Today in History...

[HouTex 1,850]

1789 Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh in the South Pacific

1942 "WW II" titled so, as result of Gallup Poll

1967 Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army & stripped of boxing title

1969 Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France

 

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

April 28, 1253 CE, Japanese Buddhist teacher Nichiren first taught the "Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō" (English: "Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra" or "Glory to the Sutra of the Lotus of the Supreme Law"). This mantra formed the basis of Nichiren Buddhism (Japanese: "Hokke-kei Bukkyo"), which is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism and belongs to the schools of so-called "Kamakura Buddhism".

Nichiren Buddhism, as is true of so many uniquely Japanese cultural expressions, is a grab-bag of contradictions. In addition to focus on the Lotus Sutra with its attendant belief that all people have an innate Buddha nature and are therefore inherently capable of attaining enlightenment in their current form and present lifetime... Nicheren Buddhism is also noted for its opposition to any other form of Buddhism, which Nichiren saw as deviating from the Buddhist truth he had discovered.

Paradoxically, of course, Nichiren Buddhism is also a comprehensive term covering several major schools and many sub-schools, as well as several of Japan's new religions. Its many denominations have in common a focus on the chanting and recital of the Lotus Sutra, which is thought to hold "extraordinary power". So, it is both particularly exclusive and universally inclusive.

If you want to be a fundamentalist Buddhist (and, sadly, you can be a fundamentalist anything), Nichiren is probably the school of Buddhist thought for you. Which isn't to say there aren't numerous very enlightened devotees of Nichiren, just that if you want to find a "rigid Buddhist" that's the best place to start looking. You'll know him when you meet him -- he'll be the guy explaining to someone else that they are using the wrong technique when clapping with one hand.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

April 29th is the Saint Day for "Torpes of Pisa" (originally a gladiator or knight in Nero's imperial Roman court who went by the Roman name "Caïus Silvius Torpetius"). 

Torpes is actually an important saint for a variety of communities in both the Roman Catholic and Russian/Greek/Eastern Orthodox worlds. In French he is "Saint Tropez" and is commemorated with a city bearing his name. In Italian, he is alternatively "Torpete", "Torpes", or "Torpè", with villages, buildings and statuary scattered about in numerous Italian cities (though, of course, most notably Pisa, though the Genoan church of San Torpete is also very famous). 

In Russian, he is "Апо́стол Трофи́м" -- of course, as none of the stories about him are particularly credible, it's hard to say why the Russians care, but since he is the patron saint of sailors, it is easy to see how his legend spread far and wide.

Apart from the fact that he was, at some point, martyred (Vatican historians say he died in 65 AD), nothing else is known about his life. He is first mentioned in sources dating from the 9th century. 

The Roman Catholic version of his story is that Torpes was converted by Paul in Rome, and that shortly thereafter, Emperor Nero held a big party where he declared that the Goddess Diana was the creator of the universe. Torpes disagreed, so naturally, Nero cut off his head and dumped him in the Arno river.

In 1284 (about a hundred years after the first Pisan church was dedicated in Torpes' name), the civil code of the Republic of Pisa established April 29 as his feast day; he is credited with staving off the plague in 1633, though evidently he doesn't have any power to intercede against the leaning of towers.

[Armybrat 40,710]

23 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

April 28, 1253 CE, Japanese Buddhist teacher Nichiren first taught the "Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō" (English: "Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra" or "Glory to the Sutra of the Lotus of the Supreme Law"). This mantra formed the basis of Nichiren Buddhism (Japanese: "Hokke-kei Bukkyo"), which is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism and belongs to the schools of so-called "Kamakura Buddhism".

Nichiren Buddhism, as is true of so many uniquely Japanese cultural expressions, is a grab-bag of contradictions. In addition to focus on the Lotus Sutra with its attendant belief that all people have an innate Buddha nature and are therefore inherently capable of attaining enlightenment in their current form and present lifetime... Nicheren Buddhism is also noted for its opposition to any other form of Buddhism, which Nichiren saw as deviating from the Buddhist truth he had discovered.

