RIP Buddy Holly. 2/3/58

February 4.

960. The coronation of Emperor Zhao Kuangyin occurs, beginning the Song dynasty in China that would last for nearly 300 years until thrown down by the Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis), and the Mongols. The Song Dynasty was the first government to issue paper currency and established China's first standing navy. The Song also made significant discoveries in military warfare, including the use of gunpowder.

1703. In Edo, the 47 Ronin commit Seppuku. The story of the ronin is one of the foremost legends of Japan. The ronin were former samurai who had become leaderless (and therefore ronin) after their feudal lord was forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official. The ronin patiently plotted and then murdered the court official over a year later. The ronin then committed the ritualistic suicide -- seppuku -- that they knew their murder were force upon them.

1789. George Washington is elected the first President of the United States by the Electoral College.

1801. John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Greatly enhancing the powers of the Supreme Court during his lengthy tenure, Marshall is generally considered the most influential justice and one of the msot influential of the founding fathers in terms of his effect on American governance.

1861. In Montgomery, Alabama, the six states that have to date seceded from the United States meet and agree to form the Confederate States of America.

1945. The Yalta Conference begins. Lingering questions would arise as a result of the soon-to-die President Roosevelt's conduct at the conferencel and whether certain decisions later criticized resulted from his poor health.

1969. Yasser Arafat assumes Chairmanship of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

2004. Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Song dynasty, eh? I guess that while the 3rd is the anniversary of the day the music died, the 4th was the anniversary of the day the Song started.

February 5.

1576. Henry of Navarre formally renounces Protestantism and becomes a Catholic, paving the way for his coronation as King Henry IV of France. Involved in the religious wars as a Huguenot, upon his ascention he ends the religious strife by legalizing religious liberties (the Edict of Nantes). One of the most popular of French kings, Henry was assassinated by a Catholic fanatic in 1610.

Now is a fun time to discuss Regicide (the murder of a king), and the peculiarly specific method of punishing htose that committed (or attempted) such crimes.

Following numerous rounds of torture for interrogation to discern whether he had any accomplices, Henry's murderer, FRancois Ravaillac, was sentenced to die by being "drawn and quartered."

"The process was as follows: the regicide offender would be first tortured with red-hot pincers, then the hand with which the crime was committed would be burned, with sulphur, molten lead, wax, and boiling oil poured into the wounds. The quartering would be accomplished by the attachment of the condemned's limbs to horses, who would then tear them away from the body. "

Note that after the torture the victim would still be alive and conscious to see his executioners tying him to the horses.

Good times.


1885. King Leopold of Belgium claims the Congo as his personal property. His atrocities there would later lead to serious recriminations and become one of the first international scandals of the 20th century.

1918. This one is just for you guys -- Stephen W. Thompson of West Plains, Missouri, shoots down a German plane. Thsi is the first American aviation victory in warfare.

1945. United States General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

1958. In the air off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, near Tybee Island, A United States B-47 Bomber carrying a Mk15 Hydrogen Bomb collides with an F-86 Fighter Plane, and is damaged but still operational. They receive and obtain permission to jettison its cargo at 7200 feet. A massive search fails to turn up the bomb, which is believed to remain buried to this day in Wassaw Sound. Depending on the particular model, it had between 100 and 300 times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb.

Ravaillac was such a Catholic religious fanatic that not even orders, like the Jesuits, would let him in.

What was Ravaillac's motivation for killing the king?

He claims he had a vision that the King had to convert his former people, the Huguenots, to Catholicism. He failed several efforts to meet with the King to communicate his vision.

Then the King invaded Catholic Netherlands as an attack against the Pope and decided he had to stop him, apparently by murder.

Oh, another fine nugget -- Ravaillac's parents were exiled, and his entire family was forced to change their name.

I think it's because he thought the king was not doing enough to convert the French Protestants (Huguenots) into Catholics. The Huguenots vs. the Catholics were a big, exciting rivalry in post-Reformation France and would go off and on killing each other. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is the big example. Wikipedia's entry says something about France invading Netherlands led Ravaillac to suspect a French attack on the Pope, but I don't know anything about that.

There's this great story about an event during one of these Huguenot/Catholic fights where a couple of Protestants tried throwing a Catholic out of the top story of a tall building, but the Catholic survived because angels miraculously moved straw and cow dung below the window to pad his fall. I think that's how it goes.

I should note that my comment is exclusively from Wiki as well, as I, too, am unfamiliar with the hostilities relating to the Netherlands.

I am only passingly familiar with Henry IV at all, and what I posted about him is basically about all I know, though I lifted heavily off Wiki to refresh my foggy memory on the matter.

I love Broken Arrow stories. The one over Spain was better, though.

Since this is a history thread, I have a histoiography question for everyone:

Is it possible to rank historical events as to their significance?

On one hand, it seems like because everything builds off from the past, it would only be deduced that the most significant thing would be the very first event in human history. There's no WWII without WWI, and no WWI without the half of a dozen or so factors that directly influenced it, and those factors had beginnings and so on. I asked a professor of history this, and she said she wouldn't do rankings, as a historian herself.

On the other hand, it seems obvious that some events are more important than others. Princip shooting the Archduke is a more significant and influential event than say, Babe Ruth being traded to the Yankees, for an extreme example. And this thinking is definitely seeing in this thread, where we list the "more important" events for one particular day in history.

A while back, I got a Times book that I loved and still do today. It ranked the most significant events, in their view, from the past 1000 years. Their top choice was Gutenburg printing the Bible. Is this ranking, and other rankings like it, legitimate?

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Damn you, Amnorix.

Cmon Donger. Jumping into the water is a lot better than taking small steps into it. Or sitting on the sidewalk.

:fire::fire::fire::fire: