History of the Week: Christmas, Trenton, Cicero, Emancipation Procl., Secession, Patton, Tolkien, Mao, Kipling, Revere, & More
Happy tenth day of Christmas! Due to the holidays and a family vacation, I have not done one of these history articles in a while, but I have had some interesting (and disturbing) history discussions online which emphasized to me more clearly than ever that our society has so many severe political, religious, and cultural problems largely because of our ignorance of history. And so below are just a few of the important events that occurred in history over these past two weeks.
December 20
1046 - Pope Gregory VI resigns, one of the few popes in history to do so, ending a feud between himself and two anti-popes.
1860 - Following the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the US presidency, despite Democrat shenanigans such as not having Lincoln on the ballot in some states (sound familiar to today?), the slave state of South Carolina secedes from the Union. This began a movement of seceding states that formed the Confederacy, for the express purpose of preserving and furthering the institution of slavery. Lincoln had not yet taken office, and he intended to pursue a gradual process of eliminating slavery. Here, in their own words, are the South Carolinians’ reasons for seceding:
“[A]n increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution…In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed…all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that ‘Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,’ and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.”
By the way, the words “slave” and “slavery” never appear in the Constitution, and, as former slave Frederick Douglass indicated, slavery could have been abolished without changing a word of the Constitution. But it is vital to note that South Carolina openly avowed it was seceding specifically to safeguard slavery, which helps explain the appalling war crimes, including mass enslavement and racial massacre, of the Confederates later in the war.
December 21
69 - Vespasian is confirmed as emperor by the Roman Senate.
1864 - Confederate Savannah surrenders to Union Gen. Sherman during the Civil War, marking the end of Sherman’s famous March to the Sea campaign. Sherman sent President Lincoln a telegram saying, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.”
1937 - Walt Disney’s ground-breaking animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premiers to a record-breaking audience in Los Angeles.
1945 - Gen. George Patton dies in a hospital after a suspicious vehicle accident in Germany. There is evidence, including testimony from a man who claimed to have been involved in the plot, that Patton was assassinated by American high command (possibly by poison while he was in the hospital). According to the Museum of the American G.I., Patton “is recognized as the greatest battlefield commander and well-known American general from the modern war era.” During World War II, unlike so many other commanders, the fearless Patton led from the front (including a first-of-its-kind company of black soldiers, the “Black Panthers”). His awards included the Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Meritorious Service Medal. After the Normandy invasions stalled, Patton and his fast-moving 3rd Army had to go in, liberating some 45,000 square miles of France in only two months.
The political correctness of his far less capable commanders and peers, including Eisenhower and Bradley, led to Patton’s being given far less latitude and command during WWII than he should have received; many thousands of men would probably not have died in North Africa, for instance, if Patton instead of the disastrous generals Montgomery and Eisenhower had been in charge. After Patton slapped a couple of soldiers in the hospital for “battle fatigue”—perhaps a difficult condition to deal with, but hardly something that commanders can afford to indulge when needing every able-bodied man to help fight for survival—he was wrongly castigated and punished. Patton was the greatest Allied general of WWII, and it is unfortunate that utterly incompetent politicians like Eisenhower and Montgomery should get so much praise while Patton should still be maligned.
1946 - Frank Capra’s movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart, has its world premier. While the film was not a huge crowd pleaser at the time, it has since become one of the most beloved and iconic Christmas movies.
1993 - Boris Yeltsin abolishes the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB. Former KGB intel officer Vladimir Putin is the current leader of Russia.
December 22
1783 - Gen. George Washington appears before the Continental Congress to resign his position as commander-in-chief voluntarily. He could have been king or a military dictator, but he chose instead to give up power and return to private life at his beloved Mt. Vernon estate (though he was later recalled by his country to serve as the first U.S. president). Washington’s speech was emotional, and there was reportedly much weeping. Everyone there knew that the American Revolution would have been a lost cause without Washington; he led his troops to victory against the world’s most powerful empire. Washington’s surrender of power has always been admired as a rare occurrence in history among successful leaders and a testament to Washington’s own integrity and republicanism.
1808 - Ludwig von Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 premiers.
1858 - Italian composer Giacomo Puccini is born. Famous for his operas including Turandot, La Boheme, and Madame Butterfly.
December 23
1688 - Catholic King James II flees England after losing the crown to his treacherous daughter, Mary, and her usurping Protestant Dutch husband, William of Orange.
1805 - Joseph Smith, future founder of the Mormon religion, is born in Vermont. Contrary to what many people believe, Mormonism is not Christian, merely adopting some of the trappings of Christianity, since it is a polytheistic religion. Mormons not only believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate gods, but that all good Mormons can become gods themselves.
1948 - “In Tokyo, Japan, Hideki Tojo, former Japanese premier and chief of the Kwantung Army, is executed along with six other top Japanese leaders for their war crimes during World War II. Seven of the defendants were also found guilty of committing crimes against humanity, especially in regard to their systematic genocide of the Chinese people.”
December 24
1745 - U.S. Founder Benjamin Rush is born. “Like many of the great men of the Revolution, Benjamin Rush was a multi-faceted man: a politician, physician, humanitarian, educator, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Following revolutionary ideals in all aspects of his life, Benjamin Rush made his mark in history with his innovative medical texts and ideals, and sometimes controversial views.” Rush served in the army during the American Revolution.
1809 - Old West hero, trapper, frontiersman, soldier, mountain man, and guide Christopher “Kit” Carson is born in Kentucky.
1814 - “The Treaty of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America is signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada.”
1818 - Franz Gruber’s “Silent Night” is sung for the first time.
December 25
1 AD - According to ancient tradition, the date on which the God-man Jesus Christ is born in a cave used for stabling animals in Bethlehem, Israel. We recognize it as the single most important event in human history, the date from which we measure time, since Jesus later suffered, died, and rose again to free mankind from the slavery of sin.
496 - King Clovis I of the Franks is baptized, marking the start of Catholic monarchy in what would become France, the “Eldest Daughter of the Church.”
1066 - Following his conquest of England and the Anglo-Saxons, Norman William the Conquerer is crowned king in London.
1223 - St. Francis of Assisi arranges the first Nativity scene.
1492 - Christopher Columbus’s flagship Santa Maria runs aground, forcing Columbus to found the settlement of La Navidad (Christmas) for the crew in the New World.
1776 - Gen. George Washington, with the help of the Massachusetts Marbleheaders, achieves the remarkable feat of getting his ill-equipped army across the ice-filled Delaware River and launching a successful attack on the (British-hired) Hessians at Trenton. Washington won the victory with only two men dead from freezing, and provided a vital boost to dying American Revolutionary morale.
1821 - Clara Barton, foundress of the American Red Cross and Civil War nurse, is born.
1899 - Humphrey Bogart, one of the most iconic stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, is born.
December 26
1606 - First known performance of Shakespeare’s famous play “King Lear.”
1893 - Mao Zedong is born. He later went on to become Communist dictator of China and history’s greatest mass murderer, with up to 65 million victims.
December 27
537 - Emperor Justinian I inaugurates the rebuilt Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople (now Istanbul).
1571 - Hugely impactful German astronomer Johannes Kepler is born.
1822 - French scientist Louis Pasteur, most famous for his bacteria-killing method pasteurization, is born.
December 28
1065 - Westminster Abbey is dedicated in London, England.
1832 - John C. Calhoun becomes the first U.S. Vice President to resign. A rabid racist and fervent supporter of slavery, one of Calhoun’s infamous quotes is, “I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good.”
December 29
1170 - Four knights murder Archbishop St. Thomas a Becket as the culmination of Becket’s feud with King Henry II of England over the latter’s attempt to meddle in church affairs.
1916 - Grigori Rasputin, the “Mad Monk,” is killed in Russia. His assassinators poisoned, shot, beat, and tossed him into a freezing river before he finally died; he was believed dead more than once but rose again. Rasputin had been driving the Russian Tsar and Tsarina to ruin (and the country with them) with his terrible advice. Rasputin was able to alleviate the hemophiliac symptoms of young Tsarevich Alexei, through means unknown, hence the devotion of Alexei’s parents to Rasputin. It is possible Rasputin was demonically possessed.
1940 - Devastating Nazi air raid on London during WWII.
December 30
1865 - Highly talented British writer and Nobel Prize winner Rudyard Kipling is born; perhaps best remembered now for his children’s story collection Jungle Book.
1922 - Following the Communist Revolution in Russia, the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian Federation.”
December 31
406 - The barbarian Germanic tribes, including the Alemanni, cross the frozen Rhine River to invade Roman territory.
535 - Eastern Roman Empire’s Gen. Belisarius enters Syracuse, having conquered Sicily.
January 1
1735 - Silversmith and Patriot Paul Revere is born. He is most famous for his midnight ride to warn the Revolutionaries to make ready their arms, because the “British are coming,” a feat immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s great poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
1752 - Betsy Ross, famous for sewing the official U.S. flag for the American Revolutionaries, is born.
1776 - The first American national flag, the Grand Union flag, is raised.
1801 - The Act of Union comes into effect, making Ireland officially part of Great Britain; Ireland would not gain independence until the 20th century.
1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issues the immortal Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in Confederate states (that is, states in rebellion; constitutionally, Lincoln could not free slaves in non-rebel states at that time, though he worked hard for the passage of the 13th Amendment ending slavery altogether). “Everyone seemed to feel a new sort of exhilarating life,” said John Hay, Abraham Lincoln’s personal secretary, after Lincoln issued the Proclamation. “The President’s proclamation had freed them as well as the slaves.” Read my previous article for more details.
1892 - The first immigrants arrive at Ellis Island for processing to enter America, with 17-year-old Irish Annie Moore the first off the boat.
1959 - Fulgencio Batista is forced out of power in Cuba by a revolution led by radical Communist and murderer Fidel Castro.
January 2
1492 - Boabdil, Muslim emir of Granada, surrenders to Catholic Spanish monarchs Isabel and Ferdinand, marking the end of the over 7 centuries-long Reconquista to take Spain back from the Muslim invaders.
1788 - Georgia becomes fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
January 3
106 BC - Roman statesman and thinker Marcus Tullius Cicero is born. Cicero is considered ancient Rome’s greatest orator, and he was also a brilliant philosopher. Cicero’s defense of the constitutional Roman Republic has inspired people for thousands of years, most notably the American Founding Fathers. Indeed, he was arguably the Founders’ favorite philosopher; Alexander Hamilton, for instance, utilized the pseudonym “Tully” (derived from Tullius).
[FEE] The Founding Father John Adams wrote that, “as all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united in the same character, his authority should have great weight”. Fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson dubbed Cicero “the father of eloquence and philosophy”. Finally, John Quincy Adams dramatically stated that “to live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was a privation of one of my limbs.”
1521 - Egomaniacal heretic Martin Luther is excommunicated by papal bull.
1777 - Gen. George Washington and his American Revolutionary troops win a victory against the British at the Battle of Princeton. In a personal tragedy for Washington, his friend Gen. Hugh Mercer was brutally and mortally attacked by British troops during the battle.
1892 - Catholic British philologist and writer JRR Tolkien, famous for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, is born. Tolkien’s unique and imaginative fantasy world, complete with complex languages, histories, and geographies, has fascinated millions worldwide.
1925 - Fascist Benito Mussolini declares himself dictator of Italy.
1959 - Alaska becomes the 49th American state.