Question: Where is the Isthmus of Darien?

Yesterday’s question answered below: What is this symbol “ &” called?
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History for 7/12/2009
Birthdays: Gaius Julius Caesar is 2,109 years old, Henry David Thoreau, Oscar Hammerstein, Kirsten Flagstad, Andrew Wyeth, Pablo Neruda, George Eastman, Milton Berle, Cheryl Ladd, Van Cliburn, Buckminster Fuller, George Washington Carver, Josiah Wedgewood- of Wedgewood china and pottery, Michelle Rodriguez, Richard Simmons, Krysty Yamaguchi, Bill Cosby is 72, Ben Burtt- the sound effects guru for George Lucas who created the sounds of Darth Vader and R2D2, ET and WALL-E is 61.

1174- King Henry II of England does public penance on his knees and allowed him self to be whipped for the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Thomas Beckett.

1290 - Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I Longshanks. Although some lived on in British society- Queen Elizabeth’s doctor Rodrigo Lopez was Jewish, They would not officially be allowed back until Oliver Cromwell lifted the ban in the 1650’s.

1690-THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE: William of Orange's English defeated his father-in-law James II Stuart's Irish army. Even though James mainly wanted his English crown back, this battle is seen as the last organized Irish resistance to British rule until the IRA campaigns of the twentieth century. Protestant Irish Orangemen see it as the victory that confirmed British rule in Ulster. It seems there were French Protestant (Huguenots) exiles among the English and French Catholic allies sent by Louis XIV among the Irish. These Frenchmen kept stubbornly fighting each other into the night long after the English and Irish had driven each other off the field.

1776- During the American Revolution the British 44 gun warships HMS Phoenix and HMS Rose showed how little they thought of George Washington’s puny rebel defenses, by boldly sailing right up to New York City, and indiscriminately shelling the town.

1789- At the Palais Royale in Paris radical lawyer Camille DesMoulins climbed up on a table in front of the Café du Foy to address a crowd. The people of Paris had been angry since the king had brought Swiss and German mercenary regiments into the city to restore order. DesMoulin alleged that the true object of the King's foreign troops were to kill all Frenchmen who wanted freedom. For the first time the Parisian streets rang with the cry: "Aux Armes, Citoyens!" -to arms, citizens! A mob marched to the Place Vendomme where they showered the troops with rocks and bottles until a volley from their guns dispersed them. The French Revolution would begin in two more days.

1817- For the first time in many years America wasn’t at war with anyone and political feuding had died down. James Monroe was elected President in what was considered a decidedly low-key election. A Boston newspaper named the Columbian Sentinel described the climate of the times as “The Era of Good Feeling”. The name stuck.

1861- The McCandles Massacre, the most famous Western shootout until the OK Corral. James Hickock earns his nickname Wild Bill by killing ten desperadoes in a free for all with sixguns and bowie knives. Interviewed by Harpers Weekly Mr. Hickock said :”I was wild and I struck savage blows.”


1863-The NEW YORK CITY DRAFT RIOTS- Arguably the largest civil disturbance in American History. Poor immigrant laborers, sick of the Civil War and being forced into the army while rich men bought their way out, ran wild in the streets in three days of looting. The riot was sparked by the opening of a new draft office on 46th St & 3rd Ave. They began calling names while by coincidence the first lists of the dead from the Battle of Gettysburg were being published. A mob of 15,000 attacked and burned the Draft Board offices and overwhelmed the police. Writer Herman Melville watching the flames from a rooftop said: “The Rats have taken over the City.” Newspaperman Horace Greely defended his New York World office with a small cannon in his lobby. The New York Times posted Gatling Guns on it’s roof and Wall St. banks boiled oil to drop from the rooftops like something out of the Middle Ages.

Labor history mentions that most of these laborers worked a 12-14 hour day, seven days a week. So fighting slavery seemed a moot point to them. The mob attacked well dressed men “There goes a three hundred-dollar man!” Modern apologists for the rich rather to focus on the racism of the mob. Indeed the Irish poor, targets of racism themselves, singled out black people as the cause of all their misfortunes and hanged many from lampposts. They even torched a black little girl’s orphanage. The children had to be escorted by bayonet wielding militia to a barge in the East River for safety.
N.Y. Governor Horatio Seymour, who’s own public contempt for Lincoln's policies help encourage the riots, had to borrow Union Army regiments from the battlefields to restore order in New York City.

1863- After the defeat at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee's retreating army was pinned for awhile against the rain flooded Potomac River. As the surrounding Union army prepared to attack, a local minister went up to Yankee General Meade and protested fighting a battle on a Sunday. When Meade tried to reason with him, the minister replied:" As God's emissary I denounce the defiling of His day! Look ye to the heavens!" Almost as if on command a rainstorm burst out over their heads. Meade cancelled the attack.

1864- Jubal Early's Confederates tried to attack Washington D.C. Early didn’t think he could hold Washington but he was determined to loot and burn it and maybe in so doing draw Grant away from Richmond. Rebel skirmishers got as close as Georgetown, they said they could see the gleaming white dome of the US Capitol. Despite Union forces in the area being pathetically unprepared, Quartermaster General Meigs had to arm his accountants, and they bussed out hospital invalids with guns, they still managed to turn Early away. President Lincoln went out to Fort Stevens near present day Walter Reade Medical Center to watch the fight. During the shooting Col. Oliver Wendell Holmes called out to the man in the 8 dollar stovepipe hat peering over the parapet:" Get down ya damn fool! You’re drawing fire. You wanna get us all killed?!" The last time a sitting U.S. President was under enemy fire.

1870- Celluloid film patented. The inventor had been trying to find a substitute for ivory billiard balls. Inventor George Eastman later perfected the sprocket and hole system of roll film for cameras, replacing the large glass plates.

1876- Gunfighter Wild Bill Hickock arrived in Deadwood South Dakota to prospect for gold, see some old friends like Calamity Jane, and play a little poker.

1962 – The Rolling Stones 1st performance at the Marquee Club, London. One band member named Elmo Lewis, changed his name to Brian Jones.

1979- Carmine "The Cigar" Galante, boss of the Gambino Mafia family, was blown away over coffee and spumoni at a small Brooklyn restaurant called Joe & Marys. He was finished off with a 45 cal. slug through the eye, his cigar still in his lips. The hit was ordered by Paul Castellano. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post set a new journalistic low when a reporter shimmied up a drainpipe and got a photo of the Don's bullet riddled body before the cops could throw a sheet over it.

The Post put it in color on the front page.

1979- Disco Demolition Night. Chicago Fans could get into Comisky Park for 98 cents if they each brought a Disco record to burn. Thousands of records were thrown at the players like Frisbees while they were trying to play, so Chicago was forced to forfeit the game. “I love the Nightlife, I love the Nightlife…”

1990- TV series Northern Exposure premiered.
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Yesterday’s question: What is this symbol “ &” called?

Answer: Its an ampersand. In Britain an epersand from Et Per Se, meaning and.
Like Barnes & Noble, Pork & Beans, etc.