7th December

'A date which will live on in infamy' as F D Roosevelt called this day in 1941. Without warning, the Japanese Pacific fleet attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. There was no formal declaration of war before 200 aircraft were destroyed and 2400 men killed. The whole story was brilliantly told in the film Tora! Tora! Tora! and crappily told in Pearl Harbor.

In other news ...
Marshal Michel Ney, 'the bravest of the brave' was executed by firing squad today in 1815. He had been sent to arrest Napoleon who had escaped from Elba and was back on French soil. He promised to bring 'la bete noire' back to Paris in a cage. In the event, he rejoined his old master and told the newly-restored Bourbon dynasty (they of biscuits) where to stick it. Miffed, they had him shot.

6th December

'The Soviet Union has disintegrated,' said Leonid Kravachuk of the Ukraine today in 1991. This was far too late for thousands of innocent people who went to their deaths under Lenin, Trotsky and above all, Stalin in the name of a political system that cannot possibly work in a free society.

In other news ...

The French tennis team won the Davis Cup today in 1991 and their captain, Yannick Noah, spoke for them all when he said, 'Guy was happy, I was happy, the team was happy, the crowd was happy, everybody was happy. There is just one word to describe it all - happiness.'

Had a way with words, didn't he, old Yannick?

5th December

One of the coolest sentences was passed today in 1991 by Judge Edwin Torres in the United States. He said, 'Your parole officer has not yet been born.'

In other news ...

The Bermuda Triangle nonsense began today in 1945 when five planes out of Fort Lauderdale in Florida vanished somewhere beyond the Keys. The flight leader reported that they were lost, their instruments were going haywire and 'even the sea looks different'. A rescue plane sent up to find them disappeared too, paving the way for Atlantis theories, black holes, white dwarfs and Erich von Daniken et al. No amount of sensible theories - such as typhoons, hurricanes, contrary winds, engine/radio defects or plain old pilot error - will ever replace this. It will vanish and vanish.

4th December

Nicholas Breakspear became the only Englishman to be elected to the Papacy today in 1154. After that, it was mostly Italians, with a few Frenchmen. And for all you feminists out there, 'Pope Joan' was only fictional - soz.

In other news ...

President Rutherford B Hayes told Congress today in 1877 -

'Many, if not most, of our Indian wars have had their origins in broken promises and injustice on our part.'

He got that absolutely right, but most of white America wasn't listening and the massacre at Wounded Knee was still to come.

3rd December

Dom Gregory Dix, a British monk, said today in 1977, 'It is no accident that the symbol of a bishop is a crook and the sign of an archbishop is a double cross.'

Whose side was this guy on?

In other news ...

Agatha Christie vanished today in 1925 and was missing for several days. Sadly, they found her again.

For comments by an alter ego of mine, see  www.untangledweb.blogspot.co.uk and look for the blog entitled - It hasn't been a good week ...

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.

1st December

If you're a fan, like me, of Sellar and Yeatman's masterly 1066 And All That, you'll know that Henry I of England died of a surfeit of lampreys. A what? I hear you cry, dear reader. Well, a lamprey is an eel and a surfeit is too many. All this happened today in 1135 which is long before they had sell-by dates etc. I can't help thinking that as the bloke was 66 (which was ancient in the 12th century) it was probably time he shuffled off this mortal coil anyway.

What did he leave behind? A squabble between potential rulers Matilda and Stephen and a series of excellent novels by Ellis Peters.

In other news ...

The Cross Channel diggers met in the middle today in 1990, nearly completing a multi-million pound project linking Britain to France. There was a great deal more earth movement when everybody from Harold Godwinson (d 1066) on turned in their graves.