November 20 Factoids

Congrats on this day to Diocletian.  He became Emperor of Rome on this date, in 284.  He gets a reputation as a reformer, in part because of all his reforms.  He was the last emperor to persecute the Christians intensively, which didn't work out so well.  And he's also the only Roman Emperor to have voluntarily given up the throne.  Of course, by the time he was there, it was impressive enough for the emperor to not be assassinated by a rival. 

Here's a fun one:  In 1407, John, the Duke of Berry negotiates a truce between Louis of Valois, the Duke of Orléans; and his rival John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.  Apparently Burgundy really was fearless.  Apparently treacherous also, since he had Louis assassinated.  In fairness though, he did wait a whole 3 days. 

In 1820 a weird one occurred.  A sperm whale attacked the Essex, a whaling ship, in the Pacific Ocean.  How interesting!  I bet it would make a great story.  I'm gonna write it.  And I'll call it, I don't know.... Got it!  How about Moby Dick?!  Is that a great title or what?  Oh, wait... Never mind.  In all honesty though, Melville only sorta based his book on this.  No idea what else he based it on, though.

In 1943, the US Marines launched Operation Galvanic, aka the invasion of Tarawa.  What a mess!  Bloody as hell, but the good guys won.  For a really great fictional account of the battle, see Leon Uris' fantastic book, "Battle Cry".  The courage shown by the marines in his book, even in the face of despair, is incredible. 

Two years later, the War over, the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg gets put to use.  The German leaders, 24 of them, are put on trial.  While it may be justified, it's one of those things where the conclusion was pretty much written ahead of time.  Not sure how fair that really was, but I guess they had better odds than a Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto.

And two years after that, there was yet another spectacle.  This one took place in London.  A young lady named Elizabeth Windsor married a chap named Philip Mountbatten.  A few years later, she became Elizabeth II, of course, and he became... whatever she told him to become.  We know she definitely wears the pants there.  And the crown. 

And some other stuff happened, but nothing that jumps out at me as being all that interesting.  And besides, we have to save a few goodies for next year, right?