Quote of the day:
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”
Confucius
Trivia question of the day:
Who was the British Commander at the D-Day invasion? Answer at the end of the blog.
I read something interesting. The absolute first written language yet found is called cuneiform. It originated in those ancient cities near the northern end of the Persian gulf in present day Iraq. This written language spread throughout the “Fertile Crescent” or the land between and near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This would include that area in the Jordan River valley known as Canaan. In addition to being mentioned many time in the Bible, the people of Canaan are responsible for modifying Cuneiform into a 40 character alphabet. It was the Arabs and the Greeks that are responsible for the modification of the Canaanite alphabet into the present day 26 character alphabet that we all are familiar with. Speaking of the Canaanites, a lot of the Bible is dedicated to the adventures of the Israelite army led by Joshua fighting its way to Canaan. All of this is supposedly dated to about 1,400BC. A problem arises because this time period is proven to be the absolute peak of Egyptian dominance throughout that area. It is very unlikely that Egypt would have allowed an Israelite army to capture lands that belonged to them, but we believe what we want to. By the way there is no mention of Joshua in any other historical document yet discovered other than the Old Testament. In fact there is no mention on anything of the Israelite people in that area until about 1040BC and that is on an Egyptian stone carving. It has been estimated that there were about 630,000 Hebrews that were released from Egypt at the behest of Moses and then wandered the thirsty Negev for 40 years. The is no archaeological evidence that his ever happened, not even evidence of one camp site or pottery shard...nothing. But anything that is believed and cannot be proven is called faith, humanity depends on it.
This Date in History April 22
1886 On this date the state on Ohio passed a law against seduction. That’s right y'all, I said seduction. The law forbade any male over the age of 21 that was a teacher or instructor of women from having even consensual sex with women of any age that he was instructing. The penalty for breaking this statute was 2 to 10 years in the joint, believe it or not. This law was not unique. New York had a law that disallowed any male “from having illicit connection with a previously chaste woman” if the man previously promised to marry said woman. Georgia’s version made it unlawful for men to “seduce a virtuous unmarried female and induce her into his ‘lustful’ embraces, and allow him to have carnal knowledge of her.” These laws were essentially ignored by law enforcement but on one occasion a man in Michigan was brought up on three counts with the same woman. The judge did his best to get all the charges dismissed because he knew the law was unenforceable. The last two of the charges were dismissed because the judge reasoned that after the first encounter the woman was no longer “virtuous”. The first encounter supposedly took place in a buggy and a doctor testified that penetration was not possible in a buggy so the first charge was dismissed. However some unscrupulous women would use this law to capture a husband. In one case in 1867 a man was on trial for seduction and was looking at 5 years in the slammer so he proposed to the woman that he had “seduced” and she accepted. A parson was retrieved and the trial turned into a wedding ceremony. That ain’t fair, y'all.
1889 At exactly 12:00 noon the legendary Oklahoma Land Rush begins. The United States Cavalry was present to ensure that no one left the demarcation line early. There were some that did anyway and were known as “Sooners” thus the name of the University of Oklahoma mascot. The Oklahoma territory was originally thought to be uninhabitable to Caucasians because of the aridity and the relative lack of water making the area not fit for farming. This made it ideal for reservation for the Native Americans like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache among others. Finally better farming techniques assured all that the great plains could be farmed for grain and the Federal Government opened up the “Cherokee Strip” which basically was the majority of Oklahoma for homesteading. All told between 50,000 and 60,000 settlers came into the area over a 24 hour period. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher and Guthrie were established and populated almost overnight. Did I mention that the already established Indian reservations were also over run? The settlers felt like the land owned by the Osage Indians was least arable and did not bother them. It was indeed not farmland but about 7,000 feet below the surface was an ocean of oil known as the Anadarko basin. This oil and gas field was discovered and explored making the Osage nation one of the wealthiest in the world.
Born today:
1766 French writer Germaine Stael. She said “The desire of men is women; the desire of women is the desire of men.” Does this mean that all that women want is to be desired? Does that mean that diamonds are NOT a girl’s best friend? Does that mean that there is no need for flowers, fancy candlelight dinners, remembrance of anniversaries and birthdays, candy on Valentine’s Day, etc? Who the hell are you trying to kid, Germaine?
Answer to the trivia question:
The British commander at the D-Day invasion was Sir Bernard Law Montgomery.
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