21 st October 2011

1. 21st October 2011 Mic Porter

2. Events 1774 – "Liberty" appears on a flag, raised in Taunton (Mass.) in defiance of British Colonial rule. 1797 – A 44-gun United States Navy “heavy frigate” commissioned in 1794 is launched in Boston and named USS Constitution by Pres. George Washington. (Washington Old Hall (NT) was the home of his direct ancestors emigrating to Virginia in 1657 to plant Tobacco and “own” slaves.. Mic Porter

3. Events • 1805 – Battle of Trafalgar Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats, off Spain, a combined French and Spanish fleet; Britain's navy now rules the seas, virtually unchallenged for 100 years. Captain John Richards Lapenotière, lieutenant commanding HMS Pickle (a topsail schooner), was, on the 26th, sent by Admiral Collingwood with the dispatches telling of the great victory. Facing head winds he landed at Falmouth and “rushed” to London arriving on the 6th (afer 21 changes of horses). Rewarded by promotion to Commander and the gifts of a sword, £500 in cash and a silver spice sprinkler plus much jealousy from others who were not give the task. • by King George III. The sprinkler is now owned by the mayor's office in Liskeard. "Pickle Night", the story of Lapenotière's return with the news of Trafalgar and Nelson, is celebrated annually in many a Royal Navy Senior Rates Mess in early November. He was subsequently given the command of the 16-gun HMS Orestes and participated in the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, where he was badly wounded by an exploding gun. • His next four years of sea service was spent sailing the Orestes from Plymouth, where he took two privateers (one French, one American) and a rich American merchant ship. In 1811, he received promotion to Post Captain but was unable to secure a ship and spent the remainder of the war on shore duties. He never captained a ship again, settling in Menheniot near Liskeard, in Cornwall with his family, dying peacefully in 1834. He was buried next to his second wife in the churchyard at Menheniot. Mic Porter

4. Events 1854 – Florence Nightingale and 38 nurses trained by her are dispatched to the Crimean War where her insistence on cleanliness improves survival rates (from 58% to 98%). In 1860 she founds (St Thomas’s) the first secular school of nursing. 1879 – Thomas Edison uses a filament of carbonized thread, to create the “first” practical electric incandescent light bulb but Joseph Swan had done this a year earlier! Patent filing dates, communication lag between the US (Edison) and Newcastle (Swan) creates confusion and legal action which ends in merger: Ediswan (now Thorn). Mic Porter

5. Events 1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting President against lynching in the deep south. 1945 – Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time. 1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Perón. Evita (the Musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber follow in 1976 (album) and on the stage in 1978. 1959 – Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum off New York’s 5th Avenue opens to the public. Mic Porter

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7. Events 1959 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other Ex-German scientists from the US Army to NASA. 1966 – A slag heap liquefies and c150,000M3 slips down the hillside, across a railway line, a river and in to the village of Aberfan much of which is “swamped” in slurry 13M deep. 144 people die including 116 children attending Pantglas Junior School and five of their teachers. The event was foreseen – but, perhaps, not the magnitude (“Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board” – Tribunal) The legal ramification and recriminations still continue. Mic Porter

8. Ins… 1449 – George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III (d. 1478). Also the character in Shakespeare's Richard III who drowns in a vat of Malmsey. 1687 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (differential equations and geometry). (d. 1759) 1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet (d. 1834) “suspension of disbelief” via opium & derivatives! 1833 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish owner of Bofors (gun), inventor of dynamite who sought to “do good” by founding and funding in his Will the Nobel Prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or medicine and Peace) first awarded 1901. (d. 1896) Mic Porter

9. Ins… 1911 – Mary Blair, (nee Robinson) sometime Disney artist working on “Alice in Wonderland,” “Cinderella”, “Peter Pan”, “Dumbo”, “Lady and the Tramp, etc.” “Disney Legend” awardee (posthumous). (d. 1978) 1912 – Sir Georg Solti, conductor (d. 1997) 1914 – Martin Gardner, American mathematician, numerical & logical puzzler, writer and publicist for Eg Polyoninos.(d. 2010) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyomino ] 1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz-er (d. 1993) 1926 – Leonard Rossiter, Comedian/Actor (d. 1984) 1940 – Geoff Boycott, “Boycs” Yorkshire man, cricketer and cricket commentator. Mic Porter

10. Ins… 1940 – Manfred Mann, musician – Manfred Mann (1960s) & Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1971 and onward). Paul Jones (from Manfred Mann) still tours as “The Manfreds” doing the 1960s hits! 1943 – Tariq Ali, Pakistan born activist, broadcaster, author and historian. When arrested and accused of being a Cuban revolutionary in Bolivia (1967) he said "If you torture me the whole night and I can speak Spanish in the morning I'll be grateful to you for the rest of my life.” (As reported in Wikipedia). Mic Porter

11. Outs… • 1805 – Horatio, Lord, Nelson, RN Admiral (Mr Pasco [Signal Officer], I wish to say to the fleet "England confides that every man will do his duty". • Pasco suggests changing 'confides' to 'expects', which being in the Signal Book, could be signalled by the use of a single flag, whereas 'confides' would have to spelt out letter by letter). Mic Porter

12. Outs… 1805 – George Duff (b.1764) and John Cooke (b.1763) both Royal Navy Captains, killed at the Battle of Trafalgar. 1969 – Jack Kerouac, American “Beat” novelist died at 5:15 am having gone in to hospital the night before with massive internal bleeding – blood that would not clot due to poor Liver function; the result of many years of massive drinking. (b. 1922) 1984 – François Truffaut, Film director (b. 1932) Mic Porter

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