"Onward and Outward" Rhetoric and Civic Life

April 1, 2014

On This Day in History…

Our star Quarterback Christian Hackenberg dislocated his shoulder at practice, and was deemed unable to play in the Blue White game next weekend!

APRIL FOOLS! Did I actually fool anyone? 😉

In the spirit of April 1, my blog today will be about the history of a very strange ‘holiday’, one which few people actually know the meaning of.

April Fools day has several origin theories, although the pranking aspect of April Fools began on April 1, 1700. The English began pranking each other in the year 1700, drawing on a variation of the French ‘All Fools Day’, where the Western world changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar due to the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or didn’t recognize that the start of the new year had now moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes during the time. These people were called “April Fish”, symbolizing a young easily caught fish and therefore a gullible person. The fooled were identified by having a paper fish taped to their backs!
The holiday really came to a head in Great Britian, where it was turned into a two day festival in Scotland where people were sent on “gowk hunts”, or phony errands. ‘Kick me’ signs also originated on this holiday!

Another theory as to why April 1 is called April fools day is in regards to the Spring equinox. Legend says that the Spring equinox used to occur at this time, and Mother Nature was the original prankster, ‘fooling’ people with the sudden change in weather.

Today, April fool’s day is popularized by many large corporations and public news organizations who sometimes release outrageously false stories. For example, in 1996 Taco Bell announced that it was buying the Liberty Bell and renaming it ‘The Taco Liberty Bell’. For us, April fools day is less of a holiday and more of a way to single out your most gullible friends. I pranked my best friend into thinking I broke my leg in 9th grade (complete with a fake cast!), and I’m still not positive that she’s truly forgiven me. Hope you all had a fun day being a prankster, and managed to stay away from the role of prank-ee!!

March 5, 2014

On this day in history…

… what is perhaps the greatest piece of pro-colonial propganda ever occurred: The Boston Massacre.

On a cold, snowy night in Boston in 1770, a group of colonists calling themselves ‘patriots’ began taunting a group of British soldiers guarding the Boston customs house. The patriots were protesting the occupation of their city by British soldiers sent to enfoce taxation policies (we all know how that turned out). Captain of the British troops ordered his troops to fix their bayonets and stand guard with the men being verbally taunted outside the building. In response to this, the colonists began throwing icy snowballs speckled with gravel at the soldiers, leading one of them to fire his weapon into the crowd. This led to an all out frenzy of gunshots and fighting, and when the smoke finally cleared a few moments later, Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell were dead, along with three more people injured. Crispus Attucks, a black man, is believed to be the first of the five to die, thus making him the “first fatality of the Revolutionary War” according to many historians. The fatal outcome of this altercation led Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty to begin a protest for the removal of the British troops from Boston, with help from Paul Revere (hint: he will be very significant in a few years), who made a slighty one-sided woodcarving of the event:

Paul Revere’s woodcarving depicting the Boston Massacre

You may be thinking, “wait, hang on a second… only five people died? I thought this was a massacre!”

Exactly.

If you thought this, John Adams (a future US President) would have agreed with you, for he served as the defense attorney for the British troops when they went on trial for murder following said ‘massacre’. Adams did a fairly good job— only two of the soldiers were convicted of murder, and only received an ‘m’ branded on their thumb for ‘murderer’.

The Boston Massacre can be viewed as one of the first instances of the media blowing an event way out of proportion; leading to a lot of anti-British sentiment due to the spread of Paul Revere’s helpful engraving.

February 6, 2014

On this day in history…

…Queen Elizabeth II ascends to the throne! Sadly, this important day for what could be Geat Britian’s new longest- reigning monarch, is also shared with the death date of her father, King George VI.

On this day in 1952, beloved King George VI died in his sleep, and his daughter Elizabeth— who was in Kenya at the time of her father’s death— became the next in line. King George VI is perhaps best known in the film world as Colin Firth Helena Bonham Carter’s husband in The King’s Speech (fantastic film— highly recommend it). The movie does an accurate job of depicting the king’s speech impedement, which he overcame in order to rally the spirits of a shaken British empire during World War II. Although Elizabeth had been groomed since childhood in royal life and was prepared to become Queen upon hearing of her father’s death, her father George VI was the opposite. Being the second in line to the throne with a much more outgoing and popular older brother, he was keen to play the part of ‘spare’, without getting too authoritative. All this changed however when he was pushed into office by the abdication of his older brother Edward, who denied the crown in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson (quite the scandal!).

Although Elizabeth was not crowned until June 2, 1952 today still technically marks the begining of her 62 year reign, which has not been without controversy. Although she was the first royal to have her coronation televised, Elizabeth was seen as cold and out of touch following her son Charles’ 1996 divorce to Princess Diana, and later Diana’s death.

No worries, though, Queen lovers— her majesty has been seen as quite the cute Granny in recent years. She appeared to be cheery in June 2012 for her diamond jubilee (60 years on the throne), and even did a cameo appearance with (the amazing) James Bond to kick off the London Olympics, also in 2012.

Here are some photos of Geroge VI and Elizabeth II— God save the Queen!

Queen Elizabeth II in her signature pastel look

KIng George VI and the royal family in the late 1930’s (Queen Elizabeth is girl shown waving)

George VI giving a speech— the King’s speech

From left: The Queen mother, George VI, Elizabeth II

The Queen and the fabulous James Bond (along with her trusty corgis!)

Queen Elizabeth’s coronation June 1952

The Queen giving some love to a patriotic corgi

January 30; On this day in history…

Today in 1835, lucky Mr. Andrew Jackson became the first President to survive an assassination attempt. As Jackson was walking out of a house funeral in the Capitol building, Richard Lawrence—an unemployed house painter, approached Jackson and shot at him. Lucky for Jackson and unfortunately for Lawrence, his gun misfired. The 67 year old Jackson was absolutely furious, and— get this— actually went after his attacker with his cane!!! Apparently Lawrence was prepared to be jumped by a 67 year old president after a failed assassination attempt, because he pulled out a SECOND pistol and tried to shoot Jackson AGAIN during the scuffle! Poor Richard Lawrence couldn’t catch a break, however, as his backup pistol misfired! The president’s aides finally wrestled Jackson away from his attacker, with Jackson unharmed but now severly paranoid. Athough his assassin was determined to be mentally unstable, Jackson was positive that the opposing Whig party had paid off the gunman to kill Jackson after his opposition to a national bank. From then on, Jackson and colleagues carried guns with them into the Capital. (But really, all they would need was a cane, right?)

Now, for some background on Andrew Jackson:

Andrew Jackson was a true American story. He was born on March 15, 1767 into an impoverished family somehere in between North and South Carolina (Jackson always preferred to say South Carolina). The son of Irish immigrants, he recieved very little formal schooling, and when the British invaded the Carolinas in the early 1780’s, his mother and two brothers were killed in the conflict, planting a true ‘merican hatred of Great Britian into Jackson at a young age. In his teenage years, Jackson studied law, and with much perseverance, passed the North Carolina bar in 1787. Jackson then moved out West as a prosecuting attorney on the frontier of Tennessee. Settling in present day Nashville, Jackson married Rachael Robards, built a mansion, and bought slaves. Jackson helped draft the Tennessee state constitution, and went on to become the first house representative from the state of Tennessee.

Jackson fought in the War of 1812 as a major general, and earned war hero status as he and his troops defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans— even after the war was over. But without twitter and snapchat, how could Jackson possibly have known that? He was so popular from the war, that although he didn’t want to run for office, but his boosters raised enough money to start a campaign. Jackson first ran against John Quincy Adams in 1824 and lost narrowly, but gained redemption in 1824 when he was elected the nation’s 7th President.

Andrew Jackson also held an innaugural ball equivalent to a frat party. As the first “common man” to be elected to the presidency, drunken supporters stormed the White House, partying and destroying china and upholstery. Jackson was nearly crushed by the throngs of unruly well-wishers. An eyewitness described it as, “a rabble, a mob, of boys, negros, women, children, scrambling, fighting, romping… Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses, and such a scene of confusion as is impossible to describe.” Eventually, according to the Smart Set, the chaos ended when “servants struck upon the idea of passing barrels of liquor and ice cream out the window in order to get the revelers out onto the lawn, where they could do less damage. It worked.”.

As a President, Jackson was the father of the democratic party, which is not the same democratic party as today. The democratic party of Andrew Jackson was focused around state’s rights and limited government power— hence Jackson’s opposition to a national bank. Jackson’s presidential reputation is tarnished when one looks at his role toward Native Americans. Jackson pushed the natives out of Georgia and Arkansas on the famous ‘Trail of Tears’, where thousands died. Jackson did not die on this day, however! Cheers to you Andrew Jackson, for beating up your assassin after he tried to shoot you twice!

Andrew Jackson

A painting of the chaos at the White House on Jackson’s Inauguration

For the second semester; I’m changing my passion blog focus from myself to something a bit more secular. As a lover of history and historical facts, my focus for my spring semester passion blog will be on historical events that happened on certain days. I’m always fascinated with what happened on a specific day at some point in history; because what we see as a due date for a paper, or the worst Monday of our lives could turn out to be the exact date of a much more signifigant historical event! My passion blogs will aimed at describing the event and possibly some long term effects and why the event or individuals involved were important to history. I really enjoy reading about things like this, and I hope that you will enjoy it too!

So here goes day 1!

January 22; On this day in history…

January 22 seems to be a popular death date for historical figures. Including Joe Paterno, Lyndon B Johnson and Queen Victoria all share this ‘deathday’. Today we’ll talk about Queen Victoria because I love the English monarchy. Queen Victoria was only 18 years old when she came to the throne in 1837, the only heir of her uncle King William IV. She had quite a sassy nature for someone so young (and female) at the time, and was an outspoken politician, passionate, and had a revolutionary mindset with regards to the expansion of the English empire beyond the British isles. Her future husband Albert described her “as one whose extreme obstinacy was constantly at war with her good nature.”

Personally, Queen Victoria was a poetic and introspective on her personal life. She fell head over heels in love with her first cousin Albert, a German prince who first visited court in 1839. Queen Victoria was also not afriad to make “the first move”, as she proposed to Albert only five days after his arrival at court! I guess if it’s true love you know! Diaries of Victoria’s, as well as clothing suggest her deep love for Albert, as she always referred to him as “my dearest love”, and even had his wedding cuffs embroidered with quotes of affection. Victoria’s style was also extremely sought-after and iconic at the time, leading to the term “Victorian Era” or “Victorian style”.

Together, Victoria and Albert had NINE children, and established royal residency at Balmoral in Scotland, a castle which the English monarchy still uses today. Their happiness didn’t last forever, however, as Albert died suddenly in 1861. Victoria was in such a state of grief that she did not appear out in public for three years after his passing, and requested that his clothes still be laid out every day and a seat set for him at the table for breakfast and dinner.

Victoria and Albert

Victoria and Albert wedding portrait

It was Queen Victoria’s political ideas that helped coax her out of seclusion. An outspoken conservative, she supported Benjamin Disreaeli, who was the leader of the conservative party in the English Parliment. Disreaeli helped coax the queen out of seclusion, and impressed her with his ideas to expand the British empire and colonize India, a major move that would bring in the imperial British empire of the later 1800’s.

Queen Victoria is the longest-reigning monarch in English history, reigning for 64 years. The current ruler of England Queen Elizabeth II is almost caught up with Victoria, as she has been on the throne for 62 years. England’s colonization within Africa and India can largely be attributed to Victoria’s political agenda, as can many social reforms made within the growing industrial city that was London in the mid 1800’s. She also died with 37 great-grandchildren married into political fmailies throughout Europe, giving her the nickname “the grandmother of Europe”. Overall, Queen Victoria is a very interesting monarch and historical figure to learn about!

P.S: Beacause of her long reign and prominence socially and politically, Queen Victoria has a LOT of statues throughout the city of London, pictures of which I’ve included!