Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"God does not deduct from a man's life the time spent fishing."

                              Isaak Walton

I have been reading about the worlds most bloody military leaders.

There was one story about Attila the Hun. He and his army was approaching a city in present day Iraq and Attila demanded a surrender. The city leaders agreed to surrender the city if Attila agreed to the stipulation that not one drop of blood would be shed. Attila agreed and then sent in his army and they strangled everybody. No blood was shed.

Another legend was that Genghis Khan approached a sizable city in present day Iran and demanded surrendered. The people of the city refused believing that their 30 foot tall and 16 feet thick walls would prevent the Khan from invading. They were wrong. Genghis Khan had his engineers devise a type of catapult and siege towers. The catapult hurled stones 30 to 50 pounds each against the wall and little by little they chipped away at one spot in the wall until a breach appeared. When the breach was large enough Khan sent in his troops and they slaughtered everyone in the city. Khan had no infantry, but he had 250,000 cavalry that was highly regimented. It was reported that in this campaign Khan killed a million people. Geologists have measured the size of the city and declared that there could not have been more than 150,000 occupants. There no doubt that 150,000 people died in that campaign at the hand of the Khan.

Attila the Hun told the members of a city that they must surrender or face annihilation. The city leaders agreed under the stipulation that no weapons would be used on their children. Attila agreed and sent in his troops and they killed all the adults with arrows and swords. They then herded the children out into an open field and ran them down with their horses until all were killed, but they were not touched by any weapon.

During WWII soon after the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, the allies were moving south in a concentrated line when it was decided that British General Montgomery would pin down the Germans on the left flank near the town of Falaise, France and the rest of the troops would swing like a gate to the eastward. This movement caught about 30,000 German troops in what was later called "The Falaise Pocket". This group of Germans was surrounded on three sides and the Allies poured what was described as a solid sheet of tank and rolling artillery fire from all positions into this pocket for hours. Maybe 2,000 Germans escaped this massacre. General Eisenhower visited this battle ground afterward and later said "You could walk across the corpses of German soldiers for hundreds of yards and not touch the ground". Eisenhower also said that he hoped the German infantry would surrender "Because the German infantry dies hard." There is no doubt that Germans have a fighting spirit and have shown it several times. In WWII they underestimated the fighting spirit of the rest of the world (except the French) and the ability of the United States to produce the tools of war faster than the Axis powers could destroy them.

All of these tales are legend except those of WWII. There is no doubt that these monsters existed because their exploits are documented by the peoples they conquered.

Good news:

Christmas night up in Brampton, Canada Philip Caldas had just finished dinner and had stepped out on the front porch for a smoke. He had just lit up when he saw a flame coming out of the garage on the house across the street. He quickly ran across the street yelling "Fire" along the way. He had seen 3 or 4 propane tanks in the garage. He banged on the door and saw someone slowly shuffling toward the door so he yelled as loud as he could and immigrant Jagdev Singh open the door and quickly ran back inside and hustled the 11 other residents out into the frigid night air. The house was ashes in a matter of minutes. The second floor had collapsed into the first floor with damages of $500,000 but there was no deaths or injuries. I guess this is one of the rare instances where smoking was a good thing.

This date in history January 5

1781    The day before former Patriot General, now British General Benedict Arnold and 1,500 troops sail up the James River to Westover, Virginia and on this date, they march on the almost defenseless Richmond, Virginia. The Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson called for the Virginia Militia to come to the defense of Richmond and for all the arms and weapons to be moved out of Richmond and sent to Westham, Virginia to keep them out of Arnold’s hands. Unfortunately, nearly all of the militia were veterans of many previous battles with the redcoats and felt they had done their duty and only 200 militiamen showed up defend Richmond. Jefferson also sent Prussian Baron Von Steuben to defend the arms that had been taken to Westham. Arnold and his troops entered Richmond and brushed aside the 200 militia and headed toward Westham to capture the arms but when he saw that he was facing Baron von Steuben, Arnold turned around and went back to Richmond. On his second trip through Richmond, he burned it to the ground. After the war, Benedict Arnold tried to open businesses in Canada and London all of which were failures. Arnold died penniless on June 14, 1801 and was buried in his British uniform in the graveyard at St. Mary’s church in Middlesex, London. What a tragic end to a brilliant military leader.

1861    On this date the civilian cargo vessel Star of the West leaves New York with supplies and 250 troops to relieve Major Robert Anderson and his 80 troops in Fort Sumter, an island in Charleston, South Carolina harbor. The president of the United States, James Buchanan, did not want to further inflame the already hostile South Carolinians by sending a military ship. South Carolina had seceded in December of 1860. The ship arrived on the 9th of January and was met by a shore battery barrage and the ship was hit. After this, the ship turned around and did not enter the harbor. What caused South Carolina and the others to secede was the election of a Republican president Abe Lincoln was for real or imagined offenses. This time period was between the election of Abe and his inauguration.

1970    On this date the bodies of United Mine Workers leader Jock Yablonski, his wife and their 25 year old daughter are found on their Clarksville, Pennsylvania farm. Earlier Jock had run for the President of the UMW against a man named Tony Boyle. During the campaign, Yablonski had accused Boyle of nepotism and misuse of Union funds. In spite of all of this, Boyle won the election. Yablonski said that he was going to call in the US Department of Labor to look for fraud in the election process. After this Boyle put out a contract on Yablonski. Boyle delegated the job of locating a hit team to his underling named Albert Pass. Pass hired a Paul Gilley and Claude Veasey to cap Yablonski and the two went to visit Yablonski but lost their nerve at the last minute. They returned a week later with yet a third assassin named Buddy Martin and the three shot and killed Yablonski, his wife and daughter. Well, the Department of Justice jumped all over this and eventually nine people were imprisoned for this debacle, including Tony Boyle who died in prison. The upside of this was that the Department of Labor cracked down hard on the UMW and cleaned house making the Union much more favorable to the rank and file members.

1825    On this date Alexander Dumas pere engages in one of his many duels and emerges with only minor injuries. There were two Alexander Dumas, a father and his son. The word “pere” means father and the word “fils” means son. We are talking about the father or pere. Alexander’s father was a General in Napoleon’s army. His great grandmother was a black slave to his great-grandfather making Alexander a quadroon. His father died when he was four and his mother struggled to keep her family fed. But in spite of this little Alexander was an insatiable reader and heard many adventurous tales of his father fighting for Napoleon. At the age 21 he obtained a job on Paris working for the powerful Duke D’Orleans who eventually became King Louis-Philippe. In1844 Alexander delivered to the world the king of adventure novels in The Three Musketeers. Needless to say, the novel was an immediate success and remains so until this day. It is a story full of battles and individual duels and feats of courage. I imagine that Alexander was reliving in his imagination what he thought his father life was like. Alexander had many, many love affairs resulting in many illegitimate children and led a rambunctious life. The result of one of his liaisons was his illegitimate son also named Alexander who also became an author. In 1845 Alexander delivered yet another blockbuster adventure novel in “The Count of Monte Christo”, the king of all jail break novels and still to this day one of the most engrossing books ever written. He also gave us “The Man in the Iron Mask”, a superb mystery novel. These three book were not the only contributions this man made to literature, he also gave us many essays and short stories. All of these successful writings made Alexander very wealthy. But Alexander was not a prudent man lived his life to the fullest and was frequently broke. His eloquent residence, Chateau-de Monte Christo that he built, was almost constantly the location of days long parties with complete strangers wandering in and out indiscriminately. The soul of Alexander Dumas departed this earth on December 5, 1870. This very talented author was 63 at time of death. There has been more than one movie made about each of his three major works. His son Alexander Dumas fils wrote several successful novels also but his books smacked of the resentment he apparently felt about his father wasting his life on songs and ale and ignoring him. I am not sure the Pere’s life was wasted, but ignoring his son sucked.

1643    Well, it has been only 23 years since the settlers stepped ashore off the Mayflower in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when the first divorce is granted. A woman named Anne Clark appealed to the Quarter Court of Massachusetts for relief after her husband, Denis Clark, abandoned her and their two children for another woman by which he had two children also. Denis was approached to return to Anne and his children but refused. On this date the Court handed down decision signed by John Winthrop, Jr stating in old English “Anne Clark, beeing deserted by Denis Clark, hir husband, and hee refusing to accompany with hir, is graunted to bee divorced.” You notice that there was no mention of a pre-nuptial agreement, irreconcilable differences, alimony, child support nor monthly maintenance allowances to keep her living in the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.

Born today:

1932    US football coach Chuck Noll. He said “Some coaches pray for wisdom, I pray for 280 pound tackles, they give me wisdom.”

1946    US actress Diane Keaton. She said “I have found the most famous people are underdeveloped in their humanity skills.” I concur, Diane.

1940    US writer for SNL Michael O’Donoghue. He said “Nothing good ever comes out of San Francisco, except maybe Rice-a-Roni.”

1864    US agronomists George Washington Carver. He said “When I was young I prayed “Lord, show me the mysteries of the Universe.” And the lord said “No George, that is just for me.” Then I said, “Lord, show me the mysteries of the peanut”, and the Lord said, George that would be just about right for you.”

Died today:

1963    US baseball player Rogers Hornsby. He said “I have been asked what do I do during the winter. What I do is stare out the window and wait for spring.”

1987    Canadian writer Margaret Lawrence. She said “Know that in the eternal scheme of things you are small, you are also unique and irreplaceable as are all of your fellow human beings.” Unique, maybe, but irreplaceable is a stretch considering people like Adolph Hitler, Napoleon and Attila the Hun.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow