Quote of the day:
“To me the outdoors is what you pass through on the way from your house to a taxi.”
Fran Lebowitz
Trivia question of the day:
What Hall of Fame baseball player was known as "The Georgia Peach"?
I heard it again. A person that was a member of a very large Baptist Church in Taylors, SC and had abandoned the church told me the reason he left. He said that it was brought up before the church to leave the doors unlocked to allow the homeless a place to sleep when it is really cold. The church voted against this proposal with some of the faithful saying “There is no telling what kind of filth and disease they would bring. Jesus was born in an indoor livestock enclosure with the animals present...but I guess Mary and Joseph did not have on clothing from Anne Taylor and Brooks Brothers arriving in an Audi or a Mercedes. Some people go to church to see and be seen and not to seek redemption, to them it is a social event. That is all I have to say about that.
This Date in History December 29
1778 On this date British Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell and an army of between 2,500 and 3,600 launched a surprise attack on the city of Savannah, Georgia. Included in the army were the 71st Highlanders, some New York Loyalists and a group of Hessian mercenaries. Savannah was defended by Patriot Major General Robert Howe and a rag tag army of 650-900 infantrymen. Howe saw that he did not have a chance and ordered the evacuation of the city then he ordered the withdrawal of the Patriot troops. The Georgia Brigade was cut off and nearly annihilated with the killing of 83 and the capture of 483. After the completion of the withdrawal the British had suffered 3 killed and 10 wounded. The British occupied Savannah and left only because they wanted to in July of 1782. The majority of the residents of Savannah were Loyalists anyway making their occupation much easier. The Patriots tried to kick the British out of Savannah once in 1779 when they established a siege but it didn’t work so the Patriots said to hell with it and just sealed off the city so no one came or sent except by sea. What was peculiar was that Savannah was a hotbed of Loyalists (Colonists loyal to the King of England) in fact; the entire state of Georgia was more than 50% Loyalist. That is really peculiar because right next door in South Carolina was full of firebrands for independence from Great Britain. Maybe y'all don’t know the reason why there is a Georgia in the first place. The state of Georgia was formed by England at the behest of the wealthy plantation owners in South Carolina to be a buffer between their plantations and the bloodthirsty Spanish slave traders coming up from Spanish-owned Florida. This meant that the people that settled in Georgia were owing to the British crown for the lands that were given to them. I suppose that is where the Loyalist syndrome came from. It sucked, in any event.
1890 On this date one of the most damnable acts ever committed by the US Army happened. The plains Indians had been vanquished and sent to reservations, especially the fiery Lakota Sioux. The last remnants of this once proud and independent tribe were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Due to the corruptness of the US officials, the Sioux on the reservation were not getting the food that was promised to them and starvation was staring them in the face not to mention the abominable living conditions. The killing of the chief medicine man, Sitting Bull, further inflamed the situation. Before he died, Sitting Bull had told his follower that if they resurrected the ritual of the Ghost Dance, they could regain their strength and power that they had in the past. So the ritual of the Ghost Dance was begun. This ritual would not have made any difference but it did give the Sioux the hope and belief that they could prevail therefore the Ghost Dance was forbidden by the US authorities. On this date, on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, a group of Sioux were doing the Ghost Dance when a group of US Cavalry shows up to try to put a stop to it. During the confrontation a cavalryman and an Indian get into a scuffle and a shot was fired. No one knows who fired the shot but immediately the cavalrymen opened fire and in a matter of seconds 146 Lakota Sioux were dead more than half were women and children. This Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last armed conflict between the US army and Native Americans. There is a book titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee authored by Dee Brown that all should read; I promise you it will give you pause about what we Americans are all about.
1170 Earlier Henry II had seen to it that Thomas Becket was made the Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that Becket would help him get the church out of state business. But almost as soon as Becket assumed the position, he said that he supported the Church taking part in state business. There were several heated conversations between Henry and Thomas but with no resolution to the problem. In a moment of anger Henry says “What parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in my house, and not one of them will avenge me of this upstart clerk?” Four of Henry’s knights saw this as Henry wanting Becket dead. On this date, the four knights enter Canterbury Cathedral and killed Thomas. The Christian world is in an uproar that a man of the cloth is killed in the house of God. Henry caught a large ration of shit about this and in 1174 he was forced to do penance at Thomas Becket’s tomb. Not only that, England had to endure the church meddling in state affairs until Henry VIII came along and put a stop to it. The church canonized Thomas Becket meaning he was made a Catholic Saint. In 1220 Becket’s remains was re-buried in Canterbury Cathedral (been there).
1862 Earlier US General Ulysses Grant had planned a two pronged assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi. He assigned one prong of the attack to US General William Sherman and Grant would direct the other one. It was a good plan except for one thing. CSA Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van Dorn and their respective cavalry units were out there roaming the countryside. Forrest and Van Dorn found Grants supply dump and destroyed it. This forced Grant to delay if not scratch the attack but he did not get word to Sherman in time. The Rebs only had 6,000 troops dug in to face Sherman and his army of 37,000. But within just hours of the attack the Rebs received an additional 6,000. On this date, Sherman attacked as planned but his attack was across open country and anticipated. With Grant not attacking and providing a diversion, the dug in Rebs crushed the attack before it had got started. Sherman learned from this experience and never again attacked across open ground and always inflicted more casualties than he received.
1940 Earlier in July the countries of Holland, Belgium, Norway and France had fallen to the onslaught of the German army. In August Hitler put Operation Sea Lion into effect. This was the plan to defeat England and complete his domination of Europe. Hitler was assured by Herman Goering that England could be defeated by air power alone. So the German air force began the bombing of RAF air bases and radar sites. The German’s sent 1,500 bombers over in a single day. Nothing worked except the German air force began losing many, many aircraft to the RAF fighter pilots. The enraged Hitler ordered that to hell with the RAF bases, bomb the hell out of English cities especially London in the hopes of breaking the English morale. That didn’t work either but in this date, the worst air attack yet came. The Germans rained incendiaries on London starting conflagrations that burned for two days and nights. The upside of this was that the RAF bases were spared attack and were able to repair and recover. The result was that on the next air attack, 56 German aircraft went down in a matter of minutes. After this, Hitler said to hell with Operation Seal Lion.
Answer to the trivia question:
It is Ty Cobb from Royston, Georgia. Ty played his career with Detroit. He is arguably the greatest all around baseball played that has yet lived. His records in lifetime batting average (.366) and number of batting titles (11) are still unmatched.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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