Well it's a bad day for Henry VIII of England today... Or is it? It's on this date in 1538 that Pope Paul III excommunicates him. Thus, Henry becomes that most dreaded of all things, an Infidel! On the other hand, it allows Hank to start grabbing Church property for his own use, and eliminates the Church as a source of influence in England. So I guess that's all good.
A mere 39 years later, his daughter Elizabeth sends Francis Drake on a secret voyage. His 5 year mission... to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before... Wait, that was Kirk. I guess Drake's mission was to explore the western coast of the Americas. Which is nowhere near as exciting as what Kirk was doing. On the other hand, it had the advantage of being real.
At any rate, if we jump to 1777, this new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal gets some good news. The French recognize the existence of The United States on this date. USA! USA! It means that instead of illegally and secretly supplying things like gunpowder to the Americans, they can do it openly. On the other hand, it also means that they're gonna be shooting English people again, which at that point was a favorite pastime of the French. Of course, being France, they kept shooting and missing while the English were more accurate, so the wars all ended the way most French wars end. (Unless of course the Americans are on the French side, and look- America is on France's side here!) It wasn't a love of democracy of course that led the French to take such a bold step. They were still a bit irked over the most recent humiliation by England, which resulted in the latter taking all of Canada away and adding it to their own empire. You'd have thought France would have gotten used to that by the late 18th century, but there you have it.
Alas, in 1862 US Grant makes one of his biggest mistakes in the War, and also proves the old adage that war is too serious a business to be left to the generals. He issues on this date his General Order No. 11, which begins "The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade... are hereby expelled from the Department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order..." He had decided that the Evil Jooos were illegally profiting from the trade in cotton and other supplies, and that "this class of people" shouldn't be allowed in the area. Thankfully, Lincoln decided a short while later that this was not really the correct way to handle things, and ordered it rescinded. Grant, unlike some other generals of the time (cough-Fremont-cough) didn't argue, but shut up and did as he was told. Which didn't exactly hurt his record with Lincoln, who about this time (don't recall exactly when) told a visitor who wanted Grant fired "I can't spare this man. He fights." Unlike some other generals of the time (cough-Fremont-cough-Halleck-cough McClellan-cough)
A minor little event happened today in 1903. In Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Bet you think you can guess it, huh? And of course you'd be right. Yup. The Wright Flyer did it's thing. Orville flew it for 12 seconds! A distance of 120 feet! Yowza! Of course, it's interesting to note that within a hundred years of this little journey, men had walked on the moon. Impressive pace of advance, IMHO.
In 1944, a sad tale from the Battle of The Bulge, which by the way began yesterday, but which we missed because I had too many other things going on. Near the town of Malmedy, the Germans of Kampfgruppe Peiper massacred 84 American soldiers, who had already been captured. Amazingly, reliable reports reached the American troops before the day was over. And not surprisingly, if one knows history and human nature, there are numerous reports that US troops massacred German SS troops after capturing them, in retaliation. But those reports are much less widespread. I say that not to justify the actions of Peiper and his troops, of course, but rather to remind the reader of another old adage: History is written by the winners.
It's quite a day for terrorist actions. In 1973 Palestinian terrorists demonstrated their peaceful intentions to the people of Italy by killing 30 people in an attack at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome. In 1981, Italian terrorists demonstrated their peaceful leftist beliefs by kidnapping US Army General James Dozier in Verona. He was rescued, happily. And in 1983, the IRA demonstrates their peaceful beliefs by bombing the Harrods store in London, killing 6 people. Such a nice way to convince people of your positive intentions, no?
And now for something completely different. We roll ahead to 1989, and see a new, full-length version of a cartoon on the Fox network. It's called "The Simpsons", and it had previously only been seen as short interludes on another show. Hmmm. A full length cartoon show in prime time, eh? Bah. It'll never last!
Oh, here's something to warm the hearts of all leftists: In 1997, the UK expands on their anti-gun laws to make all handguns illegal. But it's no big deal: It's not as if, a hundred years before, they had had a pretty lenient tradition of "keeping and bearing arms". And it's not as if the government over the previous decades had repeatedly made certain types of weapon illegal, with a promise that it was only this certain type of weapon, and no, of course it won't affect any other type, because we're not attacking the right to keep and bear arms, but we just think this one type of weapon has no place in a civilized society, so we'll make it illegal. But we promise we won't ever go any farther than this! (If you want to know why the NRA and other groups are so opposed to any type of gun control, then I'd suggest you study the history of gun control in Britain. It's quite educational. And it's also ineffective, as it's now easier for the criminals to get firearms on the streets than it is for the police to get their own. And by the way, it's also now illegal for an innocent person in Britain to defend themselves against an attacker- even in their own home. Which is of course a Good Thing, right? To answer my own question, no it emphatically is A Really Crappy Thing).
And there you have it. I'll be back later to do the birthdays and death portion. I hope.
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