Uncategorized

On this day in 1613, Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.

Argall was an English sea captain and deputy governor of the Virginia Colony. As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlantic Ocean to the new English colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown, and made numerous voyages to the New World. He captained one of Lord De La Warr’s ships in the successful rescue mission to Virginia in 1610 which saved the colony from starvation. In 1610 he named Delaware Bay in honor of Lord De La Warr. Shortly afterwards Dutch settlers along the bay gave it a different name, but the name Delaware Bay was restored when the English took control of the area in 1665.

in March 1613, Argall, looking for food for the Jamestown settlement, sailed up the Potomac River. There, he traded with the Patawomeck, a Native American tribe who were affiliated with the Powhatan Confederacy. The Patawomeck lived at the village of Passapatanzy, as well as several other villages along the river. When two English colonists began trading with the Patawomeck, they discovered that Pocahontas, the daughter of Wahunsonacock, Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, was living there.

Learning this, Argall resolved to capture Pocahontas to aid in negotiations with the Powhatan. Sending for the local chief, Japazaws, Argall told him he must bring her on board his ship, Treasurer and suggested luring her with the present of a copper kettle.

According to Patawomeck oral tradition, with the help of Japazaws, the colonists tricked Pocahontas into being captured. Their purpose, as Argall said in a letter, was to ransom her for English prisoners held by Chief Powhatan, along with various weapons and farming tools that the Powhatan people had stolen. Powhatan returned the captives, but failed to satisfy the colonists with the amount of weapons and tools he returned. A long standoff ensued.

During her captivity, she was encouraged to convert to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca. She married the tobacco planter John Rolfe in April 1614 at the age of about 17 or 18, and she bore their son, Thomas Rolfe, in January 1615. In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to London, where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the “civilized savage” in hopes of stimulating investment in Jamestown. Pocahontas died at Gravesend, Kent, England, of unknown causes, aged 20 or 21. She was buried in St George’s Church, Gravesend; her grave’s exact location is unknown because the church was rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire.

Pocahontas saves the life of John Smith in this chromolithograph, credited to the New England Chromo. Lith. Company around 1870. The scene is idealized; there are no mountains in Tidewater, Virginia, for example, and the Powhatans lived in thatched houses rather than tipis.

---

Not how numbers work….

Today is the birthday, in 1975, of German mambo musician Lou Bega who is most famous for ‘Mambo No. 5’, his 1999 UK No.1 hit which was a remake of the Pérez Prado instrumental from 1949. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_LN3XEcnw

On this day in 1912, RMS Titanic departed from Southampton on its first and only voyage.

The White Star Line was one of the major British shipping lines carrying passengers between Europe and America. White Star faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals, Cunard Line—which had recently launched the twin sister ships Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships then in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. White Star opted to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners larger than anything that had come before, which would be the last word in comfort and luxury.

The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilder Harland & Wolff, which had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Titanic was the largest ship afloat upon entering service. The first-class accommodations were designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. They included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for passenger use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship’s reputation as “unsinkable”.

The maiden voyage began at noon, as scheduled. At 11:40 pm (ship’s time) on 14 April, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the iceberg and the engines to be stopped, but it was too late. The starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. The hull was not punctured, but rather dented such that the steel plates of the hull buckled and separated, allowing water to rush in. Five of the sixteen watertight compartments were heavily breached and a sixth was slightly compromised. It soon became clear that Titanic would sink, as the ship could not remain afloat with more than four compartments flooded.

Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,400 – 1,500 died (estimates vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.

---

Today is the birthday, in 1959, of Katrina Leskanich from British-American rock band Katrina And The Waves, best known for the 1985 hit ‘Walking on Sunshine’. They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Love Shine a Light’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUmE-tne5U

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTICE!!!! We will be suspending publication for a few days starting tomorrow while we relocate the editorial office. Thanks for your patience.

---

I’ve been reading about the ‘Dollar Princesses’. These were wealthy American women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who married into titled European families, exchanging wealth for prestige. They were often the daughters of nouveau riche tycoons whose families wanted to gain social standing. According to a book called Titled Americans (1915), there were 454 marriages between Gilded Age and Progressive Era American women and European aristocrats, most of whom were Britons. Between 1870 and 1914, 102 British aristocrats, six of whom were dukes, married American women.

One example is Consuelo Vanderbilt, the only daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith. Determined to secure the highest-ranking mate possible for her only daughter, a union that would emphasize the preeminence of the Vanderbilt family, Alva engineered a meeting between Consuelo and the indebted, titled Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, chatelain of Blenheim Palace.

Consuelo had no interest in the Duke, being secretly engaged to Winthrop Rutherfurd, an American socialite 15 years her senior. Her mother begged, and then ultimately ordered her daughter to marry the Duke. The Duke obtained a large dowry through the marriage and reportedly told her — on their honeymoon — that he had married her only “because he felt obliged to save Blenheim,” his ancestral home.

During the marriage, she became a popular and influential duchess. For much of their 25-year marriage, the Marlboroughs lived separately. After an official separation in 1906, the couple was divorced in 1921, followed by an annulment in 1926. Her first marriage produced two sons, John (the 10th Duke) and Ivor. She went on to marry the wealthy French aviator Jacques Balsan and continued her charitable endeavors.

During the period between her marriage to the Duke in 1895 and their divorce in 1921, Consuelo, her first husband and their two sons benefited from circa $20,000,000 in gifts and inheritances from William K. Vanderbilt.

Consuelo and Winston Churchill at Blenheim Palace (1902)

---

The Big Lizards….

---

Here’s Bolero… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcVl2k7R5RY

Today is the birthday, in 1888, of Amanda Clement. She was an American baseball umpire who was the first woman paid to referee a game, and may have also been the first woman to referee a high school basketball game. Clement served as an umpire on a regular basis for six years, and served occasionally for several decades afterwards. An accomplished athlete in multiple disciplines, Clement competed in baseball, basketball, track, gymnastics, and tennis, and has been attributed world records in shot put, sprinting, hurdling, and baseball.

Amanda Clement was born in Hudson, South Dakota, then part of the Dakota Territory, on March 20, 1888, to Harriet Clement (1849–1932), one of the original settlers of Eden, South Dakota, and her husband Phillip (1847–1895), who died when Amanda was very young. In 1904, Clement traveled to Hawarden, Iowa, to watch her brother Hank pitch in a semi-professional game. The umpire for the amateur game taking place before Hank’s did not show, and Hank suggested that Amanda, who had played baseball with her brothers and was knowledgeable about the game, serve as the umpire. In so doing, Clement became the first woman paid to umpire a baseball game. Her performance was so well received that she was hired to umpire further semi-professional games.

Her popularity was so high that baseball marketers emphasized her officiating of games to bring in crowds. In 1906 Clement wrote an editorial for the Cincinnati Enquirer arguing that women made better umpires than men because men would not speak abusively towards female umpires.

Although Clement spent only six years serving as an umpire on a regular basis, she continued to serve intermittently until her forties. Following her time as a regular umpire, Clement spent several years teaching physical education at the University of Wyoming, the Jamestown, North Dakota high school, and other schools in North Dakota and South Dakota. Clement also served as the coach of Hudson Independent basketball team, organized tennis tournaments, and served as a newspaper reporter, police matron, typesetter, justice of the peace, and as the city assessor for the town of Hudson. In 1929, Clement moved back to South Dakota to care for her mother, who was ill. Following her mother’s death in 1932, Clement moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she spent twenty-five years as a social worker before retiring in 1966. Clement died in Sioux Falls on July 20, 1971.

Amanda Clement

---

Today!!!

Today is the birthday, in 1937, of Jerry Reed, US country guitarist who worked with Chet Atkins, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Elvis Presley. His signature songs included ‘Guitar Man,’, ‘East Bound and Down’ (the theme song for the 1977 blockbuster Smokey and the Bandit, and ‘She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)’. Reed died on 1 Sept 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJPM-M_Z65o

Today is the birthday, in 1922, of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war’s end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974.

On 26 December 1944, Onoda was sent to lead guerrilla warfare operations on Lubang Island in the Japanese-occupied Philippines. His mission was to destroy the island’s airstrip and the pier at its harbor ahead of the Allied invasion as well as to destroy any enemy planes or boats that attempted to land. His orders explicitly stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life. American forces landed on the island on 28 February 1945. After a short period, all but Second Lieutenant Onoda and three other soldiers (Private Yuichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada, and Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuka) had died or surrendered. Onoda led the three men into the island’s mountains.

While in hiding, Onoda and his companions continued their mission, carrying out guerrilla activities, surviving on bananas, coconuts, stolen rice and cattle, and on several occasions engaging in shootouts with locals and police. They successfully evaded American and Filipino search parties and attacked villagers whom they believed to be enemy guerrillas, allegedly killing up to 30 civilians on the island.

Akatsu separated from the group in September 1949, and surrendered to Philippine forces in March 1950 after six months on his own. Shimada was killed in a shootout with a Philippine Army mountain unit that accidentally encountered the soldiers while training on the island. On 19 October 1972, Kozuka was killed in a shootout with local police while conducting a recurring raid in which he and Onoda would burn piles of rice harvested by villagers, which they intended as a signal to fellow Japanese forces that their group was still alive and carrying out its duties on Lubang. Onoda was alone from this point on.

On 20 February 1974, Onoda encountered Norio Suzuki, a Japanese adventurer who was traveling around the world. Suzuki located Onoda after four days of searching on Lubang. Onoda still refused to surrender, telling Suzuki that he was waiting for orders from his commanding officer. He named Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, commander of the Special Intelligence Squadron of the Fourteenth Area Army, who had given Onoda his final instructions.

Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of Onoda as proof of their encounter, after which the government located Taniguchi, who had become a bookseller following the war. Taniguchi flew to Lubang with Suzuki, and on 9 March met with Onoda in the jungle and ordered him to surrender. Onoda was thus relieved of duty, and on 10 March 1974 surrendered to Philippine forces at Lubang’s radar base. On 11 March, a formal surrender ceremony was held by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos at Malacañang Palace in Manila.

Onoda, who had been declared dead by the Japanese government in 1959, was the subject of widespread attention from the press and public upon his return to Japan in 1974. The Japanese government offered him a large sum of money in back pay, which he refused. When money was pressed on him by well-wishers, he donated it to Yasukuni Shrine. On 16 January 2014, Onoda died of heart failure resulting from pneumonia at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.

Onoda surrendering his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on 11 March 1974

---

It’s time for CATS, of course…

---

Yesterday was the birthday, in 1844, of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Here is one of his famous compositions played by the amazing Yuja Wang. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alxBofd_eQ