November 26 historically speaking

It's a pretty good day, but a sense of deja vu all over again for The Romanian George Washington, Vlad III; Voivode of Wallachia.  He and his allies defeat Basarab, his biggest foe.  Once again, Vlad takes the throne which he inherited from his father, Vlad "the Dragon".  By the way, this will be the last go-round for Vlad and his throne.  Next time he loses it- which isn't that far away- will be the last.  At least as far as I can tell:  The chronology is pretty complex.  At any rate, Vlad will be remembered in Romania for his victories over the Ottomans, and in the rest of Europe and The West as the model of Stoker's vampire, named "Dracula" or "son of the dragon" (see Vlad's dad above).    In conclusion, Vlad was not a good man to cross, but other than his fetish for anal impalements (which probably had a psychological component), he was not unusual for his time and place.  Read this book and you'll get a better feel for him. 

400 years after Vlad did his thing, James Cook (aka Captain Cook) visited Maui.  He was the first of many middle-aged White guys to go there, though he probably was looking for food and water more than an exotic Island Babe.  Or maybe not. 

It's apparently the time for drunken university kids to come up with plans to ensure they're friends forever.  Over the course of less than a century Kappa Alpha,  Sigma Alpha Mu, and Phi Sigma Sigma are all founded.  It'll be a long time before Phi Slamma Jamma is founded though, and I don't think that one came about from a drunken night at the pub.  Though I could be wrong.

This marks a crappy day to be on vacation at Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe in 1970.  Sometime in the course of the day, a cloudburst hits, and it rains pretty hard.  In the course of a minute, they get 1.5 inches of rain.  That would suck, but I guess it mostly depends on whether it rained all day.  I guess I could live with that amount of rain, but it better stop soon. 


In 2008, a bunch of terrorists attack Mumbai India.  The attack goes on for 3 days.  It's not pretty, and it's since been pretty well established that the attackers were supported by Pakistani government elements.  But the whole "religion of peace" meme ensures that nothing much is made of that.