Pat and me before moving to LA

and after

------------------------------------------------
Quiz: why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day in Britain?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: who was Old and Good King Wenceslas?
----------------------------------------------------------
History for 12/25/2008
Birthdays: Emanuel Ben Joseph, or Yesuah. Called in Greek Jesus the Christ, 2-4 BC? or Four Before Himself- traditional date.( The whole BC-AD system has about 6 years leeway, more or less.)

Sir Issac 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. Alice Cooper, Sissie Spacek, Larry Csonka, Burne Hogarth, Ishmail Merchant, Maurice Utrillo, Kid Ory , Ken Stabler, Barbara Mandrell, Dame Rebecca West , Clark Clifford, Dick Miller, Annie Lennox, Howard Beckerman, Karl Rove is 58

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 originally a devotee.

495 A.D.- Clovis, first King of the Franks (French), is 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 Frankish King Charles or 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 Lombard Kings. During the service on a signal Pope Leo whipped out a big jeweled crown and plopped it on Charlemagne’s head and 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 consent. Charlemagne ruled a European Empire almost as large as the Old Roman Empire of the West, from Spain to Hungary and Denmark to Sicily.

885AD- 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 Conquerer 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 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 Gladesdale and Sir John Talbot expressed a wish to hear French music, so a band of enemy 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 Judgement 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.

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 comet in the sky seemed to be a direct sign from God. Halley proved once and for all that comets were not supernatural sign from God. That they had an erratic orbit, but were otherwise natural phenomena.

1776- WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE-
The closest the American Revolution came to being lost. George Washington's bedraggled minutemen had had their butts kicked by a massive British Army from Brooklyn across New Jersey to Philadelphia. The British Navy controlled the coastline. Washington had lost every battle, lost Americas’ largest city and was about to lose the capitol. From 23,000 men in July he now commanded a paltry 4,000 cold dispirited scarecrows.

Washington wrote his family advising them to flee to the Blue Ridge Mountains if the British came their way. His generals openly complained to Congress that Washington was an incompetent and should be replaced. And now the soldier’s 6-month enlistments were up! Who would re-up with a defeated shambles of an army?

The American Revolution was in danger of complete disintegration.

Washington knew he had to do something soon or else it was all over. He drew a line in the snow with his sword 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: a lot of swearing and descriptions of how they would be hanged, and their wives and daughters raped by foreign mercenaries, etc.. This time a larger crowd of sulky 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 down all the way across, and there were two black men in the boat, Oliver Cromwell the ships pilot, and Washington's bodyguard.

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.

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 but Hardin drilled him dead. John Wesley Hardin wasn’t as famous as Jesses James or Billy the Kid but he was one of the deadliest gunfighters of the west. His business card read J. Wesley Hardin, shootist.

1914- During World War One German and British 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 and in the middle of No-Man's Land exchanged laughter, Schnapps, Scotch, tobacco and even played a good natured English football or soccer game together. Next morning the shooting 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. A wild Moorish fantasy in part financed by the Shriners so they could use it for their meetings.

1931-The first BBC World Service Network 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.

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!"

1955- Chuck Jone's 'One Froggy Evening' premiered. Director Steven Speilberg calls it the "Citizen Kane of Cartoons." If you wonder why you never heard the old time ditty 'The Michigan Rag' anywhere else but here, was because Carl Stalling wrote it specifically for the cartoon.

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 tells his father he is 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. Finally the army joined the people and overthrew Cercescu. 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 shooting. 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 manager Billy Martin died in a car accident.

1991- General Party Secretary and Premier Mikhail Gorbachov resigned and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka the Soviet Union, ceased to exist. In it's place is the Confederation of Independent States led by the Federation of Russia under Boris Yeltsin.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Quiz: Okay, just who the heck is Old and Good King Wenceslas?

Answer: Wenceslas was the king of the pagan West Slavs ( Czechs) who accepted baptism in the 970s AD. The Czechs refused to cooperate with the new faith unless they made their recently assassinated Chieftan a Saint. So Rome was obliging. Later miracles were attributed to him. One was about his walking barefoot in the snow to help the poor on the Feast of Stephen ( Day after Christmas). The Christmas Carol was written in the 1800s by an English music teacher.


Merry Christmas everyone. -Tom & Pat Sito