2nd December

'As I write,' said Henry Longfellow today in 1859, 'they are leading old John Brown to execution ... This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, which will soon come.'

It did. Instead of realizing that (however loony) Brown was right and setting free the slaves there and then, the Civil War broke out leading to more American deaths than in all other wars put together.

In other news ...

Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, died today in 1547. Thousands of Incas cheered. He died from drinking, according to a poem, too much stout, although his pet peke may have been involved.

27th February

Henry Wadsworth, he Longfellow,
Born this day in Eighteen Seven,
Wrote a poem, mighty catchy,
Even if the rhymes were patchy
Wrote it longhand, this Longfellow
Because they had yet to invent a personal computer.

In other news ...
On this day in 1933 a serious fire gutted the Reichstag, Berlin's parliament building. 'God grant,' said the new chancellor, Adolf Hitler, 'that this is the work of the Communists.' (actually, it was the work of the Nazis). 'You [a foreign correspondent to whom he was to speak] are witnessing the beginning of a great new epoch in German history. This fire is the beginning.'
It was - the Nazis followed up burning books, then people.