On This Day -- July 10th

Devin Monaghan wrote this --16+ hrs ago ·

July 10th,

48 BC, Julius Caesar narrowly escapes a catastrophic defeat by Pompey. Pompey’s failure to seize the initiative after his successes would lead to his own catastrophic defeat a month later. Caesar is said to have remarked, “Today the victory had been the enemy's, had there been any one among them to gain it.”
All life is about momentum, and a failure to capitalize on positive momentum can be as disastrous as any setback.

Happy Birthday Dublin in 988, technically. Indeed, it wouldn’t be a true Irish birthday if the city of London didn’t partially burn down 224 years later.

Several years into the American Revolution in 1778, France declares war against Great Britain. Thus marks France as our oldest, most critical ally.

1890, Wyoming is admitted as the 44th US state. It’s population has remained exactly the same, sans a few hundred thousand buffalo.

in 1925, the Scopes Trial begin, to determine whether a teacher has the right to teach evolution in a science class.
The trial finished, but in many parts of the nation, the verdict is still out. America still retains the distinction of the only major nation on the planet to teach anything other than science in science class. It’s 2018 and our curriculums have still yet to be intelligently designed. Who knows how many great minds were coerced into learning Sunday school-level Bible lessons rather than science.

In 1938, in a supremely un-Bliblical and unnatural act of rebellion against our Creator, Howard Hughs flies around the planet in 91 hours.

WW2 time: Happy Birthday to Vichy France, which not only acquiesced to the Nazis, but actively fought on their behalf. For example, when Allied powers invaded Axis-occupied North Africa, the French navy attacked our warships and tried to sink our troopships. Many French like to forget this happened, but it did. They were, of course, just following orders. Many modern history books downplay the collusion between Vichy France and Nazi Germany.

In 1942, an American pilot discovered a downed, nearly intact Japanese Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane in the Aluetian Islands. This discovery was pivotal in understanding what was then the undisputed fighter aircraft of the Pacific. Japan would never regain their technological advantage.

Telstar, the world’s first communication satellite, is launched into space in 1962.

1991, Boris Yeltsin takes office as Russia’s first elected president. He is arguably the last, and Vladmir Putin succeeds him.

In 1992, former US ally and CIA-trained dictator Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug related offenses. The FBI/CIA had ample evidence to charge Noriega for the drug trafficking offenses, as the two agencies had kept their receipts.

And last year, the northern Iraqi/Kurdish city of Mosul is declared ISIS-free.

Birthdays:

John Calvin, who really stirred the pot in the last major European wars of religion. Calvin is one of the most overlooked religious leaders in Europe, and for many centuries, him and his cohorts were profoundly influential in war and peace, despite their limited numbers compared to the Catholics and Lutherans who surrounded them. The nicest thing I can say about Calvin and Calvinists is they’re far more complex than given credit for, but still complicit in some of the worse crimes in European history (tho so too were everyone around them).

Happy birthday to Urban Meyer, who is every bit as much a religious figure as John Calvin to the fanatics at Ohio State.

Happy birthday Nikola Tesla who invented the Elon Musk.

Fuck you Marcel Proust, giving generations of snobs more ammo for the intellectual elitism.

Happy birthday to Jessica Simpson, and all the pleasure you’ve brought me, sometimes twice a day.

Deaths:

Millions, if not more, and you did nothing.