Tuesday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Always do the right thing. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

                                                      Mark Twain

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court and who is the present chief justice? Answer at the end of the blog.

                    This Date in History October 9

1970 The Khmer Republic is established in Phnom Penh by Cambodian General Lon Nol by a military coup that unseated the Monarchy led by Prince Sihanouk. The good General was supported and financed by the good ole CIA. From 1970 to 1975 the General battled with the forces of the Communists called the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot who was financed by the good ole KGB. Does that sound familiar? Anyway, when the American support stopped in 1973 with the evacuation of Vietnam General Lon Nol knew it was just a matter of time before his forces were defeated and he was right. Lon Pol and his army capitulated in 1975. The Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot took over the reins of Cambodia, evacuated the capital city of Phnom Penh and started killing people wholesale. It is estimated that 10% of the total population of Cambodia died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. There was a movie made about this bloodbath named “The Killing Fields”. Don’t see it if you are not able to handle horror at its peak.

1864 The Battle of Tom’s Brook happened on this day in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. US General U.S. Grant was especially interested in CSA Gen. Jubal Early’s control of the Shenandoah Valley because the Valley was essentially the breadbasket of R. E. Lee’s army. Grant ordered US Gen. Phillip Sheridan to go valley and kick Early’s army out. Sheridan ordered Gen. Merritt and his cavalry unit of 3,500 and Col. Custer (George A.) and his cavalry unit of 2,500 to find Early’s cavalry and neutralize them. They finally found the Confederate cavalry at Tom’s Brook. Merritt and his 3,500 attacked a Confederate cavalry unit of 1,500 led by CSA Gen. Lomax and succeeded in running them off. General Custer and his 2,500 had a lot more trouble when they attacked CSA Gen. Rosser and his 3,000. By the way Custer and Rosser were close friends at West Point. It was a huge struggle but Custer was able to get 3 of his regiments out and attacked the Confederate flank and it was all over. The Confederates took off galloping toward their infantry for protection with Custer in close pursuit. After reaching the Confederate infantry, Custer broke off the chase. The locals called that action “The Woodstock Steeplechase”.

1940 During the bombing of London by the Germans, on this day a bomb penetrated the great dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and destroyed the high altar. Later a live bomb that failed to explode was removed from the dome. The history of St. Paul’s is an interesting one. Tradition has it that the Romans had built a temple to Goddess Diana on the present day site of St. Pauls. London was founded by the Romans as an outpost. While in London in the year ‘04 I saw some of the walls of Roman military barracks that are still standing. Anyway, the first St. Pauls was built in 604 A.D. by King Aetheberht but burned to the ground soon thereafter. St. Pauls was rebuilt but was destroyed by the Vikings in 962 A.D. The long suffering Brits rebuilt it and again was destroyed by fire in 1087. You guessed it, it was rebuilt but fell into disrepair and damaged by fire and by the English Civil War in 1616. In 1660 the great English architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to design a new St. Pauls but the rebuilding was delayed because of the great London Fire of 1666. Finally the building process got back underway in1675 and was completed in 1710. Wren died in 1723 and is buried in the great cemetery at St. Paul's along with other heroes like Lord Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

1970 The Smith-Barney investment group is hit with a class action suit brought by its female employees for sexual harassment. The women believed that the firm paid them less than they did the men and they received fewer promotions than men. The suit was thrown out of court because the plaintiffs (women) did not prove their case. But very soon thereafter a large number of executives at Smith-Barney were fired for using the company’s computer network to exchange porn among them and others outside the firm. I guess they DIDN’T do it the old fashioned way.

1967 Argentinean Ernesto Guevara de Serna better known as Che Guevara is executed by members of the Bolivian army. Che was a born revolutionary and was good at it too. He started out trying to help a communist revolution in Guatemala which failed. He then went to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro and they formed a hard and fast relationship. Che was invited to join with Castro in his attempt to overthrow the government in Cuba which was right up Che’s alley. Castro tried a direct military coup on the Cuban government which failed so Che, Fidel and his followers went into the hills and started a guerrilla war. After a while the Cuban government was indeed overthrown and Fidel seized control and made Che his finance minister. Che sat on this a while but soon became bored and started looking for another revolution and found one in Bolivia. Little did he know that the CIA was very interested in capping Che as they saw him as a threat as indeed he was. The CIA provided the Bolivian Army with information about the location of Che by satellite surveillance and a spy network. The Bolivians found him and it was all over for Che. I read a book once written by an ex-CIA agent that was there when the execution took place and said that Che knew what was coming and told them that he understood why they had to do it and if the situation was reversed he would do the same thing. His picture is one of the most recognized in the world. His book “Guerrilla Warfare” is used as a textbook by revolutionaries to this day.

Born today:

1757 French King Charles X. He said “There is no middle ground between the throne and the guillotine.” French King Louis XIV can verify that.

1940 Beatle member John Lennon. He said “There is a great woman behind every idiot.” You lost me there John, I thought all women are great, that is what they keep telling me at least.

1975 The son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sean Oko Lennon. He said “Peace is good but so is smoked salmon.” He Sean, you forgot about Key Lime Pie.

Answer to the trivia question:

The first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court was John Jay of New York. The present chief justice is John Roberts as of 2005.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow