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“The last time anyone did a survey of of the top one hundred attributes of New Yorkers, common sense came in number 79.”
Douglas Adams
Trivia question of the day:
One of the actors in the movie “Goodfellas” won an Oscar...who was it? Answer at the end of the blog.
This Date in History July 10
1925 On this date a civil trial opened in Dayton, Tennessee. The trial was the state of Tennessee vs a high school teacher named John Scopes. A few months before the Tennessee legislature had passed a law that forbade the teaching of any method of the rise of humankind other than what is written in the Bible. They were especially tense about the teaching that mankind arose from a lower animal. Mr. Scopes taught science in a local high school and had started teaching evolution. Word got out to the Christian fundamentalists about this great crime and Scopes was arrested and charged. Some of you may not like the ACLU but they did the right thing here. They hired world famous lawyer Clarence Darrow to defend Scopes. The state was represented by the Christian fundamentalist and politician William Jennings Bryan. From the time Scopes was arrested the trial was anticipated to be the legal event of the century and it did not disappoint. The ACLU had given Darrow carte blanche to get as many experts in whatever fields he deemed appropriate. Darrow brought in experts in anatomy, paleontology, religion, etc. Nearly all of his experts were disallowed by the prejudicial judge so Darrow had no one to testify in Scopes behalf so he called a self acknowledged “expert” on the Bible and that being William Jennings Bryan himself. Darrow was at least an agnostic if not an atheist and he asked Bryan some questions about things or events in the Bible that clearly required a leap of faith to believe because they were supernatural and contradictory. Bryan was stuck for answers to many of then and Darrow made his point. But it was for naught because Scopes was convicted but the fine was only $100. I do not understand how the law was passed in the first place because there is no such thing in the Constitution that defines the separation of church and state, but the US Supreme Court has ruled that was the intent
1943 On this date the Allies land on axis (Italy, Germany and Japan) controlled Europe with the landing on the island of Sicily. The first plan for the invasion of Sicily came from US General George Patton designating a landing by the British 8th Army, Sir Bernard Law Montgomery commanding, near Syracuse on the southeast corner of the island and Patton and the 7th Army landing near Palermo on the northwest corner and both armies driving toward Messina cutting off the retreat of whatever German and Italian soldiers that were there. But Montgomery went to the overall commander, US General Dwight Eisenhower and complained. So the plan was altered where Patton and the 7th Army lands at Gela which is about 200 miles west of Syracuse to protect Montgomery’s flank. If ever there was an egomaniac of historic proportions it was Montgomery. Not only that, he was severely overrated. He was extremely proud of the fact that he defeated the legendary German commander Erwin Rommel in a battle near the North African city of El Alamein even though he had Rommel outgunned and more armor by a factor of three. From that day on he signed his name “Montgomery of El Alamein”. Hey Monty, what about all the British troops that were killed and wounded in this battle? How egotistical can you be?
1967 On this date the ship Rainbow Warrior is sabotaged and sunk in the harbor of Auckland, New Zealand. The ship was owned by the environmental organization Greenpeace who were in the area planning to sail into the waters where France was going to test a nuclear device. It seems that two men using SCUBA gear swam to the ship and planted explosives on the hull. An investigation by the Auckland and New Zealand police revealed that it was two French secret agents that had done the deed and were arrested. Well, the French government said they did not know anything about the men even though they were caught with current French government identification on them. A scandal erupted and French Prime Minister Francois Mitterrand and his government were on the verge of collapse so they had to confess that they engineered the sabotage of the ship because they were not going to delay their nuclear test. Mitterrand and the French Government made amends to Greenpeace.
1992 The criminal conviction of the captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez, Joseph Hazelwood, is overturned. Hazelwood was the captain of that supertanker when it ran aground in the pristine Prince William Sound in southeast Alaska. The ship was carrying over 1 million barrels of Alaskan crude. A devastating leak developed which was the worst environmental disaster in American history and resulted in the death of over 250,000 sea birds, untold numbers of otters and millions of salmon and salmon eggs. Captain Hazelwood was accused of drinking heavily in Valdez the night before the ship left port but that was never proven. But he was not in the wheelhouse the ship left and an inexperienced man was at the controls. The ship left the marked sea lane to avoid icebergs and never returned to the lane. Hazelwood’s conviction was overturned because he notified the Coast Guard and Exxon of the grounding within the specified time. It was Exxon that was late in calling out the machinery to contain the oil spill and the state of Alaska sued them for many millions of dollars. Exxon has opposed any and all law suits from Alaska but was ordered to pay Alaska many millions of dollars but they appealed, and appealed, and appealed and have not paid the judgment to this day.
1940 Earlier German General Hermann Goering had convinced the Adolph Hitler that he could bring England to their knees with his Luftwaffe (Air Force) alone. On this date Germany launched an air raid on England from their bases in France and the Battle of Britain was underway. The English people took a beating but their bulldog attitude would not let them surrender. Germany even sent over missiles but nothing worked. The British fighter pilots had two the finest aircraft ever built in the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane. The English fighter pilots saved England. It got to the point that Prime Minister Winston Churchill was worried that he would eventually run out of pilots because there were some casualties. But on one day the British fighter pilots shot down 75 German bombers and Hitler said to hell with it, we can’t afford losses like that and the Battle of Britain was over.
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