edited July 11, 2018 by LongestHorn

[phdhorn 6224]

Well shoot, that's interesting.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 12th is Malala Day, in honor of Malālah Yūsafzay, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, who wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban occupation, their attempts to take control of the valley where she grew up, and her views on promoting education for girls in the Swat Valley. At the time (2009) she was only 11 years old.

In October of 2012, a Taliban assassin boarded her school bus and fired three shots at her, point blank. She recovered, and the attempt on her life propelled her to international fame. United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a UN petition in Yousafzai's name, demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015; it helped lead to the ratification of Pakistan's first Right to Education Bill.

On July 12, 2013 (her 16th birthday), Malala addressed the United Nations, and her words stand clear as an indictment of the politics of hate and fear:

"The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born... I am not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I'm here to speak up for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists."

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 13th is the saint day of Teresa de Jesús de Los Andes ("Saint Teresa of Jesus of Los Andes"), a Chilean nun of the order of Discalced Carmelites (also called "Barefoot Carmelites"). Born on this day in 1900 as Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones Fernández y Solar in Santiago, Chile, Teresa came from an upper class family, but renounced her family's wealth in favor of the example of Thérèse of Lisieux, the French Carmelite nun whose teachings influenced her deeply.

The first Chilean saint, Teresa was actually several months shy of the requirements for taking orders when she was diagnosed with terminal typhus; in spite of still being a canonical novitiate, she was allowed to take orders in periculo mortis (danger of death), and thus died as a nun on April 12, 1920, during Holy Week. Her shrine receives over 100,000 visitors a year, and she is particularly popular with young women. The first non-European Discalced Carmelite saint, she joined other Teresas from that order in that status, including St. Teresa of Jesus (founder of the order), Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, the aforementioned Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

[Trey3216 15346]

6 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

July 13th is the saint day of Teresa de Jesús de Los Andes ("Saint Teresa of Jesus of Los Andes"), a Chilean nun of the order of Discalced Carmelites (also called "Barefoot Carmelites"). Born on this day in 1900 as Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones Fernández y Solar in Santiago, Chile, Teresa came from an upper class family, but renounced her family's wealth in favor of the example of Thérèse of Lisieux, the French Carmelite nun whose teachings influenced her deeply.

The first Chilean saint, Teresa was actually several months shy of the requirements for taking orders when she was diagnosed with terminal typhus; in spite of still being a canonical novitiate, she was allowed to take orders in periculo mortis (danger of death), and thus died as a nun on April 12, 1920, during Holy Week. Her shrine receives over 100,000 visitors a year, and she is particularly popular with young women. The first non-European Discalced Carmelite saint, she joined other Teresas from that order in that status, including St. Teresa of Jesus (founder of the order), Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, the aforementioned Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Do you think she could even say her full name without thinking about it?? 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 14, 1881, Henry McCarty (September 17, 1859 – July 14, 1881), better known as Billy the Kid, and also as William H. Bonney, was shot and killed by Pat Garrett near Fort Sumner in New Mexico.

While he was still alive, Billy the Kid was relatively unknown, but in 1881, Governor Lew Wallace placed a price on his head, which drew the attention of bounty hunters and paparazzi alike. The Las Vegas Gazette (that'd be Las Vegas, New Mexico, y'all) and the New York Sun carried stories about his exploits. These amounted to no more than precursors to the pulp fiction of the 20th century, bearing very little resemblance to legitimate news stories.

While much of what has appeared in print or on the silver screen has been apocryphal, one bit of his history has taken hold as essential William Bonney lore -- the Lincoln County War. 

Whether with John Wayne's pathetic "Chisum" (one of the worst movies ever made, IMHO), or Emilio Esteves' campy "Young Guns", this event has been one of the least accurately portrayed conflicts ever. 

For one thing, nobody ever points out that young Billy had come to New Mexico to work in, of all things, a cheese factory. They got the state right, though, so I suppose that's something. In any event, there were no good guys in this fight, just bad guys. Billy the Kid eventually lost his life because he happened to have joined the losing side -- old story, but more romantically told in this instance.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 16, 1935, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the world's first public parking meter was installed.  Dubbed "The Black Maria" by its designers (professors Holger George Thuesen and Gerald A. Hale of Oklahoma State University), this first coin-operated parking-ticket-magnet was an improvement over the originally patented model designed by Roger W. Babson in August of 1928 -- the first meter was intended to operate on power from the battery of the parking vehicle and required a connection from the vehicle to the meter.

Since 1935, of course, the devices have come to be recognized as a necessary evil in most major metropolitan areas.  Several court challenges to their legality have limited the scope of use to the sole purpose of regulating traffic flow -- if a plaintiff can prove that the device has been installed for the purpose of revenue generation, they can get out of paying... but good luck with that, as it's a fairly difficult thing to prove.

Since the days of the clunky analog meters, we now have digital parking vending which accepts credit cards and, in some places, PayPal.  Ain't progress a pain.

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 17, 1987—31 years ago today—the Guadalupe River surged from its banks and an eight-foot wall of water that raced down a normally dry channel swamped a bus and a van carrying 43 teenagers from a church campground near Comfort. Ten of the teenagers died including a 14-year-old girl who lost her grip and fell 100-feet into the raging river as a helicopter crew tried to lift her to safety. The body of one of the teenagers was never recovered. The teenagers from the Seagoville Road Baptist Church in Balch Springs were leaving the Pot O’Gold Ranch when the bus, which was ahead of the van, stalled in the rising water just as it would have turned away from the river onto a farm-to-market road. The teenagers, the two drivers and two adults who accompanied the group tried to get out and form a human chain to get back to dry land, but the wall of water separated them. The drivers and the adults survived. Many of the surviving 33 teenagers spent hours clinging to tree branches before they were finally rescued. The force of the flash flood pushed the bus 150 yards downstream. The van was later found lodged against the riverbank. One report later said the group “was exactly at the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.” If they had arrived at the spot a few seconds earlier, they would have avoided the worst of the flash flood. If they had arrived a few seconds later, the drivers would have seen the floodwaters.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 17, 1955, Walt Disney dedicated and opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Disney conceived the idea of a tourist attraction near his movie studios in Burbank to entertain fans of his animated features who might wish to visit -- he had wanted to build a theme part ever since visiting amusement parks with his daughters in the 1930s and 1940s, and finding them all lacking an essential spark of inspiration.

He quickly realized after doing a survey of the available properties near his studios, though, that there simply wasn't enough room to house the kinds of attractions he envisioned building. In fact, Disneyland (as magnificent as it was for its time) quickly outgrew his expectations, leading him to look for a much larger space, which he eventually found in Orlando, Florida, where he bought somewhere on the order of 10 times as much property as his "Imagineers" estimated would be necessary -- and a good thing, too, as Disneyworld has grown as exponentially as Disneyland did
.
In the history of the park, 650 million guests have visited Disneyland, more people than any other park in the world. According to a March 2005 Disney Company report 65,700 jobs are supported by the Disneyland Resort.

[El Diablo 4232]

July 18th 1969, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne, 28; some time later, Kennedy's car went off a bridge into the water. Kennedy was able to escape, but Kopechne drowned

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 19, 1878—140 years ago today—Texas Ranger Dick Ware ended the career of notorious train robber Sam Bass. Ware shot and fatally wounded Bass after intercepting the outlaw as he checked out a bank he planned to rob in Round Rock. Bass turned to crime after failing at a series of legitimate endeavors, formed a gang and robbed a Union Pacific Gold train in September 1877. A year later, after the gang robbed two stagecoaches and four trains in North Texas, Bass became the focus of a manhunt by a special company of Texas Rangers, which he managed to elude until a member of the gang turned informant. An ambush was set up in Round Rock, where Bass planned to rob a bank and he and his gang were scouting the bank when a deputy sheriff spotted them. The deputy was shot to death, but then Ware and Ranger George Herold shot Bass as he and the other would-be robbers tried to escape. (Ware is generally considered to have fired the fatal shot). Railroad workers later found Bass lying near death in a pasture. He died the next day, which was his 27th birthday, and was buried in Round Rock.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 19th in ancient Rome was one of two days in an obscure festival known as the "Lucaria" -- an oddity of Roman thinking, the festival began on July 19th, had a "non-festive" day in the middle, and resumed on July 21st.

That was only one bizarre aspect of this holiday, however. The Lucaria was a festival of the grove (Latin "lucus"), and while it was associated with a deity, no one knows which one. Cato records a Lucarian invocation of "Si deus, si dea" which could apply to any God in the Roman pantheon.

Some accounts of the Lucaria tie it to the Battle of the Allia, a Roman defeat at the hands of the Gauls which led to the sacking of Rome in 387 B.C.E. After the battle, according to these legends, surviving Roman soldiers hid in the large grove between the Via Salaria and the Tiber river, about 10 miles north of Rome.

This account, while not definitive, at least makes sense -- shame would keep the Romans from admitting that the "party" was really all about having survived by running away. 

Likewise, while history (written mostly by Romans, remember) suggests that Rome was proud, brash, and invincible, the empire was, in truth, aggressive out of fear. The extent of Roman rule (stretching at times all the way around the Mediterranean, and pushing as far North as Britain and as far East as Afghanistan) was a response to the fact that Gauls, Huns, Germanic tribes, Carthaginians, and untold other antagonists were always threatening to pillage and plunder. 

The best defense is a good offense. Except, of course, when the best defense is running away -- just as discretion is the better part of valor, sometimes cowardice is the best part of discretion, so on the Lucaria, why not bravely hide in the forest?

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 20, 1910—108 years ago today—Galveston-born boxer Jack Johnson was recognized as the first heavyweight champion of the world. Johnson won the Negro heavyweight championship seven years earlier, but had to wait until reigning white champion Jim Jeffries, who refused to cross the color line, came out of retirement to fight him in 1910. In November 1912, a grand jury indicted Johnson, nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” for violating the Mann Act because of his relationship with his white girlfriend, Lucille Cameron. The case collapsed when Cameron refused to cooperate, but Johnson was later re-arrested and convicted on the testimony of a former mistress, Belle Schreiber. He was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison, but skipped bond, joined Cameron in Canada and fled to France. The two spent seven years in exile, but in July 1920, Johnson surrendered at the U.S.-Mexico border and in September 1920 was sent to the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan. to serve the sentence. Jackson, who was born in Galveston on March 31, 1878, died on June 10, 1946 in Franklinton, N.C. of injuries he suffered in a car crash. President Donald Trump granted Johnson a posthumous pardon in May.

[Parliament 14260]

[Wally Fairway 5550]

6 hours ago, Parliament said:

I would like to personally thank @RamjetFDO and all those fine folks at NASA for creating the soundstage for filming this.
and I believe that the 3 greatest inventions to come from the space program are:
a) Velcro
b) Tang
c) Photoshop

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Wally Fairway

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

I am basically middle aged now, and no one has set foot on a heavenly body in my life time.  One of the major failings of the second half of the 20th century.

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

also on this day in history, my lovely grandmother, still with it and kicking, was born 102 years ago.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

also on this day in history, my lovely grandmother, still with it and kicking, was born 102 years ago.

dayyyyyum...  Go gammy............

 

You know the rules !!!!!

[deadshank 24653]

3 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

also on this day in history, my lovely grandmother, still with it and kicking, was born 102 years ago.

Army Brat diddled her

[Trey3216 15346]

2 hours ago, deadshank said:

Army Brat diddled her

She was only 17 then 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

27 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

She was only 17 then 

What on Earth made her interested in a centenarian? 

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 21, 1925, the so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

 

[Sbbruin 21856]

On July 21, 1925, the so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
 

I learned about that on Drunk History.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 21, 1902, Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950) set himself apart from the rest of humanity as a genius beyond comparison, and easily the most important person ever born in the continental United States.

His feat of this date 116 years ago was, of course, the invention of the air conditioner.

The original installation in Buffalo, New York, was in response to a quality control problem experienced by the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company, where humidity was wreaking havoc with their printing processes. 

The byproducts of controlling temperature, improving air flow, and cleansing air of impurities have over the last century been tremendous pluses, of course -- we have often marveled that places like the Gulf Coast could have been populated prior to this invention, but I suppose some people are just masochists.

Anyway, happy birthday to the air conditioner, that most blessed of all mechanical devices.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

2 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

July 21, 1902, Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950) set himself apart from the rest of humanity as a genius beyond comparison, and easily the most important person ever born in the continental United States.

His feat of this date 116 years ago was, of course, the invention of the air conditioner.

The original installation in Buffalo, New York, was in response to a quality control problem experienced by the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company, where humidity was wreaking havoc with their printing processes. 

The byproducts of controlling temperature, improving air flow, and cleansing air of impurities have over the last century been tremendous pluses, of course -- we have often marveled that places like the Gulf Coast could have been populated prior to this invention, but I suppose some people are just masochists.

Anyway, happy birthday to the air conditioner, that most blessed of all mechanical devices.

Continental US ?  Try entire freaking Solar system (a southerner here of course, your results may vary).

[El Diablo 4232]

July 22nd 1934, bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater, where he had just seen the Clark Gable movie "Manhattan Melodrama."

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 22, 1209, the Massacre at Béziers marked the opening of violence in the Albigensian Crusade, the 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in the south of France. 

Catharism, of course, was a dualistic theology emphasizing "perfection, poverty and preaching" and was utterly and completely inaccessible to the more formal (and rigid) minds of church orthodoxy... but philosophical quibbles aside, the massacre had more to do with the political character of the conflict.

On July 21st, the crusader army (commanded by the Papal legate, the Abbot of Citeaux, Arnaud Amalric) surrounded Béziers and demanded that they hand over the heretical Cathars who were holed up in town. The crusaders had a list of over 200 people they expected to arrest, but the town sent out only a couple of dozen... and the next day, the response was brutal. 

While some written accounts indicate that perhaps 30 people escaped, the entire town was simply massacred. There was no accurate census, but those who have attempted estimates claim that somewhere between 14,500 and 20,000 people were cut down in the streets, in their homes, in inns, taverns, public buildings, churches... there was no mercy given, to anyone. Not women, not children, not even clergy and obvious "non-heretics".

The famous words of the legate resound to this day among the bloodthirsty: "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." ("Kill them all. God will know his own.")

[deadshank 24653]

22 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

July 21, 1902, Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950) set himself apart from the rest of humanity as a genius beyond comparison, and easily the most important person ever born in the continental United States.

His feat of this date 116 years ago was, of course, the invention of the air conditioner.

The original installation in Buffalo, New York, was in response to a quality control problem experienced by the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company, where humidity was wreaking havoc with their printing processes. 

The byproducts of controlling temperature, improving air flow, and cleansing air of impurities have over the last century been tremendous pluses, of course -- we have often marveled that places like the Gulf Coast could have been populated prior to this invention, but I suppose some people are just masochists.

Anyway, happy birthday to the air conditioner, that most blessed of all mechanical devices.

And to think, the Carrier Dome, named after him and the company, has no air conditioning. 

[LongestHorn 759]

Death of Marshal Pétain - Philippe Pétain died on 23 July 1951, aged 95.

From WW1 hero - the Lion of Verdun - to Nazi collaborator, he chose to return to France to face trial where he was found guilty and died in prison.  Long list of world leaders offered safe harbor, to no avail.  Fascinating frog with a front seat in France history.

https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/death-marshal-pétain

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On July 23, 1881, the "Tratado de Límites de 1881" ("Boundary Treaty of 1881") between Chile and Argentina established firmly the boundaries between those two countries, essentially ending all claims of Argentina to land bordering the Pacific Ocean, and all claims of Chile to land bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Numerous interpretive disputes have arisen over the years, but the two nations had claimed since their independence from Spain (Argentina in 1816 and Chile in 1818) territories which, in truth, had never actually been occupied, or even in many instances actually explored.  Both nations lay claim to overlapping areas of Patagonia in spite of the areas in question being occupied only by indigenous persons who knew nothing of Chile or Argentina.

In particular, disputes over the Straits of Magellan took the better part of the last century to finally be settled more or less to both parties' satisfaction.  The roughly 5600 km border between the two nations today is almost exactly as it was set by the 1881 treaty.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On July 25, 1853, Captain Harry Love of the California State Rangers (formerly of the Texas Rangers) encountered a group of five Mexican bandits, capturing two and killing the other three.

The dead included Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo, styled at the time as the "Robin Hood of El Dorado".  Depending on one's point of view, he was either a hero or a villain.  As explained in one review:

"So many tales have grown up around Murrieta that it is hard to disentangle the fabulous from the factual. There seems to be a consensus that Anglos drove him from a rich mining claim, and that, in rapid succession, his wife was raped, his half-brother lynched, and Murrieta himself horse-whipped. He may have worked as a monte dealer for a time; then, according to whichever version one accepts, he became either a horse trader and occasional horse thief, or a bandit."

