Monday

                                Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

                                                  Melody Beattie

Trivia question of the day:

What is the name of Viking “heaven”? Answer at the end of the blog.

                    This Date in History   June 18

1812 On this date the United States Congress and President James Madison declare war on Great Britain. What the root of this disagreement was all the cause of England. They had been “Shanghaiing” American seaman into the British navy, meaning these men went into the British navy whether they liked it or not. Great Britain also was exercising financial sanctions against France because they were trading with America and finally, they were encouraging and financing the Indians along the Great Lakes against America. The war lasted 2 ½ years with the most remembered events being the burning of the White House to the ground, Dolly Madison ensuring the portrait of George Washington was saved from the conflagration and finally, the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson kicking ass even though the war was over a week before. This victory by the United States ensured their independence for the foreseeable future. By the way, Andrew Jackson got the nickname “Old Hickory” when he was walking through a building in Washington carrying his hickory cane when a man ran up to him, pulled a pistol and fired but the gun misfired, the assassin pulled another pistol and tried again and that one misfired also, Jackson then lifted his hickory cane and beat the holy shit out of this guy and would have killed him had some of his entourage not intervened. I like this South Carolinian.

1815 One of the most important battles in world history occurs on this date. Earlier one of the greatest military strategists in history had suffered a series of defeats especially his attempt at the invasion of Russia. After this defeat Napoleon Bonaparte was captured and exiled to the island of Elbe in the Mediterranean. He escaped and went to France and gathered another army of over 100,000 and headed toward Belgium. His intent was to capture as many countries as he could as quick as he could so they could not join forces. On the way to Belgium he ran upon the 30,000 army of the Prussian Baron von Blucher. The Prussian knew when he was out manned and hastily retreated. Napoleon detached 32,000 of his own troops to pursue von Blucher. The next day Napoleon met up with the English army of 63,000 led by Lord Wellington near the small Belgian city of Waterloo. So what we have here are two armies about the same size with each having superior leadership. Then Napoleon makes a fatal mistake in judgment when he delays his attack until mid-day to allow the fields to dry out from the soaking rain the night before. Finally Napoleon launches his attack and has initial success but who should show up on his left flank but Baron Von Blucher and his 30,000 who had eluded his pursuers. This unexpected attack unnerved Napoleon and he paid more attention to that than he should have and did not send his reserves into the area of success which allowed Wellington to re-form his troops and they began a general advance and drove Napoleon from the field. Napoleon’s “Grand Armee” disintegrated. Napoleon knew he was in deep shit with the French so he surrendered to the English. He thought they would send him to the United States but no, they sent him into exile on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa where there was no chance of escape. He died six years later, probably of stomach cancer. He was 51 years old.

1865 US General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain received a near fatal wound while leading an attack against Confederate emplacements at Petersburg, Virginia. Chamberlain won a Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg nearly a year before. He was wounded at Gettysburg also but it was a minor wound, in fact he had received 6 wounds before the end of hostilities. He won the Medal of Honor by commanding 300 Maine soldiers in defending the Union left flank at a place known as Little Round Top at Gettysburg. His troops fought as long as they could but eventually ran out of ammo so Chamberlain had a choice to make. Retreat and let the Confederates turn the flank which would be disastrous; stay where they were and get annihilated and the Confederates turn the flank anyway or to charge. Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and ordered a charge and down the hill they went. The stunned Confederates retreated and the left flank of the Union line was secure. The next day Chamberlain and his troops were moved to a more “safe” area on the battlefield, right in the very middle of the Union lines. About 11:30a one of the largest artillery barrages ever fired in North America was launched toward the center of the Union lines by the Confederates. Chamberlain hugged the ground wondering when it would stop and when it finally did, he heard the thin high scream of the Rebel yell and saw 13,000 confederate infantry about a mile away coming his way. It was the famous Pickett’s charge. I just wasn’t Chamberlain’s day.

1984 On this date shock-jock Alan Berg was gunned down in his driveway in Denver. Alan Berg was the star of a radio show where he tried to piss people off and be as abrasive as he could, he said that he wanted to be “the man you hate the most.” Well, there were so many people that had threatened to kill Berg that the Denver PD did not know where to start. But the FBI knew where to start. They had been trying to infiltrate an ultra-right organization known as “The Order. It was known that his organization had a Nazi posture and hated blacks and Jews. They were a step above the KKK. The FBI also knew that “The Order” had Alan Berg on their hit list and assumed they were the culprit, and they were right. About a year later, a high officer in the Order was arrested in Georgia with a truck load of arms and ammo. Through this man the case of the murder of Alan Berg was solved. This was not the first time that the length, width and depth of the hatred for Jews and blacks was uncovered. Hatred is out there y'all, look out for it.

Born today:

1913 US economist Sylvia Porter. She said “The thing to remember about economic forecasting is that what you are about to forecast usually has already happened.” It is simple Sylvia, buy low and sell high.

1939 US baseball player Lou Brock. He said “I used to complain to my Dad that I imagined animals running under my bed. He fixed that by cutting the legs off my bed.”

Died today:

1902 British writer Samuel Butler. He said “It was good of God to allow Thomas Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle to marry each other so there will be only two unhappy people rather than four.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The name of Viking “heaven” is Valhalla.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.