Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first"

                                            Bill Gates

This will the last lesson until this coming weekend. My daughters are in town.

On Tuesday morning a Spartanburg, SC cop spotted a suspicious car and ran the tag number. It came back as stolen. They light the car up and gave chase. The driver stopped and jumped out of the car and fired a shot at the cops, the cops returned fire and the driver jumped back in and drove away. There was a medium speed chase for a while then the driver stopped again, jumped out and fired another round and then threw the gun down and surrendered. It is a miracle that the cops did not kill him anyway. They take dim view of being shot at.

Down in Fairhope, Alabama the police were notified that man was holed up in the Ravenite Pizzaria across the street from the police station. The man had threatened to blow the building up and the police out side could smell gas coming from the building. A police negotiator was able to get in contact with the man inside but that did not work out. Then the cops called in a SWAT team who threw in a flash-bang grenade, kicked in the door and arrested the man without a fight. It turned out that the man was the owner, Rick Gambino. I guess Rick was in financial trouble and was trying to burn the business down. I also suspect he was trying to use his name as a draw to his business. The story is that one of the gathering spots for the Gambino crime family in New York City was the "Ravenite Club". The last crime boss that frequented that place was "The Teflon Don" John Gotti. John has since gone on to his reward.

Good News:

Kim Yamagucci up in Portmouth, New Hampshire has a son with severe autism and cerebral palsy. 15 year old Jason must be transported twice a week over 100 miles for treatment. Kim knew that her 1998 Ford Taurus was on its last legs and she would hold her breath when trying to start it. This past week she recieved a 2008 Chevrolet Impala as a gift from famous NASCAR car owner Rick Hendrick. The car came through the "Good News Foundation" which was founded for the purpose helping those in need with transportation.

This date in history November 25

1783    On this date nearly 3 months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War, the final contingent of British soldiers leaves New York City. New York had been continuously occupied by the British since 1776. As soon as the British withdrew, a Patriot army led by George Washington marches in triumph into the city amid a jubilant crowd. Soon thereafter New York was declared the capitol of the United States and that is where George Washington received his first inauguration as President. New York was the capitol until 1790 and then the capitol was moved to Philadelphia. As you might suspect, the Americans that remained loyal to England during the war were between a rock and a hard place after the British left, the victorious Patriots had confiscated their lands and property. But England did not disappoint and gave lands in Ontario and Nova Scotia to the Loyalists. This event seriously changed the demographics and changed eastern Canada from a new France to a majority of English speaking protestants.

1863    On this day US General Ulysses Grant breaks the siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee. A substantial number of Union troops were trapped in a semi-circle in the city of Chattanooga and had been there for several weeks with no apparent way out. When Grant arrived on the scene he changed the strategy of defense to one of aggressive offense. After opening a supply line by driving the Confederates away from the Tennessee River in mid October, he planned a breakout to begin of November 23. The attack was in three parts with US General William T. Sherman on the left flank and US General Joseph Hooker on the right. Both on these attacks failed but the attack on the center led by US General George succeeded. The success came primarily because of confusion in the orders on both sides. Eventually, the Union troops pushed the Confederates out of their poorly prepared rifle pits and then on to the top of the ridge they were defending. This battle was know afterward as the Battle of Missionary Ridge and went a long way toward driving the Confederates out of Tennessee. After this debacle the overall Confederate commander, CSA General Braxton Bragg, blamed everyone but himself for the loss. But CSA President Jefferson Davis was not fooled and pressed for Bragg to resign which he did by having lost the confidence of his troops. His replacement was CSA General Joseph E. Johnston.

1950    The so-called “Storm of the Century” or the “Appalachian Storm” gets underway. A low pressure system over North Carolina gets some rotation and forms into a major storm and heads northeast. This monster dumped massive amounts of snow on West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The snow depth prevented travel in many areas for a week, and then it gathers some steam and heads into New England. It wasn’t just the snow it was the wind also. New York city recorded wind speeds of 94 MPH and on Bear Mountain north of New York there was a gust of 140 MPH recorded. The temperature on Mount Mitchell, North Carolina fell to 26 degrees below that night. The strange thing was that in Buffalo, New York the wind reached a speed of 50 MPH but the temperature never got below 50 degrees. The US weather service reported that this storm had the greatest difference in weather ever recorded in America. Over 160 people died in this storm.

1876    On this date the US Cavalry launches a retaliatory raid against the Cheyenne for the Little Big Horn massacre of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry. After news of this event reached the east coast a public outcry was raised to intensify the “Indian War”. So the US Cavalry called up US General Ranald McKenzie from the Texas area to lead an expedition to find and punish the Cheyenne. McKenzie had good results fighting the Comanche and Kiowa tribes in Texas. He gathered 1,000 troopers and 400 Indian guides and headed out. He tracked down the Powder River and finally found a Cheyenne village under the leadership of chief Dull Knife. Then the troopers did the honorable thing. They got into position before daylight and opened fired on the sleeping village at dawn. Many Indians were killed instantly but many escaped into the nearby woods and had to watch many more being slaughtered and their winter food supplies and clothing being burned. The troopers were not done yet. They cut the throats of all of the Cheyenne ponies. After the troopers left the survivors began a 11 day journey to the village of Sioux chief Crazy Horse who took them in but many very young and elderly did not survive the walk. The next year Dull Knife talked his people into surrendering and they were sent to the “Indian Nation” in what is now the state of Oklahoma.

Born today:

1835    Scottish-US industrialist Andrew Carnegie. He said “The first man gets the oyster and the second one gets the shell.” I am about OD’ed on oysters for the present but I sure that will change.

1846    US temperance leader Carrie Nation. When speaking about cigarette smokers she said “I want all those hellions to quit puffing that hell fume into God’s clean air”. Hell yes Carrie, give me a good old fashioned coal fired power plant any time.

1915    Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. He said “I am not a dictator I just have a grumpy face.” I addition to the ugly face, he has the blood of thousands on his hands that were tortured and killed under his administration.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow