February 23, 2024 February 23rd, 2024 |
Quiz: In the 1960s, what was the Counterculture?
Answer to yesterday’s question below: The Byzantine Empire. Where exactly was it?
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History for 2/23/2024
Birthdays: George Fredrich Handel, Samuel Pepys (pronounced 'peeps'), Mayer Amschel Rothschild-1743- founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, Victor Fleming, W.E.B. DuBois, Retta Scott- the first female animator at Disney, Casimir Funk (who invented vitamins), Johnny Winter, Peter Fonda, William Shirer, Allan MacLeod Cormack-inventor of the CAT Scan, Kelly MacDonald, Tom Bodet, Neal McDonough, Kristin Davis is 59, Emily Blunt is 41, Dakota Fanning is 30.
303 A.D. DIOCLETIAN RENEWED THE BAN ON CHRISTIANITY. The Roman Empire recognized a cult as ‘religo’ (officially sanctioned) or “supersticio” ( banned ). After Nero's death in 64, the pattern of Christian persecution raised and lowered with each emperor. When Diocletian became emperor he made it his mission to stop the Roman Empire's decline. So, if weirdo cults like Christianity were part of the problem, then it had to go.
While Nero tortured people only in Rome, Diocletian demanded a systematic quota of executions in every part of the Empire. A lot of saints date their martyrdoms around this time 295-305 AD.
What Diocletian couldn't foresee was that ten years later the son of one of his own generals, Constantine, would make Christianity the official religion of the Empire in 312.
1539- The Viceroy of New Spain Antonio Mendoza organized an expedition under Don Francisco de Coronado to march north from Vera Cruz and find El Dorado, the fabulous Seven Cities of Cibola. For two years Coronado wandered the American Southwest as far north as Kansas and Oklahoma. He discovered marvels like the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert, but found no cities of gold. When he returned to Spain, he was arrested for wasting government money.
1568- Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great stormed the great Rajput fortress of Chitoor. His warriors fought with Mongol bows, cannon, matchlock rifles and armored war elephants, trained to squish enemies.
1593-The Uppsala Murta- the Uppsala Declaration. The Swedish Diet declared that the national religion of Sweden would forever be Lutheran Protestantism.
1819- The CATO STREET CONSPIRACY- English radicals led by Sir Roger Thistlewood plot to murder the entire British cabinet including the Duke of Wellington as they dined after the opening of Parliament. Then they would institute a French Revolutionary style republic in Jolly-Old England! Odds Fish! But fear not, an informer disclosed the plan to the government. On this night constables raided the nefarious plotters at their Cato-Street hideout and nabbed the whole bunch! Britain was safe once more!
1821- In a house in Rome’s Piazza de Espagna, 25 year old English poet John Keats died of tuberculosis. As he was dying he joked: ” I can feel daisies growing over me”. He instructed that his grave marker bear only the self-deprecating message” Here lies one Who’s Fame was Written in Water.”
1836- Santa Anna's Mexican army of 7,000 surrounded the mission called the Alamo, which had 185 Texas defenders. Santa Anna ordered the buglers to call to parley. Col. Travis answered with a cannon shot, which Jim Bowie thought was rather rash. Santa Anna then called for the raising of a red flag from a church steeple in San Antonio de Bejar, and his trumpeters sounded the Deguello, a call signifying that he intended to take no prisoners.
1847-Battle of Buena Vista- General Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican army.
1861-Warned of death threats, and riots in pro-secessionist Maryland towns, President-elect Abraham Lincoln snuck into Washington D.C. at 3:15 AM. Abe, sporting his newly grown whiskers, was dressed in disguise and escorted by his bodyguard Lehman and Charles Pinkerton, a former Scottish barrel maker, who had set up the first detective agency in the United States. Pinkertons advertising created the name Private Eye for detective.
1873- Seattle Mayor Corliss B. Stone embezzled the towns entire treasury, $15,000, and skipped town with his girlfriend, who was married to another. Bye-bye!
1886- the Johnson Wax Company formed.
1892- Rudolph Diesel patented the Diesel Engine.
1898- French writer Emile Zola was arrested and charged with libel for his J'Accuse newspaper article that exposed the cover up of the Dreyfus Scandal. He jumped bail and fled to England until the scandal brought down the government.
1905- The Rotary Club founded.
1915- In Berlin, a secret pact was concluded between the German government and Irish nationalist leader Sir Roger Casement. In it Germany pledged to supply Casement with guns, artillery and even German officers to aid the Irish people to revolt against Britain. The Irish never got more than a shipload of rifles, but the Easter Sunday Uprising of 1916 was the result. Casement was arrested on the beach by the British trying to stop the rebellion from breaking out.
1926- President Calvin Coolidge said he was against the creation of a large US Air force because it “would be a menace to world peace.”
1927- Animator Les Clark began work at the Walt Disney Studio. He was the first of Walt’s Nine Old Men.
1935- Walt Disney cartoon "The Band Concert." The first color Mickey Mouse cartoon.
1939 - Walt Disney received a special Oscar for his classic 83-minute animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at the 11th Academy Awards held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Eleven-year-old child star Shirley Temple presented Walt with one statuette and seven miniature statuettes for "a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon." (Film director Frank Capra came up with the idea of a full-sized Oscar statuette with seven smaller ones descending in a row.) A regular category for best animated feature would not exist until 2001.
1940- Walt Disney’s second animated feature Pinocchio went into general release in theaters. It had a limited run since December.
1942- In the dead of night a Japanese submarine surfaced off the California coast and fired its cannon at lights it thinks is a city. In reality, it was an oil refinery just north of Santa Barbara. The brief bombardment caused $150 dollars in damage. The sub broke radio silence to report to Tokyo that " Enemy coast sighted. Los Angeles is in Flames." The incident was lampooned in the Steven Spielberg comedy "1941."
1960 - The Day Brooklyn Cried'- After the Dodgers moved west to Los Angeles, Flatbush’s Ebbets Field baseball stadium went under the wrecking ball and became a low income housing project.
1981- The Moscardo Coup. Disgruntled Spanish Fascists missed the good old days under Franco, who died 6 years ago. This day 200 members of the Guardia Civil police attacked the Spanish Parliament and held the lawmakers hostage. A Colonel Moscardo yelled threats on television and waved a pistol in the air. The coup was crushed after 18 hours thanks in no small part to King Juan Carlos, who appeared in nationwide television in uniform and called upon the people to defend their democracy.
1991- DESERT STORM, The Ground War to liberate Kuwait began. The US Army was led by Gen. Colin Powell, who was originally from the South Bronx, and in the spearhead column was the French Foreign Legion, then recruited from unemployed Liverpool and Manchester soccer hooligans. Scary bunch.
1994- The Russian Mir space station had been in space since 1986 but was starting to show it’s age. A booster ship sent with supplies collided with Mir during a bad-docking maneuver. This day an oxygen fire filled the Mir Space Station with smoke. The fire is put out but it’s just the beginning of 6 months of privation, accidents and hair-raising close-calls for the joint Russian-German crew, and lone American astronaut Jerry Leninger. Mir was retired in 2002 and burned up on re-entry.
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Yesterday’s Question: The Byzantine Empire. Where exactly was it?
Answer: When the Roman Empire fell, only the Western part fell. The Eastern, Greek-speaking part continued on another couple of centuries. Centered on their capitol Constantinople (Istanbul) comprising modern Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the Middle East to Armenia. We call them Byzantines to tell the difference.