Quiz: we’ve heard of musical pieces like Piano Concerto #1 or #5. But who wrote Piano Concerto #0 ?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean when you say someone is “ gung-ho”?
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History for 12/20/2023
Birthdays: Bonnie Prince Charlie, Branch Rickey, George Roy Hill, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Jenny Agutter, Uri Geller, Irene Dunne, Cecil Cooper, Albert Dekker, animator Amby Paliwoda, Charlie Callas, John Spencer, Elsie De Wolfe, Jonah Hill is 40.

69AD- Roman General Vespasian occupied Rome with his legions, declared himself emperor and executed his predecessor, Aulus Vitellus. Vespasian was the winner in a year of civil war that started with Nero committing suicide, then Servius Galba, Otho, and Vitellus all in one year took the throne and were knocked off. The Romans called A.D. 69, the "Long Year". Vespasian was not an aristocrat like Caesar, but a humble man who rose up through the ranks. He was once caught nodding off during one of Nero’s harp recitals.

Feast day of Saint Dominic of Brescia.

1192- Richard the Lionhearted was returning from the Crusades when he was captured near Vienna and imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria for two years. Leopold blamed Richard for the death of his relative Conrad of Monferrat in Palestine. The King of France Phillip II and Richard’s own brother John sent large bribes to the German Emperor Henry just to keep Richard locked up. This was part of the plot of the novel Ivanhoe. Richard spent the time in prison writing a ballad “Ja nus hons pris”, I am master of Gascony, Brittany, Poitoux. So how come no one can get me outta here?” I’m paraphrasing a bit.

1688- William and Mary’s army occupied London.

1780- Britain declared war on Holland over the Dutch covertly aiding the rebel American colonies.

1790- The first successful U.S. cotton mill opens in Pawtucket RI, it’s inventor Samuel Slater had memorized British technology for use in America. He also thought child labor would be most useful in his factories.

1803- The Louisiana Purchase completed as the French flag came down and the Stars and Stripes went up over the Cabildo in New Orleans. New Orleans continued to be a magnet for French people dispossessed by the politics in Europe. Ten years after Waterloo the French royalist charge de affaires would complain to the U.S. state department that the New Orleanaise would still wave the banned revolutionary tricolor flag at arriving French ships. In 1817 the mayor financed two ships with a 19th century 'Delta-Force" of mercenaries to sail to Saint Helena and rescue Napoleon. The plan never went through.

1811- Napoleon made another attempt to go hunting in the Forest of Boulogne. Even though they were both great military minds, Napoleon and Wellington were terrible hunters, and bad shots. While hunting, Napoleon shot out the eye of one of his generals. and Wellington was constantly hitting barn doors and stable boys by accident. Napoleon kept the royal shooting park at St. Cloud as a game preserve, and a captain once saw him feeding snuff to the deer. Another time his chief of staff set up a hunting party but stocked his grounds with domesticated rabbits instead of wild hares. When the bunnies saw Bonaparte, they thought he was there to feed them and mobbed him. He actually had to flee the scene. One of the only times other than Waterloo Napoleon was driven from the field.

1819- The novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott was published in Edinburgh. The novel caused a sensation in Europe and was one of the great influences on Victorian England. It created our modern perception of Richard Lionheart, Prince John and Robin Hood. Polite society sought to emulate its ideas of chivalry and courtly love. During the US Civil War, Confederate General James Longstreet complained that his contemporaries, Southern Gentlemen, had been raised on “…too much Walter Scott.”

1860- SECESSION! to the sound of cannon and church bells the first Southern State, South Carolina, voted to secede from the Union. Until the Confederacy formed, South Carolina called itself "the Palmetto Republic". Judge Pettigru, who was against this drastic move, said:" South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
At first Northerners reacted with apathy. In Washington D.C., a local store advertised: THE UNION IS DISSOLVING, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T STILL FIND SAVINGS WHEN YOU SHOP FOR CHRISTMAS AT LEHMANS!

1860- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published his most famous poem- The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. “Oh, listen my children and you shall here, of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere. “ Although he got most of the actual facts wrong, it was a great success. Longfellow intended it to rouse Americans of his day to the threat of Southern Secession and Slavery.

1891- BASKETBALL INVENTED. Methodist Minister and former rugby player James Naismith worried how his Springfield College students could do team sports in the harsh New England winters. So he nailed up two peach baskets on opposite ends of a gymnasium at a YMCA in Springfield Mass. and invented the game of basketball. The first basketball was a soccer ball. He originally asked for square boxes but the man he sent out mistook his instructions and brought round peach baskets instead. The NBA regulation height of the baskets of ten feet was determined by the gym in Springfield having a second floor running track and two nails were conveniently waiting at this height. He blew a whistle, and “the boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches,” Naismith said. “They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor.” Naismith played himself frequently, and married one of the first female players, named Amelia.

1892- Alexander Brown and George Stillman of Syracuse New York invented inflatable pneumatic automobile tires, replacing wagon wheel and bicycle rims.

1892- According to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days this was the day Phileas Fogg returned to London to complete his trip.

1920- English song & dance man Leslie Townes became an American citizen and changed his name to Bob Hope.

1937- Nazi Josef Goebbels noted in his diary that this day he sent his boss Adolf Hitler a Christmas present of a dozen Mickey Mouse Cartoons from America. Officially der Fuehrer called Mickey “vermin”, but privately he enjoyed their animated antics. Mussolini’s family loved “Topolino” cartoons. (Mickey Mouse in Italian).

1940- Captain America first appeared in a comic book.

1941- THE FLYING TIGERS first action in the skies over China, surprising and shooting down 9 out of 10 in a Japanese bomber squadron flying from Hanoi. General Claire Chennault had come to China in 1937 as an advisor to organize the Chinese Air Force and stayed on to coordinate U.S. efforts in Mainland China after Pearl Harbor. His men were all volunteer adventurers who flew their P-40's with the tiger teeth insignia against overwhelming odds. They were awarded a bounty of $500 for every Japanese plane downed. Eventually they were incorporated into the regular U.S. Air Force.
Chennault argued frequently with Washington, MacArthur and his army partner in China General 'Vinegar Joe' Stillwell. Just before the final victory in 1945 Chennault was forcibly retired and resumed his post as advisor to Chiang Kai Shek. He was the U.S. general most times under hostile fire. He flew combat missions and personally had 60 kills, which made him an Ace. Yet Chennault was deliberately not invited to the Grand Surrender Ceremony on the Missouri in Sept ‘45.

1942- Japanese planes bombed Calcutta, India.

1943- Stalin changed the national anthem of Russia from the revolutionary Internationale to the Hymn of the Soviet Union.

1944- German forces in the Battle of the Bulge surrounded the US 101st Airborne in the Belgian town of Bastogne. The Screaming Eagles of the 101st held out until relieved by Pattons’ Third Army just after Christmas.

1945- After the defeat of Japan in World War II Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation. He based his declaration on the US Declaration of Independence. France reacted by heavily cracking down on nationalists in Hanoi and Saigon. This began an eight-year war against the French to be followed, by a civil war, and another 8 year war against the Americans.

1946- It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, James Stewart opened.

1950- Harvey premiered starring James Stewart and a 6 foot tall invisible rabbit.

1952- Bridgette Bardot married director Roger Vadim.

1955- Sir Lawrence Olivier’s film version of Richard III premiered.

1962- The Osmond Brothers premiered on the Andy Williams Show.

1957- Elvis Presley received his draft notice. G.I. Blues!

1968- Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day premiered.

1970- ELVIS MEETS NIXON or "The President Meets the King." Citizen Presley volunteers his services in the war on drugs and gave Nixon a gold plated 44 cal. pistol. The President thanked him with a White House security officer's badge for his collection of police badges. A recent biography of Presley described the dozen or so prescription medicines he was on while Nixon was naming him honorary chairman of the War on Drugs.

1971- Twentieth Century Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck blamed his own son CEO Richard Zanuck for Fox's monetary problems and fired him. This set off a power struggle among the board of directors. When Zanuck's estranged wife Libby threw her support against the mogul, Darryl F. Zanuck was overthrown and fired from his own company. He was the last of the original Hollywood moguls.

1971- Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney’s older brother who took over running the company after Walt’s death, died of a stroke. He was 78.

1974- Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too came out with the film Island at the Top of the World.

1989- Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invades Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega, for being a dictator, drug pusher and not returning the C.I.A.'s washroom keys. When the general, known to Panamanian citizens as “Pineapple-face” took sanctuary in the Vatican Embassy, the U.S. army surrounded the building and drove him out by playing Jimi Hendrix and Motown through loudspeakers 24 hours a day. Tony Orlando or the Bay City Rollers would drive me out.

1996- Beavis and Butthead Do America, directed by Mike Judge, premiered.

2019- President Trump established the US Space Force as an equal branch of the armed services.
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Yesterday’s question: What does it mean when you say someone is “ gung-ho”?

Answer: A phrase popularized during World War 2 when Americans serving in China heard the Chinese troops use the phrase Deng-Hao, meaning “Let’s get up and get things done!”