Today in History...

[HouTex 1894]

1863 Abraham Lincoln signs National Currency Act, establishes single national US currency

1924 Trial against Hitler for treason in "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich begins

1929 US President Calvin Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park

1930 1st red & green traffic lights installed (Manhattan NYC)

1935 Adolf Hitler secretly authorizes formation of the Luftwaffe with Hermann Göring commander-in-chief

1952 PM Winston Churchill announces Britain has its own atomic bomb

1973 Triple Crown horse Secretariat bought for a record $5.7m

1984 Reverend Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called NYC "Hymietown"

1991 Coalition planes bomb Iraqi forces retreating from Kuwait during the Gulf War, killing hundreds and creating the so-called 'Highway of Death'

1993 "World Trade Center bombing of 1993": truck bomb explodes in parking garage of NYC World Trade Center at 12:18pm, killing 6 and injuring over 1,000 in what was the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated on US soil at the time

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

February 28th is Kalevala Day, the day of Finnish Culture in Finland. That may sound redundant, but... there is more cultural crossover in Scandanavia than is generally appreciated; Sweden and Norway both have large Finnish populations. Kalevala Day is not just Finnish, but is also from Finland.

Taking its name from the 19th century epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, this day is not as major, perhaps, as the more widely recognized Finnish holidays (Juhannus, the Finnish Midsummer, for example, when many Finns vacation in their mökki -- summer cottages -- or, obviously Joulu -- the Finnish Christmas, or even Vappu, the Finnish May Day, when Finns come as close to Mardi Gras level revelry as they'll ever get).

So, while Kalevala Day doesn't come with big bonfires, or huge pagan tree decorating parties, or any of that rigamarole, it is nevertheless an important day on which Finns take time to appreciate Finnish literary history, which is rich in poetry and prose, from poets like Lönnrot, of course, but also Aleksis Kivi, Eino Leino, Mika Waltari, Paavo Haavikko, and not least Frans Eemil Sillanpää, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1939. 

In the modern era, Ilkka Remes is an especially popular Finnish thriller novelist. What constitutes "thrilling" in Finland may be cause for a few chuckles, given the extremely introverted character of the typical Finn, but make no mistake, Finnish culture is resplendent.

[HouTex 1894]

1759 Pope Clement XIII allows Bible to be translated into various languages

1784 John Wesley charters Methodist Church

1849 1st boat load of gold rush prospectors arrives in San Francisco from east coast

1953 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer)

1991 Gulf War ends after Iraq accepts a ceasefire following their retreat from Kuwait

1993 Gun battle erupts near Waco, Texas at Branch Davidian compound after FBI attempts a raid

 

[HenryJames 66171]

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 1st is Saint David's Day (Welsh "Dydd Gŵyl Dewi" and don't bother trying to pronounce it, you'll only hurt yourself in the attempt), the feast day of the patron saint of Wales. Tradition holds that St. David died on March 1, 569. For centuries, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi has been the national festival of Wales, though it was not made an official state holiday until the year 2000.

Throughout the world (as a result of the mass exodus of Welsh persons from their traditional homeland during the Middle Ages, when King Arthur – the mythical Celtic/Welsh King-to-beat-all-kings was, alas, driven from power by a combination of alleged black-magic, unfaithful-friend-and-wife, and probably a bad hair day or two) , Welsh communities celebrate the day with some of the least palatable beer imaginable (sorry to any Welsh readers, but blech, you *have* to know that's true, right?) and with eisteddfodau (recitals and concerts), and some curious ginger cookies shaped like uncomfortable goats (I don’t get it either, so please don’t ask).

Historically significant only in Wales, St. David's Day has become more popular in the rest of the world owing to 1) an increased appreciation for the cultures of peoples subsumed by their dominant neighbors (bleeping English...), 2) The breadth of the Welsh diaspora, and 3) the fact that leek and potato soup is really, really good, especially on a day as brisk and chilly as March first usually is in most of the Northern Hemisphere. Of course, it had better be, because, wow is that beer bad.

[Armybrat 40911]

On 2/28/2019 at 9:24 AM, HouTex said:

 

1993 Gun battle erupts near Waco, Texas at Branch Davidian compound after FBI attempts a raid

 

Actually it was the BATFE that attempted the raid, then after they botched it up terribly the USAG sent the FBI in to FUBAR the whole thing.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Armybrat

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

9 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Actually it was the BATFE that attempted the raid, then after they botched it up terribly the USAG sent the FBI in to FUBAR the whole thing.

How can you call it FUBAR, when it gave rise to this?

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On March 2, 1717, "The Loves of Mars and Venus" made its premiere at the Drury Lane Theater in London. 

This was the first time ballet was performed in Britain, ballet having been previously banned (by any and all possible rulers, as it turns out -- first, under Catholic rule, then under the auspices of the Church of England, and of course Oliver Cromwell was hardly likely to support the arts, especially arts that involved scantily clad persons dancing on stage) on the principle that it might lead to people thinking they were not supposed to feel guilty about finding one another sexually attractive, or indeed, even pleasing in a Platonic sense, because who knows what that might lead to? 

Common sense did finally win out, however, and so ballet eventually came to England.

The basis of choreographer John Weaver's ballet was P.A. Motteux's play by the same name, written in 1695. Venus was performed by Hester Santlow, an English dancer and actress widely acclaimed at the time for beauty, willingness to dance, and, oh-by-the-way, maybe she was talented (the malignancy of not appreciating the skill, intelligence, and talent of women who also happen to be physically beautiful is hardly a new thing); while there is some dispute about who played Mars, most historians believe it was French dancer Louis Dupre. No word on how quickly he retreated from the stage at the end of the performance.

[Brisketexan 105337]

And, you know, it’s like, also Texas Independence Day.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 3rd is Hinamatsuri (Japanese 雛祭り), also called "Doll's Day" or "Girls' Day" -- on this day, a set of ornamental dolls called 'hina-ningyō' (雛人形) are displayed on a tiered platform covered with red carpet. The tradition of displaying dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, and members of the court began during the Heian period (794 to 1185 C.E.), when the imperial court presided in Kyoto, and when many of the more interesting Japanese festivals first began.

There is significant patronage of collectors who specialize in Hinamatsuri dolls, both in Japan and throughout the world, based on the global popularity of this quaint Japanese custom. In fact, the Gabinetto Vieusseux library in Florence, Italy, has an annual display instituted many years ago in cooperation with the Italian Embassy of Japan, and, of course, the very significant Japanese population of Hawaii also celebrates this festival. Beginning in the 19th century, a select but financially significant community of collectors in Europe and America began trading in Girls' Day dolls, and that trade continues to this day.

For what it's worth, there is also a Boys' Day, and for anyone offended by the association of dolls with Girls' Day, rest at ease: Boys' Day has the equivalent set of both dolls and fanatical collector activity. It's just not on March 3rd, so I didn't feel the need to talk about it.

[Wally Fairway 5586]

28 years ago today - 1991 (for those of you who were told there would be no math)

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 4, 1776, the Continental Army, under command of General George Washington, put in what might easily be considered one of the hardest night's work in history, fortifying Dorchester Heights (to the south of Boston-proper) with cannon that had been acquired at the siege of Fort Ticonderoga by none other than Benedict Arnold (whose reputation among military historians is legendary, but whose reputation with the general public was utterly and completely subsumed by his later treason), and dragged across frozen wilderness by Colonel Henry Knox (an overweight and utterly un-military-looking bookseller who nevertheless became one of Washington's best subordinate officers).

The British were fully aware that their occupation of Boston (which had, by this time lasted for several years) would be made much more untenable -- even after their victory on the opposite side of town at Breed's Hill, in the battle known as "Bunker Hill" -- by the Americans occupying the heights above town, but they were mollified by their knowledge that fortifying those hills was "virtually impossible" (the exact words in several reports by British officers prior to the Americans proving them ridiculously wrong), owing to the difficulties posed by geography and engineering... basically, the ground did not afford the building of trenches, being too rocky in the main, and too frozen even when there was dirt to be moved.

To get around these difficulties, General Washington had his troops prepare barricades (far behind the lines, out of sight of the Lobsterbacks) made of hay, sticks, twigs, scrap lumber, fence posts, wagon wheels, and anything else they could get their hands on. Then, in the middle of the night, he had his troops assemble this makeshift wall on top of the heights, with the cannon emplaced behind the wall. The few British cannon with the range to hit the heights, both in Fort William and on board the numerous ships in the fleet in the harbor, were utterly incapable of doing any significant damage to these makeshift fortifications. 

