Today in History...

[El Diablo 4232]

March 25th, 2018 - SurlyHorns is born after the sudden evacuation of Chocolate Bayou.

[Armybrat 40710]

Well, that’s one year of my life I’ll never get back.

[El Diablo 4232]

March 26, 1918—101 years ago today—Gov. William P. Hobby signed the Primary Suffrage Bill, which gave women in Texas the right to vote, but only in primary elections. To win full suffrage would have required an amendment to the Texas Constitution, but primary suffrage required only a simple majority vote by the Texas Legislature. Women were able to vote in the primary election in July 1918, but another year passed before the U.S. Senate finally passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919 and another year more passed before the amendment was ratified in August 1920, giving women the right to vote nationally. Texas was the ninth state in the U.S. and the first in the south to vote to ratify the amendment.

[Wally Fairway 5517]

40 years ago a rivalry started that would reenergize the NBA
Magic vs. Larry is born

 

[Parliament 14121]

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 3/25/2019 at 11:02 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

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.

What, no Haggis ??

[Deej 76524]

Ponce De Leon sights Florida. News of the weird is never the same.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 27th, 1329, Pope John XXII issued "In Agro Dominico", a papal Bull which condemned 28 articles from the teaching of Meister Eckhart, a German theologian who frequently preached in the vernacular, taking as his theme the practical application of scripture-as-metaphor to direct his flock towards the idea of personal spiritual and psychological renewal. In other words... "How does this biblical story apply to your life? What lessons can you learn from this?"

The Archbishop of Cologne was highly influential amongst the numerous critics of Eckhart, which makes sense given that during the time of the Avignon Papacy, the German Church sought to be unified and centralized in an effort to fend off the hated French, so Eckhart's highly individualistic and personal theological approach was not exactly "Catholic" in the political sense.

In point of fact, Eckhart was never formally convicted of heresy, and while the church condemned all his writings, they were still widely circulated throughout Europe for the next several hundred years, and the modern Church has even adopted many of them in their reformed view of the world. Eckhart's influence is strongly felt to this day in the preaching of any pastor (Catholic, Protestant, or "other") who prefers to see spiritual enlightenment as a holistic rather than legalistic endeavor.

[Armybrat 40710]

23 hours ago, Deej said:

Ponce De Leon sights Florida. News of the weird is never the same.

Ponce de Leon’s house in San Juan, Puerto Rico served as the commanding officer’s quarters when we were stationed at Fort Brooke (1950-1954). It was called Casa Blanca. I think it is a museum now. 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Armybrat

[Deej 76524]

How did you and Ponce get along?

[Armybrat 40710]

His family moved out not long before we were transferred there.

On a serious note, a friend of the family who owned a plantation outside the town of Ponce on the south side of the island was old enough to celebrate the defeat of the Spaniards in 1898, and welcomed the occupying American forces. 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 28, 845 C.E., Paris was overrun by Vikings, who extracted an exorbitant sum for the kind and honorable deed of leaving without burning every single building or ravishing every single maiden (though, obviously, more than a handful of maidens went missing the next day, Vikings being the big scary dudes they were, and historical humanity being as barbaric as it was).

The most likely candidate amongst the more famous Norse raiders who might have been responsible for this conquest was Ragnarr Loðbrók (English "Ragnar Lodbrok") which roughly translates to "Hairy Breeches" -- if you can think of a better Viking name, kudos to you -- Lodbrok's progeny are reputedly the sires of nobility in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and England, and while most boasting from Vikings is every bit as much to be doubted as boasting from any collection of drunken sportsfans anywhere... this is probably true.

The sacking of Paris was not a feat to be compared to any of a number of less financially significant, but more militarily improbable, feats in the Viking encyclopedia. The French at the time were, frankly, exceptionally vulnerable. Nevertheless, the fact of Nordic influence in that region, at that time, is a remarkable signpost for the power and influence of the Nordic culture in all kinds of disproportion to their relatively small population -- the Vikings were a one-hundred-percent, all-in, get outta the way kind of culture. Just sayin'.

[El Diablo 4232]

March 29th, 1974, eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on federal charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University. (The charges were later dismissed.)

 

[Armybrat 40710]

Ugly episode that was preceded the day before by anti-war protestors burning down the Kent State ROTC building.

Then the dumbass National Guard officers had their troops showupwithlive ammo the next day to confront the mob. Geez us that was sad, as the dead were not a part of the protest mob, just students in the far background walking to class. Commanders should’ve faced manslaughter charges, and protest leaders charged with inciting the arson. Imo.

[Underdog 28443]

March 29th,1976:  The Indiana Hoosiers defeat Michigan Wolverines 86-68 to complete an undefeated season, the last team to do so. 

[El Diablo 4232]

45 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Ugly episode that was preceded the day before by anti-war protestors burning down the Kent State ROTC building.

Then the dumbass National Guard officers had their troops showupwithlive ammo the next day to confront the mob. Geez us that was sad, as the dead were not a part of the protest mob, just students in the far background walking to class. Commanders should’ve faced manslaughter charges, and protest leaders charged with inciting the arson. Imo.

This summer will be 50 years since "the summer of love". What a long, strange trip it has been.

[HouTex 1850]

1848 Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam

1943 Meat, butter & cheese rationed in US during WW II

1945 World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England

1951 American citizens Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted and sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union

1973 US troops leave Vietnam, 9 yrs after Tonkin Resolution

1999 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 - above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever

2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members

[shakahorn 1625]

4 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Ugly episode that was preceded the day before by anti-war protestors burning down the Kent State ROTC building.

Then the dumbass National Guard officers had their troops showupwithlive ammo the next day to confront the mob. Geez us that was sad, as the dead were not a part of the protest mob, just students in the far background walking to class. Commanders should’ve faced manslaughter charges, and protest leaders charged with inciting the arson. Imo.

I didn't know that the students killed were not part of the protest.  

[Armybrat 40710]

Some were not, some may have been. That was a long time ago and the exact details are a bit fuzzy. There are plenty of contemporary articles about the event that can be found.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 29, 1886, American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton brewed the very first batch of what would later be marketed as "Coca-Cola". He sold the rights to the formula shortly before his death, which is good, because "Pemberton Cola" just doesn't have the same ring to it. "Give me an ice cold Pemberton" sounds dorky, you've got to admit.

The current formula for Coca-Cola is a trade secret, but over the years it has been tampered with and tweaked so often that it no longer bears much resemblance to the original version, which included not insignificant quantities of cocaine, hence the moniker. I'm willing to bet it still tasted better than "New Coke" though.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

March 30, 1282 (Easter, that year, as it turns out), the "Vespiri siciliani" (English "Sicilian Vespers") saw Sicilians initiate a successful rebellion against the French under Charles I, who had controlled Sicily since 1266. Over the course of the next six weeks, three thousand French casualties led to their abandonment of the island, and one of the few high points in Sicilian history as an independent people.

While most Americans tend to think of "Italy" as a unified entity, and include Sicily in that generic category of "where pasta comes from" -- reality is (as it so often is when compared to American high school history textbooks) far more complicated. In the post-Roman era (and, truthfully, even during the 1,000 years of the Roman Empire), the Italian peninsula (even independently of the far more volatile island of Sicily) was really constituted of a patchwork quilt of different city-states/ruling powers/strong military positions easy to defend but not so easy from which to launch successful attacks, and so "Italy" (let alone "Sicily") as a separate country is really a fairly recent invention. Italian independence is a 19th century creation.

The "Kingdom of Sicily" in contrast existed from 1130 C.E. to 1816 C.E.; however, for most of that time period, while it was technically an independent kingdom... in reality, it was ruled from somewhere else. Founded by Norman (French descendant of Vikings) Roger I, the Kingdom of Sicily was taken not from "Italian" Sicilians, but from Arab control -- Muslim architecture and cultural influence is to this day obvious to anyone who cares to look on the island of Sicily.

The Vespers revolt was against French/Capetian rulers who were only one of a long line of continental usurpers -- and, let's face it, situated where it is, Sicily would have to be considered prime territory for the French, Spanish, Germans, Austrians, Turks, and anybody else who has ever, at any point in history, had any imperial aspirations in the Mediterranean.

For a brief shining moment in 1282, though, the Sicilians stood tall and claimed their land as their own. The fact that they spent the next several centuries being passed between the various rulers of Aragon and Spain, Bourbon or otherwise, should in no way lessen one's desire on this day, at least, for a plate of eggs and peppers done up just like Mama Corleone would make.

[HenryJames 65884]

 

[El Diablo 4232]

April 1, 2003, American troops entered a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, and rescued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed on March 23.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 1, 1957, one of the better April Fool's jokes in history came to fruition, as the BBC current-affairs programme "Panorama" broadcast a three minute report showing a family from the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from their backyard spaghetti tree. 

The now-ubiquitous pasta was a rarity in Britain at the time, so for several days after pulling their little prank, BBC receptionists reported taking calls asking for advice on where to find and how to grow spaghetti trees in the U.K.  An estimated 8 million viewers had seen the broadcast; BBC's answer, according to some of the duped who later recalled having made the fateful phone calls, was to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce, and hope for the best."
 
The funniest part of this whole story, to me, is the fact that Italy is actually a net importer of spaghetti, in spite of being the nation typically associated with the king-of-pastas.  Germany, Switzerland and Austria are all major producers of the noodles, which makes the relative obscurity of this particular bit of unbelievable news tripe all the more authentic.  Sorta.

[HouTex 1850]

1778 New Orleans businessman Oliver Pollock creates the "$" symbol

1924 Hitler sentenced to 5 years labor for "Beer Hall Putsch"

1934 Clyde Barrow kills two young highway patrolmen, H. D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, at the intersection of Route 114 near Grapevine, Texas. Bonnie Parker's role in the murders helps turn public perception against the gang for good

1945 Battle of Okinawa: US ground forces invade Okinawa during World War II in the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific theater

1947 1st Jewish immigrants to Israel disembark at Port of Eilat

1952 Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow

1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs' parents house in Cupertino, California

1986 World oil prices dip below $10 a barrel

[HouTex 1850]

1513 Explorer Juan Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain as the first known European to reach Florida

1876 Philadelphia A's and Boston Red Caps play 1st NL game, in Philadelphia

1917 US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany

1921 Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new "Theory of Relativity"

1932 Charles Lindbergh turns over $50,000 as ransom for his kidnapped son

1978 Velcro was 1st put on the market

1982 Several thousand Argentine troops seize the Falkland Islands from Great Britain

 

[El Diablo 4232]

13 minutes ago, HouTex said:

1982 Several thousand Argentine troops seize the Falkland Islands from Great Britain

 

Ah yes, the F******* Island war. If I recall correctly that was the first time a navy ship was sunk from beyond the horizon by an air launched missile, the jet never made visual contact. The Argentinians launched a French Exocet from a Super Etendard I think and sank the HMS Sheffield.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 2nd is the feast day of Saint Brónach (sometimes anglicised to Bronagh), a 6th century Irish priestess and disciple of Saint Patrick. 

Typically referred to as a nun in modern Catholic parlance, she was nevertheless one of the founders of Celtic Christian traditions which were very much unlike those in the rest of the Catholic world -- perhaps it was their distance from Rome that made enforcement of archaic rules such as no women priests, no married priests, etc. virtually impossible... or perhaps it was simply the Irish penchant for thinking for themselves, but either way, her influence was so strong as to even survive the cultural hegemony of the reconquest of Ireland in the coming centuries. 

Think of her as an abbess if you wish; the truth is, she was a priest, even if not in name.

According to the genealogies of the saints, she is the mother of Saint Mo Chóe of Nendrum and herself a daughter of Míliucc maccu Buain. Her strongest associations culturally in Ireland are with the refuge she built for sailors shipwrecked in Carlingford Lough, where the belltower warned of any rising storms; Cell Brónche ("church of Brónach"), in County Down, suffered damage in the 1641 Rebellion, and was raided and defiled in Cromwellian times, but it is still standing and in relatively good condition to this day.

[HouTex 1850]

17 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Ah yes, the F******* Island war. If I recall correctly that was the first time a navy ship was sunk from beyond the horizon by an air launched missile, the jet never made visual contact. The Argentinians launched a French Exocet from a Super Etendard I think and sank the HMS Sheffield.

Yes, and they lost a few other ships as well.  Thatcher was pissed and the Brits kicked ass.  The Wiki is interesting.  US Navy people thought there was no way the Brits could re-take the islands.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

1921 Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new "Theory of Relativity"

A young man in the audience, blows everyone away as he reasons out the existence of good and God.

