Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“Life is what your thoughts make it.”

                      Marcus Aurelius

This is a continuation of my trip to Europe and a subsequent cruise.

My traveling companion and I selected this trip three months in advance off the web. For reasons known only to British Airways the flight from Newark to Heathrow departed at 9:30p. We flew from Charlotte to Newark and they took us to the airplane at Newark in a few buses, the plane was too big to fit in the normal loading gates, it was a Boeing 777. The flight over was miserable. We were not business class (seats let back into beds) and had to sit up all night and I did not get a wink of sleep. We arrived at Heathrow about 7:30a and buses were waiting at customs to take us to our hotel. We checked in to the hotel about 9:00a and were told that our room would not be ready until about 1:30p. The restaurant was open but the bar “Humphries” would not open until about 1:00p. I was exhausted and in desperate need of sleep so I crawled under the velvet rope that divided the bar from the lobby and went to sleep in one of the booths and so did my companion. They came and got us about 12:30p and I collapsed into bed. It was that evening that I became familiar with the infamous Stanhope Pub. By the way, the meal they served us on the plane was one of the few I have had that I could tell what it was. The next day there was a bus tour of London for us. I really enjoyed that because many historical sites were pointed out such as the remains of a barracks that was built by the Romans, a cemetery that was filled with corpses piled on top of one another out of necessity because of the Great Plague in the 16th century where so many people died. Some of y’all may not know this but London was established as a Roman outpost named Londononium. The original city was marked on the corners by statues of dragons that still exist. Our guide was an admitted flaming homosexual and he took us by the home of the man that founded the Boy Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell. The guide said that he joined the Boy Scouts but he caused such a disturbance at the meetings that he was asked to resign. He was funny. In addition we went by Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, London Bridge, a replica of the Globe theatre where Shakespeare was prevalent, a replica of The Golden Hind, the ship that Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigated the world. Drake was not the first one to do that, it was Magellan but he did not complete the trip himself because he was killed by a poison arrow during a scrape in the Philippines. On the way out from the Tower we went by “The Drawn and Quartered Pub”. I would have loved to have gone in there. We spent quite a length of time at Saint Paul’s cathedral. This building has such a history that an entire lesson would be needed to tell it. It was a good day for me. The next day my companion set aside for a visit to the British Museum. I could hardly wait.

This date in history April 8

563BC    On this date the Gautama Buddha is born. He was actually born as Prince Siddhartha with his father being the King of the Sakya people in northeast India. At the age of 29 the Prince chose to seek peace and serenity. There was confusion and arguing about when the Buddha was actually born then a book called Tripitaka was found and eventually became to be known as the authentic documentary of the life and discourses of Buddha. This book established the date of birth of the Buddha in the mid sixth century BC and 563BC became the accepted date. Buddha’s father tried to keep him isolated away from any religion but the young prince had his chariot driver take him for ride around the countryside. He saw sick and poor people and did not know what to make of it and had to ask his chariot driver who those people were. Then he saw a monk walking down the road with the look of serenity across his face amongst all of this sickness and poverty. It was then that he decided to eliminate all of his worldly good and seek the ultimate nirvana. The Buddha withdrew into himself and examined every aspect of him and peace and serenity, and at the age 35 he determined the four great truths. They are 1. Existence is suffering. 2. Suffering is caused by human craving. 3. There is a cessation to suffering called nirvana. 4. Nirvana can be achieved in this, or another life by following an “eightfold path” and that is having the right views, the right resolve, the right speech, the right action, the right livelihood, the right effort, the right mindfulness and finally the right concentration. The Buddha traveled the roads and back roads preaching his aesthetics. Eventually he gained a large following and today the Buddhist religion has 350 million followers. Buddha died at the age of 80 leaving a legacy that is older than Christianity.

1864    I have described the Red River campaign in previous lessons. A recap is that the Union decided to depart the newly captured city of New Orleans, send a substantial army up the west bank of the Mississippi River, accompanied by several river war ships. Upon reaching the Red River, The Union army was to continue to follow the Red River on into Texas with the ships close aboard.. The problem was that the army was being shadowed by a substantial Confederate army. The Union Army was commanded by the inept General Nathaniel Banks. Banks was confronted by an impenetrable swamp and moves away from the river and goes inland out from under the umbrella of the river boat artillery. The Confederate army was commanded by General Richard Taylor. On this date Taylor determined that Bank’s army was out of range of the river boats, he launched a surprise attack near the town of Mansfield, Louisiana. Bank’s troops were routed and headed back toward the Big Easy with Taylor’s howling Confederates hot on the trail. Finally Banks received reinforcements and Taylor’s advance was halted. But Banks was unnerved and continued on back down the river leaving the poor riverboats to the mercy of swarms of snipers on both river banks. Eventually Banks and his troops and the river boats were safe in New Orleans. Banks was relieved of duty and little is known of him after that.

1945    Earlier when Hitler had first come to power, a young Lutheran theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer was teaching at Berlin University. Dietrich was not enamored with the rantings of the Nazis and continued to tell everyone from the pulpit that the Nazis were calling it one thing but it really was a dictatorship they were trying to establish. Well, the Nazis could not sit still for that and arrested this man of the cloth and threw him in jail, crime unknown. This did not slow Dietrich down and he preached to the inmates in jail. Eventually, Dietrich was finally thrown into the concentration camp at Flossenburg. He continued with his attacks on the Nazis until he was so weak that he could no longer stand and on this day, he was hanged, again crime unknown. Four days later this concentration camp was liberated by the allies. Bonhoeffer’s last words were “This is the end for me, but the beginning of life.” What an enormous display of courage and dedication to his belief.

Born today:

563BC    Spiritual leader Gautama Buddha. He said “The Buddhas do not tell you the way; it is for you to swelter the task.”

1898    English writer Sir Cecil Bowra. When asked about his “plain” wife Sir Cecil said “My dear fellow, ugly men can’t be choosers”

1905    US actress Ilka Chase. When talking with another actress the other actress said “I read your book, who wrote it for you?” Ilka responded with “I am glad you liked it, who read it to you.”

1919    Former first lady Betty Ford. She said “My makeup was not smeared, my hair was not disheveled and I never finished off a bottle, how could I be an alcoholic?” It’s easy, Betty, as you know.

Died today:

1835    German philosopher Baron Wilhelm Humboldt. He said “The government is at its best when it is unnecessary.” Yes indeed.

1973    Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. He said “Computers are useless, they only give you answers.” Think on that, ya’ll

1981    US Army General Omar Bradley. He said “The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.” It is scary, ain’t it?

Quotable quotes:

“If you want something said ask a man, if you want something done ask a woman”

                                      Margaret Thatcher

Hey Maggie, how about taking out the garbage or changing oil in the car?

“I recently saw my first Jewish porno film. Nine minutes of begging and one minute of sex.”

                                        Joan Rivers

In this case it would be Joan doing the begging. Her facial skin is so tight you could make a drum head out of it.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow