Robert Green Ingersoll was an aggressive lawyer for the railroad interests and styled himself "The Great Agnostic." But his primary gift and legacy was the ability to make the English language resonate with audiences. The quotes today are all from Ingersoll, there are so many good Ingersoll quotes that it was difficult to choose only the five I used. Due to his ability to fill theaters with paying customers just to hear him speak it is thought that more people heard his voice than any other person before mass media - people read Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln, but they heard Ingersoll.
Today marks the organization of the Green Bay Packers, the first use of Alcatraz as a federal civilian prison, and the spark that ignited the Watts riots.
In the sky we have the discovery of the first of Mars' two moons, and
the annual Perseid meteor shower. For those who are up in the dark early
morning tomorrow, as I will be getting Twisted History in the mail, and
would like to celebrate the Perseid Meteor Shower by watching a few flashes
of comet dust in the upper atmosphere, this NASA page explains what you
will need to know:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast08aug_1.htm
A Windows crash during compilation of yesterday's issue put me an hour behind but is still no excuse for two appalling errors! Herbert Hoover and his wife may have "circled the glove" five time in as many years, but history reports that they circled the globe. And the French monarch detained at the Tuilleries was Louis XVI rather than Charles - many of you apparently knew that there never was a Charles XVI.
1772 - Papandayan, a complex composite volcano in Java, Indonesia, collapsed. The height of the mountain was decreased by half (from 2,652 m to 1,212 m), at least 3,000 were killed as the debris covered 40 towns and villages.
1877 - Professor Asaph Hall of the US Naval Observatory discovers Deimos, a moon of Mars, using the 26-inch Great Equatorial refracting telescope. A week later he found Phobos. The observatory was then located at Foggy Bottom in Washington City, the 26-inch telescope by Alvan Clark & Sons was the largest refractor at the time.
1919 - Earl "Curly" Lambeau, a high school football star who was forced to leave Notre Dame due to illness, and George W. Calhoun, sports editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, hold a meeting to organize a football team in the newsroom of that paper. The team was to be called the Indians after sponsor (and Lambeau's employer) the Indian Packing Company, but by the end of the first season the Press-Gazette was calling them the Green Bay Packers.
1934 - A group of federal prisoners classified as "most dangerous" arrived at Alcatraz Island, a twenty-two-acre rock outcropping in San Francisco Bay. Originally named Isla de los Alcatraces (Isle of the Pelicans), "The Rock" had previously been used as a military prison, and would serve as a federal prison for 29 years.
1965 - A 21 year old black motorist, Marquette Frye, was stopped by Los Angeles, California police. A crowd gathered, taunting the policeman and a second officer was called. The second officer used his baton to control the group, and reports of police brutality spread through the Watts neighborhood. Six days later, 16,000 National Guardsmen and police had been called out, 35,000 blacks had been involved in rioting and looting white-owned businesses, 34 were dead, and property damage of $200 million had been done.
Heroes' Day, Zimbabwe - Two-day holiday honoring the soldiers who survived the battle against the white-minority government of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1980. Recent observances marred by demonstrations by widows of the fallen (who were not posthumously granted Hero status or pensions) and civilian supporters of the guerillas. Marxist president Robert Mugabe has pledged to prevent any additional demonstrations.
Perseid Meteor Shower, An annual meteor shower occurring near August 11 every year when the Earth's orbit collides with a trail of debris from the Swift-Tuttle Comet. This night is also called Night of the Shooting Stars, and in Italian it is called La Notre di San Lorenzo (The Tears of Saint Lawrence) because it coincides with the feast day of Saint Lawrence. Phenomenon first explained around 1840, the Perseids have been noted in history at least since an Egyptian document in 1029.
1833
- Robert Green Ingersoll, US lawyer, orator - Born at Dresden,
New York to John and Mary Ingersoll. Father was a stern Presbyterian minister
whose fiery abolitionist sermons led many congregations to dismiss him,
the family moved often, living in communities in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin,
and Illinois. Mother died before Robert was two. Little formal education,
served two legal apprenticeships to qualify to practice law in 1854, his
law office in Peoria, Illinois prospered, largely on work for the railroads.
Raised the 11th Illinois Cavalry Regiment, granted rank of Colonel, fought
with distinction at Battle of Shiloh. He was captured soon after and paroled,
released on a pledge to not fight against the Confederacy again. Gained
reputation for oratory during war, appointed as first Attorney General
of Illinois in 1867, the only office he ever held. His speeches helped
elect is brother Ebon to Congress. Republicans considered him as gubernatorial
candidate, he refused to stop speaking on controversial subjects, primarily
his opposition to religion - he was known as "The Great Agnostic." Spoke
on behalf of many Republican candidates, outspoken views meant he never
was appointed to public office by the candidates he helped elect. Won
acquittal in 1880 for Thomas J. Brady and Stephen W. Dorsey in the Star
Route Trial, a widely-reported controversy, with the longest trial defense
in American history. Failed to win acquittal in Charles B. Reynolds' trial
for blasphemy, but his defense so mocked the concept of criminal blasphemy
that few prosecutions ever were attempted afterward. From 1865 made a
dozen cross country speaking tours, filling the largest theaters at a
dollar a seat, on subjects including Shakespeare, Robert Burns, religion,
politics, and the lives of famous patriots and scientists. He was seen
and heard by more Americans than anyone before the introduction of motion
pitures and radio. He died of heart failure at Dobbs Ferry-on-Hudson,
New York on 21 July 1899 and was buried with honors at Arlington National
Cemetery.
Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.
Anger blows out the lamp of the mind.
Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god market was fairly glutted and heaven crammed with these phantoms.
Few rich men own their property. Their property owns them.
- All by Robert Green Ingersoll
(All)
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