Tuesday

                   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

During WWI a US Marine unit was pinned down by ferocious German machine gun fire in the section of Belgium known as Belleau Wood. 1^st Sgt. Dan Daly ordered a bayonet charge, rose up and yelled “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?” and off they went. Daly was awarded two Medals of Honor in his career as a Marine. A law was passed since then that there could be only one MOH per person. His commanding officer said of Daly “He is the fightingest Marine I ever saw”. The Commandant of the Marine Corps said “Sergeant Daly is the most outstanding Marine of all time.” Daly was 5'-6” and weighed 134 pounds. In later blogs I will tell you why he was awarded the two MOH's.

          This Date in History   April 26

1986 Near a small village 65 miles north of Kiev, Ukraine the world was awakened to the possible dangers of nuclear power plants. The four reactor power facility at Chernobyl experienced the worst nuclear accident in history. Electrical engineers decided to perform an experiment on reactor #4. They wanted to see if the gigantic turbine could power the emergency pumps with inertia alone. These guys had hardly any experience with nuclear power and their experiment was not well thought out. Then a series of mistakes occurred. The engineers shut down all the emergency systems and reduced the power level in the reactor to where the nuclear reaction was unstable. So these geniuses decided that they should withdraw many of the control rods to heat up the reactor. They then continued with their experiment by disconnecting the turbine from its power source and waited to see of the now wind milling turbine could power the emergency pumps. It did not work; the pumps would not operate in that fashion. They finally realize that the reactor was on the edge of being out of control and slammed nearly 200 control rods back into the reactor simultaneously causing an immense explosion and fire. A deadly cloud of radioactivity rose up and headed northwest. The Russian government originally tried to cover up this disaster but it was just a matter of hours that stations in Scandinavia began reporting radioactivity levels 200 times higher than normal so they knew something had happened. It was estimated that 50 tons of highly radioactive debris was blown into the atmosphere. The Russian immediately evacuated 30,000 people but not before 32 had died almost instantly and about 5,000 Russians died of cancer as a result of contact with the radioactivity. Needless to say there was hardly any way to get firefighters into that inferno with any degree of safety so the Russians asked for volunteers to go in and put the fire out and informed them that there was no doubt that they would die of radiation poisoning but the Russian government would take care of their families. So a group of walking dead firemen went in and put the fire out. Eventually the entire power plant was closed but there is a defined perimeter around that plant site that is uninhabitable to this day. By the way, all the firemen did indeed die.

1865 After killing US President Abraham Lincoln, actor John Wilkes Booth jumped down on the stage of the Ford Theater and yelled “Thus to all tyrants” except he yelled it in Latin. Booth broke his leg in the jump but was able to make his way out the back door to an awaiting horse and his fellow conspirator David Herold and they made good their escape southbound. Booth and Herold have no problem getting help because Maryland was a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers. He stopped at the home of a Dr. Mudd to get his leg set and the good doctor set and splinted Booth’s leg. Booth and Herold stayed on the run for 12 days and stopped by a farm and asked the farmer if they could sleep in his barn. The farmer agreed but after they were inside the farmer sent his son out to lock the barn door so his horses would not be stolen. As you might suspect, the countryside was swarming with Federal troops looking for these two. The funny part is that the soldiers would not exchange information with each other because there was a $20,000 reward on Booth's head. On this date a group of Federal troops figured out that Booth and Herold were in the barn, surround it, and demand their surrender. Herold surrendered only to be hanged soon thereafter. Booth refused to surrender and the barn is set aflame to drive Booth out. Not only did the troopers set the barn on fire, they asked Herold where Booth was in the barn. They then fired fusillade of gunfire into that area of the barn killing Booth before the barn is consumed. By the way, Dr Mudd was captured as being part of the conspiracy but was released later when it became apparent that he was not.

1798 Future mountain man James Beckwourth is born on a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia the issue of a white man and a black slave woman. James was a slave also and ended up in St. Louis where his owner emancipated him. He joined in the third fur trapping expedition organized by William Ashley. James was green as grass when it came to surviving in the Rocky Mountains and he leaned heavily on others until he was educated. He developed a good relationship with the Crow Indians and eventually gave up his white man ways and moved in with the Crows and had several wives and children. Later on he hired himself out as a guide and scout for the US Cavalry and participated in the Seminole War. Beckwourth was a participant in the notorious Sand Creek Massacre where a whole village of peaceful Cheyenne was wiped out simply because they were Indians. After this James moved back in with the Crows. Beckwourth was a notorious braggart and liar especially about himself. In fact the date he gave for his birth date is in question. Some western writers say he was born in 1800. In any event he died in 1867 and some say he was buried in an unmarked grave near Denver and others say he died while with the Crows and they buried him in typical Crow fashion, on a platform in a tree and left to decompose into a skeleton. The Crows believed that it was an honor to be buried “in the sky”.

1865 On this date the Confederate Army in the Carolinas commanded by CSA General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to US General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. This essentially was the last organized army in the Confederacy. That is all I have to say about that.

Born today:

1599 English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. He said “Do not trust the cheering crowd. They would cheer just as loud if you were being taken to the gallows.” Speaking of the gallows, here is an interesting story about Cromwell. He was part of the crowd that overthrew the Charles I, King of England. The king was beheaded at the behest of Cromwell. Cromwell became the “protector” of England making him essentially the king. He could not officially be king because he was not of royal blood. Cromwell eventually died and Charles II, the son of Charles I, was made king. Charles II was really pissed about his father being beheaded and had Cromwell’s corpse dug up and hanged even though he had been in the ground for 11 years.

Died today:

1726 English Bishop Jeremy Collier. He said “Belief gets in the way of learning” Indeed it does. That is why religion has no place in academia.

        Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow