Wednesday, November 23, 2011

1863-1963

November 23 (I am dedicating today's blog to one of my best friends James La Salandra, my writing buddy, and a force to be reckoned with!)
Today is a very important day, at least in my eyes. Two of the greatest things to have happened, happened today! First off Lets start with the earliest thing:
Battle of Chattanooga Begins aka Chattanooga Campaign
On November 23, 1863, 60,000 Union forces under General Grant confronted 40,000 Confederate forces under General Bragg, with an unmitigated defeat to the Confederacy, and allowed an opening for the Union forces into the Deep South, and to be honest, began the fierce intent of the Union of taking over the Deep South.
(From Wikipedia)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga_Campaign
On November 23, the Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas advanced from the fortifications around Chattanooga to seize the minor high ground at Orchard Knob while elements of the Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman maneuvered to launch a surprise attack against Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge. On November 24, Eastern Theater troops under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker defeated the Confederates in the Battle of Lookout Mountain and began a movement toward Bragg's left flank at Rossville.

On November 25, Sherman's attack on Bragg's right flank made little progress. Hoping to distract Bragg's attention, Grant authorized Thomas's army to advance in the center of his line to the base of Missionary Ridge. A combination of misunderstood orders and the pressure of the tactical situation caused Thomas's men to surge to the top of Missionary Ridge, routing the Army of Tennessee, which retreated to Dalton, Georgia, fighting off the Union pursuit successfully at the Battle of Ringgold Gap. Bragg's defeat eliminated the last Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, leading to Sherman's Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

Doctor Who Day
EEEEEEEEE this is the one I am most excited about!!
Come to Momma!!
The girls

On November 23, 1963, England was sitting down to watch some telly after supper, and a new show came on. It was quite different. It starred a couple of school teachers, A man by the name of The Doctor, and his sidekick, a sexy woman by the name of Susan Foreman. And things were different then too, Susan was his granddaughter, and that type of storyline has changed since then. They traveled around the universe in their blue Tardis (blue phone booth) so they could mingle with the everyday man in England, and other areas.
The Tardis is a thing of beauty. Outside it is simply a blue telephone booth, but open its doors, and immediately you realize something is up. First of all, it is MUCH bigger on the inside, (one episode even mentioned a pool!) There is the main room, which is round, with lots of computer and electronic devices. A round *table* in the middle is where all the action happens. There are computer screens, levers, pulleys, all kinds of things, that help The Doctor and his cohorts to travel where they need to. To the left, from the door, or if facing from the side, in the back, there is a door that leads off to many, who knows how many, rooms. At the moment Rory and Amy share a room, and then of course if The Doctor ever sleeps, he has one, after that *shrugs* who knows, lol.
The Screwdriver. Everyone who knows the show, knows what this is. (And every fan wants one) It is an electronic/computerized tool The Doctor uses. He is nearly helpless without it, it opens doors, gets into other computers, can be used as a flashlight, and so many other things, I have a feeling all of its components have not been plumbed yet.
There have been 11 doctors, Matt Smith plays the latest one. There have been probably no less than 200 cohorts, some who last one or two episodes, and others who last a couple of seasons.
From Wikipedia
Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old Time Lord alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body; in doing so, his physical appearance and personality change. Hartnell's Doctor is the Doctor's "original" form. The regeneration plot device was introduced when Hartnell needed to leave the series, and consequently has extended the life of the show for many years. The First Doctor is the youngest incarnation of the Doctor, but has the most aged physical appearance.

Franklin Pierce
born November 23, 1804 in Hillsborough, NH. Parents were Benjamin Pierce and Anna B. Kendrick, he was the fifth of eight children.
On November 19, 1834, Pierce married Jane Means Appleton (1806–63), the daughter of a former president of Bowdoin College. Appleton was Pierce's opposite. Born into an aristocratic Whig family, she was shy, often ill, deeply religious, and pro-temperance. They had three children, all of whom died in childhood:

Franklin Pierce, Jr. (February 2, 1836 – February 5, 1836)
Frank Robert Pierce (August 27, 1839 – November 14, 1843), died at the age of four from epidemic typhus
Benjamin "Bennie" Pierce (April 13, 1841 – January 6, 1853), died at the age of 11.

Pierce served as President from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1857.
Jane felt that Franklins ambitions as President were wrong, and that their children dying were the punishment for his pursuit and acceptance of Presidency.

