Daily history

Good Morning,


Quote(s) of the day:

“Without friends no one would choose to live.”

                            Aristotle

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Others come in and stay and make footprints in our heart and we are never, ever the same.”

                                        Anonymous

A couple of days ago a 74 year old man missing from Eastanollee, Georgia was found in a field near Greenville frozen to death. About 200 yards away they found his truck that had hit a tree and there was evidence that he had tried to start fires near his truck He was found wearing shorts and a tee shirt with another shirt, a jacket and a blanket nearby. The only way I can figure out that he did not dress in the extra clothing and wrap up in the blanket is that he had some sort of physical problem and collapsed or he had been attacked and stripped. The cops are still investigating.

Out in the village of Fairfield, California 15 year old Donell Howard heard a lot barking and screeching out behind his house and went to take a look. It was his dog and a mountain lion wallowing around in a deadly embrace with the dog getting the worst of the deal. Donell ran back home retrieved a Katana (Ninja two-handed sword) from the garage and went back out to the fight. He approached the cat with the sword raised over his head. The cat turned his attention from the dog to Donell. Donell swung the sword downward and caught the cat in the skull and the cat turned and ran. The dog and Donell went back home with the dog going to the vet to get sewn up in several places. The California Wildlife authorities are not looking forward to tracking down a wounded Mountain Lion. Mountain Lions and Bears will lay in ambush when they are wounded and know they are being tracked. It is very dangerous, y’all

That great pillar of the Anderson, South Carolina community, Raimondaize Rivera, was convicted of strangling his girlfriend to death back in 2008 and was given life without parole. Shortly after that he murdered 28 year old Kwana Burns on a contract hit. He killed Kwana with the woman’s 5 year old son watching. Rivera testified that he thought about killing the kid too but thought about his own kids and did not. If there is ever a reason to issue a death sentence it is to Raimondaize Rivera. It is too bad that we don’t have the Rack, Iron Maiden, drawn and quartered, etc. There is no doubt in my mind that crime would decrease.

I am going to take weekend off. There will be no lesson for Saturday and Sunday.

This date in history February 11

1776    On this date the Royal Governor of Georgia Sir James Wright escapes from house arrest and hurries his ass to the British warship HMS Scarborough anchored in the mouth of the Savannah River and sailed to London. The capitol of Georgia was Savannah at the time. Two months earlier Wright had been captured by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham and placed under house arrest. Originally Georgia was formed by corporate charter sponsored by various investors. In 1752 British Parliament had cancelled the charter and took control of Georgia. Georgia was formed originally to be a state of poor whites, without slavery and alcohol to be a buffer between the plundering Spanish in Florida and the gigantic slaveholding plantations in South Carolina. The Spanish were famous for raids where they captured slaves and took them to various ports in Florida and sold them. The attempt at making Georgia an area of no slaves and no alcohol failed miserably, probably because of the success of the bootleggers. When the British determined that their experiment in Georgia was failing, they allowed both slaves and alcohol but that didn’t work either. Sir James Wright had vast plantations in South Carolina but when he was named as governor of Georgia, he sold his plantations and re-invested in lands in Georgia. In 1778 Wright returned to Georgia with a substantial army and re-took control. Wright remained governor of Georgia until 1782 when the British left for good. Georgia had a majority of Loyalists in the population and did not send anyone to the First Continental Congress.

1861   On this date the recently elected President of the United States Abraham Lincoln leaves Springfield, Illinois headed for Washington. He is traveling by train that was packed with the family’s household goods that Lincoln packed himself. As expected, after Lincoln’s election seven southern states seceded from the Union and Lincoln knew full well that a civil war was on the near horizon. His parting words to the people of Springfield were “Here I have lived for a quarter of a century and have passed from a young man to an old man. My children have been born here and I have buried one here. Now I must leave not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater that that which rested on Washington. Without Divine assistance I cannot succeed, but with that assistance I cannot fail. To his care I am commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me. I bid you all an affectionate farewell”. It was reported that his chest heaved with emotion after completing this speech. He did indeed return to Springfield by train.

1937    After a difficult, and often violent, 44 day sit-down strike by the auto workers at the GM Fisher body plant in Flint, Michigan, GM President Alfred Sloane signs the first contract with the United Auto Workers of America. The leaders of the UAW knew that their union members would not get any benefits from GM without a showdown with Sloane. So 44 days previous the workers at the plant quit work and sat down where they were. The supervisors in the plant kept the assembly line running but no work was performed so they shut down the line. Soon afterward the plant managers turned off the heat, water and power. That did not work so they had the local police fire in tear gas. The relatives and friends of the workers inside the plant heaved rocks through the plant windows to allow the gas to escape making this plan fail. Eventually the local police started firing real bullets into the plant and upon hearing this, the Governor of Michigan John Murphy sent in the National Guard to restore order. The arrival of the National Guard encouraged the strikers to stand their ground and finally Sloane conceded and met with the UAW leaders and the contract was signed ending the strike.

1960    Some of ya’ll may not know this but the first host of The Tonight Show was comedian/musician Steve Allen. After Steve retired the job of host fell to a fruitcake/comedian named Jack Paar. Paar was a funny guy but wore his emotions on his sleeve. He would often break into tears over the slightest thing and he often allowed his personal opinions on political matters to absorb him. When Fidel Castro overthrew Batista and his corrupt regime Parr praised Castro and called him a world hero. But when the Bay of Pigs fiasco occurred, he tried to engineer a swap of tractors for those captured by Castro. On this date Parr walked off the stage in angry tears and stayed away for a month. What happened was the show was taped and the NBC censors would snip and cut stuff from Paar’s monologue that they did not like. Finally Paar got fed up and when the censors cut a joke about a “water closet” (toilet) as being in bad taste he hit the roof and walked off the stage. Look at what we are seeing today, for crying out loud.

1778    On this date French playwright Voltaire returns to Paris after a 28 year exile. Voltaire was a rapier witted writer of outstanding talent. When he was young his father sent him to school to study law but Voltaire wanted to be a playwright. His first play named La Henriade. The play was a farce about politicians and religion so biting that he was arrested and spent a year in the Bastille (prison). In 1734 he delivered Letters Philosophique and as you might suspect it was attacking the politicos and religion and the heat came so intense for him that he had to flee to England. In 1756 he was invited to Berlin as the guest of King Frederick II of Prussia. After this he moved to Switzerland where he delivered his most famous work in "Candide". After only three months back in his beloved Paris, he died leaving a legacy of free thought that lives to this day.

1805    The Lewis and Clark expedition was wintering with the Mandan Indians near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. There they met a French/Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. This guy had just bought two Indian women from the Hidatsa tribe that was famous for kidnapping and selling women. One of the women was kidnapped from the Shoshone tribe near the Montana/Idaho border. Her name was Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark knew they would need horses to cross the Continental divide and knew that their best bet was to buy them from the Shoshone. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as a guide if he would bring Sacagawea with him to which he agreed. On this date Sacagawea went into labor and Clark acted as a midwife assisting her as best he could. Sacagawea was having a tough time but Clark was told that a brew made from powdered rattlesnake rattle would induce birth. Clark administered this to poor old Sacagawea and two hours later she delivered a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau into this world. Clark became very attached to this baby and nicknamed him Pompey, or Pomp and Clark paid for his education. Pomp died in 1866.

Born today:

1847    US inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He said “There ain’t no rules around here, we are trying to accomplish something.” I like his attitude, but he needed help with his grammar.

1921    Hungarian born actress Eva Gabor. She said “Marriage is too interesting of an experiment to be tried only once.” Eva was a beautiful woman. She went to the great wedding chapel in the sky in 1995.

1969    US actress Jennifer Anniston. She said “When a man with a camera follows you 20 blocks to a pharmacy and watches you buy toilet paper, you realize that your life has changed.” The so-called paparazzi are a pain in the ass.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow