Monday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“People love others not for who they are but for how they make them feel.”                                            Irwin Federman

Trivia question of the day:

Who was most of the cities in America with the name of “Greene or Green” as part of it named after? Answer at the end of the blog.

Out in the San Francisco area two high school kids were sitting around having their lunch when the vice-principal approached and told them to take off their bandanas with the American flag displayed. He also told them to turn their tee shirts inside out. The tee shirts also had an American flag displayed. The kids refused and were ordered into the principal’s office. The principal told them that since it was “Cinco de Mayo” and the school had a large Latino population a display of the American flag would be inflammatory. He told them that on any other day they could wear the bandanas and tee shirts. The kids still refused and were sent home. I am glad that I was not the parent of one of those kids because I would be in jail for trashing the principal’s office and I’ll bet most of you would do the same. Cinco de Mayo my ass.

                 This Date in History   May 7

1763 Earlier the French were kicked out of America during the French and Indian War and the British takes control of former French territory. The local Indian tribes find that the English are not as conciliatory as the French and are a hell of a lot more demanding. So the chief of the Ottawa Indians named Pontiac decides to do something about it. He has a meeting with many of the other tribes including the Wyandot, Ojibwa and the Potawatomi and they decide that Pontiac should take control of the now British enclave at Fort Detroit. It was Pontiac’s plan to suggest a meeting with the British in Fort Detroit under the guise of hammering out a peace treaty but what he really wanted was for them to open the gates and he then would order his hidden braves to attack and kill all they could but what they wanted most was the large arsenal known to be there. The problem was that the British commander of Fort Detroit found out about the plan and when Pontiac arrived he refused him entry and a long siege ensued. Simultaneously Pontiac’s allies such as the Delaware, Shawnee and Seneca began attacks on British forts and outposts in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. On July 31 a British relief expedition reached Fort Detroit and attacked Pontiac. The British are met with a ferocious counter-attack and received heavy casualties and were repulsed. But they were able to get some reinforcements and supplies into the fort which allowed them to last until fall. Fort Pitt and Fort Niagara also were able to withstand the assaults but eight other forts were wiped out. The British put two huge armies afield and one of them was able to defeat the combined forces of the Delaware and Shawnee which broke Pontiac’s alliance. With out this support, Pontiac finally was forced to sue for peace and signed peace treaty in 1766. In 1769 he was murdered by a visiting member of the Peoria tribe. A bitter war ensued between the followers of Pontiac and the Peoria tribe. The Peoria tribe was all but annihilated. That’s right; there is a town in Michigan and an automobile named for him.

1864 A few days earlier the Army of Northern Virginia, CSA General Robert E. Lee commanding, enticed the Army of the Potomac, US General Ulysses S. Grant commanding, into an area of Virginia known as “The Wilderness”. This area of thick woods and swamps would make Grant’s superior numbers of troops of no consequence to Lee’s Confederates. A savage battle ensued that resulted in appalling losses for Grant. Lee’s army inflicted twice as many casualties as they received but they were outnumbered by almost two to one so the battle was considered a draw. After such a bloodbath as that, previous US commanders would have retreated and licked their wounds but not Grant. He assembled his troops and headed south toward Spotsylvania, Virginia to keep the pressure on Lee. Strangely, this action was inspiring to the Union troops because they then knew they now had a leader that would accept nothing short of victory regardless of the price. In the past they had leaders that were more afraid of defeat than thirsty for success. Things were different now.

1954 Since the end of WWII the country of Vietnam had been a French possession. But early on the French were attacked by guerrillas led by a small man named Ho Chi Minh. The French Legionnaires were not used to a fighting force with the determination of these fighters but they fought as fiercely as their reputation is known for. Finally on this date, a large group of Legionnaires were surrounded by artillery and infantry of the forces of Ho Chi Minh and were forced to surrender. This ended the presence of the French in Vietnam. The place of was known as Dien Bien Phu. Five years later the United States send some “military advisers” into the southern part of that nation. We all know what happened then.

1902 On this date a volcano named Pele on the Island of Martinique in the Caribbean exploded sends mountains of ash and lava onto the city of Saint Pierre. This beautiful city was known as the Paris of the west. Not any more. This city no longer exists nor does the thousands of its inhabitants. It was the most devastating volcano in the 20^th century.

1896 Earlier a man named Herman Mudgett was born in New Hampshire. He started at an early age torturing animals showing what kind of demon was inside. He was a smart person and attended the University of Michigan and graduated with a medical degree. He financed his education by insuring non-existent people and gathering the insurance money upon presenting a corpse as the insured. In the meantime he had changed his name to Dr. H. H. Holmes. Holmes moved to Chicago in 1886 and went to work as a pharmacist. He eventually bought the pharmacy from the female owner. Soon thereafter the woman disappeared and was never seen again. Through a series of cons Holmes was able to buy a big house across the street from the pharmacy that he called the “castle”. Holmes fitted all the bedrooms with camouflaged gas outlets and he rented some of those bedrooms during the Chicago Worlds Fair and killed the occupants with gas, dissected them, and sold their skeletons to medical schools. He was finally caught using a corpse in another insurance scam and said “I was born with the devil in me; I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet cannot be inspired to sing.” This monster existed at the same time as the infamous “Jack the Ripper” in London but he did not achieve the notoriety. Holmes went to meet his maker at the end of a rope. The police searched his “castle” and found the remains of over 200 people. I wonder where he is today.

Died today:

399BC Greek philosopher Socrates. He said “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” This man was ahead of his time...way ahead.

Answer to the trivia question:

Most of the towns and cities in America with the name Greene or Green as part of it are named after Nathaneal Greene. This man was the leader of a group of Patriot guerrillas that bled the British army white in the southern US. He never really won a battle because he did not command a very large force but he was very skillful doing as much damage as possible and retreating. Not only that he financed his own operations and paid his troops out of his own pocket. After the war he was given 2 plantations as a reward for his service. One of the plantations was in South Carolina and the other was in Georgia. He sold the one in South Carolina to recover some of the money he had spent and moved into the one in Georgia. One year later he died of a heat stroke. God works in mysterious ways.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.