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Whenever I can't think of a real diary topic, I often turn to history. People have been keeping records of their actions for quite a while now, and something interesting happened on every date. July 29, I discovered, is no exception.
1567 – James VI is crowned King of Scotland
This factoid interests me because James VI of Scotland became James I of Great Britain when Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. For William Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Elizabeth's passing was a time of anxiety. The Queen's Chamberlain had always protected the acting company against the whims of local London authorities who thought the plays scandalous and the actors rogues and wanted to shut down the theaters altogether. Fortunately, upon ascending to the throne, James took the Bard's acting troupe under his personal protection and the company changed its name to the King's Men. James also commissioned a translation of the Bible into English by 47 Church of England scholars (1604-1611). We know it today as the King James Version of the Bible.
Image courtesy pbs.org
1793 – John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto
That's a good thing.
Image courtesy wallpaperbase.com
1836 – Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.
...The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806, and its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages.
The monument stands 50 metres in height, 45 m wide and 22 m deep. The large vault is 29.19 m high and 14.62 m wide. The small vault is 18.68 m high and 8.44 m wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence (after Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang). Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, marking the end of hostilities in World War I, Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel.
Wiki
Image courtesy Wiki
1864 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.
Belle Boyd is one of the most romantic spies in history. On July 4, 1861, drunken Union soldiers came to the Boyd house in Martinsburg, VA (now WV), to tear down Confederate flags and put up the U.S. flag instead. When Belle's mother objected, the soldiers cursed her and shoved her out of the way. Belle, barely 17, pulled a pistol from her skirts and killed one of the Union soldiers. After an inquiry, she was released. But she became a Confederate spy, using her charms to seduce unsuspecting Union officers into revealing war plans.
Image courtesy wvencyclopedia.org
Her most famous exploit was when she passed along information about Yankee troop movements at Front Royal to Gen. Stonewall Jackson, under whom her own father was serving. She rode 15 miles on horseback and then braved enemy fire on foot to deliver the message that the town was poorly defended and an immediate attack would result in a rout. Belle herself remembered it this way:
...the Federal pickets...immediately fired upon me...my escape was most providential...rifle-balls flew thick and fast about me...so near my feet as to throw dust in my eyes...numerous bullets whistled by my ears, several actually pierced different parts of my clothing.
Source
Jackson followed her advice and scored a great victory, capturing several hundred Union soldiers and storehouses full of munitions and supplies. He wrote her a personal note and made her an honorary captain and aide-de-camp.
Belle Boyd was arrested for espionage seven times but was able to charm her way out of most of those scrapes. She was imprisoned twice and captured on a ship as she tried to run messages to England. But she seduced the naval officer put in charge of the ship, got him to change allegiance, and eventually married him in England. They had a child, but Belle's husband died a year later. She would be married twice more. Belle became an actress in London and also wrote her memoirs, Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison. She eventually returned to America and toured the lecture circuit, billing herself as the "Cleopatra of the Secession," a nickname Northern headline writers had coined for her. She died in 1900 at the age of 56.
Image courtesy infobarrel.com
Additional Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://www.civilwarhome.com/...
http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/...
1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
That's not a good thing.
1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Happy Birthday, NASA!
Image courtesy nasa.gov
2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris
This discovery turned out to be bad news for Pluto. Wiki explains:
Because Eris appeared possibly to be larger than Pluto, its discoverers and NASA initially described it as the Solar System’s tenth planet. This, along with the prospect of other similarly sized objects being discovered in the future, motivated the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time. Under the IAU definition approved on August 24, 2006, Eris is a "dwarf planet" along with Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake. Image courtesy Wiki
I'll leave you with some famous July 29 birthdays:
1805 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and political scientist (d. 1859)
1883 – Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist dictator (d. 1945)
1932 – Nancy Kassebaum Baker, U.S. Senator from Kansas
1936 – Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Senator from North Carolina
1938 – Peter Jennings, Canadian-born American journalist (d. 2005)
1953 – Ken Burns (left), American producer and director
Image courtesy sportsillustrated.cnn.com
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