His story, of course, was later fictionalized and romanticized in pulp as "The Legend of Zorro" and later became popular on both the small and big screens.  Ironically, the most recent rendering of the first hand accounts, featuring Antonio Banderas as Zorro, includes the largest number of legitimate details.  Keep in mind that is a relative term, however.  Even the first hand accounts are mostly apocryphal; the truth of Joaquin Murrieta's life is one of those ineffable mysteries that make life fun.

[phdhorn 6224]

One of the most infamous moments in baseball history turns 35 on Tuesday.

On July 24, 1983, Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to give his team the lead against the New York Yankees in the Bronx.

After the home run, Yankees manager Billy Martin requested the umpires look at Brett's bat, believing there was too much pine tar on the bat. Major League Baseball's rules stated that that a bat could have no more than 18 inches of pine tar.

Home plate umpire Tim McClelland took a look and, along with his fellow umpires, decided that the bat was illegal and called Brett out, nullifying the go-ahead homer. It was the third out of the inning, ending the game – a 4-3 Yankees win.

Brett was incensed and his charge out of the dugout remains one of the most iconic images in baseball history.

The Royals would protest the game, which was upheld by American League president Lee MacPhail, ordering the game be restarted from the point of Brett's homer. 

Nearly a month later, the game was resumed and the Royals hung on for a 5-4 win.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

[LongestHorn 759]

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 25, 1983, at the Wlikada high security prison in Colombo, Sri Lanka, thirty seven Tamil (Hindu) political prisoners were massacred by Sinhalese (Buddhist) criminal inmates.  

This crime was part of escalating violence which had begun on July 23rd, when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam ambushed and killed 13 Sri Lankan army soldiers.  Rioting began the next day in the capital, and by the end of July had spread throughout the whole of the Island.  Over seven days, mobs of Sinhalese Sri Lankans killed somewhere between 400 (as reported by the Sinhalese) and 3,000 (as reported by the Tamils), destroying 8,000 homes, and 5,000 shops.  

150,000 people were left homeless after the riots, which have come to be known as "Black July" (Tamil: கறுப்பு யூலை, translit. Kaṟuppu Yūlai; Sinhalese: කළු ජූලිය Kalu Juliya) and the economic cost of the riots is estimated at $300 million US.

Ethnic strife between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamils (who were more recent immigrants from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu) had been bubbling beneath the surface ever since the end of the colonial period.  Sri Lanka had become independent in 1948, and over the next two decades, an agreement had been carved out slowly and painfully in the Sri Lankan parliament to make Sinhala the official language, but with "reasonable use of Tamil".

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, increasing tension over university admissions quotas, and "standardisation" policies (the equivalent of "English first" in the US) led to increasing economic disfranchisement of many of the island's Tamils.  Finally, in the 1980s, the tension popped, and Sri Lanka had a full-scale civil war on its hands, which lasted for 26 years, until the Sri Lankan Army managed to subdue the Tamil Tigers.  

An estimated 80 to 100 thousand people died in this conflict, and though the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam were, throughout, listed by most nations as a terrorist organization, the grim reality is that the Sinhalese majority were equally guilty of atrocities during the war.  When people are so brazenly and openly fighting about ethnicity, you are simply not going to be able to find "the good guys" because there aren't any.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

2 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

.  When people are so brazenly and openly fighting about ethnicity, you are simply not going to be able to find "the good guys" because there aren't any.

Well, except when the Dutch are involved....right ?

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 26, 1845—173 years ago today—the U.S. flag flew over Texas for the first time when troops under the command of Gen. Zachary Taylor were sent to defend St. Joseph Island, a sand barrier island in present day Aransas County. The troops were dispatched to Texas to protect the state from interference from Mexico after annexation.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 26, 1882,  Richard Wagner's opera "Parsifal" premiered at the Bayreuther Festspiele ("Bayreuth Festival") in Bayreuth, Germany.  Based on "Parzival" -- the 13th century epic poem by Wolfram von Eschenbach -- the production dramatizes the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail.  This was the last completed opera Wagner composed, and it was 25 years in the making, being a work he had given up in his youth, but felt compelled to complete.

