Friday

 Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The difference between Catholics and Jews is the Jews are born with guilt and Catholics have to go to school to learn it.”

Elaine Boosler

Trivia question of the day:

The name on the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was “Enola Gay”. What was the name on the bomber that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki? Answer at the end of the blog.

I saw that several celebrities are saying that Donald Trump is unbalanced, one of them was Charlie Sheen, for crying out loud. Here is an icon in bizarre behavior criticizing someone elses. I would like to see a show of hands of those that are fed up with stupid sports figures and people in the entertainment industry using their celebrity to expound upon their political opinion. That's what I thought...me too.

I was watching a national Geographic program about where the first humans came from to North America. The generally accepted version is that they came from Siberia across the Bering Sea land bridge and then down an ice free corridor across Alaska and Canada during the last ice age. The Bering Sea land bridge happened because of much of the oceans water was frozen making the seas much shallower. The peculiar thing is that there has never been a skeleton found to date in North America that was older than 13,000 years old. Also, the ice free corridor mentioned only existed for about 500 years so we know about when this immigration took place. At the same time there was a solid ice sheet a mile thick extending from Scotland to the vicinity of Nova Scotia and Maine. It has been suggested that ancient man traveled in boats from Europe to North America earlier than the Siberians by sailing close to the edge of the ice subsisting on the plentiful game and fish that existed there.  Paleontologists have found spear heads in different areas around the Chesapeake Bay that are more sophisticated than those found in the Texas/New Mexico area. This would indicate that the people that made the spearheads in the Chesapeake area had been doing it longer than those out west and therefore had been living there longer. This also indicates that North America was populated by at least two sources. Scientists have found that the DNA from the Chesapeake area ancient skeletons is indeed different from ancient skeletons found in the western US. It is an interesting mystery to me.

A while back over in Spartanburg, SC the trial of Anthony Briggs ended with he being sentenced to life without parole PLUS 15 years to run concurrently. What did Tony do? While living with his girlfriend he sexually abused his girlfriend’s five year old daughter. The prosecution only presented one witness and that was the testimony of the little girl while being interviewed by a child psychologist. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, including the jury, that Tony was guilty. There is not much worse punishment than life in a South Carolina prison especially if you are a child molester.

                  This Date in History   August 30

30BC On this date the infamous Cleopatra of Egypt committed suicide. Cleo was hell on wheels, y'all. She was not Egyptian but a descendant of a Macedonian (Greek) general named Ptolemy that was left in charge of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 323BC as he was passing through on his way east. Cleo was a dual ruler with her brother Ptolemy XIII after the death of their father Ptolemy XII. It was not long before Cleo and her brother got fed up with each other and a civil war erupted. Strangely, the most powerful nation on the planet was in the throes of civil war also and that was Rome. The civil war in Rome left Pompey the Great as the loser and he ran like hell to Egypt trying to escape the wrath of the winner, Julius Caesar. Pompey the Great was in Egypt about 15 minutes before he was skewered on a spear and killed because the Egyptians did not want Julius Caesar thinking they were siding with Pompey. Sure enough, here came Julius Caesar looking for Pompey. He is shown the head of Pompey reassuring him that Pompey was dead and for him to not worry about Egypt’s alliances. While there he meets Cleo in a peculiar manner. She has herself wrapped in a carpet and taken to Julius where she appears when the carpet is unrolled. Cleo was a stone fox, y'all. Her beauty and skills at love making were legendary. Julius was smitten by this girl and they soon were lovers. Cleo did not give a shit about Julius except that he and his army and navy could help her win the civil war against her brother. Julius did not disappoint and soon Ptolemy XIII was dead and also one of Cleo’s other brothers Ptolemy XIV. After this Julius went on to Asia Minor to put down some rebellions. Cleo bore a son that she says was the spawn of Julius and named the boy Caesarian meaning “little Caesar”. Julius was successful in putting down the rebellions and went back to Rome in triumph where Cleo and Caesarian joined him. Julius discreetly put her and his son up in a separate house for appearances sake. But not long after this Julius got too cocky for the Roman Senate and is stabbed to death. This put Cleo in a pickle and she hauled ass back to Egypt. Cleo promptly named Caesarian as Ptolemy XV. After Julius’ death a triumvirate (three rulers) was formed in Rome. It was Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. These three split the Roman Empire into three sections with Mark Antony getting the Eastern Provinces meaning Egypt. Not long after arriving in Egypt Mark Antony met Cleo and fell under her spell and Cleo bore twins by Antony. The triumvirate begins to collapse and a civil war between Antony and Octavian erupted. Antony and Cleo combined forces to combat Octavian’s army and navy. The combined force navy is defeated in the naval battle of Actium (Greece) and Cleo and Antony went back to Egypt. Octavian headed to Egypt looking for Antony to settle things once and for all. The two armies met and Octavian prevailed. Cleo is waiting for news and is told that Mark Antony had been killed and Cleo decided to commit suicide and held a poisonous snake to her breast and is fatally bitten. But Antony is not dead and Cleo receives a note saying so but it is too late. Upon receiving the news that Cleo was dead, Antony stabbed himself with his sword and died also. Octavian promptly has Caesarian executed because he has Julius Caesars blood in his veins and may make a claim on Roman power later. Octavian later became know as Caesar Augustus and proved to be a very capable leader. What a story.

1989 In 1986 career criminal James Marlowe was paroled from Folsom prison. He gained the nicknamed ”The Folsom Wolf” while there. Soon after being released he met Cynthia Coffman and they hit it off famously. They did so well that they began traveling across the country together and they ended up in Tennessee and got married. For a wedding present Coffman had “Property of the Folsom Wolf” tattooed on her ass. They then headed west for California sponging off their relatives along the way. A woman named Corinna Novis disappeared from an ATM in Redlands, California. A few days later Lynel Murray is kidnapped in front of a dry cleaner in Orange County where Murray worked. A checkbook and other papers with both Novis and Murray names on them were found in a dumpster in Big Bear City, California. A lodge owner called the police and told them that the couple had just checked in. The police descended on the lodge and found the couple hiking in the nearby woods wearing clothes from Murray’s dry cleaner. They were tried and convicted of murder and on this date they were sentenced to death. Coffman was the first woman to receive the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1977.

1943 French ski champion Jean-Claude Killy. He said “To win you have to risk losing.” That is a good attitude for life also.

Answer to the trivia question:

The name on the bomber that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki was “Bock's Car”.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow             

Thursday

   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Those paranoids are out to get me.”

                     Anonymous

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the first European to sight the Hawaiian Islands? Answer at the end of the blog.

How are women treated by the Muslims worldwide, and they are the majority? Why did all those Syrian refugees NOT go to those Arab nations just a few miles from them on the Arabian peninsula like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, Somalia, etc.? They were denied sanctuary because the Syrians are of the Shia branch of Islam and the others are Sunnis. That, my friends, is prejudice in its barest form.

                             This Date in History   August 29

2005 Earlier a small Category 1 hurricane named Katrina slipped out of the Caribbean Sea, took a swipe at the southern tip of Florida and then broke loose in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a northwest course. The warm waters of the Gulf pump Katrina up to a Category 3 in short order. It looked like the hurricane was going ashore in Mobile, Alabama or maybe Pensacola, Florida. But on this date, the storm took dead aim at the Mississippi River delta and New Orleans. Early on this morning Katrina quickly expanded to a Category 4 and then briefly to a Category 5 and then back to a category 3 and stormed ashore in the Mississippi river delta packing winds of 140 MPH and a storm surge of 22 feet. The eye of the storm reached New Orleans intact and the excess water and wind quickly overwhelmed the levees holding back the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.  From what I have read, the majority of Big Easy is at least 6 feet lower than the River and the Lake. Once the levees failed, the center of New Orleans was flooded with the 9^th Ward being the hardest hit. Hundreds of people were stranded on the roofs of their houses and just had to wait to be rescued by boats or helicopters. There were some areas that boats were not allowed because of downed power lines and the rescuers just had to try to block out the screams for help in those areas. As we have all seen, the unflooded areas of the commercial districts were subject to unobstructed looting while being observed by the NOPD. The next few days were a montage of events of pure bravery and further events of battles with gangsters trying to take control of the city by force. The arrival of the 82^nd Airborne and the Louisiana National Guard put a stop to this. But of those that evacuated 9^th Ward to the tune of at least 100,000, almost none have returned. I do not know the exact amount of evacuees that left their homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina including parts of Mississippi, but many, many remain in cities like, Atlanta, Houston, Austin and many others, there does not seem to be a desire to return to the Gulf Coast. It looks like they are no longer evacuees but settlers in new lands. It was the worst natural disaster in United States history. I do not remember any presence of the 82^nd Airborne or any looting during the flooding in central Iowa. What’s up with that?

1779 On this day the American Continental army commanded by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton engage a combined Loyalist/Indian army commanded by British Captain William Butler and Iroquois chief William Brandt. The engagement took place near Chemung, New York which is Elmira today. Earlier George Washington had tasked Patriot General Horatio Gates with going to the Finger Lake region and subduing the Iroquois Indians under Chief Brandt who are on constant attack of the new settlements. Gates refused the assignment so Washington assigned the task to Major General John Sullivan. Sullivan and company departed Easton, Pennsylvania and travel by the Susquehanna River to the area of conflict. The Patriot artillery was too much for the Indians and they fled leaving a small contingent of Loyalist which were killed or captured by the Patriot infantry. Sullivan ordered his troops to burn and destroy the Iroquois villages and supplies. His troops laid waste to 40 Indian villages and mountains of supplies which made the following winter a severe one for the Iroquois but it did not belay their spirit and the attacks continued at least for a while. Eventually Iroquois leader Charles Brandt saw that the Patriots were going to win the war and took his tribe into Canada to lands given to them by the British.

1885 On this date German inventor Gottfried Daimler invented the prototype of the modern motorcycle. The motorcycle was used extensively WWI by both sides as a messenger vehicle. The popularity fell between WWI and WWII but the motorcycle was again used extensively by both sides during WWII. After the war the returning veterans had developed a taste for them and the demand rose precipitously. The down side of the rise in motorcycle craze was led by a group of hardcore gangsters led by the leader of a San Bernardino group of bikers that organized themselves into a club named the “Hell’s Angels”. Their leader was Sonny Barger. From then many “Hell’s Angels” clubs and clubs like them were formed world wide fostering a wild, unfettered lifestyle. They wanted to project a tough, “Don’t mess with me image” and they indeed succeeded. But today the greatest majority by far, is middle class America that holds meets without the gangster types. For instance this month a motorcycle rally is held in Sturgis, South Dakota that over 500,000 motorcyclists attend, not to mention those rallies at Daytona Beach, Fla., Myrtle Beach, South Carolina among other places and they all seem to happen without a lot of trouble. I was a rider at one time. But I did not ride on the street that much, I preferred to ride a trail bike in the mountains up and down logging trails or make my own trails, the rougher the better. It was not a glorifying type of avocation but I enjoyed the hell out of it. I can’t do it now because of my age, but I miss the challenges.

Born today:

1876 US inventor Charles Kettering. He said “I am more interested in the future because that is where I am going to spend the rest of my life.” Kettering invented the electric starter for automobiles among other things.

Answer to the trivia question:

The first European to sight the Hawaiian Islands was English sea captain James Cook.

                               Thanks for listening     I can hardly wait until tomorrow             

Wednesday

  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“You can bet that if the cops have to run you down they are going to bring an ass-kicking with them.”

                                                    Chris Rock

Trivia question of the day:

There is a popular place in London called Trafalger Square. There is a statue of a British naval hero atop of a column there. Who is it?  Answer at the end of the blog.

I don't get it y'all. President Trump has pardoned ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Democrats paint him as being close to Jack the Ripper. I guess the have forgotten the 60 some odd criminals that Obama pardoned just before leaving office some of which were drug dealers and scam artists that had embezzled thousand of dollars. It just goes to show it ain't a matter of what is right and wrong, all that matters is who has the power. They are all hypocrites with no honor.

                           This Date in History August 28

1955 Earlier a 14 year old black kid name Emmett Till came to Money, Mississippi from his home town of Chicago to spend the summer with his great-grandfather, a farmer near Money. Emmett came from a relatively tough neighborhood in Chicago and it appears that he felt that it was important that he display his toughness to the local Mississippi black kids. He told them he was the toughest kid in his school and had a white girl friend. As expected, the local black kids near Money blew that off and dared him to try to pick up the white woman that ran the community grocery store. Emmett accepted the challenge and went in the store. There was no one else in the store except for the woman and Emmett. No one knows what happened in the store but on the way out Emmett is heard to say “Goodbye, baby.” Two days later the woman’s husband returned form a business trip and his wife told him that Emmett had grabbed her and made lewd suggestions. The woman’s husband, Ray Bryant, gathered up his brother-in-law and they went to Emmett’s grand-father’s house looking for Emmett. They took Emmett with them and rode around for a while probably beating the hell out of him. The finally made Emmett drag a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the crest of a bridge over the Tallahatchie River. There they shot Emmett several times, gouged out his eyes, beat on him with iron bars, wrapped barbed wire around his torso and face and wrapped the other end around the fan and threw them over the side. Emmett’s body was finally found but his body was so mutilated that the only way he was identified was an initial ring he was known to have owned. Ray Bryant and his brother-in-law were tried for murder and acquitted.  The jury said that the prosecution failed to prove that the body was that of Emmett Till because of the mutilation. Emmett’s mother had the body returned to Chicago and she had an open casket funeral to show what discrimination in the south was all about. Photos of the body were published in Jet magazine.

1963 On this date several hundred thousand people are gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a rally for racial equality. The chief speaker was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King delivered one of the most engrossing and stirring speeches ever uttered. It was the immortal “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King was instrumental in nearly every change in legislation toward racial equality. Five years later he was assassinated in Memphis while attending a rally for the garbage collectors of that city. The assassin, James Earl Ray confessed to Martin Luther King’s son that he did not do it knowing he (Ray) was dying of cancer. There is no doubt in this redneck’s mind that Ray went to meet his maker with a lie on his lips.

1990 On this date the bodies of two University of Florida students are found murdered in the Gatorwood apartments in Gainesville, Florida. I remember it well since I had a daughter attending Florida at the time. Not only that, she was living in Gatorwood apartments. When I read about the murders I almost peed in my pants especially since two days earlier three other students had been found murdered nearby. The corpses were displayed in an obscene manner making the police believe that all the murders were committed by the same person. The Gainesville PD was under enormous pressure to capture the villain because the parents of the students were pulling their kids out of school in droves. In desperation the Gainesville PD arrested a man named Ed Humphrey and even though they did not have sufficient evidence for the murders, they kept him in jail on unrelated charges and kept searching. Finally, the police find a campsite in a patch of woods near the University. There they found evidence enough to try and convict a monster name Danny Rolling of the murders. He was sentenced to death and went to meet his maker in 2004 with a needle in his arm. It is too bad that this was not the middle ages then we could have gotten medieval with his rotten ass.

1996 After four years of separation, Charles, the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana are formally divorced in England. When they were wed it looked like a fairy tale marriage. Here was the heir apparent to the English throne marrying a stone fox from the royal House of Spencer. This woman in addition to being beautiful was graceful and charming. She was adored by everybody world wide and the British in particular. Now we come to Prince Charles. Very shortly after, or maybe before the marriage, Charles decides to have a mistress and selects Camilla Bowles. I don’t know what to tell you about Camilla except to make this comparison. If Helen of Troy launched 1,000 ships and Princess Diana would launch 500 ships, Camilla would launch a 14 foot, 20 HP crappie boat, at best. The upside of the marriage was that Charles and Diana had two sons, Harry and William, which appear to have dealt with the separation easily and have developed into apparently well balanced young men. As all of you know we lost Diana in Paris when she was involved in a wreck while being chased by the paparazzi. It was a loss for us all.

Born today:

1749 German philosopher Johann von Goethe. He said “An intelligent man finds everything ridiculous. A sensible man finds almost nothing.”

1899 French actor Charles Boyer. He said “A Frenchwoman when double-crossed she will kill her rival: An Italian woman would kill her deceitful lover: An English woman will just break off the relationship....but they will console themselves with another man.”

1913 Canadian writer Robertson Davies. He said “Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt.”

1940 US publisher Gloria Leonard. She said “The difference between pornography and erotica is the lighting.”

1982 US singer Lee Ann Rimes. When talking of the law suit against he father she said “I have to learn to forgive because I will become a bitter bitch if I don’t.”

Died today:

1985 US actress Ruth Gordon. She said “Never ever give up, and under no circumstances never ever face the facts.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The statue of the British naval hero in Trafalger square is of Lord Horatio Nelson.

                            Thanks for   listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tue

      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“No one has ever had a good idea while wearing a suit.”

                                   Sir Frederick Banting

Trivia question of the day:

What was the name of the whaling vessel in the book “Moby Dick”? Answer at the end of the blog.

This is the only comment I will make about the Mosque planned to be built in New York. The argument made by Mayor Bloomberg and others is that the 1st amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. This is certainly true here in the USA. But let’s suppose that I felt the need to express my disapproval with the outcome of the American Civil War and planted a Confederate battle flag at the Lincoln Memorial, or maybe I was not happy with the outcome of WWII and planted a Swastika flag at the Holocaust Memorial or the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, or I was not happy with the outcome of the American Revolutionary War and planted a British Union jack at George Washington’s grave site. All of these actions fall into the purview of the 1^st Amendment as exercising my right of freedom of expression. The difference is that these actions may be legal but they are inflammatory and in incredibly bad taste and I can assure you that they would not be allowed.

                          This Date in History   August 27

1883 On this date the most powerful volcano explosions in recorded history occurs in the Indonesian archipelago. The volcano was a small uninhabited island named Krakatoa. The volcano had sent out signals that it was restless because several cargo ships had reported a column of ash and dust several miles high over the island. The explosion was heard 3,000 miles away and produced a tsunami 120 feet high that took the lives of over 36,000 people on nearby islands. An additional 4,000 people were burned to death from the white hot ash that rained down from the ejecta that was blown up to 50,000 feet in the stratosphere and then came back down miles away on inhabited islands. Krakatoa is still active ya’ll, as is an additional 136 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Indonesia has the most active volcanoes in the world. There is evidence that an even larger volcanic eruption that occurred in the Mediterranean in about 1300 BC. The present day name for the caldera is Santorini. I am sure there were plenty of eyewitnesses but to our knowledge this event was not recorded.

1979 On this date the Irish Republican Army makes its first strike against British royalty when IRA member Thomas McMahon sneaks aboard Lord Louis Mountbatten’s fishing boat, Shadow V, and plants 50 pounds of TNT in the hold of the boat with a remote control detonator. Mountbatten and family come aboard and McMahon lights off the explosive killing Mountbatten and two others. The IRA and the British government have been squabbling since King James I formed the community of Ulster which is now Northern Ireland in about 1612. James got fed up with the irascible Irish Catholics being in almost constant rebellion. James was a devout Protestant and no love in his heart for the Catholics so he seized five shires (counties) in Ireland, kicked out the Irish and brought in some Protestant Scottish lords along with their tenant farmers. James believed that if he could dilute the Catholic population in Ireland they would be easier to control. They were....for a while. The problem in Ireland today is that when Ireland had a chance to become independent from England the overwhelming majority of the Catholics voted for independence but what was originally Ulster and almost entirely Protestant (Presbyterian) voted to stay under wing of England and that was the birth of Northern Ireland. So what it boils down to is that the majority of Ireland is Catholic and they want Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland proper but the Protestants won’t hear of it because they are afraid they will be discriminated against because they are the religious minority in Ireland. The English Army is present to prevent a violent takeover by the IRA. I don’t see an end to it. When it comes to religion, everybody thinks God is on their side.

1859 On this date Edwin Drake strikes oil at a depth of 69 feet neat Titusville, Pennsylvania. This discovery was a welcome replacement for whale oil used in lamps world wide. Whale oil was expensive and not always available. Petroleum was used for this purpose for a several decades until the invention of the automobile then every continent in the world began hunting for “black gold” not just for the fuel but for the asphalt to build roads. But by far the most lucrative find was the oil in the middle east known as “Arab light” which means that there is not as much undesirable additives in the oil that need to be refined out, especially sulphur, making it much cheaper to refine adding to the profits.

1964 On this date 15 year Edmund Kemper decides to do something exciting and shoots and kills his grandparents. He isn’t done yet, he calls his mother and told her what he had done and said “I just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma.” Edmund was a troubled youth. He began by cutting the heads off his sister’s dolls and setting fire to the family cat. His parents knew he was crazy as a loon but rather than getting him help, they jus sent him to stay with his grandparents. Edmund killed a few more people before he was caught and sent to prison. Apparently prison agreed with Edmund because he was finally paroled and he was 6’-9” and weighed over 300 pounds. Very soon after being paroled he paid a visit to his mother, beat her to death with a hammer, mutilated her body and raped the corpse. I am telling y'all, this cowboy was a lunatic. He called the police and told them what he had done but they blew it off as a scam and did not respond. Two more people lost their lives and heads to Edmund before the police decided to check of the strange call about a man killing his mother and found out that it was true. They started looking for Edmund in earnest. Edmund went to Colorado and called the Santa Cruz police and confessed to the latest two murders. The police picked him up and he was convicted of 8 murders and sentenced to life without parole. But Edmund himself said that he should have been sentenced to “death by torture,” I agree Edmund, let me select the torture.

Born today:

1908 US football coach Frank Leahy. He said “Egotism in the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” Frank knew what he was talking about. He was a football coach at Army.

1910 Mother Teresa. She said “Loneliness is the most terrible part of poverty.” But it was Mahatma Gandhi that said “The bed of poverty is fertile.”

Died today:

1948 Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. He said “If there is muck to be raked, it must be raked, and the people must know of it, so justice can be given.” It was Justice Evans that also said “It is better to release 1,000 guilty than to jail one innocent.” I think we are on that path now, Judge.

1950 Italian writer Cesare Pavese. He said “Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is the anesthetic.”

1964 US comedienne Gracie Allen and wife of George Burns. She said “They laughed at Joan of Arc, but she went ahead and built it.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The whaling vessel in Moby Dick was the “Pequod” under the command of Captain Ahab.

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Mon

•     Musings and History

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “I want peace and come to you with tears in my eyes and no artillery.  But if you f--k with me I will kill every damn one of you."

                                         General James N. "Mad Dog" Mattis, USMC

  
  

  If I asked what female athlete made the most money most of you would say either Serena, Venus Williams or maybe Danica Patrick. It is neither one, it is Maria Sharapova. Even though she is not in the spotlight as often and the others, she has several big time contracts especially with Nike, Ericcson, Tiffany and others making her twice as wealthy as any other athletes. Her contract with Nike alone is rumored to be about $70 million.

  
  

  President Obama and family went on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. It is reported that he stopped by a book store and bought books for his kids to read. He made good choices here. He bought To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (one of my favorite authors). For himself he was given Freedom by Jonathon Franzen. This book was not on the shelves yet but an advanced copy was forthcoming. Here is a few interesting facts about Harper Lee. She was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She wrote only the one book and was awarded that Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts. The book was about racial prejudice as she saw it in Monroeville while she was growing up. A little known fact was that she assisted her good friend Truman Capote in the writing of the immortal book In Cold Blood. Both books were made into Oscar winning movies. Mockingbird starred Gregory Peck and In Cold Blood starred Robert Blake.

  
  

                 This Date in History   August 26

  
  

  1346 Ever since William the Conqueror crossed over from France in 1066 and successfully invaded England, there had been succession of English invasions of France to try to claim the section of France known as Normandy as part of the English Empire. William the Conqueror was William the Duke of Normandy before he was the king of England and successive English kings felt that William’s lands in Normandy now belonged to the English crown. Naturally, the French kings called bullshit on that and several battles were fought in Normandy. On July 12 English King Edward III landed on the coast of Normandy with an army of 14,000. After raping and pillaging French countryside, King Edward headed toward Calais as did nearly every English invasion force because Calais was a very important deep water port on the English Channel that the English needed for re-supply. On this date, King Edward met the French army near the village of Crecy in Normandy. The French army was led by French king Philip IV at the head of 8,000 mounted knights and 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen. The French army had no idea that Edward’s army had a secret weapon, the newly perfected longbow. Edward awaited the French attack and late in the afternoon Phillip sent in the Genoese crossbowmen who were met by a hailstorm of English arrows at a range out of the reach of the crossbow. The longbow had an effective range of over 200 yards, unheard of in those days. The Genoese crossbowmen withdrew and the Phillip sent in his 8,000 mounted knights who met the same fate as the Genoese. The air was filled with arrows from the English with the arrows tipped with bodkin arrowheads designed to penetrate armor and chain mail. The French knights and their horses fell in writhing mass in the center of the battle ground. After all was said and done, King Phillip had lost over 4,000 men and horses while the English lost less than 100. This battle was significant because it marked the end of great horse cavalry attacks over open ground. The English longbow had changed the method battle and tactics forever. King Edward continued his march to Calais and began a siege. The city surrendered to Edward early in 1347.

  
  

  1968 This was a time of unrest in America. The United States was involved in an unpopular war in Vietnam and there were many protesters of the war on the streets. On this date the Democratic Convention opened at the International Amphitheater in Chicago seeking to come up with a presidential candidate. It looked like it was going to be Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Anyway the streets outside the Amphitheater were filled with war protesters which were expected. The Democratic Party had almost changed their Convention location to Miami because of the fear that protest marches would get out of hand in Chicago, but cooler heads prevailed when Mayor Daley of Chicago assured them that his cops could contain nearly any eventuality. Daley then told the chief of police to not let the protesters get out of hand no matter what action it took to suppress them. Sure enough the protester showed up and so did the Chicago PD and the Illinois National Guard. At one point the head of the police force in front of the Amphitheater ordered the protesters off the street and as you might suspect, a riot broke out. The protesters did not have a chance; the Chicago PD immediately waded into them and the cracked skulls and other bones until the protesters were subdued. It was a police riot, y'all. It did not end in the street. A few police went inside the building and began roughing up some of the delegates and newsmen including Mike Wallace who received a fist to the jaw during the melee. The Chicago police arrested hundreds but released all but seven who they said was the ringleaders and put them on trial. Naturally, this caused even more riots. There were riots on and off until the United States pulled out of South Vietnam and left it to the Communist North Vietnamese in 1973.

  
  

  1862 After US General George McClellan was severely out-generaled by CSA General Robert E. Lee in the Peninsular Campaign, President Lincoln pulled some of his troops away and assigned them US General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. On this date CSA General Fitzhugh Lee and his cavalry unit capture the railroad depot at Manassas, Virginia. The first large scale engagement had occurred about a year earlier at Manassas. When General Pope heard about this he and his army came running. General Lee sent Stonewall Jackson to Manassas to keep and eye on Pope. Pope found out the Jackson was in the area but could not find Jackson nor his army. Jackson had hidden his troops in the forests and brush along side Bull Run Creek. A day or two later the remainder of Lee’s army arrived and Jackson’s army came screaming out of the woods and joined with the rest of Lee’s Army and swept Pope and his army from the field in a total rout.

  
  

  Born today:

  1904 English writer George Isherwood. He said “Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.”

  
  

  Died today:

  
  

  1910 US writer William James. He said “Some people believe they are thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices.”

  
  

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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Alfred Campbell

albig29640@yahoo.com

(864) 901-5456