Friday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“When Solomon said that there was a time and place for everything he had not encountered trying to find a parking place for an automobile in London at Christmas time.”

                                                Bob Edwards

Here is an event in history that should give you pause.

Back about 1460BC several city-states in what is now central Israel and southern Lebanon revolted against being Egyptian vassals. Being a vassal meant that Egypt demanded a bribe called “tribute” from these city-states and this would prevent the Egyptians from declaring war on them. This also meant they would bring their much superior army and destroy them. It was nothing short of extortion but this practice was common throughout the known world. The Egyptians did not want precious metals and gems as much as they did grain, horses, sheep and cattle. The Pharaoh at the time was Thutmose III. He got fed up with their snot nose and in the spring of 1457BC he led his army of between 12,000 and 15,000 including charioteers out to crush this rebellion. The city-states had formed a coalition and elected the king of the city-state of Kadesh as their military leader. He assembled an army of between 10,000 and 15,000 including charioteers. On April 16, 1457BC these two armies engaged in a gigantic battle. The much more experienced Egyptians completely dominated and the destruction of the rebel army was complete. The rebels lost about 8,000 killed and wounded to about half of that for the Egyptians. The Egyptians carried their booty back to Egypt to the tune of 600 chariots, hundreds of horses and a variety of arms not to mention the capture of hundreds of men whom they brought back to Egypt and sold into slavery. The Egyptians prevailed primarily because of their training, leadership of Thutmose's generals and a new kind of bow. This was the first time that a composite bow was used in combat. Before this all bows were made of wood but the Egyptians had invented a bow that could cast and arrow much further than normal. The bow had several layers of different kinds of wood and strips of bone. What makes this battle scary in the location. It was fought on the “Plains of Meddigo” in present day north central Israel. The English translation of this place is Armageddon and is about 600 miles from Syria...where there is a war raging between “good and evil.” The Bible mentions that the world will end with a giant battle between good and evil on the “plains of Armageddon.” How do we know about this battle in 1457BC? It is because Thutmose III had every nuance of this battle written in stone. He was a vain man. BTW, this battle occurred about 200 years before the given date for the arrival of the Hebrews led by Moses.

        This Date in History   February 10

1779 On this date band of 350 Patriots led by General Andrew Pickens, Colonel Robert Dudley and Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke left South Carolina headed for Wilkes County, Georgia and a group of 200 British/Loyalist commanded by British Colonel John Hamilton at Carr’s Fort. The Patriots arrived at the site and a battle ensued. Just when the Patriots are about to wrap up this battle, General Pickens called for withdrawal and they headed out toward another column of British/Loyalist headed for North Carolina with recruits gathered up by Loyalist Colonel Robert Boyd from the city of Augusta, Georgia. They laid an ambush for Boyd’s column near Kettle Creek and when the Loyalists were in the right position, Pickens sprung the trap and all but annihilated the column of recruits. British Colonel Colonel Boyd is killed instantly. Both of these events occurred in Wilkes County, Georgia named after the British revolutionary John Wilkes who raised much hell in English Parliament in the behalf of the colonies that he was arrested and jailed for his fiery speeches and the American colonists send him money for his defense.

1962 Earlier an America spy pilot for the CIA named Gary Francis Powers launched a spy mission from Buda, Norway and is to fly across central Russian enroute to a secret spy base in Pakistan. He was flying the infamous U-2 spy plane. At the same time Russian spy Rudolph Abel is gathering information for the Soviets in New York and Washington. About half way through his mission, Power’s U-2 aircraft lost power and descended to an altitude that can be reached by Russian fighters and ground-to-air missiles. Normally the U-2 is at such a high altitude that nothing can reach them, but not this time. Powers was shot down and captured alive. Meanwhile Russian spy Rudolph Abel is also captured. After several months the Russians and the US decided to swap Powers and Abel so on this day Gary Francis Powers and Rudolph Abel passed each other walking in opposite directions on a bridge to freedom for Powers and suppression for Abel. There was a movie made of this titled “Bridge of Spies” starring Tom Hanks.

1920 Unfortunately for silent actress Theda Bara opened in San Francisco in a play named “Kathleen Mavoureen”. The play made fun and ridiculed the Irish immigrants. The majority of the men in the audience were Irish immigrant miners and railroad workers that had moved out west to work in the gold and silver mines near San Francisco. After it became apparent that the play was making fun of the Irish, the Irishmen got out of their seats and tore the joint apart. The moral of the story is the Irish have no sense of humor when they are the focus of the joke.

1862 On this night poet Dante Rossetti and his pal Algernon Swinburne come home from a night on the town and find Rossetti’s wife dead from an overdose of Laudanum, an opium derivative. No one knows why his wife Elizabeth would do such a thing and Dante was devastated and buried all of his manuscripts with Elizabeth. Dante came from a family of exceptionally talented people and went just the opposite of the wished of his father that wanted Dante to enter politics but that wasn’t Dante’s calling. He knew from an early age that poetry was his forte and would pursue it when the time came. He had a book of poetry published when he was 18 years old. Later on Elizabeth’s body was exhumed and Dante retrieved his manuscripts which provided Dante Rossetti a living for the rest of his life.

1846 On this date The Mormon community in Nauvee, Illinois pulled up stakes and headed west under the leadership of Brigham Young. Their original leader was Joseph Smith who brought them from New York to Nauvee. For some reason, the good people around Nauvee did not like the Mormons and their leader Joseph Smith in particular and took Smith and his son aside and killed them. The probable reason was that Smith considered himself as a prophet of God and he allowed polygamy. I suspect the fine, young men of Nauvee were jealous of the Mormons because their polygamy. But for whatever reason, he was killed. The evacuees of Naumee crossed the frozen Mississippi and set up camp near Sugar Grove, Iowa just below Council Bluffs. From there Young sent out scouts to find appropriate camping grounds and good water for his their trek westward. Young felt that he would never be at peace in the United States so he was trying to move west far enough to get out of the US. Eventually Young came upon the Great Salt Lake and by that time they had grown from 1,600 members to 12,000. Young declared that “This is the place”, and Salt Lake City was born and it was land that belonged to Mexico. The only down side of this for the Mormons was that The United States won the Mexican War and Mexico ceded what is now Utah, among others, to the United States so the Mormons found themselves Americans once again. Brigham Young lived to see the population of Salt Lake City reach 100,000.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow