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Aug 2, 2022
August 2nd, 2022

Quiz: What is an autodidact?

Yesterday’s Question: What is Sheep Dipping?
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History for 8/2/22
Birthdays: Pierre L’Enfant- the designer of Washington DC, Jack Warner, Myrna Loy, Sir Arthur Bliss, James Baldwin, Carrol O'Connor, Joanna Cassidy is 61, Pete Sampras, Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Bill Scott the voice of Bullwinkle, Bob Beamon, Wes Craven, Edward Furlong, Kevin Smith is 52, Peter O'Toole, Marie Louise Parker is 58

National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.

47BC- Battle of Zela. Pharnaces the King of Pontus- a land today in central Turkey, decided he could take advantage of the Roman civil wars by rising in revolt. He called for all the eastern provinces throw off the Roman yoke. This day Julius Caesar took time off from Cleopatra, and hurried up to Pontus, where he defeated Pharnaces in one large battle. Caesar then sent his famous three word report to the Senate: “ VENI VIDI VICI- I came, I saw, I conquered.”

1100- King William II Rufus (the Red), son of William the Conqueror, was shot with a poisoned arrow while hunting in the New Forest. His son Henry I became king. Truth be told, nobody liked Rufus very much, so it was probably not an accident.

1589- At the palace of St. Cloud, French King Henri III de Valois was stabbed in the guts by a demented Dominican, Brother Jacques Clement. He thought the King wasn't doing enough to stamp out heresy. The kings dying words were: "That little bastard has killed me. Kill him!"
The next king, Henry IV de Bourbon became one of Frances most beloved rulers. The children's song "Frere' Jacques" is about this assassin. "Brother Jacques, Why are you sleeping?" another bad ruler needs stabbing, in other words.

1803- The British in India declare the Second Maharaja War against Skindia and Bousla, pro-French Rajahs in the Deccan peninsula.

1815- After Waterloo, a pro-royalist mob lynched a veteran general named Brune. Brune was a radical even before Napoleon promoted him. He still had Death to Tyrants tattooed on his chest from his days as a revolutionary. As the rope went around his neck Brune called out:" To stand on a hundred battlefields and die like this!"

1858 –As a result of the Sepoy Rebellion, the Government of India was transferred from the Honorable East India Company to direct Crown control.

1858- The first public mailboxes installed on Boston & NYC streets.

1865- The Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah, after sinking a dozen U.S whaling ships in the Bering Sea off Alaska, was told by a passing British merchantman that the American Civil War had ended four months ago. Captain James Waddell refused to believe it until shown some newspapers. Yes indeed, it’s really over. Whoops!

1873- The first San Francisco cable car began service. Inventor Arthur Halliday had conceived the idea in 1869 after seeing a horse drawn tram fail to get up one of the citie’s steep hills.

1876- In Deadwood South Dakota at Nuttall & Manns No.10 Saloon, gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back and killed while playing cards. He was 39 years old. He was holding the "Deadman's Hand" aces & eights all black, and a jack of hearts. His assailant 'Crooked Nose" Jack McCall was found hiding in a butcher’s shop. McCall had been cleaned out by Hickok in an earlier card game, yet after the murder he bragged about how much money he had. Which led some to speculate he was paid to murder Hickok. Acquitted in an initial trial in Deadwood, he was retried in Yankton S.D. and hanged. An eyewitness said:" It was very sad. Bill had won the hand too."

1877- The San Francisco Public Library dedicated.

1909- The US issues the first Lincoln head pennies.

1914- THE GUNS OF AUGUST-General mobilization began throughout Europe for World War I. Large armies moved towards their frontiers amid hysterical street demonstrations of patriotism, Jubilant mobs shouting "A Berlin!" "Nach Paris!" ring out as Europe prepared to destroy itself. In Russia, Czar Nicholas II in a solemn religious ceremony took the oath his ancestor Alexander I had taken to drive out Napoleon. In Berlin, a torchlight parade stopped under the Japanese Embassy to salute their friends. They were unaware that Japan had already decided to join the other side. The terrified diplomats thought the crowd was there to lynch them.
Diplomats stood around stunned that all their efforts could not stop the catastrophe.
In Berlin, German foreign minister Von Bethman-Holveig mumbled: "How did this all happen? If only I knew..." In London, Lord Grey watched the lamplighters on the street and reflected-" The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

1914- Holland and Switzerland declared their neutrality in the coming Great War, closed their borders and mobilized their forces.

1920- Marcus Garvey addressed a rally of 25,000 African Americans at Madison Garden New York. He called upon Black Americans not to assimilate with white society but to work for economic self-sufficiency and an eventual return to Africa. Garvey told biographers he was never born, he had “combusted himself” on the corner of 125 & Lennox in Harlem.

1923- President Warren Harding died suddenly in San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. He was touring the country to get away from the 'Tea Pot Dome'' corruption scandal in Wash. The official cause of death was listed as “a stroke of apoplexy”. It was rumored he may have committed suicide or had eaten bad crab meat. A popular idea was that First Lady Florence “Flossie” Harding had poisoned him. Harding was a womanizer and Flossie was well aware of his indiscretions; She refused an autopsy and had him quickly buried. She controlled all media coverage. To the press she was the Duchess. Nan Britton, one of Warren Harding’s tootsies, immediately sued for $50,000 for the daughter she bore Harding. She lost but wrote a best selling book called the President’s Daughter in 1927. “Silent Cal” Coolidge became President.

1934- Elderly President of the German Republic Paul von Hindenburg died, leaving Chancellor Adolf Hitler alone in charge of Germany. Hitler had waited for the old man to croak before dispensing with the parliamentary niceties. Hindenburg’s death signaled the official end of the Weimar Republic. Hitler combined the offices of President and Chancellor and becomes Der Fuehrer- the Leader.

1939- Albert Einstein then living in New Jersey, wrote a famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt describing the potential power of atomic energy. That the US must develop atomic bombs before the Nazis do. The Manhattan Project was the result. In later years Einstein described this letter as “one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”

1940- King Gustav of Sweden sent a note to both Adolf Hitler and King George VI offering to be the go-between to start talks to end World War II. All sides refused.

1961 - Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club.

1962- If you are a fan of the “Marilyn Monroe was done in by the Kennedy’s ” conspiracy theory, a CIA document dated this day mentioned that Marilyn’s bungalow was under electronic surveillance. Also that she kept a “red book” diary. The diary disappeared after her death, two nights from now.

1971- President Nixon acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was maintaining 30,000 troops secretly fighting in Laos.

1979- the song Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang released by a St. Louis radio station. While not the first song with rapping in it, it brought the idea mainstream. People who did not remember the songs name Rappers Delight would ask “What’s that song that goes “ Hip-hip, the hip-hop hopper to the hiphop..?” So the musical genre became known as HipHop.

1979- Yankee baseball star catcher Thurmon Munson died when he crashed his private plane near Akron Ohio. He was 32.

1985- John Hughes Weird Science opened, with Kelly LeBrock. Two nerdy boys create the perfect woman using this new thing called Computer Graphics.

1990 –After Kuwait refused to forgive Iraq’s outstanding debts. 100,000 troops of Saddam Hussein’s army invaded Kuwait.

1991- Hyperion’s “Rover Dangerfield” premiered. Directed by Jim George and Bob Seeley.

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Yesterday’s Quiz: What is Sheep Dipping?

Answer: Sheep dip is a chemical bath used on sheep to kill the parasites that infest their wool and skin. Some chemical formulas are so toxic that there are strict limitations on how they can be used. As a slang term, sheep dip can mean something noxious, bad smelling or tasting; a disgusting brew. (Thanks FG)


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