Realizing how hopeless his cause was in defending "British" Boston from Washington's superior position, British Commander William Howe made the smart choice and withdrew.

Of course, the British next launched a successful invasion of New York that gave them false confidence that this 'silly rabble' could be easily swept away... but over the following half-a-year-plus, Washington demonstrated the same degree of ingenuity that he had done on Dorchester Heights, first in somehow, against all odds, keeping his rag-tag army intact after having been humiliatingly routed in New York, and then at Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey (where he stunned the British by performing still further tasks the British considered ‘impossible’), and that is why we sing "The Star Spangled Banner" and not "God Save the Queen".

In an interesting parallel, from the "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" files, superior military forces from the United States faced similarly creative North Vietnamese commanders in the 20th century who proved that overwhelming force is, itself, extremely vulnerable. But that's a lesson for another day, I suppose.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 3/3/2019 at 2:52 PM, Wally Fairway said:

28 years ago today - 1991 (for those of you who were told there would be no math)

 

One of the worst, most embarrassing things I've ever seen on film.  How that dept. wasn't successfully sued, and every one of those officers sent to jail was, and still is beyond comprehension to me.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Onboard 2.0

[HouTex 1894]

1628 England's King Charles I grants a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony

1681 English Quaker William Penn receives charter from Charles II, making him sole proprietor of colonial American territory Pennsylvania

1789 1st US Congress meets and declares constitution in effect (9 senators, 13 reps)

1793 Washington's 2nd inauguration as US President, shortest speech (133 words)

1797 John Adams inaugurated as 2nd President of The United States, Thomas Jefferson 2nd Vice President

1801 Thomas Jefferson is the first US President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

1829 Andrew Jackson inaugurated as 7th US President

1845 James K. Polk inaugurated as 11th US President

1861 Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th US President

1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd US President, pledges to pull US out of the Depression, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"

1945 In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Auxiliary Transport Service as a driver.

1957 The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.

1994 4 Arab terrorists found guilty of bombing the World Trade Center

1997 President Clinton bans federally funded human cloning research

2013 The Papal Conclave begins to select the successor of Pope Benedict XVI

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 5, 1824, the First Anglo-Burmese War began. It would last until February of 1826, and marked both the end of the Burmese empire (at least, as respects occupation of land in eastern India), and the end of the East India Company (as a result of the stupidity of having a large military scattered around the globe finally taking its toll on the British economy in the form of a gawd-awful recession), and also the beginning of British military control (and concomitant moral degeneracy) in India, which would only end when Mahatma Gandhi finally managed to torque their spines (and how) in the 20th Century.

Honestly, it is difficult to see how the Anglo-Burmese crisis could have been avoided, since it essentially was comprised of British troops and Burmese troops both fighting over who had the right to oppress the local Indian population. Technically, the causus belli was the Burmese occupation of Salpuri Island (claimed by the East India Company) in September of 1823. Both forces took a few more montauthoritye to full engagement, owing to the lack of cell phones, but hey, it was the age of "might makes right" so you just knew they'd get there eventually. 

Meanwhile, the actual residents of Salpuri Island were conveniently overlooked, owing to the fact that they didn't have artillery, nor did they have the lack of ethics required to use it.

The war ended when Burma was finally defeated at the Battle of Prome (Nov./Dec. 1825) and in the negotiations in the following couple of months, Burma agreed to give up claims on Assam, Manipur, Rakhine, and Taninthayi south of the Salween River. Additionally, the Burmese had to cease intervention in other Indian territories, pay an indemnity, and, oh, by the way, sign a commercial treaty more or less agreeing to only do business with the British. 

If that sounds like a schoolyard bully stealing lunch money, that's only because you are paying attention.

[HenryJames 66171]

 

[HouTex 1894]

Other than the Alamo:

1857 Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court

1886 1st US alternating current power plant starts, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

1889 German firm Bayer patents the medicine aspirin

1944 USAAF begins daylight bombing of Berlin

1951 The trial of Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel Rosenberg begins

1978 Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia

1991 Following Iraq's capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President George H. W. Bush told Congress that "aggression is defeated. The war is over"

 

 

[Wally Fairway 5586]

5 years ago today MH370 went missing

[El Diablo 4232]

March 8th, 1971, Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali by decision in what was billed as "The Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in New York.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Forgot to post yesterday, but pretty cool and varied day in Music history.

3/7/44 - Townes Van Zandt is born in Fort
Worth.
62 - The Beatles make their first radio appearance on BBC. The program was Teenager’s Turn
79 - The Police play at Armadillo World HQs after KLBJ starts playing Roxanne in heavy rotation. Would go to #32 on Billboard
80 - Coal Miner’s Daughter opens. Sissy would get Academy Award later that year.
87 - The Beastie Boys - License to Ill becomes the first rap album to hit #1.

[El Diablo 4232]

March 12th, 1980, a Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. (The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in May 1994.)

[Underdog 28773]

On 3/8/2019 at 7:56 AM, El Diablo said:

March 8th, 1971, Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali by decision in what was billed as "The Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in New York.

On a Monday night of all nights.  

[El Diablo 4232]

6 minutes ago, Underdog said:

On a Monday night of all nights.  

The Garden was booked up the other nights is the only thing I can figure. I can imagine that phone call. "Hey, we'd like to book your venue for the greatest boxing match in history! Oh, Friday's not good?"

[phdhorn 6224]

... I was born (March 12).

Other fun stuff today:

- 1496  Jews expelled forever from Syria ('bout time!)

- 1710  The British guy who wrote "A Hunting We Will Go" and "Rule Britannia" was born.  No, it wasn't David Coverdale.

- 1789  The United States Post Office is established (this is why I'm usually lazy and go apeshit every now and then)

- 1863  Jefferson Davis delivers first "State of the Union" Confederacy address.  Cliff's notes:  White.

- 1884  Mississippi establishes first state (public) all-women's college in the U.S. (Christian College).  Urinal delivery confuses many.

- 1894  First Coca-Cola sold in bottles (illegitimate pregnancies strangely skyrocket for the next year after)

- 1912  Girl Scouts founded in Atlanta.  Aggressive Mothers Cookie Society also founded in Atlanta.

- 1933  Hindenberg orders the Nazi flag the official state flag, orders all other German flags kaput.  (Hugo Boss:  Looks FABULOUS with black!)

- 1938  Austria annexed without a shot to Nazis (no big deal, they were all drunk anyway).

- 1945  Anne Frank dies at Bergen-Belzen Concentration Camp (real fact:  Millie Perkins, who played her in the 1959 movie, was also born this day)

- 1959  Hawaii approved as 50th State by Congress (followed by a series of laws that would make Hawaii hideously expensive)

- 1970  U.S. lowers voting age from 21 to 18.  Bored teens lower drinking age from 16 to 11.

- 1971 Hafez al-Assad elected President of Syria (well he's a tyrant, but he has nice suits and had a hottie wife)

1980  John Wayne Gacy found guilty of 33 murders in Chicago.  Clown car involved.

- 1994  First women priests ordained by Church of England (are you sure about that?  Hard to tell...)

Happy March 12!

 

 

[Underdog 28773]

28 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

The Garden was booked up the other nights is the only thing I can figure. I can imagine that phone call. "Hey, we'd like to book your venue for the greatest boxing match in history! Oh, Friday's not good?"

I remember going to school the next day upset that Ali had lost, but became a fan of Frazier afterwards. 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 13, 1639, Harvard College was named after clergyman John Harvard. There is an amusingly pedantic and pointless debate that rages amongst Harvard historians over whether Harvard was "the" founder of the college, or rather "a" founder of the college, based on the date of his will/bequest, the vote of the Massachusetts Assembly granting the charter of the school, and probably the circumference of the sundial on which his scullery maid dumped the remains of his last chicken soup dinner, but there is no question that the school is named after him.

A clergyman who in the 17th century was considered important in New England, his only truly lasting legacy is the foundation of the university with which academic excellence is most often associated throughout the United States. Vanderbilt University, for example, pompously pretends to be "The Harvard of the South" -- they are no such thing, but the imitation does exhibit flattery of the original.

Our own beloved University of Texas has from time to time had alumni make the silly claim that it is "The Harvard of Public Universities" and, begrudgingly, I admit that the comparison is ridiculous. We Longhorns are, of course, one of "the public Ivies" (state schools with an education some publication somewhere says is equivalent to those in the Ivy League), but the truth is, Harvard and their nemesis Yale are in a category matched in this country only perhaps by Stanford and Cal-Berkeley in terms of quintessential intellectual value (for those wondering, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is actually a private school, the name not withstanding). Texas, Michigan, and a small handful of other public universities are competitive, but c'mon, man, they ain't Harvard.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Walden Ponderer
Holy shit, it's only the 12th? Well, I ain't a Harvard man.

[irishtexan 11522]

5 hours ago, phdhorn said:

... I was born (March 12).

Other fun stuff today:

- 1496  Jews expelled forever from Syria ('bout time!)

- 1710  The British guy who wrote "A Hunting We Will Go" and "Rule Britannia" was born.  No, it wasn't David Coverdale.

- 1789  The United States Post Office is established (this is why I'm usually lazy and go apeshit every now and then)

- 1863  Jefferson Davis delivers first "State of the Union" Confederacy address.  Cliff's notes:  White.

- 1884  Mississippi establishes first state (public) all-women's college in the U.S. (Christian College).  Urinal delivery confuses many.

- 1894  First Coca-Cola sold in bottles (illegitimate pregnancies strangely skyrocket for the next year after)

- 1912  Girl Scouts founded in Atlanta.  Aggressive Mothers Cookie Society also founded in Atlanta.

- 1933  Hindenberg orders the Nazi flag the official state flag, orders all other German flags kaput.  (Hugo Boss:  Looks FABULOUS with black!)

- 1938  Austria annexed without a shot to Nazis (no big deal, they were all drunk anyway).

- 1945  Anne Frank dies at Bergen-Belzen Concentration Camp (real fact:  Millie Perkins, who played her in the 1959 movie, was also born this day)

- 1959  Hawaii approved as 50th State by Congress (followed by a series of laws that would make Hawaii hideously expensive)

- 1970  U.S. lowers voting age from 21 to 18.  Bored teens lower drinking age from 16 to 11.

- 1971 Hafez al-Assad elected President of Syria (well he's a tyrant, but he has nice suits and had a hottie wife)

1980  John Wayne Gacy found guilty of 33 murders in Chicago.  Clown car involved.

- 1994  First women priests ordained by Church of England (are you sure about that?  Hard to tell...)

Happy March 12!

 

 

Happy birthday to our resident weather overlord! 

[F250 28818]

On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted the infamous information management proposal to his boss at CERN called Information Management: A Proposal. It was this proposal that birthed the World Wide Web and unified all of the cretins, pervs and assholes from across the globe.

 

[phdhorn 6224]

2 minutes ago, F250 said:

On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted the infamous information management proposal to his boss at CERN called Information Management: A Proposal. It was this proposal that birthed the World Wide Web and unified all of the cretins, pervs and assholes from across the globe.

 

So, as it was on my birthday, I can put in a legit claim that this event relates to me (hits close to home), and therefore I, too, invented the Internet.

 

[F250 28818]

6 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

So, as it was on my birthday, I can put in a legit claim that this event relates to me (hits close to home), and therefore I, too, invented the Internet.

 

Works for me.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

March 13th, 2018, Joy Behar of "The View" apologized for suggesting that mental illness was behind claims by people that Jesus Christ talks to them; her comment had come during a discussion about Vice President Mike Pence.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

1836 - News of the fall of the Alamo reached General Sam Houston in Gonzales.

1848 - The Texas Legislature passed a bill to establish a state prison. The first prison was the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.

2007 - Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) scored his 500th career goal. (Did not include times he scored on your mom, Dallas socialites, or just some drunk broad outside AA Center)

2014 - In Austin, two people were killed and more than 20 were injured when a DWI suspect smashed through a crowd of people outside the Mohawk Bar. Two of the injured people evenutually pass. SxSW.

[Armybrat 40911]

12 hours ago, F250 said:

On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted the infamous information management proposal to his boss at CERN called Information Management: A Proposal. It was this proposal that birthed the World Wide Web and unified all of the cretins, pervs and assholes from across the globe.

