I'm going to be baking two of those desserts in about a half hour, a plum kuche and a blueberry kuche.

July 25th

1554 Mary Tudor marries the future Philip II of Spain

Philip was 27 and Mary was 38 and looked even older than she was because she had lost almost all her teeth. He was a religous bigot and she was a neurotic spinster. Like Philip, Mary was an obsessive Catholic and hoped he would help her reconvert England to the Church of Rome. Mary also hoped Philip would father the child and heir she so desperately wanted.

In the end neither Mary nor Philip got what they wanted. Mary died childless and England remained Protestant. Philip failed to bring England under Spanish domination, even after sending the Armada to attack 34 years later.



1593 "Paris vaut bien une messe"

The above was said by Henri de Navarre to explain why he had converted from Calvinism to Roman Catholicism.

Henri was the rightful King of France since 1589 when Henri III died from stab wounds administered by a crazed monk. The problem was Henri was a Calvinist in a Roman Catholic nation. He spent the first four years of his reign trying to conquer his own country. He was opposed by the forces of the Catholic League which was supported by the fanatical Roman Catholic Philip II of Spain, and much of the French populace, particularly the citizens of Paris.

On the morning of this day in 1593 Henri told his mistress, Gabrielle d'Estre'es, "It is today that I take a perilous leap." He then went to the Cathedral of St. Denis just outside Paris and converted to Roman Catholicism.

The comment he made just before entering the cathedral, "Paris vaut bien une messe" translates as, "Paris is worthy of a mass." and shows that his conversion was political and not religious.


1603 England and Scotland are United

On this day James VIof Scotland was crowned King James II of England thus creating the United Kingdom.

James Stuart had been crowned King of Scotland when he was only fourteen months old, replacing his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots. On the death of Queen Elizabeth the 36 year old James succeeded her to the throne of England thus uniting the two kingdoms.

Scotland and England retained their own legislatures until 1707 when the Scottish Parliament was subsumed into the English one to become the British legislature during the reigh of James' great-grandaughter Queen Ann, the last Stuart monarch of Great Britain.

At the end of the 20th ceentury Scottland once again got its own parliament.

July 26th


1683 France blows the chance to have one of the best generals in Europe

Nineteen year old Prince Eugene of Savoy fled Paris without the King's permission.

The young Prince was devistated when his request to join the French officer corps was dismissed out of hand by King Louis XIV. He was refused admission into the officer corps because his mother, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin had once been Louis' mistress but had been caught up in the great witchcraft scandal. Eugene's mother was accused of poisoning her husband and fled to Brussels where she remained the rest of her life. No French officer would ever place himself so close to such a scandal so Eugene was denied his request to join their ranks.

After fleeing France Eugene was stopped by French agents at Frankfurt, Germany and ordered to return home. He refused and made his way to Vienna where he was welcomed into the Imperial service whee he remained until his death 53 years later.

Prince Eugene of Savoy became the greatest general inimperial history. He defeated the Turks on more than one occassion but his greatest victories were over the French officers and King who had spurned him,including the battles of Blenheim, Turin and Malplaquet where he fought beside the Duke of Marlborough who led the forces of Austria's ally, England.



1826 The last victim of the Spanish Inquisition is executed

Cayetno Ripoli was hanged in the town of Rizaffa, Spain, becoming the last person to be executed by the Spanish Inquisition which had been hanging, burning and torturing heritics since its inception in 1478.

Ripoli was a schoolteacher who had been jailed for two years for stating that the only religious action necessary was keeping the Ten Commandments.

The original Inquisition had been instituted by Pope Gregory IX in 1231. Most of the accused were given the opportunity to repent and their punishment usually ranged from prayer to imprisonment. The church could not condemn a prisoner to death. That could only be done by the secular authorities.

The Inquisition began in Spain in 1478 as the last Muslims were being conquered. Under its first Grand Inquisitor, the Dominican Toma's de' Torquemada about 2,000 people were sent to the stake to be burned alive in what was called an auto de fe' or act of faith.

The Spanish Inquisition was finally suppressed in 1834. It continued in Mexico until 1850.

The Spanish Inquisition was finally suppressed in 1834. It continued in Mexico until 1850.

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
http://thefamilybiz.org/ezboard/emoticons/torquemada.gif

July 27th

1214 King Philip Augustus saves France from dismemberment

As a way to reward his barons and maintain their loyalty Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV wanted to invade and defeat France and carve up the country piecemeal to give to his followers. In order to do this he allied himself with King John of England and two rebellious French vassals, the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders.

John was to land on the French coast and proceed inland toward Paris, destroying the countryside as he proceeded. Otto and the two counts were to approach Paris from the north.

The plan began to fall apart whenPhilip totally defeated the incompetent John at Angers on July 2nd. Philip then drove north where he defeated a surprised Otto and his remaining allies at the Battle of Bouvines. He did so by deploying his cavalry against the opposing infantry.

This was the first time in French militry history that merchants and middle class citizens joined the nobility and army and marked a heightening of French nationalism.



1675 Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, viscomte de Turene is killed by a cannonball

The man Napoleon considered the greatest military leader in history was killed by a stray cannonball while reconnoitering his army's position.

Turenne was born into the higher nobility and by the age of 19was already an infantry regimental commander. He spent the next 45 years of his life on the battlefield, mainly during the Thirty Years War.

Turenne served under both Louis XIII an Louis XIV. He was created a Marshal of France by Louis XIV's mother, Anne of Austria who was serving as regent during her son's minority. Turenne was only 31 years old at the time.

In 1665 Louis XIV's army was fighting the Austrians at Sasbach. Marshal Turenne was out in front of the French army looking at the enemy positions when a cannonball struck and mortally wounded him. As he lay dying he said, "I did not mean to be killed today."

Once the news of his death became known in Paris the nation went into deep national mourning. King Louis said the French had, "Lost the father of the country", and Voltaire wrote, "The virtues and abilities that he alone had made people forget the faults and weaknesses he shared with so many others."

Turenne was buried among the Kings of France at St. Denis but during the French Revolution the cathedral at St. Denis was desicrated and his body was moved to the Muse'e des Monuments. In 1800 an admiring Napoleon had his body reinterred in the Invalides in Paris.

July 28th

1540 A May Decenber marriage in Merry Olde England

On this day the 44 year old King Henry VIII married 19 year old Catherine Howard after divorcing Anne of Cleves, his wife of only six months of marriage.

Henry was quite enamored of his fifth, but far from last wife, calling her, "A rose without thorns., but paintings of the period show her to be rather coarse and common looking.

Henry's wedding day was somewhat marred by the fact that on the same day he had his long time, faithful advisor Thomas Cromwell beheaded. It was Cromwell who had convinced Henry to marry Anne because he felt England needed to ally herself with the German States. This was a mistake because Henry soon took a violent dislike to her and divorced her after only a half year.

Cromwell had made many enemies at court and sensing his weakness they convinced Henry that he was a traitor and a heretic. Henry had him beheaded without benefit of a trial.

Catherine Howard went to the block only 19 months after her wedding day.


1741 Antonio Vivaldi dies.

Vivaldi spent almost his entire career in the city of Venice where he became director of the Ospedale della Pietaa conservatory for orphaned girls.

Vivaldi was an ordained, Roman Catholic priest but due to severe asthma he could not officiate at Mass. He was nicknamed, Il Prete Rosso, The Red Priest, because of his red hair.

Vivaldi was 48 when he met a pretty 15 year old contralto named, Anna Giro. Rumor had it that they became lovers.

1750 Johann Sebastian Bach dies

Bach was an admirer of Vivaldi who arranged at least 10 of his solo concerti for other instruments.

Where Vivaldi was a violinist as well as a composer, Bach composed and played the harpsichord and organ.

Unlike Vivaldi, Bach lived in many German cities and fathered 20 children by two wives.

Although extremely talented Bach was also extremely modest. He once said, "I have always had to work hard; anyone who works as hard could do what I did."

He died at the age of 65 in Leipzig.


1794 Robespierre loses his head

Maximilien Robespierre had once been a choirboy in the town of Arras where he had been born the son of bourgeois parents.

Robespierre was an ascetic, caring for neither fine food nor women.

As head of the Committee for Public Safety during the French Revolution he became one of the most feared men in France.

Robespierre called himself, "A slave to freedom", and, "Aliving martyr to the Republic". While he might have been these he was also a viscious, vindictive person who used the guillotine to get rid of his political enemies more often than he did to get rid of enemies of the state.

Eventually his fellow revolutionaries had enough of him and arrested him on this day in 1794. He was shot in the jaw when he was arrested at the Hotel de Ville.

That same day he was arraigned before the Revolutionary Tribunal along with his brother and 21 othr supporters and sentenced to death.

He was taken to the guillotine at about eight o'clock that evening. His face and jaw were wrapped in a bloodstained bandage and when it was removed his jaw fell open and blood poured from the wound.

A witness said, "He let out a groan like a dying tiger, which could be heard across the square."

Robespierre was only 36 years old when the blade of the guillotine descended, removing his head from his body.

Leatherman 25 year warranties begin expiring (http://www.newhouse.com/leatherman-tool-catches-up-with-25-year-warranty,-looks-beyond-2.html).

July 29th

1588 The Spanish Armada invades England


With the death of Mary and the ascension of Elizabeth Philip II of Spain saw the chances of England returning to the Catholic faith seemed more remote than ever. As if this were not enough, Sir Francis Drake was raiding Spanish ports and shipping in the Caribbean and the English were supporting the Dutch in their rebellion against Spanish rule.

Philip decided to invade the island kingdom and started gathering a huge armada of ships to transport his troops. After two years he had 130 ships, 19,000 soldiers, 8,000 sailors, 2,000 galley slaves, 1,000 noblemen and 600 priests and monks.

When the fleet was first sighted off the coast of Cornwell Sir Francis Drake was playing a game of bowls at his home in Plymouth Hoe. He refused to stop his game, saying, "We have time enough to finish the game and beat the Spanish too."

The English ships were lighter and faster than the heavy Spanish ships and were equipped with cannon capable of firing from a further distance.

The battle was indecisive and for a week the opposing fleets drifted up and down the Channel.

The Armada then returned to Calais to pick up more troops coming from the Spanish Netherlands. While the fleet was anchored off Calais Sir Francis Drake arrived and at midnight he released 8 flaming fire ships to drift among the Spanish fleet. The Spaniards paniced and cut their anchor lines in an attempt to flee the burning ships. It was at this moment when Drake's fleet launched its attack. They were able to fire at the Spanish with no counter fire because the Spanish had dismounted most of their cannon during the night.

The defeated Spanish fleet sailed up to Scotland in order to escape the English. It was here that the rest of the fleet was destroyed by North Atlantic gales that Drake called "The Winds of God".

Only 66 ships of the original 130 survived to return to Spain and 15,000 Spanish soldiers and sailors perished including Philip II's illegitimate son, the Prince of Ascoli.

Queen Elizabeth had a medal struck to commemorate the victory over the Armada. The medal was inscribed, "Deus flait, et dissipati sunt" (God blew and they were scattered.)


1862 Neutral Great Britain builds a Confederate warship

While officially neutral Great Britain favored the Confederates in the U.S. Civil War.

On this day the British ship, Enrica left Liverpool. As it cleared the breakwaters it sailed into the Irish Sea where it changed its name to the CSS Alabama. The Alabama was the most successful commerce raider in the history of naval warfare, capturing or destroying more than 60 Union ships with a total value of $6,5000.

The Alabama was soon joined by other British made ships like the Shendoah and the Florida which collectively accounted for more than 200 Union ships and cargo valued at more than $25,000,000.
The Southern raiders accounted for more than half the Union merchant fleet.

The Alabama was finally caught and sunk off the French port of Cherbourg in June of 1864 by the USS Kearsarge.


1883 Il Duce is born

Benito Mussolini was born in the small town of Predappio near Ravenna, the son of a poor blacksmith who doubled as a socialist journalist and a school teacher mother.

By his twenties Mussolini had become an avowed anti-war Socialist and a committed internationalist. His views changed as he grew older and by the time he was thirty he was a xenophobe who strongly supported Italy's entry into WWI. He joined the Italian Bersaglieri and was wounded in a training accident.

In 1919 Mussolini formed a new political party, the Fasci de Combarttimento. His followers soon began wearing black shirts, no doubt inspired by the red shirts worn by Garibaldi'sfollowers of the Risorgimento.

At a Fascist rally in Naples in 1922 Mussolini said, "Either the government will be given to us or we shall seize it by marching on Rome." A week later he was appointed Prime Minister by the King. He was only 29 and the youngest Prime Minister in Italy's history.

Mussolini took complete control of the government and built the first autostrada, excavated the Roman Forum and crushed the Mafia.

Mussolin allied Italy with Nazi Germany during WWII and declared war on an already defeated France.

Italy was on the losing side of the war and Mussolini and his mistress were killed by his own people.

When the fleet was first sighted off the coast of Cornwell Sir Francis Drake was playing a game of bowls at his home in Plymouth Hoe. He refused to stop his game, saying, "We have time enough to finish the game and beat the Spanish too."



I love Sir Francis. He was considered a raving pirate and outlaw with a huge price on his head by all of Europe except the Queen and his countrymen and of course, his crew of his ship, the Golden Hind. Once he invited the Queen to dine on board his ship. She accepted with pleasure and the crew remarked how well they got on, laughing, talking, singing and drinking ale until the wee hours. She turned a blind eye to his piracy and told him she couldn't help him if he were captured by the French or Spaniards, and said whatever he stole, she wanted one third, haha.

Elizabeth herself rode out to meet the soldiers just before the Armada was spotted. Dressed in her finest gown, riding a white charger, and dripping with jewels, looking every inch the Tudor Queen, she said, "I know I have the body of a woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a King of England too, and I think foul scorn that anyone should dare to invade the borders of my realm."
The men cheered and fought to hold the reins of her horse. A great, great Queen.

July 30th

1619 Window, window, where's he window

The beginning of the 15th century was a time of great religious turmoil and upheaval. At times there were as many as three Popes reigning simultaneosly, Jan Hus had been promised safe conduct and then been burned at the stake and the Protestant Reformation was about to flower. This religious turmoil was most evident in Bohemia in Eastern Europe.

King Wenceslas IV was a weak king who could not control events in his kingdom. On this day religious rioting broke out in Prague and a mob broke into the town hall and hurled several of the King's councilors through an open upper story window to their deaths. Had the King been there they might have thrown him through the same window but it didn't matter as he died of anger and chagrin only seventeen days later.

The event of the window was known as the First Defenestration because another one took placee 199 years later.


1898 Otto von Bismarck dies

On this day Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor died, a bitter, resentful old man of 83. He had been chancellor to first King and then Emperor Wilhelm II or 47 years, 28 as chancellor of Prussia and 17 as chancellor of a united Germany, the single greatest military and economic power in Europe.

Bismarck was the consumate politician who once said, "Poplitics is the art of the possible." However he also said that the great issues of the day could be solved only through, "Blut un Eisen", (Blood and Iron)

Domestically Bismarck was a reactionary, distrusting and disliking all liberals from anarchists to socialists. He called them, "This country's rats who should be exterminated."

In 1890 liberals took over the government and the Kaiser quitely eased Bismarck out of office.

Athough out of the government Bismarck retained his keen mind and warned that , "If there was ever another war in Europe it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans."

July 31st

1358 Etienne Marcel is killed

Most people have never heard of Etienne Marcel but he was one of the precursors to the French Revolution.

Marcel was Provost of Paris's merchants and had gasped power when King Jean le Bon was captured by the English in 1356. He ruled Paris for almost two years and forced the Dauphin, the future Charles V to enact certain reforms.

Even though he ruled Paris Marcel soon found himself caught between the Dauphin and Charles the Bad, the King of Navarre. Both men had armies prepared to enter Paris.

Because the Dauphin had gone back on certain reforms Marcel decided to allow Charles to enter the city and was going to open one of the city gates to make this possible.

One of his supporters, Jean Maillart caught him as he was about to open the gate and killed him with an axe.

Marcel was only 40 when he died. He was the first Parisian who had successfully stood uup to royal power and forced through changes for the benefit of the common man rather than the nobility.

1556 Ignatius Loyola dies

Ignatius Loyola was only 5'2" tall but that didn't stop him from being a soldier in the army of the King of Spain. Loyola was a man who loved the good things in life more than the church, calling himself, "A mangiven to the vanities of the world, whose chief delight consisted inmartial exercises, with a great and vain desire to win renown."

Foour years after Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenburg Loyola's leg was crushed by a cannon ballduring the siege of Pamplona.

Loyola decided that if he couldn't fight for his King he would fight for his religion. He attended the University of Paris where he made his first recruitments for his 'army of Christ'. By the time he was 49 his society, the Jesuits was recognized by the Pope.

The Jesuits were more like an army than a religious group. They were militant activists who felt that in the name of God the end justified the means.

By the time Loyola died at the age of 65 there were more than 1,500 Jesuits spread throughout Europe.

Ignatius Loyola was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1622.

July 27th

1214 King Philip Augustus saves France from dismemberment

As a way to reward his barons and maintain their loyalty Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV wanted to invade and defeat France and carve up the country piecemeal to give to his followers. In order to do this he allied himself with King John of England and two rebellious French vassals, the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders.

John was to land on the French coast and proceed inland toward Paris, destroying the countryside as he proceeded. Otto and the two counts were to approach Paris from the north.

The plan began to fall apart whenPhilip totally defeated the incompetent John at Angers on July 2nd. Philip then drove north where he defeated a surprised Otto and his remaining allies at the Battle of Bouvines. He did so by deploying his cavalry against the opposing infantry.

This was the first time in French militry history that merchants and middle class citizens joined the nobility and army and marked a heightening of French nationalism.




.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzz

A dimwitted serf could've defeated John. He was the guy who died after stuffing himself at the dinner table. He'd also kick furniture and throw himself on the ground in fits of rage. Kinda like my boss....Philip's" great" military prowess wouldn't have lasted 2 minutes against John's brother, the godlike King Richard Lionheart.

August 1


August 1, 1966

An ex-Marine goes on a killing spree at the University of Texas

Charles Whitman takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition to the observatory platform atop a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people, killing 14 people and wounding 31. A fifteenth died in 2001 because of his injuries. Whitman, who had killed both his wife and mother the night before, was eventually shot to death after courageous Austin police officers, including Ramiro Martinez, charged up the stairs of the tower to subdue the attacker.

Whitman, a former Eagle Scout and Marine, began to suffer serious mental problems after his mother left his father in March 1966. On March 29, he told a psychiatrist that he was having uncontrollable fits of anger. He purportedly even told this doctor that he was thinking about going up to the tower with a rifle and shooting people. Unfortunately, the doctor didn't follow up on this red flag.

On July 31, Whitman wrote a note about his violent impulses, saying, "After my death, I wish an autopsy on me be performed to see if there's any mental disorders." The note then described his hatred for his family and his intent to kill them. That night, Whitman went to his mother's home, where he stabbed and shot her. Upon returning to his own home, he then stabbed his wife to death.

The following morning, Whitman headed for the tower with several pistols and a rifle after stopping off at a gun store to buy boxes of ammunition and a carbine. Packing food and other supplies, he proceeded to the observation platform, killing the receptionist and two tourists before unpacking his rifle and telescope and hunting the people below.

An expert marksman, Whitman was able to hit people as far away as 500 yards. For 90 minutes, he continued firing while officers searched for a chance to get a shot at him. By the end of his rampage, 16 people were dead and another 30 were injured.

The University of Texas tower remained closed for 25 years before reopening in 1999.

1 Aug


On this day in 1988 I was fully retired from the United States Army. I had served a total of 20 years, 9 days. They got the 9 days out of me because one must retire at the end of the month. It was as close as I could get to 20 years, exactly.

My assignments, in general:

Basic Training, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Aug/Sep, 1968.

Advanced Individual Training, Fort Rucker, Alabama. Awarded Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 67A and 67B - basic aircraft maintenance and further specializing in the Huey. Oct68/Feb69

Further advanced training at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. Awarded MOS 45J - aircraft armament repair specialist.

October, 1969: assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, 4th Aviation, Pleiku and An Khe, Vietnam.

December 1970: assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, Bearcat, Vietnam.

October 1972: assigned to Fort Hood, Texas. Initially in an aviation maintenance unit, selected for retraining into the medical field. Reassigned to the hospital. Worked in the outpatient mental health clinic. Attended college and training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

October 1974: awarded MOS 91C (medical clinical specialist) and 91G (behavioral science specialist).

November 1974: assigned to the 2d Infantry Division, South Korea. Was the NCOIC (non-commssioned officer in charge) of the mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation clinic.

January 1976: assigned to Ft Hood, TX, Darnall Army Hospital, Dept of Psychiatry.

June 1980: assigned to the Community Headquarters, Wiesbaden Military Community, West Germany. Was NCOIC of 3 outpatient clinics.

June 1987:assigned as NCOIC of the Outpatient Psychiatry and Psychology Services clinics at Eisenhower Army Medical Center.

July 1988: retired from active duty. Moved to Texas.

While not a war hero or a Rambo style snake eater, I did wear a uniform for over 20 years. I was in places most people only read about. Following Vietnam, the Cold War continued, until the Berlin Wall fell in November, 1989.

Let us never forget the young man or woman wearing the uniform of the military services. Do not let them become the target of your attitudes toward whatever sitting government there is -- that youngster typically hasn't a clue. They went to the military for their own reasons, none of which may have anything to do with the larger picture.

:drinktoth :drinktoth

August 3rd

1492 Columbus sets sail for the Indies, Ooops!

Christopher Columbus had been trying to persuade someone to finance a voyage to the West since 1474. He had approached the Florentine geographer Paolo Toscanelli and King John of Portugal but received no help. He finally asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. He was at first rejected but was eventually called back to their court.

On this day in 1492 he sailed from Palos de la Frontera in Andalucia with three ships and a crew of 88.

His three ships were named the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. The Santa María was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa. The ship was a small carrack about 70 feet long and was used as Columbus' flag ship. She had a crew of 40.

The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the caravel-type ships Santa Clara, remembered as the Niña ("The Girl" – a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño) and Pinta ("The Painted" – this might be a reference to excessive makeup and was a common synonym for prostitute. All these ships were second-hand (if not third or more) and were never meant for exploration.

Two months and nine days after setting sail the fleet first sighted land in the New World. Two months later the Santa Maria ran aground off the coast of present day Haiti.


1936 Jesse Owens disproves the theory of Aryan supperiority at the Munich Olympics

1936 had been a good year for Hitler and the Third Reich. In February had hosted the fourth Winter Olympic Games at Garmisch-Partinkirchen where Germany finished second behind Norway. In March German troops peacefully reoccupied the Rheinland. An in June Max Schmeling defeated Joe Louis by a knockout in the twelfth round in New York City's Yankee Stadium.

In addition to hosting the winter games Germany also hosted the summer games.

This was supposed to be an opportunity for Hitler to demonstrate the superiority of the Aryan race but it was foiled when J.C. 'Jesse' Owens, a black American won the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.2 seconds. Owens went on to win gold medals in the 220 meter dash, the 400 meter relay and the long jump, tying or beating olympic records in each event.

Germany went on to win the Winter Olympics with a total of 181 points followed by the United Stateswith 124 points and Italy with 47 points but the victory was soured by the performance of J.C. 'Jesse' Owens.


1978 My youngest son and namesake was born.

1492-what a fucken mistake that was :D

1 Aug


On this day in 1988 I was fully retired from the United States Army. I had served a total of 20 years, 9 days. They got the 9 days out of me because one must retire at the end of the month. It was as close as I could get to 20 years, exactly.

My assignments, in general:

Basic Training, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Aug/Sep, 1968.

Advanced Individual Training, Fort Rucker, Alabama. Awarded Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 67A and 67B - basic aircraft maintenance and further specializing in the Huey. Oct68/Feb69

Further advanced training at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. Awarded MOS 45J - aircraft armament repair specialist.

October, 1969: assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, 4th Aviation, Pleiku and An Khe, Vietnam.

December 1970: assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, Bearcat, Vietnam.

October 1972: assigned to Fort Hood, Texas. Initially in an aviation maintenance unit, selected for retraining into the medical field. Reassigned to the hospital. Worked in the outpatient mental health clinic. Attended college and training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

October 1974: awarded MOS 91C (medical clinical specialist) and 91G (behavioral science specialist).

November 1974: assigned to the 2d Infantry Division, South Korea. Was the NCOIC (non-commssioned officer in charge) of the mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation clinic.

January 1976: assigned to Ft Hood, TX, Darnall Army Hospital, Dept of Psychiatry.

June 1980: assigned to the Community Headquarters, Wiesbaden Military Community, West Germany. Was NCOIC of 3 outpatient clinics.

June 1987:assigned as NCOIC of the Outpatient Psychiatry and Psychology Services clinics at Eisenhower Army Medical Center.

July 1988: retired from active duty. Moved to Texas.

While not a war hero or a Rambo style snake eater, I did wear a uniform for over 20 years. I was in places most people only read about. Following Vietnam, the Cold War continued, until the Berlin Wall fell in November, 1989.

Let us never forget the young man or woman wearing the uniform of the military services. Do not let them become the target of your attitudes toward whatever sitting government there is -- that youngster typically hasn't a clue. They went to the military for their own reasons, none of which may have anything to do with the larger picture.

:drinktoth :drinktoth

What was your favorite or most interesting assignment, es?

PS. Your last paragraph is very well said.

August 4th

1347 Queen Philppa saves the burghers of Calais

King Edward III of England (the victor of the Battle of Cre'cy) felt he was the rightful King of France. In order to press his claim he needed a safe, deep water port on the mainland. Calais, which he claimed as Count of Ponthieu was a strongly fortified town on the coast that would allow him to bring men and supplies to France.,

Calais was too strongly defended to take by assault so Edward laid siege to the city. The siege lasted for months with the starving inhabitants first eating their horses, then their dogs and finally even rats. Finally, after being under siege for eleven months the city surrendered.

Edward was furious that the city had defied him for so long and demanded that the six most important men of the city appear before him barefoot, clothed only in their shirts and wearing nooses around their necks. (This wearing of nooses was a common practice signifying that they owed their llives to the mercy of the King).

The six duly appeared quaking in fear because they knew the King in his anger might have them hung.

Just as Edward was about to call for their execution his wife, Queen Philippa knelt before him and said, "Gentle Sire, I humbly beseech you in the name of the son of Holy Mary and for your own love of me to show mercy to these men."

Touched by his wife's entreaty Edward released the men. Calais remained English until the reign of Queen Mary Tudor.

August Rodin, the famed French sculptor created a statue based on the event.



1914 World War I begins as Germany invades Belgium

Thirty five days earlier the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria had been assassinated in Sarajevo. Events after the assassination had led to a treaty between Russia and France aimed against Germany. Germany felt threatened and decided to attack France while fighting a holding action against the Russians.

Since the German/French border was heavily defended the Germans decided to follow the Schliefen Plan named after the Prussian General Alfred von Schlieffen. The Schlieffen Plan called for a swift sweep through neutral Belgium to outflank the French. The German general staff felt they could defeat France in less than forty days which wouldn't allow Russia to fully mobilize its forces. They also felt that the British, allies of Belgium would not have time to mobilize either.

Because of stiff Belgian resistance at Liege the army attack was slowed allowing time for the French Expeditionary Force and the British to oppose them.

Instead of a quick, surgecial, mini-war the world soon found itself embroiled in WWI.

Also on this date, August 4:

Andrew and Abby Borden, elderly residents of Fall River, Massachusetts, are found bludgeoned to death in their home. Lying in a pool of blood on the living room couch, Andrew's face had been nearly split in two. Abby, Lizzie's stepmother, was found upstairs with her head smashed to pieces.


This crime, of which Lizzie was undoubtedly guilty, caused a sensation in the press and over 100 years later, still inspires controversy. Couples actually divorced over this case. Lizzie was acquitted due to the fact that
A. her lawyer was a former governor of Massachusetts

b. Evidence she gave to police shortly after the crime, in which she contradicted herself several times and referred to her stepmother as "She's not my mother! She's my stepmother!" was not allowed at trial.

Her defense was that, at the time of the murders, she was out in a backyard barn looking for lead sinkers. This from a woman who never fished and who claimed she spent 20 to 30 minutes in a filthy building on a day with 95 degree plus temps. The floor was dusty and no footprints in the dust were found. Nice try, Liz. Tho acquitted, she was finished in society, to which she always aspired, forever, and was even later accused of, of all things, shoplifting. (The store quietly dropped charges).

She later feuded with her sister and died a lonely, ignored spinster. She was thoughtfully buried next to her parents. Motive--fear of being cut out of her rich father's will.

During my final assignment I worked closely with a clinical neuropsychologist and learned about head trauma. Fascinating stuff.

August 5th

1100 The first Norman King to have been born in England is crowned

Thirty one years after being born in England Henry I was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Being the fourth son of William the Conqueror Henry was not expected to be King but he inherited the throne when his last surviving brother William Rufus was killed in what might have been a case of regicide while hunting in the New Forest.

Williams was a large man like his father but unlike his father he was inclined to fat. Also unlike his father he was not a faithful husband admitting to at least twenty illegitimate children by a variety of women. Again, unlike his father he had a cruel streak. He once had a poet who who had written satirical poetry about him ordered to be blinded. The poet escaped this sentence only by committing suicide.

Henry I reigned for thirty five years and died in 1135. Before he died he arranged for his only child, Matilda to marry Geoffrey Plantagenet, a young French count meaning that his blood flowed through the future Plantagenet Kings of England.

1861 A Day That Will Forever Live In Infamy

This is the day the 37th Congress of the United States enacted the first American income tax. Even though the tax was unconstitutional because the Constitution prohibited a direct tax on American citizens the Secretary of the Treasury for the North convinced Congress to levy a 3% tax on incomes over $800.

This tax, intended to help pay for the Civil War was repealed in 1872 but the die had been cast and on February 3rd 1913 the states ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution authorizing a federal income tax.

1864 "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"

Admiral David Farragut was leading a flotilla of eighteen Union ships to attack Fort Morgan, a Confederate fort that guarded Mobile Bay, Alabama.As the ships approached the fort opened fire and Farrgut had himself tied to the mast of his ship so that he would have both hands free to use his telescope to see above the smoke.

The Confederates had laed the bay with mines that in those days were known as torpedoes. As the fleet approached the fort the leading warship, the Tecumseh hit a mine and sank with all hands. The following ship, the Brooklyn hove to and stopped advancing. This caused the entire line to hesitate, uncertain whether to retreat or attack.

Farragut, in order to rally his fleet cried out, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." The fleet sailed through the mines with no further loses and succeeded in taking the fort.

1962: Actress Marilyn Monroe found dead in bed at her Los Angeles home.

1962: Actress Marilyn Monroe found dead in bed at her Los Angeles home.


Murdered by the Kennedy's, damned murderous Irishmen.:hitout:

Nah, they slept with her, got somebody else to bump her off.

Nah, they slept with her, got somebody else to bump her off.


Murdered by the Kennedy's, damned murderous Irishmen who hired a bunch of damned, murderous Italians to do their dirty work:lolhit: .

I believe it was an accidental overdose myself.

6th August.

1945: If you were heading downtown Hiroshima for work around 8:15
then this was a very bad day for you.

About 5 miles above your head the Enola Gay was completeing the final stage of her bomb run, and thus the world entered the atomic age.

And that was the last vision we as man or womenkind ever had of immortality.

August 7th

1316 An old Pope becomes a really old Pope

By 1316 there had been no Pope for over two years as a power struggle continued to see which Cardinal would be raised to the Seat of Saint Peter and whether the Papacy wouldremain in Avignon or return to Rome.

Prince Philip of Poitiers, the future King Philip V of France asked the Cardinals to meet in the Church of the Jacobins to deliberate one more time. As soon as they entered the church he bricked up all the exits but one narrow one and told them they wouldn't be released until they had elected a Pope.

After more than a month the Cardinals elected Jacques Due'se the 72 year old son of a cobbler from Cahors. Due'se figured the Cardinals wanted an older person who would soon die so a new Pope could be elected so he pretended to be much weaker and sicker than he actually was.

After he was elected he had a miraculous recovery and as Pope John XXII headed the Roman Catholic Church for eighteen years, finally dying at the age of ninety.

Pope John XXII was not the best example of a devout man. He was obstinte and dictatorial and a fervent believer in neoptism. Of the twenty eight Cardinals he raised twenty were from his area of southern France and three were his own nephews.

1942 U.S.marines land at Guadalcanal

At six in the morning members of the First Marine Division climbed down cargo nets and left their navy transports in Ironbottom Bay and landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal. This was the first American land action in the Pacific Theater during WWII.

The marine landing was unopposed but they were soon engaged in what was to be the longest battle of WWII as the Japanese troops launched a tenacious defense. Before the battle was over the Japanese had lost as many as 28,000 troops and the Americans 1,600 dead and 4,200 wounded. The last 16,000 Japanese troops were forced off the island in February of 1943.

The following message was found scratched on a mess kit left at one of the graves in the Marine cemetary;

And when he gets to heaven
To St. Peter he will tell
'One more reporting, sir-
I've served my time in hell.'

August 9th AD 117 Trajan dies and Hadrian become Emperor of the Roman Empire

Hadrian died of a stroke at the age of 63 in Selinus in what is today Turkey and his adoptive son, Hadrian, became Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Trajan had ruled for nineteen years, six months and fifteen days and during his reignhe expanded the Empire to it largest extentby conquoring Parthia and Dacia. He also directed many constructions projects in Italy and Spain. Tranan also tolerated the Christians who lived within the borders of the Empire. For this reason he is given a place in Dante's, Paradiso. The Second century historian Cassius said his only flaws were an excessive loe of wine and young boys.

Unlike his adoptive father, Hadrian was not as much interested in expanding the Empire as in improving it. He spent the twenty one years of his reign travelling across the Empire implimenting building programs as he went. He left posterity four of the mst famous Roman monuments tht we can still see today.

The Pantheon was initially built by Agrippa, the great Roman general who served the Emperor Augustus in 27 BC but Hadrian had it completely rebuilt, adding the mammoth 141 foot diameter dome. the Pantheon is now a church where Italy's first two kings and many great artist such as Raphael are buried but it still looks much as it did when Hadrian had it rebuilt.

Caste' Sant Angelo looks like a 60 foot high brick drum sitting on a square base. It was originally built as Hadrian's tomb. The tomb got its present name in 590 AD when Pope Gregory the Great was leading a procession to pray for the end of a plague outburst and saw a vision of st. Michael hovering over the tomb and sheathing his sword. The plague almost instantly began abating and the tomb was renamed Castal Sant Angelo (Castle of the Angel) A bronze statue of St. Michael was placed on top of the Castal in 1752. For centuries the Castel was used as a refuge for the Pope during times of unrest and later, until 1901 it was used as a prison. It is presently a museum of military history.

Hadrian built the villa of Tivoli 18 miles outside Rome. It took about 10 years to build and contains 750 acres of gardens pavilions, baths, libraries, dining halls and theaters.

The fourth great monument of Hadrian is located not in or near Rome but in the island nation of Great Britain. Hadrian's Wall,was begun in 122 AD in an attempt to keep the Picts and Scots from invading the north of Roman Britain. The Wall was originally 73 miles long and stretched from coast to coast. It was up to 10feet thick and 15 feet high and had forts every 5 miles. It was and is the largest construction project ever undertaken in Britain.

Hadrian died on July 10th, 138 AD. He had been ill and in pain for a while and had begged to be put to death. His adoptive son Antoninus Pius refused to accede to his wishes. Hadrian said, "How miserable a thing it is to seek death and not to find it." He finally died of dropsy at the age of 62.

August 10
1316: The Battle of Athenry
Rickard de Bermingham and William Laith de Burgh commanded an Anglo-Irish
Army to victory.
The battle was a devastating defeat for The O'Connors and O'Kellys, who were in alliance with the Scotsman Edward Bruce.
Among those killed were chief Felim O'Connor and Teig O'Kelly, King of Ui Maine. In what is now the province of Connact.

1636: The annals of The Four Masters is completed.
A complete chronicle of Irish History.
Dated from the deluge, dated as 2242 years after creation to 1616

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Four_Masters

Wow, how interesting, Paul... After I get home from work I'll be sure to read about this "Annals of the Four Masters" thingie.

haha, later.

August 10th

1557 El Escorial is build

At the Battle of San Quentin, Philip II of Spain defeated a French army, killing over half its number. Philip wanted to build a memorial to the battle and decided to build a monastery in the mountains north-west of Madrid,. Since the battle had been won on the feast day of St. Lawrence he decided to build it in the shape of a gridiron. St. Lawrence had been roasted alive on a gridiron for his faith.

Besides being a monastery the building was to serve as a palace for the King and a burial place for the Kings of Spain. It was made entirely of blue-gray granite. When finished it would be one of the largest religious buildings in the world. It covered 377,000 square feet, had 86 stairscases, 1,200 doors and 2,710 windows.

It took 27 years to complete the building and Philip II died there in 1598.


1792 Louis XVI’s Swiss Guard is butchered by the French Mob

Three years after the fall of the Bastille King Louis XVI was a virtual prisoner in the Tuileries where he still retained a few of his royal powers but had been stripped of most of them. He was guarded by 800 loyal Swiss Guards.

France had declared war on Prussia and Austria because they insisted on full restoration of the monarchy but had suffered almost total defeat as the combined Austro/Prussian army entered France and headed toward Paris. Believing Louis was behind the defeat the Paris Commune ordered the Legislative Assembly to strip Louis of his few remaining powers. On August 10th a huge crowd of 20,000 militants marched on the Tuileries. Suddenly the mob attacked while Louis looked on without doing anything. All 800 of the Swiss Guard were massacred and Louis fled to the Assembly for protection. He was to be beheaded only five months later.

A young soldier in the crowd observed in a letter to his brother, “If Louis had mounted his horse the victor would have been his”. This young soldier was Napoleon Bonaparte.

August 11

2008: Well today it seems there is no history, sorry for any inconvenience,
please check in again tomorrow.

August 11

2008: Well today it seems there is no history, sorry for any inconvenience,
please check in again tomorrow.

Don't be silly. In 1981 IBM introduced the Personal Computer. As long as they keep control of the operating system, I bet they'll make insane amounts of money off of those things.

August 12, 2000

Russian sub sinks with 118 onboard

A Russian nuclear submarine sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea on this day in 2000; all 118 crew members are later found dead. The exact cause of the disaster remains unknown.




The Kursk left port on August 10 to take part in war games with the Russian military. Russian ships, planes and submarines met up in the Barents Sea, which is above the Arctic Circle, to practice military maneuvers. On August 12, the Kursk was scheduled to fire a practice torpedo; at 11:29 a.m., before doing so, two explosions spaced shortly apart occurred in the front hull of the submarine and it plunged toward the bottom of the sea.




The Kursk was 500 feet long and weighed 24,000 tons. It had two nuclear reactors and could reach speeds of 28 knots. It was the largest attack submarine in the world, approximately three times the size of the largest subs in the United States Navy.




With the fate of the 118 Russian soldiers onboard the Kursk unknown, several nations offered to contribute to the rescue effort, but the Russian government refused any assistance. When divers finally reached the Kursk a week later, they found no signs of life. Under a great deal of pressure, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to raise the submarine from the sea bottom for an investigation, although no ship or object that size had ever before been recovered from the ocean floor. Furthermore, given that the Barents Sea is frozen for most of the year, the operation had only a small window in which to work.




Using $100 million, the best available technology and an international team of experts, the Kursk was raised on September 26, 2001, about a year after the accident. Unfortunately, however, the team was forced to cut off the front hull from the rest of the sub in order to bring it to the surface, leaving the best evidence of what caused the explosions at the bottom of the sea.

************************************************** ***********

PS. Side note--the US Navy offered several times to help rescue the crew, using their state of the art search and rescue teams, designed specifically for sub rescue. This was turned down, even tho it's likely that by using this technology, the Russian sailors could have been saved. US Navy authorities later speculated that the real reason the offer was turned down was because the Russian officials didn't want it to be known the poor state of their supposedly fine and "modern" ship.

August 12

1652: The Act for the settlement of Ireland was passed on 12th August 1652 by the Rump Parliment of England, who had taken power after the second English Civil War and agreed to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

The conquest was deemed necessary as Royalist supporters of Charles ll of England had allied themselves with the Confederation of Kilkenny, and so was a threat to the newly formed English Commonwealth.

The Rump Parliment had a large dissenters membership who strongly empathised with the Protestant settler community in Ireland who had suffered greatly in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

The Rump Parliment

Is that anything like our Asshole Congress?

Is that anything like our Asshole Congress?
Spoken like a true Republican.

August 13, 1995

Yankee legend dies

Former New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle dies of liver cancer at the age of 63. While "The Mick" patrolled center field and batted clean-up between 1951 and 1968, the Yankees won 12 American League pennants and seven World Series championships.

1689:

The Duke of Schomberg lands at Groomsport, County Down, with 10,000
troops.

15 August

1998: The Omagh Bombing.
29 civilians were killed in a Real IRA car bomb attack on the town of Omagh,
County Tyrone.

The Real IRA are a breakaway group who refused to stand down when a ceasefire was called.

Omagh was the worst single loss of life during the troubles.

Some of the relatives of the victums refused to attend todays anniversary, in which a memorial to the dead was displayed for the first, as they werent happy with the wording.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7562329.stm

August 16

On Aug. 16, 1977, singer Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.




1777 American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vt.


1812 Detroit fell to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812.


1829 Chang and Eng, a pair of conjoined twins from Siam, arrived in Boston to be exhibited to the Western world. (The term Siamese twins became a common phrase for conjoined twins.)





1888 T.E. Lawrence, the British soldier who gained fame as "Lawrence of Arabia," was born in Tremadoc, Wales.



1948 Baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth died at age 53.


1954 Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.


1956 Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.





1987 Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from a Detroit airport, killing 156 people; the sole survivor was a 4-year-old girl.

1227 The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died.


1587 Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C.

(And the fate of the hapless settlers on Roanoke became one of the world's most enduring mysteries. All that was left behind was the mysterious word" "CROATOAN.")

August 19, 1909

First race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world's most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.


Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing facility for Indiana's growing automobile industry. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other. After seeing what these cars could do, spectators would presumably head down to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look.


The rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track's surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.


The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks, laid in a bed of sand and fixed with mortar. Dubbed "The Brickyard," the speedway reopened in December 1909. In 1911, low attendance led the track's owners to make a crucial decision: Instead of shorter races, they resolved to focus on a single, longer event each year, for a much larger prize. That May 30 marked the debut of the Indy 500--a grueling 500-mile race that was an immediate hit with audiences and drew press attention from all over the country. Driver Ray Haroun won the purse of $14,250, with an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes.


Since 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has been held every year, with the exception of 1917-18 and 1942-45, when the United States was involved in the two world wars. With an average crowd of 400,000, the Indy 500 is the best-attended event in U.S. sports. In 1936, asphalt was used for the first time to cover the rougher parts of the track, and by 1941 most of the track was paved. The last of the speedway's original bricks were covered in 1961, except for a three-foot line of bricks left exposed at the start-finish line as a nostalgic reminder of the track's history.

19th August.

1504: The Battle of Knockdoe.

A Battle of civil war in Ireland. Located near Athenry Co. Galway.
Ulick Finn Burke a Galway Chieftan, had become Chief of Clanrickarde, who was out to conquer all of Connact. Including Co. Mayo, where another branck of the Burkes bitterly opposed they're namesake.
With his allies, The O'Briens of Thomond, the McNamara's, the O'Kennedy's
and the O'Carroll's, Burke took to the field.

Opposing them Gerald FitzGerald 'Geroid Mor'. 8th Earl of Kildare, with his allies the Gaeill of Leinster, and contingents from the leading families of Ulster,
the O'Donnell's, the O'Neill's, the McDermott's, the Morrisroe's and the O'Kelly's

On that day in 1504 over 5000 men died, Kildare was victorious, the Burkes went into obscureity, and with it went the last true Gaels of the West.

August 20, 1794

Battle of Fallen Timbers

On this day in 1794, General "Mad Anthony" Wayne proves that the fragile young republic can counter a military threat when he puts down Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket’s confederacy near present-day Toledo, Ohio, with the newly created 3,000-man strong Legion of the United States at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.


Although the Treaty of Paris ceded the so-called Northwest Territory, stretching west to the Mississippi River and south to Spanish Florida to the United States, the British failed to abandon their forts in the region and continued to support their Indian allies in skirmishes with American settlers. Two earlier Army expeditions into the Ohio territory by Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in 1790 and 1791, respectively, failed to end the unrest. In fact, St. Clair’s effort concluded with an Indian victory and 630 dead American soldiers.


Wayne had earned the moniker "mad" for his enthusiastic and successful undertaking of a seemingly impossible mission in 1779 at Stony Point, New York; much of Wayne’s subsequent career involved divesting Native Americans of their land. Following the victory at Yorktown, Wayne traveled to Georgia, where he negotiated treaties with the Creeks and Cherokees. They paid dearly in land for their decision to side with the British, and Georgia paid Wayne in land—giving him a large plantation--for his efforts on their behalf.

When President George Washington confronted a frontier Indian crisis in 1794, he called upon Wayne to bring the ongoing violence to a close. Wayne was victorious and gained much of what would become Ohio and Indiana for the U.S. in the Treaty of Greenville signed a year later.

****************************

PS. My 5 x grandpa, Daniel Van Voorhees, served under Mad Anthony Wayne as a waggoner and took part in this battle. Go grandpa.

August 21, 1791: Birth of the word 'Quiz'.
Richard Daly, a theatre proprietor in Dublin makes a bet hat within 24 hours he can introduce a new word to the English language. After the evening performance, Daly distributes cards to all the staff with the word written on it, and instructs them to write it on walls all around the city. Thus 'Quiz' enters the language.

August 22:

1922: Michael Collins, CnC of the Nationalist Army is killed during an ambush by Republicans at Beal na Blah County Cork.

Collins who fought in the GPO during the Easter Rising, one time commander of Republican forces in Dublin fighting the British, joined the Free State side in the civil war following Independance of 26 of the 32 counties.

August 25, 1944

Liberation of Paris
On this day in 1944, French General Jacques Leclerc enters the free French capital triumphantly. Pockets of German intransigence remained, but Paris was free from German control.

Two days earlier, a French armored division had begun advancing on the capital. Members of the Resistance, now called the French Forces of the Interior, proceeded to free all French civilian prisoners in Paris. The Germans were still counterattacking, setting fire to the Grand Palais, which had been taken over by the Resistance, and killing small groups of Resistance fighters as they encountered them in the city. On August 24, another French armored division entered Paris from the south, receiving an effusion of gratitude from French civilians who poured into the streets to greet their heroes-but still, the Germans continued to fire on French fighters from behind barricades, often catching civilians in the crossfire.

But on August 25, after Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was assured by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French Resistant forces, that Allied troops could now virtually sweep into Paris unopposed, Ike ordered Gen. Jacques Philippe Leclerc (a pseudonym he assumed to protect his family while under German occupation; his given name was Philippe-Marie, Vicomte De Hauteclocque) to enter the capital with his 2nd Armored Division. The remnants of German snipers were rendered impotent, and many German soldiers were led off as captives. In fact, the animus toward the Germans was so great that even those who had surrendered were attacked, some even machine-gunned, as they were being led off to captivity.

More than 500 Resistance fighters died in the struggle for Paris, as well as 127 civilians. Once the city was free from German rule, French collaborators were often killed upon capture, without trial.

So Ren, any Hoosiers famous for liberating those French devils oui.

Naw. We were too busy checking out the German corn crop.

Ah yes, once a farmer eh.

Plenty of nice looking pigs tho. Like Goerring, lol.

August 27, 1883

Krakatau explodes
The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia, on this day in 1883. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.

Krakatau exhibited its first stirrings in more than 200 years on May 20, 1883. A German warship passing by reported a seven-mile high cloud of ash and dust over Krakatau. For the next two months, similar explosions would be witnessed by commercial liners and natives on nearby Java and Sumatra. With little to no idea of the impending catastrophe, the local inhabitants greeted the volcanic activity with festive excitement.

On August 26 and August 27, excitement turned to horror as Krakatau literally blew itself apart, setting off a chain of natural disasters that would be felt around the world for years to come. An enormous blast on the afternoon of August 26 destroyed the northern two-thirds of the island; as it plunged into the Sunda Strait, between the Java Sea and Indian Ocean, the gushing mountain generated a series of pyroclastic flows (fast-moving fluid bodies of molten gas, ash and rock) and monstrous tsunamis that swept over nearby coastlines. Four more eruptions beginning at 5:30 a.m. the following day proved cataclysmic. The explosions could be heard as far as 3,000 miles away, and ash was propelled to a height of 50 miles. Fine dust from the explosion drifted around the earth, causing spectacular sunsets and forming an atmospheric veil that lowered temperatures worldwide by several degrees.

Of the estimated 36,000 deaths resulting from the eruption, at least 31,000 were caused by the tsunamis created when much of the island fell into the water. The greatest of these waves measured 120 feet high, and washed over nearby islands, stripping away vegetation and carrying people out to sea. Another 4,500 people were scorched to death from the pyroclastic flows that rolled over the sea, stretching as far as 40 miles, according to some sources.

In addition to Krakatau, which is still active, Indonesia has another 130 active volcanoes, the most of any country in the world.

***************************

During the 1950's, or 1960's, a movie about theis event was released entitled Krakatoa--East of Java.. Krakatoa is actually WEST of Java. The movie went downhill from there.

Thats sad :(

August 22:

1922: Michael Collins, CnC of the Nationalist Army is killed during an ambush by Republicans at Beal na Blah County Cork.

Collins who fought in the GPO during the Easter Rising, one time commander of Republican forces in Dublin fighting the British, joined the Free State side in the civil war following Independance of 26 of the 32 counties.

Can you give us a bit of background on Michael Collins, paul?
I'd like to learn more about him.:)

Can you give us a bit of background on Michael Collins, paul?
I'd like to learn more about him.:)

Collins was born in West Cork on 12 October 1890. At the age of 15 he went to London to work for the civil service.

In 1906 thru London GAA Clubs he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
As he had a special talent for organising things, he proved very valuable t them.

At the start of the Easter Rising, Collins was in Dublin and joind other rebels in occupying the GPO [General Post Office] in what is now O'Connell St, the Sackville St, the main thoroughfare of the city.
Tho somewhat annoyed by decisions taken by the Risings leaders, ie, the locations seized, such as St. Stevens Green, an open park facing Trinity College, as it was impossible to supply or retreat from.

At the end of Easter Week, when captured, Collins was shipped with thousands of others to an internment camp in Wales, while the Risings Leaders, who signed the Proclamation where all executed.

While interned Collins joined Sinn Fein [ourselves alone], a political party, and rose to prominence, in its military wing, the Irish Volunteers. Along with Eamonn de Valera, who was leader of Sinn Fein and the Volunteers.

In the 1918 elections, Collins was elected a Sinn Fein MP, tho they refused to sit ina British Parliament, and set up Irelands first Parliament, Dail Eireann.

The result of the 1918 elections gave a clear message to the British to leave Ireland, which they ignored, clearly Democracy only works when the result suits.

As a result of the British refusal to recognise the election results, the Republicans took to force, and so started the War of Independence.

Collins as the Dublin leader of the Irish Volunteers, now called the Irish Republican Army [IRA].

At the time the British had regular troops stationed in Ireland, tho the bulk of security was done by the RIC [Royal Irish Constabulary] and the Dublin Metropolitan Police [DMP].
The DMP had a section G, which specialised in intelligence, ie, the G men.
Its sad but true, but every town and village in Ireland had spies working for the British, and Collins broke into they're Dublin Castle office and was able to gain valuable intelligence on spies and British Agents.
Collins was determined to destroy the intel network, and so started a campaign of attacking Police Barracks across the country.

The IRA were organised into 'Flying Columns', bands of fighters about 30 strong, who started attacking remote Barracks first, forcing the troops to retreat into the larger towns leaving rural Ireland in the hands of Republicans.

The British Government in London sent extra troops to Ireland, veterans of the trench's of France, and battle-hardened, also, a specialist intelligence team from Egypt to Dublin, to track down and kill Collins, these became known as the 'Cairo Gang'.
On Sunday 21 November 1920, Collins sent units out across Dublin, killing 20 of the Cairo Gang, as a reprisal, the British drove armoured cars into Croke Park, a football ground, onto the pitch, and started shooting into the crowd, killing at least 13.
Collins wrote : 'for myself, my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting and destroying, in wartime, the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid then back in their own coin'.

Collins rode and drove around Dublin passing British checkpoints regularly, as the British never had a good photo of him, this increased his esteem in Republican circles.
May 25, 1921: The IRA attacked and destroyed The Customs House in Dublin, the attack had a psychological blow on the British, and on June 22, George V declared peace talks.

Collins was sent as part of the negotiating team to talks in London, by de Valera, tho he didnt wish to go.
On the British team were Lloyd George and Winston Churchill among others,
a compromise was agreed to, were 26 of the 32 counties would become The Irish Free State, [Irish Republic], the other six counties remaining under British control, [Northern Ireland].
Collins knew many hardline Republicans would reject the Treaty.
As Lord Birkenhead signed for Britain he said ''I may have signed my political death warrant tonight', to which Collins replied 'I may have signed my actual death warrant tonight'.

The Treaty was debated in the Irish Parliament with de Valera [who sent Collins to the talks] opposing the Treaty, as a result, de Valera and hardliners walked out,the Treaty was approved by 64-57, as a result Civil War.

The Civil War started on June 28, 1922, when the Free State Forces attacked The Four Courts in Dublin, occupied by Republicans, using British Artillery.
This action was forced on Collins by Winston Churchill.
On June 22, Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson was shot dead in Belgravia, London, Churchill said he would attack the Four Courts if Collins didnt.
The Free State Forces rapidly took control of the Dublin area, Republicans had their base in counties Cork and Kerry, and Collins, being a Corkman decided to go there and to reason with his former comrades.

On Auust 22 at Beal na Blath [Mouth of Flowers], on the main Cork/Bandon road, Collins convoy was ambushed by Republican Forces, and in the fire fight Collins was shot dead.
It has never emerged who fired the fatal shot, tho heres a list of suspects.
EMMET DALTON: A comrade of Collins wrongly accused of shooting him as during the ambush he left his fully loaded Webley revolver on a fence.

ROBERT 'BOBS' DOHERTY: Claimed to be the man who shot Collins when he arrived in the United States in 1925, but in 1987 claimed he only saw Collins fall.

JIM HURLEY: Fired a Mauser at Collins car. Some claim Collins was killed by a Mauser bullet, but Hurley is said to have fled before Collins was hit.

PETE KEARNEY:Fled to the United States. Told a priest before he died that he thought he killed Collins, as he shot at a man on the road.

TOM KELLEHER: Named by Irish Police sergeant as the man who shot Collins at the official enquiry, Kelleher denied the claim.

JOE MURPHY: Thought he may have shot Collins.

DENNIS 'SONNY' ONEILL: The current favourite suspect. He told Jim Kearney the morning after the ambush that he had shot Collins. a TV Documentary was made if his claim, he died in 1950.

JIMMY ORMOND: In 1926 in New York City he claimed he fired directly at Collins and seen him fall.

JAMES SHEEHAN: Fled to the United States after the attack, never mentioning it again, eventually returning to Ireland were he died in 1985.

MR X A theory that first emerged within days of the shooting, evidence that British Agents killed Collins.
The official evidence was destroyed by the Free State Government on the eve of the formation of the Republic.

Fingers are sore now :D

That is very interesting, paul, and thanks for posting that.
Michael Collins being from Cork, he may have known and interacted with some of my kin, who were also from Cork. If I ever make over to the Old Sod, that'll be something to look into.

That is very interesting, paul, and thanks for posting that.
Michael Collins being from Cork, he may have known and interacted with some of my kin, who were also from Cork. If I ever make over to the Old Sod, that'll be something to look into.

Oddly enough, while writing that post I was thinking about what Ive done and been thru, and he may be the most influential man there has been in my life.
But sure.

PS: Yes, get Bubba to start saving for that trip now.

Oddly enough, while writing that post I was thinking about what Ive done and been thru, and he may be the most influential man there has been in my life.
But sure.

PS: Yes, get Bubba to start saving for that trip now.

Believe it or not, but we're saving now and hope to go in a few years at most. Bubba can sit at the airport while I tromp thru the countryside. He's not Irish, poor lad.

He's not Irish, poor lad.

Alas, we cant ALL be Irish haha.

August 3

1823: Thomas Francis Meagher, nationalist and transportee, brigidar-general in the Union Army in Americas Civil War, was born today in County Waterford.

1916: Roger Casement was hanged today in Pentonville Prison, London. He was the last to be executed following the Easter Rising.

August 3

1823: Thomas Francis Meagher, nationalist and transportee, brigidar-general in the Union Army in Americas Civil War, was born today in County Waterford.

1916: Roger Casement was hanged today in Pentonville Prison, London. He was the last to be executed following the Easter Rising.

There were many Irish who fought pro-union in that War, including New York State's famous "Irish Brigade."

Also on this date, a momentous event:


September 3, 1783

Treaty of Paris signed

The American Revolution officially comes to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France sign the Treaty of Paris on this day in 1783. The signing signified America's status as a free nation, as Britain formally recognized the independence of its 13 former American colonies, and the boundaries of the new republic were agreed upon: Florida north to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River.

September 8


On this date in:


1565 A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.


1664 The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.


1900 Galveston, Texas, was struck by a hurricane that killed about 6,000 people.

September 10


On this date in:


1608 John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.


1813 Oliver H. Perry sent the message, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," after an American naval force defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812.


1846 Elias Howe of Spencer, Mass., received a patent for the sewing machine.


1935 Sen. Huey P. Long, the "Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, died two days after being shot in Baton Rouge.



1945 Vidkun Quisling, who had served in the government of occupied Norway, was sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazis.

10th
1602: Red Hugh O'Donnell dies in Simancas, Spain, evidence suggests he was poisoned by an English spy.

1641: Oliver Cromwell seizes Drogheda.

1916: While serving with the Dublin Fusiliers, during WW1 poet John Kettle dies in the attack on Ginchy.

1919: Dail Eireann outlawed by the English as a 'dangerous association'.

1923: The Irish Free State is admitted into The League of Nations.

1985: The first heart transplant takes place in Ireland.

11th:

1649: Massacre at Drogheda. Cromwell captures the town and massacres the inhabitants.

1919: Dail Eireann is suppressed by British Forces.

1922: Proportional Representation is abolished in Northern Ireland.

1922: Proportional Representation is abolished in Northern Ireland.


how was this accomplished, paul?

how was this accomplished, paul?

Well, Northern Ireland was set up as a refuge for Unionist to remain in the UK. Around a million of them.
The problem being that with the formation of the state, 600,000 Nationalists found themselves becoming
part of this Unionist state.

Northern Irelands first Prime Minister Edward Carson, stated on the first day of the opening of the Parliament at Stormont, ''a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people''.

Nationalists were discriminated against from day one, in jobs, and housing.
It became law that to have a vote, you must be a property owner, thus brushing aside a large section of the
people, especially Nationalists.

It's just amazing to me, paul, that they were able to get away with such a thing.
i just don't understand it.

It's just amazing to me, paul, that they were able to get away with such a thing.
i just don't understand it.
Well what became known as 'The Troubles', between 1969/2000 started not with a struggle against British Rule, but about Civil Rights.

The Ulster Unionist Party which had controlled N.Ireland since 1922, used 'gerrymandering' to change election boundaries, thus always having a built in Unionist majority.

It was only when the whole thing collapsed into chaos and British Troops arrived to enforce Unionist Rule that Nationalists turned on them.

The rest was history.
Talk about being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

11th:

1649: Massacre at Drogheda. Cromwell captures the town and massacres the inhabitants.

1919: Dail Eireann is suppressed by British Forces.

1922: Proportional Representation is abolished in Northern Ireland.

You forgot something..


Today is also the 7th anniversary of the Sept 11th Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center! :(

You forgot something..


Today is also the 7th anniversary of the Sept 11th Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center! :(
No I didnt there is currently two threads running regards 9/11, I try to post Irish history, which will hopefully interest some posters.

14th:

A little late, he died on the 13th.

1803: John Barry, of Ballysampson, County Wexford, considered by many to be the father of the US Navy, died in Philadelphia.
At a young age Barry went to sea as a fisherman, by age 20 he had a masters licence. He emigrated to Philadelphia in 1760
and worked his way up to ownership of a merchant vessel.

In 1775, he offered his services when the Continental Congress first formed the Navy. Given command of the sloop Lexington,
Barry engaged and captured the British sloop Edward on April 7th 1776. It was the first capture of a British warship by a
commissioned US ship. Later commanding the frigate Alliance, he would capture two more British ships, but he was severely
wounded during those actions.

After the war, Barry oversaw much of the building and improvement of the US Navy and was promoted to commodore in 1794.
Statues commemorate John Barry's life in his adopted home of Philadelphia and near his birthplace in County Wexford.

14th

1811: The ship 'Akin Alexander' leaves L'Derry for New York.
Immigrants, mostly Scots/Irish as it was before The Famine.

1845: The St George, sailed from Liverpool to New York. [Irish immigrants].

September 15, 1862

Confederates capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia

Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson captures Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and 12,000 Union soldiers as General Robert E. Lee's army moves north into Maryland.

The Federal garrison inside Harpers Ferry was vulnerable to a Confederate attack after Lee's invasion of Maryland. The strategic town on the Potomac River was cut off from the rest of the Union army. General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, sent messages to Union General Dixon Miles, commander of the Harpers Ferry garrison, to hold the town at all costs. McClellan promised to send help, but he had to deal with the rest of the Confederate army.

Jackson rolled his artillery into place and began to shell the town on September 14. The Yankees were short on ammunition, and Miles offered little resistance before agreeing to surrender on the morning of September 15. As Miles' aid, General Julius White, rode to Jackson to negotiate surrender terms, one Confederate cannon continued to fire. Miles was mortally wounded by the last shot fired at Harpers Ferry.

The Yankees surrendered 73 artillery pieces, 13,000 rifles, and 12,500 men at Harpers Ferry. It was the largest single Union surrender of the war.

The fall of Harpers Ferry convinced Lee to change his plans. After his forces had been defeated at the Battle of Crampton's Gap and had suffered heavy losses at the Battle of South Mountain to the northeast of Harpers Ferry, Lee had intended to gather his scattered forces and return to Virginia. Now, with Harpers Ferry secure, he summoned Jackson to join the rest of his force around Sharpsburg, Maryland. Two days later, on September 17, Lee and McClellan fought the Battle of Antietam.

What was that encounter called, where so many Irish died, 'Bloody Lane' ?

Hey paul,
Here's something interesting about the Irish Brigade at Bloody Lane, Antietam Creek (Sharpsburg) the anniversary of which is today, September 17.

http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/antietam.html

Bloody Lane....the Hornet's Nest...the Devil's Den--the American Civil War had some colorful names for battle sights.

Found a nice poem on the matter Ren.

Come, let the solemn, soothing Mass he said,
For the soldier sons of the patriot dead..
But if high the praise, be as deep the wail
O'er the exiled sons of the warlike Gael...
Proud beats the heart, while its sorrowing melts
O'er the death-won fame of the truthful Celts.
For the scattered graves, over which we pray
Will shine like stars on their race alway..

From John Savage's Requiem for the
Fallen of the Irish Brigade
Jan 16th 1864.

17th September:

1656: Ethnic cleansing in Ireland.
Roman Catholic Irish were subdued to ethnic cleansing policy by Oliver Cromwell.
After his suppression of a rebellion against the English in 1649 he ordered that the
Irish were allowed to live west of the Shannon river only.
During guerrilla war that followed thousands of Irish died or were sold as slaves to
the Americas.
Cromwell had promised Irish land to the business investors and soldiers who had helped
him perform his expeditions. The 'Act for the Attainder of the rebels of Ireland' of
17th September 1656 is part of this programme. The land of rebels is attained, and
'rebels' are defined in such a way that all Catholics match.
By the end of 1656, four fifths of the Irish land was in Protestant hands.

From which the term 'to hell or Connact' derives.

Found a nice poem on the matter Ren.

Come, let the solemn, soothing Mass he said,
For the soldier sons of the patriot dead..
But if high the praise, be as deep the wail
O'er the exiled sons of the warlike Gael...
Proud beats the heart, while its sorrowing melts
O'er the death-won fame of the truthful Celts.
For the scattered graves, over which we pray
Will shine like stars on their race alway..

From John Savage's Requiem for the
Fallen of the Irish Brigade
Jan 16th 1864.

That is a beautiful work.

September 19Arnold and Gates argue at First Battle of Saratoga

In the early morning hours of this day in 1777, British General John Burgoyne launches a three-column attack against General Horatio Gates and his American forces in the First Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Freeman’s Farm.


Coming under heavy cannon fire from the approaching British troops, General Gates initially ordered the Northern Army to be patient and wait until the British neared before launching a counter-attack. General Gates’ second in command, American Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, strongly disagreed with Gates’ orders and did not hesitate to share his opinion with his superior. After arguing for several hours, General Arnold was finally able to convince Gates to order American troops onto the battlefield to meet the center column of the approaching British, and to dispatch a regiment of riflemen to intercept the British right flank.


Although the Americans were able to inflict severe casualties on the British, the delay in ordering a counter-attack forced the Americans to fall back. During the five-hour battle, the Americans lost approximately 280 troops killed, while the British suffered a more severe loss of more than 550 killed.


Due to their heated argument and disagreement over military decisions at the First Battle of Saratoga, General Gates removed General Arnold as his second in command. Arnold continued to feel slighted by the army he served, and in 1780, he betrayed the Patriot cause by offering to hand over the Patriot-held fort at West Point, New York, to the British. With West Point in their control, the British would have controlled the critical Hudson River Valley and separated New England from the rest of the colonies. Arnold’s wife, Margaret, was a Loyalist and would not have objected to his plans. However, his plot was foiled, and Arnold, the hero of the early battles of Ticonderoga and Saratoga, became the most famous traitor in American history. He continued to fight on the side of the British and, after the war, returned to Britain, where he died destitute in London in 1801.

******************************************

Historical note-- Arnold really was a brilliant general and it's a shame what happened to him. My son, a member of the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) once asked the head of the local SAR chapter if a person could join if he could claim Arnold as a Revolutionary ancestor.

This caused a storm of discussion amongst the registrars. The final decision was yes.

Execution of Nathan Hale

On this date, Sept. 22~~





In New York City on this day in 1776, Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying.


A graduate of Yale University, Hale joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775 and served in the successful siege of British-occupied Boston. On September 10, 1776, he volunteered to cross behind British lines on Long Island to spy on the British in preparation for the Battle of Harlem Heights.


Disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster, the Yale-educated Hale slipped behind British lines on Long Island and successfully gathered information about British troop movements for the next several weeks. While Hale was behind enemy lines, the British invaded the island of Manhattan; they took control of the city on September 15, 1776. When the city was set on fire on September 20, British soldiers were told to look out for sympathizers to the Patriot cause. The following evening, September 21, Hale was captured while sailing Long Island Sound, trying to cross back into American-controlled territory. Although rumors surfaced that Hale was betrayed by his first cousin and British Loyalist Samuel Hale, the exact circumstances of Hale’s capture have never been discovered.


Hale was interrogated by British General William Howe and, when it was discovered that he was carrying incriminating documents, General Howe ordered his execution for spying, which was set for the following morning. After being led to the gallows, legend holds that the 21-year-old Hale said, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." There is no historical record to prove that Hale actually made this statement, but, if he did, he may have been inspired by these lines in English author Joseph Addison's 1713 play Cato: "What a pity it is/That we can die but once to serve our country."

September 22nd

1327 Today turns out to be a real pain in the ass day for King Edward II

Despite having fathered a child King Edward II was a notorious homosexual who allowed his male lovers to dominate him and have far too much say in the governance of the country. He had been overthrown by his wife, Queen Isabella and her lover Roger de Mortimer who had him taken to Berkeley Castle in Gloucesteshire where he was guarded by Sir Thomas Gurney, Sir John Maltravers and William Ogle.

The plan was to make life so rough for the king that he would die of what seemed to be natural causes. In order to hasten his death he was locked in a cold room and fed only scraps. The king proved to be too healthy to be killed by this method though and as long as he lived he was a danger to the usurpers Isabella and Roger. Something had to be done and done soon.

During the night of September 21st his three guards entered his room and using a table they held him down on his bed . One of the three then jammed a red hot poker up the king’s anus burning and destroying his internal organs. This extremely painful method of murder was chosen for two reasons, one, it was a parody of the king’s homosexual behavior and two, there would be no external marks on the body so it could be laid in state for the people to see.

Edward’s death was publicly blamed on a sudden, unnamed illness and Queen Isabella became regent for her and Edward’s fourteen year old son, now known as Edward III. The Queen thought she would be able to control young Edward. She did not realize just how much he hated her and her paramour Roger de Mortimer. When he reached the age of seventeen Edward III forced his mother into retirement and had her usurping co-ruler executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Edward II accomplished more in death than he had in life. The monks at Gloucester treated the dead king as a martyr and his tomb soon became a place visited by pilgrims. The money and gifts left by pilgrims was used to rebuild Gloucester Cathedral in a perpendicular style, the first and greatest example of this type architecture in England.


1776 “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

Nathan Hale was one of eight brothers and sister who grew up on a prosperous farm in Connecticut. The family were ardent Patriots and six of the brothers served in the Patriot cause.

Nathan attended Yale and became a schoolmaster but when the Revolutionary War broke out he volunteered for military service and soon rose to the rank of captain in the Connecticut State Militia. Hale’s army career was nothing spectacular. He was at the Battle of Boston but other than that was just another soldier. That was until he volunteered to go behind the lines in New York City to learn the British strength and positioning of troops. Hale had intended to find out what he could and then escape back to the American lines but fires started by Washington’s troops blocked his escape route and he went to a tavern to wait until he could get away. While there he was betrayed and the British took him back to the corner of what is today 63rd Street and 3rd Avenue in NewYork City where he was hanged.

Nathan Hale might have been a poor spy but he was a great patriot. Just before he was hung he uttered the words that every American school child learns, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”, but, were these Nathan Hale’s actual words?

As a Yale educated schoolmaster Hale was probably familiar with the English author Joseph Addison and he was most likely paraphrasing a line from Addison;s play, Cato.

A newspaper article printed in 1777 wrote that Hale had actually said, “if he had ten thousand lives, he would lay them all down, if called to it, in defence of his injured, bleeding country.” In 1781 another newspaper said his last words were, “My only regret is, that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service.” The version now taught in schools wasn’t printed until 1848 but that is the one we now quote, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
__________________

Question:


What was at 63rd and 3rd way back then, a town square maybe ?

Nathan Hale was from Haddam, Connecticut, a town founded by my 9 x grandpa, Ensign Gerrard Spencer, and the families knew each other.

Question:


What was at 63rd and 3rd way back then, a town square maybe ?

Hell, for all I know it was 63rd and 3rd even way back then. It sure would have looked different though.

22 September.

1821: General Patrick Moore, Confederate Army, is born in County Galway. [Tho I cant find him on Confederate sites, any body heard of him] ?

Hell, for all I know it was 63rd and 3rd even way back then. It sure would have looked different though.
Yeah, less traffic.

Brigadier-General Patrick Theodore Moore

Born in Galway, 22nd September 1821. He was a captain of Militia prior to the war. While commanding the 1st Virginia Infantry at First Bull Run he received a head wound which precluded further front line service. At the close of the war he was commanding a Brigade of the local Richmond defence forces.

September 22nd

1327 Today turns out to be a real pain in the ass day for King Edward II

Despite having fathered a child King Edward II was a notorious homosexual who allowed his male lovers to dominate him and have far too much say in the governance of the country. He had been overthrown by his wife, Queen Isabella and her lover Roger de Mortimer who had him taken to Berkeley Castle in Gloucesteshire where he was guarded by Sir Thomas Gurney, Sir John Maltravers and William Ogle.

The plan was to make life so rough for the king that he would die of what seemed to be natural causes. In order to hasten his death he was locked in a cold room and fed only scraps. The king proved to be too healthy to be killed by this method though and as long as he lived he was a danger to the usurpers Isabella and Roger. Something had to be done and done soon.

During the night of September 21st his three guards entered his room and using a table they held him down on his bed . One of the three then jammed a red hot poker up the king’s anus burning and destroying his internal organs. This extremely painful method of murder was chosen for two reasons, one, it was a parody of the king’s homosexual behavior and two, there would be no external marks on the body so it could be laid in state for the people to see.

Edward’s death was publicly blamed on a sudden, unnamed illness and Queen Isabella became regent for her and Edward’s fourteen year old son, now known as Edward III. The Queen thought she would be able to control young Edward. She did not realize just how much he hated her and her paramour Roger de Mortimer. When he reached the age of seventeen Edward III forced his mother into retirement and had her usurping co-ruler executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Edward II accomplished more in death than he had in life. The monks at Gloucester treated the dead king as a martyr and his tomb soon became a place visited by pilgrims. The money and gifts left by pilgrims was used to rebuild Gloucester Cathedral in a perpendicular style, the first and greatest example of this type architecture in England.



__________________

The kids , in studying about this hapless king, just called him Edward Buttburn.

Brigadier-General Patrick Theodore Moore

Born in Galway, 22nd September 1821. He was a captain of Militia prior to the war. While commanding the 1st Virginia Infantry at First Bull Run he received a head wound which precluded further front line service. At the close of the war he was commanding a Brigade of the local Richmond defence forces.

Thanks Frogger, managed to dig out a picture of Moore, not much more tho.

Always happy to help a friend, Paul.

Thanks big man, youll be heading south for the winter soon :D

September 23:

1586: The Battle of Ardnaree, County Mayo. The English gouvenor of Connact, Sir Richard Bingham stumbles upon a force of redshanks [Scottish mercenaries] employed by the Burkes of Mayo, and engages them.

1000 redshanks and 1000 of their followers are killed.
Bingham hangs the Burkes.

1992: A huge car bomb destroys the Forensic Laboratories in Belfast. IRA claim responsibility.

September 23rd

480 BC The sea obeys Xerxes but Themistocles doesn’t

King Xerxes of Persia sent a messenger to the various Greek city states demanding earth and water as symbols of submission. The answer he received in Athens wasn’t what he hoped for or expected. The Athenian general Themistocles didn’t give the Persian messenger earth and water. Instead, he gave him a sword thrust for daring to make his barbarian demands in Greek. Xerxes was beside himself with rage and decided to conquer the Greeks who had dared resist him.

He assembled an army that Herodotus exaggerated as consisting of 2,641,610 men. It was more likely about 200,000. The Persians built two boat bridges across the Hellespont in order to cross from Asia Minor to the Greek mainland but they were destroyed during a storm. The megalomaniac kind had the sea punished with 300 lashes and then threw a set of shackles into the water, declaring, “Ungracious water your master condemns you to punishment for having injured him without cause. Xerxes the king will pass over you, whether you consent or not.” Of curse the storm had ended by then and his army easily crossed over a new bridge of boats.

Despite a defensive league formed by the Greeks the Persians were unstoppable. They soon conquered the Spartans at Thermopylae and started out for Athens. The Athenians abandoned all of the city but the Acropolis and that was soon overrun and all its defenders killed.

The Greek generals began arguing about what to do. Some wanted to retreat to Corinth while some wanted to stand and fight. Themistocles wanted a naval engagement and convinced the others to go along with him only by threatening to withdraw with his men and ships. On the morning of September 22nd the generals began another debate and this time Themistocles took a great gamble. He sent a note to Xerxes saying that he was on his side and the Greeks were bickering and indecisive. Now would be a perfect time to attack. Xerxes knew there was dissension among the Greeks so he believe Themistocles and launched an attack that the Greeks had no choice but to resist.

Themistiches’ plan was to lure the larger Persian ships into the narrow strait between the port of Piraeus and the island of Salamis where they would have no room to maneuver but the smaller Greek ships would. The Persians outnumbered the Greeks by about two to one and somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 Persian ships fell into Themistocles’ trap. Themistocles knew that every afternoon a strong ocean wind swept through the area and he delayed his attack until it showed up. The wind caused huge swells that hampered the Persian ships with their high sterns and decks but had little effect on the low to the water Greek ships.

The Greek ships attacked the Persians, crashing into their oars and destroying them and then ramming them broadside. By the time the battle ended the Persians had lost 300 galleys to the Greeks 40 lost ships.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball0888/salamis/images/map.gif

Xerxes sat on a golden throne watching what he had expected to be an easy victory when his ally, Queen Artemisia of Helicarnassus rammed a Greek ship, sinking it. Xerxes complained, “My men have become women, my women, men.”

Realizing his fleet had been defeated and afraid of being cut off, Xerxes retreated to Persia. The army he left behind to do on land what he couldn’t do at sea was later defeated at the Battle of Plataea.


63 BC Gaius Octavius Caesar known as Augustus is born

Octavius was the son of Julius Caesar’s niece and had the good luck to be adopted by him when he was eighteen. This meant that when Caesar was assassinated Octavius inherited not only his wealth but also the loyalty of many of Caesar’s legions.

Octavius spent 13 years as a member of the triumverate consisting of he, Marc Antony and Lepidus that ruled Rome. Lepidus was then eased out of power and after Octavius defeated Marc Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC he ruled alone.

He ruled for the next 44 years. In 27 BC he began calling himself Augustus. He preferred ruling by compromise, giving the appearance the Rome was still a republic but he could be ruthless when he had to be. He once starved the city of Perusia, modern day Perugia and executed 300 of its equestrian citizens. After the death of Cleopatra he had her son, Caesarian, killed even though as Julius Caesar’s son he was Augustus’ adoptive half brother and only a child.

Augustus added Austria, northern Spain, Egypt, Switzerland, Hungary and parts of Yugoslavia to the Roman Empire. He changed the way the Empire was administered and established Rome’s first standing army. He set up armed camps throughout the empire and many of these eventually became major cities. He also had many new building built in the capital. He boasted, “I found Rome build of bricks; and I leave her clothed in marble.”

Augustus had forced his wife, Livia, to divorce her husband and marry him even though she was pregnant at the time. He was devoted to her for the rest of his life. Even though he had a string of mistresses he was a bit f a moralist and puritan. He even banished his own daughter for immoral behavior.

While basically not a vain man Augustus did commit one extremely vain act. Because he had won some of his greatest victories and his first consulship during the month of Sextilis he had it renamed August. After himself.


1779 “I have not yet begun to fight.”

It was a fine, early Autumn evening and 1,500 hundred people were gathered at Flamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast of England listening to the cannon roar as two ships fought a battle to the death six miles out to sea. Captain John Paul Jones, the Scottish born American commanding the rebuilt 40 gun French merchantman, Bon Homme Richard was fighting the 50 gun British ship, Serapis.

The two ships fought for hours, Jone trying to close with the larger, war frigate and the Serapis maneuvering away in order to bring its more numerous guns into play. The Bon Homme Richard was getting the worst of the battle and the British captain called out, “Has your ship struck yet?”, meaning, have you struck your flag and surrenderd? John Paul Jones gave his famous answer, “I have not yet begun to fight.”

As the sun set Jones was finally able to bring the two ships together and brought a nine pound cannon from the outer side of his ship across the deck to bear on the British ship’s mainmast. The two ships were severely damaged and burning when an American sailor was able to toss a grenade into the Serapis’ gun deck causing an enormous explosion when the powder bags exploded. The massive explosion brought down the ship’s mainmast. The Serapis surrendered to Jones three and a half hours after the battle had begun.

Jone’s ship was so damaged that he transferred to the British ship and eluding the enemy sailed it as a prize of war into a neutral Dutch port. When Jones arrived in Paris, King Louis XVI made him a chevalier of France.

While only a single battle Jone’s victory was important because it strengthened the hands of the anti-war party in Britain and showed that the Americans could handle the worst the British could throw at them.

Jones was buried in an unmarked grave in Paris but in 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt had his remains disinterred and reburied with great public ceremony at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Near the grave was the inscription, “He gave our navy its earliest tradition of heroism and victory.”

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/109/053_SPN_041~The-Action-Between-the-Java-and-Constitution-Posters.jpg