After losing the Democratic nomination for reelection in 1856, Pierce retired and traveled with his wife overseas. He returned to the U.S. in 1859 in time to comment on the growing sectional crisis between the South and the North, often criticizing Northern abolitionists for encouraging ugly feelings between the two sections. In 1860 many Democrats viewed Pierce as a solid compromise choice for the presidential nomination, uniting both Northern and Southern wings of the party, but Pierce declined to run.

During the Civil War, Pierce attacked Lincoln for his order suspending habeas corpus. Pierce argued that even in a time of war, the country should not abandon its protection of civil liberties.

Pierce's stand won him admirers with the emerging Northern Peace Democrats, but enraged certain members of the Lincoln administration: in 1862 Secretary of State William Seward sent Pierce a letter accusing him of being a member of the seditious Knights of the Golden Circle. Outraged, Pierce responded and demanded that Seward put his response in the official files of the State Department. When that didn't happen, a Pierce supporter in the US Senate, Milton Latham of California, had the entire Seward-Pierce correspondence read into the Congressional Globe. Nearly every Seward biographer has since considered the Pierce-Seward exchange as a blot on the Secretary's otherwise notable career.

Franklin Pierce died in Concord, New Hampshire, at 4:49 am on October 8, 1869, at 64 years old. President Ulysses S. Grant, who later defended Pierce's service in the Mexican War, declared a day of national mourning. Newspapers across the country carried lengthy front-page stories examining Pierce's colorful and controversial career. He was interred in the Minot Enclosure in the Old North Cemetery of Concord.

1910 - Hawley H Crippen, doctor/murderer, executed
What I mainly remember about this story, is that Dr Crippen and his wife were living in England, and she disappeared, and Dr Crippen and a young woman dressed as a young boy left for Canada, and he was caught as soon as they landed on shore, and sent back to England. Her body was found under floorboards in the house. (Now to check my memory, lol)

Hawley Crippen was born in Coldwater, Mich to Myron Crippen and Ardesee Skinner, on 11 September 1862. He graduated from Michigan School of Homeopathic Medicine in 1884. His first wife, Charlotte died in 1892, and leaving his only son with his parents, he left for England in 1900 after he remarried to Corrine Turner.
(From Wikipedia)
After a party at their home on January 31, 1910, Cora disappeared. Hawley Crippen claimed that she had returned to the US, and later added that she had died, and had been cremated, in California. Meanwhile, his lover, Ethel "Le Neve" Neave (born Bryers Lane, off Victoria Road in Diss Norfolk January 1883), moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Cora's clothes and jewellery. Police first heard of Cora's disappearance from her friend, strongwoman Kate Williams, better known as Vulcana, but began to take the matter more seriously when asked to investigate by a personal friend of Scotland Yard Supt. Frank Froest, John Nash and his entertainer wife, Lil Hawthorne. The house was searched, but nothing was found, and Crippen was interviewed by Chief Inspector Walter Dew. After the interview (and a quick search of the house), Dew was satisfied. However, Crippen and Le Neve did not know this and fled in panic to Brussels, where they spent the night at a hotel. The following day, they went to Antwerp and boarded the Canadian Pacific liner SS Montrose for Canada.
Because they decided to leave so quickly, this lead the police to believe something had happened, and the house was searched three more times. On the last time, a decomposed body was found under bricks in the basement, but only portions were able to be identified. The skeleton and head and limbs were never found. (In other words if they had stuck to their guns and stuck around, they would never have been figured out!)
They were crossing the Atlantic to Canada on the Montrose, and the Captain recognized Dr Crippen, and sent a message via telegram to the British Authorities. The British Authorities contacted Canada, and even before the ship docked Chief Inspector Dew boarded the ship under guise of being a pilot, and arrested both Dr Crippen and Ethel. Crippen returned to England on the SS Megantic.
A theory which was first propounded by Edward Marshall Hall was that Crippen was using hyoscine on his wife as a depressant or anaphrodisiac, but accidentally gave her an overdose and then panicked when she died.[7] It is said that Hall declined to lead Crippen's defence because another theory was to be propounded.[18]

In 1981, newspapers reported that Sir Hugh Rhys Rankin claimed to have met Ethel Le Neve in 1930 in Australia and that on that occasion, she told him that Crippen murdered his wife because she had syphilis.


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