Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry and I know you do the same things too. We are not really that different, you and I.”

Colin Rave



I was watching a national Geographic program about where the first humans came from to North America. The generally accepted version is that they came from Siberia across the Bering Sea land bridge and then down an ice free corridor across Alaska and Canada during the last ice age. The Bering Sea land bridge happened because of much of the water was frozen making the seas much shallower. The peculiar thing is that there has never been a skeleton found to date in North America that was older than 13,000 years old. Also, the ice free corridor mentioned only existed for about 500 years so we know about when this immigration took place. At the same time there was a solid ice sheet extending from Scotland to the vicinity of Nova Scotia and Maine. It has been suggested that ancient man traveled in boats from Europe to North America earlier than the Siberians by sailing close to the edge of the ice subsisting on the plentiful game and fish that existed there.

Paleontologists have found spear heads in different areas around the Chesapeake Bay that are more sophisticated than those found in the Texas/New Mexico area. This would indicate that the people that made the spearheads in the Chesapeake area had been doing it longer than those out west and therefore had been living there longer. This also indicates that North America was populated by at least two sources. Scientists have found that the DNA from the Chesapeake area ancient skeletons is indeed different from ancient skeletons found in the western US. It is an interesting mystery to me.



Mark Haffle is a drilling engineer for BP and was a major decision maker in the operation of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and fell into the Gulf Of Mexico causing the worst oil spill in American history not to mention the death of 11 workers. There is a Federal investigation underway in Houston trying to find out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Mark Haffle was subpoenaed. Last Friday Mark exercised his rights under the 5th Amendment and refused to testify. We cannot assume that Mark had any liability but human nature makes us want to know why he refused. Another BP drilling engineer did indeed testify last Friday. What’s up with Mark?



Last Friday the trial of Anthony Briggs ended with he being sentenced to life without parole PLUS 15 years to run concurrently. What did Tony do? While living with his girlfriend he sexually abused his girlfriend’s five year old daughter. The prosecution only presented one witness and that was the testimony of the little girl while being interviewed by a child psychologist. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, including the jury, that Tony was guilty. There is not much worse punishment than life in a South Carolina prison.



A couple of days ago in an Ingle’s grocery store in Spartanburg, SC, a sheriff’s deputy walked up on two grocery store workers and a man named Sammy Hess wallowing around on the sidewalk. The workers had seen Sammy shoplifting and were trying to physically restrain him. The deputy told Sammy who he was and took control and the two workers backed off. Sammy was not done and he began scuffling with the deputy. During this action two T-bone steaks fell out of Sammy’s clothing to the concrete. The deputy was able to wrestle Sammy to the ground about the time that back-up arrived and Sammy was cuffed and taken to the joint. Shoplifting was added to Sammy’s long rap sheet. All he had to do was give the steaks back to the workers and more than likely they would have released him. Let’s add “stupid” to Sammy’s rap sheet.



This date in history August 30



30BC   On this date the infamous Cleopatra of Egypt committed suicide. Cleo was hell on wheels, ya’ll. She was not Egyptian but a descendant of a Macedonian (Greek) general named Ptolemy that was left in charge of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 323BC as he was passing through on his way east. Cleo was a dual ruler with her brother Ptolemy XIII after the death of their father Ptolemy XII. It was not long before Cleo and her brother got fed up with each other and a civil war erupted. Strangely, the most powerful nation on the planet was in the throes of civil war also and that was Rome. The civil war in Rome left Pompey the Great as the loser and he ran like hell to Egypt trying to escape the wrath of the winner, Julius Caesar. Pompey the Great was in Egypt about 15 minutes before he was skewered on a spear and killed because the Egyptians did not want Julius Caesar thinking they were siding with Pompey. Sure enough, here comes Julius Caesar looking for Pompey. He is shown the head of Pompey reassuring him that Pompey was dead and for him to not worry about Egypt’s alliances. While there he meets Cleo in a peculiar manner. She has herself wrapped in a carpet and taken to Julius where she appears when the carpet is unrolled. Cleo was a stone fox, ya’ll. Her beauty and skills at love making were legendary. Julius was smitten by this girl and they soon were lovers. Cleo did not give a shit about Julius except that he and his army and navy could help her win the civil war against her brother. Julius did not disappoint and soon Ptolemy XIII was dead and one of Cleo’s other brothers was named Ptolemy XIV. After this Julius goes on to Asia Minor to put down some rebellions. Cleo bears a son that she says was the spawn of Julius and names the boy Caesarian meaning “little Caesar”. Anyway, Julius was successful in putting down the rebellions and went back to Rome in triumph where Cleo and Caesarian joined him. Julius discreetly puts her and his son up in a separate house for appearances. But not long after this Julius got too cocky for the Roman Senate and is stabbed to death. This put Cleo in a pickle and she hauls ass back to Egypt. After she gets back to Egypt her brother Ptolemy XIV dies under suspicious circumstances. It is generally believed that Cleo poisoned him. Cleo promptly named Caesarian as Ptolemy XV. After Julius’ death a triumvirate (three rulers) was formed in Rome. It was Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. These three split the Roman Empire into three sections with Mark Antony getting the Eastern Provinces meaning Egypt. Not long after arriving in Egypt Mark Antony meets Cleo and falls under her spell and Cleo bears twins by Antony. The triumvirate begins to collapse and a civil war between Antony and Octavian erupts. Antony and Cleo combine forces to combat Octavian’s army and navy. The combined force navy is defeated in the naval battle of Actium (Greece) and Cleo and Antony go back to Egypt. Octavian heads to Egypt looking for Antony to settle things once and for all. The two armies meet and Octavian prevails. Cleo is waiting for news and is told that Mark Antony had been killed and Cleo decides to commit suicide and holds a poisonous snake to her breast and is fatally bitten. But Antony is not dead and Cleo receives a note saying so but it is too late. Upon receiving the news that Cleo was dead, Antony stabs himself with his sword and dies also. Octavian promptly has Caesarian executed because he has Julius Caesars blood in his veins and may make a claim on Roman power later. Octavian later became know as Caesar Augustus and proved to be a very capable leader. What a story.



1862   On this date the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky occurs. This fight is one of the most lopsided in the Civil War. CSA General Kirby Smith is tasked with sweeping the US forces from central Tennessee and Kentucky. He is opposed by US General Horatio Wright. Wright decided to make a stand south of Lexington, Kentucky near the town of Richmond. Wright changes his mind and pulls his troops back north to the banks of the Kentucky River. There was one problem. The troops under the command of US General Mahlon Manson, 6,800 strong, did not get the word to withdraw and met the CSA army alone. The greater majority of Manson’s troops were new and had never experienced combat. The Confederates slammed into the Union center with a vengeance and the Union troops retreated about two miles and turned to make a stand. The Confederates delivered a withering attack and the Union forces retreated once again but this time the CSA cavalry commanded by Colonel John Scott cut off the retreat and it was all over. The end result was the Union forces had 1,200 killed and 4,800 captured, including General Manson and his entire staff, whilst the CSA had less than 100 casualties.



1989   In 1986 career criminal James Marlowe was paroled from Folsom prison. He gained the nicknamed ”The Folsom Wolf” while there. Soon after being released he met Cynthia Coffman and they hit it off famously. They did so well that they began traveling across the country together and they ended up in Tennessee and got married. For a wedding present Coffman had “Property of the Folsom Wolf” tattooed on her ass. They then headed west for California sponging off their relatives along the way. A woman named Corinna Novis disappeared from an ATM in Redlands, California. A few days later Lynel Murray is kidnapped in front of a dry cleaner in Orange County where Murray worked. A checkbook and other papers with both Novis and Murray names on them were found in a dumpster in Big Bear City, California. A lodge owner called the police and told them that the couple had just checked in. The police descended on the lodge and found the couple hiking in the nearby woods wearing clothes from Murray’s dry cleaner. They were tried and convicted of murder and on this date they were sentenced to death. Coffman was the first woman to receive the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1977. They both are cooling their heels on death row.



Born today:



1871   New Zealand physicist Lord Rutherford. He said “If your experiment needs statistics, you should have done a better experiment.”



1893   US senator Huey Long (La.). He said “Hard work is as over rated as monogamy.” Huey was also known as “Kingfish”. He was assassinated by an angry constituent.



1917   English statesman Denis Healey. After hearing a speech by a political rival he said “His speech was like being beaten with a dead sheep.” What a wordsmith.



1943   French ski champion Jean-Claude Killy. He said “To win you have to risk losing.” That is a good attitude for life also.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow