Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“You women should not fake orgasms, because we men don’t really care if you have them or not.”

Kenneth Brennan



The unrest in Egypt has degenerated to exchanges of gunfire. That is an automatic loss for the dissidents. There is no dissident group anywhere in the work that can stand up to trained combat infantry supported by T-34 and Abrams tanks and F-16 or F18 air cover. I have yet to figure out what their complaint is other than they want Hosni Mubarak out of office. Mubarak has already promised that he will not run for office in the next election. All of this action has spurred other country leaders in the Middle East to examine the safety of their political office and have chosen to turn tail and run. It looks like the whole Middle East and part of North Africa are coming apart. I do not know if these events are forecasted in the Koran, the teachings of Nostradamus, the teaching of Edgar Cayce, the teachings of Mother Nell, the fortune teller up on Poinsett Highway, or the bible.



Down in Millry, Alabama a young white girl was standing around in the gym talking to guys on the basketball team which were mostly black as you might suspect. The girl’s father found out that his daughter had been doing that and also had been texting them messages. The girl’s father stormed into the gym and walked up to the basketball team and loudly proclaimed to the black guys that if any one of them tried to date his daughter he would come back al kill them all. I wonder if he said anything to his daughter. Yes indeed, prejudice is alive and well in the good ole USA and it is not only in the southern tier states. Talk to some people from New York and ask them about the Howard Beach area. Ask anyone from Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore or nearly any fair sized city and ask if there is Black communities, Italian communities, Polish communities, Asian communities, etc. Also ask if a person of the wrong nationality or skin color walks into these enclaves is he/she asking for an ass-kicking. I am sure you will receive a positive answer. What I don’t understand is why incidents like the one in Millry are broadcast worldwide but the hundreds of similar event that happen in the northern tier of states are not mentioned. By omission the media is painting us as hate mongers and they as a bunch of Mother Teresa’s which we all know is bullshit.


This date in history February 3


1781    Earlier in December of 1780, Patriot General Nathanial Greene had tasked Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciusko with designing a boat that could be used convey troops across the unpredictable Yadkin River regardless of its condition. Kosciusko made an exploratory canoe trip down the Yadkin and the Pee Dee Rivers and came back and designed and helped build boats for that special purpose. If ya’ll remember previous lessons, British General Charles Cornwallis defeated the North Carolina Militia at the Battle of Cowan’s Ford and British Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s Dragoons had beaten up on the same militia at the Battle of Tarrant’s Tavern, now that militia and other soldiers under the command of Greene join near Salisbury, NC and head for the Dan River in Virginia and safety. The only problem was that the Yadkin River was severely flooded because of a thunderous rainfall on February 1 and British General Cornwallis’ army of 16,000 is perilously close. So on this date Greene orders his army into the boats designed by Kosciusko and successfully cross the Yadkin but then very last remnants of Greene’s army are shelled by Cornwallis’s artillery from the opposite bank. With no boats, Cornwallis must move his army to the city of Shallowford and wait for the water to abate low enough to cross. He did not get across until February 7 and by then Greene and his army was far enough ahead to make it to the Dan River safely.



1959    A musical group was on a “Winter Tour” when their tour bus broke down near Mason City, Iowa. Their next stop was Moorhead, Minnesota so the band leader charters a four place single engine Beechcraft Bonanza to take him and two others on to Moorhead. One this date, the plane crashed soon after takeoff killing all aboard. In addition to the pilot, the passengers were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and John “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Holley and his band The Crickets, had just recorded “That’ll be the Day” a few days before. Valens was riding the crest of his hit “La Bamba” and Richardson had recorded the hit “Chantilly Lace”. Richardson had the flu and had talked another musician out of his seat on the plane. The musician that gave up his seat was Waylon Jennings.



1865    Earlier the journalist Horace Greeley had suggested that a meeting between the Union and Confederacy might bring a truce and the end to the bloodshed and recommended that a member of Lincoln’s advisory committee from Maryland, Francis Blair, should set up the meeting. Blair obtains the permission of Lincoln to prepare the location of the meeting and it becomes Hampton Roads, Virginia. On this date Abraham Lincoln met with the Confederate Secretary of State Alexander Stephens. Stephen asks for concessions and Lincoln says there will be no concessions that all those states in rebellion will rejoin the Union and comply with all of their laws. As you might suspect, since Lincoln knew the Confederacy was just a few days from defeat, he did not have to concede anything. And he was right, two months later the war ended at Appomattox Court House Virginia with the surrender of CSA Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.



1780    In 1760 Barnett Davenport was born in rural Connecticut. When he reached an appropriate age he joined the Patriot army and was with George Washington at Valley Forge and fought at Fort Ticonderoga. In the waning days of the Revolutionary War he became a boarder in the home of Caleb Mallory and his family also living in rural Connecticut. On this date, for reasons known only to Davenport, he slaughtered everyone in the Mallory house. He beat Caleb to death, shot his wife and daughter, set the house on fire killing Mallory’s two grandchildren. If this would have happened today, people would be saying is was a post-war syndrome. But in those days criminals were perceived as basically good people that had lost their way. Bur after this outrage, people’s attitude changed to that there were people out there that are basically evil. That attitude is still with us to this day.



1953    On this date French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau publishes his landmark book The Silent World. This book and Cousteau himself had opened our eyes to man’s responsibility for the stewardship our earth’s oceans and the beings therein. He also almost single-handedly created the sport of SCUBA diving. In the early years a free diver was very limited to the depth and length of stay under water. Then in 1943 Cousteau and inventor Emile Gagnan created the Aqua-Lung and the sport and industry of underwater exploration was born. He also helped invent underwater cameras and photography and the discovery and exploration of shipwrecks grew exponentially. In 1963 Cousteau gave us the book The Living Sea which turned out to be another milestone in the science of oceanography. Cousteau himself was a participant in the discovery of many ancient shipwrecks which is as thrilling today for me as it was for Cousteau at the moment of discovery. Cousteau died in 1997 leaving the world with a legacy that probably will never be matched.



1889    This is a story about Myra Belle Shirley that was born in Carthage, Missouri in 1848. Young Myra received a substantial education and be came very proficient on the piano. Her father was an innkeeper in Carthage but his business went to hell with the outbreak of the Civil War so the family moved to Texas. It was here that she met up with and had a relationship with the infamous Cole Younger who was a member of the James-Younger gang. It was soon thereafter she brought into this world a daughter she named Pearl. Most people believe that Cole was the father but it was probably Jim Reed, another member of the gang. She became the common-law wife to Reed and had no problem with his profession and indeed helped him in rustling cows and horses in the Dallas area. In 1874 Reed was killed in a gunfight so she drifted into the Oklahoma Indian territory and organized a gang of rustlers. She could be seen riding around in velvet dressed and plumed hats. She hooked up with a handsome Creek Indian named Sam Starr and she became known as Belle Starr. She stayed with Sam for 10 years but he was killed in a gunfight with a member of his own gang. Very soon after that she took up with another Creek Indian name Jim July, 15 years her junior. They were captured and did five or six months in the slammer but after release began their old tricks again. In 1889 she was summoned to Fort Smith, Arkansas to face charges of cattle rustling. So she and her boy friend Jim headed east to Fort Smith but changed their minds and turned around and headed back west. Soon after two shotgun blasts hit Belle in the back and she died instantly. The culprit was never found.



Born today:



1821 English born Elizabeth Blackwell. Elizabeth immigrated to the US and became the first female doctor in history. She said “If society will not admit to women’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” I have a male friend that has a female as his doctor. He told me that she had examined him for hemorrhoids. This is a severe case of over-confidence.



1826    English economist Walter Bagehot. He said “The reason there are so few good books written is that those that write don’t know anything.” Hey Walter, all you have to do these days is write book about a unique diet that will make people lose weight and you are successful.



1830   British Prime Minister Robert Cecil. When describing Edwardian England he said “It was consider virtuous to not be involved in a scandal or get a venereal disease.” Edwardian times must have been a lot of partying.



1918    US comic Joey Bishop. He said “I have a wonderful doctor. In 1955 I could not afford an operation, so he touched up the x-rays.” Joey went to that great stage in the sky in 2007.



1965    Florida State quarterback Casey Weldon. Casey was to attend a fancy sit-down dinner and was told he would be seated beside Ringo Starr. Casey said “Who is she?” Casey, shut up.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow