Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"The problem with staring into the past too frequently is that when you turn around the future has expired"

I am going to give y'all a bio and a history lesson. I cannot think straight because I am so angry about the coddling of John Ludwig by our legal system here in the buckle of the bible belt. It means that there really is one set of laws for the rich and another for the rest of us. It makes want to move away from this cesspool. They lock up half of the administration of Union County South Carolina for white collar crimes but allow a murderer to walk because of his wealth. I can't talk about it anymore.



                              Catherine de Medici

Catherine was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence, Italy. Her father was Florentine ruler Lorenzo de Medici otherwise known as Lorenzo the Magnificent because of his support and fostering of the arts. In 1533 at the age of 14 she married the Duke of Orleans as part of a political arrangement as was done most of the time with the powerful families in Europe. The good Duke became the King of France as Henry II making Catherine the queen of France. Many of the French did not cotton to having and Italian as queen but she stayed anyway. She had little influence in affair of state until Henry II dies and soon thereafter her first son and also king, Francis II, dies in 1560 leaving her in control of the French government as regent for her younger son Charles IX until he became of age to take control. In 1563 Charles reached the appointed age and became a full-fledged king but Catherine continued to dominate Charles throughout his reign. Catherine saw her role as maintaining royal power at all costs. This girl was ruthless when it came to that, as ya’ll will see. She spent much time and energy trying to maintain a balance of power between the Huguenots, a Protestant group led by military leader Gaspard de Coligny, and the Catholics led by the powerful House of Guise. After the beginning of the religious wars that began in 1562, Catherine was a Roman Catholic but sided with which ever side held sway at any given time. In order to maintain a balance she included her family in her wheeling and dealing. She arranged for her daughter Elizabeth to marry the powerful Roman Catholic king of Spain Phillip II. And then she arranged for another daughter, Margaret, to marry the powerful Protestant ruler Henry of Navarre. You see what she is doing here, maintaining political and religious alliances no matter what it took. Catherine looked on with alarm at the rise in influence the Huguenots were having on her son Charles the king. Then in 1572 she did the honorable thing in having the Huguenot leader Garpard de Coligny assassinated along with an estimated 50,000 of his followers. This event went down in history as the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre, as indeed it was. In 1574 her son Charles the king dies and is succeeded by her third son Henry III. Henry III ain’t buying any of this Momma shit and tells Catherine to take a hike, that he and only he, is in command. Well, needless to say, Catherine’s influence over the French court went down the toilet. Catherine died January 5, 1589 in Blois, France at the age of 70. Catherine, like her father, was instrumental in the promotion of the arts what time she wasn’t involved in political intrigue. She added a wing to the famous Louvre Museum began construction of the Tuileries Gardens and built the chateau of Monceau. Her personal library and rare manuscripts was and are some of the most treasured in history. She was a patron of the arts in spite of that indiscretion in the St.Bartholomew’s Day thing. She was a powerful influence in the history of Europe but as with most women, don’t threaten their security or they will do something rash.

This date in history January 10

1776    On this date the Governor of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, speaking from exile aboard the British warship "Cruiser" anchored near Cape Fear, North Carolina, implores the Loyalists to gather an armed force and fight the Rebels (Patriots). Governor Martin was not elected by the people of North Carolina; he was placed in that position by the British. In his message Governor Martin stated that everyone knew what an honor it was to be a British subject and enjoy the freedom and blessings from the King. Well, the people could not relate to that message because Governor Martin had allowed government employees known as “Regulators” to go throughout the countryside and levy taxes at their discretion and put that money in their pockets. Anyway, the Loyalists were supposed to meet British General William Howe at the waterfront and he was suppose to supply the Loyalists better arms and ammunition plus additional troops. The Loyalists were only able to gather but 1,500 troops and when they arrived at the waterfront, it wasn’t General Howe waiting on them; it was an army of Patriots. The commander of the Loyalists, British General Donald McDonald, knew that he could not engage the heavily armed Patriots with a Loyalist army that was nearly unarmed. But McDonald fell ill and the command of the Loyalists fell to British General Donald McLeod. McLeod did not see a problem with attacking with the army as presently armed and attack they did. The Patriots were prepared and delivered a major ass-kicking. They killed 80 of the Loyalists and captured 880 while suffering only 2 killed. Martin had fled to the umbrella of a British warship after the Patriots burned his house down. After this defeat of the Loyalists, Josiah Martin made two more attempts to gain his power back was both attempts were turned back. He then sailed to Long Island and then to London where he died in 1786.

1901    On this date on a small hill named Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas at 10:30am a deep rumble was heard under the oil drilling derrick. A few seconds later the drill string began backing out of the hole and it was followed by oil gushing out of the well to a height twice as high as the derrick. This “gusher” ran wild for nine days at a rate of an estimated 100,000 barrels per day before it was brought under control. This was the first discovery of a major oil field in United States history. Earlier oil was found in Pennsylvania but not in the quantity of this oil field. Oil is still being extracted from this oil field to this day. Had this oil field and others like it had not been found, it is unlikely the internal combustion engine as we know it today would have ever developed. There is speculation that automobile would have continued to develop but the power would have been steam or electricity.

1987    Connecticut police continue their search for Helle Crafts. She was a Pan Am flight attendant and had been missing since December 1. Everyone thought that her husband Richard had killed Helle and disposed of the body but no body was found. The police had interviewed him several times but Richard claimed that he never left the house on the day of the supposed disappearance. The police crossed checked his credit cards and found that the day after the disappearance; he had bought a new mattress, a chain saw and had rented a wood chipper. A witness came forward and said that he had seen a person using a wood chipper on the banks of the Housatonic River. But the area where the person saw the wood chipper in use was feet deep in snow. The police thawed the snow and began a search for evidence and they sent divers in the river also. The divers found a chain saw in the river. The chain saw had tiny scraps of human tissue in the teeth of the saw and the police sent them off for analysis. It was found that the blood type of the tissue was consistent with that of Helle but that was not enough evidence for a conviction. After the police had gathered all the evidence from the riverbank that they could they had 2,660 hairs, one fingernail, one toenail, a scrap of tissue with two teeth embedded, two tooth caps and three tiny drops of blood. After obtaining a few hairs from Hell’s hair brush at her house and comparing her dental records, it was confirmed that the hairs and tooth caps they found on the riverbank belonged to Helle. This was enough evidence for the police and they arrested Helle’s husband Richard and charged him with murder. Richard first trial ended with a deadlock but at his second trial he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years. This was one of the rare times that a murderer is convicted without a corpse. But with forensics what they are today, getting away with murder ain’t as easy as it used to be.

1941    On this date US President Franklin Roosevelt signs a “lend-lease” with Great Britain. It was called a “lend-lease” but what it really did was promise Great Britain that the US would provide them with the “tools of war”. The United States was not yet involved in WWII. England had been taking a beating from the Germans who had been stockpiling armaments for years and England was severely outgunned. This program was to help even the odds. But it did not matter that much because the United States declared war on Germany, Japan and Italy on December 8 of this year, the day after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. After this, the United States went full bore into the most devastating war in history.

Signs you are on a bad date:

She seems to know a hell of a lot about your shower routine.

Her multiple personalities began arguing after dinner about splitting the check.

You spend an inordinate amount of time lifting her head out of the soup.

After two beers she starts calling you Daddy.

Every place you mention for dinner she says “Nah, there might be cops in there.”

Ya’ll can substitute he/him for she/her at your discretion.

Eye opener:

No matter how great you become or how much good you do for mankind, the number of people that attend your funeral is determined by the weather.

Thought to remember: Too bad that there are more horse’s asses than there are horses.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.