 

Don’t forget the free porn.

[Armybrat 40911]

12 hours ago, phdhorn said:

So, as it was on my birthday, I can put in a legit claim that this event relates to me (hits close to home), and therefore I, too, invented the Internet.

 

Happy belated Birthday to our resident smart dude.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

44 CE- Julius Caesar is assignated. 

On the Ides of March, the conspirators staged a game of gladiatorial sport at Pompey's theatre. The gladiators were provided by Decimus Brutus in case their services were needed. They waited in the great hall of the theatre's quadriportico. Mark Antony went to head Caesar off at the steps of the forum. However, the group of senators intercepted Caesar just as he was passing the Theatre of Pompey, located in the Campus Martius (now adjacent to the Largo di Torre Argentina), and directed him to a room adjoining the east portico.

According to Plutarch, as Caesar arrived at the Senate, Lucius Tillius Cimber presented him with a petition to recall his exiled brother. The other conspirators crowded round to offer their support. Both Plutarch and Suetonius say that Caesar waved him away, but Cimber grabbed Caesar's shoulders and pulled down Caesar's tunic. Caesar then cried to Cimber, "Why, this is violence!" ("Ista quidem vis est!"). At the same time, Casca produced his dagger and made a glancing thrust at the dictator's neck. Caesar turned around quickly and caught Casca by the arm. According to Plutarch, he said in Latin, "Casca, you villain, what are you doing?” Casca, frightened, shouted "Help, brother!" in Greek ("adelphe, boethei"). Within moments, the entire group, including Brutus, was striking out at the dictator. Caesar attempted to get away, but, blinded by blood, he tripped and fell; the men continued stabbing him as he lay defenseless on the lower steps of the portico. According to Eutropius, around 60 or more men participated in the assassination. Caesar was stabbed 23 times. Suetonius relates that a physician who performed an autopsy on Caesar established that only one wound (the second one to his chest) had been fatal. This autopsy report (the earliest known post-mortem report in history) describes that Caesar's death was mostly attributable to blood loss from the multiple stab wounds. 

1985- The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).

1965- President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act. 

1952- In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in a 24-hour period, setting a new world record (March 15 through March 16). 

1944- World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the German-held monastery and stage an assault. 

1917- Nicholas II abdicates the throne in Russia leaving it to his brother the Grand Duke

1916- President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.

1820- Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.

1783-  In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'état never takes place. 

1776- South Carolina becomes the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government. 

1545- The first meeting of the Council of Trent

1493- Columbus arrives in Spain after he discoveres the new world 

280- Sun Hao of Eastern Wu surrenders to Sima Yan which began the Jin Dynasty

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

While March 15th is, of course, the "Ides of March" when Caesar famously proclaimed "Et tu, Brute?" before snuffing it, there is (to my mind at least) a much more important anniversary on this date for American history. After all, if it wasn't Julius Caesar, it would have been any one of a hundred different Roman politicians. Tyrants are a dime a dozen.

However, on March 15, 1781, an American intellectual from Warwick, Rhode Island, lame from birth with one leg longer than the other, who had enlisted in the Rhode Island militia as a private, but whose brilliance quickly caught the attention of his superiors, including General George Washington, inflicted one of the worst "Pyrrhic Victories" on the British of the entire American Revolution.

The Battle of Guilford Court House in North Carolina goes down in most history books as a British victory, but... the reality is far, far different. After Gen. Horatio Gates (the self-styled "Hero of Saratoga" who had piggybacked his fame on the actual feats of Gen. Benedict Arnold and Major Daniel Morgan) failed utterly in the Southern campaign against Charles Cornwallis in South Carolina, Gen. Washington sent Nathanael Greene (he of the nerdy disposition and lame leg) to do his best with untrained troops, no resources, and no reinforcements against the best troops the British had available in the Americas.

Greene's strategy? Lead the British on a goose-chase through the countryside, far from their supply train, make them bleed, make them hungry, make them use every last available resource so that they must choose between reinforcing from their Northern command (and leaving them vulnerable to Washington), or else abandoning the South entirely.

While Greene did have a significant number of Continental regulars (at least, compared to some other American campaigns, though certainly nowhere near enough for a general engagement of the British), he raised militia as he went, and could afford to lose two men to every one the British lost.

His numbers were significantly better than that, though. In boxing terms, at Guilford, Greene stood toe-to-toe with Cornwallis and delivered body-blow after body-blow. The British outnumbered the Americans two-to-one.... but lost a quarter of their men in taking the field. American casualties were much lighter, and while they "lost the field"... they won the war.

Shortly after Guilford, Cornwallis determined that he could not win in the South. He marched North into Virginia... ultimately stopping at Yorktown, where, of course, his army surrendered to the rebels and their newly arrived French allies, to the sound of the then popular song "The World Turned Upside Down."

[HenryJames 66171]

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 17, 180 C.E., Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius died; he had been co-emperor for three years with his son, Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus, better known simply as Commodus.

Marcus Aurelius' death in 180 marked the end of the era of the "Five Good Emperors" (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and, of course, Marcus Aurelius). Commodus was not altogether unlike the complete nutjob caricatured in Joaquin Phoenix' portrayal of him in the 2000 movie "Gladiator" -- most of that movie was apocryphal (and that's putting it mildly), but Commodus was, in fact, a megalomaniacal walking-talking advertisement for the desperate need to get rid of the idea of royalty altogether.

One can only imagine what he would have been like as a politician had he been able to star on his own reality television show. But I digress.

Marcus Aurelius, meanwhile, was probably not as wise, kindly, or fatherly as Richard Harris portrayed him to be in the same film. He was, however, an important figure in the stoic school of philosophy (making him utterly and completely unlike his son), and many of his writings resound to this day as foundational for the fields of logic, psychology, political economy, and really hard to get New York Times crossword clues.

[Parliament 14296]

"A wise man once told me, 'Death smiles on us all.  The only thing we can do is smile back.'"

[HenryJames 66171]

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 19, 1966, Texas Western (now known as the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP), won the Final Four collegiate basketball championship, with an all-black starting lineup -- the first time that had ever been accomplished. While the championship is obviously historic on many levels (it is, in fact, still the only time a university in the state of Texas has won the men's collegiate basketball championship), the more salient point is that UTEP was the first college in any Southern state to integrate its intercollegiate sports programs.

The 2006 movie "Glory Road" stars Josh Lucas playing the role of Don Haskins (the Texas Western coach at the time) and Jon Voight (himself in real life a nasty piece of work) playing legendary Kentucky Wildcats coach Adolph Rupp (who was, like Voight, anything you can think of other than "nice"). The film did not receive especially high critical praise, but people who experienced the events describe it as more or less a fairly accurate portrayal.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published. While at the time the novel was the quintessential antislavery literature, the term "Uncle Tom" has become, in the African-American community, a particularly severe slur. Why the disconnect? There are a number of reasons, none of which (on either side of the argument) are wholly devoid of merit.

The character of Uncle Tom was, of course, the dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his master... he had many, many other elements of his personality which could easily be drawn forth by either an English literature major, or a bored psychologist, but... that sympathy to his oppressors is what rankles many modern readers. Like I said, both points of view have merit, in spite of how utterly and completely incompatible they are.

Stowe's novel represents one of the quirkier elements of sensationalist propaganda (in spite of being on the right side of history, there's no way to deny that that is what the book is); in spite of standing so strongly in favor of abolition, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the same time popularized any number of bigoted opinions about black people -- "mammy", "pickaninny" and "Uncle Tom" are all part of the vernacular to this day, mostly because of this book. It is well worth a read if only to get a better understanding of what the heck it was actually about -- both proponents and antagonists of the "Uncle Tom" concept typically don't really get where it came from. Of course, that's true about a lot of other things, too.

[El Diablo 4232]

March 21st, 1976, champion skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich was shot and killed by his girlfriend, actress-singer Claudine Longet, in the home they had shared in Aspen, Colorado; Longet, who maintained the shooting was an accident, served 30 days in jail for negligent homicide.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

1980 - JR Ewing is shot in season 2 cliffhanger of Dallas. “Who shot JR?” enters the American lexicon.

Also 1980. Ronaldinho is born in Porto Alegre.

Also Brazilian w/ one name recognition - 1960 - Senna is born in São Paulo

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 22, 1972, in Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, the Supreme Court of the United States established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples and, by implication, the right of persons who were not married couples to engage in sexual activity for reasons other than procreation.

