July 24, 2023 July 24th, 2023 |
Question: What does it mean to say, my name is mud?
Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What Asia-Minor? Where is Asia-Minor?
--------------------------------------------------------------
History for 7/24/2023
Birthdays: Simon Bolivar, Amelia Earhart, Alexander Dumas fils, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Graves, Pat Oliphant, Bela Abzug, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ruth Buzzi, Lynda Carter is 72, Chief Dan George, Robert Hays, Gus Van Sant, Anna Paquin, Patty Jenkins, Elizabeth Moss, J-Lo Jennifer Lopez is 53
634 A.D. Accession of Omar as the third Caliph. This event caused the great split in the Moslem world. After the death of the Prophet, his first successor was his best friend and companion during the Hegira, Abu Bakir. But after his death the unrelated general and second-best friend Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, nicknamed "the Just" was nominated successor.
Mohammed's daughter Fatima and son-in-law and cousin Ali Ibn-Abu Taleb split off with their followers. After the death of Ali and his two sons Hassan and Hussein, their group under the third Fatimid Caliph, Osman Ibn-'Affan became the Shiite sect of Islam, while the main branch under Omar became the Sunnite. The rivalry was similar to the Protestant-Catholic split in Western Christendom.
1567- Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned by the Scots and forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son James VI. Mary was raised in exile at the French court and her autocratic French ways and Catholic religion didn’t sit well with the Presbyterian Scots lords and their chaplain John Knox. So as soon as the succession was secure with a baby Mary was bundled off to prison and later turned over to Elizabeth of England for execution.
1568- Don Carlos was the eldest son of King Phillip II of Spain, the most powerful monarch in the world at the time. But Carlos and his dad didn’t get along, it all started when the King Phillip decided to marry the 16 year old bride Margaret of France, originally intended for Carlos. When Carlos showed signs of mental instability, he decided to take the side of Dutch rebels and made noises like he wanted to overthrow his father. Phillip had him imprisoned. He died of dysentery after fasting three days then gorging on meat and ice water, but many in Europe accused his father of poisoning him.
1656- Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza was excommunicated by the Rabbis of the Portuguese Synagogue in the Hague. His radical ideas of God made Jews, Catholics, Protestants and even some other humanists attack him, but his ideas formed the basis for modern rationalist philosophy. A German writer called Spinoza “Der Gott bedrunken Mensch” The Man Drunk on God”. Albert Einstein, Kant, Goethe and Voltaire were all inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza.
1701- After paddling in birchbark canoes 49 days from Quebec, French explorer Antoine de al Mothe-Cadillac and several families founded the City of Detroit.
1758 – Mr. George Washington Esq., admitted to the Virginia House of Burgess.
1784- On his way home from France after the American Revolution, Dr Benjamin Franklin stopped at the British Isle of Wight. While there he met his only son William Franklin, the former Royal Governor of New Jersey. While Franklin was a leading patriot, William stayed loyal to Britain and suffered imprisonment and exile. The two men hated one another, they only agreed to meet to humor grandson Temple Franklin.
After an all-night argument nothing was settled. Ben Franklin never spoke or wrote to his son ever again. When old Ben died, he left William out of his will. “It is only what he would have done to me.” Temple Franklin never recovered any salaries Congress owed Ben Franklin, but he did inherit land in New Jersey from his Tory father William.
1824- The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian published the results of the first ever US public opinion poll- a clear lead for Andrew Jackson for president.
1832- French immigrant Benjamin Booneville led the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains in Southern Wyoming. Booneville was a US Army captain who answered personally to President Jackson. Many believed he used the wagon train as an opportunity to observe British power in the Northwest.
1847- The Mormons reach the Great Salt Lake. After trekking 1,500 miles for 17 months since Illinois, leader Brigham Young said, "Enough. This is the place.”
1847 -Rotary-type printing press patented by Richard March Hoe, of New York.
1901- William Porter, also known as O. Henry, was released from jail after doing time for embezzlement. While in jail, he discovered he had a talent for writing.
1923- Treaty of Lausanne- The western powers ended the Greek-Turkish War and confirmed the Turkish Republic's borders from the old Ottoman Empire. The Turks kept Anatolia and their Aegean coastline, The French got Syria, The Greeks the Ionian islands, the British got Palestine, the Bolshevik Russians got Yerevan, and the Armenians and Kurds got nothing. Lawrence of Arabia was present but realized after a while no one was seriously listening to him, so he left in disgust.
1934- Cecil B. DeMille’s epic film Cleopatra premiered.
1938 - Instant coffee invented.
1948- Warner's "Haredevil Hare" featuring the first Marvin the Martian. Now where did I put my Pew Illudium Q 36 Explosive Space Modulator?
1965- Bob Dylan released the song “Like a Rolling Stone”.
1966- Actor Montgomery Clift died of a heart attack at age 45. When his private nurse Lorenzo James said goodnight to him at 1:00AM, he asked him if he wanted to watch his old movie The Misfits on TV. Clift’s last words were, “Absolutely Not!”
1967- Old French President Charles DeGaulle was on a state visit to Canada. While giving an address to a huge crowd in Quebec City he used the same words he used in 1940 to call for French freedom from Nazi occupation to voice his tacit support of French-Canadian independence: “Vive Le France, Vive Quebec, Vive Quebeque Libre!” The Ottawa government cut short the remainder of his trip and sent him back to Paris. But his words set the province aflame. All the separatist sentiment dividing Canada for next two decades-national referendums, the Meech Lake accords, the FLQ conspiracy and the Quebec Separatist movement, can trace their beginnings to those three words said on that day.
1969- After successfully landing on the moon and returning to Earth, Apollo 11 safely splashed down in the ocean.
1980- In London’s Dorchester Hotel, comedian and actor Peter Sellers died of a heart attack. He was 54.
1983- George Brett of the Kansas City Royals had a second homerun he hit nullified after Yankee manager Billy Martin complains he had too much pine tar on his bat.
1985- Walt Disney's "The Black Cauldron" premiered. Billed as Walt Disney’s greatest animation feature in decades, its first week it came in third to PeeWee’s Big Adventure, and The Care Bears Movie. It’s failure almost ended Disney animation.
1998- Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan opened.
1998- Russell Weston was a schizophrenic who believed Navy Seals were hiding in his cornfield. He had killed all his mother’s 25 cats because they had fleas. This day he went to Washington and tried to shoot his way into the US Congress, At the metal detector he killed two security guards before he was brought down in a hail of bullets.
2002- Only once since the Civil War had a U.S. Congressman been officially expelled. Today the House of Representatives voted 420 to 1 to expel Congressman James Trafficante for his conviction on bribery and extortion charges and having the worst haircut on Capitol Hill.
2005- American Lance Armstrong won the Tour du France bicycle race for an unprecedented 7th time, even after surviving testicular cancer that had spread to his spine and brain. Steroids or not, it was still one hell of an achievement. After he confessed to juicing (using performance enhancing drugs like steroids), all his medals were taken away.
==================================================
Yesterday’s Question: What Asia-Minor? Where is Asia-Minor?
Answer: To the Greek and Roman mapmakers, the continent of Asia began on the west coast of Turkey. So the entire Turkish peninsula, called the province of Anatolia, was called Asia Minor. Or the Beginning of Asia.