As homeschooling is on the rise in America, today we celebrate International Students Day and National Substitute Educators Day. In 2020, parents were the substitute teachers, and many decided to keep the job.
In a match made in heaven, it’s National Homemade Bread Day and also National Butter Day. My go-to source for homemade bread recipes is Sophisticated Gourmet, which has the best bagel recipe on the planet. Also consider making your own butter. Bread and butter!
You can wash down all that goodness with a glass of beer, since it’s also International Happy Gose Day!
“Gose is a fermented sour wheat beer that originated during the sixteenth century in Goslar, located in Northern Germany. The beer became so popular that it gained exemption for the country’s purity law” which “stated that German beer could only contain water, barley, yeast, and hops. But Gose is also made with malted wheat and coriander. Salty water from the Goslar River was also used, giving the drink a unique salty and tart taste.”
Bread, butter, and beer? It’s gonna be a good day!
Now let’s get onto today’s history…
In Government…
Before the Bill of Rights, and still if we are being honest, governments were keen to prosecute people for speech crimes. In 1734, Printer John Zenger was arrested for libel against NY colonial governor William Cosby. He was later acquitted, and the trial was a critical event in shaping American thinking toward freedom of speech.
Our First Amendment is exceptional, and it must be protected. Consider that, also on this day in 1603, English writer Sir Walter Raleigh was put on trial for treason after being attacked for unorthodox thought. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually put to death. Three and a half centuries later, on this day in 1967, French writer and renowned communist Régis Debray was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Bolivia for his ideology – he only served three years. While I am actively anti-communist, thought crimes are abhorrent. Debray is still alive, and still a commie.
What’s most concerning about all this today is that Zenger’s so-called crimes are similar to Doug Mackey’s, and he received seven months in prison. In America. In 2023.
American pilgrims came in search of religious freedom, fleeing persecution from the Church of England in 1620, so it’s a bit disheartening that the Church of England organized in New England on this day in 1785. This is a big day for the Church of England as, in 1558, Elizabeth I ascended the English throne at age 25 following the death of her sister “Bloody Mary,” which re-established the independence of the church.
Centuries later in 2014, the Church of England adopted legislation enabling the appointment of female bishops. The pilgrims had the right idea.
Of course, as the Church of England became more appealing to the masses, the Catholics have evolved their tactics to get butts in pews.
The Residence Act of July 16, 1790 established Washington, D.C. as the nation’s Capital and, on this day in 1800, the Congress met for the first time in the not-yet-finished Capitol building. More than six decades later in 1863, Abraham Lincoln began his first draft of the Gettysburg Address.
In the following century, the US recognized the Soviet Union and opened trade with the commies in 1933. As we discussed yesterday, it didn’t last long. Sixty years later in the American theater an equal or greater amount of damage to America was achieved when, on this day in 1993, the House approved NAFTA, which was later signed by President Clinton. It was a terrible trade deal that led to a hemorrhage of US jobs which, of course, was probably the point considering our government has been run by globalists for more than a century.
More recently in our nation’s seat of government, “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley was sentenced to three years in prison on this day in 2021, though he was released after Tucker Carlson exposed that he was escorted through the Capitol by official law enforcement that never tried to stop him. The footage was withheld from Chansley’s trial, and it was just as exculpatory for the hundreds of protestors that remain in prison to uphold the fake “insurrection” narrative today.
Finally in US government history, exactly one year ago today, Nancy Pelosi announced she would step down as Speaker of the House, though she remains in Congress, ostensibly to avoid being prosecuted for her many, many crimes.
In world government history today…
1659: Peace of the Pyrenees was signed
1720: John Rackham (Calico Jack) died
1818: Queen Consort Charlotte died
1918: Social Democratic Party became Communist Party Holland
1922: Last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire expelled
1974: Union of Banana Exporting Countries formed
1993: Nigerian Hard Coup
2000: Peru Soft Coup
2018: Missing ARA San Juan Argentine submarine found
In Culture…
Secret societies have ancient roots, but even their modern constructs are centuries old. In 1827, the Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity was founded in New York.
Last week we talked about the famous moment where Henry Morton Stanley encountered David Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa, with the immortal words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' Well, on this day in 1855, Livingstone became the first European to see Victoria Falls in the area now known as Zambia and Zimbabwe.
On the north of the African continent, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt on this day in 1869, linking the Mediterranean and Red seas. It was a big day for the Panama Canal, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well. In 1913, the first ship sailed through the Panama Canal and, in 1914, the US declared the Panama Canal to be a neutral zone.
In other first today:
1913: First US dental hygienists course formed in Connecticut
1931: First Pan Am service from Cuba to South America
1992: First exploration of South pole by Erling Kagge
1996: First fossils of alleged 2.5 million year old Australopithecus garhi found
2015: First same sex wedding in Ireland
In science history, the Leonids meteor shower peaked on this day in 1966 with 150,000+ meteors per hour. That would be incredible to witness! In 1990, American atomic physicist and Nobel laureate Robert Hofstadter, notable for his work on electron scattering in atomic nuclei, died. And in 2016, a new nesting pyramid was found in Mexico when a smaller pyramid was found within two known Kukulkan nesting pyramids in Yucatan.
In music, in 1966, underrated independent musician Jeff Buckley was born. He became famous doing cover songs, but his life was cut short at 31 when he died of an accidental drowning in May of 1997.
In 1967, Davy Jones of the Monkees opened Zilch I in Greenwich Village, a boutique. There was really no industry the Monkees wouldn’t dip their toes in.
Madonna released her compilation album “You Can Dance” in 1987, and “The Bodyguard” movie soundtrack was released in 1992 with Whitney Houston’s remake of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” It won Billboard Album of the Year in 1993. Speaking of Whitney, she released her fourth studio album, "My Love is Your Love," in 1998. Another talent lost too soon.
In 2003, Britney Spears became the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the age of 21. And finally in music, Jimmy Ruffin passed away at 78 in 2014. Ruffin is most famous for his enduring hit, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.”
In film history today, there are many famous birthdays, including Rock Hudson (1925), Martin Scorsese (1942), Danny DeVito (1944), and Rachel McAdams (1978). Unfortunately this is also the day that Kelly Jean Van Dyke-Nance committed suicide in 1991. She was 33, an adult film performer, and the daughter of Jerry Van Dyke.
On this day in 1947, the Screen Actors Guild required an anti-Communist loyalty oath, which is hilarious considering they’re now all commies. In 2005, the film adaptation of Rent premiered and poignantly, ten years later in 2015, Actor Charlie Sheen confirmed that he was HIV-positive. Did Charlie Sheen star in the animated version of Rent entitled “Lease”? Maybe.
On the small screen, in 1944 Lorne Michaels was born on this day, as was RuPaul (1960) and Daisy Fuentes (1966). The first US condom commercial aired on NBC in 1991 and, in 1992, NBC was caught doing fake news when they aired a demonstration showing General Motors trucks blowing up on impact – but it was later revealed that NBC rigged the test. Fake news is as old as news itself.
There were a number of stage premiers as well, all musicals and all in New York City:
1930: "Sweet & Low"
1939: "Very Warm for May"
1994: "Sunset Boulevard"
In Death & Destruction…
In 1894, serial killer H. H. Holmes was arrested. Holmes was the sicko who ran the “murder castle” at the Chicago World’s Fair. His story is horrifying – I read a biography about him years ago.
“Graduating medical school in 1886 Holmes moved to Chicago to set up a pharmacy. He then built a hotel across the road, the so-called 'Murder Castle'. During the 1893 Chicago World's Fair it is thought he used the hotel to lure young women looking for work, insisting they get life insurance to work with him, with himself the beneficiary, then killing them.Holmes was only caught years later trying to defraud another insurance company when his accomplice Ben Pritezel was found dead and later his wife and two children, all apparently killed by Holmes. Holmes was arrested and confessed initially to 27 murders, later upping the total to 130 to possibly gain notoriety so the true total may never be known. He was tried and executed for Pritezel's murder in 1896.”
Other D&D today:
1798: 100s killed in five day New England Blizzard
1927: Tornado hits Washington, D.C.
1973: 100s killed when Greek regime attacks students with tanks
1997: 62 killed in Luxor Massacre by Islamic militants
2000: 7 killed, millions in damage in Slovenian landslide
2012: 50 children, bus driver killed when train collided with school bus in Egypt
2013: 50 killed in Russian plane crash in Kazan
2015: 39+ killed in Yola, Nigeria suicide bombing by Boko Haram
2018: 400 injured in French fuel protests
2021: 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year
On This Day is published Monday through Friday. Watch the Today’s History podcast weekdays at 12PM ET! Don’t forget to visit bootlegproducts.com and use coupon code MYAMERICA!