Quiz: Who was the only U.S. President who was fluent in French and German?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Who was the only U.S. President to learn English as a second language?
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History for 8/25/2022
Birthdays: King Ludwig II the Mad of Bavaria, Walt Kelly, Bret Hart, Lola Montez (flamenco dancing mistress of Ludwig I, King of Bavaria), Alan Pinkerton, Clara Bow, Ruby Keeler, Monty Hall, Van Johnson, Willis Reed, Frederick Forsythe, Wayne Shorter, Billy Ray Cyrus, Dr. Bruno Bettleheim, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Sean Connery, Gene Simmons, Anne Archer, Elvis Costello is 69, Tim Burton is 65, Claudia Schiffer is 53

Opiconsiva- Ancient Roman festival of the first harvest.

1127- Empress Matilda, granddaughter of William the Conqueror, married Geoffrey of Anjou, a powerful noble family in central France. She was called Empress because her first husband was the Emperor of Germany. After the Conqueror’s sons died, England went through a confusing period of dynastic struggle that only ended when Matilda and Geoffrey's son Henry became King Henry II of England. Geoff D’Anjou The Handsome was an unassuming fellow, who other than producing the great English royal line of Richard the LionHeart and Henry V was also known for putting a little flower in his hat. In Latin a planta-genesta. His family name was called Plantagenet.

1688- Pirate Captain Sir Henry Morgan died of his various excesses of his pirate lifestyle. He was 53. Morgan the Pirate was the only top pirate who ever really got away with it and lived a rich old salt as Royal governor of Port Royal. A few years after his death Port Royal was destroyed by an earthquake and Sir Henry’s last resting place slipped under the waves with most of the city.

1814- The British Army occupying Washington D.C. continued their work of burning the city- The State Department, War Office, Library of Congress, The Treasury Building and more were torched. British Admiral Cockburn made a point of destroying the offices of the National Intelligencer, a newspaper run by an English immigrant named Joseph Gales who loved writing insulting editorials about him. A violent early morning summer thunderstorm, called by some a tornado, doused some fires but added to the misery of Washingtonians cowering in the forests of Arlington.
President James Madison spent most of the night in the saddle looking for his wife Dolly, and trying to rally his scattered government. He was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Dolly Madison with a carriage full of the furniture from the White House tried to enter an inn called Wiley’s Tavern. But the owner’s wife threw the First Lady out: “You can leave Mrs Madison! Thanks to your husband, mine is out fighting in the war! Damn You!”

1829- The Mexican Government refused US President Andrew Jackson’s offer to purchase Texas. Jackson then explored other means. Sam Houston, first President of Texas, and its first governor under the US flag was a protégé of Jackson.

1830- Brabant Rebellion, Belgium separated from Holland.

1830- This is the day of the legendary race between the locomotive the Tom Thumb and a horse and buggy outside of Baltimore. The Tom Thumb weighing in at about a ton and developing a whopping one-horse power. The boiler driven fan broke down near the end, so the horse won. Still, the train’s performance was so impressive that the first U.S. railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio, shifted from horse drawn to steam railroad.

1835- The New York Sun newspaper ran a story that British astronomer Sir William Herschel, the discoverer of Neptune, had observed little men living on the surface of the Moon! The story proved false, but it really boosted the sales of the paper.

1875- Matthew Webb became the first person to successfully swim the English Channel.

1893- Colored People’s Day at the Columbia Exhibition in Chicago. How thoughtful!

1896- The Journal Examiner's Yellow-Fellow Transcontinental Bicycle Relay race.

1900- Is God dead? No, just Frederich Neitszche, this day

1912- In Shanghai, Dr. Sun Yat Sen formed the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party. (KMT)

1916- President Woodrow Wilson created the National Parks Service out of 35 separate departments.

1928- Commander Byrd set off to explore the Antarctic.

1942- King George VI youngest brother George the Duke of Kent, was killed in a military plane crash in Scotland. He became the first member of the English royal family to die in uniform in 450 years.

1944- PARIS LIBERATED. Adolf Hitler had ordered the Germans to dynamite all the major landmarks: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame etc, But when the time came, the German commander Gen. Deitrich von Choltitz refused to do it. There was street fighting, but the heavier German tank units had voluntarily evacuated the city. On Aug 20 the French Resistance (Les Maquis), rose and seized key points. This day Free French units under General LeClerc led the allied columns into the City of Lights.
Ernest Hemingway and a few paratroops liberated the Ritz Hotel's wine cellar and Shakespeare & Company bookstore. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas were discovered by CBS correspondent Eric Severaid living unharmed outside of town.

1945- In an incident in postwar China, U.S. troops scuffled with Communist Chinese soldiers and a Capt. John Birch was killed. In the growing Cold War hysteria, Capt. Birch was lauded as the first martyr in the Crusade against Communism, and an organization in his name was formed. In 1958, Robert Welch, who had become rich from inventing the Sugar Daddy candy bar, formed The John Birch Society. Birchers became a force for extreme right wing politics in the 60's. Another one of their founders was Fred Koch, the father of the modern Koch Bros, who use their oil money to start the Tea Party in the U.S.

1967 – In Mississippi George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of American Nazi Party, was blown off the speaker’s platform by a shotgun blast. Although not as significant as the Martin Luther King or the Kennedy’s assassinations, it was another incident in the violent 1960’s. George Lincoln Rockwell was also a distant cousin of Norman Rockwell, although the famed artist was embarrassed to admit it.

1970- A young singer named Elton John did his first US tour, opening at the Troubadour in LA.

1980- The premiere of the Broadway musical version of the classic movie musical 42nd Street. In a moment of Broadway drama, producer David Merrick came out on stage and startled the cast and audience by announcing that the director of the play Gower Champion had died that very day. 42nd Street went on to be a smash hit. The play itself is about a Broadway director who works himself to death creating a hit musical.

1989- Congressman Barney Frank confirmed that he had paid for the services of a gay male prostitute named Stephan Gobie. The unrepentant Frank continued to serve in Congress another twenty-five years.

1989- The Voyager 2 probe left Neptune and shot off into deep space, completing its mission, a reconnaissance of the outer planets of our solar system. It discovered the rings of Jupiter and Neptune, the additional moons of these planets, and the volcanoes of the Jovian moon Io, and the ice of Europa. Today, you have ten times more computing power in your phone than in the Voyager spacecraft, yet all these years later it continues to transmit signals back to Earth. By 2012 Voyager I and Voyager 2 have both left the Heliosheath, the outer perimeter of our personal solar system, and today are deep in interstellar space. Voyager 1 with its Chuck Berry recording, should reach the next neighboring solar system in about 40,000 years.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/

1991- At the Emmy Awards, comic Gilbert Gottfried upset the audience with a torrent of masturbation jokes about Pee Wee Herman. Fox Network actually apologized the next day.

2001-Beautiful 22-year-old R&B singer Alleiya was killed, when her overloaded chartered plane crashed on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Who was the only U.S. President to learn English as a second language?

Answer: Martin van Buren. His mother raised him speaking Dutch.