Reactions to the production varied, naturally.  Since the production company set strict limits on where the opera could be staged, it was for many decades only seen at Bayreuth, and among those who made the trek to see (and hear), critics such as Eduard Hanslick, fellow composers like Hugo Wolf or Gustav Mahler, and conductors such as Felix Weingartner all found the piece moving beyond words.  Of course, they were in keeping with very poor company, as it was also the favorite work of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Personally, I'm not a fan.  I agree with Mark Twain, who visited the Festival in 1891, and wrote of the experience:

"I was not able to detect in the vocal parts of Parsifal anything that might with confidence be called rhythm or tune or melody... Singing! It does seem the wrong name to apply to it... In Parsifal there is a hermit named Gurnemanz who stands on the stage in one spot and practices by the hour, while first one and then another of the cast endures what he can of it and then retires to die."

[abuelo gringo 321]

3 hours ago, El Diablo said:

On July 26, 1845—173 years ago today—the U.S. flag flew over Texas for the first time when troops under the command of Gen. Zachary Taylor were sent to defend St. Joseph Island, a sand barrier island in present day Aransas County. The troops were dispatched to Texas to protect the state from interference from Mexico after annexation.

St. Joseph's Island (aka St. Joe's Island) is the island the north jetty runs along on the other side of the entrance to the inter-coastal waterway at Port Aransas. It's unoccupied, but a jetty boat takes fishermen across to fish from the north jetty several times a day.

Edited July 26, 2018 by abuelo gringo
spelling error

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

July 27 in Finland is "Unikeonpäivä" ("National Sleepy Head Day").  The tradition is based loosely on the story from Roman Catholic martyrology of the Saints of Ephesus, known as the "Seven Sleepers" or "companions of the cave"  who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus around 250 AD, to escape persecution, and slept for 200 years.

There is an equivalent rendering of this story in Muslim literature, as well, with the story being recorded in the Quran (Surah 18, verse 9–26). The Quranic rendering of this story doesn't state exactly the number of sleepers (Surah 18, verse 22).  Another difference is that the Quran  gives the number of years that they slept as 300 solar years (equivalent to 309 lunar years).

Neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Muslim world, however, have anything on the Finns when it comes to celebrating this date properly.

Each July 27th, the laziest person in a Finnish household (i.e., the last one to wake up) is woken either by having water thrown on them, or (preferably) by tossing them into a lake (or better still, the ocean).

In the city of Naantali, a Finnish celebrity is secretly chosen every year to be thrown in the sea from the city's port at 7 a.m.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 27, 1940—78 years ago today—black dentist Dr. Lonnie E. Smith, a civil rights activist, tried unsuccessfully to vote in the Democratic primary in Harris County. With the support of the NAACP including future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Smith filed a federal suit, which ultimately led to a 1944 Supreme Court decision that established that all eligible Texans have the right to vote in the primary election of their choosing. Smith died in 1971.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1996- Atlanta Olympic Games Bombing 

1981- Adam Walsh is kidnapped from a mall. 

1866- first permanent trans-Atlantic telegraph wire laid.

1890- Vincent Van Gogh shoots himself. He dies 2 days later

1929- Geneva Convention is signed by 53 nations.

1940-  A Wild Hare is released introducing the world to bugs bunny.

1953- Fighting in the Korean War ceases

2002- Ukraine Airshow Disaster, worst ever with 85 dead

 

 

its also Yahoo Serious and Alex Rodriguez’s Birthday today

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

[El Diablo 4232]

On July 28, 1938—80 years ago today—an oil well in the Phillip’s Petroleum Company’s oilfield in Midway between Taft and Gregory exploded. The well burned for several weeks before the fire was extinguished. The explosion formed a crater that is still a local landmark.

[LongestHorn 759]

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog over New York City, crashed into the Empire State Building, killing three crewmen and eleven people in the building.

The plane hit the north side of the building between the 78th and 80th floors, creating an 18-by-20-foot hole in the walls of the National Catholic Welfare Council. One engine shot through the South side opposite the impact, dropping 900 feet and landing on the roof of a building one block away, destroying the penthouse and starting a fire that caused more damage there than to the Empire State itself

The other engine dropped down an elevator shaft and started a fire. The fire brigade is to be commended; they had the blaze controlled and neutralized within forty minutes; it is to this day the only fire at that height to have been contained.

The structural integrity of the building was not compromised, and in fact, most floors of the building were open for regular business the following Monday.