In the past six years (2002-2018) there have been three recorded deaths in the US from snake bites during religious services. Pastor Cody Coots survived a bite to the face. Jamie Coots, Cody’s father was bit on the hand and died in 2014. (Pinkard and Bowden addressed this practice in 1984.)
That’s the first known recording of John Philip Sousa‘s “The Stars And Stripes Forever March.” It was recorded by Kendle’s First Regiment Band on 29 December 1901 and published by Victor Records [source]. Sousa wrote in his autobiography that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896, while crossing the Atlantic, after he learned of the death of his band’s manager.
In 1987, an Act of Congress declared the song to be the Official National March of the United States of America.
Every person who supported cessation and fought for Independence from England was a British subject. Every person who fought against them were also subjects of The Crown. The American Revolution was fought by the British against the British.
The abuse of power by the King had become intolerable, and 13 individual colonies eventually banded together as one to fight the tyranny. The odds were not in their favor, and those colonists in the fray knew that they would be hung (or tortured to death) if they failed.
The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, shortly after the war with the British had begun. It was preceded by the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774.
The Congress appointed George Washington as commander of the Continental Army, and authorized the raising of the army through conscription.
On July 4, 1776, the Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, which for the first time asserted the colonies’ intention to be fully independent of the mother country.
The Congress established itself as the central governing authority under the Articles of Confederation, which remained in force until 1788.
While sitting in pre-holiday traffic, I listened to The Mark Levin Show, and he played the audio of those two videos with commentary. I re-learned some history.
Have a Great Independence Day
and Remember What It Means.
Work less, get paid the same wages. Sounds like part time to me. That’s a way for a government administration to doctor the numbers to show unemployment decreasing while reducing the gross income of the work force. I’ll pass.
“The Auto Wash Bowl was built in Chicago in 1924 by The Newway Auto Cleaning & Service Corp., allowing drivers to run around in circles to clean off the undercarriage. After that, they drove into a stall where they’d get a proper wash by an attendant.”
18 April 2018 was the 75th Anniversary of The Doolittle Raid of 1942, the daring attack on mainland Japan after their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. A 1983 interview with (then 87 year-old) General “Jimmy” Doolittle can be found here.
Zen moment: Just saw a bee with one wing. Every time it tried to fly it ended up on its back, rolled over, crawled for a bit and tried to fly again with the same result. It never gave up, but it made the same mistake over and over. There’s more than two morals in that story.
Ever work on a carpentry project, mis-measure the cut and end up with a short board? The BS100o Board Stretcher is the solution. “Measure once, cut twice.”
In 1855, Congress approved a plan developed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to import camels as pack animals for the U.S. Army operating in the American Southwest.
The camels were also considered for use as a long-range mounted force that could drive “hostile Indians out of the country.” The storeship USS Supply was refitted with special hatches, stables, hoists and a “camel car” for the sole purpose of loading and transporting dromedaries.
Once the first herd of camels was obtained in North Africa, Supply [w]as further modified to compensate for the towering humps of the camels by cutting away part of the main deck. The camels were delivered to Texas where their potential was recognized but the plan was never fully implemented due to the advent of the Civil War.
So instead of wasting them, the U.S. Army sold the camels to zoos. TRUE
[Image and story found here. More about the Camel Corps here.]
Fallen Astronaut is an aluminum sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit which commemorates astronauts who died in the advancement of space exploration. It is currently at Hadley Rille on the Moon, having been placed there by the crew of Apollo 15.
It’s the only art installation on the moon. Fourteen names are listed on the memorial plaque, but three are missing. The deaths of two cosmonauts were unknown to the western world, and one astronaut was accidentally overlooked.
In 1783, a political cartoonist could illustrate farting, but was forbidden to say the word. The cartoon above is in reference to The Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783), an attempt by the French and the Spanish to capture Gibraltar from the British who were distracted by the American War for Independence.
Tacky Raccoons 