Quiz: What is a baldric? Besides the character in the BlackAdder TV show.

Yesterday’s question answered below: Where is the Orinoco River?
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History for 12/29/2021
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Flavius Titus, Pablo Casals, Madame de Pompadour, Andrew Johnson, Charles Goodyear, Gelsey Kirkland, Dina Merrill, Tom Bradley, Mary Tyler Moore, Jon Voight is 83, Ray Nitschke, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Flanders, Ted Danson is 74, Marianne Faithful, Paula Poundstone, Jude Law is 49, Patricia Clarkson, Animator Duncan Marjoribanks is 68.

1172- ST. THOMAS BECKET murdered. A debate that raged throughout the Europe in the Middle Ages was whether the Church could boss around Kings or visa-versa.
In England when a vacancy opened up for Archbishop of Canterbury, King Henry II arranged to get his old drinking bud, Sir Thomas Beckett elected. However Beckett took his new job so seriously he became the English Church’ strongest champion.
On this night, King Henry was so fed up with Beckett that he shouted at his court:" Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" Two of Henry's dumber knights took this as a hint and went over to Canterbury and stabbed the Archbishop while at prayers. The Pope excommunicated Henry and placed England under the Writ of Interdict, which meant no English priest could administer baptism, marriage or last rites to anyone. They even took down the church bells so you didn’t know what time it was. King Henry apologized and did penance, even allowing himself to be whipped, and Beckett was made a Saint.

1566- Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe got into an argument with another scientist named Manderup Parsbjerg and they reached for their swords. During the duel, Tycho got his nose cut off. He thereafter he wore a gold cup over the scar, held in place with glue. He eventually reconciled with Parsbjerg, to whom he was distantly related.

1776- George Washington marched his minutemen back to the old Trenton battlefield, scene of their victory of four days before. There he praised them, then begged, pleaded and cajoled them not to go home now that their enlistments were up. Washington announced to the press that all his men had rejoined the colors, but in a private letter to Congress he admitted only about half were staying.

1837- THE CAROLINE INCIDENT. A minor rebellion against England had broken out in Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie. This day on the American side of the Niagara river a ship full of supplies destined for the rebels called the Caroline was attacked by Canadian loyalist militia. They set fire to the Caroline and pushed it over Niagara Falls. The incident caused tensions between the U.S. and British governments. Mackenzie’s Rising was put down, and his grandson became Canadian Prime Minister.

1845- Texas became a U.S. state.

1851- In 1844 the Young Men’s Christian Association or YMCA opened in London. An American named Thomas Sullivan was inspired by this idea and brought it home to Boston. This day the first American YMCA meeting was held in the Old South Church. The idea soon spread across the United States..

1851- Lola Montez dances on tour in America. Lola Montez was originally an Irish lass named Betty James who re-invented herself as an Argentine flamenco dancer. She was famous for her “Tarantula Dance”. Lola became mistress to King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the second largest kingdom in Germany. Officially he claimed all they did was read the Bible together. Privately he admitted she was exceedingly talented with her…uh,..internal muscles.
King Ludwig was so besotted with Lola Montez that he bankrupted his kingdom for her. Anybody who dared criticize her was horsewhipped. Finally, Ludwig was overthrown and Lola fled the country. She did dancing and lecture tours to support herself, and even published books on beauty secrets. She died an elderly social worker in New York in 1861, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
Her ghost is sometimes seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

1890- WOUNDED KNEE- The last battle of the Indian Wars. The US government reacted violently to the Ghost Dance Movement then sweeping Sioux reservations. But the Ghost Dance was not calling for an actual rebellion against the US. Ghost dancers believed if they danced with the spirits of their ancestors the white man would go away.
But to the US Department of the Interior even a metaphysical rebellion is rebellion enough. Sitting Bull was arrested and killed. The army was sent to Wounded Knee reservation to demand a disarming of a few braves. When shooting broke out, the army opened up with modern rapid firing cannon and rifles. To 30 US casualties 300 Sioux, mostly women and children were killed. Reports abound of troops shooting the survivors. Ironically the unit was the Seventh Cavalry, and soldiers considered it the revenge of Custer.

1913- Cecil B. DeMille had been sent to the West by his New York partners to scout out a possible place to move to escape Edison's Patents Trust.
After scouting several cities with year round sunshine, this day C.B. telegraphed his partners back in New York:” Flagstaff no good for our purpose. Have proceeded to California. Want authority to rent a barn in a place called Hollywood for $75 a month.” His partner Sam Goldwyn cabled back: “ Rent barn on month to month basis. Do not make long commitment.” DeMille began shooting the Squaw Man, the first official Hollywood Film.

1916-James Joyce’s novel “the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” published.

1939- Scientist William Shockley first noted in his laboratory notebook that it should be possible to replace vacuum tubes with something called a semi-conductor. Eight years later he led the team that developed the transistor.

1940- After a one week truce for Christmas, this night the Luftwaffe did one of their biggest raids of the Blitz. They firebombed London, causing 1500 fires. At one point they hit St. Paul's Cathedral. CBS correspondent Edgar R. Murrow achieved fame by standing on a rooftop and reporting live on the radio, even as the bombs exploded around him.

1941- Disney animator Bill Tytla tells Time Magazine in an interview about creating "Dumbo": "I don't know a damn thing about elephants!"

1946- Milt Caniff published his last Terry and the Pirates comic strip. Caniff moved on to begin his Steve Canyon strip, which he had better ownership of.

1950- Congress passed the Celler-Kefhauver Act, which sought to reign in global companies mega-mergers. It was the last major piece of legislation to try and regulate corporate monopolies in the U.S.

1964- The first transistorized hearing aid.

1964 – To create the first pilot of the TV series Star Trek, the original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise was delivered by model maker Rick Datin, Jr, based on the design created by Star Trek production artist Walter “Matt” Jefferies. The “miniature” was 11 feet long!

1965- First day shooting on Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was an indoor set at Elstree Studios in England, and the first setup was the inspection of the excavation of the Monolith in the moon crater Tycho.

1967- The Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles first aired.

1968- Animator Bill Tytla died at age 64, from complications of a stroke.

1972- LIFE Magazine ended publication.

1974- While staying at the Polynesian Village in Disneyworld Florida, John Lennon signed the last papers dissolving the Beatles. The band had broke up in 1970, but it took four more years to unravel all of their vast financial holdings. The other three members had already signed.

1975- Euell Gibbons, early natural foods advocate, died of a stomach ailment.
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Yesterday’s Question: Where is the Orinoco River?

Answer: In Venezuela.

Quiz: Where is the Orinoco River?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is Purgatory?

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History for 12/28/2021
birthdays: Woodrow Wilson, Robert Sessions, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Hildegarde Neff, Edgar Winter, Stan “The Man” Lee, Martin Branner the creator of Winnie Winkle, Johnny Otis, Martin Milner (1-Adam-12), Lew Ayres, Lou Jacobi, Terri Garber, Denzel Washington is 67, Maggie Smith is 87, Sienna Miller is 40,

Feast of the Innocents-commemorates the Massacre of the Innocents, when King Herod the Great ordered all the first born of Nazareth slain.
In Spain and many Latin American countries this is a kind of April Fools Day, the victim of a practical joke being proclaimed an "innocent".

1065- English King Edward the Confessor dedicated a new abbey church west of London. Since in those days a church was also called a minster, it was known as the West-minster Abbey.

1598- The troupe of actors called The Lord Chamberlains Men was tired of negotiating with their landlord who held the lease on Edward Burbage’s theatre at Blackheath. Burbage was dead and they suspected the landlord had other plans for the property. So this night the actors moved through the snow and slowly dismantled the theatre and reassembled the pieces on the Southbank of the Thames. The completed theatre was christened the New Globe Theatre, where many of William Shakespeare’s greatest works premiered. And he was one of those actors.

1694- Queen Mary II of England, one half of the husband & wife team William & Mary, died at age 32. She had helped her Dutch husband overthrow her father King James II.

1734- ROB ROY- Scottish nationalist guerrilla Robert McGregor, called Rob Roy, died peacefully of old age in his cottage in the Highlands. Made famous by Sir Walter Scot’s novel about him, he spent his last hours making peace with former enemies. His last wish was for a bagpiper to be brought into his room and pipe a tune as he passed away. Hoot-Man!

1793- Thomas Paine, philosopher of the American Revolution, was arrested by Robespierre's Reign of Terror in Paris. English born Paine was kind of an eighteenth century Che Guevarra. He went to Paris to help spread revolution. The American ambassador, Elbridge Gerry, hated Tom, so he took his sweet time about getting him out of the guillotine's shadow. But with the diplomatic pressure of James Monroe he eventually convinced the Revolutionary authorities to release him. While in prison in the Luxembourg Palace, Tom Paine wrote the Age of Reason and had a love affair with pretty inmate Murial Alette, who was arrested for being the mistress of an aristocrat.

1832- Southern states rights advocate John C. Calhoun resigned as Vice President under Andrew Jackson. Calhoun felt “King Andrew” was going to betray the South and force them to give up slavery. Calhoun continued on in government as senator from South Carolina. He was the first sitting Vice President ever to resign, but not the last.

1846- Iowa becomes a state.

1847- Peace Conference of Guadalupe Hidalgo began to try to end the U.S war with Mexico. Diplomat Nicholas Trist was given the tricky assignment of alone seeking out the Mexican authorities, although their government structure was in chaos at the time, and convincing them to sign away half their national territory while hostile American armies roamed their heartland..

1869- CHEWING GUM- William Semple and Thomas Adams of Mt. Vernon Ohio received a patent for chewing gum. Since early times frontiersmen and Indians had the habit of chewing on a piece of pine resin or sap. A 9,000 year old chewed piece of gum was found in Sweden in a glacier in 1993. As early as 1842 Charles Curtis was selling spruce chewing gum from his home in Bangor Maine.
In 1869 a Staten Island photographer named Thomas Adams made friends with exiled Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, he of The Alamo fame. Adams noticed the old general didn’t smoke, but he liked to chew a plug of tree sap he called “Chicle”. It was an ancient custom, going back to the Mayans. Adams took the chicle and put a candy shell around it, and became rich on the invention of Gum Balls. Santa Anna hoped the invention would finance his return to power in Mexico City but that never occurred. Gumball machines appeared in 1918, Bubble Gum in 1928.

1895- THE BIRTHDAY OF CINEMA- In Paris at the Grande Cafe des Capucines the Lumiere brothers combined Edison's kinetoscope using George Eastman’s roll film with a magic lantern projector and showed a motion picture to an audience in a theater. Back in the U.S. Thomas Edison thought the idea of projecting film in a theater was foolish and would never catch on. They called their device a Cinematograph, hence the word Cinema is born. The screening included dancers and people leaving a factory but the biggest reaction out of the audience was from shots of waves crashing on a rocky beach. The audience in the front row jumped for fear of getting wet.

1896- THE JAMESON RAID- The German-Dutch Boers of the Transvaal had led a quasi-independent status in South Africa that annoyed British Empire builders like Sir Cecil Rhodes, the DeBeers diamond millionaire who had created the nation of Rhodesia, today called Zimbabwe. "I am not religious, but I always felt God would like me to paint all of Africa in the colors of the Union Jack." Cecil Rhodes financed a freelance military coup by 70 pro-British mercenaries led by his right hand man Col. Jameson. The attack failed and embarrassed the British Government. The German public was outraged at the bald arrogance of the attempt while the British called Jameson a hero. The tensions aggravated by the incident would result in the Boer War two years later and eventually the First World War and the independence of South Africa. In retrospect Winston Churchill said that the decline of the British Empire may have begun with the Jameson Raid.

1897- Edmond Rostands famous play Cyrano de Bergerac premiered in Paris. There really lived a poet-duelist in the 1640’s named Cyrano de Bergerac-Servigan but little was known about him. Rostand created the hopelessly lovesick big nosed hero who helps another man romance his girlfriend Roxanne.

1908- A massive earthquake devastates Messina Sicily and causes a tsunami tidal wave that causes more destruction in Sicily and the Calabrian coast. More than 100,000 died. It was the largest quake recorded in Europe, an estimated 7.5 on the Richter scale.

1928- Last recording of Ma Rainey, The Mother of the Blues.

1941- Paramount Pictures called Max Fleischer to their business offices in New York. There they told him his contract with his own studio would not be renewed and he was fired. Paramount had seized direct control of Max Fleischer Productions in May and put Max and Dave on notice. Dave Fleischer took the hint and left around Thanksgiving. Max was probably holding out that if Hoppity Goes to Town was a hit he might still work out an accommodation. But such was not to be.

1944- On The Town, a musical written by Betty Comden & Adolf Green and young composer Leonard Bernstein premiered in NY.

1948- Mahmud Nokrashi-Pasha the Prime Minister of Egypt was assassinated.

1951- The British film A Christmas Carol with the memorable performance of Alastair Sim as Scrooge premiered in the USA.

1958- Cuban Communist forces under Che Guevara won the Battle of Santa Clara. It was a decisive battle in Fidel Castro's campaign to overthrow the dictator Fulgensio Batista. Today the remains of both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara rest in Santa Clara.

1963- In the first season of the BBC TV show Dr. Who, this day Dr. Who first met the Daleks.

1968- The Beatles White Album goes to number one on the pop charts.

1973-Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago” first published in Paris. The exposing of the Soviet prison camp and police system was a great success in the west. It gave the word for prison camp-“Gulag” into popular parlance.

1973- Pres. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It saved animals like Bald Eagles, Buffalo, Grizzly Bears and Gray Whales from extinction.

1983- Dennis Wilson was the original drummer of the Beach Boys, but he had a pretty bad drinking and drug habit. He was once friendly with the Manson Family.
Taking time off from rehab for Christmas he and some friends sat on a yacht doing more drugs and booze near Marquesas Pier. Wilson recalled this very spot was where after breaking up with his first wife he threw her mementos overboard. He wondered if he could get them back and started “pearl-diving “i.e.-diving holding your breath without any scuba equipment. But being stoned, he miscalculated the depth and drowned.
Dennis Wilson was 37. Of all the Beach Boys he was the only one who liked to surf.

1987- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is Purgatory?

Answer: The invisible afterlife world between Heaven and Hell. An idea pushed by the Catholic Church and a place where souls atone for their sins before entering Paradise. Martin Luther first said Purgatory does not exist. There is nothing about it in the Bible and Jesus never mentioned it. After the Reformation, Catholics won’t officially admit it was wrong, but they stopped mentioning it.

Question: What is Purgatory?

Yesterday’s question answered below: Who first said, Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble'?
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History for 12/27/2021
Birthdays: Johannes Kepler, Linwood Dunn, Marlene Dietrich, Louis Pasteur, Oscar Levant, Sidney Greenstreet, Anna Russell, Dr. William Masters of Masters & Johnson, Leslie Maguire, John Amos, Tovah Feldshuh, Heather O’Rourke, Cokie Roberts, Bollywood star Salman Khan, Gerard Depardieu is 74

In Bhutan- Happy Day of the Nine Evils.

Feast Day of Saint John the Apostle.

1784- Francis Asbury was ordained the first Bishop of the Methodist Church in America.

1820- John Quincy Adams wrote a friend that he was sad that Washington DC didn’t have any good monuments yet. It could use one to George Washington and a cathedral like Westminster Abbey. If John Q. could only see DC today, it’s a rock garden of statuary.

1831- Charles Darwin sets sail for the Pacific on board the HMS Beagle. The observations he made of exotic species while on this voyage formed the basis of his theories on evolution and natural selection.

1869- RIEL'S REBELLION- The Red River wilderness of Manitoba were home to French-Indian trappers called the Metis. When the Hudson's Bay Company turned their jurisdiction over to the British Empire and English protestant surveyors and settlers began to arrive, the Catholic Metis banded together and declared independence.

On this day they proclaimed Louis Riel "President of the Provisional Republic of Prince Rupertland and the Northwest Frontier"! They had a militia and newspaper-the New Nation. Louis Riel convened the first bi-lingual non-sectarian parliament. At this time the Governor General of Canada was still referring to his French and Indian subjects as 'Un-Britons '.
The U.S. State Department seriously considered recognizing the Metis to curb British-Canadian expansion to the Pacific, but ultimately decided to stay neutral. In summer 1870 when a British army paddled in bateaux up stream to attack Riel at Ft. Gary (present day Winnipeg), The Metis Republic dissolved and Riel fled across the border. Louis Riel returned in 1885 lead an uprising in Saskatchewan but was finally caught and executed.

1887- Beginning of the Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

1892- In New York City, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine started construction (and is still not finished..) The largest Gothic nave in the world, work was stopped during the Depression and resumed in the 1970s. Part of the problem re-starting construction was finding some Gothic medieval-style stonemasons who were willing to re-locate.

1900- Temperance crusader Carrie Nation staged her first public axe attack on a saloon, the bar at the Carey Hotel in Witchita, Kansas. She shattered a large mirror behind the bar and threw rocks at a titillating picture of Cleopatra nude bathing. She called her actions not vandalism, but “hatchetation”.

1903- The Barbershop Quartet standard “Sweet Adeline” sung for the first time. It was written in praise of opera star Adelina Patti.

1904- PETER PAN, OR, THE BOY WHO WOULDN’T GROW UP, a play by James M. Barrie, opened at the Duke of York Theatre in London. Barrie reserved seats in the opening night performance for orphaned children who laughed and cheered all night. Michael Llewelyn Davies, the little boy Barrie befriended who was the basis for Pan, used to say:” I am not Peter Pan. Mr Barrie is.” James Barrie once said to H.G. Wells:” It’s all right and good to write books, but can you wiggle your ears?”

1927-"ShowBoat" debuted at the Ziegfeld theater. Based on a novel by Edna Ferber, the musical was written by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein. The play made a star out of a tall black baritone named Paul Robeson.” Ol’ Man River..”

1934- The Shah declared the country known as Persia would now be called Iran.

1935- Radio City Music Hall opened. The Art Deco masterpiece was for many years the largest indoor theater in the world, seating over 6,000.

1940- Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler announced their separation.

1942-THE SMOLENSK COMMITTEES- The Nazis began a recruiting campaign in the vast camps of Russian POWs to set up an Anti-Communist Russian Army. They had good results the previous April recruiting among the Soviet-hating nationalist Cossack groups of the Don, Tartar, Kuban and the Ukraine. These men hated Stalin worse than Hitler, so they signed up. Anti-Communist Russian armies eventually numbered as high as 100,000 men under their generals Vlasov, Komorov and Bach-Zelewski. After the war they tried to surrender to the Americans but by secret agreement with Moscow, they were all repatriated to Russia. Most were executed or died in Stalin’s labor camps.

1943- The movie The Song of Bernadette premiered.

1945- Eleven nations signed the Bretton Woods agreement creating the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

1945- Russia and American agreed to divide occupied Korea into two parts along the 38th parallel, and administer it for 5 years until regulated elections could decide the peninsula’s future. That never happened, because before the five year time limit was up North Korea and South Korea had each set up rival governments. The division stands to this day.

1947- The "Howdy-Doody Show” debuted on NBC. Buffalo Bob, Howdy and Clarabell the Clown, also known as the Puppet Playhouse.

1949- Happy Indonesian Independence Day.

1951- The Crosley car goes into service for the post office in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the funny little jeep with the steering wheel on the right side, so the mail deliverer didn’t have to get out of his vehicle to reach every curbside mailbox.

1968- Apollo 8 landed safely on Earth after being the first ship to reach the Moon and come back. The brought back spectacular photos of the Earth from space. One of the three astronauts was also the first to barf in deep space, but they aren’t saying which.

1978- King Juan Carlos ratified Spain’s first democratic constitution in 50 years.

1985- Terrorists organized by Abu Nidal open fire in airports in Vienna and Rome. Sixteen tourists killed. When White House aide Oliver North was giving testimony about the Iran Contra Scandal he fixated upon the threat posed by Abu Nidal as though it was his personal vendetta. In 2001 while the world was distracted by the events of 9-11, Saddam Hussein’s police quietly arrested and executed Abu Nidal in Baghdad.

2007- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. She had been leading the opposition to the government of General Pervhez Musharraf.

2016- Actress-screenwriter Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in Star Wars), died of cardiac arrest due to sleep apnea while flying from London to Los Angeles. She stopped breathing 15 minutes to landing. The coroner’s report said it was cardiac arrest/deferred. She was 60. Her mother Debbie Reynolds had a stroke and died the next day at age 84.
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Yesterday’s question: Who first said, Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble'?

Answer: The witches chant that spell in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, 1605.

Today’s Quiz: Who first said, Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble'?

Yesterday’s question answered below: What is an eminence grise?
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History for 12/26/2021
Birthdays: Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Mao Zedong, Charles Babbage, Admiral Dewey, Richard Widmark, Steve Allen, Henry Miller, Carlton Fisk, Chris Chambliss, Alan King, Phil Spector, Fred Schepsi, Jared Leto is 49

St. Stephen’s Day- “Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen…” Wenceslas I of Bohemia (Svaty’ Vaclav in Czech) was a chieftain of the West Slavs 907AD-937. When Czechs accepted Christianity, part of the deal was that they would make their national hero Wenceslas a Saint. The Christmas carol was written in 1853 by John Mason Neale.
First Day of the Kwanza Festival. Kwanza is from the Swahili words “Matunda ya kwanzaa” meaning “first fruits” of the harvest. See below-1966. In the Middle Ages this was the Feast Day of the Pagan god Jul, when good Guildsmen would gather in their Guild Halls to eat themselves sick and drink themselves silly. Then in a total stupor they would swear oaths on their patron saints to stick by and protect each other in the New Year. Churchmen bristled at the licentious nature of the festival and tried to ban it, but there was no stopping a good crazy party. Nobody really knew who the pagan god Jul was, just that it was fun to see the priests get so annoyed.

527AD- HAGIA SOPHIA- The Byzantine Emperor Justinian dedicated the newly completed basilica the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in a grand ceremony. Sometimes called St. Sophia, the real name was not for this saint. It is Greek for The Holy Wisdom or Creative Logos, in other words, God himself. It was then the biggest Church in the world, surmounted by a great dome. Emperor Justinian walked alone to the altar and raised his arms up to heaven:” Glory be to God who has thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work. Solomon, I have vanquished thee!” He was referring to Solomon’s great temple in Jerusalem.
Centuries later when Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Turks and Constantinople’s name was changed to Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and four complimentary minarets were added to it’s design.

795 AD- Leo III became Pope.

1492- Columbus founded the first European settlement in the New World on the beach on San Salvador. He called it La Natividad because it was founded on Christmas. 1522- The Siege of Rhodes ends. Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent occupied the island after the Knights of St. John agreed to evacuate to the island of Malta.

1776- THE BATTLE OF TRENTON- George Washington was desperate for a victory against a huge British Army that had chased him from New York. He crossed the Delaware and at dawn surprise attacked a Hessian regiment while they were still waking up from their Christmas hangovers. As the dazed Hessians ran out of their barracks and tried to form a battle line, Washington positioned his troops so they would be have to face into a snowstorm.
The Americans captured 1,000 Hessians to just 4 casualties, and killed their commander Colonel Johann Rall. Just before the fatal musket ball hit him, Colonel Rall said to his aide: “Fuck! A bunch of country clowns cannot beat us!”
Because part of his army got lost in the dark, Washington couldn’t hold Trenton and had to retreat. But the news of the rebel attack made other British units fall back to the Atlantic Coast.
This was the first true offensive action of the American Army in the Revolutionary War. Back in occupied New York City, British commander Lord Howe, when hearing the news, exclaimed:” It seems inconceivable that three venerable old regiments made up of men who make war their profession, should lay down their arms to a rabble of ragged, undisciplined farmers!”

1799- In the still unfinished Washington D.C., this day was the memorial service in honor of George Washington, who died two weeks ago. All of the US government was there, except President John Adams. Adams was still angry at him.

XIX Century England- Today was Boxing Day, a Victorian tradition where you boxed up the leftovers of your Christmas dinner and gave them to the poor.
1825- Nicholas I, the "Iron Tsar" crushed the Russian democratic movement called "The Decembrists". 1860- In Charleston Harbor U.S. Major Robert Anderson found himself trying to hold government forts in a city seething with Southern hostility. South Carolina had just declared herself seceded from the United States, so just what was the status of U.S. Government military posts and arsenals? As a precaution, Major Anderson abandoned Fort Moultrie, and other strong points to consolidate his hold on Fort Sumter, a rock in the center of the bay. He then wrote Washington for instructions. A tense standoff ensued until April when Southerners opened fire upon Fort Sumter.
1862- The largest mass execution in U.S. history. 38 Sioux warriors were hanged at Mankato, Minnesota. It was revenge for the Great Santee Sioux Uprising that had all Minnesota on fire that summer. The Governor of Minnesota had asked for 300 additional executions but President Abe Lincoln had manumitted all but these 38. As he ascended the scaffold, Sioux Chief Shackopee heard a train whistle. He remarked: “ As the White Man comes in, the Indian goes out.”

1865- James Nason of Massachusetts invented the coffee percolator.

1908- In Australia, Jack Johnson knocked out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 15th round to become the first African American heavyweight boxing champ. Jack Johnson held the heavyweight title until 1915. Jack Johnson’s flaunting of racist segregation laws drove mainstream America nuts. Johnson drove race cars, flashed gold teeth and openly dated white women. Later champion Muhammad Ali paid him tribute:” He did this all in the time of Jim Crow and Lynching. I was outspoken, but Jack Johnson was crazy!”

1909- Famous Western artist Frederick Remington died from an acute appendicitis operation that went badly. Today operations like that are routine and handled by anti-biotics, but back then no such drugs existed. He was 40.
1919- THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO- Boston Red Sox baseball owner Harry Frazier announced the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $126,000. The Yankees become champions and Boston believed Ruth cursed their team so they would never win another World Series, BoSox fans became obsessed with the curse story. They scoured a lake where Ruth supposedly pushed a family piano. A young man named Chris believed he helped break the curse. He lived in Ruth’s Boston home and during a 2004 game he was hit in the face with a pop fly ball, losing two teeth. He called it a Blood Sacrifice. The Boston Red Sox went on to win their first two World Series in 86 years and become a postseason power for years after.

1924- Baby Frances Gumm first appeared on a stage at 2 1/2 years old. Grown up she would change her name to Judy Garland. 1926- Young artist Al Hirschfeld had made his first caricature for the Broadway Stage. A drawing of actor Sasha Guitry. A friend took it to The New York Tribune and sold it. Al figured here's a nifty way to make a living, so soon he was selling to all the papers including the New York Times.
Al would keep doing caricatures of Broadway greats into the millennium and became a legend himself. In the American Theater, a Hirschfeld caricature of you meant you had arrived and were a real star. His style influenced the look of Walt Disney’s animated classic Aladdin. At age 94 Al remarried and drew the cast of Ally McBeal for TV Guide. In 2003 he died just shy of age 100, drawing to the end.

1935- The premiere of the Warner Bros swashbuckler Captain Blood, starring a debonair young rogue from Tasmania named Errol Flynn. The first teaming of Flynn, 19 year old Olivia deHaviland, director Michael Curtiz. Music by Eric Wolfgang Korngold.

1938- Young playwright Thomas Williams moved from Saint Louis to New Orleans and changed his name to Tennessee Williams. 1939- Walt Disney Animation moved from Hyperion to the new Burbank Studio lot. The buildings are designed like hospital wards, so in case he hit economic trouble, Disney could sell them to the planned St. Joseph's Hospital across the street. Animator Ward Kimball said it was the first time he worked in a studio where all the furniture matched. The old Hyperion Studio was bulldozed in 1966, the year of Walt Disney’s death.

1941- Goofy cartoon, the Art of Self Defense, premiered.

1943- Battle of North Cape. British battleship the Duke of York sank the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in the North Sea. Of 2000 crew on board only 36 survived. 1944- Patton's Third Army broke through to the besieged city of Bastogne. This marked the turning of the tide in the Battle of the Bulge

1944- Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie premiered in Chicago.

1946- The Gala Opening day of the Flamingo Casino, the birth of modern Las Vegas. Mobster Bugsy Siegel's million dollar gamble in the desert. Despite booking top talent like Jimmy Durante and Xavier Cugat, the promised Hollywood bigshots failed to materialize. The hotel part of the casino wasn't ready for guests yet, so the high rollers couldn't see making the long trip. A violent rainstorm kept still more people away. Also the casinos formal dresscode discouraged the locals who liked to gamble in cowboy hats and bluejeans. Bugsy had to close down until the hotel was completed in March, $4 million in the red.
The Flamingo Casino eventually made a profit but not before the Mob riddled Bugsy Siegel with bullets, and cut the throat of the hotel’s manager, Moe Greenberg.

1956- The premiere of the Japanese monster movie Rodan. Released in Japan as Radon the Sky Monster.

1963- The death of Gorgeous George Wagner, the first pro wrestler to adopt a flamboyant character.

1966- The first Kwanzaa Festival was organized by African studies professor Dr Marulanga Karenga at Cal State Long Beach to celebrate African-American culture.

1973- The horror film The Exorcist starring Linda Blair premiered. Merry Christmas! Have some pea soup!

1979- The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The Moslem fundamentalist tribesmen called Mujahadin, who hadn’t submitted to any foreign conqueror since Alexander the Great, began a ten year long guerrilla war that became the Russian Vietnam. The Russians quit Afghanistan in 1989 and the USA quit in 2021 with the same result.

1985- Gorillas in the Mist author and ape anthropologist Diane Fossey was murdered by machete in her lab in Africa.

1985- Ford introduced the Taurus motorcar.

1991- The crucial vote in the Supreme Soviet to dissolve the Soviet Union.

2003- As part of a promotion for a NJ Islanders-NY Rangers Hockey Game the Nassau Coliseum invited all the fans dressed as Santa Claus to parade on the ice. As the hundreds of Santas marched on to the rink several opened their coats to reveal they were actually Rangers supporters. The Islander Santas objected, some shoving ensued and pretty soon the Nassau Coliseum was packed with fist-fighting Santas.

2004-TSUNAMI- One of the strongest earthquakes 9.1, recorded in the last 100 years hit the Indian Ocean. The earthquake sent giant tidal waves covering the coastlines of Sumatra, Thailand, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, killing over 215,000. Whole beach communities were swept away without warning. Poor fisherman to wealthy types like a Victoria Secret model had to run for their lives.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: What is an eminence grise?

