1858 Edgardo
Mortara, 6, is “kidnapped” by order of the Pope..
^top^
The papal police enter the
home of Shlomo Mortara, a Jewish merchant living in Bologna,
Papal States, and remove the Mortara's little Edgardo. Some
years earlier, a servant girl in the Mortara household, fearing
that Edgardo was on the verge of death, had baptized him. This
made him a Catholic, who could not be brought up properly by
Jews, be they his parents. So Pope Pius
IX, disregarding an international outcry, adopts the boy
and has him raised a Catholic. Edgardo became quite attached
to Pius IX and became a Catholic priest, who labored for the
conversion of Jews. He died an the abbey in Bouhay, Belgium,
in March 1940.
The scandal was stirred up again
in 2000, when Pope John Paul II decided to beatify Pius IX on
03 September. This prompted some to say that Pius IX would be
the patron saint of kidnappers (presumably if canonization were
to follow in due course). There was considerable opposition
to the beatification of Pius IX, not only for this reason, but
for a variety of others, including his discriminatory treatment
of Jews, his opposition to the unification of Italy, his Syllabus
of Errors, and his promotion of the doctrine of papal infallibility.
The case was the subject of David
Kertzer's 1997 book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara: The
Extraordinary Story of How a Jewish Child, Made a Prisoner of
the Vatican in 1858, Ended the Rule of the Popes in Italy.
|
1848 Bloody insurrection of workers in Paris
1845 Texas
votes for Annexation to US.
^top^
After ten years as an independent
republic, the Congress of the Republic of Texas votes to accept
annexation by the United States. Texas had already voted for
annexation once before, in 1836; however, the likelihood of
Texas joining the Union as a slave state delayed any formal
action by the US Congress for over a decade.
After gaining independence from
Spain in the 1820s, Mexico welcomed foreign settlers to sparsely
populated Texas, and a large group of Americans led by Stephen F. Austin settled along the Brazos River.
The Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans, and by
the 1830s attempts by the Mexican government to regulate these
semi-autonomous American communities led to rebellion.
In March of 1836, in the midst
of armed conflict with the Mexican government, Texas declared
its independence from Mexico. The Texas volunteers initially
suffered defeat against the forces of Santa Anna-- the Alamo
fell (06 March 1836) and Sam Houston's troops were forced into
an eastward retreat. However, in late April, Houston's troops
surprised a Mexican force at San Jacinto (21 April 1836) and
Santa Anna was captured, bringing an end to Mexico's effort
to subdue Texas. In exchange for his freedom, Santa Anna recognized
Texas' independence, although the treaty was later abrogated
and tensions built up along the Texas-Mexico border.
The citizens of the so-called
"Lone Star Republic" elected Sam Houston as president, but also
endorsed the entrance of Texas into the Union. However, Congress
feared that Texas would shift the balance of power between the
North and South, and the Republic of Texas remained independent
for nine years. Finally, in 1844, Secretary of State John C.
Calhoun orchestrated a compromise in which Texas would join
the United States as a slave territory. Four months after the
approval of formal annexation of Texas by the US Congress, Texas'
congress accepted US statehood. On 29 December 1845, Texas entered
the United States as a slave state, broadening the irrepressible
differences in the US over the issue of slavery and igniting
the Mexican-American War (April 1846-February 1848). |
1810 One more company for fur
tycoon ^top^
German-born merchant John Jacob
Astor, 46, strengthens his grip on America's burgeoning fur
industry by establishing the Pacific Fur Company (Astoria, Oregon).
The founding of Pacific Fur came but two years after Astor incorporated
the American Fur Company. A hard-driving
businessman, Astor had already established a toe-hold in the
industry in the late 1700s; with the founding of American Fur,
he became one of the kings of the fur trade. Indeed, American
Fur quickly established choke holds over the Missouri River
valley, as well as the Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes regions.
But, Astor was a prototypical
American entrepreneur and thus looked to expand his domain.
Pacific Fur was born of these cutthroat commercial instincts,
most notably Astor's desire to conquer the Pacific Northwest.
Moreover, in 1811, Astor used Pacific Fur to found the village-cum-trading
post of Astoria, which was designed to facilitate the fur maven's
exchanges with China. However, Astor's hopes for Astoria were
soon dashed: the village, nestled near the Columbia River, was
a casualty of the War of 1812. The loss hardly deterred Astor,
who continued to rule the fur trade until 1834, when he left
the business to attend to his fortune. |
1789 Par la volonté du Peuple! C’est au cours d’une des sessions
des Etats Généraux, que Mirabeau (Gabriel Honoré Riquetti, comte de Mirabeau)
lancera au "Maître de Cérémonies du Roi" venu pour faire évacuer la salle
cette superbe réplique : "Allez dire à votre maître que nous sommes ici
par la volonté du peuple et que nous n’en sortirons que par la force
des baïonnettes" !
1784 first US balloon flight (13 year old Edward Warren)
1760 Battle of Landshut, Silesia
1743 Bataille de Bettingen. C'est la guerre
de Succession d'Autriche. Les Anglais débarquent à Hanovre. George III, roi d'Angleterre, défait Adrien Maurice, comte
d'Ayen, et troisième duc de Noailles.
1683 William Penn signs friendship treaty
with Lenni Lenape indians in Pennsylvania; only treaty "not sworn to,
nor broken" . Voltaire once remarked that it was the only treaty never
sworn to, and never broken.
1611 Hudson
set adrift by mutineers ^top^
After spending a winter trapped
in present-day Hudson Bay by ice, the
starving crew of the Discovery mutinies against its captain,
English navigator Henry Hudson, 46, and
set him, his teenage son, and seven supporters adrift in a small,
open boat. They were never seen again.
Two years earlier, in 1609, after
repeatedly failing in his efforts to find a northeast ocean
passage to Asia, Hudson
sailed to the Americas to find a northwest passage. Exploring
the North American coast, he entered the present-day Chesapeake,
Delaware, and New York bays, and then became the first European
to ascend what is now called the Hudson
River. His voyage, which was financed by the Dutch, was the
basis of Holland’s later claims to the region.
His fourth expedition, financed
by adventurers from his own country, set out from London, England,
on 17 April 1610. Sailing back across the Atlantic, Hudson resumed
his efforts to find the northwest passage. Between Greenland
and Labrador he entered present-day Hudson Strait and by it
reached Hudson Bay. After three months of exploration, the Discovery
was caught too far from open sea when winter set in, and in
November Hudson’s men were forced to haul it ashore and set
up a winter camp. Lacking food or supplies, the expedition greatly
suffered in the extreme cold.
Many of the crew held Hudson
responsible for their misfortune, and on 23 June 1611, with
the coming of summer, they mutinied against him. The Discovery
later returned to England, and its crew was arrested and convicted
for the mutiny. Although Henry Hudson was never seen again,
his discoveries gave England its claim to the rich Hudson Bay
region. |
1173 Révoltés contre leur père, Henry II
d'Angleterre, Henri le Jeune, Richard, et Geoffroy, aidés moralement par leur mère Eléanore d'Aquitaine, et aussi soutenus par Louis
VII, roi de France, mettent le siège devant Verneuil.
0079 Titus
Flavius Vespasianus empereur
^top^
Son père, Vespasien,
avait succédé à Néron
après que plusieurs chefs militaires se furent âprement disputé
le trône. Son règne presque pacifique (69 - 79) vit les débuts
de l'édification du Colisée, l'un des plus grandioses monuments
de la Rome antique, ainsi que la conquête de l'Angleterre. Le
23 Juin 79, accède à la pourpre impériale de Titus, le
fils de Vespasien, le vainqueur des Juifs, commandant en chef
de l’Armée Romaine,. Titus Flavius Vespasianus, 39 ans. L’empereur
que l’on surnomma "les délices du genre humain" régna à peine
plus de deux ans. Mais il a laissé une empreinte positive.
Il avait d’abord secondé son
père pendant la guerre contre les Juifs (prise de Jérusalem
en 70) puis, quand Vespasien partit pour Rome prendre le pouvoir,
il avait commandé en chef l’armée romaine, ce qui lui valut
les honneurs d’un triomphe qui a été sculpté sur l’arc dit de
Titus, au Forum romain. On connaît ses amours avec Bérénice
(Racine); ils sont secondaires.
En tant que souverain, il se
conduisit comme un vrai monarque : il écarta Domitien, vénéra
des divinités orientales qui renforçaient le culte impérial
(Isis), et il agit en tout avec une prodigalité et un luxe digne
des souverains-dieux d'Orient. Mais, pour montrer son sens de
la mesure et apaiser le Sénat, il fit poursuivre les délateurs
et refusa les procès contre les crimes de lèse-majesté, donc
contre les Chrétiens.
Son règne fut marqué par des
catastrophes : en 79, une éruption du
Vésuve détruisit Pompéi, Herculanum, Stabies, et Torre Annunziata. En 80, Rome dut supporter
l’incendie et la peste. Dans tous les cas, l’empereur se montra
secourable ; de plus, il fit entreprendre de nombreux travaux
publics : à Rome, il laissa des thermes, un arc de triomphe
(l’Arc de Titus, encore debout à Rome), et il fit poursuivre
les travaux du Colisée ; dans les provinces, de nombreuses bornes
milliaires attestent son souci du réseau routier, notamment
dans la région de Tongres (près de Liège, en Limbourg). Il mourut
le 13 septembre 81 ; les raisons de ce décès restent encore
mystérieuses.
Ah un truc
mnémotechnique pour retenir la liste des empereurs romains du
premier siècle ap. J.C. Retenez la " formule magique " :
Cesautica, Claunégalo, Vivestido. Soit en décomposant
les mots en syllabes :
César, Auguste, Tibère, Caligula, Claude, Néron, Galba, Otton,
Vitellius, Vespasien, Titus et Domitien. |
|
On
a June 23: 
1940
Hitler sightsees in conquered Paris
Michael Fitzpatrick, a high-school classmate of Shabazz, claimed that
she called him and asked him to kill Farrakhan. Fitzpatrick said she
told him that she wanted to avenge her father's death, and feared for
the life of her mother Betty Shabazz who was outspoken in her belief
that Farrakhan was behind the 1964 shooting. Although Farrakhan was allied
with the 
