This was, mostly, a good day for the peacekeepers. The Red Cross was founded, as was Mother Teresa's first mission. The 91-year one-sided union between Sweden and Norway, which Norwegians had resisted throughout, came to a completely peaceful end - one of the rare times a nation has been divided politically without bloodshed or violence. US and Soviet diplomats and heads of state scrambled, not only on Moscow and Washington City but in Havana and embassies in Turkey and Brazil, to avert an invasion of Cuba to end the Soviet missile installations there. The one notable exception: Marshall Virgil Earp decided to disarm the Clanton Gang. The confrontation lasted only 30 seconds, but only Wyatt Earp got through it without injury.
In transportation history we have two landmarks. The Erie Canal opened, allowing passengers and freight to travel from New York City and the developed Hudson River Valley to Buffalo and Lake Erie - freight rates between the two points dropped 90%. We also note the end of the Pony Express, a short-lived if dramatic episode in carrying the mail to and from the West Coast of the US. The total revenue to the operators during was about $87,000, they spent more than that buying horses and it is believed that total losses came to about $200,000.
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1825 - The full length of the Erie Canal, from the Hudson River at Albany at the East to Buffalo on Lake Erie at the West, was opened. On this day New York governor DeWitt Clinton boarded the Seneca Chief at Buffalo to travel through 77 locks and 363 miles of canal, then down the Hudson to arrive at New York City nine days later.
1861 - After 18 months of mail service between Sacramento, California and St Joseph, Missouri, the Pony Express terminates operations. The opening of the transcontinental telegraph on this day would have eliminated the most lucrative mail, and the business was losing over two dollars on every dollar of postage already.
1863 - Swiss citizen Jean Henry Dunant, who had been moved by his experience at the battle of Solferino in 1859, founded the International Committee of the Red Cross to protect victims of armed conflict. Dunant shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, the ICRC received the 1944 prize. There are now more than 150 national Red Cross societies.
1881 - In the Arizona Territory town of Tombstone, City Marshal Virgil Earp deputized his friend and dentist-turned-professional-gambler John H. "Doc" Holliday. With Virgil's brothers Wyatt and Morgan (Wyatt was still sworn as acting marshal, Morgan was already a policeman) the four walked down Fremont Street to disarm Tom and Frank McLaury and Ike and Billy Clanton who were armed in violation of town gun-control laws. After 30 seconds the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton were dead, Ike had run from the area with a head wound. Morgan and Virgil were both shot, Holliday was bruised when a bullet hit his holster. Only Wyatt was unhurt.
1905 - The Union of Sweden and Norway is dissolved after 91 years. Under the Union Norway had functionally been a province of Sweden, ruled much like Scotland today - two kingdoms under one crown.
1950 - Agnes Gonxha Bejaxhiu, an Albanian nun better known as Mother Teresa, opened the first Mission of Charity in Calcutta, India.
1962 - Negotiations and planning to end the Cuban missile crisis reached fever pitch, as US government stepped up low-level flights over Cuba, planned for reestablishing civilian government there after an invasion, and Khrushchev sent long and emotional message to Kennedy offering to remove the missiles if US invasion is called off.
National Holiday, Austria - Celebrates the end of post-war Soviet occupation in 1955, specifically commemorates parliamentary approval of "immerwährende Neutralität" - perpetual neutrality, Austria would not join any military alliances or allow any foreign bases on its soil.
Deepaavali - Festival of Lights, Guyana, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka (called Diwali in Fiji, India, Mauritius, Nepal, Trinidad & Tobago) - In Hindu tradition, celebrates the victory of Sri Krishna over the demon king Narakasura. When the demon was beheaded his 16,000 women captives were released, to eliminate any stigma on them and to restore their social position Krishna married all of them.
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that
person, a beautiful thing.
All today's quoations are from Mother
Teresa
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