Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends on the tides of the mind.”

                                     Alice Meynell

I left a few things out for the events of May 19. We found out that the American voters are clearly anti-incumbent and especially in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Arkansas. I am positive that this mind set is America-wide and will manifest itself this coming November. There will be no more Nancy Pelosi and Harry “The Slug” Reid among others.

To those readers that exchange books in the Four O'clock Club, I have the latest semi-autobiographal book by Fred Thompson (politician, actor) on the way, thanks to "The Book Shop" in Marble Falls, Texas and the owner's named Dotty. What a woman! By the way, the name of the book is "Teaching the Pig to Dance." I think I have met several of them but they didn't dance.

A local newspaper is sniffing around about my 490 or so “history lesson” and biographies. I think they want access to them for fill-ins. If we come to terms all of this will end and my musings will be for sale in a newspaper. We shall see.

May 19, 1563 is the day that the wife of the king of England, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded by order of her husband Henry VIII. The supposed reality of the situation was that Henry wanted a divorce from Anne but the Catholic Church disallowed it. Henry then accused Anne of adultery and sentenced her to death by beheading with the broad axe. A few women later Henry wanted another divorce and the church disallowed it again so Henry told the Catholic Church to take a hike and formed his own church, thus the end of the divorce issues.

May 19, 1066 is the day that William of Normandy, later to be known as William the Conqueror, with his infantry and cavalry engaged the English army led by King Harold. A few days before Harold had been in northern England defeating to the point of annihilation an army of Vikings led by the king of Denmark and William’s brother Tostic. Harold found out that William and fleet had arrived at Pevensey in southern England. Harold began a forced march for the intervening 225 miles gathering volunteers along the way and made the trip in nine days. On May 19 he arrived in southern England and established a defensive position near the town of Hastings and awaited William’s attack. William did not disappoint. What happened after this is worthy of a history lesson and will follow at a later time. By the way, William was a French speaking Viking.

There have been a few more shootings, stabbings and hit and runs here in the buckle of the Bible Belt but I am sure y’all are weary of hearing about all this gore in a town that probably has more churches per capita than any place in America, not to mention Bob Jones University.

This date in history May 20

1873    Earlier Loeb Strauss emigrated with his family from Bavaria to the United States. In 1847 his father died and he changed his first name to Levi and took control of his father’s dry goods business in New York. In 1853 Levi was drawn west by the gold rush and settled in San Francisco and established his own dry goods business. He primarily dealt in imported dry goods. One of his customers was Jacob Davis who manufactured work pants in Reno for the nearby miners. The only difference here was that Davis made his “waist overalls” out of denim and put brass rivets at all the stress points including the bottom of the fly. Davis was one of Strauss’ customers and on one particular visit Davis showed a pair of his work pants to Strauss. Davis made his work pants virtually one at a time and did not have the money to expand. Davis suggested to Strauss that they get together and manufacture the work pants on a much larger scale with Strauss providing the capital. Strauss agreed and moved Davis to San Francisco and they set up business and the Levi’s 501 jeans were born. On this date both Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were awarded a patent for the now famous jeans. According to nearly every worldwide poll ever taken in the last 50 years, Levis is the most recognized brand name in the world beside Coca-Cola.

1927    On this date at 7:52A a monoplane departed Roosevelt field on Long island headed for Paris, France. The difference here was that there was only one person aboard and the trip was going to be non-stop. The airplane almost did not clear the telegraph lines at the end of the runway it was so loaded with fuel. As you know by now the pilot was Charles Lindberg and the plane was named “The Spirit of Saint Louis” because the Saint Louis Chamber of Commerce sponsored him. Lindberg’s trip was as a result of a contest of who could make a solo airplane trip from New York to Paris non-stop with the prize being $25,000. Lindberg designed the aircraft himself using every spare square inch of space for fuel. In fact there was no windshield that space was taken by a fuel tank. Lindberg got what information he needed from a small side window. The biggest problem that he would have is trying to stay awake but 33 ½ hours and 3,610 miles later he landed at Le Bourget airport in Paris. The success of this trip instilled a confidence in people world-wide for travel by air and the race was on and continues to this day.

1969    After 10 bloody days and 10 even more bloody assaults on Hill 937 in Vietnam the United States and South Vietnam forces finally capture the crest. The soldiers that took the hill renamed it “Hamburger Hill” because it was such a meat grinder. On the same day, US Senator Edward Kennedy raises hell with the Nixon military policies in Nam and Hamburger Hill in particular saying that the American loss of life was unnecessary. Hill 937 was only 1 mile from the Laotian border and appeared to be necessary for watching the legendary Ho Chi Minh trail but after two days, the US army ordered the hill abandoned, saying it was just a diversion. It appears that Edward Kennedy was right after all. The next day the North Vietnamese soldiers moved back into their original position on hill 937 in a hell known as Vietnam and American soldiers were sent home in body bags from Hamburger Hill.

1778    On this date the Battle of Barren Hill, Pennsylvania occurs. Barren Hill is known today as Lafayette Hill just northwest of Philadelphia. Earlier George Washington had tasked the Marquis de Lafayette and 2,200 Continental soldiers to keep watch on the English occupation of Philadelphia. The Marquis recruited 50 Oneida Indians to help him on this expedition. The Oneida much preferred the French over the English so it was easy for this Frenchman to recruit them. The down side was that the English found out about the observation post and sent 7,000 to 8,000 troops to surround and capture the Continentals. By superior maneuvering Lafayette put the Oneidas as a rear guard with several cannon and began crossing the Continentals back across the Schuylkill River to safety. The Oneida rear guard action was successful and all the Continental soldiers made it safely across followed by the Oneidas in their canoes. Lafayette and the soldiers he trained this coming winter emerged from Valley Forge a damn fine fighting machine that was instrumental in the success of this pursuit of freedom and independence.

1956    In 1952 the United States detonated a hydrogen bomb in the Marshal Islands but that weapon was large, heavy and unwieldy and it was incapable of being dropped from a bomber making it a useless weapon. The device was brought to the Marshall Islands on a ship and lifted onto a tower. On this date an Air Force B-52 flying above 50,000 feet drops a hydrogen bomb on the atoll of Bikini, also in the Pacific. The bomb had to be dropped deploying a large parachute to give the B-52 a chance of escape from the blast. The bomb detonated at an altitude of 15,000 feet and had the brightness of 500 suns. From that day onward, the world has always had the threat of a nuclear holocaust in the back of our minds. I cannot imagine a worse nightmare, but it is there. By the way, the first animal life found after this blast was a rat and a cockroach. They opined the rat came ashore on a floating cocoanut and the cockroach probably came ashore in a bag of groceries from Wal-Mart.

2005    On this date Mary Kay Letourneau marries Vili Faulaau. Ya’ll are wondering why this is significant. Well, ten years before Mary Kay was a second grade teacher in an elementary school near Seattle, Washington. This girl began a sexual relationship with 12 year old Vili who was one of her sixth grade students. In 1997 her activities were discovered and she was arrested. Mary Kay did not deny that she had been having sex with Vili for two years, but she said they were in love in spite of her being married and the mother of four children. Vili was now 14 years old. The judge cut her some slack and gave her a light sentence. When she was finally free, the first place she headed was to find Vili and get a little. She was caught in a car with Vili engaged in sex. This time she went to jail for some serious time right after she delivered the second child by Vili. She was released from jail in August 2004. On this date, she and Vili were wed. Vili was 22 and Mary Kay was 43. I do not see what a 34 years old mother of four would find sexually attractive in a 12 year old Polynesian kid. But there is a hell of a lot of things about women that disproves logic to me....and I can assure you I am not the only male with this malady. I was watching “Fatal Attraction” with a female friend a couple of days ago and I asked her if she thought that she could be capable of such actions. She said “Sure, under the right circumstances.” Lord have mercy to all men.

Born today:

1799    French writer Honore de Balzac. He said “Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by tiny minds.” Hey Honore, do you know Barack Obama?

1806    English economist John Mills. He said “That so few dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time” Hey John, Do you know Hillary Clinton?

1894    US writer Adele Rogers St. John. She said “There is so little difference between husbands you might as well keep the first.” It damn sure ain’t that way with wives, I want to tell you!

1908    US actor James Stewart. He said “When it came to kissing, Jean Harlow was the best.” Do any of you remember the best kisser you had?

1919    US comic George Gobel. He said I have never been drunk, but I have damn sure been over served.” Me too.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow