Category: Year

Armistice Day, which honors the official end of World War I on November 11, 1918, falls on the feast of St. Martin of Tours, a pagan soldier who gave up his military career upon becoming a Christian. (Martin Luther, whose birthday was November 10, was baptized on November 11 and given the name of the saint whose feast fell on his baptismal day.) After World War II, the name of Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day in the United States.

In honor of Veterans Day, I recommend checking out The Legacy Project, a project that seeks to preserve the wartime letters of America’s service personnel. You can listen to readings of a few of the letters, which are on display at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City.

One of my favorite letters in the collection (Warning: evil .pdf format) was written in July 1969 by a soldier named Dean Allen, a first lieutenant, to his wife Joyce. The letter ended this way:

"Some letter, huh! I don’t know if I have one sentence in the whole thing. I just started writing. Don’t worry about what I have said[,] these are just things I think about sometimes. I am so healthy I can’t get a day out of the field and you know I’m to [sic] damn mean to die. Now I better close for now & try to catch a few z’s. It will be another long night. Sorry I haven’t written more but the weather is against me. You can’t write out here when it rains hour after hour. I love you with all my heart. All my love always, Dean."

SEE THE DOCUMENT.

The museum reports that four days after writing this letter, Lt. Allen stepped on a land mine. Three days after that, Lt. Dean Allen, a multiply-decorated soldier, died.

Eternal rest grant to all our deceased veterans and may perpetual light shine upon them through Christ our Lord.

In case you forgot to circle the date on your calendar, today is the 522nd birthday of Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation — or the Protestant Revolt, depending on your point of view — and author of 95 theses that he nailed to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Had he been contemplating how best to disseminate his theses today, perhaps he would have blogged them, a la the Internet Monk.

If you’re trying to think of the perfect gift for Luther, might I suggest obtaining a partial or plenary indulgence for his soul? Wherever Luther is now, I’m sure he now knows the value of an indulgence.

MYTHS ABOUT INDULGENCES.

PRIMER ON INDULGENCES.

Today–October 26–back in 1881, the gunfight at the O.K. corral occurred.

It’s the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, and it took all of thirty seconds. (During which thirty shots were fired.)

It’s also a source of enduring controversy.

The battle pitted Wyatt Earp (pictured), along with his brothers Morgan and Virgil, together with the dentist Doc Holliday, against the Clanton brothers, the McLaury brothers, and Billy Claiborne.

When the battle was over, the McLaury Brothers and one of the Clantons lay dead. They are now buried in the Boot Hill Cemetery.

The gunfight remains a source of controversy because of disputes about who fired first, who was justified, and whether the fight should have taken place at all.

It went on to be the stuff of film and legend.

Wyatt Earp himself moved around the southwest and ended up in Hollywood, where he came to know various stars of Westerns, including a young John Wayne, who based his portrayal of lawmen on Earp.

What history will ultimately decide about the story remains to be seen. In the meantime,

GET THE STORY.

NOTE FROM 2005: I am SO kicking myself! Dang it! I just undertook a trip to Arizona and wanted to go to Tombstone, where the gunfight occurred, but I thought I’d wait until whatever historical commemoration of the event that the local community has. I visited the town’s web site in preparation for my trip, but it said nothing about the anniversary. I had NO idea that it was just FOUR DAYS after I’d been in the state! I would have totally changed my itinerary to be there for that! Consarnit! Next year, I tell you!!!

Today–October 23rd–back in 4004 B.C., the universe was created.

At least according to the chronology created by Anglican Archbishop James Ussher.

You’ll find it printed in the center margin of many editions of the King James Bible.

Funny that it’s not found in Catholic Bibles.

In any event,

GET THE STORY.

Today–October 13–back in A.D. 54, the Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his slimy fourth wife, Agrippina, who served him a dish of poisonous mushrooms.

Why’d she do it?

So her slimy son, Nero, could become the next emperor and the Beast of Revelation (though she didn’t know about that part).

GET THE STORY.

In other history news, today in 1307 there were mass arrests of the Knights Templar.

GET THAT STORY, TOO.

Today–October 12th–back in 1859, His Imperial Majesty Norton the First, Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico, issued an imperial decree dissolving the Congress of the United States.

GET THE STORY.

Today, September 20th, back in the year 1378, was the day that the Great Western Schism started.

Y’know . . . that thing where there were two and then later three guys purporting to be pope at once. . . . Threw all of Europe into confusion. . . . Was a precipitating cause of the Protestant Reformation. . . . All that bad stuff?

Well,

GET THE STORY.

Includes a handy chart of the popes and anti-popes of the period!

Today, September 19, back in 1982, the emoticons 🙂 and 🙁 were first proposed.

GET THE STORY.

Today, September 12, back in 2003, the Ontario Conservative Party issued a press release in which it outed liberal politician Dalton McGuinty as “an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet.”

McGuinty initially denied the charges that he eats kittens.

Some of his statements, however, displayed a studied ambiguity, as for example his declaration, “I love kittens, and I like puppies too,” which can be taken more than one way.

The truth seemed to emerge, however, when supporters printed T-shirts with the legend: “We may be kitten-eaters but we want change.”

From the report I have at hand, McGuinty did not deny being evil, reptilian, or from another planet. His denials seemed to center exclusively on the charge of kitten-eating.

GET THE STORY.

POSTSCRIPT: McGuinty also did not deny that he was in the pay of the Easter Bunny.

Today, September 9th, is Republic Day in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a.k.a., North Korea.

Why they would call it "Republic Day" when North Korea is a Stalinist dictatorship rather than a republic, I dunno, but their "Dear Leader" (left) is funny like that.

So . . . floral baskets all round, gang!

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS FASCINATING WORKERS ‘ PARADISE.

I’m sure that NK-NEWS.NET also has some interesting things you can read as part of the festivities.