AUGUST 22 - 2017 Duke reelected canine mayor of Cormorant, MN; 1848 Happy anniversary President Ulysses and First Lady Julia Grant; 1957 Rademacher becmes only heavyweight boxer to challenge the champ in debut bout;2016 Chuck Helmke wins record for most tattooes for a senior
AUGUST 22
2017 -- Canine Duke is reelected mayor of Cormorant.
Woof!
This small town of Minnesotta,population a little over 1,000 elected Duke Great Pyrenees mayor in 2014 as he won an election at the town fair, where votes were a dollar each. Duke won this by a landslide; the only other vote casted was for his girlfriend Lassie. Duke’s role as a politician was to appear in parades and act as ambassador.
Wouldn’t it be great if we just could send pups to hostile foreign countries as ambassadors? Cute, but in North Korea they’d be eaten. I mean how can anyone resist that wagging tail and licks on the face? His deputy mayor Steve Sorenson told the huff post that he just kind of hangs out at local pubs and makes sure everything is running OKand keep the riff-raff out and just oversee the whole works. Duke finally retired from politics in 2017, and tragically died that year. Woof!
1862 –First Battle of Rappahannock Station, also known as Waterloo Bridge, White Sulphur Springs, Lee Springs, and Freeman’s Ford. Union Maj. John Pope V Stonewall Jackson. The result: inconclusive. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was under the impression that Union Gen. George McLellan was leaving the Virginia Peninsula to reinforce Pope. Lee sent James Longstreet’s men to join Stonewall near Gordonsville, and the Yankees and rebels clashed at the Rappahannock beginning on this day in 1862. The following day on the 23rd, JEB Stuart knew of invulnerability in the Union army at Pope’s HQ at Catlett’s Station. There were several hundred casualties, and Stonewall would be able to move through Thoroughfare Gap to capture Bristoe Springs. Catlett’s Station would see a lot of action during the Civil War. Besides this skirmish, According to civilwaralbum.com,. In May 1863, Colonel Mosby staged two raids along the rail lines around Catlett. The first was on May 3 at Warrenton Junction to the southwest where the Warrenton Spur connects to the main line. Weeks later on May 29, Mosby returned and destroyed a train to the northeast of the station, and was pursued to the north by Federal cavalry detachments.
-- 1848 -- Happy anniversary Ulysses and Julia Grant.
Julia Boggs Dent was born January 26 1826 near St. Louis to a slave owning family. Her brother Fred was friends with Ulysses at West Point, and when he introduced the two, it was love at first sight. Speaking of sight, Julia’s was a little off in one eye. These days it’s called strabismus, or lazy eye. She was very plain looking, but her personality was not. She was easy-going, charming, and made friends everywhere she went.
But army lieutenants don’t make tons of cash, Sam and Julia were young, and therefore held off on the marriage for four years. During that time he wrote to her often, but she rarely responded, and when he went to serve during the Mexican War, communication dwindled even further. Finally on this day in 1848 they tied the knot, to the objection of Grant Senior Jesse Grant, who disapproved of the Dent family owning slaves. Several years later, when he became captain, Sam Grant was sent to the California Oregon territories during the Gold Rush.
He couldn’t bring Julia, now pregnant with their second child, and their little toddler so he went alone and missed Julia every single day. As a result, Ulysses retired from the military and moved with his family to her stomping grounds near St. Louis.
There, times were tough. Sam had trouble finding work, and Julia stuck by him. Ulysses finally would settle for a job working for his little brothers at their father’s leather shop. Throughout their marriage, Sam and Julia had four children: Frederick, who grew up to be a soldier and politician, Ulysses Jr who became a lawyer, Ellen, or Nellie, who would grow up to get married in the White House, and Jesse who would become an engineer.
dealing with being a boring old clerk at a tanner, Ft. Sumter was lost to the Rebels and the Civil War was on, and Ulysses was reinstated. He was promoted to brigadier general and then major general. Julia followed General Grant throughout his battles from Memphis to Vicksburg, Mississippi to Nashville to Virginia, covering over 10,000 miles, and probably couldn’t have done so without the aid of her slave named Julie.
Yes, she had a slave, but some historians believe she was more of a member of the family. When Sam Grant’s first attempt to capture Vicksburg was thwarted by Confederate General Earl Van Dorn, Julia was staying at a mansion in Holly Springs. Van Dorn raided the town, and Julia escaped without her clothes or carriage, which was all, handed over to be torched by the Confederate army. Legend has it; Van Dorn considered capturing Julep, as opposed to Julia. Capturing the general’s wife would be one thing, but to capture the General’s wife’s slave would be a great PR move for the Confederacy since President Lincoln was preparing to deliver his Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaking of Lincoln, he finally got the commander he was looking for that could take back Richmond, and ad promoted Ulysses Sam to take charge of the entire Union army, and when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Sam at the Appotomax Courthouse, Grant became a national hero.
His plain looking cross eyed wife was just as popular. The gifts came from seemingly everywhere; cigars and flowers by the wagonload, silver, jeweled swords, gold trays, and invitations from the elite members of society who couldn’t wait to meet the great war hero and his wife.
After President Lincoln was assassinated, First Lady Mary Todd was on her own, dealing with personal disorders that made her very unpopular with everyone close to and far from her. President Andrew Johnson wasn’t very popular either which happens when you get impeached, so by the time Uncle Sam Less Grant ran for presidency, it was a landslide victory.
Julia might very well have been happier even than he. She loved the White House and was an excellent hostess as she planned only the finest parties for their guests. Julia was also a staunch feminist who didn’t think female jokes were funny and even gave Bingham Young a tongue lashing about the Mormon’s practice of polygamy. When Grant’s scandal riddled presidency ended in 1877, the couple would wind up losing everything after a bad investment deal left Sam Grant penniless.
The houses, the gold trays, the silver, the jeweled swords would all wind up paying off former President Grant’s debts. The Grants were flat broke. With nothing else to offer, Ulysses began writing down memoirs from a cigar-smoked lifetime full of stories. Throat cancer caught up to him, and in 1885, days after he finished Personal Memoirs, Ulysses Grant passed on. At least Julia would be financially secure, as Memoirs earned $300,000 in just its first year.
She wound up writing a memoir of her own, and on December 14 1902, Julia Dent Grant died as well. There are so many other stories about this couple that make them one of the most romantic couple. Maybe that’s why Mark Twain called those days the Gilded Age. But one example might be in 1864 when she considered getting surgery to fix that unphotogenic and downright embarrassing lazy eye problem of hers.
Sam didn’t like the idea, and told her, “Dear Julia, I don’t want to have your eyes fooled with. They are all right as they are. They look just as they did the very first time I ever saw them – the same eyes I looked into when I fell in love with you – the same eyes that looked up into mine and told me that my love was returned…” Happy anniversary Ulysses and Julia!
1811 – Happy birthday William Kelly, from Pittsburg,. He came up with the process of injecting air into molten iron, which made steel a practical building material. 1867 – HB Charles Francis Jenkins, who has over 400 patents, most of which are related to the film and television industries. 1945 – A great American passes away. Ida Henrietta Hyde, American physiologist and inventor of the micro-electrode, and pioneered female scientist died at 87. 1865 – William Sheppard is issued the first US patent for liquid soap, aka Softsoap.
1957 -- Pete Rademacher becomes the only boxcer to go for a championship in his first professional fight.
Born November 20 1928 in Tieton, Washingtonthis 6’2” heavywieight had a 77” reach. He came down with a nasty fever while in military school, and to get over it he used boxing. As an amateur he wins 72 bouts and lost seven and snagged about a half dozen awards. He remained undefeated fighting in all three of his bouts in the Olympics. He knew he would be the first boxer to win his first professional bout, and sure enough on this day in 1957 Rademacher would lose his professional debut against Floyd Patterson by a knockout in the 6th round at Sick’s Seattle Stadium.
1927 – Babe Ruth hit 40th of his 60 homers.
2016 -- Chuck Helmke becomes the most tattooed senior citizen in the world.
This would be a record he shares with his wife, Charlotte Guttenberg, who happens to be the world’s most tattooed female senior citizen. Charlotte was 69 when she got the props from Guinness Book of World Records, and 91% of her body was covered up. These days, it’s probably more like 98%. Hubby Chuck got his first tattoo in 1959. Charlotte got her first one at age 50; a butterfly on her chest. When she first met Chuck, he offered to hold her hand during a tattoo session. Isn’t that sweet. Love and ink at first sight.
1851 – The US and British had some intense naval battles in the past.
West Indies, St. Kitts, Delaware Capes, and so many more in the Revolution. Sackets and Lake Erie in the War of 1812. But the ultimate battle happened on August 22, 1851, when the US built yacht America beat a fleet of Britain’s best ships in a race around England’s Isle of Wight. Auld Mug belonged to the US. America, the name of the fastest yacht in the world belongs to New York Yacht Club. In June 1851, Captain William H. Brown sailed her across the Atlantic and challenged a race with anyone who wanted to race. Challenging opponents in their own waters. England was too afraid at first, but finally sent 14 of England’s finest s hips to take on America. The race was over before it began. It beat whoever came in second by 22 minutes. Queen Victoria watched the race from her royal; yacht, and had to ask who is in second place. The reply she got was Your Majesty, there is no second. Like a boss! Any sport can be boring if you win all the time, which made America’s Cup kind of boring to watch, until 132 years later in 1983 when the Australia II beat Liberty off Newport, Rhode Island.
1971 – The Camden 28 Raid.
The Camden 28 was a group of Catholic Left anti-0vietnam war activists that attempted a raid on draft board in New Jersey. The group’s plan was to sabotage the draft process and destroy Class 1-A status draft registrant s. However they had an informant in the group who turned to the FBI, and during the night of the raid, J Edgar Hoover and the FBI arrested 20 of the 28 members.
1980 – David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes goes #1 on the UK chart.
Why am I talking about a non-American on an America history show? Because David Jones changed his name to David Bowie after American frontiersman and knife maker Jim Bowie. See that? Even when it’s about someone else, it’s still about America.
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