Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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Storytime Tapestry is proud to present:  History at a Glance by Dean Perchik

deanperchik@earthlink.net

October – Part 1

© 2007 Dean Perchik

Born on the 1^st in 1842, Charles Cros was a man who lived his life with both feet planted firmly in the outskirts of fame and accomplishment.  He came remarkably close to almost inventing the phonograph.  On April 30, 1877, he submitted a sealed envelope to the Academy of Science in Paris.  Contained in the envelope was a description of a device for making sound recordings capable of being stored and played back at will.  Cros’ proposal for such a machine was read in public on the following December 3^rd.  Before he had an opportunity to build a working model of this groundbreaking device however, Thomas Edison, working independently, introduced a working model of his own phonograph, which Edison patented on January 15, 1878.   Cros was a man of many talents.  He also worked on the photograph equipment of the late nineteenth century and almost came up an improvement.  Undeterred by these little set backs, Gros then turned his gaze to the stars.  Cros became convinced that the pinpoints of light that he and others had observed on Mars and Venus were the lights of large cities on those planets. He spent years petitioning the French government to build a giant mirror that could be used to communicate with the Martians and Venusians by burning giant lines on the deserts of those planets. Cros was never convinced that the Martians were not a proven fact, or that the mirror he wanted to build was technically impossible.  One possible explanation for Cros’ behavior might be that in addition to being an inventor he was also a poet.  That of course means he was, at times, completely out of his mind.

On the 2^nd in 1535, Jacques Cartier,[i] the intrepid adventurer not the manufacturer of tasteful jewelry and watches, began settlement of what was to become Montreal[ii], Quebec, Canada[iii].  I shouldn’t hold it against Cartier, though I will, but I have not cared for Montreal since a friend and I were refused entrance to a restaurant there because we could not speak French and we were wearing blue jeans.  I suppose that the Quebecois aren’t all bad and they do serve at least one important function: they give the French someone to look down on.

Ever since Warhol made his point about fame, everyone wants to know the answer to the question ‘when do my fifteen minutes start?’  For Welshman Dayfdd ap Gruffyd, Prince of Gwyedd, the last Welsh ruler of Wales[iv], they started on the 3^rd in 1283 when, according to reliable sources, he became the first person to have been executed by drawing and quartering[v].  He survived the drawing part, which if done properly can take an extraordinarily long time, and watched as his intestines were boiled.  He did not survive much beyond that because the quartering is always effective on the first try.  The international response to this development was swift and decisive and resulted in a total blockade of the importing of vowels to Wales.

On the 4^th in 1582, Pope Gregory[vi] XIII, with a single shot from his starters’ pistol, started the ball rolling for his eponymous calendar, which is the calendar predominately used to this day.  Jaded as we have become we tend to take far too many things for granted.  For instance, we assume that October 4 will be followed by October 5, which in turn will be closely followed by October 6, and then 7, and so on and so on.  Well until October 31 of course, since October only has 31 days, though that may very well change if I have anything to say about it.  Such was not always the case.  In 1582, October 4 was immediately followed by October 15.  Think about it, if you had a busy social calendar for October 11, you were probably going to lose your security deposit, because in 1582 there would simply not be an October 11.  Do not even think about rescheduling for the 15^th because it is amazing how quickly things sell out.

President Truman[vii] was the first sitting president to address the nation by the means of a live televised broadcast when he went on the air on the 5^th in 1947.  In this address, he used his time to urge his fellow Americans to not eat meat on Tuesdays or poultry on Saturdays.  His reason for this request was to help people starving in other countries.  I haven’t been able to ferret out the story behind his very specific request that Americans avoid meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Saturdays.  Why didn’t he pick liver and Brussels sprouts?  Nobody here likes either of them and if those people were really starving, they would pretty much eat whatever was put in front of them wouldn’t they?

On the 6^th in 1927, The Jazz Singer[viii], the first feature-length ‘talkie[ix]’ movie starring Al ‘You ain’t heard nothing yet’ Jolson was released.

On the 7^th in 1769, English explorer Captain Cook[x] stumbled upon New Zealand.  Cook was the first European to set foot on New Zealand since Abel Janszoon Tasman[xi] had attempted, but failed, to establish a colony in New Zealand in 1642.

San Marino, one of the smallest nations[xii] on the planet, (Lichtenstein is enormous by comparison) adopted its first written constitution on the 8^th in 1600.  San Marino was founded on September 3, 301. (See issue 33)

King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was the first king of the new nation of Yugoslavia.  He assumed the crown on December 1, 1918.  Three members of his family had been killed on a Tuesday, and, as a result, he was in the habit of not conducting any business on Tuesdays.  While on a state visit to France, to strengthen the ties between Yugoslavia and France, however Alexander had no choice but to work on Tuesday the 9^th of October in 1934. As he was being driven in an open car through the streets of Marseille, Macedonian revolutionary Vlado Chernozemski[xiii] stepped into the crowded street and shot the King and the chauffeur.  This was one of the first assassinations caught on film.

