Two hundred and twelve days into
Anno Domini MMXI, it is time to remember the past once again. Let us see what
transpired in days of yore.
A.D. 1619—The
first representative body in America, The Virginia House of Burgesses, convenes
in Jamestown.
1818—Emily Bronte,
the famous English author, is born.
1863—Henry Ford
is born. He would create more bored employees than ever before with the
principal introduction of the assembly line principle, and more vacation
possibilities than ever before with the mass production of the Model T.
1864—The Battle
of the Crater—during the Petersburg campaign of the War Between the States, Lt.
Col. Henry Pleasents, a former Pennsylvania miner, came up with a plan to break
the trench warfare stalemate by using the old tactic of mining to blow a hole
in the Confederate lines. They drove the tunnel over 500 feet before packing it
full of four tons of gunpowder. It was exploded at 0444 hours and threw the
Confederates who survived into a panic. However, a last minute change in the
attacking column from Ferrero’s division of Colored Troops to Leslie’s division
meant the troops were untrained and uninformed. They bunched in the crater, as
did the supporting forces of the second wave, and the steep sides trapped them.
Confederate general Mahone later described the result as a “turkey shoot.”
After 3,789 Yankee casualties and 1,419 Confederate, the situation of the siege
remained unchanged. Grant later called it “the saddest affair I have witnessed
in this war.”
1918—Joyce Kilmer, the poet most famous
for Trees, is killed while serving
with the 165th RGT (“The Fighting 69th”) during the 3rd
Battle of the Marne by a sniper bullet while scouting enemy lines.
1932—Flowers and Trees is premiered by Walt
Disney—it is the first color cartoon short.
1971—Apollo 15—David Scott and Jim Irwin land
on the moon, bringing the Lunar Rover and becoming the first men to drive on
another planetary body. Presumably with a license.
