Say what you will about Chuck's politics, but he certainly had a set of brass ones.

May 22

1840. Britain abolishes the transporting of convicts to New South Wales, the most populous province in Australia.

1856. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for insulting both the State of South Carolina and another Senator, who was a relative of Brooks. Sumner takes three years to recover sufficiently to return to the Senate. Several of Sumner's fellow Senators sought to intervene, but Brooks brought a friend who, waving a gun, tells them not to interfere. Brooks beat Sumner into unconsciousness, breaking his cane in the process.

South Carolinians praised Brooks, and many sent him new canes and instructed him to "hit him again!" Surviving an expulsion vote in the House (of which Brooks was a member), he voluntarily resigned. Fellow Congressman Anson Burlingame of Connecticut denounced Brooks' attack as cowardly on teh floor of the House. Brooks offered him a duel, which Burlingame promptly accepting, selecting rifles as his weapon (as was his right as he had the choice of weapons, having been offered the duel). To get around laws prohibiting duels, Burlingame proposed that the duel be held in the Navy Yard on the Canadian side of the New York border. Brooks, reportedly dismayed by Burlingame's enthusiastic acceptance and reputation as a crack shot, refused to show up, citing unspecified danger to his person if he had to cross Northern states to reach the site of the duel.

Brooks died of the croup in 1957. Brooksville, Florida and Brooks County, Georgia, are named in his honor.

Sumner returned to the Senate and offered a harsh anti-slavery speech on the floor in 1859. During the War, he was chairman of the foreign relations committee, and was an expert on the pro/anti Union sentiment in Great Britain. As soon as the war began he was an ardent supporter of Reconstruction and following the Civil War, Sumner is an ardent Radical Republican.

Sumner High School, the first black high school west of the Mississippi, was named in his honor when it was opened in St. Louis in 1875.

Ironically, but fittingly, Sumner High School in Topeka, Kansas, was central to the drama surrounding the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Numerous other schools, counties and towns across America are named for Sumner, as well as the Sumner Tunnel in Boston and this statue, in Harvard Yard:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...y_sculptor.JPG

1906. Wright Brothers are granted a patent for their "flying machine"

1939. Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.

1947. President Truman signs into law an act granting aid to Greece and Turkey, beginning what will become known as the Truman Doctrine.

1980. The arcade game Pac Man is released.

1992. Johnny Carson hosts the Tonight Show for the last time.

May 23

1498. Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican frair who protested the Renaissance, immoral art and, most importantly, the corruption of the clergy is put to death by order of Rodrigo Borgia, a member of the (in)famous Borgias, better known then as Pope Alexander VI. The name Borgia will become synonymous with corruption and the debasement of teh papacy during this era.

1568. The Dutch declare their independence from the Hapsburg monarchy of Spain, beginning the 80 year war which will end in 1648 with the Treaty of Westaphalia.

1934. American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by American law enforcement officers.

1995. The first version of the Java programming language is released.

May 24.

1844. Samuel Morse sends the first telegraphic message -- "What hath God wrought" from the old Supreme Court chamber in Washington DC to his assistant in Baltimore.

1856. John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters in another chapter of what will become known as Bleeding Kansas.

1883. After 14 years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge opens.

1940. Igor Sikorsky conducts the first successful single rotor helicopter test flight.

1941. The German battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood, the pride of the British Navy. Her magazine having been hit, the Hood instantly blew up, killing all but three crew members. The sinking was a severe psychological blow to the British, but the Hood and her consort had scored some hits on the Bismarck as well, which knocked her forward radar out of action and caused contamination of stored fuel oil, forcing her to reduce speed to no more than 20 knots. She had also had her position identified. Eventually, her commander felt that she must return to the French coast but was caught and sunk before she could do so.

"Shoot!"

"FIRE!"

"SHOOT!"

"FIRE!"

In reviewing the history here, I found the following video which may be of interest. It's a History Channel production on the effort to sink the Bismarck. I will be watching it myself later. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuTNJ...eature=related

(that one is the first of several)

2004. North Korea bans mobile phones. (good God. :rolleyes: )

:spock:

ROFL. Yeah, I'll fix it. Yeesh.

May 25

1521. The Diet of Worms ends with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V declaring Martin Luther an outlaw pursuant to the Edict of Worms.

Martin Luther had been given safe passage to and from the Council of Worms to defend himself, but despite that, it was understood that shortly after the Edict was issued he would be, inevitably, tried, convicted and executed. To prevent such a fate, on his return home he was essentially kidnapped by Prince Frederick, who faked a highway attack on Luther, and hid him in Wartburg Castle. It was at this time that Luther started his German translation of the Bible.

(side note: Germany at this time consisted of a number of small semi-autonomous principalities, and "Price Frederick" was a princeling of Saxony, having no relation to Emperor Charles V)

By the time he left Wartburg Castle, the Edict was unenforceable in Germany due to rising sentiment in favor of Protestantism. The Edict was, however, strictly enforced in those territories under Charles' direct control, such as (modern day) Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

1925. Charles T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution, which will ultimately lead to the Scopes trial.

1940. The French army having effectively disintegrated as a result of the speed, tenacity and direction of the German attacks, the Battle of Dunkirk begins. By this date, the British Expeditionary Force and French 1st Army are bottled up in ana rea about 60 miles deep by 20 miles wide. Most of the British are still near Lille, about 40 miles from Dunkirk. von Rundstedt's Panzer divisons, under their enterprising and daring commander Heinz Guderian, are within 10 miles of Dunkirk. Hitler, however, has given the order for the tanks to stop. On May 23, General Lord Gort, commander of British forces, had put his army on half-rations, and had already seen the inevitable.

1961. President Kennedy announces to a special joint session of Congress his plan to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.

Diet of Worms would be a great name for a medieval Catholic minstrel rock band.

May 26.


1830. Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, which President Jackson will sign into law two days later.

1868. President Johnson is acquitted of impeachment by one vote.

1938. The House Un-American Activities Committee holds its first session.

1940. Britain declares this date to a Day of National Prayer for its army, seemingly hopelessly trapped and doomed in France. The British start moving quickly to get back to the sea, while the Royal Navy starts to organize a massive evacuation. General Brooke commands a complicated fighting withdrawal as German troops make probes and reconnaissance attacks in advance of an imminent assault.

1959. Pittsburg Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix retires the first 36 batters to face him, losing his perfect game bid in the 13th inning. The game was against the Milwaukee Braves, who featured Hammerin' Hank Aaron and had gone to the World Series each of the last two years. It is considered one of the greatest pitching feats in MLB history. In 1993, Bob Buhl, a starting pitcher for those Braves' temas (though not the starter that day) revealed that Braves pitchers had been stealing signs from the Pirates catcher, who was exposing his hand signals. From their bullpen, the Braves pitchers were positioning a towel to reveal what Haddix would be throwing. And for 12-2/3rd innings, it didn't matter one damn bit.

Haddix would later go on to be the winning pitcher in game 7 of the 1960 World Series, having come on in relief and being the pticher of record when Bill Mazeroski hit his famous home run.

I'm on the edge of my seat. I can't wait to see how this turns out!

Ugh. Not exactly a day to look back on with pride.

Yeah. Downer of a day, really.

May 27.


893. Simeon I is crowned Emperor of the First Bulgarian Empire. Under his reign, which will last for about 30 years, this empire will reach the height of its power. By 1018, however, the last of the Bulgarian mountain retreats will have surrendered to the Byzantine Empire, headed by Basil II, "BulgarSlayer", and the empire is abolished.

For those who are curious, the Second Bulgarian Empire arises starting in 1185 when certain nobles break away, and will last until approximately 1400 when it is subjugated by the Ottoman Turks and its burgeoning empire.


1703. Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg, a/k/a Petrograd, a/k/a Leningrad.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...urg_church.jpg


1933. The Securities Act is signed into law.

1940. British troops desperately trying to reach the Dunkirk defensive perimeter get bottled up at a bridge over the Yser canal in the town of Poperinge. The Luftwaffe strafes the columns for several hours putting 80% of the vehicles there out of action. General Brooke (not yet Lord Alanbrooke) orders counterattacks to disrupt German operations. The Le Paradis massacre occurs, when an SS division machine guns 97 British prisoners. Most British troops arrive within the Dunkirk defensive perimeter by nightfall. Heavy bombing and artillery shelling of Dunkirk continues. Evacuations begin.

1941. The German battleship Bismarck is sunk, with nearly 2,100 men killed.

1942. The quality of the human race is greatly improved when Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated near Prague, Czechoslovakia, though it will take nearly a week for him to die from his injuries.

1962. The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire starts. It still burns to this day, and will likely go on for decades more.

Brewers fan, eh?