Answer: Someone who has the ear of the leader. The person may or may not have an official title but has great influence. The “power behind the throne.” Recent examples include Clark Clifford in the LBJ administration, Dick Cheney in the George W. Bush administration, and Ivanka Trump in the Donald Trump admistration.

Quiz: What is an eminence grise?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Why is the Christmas season called Yuletide? What’s a Yule?
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History for 12/25/2021 Christmas Day

Birthdays: Emanuel Ben Joseph or Yesuah. Called in Greek Jesus the Christ, 6-4 BC (est)

Other Birthdays: Sir Isaac Newton, Clara Barton, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Helena Rubinstein, Rod Serling, Charles Pathe’, Jimmie Buffet, Quentin Crisp, Mike Mazurki, Conrad Hilton- Paris’ granddad, Anwar El Sadat. Larry Csonka, Burne Hogarth, Ishmail Merchant, Maurice Utrillo, Kid Ory, Barbara Mandrell, Dame Rebecca West, Clark Clifford, Annie Lennox is 67, Sissie Spacek is 72, CCH Pounder is 69, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Howard Beckerman is 91.


Today is Constitution Day in Republic of China/Taiwan, and
Taisho Tenno-Sai (Anniversary of Death of Emperor Taisho) in Japan

272 A.D. To the Ancient Romans this date was the feast day of SOL INVICTUS, the "Invincible Sun", a hybrid religion popular just before Christianity that attempted an early form of monotheism, worship of the sun. The Roman Emperor Constantine, whose conversion lifted the ban on Christianity, was a devotee.

495 A.D.- Clovis, first King of the Franks (French), was baptized. St. Remi said while pouring the Holy water on the old barbarian's head:" Kneel Sicambrian, and Adore what thou once had Burned: and Burn what thou once hath Adored."

800AD- In old Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, Charlemagne knelt in prayer with Pope Leo III celebrating the Christmas feast. The King of the Franks had just come over the Alps to defeat the threat to the Vatican from the Lombards. During the service, Pope Leo whipped out a big jeweled crown and plopped it on Charlemagne’s head. The audience cried out three times in unison the ancient formula: "HAIL CHARLES THE AUGUSTUS, CROWNED BY GOD, THE GREAT EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS!" Charles had said he did not want the Imperial crown and was surprised, but nobody believed such an important step was taken without his prior knowledge. Charlemagne ruled a European Empire almost as large as the Old Roman Empire, from Spain to Hungary, and Denmark to Sicily.
They called it the Holy Roman Empire, although as Voltaire once observed, it wasn’t Roman, wasn’t much of an empire, and wasn’t very holy either…

885- Pope Gregory I formalized what Christians had already been doing for 500 years, namely celebrating the birth festival of Jesus or "Christ’s Mass", on December 25th.

1066- After the great victory of Hastings William the Conqueror had himself crowned King of England in London. Outside, when his nervous Norman knights heard the loud shouts of celebration, they mistook them for an uprising, drew their swords and attacked the crowd. They slaughtered many and burned down most of the neighborhood around Westminster Abbey.

1428- During the Hundred Years War, at the siege of the city of Orleans, a six hour truce was declared for Christmas. English warlords Sir William Gladsdale and Sir John Talbot expressed a wish to hear French music, so a band of French trumpeters serenaded them from the city walls.

1497-Natal South Africa discovered by Vasco da Gama. It was called Natal because it was discovered on Christmas.

1541- After the Christmas services, Michelangelo’s fresco The Last Judgment was unveiled, done for the Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel beneath his famous ceiling.

1734- Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio first performed at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Bach pioneered writing sacred music in German instead of Latin or Italian.

1745- The Treaty of Dresden between Prussia and Austria.

1758- HALLEY’S COMET- Sixteen years after his death, the comet Sir Edmund Halley had predicted showed up right on schedule. This event was seen as significant because for centuries the random unexplained appearance of a fiery torch in the sky seemed to be a direct Tweet from God. Halley proved once and for all that comets were not supernatural omens of Fate. That they had an erratic orbit but were otherwise natural phenomena. Halley's Comet appeared last in 1986, and is scheduled to return in 2061.

1776- WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE- The British army kicked George Washington's rebel ass out of New York and chased them across New Jersey. The British Navy controlled the coastline. Washington had lost every battle, lost Americas’ largest city and was about to lose his capitol. From 23,000 men in July, he now had just 4,000 cold, sulky scarecrows left. And now the soldier’s 6-month enlistments were up! Who would re-up with a defeated shambles of an army? Washington wrote his family advising them to flee to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The American Revolution was in danger of complete disintegration.
Washington knew he had to do something fast or else it was all over. He drew a line in the snow, and begged the men for one more battle, appealing to their patriotism and the great cause of independence. The response was only a few men crossed the line to volunteer. Frustrated, Washington gave a second speech, the contents of which are hidden from history but eyewitnesses said was more to the point: Swearing, You just can’t wage war against the king and then go home! Followed by descriptions of how they would all hang, kept alive long enough to see their wives and daughters gang-raped by soldiers, etc. This time more troops crossed the line.

