Wednesday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Norwegian charisma is somewhere between a Presbyterian minister and a tree.”

                                               Johnny Carson

Trivia question of the day:

In what state was Johnny Carson born? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is an event that proves to me that the United States is here for a reason and that there is a God.

The Revolutionary war had been underway for a short while and things were not going well for the Patriots. In August of 1776 George Washington's army of about 10,000 was in Brooklyn, NY surrounded on three sides by the British army of about 30,000 with their backs to the East River near where the Brooklyn Bridge is today. It would take a miracle for the army to not be annihilated and sure enough...a miracle showed up. A fiery Patriot mariner/fisherman named John Glover offered to shuttle the army over to Manhattan with 10 small boats. Not only would he have to take the soldiers, he would have to take their artillery, horses, gunpowder, musket balls, rifles and small arms and do it at night in near silence so the British patrols would not find it out. It was a full moon but a heavy overcast showed up (coincidence #1). There was three British warships near the southern tip of Manhattan that could cut off this retreat but suddenly a wind blowing to the South arose preventing it. (coincidence #2). After nearly nine hours of at least 10 trips per boat it became daylight and a British patrol discovered them. They ran to the river bank and began firing but on cue a fog bank rolled in and the visibility went down to matter of yards (coincidence #3). There was four Patriots killed but the Continental army was in tact. All of these conditions could not be coincidental, it had to be the hand of God for all of these events to occur in sequence and at a time they were needed the most. We are here for reasons yet determined, y'all. God works in mysterious ways.

                  This Date in History   March 20

1778 On this date United States representatives Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee have an audience with King Louis XVI of France. They are there in order to persuade France to recognize the United States as an independent nation and become an ally. France was the prime enemy of Great Britain since their embarrassing loss to the English in the Severn Years War. This loss cost France their lands in North America and they were still smarting from it. The United States representatives were anxious to have the French Canadians as allies to protect their northern borders. King Louis XVI was cautious toward backing a losing cause but after the Patriots beat the crap out of the British at the Battle of Saratoga, he decided to recognize the United States as being an independent nation which put him at war with England. He had been covertly sending arms and ammo to the United States and now that he was an ally he sent them openly. A helping hand was given by the second most powerful man in the French Court, Charles Gravier, who wanted to become an ally with the United States for a different reason. After the British captured Philadelphia, Gravier was afraid that the Patriots would not fight without French backing. It was the French that sealed the fate of the British army under General Charles Cornwallis when the French navy sailed into Chesapeake Bay in 1782 and sealed off the avenue of retreat of Cornwallis while Washington was attacking him on three sides on land. We are here because of the dynamic men we had on our side at this point in time.

1965 On this date President Lyndon Johnson called the Governor of Alabama George Wallace and told him that he would not hesitate to send in the National Guard to allow a peaceful march of protesters from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Previously, this protest march was stopped at the Pettus Bridge near Selma when the local police and the State troopers waded into the protesters and beat the crap out of many of them. President Johnson reminded Wallace that it was his duty to protect the Constitutional rights of peaceful assembly and protest and if he was unwilling or refused to do so, then Johnson would. Wallace countered with that he did not think he could restrain his troopers and police because of “outside agitators”. The next march was accompanied by a division of Alabama National Guard sent by Lyndon and peace prevailed.

1413 King Henry IV died and his son Henry V assumed the crown. Earlier King Edward III had promised Henry V the Duchy of Normandy which is on the northwest part of France All of this got started when William, the Duke of Normandy and a Viking, became the King of England. William was also known as William the Conqueror. From then on every King of England thought he had a claim on Normandy. It was Henry V that pulled off one of the greatest military feats in history with his victory at the Battle of Agincourt. Henry landed on the Normandy coast and encircled the French town of Hanfleur and eventually captured it. Henry lost half of his strength due to battle wounds and disease. Henry decided he had better get up to Calais, France and meet his navy and get on back to England. By the way, Calais is the closest point in France to England, about 21 miles across the English Channel. On the way to Calais, Henry was cut off by a French army three times the size of his. Henry moved his troops into a narrow field which would eliminate the chance of encirclement and unleashed an avalanche of bodkin tipped arrows at the closely packed and heavily armored French knights. The bodkin tips were designed to penetrate chain mail and they did their damage to swarming knights. Another good thing in Henry’s favor was that it had rained heavily for the last few days and the chosen field was very muddy which made the footing very treacherous for the heavily armored knights. The French army was packed so close together that they could not even swing their swords. Upon seeing this, Henry ordered his bowmen to pick up their terrible double-handed and double-bladed axes and swords and join with the infantry and wade into those Frenchmen and take care of business. The French suffered 6,700 casualties to Henry’s less than 1,000. It was a stunning victory for the English if not in the history of warfare. Henry died in Vincennes, France in 1422.

1324 On this date the brain trust at the University of Paris determined what was causing the epidemic of Bubonic Plague or “Black Death” that was sweeping across Europe. I don’t know why they didn’t think of it sooner but they said it was caused by the triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars on the 40^th degree of Aquarius. Damn, it was so obvious, how did they miss it before? That pandemic was caused by the Crusaders bringing disease carrying fleas, riding on rats coming back from the Middle East after one of the Crusades. It was too late and nearly 1/3 of the population of Europe had expired. Can you believe they taught Astrology in an institution the caliber of the University of Paris?

1995 On this date someone unleashed a container of Sarin, one of the most deadly nerve gas known to man, in a crowded Tokyo subway. Twelve died and over 2,000 were injured. The Tokyo police were frantic to find out who did this act of terrorism. It took them a while because they automatically started thinking Arab terrorist but eventually it fell upon a religious fanatical group in Japan. The police found their headquarters and also found enough chemicals to make enough Sarin to kill everyone in Tokyo. The police were successful in arresting all involved including the leader who was very old, long silver hair and blind and normally sat cross legged on a satin cushion. Not any more.

Answer to the trivia question:

Johnny Carson was born in Nebraska.

                Thanks for listening    I can hardy wait until tomorrow