21st October

Truly great events spawn truly great quotations. Here are three from October 21st 1805, the day the British fleet under Horatio Nelson trounced the Franco-Spanish ships of Admiral Villeneuve at Trafalgar and saved England from invasion.

'England expects that every man shall do his duty.'
This was the coded message sent by a flag signalling system to the entire fleet by Nelson. He wanted to send 'England confides [trusts]' but they hadn't got that in the code book. It was the only cock-up the fleet made that day.

'Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.'
Admiral Collingwood who led a column that smashed the enemy line (Nelson led the other).

'I do not say the French will not come; I only say they will not come by sea.'
Sorry, I can't remember whose this is, but it was a speech to the House of Commons, soon after Trafalgar.

In other news ...
Katsushika Hokusai was born today in 1760. Nobody, nobody does waves better (except Teasy-Weasey - and if you remember him, it's time for your cocoa).

14th June

Legend has it that after his victory at Marengo today in 1800, Napoleon asked his chef to cook something to commemorate the victory. It has come to be known as Chicken Marengo and ranks alongside other great culinary victories as

• Haddock Grammicus (Alexander the Great
• Escargots Alesia (Julius Caesar)
• Eggs Agincourt (Henry V
• Mushrooms Cape St Vincent (Nelson)
• Onions Chickamanga (Ulysses Grant)
• Bananas Mersch Matruh (Erwin Rommel)

Scrummy!

In other news ...
Actor and President Ronald Reagan became Sir Ronald today in 1989 when he was dubbed by Her Majesty. Other America recipients include George Dub You Bush and James Earl Jones. Count Basie doesn't count.

2nd April

You know how things get misreported in history? There was a classic today in 1802 when Horatio Nelson, he of the column, turned a blind eye to orders and sank the Danish fleet in Copenhagen harbour. His ship, the Elephant, was under heavy fire and he received an order from the commander in chief, Sir Hyde Parker (brother of Sir Regent's Parker) to pull out. Most people will tell you that Nelson put his telescope to his glass eye and said, 'I see no ships,' which is pretty ludicrous bearing in mind he was shooting at them. He didn't even say, 'I see no signal,' because somebody asked him if he saw the signal from Parker's ship (done by flags) and he replied, 'Damn me if I do.' Now that sounds more like Hor and very much in keeping with the Duke of Wellington's coming out confession of fourteen years later - 'Napoleon has humbugged me, by God.'

And yes, follower, I know that Nelson didn't have a glass eye, despite whole museum exhibits devoted to them!

In other news ...
The first Italian parliament met on this day in 1860 in Turin, which was odd, because the parliament building was in Rome. That pretty much set the seal on Italian politics from that moment on.