This Day In History

[Illjwamh 98]

Yes, that was indeed an accidental omission. Lol.
 

On August 3 in History:

 

1031 - Olaf II of Norway is canonized as a saint merely a year after his death. The process was more streamlined in those days. Also, they're trying to set a good example of Christianity so other vikings will sign up.

 

1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail. "With any luck, we'll never see him again," say the king and queen of Spain, and most of the rest of Europe.

 

1829 - The Shawnee and Seneca people sign the Treaty of Lewistown with the U.S. government, trading their land in Ohio for some reservation land on the other side of the Mississippi, some cash, and some supplies. And not being murdered, but that's left unsaid as it's simply understood.

 

1900 - John T. Scopes is born. "To humans? Not monkeys? Well, I think you've done my work for me!" ~William Jennings Bryan

 

1914 - Germany declares war on France, and Romania declares they're not taking sides and they plan to sit this whole thing out. Good luck with that.

 

1936 - Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash at the Berlin OIympics and receives a better reception from host Adolf Hitler than from his own president. If that doesn't embarrass you even 80 years later, it should.

 

1960 - Niger gains independence from France. It's something of a busy week for French West Africa.

 

2019 - Opposition leader Lyubov Sobol and 600 other protesters are arrested during an election protest in Moscow. That all seems on the up and up.

 

2019 again - A man who claims to be worried about an "invasion" of America by immigrants (particularly of Hispanic origin) goes on a shooting spree in El Paso, TX that kills 20 people. His actions are condemned by a president who is constantly talking about an "invasion" of America by immigrants (particularly of Hispanic origin). I'm sure there isn't any connection.

[Illjwamh 98]

Should be all caught up after this one.

 

On August 4 in History:

 

1265 - Simon de Montfort and his army of rebellious barons are finally defeated at the Battle of Evesham. As King Henry III had been largely ineffective and feckless as a commander opposing them, they must have assumed his son, Prince Edward, would be the same. They were mistaken.

 

1701 - France and 39 First Nations sign the Great Peace of Montreal, agreeing to peaceful coexistence and cooperation. As long as some other European power doesn't boot them out of here, this looks good for the various local people.

 

1704 - The English, with help from the Dutch, steal a giant rock from Spain. I'm talking huge. They have yet to give it back.

 

1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is born. Look on his works, ye Mighty, and despair!

 

1889 - Spokane burns to the ground. It will be rebuilt, and then never modified again.

 

1914 - Germany invades Belgium, Great Britain declares war on them for it, and the United States declares they're not taking sides and they plan to sit this whole thing out. Good luck with that.

 

1915 - The German army occupies Warsaw. It goes so well, plans for a sequel are already in the works.

 

1961 - Barack Obama is born. "In Hawaii". Snap snap, wink wink, grin grin, nudge nudge, say no more.

 

1962 - Marilyn Monroe's death reminds us all that anxiety and depression can affect anyone and if you're feeling down you should talk to someone. I've made myself sad.

 

1981 - Meghan Markle is born. One wonders if her "welcome to the world" party is princess-themed.

 

1984 - The Republic of Upper Volta decide that's a dumb name and they want to be called Burkina Faso instead.

 

2019 - Nine people are killed and 26 wounded in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 15 hours after 20 were killed in El Paso; some people haven't even heard about the first one yet and the news has already moved on to this one. Guys, I...I think we might have a problem.

 

[Illjwamh 98]

On August 7 in History:

 

626 - Slavic and Avar allies at the Sassanid Persian siege of Constantinople: "Screw you guys; we're going home."

 

936 - Otto I's coronation as King of Germany. Shame to have peaked at only 23.

 

1782 - On the order of George Washington, an award for soldiers wounded in battle is created: the Badge of Military Merit. It's shaped like a little purple heart. If only we could think of a less cumbersome name for it.

 

1819 - Simón Bolívar locks down the independence of New Granada in the Battle of Boyacá. Ball's in your court, José de San Martín.

 

1944 - Robert Mueller is born. He's such a straight arrow that his birth cures his mother's scoliosis.

 

1947 - A Norwegian man named after a god crashes his raft named after another god on a reef in French Polynesia after sailing it over 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean for 101 days. Point proven.

 

1960 - Côte d'Ivoire gains independence from France, as French West Africa continues going hog wild with self-determination.

 

1964 - U.S. Congress grants president Johnson power to conduct military operations in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war. They will come to regret this.

 

1987 - Sidney Crosby is born. Numerous gold medals are prepared in advance.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, Illjwamh said:

1960 - Côte d'Ivoire gains independence from France, as French West Africa continues going hog wild with self-determination.

30-50 feral hog wild?

[Illjwamh 98]

On August 8 in History:

 

117 - Death of Trajan. Well, Rome, it's all downhill from here.

 

869 - Death of Lothair II of Lotharingia/Middle Francia. Wait for it...

 

870 - Louis the German and Charles the Bald of East and West Francia, respectively, decide that if you snooze you lose when it comes to land inheritance. Emperor Louis II of Italy was supposed to get his brother Lothair II's lands in Middle Francia, but as he's busy on campaign, well, we wouldn't want them to go to waste, now would we?

 

1220 - Estonian tribes succeed in driving out Swedish invaders at the Battle of Lihula, who were trying to get in on the action before the Teutons and Danes gobble everything up. "Fine! We don't want your stupid land, anyway! We'll just go conquer Finland instead!"

 

1503 - James IV of Scotland marries the daughter of Henry VII of England, Margaret. This will become very important exactly a century from now.

 

1588 - Sir Francis Drake defeats the Spanish Armada, whose primary tactic is boarding enemy ships, at the Battle of Gravelines by not letting them do that.

 

1908 - Wilbur Wright flies in front of people at Le Mans. A witch! A witch!

 

1918 - The Battle of Amiens finally breaks the stalemate. Maybe, possibly, hopefully, soon we can finally go home.

 

1963 - 15 guys rob a train going from Glasgow to London of over 2.6 million pounds. Sadly, no horses or six-shooters are involved.

 

1969 - Photographer Iain Macmillan takes a picture of the Beatles crossing a street.

 

1969 again - Members of the Manson family - but notably not Manson himself - murder actress Sharon Tate and four others. Freakin' hippies, man.

 

1974 - "You can't fire me; I quit!" ~Richard Nixon

 

2004 - Death of Fay Wray. No giant apes are suspected to be involved.

[Illjwamh 98]

On August 9 in History:

 

48 BCE - Pompey the Great, pushed into battle by politicians despite knowing that delaying tactics would have worked strongly in his favor, is defeated soundly by an outnumbered Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus and forced to flee in disguise. 2000 years later, we're still letting suits make decisions they're not qualified to make over the advice of people who actually know what they're talking about. The DCEU, anyone?

 

378 - Eastern Emperor Valens and half his army are killed by Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople. All things considered, this might not be a bad thing. He wasn't exactly the best emperor, and we do, after all, have reserves.

 

1173 - Construction begins on the bell tower for the Cathedral of Pisa. Get out of here with your surveying; just pick a spot and start building! Solid ground is solid ground.

 

1854 - Henry David Thoreau publishes his journal about that time he lived in a cabin just outside town.

 

1945 - The people of Nagasaki learn that the United States didn't just have one of those things.

 

1965 - Singapore is kicked out of Malaysia. They remain the only country in history to achieve independence against their will.

 

1974 - Gerald Ford, who stumbled his way into the vice presidency without ever having been elected to it, now stumbles his way into the presidency without every having been elected to it.

 

1993 - In Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party (which is neither of those things) loses power for the first time since its formation 38 years ago. A whole new page is turned for true democracy!

 

2014 - 18 year old Michael Brown is shot six times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. It is witnessed by thousands of people who can tell you exactly what happened in detail, though for some odd reason the cannot agree on what those details are.

 

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

48 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

378 - Eastern Emperor Valens and half his army are killed by Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople. All things considered, this might not be a bad thing. He wasn't exactly the best emperor, and we do, after all, have reserves.

If it was me, I'd just have shoved the Emperor ahead and spared the army. Less wasteful.

50 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

2014 - 18 year old Michael Brown is shot six times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. It is witnessed by thousands of people who can tell you exactly what happened in detail, though for some odd reason the cannot agree on what those details are.

According to the officer who shot him, Mike Brown ran away, turned into the Incredible Hulk and then went for the officer's gun at a distance of forty feet. Apparently he also had Reed Richards powers.

[Illjwamh 98]

On August 11 in History:

 

3114 BCE - The Long Count Calendar, popularized by the Mayan civilization, begins. Retroactively, one must assume.

 

480 BCE - Supposed date of death for Leonidas I of Sparta, which is odd, considering that the earliest estimate for the Battle of Thermopylae in which he dies isn't for another 9 days. Maybe if he wore some armor instead of fighting in his underpants, he could have made it through.

 

355 - Claudius Silvanus, a general in Gaul who is already accused of treason against Constantius II, decides he might as well declare himself emperor. Go big or go home.

 

1804 - HRE Francis II dispenses with pretense and creates for himself the title Emperor of Austria. This way if Napoleon does anything to the first one, he still gets to be emperor of something.

 

1920 - A peace treaty affirms Latvia's independence from Russia. "Don't get too comfortable," says Joseph Stalin.

 

1950 - The future co-founder of Apple Computers is born. No, not that one, the other one. The one named Steve. No, the other Steve.

 

1960 - Some dude named Chad declares independence. What, from his mom's basement? Douche. What? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm being told that's Chad the country. My mistake.

 

2014 - Robin Williams dies, taking our laughter with him, and once more shining a light on the issue of mental health and depression. O Captain, my captain, no matter what anybody says, you'll always be a prince to me.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, Illjwamh said:

2014 - Robin Williams dies, taking our laughter with him, and once more shining a light on the issue of mental health and depression. O Captain, my captain, no matter what anybody says, you'll always be a prince to me.

According to Bernie Sanders and Trump, we are better off. The man was obviously ready to shoot up a school at any moment.

[Illjwamh 98]

On August 12 in History:

 

30 BCE - "AAAAAHHH! ASPS!" ~Cleopatra VII

 

1099 - Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces at the Battle of Ascalon, essentially bringing the First Crusade to its end. Victory for all time!

 

1492 - Christopher Columbus arrives at the Canary Islands, which for all anyone knows is the end of the world until you get to Asia on the other side. Last chance to turn back, guy.

 

1914 - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary, because at this point we might as well, right?

 

1963 - Anthony Ray, more commonly known as Sir Mix-a-Lot, is born with a rare birth defect rendering him incapable of uttering falsehoods regarding his preference for large posteriors.

 

1964 - The IOC says to South Africa, "Until you stop being racist, you can't play with us anymore."

 

1994 - MLB players go on strike, cancelling the rest of the season. I maintain that this is an anti-Canadian conspiracy, given that the Montreal Expos had a healthy lead in their division, and that the Toronto Blue Jays had won the last two World Series. It's rigged! Rigged, I tell you!

 

2017 - Alt-right protesters clash with counter-protesters who don't like Nazis, and a woman is killed, along with two police officers. But I'm sure there were very fine people, as well as an equal share of the blame, on both sides. You know, the Nazis and the people protesting the Nazis.

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

48 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

2017 - Alt-right protesters clash with counter-protesters who don't like Nazis, and a woman is killed, along with two police officers. But I'm sure there were very fine people, as well as an equal share of the blame, on both sides. You know, the Nazis and the people protesting the Nazis.

Again, the problem with Individual One's dictum about there being fine people among Nazis is that the rest of the Nazis are still alive.

[ijuin 572]

If by "Nazis" you mean people who subscribe to and support the ideology associated with the term, you are correct. On the opposite claw, there were plenty of people living in 1930s-40s Germany who carried the Party membership card and paid lip-service to the Party without believing in it chiefly because to do otherwise was to be An Enemy of the People and get shipped off to the camps oneself. At present we worryingly seem to be headed towards a situation in which opposition to Individual One becomes grounds for being An Enemy of the People . . .

And I think that's as far as I will take this lest we spark an argument best left out of this thread.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, ijuin said:

On the opposite claw, there were plenty of people living in 1930s-40s Germany who carried the Party membership card and paid lip-service to the Party without believing in it chiefly because to do otherwise was to be An Enemy of the People and get shipped off to the camps oneself.

I think I can best describe my attitude to this latter group by sharing a story my grandmother was fond of telling. Given she was a Holocaust survivor herself, her position is perhaps understandable.

After the war she would on a good number of occasions attend social events with diplomats and foreign visitors present. Eventually Germans began to appear at these, too. And whenever she met a German, the first words out of her mouth were always, "Were you in the Party?" And her hapless target would freeze like a deer in headlights and stumblingly say something like, "Err, no no, that wasn't me! That was someone else." And my grandmother would in a frosty tone say, "I see." and then her victim would flee.

Then one day she attended an event of this kind and met another German guest. As usual she asked him pointblank if he'd been in the Nazi Party. And the man calmly met her eyes and said, "Yes, I was. I was a functionary at the Post Office. If I hadn't joined, I would have been fired."

Upon which my grandmother offered him her hand and told him, "Allow me to shake your hand, sir, for you are the first Nazi I have ever met."

Of all the virtues, she valued honesty the highest.

[Don Edwards 548]

11 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

12 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

 

Again, the problem with Individual One's dictum about there being fine people among Nazis is that the rest of the Nazis are still alive.

The other problem with that dictum is that the guy explicitly said it didn't apply to Nazis. There was this group of people, some of whom were fine people while some were Nazis and some were Antifa.

If you insist on believing he said the Nazis were fine people, in spite of him explicitly saying he wasn't referring to them, you should also believe he said the Antifa were fine people - and he didn't explicitly exclude them. (And I'm among the people who can't tell the difference between neoNazis and Antifa except by reading the label. Both are willing to beat the snot out of you for disagreeing with them.)

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 minute ago, Don Edwards said:

The other problem with that dictum is that the guy explicitly said it didn't apply to Nazis. There was this group of people, some of whom were fine people while some were Nazis and some were Antifa.

If you insist on believing he said the Nazis were fine people, in spite of him explicitly saying he wasn't referring to them, you should also believe he said the Antifa were fine people - and he didn't explicitly exclude them. (And I'm among the people who can't tell the difference between neoNazis and Antifa except by reading the label. Both are willing to beat the snot out of you for disagreeing with them.)

I am not going to argue that here. It does not belong on this forum and I do not care to disrupt the forum harmony with unnecessary angry words.

Suffice it to say that there is whitewashing going on about Nazis and that I refuse to accept it. The specific semantics do not matter to me. If you believe the above was not intended to mean Nazis, well, your semantic interpretation is as valid to you as mine is to me and I respect that.

[Illjwamh 98]

On August 13 in History:

 

29 BCE - Octavian holds a triumph to show how great he is for defeating the Dalmatians. And don't worry; there'll be more after this one. Like, tomorrow.

 

582 - Maurice becomes Emperor in Constantinople. This is good news, unless you happen to live in Sassanid Persia.

 

1521 - Hernán Cortés successfully captures the Aztec Tlatoani, Cuauhtémoc, completing the conquest of Tenochtitlan. And unlike the last time they captured the Aztec ruler, they plan to make it stick this time.

 

1532 - The big blue blob that is France finally absorbs the Duchy of Brittany. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

 

1624 - Louis XIII of France appoints Cardinal Richelieu as his prime minister. Paradoxically, this is at once a very good and a very bad decision.

 

1792 - Louis XVI of France is declared by the National Tribunal as an enemy of the people. His defense of "They're only peasants!" doesn't go over well.

 

1898 - The "Battle" of Manila takes place at the end of the Spanish-American War, in which American forces "seize" the city from the Spanish, exactly as generals from both sides had planned, in order to prevent America's "allies", the Filipino rebels, from taking it. Business as usual.

 

1905 - Norwegians hold a vote and decide they don't want to be Swedish anymore.

 

1960 - The Central African Republic declares independence from France. They were in such a rush to join the party that they didn't even take the time to think of an original name for themselves.

 

1961 - East German authorities, tired of their residents always trying to escape to the West for some reason through Berlin, close the border. "Build the wall! Build the wall!" Walls always work.

 

1982 - Sarah Huckabee Sanders is born with a rare birth defect rendering her incapable of uttering a true statement or directly answering a question. She's very touchy about it.

 

2004 - Julia Child dies at 91. Her long life is attributed to a good diet of mysteriously well-prepared meals.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

52 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

29 BCE - Octavian holds a triumph to show how great he is for defeating the Dalmatians. And don't worry; there'll be more after this one. Like, tomorrow.

 

Well, think of the odds. There was 101 of them, after all.

53 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

1905 - Norwegians hold a vote and decide they don't want to be Swedish anymore.

And then they imported a Dane to serve as their King afterwards. Scandinavian politics are confusing.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

wait a minute, this thread has been around for over a year, how have you not run out of days yet?

[ChronosCat 155]

Illjwamh missed a bunch of days the first time around, so he's doing the days he missed.

Although with all of history to work with, I suspect it would be possible to keep doing this for years without needing to repeat factoids.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

it would be possible to keep doing this for years without needing to repeat factoids.

That is not actually necessary.

Everybody knows the history book on the shelf Is always repeating itself

[Don Edwards 548]

"History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends." -- Mark Twain, The Gilded Age, 1874 edition

(The two earliest known instance of the briefer statement "history never repeats itself but it rhymes" are attributed to Mark Twain - not by him - and date to 1970, while Twain died in 1910. The line is sometimes attributed to John Robert Colombo who wrote one of the 1970 documents, to James Eayrs who wrote a  book published in 1971 containing a similar attribution, and to a couple other people.)

[Darth Fluffy 302]

On 8/10/2019 at 2:54 AM, The Old Hack said:

According to the officer who shot him, Mike Brown ran away, turned into the Incredible Hulk and then went for the officer's gun at a distance of forty feet. Apparently he also had Reed Richards powers.

I recently read an article about this. There were few eye witnesses, they were African American, and they corroborated Mike Brown's story. Two even said that he showed considerable restraint, they'd have shot Mike Brown sooner. At the time Mike Brown was shot, he was charging the officer. You can close forty feet in seconds.

For the record, I did not read this on Faux News nor any other conservative site. It was a "pocket" story in Mozilla, usually a mainstream source, but I don't recall who.

I am well aware that there are abusive racist police officers, the numbers don't lie, but it is also true that when an officer is forced to respond to this kind of adverse situation, it will be assumed that he was abusing his power.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

On 8/12/2019 at 1:05 AM, The Old Hack said:

According to Bernie Sanders and Trump, we are better off. The man was obviously ready to shoot up a school at any moment.

"Trump said ..." LaLaLaIDon'tCare. For all we know, he was passing flatus.

What did Bernie say? Google isn't finding it.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

5 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

What did Bernie say? Google isn't finding it.

Blamed the mentally ill. Because of course the mentally ill people are all murderous loons. That must be why I, who am dealing with near lifelong depression and anxiety, go shoot up schools on a weekly basis.

Oh wait. I don't.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Blamed the mentally ill. Because of course the mentally ill people are all murderous loons. That must be why I, who am dealing with near lifelong depression and anxiety, go shoot up schools on a weekly basis.

Oh wait. I don't.

Being willing to do that takes a certain kind of mental dysfunction. But not one that will always stand out in a crowd. I bet if you tested a population for a wide variety of propensities, inhibitions and such, without prejudging, and then observed which folks committed these acts, you'd find correlations. And I'll be some of them would be surprising. Oo, throw in birth order and stuff about the parents.

If the government actually proposed doing that, I would be afraid it would be mishandled and done badly. Can't win, I guess.