Tidbits of History (eBook)

June

June was an important month in World War II. Some of the more important events were:

June 22, 1940—France signed an armistice with Germany, giving up half of the country to occupation and, in the other half, setting up a puppet government under Marshall Philippe Petain.

June 22, 1941—Hitler’s troops invaded the Soviet Union, which had a non-aggression pact with Germany, and supplied raw materials to the Nazis up to and including June 21. The Russians were surprised and quickly lost over five hundred miles of territory, and millions of Russian soldiers were killed or taken prisoner.

June 4, 1942—The Battle of Midway was fought. Considered the turning point of the Pacific war, Japan would lose four aircraft carriers to the U.S. Navy’s one.

June 6, 1944—The Allies invaded Normandy. The opening of the second front signaled the beginning of the end for Hitler.

Some other significant events in June were:

Two hundred years ago—June 1, 1796—Tennessee became the sixteenth state.

One hundred fifty years ago—June 15, 1846—The Oregon Treaty was signed, establishing the forty-ninth Parallel as the United States-Canada border.

One hundred years ago—June 4, 1896—The first Ford was built. Unfortunately, there was one flaw in the design. The automobile was wider than the door of the building, and the workers had to knock bricks out of the framework to remove the car.

Twenty-five years ago—June 13, 1971—The first installment of the Pentagon Papers was published by the New York Times.

Twenty-five years ago—June 30, 1971—The Twenty-sixth Amendment was passed, lowering the voting age in national elections to eighteen years old.

One year ago—June 2, 1995—Scott O’Grady was shot down over Bosnia. Rescued on June 8, he was hailed as a hero for surviving in hostile territory by eating native plants and insects. Newspapers virtually ignored the forty marines who took part in the dangerous rescue mission.

Finally, was there ever a worse general than Ambrose Bumside? Known more for his fashion sense (the term sideburns was coined in honor of his elegant facial hairstyle) than for his leadership skills, Burnside led some of the most spectacular defeats in the Civil War. For example, he sent his troops over a small bridge at Antietam, where the Confederates slaughtered them. The river was only waist-deep. As head of the Union army, he sent his troops on wave after wave of suicidal charges at Fredericksburg. He “led” this campaign from his headquarters several miles behind the lines, relying on messengers to conduct the battle. His crowning achievement was at Petersburg. By this time, he was no longer in charge of the Union army but still led an army corps. After several months of siege, he conceived an idea to break the deadlock. He instructed his troops to dig a tunnel under the Confederate lines and pack that tunnel with high explosives. The goal was to split the Confederate lines, and the army could break through and destroy the enemy. The mines detonated on schedule, and the army charged in through the break. Unfortunately, the explosion left a large hole in the ground, into which the troops promptly fell. As this happened, the Confederates brought up artillery to fire into the Federals. At the same time, Burnside, again commanding from several miles behind the lines, sent in fresh troops to further pack the hole. (Of course, he did not know of this problem.) The phrase “shooting fish in a barrel” comes to mind. Somebody heard Abraham Lincoln say of this final defeat: “Only Burnside could have managed such a coup, wringing one last spectacular defeat from the jaws of victory.”

July

Here are a couple of unusual firsts:

In 1766, Asa Dunbar, the grandfather of Henry David Thoreau, protested the quality of Harvard College’s food (How unusual, bad cafeteria food.) using the slogan, “Behold, our butter stinketh.” After being condemned for “the sin of insubordination,” Dunbar’s group conducted an eat-out by eating off-campus. This was the first American student protest.

On February 27, 1859, Congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed Philip Key, son of Francis Scott Key, who was having an affair with Mrs. Sickles. His attorney, James T. Brady, used the plea of “temporary insanity” for the first time and got Sickles off. Sickles would later become a distinguished Union general in the Civil War.

Important events in July include:

Fifty years ago, on July 4, 1946, U.S. President Truman granted the Philippines independence. The declaration would have been done earlier, but World War II delayed the mandate.

Fifty years ago, on July 7, 1946, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized. She was the first American to be canonized.

Twenty-five years ago, on July 1, 1976, the U.S. Postal Service became a semi-independent profit organization and was no longer funded by the U.S. government.

One year ago, on July 31, 1995, President Clinton announced that the United States and Vietnam would establish diplomatic relations twenty years after the end of the Vietnam War.

Finally, did you ever hear of The Rainmaker? Charles Mallory Hatfield’s career spanned almost thirty years and over 500 successful rainmaking attempts. Using a variety of chemicals which he never disclosed, Hatfield was consistently successful, such as in 1904 when he raised the Lake Hemet Land and Water Company’s reservoir twenty-two feet and when he produced eighteen inches of rain for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in the first four months of 1905. His most awesome achievement was in 1915 and 1916 in San Diego. On December 13, 1915, the city hired Hatfield to fill the thirteen billion gallon Morena Reservoir, which only had five billion gallons of water at the time. Rain fell intermittently until January 14, when a six-day storm delivered 4.23 inches of rain. On January 24, another six-day storm brought 2.85 inches. While this started to fill the reservoir, it also began to cause havoc in San Diego. The river jumped its banks, and homes began to float out into the bay. After being rescued from the swollen river, one man suggested, “Let’s pay Hatfield $100,000 to stop.” On January 27, the north abutment of the Sweetwater Dam and the Lower Otay Dam collapsed, releasing a flood of water and killing about twenty people. Hatfield later explained, “I had a year to do the job, but I thought I might as well wind it up right away.” Not knowing what was happening in San Diego, Hatfield and his crew continued until the end of January, when forty-four inches had fallen on Morena, and water was flowing four feet over the reservoir dam. Returning to the city, they learned of the trouble they had caused when the washed-out road forced them to walk. Needless to say, $3.5 million in lawsuits convinced San Diego not to pay Hatfield. Hatfield accepted this (The courts found that the storms were “an act of God, not…of Hatfield.”) and philosophically stated, “It was worth the publicity, anyhow.”

August

Here is a list of some familiar articles and some information on their invention:

Parvo Nakacheker of Finland, an athlete who “devoted much time to the study of pure anatomy and the special demands of such an item,” invented the athletic supporter.

The brassiere was the idea of Otto Titzling of the U.S. In 1912, he heard Swanhilda Olafsen, a young opera singer, complain of the discomfort and lack of support that corsets gave her breasts, and he designed a chest halter to assist her.

Crossword aficionados should forever praise the name of Hyman L. Lipman of the U.S., who patented the pencil with an attached eraser in 1858. He later sold the patent for $100,000.

In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty of the U.S. invented toilet paper. According to historian Joseph N. Kane, Gayetty created an “unbleached pearl-colored pure manila hemp paper and had his name “watermarked on each sheet.” Is this not the dream of all inventors?

Some interesting events that occurred in August were:

Six hundred fifty years ago—On August 26, 1346, artillery was first used in battle as Edward III of England defeated Philip VI of France at Crecy.

Three hundred fifty years ago—On August 19, 1646, John Flamsteed (1646-1719) was born. He would become the first Astronomer Royal of England, and Charles II would build the Royal Observatory at Greenwich for him.

One hundred years ago—On August 12, 1896, gold was discovered in the Klondike Creek, Yukon Territory, in Canada. Thousands would travel to the frozen wasteland of northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska, few would become rich, and many would never return.

Fifty years ago—On August 1, 1946, the McMahan Act was signed by President Truman, establishing the Atomic Energy Commission to oversee and regulate the use of fissionable materials and atomic energy.

Finally, there is the story of Daniel of Transylvania. He started his career as a quack doctor who would prescribe minute amounts of a wonder drug called “usufur” to his patients. The drug was harmless and, given the state of medicine at the time with the common practice of blood-letting used to “cure” patients, most patients of Daniel’s improved at an astounding rate through the natural healing powers of the human body. Daniel accumulated about two thousand gold ducats from this practice but wanted more. He wrote to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, telling him that he could turn copper and tin into gold and would charge only 20,000 gold ducats to teach the Grand Duke this skill. The Grand Duke agreed as long as Daniel would be willing to prove this skill. Daniel arrived at the Grand...