On this day in 1770, Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, married Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I.
This marriage was met with hostility from the French public. France’s alliance with its traditional enemy Austria had pulled the country into the disastrous Seven Years’ War, in which it was defeated by the British and the Prussians, both in Europe and in North America. By the time that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were married, the French people generally disliked the Austrian alliance, and Marie Antoinette was seen as an unwelcome foreigner.
The marriage ended badly. Due to financial difficulties, her husband, now King of France, summoned the Estates General and the French revolution began. The king and queen attempted to flee the country and were caught. The king was convicted of high treason by the National Assembly and On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI, at age 38, was beheaded by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution.
Early on 16 October, 1773, Marie Antoinette was declared guilty of the three main charges against her: depletion of the national treasury, conspiracy against the internal and external security of the state, and high treason because of her intelligence activities in the interest of the enemy; the latter charge alone was enough to condemn her to death. Marie Antoinette was executed by beheading by guillotine at 12:15 pm on 16 October. Her last words are recorded as, “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l’ai pas fait exprès” or “Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose”, after accidentally stepping on her executioner’s shoe.
Signzzzzz
Today is the birthday, in 1947, of Barbara Lee, singer, from American all-girl group The Chiffons who had the 1963 US No.1 single ‘He’s So Fine’, and the 1972 UK No.4 single ‘Sweet Talking Guy’, (first released in 1966). Lee died on 15th May 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHx4hk7H51o
On this day in 1911, the Supreme Court declared Standard Oil to be a monopoly and ordered the company to be broken up. The decision also held, however, that U.S. antitrust law bans only “unreasonable” restraints on trade, an interpretation that came to be known as the “rule of reason”.
Over the course of the 1870s, the Standard Oil Company of Ohio acquired a monopoly on oil refining in the United States. By 1879 it controlled more than 90 percent of the market. In November 1906, the Justice Department sued Standard Oil of New Jersey for violating the Sherman Act. The action was brought under the Expediting Act in the United States circuit court for the Eastern District of Missouri. After a 15-month-long trial, the court issued its decree of dissolution in November 1909 and its opinion in December 1909.
The main issue before the Supreme Court was whether it was within the power of Congress to prevent one company from acquiring numerous others through means that might have been considered legal in common law, but still posed a significant constraint on competition by mere virtue of their size and market power, as implied by the Antitrust Act. As in the case against American Tobacco, which was decided the same day, the Court concluded that these facts were within the power of Congress to regulate under the Commerce Clause.
The Standard Oil case resulted in the breakup of Standard Oil into 43 separate companies. Many of these have since recombined; the largest present direct descendants of Standard Oil are ExxonMobil (Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of New York) and Chevron (Standard Oil of California). Some Standard Oil descendants merged into other companies, particularly BP, which acquired/merged with Standard Oil of Ohio and Amoco.
On this day in 1796, Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination. Jenner is often called “the father of immunology”, and his work is said to have saved “more lives than any other man”. In Jenner’s time, smallpox killed around 10% of the global population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily.
The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (‘pustules of the cow’), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.
Jenner postulated that the pus in blisters from sufferers of cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox but much less virulent) protected them from smallpox. On 14 May 1796, Jenner tested his hypothesis by inoculating James Phipps, the eight-year-old son of Jenner’s gardener. He scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom (whose hide now hangs on the wall of the St. George’s Medical School library, now in Tooting, London). Phipps was the 17th case described in Jenner’s first paper on vaccination.
Jenner inoculated Phipps in both arms that day; this led to a fever and some uneasiness but no full-blown infection. Later, Jenner injected Phipps with variolous material, the routine method of immunization at that time and again no disease followed. The boy was later challenged with variolous material and again showed no sign of infection. There were no unexpected side effects, and neither Phipps nor any other recipients underwent any future ‘breakthrough’ cases.
US physician Donald Hopkins has written, “Jenner’s unique contribution was not that he inoculated a few persons with cowpox, but that he then proved [by subsequent challenges] that they were immune to smallpox.
People are still posting about the new Pope…
Today is the birthday, in 1937, of English studio guitarist Vic Flick best known for playing the guitar riff in the ‘James Bond Theme’. Flick played the riff on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe guitar plugged into a Fender Vibrolux amplifier and was paid a one-off fee of £6 for the recording. He also played a pastiche of the “James Bond” guitar part for The Beatles’ film A Hard Days Night – Ringos Theme (1964). Flick died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at a care facility in Los Angeles on 14 November 2024, at the age of 87. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9-cDa4JCwM
On this day in 1787, the First Fleet departed Portsmouth, England on a voyage of 15,000 miles lasting 220 days transporting settlers to Australia and marking the beginning of British colonization of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three storeships and six convict transports under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. The ships held more than 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials and free settlers heading to Botany Bay.
Governor Arthur Phillip rejected Botany Bay choosing instead Port Jackson (later known as Sydney Harbor), to the north, as the site for the new colony; they arrived there on 26 January 1788, establishing the colony of New South Wales, as a penal colony which would become the first British settlement in Australia.
The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, Secretary of State for the Home Office. This was taken for two reasons: the ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution, as well as the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion.
The Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 5 August and stayed for a month. The ships were cleaned and water taken on board, repairs were made, and Phillip ordered large quantities of food. The Fleet left Rio de Janeiro on 4 September to run before the westerlies to the Table Bay in southern Africa, which it reached on 13 October. This was the last port of call, so the main task was to stock up on plants, seeds and livestock for their arrival in Australia.
This was one of the world’s greatest sea voyages – eleven vessels carrying about 1,487 people and stores had traveled for 252 days for more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km) without losing a ship. Forty-eight people died on the journey, a death rate of just over three percent. Twenty children were born during the voyage.
Lithograph of the First Fleet entering Port Jackson, 26 January 1788, by Edmund Le Bihan
I guess Henry VIII and such…
BADA BING!!!
Flying the confederate flag…Irony is telling people “go back to your country” while flying the flag of a country that doesn’t exist in the country that defeated it.
We’re about 3 lines deep into the “first they came for” poem. It’s not a very long poem.
Q: How dd you meet your husband? A: I’m a pharmacist. He came in to buy condoms and asked for XXXXL. And it was only after we got married that I realized he stutters.
(sing along)… If your happy and you know it, it’s your meds.
If I was a plastic surgeon I would 100% put a squeaky toy in every breast implant.
I’m broke but not like poor broke. I’m classy type of broke. I’m broque’.
I think telling kids they’ll have less toys for Christmas because of tariffs while you have yourself a multi-million dollar military birthday parade is kind of a dick move. But what do I know…
If you donate your $400,000 salary but spend $90,000,000 on an unnecessary military parade, you’re in the hole $89,600,000.
If a little girl doesn’t need 30 dolls, then billionaires don’t need 20 cars, 2 yachts, and 10 homes.
90% of bald men still own a comb. They just can’t part with it.
Doctor: Your son has the measles because he wasn’t vaccinated. Mom: I want a second opinion. Doctor: You’re an idiot.
I have been lying to my cat for years. Anytime he meows at me, I say, “I know I know!” But I don’t know.
My goal is to be that old person everyone is afraid to take out in public.
I found that l have been happier since I changed from coffee in the morning to orange juice. My doctor explained that it’s the vitamin C and natural sugars but l really think it’s the vodka.
Sometimes the thoughts in my head get bored so they go out for a stroll through my mouth. This is rarely a good thing.
I just paid my taxes. The roads should be fixed any day now.
Unfortunately some people were not put here to evolve. They are here to remind you what it looks like if you don’t.
Today is the birthday, in 1950, of American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Stevie Wonder. A child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Wonder who has been blind from shortly after birth, signed with Motown’s Tamla label at the age of eleven and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day. Wonder has scored over 40 US & UK Top 40 singles. Albums include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He wrote and sang this song about his daughter, Aisha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE56g61mW44
Today is the birthday, in 1820, of Florence Nightingale. She was was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organized care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards. Nightingale gave nursing a favorable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of “The Lady with the Lamp” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world and is now part of King’s College London.
Her social reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.
Nightingale was an innovator in statistics; she represented her analysis in graphical forms to ease drawing conclusions and actionables from data. She is famous for usage of the polar area diagram, also called the Nightingale rose diagram, which is equivalent to a modern circular histogram. This diagram is still regularly used in data visualization.
In her honor, today is International Nurses Day. Thank a nurse.
By Henry Hering (1814-1893) – NPG x82368 from National Portrait Gallery, London, Public Domain
Land Rover giving birth…
I hope everyone had a good Mothers’ Day!
Moms Speak!!
Thanks to Debra and Bob for great Mothers’ Day thoughts
Today is the birthday, in 1948, of Czech-born American musician, filmmaker, record producer and singer-songwriter Ivan Král. He played bass with Blondie, Patti Smith and Iggy Pop. His songs have been recorded by such artists as U2, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Simple Minds and John Waite, among others. He died on 2 February 2020 age 71. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU
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