Daily History

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited but imagination encircles the world"

                                        Albert Einstein

There has been a heck of a rock slide on I-40 at exit 3 near the Tennessee/North Carolina line. One car has already ran into the slide. The North Carolina Highway Patrol has posted a detour and said that it will be a matter on months before the road will be opened. A while back my brother and I went to the Knoxville, Tennessee area to visit a bass boat manufacturing plant. My brother was considering getting a larger, more fancy-shmantsy boat and it would not do to not go to a boat dealer but to go to the manufacturing plant itself. We went from Asheville, NC to Knoxville via I-40 through the Cumberland Gap. It was crooked and steep, y'all. There were places where a vertical sheer cliffs going up and going down were less than 6 feet from the road. It was spooky at times.

Last Friday evening a 73 year old Taylors, SC man and his 68 year old bride named Homer and Joann Staton were seen at the "Old Country Buffet" in Greenville, SC having dinner. Saturday they were reported missing. Monday morning the corpse of an elderly man later identified as Homer was found about 30 miles away along with an automobile. The car was registered to Homer Stanton. His wife was nowhere to be found. The police will not release any more information for now.

Down in Davie, Florida a three year old boy told his Dad that a man had been molesting him. The Dad went off the deep end and he and the kid's mother beat the hell out of the alleged molester using a concrete block as a weapon. The molester had to be put into a drug induced coma to help prevent the brain from swelling to a fatal size. Legal authorities said that the people that did the beating will get more time in the joint than the molester. Friends of the two said they they just snapped when they heard what had happened to their kid. It would not do for me to find out that someone hurt my kids....even to this day.

The jury in the judge Herman Thomas case in Mobile has rendered an decision. He was ruled as "Not Guilty" on all charges. A jury of seven women and five men said that all 11 of the prosecuter's witnesses were convicted felons and could not be trusted to tell the truth.

There was a three car crash over in Mobile over the weekend caused by a 17 year old kid that was probably driving impaired. In that mess was a 23 year old woman that was 8 months pregnant. The crash fractured her pelvic bone and at the same time she went into labor. They rushed her to the hospital and took the baby by Cesarean Section. The baby is fine but the mother is in a body cast thanks to a doped up kid.

Good news:

After two years of surgery and chemotherapy for a brain tumor, little 9 year old Allison Winn of Denver has become a cancer survivor. She said that the presence of her dog Coco during her convalescence made her feel better. Her doctors confirm that the recovery was hastened by the snuggling of Coco, a mixed breed, mostly Australian sheep dog. Allison decides that she wants to do something for the other kids with cancer in her hospital and sets up a "hot biscuits and lemonade stand". She made the biscuits in the shape of Milk Bone dog snack. She gathered up about $1,000 and starts looking for a deserving kid with cancer and a well mannered dog. She found a two year old name Krysta that had a tumor on her medulla and the surgery made her legally blind. Allison makes arrangement for Krysta and her parents to meet with her and her parents at the Colorado Women's Department of Corrections who trained Coco and several other "care" dogs. They let little Krysta wander around sniffing and feeling until she stopped and laid her little head on the back of a gentle black lab that she named Lucky Bug. Everybody felt better.

This date in history October 27

1864    After several months of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia US General U.S. Grant decides that if he can cut the Confederate supply line and that being the Southside railroad that was bringing supplies in from the west the siege would be over. He assigns this task to US General George Meade who delegates three of his Corp led by Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, G.K. Warren and John Parke to attack the Confederate trenches near the railroad at a small creek named Hatcher’s Run. The combined forces would be about 40,000 infantry and a detachment of cavalry. The plan was for Warren and Parke to attack from the front and Hancock to circle and attack the Confederate flank. On this date the attack began. The frontal assault ran into trouble when the Confederate trenches proved to be more heavily defended than expected. But they kept demonstrating to try and conceal Hancock’s flanking movement. Because different units attacking from the front moved at different speeds a gap in the Union line occurred. Meade ordered the attack to slow down to close this gap. It was then that the Confederates launch a successful counter-attack and drove the Union troops attacking the front from the field and then turned their attention to Hancock and repulsed that attack. Finally Meade ordered a total withdrawal. It was very embarrassing failure for the Union and could have effected the upcoming presidential election. But Lincoln depended of the recent victories at Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama to tide him over and he was re-elected.

1962    Earlier the US intelligence community had discovered Russian medium range nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. President Kennedy asked for confirmation and several over flights were made to photograph the construction sites there. And sure enough, the confirmation came. The missiles if launched from Cuba could strike anywhere in the US, Central America, northern South America and all of the Caribbean. President Kennedy made a TV speech telling the Americans what was happening and what we were going to do about it. He also warned the Russians that any attack launched from Cuba would be interpreted as an attack by Russia and an appropriate response would be forthcoming. The big bombers and missiles of the Strategic Air Command went to “Defcon 4” status meaning that the next step would be nuclear war. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships headed for Cuba, only he called it a“quarantine”. Very soon thereafter a Russian cargo vessel with missiles aboard approached the naval blockade and the world held its breath. There was no doubt that had the ship attempted to break the blockade it would have been sunk and the risk of world war would have increased dramatically. But the ship slowed to a stop and eventually turned back to Russia. While all of this is going on, negotiations between the US and Russia kept the telephone lines hot. The final offer was that Russia would withdraw their missiles from Cuba if the US would promise to never invade Cuba and withdraw their missiles from Turkey. The US had already begun the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey so the deal was acceptable. On this date, the deal between the US and Russia was agreed upon by both parties and a potential world war was averted. I was sweating bullets that whole time. It was a scary thought to believe that this day on the planet could be your last.

1659    On this date William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson are hanged on Boston Common in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their only crime was their religious belief, they were both Quakers and Quakers were forbidden by law under the penalty of death. Both Robinson and Stevenson had come to the colonies from England to escape religious persecution in 1656, believe it or not. Rhode Island and several other New England colonies accepted the Quakers, but not the hard-assed Bostonians. That law was later repealed. I have no clue as to why those from Massachusetts hated the Quakers. As we all know, the Quakers are some of the gentlest people out there.

1873    On this date a man named Joseph Glidden from DeKalb, Illinois is granted a patent for barbed wire. Glidden had seen a semblance of barbed wire at an exposition but it was single stranded. Glidden improved this concept by twisting two wires together which held the actual barbs in position. From this day forward the method of raising cattle changed forever. There would be no more cattle ranging and grazing free across the Great Plains. There were young wars fought over lands that were fenced and blocked cattle from ranging free and from finding water. What a shame.

861    In this year the wild-eyed Vikings successfully attack Paris, Toulouse, Aix-la Chapelle and Worms. They came to these towns by sailing their dragon boats across the North Sea and then down the west coast of Europe and up the Rhine and Seine rivers. This was no easy trick. Those rivers had a considerable downstream current and being able to reach those towns deep inland took a lot of rowing. But they were equal to the task and conquered most of Western Europe and even Russia by sailing down the Volga River from the Black Sea. They were so successful with their rape and pillage that there little doubt that all of us that have ancestry from Western Europe have Scandinavian blood flowing in our veins.

Births and deaths:

1858    One of my heroes Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is born in upstate New York. He said “I think there is only one quality worse that having a hard heart and that is having a soft head.” When asked what was going to be his philosophy on the Presidency, he said “Speak softy but carry a big stick.” We need more leaders like Teddy.

1874    Business giant Owen Young is born. He said “When it comes to modern business crooks are not feared as much as an honest man who does not know what he is doing.” Hey Owen, what about women?

1914    Welch poet Dylan Thomas is born. He said “An alcoholic is a person you don’t like that drinks as much as you.” I know several.

1963    Bimbo Marla Maples is born. When meeting Tina Louise who played Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island she said “I loved Ginger, I have patterned my life after her.” Marla has a great body and face but she is very, very short on ambition.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow