Quiz: Which American President was the first one to be born
in a major city, not a log cabin, or plantation?
Yesterday’s Question: When Ming Chinese Emperor Jung Liu
ordered for you “ Death in the Ninth Degree”, what did that mean?
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History for 8/2/2017
Birthdays: Perre L’Enfant the designer of Washington DC,
Jack Warner, Myrna Loy, Sir Arthur Bliss, James Baldwin, Carrol O'Connor,
Joanna Cassidy is 57, Pete Sampras, Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Bill Scott
the voice of Bullwinkle, Bob Beamon, Wes Craven, Edward Furlong, Kevin Smith is
47, Peter O'Toole, Marie Louise Parker is 53
National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.
47BC- Battle of Zela. Pharnaces the King of Pontus- a land today in
the middle of Turkey, decided he could take advantage of the Roman civil war by
rising in revolt. He called for all the eastern provinces throw off the Roman
yoke. This day Julius Caesar took time off from Cleopatra, and hurried up to
Pontus, where he defeated Pharnaces army in one large battle. Caesar then sent
his famous three word report to the Senate: “ VENI VIDI VICI- I came, I saw, I
conquered.”
1100- King William II Rufus (the Red), son of William the
Conqueror, was shot with a poisoned arrow while hunting in the New Forest. His
son Henry I became king. Truth be told, nobody liked Rufus very much, so it was
probably not an accident.
1589- French King Henri III de Valois is stabbed in the guts
by a demented Dominican monk, Brother Jacques Clement. He thought the King
wasn't doing enough to stamp out Heresy. The kings last words were: "That
little bastard has killed me. Kill him!"
Henry IV de Bourbon
became one of Frances most beloved rulers. The children's song "Frere'
Jacques" is about this assassin "Brother Jacques, Why are you
sleeping?" another bad ruler needs
stabbing, in other words.
1803- The British in India declare the Second Maharratta War
against Skindia and Bousla, pro-French Rajahs in the Deccan penninsula.
1815- After Waterloo, a pro-royalist mob lynched a veteran
general named Brune. Brune was a radical even before Napoleon promoted him. He
still had Death to Tyrants tattooed on his chest from his days as a
revolutionary. As the rope went around his neck Brune called out:" To
stand on a hundred battlefields and die like this!"
1858 –As a result of the Sepoy Rebellion, the Government
of India was transferred from the Honorable East India Company to direct Crown
control.
1858- The first public mailboxes
installed on Boston & NYC streets.
1865- The Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah, after sinking a
dozen U.S whaling ships in the Bering Sea off Alaska, is told by a passing
British merchantman that the American Civil War had been over since April. They
refused to believe it until shown some newspapers. Yes indeed, its really over.
Whoops! My bad…
1873- The first San Francisco cable car began service.
Inventor Arthur Halliday had conceived the idea in 1869 after seeing a horse
drawn tram fail to get up a steep hill.
1876- In Deadwood South Dakota at Nuttall & Manns No.10
Saloon gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back and killed while
playing cards. He was 39 years old. He was holding the "Deadman's
Hand" aces & eights all black, and a jack of hearts. His assailant
'Crooked Nose" Jack McCall was found hiding in a butchers shop. McCall had
been cleaned out by Hickok in an earlier card game, yet after the murder he bragged
about how much money he had. Which lead some to speculate he was paid to murder
Hickok. Acquitted in an initial trial in Deadwood, he was retried in Yankton
S.D. and hanged. An eyewitness said:"
It was very sad. Bill had won the hand
too."
1877- The San Francisco Public Library dedicated.
1909- The US issues the first Lincoln head pennies.
1914- THE GUNS OF AUGUST-General mobilization began throughout
Europe for World War I. Large armies moved towards their frontiers amid
hysterical street demonstrations of patriotism, Jubilant mobs shouting "A Berlin!" "Nach Paris!"
ring out as Europe prepared to destroy itself. In Russia, Czar Nicholas II in a
solemn religious ceremony takes the oath his ancestor Alexander I had taken to
drive out Napoleon. In Berlin a
torchlight parade stopped under the Japanese Embassy to salute their friends.
They were unaware that Japan had already decided to join the other side. The
terrified diplomats thought the crowd was there to lynch them.
Diplomats stood around stunned that all their efforts could
not avoid the catastrophe.
In Berlin, German foreign minister Von Bethman-Holveig
mumbled: "How did this all happen?
If only I knew..." In London,
Lord Grey watched the lamplighters on the street and reflected-" The lamps are going out all over Europe. We
shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
1914- Holland and Switzerland declared their neutrality in
the coming Great War, closed their borders and mobilized their forces.
1920- Marcus Garvey addressed a rally of 25,000 African
Americans at Madison Garden New York. He called upon Black Americans not to
integrate with White Society but to work for economic self-sufficiency and an
eventual return to Africa. Garvey told biographers he was never born, he had
“combusted himself” on the corner of 125 & Lennox in Harlem.
1923- President Warren Harding died suddenly in San
Francisco’s Palace Hotel. He was touring the country to get away from the 'Tea
Pot Dome'' bribery scandal in Wash. The official cause of death was listed as “
a stroke of apoplexy”. It was rumored he
may have committed suicide or had eaten bad crab meat. A popular idea was that
First Lady Florence “Flossie” Harding had poisoned him. Harding was a womanizer and Flossie was well
aware of his indiscretions; She refused an autopsy and had him quickly
embalmed. She controlled all media coverage. To the press she was the Duchess.
Nan Britton, one of Warren Harding’s tootsies, immediately sued for $50,000 for
the daughter she bore Harding. She lost but wrote a best selling book called
the President’s Daughter in 1927. “Silent Cal” Coolidge became President.
1934- Elderly President of the German Republic Paul von Hindenburg
died, leaving Chancellor Adolf Hitler alone in charge of Germany. Hitler had
waited for the old man to croak before dispensing with the parliamentary
niceties. Hindenburg’s death signaled the official end of the Weimar Republic.
Hitler combined the offices of President and Chancellor and becomes Der
Fuehrer- the Leader.
1939- Albert Einstein then living in New Jersey, wrote a
famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt describing the potential power of
atomic energy. That the US must develop atomic bombs before the Nazis do. The
Manhattan Project was the result. In later years Einstein described this letter
as “one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”
1940- King Gustav of Sweden sent a note to both Adolf Hitler
and King George VI offering to be the go-between to start talks to end World
War Two. All sides refused.
1961 - Beatles 1st gig as house
band of Liverpool's Cavern Club.
1962- If you are a fan of the
“Marilyn Monroe was done in by the Kennedy’s ” conspiracy theory, a recently
unearthed CIA document dated this day mentioned that Marilyn’s bungalow was
under electronic surveillance. Also that she kept a “red book” diary. The diary
disappeared after her death, two nights from now.
1971- President Nixon acknowledged
for the first time that the CIA was maintaining 30,000 troops secretly fighting
in Laos.
1979- Yankee baseball star catcher
Thurmon Munson died when he crashed his private plane near Akron Ohio. He was
32.
1990 –After Kuwait refused to
forgive Iraq’s outstanding debts. 100,000 troops of Saddam Hussein’s army
invaded Kuwait.
Yesterday’s Quiz: When Ming Chinese Emperor Jung Liu ordered
for you “ Death in the Ninth Degree”, what did that mean?
Answer: It meant not only death for you, but death for
your parents and grandparents going back three generations, and your children
and grandchildren going three generations, and your aunts and uncles.
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