The case focused on the constitutionality of a Massachusetts law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people. The 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause was found to have been violated -- married people were clearly afforded rights by the legislation without there having been any clear and compelling need.

Much of the testimony and oral arguments sounded eerily similar to that found in the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision which denied states the right to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

In the Eisenstadt case, the Court suggested that if we grant the State its argument that procreation is a clear and compelling government interest in regulating sexual activity, then by the same logic shouldn't we ban post-menopausal women, men with vasectomies, or persons of either gender who have been found reproductively sterile for whatever reason, from engaging in sexual activity?

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 24, 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to the margrave of Brandenburg-Schedt (Christian Ludwig, who is not remembered nearly as frequently as Bach himself). These, of course, were the Brandenburg Concertos, a collection of instrumental works which represent the finest orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.

The "Concerts avec plusieurs instruments" (Concertos with several instruments) have been recorded in modern times as full orchestral works, as chamber music, and increasingly frequently as piano duets.

My personal preference, of course, is for No. 6 in B flat major, owing to the absence of violins and the dominance of the two violas -- for those unfamiliar, the viola is slightly larger than the violin, and in choral terms could be considered the "alto" to the violin's "soprano"... in practice, it is somewhat more complicated than that, but then, what isn't?

Anyway, while J.S. Bach will never match P.D.Q. Bach for technical proficiency (where's J.S. Bach's concerto for garden hose and trash can, huh?), the Brandenburg Concertos nevertheless represent one of the most important markers in one's cultural education. If public schools didn't do you justice, run out and get a copy today.

[Armybrat 40911]

On 3/22/2019 at 9:39 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

 

In the Eisenstadt case, the Court suggested that if we grant the State its argument that procreation is a clear and compelling government interest in regulating sexual activity, then by the same logic shouldn't we ban post-menopausal women, men with vasectomies, or persons of either gender who have been found reproductively sterile for whatever reason, from engaging in sexual activity?

Hail no!!!!!!

[Loco 3754]

20 years ago today ....

[TexasMan 10987]

27 minutes ago, Loco said:

20 years ago today ....

Forget that, a real classic came out 24 years ago today:

 

 

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 25, 1306, Robert the Bruce assumed the throne as King of Scotland.  Practically everything known about Robert the Bruce in popular culture is, of course, pretty much completely wrong, but then that could be said of practically everything else about Scotland down through the ages, too, so what the hey.
 
For starters, Mel Gibson's melodrama notwithstanding, the Bruce were Anglo-Norman and Gaelic in ancestry, and were one of a wide number of more-or-less legitimate claimants to the Scottish throne... and William Wallace opposed them; "opposed" might be a bit misleading, as it really amounted to never voting the same way in any council or convention, but they were not friendly by any stretch of the imagination.  As Earl of Carrick, Robert the Bruce did actually lend support to each phase of Wallace's revolt against Edward I of England in the 1290's, but there was never any collaboration betwixt the two regarding putting the Bruce on the throne, as Wallace would have preferred John Comyn, the sworn enemy of the Bruce clan.
 
In 1306, of course... Robert the Bruce killed Comyn following an argument outside Greyfriars monastery; Robert was excommunicated by the Pope, but absolved by Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow.  And if that doesn't seem kosher, remember, these are Scots we are talking about -- attempt to govern them at your own peril.  The Pope’s displeasure did not in any way, it seems, discourage the Scottish nobles from crowning Robert on March 25th so, yes, evidently winning cures all.
 
The ultimate battle scene in Gibson's "Bravehart" (which supposedly made Robert the Bruce King) actually took place in 1314, a full eight years into the Bruce's reign, and was not won because "they faught like warrior-poets" or any other such nonsense.  No, it was won because Robert the Bruce was a freaking genius at both strategic and tactical warfare.  "En Schiltron" formations of footmen to defeat cavalry were a) not Wallace's idea, Mr. Gibson, and b) were a lot more complicated than a simple line of pikes.  A truly gifted tactician who gets to pick the field of battle is likely to win nine times out of ten, and that's just what he did.
 
I could go on, but... all this Scotland talk has made me hungry for my morning oatmeal.