July 3, 2023 July 3rd, 2023 |
Quiz: Experts expected Russia to blitzkrieg Ukraine. What is a blitzkrieg?
Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In history, a number of monarchs have been called great. Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great. Have any English monarchs ever been called The Great?
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History for 7/3/2023
Birthdays: King Louis XI of France "the Spider King"1423, Franz Kafka, Mr. Preserved Fish -New York Congressman 1819, Dave Barry, Leos Janacek, John Singleton Copley, Ken Russell, Tom Stoppard, George Sanders, Peter Fountain, Yeardley Smith, Tom Cruise is 61, Kevin Hart is 43
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Thomas the Apostle, “Doubting-Thomas,” the patron saint of architects.
1754- During the French & Indian War, 22 year old Virginia militia Captain George Washington surrendered his post, Fort Necessity, to the French. Up till now his major ambition in life was to be an officer in the British Army. Now his first command was a defeat, and to top it all off, because one of his allied Indians tomahawked a surrendered French officer, he was almost arrested for war crimes. When Washington signed the surrender document, a murder confession was slipped into the terms. It was in French, so he didn’t understand it.
1775- George Washington arrived in the camp at Cambridge Massachusetts to take over command of the colonial army surrounding Boston. A Virginia slaveholder, one of his first orders was to turn away all free African-American volunteers. But the New Englanders convinced him they were a vital part of their army, so he relented. In the American Revolution, one minuteman in eight was black.
1826- 83-year-old, dying Thomas Jefferson was drifting in and out of consciousness at his home in Monticello, Virginia. He would be cognizant long enough to ask, “Is it the 4th of July yet?” The author of the Declaration of Independence was grimly hanging on, determined to see one more Independence Day, the 50th Anniversary. Hundreds of miles north in Quincy, Massachusetts, dying 90-year-old John Adams was doing the exact same thing.
1863- PICKET'S CHARGE-CLIMAX OF GETTYSBURG-Robert E. Lee launched his last fresh divisions in a grand frontal attack to win the Civil War. 12,000 troops walk across one mile of open ground, while being shot at from the whole Yankee Army. Even against such long odds they almost break the Union center. The entire attack took thirty minutes.
Picket’s division suffered 50%, casualties including all his leading generals killed. General Lothario “Lo” Armistead put his hat on his sword point and shouted "Who will follow me?" Lo Armistead’s uncle had commanded Fort McHenry during the “Rockets Red Glare” British attack in 1814. Armistead reached the union artillery before he was shot down. When one North Carolina flagbearer survived murderous gunfire from all sides and lived to reach the union wall, the men in blue instead of killing him, shook his hand.
Finally the Southern assault spent itself and started to recede. Men retreated backwards because they didn’t want to be shot in the back. Lee rode out and told the survivors: “This is my fault. All of this..” That night he wrote his resignation to Richmond. But no fault would stick on their beloved old general. Pickett bitterly said:" That old man destroyed my division." After the Civil War George Pickett were ostracized by Southern society for daring to criticize Robert E. Lee’s decision to attack. Pickett was family friends with the Lincolns. When Picketts’ son was born Yankee generals sent baby gifts with a white flag through the lines.
1863- Santee Sioux chief Little Crow had led a large uprising against the whites in Minnesota. This day near the town of Hutchinson he was picking berries with his son when he was ambushed and killed by settlers seeking the $25 dollar bounty on Indian scalps. His body was thrown on an offal pile at a cattle slaughterhouse, and later put on exhibit by the Minnesota Historical Society. Eventually both bones and scalp were returned to the Sioux people for proper burial.
1866-Battle of Sadowa-Koniggratz- climax of the Seven Weeks War, also called the "BrudersKrieg" or "Brother's War" because in it Prussia fought the other German speaking states Austria, Hesse, and Bavaria to see who would be the dominant power.
As a result of Koniggratz, Berlin and not Vienna or Frankfurt would be the capitol of a united Germany.
1890- Idaho statehood.
1898-Battle of Santiago Harbor- U.S. fleet under Admiral Sampson defeated the Spanish in Cuba. The U.S fleet so heavily outgunned the Spanish ships, that the Spanish admiral is remembered at home as a hero for even attempting the fight to keep up the national honor.
1915- An emotionally deranged German language professor at Cornell named Eric Meunter sent a time bomb to the U.S. Senate, then went to Glen Cove New York, where he tried to assassinate tycoon J.P. Morgan. He shot Morgan in the thigh before he was wrestled to the ground and knocked out with a chunk of coal. He committed suicide in jail two days later. The incident was played up in the yellow press to show how hostile Germany was, to turn neutral America into getting into World War I.
1916- Hetty Green "the Witch of Wall Street" died at 80. A brilliant businesswoman, her eccentric cheapness created the millionaire-bag lady myth. The richest woman in America, worth around $100 million ($2.5 billion today), she lived in a dumpy apartment in Hoboken, refused to pay for a doctor when her son broke his leg, and stole bread off the tables at fashionable restaurants.
After she died, her son Ned Green bought a ferryboat, made it into a yacht so he could have the biggest one, named it after his favorite prostitute, partied with her and others every night, and collected whale penises. Hetty still left him so much money that when he died, the entire population of Massachusetts paid no state tax that year.
1931- The Cab Calloway Orchestra recorded 'The St. James Infirmary Blues."
1937- In California the Del Mar Racetrack opened. Owner Bing Crosby personally welcomed the first customers to his track. Called “ Where the Surf Meets the Turf.”
1943- Chuck Jones short Wackiki Rabbit debuted.
1969- Brian Jones, having been kicked out of the Rolling Stones just days before -- drowned in his swimming pool. His home was once the estate of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne.
1969- On the same day, John and Yoko Lennon were almost killed in a car crash, along with John's son Julian and Yoko's daughter Kyoko.
1971- The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, was found dead of a heart attack in his bathtub in Paris. He was 28.
1971- In Sweden, the first laser eye surgery was performed.
1985- Robert Zemeckis’ film Back to the Future opened.
1988- In the Persian Gulf, the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger airliner killing three hundred civilians. They thought the Airbus commercial plane was an Iranian fighter jet sent to attack them.
1991- James Cameron’s Terminator 2 Judgement Day, premiered.
1996- Independence Day, by Roland Emmerich opened.
2002- Powerpuff Girls the Movie, premiered.
2013- After the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Mohamed Morsi of the Moslem Brotherhood was elected President. But this day he was overthrown and imprisoned by a military coup led by General Fatah al-Sisi. In 2019 Morsi died in prison.
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Yesterday’s Question: In history, a number of monarchs have been called great. Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great. Have any English monarchs ever been called The Great?
Answer: Only 2. Alfred the Great, who first united all England under his rule, and Canute the Great. Canute was a Viking king of Denmark as well as England.