April19, 2023 April 19th, 2023 |
Quiz: What does it mean to place something in aspic?
Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What U.S. baseball park has a feature called The Green Monster?
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History for 4/19/2023
Birthdays: Paulo Veronese, Elliot Ness, Jayne Mansfield, Dudley Moore, Paloma Picasso, Iwao Takamoto, Ashley Judd, James Franco is 46, Kate Hudson is 45, Tim Curry is 78
Cerealia- an ancient Roman agricultural festival. Ceres (Demeter), the mother of Persephone, was the Goddess of Growing and Planting. To say, “That’s Fit for Ceres” was the Roman way of saying “That’s Totally Awesome”.
1521-THE TESTAMENT OF WORMS- Two days after reformer Martin Luther told him to take a flying leap, German Emperor Charles V announced he was against Luther’s reformation and called all German princes to support him. Half decided not to. Even Charles’ own sister became a Lutheran.
1587- SIR FRANCIS DRAKE RAIDS CADIZ- The bold English captain attacked the ships of the Spanish Armada in their harbor and so doing delayed the sailing of the Great Armada for one year. With him on the raid are men like Capt. Newport and Capt. Martin who in 1607 will be with John Smith at Jamestown.
1775- LEXINGTON AND CONCORD- The American Revolution began.
After being awakened by Paul Revere, some 70 farmers spent all night at Buckman's Tavern drinking and trying to decide whether to fight or run away. By 4:00 a.m. John Hancock talked them into staying to fight. Then John Hancock ran away.
The redcoat column was met on Lexington green by the minutemen. "Stand aside, ye dammed Rebels!" Captain Pitcairn shouted. " Stand fast boys! if they want a war, let it start here!" was Captain Parker's reply. The redcoats opened fire and easily dispersed that group. But by the time the British reached Concord bridge, hordes of farmers were shooting at them from bushes and rooftops. Finally, they were forced to withdraw to Boston empty handed. Lord Percy complained even 'American women were pointing muskets out of their kitchen windows and firing at us!" One 80 year old man shot three soldiers from his front porch, before he was bayoneted. He lived 7 more years. And most of the Yankee muskets were British government-issue Brown Bess.
Americans later called Lexington “The Shot Heard Around the World”, but the British Crown regarded this situation at first as little more than a minor local disturbance. It barely made the back pages of the London newspapers. But by Bunker Hill they realized they had a real trans-ocean war on their hands. As late as December, elements in the Colonial Congress kept asking Parliament if we could still be friends and talk it over.
1782- Holland became the first nation to officially recognize the United States of America. Ambassador John Adams hung a Stars & Stripes out his hotel room window, calling it the first official American Embassy in Europe.
1824- Poet Lord Byron died of fever and uremic poisoning at Missolonghi Greece.
1861- Maryland tried to join the Confederacy. In Baltimore a mob attacked the Sixth Massachusetts regiment marching to protect Washington D.C. 4 killed, 30 wounded. A young nurse named Clara Barton first took over the responsibility of treating the injured.
She later founded the American Red Cross.
If Maryland seceded the nation’s capitol would've had to be abandoned. Colonel Ben Butler solved the situation on his own initiative. He filed troops into the Maryland legislature to point guns at the delegates as they voted. They wisely voted to stay loyal.
1863- GRIERSON'S RAID. Gen. Grant, besieging the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, detached a hard riding cavalry brigade to loot and burn their way through the deep south from Vicksburg Mississippi, through Baton Rouge Louisiana to Union occupied New Orleans. Grierson himself was an Illinois music teacher who disliked horses and liked to strum his jaw-harp on the march. It was said any unit he commanded always had the best band. John Ford’s 1959 movie “The Horse Soldiers” was based on this event.
1881- Former British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli died. When asked if he would like a final visit from Queen Victoria, Disraeli answered:" No, not now, she'd only ask me to take a message to Albert." His political arch-enemy William Gladstone wrote him a moving eulogy, but he confided in his diary that it gave him diarrhea to do it.
1910- The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet.
1927- Mae West found guilty of indecent behavior in writing, producing and starring in a Broadway musical entitled “SEX”. She was fined, and emerged from jail more popular than ever. She said:” Everyone thinks I am opposed to censorship. Actually, I’m in favor of censorship. I’ve made a fortune from it!”
1951- General MacArthur had been fired from his Korean command by President Harry Truman. This day he did his famous speech to Congress” An Old Soldier never Dies, He just Fades Away, and like that old soldier I now close out my military career, and just fade away. An Old Soldier who tried to do his duty, as God showed him the light to do that duty, etc.” Republican Senator Robert Short shouted “We’ve just heard the Voice of God!”
President Harry Truman watched the speech on TV and called it “The biggest bunch of bullshit I ever heard!”
1956-Movie star Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1961- The BAY OF PIGS INVASION DEFEATED The CIA sponsored landing of AntiCastro Cubans failed on the beach of Bahia De Los Cochinos. After sanctioning some initial US Air Force bombing attacks, JFK changed his mind and cut off any further help, including a refusal to evacuate them when trapped. 200 Cuban insurgents were killed and 1,497 imprisoned. This earned him the everlasting anger of the Miami Cuban community.
An aide said the day after the surrender Kennedy went alone to a secluded D.C. golf course and spent hours hitting golf balls, moaning:” How could I have been so Stupid!” after each whack.
1970- XEROX PARC – The Xerox Company announced the setup of a research group in Palo Alto Cal. This group pioneered the development of the personal computer, GUIs and the laser printer.
1973- Three years later Xerox Parc booted up the Alto, the first personal computer. They invented a new mouse, point and click windows, graphic interface and digital printer. President Carter installed one in the White House. Yet Xerox didn’t know what to do with them, they were in the copier business. There was no internet yet, except for government communications. The Alto cost $16,500 each, too expensive for most, so the idea bombed. One day in 1979 a group from Apple visited led by Steve Jobs. The group was inspired by their progress, and they went back to Apple and put what they learned into the development of the Lisa and Macintosh.
1987- The first Simpsons short aired today. MG01 "Good Night Simpsons" was on the 3rd episode of The Tracey Ullman Show, airing Sunday, 4/19/87 at 9pm. Animated by Wes Archer, Bill Kopp, and David Silverman.
1993- Branch Davidian cultists led by their messianic leader David Koresh immolate themselves in their compound at Waco, Texas during a furious shootout with the F.B.I.
1995- THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING- On the second anniversary of the Waco tragedy, emotionally disturbed Gulf War veterans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols wanted their revenge on the U.S. Government. So, they detonated a truck bomb at the Murrow Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Among the 156 dead were a dozen pre-school children in a daycare center on the first floor. McVeigh called the dead children “collateral damage.” He was executed in 2001, and Nichols got life in prison.
2005- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany elected Pope Benedict XVI. The first German Pope since Hildebrandt in 1077, and the first pope to have been a soldier in the Nazi army. He was drafted in 1945 as all male children had been ordered to. Italians called him “The German Shepherd.”
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Yesterday’s Question: What U.S. baseball park has a feature called The Green Monster?
Answer: Fenway Park in Boston. The home field of the Red Sox and an unusually high outfield wall, all painted green.