The ebb and flow of war dominated today's items, starting with the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 - the event that triggered the Third Crusade. Today marks the day that Benedict Arnold's British contact was hanged for spying, the opening battle in the Texas Revolution against Mexico (although independence wasn't declared until later), and the Queen Mary sliced right through her escort ship in a misstep in a seaborne dance to avoid U-Boats.
The first known design for a telescope was sold to a government for military use, Gallileo heard about it and built his first telescope to look at the heavens the next year. The basic rules governing Formula One auto racing were adopted on this day, the engineering advances made during World War II were so great the older rules needed to be thrown out before racing could resume.
By contrast, India observes the birth of a man whose great influence on the world was the result of avoiding violence completely.
There was no way to write a biography of Groucho Marx in the time I had tonight, but he was born on this day in 1890 (or 1889 or 1891 - he gave all three dates at different times) and I've chosen a few examples of his sharp wit in the quotes section.
1187 - Salah ed-din Yussuf ibn Ayub (Saladin), Sultan of Egypt and Syria, took Jerusalem with his Turkish force. A siege had been mounted on 20 September, after nine days the wall was breached but Frankish soldiers prevented the Turks from entering the city. Balian of Ibelin, in command of the city, negotiated a ransom of ten dinars per man, five per woman, and one per child - those that could pay went home, those that could not went into slavery.
1608 - Hans Lippershey demonstrated his invention called a kijker, meaning "looker," to the Estates of Holland for military use. His request for a patent was denied, but he was given 900 florins for the instrument on condition that he create a binocular device. If Lippershey's device was not the first telescope it was the first one documented.
1780 - British intelligence officer Major John André was hanged as a spy in Tappan, New York. He had been captured with papers concealed in his boot detailing the defenses of West Point, given to him by the commandant Benedict Arnold. When André was arrested Arnold fled to a British ship and subsequently accepted a commission in the British Army, Congress ordered his name stricken from the register of US army officers on 19 October 1780.
1835 - The Battle of Gonzales was won by rebellious Texans. Colonel Ugartechea of Santa Anna's army had sent a small force to Gonzales to demand the return of the colony's only cannon but was denied by the Alcalde. On this day the cannon was fired at the larger force sent to collect it, and the Texas Revolution was begun.
1942 - The liner Queen Mary sliced through HMS Curacao, killing 338 British soldiers, off the Irish coast near Donegal. The "Grey Ghost" was serving as a troop transport and the Curacao was her escort, the two ships were traveling in an intentional zig-zag pattern for evading submarines.
1947 - The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) created the "Formula One" racing rules for Grand Prix competition. The new class covered cars with up to 1.5-liter supercharged or 4.5-liter normally aspirated engines and lowered the minimum length of a race from 500 km to 300 km. Advances in both engine and body technologies developed for aircraft during the war rendered the pre-war class designations obsolete.
Gandhi Jayanti, India - Birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the British-educated Indian lawyer who fought racial injustice against Indians in South Africa and then led India to independence through non-violent civil disobedience. Offices and schools are closed, political leaders pay homage to the Mahatma (Sanskrit for "Great Soul") at his Samadhi, the place where his mortal remains were cremated, at Raj Ghat.
A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.
Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
I have nothing but confidence in you, and very little of that.
I sent the club a wire stating, "Please accept my resignation. I don't
want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member."
- Today's quotes are all from Julius
Henry "Groucho" Marx
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