This Day In History

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 21

1848 - The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx with the assistance of Friedrich Engels, is published in London by a group of German-born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League.

1965 - In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.

1972 - President Richard M. Nixon arrives in Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic of China, on the first presidential visit to the world’s most populous nation.

1994 - CIA operative Aldrich Ames is arrested for selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames had access to the names and identities of all U.S. spies in Russia, and by becoming a double agent he was directly responsible for jeopardizing the lives of CIA agents working in the Eastern bloc. At least 10 men were killed after Ames revealed their identities, and more were sent to Russian gulags.

 

[Haggises]

39 years ago.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Eight years ago I had my left shoulder operated on.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 26

1953 - American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.

1979 - In a ceremony at the White House, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign a historic peace agreement, ending three decades of hostilities between Egypt and Israel and establishing diplomatic and commercial ties.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 2

1513 - Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown.

1917 - President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to send U.S. troops into battle against Germany in World War I. In his address to Congress that day, Wilson lamented it is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war. Four days later, Congress obliged and declared war on Germany.

1982 - Argentina invades the Falklands Islands, a British colony since 1892 and British possession since 1833.

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

The History Channel - 3 April 2005 - His Holiness, Pope (Saint), John Paul II passed away. He was was the second longest-serving pope in modern history after Pope Pius IX, who served for nearly 32 years from 1846 to 1878.

"On this day in 2005, “[Saint] Pope John Paul II passed away dies at his home in the Vatican. [He was] history’s most well-traveled pope and the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century. Six days later, two million people packed Vatican City for his funeral, said to be the biggest funeral in history.

John Paul II was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, 35 miles southwest of Krakow, in 1920. After high school, the future pope enrolled at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University, where he studied philosophy and literature and performed in a theater group. During World War II, Nazis occupied Krakow and closed the university, forcing Wojtyla to seek work in a quarry and, later, a chemical factory. By 1941, his mother, father, and only brother had all died, leaving him the sole surviving member of his family.

Although Wojtyla had been involved in the church his whole life, it was not until 1942 that he began seminary training. When the war ended, he returned to school at Jagiellonian to study theology, becoming an ordained priest in 1946. He went on to complete two doctorates and became a professor of moral theology and social ethics. On July 4, 1958, at the age of 38, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Krakow by Pope Pius XII. He later became the city s archbishop, where he spoke out for religious freedom while the church began the Second Vatican Council, which would revolutionize Catholicism. He was made a cardinal in 1967, taking on the challenges of living and working as a Catholic priest in communist Eastern Europe. Once asked if he feared retribution from communist leaders, he replied, “I m not afraid of them. They are afraid of me.”

25 July, 1959 - Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, shaves during a camping trip in Polandon, Poland, when he was a parish priest.

16 October 1978 - First appearance of Pope John Paul II after being elected Pontiff.

Saint John Paul II...a older and most humble Pontiff

Works Cited: Saint John Paul II passes away

"Be not afraid"...". His Holiness, Saint John Paul II

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 3

1860 - The first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery.

1882 - Jesse James, one of America’s most notorious outlaws, is shot to death by Robert Ford, a member of his gang who hoped to collect the bounty on Jesse’s head.

 

[ouch]

April 3

1860 - The first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery.

1882 - Jesse James, one of America’s most notorious outlaws, is shot to death by Robert Ford, a member of his gang who hoped to collect the bounty on Jesse’s head.

Don't ask what happened in 1956.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

Don't ask what happened in 1956.

A day that will live in infamy.

Happy Birthday Jay!

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 8

563 B.C. - Buddhists celebrate the commemoration of the birth of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, thought to have lived in India from 563 B.C. to 483 B.C.

1974 - Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 9

1865 - At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War.

 

[oc_in_fw]

April 8

563 B.C. - Buddhists celebrate the commemoration of the birth of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, thought to have lived in India from 563 B.C. to 483 B.C.

1974 - Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers.

Hank made it to 714 in the 1973 season, and wondered if he would make it to the next season to break the record (he received a LOT of death threats).

 

[oc_in_fw]

April 9

1865 - At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War.

 

[Raissermesser]

View attachment 970842

If Grant and his men had thought that, they wouldn't have saluted the surrendering troops. But Grant and his men were something those who hadn't fought aren't: Brothers in arms, born in battle and christened by the same fire. So it was years later, when Union and Confederate veterans settled in Fitzgerald, Georgia, and the town fretted over marching order of the veterans and feared possible trouble at their first Independence Day parade, the veterans said "Forget this," and started the parade themselves, marching as one, together.

If those who fought against each other bore no malice toward the other, then maybe, just maybe, those of us today can do the same.

In the immortal words of Forrest (Gump, not N.B.), "That's all I have to say about that."

 

[oc_in_fw]

If Grant and his men had thought that, they wouldn't have saluted the surrendering troops. But Grant and his men were something those who hadn't fought aren't: Brothers in arms, born in battle and christened by the same fire. So it was years later, when Union and Confederate veterans settled in Fitzgerald, Georgia, and the town fretted over marching order of the veterans and feared possible trouble at their first Independence Day parade, the veterans said "Forget this," and started the parade themselves, marching as one, together.

If those who fought against each other bore no malice toward the other, then maybe, just maybe, those of us today can do the same.

In the immortal words of Forrest (Gump, not N.B.), "That's all I have to say about that."

I have no problem with the typical confederate soldier. Like in most wars, most poor shlubs had no choice in the matter. The senior officers, on the other hand, were West Point grads who took an oath to the Constitution when they were commissioned. They had a choice, and they chose wrongly.

 

[Bakker1964]

April 9, 1917. Canadian troops, acting under a unified Canadian Command, take the hill at Vimy Ridge. They did so in less than a day, something neither the French nor English before them could accomplish. More than 10,000 killed or wounded by the end of the three day battle. Comparatively light casualties for the meat grinder that was WW1, and a testament to Canadian planning and execution.

 

[garyg]

 

[Raissermesser]

I have no problem with the typical confederate soldier. Like in most wars, most poor shlubs had no choice in the matter. The senior officers, on the other hand, were West Point grads who took an oath to the Constitution when they were commissioned. They had a choice, and they chose wrongly.

Odd. I don't remember the article that states the Union is indissoluble. If you will go read William Rawle's A View of the Constitution of the United States of America, you'll get an idea of how the founders and Americans of the 19th Century saw this document. If you've never heard of him, William Rawle was the first Federal DA to Pennsylvania, appointed by a president named George Washington.

To cut to the chase, IIRC, Rawle had the view that while not necessarily a good idea, state secession was not forbidden, and suggested how it might be carried out. That was precisely how some states that I looked at did the deed (have a hazy memory of a possible outlier who may have not). That makes for some very uncomfortable implications.

It was uncomfortable at the time, too, and it's suspected that this was a big reason why Jefferson Davis was never brought to trial. It would be more than a tad inconvenient had a court ruled that this was constitutional. IIRC, it was also the reason that the US Army had to do a tap dance with some seized property in Georgia, because that was one can of worms they did not want opened.

There was a subsequent USSC ruling over a case from Texas that ruled against secession. I find it a bit amusing: Today it's thought that the USSC got the one concerning Dred Scott wrong, but it's assume they ruled right on this one.

Anyway, check out A View of the Constitution of the United States of America. It's well worth the read.

 

[garyg]

April 9th, Year of Some Lord .. Brother Al Gore invented the interweb, leading naturally to Twitter .. and why we find ourselves in the sorry state we are in ...

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 10

1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by philanthropist and diplomat Henry Bergh, 54.

1919 - Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and indigenous people during the Mexican Revolution, is ambushed and shot to death in Morelos by government forces.

1942 - The day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, the 75,000 Filipino and American troops captured on the Bataan Peninsula begin a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. During this infamous trek, known as the “Bataan Death March,” the prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days, with only one meal of rice during the entire journey. By the end of the march, which was punctuated with atrocities committed by the Japanese guards, hundreds of Americans and many more Filipinos had died.