Today in History...

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 16, 1755, in the French and Indian Wars, the French surrendered at Fort Beauséjour (later renamed Fort Cumberland by the British), located at the Isthmus of Chignecto in present-day Aulac, New Brunswick, Canada. 

The Battle of Fort Beauséjour marked the beginning of the end for the French Empire in North America, as it ended the conflict known as "Father Le Loutre's War" opening the way for a British offensive in Nova Scotia, an assault the French were incapable of fending off.

In addition to the long term international ramifications of English victory over the French in Canada, the residents comprising the largest population in the territory surrounding the fort (for hundreds of miles around) were the Acadians, who believed that they had been granted the right of neutrality in all future Franco-British conflicts by the “conventions of 1730” -- the British, of course, had other ideas. 

Following the battle, the Acadians were expelled, with the vast majority choosing to emigrate to modern day Louisiana, becoming the Cajuns we all know and are incapable of understanding. Those who managed against all odds to stay in Canada can, with a reasonable degree of justification, be referred to as "Snow Cajuns".

[phdhorn 6225]

Happy Silver Anniversary!  25 years ago today!

[HouTex 1939]

1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'

1939 Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre

1940 General De Gaulle departs Bordeaux for London, and as Churchill put it, "with him left the honor of France."

1962 US Open Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: Jack Nicklaus wins his first major title by 3 strokes in an 18-hole playoff with Arnold Palmer

1970 Edwin Land patents the Polaroid camera

1971 Carole King's album "Tapestry" goes to No. 1 on US album charts and stays there for 15 weeks

1973 US Open Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: Johnny Miller fires a record final round 63 (-8) to win his first major championship, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up John Schlee

 

[Armybrat 41393]

22 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

June 16, 1755, in the French and Indian Wars, the French surrendered at Fort Beauséjour (later renamed Fort Cumberland by the British), located at the Isthmus of Chignecto in present-day Aulac, New Brunswick, Canada. 

The Battle of Fort Beauséjour marked the beginning of the end for the French Empire in North America, as it ended the conflict known as "Father Le Loutre's War" opening the way for a British offensive in Nova Scotia, an assault the French were incapable of fending off.

In addition to the long term international ramifications of English victory over the French in Canada, the residents comprising the largest population in the territory surrounding the fort (for hundreds of miles around) were the Acadians, who believed that they had been granted the right of neutrality in all future Franco-British conflicts by the “conventions of 1730” -- the British, of course, had other ideas. 

Following the battle, the Acadians were expelled, with the vast majority choosing to emigrate to modern day Louisiana, becoming the Cajuns we all know and are incapable of understanding. Those who managed against all odds to stay in Canada can, with a reasonable degree of justification, be referred to as "Snow Cajuns".

My maternal grandma’s family were Acadian French, but they had the good sense to settle in St. Genevieve, Mizzourah instead.

[Sbbruin 22142]

9 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Happy Silver Anniversary!  25 years ago today!

The Juice is Loose!  

What a crazy day and time.  Those murders happened 2 blocks from where my wife (fiance at the time) and I lived.  Mezzaluna Restaurant was 100 yds from our back door.  

But you just wait.  He'll track down the real killer soon.  

Edited June 17, 2019 by Sbbruin

[Underdog 29166]

11 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Happy Silver Anniversary!  25 years ago today!

Picking up the wife at the old Austin airport and we stopped in that little bar to watch some of the chase, thought for sure it would end badly when they got back to his house.  In hindsight, wished it would have now. 

[HouTex 1939]

1812 War of 1812 begins as US declares war against Britain

1815 Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon and France defeated by British forces under Wellington and Prussian troops under Blucher

1940 Winston Churchill's "this was their finest hour" speech urging perseverance

1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane

1960 US Open Men's Golf, Cherry Hills CC: Arnold Palmer stages greatest comeback in tournament history; erases a 7-stroke final round deficit to win his only US Open title by 2 strokes ahead of Jack Nicklaus

1967 US Open Men's Golf, Baltusrol GC: Jack Nicklaus shoots a final round 65 for a new tournament record 275, 4 strokes ahead of Arnold Palmer

1969 "The Wild Bunch", directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, is released

1996 Ted Kaczynski, suspected of being the Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminal counts

 

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 18th is the saint day in both the Maronite Catholic and Coptic Orthodox churches for "Marina the Monk" who, in the 8th century, in Roman occupied northern Syria (modern-day Lebanon), lived a life worthy of a feature-length movie.

Her mother died while she was very young; her wealthy father raised her with the intention of marrying her off to a wealthy suitor, and then giving all his possessions to the poor and retiring to a monastery. Marina told him point blank that he could not save his soul by damning hers; she, too, wanted to live the monastic life. Being somewhat progressive thinking, to say the least, her father agreed. They gave away all their possessions, and together (with Marina wearing men's clothing), joined a monastery and cloistered themselves in deep prayer and fasting for the next 10 years.

When her father died, Marina continued her life as a monk for many years -- her fellow ascetics assumed her soft voice was due to the physical rigors of life as a monk -- until one day, the abbot required her to travel abroad for some service or other, and her life got even more complicated.

She stayed at an inn, where a Roman soldier also happened to be staying. The soldier raped the innkeeper's daughter, and threatened the innkeeper that he would kill them both if, should she get pregnant, he did not "blame it on the monk."

Sure enough, she did, and the innkeeper complained to the abbot. Marina confessed to being the father, rather than admit to being a woman. She was expelled from the monastery, and when the child was born, took it to raise as her own. As the child grew up, the Abbott relented, allowing Marina to return to the monastery (along with "her" son), though with much heavier duties, a burden which eventually led to her illness and death.

Only when she was being prepared for burial did they discover her true identity, and repented greatly for having falsely accused her, and misunderstood the depth of her piety. Numerous miracles were attributed to her by those who prepared her for burial and attended to her final resting place.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 19th is World Sauntering Day, first celebrated in 1979 at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan.

The 660 foot long porch of the Grand Hotel is believed to be the world's longest, and casually strolling along this magnificent feature is one of many laid-back highlights to a visit to this historically relaxed location. W.T. Rabe first proposed World Sauntering Day as a response to the cultural explosion of jogging as an activity, suggesting that instead, we should stop and smell the roses.

Numerous other artists and cultural figures through the years have proposed similar ideas. One of my personal favorites comes from late 80's Austin band Poi Dog Pondering, who argued that "You get to know things better when they go by slow." This echoes Mark Twain's famous disparagement of the game of golf as "a good walk, spoiled."

[HouTex 1939]

1865 Union General Granger declares slaves are free in Texas, now the date the end of slavery is celebrated across the US as Juneteenth

1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes the Senate 73-27

1989 Barry Switzer resigns as head coach of Oklahoma's football team

2018 General Electric is dropped form the Dow Jones Index, the last original member from 1907

[LongestHorn 772]

On this day in 1941, Battleship Texas was being stalked by a Nazi U-203 and her four 21 inch torpedo tubes under the command of Rolf Mutzelburg on her first patrol from Kiel to St. Nazaire in France.

Nazi Commander's request for permission to fire on the Texas were denied when Berlin is reported to have sent the coded message back that read "Don't mess with Texas".

[HouTex 1939]

1782 Congress approves Great Seal of the United States of America and the bald eagle as its symbol

1837 Queen Victoria at 18 ascends British throne following death of uncle King William IV. She rules for 63 years till 1901

1930 British Open Golf, Royal Liverpool GC: Bobby Jones wins his 3rd Open title, 2 strokes ahead of Leo Diegel and Macdonald Smith on his way to the single-season Grand Slam

1967 Mohammed Ali [Cassius Clay] sentenced to 5 years by jury after 21 minutes of deliberation for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War

1975 "Jaws", based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 20, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut delegate Oliver Ellsworth moved to strike the word "National" from the previously approved motion (presented by Edmund Randolph of Virginia) which would have made the name of the new national government "The National Government of the United States".

Ellsworth's motion carried, setting the precedent for what has now been over 200 years of our national legislative figures parsing, dissecting, discussing, arguing, debating, pandering, grandstanding and palavering over minutiae when there is real work to be done. It's a living, I suppose.

[Parliament 14593]

Is that the one with all the male nipples and cod pieces?

[HouTex 1939]

1788 US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it

1968 Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren resigns

1982 John Hinckley found not guilty of 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan by reason of insanity

1992 US Open Men's Golf, Pebble Beach GL: Perennial runner-up Tom Kite breaks through for his only major title, 2 strokes ahead of runner-up Jeff Sluman

2015 US Open Men's Golf, Chambers Bay GC: Jordan Spieth (21) becomes youngest winner since 1923 by 1 shot from Dustin Johnson & Louis Oosthuizen

 

[HouTex 1939]

1633 Galileo Galilei forced to recant his Copernican views that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope

1940 France formally surrenders to Nazi Germany, with the northern half of the country occupied and the south established as the Nazi client state Vichy France

1941 Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany and its allies invade the Soviet Union during WWII, the largest military operation in human history

1981 John McEnroe's famous 'You cannot be serious' rant in 1st round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon

1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 22, 1942, Congress officially adopted "The Pledge of Allegiance" -- its form has varied greatly over the years since its initial appearance in the late 19th century... here's the wording over the years:

1892: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

1945, at the time it became an official pledge outside of Congress: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

In 1954, of course, the words "Under God" were inserted. Several court cases have established that, owing to the insertion of these words, no legal requirement may be enforced on citizens who object to saying the pledge -- cases, by the way, brought by Christians who consider the pledge idolatrous, though obviously atheists object strongly, as well.

The interesting thing to me is that saying a nation is "under God" represents questionable theology every bit as much as it does unsound legal theory. Do we really want to blame God for the failings of government? Compulsory worship has never worked out very well in any of the societies in which it has been practiced.

Ironically, the logic in the case history is not based on the idea of religious freedom, but rather on free speech grounds: no one in the United States may be compelled by law to make statements which they believe to be untrue. As such, if you do not believe that American justice represents "liberty for all" (ex. discrimination against aboriginal Americans, or LGBT Americans, or anyone else) then you do not have to say it does, and the Supreme Court has (multiple times) confirmed that no one may be compelled to state the Pledge, should they desire not to do so.

[Hagbard Celine 11221]

On 6/19/2019 at 5:51 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

June 19th is World Sauntering Day, first celebrated in 1979 at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan.

The 660 foot long porch of the Grand Hotel is believed to be the world's longest, and casually strolling along this magnificent feature is one of many laid-back highlights to a visit to this historically relaxed location. W.T. Rabe first proposed World Sauntering Day as a response to the cultural explosion of jogging as an activity, suggesting that instead, we should stop and smell the roses.

Numerous other artists and cultural figures through the years have proposed similar ideas. One of my personal favorites comes from late 80's Austin band Poi Dog Pondering, who argued that "You get to know things better when they go by slow." This echoes Mark Twain's famous disparagement of the game of golf as "a good walk, spoiled."

June of '85, I had lunch at the Grand Hotel.

[Hagbard Celine 11221]

On 6/17/2019 at 8:04 AM, Armybrat said:

My maternal grandma’s family were Acadian French, but they had the good sense to settle in St. Genevieve, Mizzourah instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_French

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

7 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

June of '85, I had lunch at the Grand Hotel.

Did Zappa and the Mothers play the best place in town?

[Armybrat 41393]

29 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_French

Grandma Maggie’s ancestors first settled in Acadia, then moved west to Quebec in the 17th century - thereby avoiding the big “deportation” at the hands of the British in the 1700s. From Quebec they migrated south along The Mississippi River Valley to southern Illinois, then west across the river into SE Mizzou. They were not related to the Louisiana swamprat Creoles. Grandma Maggie spoke a French dialect as a kid in the 1870s. 

[Smax 3800]

https://twitter.com/adamclanton/status/1142571077165617152

[Smax 3800]

https://twitter.com/adamclanton/status/1142571077165617152

[El Diablo 4232]

June 24, 1860—159 years ago today—Lt. William H. Echols left a frontier-era camel base outside of San Antonio with 20 camels as well as 25 pack mules to map parts of West Texas, identifying water sources and selecting a location for a fort near the trail that Comanche war parties used. They set out four years after the first of about 100 camels arrived at Indianola on the Texas coast for use in Army mapping expeditions. The camels were up to the job, but the Army dropped the program 13 years after it started when political support faded. The camels were set free on the dunes of the Texas Gulf Coast.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 24, 1821, Venezuelan General Simón Bolívar led the Army of Gran Colombia to a decisive victory over Spanish Royalist forces led by Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre, gaining independence for Venezuela. June 24th is celebrated as el Día de la Batalla de Carabobo, with a large military parade, and organized events (particularly for elementary and middle school students throughout Venezuela).

Technically, this was the '2nd Battle of Carabobo (the first having been fought in 1814, and not having been decisive one way or the other).

Carabobo was an interesting and bittersweet moment in Bolívar's life; it was a battle of redemption, as his previously close ally, Francisco Miranda, had taken control of the area from 1810-1812, but in 1812, Bolívar handed Miranda over to the Royalists, falsely believing him to be a traitor to the cause.

Bolívar had to flee Venezuela after Miranda's now leaderless forces floundered, and it took almost another decade before the Army of Gran Colombia was finally strong enough again to challenge the might of Spain.

[HouTex 1939]

1509 Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey

1853 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)

1938 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1948 Soviet Union begins the West Berlin Blockade by stopping access by road, rail and water

1993 Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

3 hours ago, El Diablo said:

The camels were set free on the dunes of the Texas Gulf Coast.

Well, that explains the feral camel problem in Kenedy county.

 

(Only mostly joking, btw. Sightings of feral camels kept happening until well into the 20th century.)

[El Diablo 4232]

7 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

Well, that explains the feral camel problem in Kenedy county.

 

(Only mostly joking, btw. Sightings of feral camels kept happening until well into the 20th century.)

Was it a dry county?

Sorry.

[shakahorn 1656]

55 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

Well, that explains the feral camel problem in Kenedy county.

 

(Only mostly joking, btw. Sightings of feral camels kept happening until well into the 20th century.)

And nowadays, only an occasional toe is seen.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

7 minutes ago, shakahorn said:

And nowadays, only an occasional toe is seen.

You ever been to any of those small towns in Kenedy county? I promise you, the last thing on Earth you want to see is a Kenedy county camel toe.

[NeverMarryAStripper 22287]

June 24, 1860—159 years ago today—Lt. William H. Echols left a frontier-era camel base outside of San Antonio with 20 camels as well as 25 pack mules to map parts of West Texas, identifying water sources and selecting a location for a fort near the trail that Comanche war parties used. They set out four years after the first of about 100 camels arrived at Indianola on the Texas coast for use in Army mapping expeditions. The camels were up to the job, but the Army dropped the program 13 years after it started when political support faded. The camels were set free on the dunes of the Texas Gulf Coast.

I’m pretty sure I’m related to him.

[HouTex 1939]

1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry under Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what has become famously known as "Custer's Last Stand"

1942 Major General Dwight Eisenhower appointed commander of US forces in Europe

1950 North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War

1975 Barry White's "Can't Get Enough of Your Love Babe" is released

1991 Slovenia and Croatia declare independence from Yugoslavia

[Longhorn Al 440]

2009: My granny, Ruby Hazel Saunders Galbreath, died.  She was a couple months short of her 101st birthday.  Can't believe it's been a decade.  Seems like yesterday.

[Lat22 4086]

Same day as Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I remember I was hungover in a bed at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas when I heard the news of both of them. 

[Trey3216 15452]

12 minutes ago, Lat22 said:

Same day as Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I remember I was hungover in a bed at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas when I heard the news of both of them. 

I remember Being at a bar and we jammed the juke machine full of MJ music and got hammered.   It was our generation’s Elvis news 

[HouTex 1939]

1498 Toothbrush invented in China using boar bristles

1945 United Nations Charter signed by 50 nations in San Francisco

1948 US begin airlift “Operation Vittles” to West Berlin

1963 US President John F. Kennedy gives his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" (intended to mean "I am a Berliner", but may actually mean "I am a doughnut") speech in West Berlin

1977 Elvis Presley sings in Indianapolis, the last performance of his career

 

[Armybrat 41393]

I remember the (Operation Vittles) Berlin Airlift. 

My parents used it to shame me into cleaning the veggies off my dinner plate (“Your leftovers there would feed a German kid for a week!”).

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 26th is celebrated in the town of Hamelin, Germany, as "Ratcatcher's Day" in commemoration of the June 26, 1284 (as recorded by the Brothers Grimm) event when the "Pied Piper of Hamelin" (German "Rattenfänger von Hameln") supposedly led all the children out of the village after the villagers had refused to pay him for having similarly led all the rats out of town.

This gruesome tale has been speculated to have originated after a great number of the children in town had either disappeared or simply died -- it being the Middle Ages in a fairly illiterate (at the time) region, the truth is likely to never be known.

Modern observations of the day are fairly low key, though as recently as the early 20th century, professional rat-catchers have played an important role in the control of epidemics, such as the outbreak of bubonic plague in Sydney, Australia.

In Hamelin, the story of the Pied Piper takes center stage; elsewhere, it is is merely a celebration of pest control professionals similar to "Administrative Assistants Day" -- I've never seen a Hallmark "Happy Rat-Catcher's Day" card, but I'm sure they could be talked into printing some.

[HouTex 1939]

1944 Cherbourg, France liberated by Allies

1950 US sends 35 military advisers to South Vietnam

1950 North Korean troops reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea, Harry Truman orders US Air Force & Navy into Korean conflict

1954 1st atomic power station opens - Obninsk, near Moscow in Russia

1962 Ross Perot begins Electronic Data Systems

1967 The world's first ATM is installed in Enfield, London

1976 Air France A-300B Airbus hijacked from Athens arrives at Entebbe, Uganda; four hijackers members Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Bader-Meinhof Gang in Germany

1979 Heavyweight Muhammad Ali confirms that his 3rd retirement is final (it isn't)

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 27th is observed each year in Brazil as "Dia do Mestiço" ("Day of the Mestizo" or "Mixed-Race Day"), as a tip-of-the-hat to the twenty-seven mestiço (mixed-race) representatives elected during the 1st Conference for the Promotion of Racial Equality in 2005.

June was selected as the month in which to observe this holiday in deference to caboclo activist Helda Castro. The city of Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, first recognized this official day in 2006, with multiple states following suit shortly thereafter.

Brazil is one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world, with a huge variety of aboriginal peoples, descendants of Portuguese colonists, descendants of the African diaspora (more slaves were transported to Brazil than to any other country in the Americas), recent European, Arab, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Paraguyan, and Bolivian immigrants... and for two centuries now, Brazil has not only tolerated racial mixing, they have actively encouraged it. By contrast, of course, in the United States, mixed-race marriages have only been legal in most of the country for a little over four decades now.

[El Diablo 4232]

June 28, 1919—100 years ago today—the Texas Legislature voted to ratify the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Texas was the ninth state in the U.S. and the first in the south to vote to ratify the amendment, which was finally ratified on August 17, 1920 with a vote of the Tennessee Legislature. On August 26, 1920, the amendment officially went into effect with the certification of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.

[HouTex 1939]

1776 Final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to Continental Congress

1838 Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey, London

1870 U.S. Congress creates federal holidays (New Years Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day), initially applicable only to federal employees

1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip at 10.45, the casus belli of WWI

1919 Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI and establishing the League of Nations, is signed in France

1924 Tornado strikes Sandusky and Lorain, Ohio, killing 93

1957 Reds' fans stuff ballot box, electing 8 Reds as All Star starters [Frick overrules and names Stan Musial, Willie Mays, & Hank Aaron to team]

1965 1st US ground combat forces in Vietnam authorized by President Lyndon B. Johnson

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

On June 28th, Serbia celebrates the national religious holiday known as Vidovdan (Serbian Cyrillic: Видовдан), which is literally "St. Vitus Day" -- without going into the history of St. Vitus (who was a Sicilian, but whose veneration is observed more in the Balkan states than anywhere else), this is the anniversary of a wide array of significant dates in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia:

- June 28, 1389, in the Battle of Kosovo, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Serbian army, leading to an influx of Ottoman influence and ensuring the continued presence of Islam in the Balkans
- June 28, 1881, the signing of a secret treaty between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, with the Habsburg Empire installing a puppet monarchy in Serbia, which would eventually lead to WW I
- June 28, 1914, “Black Hand” member Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian crown prince (see above on the secret treaty…)
- June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I
- June 28, 1921, Serbian King Alexander I announced the Vidovdan Constitution (Vidovdanski ustav), establishing the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (precursor to “Yugoslavia”)
- June 28, 1948, the Eastern Bloc (dominated by the USSR) published the "Resolution on the State of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia" condemning Yugoslavia’s communist leaders – Josip Broz Tito in particular took exception, leading to a break with the Soviet Union, leading to perhaps the only truly successful communist state in the world over the next four decades with independent Yugoslavia being relatively well-off compared to their Balkan neighbors
- June 28, 1989, Serbian Slobodan Milošević’s “Gazimestan speech” (delivered on the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo) made reference to the possibility of "armed battles" in Serbia's future, a clear foreshadowing of the genocidal civil wars which lasted for most of the 1990s
- June 28, 1990, the Constitution of Croatia was amended to officially make Serbs a “national minority”
- June 28, 2001, Slobodan Milošević was deported to the ICTY to stand trial
- June 28, 2006, the United Nations made Montenegro its 192nd member state
- June 28, 2008 marked the inaugural meeting of the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija

[MAROON 446]

https://www.navy.mil/ah_online/moh/murphy.html

 

today is the 14 year anniversary of Operation Red Wings - one of the costliest operations in US special ops history.  RIP

[shakahorn 1656]

On 6/27/2019 at 9:07 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

...

Brazil is one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world, with a huge variety of aboriginal peoples, descendants of Portuguese colonists, descendants of the African diaspora (more slaves were transported to Brazil than to any other country in the Americas), recent European, Arab, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Paraguyan, and Bolivian immigrants... and for two centuries now, Brazil has not only tolerated racial mixing, they have actively encouraged it. By contrast, of course, in the United States, mixed-race marriages have only been legal in most of the country for a little over four decades now.

Not sure what you mean by "recent" but Asians in Brazil started migrating over there around the same time they came to the US.  Chinese in the early 1800's and Japanese in the early 1900's.  Like in the US, Japanese migration tapered off, but Chinese migration continues, albeit northern Chinese now vs southern Chinese then.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Brazil is in fact very diverse. I was actually just talking about it with my neighbor as he heard me speaking Portuguese to my kids and started asking questions. I typically explain if this way, in the US, the majority (at least in the past) of the “base” population was Anglo and Northern European then you add in a healthy dose of the other ethnicities. Same as in Brazil, but the base was Portuguese followed by Africans, Italians, Germans and Japanese.

I believe it is still the case that the largest Japanese population outside of Japan is in Brazil. By the 3rd generation, most have lost their mother tongue. Of all the Japanese Brazilians I know, only one spoke Japanese fluently and she is 3rd generation Brazilian. She moved to japan with her husband and son and her son is now fluent in both languages.

My wife is ethnically 55% Italian and most of her friends in her hometown have Italian or German surnames. My grandmother was mostly Portuguese and French and was 3rd generation Brazilian on one side.

It is a fascinating country in general, but the ethnic and cultural make up is what makes it that way.

Someone said that race mixing was encouraged there...well, that is a bit of an overreach. There was less stigma there in that regard, but “whitening” is certainly a thing there. Poverty there is closely related to race (not unlike many countries).

One interesting thing that my wife talks about is when she came to the US she had a hard time understanding African Americans talk. She thought it was very interesting that they spoke different than white people. In Brazil if you talk to someone on the phone, you can tell what region or city they are from, but it is unlikely you can discern race.

[El Diablo 4232]

Yeah, my brief visit to Brazil gave me the impression that station and status was very much tied to the lightness or darkness of ones skin. I wasn't there long enough to comment on how they see themselves within the spectrum, just that the darker the people were the more economically challenged they seemed to be, in general. 

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Yeah, my brief visit to Brazil gave me the impression that station and status was very much tied to the lightness or darkness of ones skin. I wasn't there long enough to comment on how they see themselves within the spectrum, just that the darker the people were the more economically challenged they seemed to be, in general. 

Yeah, but you could say that for just about any country that practiced slavery with Africans or perhaps even apartheid.

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Yeah, but you could say that for just about any country that practiced slavery with Africans or perhaps even apartheid.

I was in Salvador Bahia. I know here in the states that there's a hierarchy to some extent among some blacks when it comes to skin coloration and it was the same thing there but when you have an entire population that is predominantly dark skinned it seems a bit ironic. 

Imaginary conversation...

"Screw that black mother fucker"

"But YOU'RE black!"

"Not black like HIM! He's DARK BLACK!" 

I loved Brazil though, fabulous culture and wonderful people.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Bahia is the most "African" part of Brazil.  It is quite different than the southern part or the Amazon.