In 1968 Robert McCullough, founder of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, bought the London Bridge[xiv].  It would be more accurate to say that he bought a bridge that happened to be in London, England.  It was not the structure that is generally featured in brochures and post cards, that one is named Tower Bridge, but one that was located conveniently nearby.  This bridge had been built in 1831 but by the late 1960s, it was no longer capable of handling the flow of traffic that crossed over it.  McCullough had the bridge dismantled, carefully numbering each piece as it came down; he then had all this stuff shipped to Lake Havasu to be the centerpiece of a development he was building.  An artificial lake was built and the bridge reassembled.  On October 10, 1971, the mandatory ribbon cutting ceremony was held and the London Bridge Resort and Convention Center was officially opened to the public.

On the 11^th in 1811, John Stevens’ steam-powered boat, the Juliana, went into service between New York, New York and Hoboken[xv], New Jersey.  This was the first steam-powered ferry service available to and from Manhattan.

On the 12^th in 1654, an abandoned convent of the Order of the Poor Clares, in the Doelenkwartier District of Delft, a city in the Netherlands, was being used as a storehouse for 40 tons of gunpowder.  Cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the storehouse, wanted to check on the condition of the gunpowder, which was kept in barrels, to make certain that all was in order.  When he opened the door to the magazine to get samples, all 40 tons of the gunpowder exploded, leveling most of the city.

On the evening of the 13^th in 1892, Edward Emerson Barnard[xvi] discovered comet D/1892 T1 (Barnard 3).  By itself that is not a particularly interesting event, particularly for Barnard, who had already discovered thirteen other comets, the first in 1881.  So, what’s the big deal about him finding another one?  What makes Barnard 3 a little different is that it is the first comet to be discovered using photographic evidence.

On the 14^th in 1947, United States Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager[xvii], at the controls of a Bell Aircraft Corp. X-1 jet, broke the sound barrier in level flight[xviii], becoming the first person to do so. 

The next time the weatherman tells you that the barometer is dropping, you should remember to take your umbrella and get ready for a storm.  On the other hand, if that same weatherman, weatherwoman, meteorologist, or any of the host of other weather professionals with some silly title tells you that the barometer is rising so get ready to hit the beach, say a word of thanks to Evangelista Torricelli who invented the barometer.  He was born on the 15^th in 1608. 

Wilhelm Voigt was born in Tilsit, Germany on February 13, 1849.  He was first arrested when he was only 14 years old and ironically spent 14 days in prison after being convicted of theft.  This set a pattern for the remainder of his life.  The years 1864 through 1891 saw Voigt more or less continuously in prison.  He had a brief period of freedom until he was once again sentenced to prison for theft.  He would be released on February 12, 1906 after serving this sentence.  Thoroughly chastened Voigt managed for a time to give up his felonious lifestyle.  Fully rested and ready to get back to work, on October 16, 1906 Voigt put together a mismatched military uniform with items bought from several second hand stores.  He had by this time become quite familiar with military and police procedures and attitudes and it was with great confidence that on the 16^th he appeared unannounced at a military barracks in the town of Kopenick, which is east of Berlin.  Walking confidently up to the local army barracks, Voigt approached a group of four soldiers and a sergeant who were on their way back to the barracks. Voigt ordered the soldiers to get their rifles and follow him.  He then ordered the sergeant to get six more soldiers from a firing range and bring them back to meet him.  Once properly assembled, Voigt and his newly formed platoon marched to the City hall.  After ordering the soldiers to stand guard at the entrance and all of the exits, Voigt entered city hall, placed the Town’s Secretary and Mayor under arrest and confiscated 4000 marks.  Once back at the entrance Voigt ordered the soldiers to not let anyone enter or leave the building and to remain at their posts for half an hour.  Voigt then calmly walked to the train station, changed in to civilian clothes, boarded a train and made it safely away from the scene of the crime.

I guess some constellations are just more popular than others are.  I don’t know why it should be but the Ophiuchus constellation seems to be very popular in October.  On the 17^th in 1604, Johannes Kepler, big shot astronomer, observed what has come to be referred to as Kepler’s Star in the Ophiuchus constellation.  While it wasn’t a star that he saw, it used to be one.  It was the last supernova to be observed in our comfy little galaxy The Milky Way. (See endnote XV)