Paradoxically, of course, Nichiren Buddhism is also a comprehensive term covering several major schools and many sub-schools, as well as several of Japan's new religions. Its many denominations have in common a focus on the chanting and recital of the Lotus Sutra, which is thought to hold "extraordinary power". So, it is both particularly exclusive and universally inclusive.

If you want to be a fundamentalist Buddhist (and, sadly, you can be a fundamentalist anything), Nichiren is probably the school of Buddhist thought for you. Which isn't to say there aren't numerous very enlightened devotees of Nichiren, just that if you want to find a "rigid Buddhist" that's the best place to start looking. You'll know him when you meet him -- he'll be the guy explaining to someone else that they are using the wrong technique when clapping with one hand.

Fat man out front already told me all that.

[HouTex 1,850]

1912 108°F (42°C), Tuguegarao, Philippines (Oceania record)

1945 German armies in Italy sign an unconditional surrender to the Western Allies to be carried out on 2 May

1945 US Army liberates 31,601 in Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany

1965 Earthquake hits Seattle; 5 die

1975 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war

1975 Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge are the last two United States servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War

1990 Wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate

1992 Jury acquits LA police officers of beating Rodney King, riots begin

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,781]

1975 Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge are the last two United States servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

This is technically true since it states in Vietnam. However, the Mayaguez Incident in May 1975 is considered to be the last official battle of the Vietnam War. The Americans killed in it are considered to be the last official casualties. The 3 U.S. Marines that were left behind and later executed are the last names on the Vietnam Memorial.

Thus is a pretty good read on the incident:

[shakahorn 1,625]

7 hours ago, HouTex said:

1912 108°F (42°C), Tuguegarao, Philippines (Oceania record)

...

I didn't think that the Philippines were part of Oceania.

[ztejas 43,262]

6 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

This is technically true since it states in Vietnam. However, the Mayaguez Incident in May 1975 is considered to be the last official battle of the Vietnam War. The Americans killed in it are considered to be the last official casualties. The 3 U.S. Marines that were left behind and later executed are the last names on the Vietnam Memorial.

Thus is a pretty good read on the incident:

Says a lot about that war that the last casualties were executed. 

[El Diablo 4,232]

April 30th, 1993, top-ranked women's tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg, Germany, by a man who described himself as a fan of second-ranked German player Steffi Graf. 

Kinda defeated?

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

Since 2011, UNESCO (in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz) recognizes April 30th as "International Jazz Day" and extols “the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.” In 2012, the first annual International Jazz Day celebrations began in Paris, dedicated by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock.

Non-jazz fans, of course, are only familiar with Hancock's mid-80s electro-funk pop crossover work ("Rockit" was a fixture on early MTV, back when that station played music videos), but jazz fans will always associate him with his work with Miles Davis, who himself represents a human billboard for the genre, having played with every major artist from the start of the Be-Bop era, inventing "Cool", playing straight-ahead and acid jazz, rock crossover, and even playing with a lot of today's West coast "smooth" jazz musicians before his death in 1991.

While jazz is truly the most American art form one may find, it has also acquired an undeniable international flavor over the years. Brazil, France and Morocco are just a handful of the places where the most prominent musicians of the last 100 years have all been heavily influenced by jazz, and the idioms in any jazz standards book can be heard in flamenco, salsa, fado, afropop, soul, R&B, and even a lot of contemporary classical compositions. If the blues is the language of the heart, jazz is the language of the soul.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

No offense to Jackie Robinson, but... the actual first African-American to play major league baseball was Moses Fleetwood Walker, who on May 1, 1884, made his Major League debut for the Toledo Blue Stockings (then of the National League) against the Louisville Eclipse. In his debut, he went hitless and had four errors. In 42 games, Walker had a batting average of .263, which was above the league average. His brother, Weldy Walker, later joined him on the team, playing in six games.

Walker's teammate and star pitcher, Tony Mullane, stated Walker "was the best catcher I ever worked with, but I disliked a Negro and whenever I had to pitch to him I used to pitch anything I wanted without looking at his signals." Mullane's view hurt the team, as there were a number of passed balls and several injuries suffered by Walker, including a broken rib, ending his season by July. The Toledo ball club folded at the end of the year, which just proves karma is a bitch.