That student’s name - Halbert Heinstein, which would go on to create great confusion.

[El Diablo 4232]

2 hours ago, HouTex said:

Yes, and they lost a few other ships as well.  Thatcher was pissed and the Brits kicked ass.  The Wiki is interesting.  US Navy people thought there was no way the Brits could re-take the islands.

I was in the US Navy at the time and we followed the action with great interest. At the time I was on a quasi-military ship deployed to the Med and Khadafi was claiming ridiculous territorial waters. The realization of what a single shot could do to a combat ship was eye opening. Our defenses consisted of a .38 revolver that the OOD had on his hip during port calls. We joked that if the Libyans wanted to paddle out and throw rocks at us, there wasn't much we could do about it.

[Armybrat 40710]

7 hours ago, El Diablo said:

Ah yes, the F******* Island war. If I recall correctly that was the first time a navy ship was sunk from beyond the horizon by an air launched missile, the jet never made visual contact. The Argentinians launched a French Exocet from a Super Etendard I think and sank the HMS Sheffield.

The Exocet hit the “Shiny Sheffield” all right - in the superstructure - but it was the ensuing fire  that eventually sank her. The aluminum alloy used in the superstructure  burned so hot the crew could not put the blaze out. IIRC, she sank the next day. Another warship, the Antelope,  met the same fate, as did one of the fleet’s huge supply ships. 

A Brit nuclear attack sub sank the Belgrano, an old WWII era Cruiser sold to Argentina by the US. The Argentine Navy never sent their own aircraft carrier out to fight the English.

A very good friend of mine was a RAF Chinook crew chief in that bizarre little conflict.

[El Diablo 4232]

April 3, 1860—159 years ago today—the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, better known as the Pony Express, began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento, Calif. For $5 per ½ ounce, the express could deliver mail from coast to coast in about 10 days, although the price later dropped to $1 per ½ ounce. The service was doomed almost from the beginning, however. About 10 weeks after the Pony Express started, Congress passed a bill directing the Secretary of the Treasury to subsidize construction of a transcontinental telegraph line, which was completed in late October 1861. The Pony Express became history a month later.

[DaysOff 7843]

Amazed that Pony Express is part of our lexicon as it was short lived and failed from the start.

[El Diablo 4232]

22 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

Amazed that Pony Express is part of our lexicon as it was short lived and failed from the start.

Same thing I was thinking, I had not realized that it was such a short lived enterprise. I guess the romantic images it conjures is what carried the phrase into the history books more than anything. That and Craig James killing those 5 hookers.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 4, 1887, Susanna M. Salter was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas. She was the first female elected official in the United States; being the mayor of Argonia, Kansas, in 1887, of course, meant that very little actually happened during her term, but her election did bring international attention to the little town.

An active member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, as well as the Prohibition Party, she was a familiar of nationally prominent activists like Carrie Nation, in addition to being a well-connected member of what might pass for the Kansas elite at the time (she met her husband, Lewis Salter, son of a former Kansas Lt. Governor, at Kansas State Agricultural College.)

Argonia was incorporated in 1885; her father and husband were the first mayor and city clerk, respectively. She served for only one year, not seeking re-election, and was paid the high-and-mighty sum of one U.S. dollar for her work as mayor. While debate raged high and wide at the time about "petticoat rule" the fact is, her having been the mother of nine children was unquestionably more difficult than her having been the mayor of a town with few residents and fewer prospects. All the same, she certainly didn't do any worse than a man would have done (the place didn't burn down, after all), and she blazed a much-needed trail.

If you ever find yourself in Argonia, Kansas, the house where she lived during her term as mayor was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and is without question the only building in town worth visiting. No offense, Kansas. It's just... yeah. As of the 2010 census, Argonia had 501 residents. It's safe to say Ms. Salter represented their high-water mark.

[HouTex 1850]

1818 Congress decides on the US flag: 13 red & white stripes & 20 stars

1900 Assassination attempt on Prince of Wales, later British King Edward VII when shot by Jean-Baptiste Sipido in protest over Boer war

1902 Cecil Rhodes scholarship fund forms with $10 million

1917 US Senate agrees (82-6) to participate in WWI

1920 Arabs attack Jews in Jerusalem

1945 US forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany

1968 US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee

1975 Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800

1987 Dow Jones up 69.89 points, ending at record 2,390.34 pts

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 5, 1566, the "Compromise of Nobles" (Dutch "Eedverbond der Edelen"; French "Compromis des Nobles") represented the petition of Dutch nobility to Margaret of Parma, the Regent appointed by Phillip II of Spain to rule over the Netherlands. 

Phillip II was, of course, a Habsburg monarch, more-or-less Austrian, and Catholic to the core. The Netherlands, meanwhile, were a hotbed of Lutheran and Calvinist Protestantism, and the Spanish response to the rise of non-Catholic thought amongst their subjects in the Low Countries was the issuance of "placards" -- basically, rules making various aspects of Protestant worship capital offenses. Taking communion from a married person, for example, was punishable by death. You know, reasonable laws like that, :rolleyes:.

The petition presented to Margaret of Parma was widely circulated amongst the notable persons of the Netherlands, and because getting all the desired signatures required making it known that the document had been written and was being actively promulgated, the officers of the court made it exceptionally difficult to follow the normal procedures for presenting requests of this sort. In the end, nearly 300 nobles marched through Brussels to the Regent's Court and read the petition aloud to Margaret without having been invited to do so.

Reports were naturally fired off to Phillip II, who took his own sweet time in finally formally rejecting the requests to, you know, stop killing people for thinking differently from him. The natural consequence was the 80 years War, Dutch independence, and many would argue, the beginning of the end of the Spanish empire. At the very least, Catholic fundamentalism was about to suffer its worst defeat since the ascendance of Lutheranism in Germany, and arguably their most important defeat outside of King Henry VIII's abdication of Catholicism in England.

[RPM 26208]

On April 6, 1962, the world met it's most formidable opponent.

[Armybrat 40710]

On 4/3/2019 at 7:57 AM, El Diablo said:

Same thing I was thinking, I had not realized that it was such a short lived enterprise. I guess the romantic images it conjures is what carried the phrase into the history books more than anything. That and Craig James killing those 5 hookers.

Bill Cody was the most famous of the riders for  the Pony Express, then Pony Bob Haslam who once rode 300+ miles in about 30 hours. Rider Billy Tate, age 14, was attacked by Paiute injuns and killed 7 of them in a shootout before being shot dead full of arrows.

[Armybrat 40710]

7 hours ago, RPM said:

On April 6, 1962, the world met it's most formidable opponent.

Happy Birthday!  🎂

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 6, 1962, brilliant conductor Leonard Bernstein and brilliant pianist Glenn Gould collaborated on a performance of Brahms' First Piano Concerto which launched the kind of absurd responses from critics that highlight the most fundamental problem with those who claim "sure and certain knowledge" of what is true and good in subjective endeavors which do not allow of "sure and certain knowledge" -- one can easily tell a pompous ass from a true connoisseur simply by their response to the controversy.

Basically, Gould (ever an iconoclast) had a radical departure in his interpretation of Brahms' work wherein he broke practically every dynamic and tempo rule any classical music enthusiast had ever had up to that time; Bernstein, ever grateful to work with artists who knew what they were doing, disagreed with Gould, but still wanted to contribute to the effort because, hey, art, right?

Bernstein felt that he needed to make remarks before the performance which would explain that the radical experiment to which people were about to be subjected was basically Gould's idea; Gould himself did not at the time seem to have much problem with Bernstein’s remarks (though armchair psychiatrists in the Classical music criticism world claim to this day that Gould's later hermitlike tendencies -- verging on the stereotypical "nervous breakdown" -- were at least in part a result of this public disclaimer), but conservative critics, who in the classical genre form a majority, were adamant that both Bernstein and Gould had simply gone too far, Bernstein in trying to distance himself from responsibility for the performance, and Gould in having ignored practically every written notation Brahms had made.

Personally? I find Gould's interpretation ponderous and a little silly. Doesn't change the fact that I couldn't touch him with a ninety-nine foot pole either in terms of technique on any given instrument, including kazoo, or in terms of theory, as he undoubtedly forgot more music by the time he was five than I will ever have known. Dude was a genius. And Bernstein was basically just saying to his audience, "Hey, I know what you are about to hear is off the wall. I think so, too. But the guy responsible for it is still better at music than you and me both, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt." Thus is a silly controversy born.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 7, 451 C.E. saw Attila the Hun doing what Attila the Hun did -- fighting and winning -- but it may have marked the beginning of the end for his reign in Europe. 

Having spent the better part of two decades maneuvering and plotting against rival Hun politicians, and thoroughly twisting the tail of Roman / Byzantine generals and civilians alike, Attila in the 450's had already principally conquered or pacified the entirety of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, and was in firm control of modern-day Germany and Switzerland.

In a bizarre plot twist even by Roman and Hunnish standards, Honoria, sister of Roman Emperor Valentinian III, sent Attila a plea to help her get out of an arranged marriage; Attila naturally took this to mean she was proposing to *him* and demanded half of the Western Empire (Gaul, for short) as a dowry.

On April 7, 451, he opened his campaign to take what Honoria "promised" and what Valentinian declined to proffer. In the modern French town of Metz, nestled along the French/German border at the confluence of the Moselle and Seille rivers, Attila began his usual pattern of sacking, looting, cataloguing, blackmailing, torturing where necessary, and just generally being better at all things "conqueror" than everyone else... but somewhere along the way, this campaign proved to be his undoing. 

The Battle of Châlons just a few months later saw Romans under General Flavius Aetius and Visigoth King Theodoric I halt Attila's strategic advance, and the following year, in 452, Attila launched an unsuccessful invasion of the Italian penninsula -- ironically stopped mostly by a horrible famine there which prevented his looting parties from successfully supplying forage and rations for the Hun army.

Two losses in two years for the unbeatable Hun proved too much; he died in 453 -- some accounts say from internal bleeding brought on by getting drunk as a skunk while celebrating his most recent marriage; some accounts say his wife Gudrun (ever handy with a knife as any good Hun wife should be) was less than pleased with him, and the bleeding was not just internal. Either way, the campaign in Gaul, begun in Metz, was his last success.

[Armybrat 40710]

April 7, 1910. Happy Birthday Mother!

(Freshman - Flat River Junior College, Missouri - 1928)

Edited April 7, 2019 by Armybrat
rules

[Parliament 14121]

Oh now you done it...

[Armybrat 40710]

Pardon me for posting memories of my loving mom. She was a grand lady and wonderful mother. I miss her every day and will for my remaining few years. F cancer and COPD.

[abuelo gringo 316]

On 4/6/2019 at 7:38 AM, Armybrat said:

Bill Cody was the most famous of the riders for  the Pony Express, then Pony Bob Haslam who once rode 300+ miles in about 30 hours. Rider Billy Tate, age 14, was attacked by Paiute injuns and killed 7 of them in a shootout before being shot dead full of arrows.

Johnny Fry was the first rider.  He was later killed at the Battle of Baxter Springs (KS) by members of Quantrill's Raiders.

 

BTW there is a Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph, MO.  Well worth the visit if you're in the area.

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by abuelo gringo

[Armybrat 40710]

Haven’t been in it since 1955, but visited the Jesse James house in 1969. Dad’s family is from Nodaway County a few miles north.

[El Diablo 4232]

April 8, 1968—51 years ago today--First Lady Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the Padre Island National Seashore, which is the longest seashore in the National Park System and the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world. The park protects 70 miles of coastline along with dunes, prairies and wind tidal flats. It’s a nesting ground for the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle and a haven for hundreds of species of birds.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

April 8, 1820, a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas uncovered a buried niche within the ancient ruins in the village of Tripiti on the island of Milos.  Inside, he found one of the most famous statues in the ancient Greek pantheon, the Aphrodite of Milos (better known by the Roman name Venus de Milo).  At the time, Milos was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the small Aegean island was far out of the beaten path, but a French naval officer, Olivier Voutier, was exploring the island, and with Kentrotas' help, he was able to extract the statue, which was then purchased by the French ambassador to Turkey, Charles-François de Riffardeau, marquis, later duc de Rivière.
 
Apocryphal tales give various reasons why the arms are broken off, but the fact is, they were missing when the statue was discovered.  Fragmentary evidence suggests that her left hand held an apple (presumably the gift of discord, inscribed kallistēi -- "to the fairest one" -- which set off the Trojan War).
 
One of the most iconic images in Western culture, the statue is now on permanent display at the Louvre.