Bernard Shaw was a professional character. He created the witty and exaggerated "GBS" and, except for the years of World War I, the public loved it. He despised the name George, and never used it - friends called him Bernard. (I'm not the first one to refuse to use a first name starting with G.) Shaw wanted to change the world, and was a socialist most of his life but was committed to a peaceful transition and expected one. The Fabian Society he helped to found in turn was instrumental in forming Britain's Labour Party - some would say that Shaw's goals have been largely accomplished in this area. One of Shaw's goals that has met with little or no success is the creation a rational English alphabet. He most famously pointed out that "fish" could just as well be spelled "ghoti" if you use the "gh" from rough, the "o" from women, and the "ti" from fiction. His fascination with the English language did become a part of his most widely known play, "Pygmalian," in 1914.
We seem to have a number of government transitions today. The current postal system was created, the function of the FBI was authorized, the Churchill government came to an abrupt end in England, the CIA was created (it had been operating under presidential authority with budget from other authorizations until this act), and Fidel Castro made his first attempt at taking over Cuba.
I'm returning to my hometown for a few days to celebrate the 30th anniversary of my escape from high school, and will be posting from the road. Maintenance of the subscription database, which is only "semi-automated," will resume this weekend, and the rest of the week's issues may be shorter than usual. I hope you will be patient.
1775 - The Continental Congress created the postal service, resolving "that a postmaster general be appointed for the United States, who shall hold his office at Philadelphia, and shall be allowed a salary of 1,000 dollars per annum." They picked Benjamin Franklin, previously deputy postmaster general in the colonial system.
1869 - British parliament under Prime Minister Gladstone passed the Irish Church Act (Disestablishment Act) disestablishing the Church of Ireland (Anglican) as state religion of Ireland and deprives the Irish Church of property and authority. Organized opposition to this legislation coined what was the longest word in the English language for a century: antidisestablishmentarianism.
1908 - Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte, at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, ordered the creation of an investigative arm of the Department of Justice headed by Chief Examiner Stanley Finch. It was called the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) from 1909 to 1930, the FBI since.
1945 - Winston Churchill left the Potsdam Conference to resign as Prime Minister, being replaced by Clement R. Attlee, leader of the Labour Party and Churchill's deputy through the war. Churchill called Attlee "a sheep in sheep's clothing."
1947 - Congress passed the National Security Act, consolidates US armed forces in newly created Department of Defense, replacing the War Department and Navy Department. It also established the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council.
1953 - Fidel Castro led an attack on the Moncado army barracks at Santiago, the first step in his revolution against the Battista regime. The attack failed, Castro went to prison.
Independence Day, Liberia - This western African nation is in economic shambles after years of civil war, but today celebrates the creation of the republic in 1847. The American Colonization Society bought the land in 1822 for a box of beads, three pair of shoes, a box of soap, a barrel of rum, and twelve spoons specifically for the purpose of creating a nation for freed American slaves.
Independence Day, Maldives - Celebrates independence from Great Britain in 1965 for this archipelago of 19 atolls stretching over 700 miles (north to south) in the Indian Ocean, south west of India.
1856
- George Bernard Shaw, British writer - Born at Dublin, Ireland
to an alcoholic corn merchant and a professional singer, raised by nannies.
Educated in the local schools, which he hated. Mother and sister left
for London 1872, Shaw finished school and worked for an estate agent,
which he hated just as much. Lived off his mother in London from 1876,
wrote five novels in nine years without selling anything. Spoke publicly
for socialism, overcoming a stammer and developing powerful oratory, and
co-founded the Fabian Society with the goal of turning England to socialism
at the polls. Became a vegetarian from economic necessity in 1881, continued
for life based on treating all animal species with respect. Found paying
work as an art critic, then music critic, and from 1895 as theatre critic.
Wrote a number of plays starting in 1891, most of which were not performed
or performed once for privat audiences. In 1898 he married the wealthy
Charlotte Payne-Townsend, forswearing inheritance of her wealth. She,
in turn, refused to consummate the marriage which lasted until her death
in 1943. From 1904 found success with the Court Theatre in Chelsea, continued
in the Fabian Society, elected London vestryman. Like other socialists
strenuously opposed the War, which damaged his reputation, and wrote little.
After the war he returned to writing plays, which found great success
both in England and the US, was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Spent the rest of his life as a celebrity, traveling the world, writing
thousands of letters and another dozen plays. His will left most of his
estate to a project to create a new English alphabet, when that failed
the estate passed to the other beneficiaries, the National Gallery of
Ireland, the British Museum, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which
have been balancing their budgets from Shavian royalties ever since. At
the age of 94 he fell off a ladde while pruning a tree on his property
at Ayot St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire and died from his injuries on 1
November 1950.
He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
There are only two classes in good society in England: the equestrian classes and the neurotic classes.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage
he is at least safe from people.
- George Bernard Shaw (All)
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