Today in History...

[El Diablo 4232]

Welsh...Oral tradition

You have my attention.

 

[HouTex 1847]

1819 University of Virginia chartered by Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders

1877 Congress determines presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden

1915 Alexander Graham Bell in NY calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco

1939 1st nuclear fission experiment (splitting of a uranium atom) in the US, in basement of Pupin Hall, Columbia University by a team including Enrico Fermi

1945 Grand Rapids, Michigan, becomes 1st US city to fluoridate its water

1950 73°F (23°C) highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in January

1959 1st transcontinental commercial jet flight (American) (LA to NY for $301)

1959 Pope John XXIII proclaims 2nd Vatican council

1971 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of Tate-LaBianca murders

1981 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US

1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

January 26, 1998, President William Jefferson Clinton towered over a lectern, with his wife standing by, and stated emphatically for the cameras: "But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false."

Of course, he had actually had an exceptionally perverse relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, and had told plenty of people to lie about it. Ms. Lewinsky, at the time of her internship, was a 22 year old college student, an employee, and other than perhaps the NBA or NFL, it is difficult to conceive of another organization or line of work in which an employer taking advantage of a young girl in such a way would not be fired on the spot. 

[HenryJames 65868]

 

[Parliament 14112]

It was kinda like this:

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Parliament

[El Diablo 4232]

January 27, 1967—52 years ago today—fire swept through the command module of the spacecraft designated as Apollo 204 during a pre-flight test, killing astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee, who were to have served as the crew of the first manned Apollo flight (The mission was officially designated as Apollo 1 in the spring of 1967). The fire was sparked by an electrical problem, and fed by nylon material and the capsule’s high-pressure oxygen atmosphere, because of which the astronauts couldn’t open the spacecraft’s plug-door hatch.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the genocide committed by the 3rd Reich in Germany in the years leading up to and during World War II. 

An estimated 6 million Jews, 1 million Romani, quarter of a million mentally and physically disabled persons, and a confirmed 9,000 homosexual men were murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. 

January 27th was chosen as the date of observance because it is the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In his 2008 message for the observance, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon summarized the importance of the date: "The International Day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is thus a day on which we must reassert our commitment to human rights... We must also go beyond remembrance, and make sure that new generations know this history. We must apply the lessons of the Holocaust to today’s world. And we must do our utmost so that all peoples may enjoy the protection and rights for which the United Nations stands."

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

January 28, 1754, Horace Walpole, erstwhile 4th Earl of Orford, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician, made perhaps his only truly unique contribution to history. Certainly as a parliamentarian he was involved in any number of significant events, but the one thing he did which resounds to this day was to coin a word in a letter to Horace Mann.

"Serendipity" came into the English language via Walpole's reference to the Persian fairy tale, "The Three Princes of Serendip" who, as Walpole wrote, were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”. 

And now, "serendipity" means (loosely) the event of finding a solution to a problem you didn't know you had, whilst looking for a solution to some other possibly entirely unrelated problem. Such as looking for your keys on the kitchen cabinet, only to find a cup of hot tea instead.

"Serendip" meanwhile, has its own interesting etymology. 

"Serendip" was an English bastardization of the Persian Sarandīp ((سرندیپ). This, of course, as everyone knows, was the Persian name for the island nation of Sri Lanka (sometimes called Ceylon; in Tamil, it is Ceralamdivu, and in Sanskrit it is Simhaladvipa ).

And as fate would have it, January 28th is a most serendipitous time to discover that someone near and dear to you has brewed a cup of your favorite Ceylonese hot tea. Now... where are those stupid keys...?

[Wally Fairway 5517]

January 28, 1986 - never forget

 

RIP - Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe

[HouTex 1847]

1807 London's Pall Mall is 1st street lit by gaslight

1871 Paris surrenders to Prussians

1887 Work begins on the Eiffel Tower in Paris

1933 The name "Pakistan" is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali and gradually accepted by Muslims in the Indian sub-continent who use it to push for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia

1978 Ted Nugent autographs a fan's arm with his knife

1981 Olympic Glory tanker at Galveston Bay, Texas, spills 1 million gallons of oil in a ship collision

 

[DaysOff 7821]

January 28, 1986 - never forget
 
RIP - Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe

Damn. I was in a stupid 1 hour credit Chem lab at UT (that was 4 hours long) when the useless nerd TA says, " hey if anyone cares the space shuttle just blew up."

[HouTex 1847]

6 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

1 hour ago, Wally Fairway said:

January 28, 1986 - never forget
 
RIP - Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe

Damn. I was in a stupid 1 hour credit Chem lab at UT (that was 4 hours long) when the useless nerd TA says, " hey if anyone cares the space shuttle just blew up."

Wow.  I hope he was shouted down.  What an asshole. 

[Parliament 14112]

2 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

January 28, 1986 - never forget

 

RIP - Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe

 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

January 28, 1986 - never forget

 

RIP - Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe

Was sitting in a lodge on top of Snowmass mountain in Co. sipping a coffee. The switch thrown to cause 500 people to instantly become church like quiet was eerie as fuck.

[El Diablo 4232]

48 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Was sitting in a lodge on top of Snowmass mountain in Co. sipping a coffee. The switch thrown to cause 500 people to instantly become church like quiet was eerie as fuck.

I was on bridge watch, underway somewhere in the Med. Just a couple years earlier I had been underway when we got the news of the Marine Barracks in Beirut being bombed and all those guys dying. Both were national tragedies but the shuttle for whatever reason hit me harder. I guess because they were civilians and included the school teacher and because we had become so accustomed to successful space missions that losing one was unthinkable.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

7 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

I was on bridge watch, underway somewhere in the Med. Just a couple years earlier I had been underway when we got the news of the Marine Barracks in Beirut being bombed and all those guys dying. Both were national tragedies but the shuttle for whatever reason hit me harder. I guess because they were civilians and included the school teacher and because we had become so accustomed to successful space missions that losing one was unthinkable.

The first loss of life in our space program since Virgil Grissum.  Yeah, we expect military death, and Mourn those losses, but that was such an in your face moment watching it unfold on the screen.

 I'd call that my first "where were you when Kennedy was killed moment" followed by the World trade center attack.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On January 29, 1845, the New York Evening Mirror published "The Raven" and gave the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe. Several other publications had previously published the poem without giving him credit, though he did manage to make a little cash off his creepy little doggerel: Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia paid him $15; The American Review gave him $9. 

Who knows how much he might have made in royalties from modern renderings -- Bart Simpson's animated raven alone was probably worth more than Poe made in his lifetime off of his entire collection of writings. 

For those who are interested in such things, "The Raven" is written in trochaic octameter, and the rhyme scheme is ABCBBB, or AA,B,CC,CB,B,B when accounting for internal rhyme. In every stanza, the 'B' lines rhyme with the word 'nevermore' and extra emphasis is placed on the final syllable, making the meter incomplete, or "catalectic". 

And y'all thought my English degree wasn't worth anything. Pffft.

[Parliament 14112]

Read by Darth Vader himself:

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

January 29, 1863, around 200 California Volunteers, under the command of United States Army regular Colonel Patrick Edward Connor, attacked around 300 Shoshone warriors at the confluence of the Bear River and Beaver Creek in what was then southeastern Washington Territory, near the present-day city of Preston, Idaho.

The U.S. Army casulties amounted to 21 killed, 46 wounded. The Shoshone casualties (keep in mind, they had 300 men engaged in the battle) came to 246 killed, 164 wounded or captured. If you do the math, you quickly realize... yes, the White folk murdered women and children, under the auspices and flag of the United States Army.

The leader of the Shoshone, a man whose name translated in English as "Bear Hunter", had never been a signatory to any of the treaties granting white settlers the historically common grounds for his nomadic hunter/gatherer tribes, which was all too common a theme for 19th century adventurism by settlers moving into "undeveloped" territories.

The Bear River Massacre, nominally, was retaliation for the deaths of around 20 settlers during the previous year. The response was somewhat disproportional; witnesses reported that "After killing most of the men and many of the children, they raped and assaulted the women. In some cases, soldiers held the feet of infants by the heel and 'beat their brains out on any hard substance they could find.'"

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On January 30th, Brazil celebrates "Dia da Saudade" -- the "Day of Saudade". Saudade does not have a literal translation into English, though it has heavily influenced English language artists who have come into contact with Portuguese culture ever since the 13th century.

Saudade is the emotional state of mind in which there is an overwhelming nostalgia and melancholy regarding an object of longing and overwhelming love which is everlastingly absent. This sadness and ennui is the driving force behind the uniquely Portuguese musical genre known as Fado, and it has been carried throughout the former Portuguese colonies, including Brazil, Angola, Goa, etc., where poetry, prose, music, and visual arts all depict the sadness of missing loved ones (especially stories of tragic separation across the sea, only natural for a nautical people like the Portuguese).

In Brazil, modern musical history is rife with references to saudade, with the very first bossa nova standard, Tom Jobim's "Chega de Saudade" (usually translated into English as "No More Blues") having made its way into the repertoire of every jazz musician worth his chops.

On this day in Brazil, all possible artistic expressions of the phrase "Tenho saudades de você" (not just "I miss you" but "I expect to miss you always") is celebrated. Celebrated? Yes, celebrated. Because everybody's got a right to sing the blues, even if it's bluer than the blues.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

January 31, 1865, the United States House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. It had been passed by the Senate in April of 1864; after passing the House, the legislatures of 3/4ths of the states had to ratify the amendment in order for it to become the law of the land. 

By December of 1865, Georgia became the 27th of the 36 states at the time to vote 'Yes' and so the following addition to the U.S. Constitution became law:

"Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The state of Mississippi did not vote yes to ending slavery until February 7, 2013.  That's just shy of six years ago, for those keeping track at home.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Walden Ponderer

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 1/29/2019 at 1:56 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

On January 29, 1845, the New York Evening Mirror published "The Raven" and gave the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe. Several other publications had previously published the poem without giving him credit, though he did manage to make a little cash off his creepy little doggerel: Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia paid him $15; The American Review gave him $9. 

Who knows how much he might have made in royalties from modern renderings -- Bart Simpson's animated raven alone was probably worth more than Poe made in his lifetime off of his entire collection of writings. 

For those who are interested in such things, "The Raven" is written in trochaic octameter, and the rhyme scheme is ABCBBB, or AA,B,CC,CB,B,B when accounting for internal rhyme. In every stanza, the 'B' lines rhyme with the word 'nevermore' and extra emphasis is placed on the final syllable, making the meter incomplete, or "catalectic". 

And y'all thought my English degree wasn't worth anything. Pffft.

And here I just thought he was whacked out on alcohol and morphine when he concurred up that little, creepy ass ditty.

[HouTex 1847]

1851 American Gail Borden announces the invention of condensed milk

1865 General Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies during US Civil War

1876 The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.

1915 1st (German) poison gas attack, against Russians

1933 Adolf Hitler promises parliamentary democracy

1945 Soviet troops reach the Oder River, less that 50 miles from Berlin

1953 Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands drowning 1,835

1961 Houston voters approve bond to finance luxury domed stadium

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 1, 1411, the First Peace of Thorn (that'd be a treaty, y'all) was signed in Toruń (aka "Thorn"), Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (think of it as Prussia, Germany, or Poland, all of whom at one point or another ruled the place). 

Famous in most of the rest of the world only for being the birthplace of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, Toruń is also the site of the two peace treaties (the 2nd having been signed in 1466) marking the end of the major 15th century conflicts involving the Teutonic Knights, who were essentially the rulers of all the city states that eventually (some four centuries later) united to become what we now call "Germany" -- with the exception, naturally, of those territories the Soviet Union decided it would benefit them to give to Poland, who had never claimed them prior to the 20th century... (If you think *I* made a mish-mash of that sentence, you should read my source material.)

The 1411 treaty formally ended the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War between the Poles and Lithuanians on one side and the Teutonic Knights on the other. Most historians call it a failure on the part of the Poles and Lithuanians, as they failed to leverage their victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 into any particularly significant territorial gains.

Though in the United States, only history majors are likely to learn of these events, they nevertheless had a significant impact on later world fortunes; Russian and German propagandists made heavy use of references to this medieval conflict during World War II as their various campaigns across Poland and the Baltic states led first one and then the other to evoke sympathetic imagery and gain support for their causes.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 2nd is World Wetlands Day, commemorating the 1971 Ramsar Convention (formally, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat).  172 nations have signed on to the Convention since that February 2, 1971 meeting in Ramsar, Iran, to protect the cultural, scientific, recreational, and ecological security of the world's wetlands. 

Wetlands, as a rule, are a misunderstood ecosystem. Rather than being comprised solely of riparian or other permanent aquatic features, a wetland, properly understood, can be defined as an ecosystem which is underwater for a significant period of time -- a good example would be the seasonal playa lakes on the Ogallala Aquifer in the central United States, which historically formed the basis for recharge of that aquifer, but since the advent of large-scale monocropped agriculture, have been largely destroyed. 

Signatories to the Ramsar Convention agree to participate in a series of studies and initiatives by a wide variety of scientific and ecological organizations to better the ability of member nations to preserve the health and welfare of all species (human, avian, amphibian, piscine, etc.) reliant upon these critical habitats. 

Great Britain has the most listed sites (170 separate wetland areas under protection), while Bolivia has the greatest overall protected area (over 36 million acres).  The United States has a large number of protected sites (169), but only around 4.5 million acres, as most of our wetland sites are comprised of small bog and swamp regions with a relatively limited footprint. That footprint used to be much larger, but as our cities have expanded, our wetlands have shrunk. Not surprising, really, when you consider that our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., was built on a drained swamp. That same reckless and thoughtless story has played out time and time again in our nation's civil engineering history. 

One of the more interesting phenomenon occurring in the urban homesteading movement is a trend towards the creation of backyard wetlands, where (rather than going to the trouble and expense of building and maintaining permanent ponds) folk are creating seasonal wetlands, with modifications to terrain that allow some parts of their garden plot to be submerged during heavy rains, allowing amphibians, turtles, wading birds, and other wetland critters to survive urban sprawl. Mosquito mitigation seems to be the only drawback to this trend, but careful planning (hint: lots and lots of smelly herbs) can significantly reduce that problem.

[Parliament 14112]

Chris Kyle passed away on this date in 2013.  God Bless Texas

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1943- German forces surrender to the Soviets at the Battle of Stalingrad. The unimaginable loss cost the Germans the initiative and changed the tide in Europe

1979- Sid Vicious dies of a heroin overdose while on bail awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend. 

1536- Buenos Aires is founded by Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza

1972-  British Embassy in Dublin is destroyed in response to Bloody Sunday 

1935- Leanard Keeler tests polygraph for the first time

1933- Hitler dissolves the German Parliament 

1925- Serum Run to Nome.  An incredible 674 mile run to deliver anti-toxin to Nome, Alaska which inspired the Iditarod Race and story’s of Balto” the lead dog on the final leg.

1922- Joyce’s “Ulysses” is published

1914- Charlie Chaplains first film appearance in “Making a Living”

1913- Grand central Terminal in NYC is opened

1901- the Funeral of Queen Victoria 

1887- The first groundhogs day is observed in Punxsutawney, MA

1880- first electric streetlights are installed in Wabash, IN

1872- NL of Baseball is formed

1848- The first boat of Chinese workers arrives in San Francisco. 

1790- The US Supreme Court convenes for the first time.

1709- Alexander Selkirk is rescued from a deserted island because of a ship wreck, inspiring DeFoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’

1653- New Amsterdam, now NYC, is incorporated.

 

 

 

 

[Braff Zacklin 13399]

Also on this day, Phil Connors, a not-so-humble weatherman from Channel 5 Pittsburgh, has an awakening of sorts.

In just one day, he learns how to ice sculpt, play the piano, perform the Heimlich maneuver, change a tire, knock off armored cars, teach quadripeds how to drive, evade the police, flick cards into a hat, save kids falling from trees, and bed Andie McDowell.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 3, 1943, U.S. Army chaplains George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, Clark V. Poling, and John P. Washington helped other soldiers and sailors board lifeboats, and when the supply of lifejackets on board the USAT Dorchester ran out, gave up their own flotation devices to fellow members of the armed forces. The chaplains then joined arms, said prayers, and sang hymns as the Dorchester sank beneath the waves. 

All four newly ordained ministers held the rank of first lieutenant. Fox was a Methodist; Goode was a Rabbi; Washington was Catholic, and Poling belong to the Reformed Church (many of whose congregations have recently been accepted in the Presbyterian community). 

"Four Chaplains Day" is considered a feast day by the Episcopal Church. While the film "Titanic" displays a similar thematic element with a string quartet playing while the ship went down, there are multiple witnesses who confirm that the four chaplains did, in fact, assist as many people as possible in surviving the disaster, and then locked arms and sang those hymns with which they were all familiar. Peace be upon them.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1989- Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas

1988- Congress rejects Reagans request for 36.5 Mill to aid Nicaraguan rebels/drug traffickers. It is the impetus for the Iran Contra Affair and some would still say High Treason by both Reagan/Bush.

1984- John Buster successfully transfers a human embryo from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

1972- The first day of 7 in the Iranian Blizzard. The cold killed over 4000 making it the deadliest snowstorm in history 

1971- NYC Police officer Frank Scerpico is shot in the face during a drug bust with the help of his fellow officers for being a “rat”. After, he testified to the horrendous corruption in the NYPD which still persists to this day. 

1967- Ronald Ryan is hanged in Melbourne, AUS. He is the last person executed in Australia. Lucky him, right?

1961- Operation Looking Gas begins. For the next 30 years a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air with the ability to take over all US bombers and missiles in case the SAC is destroyed. 

1959- A plane crash on a very cold night near Clear Lake, Iowa kills singers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. It becomes known as “The Day the Music Died”

1947- Record coldest temp for North America recorded in Snag, Yukon at -81.4 degrees F

1930- communists party of Vietnam is established 

1917- US breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany after the nation declares “unrestricted submarine warfare” due to the USs clandestine supply of Britain

1913- 16th amendment is ratified allowing for an income tax

1870- The 15th amendment is ratified giving voting right to men of all races

1809- The Territory of Illinois is created

1787- Shay’s Rebellion is crushed in Massachusetts 

1690- Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the colonies 

1637- The Tulip Collapse. Tulip mania abruptly ends leaving tulip owners unable to sell their contracts

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by Doc Reeves

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

On 1/28/2019 at 10:37 AM, DaysOff said:

On 1/28/2019 at 9:02 AM, Wally Fairway said:

January 28, 1986 - never forget
 
RIP - Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe

Damn. I was in a stupid 1 hour credit Chem lab at UT (that was 4 hours long) when the useless nerd TA says, " hey if anyone cares the space shuttle just blew up."

Dude was probably a communist.

[Armybrat 40678]

28 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

1989- Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas

1988- Congress rejects Regans request for 36.5 Mill to aid Nicaraguan rebels/drug traffickers. It is the impetus for the Iran Contra Affair and some would still say High Treason by both Regan/Bush.

1984- John Buster successfully transfers a human embryo from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

1972- The first day of 7 in the Iranian Blizzard. The cold killed over 4000 making it the deadliest snowstorm in history 

1971- NYC Police officer Frank Scerpico is shot in the face during a drug bust with the help of his fellow officers for being a “rat”. After, he testified to the horrendous corruption in the NYPD which still persists to this day. 

1967- Ronald Ryan is hanged in Melbourne, AUS. He is the last person executed in Australia. Lucky him, right?

1961- Operation Looking Gas begins. For the next 30 years a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air with the ability to take over all US bombers and missiles in case the SAC is destroyed. 

1953- A plane crash on a very cold night near Clear Lake, Iowa kills singers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. It becomes known as “The Day the Music Died”

1947- Record coldest temp for North America recorded in Snag, Yukon at -81.4 degrees F

1930- communists party of Vietnam is established 

1917- US breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany after the nation declares “unrestricted submarine warfare” due to the USs clandestine supply of Britain

1913- 16th amendment is ratified allowing for an income tax

1870- The 15th amendment is ratified giving voting right to men of all races

1809- The Territory of Illinois is created

1787- Shay’s Rebellion is crushed in Massachusetts 

1690- Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the colonies 

1637- The Tulip Collapse. Tulip mania abruptly ends leaving tulip owners unable to sell their contracts

 

 

 

 

*Reagan*

Buddy Holly plane crash was in 1959.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On February 4, 634 C.E., at the village of Dathin (near Gaza in Palestine), a modest-sized force of Arabic Christians allied with the Byzantine Empire made a foolishly aggressive assault (with a commander named Sergius, how could they not?) against a much larger force from the Rashidun Caliphate, commanded by Abu Umamah al-Bahili (one of the companions of Muhammad).

Predictably, the Rashidun forces, fighting from a strong defensive position and having superior numbers, won fairly easily.

The Battle of Dathin (Arabic: داثن) was not especially significant in military terms (it was only one of many battles in the Arab-Byzantine wars that lasted from the 7th through 12th centuries), but it did spur the imaginations of poets and balladeers on both sides of the conflict, and provides to this day a meaningful reminder of the idea that the Arab world is not nearly so monocultural as Western media portrays it as being.

Arab Christians have been a significant minority population since the first century C.E., and to this day play significant roles in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq, for while their numbers are relatively small (200,000 in Syria, for example), they are disproportionately wealthy when compared to their neighbors, and form a distinct subculture which is alternately feared, courted, hated, and loved, depending on which way the political winds in their respective countries are blowing at any given time. 

In that respect, at least, the Arab world is pretty much identical to the rest of the world. For better or worse, folk are just folk.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

2004- Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg 

1974- Patty Hearst is kidnapped from her home in Berkley, CA

1861- 6 break away states meet and form the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, AL

1859- The Codex Sianiticus is discovered in Egypt 

1846- The first Mormons leave Nauvoo, IL for Salt Lake City 

1794- French Abolish Slavery 

1789- George Washington is elected unanimously by the electoral college 

1704- in Edo, (today Tokyo) 46 of 47 Ronin commit seppuku as recompense for avenging their masters assassination

 

  

[HouTex 1847]

1846 Mormons leave Nauvoo, Illinois, for settlement in the west

1931 National League adopts a deader baseball

1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press

1938 Adolf Hitler seizes control of German army and puts Nazis in key posts

1945 Roosevelt, Churchill & Stalin meet at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the final phase of the war and post-war matters

1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

1968 Bowie Kuhn replaces William Eckert as 5th commissioner of MLB

1969 The Palestine National Congress appoints Yasser Arafat chairman of the PLO

1969 John Madden is named head coach of NFL's Oakland Raiders

1970 "Patton" directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring George C. Scott premieres in New York (Academy Awards Best Picture 1971)

1971 The NASDAQ stock exchange, the second-largest in the world - behind the New York Stock Exchange - is founded in New York City

1974 Patricia Hearst (19), daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army

1977 "Rumours" 11th studio album by Fleetwood Mac is released (Grammy Album of the Year)

1991 Baseball's Hall of Fame board of directors vote 12-0 to bar Pete Rose, due to his betting on games while a player and manager

2004 Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 5th is the birthday of Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the national poet of Finland (born Feb 5, 1804 - died May 6, 1877). Though he wrote in Swedish, his legacy is explicitly Finnish; a graduate of Finland's first university, the Royal Academy of Turku, his most famous work was "Fänrik Ståls Sägner" ("The Tales of Ensign Stål", "Vänrikki Stoolin Tarinat" in Finnish), written between 1848 and 1860.

The poem dealt with the Finnish War of 1808-1809, in which the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire battled it out between themselves as to who got to dominate the Finns. Eventually, the full 1/3rd of the land mass of the Kingdom of Sweden comprising modern Finland was ceded to Russia as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. A step below independence, it was nevertheless a step up from vassalhood.

The first section, "Vårt land" ("Our Land", "Maamme" in Finnish) became the Finnish National Anthem.

On Runeberg's birthday every year, Finns celebrate with a pastry flavored with almonds and arrack or rum, and topped with raspberry jam in a ring of sugar. The "Runeberg Torte" (Finnish "Runebergintorttu"; Swedish "Runebergstårta") is popularly attributed to Runeberg's wife, Fredrika Runeberg, who published a cookbook in 1850 which includes a recipe for the confection.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

21 hours ago, HouTex said:

1846 Mormons leave Nauvoo, Illinois, for settlement in the west

1931 National League adopts a deader baseball

1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press

1938 Adolf Hitler seizes control of German army and puts Nazis in key posts

1945 Roosevelt, Churchill & Stalin meet at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the final phase of the war and post-war matters

1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

1968 Bowie Kuhn replaces William Eckert as 5th commissioner of MLB

1969 The Palestine National Congress appoints Yasser Arafat chairman of the PLO

1969 John Madden is named head coach of NFL's Oakland Raiders

1970 "Patton" directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring George C. Scott premieres in New York (Academy Awards Best Picture 1971)

1971 The NASDAQ stock exchange, the second-largest in the world - behind the New York Stock Exchange - is founded in New York City

1974 Patricia Hearst (19), daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army

1977 "Rumours" 11th studio album by Fleetwood Mac is released (Grammy Album of the Year)

1991 Baseball's Hall of Fame board of directors vote 12-0 to bar Pete Rose, due to his betting on games while a player and manager

2004 Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room

 

Worked for an architectural firm commissioned to re imagine the city of Nauvoo like a living history city sorta like Williamsburg, Va.

Those are some strange, delusional mother fuckers with friggin' billions of dollars.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

Dp 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Doc Reeves

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1994- White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in Jackson, Miss., of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963.

1985-  Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.

1976- The 1976 swine flu outbreak begins at Fort Dix, NJ. It leads to a massive immunization program which would lead to the vaccination of approximately 25% of the US population.

1971- The Apollo 14 mission lands astronauts on the moon

1958- A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1953- Disney’s Peter Pan premieres

1945- World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila

1939- Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain. 

1919- Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.

1918- Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane. It is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.

1917- Mexico’s Constitution is adopted

1917- The United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) with an overwhelming majority, overriding President Woodrow Wilson's December 14, 1916, veto. This act added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to “homosexuals”, “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, "criminals", “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate. The most controversial part of the law was the section that designated an "Asiatic Barred Zone", a region that included much of Asia and the Pacific Islands from which people could not immigrate. Previously, only the Chinese had been excluded from admission to the country. Attempts at introducing literacy tests were previously vetoed by Grover Cleveland in 1897 and William Taft in 1913. Wilson also objected to this clause in the Immigration Act, but it was still passed by Congress on the 4th attempt. 

1909- Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

1869- The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. 

1778- South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. 

1631- Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island emigrates to Boston. The Puritan leader was a staunch supporter of religious freedom, separation of church and state, fair dealings with natives and the first American abolitionist. 

1597- A group of early Japanese Christians are executed by the government because they were seen to be a threat to Japanese society

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Doc Reeves

[Buffsoldier 1895]

7 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

1985-  Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.

To me, this is the most fascinating little tidbit I've seen in this thread.

[gsoda3 3234]

1999- Dirk Nowitzki makes his NBA debut. Luka Doncic is born 23 days later.

 

 

 

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

14 minutes ago, Buffsoldier said:

To me, this is the most fascinating little tidbit I've seen in this thread.

Agreed. I'm stealing that one for cocktail parties, for damned sure.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

37 minutes ago, Buffsoldier said:

To me, this is the most fascinating little tidbit I've seen in this thread.

Hell, did they even know what started it ?

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 6, 1862, the Battle of Fort Henry culminated in Confederate Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman surrendering to the forces of Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. 

This was the first victory for the Union in the Western Theater of the Civil War, and was highly significant for any of a number of reasons. 

First, Grant had literally had to beg his superiors (specifically Gen. Henry Halleck, who thought of himself as a master strategist) to be allowed to attack Fort Henry; next, Grant knew that the fort was the keystone to opening the Tennessee River (the largest tributary of the Ohio River, running right down the middle of Tennessee and into Alabama), which would then make it possible to eventually isolate any Confederates between Nashville and the Pacific Ocean. 

That is exactly what he ended up doing -- his victory at Fort Henry was the harbinger of his victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga, victories which led to his eventual promotion to Lieutenant General, and ultimately to his successful conclusion of the war at Appomattox Courthouse.

[Wally Fairway 5517]

21 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

1976- The 1976 swine flu outbreak begins at Fort Dix, NJ. It leads to a massive immunization program which would lead to the vaccination of approximately 25% of the US population.

Oh such fond memories - I remember going with a bunch of my buddies to get our vaccine There had been some reports of a few people having bad reactions. So we go stand in line, about 10-12 of us, and we get our shots (air gun instead of needles) and as we walk out the door we all start to acting up - we are moaning, coughing and fake puking. People started to get out of line, which may have saved a life or two. Then in our infinite wisdom we went off to play some pickup football.
My arm hurt like a bitch the next day, where I had gotten my vaccine - not from the shot but from all of us hitting each other in the bicep/shoulder area while playing football.

tl:dr - stupid kids doing stupid things, but we survived

[HouTex 1847]

1778 France recognizes the United States and signs a treaty of aid in Paris.

1778 Britain declares war on France

1899  The Spanish-American War ends.

1894 Bottle opener patented by William Painter

1918 Great Britain grants women (30 & over) the vote

1935 "Monopoly" board game goes on sale for 1st time

1945 Russian Red Army crosses the river Oder

1952 Queen Elizabeth II succeeds King George VI to the British throne and proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand

1968 Former President Dwight Eisenhower shot a hole-in-one

1980 John Wayne Gacy goes on trial for the murder of 33 young men in Cook County, Illinois

1983 Trial of former Gestapo commandant Klaus Barbie begins in France for war crimes during World War II

1998 Mary Kay LeTourneau, 36, former teacher, who violated probation by seeing 14 year old father of her baby, sentenced to 7 years

1998 Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport

2012 Queen Elizabeth II marks the 60th anniversary of becoming British monarch, becoming only the second to do so
 

 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

February 6, 1862, the Battle of Fort Henry culminated in Confederate Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman surrendering to the forces of Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. 

This was the first victory for the Union in the Western Theater of the Civil War, and was highly significant for any of a number of reasons. 

First, Grant had literally had to beg his superiors (specifically Gen. Henry Halleck, who thought of himself as a master strategist) to be allowed to attack Fort Henry; next, Grant knew that the fort was the keystone to opening the Tennessee River (the largest tributary of the Ohio River, running right down the middle of Tennessee and into Alabama), which would then make it possible to eventually isolate any Confederates between Nashville and the Pacific Ocean. 

That is exactly what he ended up doing -- his victory at Fort Henry was the harbinger of his victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga, victories which led to his eventual promotion to Lieutenant General, and ultimately to his successful conclusion of the war at Appomattox Courthouse.

Grants key to victories was to always follow up a loss/setback or a victory one day with attack the very next day.  Never give the enemy time to re fortify.  He never backed down.  He was a master of logistics (he was in the quartermaster corps in his early days).  His only major tactical blunder was cold harbor 5,000 casualties in less than an hour, It haunted him the rest of his life.  

He was grand strategist, probably the single greatest general the US has ever produced. He ran a war in multiple theaters of operation with nothing more than a telegraph and express riders between field commanders.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

38 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

He was grand strategist, probably the single greatest general the US has ever produced. 

There are obviously a lot of people who disagree, but I'm not one of them. The other generals who demonstrated an equal grasp of strategy (notably Nathanael Greene and Winfield Scott) were operating on a much smaller scale. One of the other notable things about Grant was his uncanny ability to recognize early on which of his subordinates he could trust to implement his vision, and which ones needed to be micromanaged.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

17 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

There are obviously a lot of people who disagree, but I'm not one of them. The other generals who demonstrated an equal grasp of strategy (notably Nathanael Greene and Winfield Scott) were operating on a much smaller scale. One of the other notable things about Grant was his uncanny ability to recognize early on which of his subordinates he could trust to implement his vision, and which ones needed to be micromanaged.

I don't think anyone did what he did. He was the most brilliant general in US history, and  I'm a huge R.E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson fan. They were great in the field on the fly. He was great at creating overall, long term, coordinated strategies in multiple theaters, over multiple wings of the army from cavalry movement to supply.  By the end of '63 was pretty much given a fee hand by Lincoln to prosecute the war as he saw best.

Eisenhower was only in control of the European theater. Greene was definitely brilliant from my limited reading of his exploits. Winfield Scott was a couple pegs down compared to Grant in my opinion.  And yes their success was in a much more narrow scope of responsibility.

You're spot on in his ability to recognize talent.  He promoted and trusted  Sheridan and Sherman,  two extremely talented Union commanders who he had the utmost trust in.  Sherman was probably the next best Union general in my opinion.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1988- Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.

1964- France and United Kingdom agreed to begin building the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel. 

1959- Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1958- Eight Manchester United players are killed in the “Munich Air Disaster.” After a decades long investigation it is finally determined that ice, not pilot error was responsible 

1900- The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree. 

1843- The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City). The vaudeville shows would star white actors in ‘blackface’ and lampooned blacks as “dim-witted”, “lazy”, “happy go lucky” and “superstitious.” They gained National popularity until the early 1900s.

1820-The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1819- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.

1817- The Argentinian San Martín crosses the Andes with an army in order to liberate Chile from Spanish rule. This is a story of great national pride tantamount to Washington crossing the Delaware River in the US.

1815- New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens