Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
“He
who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human
institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”
Harold
Wilson
Trivia
question of the day:
Name
3 present day entertainers that were Mouskateers. Answer at the end
of the blog.
I
don't know what made me think of it but one day when I lived in
Pensacola I was in my boat offshore a few miles slowly trolling. All
of a sudden a school of flying fish came out of the water and
streamed by me in a hurry. I new something was chasing them but I
did not know what. I looked over the side and there was a bottle
nosed dolphin (porpoise) right beside me. It did not pass, it stayed
within a few feet going at the same speed. I dipped my hand over the
side and it came over and nuzzled my fingers. We looked at each
other for a few seconds and then he was gone. It was a magical
moment that I will never forget...we were connected for those few
seconds. By the way, flying fish is one reason that I cannot deny
evolution. Their lateral fins are four time longer than the average
fish and are wing shaped. They can leap out of the water and sail
for a considerable distance to avoid a predator.
This
Date in History July 2
1863
The second day at Gettysburg sees a simultaneous attack on the right
and left flanks of the Yankee army. It is the troops of CSA General
Richard Ewell attacking the right flank at Culp’s Hill on the
extreme north end of the Union lines. At the same time CSA General
James Longstreet attacked the extreme south or left flank of the
Union lines at a place called Little Round Top. I have been to both
places. Culp’s Hill is not very high but it is a jumble of huge
rocks making the way up for the Confederates very slow and difficult.
The Union soldiers there were up to the task and repulsed the attack
inflicting heavy losses to the Confederates. The attack on the south
end, or Little Round Top, was an epic struggle studied to this day by
military historians. Earlier in the day, the Union division under US
General Dan Sickles was in a good position on Little Round Top but
Sickles did not like the ground and pulled his troops off and headed
west through the woods. Sickles was a politician from New York and
got his command because of his political influence. Anyway, about a
mile and half west was the open ground of a peach orchard. When
Sickles and his troops emerged form the woods, they were set upon by
a large number of screaming Confederates and was all but annihilated.
All of this happened in view of the rest of the Union troops on
Little Round Top. After this, Longstreet launched his attack with
CSA General John Bell Hood and about 2.500 of his Alabamians and
Texans. They first swept the Yankees off yet another small, rocky
hill called Devil’s Den which was about ½ mile from Little Round
Top. After this a direct assault on Little Round Top began. The
slopes on this hill are very steep as you get toward the top which
slowed the Confederate advance. So the Confederates began trying to
flank the line by moving to the right forcing the defenders to
stretch and roll back their lines. The Confederates were facing 300
men of the 20th
Maine. Even with 2,500 against 300, the Confederates were unable to
dislodge those Yankees. The battle reached a crisis when the Yankees
were out of ammunition and the Confederates were still coming. The
commander of the 20th
Maine, Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, ordered a bayonet charge even
though they only had only 160 combat ready men and down the hill they
went. The stunned Confederates beat a hasty retreat and the day was
saved. Had the Confederates been able to turn that flank it is
likely the war would have ended right there with there would be two
nations, the United State of America and the Confederate States of
America. Chamberlain received the Medal of Honor for his actions on
this day.
1881
Same crazy jackass named Charles Guineau showed up at a national
event and walked up to James Garfield and put two rounds from his
pistol into Garfield’s abdomen. One of the two shots lodged near
Garfield’s pancreas. It wasn’t long before Garfield developed a
serious infection and he died on Sept. 18. Charles Guineau had
written an acceptance speech and sent it to Garfield. Garfield did
not read it, of course, but Guineau felt like Garfield was elected
due to his writings and wanted the ambassadorship to France as his
reward. Garfield’s staff ignored his insistence and soon Guineau
got fed up and shot Garfield. There are a lot of crazies out there.
1937
On this date Amelia Earhart is on her way from Lae, New Guinea to
Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific. Amelia and her
navigator Fred Noonan are the only ones aboard. The USS Coast Guard
ship “Itasca” is in intermittent contact with Earhart who says
that she is lost and is looking for landfall. The Itasca puts out
miles of black smoke hoping she would see them to no avail. The last
contact was when Earhart called and said that she had 30 minute of
fuel and no land in sight. After that, there was no more contact.
After the largest search in history with no results, this remains an
eternal mystery.
1839
The Cuban schooner Armistead
departed Havana headed to the sugar fields of Puerto Principe with a
cargo of 30 African slaves. About half way the slaves revolted and
killed the captain and the first mate and instructed the rest of the
crew that it would be prudent if they took this boat back to Sierra
Leone in present today west Africa. The crew obliged and headed east
back to Africa. The only problem is that when it became dark, the
navigator headed the ship north rather than east. After a couple of
months the ship was spotted off the coast of New York and sent to New
London, Conn. After a series of law trials the Supreme Court ruled
that these men were unfairly brought into slavery and were released.
In 1841 abolitionists financed the passenger vessel Gentleman
to take the slaves back to their homeland in West Africa.
1992
On this day the book “A Brief history of Time” by Stephen
Hawking hits the best seller list. Hawking is a professor of
theoretical physics at Cambridge. His book is an attempt to explain
the physics of the cosmos to the average man. I not only read this
book many times, but I read and studied it like it was a text book,
not a book of entertainment. It was and is a milestone in the
understanding of what is out there. Hawking has a severe case of Lou
Gehrig’s disease that was diagnosed many years ago with just a year
or two to live, but he prevailed. He is wheelchair bound and cannot
speak, but he can use his left hand and a sophisticated voice
synthesizer was installed. We now can reap the thoughts of one of
the most creative minds this world has ever known. Incidentally,
Hawking was born on the 300th
anniversary of the death of Sir Isaac Newton. Both were theoretical
physicists at Cambridge and both were/are Presidents of the Royal
Society, an organization of very smart people. Makes you wonder. On
one occasion the Pope asked Hawking to back off on trying to find the
origins of the universe because it would disrupt religion if he found
it. Again, religion should not have a part in the classroom for this
reason.
Answer
to the trivia question
3
present day entertainers that were Mouskateers are:
Brittany
Spears, Christine Aquilera and Justin Timberlake.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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