Friday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I poverty is no disgrace but it is damned inconvenient.”

                                  Chris Rock

               This Date in History June 17

1775 On this date British General Charles Howe landed at Charlestown, Massachusetts near Boston with an infantry force and headed toward Breeds Hill where a known Patriot armed force waited. They were there to try and disarm the citizenry. Breeds Hill was just south of a larger one named Bunker Hill. Breeds hill was on the property of John and Abigail Adams and they were indeed witnesses to the battle. The Patriots were led by General William Prescott and it was he who supposedly uttered the famous phrase “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Sure enough, the Patriots waited until the neatly aligned and arranged British lines were within 40 yards and they opened up with a blistering fusillade which forced the British to retreat and re-aligned their lines and then they tried it again. The Patriots were again ready and waited until the British within 40 yards and opened up again forcing another retreat. The British again retreated out of range and re-grouped. On the third charge the British did not stop and retreat but kept coming and forced the Patriots to retreat. This first organized engagement between the British and the Patriots was a tactical victory for the Patriots because the British lost over 80 men while the Patriots lost less than 20. The down side was this battle proved the resolve of the British Army to achieve their objective. The Patriots knew they were in for a long haul indeed. This was the Battle of Bunker Hill and it was the end of the beginning, we were now committed to our war for Independence and freedom.

1579 Earlier in December of 1577 British sea captain Francis Drake was tasked by Queen Elizabeth I to locate and rob the Spanish settlements on the west coast of the new land. Drake left Plymouth, England (been there) with five ships and headed west. His small armada reached the east coast of South America and sailed south to the Straits of Magellan. Along the way one of his ships had to be abandoned and only four of his ships reached the Straits. There they encountered one of the Straits infamous storms. One of his ships was wrecked and two had to come about and head back to England leaving Drake and his ship, The Golden Hind, alone in his quest. Drake survived the storm and upon leaving the Straits into the Pacific, he encountered and captured a Spanish treasure ship. After loading the treasure aboard the Golden Hind he continued to sail north to seek Spanish settlements. He sailed all the way to present day Washington before returning to a small bay just north of San Francisco where he set about refurbishing and repairing his ship for crossing the vast Pacific. It was on this day while anchored in this small bay that he claimed California for England and Queen Elizabeth I. Drake finally got his repairs made and headed west. He sailed by the Philippines, out into the Indian Ocean and around the toe of Africa, The Cape of Good Hope, and finally back into the harbor of Plymouth with the Golden Hind loaded to the scuppers with Spanish gold. Needless to say, Queen Elizabeth was pleased and knighted Drake and he became the famous adventurer Sir Francis Drake. By the way, in London near the Tate Gallery on the Thames River is a replica of the Globe theater where Shakespeare was an actor in plays that he had authored and a replica of the Golden Hind is also anchored near there. They thought highly of Sir Francis Drake.

1972 On this date a night watchman making his rounds in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC when he noticed a door lock that had been taped open and saw flashlights in that office, that being the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The night watchman called the police and five men are arrested. There were three Cuban nationals, one Cuban/American and a man named James McCord. Found with these Bozos was burglary tools and very sophisticated bugging equipment. But what was the real surprise was that McCord was and ex-CIA agent and under the employ of CREEP, or the Committee to Re-elect the President. This means that they were hired by the Republican Party to burglarize and spy on the Democratic Party. The report of this arrest was stuck on the fourth or fifth page of the Washington Post until it was noticed by two reporters for the Post named Carl Bernstein and Robert Woodward. These guys dug into this event until they uncovered a conspiracy that went all the way to the White House. A Senate Committee headed by North Carolina Senator Sam Irvin was formed to look into possible impeachment of the president. By July of 1974 the Irvin Committee had adopted three articles of impeachment and was set to move on them when President Richard Nixon called in one of the Republican leaders in the Senate, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and asked him if he, Nixon, had enough support in the Senate to overpower the impeachment charges. Goldwater told him no, he did not. A few days later for the first time in American history the President of the United States resigned and Vice-President Gerald Ford took the reins of the Presidency. Nixon was a very spooky individual, when I heard him speak I said to myself that I would not buy a used car from this man. By the way, Gerald Ford was the only President we ever had that was an Eagle Scout.

1876 The United States Cavalry had been tasked with gathering up the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes in the northern plains led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and take then by force if necessary, to reservations. The Cavalry decided to send three columns led by General Terry from the east, General Gibbon from the west and General Crook coming up from the south. General Terry had the infamous 7^th Cavalry, Colonel George A. Custer commanding, aboard. General Crook had about 270 Indian guides and scouts made up primarily of Crows and Shoshone. On this date General Gibbon ordered half of his troopers to dismount and allow the horses to graze and for the troopers to rest in the tall grass. Soon thereafter the Indian guides and scouts came riding in yelling “Many Sioux”, Many Sioux”. Right behind them came 2,000 Sioux warriors headed straight for the dismounted troopers. In an unbelievable show of bravery, the Crow and Shoshone Scouts rode headlong into the charge and turned it aside allowing the troopers to retrieve their horses and guns. But General Crook’s troopers suffered a severe ass-kicking that forced the whole column to retreat and re-organize. Little did they know what awaited the 7^th Cavalry eight days later at Little Big Horn. By the way, General Crook was assigned the task of capturing Geronimo. In the span of five years Crook was unable to capture Geronimo and in fact only caught sight of him but once in the whole time. Because of this failure, General Crook resigned. But in his defense, an Apache warrior the caliber of Geronimo wasn’t meant to be captured.

          Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow