251 years ago today, George Washington assumed command as “General and Commander in Chief of the army of the United Colonies,” having been nominated for the post by John Adams the previous month. Following the engagements at Lexington, Concord, and the Battle of Bunker Hill, Washington’s first act as wartime leader was to drive the British out of Boston thanks to the sneaky placement of heavy artillery on a hill in the city suburb of Dorchester, causing the British garrison commander Viscount Howe to evacuate. READ more about his generalship during the war… (1775)
George Washington in the field as general in 1776 – public domain
The Father of the Country lacked experienced in planning field battles, and experts disagree whether or not he preferred these large engagements or smaller, harassment tactics. The lack of experience has doomed many potential revolutionaries throughout history, but General Washington was able to demonstrate ample strategic resilience following potentially catastrophic defeats and several setbacks.
He was not a great tactician: as Jefferson said later, he often “failed in the field,” with some historians chalking this up to his tendency toward humility—he often accepted the general consensus opinions of his officers during war councils in the field, which occurred before more than 1 defeat.
Many generals throughout history are famous for certain characteristics, and Washington’s would certainly be his relationship with his largely-volunteer militia forces. Equipped and fed poorly, Washington was their most stalwart ally in Congress—whose job it was to furnish them with supplies and equipment. Yet being that the force was also composed of men from all walks of society, Washington was a famous, or rather infamous, disciplinarian—capable of turning cowardly and disorderly colonists into soldiers, or else. For those who respected this kinds of leadership, Washington was able to summon from them a devotion and courage that would prove to be the general’s greatest strength.
MORE Good News on this Date…
- Norway’s oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, published its first edition (1767)
- The Battle of Gettysburg ended after three days in a major victory for the North, marking a turning point in the Civil War when the Confederates retreated southward (1863)
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lit the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield (1938)
- Algeria became independent after 132 years of French rule (1962)
- Back to the Future, a sci-fi comedy by Robert Zemeckis, featuring Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as the eccentric scientist “Doc” Brown—who creates a time machine out of a DeLorean—was released in theaters (1985)
- The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the American people, ceremoniously had its torch re-lighted after a renovation (1986)
- Same-sex marriage is declared legal in Spain (2005)
38 years ago today, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge was completed over the famous stretch of water that divided Asia and Europe in the Classical Age. The bridge is named after the 15th-century Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, who conquered the Byzantine capital, Constantinople (Istanbul), in 1453. It is a gravity-anchored suspension bridge, with a 1,510 meter deck hanging on double vertical steel cables.
Sultan Mehmet köprüsü bridge – credit Mehrdad85 CC 2.0.
The span is built entirely of steel in order to obtain the necessary pliability to withstand the region’s earthquakes. The cable towers are over 300 feet tall, and must be so in order to provide the gradient for the cables to arrive at the middle of the bridge. 600,000 meters of rock had to be excavated from the banks of Asia Minor and Europe to find room to place all the anchors. (1988)
COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES / Scott Garfield
Happy Birthday to Tom Cruise who turns 64 today—still flying high after his film, Top Gun: Maverick, became the most successful film of 2022.
The Hollywood icon has won awards for his roles in Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia. His other well-known films include Top Gun, Risky Business, Rain Man, Mission Impossible, The Last Samurai, The Firm, and, A Few Good Men.
Cruise grew up in near poverty with an abusive father until his parents separated. He planned to become a priest before choosing acting, a skill he began honing in fourth grade.
WATCH the Top 6 Things to Love About Tom Cruise, plus, see him act out his entire film career with the funny TV host James Corden… (1962)
On this day 58 years ago, musicians David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash played together for the very first time.
Album cover, CS&Y
In an impromptu gathering at Joni Mitchell’s house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, Stills, a member of the Buffalo Springfield, performed his new song with Crosby (from The Byrds) joining in. Nash, who was in the Hollies at the time, improvised a third-part harmony, which was so good that the three realized they had a special chemistry. The trio’s first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash, was released in May 1969 and became a major hit in the US with two hits, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes and Marrakesh Express. Three months later, having never performed together live, they played Woodstock.
Neil Young joined the band the following year, and the foursome put out their first album with Young in 1970 called, Déjà Vu. They also released the powerful anti-war anthem Ohio — about the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University killed by the police — a single they recorded and released within a week of the incident. (1968)
And, 30 years ago today, England announced they would finally be returning, at long last, The Coronation Stone of Scone to Scotland after 700 years of intrigue, animosity, and thievery back-and-forth between British royals and the Scots.
In 1296, the stone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, was captured from Scone Abbey near Perth, Scotland by Edward I, as part of the spoils of war. It was taken to Westminster Abbey, where it was fitted into a wooden chair—known as King Edward’s Chair—atop which most subsequent English kings and queens were crowned.
Replica of the stone by Aaron Bradley, CC license
On Christmas Day 1950, a group of four Scottish students broke into Westminster Abbey to retrieve the stone and brought it back to Scotland. Various officials and church leaders worked as custodians of the stone, guarding it until English police learned of its whereabouts. Back to London, it was returned. In a symbolic gesture of goodwill, it was given back to the Scottish people for safekeeping, and transported to Edinburgh Castle where it resides alongside the crown jewels of Scotland.
WATCH a wonderful BBC video about one of the “vulgar vandals” as they were affectionately labeled by Scottish officials… (1996)
And, on this day in 1819, the Bank for Savings in the City of New York opened its doors as the first savings bank in the United States to provide “a secure place of deposit for the earnings of laborers while offering the benefit of accumulated interest so they could make the most of their earnings.” The idea was first promoted by the spunky Philadelphian Thomas Eddy, who was the foremost insurance broker in the country and a member of many philanthropic societies.
The state legislature, however, refused to grant his charter for a couple of reasons— foremost “because the principles of a Savings Bank were not distinctly comprehended,” even though they had been thriving in England for some time. Also, 20 banks had failed in the US since the War of 1812, so trust in such institutions was non-existent.
But Eddy and his cohorts were determined to “aid the poor in the matter of thrift” and three years later they finally succeeded in convincing state lawmakers of the bank’s worth, partly by conducting the same business under a different name, The Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. They sought to secure a new charter after their success had been proven, and the bank remained in business for 110 years. – Read the full history (and other fascinating stories in early American history by Charles E. Knowles) courtesy of this Brooklyn Genealogy page
Also, Happy 46th birthday to actress Olivia Munn.
Gage Skidmore
Raised in Oklahoma, she earned a BA in Journalism, but left for Los Angeles to pursue acting—and in her late 20s she landed a role in Iron Man 2, during which Robert Downey, Jr. highly praised her improvisation skills. By age 30, she was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Soon afterward, she played news producer Sloan Sabbith, in Aaron Sorkin’s HBO drama series The Newsroom. Munn also appeared in the comedy films Magic Mike, and Ride Along 2.
WATCH a charming 2019 interview about how her Asian-American family visits the local Chinatown wherever they travel—and about her charity work for dogs… (1980)
98 years ago today, John Logie Baird completed the first color TV transmission by using three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination, and scanning discs at the transmitting and end with three spirals of apertures, each spiral having a filter of a different primary color. The image was of a young girl, 8-year-old Noele Gordon, wearing different colored hats. Miss Gordon went on to become a successful TV actress.
Baird in 1926 with his televisor equipment and dummies James and Stooky Bill
Baird, a Scotsman, had already demonstrated the world’s first live working television system two years earlier on January 26, as well as the first transatlantic television transmission with his team at Baird Television Development Company.
However, after a variety of issues with his analog television sets, his work with the BBC was replaced with the first all-electric television from newly formed company EMI-Marconi under Sir Isaac Shoenberg, based on work from the famous radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
In 2006, Baird was named as one of the 10 greatest Scottish scientists in history, having been listed in the National Library of Scotland’s ‘Scottish Science Hall of Fame.’ In 2015 he was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. (1928)
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