Dear Madam, –I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln.
[As it turns out, this letter, made even more famous when read in the film Saving Private Ryan, may have been written by John Hay, Lincoln’s secretary. Further, only two of Mrs. Bixby’s five sons had died in battle. One was honorably discharged, one was dishonorably discharged, and another deserted or died in a prison camp. Not that losing three sons in whatever way isn’t horrible enough.]
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d’ Arlandes, flew in a untethered hot air balloon over Paris for 20 minutes on this date in 1783. The balloon was made of silk and paper and was constructed by Jacques Étienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, who first took notice that smoke (i.e., hot air) would cause a bag to rise. The Montgolfiers experimented with paper bags before sending a balloon aloft with a sheep, a rooster and a duck on September 19, 1783. De Rozier went up in a tethered balloon on October 15th.
But 229 years ago today, November 21, 1783, is — so far as we know — the date man first flew, untethered to the earth.
The winds have welcomed you with softness,
The sun has blessed you with his warm hands
You have flown so high and so free,
That God has joined you in laughter,
And set you gently again,
Into the loving arms of mother earth.
Stan the Man is 92. He batted .331 lifetime. It ought to be a national holiday.
After 22 years as a Cardinal, Stan Musial ranked at or near the top of baseball’s all-time lists in almost every batting category. The dead-armed Class C pitcher was transformed into a slugging outfielder who topped the .300 mark 17 times and won seven National League batting titles with his famed corkscrew stance and ringing line drives. A three-time MVP, he played in 24 All-Star games. He was nicknamed The Man by Dodgers fans for the havoc he wrought at Ebbets Field and was but one home run shy of capturing the National League Triple Crown in 1948.
… of Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, Jr. That’s Dr. John, in the right place, wrong time. He’s 72 today.
… of actress Juliet Mills. Hayley’s older sister and John’s older daughter is 71. Juliet Mills first appeared in a movie in 1942, when she played an infant.
… basketball hall-of-famer Earl Monroe. The Pearl is 68.
… of writer-director-actor Harold Ramis. He’s 68. Ramis co-wrote the screenplay and directed “Groundhog Day,” enough to make me a fan. He was the doctor in the film.
… of Goldie Hawn. Kate Hudson’s mom is 67.
… of the other Judy Garland daughter, Lorna Luft. She’s 60.
… of the not so desperate Nicollette Sheridan. She’s 49.
… of Björk Guðmundsdóttir. Björk is 47.
… of football hall-of-famer Troy Aikman. He’s 46.
… of future baseball hall-of-famer Ken Griffey Jr. Junior is 43.
… of Michael Strahan, 41.
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was born on this date in 1904. According to Wikipedia:
Lester Young, who was called “Pres”, in a 1959 interview with The Jazz Review, said “As far as I’m concerned, I think Coleman Hawkins was the President first, right? As far as myself, I think I’m the second one.” Miles Davis once said: “When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads.”
François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris on this date in 1694. We know him as Voltaire.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
… was proclaimed such by President Coolidge 87 years ago today (1925).
Lava Beds National Monument is a land of turmoil, both geological and historical. Over the last half-million years, volcanic eruptions on the Medicine Lake shield volcano have created a rugged landscape dotted with diverse volcanic features. More than 700 caves, Native American rock art sites, historic battlefields and campsites, and a high desert wilderness experience await you!
Like most National Park Service sites during the Depression, newly established Lava Beds National Monument benefited from the work of a Civilian Conservation Corps crew. Between 1935 and 1942, hundreds of “CCC boys” constructed all of the original infrastructure of the monument, much of which you can still drive on, walk on, and enjoy during a visit more than sixty years later.
Located in Washington, Iron, and Kane Counties in southwestern Utah, Zion National Park encompasses some of the most scenic canyon country in the United States. Within its 229 square miles are high plateaus, a maze of narrow, deep, sandstone canyons, and the Virgin River and its tributaries. Zion also has 2,000-foot Navajo Sandstone cliffs, pine- and juniper-clad slopes, and seeps, springs, and waterfalls supporting lush and colorful hanging gardens.
With an elevation change of about 5,000 feet-from the highest point at Horse Ranch Mountain (at 8,726 feet) to the lowest point at Coal Pits Wash (at 3,666 feet), Zion’s diverse topography leads to a diversity of habitats and species. Desert, riparian (river bank), pinyon-juniper, and conifer woodland communities all contribute to Zion’s diversity. Neighboring ecosystems-the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin, and the Rocky Mountains-are also contributors to Zion’s abundance.
Originally Zion was proclaimed Mukuntuweap National Monument (July 31, 1909); Mukuntuweap was incorporated into Zion National Monument (March 18, 1918); Zion National Monument became Zion National Park.
President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 149 years ago today:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared. While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.
Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter will soon become its first female college graduate. But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.
Personally I’ve written that if you imagine the Internet as a big office, then Twitter is the conversation around the coffee pot in the break room. Go to Twitter when you want the gossip, or the sports news or the political chatter, or if you’re just restless and looking to be amused or informed. But in any case don’t ever think of Twitter as an inbox that has to be read.
The key of course is to find the most interesting people to have in the break room with you.
“I have not yet begun to fight!”
Captain John Paul Jones, during the battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis, September 23, 1779
“Don’t give up the ship!”
Captain James Lawrence, during engagement between his ship, the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, and HMS Shannon, June 1, 1813 (Lawrence died and the ship was lost, but it became a rallying cry for the Navy)
“We have met the enemy and they are ours…”
Oliver Hazard Perry, dispatch to Major General William Henry Harrison after victory in the Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813
“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut in Mobile Bay, Alabama, August 5, 1864, after the first ship in his attack was demolished and the second stopped by mines
“You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.”
Commodore George Dewey, at the Battle of Manila Bay, Spanish-American War, May 1, 1898
“Sighted Sub, Sank Same.”
AMM 1/c Donald Francis Mason, after the sinking of a German U-boat off Argentia, Newfoundland, January 28, 1942
Come journey through five Pennsylvania counties bursting with heritage and brimming with outdoor adventure. You will find something for everyone. Follow a history trail marked with stories about hearty lumberjacks, coal miners, lock tenders, and railroaders. Explore quiet canal paths, challenging bike trails and the rippling waters of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers.
In the middle of a bustling urban setting, this 72 mile river park offers quiet stretches for fishing, boating and canoeing. Other spots are excellent for birdwatching, bicycling and hiking. And there are plenty of visitor centers that highlight the history and science of the Mississippi River. If you are interested in the Mississippi, this is a great place to start.
Known mostly for its fossils from the late Pliocene epoch it contains one of the world’s richest known deposits of fossil horses, Equus simplicidens, thought to be a link between prehistoric and modern horses.
In 1988, the Hagerman horse became Idaho’s state fossil and Hagerman Fossil Beds became a national monument. The Monument contains the Hagerman Horse Quarry, a national natural landmark, recognized as one of the six most important sites in the world regarding the fossil history of horses.
Hagerman Fossil Beds is nationally and internationally significant for its world-class paleontological resources. It includes the world’s richest fossil deposits, in quality, quantity, and diversity from the late Pliocene epoch. Many of its fossils represent the last vestiges of species that existed before the last Ice Age, the Pleistocene, and the earliest ‘modern’ flora and fauna.
The Monument’s paleontological resources are contained in a continuous, undisturbed stratigraphic record spanning at least 500,000 years. The fossils deposited here appear to represent an entire paleontological ecosystem with a variety of habitats such as wetland, riparian, and grassland savanna.
The Monument is also one of four National Park system units containing a portion of the Oregon Trail National Historic Trail.
… was authorized on November 18th, 24 years ago today (1988). It is one of five National Park Service sites in Idaho (not counting Yellowstone).
City of Rocks, an extraordinary encirclement of granite rising out of the gently rolling sagebrush country in south-central Idaho, has attracted and intrigued people since they first entered this region. The Shoshone camped here as did the emigrants traveling along the California Trail. One of the reserve’s most notable qualities is its large degree of biological diversity concentrated in a relatively small area. The great variety of textures, colors and shapes in the natural landscape contributes considerably to the reserve’s scenic quality.
City of Rocks was designated a national natural landmark in recognition of the nationally significant geological and scenic values of its rock formations. The landscape of City of Rocks has been sculpted from granite that was intruded into the crust during two widely spaced times. The granite that composes most of the spires is part of the 28 million year old Almo pluton. However, some of the spires are made of granite that is part of the 2.5 billion year old Green Creek Complex that contains some of the oldest rocks in the United States. The granite has eroded into a fascinating assortment of shapes and sizes.
… was designated on November 17th, 70 years ago today. It is located in Philadelphia.
Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Episcopal Church in South Philadelphia is the oldest church building in Pennsylvania, and among the oldest in the country. The attractive building, constructed of Flemish bond, and black header brick, was built between 1698 and 1700 for Swedish settlers. After serving as the Swedish Lutheran Church for almost 150 years, Gloria Dei became part of the Episcopal Church in 1845.
Gloria Dei Church was designated as a National Historical Site in 1942, six years before Independence Hall. The Gloria Dei congregation owns and maintains the church and the related buildings, its ministry and the grounds. The National Park Service has provided the church with additional land to create an appropriate setting against the enroaching urban environment.
Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. From 1821 until 1846, it was an international commercial highway used by Mexican and American traders. In 1846, the Mexican-American War began. The Army of the West followed the Santa Fe Trail to invade New Mexico. When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war in 1848, the Santa Fe Trail became a national road connecting the United States to the new southwest territories. Commercial freighting along the trail continued, including considerable military freight hauling to supply the southwestern forts. The trail was also used by stagecoach lines, thousands of gold seekers heading to the California and Colorado gold fields, adventurers, fur trappers, and emigrants. In 1880 the railroad reached Santa Fe and the trail faded into history.
The 1940 film Santa Fe Trail, with Ronald Reagan playing George Armstrong Custer — and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland — has little basis in historical fact other than that there was a Santa Fe Trail.
… was proclaimed a national monument 105 years ago today by President Theodore Roosevelt (1907).
Explore the world of ancestors of Puebloan people who lived in the Mogollon area over 700 years ago. Enter the village they built within five of the natural caves of Cliff Dweller Canyon. Become inspired by the remaining architecture. Admire the spectacular views from inside these ancient dwellings.
… was redesignated from national monument to national park on November 12th, 1971.
NewMexiKen photo, 2010
For there is a cloud on my horizon. A small dark cloud no bigger than my hand. Its name is Progress.
The ease and relative freedom of this lovely job at Arches follow from the comparative absence of the motorized tourists, who stay away by the millions. And they stay away because of the unpaved entrance road, the unflushable toilets in the campgrounds, and the fact that most of them have never even heard of Arches National Monument.
…
The Master Plan has been fulfilled. Where once a few adventurous people came on weekends to camp for a night or two and enjoy a taste of the primitive and remote, you will now find serpentine streams of baroque automobiles pouring in and out, all through the spring and summer, in numbers that would have seemed fantastic when I worked there: from 3,000 to 30,000 to 300,000 per year, the “visitation,” as they call it, mounts ever upward [1,040,758 recreation visitors in 2011].
…
Progress has come at last to Arches, after a million years of neglect. Industrial Tourism has arrived.
… in 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Franklin died the following year.
… in 1940, the Disney film Fantasia premiered.
… in 1977, the comic strip “Li’l Abner” ended. The strip, by Al Capp, had begun in 1934. It was immensely popular, part of pop culture in the way The Simpsons, for example, are today. There were comic books, a radio show, music, stage productions and more. And, of course, Sadie Hawkins Day, when the girls could ask out the boys.
… in 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington was dedicated.
Joe Mantegna is 65 today, Chris Noth is 58, Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg is 57 (birth name Caryn Elaine Johnson), Vinny Testaverde is 49, and Jimmy Kimmel is 45.
One of America’s oldest recent high school graduates, Taylor McKessie is 32 today. That’s actress Monique Coleman of High School Musical.
Louis Brandeis was born on November 13, 1856. He served on the Supreme Court from 1916-1939.
For Brandeis, law was a device to shape social, economic, and political affairs. Law had to operate on the basis of two key assumptions: that the individual was the basic force in society and that the individual had limited capabilities. Brandeis did not seek to coddle the individual; rather, he sought to stretch individual potential to its limit.
Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a federal holiday beginning in 1938. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 to change the name to Veterans Day as a way to honor those who served in all American wars. The day honors living military veterans with parades and speeches across the nation. A national ceremony takes place at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
From 1971 to 1978 Veterans Day was celebrated on the fourth Monday in October.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called “Gitche Gumee.”
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the “Gales of November” came early.
The ship was the pride of the American side
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin.
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left fully loaded for Cleveland.
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang,
could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing.
And ev’ry man knew, as the captain did too
’twas the witch of November come stealin’.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of November came slashin’.
When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind.
When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin’.
“Fellas, it’s too rough t’feed ya.”
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
“Fellas, it’s bin good t’know ya!”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
and the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when ‘is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
if they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the “Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral.”
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call “Gitche Gumee.”
“Superior,” they said, “never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early!”
The ship was thirty-nine feet tall, seventy-five feet wide, and 729 feet long.
Lightfoot’s lyrics had one error — the load was bound for Detroit, not Cleveland.
There were waves as high as 30 feet that night; so high they were picked up on radar.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was only 17 miles from safe haven (Whitefish Point).
… was a great day for the National Park Service and, of course, for us.
On that date President Jimmy Carter signed Public Law 95-625, the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978. The bill authorized $1.2 billion for more than 100 parks, rivers and historic sites and trails.
Among the National Park Service units that associate this date with their authorization, enhancement or re-designation are:
On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington led approximately 700 U.S. volunteer soldiers to a village of about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped along the banks of Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado. Although the Cheyenne and Arapaho people believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army, Chivington’s troops attacked and killed about 150 people, mainly women, children, and the elderly.
The East Coast Sweeties on Halloween: Crypt-Master Alex, Jailbird Reid (a burglar last year), Mad Hatter Mack, Nerd Aidan and No.2 Pencil Kiley. Click for larger version.
Sam. His mother was also a bumble bee.And though in real life she is an angel, Sofie as a devil.
Don’t flush it! Mix leftover medicine with kitty litter or coffee grounds or some other garbage to make it too disgusting for scavengers, put the mess in a plastic bag to keep it from leaching into the groundwater and dispose in the trash.
