Thackeray
Art Neuendorffer
Laurence Sterne. (1713-1768).
A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy.
50. The Passport. Versailles
.
AS the Passport was directed to all lieutenant-governors, governors, and
commandants of cities, generals of armies, justiciaries, and all
officers of justice, to let Mr. Yorick the king's jester, and his
baggage, travel quietly along-I own the triumph of obtaining the
Passport was not a little tarnish'd by the figure I cut in it.'But there
is nothing unmixt in this world, and some of the gravest of our divines
have carried it so far as to affirm, that enjoyment itself was attended
even with a sigh'and that the greatest they knew of terminated in a
general way, in little better than a convulsion.
I remembered the grave and learned Bevoriskius, in his commentary upon
the generations from Adam, very naturally breaks off in the middle of a
note to give an account to the world of a couple of sparrows upon the
out-edge of his window, which had incommoded him all the time he wrote,
and at last had entirely taken him off from his genealogy.
''T is strange! writes Bevoriskius, but the facts are certain, for I
have had the curiosity to mark them down one by one with my pen'but the
cock-sparrow, during the little time that I could have finished the
other half this note, has actually interrupted me with the reiteration
of his caresses *three and twenty* times and a half.
How merciful, adds Bevoriskius, is heaven to his creatures!
Ill-fated Yorick! that the gravest of thy brethren should be able to
write that to the world, which stains thy face with crimson, to copy in
even thy study.
--------------------------------
Jane Austen. (1775=1817). Pride and Prejudice. Chapter I
.
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour,
reserve, and caprice, that the experience of *three-and-twenty* years
had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character.
.
Chapter XXXIX
.
'How nicely we are crammed in!' cried Lydia. 'I am glad I brought my
bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another band-box! Well, now
let us be quite comfortable and snug, and talk and laugh all the way
home. And in the first place, let us hear what has happened to you all
since you went away. Have you seen any pleasant men? Have you had any
flirting? I was in great hopes that one of you would have got a husband
before you came back. Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare.
She is almost *three-and-twenty*! Lord! how ashamed I should be of not
being married before *three-and-twenty*!
--------------------------------
William Makepeace Thackeray. (1811=1863). Vanity Fair.
IV. The Green Silk Purse
Osborne was Sedley's godson, and had been one of the family any time
these *three-and-twenty* years. At six weeks old, he had received from
John Sedley a present of a silver cup; at six months old, a coral with
gold whistle and bells; from his youth, upwards, he was 'tipped'
regularly by the old gentleman at Christmas: and on going back to
school, he remembered perfectly well being thrashed by Joseph Sedley,
when the latter was a big, swaggering, hobbadyhoy, and George an
impudent urchin of ten years old. In a word George was as familiar with
the family as such daily acts of kindness and intercourse could make him.
XIV. Miss Crawley at Home
'But why, why won't she see me again?' Miss Briggs bleated out.
'Oh, Matilda, Matilda, after *three-and-twenty* years tenderness!
is this the return to your poor, poor Arabella?'
XXI. Georgy Is Made a Gentleman
George's education was confided to a neighbouring scholar and private
pedagogue who 'prepared young noblemen and gentlemen for the
Universities, the senate, and the learned professions: whose system did
not embrace the degrading corporal severities still practised at the
ancient places of education, and in whose family the pupils would find
the elegances of refined society and the confidence and affection of a
home.' It was in this way that the Reverend Lawrence Veal of Hart
Street, Bloomsbury, and domestic Chaplain to the Earl of Bareacres,
strove with Mrs. Veal his wife to entice pupils. 20
By thus advertising and pushing sedulously, the domestic Chaplain and
his Lady generally succeeded in having one or two scholars by them: who
paid a high figure: and were thought to be in uncommonly comfortable
quarters. There was a large West Indian, whom nobody came to see with a
mahogany complexion, a woolly head, and an exceedingly dandyfied
appearance; there was another hulking boy of *three-and-twenty* whose
education had been neglected, and whom Mr. and Mrs. Veal were to
introduce into the polite world: there were two sons of Colonel Bangles
of the East India Company's Service: these four sate down to dinner at
Mrs. Veal's genteel board, when Georgy was introduced to her establishment.
XXIII. Our Friend the Major
'Put the Major's things in *twenty-three*, that's his room,' John said,
exhibiting not the least surprise. 'Roast fowl for your dinner, I
suppose. You ain't got married? They said you was married-the Scotch
surgeon of yours was here. No, it was Captain Humbly of the
thirty-third, as was quartered with the 'th in Injee. Like any warm
water? What do you come in a chay for'ain't the coach good enough?' And
with this, the faithful waiter, who knew and remembered every officer
who used the house, and with whom ten years were but as yesterday, led
the way up to Dobbin's old room, where stood the great moreen bed, and
the shabby carpet, a thought more dingy, and all the old black furniture
covered with faded chinz, just as the Major recollected them in his youth.
--------------------------------
Charles Dickens. (1812-1870). David Copperfield.
XIII. The Sequel of My Resolution
I got, that Sunday, through *three-and-twenty* miles on the straight
road, though not very easily, for I was new to that kind of toil. I see
myself, as evening closes in, coming over the bridge at Rochester,
footsore and tired, and eating bread that I had bought for supper. One
or two little houses, with the notice, 'Lodgings for Travellers,'
hanging out, had tempted me; but I was afraid of spending the few pence
I had, and was even more afraid of the vicious looks of the trampers I
had met or overtaken.
--------------------------------
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881).
Crime and Punishment. Part I Chapter II
Six days ago, when I brought her my first earnings in
full *twenty-three* roubles forty copecks altogether she called me her
poppet: 'poppet,' said she, 'my little poppet.' And when we were by
ourselves, you understand? You would not think me a beauty, you would
not think much of me as a husband, would you? ' Well, she pinched my
cheek 'my little poppet,' said she.'
.
. Part VI Chapter VII
.
Raskolnikov took the magazine and glanced at his article. Incongruous as
it was with his mood and his circumstances, he felt that strange and
bitter sweet sensation that EVERy author experiences the first time he
sees himself in print; besides, he was only *twenty-three* . It lasted
only a moment. After reading a few lines he frowned and his heart
throbbed with anguish. He recalled all the inward conflict of the
preceding months. He flung the article on the table with disgust and anger.
--------------------------------
H.G. Wells The Time Machine. Chapter I. 1898.
.
'Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry
of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are curious. For
instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old, another at
fifteen, another at seventeen, another at *twenty-three*, and so on.
--------------------------------
Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885). Notre Dame de Paris.
Book III II. A Bird's-Eye View of Paris
The old Louvre of Philip Augustus, that stupendous pile whose enormous
middle tower mustered round it *twenty-three* major towers, irrespective
of the smaller ones, appeared from the distance as if encased within
the Gothic roof-lines of the Hôtel d'Alencon and the Petit-Bourbon.
This hydra of towers, this guardian monster of Paris, with its
twenty-four heads EVER erect, the tremendous ridge of its roof sheathed
in lead or scales of slate and glistening in metallic lustre, furnished
an unexpected close to the western configuration of the Town.
Book VII VI. Of the Result of Launching
a String of Seven Oaths in a Public Square
Ph'bus counted the money, and turning solemnly to Jehan: 'Do you know,
Jehan,' said he, 'that there are *twenty-three* sous parisis here?
Whom did you rob last night in the Rue Coupe-Gueule?'
--------------------------------
<<MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA was born at Alcala de Henares in Spain
in 1547, of a noble Castilian family. Nothing is certainly known of
his education, but by the age of *twenty-three* we find him serving
in the army as a private soldier. >>
<<Thackeray's father had left him a considerable fortune, most of
which had disappeared by the time he was *twenty-three*, part lost
in an unsuccessful newspaper, part in unfortunate investments,
and part through gambling.>>
--------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
nordicskiv2
Art Neuendorffer <aneuendor...@comcast.net>
(aneuendor...@comicass.nut) wrote:
[Lunatic logorrhea concerning the number 23 snipped]
> <<MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA was born at Alcala de Henares in Spain
> in 1547, of a noble Castilian family. Nothing is certainly known of
> his education, but by the age of *twenty-three* we find him serving
> in the army as a private soldier. >>
>
> <<Thackeray's father had left him a considerable fortune, most of
> which had disappeared by the time he was *twenty-three*, part lost
> in an unsuccessful newspaper, part in unfortunate investments,
> and part through gambling.>>
But Art -- 23 is the smallest prime such that the cyclotomic field
obtained by adjoining a primitive 23rd root of unity to the rational
field (the latter is a field with which your experience is evidently
scant indeed) has nontrivial Picard group. Surely you can fit this
into your nutcase numerology somehow.
Incidentally, Art, did you perhaps misspell "Quackery" as your
subject line?
> --------------------------------
> Art Neuendorffer
Art Neuendorffer
in 1547, of a noble Castilian family. Nothing is certainly known of
his education, but by the age of *twenty-three* we find him serving
in the army as a private soldier. >>
<<Thackeray's father had left him a considerable fortune, most of
which had disappeared by the time he was *twenty-three*, part lost
in an unsuccessful newspaper, part in unfortunate investments,
and part through gambling.>>
---------------------------------------------------
Dwebb wrote:
>
<<But Art -- 23 is the smallest prime such that the cyclotomic field
obtained by adjoining a primitive 23rd root of unity to the rational
field (the latter is a field with which your experience is evidently
scant indeed) has nontrivial Picard group.>>
..........................
Yeah......that too.
---------------------------------------------
Dwebb wrote:
>
> Incidentally, Art, did you perhaps misspell
> "Quackery" as your subject line?
If it walks like a Rosicrucian & talks
like a Rosicrucian, then it's a Rosicrucian.
NEVER-the-less
William Make-peace is preferable to
William Shake-speare.
------------------------------------------------------------------
July 18, 1822, Byron identifies SHELLEY's drowned body,
_______removes heart, & BURNS THE BODY!
.
MARY SHELLEY carried around Shelley's heart in a silken shroud
everywhere she went for the rest of her life. Shelley's ashes
were transferred to the PROTESTANT CEMETERY in Rome in 1823:
.
. "Nothing of him that doth fade
. But doth suffer a sea-change
. Into something rich and strange
. Percy Bysshe Shelley"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jane Austen died of Addison's Disease on July 18, 1817 in Winchester.
------------------------------------------------------------------
. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/caravaggio/
.
Early in 1608 Caravaggio went to Malta and was received as a
celebrated
. artist. Fearful of pursuit, he continued to FLEE for two more years,
. but his paintings of this time were among the greatest of his
career.
. After receiving a pardon from the pope, he was wrongfully arrested &
. imprisoned for two days. A boat that was to take him to Rome left
. without him, taking his belongings. Misfortune, exhaustion, and
. illness overtook him as he helplessly watched the boat depart.
He collapsed on the beach and died a few days later on July 18, 1610.
--------------------------------------------------------
Robert Hooke Born: 18 July 1635 in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk:80/~history/Mathematicians/Hooke.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On the 18th July 1792, sitting in an easy chair, sick in body but of
sound mind, John Paul Jones dictated his will to Governour Morris,
the American to France. Morris then left for an important dinner
engagement and when he returned at 8p.m. Jones had already died.
Alone he had walked to his chamber and had laid himself face down
on the bed. Morris found him in this position. He had nephritis
and jaundice but pneumonia had hastened his end. He was 45 years old.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 � 24 December 1863)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray
.
Thackeray was an Anglo-Indian novelist of the 19th century.
He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair,
a panoramic portrait of English society.
.
Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, where his father, Richmond
Thackeray, was a high-ranking official in the British East India
Company. His mother, Anne Becher, married Richmond Thackeray on 13
October 1810 after being sent to India in 1809. She was sent abroad
after being told that the man she loved, Henry Carmichael-Smyth, had
died. This was not true, but her family wanted a better marriage for
her than with Carmichael-Smyth, a military man. The truth was
unexpectedly revealed in 1812, when Richmond Thackeray unwittingly
invited to dinner the supposedly dead Carmichael-Smyth. Richmond
Thackeray died on 13 September 1815. Henry Carmichael-Smyth married
Anne in 1818 and they returned to England shortly after.
.
William had been sent to England earlier, at the age of five, with a
short stopover at St. Helena where the prisoner Napoleon was pointed
out to him. He was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick
and
then at Charterhouse School, where he was a close friend of John
Leech.
He disliked Charterhouse, parodying it in his later fiction as
"Slaughterhouse." He then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, but
was never too keen on academic studies and left the University in
1830.
.
He travelled for some time on the continent, visiting Paris and
Weimar,
where he met Goethe. He returned to England and began to study law at
the Middle Temple, but soon gave that up. On reaching twenty-one, he
came into his inheritance, but he squandered much of it on gambling
and
by funding two unsuccessful newspapers, The National Standard and The
Constitutional, which he had hoped to write for. He also lost a good
part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. Forced to
consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art,
which he studied in Paris, but he did not pursue it, except in later
years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings.
Later, through his connection to the illustrator John Leech,
he began writing for the newly created Punch magazine, where he
published The Snob Papers, later collected as The Book of Snobs.
This work popularized the modern meaning of the word "snob."
.
Among the pen-names he used were MA Titmarsh,
CH Yellowplush, GS Fitzboodle, and Théophile Wagstaff.
.
One of Thackeray's daughters (Harriet, also known as Minnie) was the
first wife of Sir Leslie Stephen, founding editor of the Dictionary
of National Biography. With his second wife, Stephen was the father
of Virginia Woolf, making Thackeray "almost" her grandfather.
Thackeray's other daughter, Anne, remained close to the Stephen
family after her sister's death; young Virginia referred to her
as Aunt Anny and created a character based on her in her novel
Night and Day. Al Murray ("the Pub Landlord") is a direct descendant.
Thackeray provided such a positive review of Jane Eyre that
Charlotte Bronte dedicated the second edition to him. This caused
her some great embarrassment when she found out about the parallels
between the book's plot and Thackeray's domestic situation.>>
-----------------------------------------
Hunter S Thompson born July 18, 1937 (d. February 20, 2005),
American ‘gonzo’ journalist and author (Fear and Loathing
in Las Vegas; Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail)
.
gonzo, adj. [from Hunter S. Thompson]
1. With total commitment, total concentration,
and a mad sort of panache. (Thompson‘s original sense.)
2. More loosely: Overwhelming; outrageous; over the top;
very large, esp. used of collections of source code,
source files, or individual functions.
-----------------------------------------
Roald Hoffman was born July 18, 1937 in Złoczów, Poland to
a Jewish family and named in honor of the Norwegian explorer,
Roald Amundsen. He and his mother were the only members of his
family to survive the Holocaust, an experience which strongly
influenced his beliefs and work They immigrated to
the United States of America in 1949, where he graduated
in 1955 from New York City's Stuyvesant High School
(winning a Westinghouse science scholarship).
.
In 1981, Hoffmann received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he
shared
with Kenichi Fukui. E.J. Corey has recently said he was the one who
gave
Woodward the idea of applying symmetry groups to problems and
therefore,
at least in part, Corey should have also received the Nobel Prize
Hoffmann was awarded. Hoffmann has consistently reported that Corey
had
never said anything of this nature.
.
Hoffmann is also a writer of poetry published in two collections,
"The Metamict State" (1987) and "Gaps and Verges" (1990), and of
books
explaining chemistry to the general public. Also, he wrote a play
called
"O2 Oxygen" about the discovery of oxygen, but also about what it
means
to be a scientist and the importance of process of discovery in
science.
.
Since the spring of 2001, Hoffmann has been the host of a monthly
series
at New York City's Cornelia Street Cafe called "Entertaining
Science,"
which explores the juncture between the arts and science.
-----------------------------------------
John Dee visited by Emperor Rudolf II of Bohemia (detail)
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/jul18.html
.
born July 18, 1552 Emperor Rudolf II of Bohemia (d. 1612),
like alchemist John Dee, an unconfirmed one-time owner
of the Voynich Manuscript. He is believed to have been
the first owner of the mysterious manuscript, which
he bought from an unknown seller for 600 ducats.
.
"Rudolf II, patron of Kepler and briefly Brahe was fascinated by
alchemy, astrology, and other ways in which human art interfered
in or perfected nature. Here one of his court painters has,
through art, depicted Rudolf as an assemblage of natural objects:
fruits, vegetables, grains, and flowers."
-----------------------------------------
July 18, 390 BCE dies Alliensis, Roman Empire
This day commemorated the disastrous defeat of the Roman army
by the Gauls at the River Allia in 390 BCE. A day of bad omens.
-------------------------------------
July 18, 64 Great fire of Rome: A fire began in the merchant area
of Rome and soon burned completely out of control, while Emperor
Nero reportedly played his lyre and sang while watching
the blaze from a safe distance.
.
History records that Rome burned for six days and that threatening
groups of men who claimed to be “acting under orders” prevented
people
from extinguishing the tragic blaze. We don’t know whether Nero
‘fiddled’, or played the lyre as he watched; he might actually have
set
the blaze for his own amusement or as an excuse to expand his palace.
.
<<Pretending to be disgusted by the drab old buildings and narrow,
winding streets of Rome, [Nero] brazenly set fire to the City; and
though a group of ex-consuls caught his attendants, armed with oakum
and blazing torches, trespassing on their property, they dared not
interfere. He also coveted the sites of several granaries, solidly
built in stone, near the Golden House [Nero’s palace]; having knocked
down their walls with siege-engines, he set the interiors ablaze.
This terror lasted for six days and seven nights, causing many people
to take shelter in the tombs ... Nero watched the conflagration from
the Tower of Maecenas, enraptured by what he called “the beauty of
the flames”; then put on his tragedian’s costume and sang
‘The Fall of Ilium’ from beginning to end.>>
- Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, on the Great Fire of Rome,
July 18, 64. This account is disputed by many historians. Nero
himself blamed the Christians (who declared that the world
would end in fire) and persecuted them without mercy.
-------------------------------------
"In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived
more than people who cannot or will not read ... It is not true
that we have only one life to live, we can live as many
more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish."
- SI Hayakawa born on July 18, 1906 (d. February 27, 1992),
Canadian English professor and academic who served as
a United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983
Author of Language in Thought and Action.
-------------------------------------
July 18 is the 199th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar
(200th in leap years), with 166 days remaining.
.
Feast day of St Arnoul, martyr (c. 534 CE)
Feast day of St Arnold (Arnoul; Arnulf), Bishop of Metz (640 CE)
Feast day of St Bruno, Bishop of Segni
(Autumn marigold, Chrysanthemum coronarium,
is today’s plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Lived 1049 - 1123. Ordained bishop of Segni, Italy
in 1080 by Pope Gregory VII.
.
Feast day of St Dominic Nicholas Dat
Feast day of St Edburga of Bicester
Feast day of St Emilian
Feast day of St Frederick (Frederic), Bishop of Utrecht
Feast day of St Goneri
Feast day of St Gundenis
Feast day of St Herveus
Feast day of St Julian
Feast day of St Marina
Feast day of St Maternus
Feast day of St Minnborinus
Feast day of St Odulph
Feast day of St Pambo
Feast day of St Philastrius (Philaster), Bishop of Brescia
Feast day of St Rufillus
Feast day of Ss Symphorosa and her seven sons, martyrs
Feast day of St Theneva
--------------------------------
born on July 18
.
1635 Robert Hooke (d. 1703), English scientist
.
1853 Hendrik Lorentz (d. 1928), Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate
.
1887 Vidkun Quisling (d. 1945), Norwegian politician who
collaborated with the Nazis and led a puppet government for them
.
1903 Chill Wills (d. 1978), American actor
.
1906 Clifford Odets (d. 1963), author, playwright
.
1909 Andrei Gromyko (d. 1989), Soviet diplomat and President
.
1911 Hume Cronyn (d. 2003), actor
.
1913 Red Skelton (Richard Bernard Skelton; d. September 17, 1997),
.
1918 Nelson Mandela, South Africa revolutionary and president
.
1921 John Glenn, American astronaut and politician
.
1922 Thomas Kuhn (d. 1996), philosopher
.
1939 Dion (Dion DiMucci), American rock ‘n’ roll singer, performed
with The Belmonts (A Teenager in Love) then had a successful solo
career (hits: Runaround Sue; The Wanderer);
.
1940 James Brolin, actor
.
1941 Martha Reeves, Motown singer (Heat Wave; Dancin’ in the Sreet)
.
1947 Steve Forbes, entrepreneur, politician
.
1950 Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group of companies
-------------------------------------
1195 Battle of Alarcos, great victory of Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf
Ya'qub al-Mansur over the Castilian King Alfonso VIII.
.
1536 The authority of the Pope was declared void in England.
.
1622 European discovery of the south-west coast of Australia.
.
1623 Death of Pope Gregory XV.
.
1689 At the church of Saint-Sauveur at Ligny, France, when lightning
struck the high altar, strange phenomena were recorded by Father Lamy,
a visiting priest who later wrote a booklet on the event. The
congregation saw the statue of Jesus Christ levitate while
its stand was shattered. The words of a printed text which
lay face down on the altar cloth were reproduced,
reversed and magnified, on the cloth.
.
1721 Death of Antoine Watteau, French painter.
.
1801 Matthew Flinders (1774 - 1814) left England to circumnavigate
and map Australia. It was he who gave the continent its name.
.
In 1789 Flinders had entered the Royal Navy and in 1791
joined HMS Providence as a midshipman, serving under
William Bligh on his second ‘breadfruit voyage’ to Tahiti.
.
In 1798 he circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed
Tasmania, Australia's southernmost state) aboard The Norfolk,
therefore proving it to be an island.
.
The Flinders story has a tragic turn to it. In 1803, while attempting
to return to England aboard The Cumberland, he was forced to put in
at
Mauritius for repairs on December 17. Unbeknown to Flinders, England
was at war with France, and the French governor, General De Caen,
had Flinders detained as a spy. He would be imprisoned
on Mauritius for almost seven years.
.
Flinders finally returned to England in October 1810, where he
immediately began work on preparing A Voyage to Terra Australia for
publication. On July 18, 1814, the book was published, introducing
the name ‘Australia’ (although Sir Joseph Banks did not approve of
the name), which slowly replaced 'Terra Australis' and 'New Holland'.
The next day, Matthew Flinders, one of history’s great explorers,
died at the age of only 40.
.
1851 John Green, an early farmer and explorer in the Southeast
Queensland region of Australia, recorded in his journal that his
Aboriginal companions Dara and David lit five fireplaces around
their campsite in order to protect the camp from the bush creature
known as Wupbi-Wupbi. This creature might have been a Yowie,
a mysterious and unproved animal like the Yeti and Bigfoot.
.
"Dara has so informed me that Wupbi-Wupbi is not far away ... We have
reached the stream and plain called Wupbi/Ubi/Oobi and as it is not
yet
established, I have taken the meaning to reflect upon a place of an
evil
jungle spirit. I do believe it is an abbreviated word from from
Wubpikgan/Woo-bpik-gan/Woo-big-gan or Ubpikgan/Oob-pik-gan/Oob-big-
gan.
The word Wubpi/Woobpi or Oobpi is a male evil spirit ... The
Wubpikgan
is his partner. She is a female evil spirit who guards the jungle
places
and also does bad things. It is late and there is a cold chill in the
air. Dara and David have arranged five fireplaces surrounding our
campsite ... I ask of Dara why so many fires. I should have taken
note of their superstitions for he replies that they are to keep
the Wubpi/Oobpi away. The two of them indicate they will share
time during the night to keep the fires aflame."
John Green, July 18, 1851, in the Kenilworth region of SE Qld
.
1863 American Civil War: The first formal African American military
unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully
assaulted Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant fighting
still proved the worth of African-American soldiers during the war.
.
1872 Britain introduced voting by secret ballot.
.
1877 Thomas Edison recorded a human voice for the first time.
.
1898 Marie Curie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery
of a new element and proposed to call it polonium.
.
1914 Within the United States Army the Signal Corps was formed.
.
1919 French actress Elise Deroche, the first woman to hold
a pilot’s licence, committed suicide while flying over Crotoy.
.
1925 Adolf Hitler published his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf.
.
1936 General Francisco Franco’s Spanish army
rose up against the Republican government.
.
1938 Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan arrived in Ireland.
.
1942 World War II: The Germans test-flew the Messerschmitt Me-262.
.
1947 USA President Harry S Truman signed the Presidential Succession
Act
into law, which placed the Speaker of the House and the Senate
President
Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the Vice President.
.
1969 USA: After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Edward
Kennedy
from Massachusetts drove an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a
tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
Kennedy didn’t report the incident for 10 hours.
------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Art Neuendorffer
The 23rd State: Maine (Ides of March, 1820)
.....................................
22. Alabama_ Dec. 14, 1819
23. Maine___ Mar. 15, 1820
24. Missouri Aug. 10, 1821
--------------------------------------------
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=81
...................................................
<<Maine had been administered as a district of Massachusetts since 1647.
Before the Revolution, Maine had a population of only 10,000 people
clustered around the southern coastal ports and closely identified with
the shipping and trade interests of Massachusetts. Maine's demographics
changed dramatically in the early 1800s. Determined to pay off its war
debt to the new U.S. government, Massachusetts raised money by selling
off public land in Maine. Thousands of farm families left the
increasingly crowded Bay State and flooded into Maine's vast interior.
The population of the province grew from 91,000 in 1791 to nearly
300,000 in 1820. As Maine grew, so did discontent with its political
dependence on Massachusetts. Wealthy coastal merchants, who were eager
to govern themselves, were the first to complain. But after Shays'
rebellion caused such havoc in western Massachusetts, Maine merchants
worried that they would need the power of Massachusetts if they were
ever faced with a similar uprising. They decided to express their
grievances rather than push for statehood.
.
But with the continued growth of the population outside established
coastal towns, frustration spread to inland farmers. Unlike the coastal
merchants, these folks had no common interest with the men who ruled
Massachusetts and Maine. By 1800 these inland farmers were leading the
drive for statehood. Their list of grievances was long, and their
egalitarian, fiercely democratic politics made them eager to break with
Massachusetts. The most common complaint was the distance Mainers had to
travel to reach the General Court in Boston. A further irritant was the
fact that Maine towns were under-represented in the Massachusetts
legislature. Another source of dissatisfaction was laws that reduced the
price of Maine lumber, enriching Massachusetts at the expense of Maine.
And Massachusetts tax laws appeared unfair to Maine farmers. For
example, they complained bitterly that since the cost of raising
sheep in Maine was so much higher than in Massachusetts,
their sheep should be taxed at a lower rate.
.
The War of 1812 destroyed any affection that Mainers may have retained
for Massachusetts. The Massachusetts General Court failed to take any
action to protect Maine. It was clear that, lacking the votes to
influence the legislature, Maine could expect its interests to be
sacrificed to those of Massachusetts. Vigorous campaigning for
statehood began in 1815. Over the next four years, Maine passed several
referendums supporting statehood, but none of them persuaded the
Massachusetts General Court to take action. Finally, in the summer of
1819, the people of Maine voted so overwhelmingly for statehood that
Massachusetts could no longer ignore the issue. Delegates gathered
in Portland in October to frame a constitution for their new state.
.
Although its pride was wounded, the Massachusetts legislature conceded,
reluctantly passing a statehood bill for Maine in late 1819. There was
only one condition. Statehood required the approval of Congress and the
president. If statehood was not approved by March 4, 1820, Maine would
remain a part of Massachusetts. It seemed a simple stipulation. Both
parties had agreed to the separation. Congress and the president could
have been expected merely to rubber-stamp the deal. But they did not.
The bill for Maine's statehood came before Congress in December of 1819,
just at the time that the slave-holding territory of Missouri was
campaigning for statehood. There were an equal number of slave and free
states, and abolitionists were fiercely opposed to any more slave states
entering the Union. Maine's application offered the possibility of a
compromise. To maintain the balance, the two requests for statehood
would be packaged together ? one new slave and one new free state.
Maine suddenly found itself in the midst of a heated controversy.
Abolitionists all over the Union were dead set against the admission of
any new slave states. Many Mainers, themselves ardent abolitionists,
were deeply ambivalent. To prevent the spread of slavery, they found
themselves calling for the defeat of the very bill that would have
granted them long-sought statehood. While the battle raged in Congress
and across the nation, the March 4th deadline was fast approaching. At
the last minute, the bill for Maine statehood passed Congress; on March
3, 1820 it was signed into law. Maine was admitted as a free state;
Missouri joined the Union as a slave state. In spite of what many had
hoped, this solution, called the Missouri Compromise, did not resolve
the issue of slavery. The larger question would persist for another
40 years until it was finally, and tragically, decided by war.>>
-----------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Benjamin Harrison: 23rd President of the United States
In office: March 4, 1889 - March 4, 1893
.
Preceded by Grover Cleveland
Succeeded by Grover Cleveland
------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Harrison is the only President
who was the grandson of a past President.
.
William Henry Harrison: 234 electoral votes
____ Benjamin Harrison: 233 electoral votes
-----------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison
.
Benjamin Harrison might be the first President whose voice
was recorded. This recording, which was originally made on
a phonograph cylinder in 1889: http://www.tiny.cc/wlDa1
.
Nicknames such as "Kid Gloves" and "Little Ben"
were mocking titles given by his political rivals.
.
Harrison was the last President to wear a beard while
in office but not the last to sport facial hair.
.
The 1968, Walt Disney musical film, The One and Only, Genuine,
Original Family Band was about the United States presidential
election of 1888 between Harrison and rival, Grover Cleveland.
In the film, the campaign song, "Oh, Benjamin Harrison"
was modern and not really from that campaign.
.
Harrison had electricity installed in the White House
for the first time, but he and his wife reportedly would
not touch the light switches for fear of electrocution.
.
In April 1891, Harrison became the first President
to travel across the United States entirely by train.
.
On June 7, 1892, Harrison became the
first President to ever attend a baseball game.
.
On 28 January 2007 Mrs. Emma Tillman died being the last
U.S. citizen alive born during the Harrison administration.
.
In 1892, Harrison and Whitelaw Reid formed the only U.S.
presidential ticket composed of candidates that were also
alumni of the same university, Miami U. , *OXFORD* , Ohio.
.........................
Long before the end of the Harrison Administration, the Treasury
surplus
had evaporated and prosperity seemed about to disappear.
Congressional
elections in 1890 went against the Republicans, and party leaders
decided to abandon President Harrison, although he had cooperated
with
Congress on party legislation. Nevertheless, his party renominated
him
in 1892, but he was defeated by Cleveland. Just two weeks earlier,
on (St. Crispin's day) October 25, 1892) , Harrison's wife,
Caroline died after a long battle with tuberculosis. Their
daughter, Mary McKee, continued the duties of the First Lady.
------------------------------------------------
Born August 20, 1833
North Bend, Ohio
Died March 13, 1901, age 67
Indianapolis, Indiana
Political party Republican
Spouse Caroline Scott Harrison (1st wife)
Mary Scott Lord Dimmick (2nd wife)
Religion Presbyterian
.
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 - March 13, 1901) was the 23rd
President of the United States, serving one term from 1889 to 1893.
He had previously served as a senator from Indiana. His
administration
is best known for a series of legislation including the McKinley
Tariff and federal spending that reached a billion dollars. Democrats
attacked the *Billion Dollar Congress* and defeated the GOP in 1890
and defeated Harrison's bid for reelection in 1892.
.
"Come on boys!" General Benjamin Harrison in the Battle of Resaca,
May,
1864. A grandson of President William Henry Harrison and great-
grandson
of Benjamin Harrison V, Benjamin was born on August 20, 1833, in
North
Bend, Hamilton County, Ohio as the second of eight children of John
Scott Harrison (later a U.S. Congressman from Ohio) and Elizabeth
Ramsey
Irwin. He attended Miami University, *OXFORD* , Ohio, where he was a
member of the fraternity Phi Delta Theta, (later in life, he joined
Delta Chi) and graduated in 1852. He studied law in Cincinnati, Ohio,
then moved to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1854. He was admitted to the
bar and became reporter of the decisions of the Indiana Supreme Court.
.
On October 20, 1853, Harrison, 20, married Caroline Lavinia Scott,
21, in *OXFORD* , Ohio. The wedding was performed by her father, Rev.
John W. Scott. The Harrisons had two children, Russell Benjamin
Harrison (August 12, 1854 - December 13, 1936) and Mary "Mamie"
Scott Harrison McKee (April 3, 1858 - October 28, 1930).
On June 13, 1861, they suffered the tragedy of a miscarriage.
.
Harrison served in the Union Army during the Civil War and was
appointed
Commander of the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment in August
1862. The unit performed reconnaissance duty and guarded railroads
in Kentucky and Tennessee until Sherman's Atlanta Campaign in 1864.
Harrison was brevetted as a brigadier general, and commanded a
Brigade
at Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Lost Mountain, Kennesaw
Mountain,
Marietta, Peach Tree Creek, and the Siege of Atlanta. Harrison was
later transferred to the Army of the Cumberland and participated
in the Siege of Nashville and the Grand Review in Washington D.C.
before mustering out in 1865.
.
While in the field in October 1864, he was re-elected reporter of the
Ohio State Supreme Court and served four years. He was an
unsuccessful
Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1876, being defeated
by
James D. Williams. He was appointed a member of the Mississippi River
Commission, in 1879, and elected as a Republican to the United States
Senate, where he served from March 4, 1881, to March 4, 1887.
He was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Transportation
Routes to the Seaboard (47th Congress) and U.S. Senate
Committee on Territories (48th and 49th Congresses).
.
After beating John Sherman for the Republican presidential
nomination,
Harrison was elected President of the United States in 1888. In the
Presidential election, Harrison received some 90,000 fewer popular
votes
than incumbent President Grover Cleveland but carried the Electoral
College 233 to 168. Although Harrison had made no political bargains,
his supporters had given innumerable pledges upon his behalf. When
Boss
Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania heard that Harrison ascribed his narrow
victory to Providence, Quay exclaimed that Harrison would never know
"how close a number of men were compelled to approach...the
penitentiary
to make him President." He was inaugurated on March 4, 1889, and
served
through March 4, 1893. Harrison was also known as the "centennial
president" because his inauguration was the 100th anniversary of the
inauguration of George Washington.
.
For Harrison, Civil Service reform was a no-win situation. Congress
was
split so far apart on the issue that agreeing to any measure for one
side would alienate the other. The issue became a popular political
football of the time and was immortalized in a cartoon captioned
"What
can I do when both parties insist on kicking?"
.
Harrison was proud of the vigorous foreign policy which he helped
shape.
The first Pan-American Congress met in Washington, D.C. in 1889,
establishing an information center which later became the Pan
American
Union. At the end of his administration, Harrison submitted to the
Senate a treaty to annex Hawaii; to his disappointment, President
Cleveland later withdrew it.
.
"What can I do when both parties insist on kicking?"The most
perplexing
domestic problem Harrison faced was the tariff issue. The high tariff
rates in effect had created a surplus of money in the Treasury.
Low-tariff advocates argued that the surplus was hurting business.
Republican leaders in Congress successfully met the challenge.
Representative William McKinley and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich framed
a
still higher tariff bill; some rates were intentionally prohibitive.
.
Harrison tried to make the tariff more acceptable by writing in
reciprocity provisions. To cope with the Treasury surplus, the tariff
was removed from imported raw sugar; sugar growers within the United
States were given two cents per pound bounty on their production.>>
------------------------------------
Significant events
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
McKinley Tariff (1890)
Ocala Demands (1890)
Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
.
Administration and Cabinet
.
President Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893
Vice President Levi P. Morton 1889-1893
.
Secretary of State James G. Blaine 1889-1892
John W. Foster 1892-1893
Secretary of the Treasury William Windom 1889-1891
Charles Foster 1891-1893
Secretary of War Redfield Proctor 1889-1891
Stephen B. Elkins 1891-1893
Attorney General William H. H. Miller 1889-1893
Postmaster General John Wanamaker 1889-1893
Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy 1889-1893
Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble 1889-1893
Secretary of Agriculture Jeremiah M. Rusk 1889-1893
-----------------------------------
Supreme Court appointments
Harrison appointed the following Justices
to the Supreme Court of the United States:
.
David Josiah Brewer - 1890
Henry Billings Brown - 1891
George Shiras, Jr. - 1892
Howell Edmunds Jackson - 1893
-----------------------------------
States admitted to the Union
North Dakota - November 2, 1889
South Dakota - November 2, 1889
Montana - November 8, 1889
Washington - November 11, 1889
Idaho - July 3, 1890
Wyoming - July 10, 1890
.
When North and South Dakota were admitted to the Union, Harrison
covered the tops of the bills and shuffled them so that he could
only see the bottom. Thus, it is impossible to tell
which was signed first, and which was the 39th and the 40th.
-------------------------------
After he left office, Harrison returned to Indianapolis. He married
a widow, Mary Scott Lord Dimmick on April 6, 1896 in New York City.
She was also his deceased wife's niece. His two adult children
Russell,
was 41 years old at the time and Mary "Mamie", 38, did not attend the
wedding because they disagreed. Their mother had only died three and
a half years earlier. Benjamin and Mary had one child, Elizabeth
(February 21, 1897 - December 26, 1955), who later married
James Blaine Walker, a grandnephew of James G. Blaine.
.
Harrison went to the First Peace Conference at The Hague. He served
as an attorney for the Republic of Venezuela in the boundary
dispute between Venezuela and the United Kingdom in 1900.
.
Harrison developed the flu and a bad cold in February 1901. Despite
treatment by steam vapor inhalation, Harrison's condition only
worsened.
Benjamin Harrison eventually died from influenza and pneumonia on
Wednesday, March 13, 1901 and is interred in Crown Hill Cemetery.>>
-------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer