tangerinegreen555
Well-Known Member
That's the biggest downside of getting old.
You lose a half dozen old friends, acquaintances, former classmates and co-workers a year.
I hate looking at the morning paper anymore.
On this day:
- Thread starter Singlemalt
- Start date
You lose a half dozen old friends, acquaintances, former classmates and co-workers a year.
I hate looking at the morning paper anymore.
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
Headlines, comics, obits for me in that order. Really sucks when I recognize names that are younger than me
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
December 29, 1890 – In the tragic final chapter of America’s long war against the Plains Indians, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Tensions had been running high on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for months because of the growing popularity of a new Indian spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance. Many of the Sioux at Pine Ridge had only recently been confined to reservations after long years of resistance, and they were deeply disheartened by the poor living conditions and deadening tedium of reservation life.
The Ghost Dance movement taught that the Indians were defeated and confined to reservations because they had angered the gods by abandoning their traditional ways. If they practiced the Ghost Dance ritual and rejected white ways, many Sioux believed the gods would create the world anew, destroy the unbelievers, and bring back murdered Indians and the giant herds of bison.
By late 1890, Pine Ridge Indian agent James McLaughlin was alarmed by the movement’s increasing influence and its prediction that all non-believers–presumably including whites–would be wiped out. McLaughlin telegraphed a warning to Washington, D.C. that: “Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy. We need protection now.” While waiting for the cavalry to arrive, McLaughlin attempted to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief, who he mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dance supporter. U.S. authorities killed Sitting Bull during the arrest, increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge rather than defusing them.
On December 29, the 7th Cavalry under Colonel James Forsyth surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. Big Foot and his followers had no intentions of attacking anyone, but they were distrustful of the army and feared they would be attacked if they relinquished their guns. Nonetheless, the Sioux agreed to surrender and began turning over their guns. As that was happening, a scuffle broke out between an Indian and a soldier, and a shot was fired.
Though no one is certain which side fired it, the ensuing melee was quick and brutal. Without arms and outnumbered, the Sioux were reduced to hand-to-hand fighting with knives, and they were cut down in a withering rain of bullets, many coming from the army’s rapid-fire repeating Hotchkiss guns. By the time the soldiers withdrew, 146 Indians were dead (including 44 women and 18 children) and 51 wounded.
The 7th Cavalry had 25 dead and 39 wounded. Although sometimes referred to as a battle, the conflict at Wounded Knee is best seen as a tragic and avoidable massacre. Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it is highly unlikely that Big Foot’s band would have deliberately sought a confrontation.
Some historians speculate that the soldiers of Custer’s old 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment’s defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876. Whatever the motives, the army’s massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was the final major confrontation in America’s deadly war against the Plains Indians
too larry
Well-Known Member
Seems hard to believe that was 15 years ago. I remember hearing about it on BBC radio down at the river camp.
If you have the chance, you should read Krakatoa: the day the world exploded. It came out just before the Boxing Day earthquake, so the comparisons to the 1883 event was in the news a lot then. {I saw a special on PBS, did not actually read the book}
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
I read that one. His book about the Oxford English Dictionary is also a good read.Seems hard to believe that was 15 years ago. I remember hearing about it on BBC radio down at the river camp.
If you have the chance, you should read Krakatoa: the day the world exploded. It came out just before the Boxing Day earthquake, so the comparisons to the 1883 event was in the news a lot then. {I saw a special on PBS, did not actually read the book}
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded - Wikipedia
too larry
Well-Known Member
Although according to 23 & Me, I'm 98.5% Western European, I've loosely followed the Muscogee {Creek} tradition most of my adult life. I know it's been a long time since the Battle of Horseshoe Bend {3/27/1814}, but I still have hard feelings toward the Cherokee who fought on the American side.
too larry
Well-Known Member
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
On this day in 1492, the Emirate of Granada fell, ending almost 800 years during which Europe had territory held by Islam. Thus ended the Reconquista.
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raratt
Well-Known Member
61 this year. I'm 6 mos older than the state I was born in. Edit: Statehood was approved by congress July 7 1958. I remember my mom talking about the celebration when I was a month old, I had to look it up though.
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lokie
Well-Known Member
Steve Jobs changes the world.
Apple's core product lines are the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, iPod portable media players, and Macintosh computer line. Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, and incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California.
Marvin Stone
Stone received the patent of the "artificial straw" on January 3, 1888.
In the 1800s fashion of drinking from cheap and easily created rye grass straws came into popularity, but their weak structure prevented them to be used in prolonged sessions (water would quickly turned them to mush). Dissatisfied with the current state of drinking straws, American inventor Marvin C. Stone created first model of modern drinking straw in 1888. Coming from the industry of cigar making he came to idea to wrap the paper around the pencil and applied thin layer of glue. Soon he refined his manufacturing process by creating automated machine that produced straws that wouldn't lose their glue even in stronger alcoholic beverages.
Apple's core product lines are the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, iPod portable media players, and Macintosh computer line. Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, and incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California.
Marvin Stone
Stone received the patent of the "artificial straw" on January 3, 1888.
In the 1800s fashion of drinking from cheap and easily created rye grass straws came into popularity, but their weak structure prevented them to be used in prolonged sessions (water would quickly turned them to mush). Dissatisfied with the current state of drinking straws, American inventor Marvin C. Stone created first model of modern drinking straw in 1888. Coming from the industry of cigar making he came to idea to wrap the paper around the pencil and applied thin layer of glue. Soon he refined his manufacturing process by creating automated machine that produced straws that wouldn't lose their glue even in stronger alcoholic beverages.
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
"On January 10, 1901, an enormous geyser of oil exploded from a drilling site at Spindletop Hill, a mound created by an underground salt deposit located near Beaumont in Jefferson County, southeastern Texas. Reaching a height of more than 150 feet and producing close to 100,000 barrels a day, the “gusher” was more powerful than any previously seen in the world. A booming oil industry soon grew up around the oil field at Spindletop, and many of the major oil companies in America, including Gulf Oil, Texaco and Exxon, can trace their origins there.
By the mid-19th century, the tremendous effects of the Industrial Revolution had created a need for a cheaper and more convenient fossil fuel than coal; this need would be filled by petroleum. Edwin Drake drilled the first well specifically intended to extract oil in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859, and by the end of the century, Pennsylvania had produced more oil than any other state.
As for Texas, Native Americans living in the region had known about the sticky black tar found in the earth there for centuries, and had long used it for medicinal purposes. By the end of the 19th century, several discoveries of oil had been made in the southeastern part of the state, including small fields near Nacogdoches and at Corsicana. In 1900, however, total Texas oil production was 863,000 barrels, a small fraction of the national total of 63 million.
Spindletop Hill, south of Beamount in Jefferson County, was formed by an underground salt dome, which pushed the earth above it higher and higher as it grew. It was the mechanic and self-taught geologist Patillo Higgins who first suspected there might be oil lurking beneath Spindletop (and other similar salt domes). Higgins organized the Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company in 1892 to look into the possibility, though his theory met with widespread skepticism from petroleum and geologic experts. Years later, Higgins ran a newspaper advertisement for fellow investors and got a response from the Austrian-born engineer Anthony F. Lucas, who shared Higgins’ view on the salt domes. When Lucas finally convinced leading Pennsylvania oilmen John Galey and James Guffey to finance a drilling operation, Higgins was completely excluded from the arrangement. (Higgins would later sue, and receive a comfortable profit from the Spindletop oil field.)
Drilling began at Spindletop in October 1900, and by early January 1901 they had reached a depth of some 1,020 feet after overcoming initial difficulties in drilling into the sandy ground. On January 10, mud began bubbling out of the hole. Workers soon fled as the mud came gushing out at high speed, followed by natural gas and then by oil. The Lucas Geyser, as it was called, reached a height of more than 150 feet, and was the most powerful that had ever been seen in the world. It was soon producing close to 100,000 barrels a day, more than all the other oil wells in America combined.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to the Spindletop oil field after the strike, transforming southeastern Texas from a sleepy backwater to a bustling boomtown within months. Spindletop in 1901 saw the earliest beginnings of the petroleum company that would become Gulf Oil Corporation (bought by Chevron Corporation in 1984). The oil strike at Spindletop also spawned the oil giants Texaco (founded as the Texas Fuel Company), Amoco and the Humble Oil Company (later Exxon Company USA).
In its first year, Spindletop produced more than 3.5 million barrels of oil; in its second, production rose to 17.4 million. In addition to driving the price of oil down and destroying the previous monopoly held by John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil, Spindletop ushered in a new era in Texas-based industry, and was enormously influential in the state’s future development. New oil companies were formed, along with the refining and marketing organizations needed to support them, offering a host of new jobs and increased income for the state’s inhabitants. Meanwhile, thousands of new prospectors arrived in Texas, searching for their own fields of black gold.
Though the oil boom surrounding Spindletop had largely subsided by the beginning of World War I, its impact would last much longer. The abundance of oil found in Texas would fuel the expansion of the shipping and railroad industries, as well as the development of new innovations such as automobiles and airplanes. By the late 20th century, oil refining, chemicals and petrochemicals continued to dominate Texas industry, though electronics, aerospace and other high-tech fields had increased in importance.
A monument commemorating the importance of the Lucas Geyser was erected in 1941 at Spindletop Hill, but was later moved after the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company used the site for lucrative salt-brine extraction in the 1950s. Today, the pink granite monument resides at the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum, on the Beaumont campus of Lamar University."
tangerinegreen555
Well-Known Member
lokie
Well-Known Member
Text messaging goes mainstream.
Samuel Morse
Alfred Vail
Samuel Morse independently developed and patented a recording electric telegraph in 1837. Morse's assistant Alfred Vail developed an instrument that was called the register for recording the received messages. It embossed dots and dashes on a moving paper tape by a stylus which was operated by an electromagnet.[26] Morse and Vail developed the Morse code signalling alphabet. The first telegram in the United States was sent by Morse on 11 January 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey,
en.wikipedia.org
in 1825 New York City had commissioned Morse to paint a portrait of Lafayette in Washington, DC. While Morse was painting, a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father that read, "Your dear wife is convalescent". The next day he received a letter from his father detailing his wife's sudden death.[9] Morse immediately left Washington for his home at New Haven, leaving the portrait of Lafayette unfinished. By the time he arrived, his wife had already been buried.[10] Heartbroken that for days he was unaware of his wife's failing health and her death, he decided to explore a means of rapid long distance communication.[11]
While returning by ship from Europe in 1832, Morse encountered Charles Thomas Jackson of Boston, a man who was well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson's electromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph. He set aside his painting, The Gallery of the Louvre.[12] The original Morse telegraph, submitted with his patent application, is part of the collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.[13] In time the Morse code, which he developed, would become the primary language of telegraphy in the world. It is still the standard for rhythmic transmission of data.
Samuel Morse
Alfred Vail
Samuel Morse independently developed and patented a recording electric telegraph in 1837. Morse's assistant Alfred Vail developed an instrument that was called the register for recording the received messages. It embossed dots and dashes on a moving paper tape by a stylus which was operated by an electromagnet.[26] Morse and Vail developed the Morse code signalling alphabet. The first telegram in the United States was sent by Morse on 11 January 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey,
Electrical telegraph - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
in 1825 New York City had commissioned Morse to paint a portrait of Lafayette in Washington, DC. While Morse was painting, a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father that read, "Your dear wife is convalescent". The next day he received a letter from his father detailing his wife's sudden death.[9] Morse immediately left Washington for his home at New Haven, leaving the portrait of Lafayette unfinished. By the time he arrived, his wife had already been buried.[10] Heartbroken that for days he was unaware of his wife's failing health and her death, he decided to explore a means of rapid long distance communication.[11]
While returning by ship from Europe in 1832, Morse encountered Charles Thomas Jackson of Boston, a man who was well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson's electromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph. He set aside his painting, The Gallery of the Louvre.[12] The original Morse telegraph, submitted with his patent application, is part of the collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.[13] In time the Morse code, which he developed, would become the primary language of telegraphy in the world. It is still the standard for rhythmic transmission of data.
too larry
Well-Known Member
0049
Julius Caesar leads his army across the Rubicon River, plunging Rome into civil war.
en.wikipedia.org
Julius Caesar leads his army across the Rubicon River, plunging Rome into civil war.
Crossing the Rubicon - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
too larry
Well-Known Member
1923
The French enter the town of Essen in the Ruhr valley, to extract Germany's resources as war payment.
A great way to insure the Great War was not the only world war.
en.wikipedia.org
The Occupation of the Ruhr (German: Ruhrbesetzung) was a period of military occupation of the Ruhr region of Germany by France and Belgium between 11 January 1923 and 25 August 1925.
France and Belgium occupied the heavily industrialized Ruhr Valley in response to Germany defaulting on reparation payments dictated by the victorious powers after World War I in the Treaty of Versailles. Occupation of the Ruhr worsened the economic crisis in Germany, and German civilians engaged in acts of passive resistance and civil disobedience, during which 130 were killed. France and Belgium, facing economic and international pressure, accepted the Dawes Plan to restructure Germany's payment of war reparations in 1924 and withdrew their troops from the Ruhr by August 1925.
The Occupation of the Ruhr contributed to German re-armament and the growth of radical right-wing movements in Germany.
The French enter the town of Essen in the Ruhr valley, to extract Germany's resources as war payment.
A great way to insure the Great War was not the only world war.
Occupation of the Ruhr - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The Occupation of the Ruhr (German: Ruhrbesetzung) was a period of military occupation of the Ruhr region of Germany by France and Belgium between 11 January 1923 and 25 August 1925.
France and Belgium occupied the heavily industrialized Ruhr Valley in response to Germany defaulting on reparation payments dictated by the victorious powers after World War I in the Treaty of Versailles. Occupation of the Ruhr worsened the economic crisis in Germany, and German civilians engaged in acts of passive resistance and civil disobedience, during which 130 were killed. France and Belgium, facing economic and international pressure, accepted the Dawes Plan to restructure Germany's payment of war reparations in 1924 and withdrew their troops from the Ruhr by August 1925.
The Occupation of the Ruhr contributed to German re-armament and the growth of radical right-wing movements in Germany.
raratt
Well-Known Member
RIP Chris Darrow.
theboot.com
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Alumnus Chris Darrow Dead at 75
Chris Darrow, a former member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, has died.
raratt
Well-Known Member
Cheers!!!!
www.newsweek.com
Prohibition's 100th Anniversary: Facts and Timeline of U.S. Ban on Alcohol
Congress first passed the 18th Amendment—prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors in the U.S.—in December 1917, but it wasn't until October 28, 1919, when the law was officially enforced.
www.newsweek.com
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
"1998 January 22 - In a Sacramento, California, courtroom, Theodore J. Kaczynski pleads guilty to all federal charges against him, acknowledging his responsibility for a 17-year campaign of package bombings attributed to the “Unabomber.”
Born in 1942, Kaczynski attended Harvard University and received a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He worked as an assistant mathematics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, but abruptly quit in 1969. In the early 1970s, Kaczynski began living as a recluse in western Montana, in a 10-by-12 foot cabin without heat, electricity or running water. From this isolated location, he began the bombing campaign that would kill three people and injure more than 20 others.
The primary targets were universities, but he also placed a bomb on an American Airlines flight in 1979 and sent one to the home of the president of United Airlines in 1980. After federal investigators set up the UNABOM Task Force (the name came from the words “university and airline bombing”), the media dubbed the culprit the “Unabomber.” The bombs left little physical evidence, and the only eyewitness found in the case could describe the suspect only as a man in hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses (depicted in an infamous 1987 police sketch).
In 1995, the Washington Post (in collaboration with the New York Times) published a 35,000-word anti-technology manifesto written by a person claiming to be the Unabomber. Recognizing elements of his brother’s writings, David Kaczynski went to authorities with his suspicions, and Ted Kaczynski was arrested in April 1996. In his cabin, federal investigators found ample evidence linking him to the bombings, including bomb parts, journal entries and drafts of the manifesto.
Kaczynski was arraigned in Sacramento and charged with bombings in 1985, 1993 and 1995 that killed two people and maimed two others. (A bombing in New Jersey in 1994 also resulted in the victim’s death.) Despite his lawyers’ efforts, Kaczynski rejected an insanity plea. After attempting suicide in his jail cell in early 1998, Kaczynski appealed to U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. to allow him to represent himself, and agreed to undergo psychiatric evaluation. A court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, and Judge Burrell ruled that Kaczynski could not defend himself. The psychiatrist’s verdict helped prosecutors and defense reach a plea bargain, which allowed prosecutors to avoid arguing for the death penalty for a mentally ill defendant.
On January 22, 1998, Kaczynski accepted a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole in return for a plea of guilty to all federal charges; he also gave up the right to appeal any rulings in the case. Though Kaczynski later attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that it had been involuntary, Judge Burrell denied the request, and a federal appeals court upheld the ruling. Kaczynski was remanded to a maximum-security prison in Colorado, where he is serving his life sentence."