And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have… Death is the great leveller but an old age pension irons out the wrinkles. The Great Depression saw old age poverty in the US reach 50% and on 14 August 1935 FDR signed the Social… Continue reading #OTD 14 August
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#OTD 13 August
On 13 August 1888, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut filed his patent for a pay phone: The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus that may be used in connection with a telephone as a pay-station, the said apparatus being provided with a coin-controlled lock that prevents the sending of messages, while it… Continue reading #OTD 13 August
#OTD 12 August
The death of Cleopatra on 12 August 30 BC is something that we in the west understandably see in a western context: end of Hellenistic Age, rise of Rome, and so on. But the queen’s death did not quite mark the very end of the Hellenistic Age. Two thousand years later, as the Middle East… Continue reading #OTD 12 August
#OTD 11 August
George Antheil was a polymath, an avant garde musician who self-styled himself into Hollywood as the “Bad Boy of Music”. A side interest was female endocrinology, and he authored “The Glandbook for the Questing Male”. Born in New York of German parents, experienced in the affairs of Europe, active in the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, and,… Continue reading #OTD 11 August
#OTD 10 August
Nations comprise people and lands. In systems where the parliament or congress has two houses, the lower house is usually the people’s house and the upper house the house of lands. The house of lands is usually less powerful than the house of peoples, the famous exception being the US. As a rule of thumb,… Continue reading #OTD 10 August
#OTD 9 August
A publicly known and accepted line of succession is a hallmark of a stable government. As to the British monarchy, in 2013 the UK finally abolished male-preference primogeniture and also permitted those in line to marry Roman Catholics. The stricture against Roman Catholics actually being monarchs imposed by the 1701 Act of Settlement remains. As… Continue reading #OTD 9 August
#OTD 8 August
The relationship between the United States and the United Nations has always been… dynamic. On 8 August 1945, US President Truman signed the United Nations Charter. Compare the preamble of the document upon which Truman’s presidency was founded… … with the preamble of what the president signed: Meanwhile, on 8 August 1969, another union was… Continue reading #OTD 8 August
#OTD 7 August
The expression “domestic terrorism” is a stark confrontation for those of us who live in and expect peace in our day-to-day lives, a reminder that others within our domesticity don’t live in peace and don’t expect that anything other than violence will change things. Marin County has diversity; it holds both San Quentin State Prison… Continue reading #OTD 7 August
#OTD 6 August
The centuries between Drake and Cook were the centuries from privateers to navy. Midways, William Dampier visited Australia twice, once buccanneer in the Cygnet and once commander of the HMS Roebuck, where he made landfall on 6 August 1699. Dampier made money from his travel by writing, an effort noted by Dean Swift at the… Continue reading #OTD 6 August
#OTD 5 August
Carl Benz built his business upon his wife’s money. His business was built upon her marketing. On 5 August 1885, Bertha Benz gathered her two teenage sons and took Carl’s Patent-Motorwagen for a 100-kilometre spin. The three daughters were too young and wouldn’t have fitted the three-seater anyway. Bertha bought her petrol – the petroleum… Continue reading #OTD 5 August