Washington spent this night ferrying his men across the Delaware at McKonkey’s Ferry to attack a Hessian regiment in their Christmas beds. The boatmen were all from one town, Marblehead Mass, under their Quaker leader John Glover.

The famous painting, Emmanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" was painted in Dusseldorf Germany in 1894. The painter omitted details like Washington sat all the way across, and there were two black men in the boat, Oliver Cromwell, the ships pilot, and Washington's personal bodyguard William Wallace.

1815- At a Christmas concert in Vienna, Beethoven premiered his NameDay Overture.

1836- According to the novel Moby Dick, today is the day the Pequod set sail from Natucket.

1855- Ice hockey first played in North America at Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

1868- President Andrew Johnson, a Tennessean who filled in for the murdered Abraham Lincoln and now a lame duck after losing reelection to war hero General Grant, declared a general amnesty from prosecution for all Southerners who fought for the Confederacy. He was planning to issue this pardon in February, remember then the Inauguration wasn’t until March, but the treason trial of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was being urged in the courts. Johnson moved up the pardon because many were worried a smart lawyer like Davis would use the platform of a trial to prove there was indeed a constitutional basis for the Southern states seceding the union.

1869- In Towash Texas, John Wesley Hardin went into town for a friendly game of cards. He quarreled over the game with a man named Bradley. The two went out into the street to shoot it out in classic gunfighter style. Bradley’s shot missed. Hardin drilled him dead. John Wesley Hardin isn’t as well known as Jesses James or Wyatt Earp, but he was one of the deadliest gunfighters of the west. His business card read J. Wesley Hardin, Shootist.

1870- Siegfried Idyll, written by Richard Wagner as a birthday gift to his wife Cosima, was first performed by a small ensemble outside her door as she awoke this morning at their home in Lucerne Switzerland.

1914- During World War I, German and Scottish soldiers facing each other across the Western Front held a spontaneous Christmas truce. After midnight the German guns ceased and the sounds of Christmas Carols drifted over the barbed wire. The British and French responded with serenades from their regimental bands. At dawn without any official sanction or orders the soldiers of both sides came out of their trenches. In the middle of No-Man's Land they exchanged laughter, schnapps, scotch, tobacco and even played a good-natured soccer game. Next morning the killing resumed, and the officers who allowed the fraternization were reprimanded.

1917-"Why Marry?" by Jesse Lynch Williams opened. The first play to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1927- Japanese Emperor Hirohito crowned.

1929- The Fox Atlanta Theater opened on Peachtree St. An Arabian Nights-type fantasy in part financed by the Shriners so they could use it for their meetings.

1931-The first BBC World Service broadcast. An address by King George V called "Around the Empire".

1937-NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the legendary Arturo Toscanini premieres with its first radio broadcast. In 1975, their studio space, Studio 8H, became the stage of Saturday Night Live.

1940- Rogers & Hart’s musical Pal Joey opened on Broadway. It made a star out of a young dancer named Gene Kelly.

1946- Comedian W.C. Fields died of alcoholism at 67. While in his hospital bed someone saw him reading a Bible. They said:" W.C., what are you doing with that? " Fields replied:" Looking for loopholes!"

1957- Disney film Old Yeller premiered.

1962- The film of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird premiered with Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, and Robert Duval.

1963- Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone released. First animated feature directed by Wolfgang,” Woolie” Reitherman.

1977- Charlie Chaplin died quietly in his sleep at Vevey, Switzerland. He was 86.

1980- Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns finished reading Simon Schaara’s novel about the Battle of Gettysburg called The Killer Angels. He told his father he was inspired to make a documentary about the Civil War. The Civil War took six years to make and ran in 1990, but it was one of the most popular documentary films in the US and redefined the medium of documentary filmmaking.

1989- Romanian Communist dictator Nicholai Cercescu and his wife were executed on live television. Cercescu ran the last mad-Stalinist tyranny in Eastern Europe. Madame Cercescu, unrepentant, bellowed defiance at the cameras as they were stood up against the wall. They were so hated, that the presiding officer barely had time to get out of the way of the firing squad and say "Ready…Aim…" before the troops started firing. Instead of being given one round each with the Unknown Blank Cartridge, the men had asked for extra clips. The death penalty was abolished in Romania immediately afterwards.

1989- Hot tempered NY Yankees baseball manager Billy Martin died in a car accident.

1991-Premier Mikhail Gorbachov resigned, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka the USSR or Soviet Union, ceased to exist. In its place is the Confederation of Independent States led by the Federation of Russia under Boris Yeltsin.

1993-The release of the animated "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," not only arguably the best Batman animated film, but some say one of the best Batman feature films of any kind.

1998- Fidel Castro allowed the resumption of Christmas celebrations in Cuba, outlawed since 1960.

1999- Galaxy Quest opened. Dreamworks spoof of Star Trek with Tim Allen, Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.

2020- Pixar’s film Soul premiered.

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Yesterday’s Question: Why is the Christmas season called Yuletide? What’s aYule?

Answer: Jul, or Yule was the name of the Norse/Viking winter solstice festival. It lasted 12 days, and you decorated the inside of your home with evergreen wreaths.