Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
The
restaurant I frequent is owned by a Greek family. Once I heard
one of them talking to someone in a foreign language and I assumed it
was Greek. I am a student of the Greeks and the contribution
they made to the world in many arenas. After he finished I
asked him if that was the language I would have heard from Plato,
Socrates and Aristotle. He said "No, we made the same
mistake the Americans did, we adopted parts of the languages of the
people we conquered and those that conquered us."
Trivia
question of the day:
In
Roman mythology the god of messengers and transporters was Mercury.
Who was the Greek god equivalent? Answer at the end of the blog.
Here
is a dichotomy for you. In the Old Testament the 10 Commandments has
one that says “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” When the Hebrews left the
desert headed up the Jordan River valley toward Canaan the first
major city they encountered was Jericho. After siege of seven days
they were able to enter Jericho and slaughter nearly everyone there.
Joshua was instructed by God through Moses to annihilate any and all
tribes they encountered along the way so they would not be attacked
from the rear . In fact they were punished because in one encounter
they did not slaughter them all and showed mercy. Perhaps that
commandment should read “Thou shalt not kill...except as directed”.
This Date in
History June 19
1864
Earlier the Confederate raider CSS Alabama had raised hell with US
shipping up and down the Atlantic to the tune of either sinking or
capturing 68 US vessels. The ship was built in the shipyards of
Liverpool, England as a blockade runner, meaning to carry trade good
through the US blockade of Southern ports trying to do financial
damage to the southern economy. The US Government complained
bitterly about the building of the Alabama and other like ships but
England tacitly supported the Confederacy. After the Alabama had
sailed out of England under the command of CSA Admiral Raphael
Semmes, the ship was re-armed and re-fitted into a commerce raider.
Semmes sailed the Alabama nearly around the world attacking US
shipping wherever he found them. Semmes sailed the ship back into
the port of Cherbourg, France for a much needed repair and refit.
The US warship USS Kearsarge found out that the Alabama was in
Cherbourg and sailed to a point just outside French territorial
waters and waited. The French Admiralty knew what was up and sent a
ship of their own to make sure that the Kearsarge did not attack the
Alabama in French waters. Finally the Alabama was ready and sailed
out to meet the Kearsarge. On this date the two ships opened on each
other but the Kearsarge had the latest chain-mail armor and the shots
from the Alabama were ineffective and the Kearsarge destroyed the
Alabama and it sank in the English Channel. This battle was observed
by the British cruiser Deerhound and some of the survivors, including
Semmes and most of his officers, were taken aboard that ship and
therefore avoided capture. Semmes took a much needed vacation in
Switzerland and then rejoined the Confederacy through Mexico. He was
assigned duty patrolling the James River. After the war, he retired
to Mobile, Alabama and practiced law and wrote a book about his
experiences. Admiral Semmes died in Mobile at the age of 67.
1892
On this date Francesca Rojas contacted the police in her Argentinean
hometown and reported her 6 and 8 year old children murdered. She
reported that she thought the murderer was a man named Velasquez
because she had rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. The
police found the children had been stabbed several times. The police
picked up Velasquez and using the tried and true method of torture,
tried to elicit a confession but Velasquez maintained that he had
nothing to so with it. The police even chained him to the corpses of
the two children over night to no avail. The police spent another
week torturing this unfortunate man but got no confession. The chief
of police had heard of a new detection device known as
fingerprinting. So he ordered several people fingerprinted including
Francesca and then he sent some of his officers over to hunt for
fingerprints at the crime scene. They lift a bloody print off the
doorknob of the house that turned out to be that of Francesca. The
police showed this evidence to Francesca and promised the same
treatment as Velasquez if she did not confess. She confessed that
she had killed her children because her boyfriend did not like
children and she wanted him to marry her. She was sentenced to life
imprisonment. This is one of the first times that forensic evidence
was used to solve a crime....not to mention the threat of torture. I
wonder if they used water boarding.
1868
It was during this time after the Civil War that the war between the
US Cavalry and the plains Indians was reaching a crescendo. No
settlers were safe on the plains and western expansion was grinding
to a halt. On this date a Belgian Jesuit priest named Pierre-Jean De
Smet went to a meet with the Great Indian chief Sitting Bull in the
Powder River area of Montana to see what could be resolved. De Smet
had been asked by the US military to try and iron out a treaty with
the Teton Sioux whose chief was Sitting Bulll. Sitting Bull trusted
what he called “The Black Robes” because they had never lied to
him like the majority of the US military. In the meeting De Smet
tried to get Sitting Bull to sign a treaty but Sitting Bull said no.
A victory of sorts was gained by De Smet since a modicum of trust had
been established between him and the mightiest Indian tribe west of
the Missouri River. De Smet died in 1873 in Saint Louis just three
years before Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and 3,000 Sioux and Cheyenne
warriors had a meeting with Lt. Col. George A. Custer and the US 7th
Cavalry at Little Big Horn.
1944
It was vital to the Japanese Empire to maintain control of the
western Pacific if they wanted to continue their expansion. They had
air bases at Saipan, Tinian and Guam to maintain dominance. The US
Army and Marines had already invaded Saipan and it looked like they
were there to stay. Trying to inspire the Japanese defenders of
Saipan, Admiral Nagumo (The commander of the Japanese naval task
force at Pearl Harbor) and General Saito (commander of the Japanese
troops on Saipan), commit suicide but not before sending out an
inspiring message to their troops. It worked. The next day nearly
all the Japanese military, cooks included, swarmed out of the hills
and jungle in a suicide attack unparalleled in history. The US Army
and Marines fought back with everything they had but the overwhelming
number allowed the Japanese to overrun many of their positions. The
slaughter continued for two more days until there were just a handful
of Japanese left on Saipan. The Japanese had lost 26,000 to 3,500
for the US. The US had sent the 5th
Fleet commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance from the Marshall Island
to the Marianas as support for the troops on Saipan. On the way
over, Japanese Admiral Jisaburo decided to challenge the American
fleet and on this date he sent 430 aircraft in attack. The 5th
Fleet detected the oncoming swarm on radar and send up their own
swarm of American fighters to intercept. The result was 300 Japanese
planes shot down and two Japanese aircraft carriers sunk to the loss
of 29 American planes. This action known as the Battle of the
Philippine Sea, or better known as the “Marianas Turkey Shoot”
all but guaranteed the defeat of the Japanese in WWII.
Born today:
1856
US writer Elbert Hubbard. He said “All is not lost when losing an
argument; you can still call your opponent vile names.”
Answer
to the trivia question:
The
Greek god equivalent to Mercury is Hermes.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
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