Today in History...

[Armybrat 40678]

16 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Hell, did they even know what started it ?

Some Roman made fun of Hannibal ‘s pachyderms?

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 7, 1497, supporters of Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola publicly burned thousands of books, works of art, pots of cosmetics, alluring fashion, playing cards, musical instruments, manuscripts of sassy, satirical, sexy or otherwise scandalous songs, and probably a love-letter or two (or a dozen, given that this was Renaissance Italy, after all).

This was the most famous "Bonfire of the Vanities" (Italian "Falò delle vanità"), the Florentine rally in support of Savonarola's response to the Mardi Gras festival, where any object which might tempt one to sin, most notably the "vanity" (the vernacular term most often used for any mirror, though that term is now reserved only for a dressing room mirror) was to be destroyed in an effort to cleanse the city of the hedonism the good friar saw in the House of Medici.

Savonarola had come to Florence, ironically, at the request of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1490, and within four years, he brought them down. The following year, his bonfires began, and some of the greatest works in the Italian artistic pantheon were consigned to the flames. He destroyed the works of Ovid, Propertius, Dante, as well as Boccaccio, and his preaching was so successful that even Sandro Botticelli and Lorenzo di Credi, contemporary Florentine artists of great renown, set fire to some of their own works.

1497, though, was his comeuppance. In spite of the February 7th outpouring of support from his followers... by May 13th of that year, he was excommunicated for his excess of zeal. Irony will always win out, though. In suppressing his censorious bigotry, the Catholic Church (wait for it...) publicly burned his writings. Some people never learn. Or, if they do, they quickly forget.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1992- The Maastricht treaty is signed forming the European Union.

1990- Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power

1964- The Beatles arrive at JFK International Airport to begin their first tour of the United States. 

1962- The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

1948- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley

1940- The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1935- The classic board game Monopoly is invented.

1898- Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse on Jan. 13, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus. The ensuing scandal would become known as The Dreyfus Affair.

1882- The last heavyweight boxing championship bare-knuckle fight takes place in Mississippi City, Mississippi. 

1812- The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.

1497- The bonfire of the vanities occurs in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.

1301- Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales. 

 

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

The internet age has certainly made it easier to spread urban legends (and, thanks to Snopes.com, to dispel them), but the phenomenon is hardly new. On February 8, 1855, southern Devon (that's in England, y'all) was home to one of the more interesting pre-Information Age examples of mass hysteria, known as the "Devil's Footprints".

After a heavy overnight snowfall, numerous witnesses reported the presence of unusual hoofprints tracking in a straight line through the snow for some 40 to 100 miles; most witnesses agreed they appeared to be roughly the size of human feet, and clearly showed signs of being on only two legs.

Now, I'm not sure an exact census has ever been taken on the matter, but I suspect the number of forensic scientists living in Devonshire in the mid-19th century was insufficient to support the likelihood that these claims were particularly accurate. For one thing, the technology available at the time to ascertain that the tracks extended that far in less time than it would take for the tracks to either be covered by more snow, or wiped out by other tracks, or melted away, or... whatever... was (ahem!) not yet invented.

For another thing, it's obviously nonsense. But like all good urban legends, it spawned all kinds of "remembered" corroboration (lots of letters and diary entries from the days and weeks after the story started circulating have after-the-fact memories of seeing hoof tracks heading straight up walls, across barn roofs, and over haystacks).

And some of the "logical explanations" are pretty funny, too: "It was a balloon with a hook trailing on the ground," "No, it was an escaped kangaroo, lost from the circus," "No, every badger in Britain got hungry at the same time, and in single file..." How about, "None of it actually happened"?

Wouldn't be the first time none of it actually happened, and it won't be the last.

[HenryJames 65868]

 

[El Diablo 4232]

February 8, 1887—132 years ago today—in one of the most famous gunfights in western history, “Longhair Jim” Courtright, the former town marshal of Fort Worth, was killed in a face-to-face shootout with Luke Short. The gunfight, along with the murder of a prostitute two weeks later, focused hostile attention on an area of Fort Worth known as Hell’s Half Acre, which was filled with brothels and bars. Past reform efforts were unsuccessful, but the violence was a death knell for the infamous red light district.

Granddad Diablo would have been 22 at the time, I wonder if Fort Worth ever crossed his mind.

[El Diablo 4232]

On 2/5/2019 at 9:06 AM, Doc Reeves said:

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.

Sentenced to life in Jackson, MS? Holy shit.

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

4 hours ago, El Diablo said:

February 8, 1887—132 years ago today—in one of the most famous gunfights in western history, “Longhair Jim” Courtright, the former town marshal of Fort Worth, was killed in a face-to-face shootout with Luke Short. The gunfight, along with the murder of a prostitute two weeks later, focused hostile attention on an area of Fort Worth known as Hell’s Half Acre, which was filled with brothels and bars. Past reform efforts were unsuccessful, but the violence was a death knell for the infamous red light district.

Granddad Diablo would have been 22 at the time, I wonder if Fort Worth ever crossed his mind.

your granddad wasn't born in 1865.

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

your granddad wasn't born in 1865.

Yeah. Yeah, he was. In Evant, TX. Pops was born in 1919 in Aquilla (next to youngest of 11). I was born in 1960 (youngest of 5). Not so hard a math problem really.

Edited February 8, 2019 by El Diablo

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1692- A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

3 hours ago, El Diablo said:

Yeah. Yeah, he was. In Evant, TX. Pops was born in 1919 in Aquilla (next to youngest of 11). I was born in 1960 (youngest of 5). Not so hard a math problem really.

Noice.

I went to high school with a girl whose dad was 92 at her graduation ceremony. She had 27 brothers and sisters, from five different mothers. Four died in childbirth, probably just to get out of doing it any more.

[El Diablo 4232]

2 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

Noice.

I went to high school with a girl whose dad was 92 at her graduation ceremony. She had 27 brothers and sisters, from five different mothers. Four died in childbirth, probably just to get out of doing it any more.

It was pretty cool growing up with aunts and uncles so much older, they had some stories to tell.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

4 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

It was pretty cool growing up with aunts and uncles so much older, they had some stories to tell.

Being able to grow up with older family members like all 4 of my grandparents, and 3 of my great grand parents is something I miss more than anything else in my life.  Mom got knocked up by dad at 18.

[El Diablo 4232]

22 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Being able to grow up with older family members like all 4 of my grandparents, and 3 of my great grand parents is something I miss more than anything else in my life.  Mom got knocked up by dad at 18.

Because of the #'s and ages my aunts and uncles on dad's side of the family were more like what would for most folks be their great aunts and uncles. GPa died 20+ years before I was born and GMa on dads side died when I was 4. Only grandparent I knew was my GPa on moms side, his wife had died before I came along. 

[Armybrat 40678]

 My mom’s grandpa was born in 1822 and died in 1916 when she was 6.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 10th is the feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck in Malta ("San Pawl Nawfragu"). St. Paul (Greek "Παῦλος Paulos"), of course, is the patron saint of Malta, and according to the Book of Acts, was shipwrecked on Malta, where he was met by Publius (Acts 28:7), and was venerated by the islanders in the years immediately precedent to his ultimate (and unfortunate) end in Rome. 

Though most people remain ignorant of anything about Malta beyond the fact that there is a movie about some falcon statue that made cinematic history several decades ago, it is actually a fascinating place. 

The seven Megalithic Temples of Malta date back some 5,600 years, making them some of the oldest surviving structures in the world. Modern Malta (Maltese "Repubblika ta' Malta") is a pastiche of influences, including Greco-Roman, Phoenician, Arab, and French cultural blending, and a long history of religious influences, including Pagan, Muslim, and both flavors of Catholic Christian (Byzantine and Roman, as Malta was ruled by first Rome and then Constantinople at one point in its history). 

Malta has more feast days than any other country in the European Union, but the Feast of St. Paul is particularly significant to the church community there, where the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta is claimed by tradition as an unofficial Apostolic See owing to their traditional association with Paul, nee Saul of Tarsus.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 11, 1916, anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City for giving a public lecture about birth control, a violation of the Comstock Law, the federal act passed on March 3, 1873, known as the Act for the "Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use".

Public sentiment towards contraception in the 19th century, of course, was far more repressive and misogynistic than modern minds can truly appreciate, but even so, by 1915 (when Goldman's speaking tour began), most people were not particularly keen on making it illegal to even talk about it. 

However, the complicating factor for Goldman was undoubtedly her involvement in other, less prurient political activities. Women's fundamental rights to self-determination regarding their own bodies has, sadly, continued to be an issue to this day, but for Goldman, that issue in and of itself was probably not the reason for her brush with the law.

Goldman's espousal of anarchy was more than likely the mitigating factor which made authorities keen to pounce on any opportunity to harass her for her sexual liberation activism -- in 1901, Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed factory worker with a history of mental illness, assassinated President William McKinley. While Goldman had not specifically plotted with Czolgosz in this crime, it was nevertheless established at the time that he had sought her advice on several matters related to anarchist activism.

The irony, of course, was that Goldman and her associates had assumed Czolgosz was a police infiltrator, and had never trusted him; she and her fellow anarchists were under severe scrutiny (including being detained for lengthy and abusive questioning, what Goldman described as the "Third Degree") for the rest of their lives, in spite of being completely innocent of any violent intentions, towards McKinley or anyone else.

Following her arrest and conviction on the Comstock charges, Goldman refused to pay a $100 fine, and instead spent two weeks in a prison workhouse, where she continued to agitate against militarism, capitalism, and all the other -isms to which anarchists of her day were opposed.

In 1917, for opposition to the U.S. entering World War I, and for encouraging young men to disobey the newly instituted military draft, she was convicted of espionage and deported. As, to this day, the justifications given for American involvement in that land-grab war between old world nations, none of whom had particularly valid claims, sound silly, it is hard not to feel sympathy for her point of view.

[HouTex 1847]

1809 Robert Fulton patents steamboat

1932 73°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in February

1941 Lt-Gen Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli

1943 US General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe; British General Montgomery not best pleased

1945 Yalta agreement signed by FDR, Churchill & Stalin

1953 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple

1963 American chef Julia Child's show "The French Chef" premieres

1975 Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for leadership of the British Conservative Party

1979 Iran's premier Bakhtiar resigns, Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power

1990 Nelson Mandela released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa

2013 Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation as of February 28, the first pope to resign since 1415

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 12, 881 CE, Pope John VIII crowned Charles the Fat the King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. Also known as Charles III, Charles the Fat was the youngest son of Louis the German, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne, and was the last Carolingian Emperor. 

His failed reign (well... he did rule for seven years, so compared to some historical figures, I guess it might be considered a *partial* success?) was, perhaps, predetermined. Or, maybe, it's just that the victors write history? 

It seems in Charles' youth, he experienced an episode of demonic possession, wherein he was foaming at the mouth until led to the altar of his family chapel; he was described by his supporters (in the glowing terms master propagandists have been using ever since humans were foolish enough to invent politics) as ever after never forgetful of his salvation at the prie-de-dieu, and was "a very Christian prince, fearing God, with all his heart keeping his commandments, very devoutly obeying the orders of the Church," etc. etc. blah blah blah. 

By his opponents, who had taken advantage of his political ineptitude by 887 (and eventually deposing him in 888), he was, of course, always "that guy who was once possessed by the Devil" -- and, let's face it, even twelve centuries later, that would be a hard political tag line to escape. And they didn't even have FOX News in the 9th century. Just sayin'.

[HouTex 1847]

1554 Queen of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is executed for treason

1912 China adopts Gregorian calendar

1914 Dedication ceremony for the about to be constructed Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1915 Adolf Hitler receives the relatively common Iron Cross second class for bravery in World War I

1921 Winston Churchill becomes British Minister of Colonies

1938 German troops entered Austria

1947 Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia

1955 President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisers to South Vietnam

1999 Bill Clinton acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial

2006 A powerful winter storm blankets the Northeastern United States dumping 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington, D.C. up to Boston, Massachusetts. The storm dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow in New York City.

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 13, 1960, the Nashville Student Movement with the support and cooperation of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council began a nonviolent direct action campaign that became known as the "Nashville Sit-Ins".  

Over the course of the campaign (which lasted until May 10, 1960) various stores and restaurants in Nashville's central business district where there were "Whites Only" lunch counters, lines, water fountains, and restrooms saw an influx of well dressed, well mannered young black college students who simply sat at lunch counters, such as the Walgreen's lunch counter, and asked for cheeseburgers and fries, just like their anglo counterparts.

Initially, white Nashville responded much as might be expected, with violent words, and occasionally violent actions, but it is significant to note that Tennessee (while never particularly sophisticated) was actually split during the Civil War, with roughly half the state (including Nashville and the mountainous Eastern parts of the state) being opposed to slavery and wanting to remain in the Union. 

Some of those sympathies seemed to have been handed down through the years, because there were enough moderate voices in the anglo population that compromise seemed almost inevitable, as by May 10th, negotiations had led to the desegregation of downtown, and the opening of the lunch counters. It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, that all of Nashville became desegregated -- but Nashville was certainly a very significant victory for the Civil Rights Movement

[Armybrat 40678]

The lunch counter movement spread to Austin a year or two after that. I don’t recall there being any violent resistance of note, but it generated a lot of controversy in the media. It didn’t take long for the public facilities to be desegregated, however.

Down came the whites/colored only signs around town, including the etched glass transom panels above the restroom doors in the Capitol. That was around 1962 or ‘63. 

A visit to Vencil’s Taylor Cafe today still illustrates the old Jim Crow “ambiance”.

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

On 2/8/2019 at 1:03 PM, El Diablo said:

Yeah. Yeah, he was. In Evant, TX. Pops was born in 1919 in Aquilla (next to youngest of 11). I was born in 1960 (youngest of 5). Not so hard a math problem really.

I’ve finally met him (you...kind of), the person with an older grandfather than mine. And you have me beat by a lot. I was also born in 1960, and my grandfather was born in 1886. It always seemed like he was the age of most of my contemporary’s great-grandparents.

Edit:  I knew I’d finally find out where all the people with older grandparents hung out. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by ImissWallyPryor
A bunch of ancient assholes in here.

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

I’ve finally met him (you...kind of), the person with an older grandfather than mine. And you have me beat by a lot. I was also born in 1960, and my grandfather was born in 1886. It always seemed like he was the age of most of my contemporary’s great-grandparents.

Edit:  I knew I’d finally find out where all the people with older grandparents hung out. 

Things were so different even 80 years ago. I remember my dad telling me that he was in the Army and stationed in Washington state when his dad died. He was notified within a week or so and then was given leave to come back to Texas where of course his dad had been buried and gone for a couple of weeks, dad had traveled by train.

/csb time - To get back to Washington dad drove, one of his buddies there had a car here in Texas that he paid dad to drive back. Pops took the Golden Gate Bridge which had just opened on his route to Washington. He didn't know it was a toll road. He got to the bridge and they wanted him to pay. Well, pops had been having a few cold ones on his little jaunt and was in no mood to pay and was holding up traffic arguing with the bridge guy and telling him that he was on military orders and wasn't giving them a dime. They waved him on. Diablos - 1, California - 0.

[HouTex 1847]

1689 British Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights which establishes the rights of parliament and places limits on the crown

1861 Abraham Lincoln declared US President in Washington, D.C.

1866 Jesse James holds up his first bank, stealing $15,000 from the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri

1935 Bruno Hauptmann found guilty of kidnap & murder of the Lindbergh baby.

1942 Hitler's Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of England, is officially cancelled

1945 Allied planes begin bombing Dresden, Germany; a firestorm results and over 22,000 die

1970 Man-eating tiger is reported to have killed 48, 80 km from New Delhi

1979 Washington State's Hood Canal Bridge breaks up in windstorm

1985 Dow Jones closes at 1297.92 (record high) after topping 1300 earlier

1990 US, Britain & France give Germany OK to reunify

2000 The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies.

 

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

In addition to being Valentine's Day (there's your subtle reminder, you sluggardly spouses/significant others amongst my humble readership!) February 14th is also the traditional date for the Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival in honor of Lupa, the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus and thereby was responsible for the founding of Rome. 

Of course, the Romans being seemingly incapable of letting things be simple to remember, the festival was also associated with Lupercus, sometimes associated with Faunus, the Roman equivalent of the Greek satyr god Pan. 

So... we've got Lupa the wolf/goddess, Lupercus, the god of shepherds, and Faunus, the party animal with only one thing on his mind (unless, of course, there were more than one nymph or dryad within earshot, but I'll try to keep this entry clean, I promise).

Plutarch described the (ahem!) rather stereotypically Roman festival thusly: "At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy." 

Come to think of it, not so different from Valentine's Day after all. Huh.

[Loco 3752]

http://projects.sun-sentinel.com/2018/sfl-parkland-school-shooting-critical-moments/#nt=oft12aH-1la1

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 15, 1898, the USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor in Cuba. 274 people died in the incident, blame for which the United States quickly assigned to Spain, and the American response was almost inevitable. A U.S. Navy investigation, made public on March 28, claimed that the ship's powder magazines were ignited by an external explosion directly below the ship's hull. 

Spain, of course, came to the opposite conclusion -- their investigation stated that the explosion was caused by a fire on board. Either way... on April 20th, President McKinley signed a joint resolution of Congress declaring war on Spain.

Newspaper mogul and all-around bad guy William Randolph Hearst is supposed to have been told by one of his illustrators in the months leading up to the war that there was simply not enough public support of such an obvious land grab of an invasion of Cuba and the Philippines, and he replied that if "you provide the images, I'll provide the war." 

Sure enough, yellow journalism coupled with the kind of cartoons whose hyperbole and out-and-out slander against Spain would have made even 21st century cable news outlets blush brought American public sentiment to a boil, and perhaps one of the least moral wars in which this country has ever been involved was fought.

Later investigations of all the available evidence have almost universally concluded that there was simply insufficient reason to draw any conclusions at all about what caused the Maine to explode, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that Spain had no motive to risk the last and most profitable pieces of their crumbling empire by directly attacking the Americans without provocation. 

Not to say that anybody who believed the propaganda was stupid, of course. Ignorant, foolish, gullible, those are all equally apt words, so there is no need to pile on by calling them stupid.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 16, 1804, in the First Barbary War, Commodore Stephen Decatur (widely recognized as one of the most notable figures in the history of the U.S. Navy) sailed into the harbor of Tripoli in a ship disguised as a Maltese merchant ship flying British colours.

The deck hands were Sicilians who spoke Arabic, and their ruse was to tell the port authorities that their ship was in need of repair and requested permission to dock. Why the port authorities did not insist on doing their own inspection is a mystery, but they did not, allowing Decatur to approach closely to the pirate-captured American vessel the USS Philadelphia, possession of which had given the Barbary forces prestige, weaponry, and multiple decided advantages in their predation on American shipping in the Mediterranean.

Once Decatur's ship was close enough to Philadelphia, the boarding party emerged from below decks and swarmed Philadelphia, with orders to sail her out of harbor if she were seaworthy, and burn her if she was not.

Decatur ended up having to burn Philadelphia, but this in itself was a significant victory, and was the first step in defeating the pirates -- something none of the traditional European powers had been able to accomplish.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 17, 1600, Dominican friar Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori for heresy. The charges against him were numerous -- he advocated the cosmological theory that stars were really distant suns, around which many would probably have planets of their own, some of which might even be inhabited by other life forms.

This was only the beginning of his trouble with the Roman Inquisition, however, as he denied numerous core Catholic doctrines, believing as he did in the early Unitarian concept of one God (to spell it out for anyone not familiar with theological history, he believed there was no such thing as a “Holy Trinity”), denying the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and the doctrine of transubstantiation.

Much of his writing focused on cosmology, cognitive science (he developed numerous mnemonic techniques mimicked today by "get rich quick" charlatans promising to help you improve your memory), and in general he set himself up as an early martyr for free thought and modern science.

[El Diablo 4232]

February 18, 1910—109 years ago today, Frenchman Louis Paulhan made the first recorded airplane flight in Texas. Paulhan was invited to the U.S. in January 1910 to take part in airshows and competitions in Los Angeles and arrived with two Blériot monoplanes and two Farman biplanes. He set a new altitude record and a new endurance record and pocketed $19,000 in prize money before moving on to give exhibitions in Salt Lake City, in Texas and in New Orleans (The first people to fly in Texas were airshow balloonists and their passengers in the 1860s).

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 18, 1930, Elm Farm Ollie (known alternatively as "Nellie Jay" and, after the incident I am about to describe, as "Sky Queen") became, and I can't believe I am about to type this, the first cow to fly in an airplane.

The unusual event was part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Elm Farm Ollie was an exceptional Guernsey cow, producing well above average quantities of milk, and in fact produced 6 gallons of milk during the 72 mile flight from Bismarck, Illinois, to St. Louis. Though the farm where Elm Farm Ollie was born and raised lay on the border between Missouri and Illinois, her legacy is chiefly remembered in Wisconsin. Because, you know, cheese and whatnot, I guess.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 19, 1913, Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes became the 34th President of Mexico. His list of qualifications was not especially different from those of many rulers around the world -- he had been the Mexican foreign minister (essentially the "Secretary of State") for two terms, and had been the dean of a small law school in Mexico City for sixteen years. 

His reign as President, however, was notable for one thing and one thing only: it lasted all of 45 minutes, making it the shortest presidency in the history of the world. 

He had actually only ascended to the Presidency as part of legal maneuvering to allow General Victoriano Huerta, who had successfully overthrown the previous President, to be appointed to a position in succession so that his (Huerta's) eventual installation as President would be entirely legal. Huerta offered Lascuráin a post in his cabinet, but he declined, choosing instead to retire from politics. 

Probably a wise move.

[HouTex 1847]

1807 US Vice President Aaron Burr arrested in Alabama for treason; later acquitted

1846 Texas state government formally installed in Austin

1878 Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone (phonograph)

1884 Outbreak of tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana kill 800 people

1910 Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is freed from her first periods of forced isolation and goes on to cause several further outbreaks of typhoid in the New York area

1915 British fleet opens fire on Dardanelles coast

1942 FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans

1945 980 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days on Ramree Island, Burma

1945 US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese with 30,000 US Marines

 

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Missed it yesterday, but probably undeserving of its own thread and this thread seems appropriate.

George Mendonsa passed away yesterday 2 days short of his 96th birthday. Who is George Mendonsa?

This is George.


“As the perfect strangers locked lips, world famous photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped four pictures in just 10 seconds...”

"The excitement of the war bein' over, plus I had a few drinks," Mendonsa said. "So when I saw the nurse I grabbed her, and I kissed her."

Thanks George you glorious slightly intoxicated VJ sailor, you.

#notmetooera

[El Diablo 4232]

February 20th, 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public's health.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 20, 1472, the terms of the dowry of Margaret of Denmark (also known as Margaret of Norway), Queen of Scotland from 1469-1486 as the wife of King James III, were set. Margaret's father, Christian the First, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, pledged Orkney and the Shetland islands as security against payment... and since payment was never made, they became Scottish holdings. Norwegian and Danish influences are still strong, of course, with one of the world's largest Viking Heritage festivals being held annually in Shetland, but having been Scots for almost six centuries, it is doubtful they'll ever go back.

[HouTex 1847]

1792 US postal service created, postage 6-12 cents depending on distance

1933 US House of Representatives completes congressional action to repeal Prohibition

1938 UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns stating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has appeased Nazi Germany

1941 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk Poland

1947 Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in LA

1962 John Glenn becomes the 1st American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7

1987 Bomb blamed on Unabomber explodes by a computer store in Salt Lake City

2003 During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 300 others.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

February 21st, 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up (each ended up serving a year and a-half).

Oh, the good old days.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

On this day in 1896, colorful lawman Roy Bean staged a heavyweight championship fight on a sandbar just below Langtry, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. Bean, known as the "Law West of the Pecos," was appointed justice of the peace for Pecos County in 1882

[HouTex 1847]

1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish "The Communist Manifesto" in London

1885 Washington Monument dedicated

1916 World War I: Battle of Verdun begins, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties

1965 Rights activist Malcolm X is shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at Audubon Ballroom in New York City

1970 Jackson 5 make TV debut on American Bandstand

1972 Richard Nixon becomes the first US President to visit China, normalizing relations between the countries

1988 Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert confesses his sins to his congregation

1989 US bust Chinese drug smuggling ring, capturing a record 820 lbs of heroin worth $1 billion at street value

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam. 

Born Malcolm Little in 1925, he had changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz while in his 20s, after having become a member of that organization; he discovered the Nation of Islam while in prison for larceny; after his parole in 1952, he quickly became a leader of the group, and spent the better part of the next decade advocating black supremacy, favoring separation of black and white Americans, and scoffing at the civil rights movement's emphasis on integration.

By March of 1964, Malcolm X had begun to distance himself from the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, repudiating the Nation and its teachings, and embracing Sunni Islam. After experiencing the Hajj (the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca that forms one of the pillars of Islam), Malcolm returned to the U.S., founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and began a heartfelt renunciation of racism which was neither embraced by most white Americans, nor tolerated by his former allies in the Nation. 

On February 21, 1965, while he was addressing the Organization of Afro-American Unity, members of the Nation staged a scuffle, and in the chaos, opened fire with a variety of weapons. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds.

Malcolm X's spiritual journey calls to many African-Americans with special poignancy; estimates range from 15-30% of those stolen from Africa as slaves were originally Muslim.  Most of those were forced to convert, and of the remainder very few were able to retain their previous culture, being robbed of Q'urans, denied the right or ability to pray, and having no mosques and no imams to assist them.  It makes sense that many African-Americans would want to reclaim this part of their heritage, especially those who (with the aid of modern genetic testing) are only now discovering that it is theirs.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst were executed for their role in the White Rose (German "die Weiße Rose") resistance movement in Nazi Germany. 

The White Rose consisted of a group of students from the University of Munich, along with their philosophy professor (Kurt Huber), who in the face of almost certain death publicly denounced the Third Reich in an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign which lasted from June, 1942 to February, 1943. 

The Scholls and Probst were the first members of the group to face trial (...and conviction, and death by beheading), though there were numerous others similarly murdered by the Nazis. The sixth of their pamphlets was smuggled out of Germany later that same year, and in July of 1943, Allied planes began dropping copies of "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich" all over Germany.

Apologists for the "average German citizen" frequently say that "they didn't know, they could not have known" what was going on in the death camps. This is utter horse shit, of course. They knew and through their compliance were guilty of the most heinous cynicism, and by extension, as guilty of the murders as if they had actually been at the gas chamber doors. 

The White Rose made sure they knew. The text of the 2nd leaflet in 1942, left in phone books, mailboxes, restaurant menus, libraries, public bulletin boards, commuter train timetables, church pews, telephone poles, biergarten napkin dispensers, and anywhere else they could think of, made *100% certain* that the "average German" knew full well what was going on:

"Since the conquest of Poland, 300,000 Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way… The German people slumber on in dull, stupid sleep and encourage the fascist criminals. Each wants to be exonerated of guilt, each one continues on his way with the most placid, calm conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!"

[HouTex 1847]

1825 Russia & Britain establish Alaska-Canada boundary

1903 Due to drought the US side of Niagara Falls runs short of water

1941 Nazi SS begin rounding up Jews of Amsterdam

1942 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse

1983 Hindus kill 3000 Muslims in Assam, India

1997 Dolly the Sheep, world's first cloned mammal (from an adult cell) is announced by the Roslin Institute in Scotland

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 23, 1999, Abdullah Öcalan was charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey. Öcalan (also known as Apo, short for Abdullah and "uncle" in Kurdish) is an exceptionally interesting figure in late 20th/early 21st century international politics. 

As one of the founding members of the militant organization the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), he is considered a terrorist by NATO, the United States, and the European Union. Arrested by the CIA in Nairobi, he was taken to Turkey, where his sentence of death was commuted to life in prison as part of Turkey's abolition of the death penalty during the early stages of their attempts to join the European Union.

Öcalan never denied the fact that the PKK sought the violent overthrow of "foreign interference in Kurdish self-determination," but has since stated that he believes the era of the usefulness of violence in achieving independence has come and gone, and that a political solution to the Kurdish question must be met. 

Whether this change of heart is sincere or not, it certainly represents the kind of evolution of thought one would hope might be spreading in all the areas afflicted by violence in the Kurdish independence movement -- the Turkish/Kurdish conflict alone has resulted in over 40,000 deaths since 1984.

Regardless of what one thinks of Öcalan personally, his story must be read and understood by anyone who truly wishes to grasp the causes of the conflict which has absorbed so much of the blood, sweat and tears of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq over the past three-and-a-half decades. His numerous books (four of which were written in prison), interviews, and published papers show an adept mind and passionate heart capable of great and terrible things -- and also capable of the introspection necessary to change one's mind in light of new understandings.

[HenryJames 65868]

[El Diablo 4232]

 February 25, 1836—183 years ago today--The Colt Revolver was patented. Texas later ordered 180 of the revolvers to arm the Texas Navy, and Colt Revolvers were also issued to Texas Rangers. Colt built his reputation on the Rangers’ use of the first revolving cylinder handgun. But it was a former Texas Ranger who finally put the struggling company on solid ground. In November 1846 former Ranger Capt. Samuel Walker, who then was with the United States Mounted Riflemen, negotiated for the production of 1,000 revolvers, but with some improvements. The redesigned revolver incorporated a fixed trigger with a guard and loading lever beneath its nine-inch barrel and a six-shot cylinder designed for a .44 caliber bullet. The gun ended up weighting a hefty 4 pounds and 9 ounces.

[elfenix 34168]

2 years ago today:

Edited February 25, 2019 by elfenix

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 26, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park. Covering 1,217,262 acres of Arizona, the park protects most of the Grand Canyon from development and human encroachment. The canyon itself is a significant location for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the vastness of geological history it represents -- though, to be fair, even those who do not fully understand what they are looking at are at least awed by the magnificence of the aesthetic qualities of the Grand Canyon. Gouged out of the desert southwest by the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and attains a depth of over a mile, exposing at least 17 million years of geological history.

Though in the 4.5 billion year life of the Earth this represents only four tenths of one percent of all of planetary history (0.4%, or four in 10,000 -- basically a cosmic blink of an eye), it is still a huge swath of time for our species -- the first creatures remotely similar to modern humans only appeared, huddled on the edges of the Mediterranean, after the Grand Canyon had been around for 16.5 million years.

And while to modern eyes with any kind of science education at all, it is obvious how the Canyon got there, and how long it must have taken, it was only in 1785 that James Hutton, the father of modern Geology, presented a paper entitled "Theory of the Earth" to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in which he argued that the Earth must be older than 6,000 years (as suggested by a literal interpretation of The Bible.

[phdhorn 6224]

More of a birthday thing than history per se, but happy memorial b-day: