Today In History; December 9

Inspired by the spirited leadership of Benjamin Rush Milam, the newly created Texan Army takes possession of the city of San Antonio, an important victory for the Republic of Texas in its war for independence from Mexico.

Milam was born in 1788 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He became a citizen and soldier of Mexico in 1824, when newly independent Mexico was still under a republican constitution. Like many Americans who immigrated to the Mexican state of Texas, Milam found that the government both welcomed and feared the growing numbers of Americans, and treated them with uneven fairness. When Milam heard in 1835 that Santa Ana had overthrown the Mexican republic and established himself as dictator, Milam renounced his Mexican citizenship and joined the rag-tag army of the newly proclaimed independent Republic of Texas.

After helping the Texas Army capture the city of Goliad, Milam went on a reconnaissance mission to the southwest but returned to join the army for its planned attack on San Antonio-only to learn that the generals were postponing the attack on San Antonio for the winter. Aware that Santa Ana’s forces were racing toward Texas to suppress the rebellion, Milam worried that any hesitation would spell the end of the revolution. Milam made an impassioned call for volunteers, asking: “Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?”

Inspired by Milam’s bold challenge, three hundred men did volunteer, and the Texas Army began its attack on San Antonio at dawn on December 5. By December 9, the defending forces of the Mexican army were badly beaten, and the commanding general surrendered the city. Milam, however, was not there to witness the results of his leadership–he was killed instantly by a sniper bullet on December 7. If Milam had survived, he might well have been among the doomed defenders of the Alamo that were wiped out by Santa Ana’s troops the following March.

Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Which Occurred On December 9 In History:

536 – Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome peacefully returning the old capitol to its empire;

1212 – Frederik II crowns himself Roman Catholic king;

1775 – Militias from Virginia & North Carolina defeat British forces at Great Bridge outside Norfolk ending royal control of Virginia;

1854 – “The charge of the light brigade” is published by Alfred Lord Tennyson;

1872 – Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston;

1911 – Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville Tenn explosion kills 84, 5 people were rescued;

1917 – Turkish troops in Jerusalem surrender to British troops after only one day of fighting during WWI;

1921 – A young engineer at General Motors, Thomas Midgeley Jr, discovers that adding Tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline eliminates the unpleasant noises, (“knock” & “pinging”), in internal combustion engines. Oil companies would saturate gasoline with it for over 5 decades;

1940 – Two British army divisions, half composed of Indian troops, overwhelm seven Italian divisions in Egypt which collapsed during WWII;

1946 – President Truman ends wage & price freeze after WWII;

1950 – Harry Gold confessed to serving as a courier between a British scientist who stole top secret atomic bomb information and Soviet agents. His arrest led to the arrest of David Greenglass who then implicated his infamous relatives Julius & Ethel Rosenberg as spies;

1962 – Petrified Forest in Arizona is designated a National Park;

1965 – NY Times reports U.S. bombing campaign has neither destabilized North Vietnam nor reduced the flow of troops into South Vietnam which was strikingly similar to Defense Intelligence Agency analysis that in retrospect called it a colossal misjudgement;

1971 – Vietnam War Paris peace talks break down. Talks resumed in January 1972 but no agreements were reached until January 1973 in secret talks between Henry Kissinger & the North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho;

1984 – 5-day-old Kuwaiti Jetliner hijacking in which two Americans were killed ends as Israeli security men storm & seize control of the place parked at Tehran airport;

1987 – 1st riots of Palestinian “intifada”, or “shaking off” in Arabic, begins in Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip after a truck crashed into a station wagon killing 4 & wounding 10;

1990 – Lech walesa, leader of Poland’s solidarity trade union wins a landslide election becoming 1st directly elected Polish leader;

1992 – British Prime Minister John Major announces formal separation of Charles, Prince of Wales & his wife Princess Diana;

1992 – 1,800 U.S. Marines arrive in Mogadishu Somalia to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country. Following the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident in October 1993, U.S. forces were pulled out in March of 1994;

2003 – Tour manager for the rock band Great White & nightclub owners are indicted on charges related to a fire the previous February that killed 100 people;

2008 – Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is arrested on charges he tried to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat;

2012 – U.S. Navy Seal, Petty Officer 1st class Nicolas Checque, killed when U.S. Special Forces rescued an American doctor captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan;

Today’s Founder’s Quote:

“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him.”  – Thomas Jefferson (1785)

Today’s Amazing ‘Useless’ Fact:

“Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends in “MT” !

Today’s Funny Children’s Advice:

Don’t pull dad’s finger when he tells you to, (no matter what he says!!!).

Today’s ‘Where Did That Come From’:

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are ‘limbs,’ therefore painting them would cost the buyer more as artists knew hands, arms & legs were more difficult to paint. Hence the expression, “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.”

Today’s Silly Sign:

(in a public restroom in an office building) “Toilet out of order. Please use floor below.”  (You sure about that?)

Today’s Inspiration Music Video:

Turn those speakers up, this is beautiful:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCp5LG_zNE

Today’s Silly Bull Dog Picture:

Until Tomorrow – God Bless To All !!!