Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is the touch of God’s finger on your shoulder.”

                                      Charles Morgan

I will depart from my travelogue about the cruise up and down the English Channel for a while. I will leave you at this point…The ship slipped out of Dover harbor, turned starboard and headed south. It was nearly dark but the white chalk cliffs were apparent as was the ruins of a Roman fort on the highest promontory.

As some of you may or may not know the state of Virginia has declared April as Confederate History month. With the exception of Shiloh, Gettysburg and Antietam and a few others, most of the major battles during this great struggle known as the American Civil War were fought in Virginia and the struggle ended in Virginia at Appomattox Court House in the month of April of 1865. There has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding this decision by the Virginia Legislature. From what I can determine the “Confederate History Month” is exactly that, it is about history and only history. How many of you know about the history of the slaughter of the soldiers in blue at the Battle of Fredericksburg and the massacre of the Union troops in the first day at Shiloh? There are many other skirmishes and battles that I could mention that resulted in a grand total of about 680,000 American dead. Do any of you know the history of what happened during the battles in the Boxer Rebellion, Nicaragua, San Juan Hill, Marne, Belleau Wood, Bastogne, Huertgen Forest, Chosin Reservoir, La Trang Valley and others too many to mention? In all of these encounters American lives were lost in ferocious fighting because it was their duty to protect freedom. To complain about citing the history of just one segment of our nation’s history known as The American Civil War is too disgustingly licentious to contemplate.

After all, we acknowledge “Cinco de Mayo” which means “the fifth of May”. Do any of you know what this date represents? I will tell you. After many years of wriggling under the heel of Spain and having their asses handed to them by the Spanish Army, the Mexican Army won a battle against the Spanish Army that was the prelude to Mexican independence. How many of you out there give damn about the recent history of Mexico? That’s what I thought. The Cinco de Mayo scam was manufactured by the makers of Tequila and Latino style restaurants. All I can say is “al infierno con el”.

Back in 2008 three young men down in Florence, South Carolina decided they were going to form a gang. One of these kids had openly stated that he had wanted to be a “gangster” for as long as he could remember. To fulfill this dream, he and the other two wannabes unceremoniously killed a 17 year old boy for no other reason than it was what would be expected from gangsters. They hid the body inside a wall of an abandoned building and the body was not found for three months. On April 8 this 21 year old kid was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Doing life without parole in the joint in South Carolina is nothing short of hell on earth but the kid got what is expected from gangsters; spending the majority of their life in the joint.

This date in history April 10

1778    On this date one of the greatest United States Naval officers, Captain John Paul Jones, departs the French port of Brest in command of the 140 man warship the USS Ranger. His objective is the Irish Sea and to attack the British ships reported to be there. John Paul Jones was born in Scotland 1747 and went to sea at an early age sailing mostly in the Caribbean. He was off the coast of New York when war was declared between the United States and England and he offered his services to the Colonies. In December of 1775 he was given the rank of First Lieutenant in the colonial navy. After arriving in the Irish Sea, he found no British vessels and then he went to waters he knew well, the Scottish Bay of Kirkcudbright with the intention of kidnapping Lord Selkirk and exchanging him for captured American sailors but the Lord was not there. Then he sailed over to the Currifergus Sea and there he found the HMS Drake. He captured the Drake without firing a shot by simply sending over a few Marines and they capped the Captain of the ship and his First Lieutenant. Jones fought with great distinction throughout the war as did his Scottish countryman, John Barry. His most famous battle was against the 50 gun HMS Serapis. Jones’ ship, the USS Bonhomie Richard (in honor of Ben Franklin) was damaged early and was shipping water and was on fire. The commander of the Serapis signaled for Jones to surrender. Jones signaled back the famous phrase “I have not yet begun to fight”. Jones was able to stem the flooding and extinguish the fires and did indeed outmaneuver the Serapis and captured her. Jones is buried at the United States Naval Academy. When his crypt is opened for ceremonial reasons there is a Marine honor guard present.

1865 After surrendering to US General U.S. Grant the day before, on this date CSA General Robert E. Lee issues his final order as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. The order read:

“After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia is compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result through no mistrust of them. I determined to avoid useless sacrifice of those whose past service has endeared them to their countrymen. I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

Winston Churchill said it best “Never in the field of human conflict has one man been so loved by so many.”

1963    On this date the United States nuclear submarine USS Thresher is conducting pre- combat patrol drills about 300 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. The boat was accompanied by another nuclear submarine the USS Skylark. During the drills the Skylark received a message that the Thresher was having a “few small problems”. About five minutes later, the sonar on the Skylark recorded the Thresher breaking up on the way to the bottom taking 129 sailors and civilian contractors to Davy Jones Locker. Investigation revealed that a water leak in the engine room had short circuited an electrical connection and that started a domino effect that eventually prevented the Thresher from controlling a dive. Needless to say the US Navy raised almighty hell with the contractor that built the submarine. The boat was launched from the Portsmouth Naval Yard, New Hampshire and quality control became a major issue after this disaster. Twenty-five years later the Commander of the US Navy said that “the loss of the Thresher pointed out problems with construction of our submarines and we are a much safer submarine fleet today.” Tell that to the 129 American souls on the bottom of the North Atlantic near Georges Bank.

Born today:

1778 English writer William Hazlitt. He said “Familiarity may not breed contempt, but is sure takes the edge off admiration.” Yes, indeed!

1827    US General Lew Wallace. He said “One is never more on trial than at the moment of excessive good fortune.” General Wallace did indeed achieve excessive good fortune when he wrote the immortal novel “Ben Hur”.

1829    The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth in England. He said “There are men so incorrigibly lazy that no inducement that you can offer will tempt them to work; so eaten up by vice that virtue is abhorrent to them, and so inveterably dishonest that theft to them is a master passion.” Yes William, and I am afraid there is and plenty of them.

1880    US educator Frances Perkins. She said “The only problem I find with being a woman is in climbing trees”. What has that got to do with the ability to climb trees? I guess it has something to do with wearing a dress or skirt. She could take them off beforehand.

1932 Egyptian actor and bridge master Omar Sharif. He said “Working gets in the way of living.” Omar is on the right path here.

Died today:

1909    English writer Algernon Swineburne. He said “A claimed, rasped, scraped, scalped, flayed, broiled, powdered, leprous, blotched, mangy, parboiled country without trees, water, grass, fields...it is infinitely liker hell than Earth, and one looks for tails among the people.” Algernon was talking about France. Me too.

1933    English writer Henry van Dyke. He said “Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin living.” I know some like that...It ain’t me, ya’ll.

1966    English writer Evelyn Waugh. He/she said “It is a curious thing that every religion promises a paradise that is uninhabitable to people with civilized tastes.” Are you listening Dave and Sally?

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow