Question: People used to describe a backwards, hick town as Podunk. Podunk Junction. Is there such a place?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who was the first American president to be born in the United States?
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History for 9/16/2023
Birthdays: J.C. Penney (James Cash Penney), B.B. King, Gen. Mikhail Kutuzov, Anne Francis, Linda Darnel, Nadia Boulanger, Alan Funt, George Chakiris, Peter Falk, Ed Begley Jr, Jennifer Tilly, Molly Shannon, Marvin P. Middlemark 1919-the inventor of the rabbit ears TV antenna, Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rourke is 68

218BC -Estimated date that Hannibal and his Carthaginian army completed their crossing of the Alps and descended into the Po River Valley of Italy. Of 32 elephants, only 2 survived the long journey from Africa.

1498-The Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada died peacefully. He presided over the torture and execution of up to 17,000 people during the Spanish Inquisition. He also oversaw the expulsion of Jews and Christian Arabs from Spain. Even the Borgias asked him to cool it. Today a Torquemada is a synonym for judicial cruelty.

1776- BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS- From Washington's defeat by the British at New York City until Christmas he fought several rearguard actions as the British army chased him and his raggedy-ass rebels up to White Plains, across the Hudson, and down across New Jersey into Pennsylvania. Historians graciously call these desperate hits-and-run actions battles, Harlem Heights, Throggs Neck, White Plains, Ft. Washington.
The British were now so cocky about knocking the rebels about, that when the advance scouts spotted the American positions, they didn't use the usual trumpet signals but sounded fox-hunting calls. The British referred to the Americans as Mr. Washington’s Army, because they refused to give him with the title of General.

1810 -El GRITO aka MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE- As the bells ring, peasant priest Father Miquel Hidalgo waved the banner of the Virgin of Tonantzin-Guadalupe and published a revolutionary tract-The Cry of Dolores. New Spain declared their Independence as Mexica, the name of the ancient Aztec nation. Hidalgo was later captured and shot but not before setting the people aflame:" Will you recover the lands stolen three hundred years ago from our forefathers by the hated Spaniards? Long Live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to the gachupines!” -Aztec for Euro-Honkies. The war continued for a decade until Spain acknowledged Mexican independence in 1821.

1830- The Liverpool-Manchester railroad inaugurated. The first trip was an all VIP affair, with the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and most of the government along for the ride. At one point during a stop the elderly Duke watched a member of the House of Lord, Sir William Huckison, step out on to the track and get his leg severed by another train. The first known fatality by train.

1859- In Old San Francisco, California State Senator David Broderick called California Supreme Court Justice David Terry a “pro-slavery crook, knave and poltroon”. The chief justice in a rage challenged Broderick to a duel. They had to reschedule their meeting several times to elude the police. They finally met on the 13th, on a site near present day Daly City. Broderick's gun discharged prematurely near Terry's feet. Terry, instead of being satisfied and firing wide, took aim and drilled Broderick through the chest. He died this date, three days later. Terry was acquitted of manslaughter but 30 year later, Terry was shot and killed by another in Stockton, California.

1864- THE NILE DEBATE- On this day a debate was scheduled in the British city of Bath between famous African explorers Richard Burton and John Speeckes as to whether Speeckes had discovered the source of the Nile River at Lake Victoria Nyanza. They had started the expedition together as friends but came to hate one another. The debate would be moderated by famed explorer Dr. David Livingstone. However, fate, or Speeckes, ensured the debate would never take place. The day before, the high strung Speeckes had gone hunting to break the tension and had accidentally shot himself in the chest with a shotgun. Whether he had intentionally or unintentionally committed suicide remains a mystery. A different explorer, Henry Stanley, proved Speeckes was correct in 1873.

1893- THE LAST GREAT OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH-After appropriating some of their land in 1889, in 1893 the U.S. Gov't takes over the last huge stretch of land owned by the Cherokee Nation, who once owned all of Georgia and the Carolinas and Tennessee. They rename the Cherokee Strip Oklahoma and at the sound of a signal gun at noon one hundred thousand white settlers swarmed over it like a mad gold rush, on horseback, bicycle and carriages. By days end 40,000 claims averaging 160 acres a claim were made. Senator Henry Dawes of Mass. who sponsored the land grab, said of the Cherokee: " The defect in their system is obvious. Because they hold their land in common, there is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of all Civilization."

1898- Indianapolis attorney Albert Beveridge advocated the conquest of the Philippines in a speech entitled “The March of the Flag,” the classic statement of U.S. Imperialism.

1901- A British Imperial Academy of Sciences team began to excavate a Wooly Mammoth frozen in Siberia. Most of the head had been eaten by wolves and the ears and trunk were gone, but the hair, skin and contents of its’ stomach were still there.

1908- General Motors Car Company formed. Calvin Coolidge had once said:" What's good for General Motors is good for the Nation."

1916- TANKS made their first appearance on the Somme battlefield. The inventors wanted them to be called “Land-Battleships” but the British had shipped their secret weapon across the Channel in crates marked "water-tanks" to fool spies, so the name Tank stuck.

1919- An unemployed ex-corporal named Adolf Hitler drifted through Munich, today joined a new right-wing political party called the German Socialist Workers Party, later the National Socialists or Nazi Party. He also began attending meetings of the ultra-nationalist Thule Society. It was a group that espoused Aryan racial superiority and Anti-Semitism.

1920- TERRORISM- On this day anarchists planted a time bomb in a wagonload of scrap iron and parked it in the middle of Wall Street during a busy business lunch hour. The blast killed 38 and injured hundreds, blowing out the ground floor of J.P. Morgan's bank on the corner of Wall and Broad St. Bankers described nightmarish scenes like a woman's decapitated head with her stylish bonnet still on, imbedded like a cannonball in a marble inlaid wall by the force of the blast. One of the victims was a sailor named Watson who had survived the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine. He survived this one as well but had to get a steel plate in his head. He eventually went mad. Another man knocked senseless and almost killed was young bank executive Joseph Kennedy Sr., father of the Kennedy Dynasty. The perpetrators were never caught. In 2001 the headquarters of Morgan/Stanley were in the World Trade Center.

1920- Enrico Caruso made his last recordings for the Victor Recording Company.

1938- Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw recalled for corruption. The city father's frustration with the mob corruption of politicians and police back east moved them to create the unique city charter that made the Los Angeles City Council more powerful than the mayor and made the LAPD an independent entity. So, after the LA riots, Mayor Tom Bradley could not fire LAPD chief Darryl Gates, when he thought him incompetent.

1940- Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act, creating the first peacetime draft in US History. The Selective Service Agency is born.

1940- Texan Sam Rayburn became Speaker of the House of Representatives. Rayburn was a mentor of young Lyndon Johnson. In 1945, VP Harry Truman was having a bourbon and poker party with Rayburn in his office when he was given the news of Franklin Roosevelt’s death, and he was now president.

1941- CBS radio premiered the Arkansas Traveler Show. In it, bandleader Bob Burns played a strange instrument made out of a stovepipe he called a Bazooka. Later, when the US Army issued the first hand-held rocket launchers to their infantry, the GI’s called the things bazookas because it resembled Burn’s instrument.

1949- Chuck Jones "Fast and Furrious" the First Road Runner-Coyote cartoon.

1953- The St. Louis Browns Baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963- The Beatles record “She Loves You-Yeah,Yeah,Yeah.” on the Swan Records label.

1963- The sci-fi thriller series The Outer Limits premiered- Do not attempt to adjust your television- We control the horizontal, We control the vertical, etc.

1964- The Peter Potamus Show debuted. Time for my hippo-hurricane-holler.

1965- The Dean Martin Show premiered on NBC. “Well, Ah think I’m gonna go to da couch now..”

1966- the last LOOK magazine published.

1966- The new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center had its opening night. A performance of Samuel Barbers Anthony & Cleopatra sung by Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz. It was a near disastrous night because Ms Price got locked in a pyramid for awhile, and couldn’t get out.

1968- Presidental candidate Richard Nixon appears on the TV comedy "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and says:" Sock it to Me?"

1973- American Indian Activists Russell Means and Dennis Banks were acquitted of all charges in the Wounded Knee shootout and siege. That Banks and Means were shooting it out with the FBI was beyond question. The reason was the judge objected to the governments illegal bungling of evidence and witnesses.

1976- The U.S. Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops.

1983- Arnold Schwarzenegger became a US citizen.

1984- “Miami Vice” TV show debuted.

1985- The Congressional Budget Office announced that the United States had gone from a Creditor Nation that had bankrolled most of the world in the Twentieth Century, to a Debtor Nation.

1985- Steve Jobs was kicked out of the chairmanship of Apple. CEO John Scully denies he actually fired Jobs. He just stripped him of all his authority and this day Jobs quit. Steve Jobs always claimed he had been fired. Jobs went on to run his new company Next and Pixar. In Dec 1996, after failing revenue, Steve Jobs was invited back to take over Apple. At the time of his death in 2007, Apple was the richest company on earth.

2001- U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney told the public that in order to fight terrorism, America needed “ to go to the Dark Side….”

2003- Sheb Wooley, the composer of the 1951 hit “One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater” and the theme song of the TV show Hee Haw and the originator of the Wilhelm Scream, died in Henderson Tennessee at age 82.
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Yesterday’s Question: Who was the first American president to be born in the United States?

Answer: Martin van Buren, born in Dec 1782, shortly after the peace treaty ending the Revolutionary War was published. Every previous president was born a British subject.

Question: Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born in what country?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Former President Trump has called the U.S. a “Banana Republic”. Who coined that term?
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History for 9/14/2023
Birthdays: Lao Tzu -604 BC, Caliph Al Mansur -the founder of Bagdhad-711AD, Dr. Ivan Pavlov, Charles Dana Gibson, Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood, Clayton Moore-TV’s Lone Ranger, Luigi Cherubini, Hollywood Producer Hal Wallis, Joey Heatherton, Bowser from Sha-Na-Na., Walter Koenig-Star Trek’s Mr. Chekov, Nicole Williamson, Sam Neill is 76

615 A.D.- Battle of Nineveh- Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeats the army of Shah Chosroes II of Persia. Heraclius is a mystery to historians. For most of his reign he sat on his throne doing nothing, while the Persian army overran his kingdom. Finally, when they're practically at the gates of his palace, Heraclius got up, took command of his legions and destroyed Chosroes in a series of lightning campaigns worthy of Caesar, Alexander, and Rambo all rolled into one. He chased the Persian army to the edge of Afghanistan and spread garbage on the grave of their great philosopher Zoroaster. The fleeing Persian satraps (noblemen) threw Chosroes down a well and piled stones on him just to make Heraclius go away. Then Heraclius went back to his throne and did nothing for the rest of his reign.

1146- Syrian Emir Zenghi was assassinated. When the Christian Crusades first fought their way into the Middle East the Muslim powers were just as feudally divided as the Christians. Most Sultans and Emirs thought the Western knights were just a large bandit group in the pay of the Greek Emperor. But Zenghi was the first to preach that this attack was a full-on Christian jihad against all of Islam, and that all Muslims should put aside their differences to defend the Faith. After Zenghi’s death, his son Nur Ad-Din consolidated his power as Sultan and continued his work, and his successor Saladin completed the job of driving out the Crusaders .

1224- Followers of Saint Francis of Assisi noted that on this day after a lengthy vigil of prayer in the mountains a Seraph (Major-League Angel) came down out of the sky bearing an image of the Crucified Christ. After the angel left, St Francis noticed his hands and feet began bleeding with the same nail marks as Jesus. This is called Stigmata. As late as the 1960s, Italian mystic Padre Pio was reported to get stigmata. He had to wear gloves to complete a service.

1324- In Ravenna, a few hours after he put the finishing touches on the last part of his epic poem The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri died of malaria fever.

1502-Battle of Lake Smolina- Grand Master Waltur von Plattenburg of the Holy Order of Livonian Sword Brothers fought his way out of the surrounding Russian army of Czar Ivan the Great, outnumbered ten to one.

1523- Pope Adrian VI died. He was a Dutchman who thought he had been selected to be a true shepherd to his Christian flock. But when he entered Rome, he was hurled into a maelstrom of Vatican politics, sex and intrigue. It was said he died of shock. He was the last non-Italian pope for 450 years, until John Paul II in 1978. Italian artists and poets hated Adrian because he refused to commission any new artworks to glorify his reign. Average Romans hated Adrian so much that when he died, they sent flowers to his doctor to thank him for losing his patient.

1607- The Flight of the Earls- Even after the English invaded Ireland in 1167, they mostly stayed in one area, cities in the east and south, called The Pale. Beyond the Pale, Irish chieftains swore allegiance to the King and so kept their power and property. This changed when England went Protestant and the Irish stayed Catholic. A big rebellion under Hugh O’Neill the Earl of Tyrone bedeviled the later years of Queen Elizabeth. Under King James Tyrone was defeated and this day O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrconnell fled into exile. This time the English assumed total control over Ireland seized any remaining Irish lands and parceled them out to their allies.

1812- NAPOLEON ENTERED MOSCOW- Napoleon entered the Russian capitol and expected to be met by a delegation to surrender the keys of the city, and discuss peace terms. This happened before in Berlin, Rome, Milan, Vienna and Madrid. Instead, the civilian population had fled. The lord mayor of Moscow, Count Theodore Rostopchin (nicknamed "Crazy Theo" by Catherine the Great), had opened up all the prisons and lunatic asylums on a promise from the inmates that they would burn the city down around the Frenchman's ears. The GREAT FIRE OF MOSCOW would last for four days and leave Napoleon stranded thousands of miles from home with no winter shelter.

1814- BRITISH NAVY BOMBARDS FT. McHENRY – Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key was sent to the British to negotiate the release of a local Maryland doctor named Beanes. The British had accused Scottish born Dr. Beanes of mistreating their POW’s, but relented when Key brought with him a petition signed by all those men saying they were well taken care of. Still, Key came at an awkward moment because they were about to attack Baltimore. Admiral Cockburn invited him to stay and watch the show.
All night Francis Scott Key watched the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air. Colonel Armistead, the American commander at Ft. McHenry, flew a big ass American flag to show everyone his fort was still fine and dandy. Dr Beane’s eyesight wasn’t very good, and in the Dawns Early Light he asked Key:” If our flag was still there?” This question inspired Key to start writing down stanzas for a poem.
After 25 hours of bombardment the British gave up firing on the fort and sailed away to save their resources for an attack on New Orleans. Key wrote a neat little poem and showed it to his brother-in-law Judge Nicholson. Nicholson thought it would sound good matched to a British pub song called "To Anacreon in Heaven". The Defense of Fort McHenry, or, Star Spangled Banner became the U.S. national anthem in 1931.

1837- Charles Tiffany with two partners set up their first store- Tiffany & Young. Tiffany stressed upscale merchandise from Europe to the cream of New York society. In 1848 Charles Tiffany was on vacation in Europe when a revolution in France broke out and he wound up buying loads of cut-rate jewels from aristocrats on the run, needing cash fast. This moved his business exclusively into jewelry, and he soon bought out his partners. It became simply Tiffany’s. His son Louis Comfort Tiffany was the artist in stain glass creating Tiffany windows and lamps.

1847- THE HALLS OF MONTEZUEMA- The U.S. army under Gen.Winfield Scott captured Mexico City. As the army fanned out mopping up resistance the Marines were sent to take the National Palace. Marine Lieutenant A.S. Nicholson cut down the Mexican tricolor and ran up the Stars and Stripes over the Halls of Montezuma , unwittingly giving the first line to his Corps stirring battle hymn. For the first time the US flag flew over a foreign capitol. After this success, President Polk started to dream of not just annexing California but making all of Mexico down to Panama part of the United States! Luckily cooler heads prevailed, and the French under Maximillian discovered twenty years later the folly of trying to dominate Mexico with foreign troops.

1847- THE SAN PATRICIOS- As the US flag unfurled over the National Palace it was the signal to hang 30 men of the San Patricios or Saint Patricks Division. This was a group of Irish immigrants fed up with the Anti-Irish prejudice in America that had deserted to the Mexican Army, who were fellow Roman Catholics. The San Patricios fought fiercely against the American Army at the Battles of Buena Vista and Cherubusco. When they were captured Col William Harney thought the signal of the flag was a poetic way of execution. A U.S. Trooper named Chamberlain wrote later that only a sadist like Harney who had raped and hanged Seminole women in Florida could achieve such cruelty. The fearless Irishmen, even with ropes around their necks made jokes at the Colonels expense and laughed heartily until hanged. “Colonel Darlin, would ye be lightin me pipe for me with your elegant red hair?”

1857-THE TIGER OF THE RAJ- The British army stormed and captured the city of Dehli from the Sepoy Indian mutineers. The first man leading the charge, sword in hand, into the wall’s breach was Major John Nicholson, the Tiger of the Raj. Nicholson was described as a “bully-homosexual, but whenever a desperate action was needed in India, Nicholson was the man who could do it.” The attack cost Nicholson his life, but Delhi was taken, and the Sepoy Rebellion broken.

1901- After lingering two weeks with an assassin’s bullet in him, President William McKinley died. Teddy Roosevelt became the nation’s youngest president at 42. Republican party boss Marc Hanna groaned:” Oh, no! Now that crazy cowboy is President!”

1911- Prince Stolypin, was the first dynamic prime minister of Tsar Nicholas II reign. Under his reforms the Duma-Parliament began land reform that improved grain harvests and industrial output. Had he more time for his reforms to work Stolypin might have saved Russia from Revolution. But it was not to be. On this night Prince Stolypin went with Czar Nicholas to the opera to see Rimsky-Korshakov's "Czar Saltan". During the second act intermission, a young terrorist in a tuxedo shot Stolypin in the chest. The assassin Bogrov had gotten a job with the Secret Police and was assigned to the Czar’s entourage as a bodyguard.

1918- 63 year old union leader and one time Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs is sentenced to ten years in prison for making Anti-war speeches. Many large unions in the U.S. were against U.S. participation in World War I. In The election of 1912, Debs got 1 million votes to Woodrow Wilson's slim victory of 6 million.

1927- Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in freak car accident when her long scarf tangled in the spokes of her Bugatti sportscar and snapped her neck. She was 50. The scarf was a gift from the mother of future movie director Preston Sturges. When she heard the news, writer Gertrude Stein said, “Affectations can sometimes prove dangerous.”

1927- Gene Austin recorded “My Blue Heaven”.

1944- PELELIU- The Marines attack the Japanese held island of Peleliu. It was a target because it was feared the Japanese planes could launch attacks from there to harass the flanks of General MacArthur’s liberation of the Philippines. At the last-minute Admiral Halsey’s reconnaissance discovered there was very little chance of that happening, but it was felt it was too late to call off the attack. After three days of heavy naval bombardment a Navy captain told Marine Col. Chesty Puller.“All you have to do is walk in.” But by now the Japanese had learned from previous American landing tactics, and were protected from the bombardment in underground bunkers. When the Marines hit the beaches they opened up with a furious counter barrage. It took weeks of bloody fighting to dislodge them. The First Marine Division was so decimated by casualties - 54%, it ceased for a while to be a viable fighting force.

1955- Little Richard recorded the song, “Tutti Fruitti. While working as a dishwasher at a Greyhound bus station in Macon Georgia, Richard Penniman sent a demo to producer Art Rupe. Rupe set up a recording session in New Orleans. During a pause in the session, Richard as a joke started singing a bawdy song, “Wop Bop Aloo Bop, Tutti-Fruitti, Good Bootie.” His producer Bumps Blackwell heard something there, so he brought in a local songwriter Dorothy La Bostrie to clean up the lyrics. When she finished, they only had 15 minutes of paid studio-time left, so Little Richard had to nail it in just three takes. One of the landmarks of Rock & Roll was born.

1957- TV show “Have Gun Will Travel” with Richard Boone as Paladin, premiered.
The head writer of this show was Gene Roddenberry, who would later create Star Trek.

1959- The Russians reached the moon first. Two years after launching Sputnik, the first satellite, the Soviet probe Lunik 2 crashed on the surface of the moon.

1960- The Congolese army under Gen. Mobutu Sese Seko overthrew the government of President Patrice Lamumba. Lamumba had led the Congo out of Belgian colonial rule.
Seko changed the name of The Congo to Zaire and ruled until 1998.

1960- Several oil producing nations among them Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia form the cartel called OPEC. They were later joined by Venezuela and Nigeria and Great Britain.

1967- The first appearance of Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) on the Batman TV show.

1968- Filmation's "the Archies" Show. "Sugar...ah, honey honey...."

1972- Premiere of the TV show The Waltons. “Goodnight John-Boy.”

1978- The Mork & Mindy Show with a young Robin Williams. “Na-Nuu, Na-Nuu.”

1985- Disney's TV shows "Gummi Bears and Wuzzles premiered."

1987- Filmation’s Bravestarr debuted.

2002- Millennium Actress by director Saytoshi Kon premiered.
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Yesterday’s Question: Former President Trump has called the U.S. a “Banana Republic”. Who coined that term?

Answer: The writer O. Henry described the doings of a fictional Latin American country in his writings 120 years ago. He was a business agent in Honduras for a few years. There he saw how the demand of the huge U.S. importers for bananas slowly overwhelmed the local economy. Since then a banana-republic has come to mean a badly run third world government.

Question: Former President Trump has called the U.S. a “Banana Republic”. Who coined that term

Question: What is the difference between a rose and a Tudor Rose ?
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History for 9/13/2023
Birthdays: Gen "BlackJack" Pershing, Clara Schumann, Milton Hershey, Arnold Schoenburg, Yma Sumac (Star of Brazilian jazz- real name Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, from Ichocán, Peru. Descendent of Inca royalty), Jacqueline Bissett is 78, Frank Marshal, Laura Secord, Jesse L. Lasky, Richard Kiel – Jaws in the James Bond movies, Maurice Jarre, Mae Questel the voice of Betty Boop. Roald Dahl, Don Bluth is 86, Fred Silverman “The Man with the Golden Gut.” Tyler Perry is 54

509BC- Romans dedicated the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Greatest and Best) in the Forum.

81AD- the Roman Emperor Titus died. His brother Domitian took over.

122AD- In England, Roman legions began to construct Hadrian’s Wall.

398AD- THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM- John "Golden-Mouth" for his preaching. Ever since Roman Emperor Constantine had raised up the Christian Church from a despised cult and made it dominant throughout the Roman world, the Church was left with a philosophical question-" Can you blame Rome for Jesus death?" Chrysostom came up with the solution- It was the Jews fault! So even though Christ’ disciples called him rabbi, and the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, Christianity officially blamed Judaism for the death of Jesus. It took centuries of oppression, pogroms and the Holocaust, for the Vatican to officially "forgive" the Jewish people in 1947.

1515- Battle of Marignano- The French under King Francis II defeated a large force of Swiss south of Mantua in Italy. Francis fought hand-to-hand out front all day and was knighted by the great chevalier Bayard on the field. Cannons had begun to be mounted on wheels and rolled around instead of being dragged like catapults. And military scientists discovered a new thing- when you line up a lot of cannons and fire them all at once, the enemy go away!

1759- THE BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM. England took Canada away from France. Gen. Wolfe defeated The Marquis De Montcalm and captured the great fortress of Quebec. Both Wolfe and Montcalm are killed, one of the few times both commanding generals were killed in a battle at the same time. Gen. Wolfe (32) was aware he was asking his redcoats to scale a sheer rockface in a driving rainstorm, then defeat a larger army with their backs to a cliff. So to boost their morale, he read them his favorite poem: "Elegy in a Country Churchyard". with lines like:" The paths of Glory lead naught but to the Grave..." Gee, that would cheer me up....

1782- THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. Ever since Britain had taken control of the rock and established a fortress there Spain had burned to get revenge. When France and Spain decided to join in the American Revolution on the rebel side they sent a massed fleet and army to attack Gibraltar. The Rock withstood a three year siege climaxed by a grand assault this day from 50 warships and 30,000 troops. By 1:00 a.m. most of the enemy’s fleet was burning and their troops fleeing in disorder. A fortnight later Admiral Hood arrived with reinforcements and Gibraltar has stayed British ever since.

1805- Admiral Nelson left London to take out his fleet to sea.

1812- Napoleon’s army makes camp within view of the domes and cupolas of Moscow.

1814- After destroying Washington DC and Alexandria, the British Navy began a bombardment of the forts surrounding Baltimore. Baltimore then was the main port of the many American privateers pirating English shipping. After 25 straight hours continuous bombardment of Fort McHenry, the forts big Stars & Stripes flag was still flying. A simultaneous land attack failed when General Ross, who was a veteran of Wellingtons’ army, was shot down by American snipers. That morning, Ross ate his breakfast on shore in a local inn. When the proprietor asked if he should have a dinner ready for him, Ross replied:" No thank you. Tonight, I shall sup in Baltimore or in Hell!" After the failure of the bombardment and the land assault, the British gave up and sailed away, leaving lawyer Francis Scott Key on shore with notes for a neat little poem. More tomorrow.

1835- The Tuba invented. Deep-throated horns called Tubas were used by the Romans. Modern tubas awaited creation of the valve. This day Prussian Patent No. 19 was granted to Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Johann Gottfried Moritz for a “basstuba” in F1. The original Wieprecht and Moritz instrument used five valves of the Berlinerpumpen type that were the forerunners of the modern piston valve.

1845- THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE- In Ireland, The Gorta Mor, The Great Hunger. This day an Irish newspaper announced that a fungus named Vituperia Infestae was affecting most of that year’s potato crop, the primary food staple for the poor.
The same parasite carried over in American fertilizer had affected continental European agriculture as well, but a drought minimized its effect. Ireland was more devastated by the famine than she had ever been by any war.
The Potato Famine raged for three years and killed millions. And all this while Ireland was administered by the richest nation in the world, the British Empire. Irish companies were still exporting other grains at the time as well. Instead of feeding the starving, they made them do work on public roads for wages, which killed even more people.
Truth be said, most industrialized countries at this time were hard on their poor, poverty was viewed then not as circumstance, but as a lack of character. Society was too slow or apathetic to realize just how great a disaster was occurring in Ireland.
By the time the famine eased in 1849, one quarter of the entire population of Ireland had died, or immigrated.

1847- CHAPULTEPEC- General Winfield Scott’s army stormed Chapultepec, a fortress guarding the entrance to Mexico City. Mexican General Santa Anna had been deceived by a diversion and left this fort guarded by a small force that included young military student cadets, ages 13-19 years. As the scaling ladders went up around the fort the men attacking read like a who's who of the future American Civil War- Lieutenant James Longstreet, Lieutenant Thomas Stonewall Jackson, Captain Ulysses Grant. The Mexican children cadets fought to the death or committed suicide by hurling themselves off the fortress walls.
Today Mexico remembers them as the national martyrs Los Ninos. 18 year old Augustin Melgar fought the Yanquis step by step up to the roof where he was finally bayoneted repeatedly while defending his country's flag. The officer who stepped over Augustin’s bleeding body to pull down that flag and run up the Stars and Stripes was Lieutenant George Pickett, who would lead Pickets Charge at Gettysburg in 1863. This caused a great cheer among the Yankees who charged down the causeways into Mexico City.
In U.S. Marine tradition it is said the broad red stripe down the pants leg of their uniform is in tribute to the bravery of the young Mexican cadets.

1848- The first lobotomy.

1899- First man was hit by a car. (74th and Central Park West in New York City).

1916- A Tennessee judge ordered Margo the circus elephant to be hanged for killing three men. It took a railroad crane and steel cable, but it sure taught her a lesson!

1928- Riding high on their big hit film The Jazz Singer, the Warner Bros. buy out First National Pictures and move into their big Burbank studio lot, where they are still today.

1940- During the Battle of Britain, Nazi bombs hit Buckingham Palace, just missing the Royal Family. The Queen later said:" At last, now I can look the East-enders in the face." RAF ace Sgt. Ginger Lacey volunteered to go up and get the bomber who did the bombing. In a fog he caught up to the offending Heinkel –111 bomber and shot it down., But his own Hurricane fighter was so shot up he had to bail out. His parachute caught in a tree, and as Sgt, Lacey looked down he saw an elderly man in a Home Guard helmet pointing a shotgun at him. He thought he was a German. Lacey explained he wasn’t a Jerry, but the old duffer remained unconvinced.
He was preparing to fire, when Sgt. Lacey let loose a torrent of invective- "YOU STUPID GIT, YOU G*DDAM F**KING OLD WANKER! WAIT TILL I GET MY BLOODY ID CARD OUT!”, etc. The old man then lowered his weapon with relief:" "Ere. He said:" Anyone who can swear like that, can’t be a German..."

1942- The aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-15. With Enterprise and Saratoga under repairs, for several anxious weeks Admiral Nimitz had to defend the entire west coast of America with only one lone carrier, The Hornet. This against six heavy Japanese battle carriers. The Hornet was sunk, just as the Enterprise came back into service.

1945- NY gangster Bugsy Siegel bought a 30-acre roadside tract from a widow in Las Vegas. On it will rise the Las Vegas Casino hotel-resort, the Flamingo. There were two little hayseed casinos in Vegas already, but the big glitzy hotel strip of mega casinos was Bugsy's dream.

1961- TV sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? debuted.

1965 – Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster was released in the U.S.

1969- Hanna & Barbera's "Scooby-Doo, where are you?" and "Dastardly and Mutley and their Flying Machines" premiered.

1971- General Lin Piao, leader of the Red Guard movement and would-be successor to Mao Zedong, died in plane crash. The Cultural Revolution that had been raging since 1966 seems to fade away afterward.

1971- ATTICA. Mass prisoner revolt in a top New York State Penitentiary acquired counter-culture celebrity status and heavy racial- overtones. Governor Nelson Rockefeller used massive military force to crush the revolt this day. It has been argued that more inmates and hostages were killed because of the attack than if negotiations had been allowed to continue. Most of the prison guards held hostage were murdered, some killed by troops in the confusion. For years afterwards every street protest resounded with cries of "Attica, Attica!" as in the movie Dog Day Afternoon, which was based on a true incident.

1974- The Rockford Files TV series with James Garner debut.

1974- Kolchak the Night Stalker mystery TV series with Darin McGavin premiered. It was the show that inspired Chris Carter to create The X-Files.

1979- On his birthday, Animator Don Bluth quit Walt Disney Studios, taking a third of the top artists with him. Bluth becomes Disney's most serious rival since Max Fleischer and helped sparked the animation renaissance of the 1990s. A whole new group of young talent, "bluthies", exert great influence throughout the animation business.

1993- With President Bill Clinton smiling on, Israeli Prime Minister Ystchak Rabin and PLO leader Yassir Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles to the Oslo Agreement. In effect Israel recognized the Palestinians and the PLO has having legitimate national aspirations and the PLO renounced terrorism. This was the meeting with the famous handshake of Rabin and Arafat. Rabin’s great words "Enough of Blood!" were sadly ignored in subsequent years. Arafat refused to recognize Israel, and Rabin was assassinated in 1995, and everyone botched several more peace initiatives.

1993- The Animaniacs Show premiered.

2001- While the world was still in shock from the Sept 11th terrorist attacks, televangelist Pat Robertson stuck his withered old thumb in everyone’s open wound when he declared the tragedy was God’s punishment on America for our permissive society, that tolerates homosexuality, Liberals, Feminists and the ACLU. Mark Bingham, one of the hero passengers of United Flt. 93, who fought the terrorists and sacrificed his life so that his plane could not be used as a bomb to destroy the White House, was a gay man. A New York Times columnist angrily wrote: "If I am ever in a plane that’s being hijacked, I’d rather have a Mark Bingham sitting next to me than a Pat Robertson!"

2001- Two days after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, all civilian air travel was banned over the skies of the US. Despite this, a special flight evacuated two dozen members of the Saudi Arabian Royal family attending school in the US. Among their number were the immediate family of 9/11 mastermind Osama Ben Laden. None were questioned and no explanation for the flight has ever been given.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between a rose and a Tudor Rose?

Answer: King Henry VII Tudor was trying to heal the bitter divisions of the War of the Roses. He saw himself and his Queen Elizabeth Rivers as embodying both the rival sides. He created the Tudor Rose was a deliberate mockup of a white rose, the house of York, and a Red Rose the House of Lancaster, as a symbol of unity.

Question: What is the difference between a rose and a Tudor Rose?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is guano?
==============================================
History for 9/12/2023
Birthdays: Piero 'the Fatuous' de Medici, King Francis I of France-1494, H.L. Mencken, Maurice Chevalier, Ben Blue, Jesse Owens, Billy Gilbert, Barry White, Alfred A. Knopf, Rachael Ward, Michael Odaatje- author of The English Patient, Margaret Hamilton, Brian de Palma, Ian Holm, Joe Pantoliano “Joey Pants”is 71, Hans Zimmer is 66, Jennifer Hudson is 43.

Today is the Feast of Saint Victoria Fornari-Strata, who in 1604 founded the Blue Nuns

1440, Eton College was founded by King Henry IV.

1642- THE CINQ MARS AFFAIR- The young, sexy Marquis de Cinq Mars was a
favorite of King Louis XIII. He became so close to the king that Cardinal Richelieu feared he would lose control of France to this "bedroom coup". The vain marquis was so confident of his power that he openly plotted with the king’s feckless brother Gaston de Orleans to overthrow the government. Richelieu had the young marquis tried for treason and beheaded, and the king got another favorite.

1654- In the little Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, three Sephardic families who had fled the Spanish Inquisition in Brazil, gathered to celebrate the first Rosh Hashanah in North America. Their congregation Sha-Aref Israel became the oldest Jewish community in North America, second in the New World only to the Dutch Caribbean colony of Curacao.

1683-THE SECOND SIEGE OF VIENNA - Polish King Jan Sobieski and Prince
Eugene of Savoy lifted the Turkish siege of Vienna, the last major attempt of Ottoman Turkey to conquer western Europe. They called it the Completion of the Crescent. It ended the career of Mustapha Korprolu, the Sultan’s Vezir who had staked all on one more try at European conquest. Jan Sobieski's elite heavy cavalry, the "Winged Hussars" wore large feathered angel wings strapped to their backs. It was designed to deflect Tartar lariats but had the psychological terror effect of making the Muslims think they were battling Christian angels.

1786- After losing the decisive Battle of Yorktown in America, Charles Lord Cornwallis was named Governor-General of India. Cornwallis had a much more successful career there, defeating the uprising by Sultan Tippoo Sahib. He is buried in Delhi, India.

1805- WELLINGTON MET NELSON- Only once did England's greatest soldier and England’s greatest sailor ever meet face to face. They were both sitting one morning in the waiting room of Lord Castlereagh's Foreign Office waiting for an appointment. The next day Nelson left London to earn both death & glory at Trafalgar, and Wellington began his European campaigns that would culminate at Waterloo. Years later, writing his memoirs, Wellington recalled that first meeing. He was not impressed initially. He wrote :" Lord Nelson immediately launched into a conversation, if you could call it that, for it was exclusively about himself, and was so vain and silly that I found myself both shocked and disgusted." Later his lordship ascertained that I was 'somebody' of importance and changed his tone. He then proved in conversation a very astute statesman."
1805- Later that day Admiral Nelson had a conversation with the artist Benjamin West. He told West his portrayal of The Death of General Wolfe at the Battle of Quebec was his favorite painting and why had he not painted anything as good since? West replied that there had not been any comparable incidents of heroism lately. Nelson laughed, and said: "Well, then I shall make it a point to get myself killed in my next battle to provide you with suitable inspiration!" Later that month Nelson would indeed achieve death and glory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

1814- The British fleet and army that burned Washington and Alexandria arrived at the entrance to the harbor of Baltimore, intending to destroy that city too.

1846- Poet Elizabeth Barrett secretly eloped with poet Robert Browning and were married at St. Marlybone Church in Durham England. Her father had refused his permission for the match, but the Browning’s went ahead anyway, then ran off to Italy. She never saw her father again, but she was inspired to write the sonnet “ How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

1857- The steamship S.S. Central America was caught in a hurricane off the Carolinas and sunk. What made the sinking noteworthy was it was carrying a cargo of 4 tons of gold from the California gold fields. Today’s value- $465 million.

1864- Union General William Tecumseh Sherman responded to a letter from the Confederates protesting his decision to destroy Atlanta. "War is Cruelty, you cannot refine it...you might as well appeal against a thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of War."

1866- Theater producer Fred Niblo got stuck with a French ballet troupe stranded and broke after the New York Academy of Music burned down. So, he combined the dancers with a rather mundane melodrama and created" The Black Crook". It is considered the first true American Broadway Musical. It ran for twenty years and was continually revived until 1925.

1878- An ancient Egyptian obelisk was set up in London’s Hyde Park. It was named Cleopatra's Needle (along with its sister standing in Central Park, NYC) because it was discovered in Alexandria in the ruins of what is thought to be Cleopatra's palace. In fact, both obelisks were relocated to Alexandia by the Ptolemeys. They were originally erected by Thutmoses III during the XVIII Dynasty, and used to stand at the Temple of Ra in Heliopolis.

1882- THE BATTLE OF TEL EL KHEBIR. Egyptian officers had overthrown
the Khedive of Egypt and the British Army was sent to intervene. The
Khedive was a descendent of Muhammad Ali Pasha who had asserted
Egyptian independence from Britain and Turkey, but by now he was an
English puppet. He was overthrown by Colonel Ahmed Oraby. This night
the British under Sir Garnet Woolsley executed a night march around
the enemy flank and destroyed Oraby’s army in the morning. The troops
marched in the darkness across open desert led by Royal Navy officers
navigating by the stars. They moved in total silence.
Britain assumed direct control over Egypt until 1956. Sir Garnet Woolsley was the general lampooned by Gilbert & Sullivan as "the Very Model of a Modern Major
General" in the Pirates of Penzance. Woolsley normally was a vain
humorless man, but he loved this opera, and used to sing the song
himself to his family and friends.

1890- The city of Harare Zimbabwe was founded originally as a military camp called Salisbury, by Sir Cecil Rhodes.

1895- During a long march in the steaming jungles of Madagascar, Colonel Duschesne of the French Foreign Legion silenced his grumbling troopers with the famous command -'Marche ou Creve'-"March or Die!" It becomes the Foreign Legion's motto.

1908- Winston Churchill married his Clemmie, Clementine Hozier.

1910- Gustav Mahler’s Symphony # 8, The Symphony of a Thousand, premiered in Munich.

1918- The first all American offensive of World War I. General John Blackjack Pershing’s First American Army attacked and captured the Saint Michel salient. The German Armies on the Western Front fell back to their last defense line- The Hindenberg Line.

1923- The democracy in Spain was overthrown by General Miguel Primo de Rivera who suspended the constitution and ruled as a dictator. King Alfonso XIII stayed on his throne but without any power. Rivera died and a Republic declared in 1931. Primo de Rivera had a boy colonel in his army named Francisco Franco.

1932- In his Thimble Theatre comic strip E.C. Segar introduced Bluto. A minor character in the comic strip, the Max Fleischer animated cartoon raised him to be Popeye’s perennial nemesis.

1937- The leader of the Communist Party in Uzbekistan, Akmal Ikramov, was ordered shot by Stalin. The news was greeted back home "With warm applause".

1940- Mussolini’s Italian forces open the North African campaigns by an invasion of Egypt from Libya. When British forces drive back the legions of General Barbazioli (Electric Whiskers) Hitler sends them the Afrika Korps led by Irwin Rommel.

1940- In southern France near Montignac, a pet dog fell through a crack in the ground into an underground chamber. When four boys follow in to retrieve the dog, they discover the Lascaux Caves Ice-Age paintings, where, a Stone Age people created some of their earliest artwork.

1941-THE WALT DISNEY STRIKE ENDED- Everyone went back to work after the NLRB, with a lot of behind the scenes pressure from the Bank of America, settled the dispute. Walt Disney had to recognize the cartoonists guild, give screen credits, double the salaries of low paid workers retroactive to May 29th and re-hire animator Art Babbitt. Walt Disney immediately got on a train to Washington to try and convince the feds to reverse the decision or get an injunction in court. He failed. Many of the lead strikers were made to feel so unwelcome, they left anyway and formed UPA Studios. Ironically within a few months the war would break out and artists who had been bitter foes would be compelled to work side by side in the U.S. Army Picture Unit.

1943-Benito Mussolini, imprisoned after an Italian democratic coup, is rescued at night by a troop of Nazi parachute commandos led by one-eyed Col. Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny would later train the commandos who infiltrated American lines during the Battle of the Bulge to speak American accented English and converse convincingly about baseball scores and Betty Grable. He fought until the last day of the war then arranged the Nazi escape pipeline to Argentina. Despite saying in court he was "proud to have served Hitler" Otto Skorzeny was acquitted of any war crimes. He died of old age in 1972.

1944- Romania, her German-Italian allies defeated, and her borders overrun by the Red Army, signed a separate peace with the Allies. Many Allied bomber crews were held there as POWs. One of them, a Lt. Anthony Gunn, took a Messerschmidt Me109, painted it over with the Stars and Stripes and with top Romanian ace Constantin “Bazu” Cantacuzene flew to American lines in Italy to get help. The USAF responded and soon airlifted 1,100 imprisoned U.S. airmen to safety.

1945- Young Captain Ronald Reagan was discharged from the US Army Signal Corps. He never left Hollywood but starred in movies, training films and USO benefits. Yet in his old age he acted the great war hero. Some annoyed veterans told me Marlene Dietrich in fishnet stockings and high heels got closer to the fighting than Captain Ronnie Reagan ever did.

1945- The first French troops land in Vietnam to re-assert their colonial rule.

1948-The People's Republic of North Korea declared.

1954- Television comedian Ernie Kovacs married Edie Adams, the Muriel Cigar Girl. They married in Mexico, and at the insistence of Kovacs used a priest who read the entire service in Spanish, a language neither of them understood.

1953- John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier.

1953- THE RED REDHEAD? McCarthy investigators accused TV star Lucille Ball of being a communist. Lucy was listening to Walter Winchell on his popular radio show when he made reference to a “famous redhead” who was being investigated as a communist. She later found out to her horror that it was her!
She and husband Desi Arnez immediately went and testified that Lucy’s grandfather was an old-line Socialist who routinely enrolled all his grandkids in the Communist Party as their birthday present. America wouldn’t stand to see their favorite TV family go down, so the matter quickly blew over. Years later Desi would condescendingly joke:" Lucy didn’t even know who the mayor of L.A. was.”” The only thing that was red about Lucy was her hair, and even that wasn’t real!"

1957- Market researcher James M. Vicary explains at a press conference the theory of Subliminal Advertising. His company proposed to unconsciously compel people to buy products by flashing messages at 1/24th of a second during movies. Even though the concept was discredited (givetomsitomoney) by the American Psychiatric Association (givetomsitomoney) a national panic ensued as people feared they were being brainwashed.

1965- The Beatles release 'Yesterday'.

1966-"Gee Mr. French..." Family Affair premiered on TV.

1966- The Monkees TV show premiered. Two young television executives Bert Schneider and Sam Rafaelson convinced their network to make "A Hard Day's Night" for American television. Of the four kids in the make-believe band Mike Nesmith was the only full-time musician. The others were actors. Micky Dolenz had to be taught how to play the drums the first day of shooting. Insiders nicknamed them "The Pre-Fab Four". Still, the show was a major hit, won Emmy Awards and all their albums went gold. The producers took that success and used it to finance the hit film "Easy Rider". Mike Nesmith later inherited a fortune from his mom developing Liquid Paper and used his fortune to help start MTV.

1974- Ethiopian Emperor Rastafari Halie Selassie, "The Lion of Judah" and beloved symbol of the Rastafarians, was overthrown by his military officers.

1977-South African nationalist leader Steve Biko died in jail from a savage beating during an interrogation. The policemen who killed him admitted it in 1997.

1986- The film attraction Captain EO, opened at Disneyland Anaheim. Produced by George Lucas, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Michael Jackson.

1992- Anthony Perkins, the star of Hitchcock’s Psycho, died of HIV/AIDS. His widow, Berry Berensen the sister of actress Marisa Berensen, died in one of the hijacked airliners that plunged into the World Trade Center on 9-11.

2001- The day after the terrible World Trade Center attack, White House anti-terrorism head Richard Clark reported that the CIA identified the home base of Osama Bin Laden and the hijackers was in Afghanistan. At one point President Bush’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld grumbled:" Their aren’t enough good targets in Afghanistan. There are better targets in Iraq…."

2003- Country-western singer Johnny Cash died of diabetes at 71.

2005- Disneyland Hong Kong opened.

2010- At the Video Music Awards, singer Lady Gaga wore a dress made from 50 lbs. of raw meat.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is guano?

Answer: A nice word for poop. Specifically bat dung.

Question: What is guano?

Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: What is a Hobson’s Choice?
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History for 9/11/2023
Birthdays: O. Henry, D.H. Lawrence, Brian DePalma, Hedy Lamarr, Lola Falana, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Tom Landry, Kristy McNichol, Lola Falana, Pinto Colvig the voice of Goofy, Grumpy, Pluto & Bozo the Clown, Peter Tosh, Virginia Madsen, Amy Madigan, Moby, Brad Bird is 66.

1297- First Battle of Sterling. William Wallace's Scottish rebel army inflicts a spectacular defeat on the English Army. They chop up the hated governor the Earl of Cressingham and send dried strips of him throughout the shires. Despite Wallace's victory, most Scottish noble families refused to support him because of his low birth.

1649- THE MASSACRE OF DROGHEDA- During the English Civil War the Irish people had risen in rebellion. Various forces on the island demanded freedom, Catholic worship and even Loyalty to King Charles I Stuart. Finally, Oliver Cromwell came over to Ireland with his Puritan New Model Army and laid siege to the fortress city of Drogheda, defended by one legged Loyalist Sir Arthur Ashton. After a savage cannon bombardment Cromwell’s men stormed in, Oliver himself led the final charge into the breached city wall, sword in hand.
The enraged Cromwell ordered every man in arms in the city cut to pieces whether he surrendered or not. Sir Arthur was beaten to death with his own wooden leg. People took refuge in St. Peter’s church, then the furious troops piled wooden pews against the steeple and set it ablaze. One shouted as he leapt to his death “God-Damn Me! I Burn, I Burn!. 3,500 perished in the massacre, and the few left living were sent to slave plantations in Barbados. Cromwell said of the massacre “I wish that all honest hearts give the Glory to God, to whom praise of this Mercy belongs”.

1709- BATTLE OF MALPLAQUET. The Duke of Marlborough defeated the French army of Louis XIV. This was one of the bloodiest contests of the 18th century, death on this scale would not be seen in Europe for another hundred years, until the Wars of Napoleon. The victory was another of the spectacular victories achieved by Marlborough, yet it left a sour aftertaste.
The War of Spanish Succession had been going on for almost ten years, and all sides were sick of it and desired peace. The decisive Battle of Blenheim had been fought six years earlier. The peace talks had hit a stalemate, so bringing on a major battle now was seen as totally unnecessary. And everyone knew Britain's Queen Anne had grown tired of Marlborough, his pushy wife Sarah, and his pushy Whig partisans in government, nicknamed “The Junto". Soon the most famous English general until Wellington would be recalled home in disgrace. English Tories would abandon their European allies and make a separate peace.

1776- At Sandy Hook, New Jersey, American congressional peace representatives John Adams, Ben Franklin and William Rutledge sat down with British commanding General Lord William Howe and his brother Admiral Richard “Black Dick" Howe. The Howe brothers were given special authority by Parliament to negotiate a settlement with the American rebels. But the talks went nowhere. Howe asked for their submission:" I feel for America as a brother, and would lament should she fall." Ben Franklin responded:" We shall try our best to spare your lordship that mortification."

1777-THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE CREEK- General Sir William Howe kicks George Washington's rebel butt. Washington is forced to abandon America's capitol Philadelphia to the enemy. Luckily the loose, decentralized nature of the American colonies meant the losing the capitol was no great loss to the rest of the country except Pennsylvanians, while the capture of a Madrid or a Paris would effectively end a war with those countries.
The Americans took the defeat in stride: "It's all well boys, we'll do better next time." Baron von Steuben’s drills were beginning to pay off. Lord Cornwallis commented:" Hmph! Damned rebels form up well..." At one point in the battle, British officer Patrick Ferguson had a clear shot at a big rebel officer that rode by coolly shepherding his retreating men. Ferguson decided it would be dishonorable to shoot such a brave man in the back. Only later he discovered that officer was George Washington. The existence of the United States may have been decided in a moment by one Englishman’s sense of decency.

1795- The Birth of Aerial Reconnaissance. At Adernach on the Austrian-Italian border Napoleon became the first general to ascend in a hot air balloon to study enemy positions.

1841- British artist John Goffe Rand invented oil paint in a squeezable metal tube. Replacing pig bladders and glass syringes.

1847- Stephen Fosters song “Oh Susanna” first published.

1857- Singer Jenny Lynde, the Swedish Nightingale, first performed in America.

1864- A ten-day truce was declared between General Sherman’s Yankees and General John Bell Hood’s Confederates so the innocent civilians of Atlanta could evacuate, before Sherman burned the city.

1876- Queen Victoria of England assumed the title Empress of India. Biographers said part of her desire for the title was because her eldest daughter Vicky the Princess Royal was married to the future Kaiser of Germany and would be an Empress, which technically outranks a Queen. Mumy didn't like being upstaged.

1914- W.C. Handy's Saint Louis Blues, the first true Jazz recording to gain national popularity. Also called the Birth of the Blues. Myron “Grim” Natwick, the cartoonist who would one day create Betty Boop, did the artwork for the music coversheet. For this he was paid one gold dollar.

1916- The Star Spangled Banner first sung at a baseball game at Cooperstown New York.

1916- Republican candidates win an overwhelming majority in local Maine Midterm elections, prompting GOP leaders to boast "As goes Maine, so goes the Nation."

1918- After four years of sacrifice, by now most Germans realized their chances of winning the World War I were kaput. Kaiser Wilhelm was doing an inspection of the Krupp cannon factory in Essen. Against the advice of the managers, Wilhelm gave a patriotic speech to a thousand exhausted, grimy laborers. They hissed and booed, shouted "PEACE!" and "WE’RE HUNGRY!" 
When Wilhelm called for a resounding "ja!" of encouragement, the workers responded with stony silence.
In a complete air of unreality Wilhelm then thanked the workers and said he would now go directly to the front and relay their good wishes to Field Marshal von Hindenburg.
Instead, his private train took him straight to Spa so he could have a mineral bath and an English whiskey.

1939- U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt began a secret transatlantic correspondence this day with future Prime Minister Winston Churchill. FDR recognized a kindred spirit and made plans for when America and Britain would be drawn into a war to defeat Hitler. A secretary in the American embassy entrusted with decoding the messages was a secret Republican. He kept copies of the letters and planned to turn them over to FDR’s political enemies to foil his re-election. But Churchill’s MI-5 agents detected and arrested him.

1941- Although still officially neutral, President Roosevelt ordered that any German or Italian warships operating within US territorial waters without permission, would be attacked on sight.

1941- In a speech in Des Moines Iowa, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh revealed his dark side by accusing an "International Jewish conspiracy" of driving America into a European war. He said Britain was obviously going to lose, and America should instead join with Germany to resist the Yellow Peril of Asia. Charles Lindbergh was one of the leading conservative voices for isolationism in the US. He had been wined and dined in Berlin, and Hitler decorated him with Germany's highest civilian medal. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau told President Roosevelt "I am convinced this guy is a Nazi". After Pearl Harbor, Lucky Lindy offered his services to the U.S. Air force as a combat pilot, but his public image was ruined. For the rest of his life, Lindbergh never recanted or apologized for his opinions.

1943- Ground broken to build for the Pentagon, at the time the world’s largest office building. Chief director for the project was General Leslie Grove, who later ran the Manhattan Project.

1947-Radio Bejing went on the air.

1951-METROPOLIS TO MOSCOW? Robert Shayne, the actor who played the Inspector Henderson character for television’s Superman show appeared before the House American Activities Committee accused of being a communist. He was led off the set by the FBI in handcuffs as George Reeves (Superman) and Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) protested vigorously. He was eventually cleared of all charges and continued to do small parts in TV until his retirement in 1990.

1960- Terrytoon's Deputy Dawg TV show.

1960- Nancy Sinatra married Tommy Sands.

1966- "Kimba the White Lion" debuts in the U.S.

1967-The Beatles began filming the Magical Mystery Tour.

1971- The “Jackson Five” Saturday morning cartoon show.

1972- The BBC quiz show Mastermind first broadcast. The shows creator Malcolm Muggeridge claimed he got the idea while a prisoner of the Japanese in Malaysia. In truth the show resembles an interrogation. Some postman sits in a dark room with a single spotlight in his face while people shoot questions at him about the lesser known works of Thomas Hardy, etc.

1973- President Salvador Allende of Chile is overthrown and killed by a military coup with the cooperation of the C.I.A. Henry Kissinger was worried about the example of a legally elected Marxist leader, and the Kennecott and Ananconda Copper Company were annoyed at Allende who's mines he had nationalized. General Augusto Pinochet, who was an admirer of Hitler, ran Chile for the next twenty five years as a brutal dictatorship.

1987-Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" wins MTV's Best Video Award.

1987- Reggae great Peter Tosh and two others are shot and killed by
thieves who were robbing his Kingston, Jamaica home.

1992- Actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), began a second career as the voice of The Joker in Batman, The Animated Series.

1998- THE STARR REPORT- The full text of Special Counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into the sexual wrongdoings of President Bill Clinton with his intern Monica Lewinsky was released on-line.
This was the first major news story reported on the Internet, on line a full day before the other media sources could get it. Twenty million log-ons in one day. It caused huge internet user jams and sparked a furious response from millions, all on electronic mail.
Americans learned of their President’s many uses for his cigar, and Monica snapping her thong at him. Many felt the salacious details ranked as soft-core pornography, but it was sent out without any child-proof guards, championed by conservative politicians who normally cried for media censorship.
Hustler publishing tycoon Larry Flynt jokingly offered Kenneth Starr a job.”Heck, any man who could get that much porn into 50 million homes so quickly should be working for me!” In 2016, Kenneth Starr was forced to resign from the presidency of Baylor College. For what? Attempting to cover up a sex scandal.


2001- THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK –New York’s Twin Towers were the tallest office buildings in the world, and a symbol of American financial power. Terrorists had already tried to bring down the towers with a truck bomb in 1993. This day, terrorists hijacked three US domestic airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC. It was a beautiful, Autumn day and the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center was timed for maximum press coverage. The images looked improbably like a movie stunt rather than a real disaster.

The planned multiple attack was organized by Osama Ben-Laden, a rogue millionaire whose family has close ties to the rulers of Saudi Arabia. He organized a multinational force of terrorists based in Afghanistan called Al Qaeda. President George Bush Sr. was having lunch with the brother of Osama while the planes were crashing. President George W. Bush was reading a kiddie book, My Pet Goat, to some preschoolers. He then went into hiding most of the day. VP Dick Cheney hid in a bombproof bunker. Fearful Americans had to look to England’s Tony Blair and NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani to find out just what the heck was going on.
The passengers of the fourth hijacked airliner United Flt. 93 were talking to their loved ones on digital phones, and were told of the planes crashing into World Trade Center and Pentagon. So the passengers armed with trays and boiling water attacked their hijackers -. The last words heard from passenger Mark Bingham,“ We’re taking back the plane…let’s roll!” Flight 93 crashed in an uninhabited field outside of Pittsburgh before it could be used as another suicide bomb. Authorities now think it was meant to crash into the White House.
Back in New York City, after burning with aviation gas at 1,500 degrees for over an hour, the two giant WTC towers and a third building pancaked in on themselves and plunged to the ground on top of rescue workers and firemen. 3,000 died from 150 countries, and first responders continue to die today from 50 type of cancers acquired from inhaling the toxic air particulates at Ground Zero. ============================================================
Yesterday’s Question: What is a Hobson’s Choice?

Answer: Back in the 1800s, a Mr. Hobson owned a stable of horses, and advertised that you could select a mount from the many there. But Hobson would actually only allow you to choose the horse in the stall nearest to the door or nothing at all. In other words, a choice that is no choice at all.