In 1906 Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt became the Captain of Köpenick when he purchased parts of used captain's uniforms from different shops, put it on and went to the local army barracks. There, he stopped ten grenadiers and a sergeant on their way back to barracks and told them to come with him. Indoctrinated to obey officers without question, they followed. Then he took a train to Köpenick, east of Berlin, occupied the local city hall with his soldiers and told them to cover all exits. He told the local police to "care for law and order" and to "prevent calls to Berlin for one hour" at the local post office.
He had the treasurer and mayor arrested, supposedly for suspicions of crooked bookkeeping, and confiscated 4002 marks and 37 pfennigs - with a receipt, of course (he signed it with his former jail director's name). Then he commandeered two carriages and told the grenadiers to take the arrested men to the Neue Wache in Berlin for interrogation. He told the remaining guards stand in their places for half an hour and then left for the train station. Later he changed to civilian clothes and disappeared.
He was eventually arrested and sentenced to four years, but Kaiser Wilhelm II himself pardoned him. And, after proving that his military would do anything if given an order by a superior officer, Wilhelm started WWI four years later ... when Voight would have been getting out of prison. Hmmmm ....
At the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith and John Carlos were kicked of the USA team for performing the Black Power salute during the medal ceremony. What's sad is that they received death threats for that. What's interesting is that Peter Norman, the Australian standing next to them in the photo (best known for standing next to them in the photo), is wearing an OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) badge in support of Smith, who had founded the organization the previous year. The goal of OPHR was "to protect all humanity, even those who denied us ours." Which just goes to show that comic books are important! Why? Because the motto of the X-Men (which had begun publication in 1963) was "to protect a world that hates and fears us."
The Million Man March happened on this day in 1995. The most notable result was the controversy over the number of people who marched. Organizers said it was between 1.5 and 2 million people. The National Park Service estimated about 400,000. So, Louis Farrakhan threatened to sue the National Park Service. Later, the 1997 appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior, Congress included language that prohibits the National Park Service from conducting crowd estimates. The legislation also states that if event organizers want crowd estimates, they should contract with an outside agency. An independent agency set the number of participants at 837,000 +/- 20% (669,600 to 1,004,400). To be fair, the National Park Service was probably only counting three-fifths of each participant. Old habits die hard.
Happy birthday to Noah Webster, born in 1758. Although he is the father of the American dictionary, he is no fan of static spelling. He said the appropriate standard for the American language, argued Webster, was, "the same republican principles as American civil and ecclesiastical constitutions", which meant that the people-at-large must control the language; popular sovereignty in government must be accompanied by popular usage in language. In another essay he said:
There iz no alternativ. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors.No, I'm not joking. Sigh, I'll put away my red pen. This reminds me of Twain's satirical Plan for the Improvement of Spelling in the English Language:
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.Happy birthday to another man of letters, Oscar Wilde; author, poet and playwright. He was definitely a witty man.
Generally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeiniing voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x"— bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez —tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivili.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev alojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
He is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him.He give the purpose for this calendar of sorts:
Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.But also quite morose. Here is an particularly heart-wrenching excerpt from Ballad of Reading Gaol:
Yet each man kills the thing he lovesIn 1869, a Mr. Hull (atheist) had an argument with a Mr. Turk (Christian) who believed giants (the nephilim of Genisis 6:4) once roamed the earth. So Hull had a giant, stone man made and later "discovered." Christians rushed to defend its authenticity, and Hull made a killing in admission fees. Later, P.T. Barnum made a copy, claiming his was the real one. Hull tried to sue twice. The first judge said Hull had to have his giant swear to his own legitimacy in court, and the second said you can't sue someone for calling a fake fake.
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
The giant inspired the imaginations of contemporary authors, like Mark Twain who wrote A Ghost Story (where the ghost of the giant returns to haunt his fake body); and Fank L. Baum who wrote the poem The True Origin of the Cardiff Giant:
In ancient days as we are told
Noah marched the animals into the fold,
Then closed the door of hickory bark,
Of which material he made the ark.
He shipped a man of monst'rous size,
Who was noted for his wond'rous lies.
There was but one of his race to be found,
And he was so wicked Noah had him bound.
After three days amid the flood,
Noah called the man of Giant blood,
And brought him on the dock of his ship,
As he wished to talk to his Giantship.
"Pooh!" said the Giant, "the water ain't deep."
(This like most of his lies was rather steep.)
Noah said, "it was both, he could make it plain,
It was over the head of this monst'rous man.
"Noah! won't you believe?" The Giant was mad;
He would show him the truth of what he said.
So into the water he jumped with a thud---
Went down to the bottom-- and stuck in the mud!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The flood subsided, and on Time flew.
Of the Giant that drowned, no man ever knew
Until the matter was lately made clear,
By a man at Cardiff, not far from here.
One day as he was digging a well,
He struck something hard--what it was he couldn't tell;
So he dug all around and there he found
A monstrous man stuck fast in the ground.
Soon threw the country the news it flew,
And people flocked round the Giant [illegible].
Some were dubious, and others would tell,
That someone had made it to get up a sell.
But the wise believe this story they say,
He was a Giant of Noah's day
Who sunk to the bottom and got stuck in the clay
Because he was stubborn, and would have his own way.
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