For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
By James Yee

The Price of Loyalty

The Torture Debate in America

The Culture of the New Capitalism

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1659 The Franco-Spanish War ended.

1665 The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, was first published.

1805 Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their 28 expedition members reached the (Pacific) coast of Oregon, USA, 18 months after setting out from St Louis.

Lewis: Suicide or murder? See October 11.

1811 Tecumseh's War: The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States. William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana, defeated an Indian group; the fame for this feat later helped him gain the US presidency.

1837 In Alton, Illinois, USA, abolitionist printer Elijah P Lovejoy (b. 1802) was shot to death by a mob while he was attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed for a third time.

A pro-slavery mob killed him while he defended his press. He had already lost three other presses to mob attacks, but he refused to surrender this one, which was contributed by the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. For this he was shot five times.

Lovejoy had moved to Alton from St Louis where, after denouncing a lynching and burning of a black man, a mob tore down his office. In a speech four days prior to his death, he said "I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery and, by the blessings of God, I will never turn back. I can die at my post but I cannot desert it."

The Ohio Anti-Slavery Society provided financial support for the repair of his press, and he continued printing abolitionist writings, despite threats on his life. When the mob returned a third time, Lovejoy stood in the way. Although he was killed and his printing press destroyed, his death helped to motivate the movement in America for the abolition of slavery.

Source: The Daily Bleed

1848 US presidential election, 1848: Zachary Taylor was elected president in the first US presidential election held in every state on the same day.

1861 American Civil War: Battle of Belmont – In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S Grant overran a Confederate camp but were forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrived.

1861 Melbourne, Australia: Archer, ridden by J Cutts, won the first Melbourne Cup, one of the world's richest horse racing prizes. The event has been held on the first Tuesday in November since 1861 by the Victoria Racing Club, on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It is generally regarded as the most prestigious 'two-mile' handicap in the world (the race was originally held over two miles, about 3,218 metres, but following Australia's adoption of the metric system in 1972 the current distance of 3,200 metres was adopted).

Virtually the whole of Australia stops to watch or listen to the race in homes, offices and even in cars pulled over to the sides of roads, and in the State of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, Cup Day is a public holiday. It was first declared a holiday for Victorian public servants and bank employees in 1865, and in the following year it was declared a public holiday for all workers.

The first Melbourne Cup attracted 4,000 people, but within two decades there were 100,000 people actually attending the race. The biggest ever attendance was in 2000 when more than 120,000 people watched Brew win the coveted Cup. The 2-mile race record is 3 minutes 16.3 seconds, set by Kingston Rule in 1990.

Legendary trainer Bart Cummings trained an incredible 11 Melbourne Cup winners –most recently with Saintly in 1996 and Rogan Josh in 1999, but even more incredibly he has supplied the Cup Quinella five times.

Folklore has it that for his 1861 victory Archer walked from Nowra in New South Wales to Melbourne with his stable hand – about an 800-km (approx. 500-mile) trip. 

However, shipping documents released years later, revealing a thoroughbred horse accompanied by an anonymous male, cast doubts over the claim. 

In this first race there were seventeen starters and paradoxically, the prize – apart from the money (170 pounds ) – was not a cup at all but a hand-beaten gold watch. 

Archer won again the following year. However, despite his owner's intention to race Archer for a third Melbourne Cup in 1863, he was unable to do so because of a technical error. Archer's acceptance nomination to race failed to arrive in time – it was delayed in the post. 

Consequently, in a show of solidarity, some sympathetic owners scratched many horses, leaving a starting field of only seven horses that history shows was the smallest field to race in the Cup.

Makybe Diva (a British-bred Australian thoroughbred racehorse) is the first to have won the prestigious Cup three times. She won the cup in 2003 and 2004, and won both the Melbourne Cup and the Cox Plate in 2005. The astonishing achievement of 'the Diva' is evident in the fact that only four other horses have won the Cup more than once in the century and half history of the event. (Archer in 1861 and 1862, Peter Pan in 1932 and 1934, Rain Lover in 1968 and 1969 and Think Big in 1974 and 1975).

Winners

1865 The Repeating Light Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, manufactured the first pocket cigarette lighter.

The Mary Celeste, a 103 foot brigantine, set sail from New York for Genoa on November 7, 1872. 
She was found abandoned at sea on December 4, 1872 at 38"29'N, 17"15'W (590 miles west of Gibraltar) by the Dei Gratia.

1872 The Mary Celeste set sail from New York to Genoa; she was found by the bark Dei Gratia four weeks later on December 4, 1872 (some accounts say December 5), mysteriously abandoned.

"The real mystery did not begin until 1884 when Arthur Conan Doyle writing under a pseudonym published a story about a derelict ship called "Marie Celeste". This tale recounted the actual events of the Mary Celeste with enough added fictional and provocative detail to capture the public interest. Since then and to this day, no two accounts of the story are the same."   Source

Was the cause a 'seaquake'?

Another theory "suggested by Dr James H Kimble and author Gersholm Bradford, was that the Celeste had hit a waterspout … the crew and Briggs's family quickly got into the lifeboat and lowered themselves into the water … Whether the lifeboat capsized and those inside were drowned, or whether the lifeboat was cast away from the Celeste and the inhabitants starved . . . the details can be left to the imagination. But the result--and the irony--is the same. The crew of the Celeste felt their ship was unsafe and got into the lifeboat, only to find the Celeste was perfectly safe, but their lifeboat was doomed."   Source

Clive Cussler, best-selling novelist and adventurer, representing the National Underwater & Marine Agency, (NUMA) and John Davis, president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada, announced August 9th, 2001, that they had discovered the remains of Mary Celeste on a reef off the coast of Haiti.   Source

Download a video of the discovery of Mary Celeste     Mary Celeste sites 

1874 A cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in Harper's Weekly, and is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.

"In 1874, the New York Herald printed an editorial accusing Republican President Ulysses S. Grant of 'Caesarism,' in the belief that he would attempt to run for an unprecedented third term in 1876. About the same time the Herald concocted a scheme to increase its circulation and printed a fabricated story that the animals had escaped from Central Park Zoo and were roaming the city looking for prey. Thomas Nast, seeing an opportunity to combine the rumor about Grant with the animal story, created a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He drew a donkey clothed in a lion's skin (labeled 'Caesarism'), scaring away the other animals in the park. Among the animals in the cartoon was an elephant, labeled 'The Republican Vote.' Nast chose the elephant because it was believed that elephants were clever, steadfast, and easily controlled, but unmanageable when frightened. After the election, Nast drew another cartoon depicting an elephant having walked into a Democratic trap. Soon, other cartoonists began using elephants to represent Republicans, and the elephant came to symbolize the Republican Party."   Source

1885 In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ended on the Canadian Pacific Railway extending across Canada.

1893 After a long struggle, Colorado became the third American state to grant lasting women's suffrage.

A world chronology of women's suffrage    US chronology    Louisa Lawson, Australian suffragette

1908 USA: The Omaha chief of police prevented Emma Goldman from lecturing in the hall of her choice, where she hoped to lecture between November 7th-13th (free speech?); crowds gathered to hear Emma at other sites in the city.

Goldman had just concluded speaking in cities throughout Missouri: Springfield, Liberal, and Kansas City.

Her lectures in Des Moines, Iowa, on the 15th were successful, but lectures in Minneapolis and St. Paul poorly attended. Between the 24th-30th, she appeared in Winnipeg, Canada for lectures and a debate with socialist JD Houston.

Source: The Daily Bleed

1912 USA: Ernest Riebe's Mr Block, IWW (International Workers of the World, aka 'Wobblies') labor comic strip, made its first appearance.

One of the best-loved features in the Wobbly press, his comic book was a hot seller for years. Joe Hill wrote a 'Mr Block' song, and Riebe brought out two more Mr Block comic books, a Mr Block play, and Mr Block postcards. Other IWW artists introduced Block into their own cartoons.

Like all labor cartoonists, Riebe is largely overlooked in the various surveys of US comics issued by the big multinational publishers. Increasingly, scholars recognize Riebe as an important figure and some call him the first 'underground' comic book artist.

Throughout the 1980s, Riebe's work was prominently featured in Carlos Cortez's cross-country Wobbly Art Show. Historians Joyce Kornbluh, Dave Roediger and Sal Salerno have reproduced Mr Block cartoons in their pathbreaking studies of the Wobbly counterculture.

Source: The Daily Bleed    More    And more

1913 Death of Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist.

1913 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, at Volksrust was released on bail; rejoined Marchers on the Great March.

1914 The first issue of The New Republic magazine was published.

1916 Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.

1917 Russian Revolution began: In Russia, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, with the assistance of Bolshevik military leader and philosopher Leon Trotsky, led his revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the Provisional Government (the name/date confusion arises from the fact that Russia did not change to the Gregorian calendar until after the communist revolution, so contemporary references show an October 25 date, and it is often called the 'October Revolution').

1917 World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ended – United Kingdom forces captured Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.

1919 USA: 'Palmer's Reign of Terror' began: 3,000 anarchists were imprisoned without bail, Ellis Island in NY Harbor.

1921 Benito Mussolini became the official leader of the 35 parliamentary members of Italy's National Fascist Party.

1929 In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opened to the public.

1940 Tacoma, Washington, USA: At approximately 11 a.m., the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed 'Galloping Gertie', collapsed in moderate wind four months after opening. Galloping Gertie had become something of a local sport, and many people had disregarded its dangers. On windy days, tourists had been known to treat the bridge toll as the fee paid to ride a roller-coaster.

"Tribune photographer Howard Clifford was the last man on the bridge before the center span broke off at 11 a.m. and plunged 190 feet into the turbulent Tacoma Narrows. Trapped on the suddenly destabilized side spans, he narrowly avoided being thrown off and ran to safety. The sole casualty of the disaster was the cocker spaniel in Coatsworth's [Leonard Coastworth was a driver stranded on the bridge during this event – PW] car, which fell into the Narrows and disappeared beneath the foam."   Source

Mark Ketchum's Bridge Collapse Page    More

1944 US presidential election, 1944: Franklin D Roosevelt won re-election over Republican challenger Thomas E Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term.

1956 Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Egypt immediately.

1957 Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report called for more American missiles and fallout shelters.

1960 For the first time, missiles appeared at the annual parade in Red Square, Moscow.

1961 Konrad Adenauer was elected German chancellor for the fourth time.

1962 USA: Richard M Nixon lost the California governor's race. In his concession speech, he said that this was his "last press conference" and that "you [the media] won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".

1963 The highly successful ensemble comedy movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, premiered. Actors included Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante, Peter Falk, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Spencer Tracy and Jonathan Winters. Among the many actors who made cameo appearances were: Jim Backus, Jack Benny, Joe E Brown, Andy Devine, Stan Freberg, Edward Everett Horton, Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis, Carl Reiner and The Three Stooges.

1963 Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, 11 miners were rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days.

1967 US President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

1972 US presidential election, 1972: Republican incumbent Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern.

1973 The United States Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limited presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.

1974 And in case we were deluded that rock 'n' roll was somehow mystically connected to progressive attitudes: Rolling Stone reported that Ted Nugent had won the National Squirrel-Shooting Archery Contest by picking off a squirrel at 150 yards. Nugent also wiped out 27 more of the small mammals with a handgun during the three-day event.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1974 Richard Bingham, 7^th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan; b. December 18, 1934) and Lady Lucan's nanny was found murdered, in the basement of the family home in Belgravia, London. Lady Lucan was found alive in the hall. Lord Lucan disappeared and many unconfirmed reports of sightings of the missing lord in various parts of the world occurred for a number of years.

A month after the murder, the suspicions of Australian police were aroused when a distinguished-looking Englishman turned up in Melbourne. On Christmas Eve, 1974, he was immediately arrested and questioned. It turned out not to be Lucan, but the former Labour government minister John Stonehouse, wanted by police in Britain after faking his suicide in Florida, USA in order to escape business debts.

The peer was officially declared dead by the High Court in London in 1999.

From Wikipedia: In September 2003 a book entitled Dead Lucky: Lord Lucan The Final Truth written by a former Scotland Yard detective claimed to have solved the mystery of Lucan's disappearance. He claimed that Lucan fled to Goa, India, arriving there a year after the death of his children's nanny. The book includes photos taken there in 1991 of a man who looked somewhat similar to Lucan, including a lack of ear lobes. The man who died in 1996 was known in Goa as Barry Halpin (or, according to the book, Jungly Barry). However these claims were almost immediately dismissed. BBC Radio 2 presenter Mike Harding said in a letter to The Guardian newspaper that he knew Barry Halpin from his days as folk musician in Liverpool in the 1960s and that he had gone to India "as it was more spiritual than St. Helens". Lord Lucan's ex-wife and son scorned the suggestion in separate statements. Given the extremely rapid disproving of the claims The Sunday Telegraph, which serialised part of the book, was left with egg on its face in a manner reminiscent of The Sunday Times' publication of the bogus Hitler Diaries. The book was reprinted a year later in paperback entitled The Lucan Conspiracy (to much less press interest) with one additional final chapter.

The phrase 'do a Lord Lucan' now means to disappear or go missing. The phrase is generally applied in a humorous context.

The official website about the missing earl by his widow    www.lordlucan.com

A website about the missing earl    Jungly Barry website

1987 In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba was overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

1989 Douglas Wilder won the governor's seat in Virginia, USA, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.

1989 David Dinkins became the first African American mayor of New York City.

1989 In California, convicted murder Richard Ramirez (the 'Night Stalker') was sentenced to death.

1990 An attempt was made on the life of Mikhail Gorbachev in Red Square by Alexandr Shimonov who fired two shots in the Soviet premier's direction during the annual military review in Red Square.

1996 NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor.

1996 A Nigerian Boeing 727 crashed into a lagoon 40 miles south-east of Lagos, Nigeria, killing 143.

2000 US presidential election, 2000: Republican Texas Governor George W Bush defeated Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome was not known for more than a month because of disputed votes in Florida. "Hail to the thief."

2000 Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to win public office.

2001 The super-sonic commercial aircraft Concorde resumed flying after a 15-month break.

2002 Iran banned advertising of US products.

2002 An Iranian, believing a sorcerer had made him invisible, attempted to rob a Tehran bank.

2004 War in Iraq: The interim government of Iraq called for a 60-day state of emergency as US forces stormed the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.