Walker returned to the minor leagues after his injury, and by 1888 major league baseball instituted their racist "baseball color line" which would stand until Jackie Robinson finally broke through for good in 1946, fifty-eight years later.

[Llano Estacado 1,257]

1888 - Patent #382,280 was granted to Nikola Tesla for the "electrical transmission of power. Expanding on US # 256,562.

“The method herein described of transmitting power by electro-magnetic motors, which consists in continuously and progressively shifting the poles of one element of the motor by alternating currents and magnetizing the other element by a direct and continuous current, as set forth”

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

On 4/29/2019 at 5:56 PM, shakahorn said:

I didn't think that the Philippines were part of Oceania.

What's significant about Oceania or the 108 F record ?

[Trey3216 15,325]

1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

What's significant about Oceania or the 108 F record ?

At least is wasn’t Oceanic 815

[HouTex 1,850]

1795 Kamehameha, King of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and conquors island of Oʻahu at Battle of Nuʻuanu (approx. date)

1931 Empire State Building opens in New York City

1941 General Mills introduces CheeriOats (renamed Cheerios in 1945) an oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal

1943 Food rationing begins in the United States during World War II

1945 About 1,000 citizens of Demmin in Germany, commit suicide provoked by occupation by Soviet Red Army

1945 Admiral Karl Doenitz forms German government

1960 Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk

1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba

1986 Russian news agency Tass reports Chernobyl nuclear power plant mishap

[MadBurgerMaker 403]

On 4/29/2019 at 4:56 PM, shakahorn said:

I didn't think that the Philippines were part of Oceania.

Airstrip Two? 

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3,861]

2 hours ago, HouTex said:

1960 Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk

This is the dude in Bridge of Spies.

[shakahorn 1,625]

7 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

What's significant about Oceania or the 108 F record ?

Oceania is the region of the Pacific Ocean that is basically made up of a bunch of islands.  Subgroups include Polynesia (triangle bordered by Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand) as well as Micronesia and Melanesia.  So the record temp in Oceania is like saying the record temp in North America, or the record temp in Australia, for example.  I suppose some folks consider a record temp to be significant.

I hope this was a serious question (or as serious as a question can be here) and I didn't fall for some kind of joke that went straight over my head.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

38 minutes ago, shakahorn said:

Oceania is the region of the Pacific Ocean that is basically made up of a bunch of islands.  Subgroups include Polynesia (triangle bordered by Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand) as well as Micronesia and Melanesia.  So the record temp in Oceania is like saying the record temp in North America, or the record temp in Australia, for example.  I suppose some folks consider a record temp to be significant.

I hope this was a serious question (or as serious as a question can be here) and I didn't fall for some kind of joke that went straight over my head.

No serious question, I've never heard the term Oceania, makes sense.  Thanks for the info.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

Dos de Mayo is an important day in Spain (particularly Madrid) as it is the anniversary of the May 2, 1808 rebellion by the people of Madrid against the occupation of the city by French troops under Napoleon, which naturally elicited a criminally severe response from the French imperial forces, and led to the Penninsular War. 

The French had occupied Madrid for a little over a month; the immediate spark of the May 2nd rebellion was the attempt by French Marshal Joachim Murat to send the daughter of Spanish King Charles IV and the Infante Francisco de Paula to the French city of Bayonne, essentially as prisoners. A crowd gathered at the Royal Palace to prevent the removal of Francisco de Paula. Murat sent grenadiers and artillery detachments, and opened fire on the crowd.

Rioting throughout the city ensued; the heavily armed French eventually beat off the poorly armed peasants in street fighting -- Goya's famous painting "The Charge of the Mamelukes" is the closest thing we have to a photo of the event.

Napoleon being Napoleon, death sentences were decreed for all of those captured who were bearing weapons of any kind. In a statement issued that day Murat said: "The population of Madrid, led astray, has given itself to revolt and murder. French blood has flowed. It demands vengeance. All those arrested in the uprising, arms in hand, will be shot." Tyranny being tyranny, this did not quell the rebellion as the French had hoped. The "Guerra de la Independencia Española" (Spanish War of Independence) would last until 1814, but it certainly got a boost in popular appeal from the very repression the French thought would end it.

May 2nd is now a public holiday in Madrid. The place where the artillery barracks of Monteleón was located is now a square called the Plaza Dos de Mayo, and the district surrounding the square is known as Malasaña in memory of one of the heroines of the revolt, the teenager Manuela Malasaña, who was executed by French troops in the aftermath of the revolt. Several memorials to the heroes of 2 May are located over the city, including the "Monumento a los Caidos por España" (Monument to the fallen of Spain).

[gecko 1,104]

[Parliament 14,121]

Sent to his 72 virgin goats in 2011. Keep on smiling, Motherfucker.

 

What was the last thing to go through Osama Bin Laden's mind before he died?

 

An American bullet.

 

 

[HouTex 1,850]

1536 Anne Boleyn is arrested and taken to the Tower of London

1890 Territory of Oklahoma created

1908 "Take me out to the Ball Game" registered for copyright.

1945 More than 1,000,000 German soldiers officially surrender to the Western Allies in Italy and Austria

2011 Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan

 

[HouTex 1,850]

1802 Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city

1846 Mexican Army begins the Siege of Fort Texas near Brownsville, Texas, during the Mexican-American War

1947 Japan's post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan's right to make war

1978 First unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail ("spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the US west coast

1991 356th & final episode of CBS second longest running series "Dallas", (2nd only to "Gunsmoke")

1999 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is slammed by an F5 tornado killing forty-two people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak.

1999 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

May 3rd, 1877, Labatt Park opened in London, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest continuously operating baseball stadium in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records has had some back-and-forth over the years between Labatt and Fuller Field in Clinton, Massachusetts, which opened in 1878, owing to the fact that the location of home plate at Labatt had been changed at one point, whereas it has remained in the same exact spot at Fuller Field since it first opened.

Which just goes to show, there is no detail, no matter how minute, that baseball purists won't argue about.

[Parliament 14,121]

Four Kent State students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard on this date in 1970.

 

What the world calls a tragedy, Texas calls, "a good start."

 

 

 

[Armybrat 40,710]

I shall refrain from negging your shitty post.... only because I don’t like to play those CR games anymore.

[HouTex 1,850]

1942 Battle of Coral Sea begins (1st naval battle fought solely in air) between Japanese, US and Australian navies and air forces

1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1982 British destroyer HMS Sheffield hit by Exocet rocket off Falkland Islands: 20 of her crew died.

1998 A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

2007 Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7m wide EF-5 tornado

2012 14 decapitated bodies and 9 hung from a bridge are found in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

 

[Armybrat 40,710]

My British bud was an RAF Chinook crew chief in the Falklands during that little war. He still doesn’t have much good to say about Argentina.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

May 5, 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began dismantling the Confederacy in Virginia in a battle which, at the time, few observers understood was a microcosm of why Union victory was inevitable. The "Battle of the Wilderness" is often described as a tactical standoff, with neither side winning the field.

This way of looking at the battle, though, represents the fundamental problem with military philosophy generally, and more specifically, what was wrong with the military philosophy of rebel generals in the Civil War, and also that of all the Union generals who had preceded Grant (and none of whom accomplished much of anything during the first 3 1/2 years of the war).

Union casualties in the Wilderness were higher than those of the Confederacy, and this is the first thing military traditionalists look at to say "Grant was fighting a war of attrition." That is not strictly true, though, or is at the very least a gross oversimplification.

Grant had a particular objective -- the destruction of Lee's army. Tactical success (especially as measured by those who simply compare casualty numbers) had always been gauged by success in "taking the field" -- but not only is that measure strategically unimportant (ie, has no bearing on the long term goal), it is also a poor way to evaluate the success of the tactics in play. 

Grant wasn't trying to "win the field" in the Wilderness; he was trying to force Lee to be on the defensive. Not just strategically (in terms of dictating what Lee would do in the weeks and months ahead), but also tactically (in terms of what would Lee have to do for the next few minutes), the start of the Wilderness campaign showed Grant forcing the rebels to be continuously in their lines, at all times. 

At no point were even the rebel counter-assaults effective at doing anything other than changing Union formations. Grants' "tactics" then ought not be measured by how they relate to "taking the field" -- measure his tactical success against how his approach to line-of-battle kept Johnny Reb from advancing or draining the Union will-to-fight.

Grant's orders to Gen. George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, highlight this truth: "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." That was his tactical choice and his strategic choice all rolled into one. "The Battle of the Wilderness" was not just a separate battle. It was an emblematic statement that this nonsense ends. Now. And Grant made good on those words.

[HouTex 1,850]

1891 Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in New York, Tchaikovsky is guest conductor

1904 Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in "modern" baseball for Boston Americans against Philadelphia Athletics's (3-0)

1955 West Germany is granted full sovereignty by its three occupying powers

1961 Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)

1965 First large-scale US Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam

1973 99th Kentucky Derby: Ron Turcotte aboard Secretariat wins in 1:59.4 - fastest Kentucky Derby ever

[El Diablo 4,232]

May 6, 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

May 6th is Hıdırellez (Azerbaijani "Xıdır İlyas") in Turkey and several surrounding countries. Slavic Christians in the region celebrate Đurđevdan ("Ђурђевдан" in Serbian, "Gergyovden" in Bulgarian, "Jurjevo" in Croatian and Bosnian or "Gjurgjuvden" - "Ѓурѓовден" in Macedonian, or "George's day" in English).

For Muslims, Hidirellez celebrates the day on which the Prophets Hızır (Al-Khidr) and Ilyas (Elijah) met on the earth. 

For Christians, the feast of Saint George is one of the most important Christian saint days in Orthodox churches, as George is the patron saint of Slav, Georgian and Circassian Christian warriors, Cossacks, Chetniks, and armies. He is typically depicted killing a dragon, which makes his iconography popular among preadolescent boys, one would imagine, though probably less popular with dragons.

For both religions, this holiday is attached to the tradition of celebrating the beginning of spring, and is accompanied by some of the best food this side of the Levant.

[phdhorn 6,224]

7 hours ago, El Diablo said:

May 6, 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4

Yup.  It was thought that this was physically impossible by human beings and could never be achieved.

[Armybrat 40,710]

7 hours ago, El Diablo said:

May 6, 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4

I remember the worldwide sensation it created. Too bad for Wes Santee of Kansas who had held the record at 4:00.5

Bannister just passed away a few months ago.

Edited May 6, 2019 by Armybrat

[HouTex 1,850]

1937 German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, NJ (36 die)

1941 At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show

1942 Corregidor & Philippines surrender to Japanese Armies

1994 Channel tunnel linking England & France officially opens

[El Diablo 4,232]

51 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

I remember the worldwide sensation it created. Too bad for Wes Santee of Kansas who had held the record at 4:00.5

Bannister just passed away a few months ago.

Jim Ryun was a childhood hero of sorts for me, back when T&F was still a sport people talked about outside of the Olympics and the mile run was still a thing.

[phdhorn 6,224]

On 5/5/2019 at 9:30 AM, HouTex said:

1891 Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in New York, Tchaikovsky is guest conductor

1904 Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in "modern" baseball for Boston Americans against Philadelphia Athletics's (3-0)

1955 West Germany is granted full sovereignty by its three occupying powers

1961 Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)

1965 First large-scale US Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam

1973 99th Kentucky Derby: Ron Turcotte aboard Secretariat wins in 1:59.4 - fastest Kentucky Derby ever

Man, that's a helluva list of historic events.

I'm not sure if I ever saw anything blow me away like Secretariat running that Belmont (June 9, 1973),  My god was that unbelievable.

Edited May 6, 2019 by phdhorn

[HouTex 1,850]

That Belmont race was unbelievable.  It's still the record--and he wasn't pushed.

[El Diablo 4,232]

Lol, people my age grew up thinking a Triple Crown winner was no big deal (Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed). Who knew it'd be nearly 40 more years before we had another? 

[F250 28,674]

This message was sent by Eisenhower 74 years ago.

 

"The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945."

 

[Trey3216 15,325]

21 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Man, that's a helluva list of historic events.

I'm not sure if I ever saw anything blow me away like Secretariat running that Belmont (June 9, 1973),  My god was that unbelievable.

One of the best sports photographs of all time

[El Diablo 4,232]

May 8, 1846—173 years ago today—the first major battle of the Mexican War was fought at a site north of present day Brownsville as American forces commanded by Gen. Zachary Taylor faced General Mariano Arista’s Mexican troops. The Battle of Palo Alto, which started at around 2 p.m. and last until twilight, ended in a stalemate. As darkness descended, the two armies camped on the battlefield. The Mexican Army reported 102 killed, 129 wounded and 26 missing including deserters. The American Army reported five dead and 43 injured. American forces defeated the Mexican Army the next day at the battle of Resaca de la Palma.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

Ocho de Mayo es el Natalicio de Miguel Hidalgo. Born May 8, 1753, Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo-Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor, usually referred to as Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, is widely considered the instigator of the Mexican independence movement.

The second-born child of Don Cristóbal Hidalgo y Costilla and Doña Ana María Gallaga, Hidalgo belonged to the "criollo" caste, making him a 2nd class citizen vis-a-vis Spanish-born "Spaniards" but ranking him above the "mestizo" peasants, who were not only not born in Spain, but had both Spanish and Amerindian ancestry. Both of Hidalgo's parents were descended from well-respected families within the criollo community.

Hidalgo's father was a hacienda manager, which presented Hidalgo with the opportunity to learn at a young age to speak the indigenous languages of the laborers, something that would be important later in life as he associated more with being "Mexican" than with being "pureblooded".

His family provided him with a first rate education, first sending him to Jesuit schools and, after university, helping him gain ordination by the time he was 25. He was not your typical 18th century Mexican priest, however.

Highly influenced by Enlightenment philosophers, he renounced the "divine right of kings" and rejected church orthodoxy, including the power of the popes, the virgin birth, and clerical celibacy. He had what modern Americans would call a common-law wife in María Manuela Herrera, and fathered two daughters out of wedlock with her, and later fathered three other children with a woman named Josefa Quintana.

Spanish authorities were less concerned with his personal life, though, than with his democratic ideals. As parish priest in both San Felipe and Dolores, he opened his house to indigenous folk and mestizos as well as creoles. His care and concern for the people under his pastoral care eventually led him to the Diez y Seis de Septiembre "Grito de Dolores" speech given in 1810 in the small town of Dolores (near Guanajuato), the "Cry of Dolores" which launched the Mexican war of Independence.

[HouTex 1,850]

1945 German General Wilhelm Keitel formally surrenders to the Allies represented by the United States, the UK, France and the Soviet Union in Berlin

1961 1st practical sea water conversion plant-Freeport, Texas

1963 "Dr No" premieres in US

1963 JFK offers Israel assistance against aggression

1994 President Clinton announces US will no longer repatriate boat people

[Carl Spackler 3,461]

On 5/3/2019 at 6:42 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

Which just goes to show, there is no detail, no matter how minute, that baseball purists won't argue about.

I disagree.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,781]

No you don’t

[Bullneck 18,983]

On 5/1/2019 at 10:52 AM, Trey3216 said:

At least is wasn’t Oceanic 815

Oceanic 220, 221, whatever it takes.

[El Diablo 4,232]

May 9, 1930—89 years ago today—a mob stormed the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman and lynched a black farmhand accused of raping a white woman. The Texas State Historical Association described the riot that ensued as one of the worst examples of racial violence during the Great Depression. A small detachment of Texas Rangers that included the legendary Frank Hamer was unable to stop the mob, which burned the courthouse and much of the community’s black business section. Gov. Dan Moody imposed martial law. Ultimately just 14 men were indicted on charges stemming from the mayhem, none of them for the lynching. Just two of the 14 were convicted, one of arson and one of rioting.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

8 hours ago, Bullneck said:

Oceanic 220, 221, whatever it takes.

Umm 815 ... 816... it is Oceanic scale after all.