History of the Week: Guadalcanal, Hiroshima, Mobile Bay, W.Wallace, Solzhenitsyn, Coast Guard, Berlin Olympics &More
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times,” wrote G. Michael Hopf. This past week in history furnishes ample examples of all these scenarios.
August 3
435 - Nestorius, former Patriarch of Constantinople and originator of the Nestorian heresy, is exiled by Emperor Theodosius II to Egypt after being condemned by the Council of Ephesus.
1492 - Genoese explorer Christopher “Columbus set[s] sail from Spain to find an all-water route to Asia,” backed by Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
1914 - WWI: Germany declares war on France and launches invasion of neutral Belgium.
1936 - In an historic sports event, a slap in the face to racist Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, black American runner Jesse Owens wins his first gold medal at the Berlin Olympics.
1972 - Cold War: U.S. Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union to limit these systems. The Reagan Administration later found that the Soviet Union had violated the treaty.
2008 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer and survivor of Soviet labor camps, dies.
August 4
1558 - The first print edition of the Jewish mystical text the Zohar appears.
1578 - The Battle of The Three Kings is a “defeat dealt [to] the invading Portuguese armies of King Sebastian by the Saʿdī sultan of Morocco, ʿAbd al-Malik.”
1790 - “The Coast Guard's official history began on August 4, 1790 when President George Washington signed the Tariff Act that authorized the construction of ten vessels to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling. Known variously through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the ‘revenue cutters,’ the ‘system of cutters,’ the Revenue Marine and finally the Revenue Cutter Service, it expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew. The service received its present name in 1915.”
1792 - English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is born.
1875 - Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, author of such famous tales as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Duckling,” dies.
1902 - Jazz great Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong is born in New Orleans.
1914 - WWI: Great Britain declares war on Germany.
1962 - Actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe overdoses on sleeping pills. It is debated if she committed suicide or if the Kennedys were involved somehow in her death. Certainly Monroe was devastated after Robert and John Kennedy abused her and then suddenly cut her off.
1993 - The Arusha Accord ends civil war hostilities in Rwanda.
August 5
910 - The Battle of Tettenhall is a victory for the Mercians and Saxons of England against the invading Vikings.
1305 - Scottish warrior hero William Wallace, “Braveheart,” is captured by the English after being betrayed by Scottish knight John de Menteith. “He was sentenced to death, taken to the Tower of London, stripped of all clothing, and dragged through the streets by a horse. Next, he was hanged, but released when still alive. He was then emasculated, eviscerated, and had his innards burned before him. Finally, his head was cut off and his body quartered.” Wallace has been considered a model of courage and military prowess to this day, and his story was re-popularized by Mel Gibson’s film.
1583 - “Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for the English Crown, making it the first English colony in the Americas. He is often credited with founding the British Empire. His plan was originally to take investment from Catholics who were interested in having a colony in America where they could worship, free of recusancy fines.”
1716 - The Catholic “Austrian Empire overcame the [Muslim] Ottoman empire at the Battle of Petrovaradin or Peterwardein – now in Serbia.”
1864 - U.S. Navy Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, famous military hero, utters immortal words during the Battle of Mobile Bay. “[War History Online] The Battle of Mobile Bay was a naval battle of the American Civil War, which held great strategic importance in the summer of 1864. It was important because Mobile Bay was the last Confederate port in the Gulf of Mexico…67 naval mines, or ‘torpedoes’ were planted across the bay…Admiral [Farragut] himself was aboard the flagship, Hartford…[the Tecumseh sank]…At this moment Farragut made a decision to run the entire fleet through the minefield, thus avoiding the fort cannons. He ha[d] estimated that the torpedoes, even though one of them had just sunk USS Tecumseh, were submerged for too long and that most of them weren’t effective anymore. It is claimed that he gave the order: ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,’ which became a memorable quote in naval history.” While several eyewitnesses remembered slight variations on the quote, Farragut’s courage and determination not only won him the day but made him iconic.
1895 - Friedrich Engels, German philosopher who collaborated with Karl Marx to found Communism, dies. Communism has been responsible for the massacre of more people than any other ideology in history.
1930 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the Moon, is born.
August 6
1661 - “Treaty of The Hague cedes Dutch Brazil to Portugal.”
1787 - The first draft of the U.S. Constitution is presented to the Constitutional Convention.
1809 - English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson is born.
1890 - Murderer William Kemmler becomes the first criminal executed by electric chair.
1945 - The American bomber Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Faced with the prospect of up to millions of American casualties, and even more Japanese casualties, with a potential land invasion of Japan, U.S. President Truman, with the support of his Allies, decided to use the atom bomb. Contrary to common propaganda now, the Japanese military leaders did not want to surrender even after the atom bombs were dropped (the emperor had to intervene), and the use of the atom bombs actually saved lives overall. For context, the Purple Hearts manufactured in anticipation of the invasion of Japan are still not used up (despite the Korean, Vietnam, and Middle Eastern wars). The Japanese had proved on the islands and elsewhere that they really did mean to fight to the last man—and kill themselves and their own children rather than surrender to Americans.
1978 - Pope Paul VI, modernist pope who oversaw the liturgical alterations and other damaging changes post-Vatican II, dies. Thanks to Paul VI and his cronies, Catholic vocations plummeted and many Catholics left the Church altogether.
1991 - “British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee published the first-ever website while working at CERN, the huge particle physics lab in Switzerland.”
August 7
1461 - Reportedly the date on which Ming Dynasty Chinese general Cao Qin stages his coup against the ruling Tianshun Emperor.
1714 - The Battle of Gangut is the first victory for the Russian navy (against Sweden).
1780 - 11-year-old Ann Mouzon sees the British cavalry of Banastre “The Butcher” Tarleton riding toward her family home in South Carolina and is able to warn her father (Patriot Captain William Henry Mouzon) and family in time to escape. Tarleton, previously Mouzon’s friend, burned the Mouzon home to the ground.
1782 - Gen. George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit, a purple heart-shaped silk badge symbolizing the recipient’s superior military achievement and courage. After falling out of use, the award was later revived as the Purple Heart, and for a decade now August 7 has been celebrated as Purple Heart Day.
1819 - The Battle of Boyacá is a victory for Colombian rebels against Spanish forces.
1933 - Iraqi forces commit the Simele Massacre; the term is used to describe the mass killing at Simele and also the broader genocide that left thousands of Assyrians dead.
1942 - Operation Watchtower, or the American invasion of Guadalcanal, begins during WWII. The Marines’ invasion of the Japanese-controlled Solomon Islands proved somewhat of a surprise to the Japanese, meaning the U.S. was able quickly to take the airfield they aimed to seize, but soon brutal jungle hand-to-hand fighting became the reality. The Japanese loss of life was greater than American casualties. John Basilone, famous Marine Medal of Honor recipient, received the award for his fighting at Guadalcanal.
1972 - Ugandan military dictator Idi Amin gives all Asians 90 days to leave Uganda.
1990 - U.S. President George HW Bush orders Operation Desert Shield in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
August 8
1509 - Indian “Emperor Krishnadeva Raya was crowned. The event marked the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire.”
1793 - The revolt of Lyon occurs against the bloodthirsty French Revolutionary government.
1918 - The Allied Hundred Days Offensive begins, which will lead to Germany’s defeat in WWI.
1945 - As WWII draws to a close, the Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
1974 - Following a Deep State coup against him and his own foolish decision-making, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces he will resign.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.