Thursday
I just finished an entertaining, informative book: The Greatest Stories Never Told, 100 tales from history to astonish, bewilder, and stupefy, compiled by Rick Beyer, a producer of documentaries. Here are highlights, edited by yours truly: 1636 — Tulips were traded as a commodity, Bulb Futures, at one time rising to the equivalent of $100,000 in today’s cash. Of course there was a crash the next year, wiping out 99% of paper profits and putting a permanent kibosh on the practice.
1781: George Washington was not actually the first president of the U.S.. Congress unanimously elected John Haines to the position of “President of the United States in Congress Assembled.” Six more men were appointed in the ensuing years until 4/30/’89 when the Father of Our Country took office.
1810: Hai Kai, female, was the most successful pirate of all-time, commanding more men and ships than anyone in history. Britain, Portugal and China were poised for an attack. To avoid the massive loss of life such a conflict would cause, the Emperor of China offered amnesty. Kai and her minions accepted and basked in luxury, keeping their plunder. She lived another 30 years.
1816: French doctor Rene Laennec, a bachelor, invented the stethoscope because he was skittish about putting his ear to a woman’s breast.
1863: Giovanni Casselli, a priest, invented a fax machine, transmitting as many as 110 messages per hour through telegraph wires. The service was disrupted when Prussian troops invaded France in 1870. Considered a novelty, it faded away.
1864: Actor Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes, was boarding a train that lurched suddenly. A young man was about to fall to peril when Booth grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to safety. The man was Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of the President’s four children to survive to adulthood.
1871: On the night of the Chicago Fire, a deadlier blaze raged 250 miles north in Peshtigo Wisconsin, killing more than a thousand, the deadliest in U.S. history. 250 died in the Windy City.
1907: The Eiffel Tower was considered an eyesore by many, despite its popularity with tourists. It was saved from its scheduled dismantling because it served as a great radio tower.
1908: Civil War Major General Abner Doubleday may have never even watched a baseball game. A myth was created by sporting goods manufacturer A. G. Spaulding. Baseball’s origins are actually British and date back to the mid 1700s.
1918: Red Sox vs. Cubs, Game Five of the World Series. It was delayed by a strike, players demanding more of a share of the purse. They were shamed into playing when it was noted that many wounded WWI vets were in the stands. The Red Sox owner had the band strike up The Star Spangled Banner, believed to be the first time its was played before a game. The Sox won the series, then the Curse of the Bambino kicked in.
1925: The Scopes Monkey Trial was rigged. The leaders of Dayton, Tennessee saw it as self-promotion, asking Scopes’ permission to be tried.
1943: Operation Mincemeat. British officers took a body from a morgue and planted papers on it hinting that the invasion of Europe would begin in Greece rather than Sicily. The body of “Major William Martin” was dropped near Spain. As expected, the Spaniards contacted the Germans, who were duped. The faux major had committed suicide by consuming rat poison.
1944: New Orleans boatbuilder Andrew Jackson Higgins took the Navy to task for its clumsy landing craft. He believed wood was a better option. On D-Day more GIs hit the beach in his crafts than in all others combined. Hitler called him “The American Noah.”
1945: The first microwave was invented by Percy Spencer, who did not advance beyond the third grade. Self taught, he submitted more than 150 patents. The first microwave weighed 750 pounds and cost $3000.
491 users at Amazon have rated The Greatest Stories Never Told, forging to a consensus of 4.6 on a scale of five.
A rarity these days, a liberal scholar who is fair:
Unsurprising headline from foxnews.com: “Biden admin releases review of disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal — and blames Trump.” More corroboration that politicians are the lowest form of life.
Kudos, Travis Tritt, headline from FN: “Country star drops Anheuser-Busch products after Bud Light’s trans activist campaign.”
Any repeal of a tax is good news. This one is also amusing. From newsmax.com: “S.C. House Votes to Repeal Menstrual Product Tax.” Period, exclamation point.
Also from NM: “Twitter Labels NPR as ‘US State-Affiliated Media’.” Thanks, Mr. Musk.
Leftists have protested in Tennessee in January 6th fashion, others tore a Bible to shreds in Albany. Rightists stormed a Pelosi interview in NYC, dubbing her a war criminal. Will things get even worse, more heated in the good old USA?
The rain held off and the temperature rose. The incoming was greater than the outgoing at today’s session of the floating book shop. My thanks to those who bought, swapped and donated. Here’s what sold: four Harlequin romances translated into Russian, four other books and a pictorial on Versailles in that language; and books on the basics of Architecture and Engineering. I am blessed.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
