Monday

                  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Hillary Clinton has a recurring nightmare...she is kidnapped and taken to a J.C. Penny and forced to buy clothes off the rack.”

                                        Joey Adams

Some of you have read this before...here it is again.

Here is an event that proves to me that the United States is here for a reason and that there is a God.

The Revolutionary war had been underway for a short while and things were not going well for the Continentals. In August of 1776 George Washington's army of about 10,000 was in Brooklyn, NY surrounded on three sides with their backs to the East River near where the Brooklyn Bridge is today by the British army of about 30,000. It would take a miracle for Continental army to not be annihilated and sure enough a miracle showed up. A fiery Patriot mariner/fisherman named John Glover offered to shuttle the army over to Manhattan with 10 small boats. Not only would he have to take the soldiers, he would have to take their artillery, horses, gunpowder, musket balls, rifles and small arms and do it at night in near silence so the British patrols would not find it out. It was a full moon but a heavy overcast showed up. There was three British warships near the southern tip of Manhattan that could cut off this retreat but suddenly a wind blowing to the South arose preventing it. After nearly nine hours of at least 10 trips per boat it became daylight and a British patrol discovered them, ran to the riverbank and began firing but on cue a fog bank rolled in and the visibility went down to a few yards. There was four Continentals killed but the Continental army was in tact. All of these conditions could not be coincidental, it was an act of God and we are here for reasons yet determined.

                 This Date in History December 5

1907 In 1883 the Norfolk and Western Railroad expanded their network into southwestern West Virginia which opened up the previously untapped coal fields in that area. The area was soon flooded with European Immigrants and African-Americans seeking work. Small towns mushroomed almost overnight. On this date a thunderous explosion occurred down in the Fairfield Coal mine near Monongah, West Virginia, killing 365 miners and injuring 500. It was the worst mining disaster in American history. After this the public became aware of the danger in underground mines and safety precautions began to be incorporated into the operation of the mines and deaths and injuries began to subside. But it was the organization of the United Mine Workers led by John L. Lewis that insisted upon better and safer conditions and had the power to make it stick.

1917 Due to World War I the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia was jammed with ships going to and coming from the ports in Europe delivering the tools of war to the allies. The French freighter Mont Blanc and the Norwegian freighter Imo were two of them. The Mont Blanc was laden to the scuppers with picric acid (very flammable), 23 thousand tons of gasoline and an almost equal amount of TNT and gun cotton. The Mont Blanc and the Imo scraped sides and the Mont Blanc was holed and began leaking picric acid. The force of the collision sent the French freighter back toward the dock it had just left and almost simultaneously the picric acid caught fire. The fire was hot enough that it set the dock on fire and the seamen aboard the Mont Blanc immediately abandoned ship knowing what was in the hold. They did not even stop long enough to warn the other ships. People from the town gathered on the piers to watch this spectacular fire. Finally the fire reached the gasoline and TNT and the mightiest explosion in the pre-nuclear age was detonated. The 1,800 people on the pier were killed instantly and 9,000 were injured including 200 that were blinded by the sun-like brightness of the explosion. The light from the explosion was visible for 50 miles and the sound was heard hundreds of miles away, not to mention 1,600 homes in Halifax and surrounding neighborhoods that were flattened.

1865 On this date the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified when the state of Georgia voted for ratification. The 13^th Amendment outlawed slavery in the United States and its possessions. At the beginning of the Civil War many northern politicos were against the expansion of slavery into additional states but were ambivalent about banning it where it already existed. After the US victory at Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed the slaves in “those states in rebellion”. It was obvious that that proclamation could not be enforced and was merely symbolic. After the severe ass-kicking he the US Army received at the 1^st and 2^nd Battles of Manassas, the political climate in the north leaned toward letting the south have their own country and stopping the slaughter. But Lincoln prevailed and the war leaned away from freeing the slaves to preserving the Union. The only law that could be enforced at this time was when Lincoln ordered that any slave that became attached to a US army unit would then and forever be free. This caused some of the US army units a hardship by having to oversee several hundred slaves that had attached themselves to the units when passing by.

1868 In May of 1868 the very first train robbery in the United States occured in Seymour, Indiana by the Reno brothers, Frank, William and Simeon who were caught and jailed. In the act of the robbery they shot one of the train guards and on this date the train guard died. The outraged citizens of Seymour paid a visit to the local jail, snatched all three of the brother out of their cells and took them outside for a “necktie party”. In other words they were going to hang all of them. Frank and William go peacefully but Simeon fought like a wildcat and in the struggle knocked out three men before being overwhelmed. They strung old Simeon up but did not have the rope in the right place and when he dropped it did not break his neck, and he died of strangulation. It took about 20 minutes for Simeon to expire. It was not a pretty sight. But the citizens of Seymour went a few steps further and allowed some of the citizens to have their photo made with the corpses...for a price. The money went to charity. Then they sold pieces of the hangman’s rope...for a price. That went to charity also. At least the Reno brothers were responsible for a positive contribution to the community.

1941 On this date Australian coast watchers spot a fleet of Japanese warships traveling down the Malaysian Peninsula and speculated that they were on their way to invade Thailand. It was a diversion, y'all. The actual fleet of warships was about 800 miles northwest of Hawaii heading southeast staying inside of a squall line to avoid detection. They were headed for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Born today:

1898 US lyricist Ira Gershwin. He said “One can be very happy without demanding others agree with them.”

Died today:

1889 Former CSA President Jefferson Davis. He said “Neither current events nor history has proven that the majority rules, or ever has ruled”

1995 Scottish Journalist James Reston. He said “As society advances, the standard of poverty rises.”

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow