We many, we happy band of sisters…
Posted by Blaze Author in Blaze Authors, Marie Donovan
According to that most authoritative of research sources, Wikipedia, October 25 has several interesting events associated with this date:
1415: The feast date of Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, featured in Henry V as well as the date of the Battle of Agincourt. This is the “Band of Brothers” speech by Henry rallying the men. I use it in Her Last Line of Defense as the hero Luc talks about the bonds formed with his fellow soldiers under the harsh conditions of war. In a weird footnote, these saints are the patron saints of leather workers and leather wearers—i.e. bikers. Glad to know somebody’s looking out for them considering all the bad traffic on the road.
1616: For our Aussie friends, Dutch sea captain Dirk Hartog makes landfall on, yes, Dirk Hartog Island off the West Australia coast.
1760: For our British friends, George III becomes King of England. For our American friends, George III eventually becomes Mad King George, whose “eccentric” reign encourages us to wave England a fond farewell.
1813: For our Canadian friends and editors (who are friends as well), the Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans at the Battle of Chateauguay. My father’s family are old New Englanders, and some of the children were kidnapped into the Mohawk tribe in the 1600’s. When their original family found them many years later, several of them refused to come back, and had been adopted into the tribe. Even now, many Mohawks have my same last name.
1861: Again for Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange opened. Is Harlequin traded on this exchange at all? If so, can I buy some stock? Or is that insider trading? From what I hear, Harlequin is doing very well.
1938: For Dubuque, Iowa (because you’re not a Dubuquer if you don’t play euchre), Archbishop Francis J.L. Beckman calls swing music “a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people”, warning that it leads down a “primrose path to hell”. Although Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller don’t seem like demonic minions to me, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
1944: For our Filipino friends, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle in history. Also for my husband, the biggest World War II buff in history.
For this kind of information, Wikipedia can be fun and a great brainstorming tool. I looked up my birthday, my family’s birthdays and other various dates. Take a look at what you can find out about your favorite dates. If you find anything interesting, let us know!
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Wow, that’s really cool, Marie. I didn’t know you could look up a date like that on Wike. I looked up my birthday–February 27th–and this is a small highlight of what I found:
1594 – Henry IV is crowned King of France.
1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes.
1801 – Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
1812 – Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
1860 – Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
1922 – A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett. ( I didn’t know women’s right to vote had ever BEEN challenged.)
1964 – The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
1974 – People magazine is published for the first time.
1991 – Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that “Kuwait is liberated”.
Other famous people born on my birthday:
272 – Constantine I, Roman emperor
1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet
1902 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel laureate (Wow, Steinbeck!)
• 1930 – Joanne Woodward, American actress
• 1932 – Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress
1962 – Adam Baldwin, American actor (**same year too)
1980 – Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton
Thanks for an interesting blog! (Y)
I decided to see what Wiki had on my birthday although I’ve known quite a few things for a long time such as Franklin Roosevelt died on the exact day and year I was born.
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space.
Disneyland Resort Paris opens
David Letterman shares my birthday but he is a couple of years younger
David Cassidy, Scott Turow, Andy Garcia, and Vince Gill were also born on the same day but they are younger