This Week in History: OK Corral, ‘Albanian Braveheart,’ Pompeii, Agincourt, Constantine, US Navy, Irish Constitution, Statue of Liberty, & More
Media and social media this week provided too many examples of historical blindness and ignorance, both from conservatives and from leftists. We cannot understand our present if we do not understand our past. Below are some of the important historical events that occurred this week throughout world history.
October 23
42 BC - The Second Battle of Philippi, a victory for Marc Antony and Octavian (later Caesar Augustus), decisively defeats Julius Caesar’s killer Brutus, who commits suicide. Octavian and Marc Antony’s stated purpose was to avenge the death of Julius, and they also aimed crush Brutus’s pretensions at power in Rome.
502 - “The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theodoric the Great, discharges Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.”
787 - The Seventh Ecumenical Council condemns the heresy of iconoclasm, or the destruction of sacred images (of Jesus, Biblical figures, etc.).
1086 - From PJ Media: “Muslims Worship Allah Atop 2,400 Decapitated Christian Heads [at the Battle of Sagrajas].” Some things never change, and Islam is one of them. The Spanish Christians initially thought they were winning the battle, but were outmaneuvered and slaughtered by the Muslims.
Meanwhile, a grisly scene was unfolding on the field of battle. In keeping with the modus operandi of four centuries of Islamic heroes and caliphs, stretching back to Muhammad’s treatment of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, “Yusuf caused the heads of all the Christian slain [to the number of 2,400] to be cut off and gathered together in massive piles”:
And from the tops of those gruesome minarets the muezzins called to morning prayers the victorious soldiers, now worked into a frenzy by the sight of this bestial treading under-foot of human remains, “In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”
The emir later had the now rotten heads hauled off in carts to the kingdoms of al-Andalus as material proof of victory — and a reminder of the fate of all who resist Islam.
1157 - “The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I restores the country.”
1641 - Catholic uprising in Ulster against harshly discriminatory laws by English Protestants launches the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
1707 - The first Parliament of Great Britain, formed through the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, convenes.
1739 - War of Jenkins’ Ear begins between British and Spanish, triggered by the alleged mutilation of a British captain’s ear during Spanish pillaging of his ship.
1941 - Tens of thousands of Jews massacred in Odessa after Nazis seize control.
1942 - British General Montgomery launches a major offensive against the Nazis during WWII at El Alamein, Egypt. Montgomery was a disastrous general in many ways, and he won in North Africa only because of superior troop numbers and supplies, and air cover. He was notoriously cautious when it came to making advances, so much so that even incompetent U.S. Gen. Eisenhower became frustrated. Montgomery was a demanding, arrogant, whiny, and tantrum-prone commander, and he tried to steal glory from others (especially Patton). See also The Spies Who Never Were by Hervie Haufler.
1983 - “Terrorists drove a truck loaded with TNT into the U.S. and French headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, exploding it and killing 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French paratroopers.”
1989 - “Hungary declared itself a republic 33 years after Soviet Russian troops crushed a popular revolt against Communist rule.”
2001 - Tech giant Apple releases the iPod.
October 24
51 AD - Roman Emperor Domitian is born. The last of the Flavian dynasty, Domitian was cruel, ostentatious, and a persecutor of Christians.
79 AD - “Mt. Vesuvius erupts, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae and killing thousands.” Oct. 24 is the estimated date of the eruption. An eyewitness account of the eruption can be found in the Letters of Pliny the Younger, whose uncle died due to the volcanic eruption. Pompeii is famous for having been so well-preserved in the volcanic ash that researchers basically found a first-century Roman town frozen in time.
1260 - Consecration of the magnificent Cathedral of Chartres with King St. Louis IX present.
1648 - The signing of the Peace of Westphalia in Europe ends both the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War.
1861 - West Virginia begins the process to become a separate state, breaking from Virginia, refusing to turn traitor and leave the United States to join the Confederacy as Virginia did. Also the date of the first transcontinental telegraph line’s completion.
1911 - Orville Wright successfully remains airborne in a glider for a (then) record-setting nine minutes and 45 seconds.
1922 - “The Irish Parliament voted to adopt a constitution for an Irish Free State, which formally came into existence in December.”
1929 - “Black Thursday” at the New York Stock Exchange, which saw the biggest sell-off of shares in the history of the United States.
1945 - The United Nations (UN) is founded. The UN now is enthusiastically supportive of the murderous Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Islamic terrorists.
1994 - “For the first time in 25 years, British troops were absent from the streets of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, following cease-fires by Irish Republican Army (IRA) and pro-British forces.”
October 25
1415 - On the feast day of Sts. Crispin and Crispian, King Henry V of England defeats a much larger French force (the British were outnumbered four- or five-to-one) at the Battle of Agincourt. English longbows play a key role. The battle was immortalized in William Shakespeare’s play Henry V and its famous St. Crispin’s Day Speech.
1854 - “During the Crimean War, the Charge of the Light Brigade occurred as Lord Cardigan led the British cavalry against the Russians at Balaclava. Of 673 British cavalrymen taking part in the charge, 272 were killed. The Charge was later immortalized in the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.” Leaders’ miscommunication led to disaster.
1881 - Popular and influential artist Pablo Picasso is born in Spain. Though Picasso possessed clear artistic talent, much of his later work is deliberately and atrociously deformed and hideous.
1936 - Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy form the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1947 - Crooked Hillary Rodham Clinton is born. She went on to be U.S. First Lady and Senator, but—thank God—not President. She has yet to go to jail for her traitorous and criminal actions.
1955 - Austria regains sovereignty as the last Allied troops depart. Previously, between 1938 and 1945, the Nazis occupied Austria, and after WWII it had been divided into four occupation zones, one each for America, Russia, France, and Britain.
1971 - The tyranny-loving United Nations expels the democratic Republic of China, i.e. Nationalist-controlled Taiwan, from their assembly in favor of recognizing the Communist Chinese Party government, which remains by far the greatest mass murderer in history.
1973 - The Yom Kippur War, which occurred when an Arab coalition attacked Israel, ends.
1983 - U.S. troops invade the island of Grenada to restore democracy after a Marxist coup there.
October 26
1450 - PJ Media’s Raymond Ibrahim says a “man who would come to be known as the ‘Albanian Braveheart’ delivered his homeland from a brutal Muslim siege following a series of events that still boggle the mind.” George Kastrioti or “Skanderbeg” used “matchless strategy” to fend off an exponentially larger force of Muslim Turks, humiliating their sultan and saving Albania. Read more of this remarkable feat that made Skanderbeg a “Champion of Christendom” at PJ Media.
1529 - Sir Thomas More becomes Lord Chancellor of England. When he later refused to affirm King Henry VIII’s adulterous second marriage and heresy, More was martyred.
1774 - “First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia,” and the U.S. colonists organize “minutemen,” volunteers who could be ready at a minute’s notice to fight the British.
1776 - Ben Franklin leaves for France to seek French support for the American Revolution, support which will eventually play a key role in the American victory over the British.
1825 - The Erie Canal opens, after an expenditure of $7 million and eight years of work, the first major man-made waterway in the U.S. It links Lake Erie and the Hudson River, allowing trade to bypass the British-controlled St. Lawrence. The Erie Canal, by connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, significantly lowered transportation costs for people and goods.
1861 - The famous “Pony Express” ceases operating after only about 19 months.
1881 - Famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, between members of the Clanton/McLaury gang and law enforcement, namely the Earp brothers (Virgil, Morgan, and the famous Wyatt Earp) and their friend Doc Holliday. The Clanton/McLaury gang, the “Cowboys,” were a murderous set of cattle rustlers and outlaws, and the corrupt Democrat Sheriff Behan was running cover for the gang. The Earps, who as Republicans were at political odds with the sheriff, aimed to restore some law and order in Tombstone. Ike Clanton had been threatening Doc Holliday, and Wyatt Earp said right after the fight that he had originally come to disarm the Cowboys, rather than have a shootout to the death. Contrary to movie depictions, the actual gunfight lasted around thirty seconds.
Most of the criminal gang (the McLaury brothers and teenaged Billy Clanton) were mortally wounded—Ike Clanton, the instigator, saved his life by turning coward and running. Morgan Earp was later shot in the back by another member of the gang and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had to flee for their lives to Colorado, where the Republican governor protected them from the murder-minded Democrats in Arizona. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Wyatt Earp in particular have been immortalized in various highly unhistorical TV shows and movies, my personal favorite being the 1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
1944 - “The Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines ends with an overwhelming American victory during World War II.”
1951 - “Winston Churchill became Britain's prime minister for a second time, following his Conservative Party's narrow victory in general elections. In his first term from 1940-45 he had guided Britain through its struggle against Nazi Germany.” After the war, the British voted in socialists, which proved so disastrous that Churchill ended up as Prime Minister again.
1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims South Vietnam to be a republic, with himself as president.
October 27
312 - Constantine receives his famous vision with the message “In hoc signo vinces (in this sign you shall conquer).” Sources say Constantine saw either a cross or a chi rho, the symbol made by the first two Greek letters of Christ’s name. Constantine put the Christian symbol on his shields and standards and won a victory over his rival for imperial power at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, leading to the legalization of Christianity in 313 AD.
1275 - The Dutch city of Amsterdam is founded.
1682 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is founded by William Penn.
1728 - Famous British navigator and explorer James Cook is born.
1775 - “Navy Day,” when “a document [was] presented to the Continent[al] Congress on this date in 1775 that supported the purchase of a fleet of merchant ships to form an American colonial navy.” At one time considered the U.S. Navy’s birthday.
1787 - The first of the 85 “Federalist Papers” essays appears in print in a New York City newspaper. In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, using the pseudonym “Publius,” made their case to convince states to adopt the new U.S. Constitution.
1858 - Future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is born.
1871 - William “Boss” Tweed, Democrat leader of the infamous Tammany Hall, is arrested after being busted for corruption by the New York Times.
October 28
1017 - Holy Roman Emperor Henry III is born.
1449 - The first Danish monarch of the House of Oldenburg is crowned king. Members of the House of Oldenburg still rule Denmark today.
1636 - “Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in America, was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was named after John Harvard, a Puritan who donated his library and half of his estate. Distinguished alumni include[:] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Henry James, and NAACP founder W.E.B. Du Bois.”
1776 - American Revolution’s Battle of White Plains. “On October 28, 1776, George Washington’s Patriot army was attacked by British forces under the command of William Howe at the Battle of White Plains. In the resulting action, the Patriot force was defeated and forced to retreat from the field. Faced with the crippling defeats at White Plains followed by Forts Washington and Lee, Washington was forced to evacuate New York and New Jersey.”
1858 - “R. H. Macy & Co opens 1st store, (6th Ave-NYC) Gross receipts $11.06.”
1867 - The first Jewish theological college in America, Maimonides College, opens.
1868 - “Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.”
1886 - The Statue of Liberty is dedicated on an island in New York Harbor. The people of France gave the 300-foot statue, designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and with a metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel, to the U.S. as a gift commemorating the French-American friendship that goes back to the American Revolution. The pedestal famously bears the words of “The New Colossus” poem by Emma Lazarus, including the lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
1904 - First U.S. police use of fingerprinting, in St. Louis, MO.
1918 - “The Republic of Czechoslovakia was founded, assembled from three provinces - Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia - which had been part of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.”
1918 - German Kaiser Wilhem’s government is brought to a halt during WWI amidst naval mutiny and a strike in Berlin.
1919 - The National Prohibition (Volstead) Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, beginning over 13 years of Prohibition. Organized crime made a great deal of money off illegal liquor sales during the ill-judged experiment.
1922 - “Fascist blackshirts began their ‘March on Rome’ from Naples which resulted in the formation of a dictatorship under Benito Mussolini.”
1948 - Official adoption of the flag of Israel.
1955 - Insidious Marxist billionaire, globalist, and avid depopulationist Bill Gates is born. Gates is tied to vaccine scandals in Africa and is an admirer of Communist China. He infamously expressed his goal during a 2010 TED Talk of reducing the world’s population at least 10% to 15% through “vaccines, healthcare, [and] reproductive health services.”
1958 - Pope John XXIII is elected to the papal office. He is most famous for opening Vatican Council II.
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis between the U.S. and Soviet Russia ends.
October 29
539 BC - King Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, marches into the capital of Babylon, conquering it. He is the ruler who ensured that the exiled Jews suffering under the Babylonian Captivity could return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.
1911 - Former Democrat congressman and hugely powerful newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, after whom the Pulitzer Prizes are named, dies.
1923 - With the Ottoman Empire destroyed, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founds the Republic of Turkey.
1929 - “The stock market crashed as over 16 million shares were dumped amid tumbling prices. The Great Depression followed in America, lasting until the outbreak of World War II.”
1897 - “Nazi propaganda minister Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) was born in Rheydt, near Dusseldorf, Germany. Considered a master propagandist, he controlled all Nazi newspapers, radio and film production. He was a virulent anti-Semite who advocated the extermination of the Jews. Devoted to Hitler until the end, he died at Hitler's Berlin bunker in 1945 after poisoning his six children.” Perhaps Goebbels’s most famous quote is the observation, “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you Catherine for this very interesting history lesson.
And...Dear Almighty God, Please defend, bless and give Israel Your Almighty Victory in this war against all of her enemies. Thank You and all praise, all glory and all honor be to You forever.