Gilbert M. Stack's Blog, page 128

Today in History: Jesse Owens Beats the Nazis

On this day (August 3) in 1936, Jesse Owens won the 100 meter dash, taking the gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. These were the first televised Olympic games, and Adolf Hitler viewed them as a platform to demonstrate the alleged superiority of the Arian Race and his Nazi Party. Jesse Owens did more than his part to deflate that dream by winning four gold medals.

Today in History: The Battle of Chaeronea

On this day (August 2) in 338 BC, Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) defeated Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea. Philip had dominated Greece since 346 BC and cities like Athens worried that this would ultimately cost them their precious liberties. They attacked Philip’s territories and panicked when a few months later he began marching his army toward them. They asked Thebes for help and even though Thebes was traditionally hostile to Athens, it agreed to join forces against Philip.

The Macedonian army was comprised of roughly 30,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. Philip commanded his right wing and put his son, Alexander, in command of the left. Athens, Thebes and their allies fielded a larger army. After a hotly contested fight, Alexander and his troops broke the Greek right flank and Philip then crushed the Greek left. It has been described as one of the most decisive victories in history. Resistance to Philip crumbled permitting him to focus on his planned conquest of Persia which would be carried out by his son, Alexander, after Philip was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, possibly because he had abandoned the man for a younger lover.

Today in History: The British Outlaw Slavery

On this day (August 1) in 1834 the British Empire outlawed slavery in most of their empire. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 banned the purchase and owning of slaves except in territories controlled by the East India Company—Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and St. Helena. Twenty Million Pounds Sterling was set aside by Parliament to compensate the slave owners. (This was 40% of the British Treasury’s annual income.) The money was split between slave holding families in the empire and absentee landowners living in England. These recipients included at least two earls and the Bishop of Exeter. The Act didn’t actually immediately free the slaves. Instead former slaves older than six years of age were relabeled as “apprentices” and released in two waves (in 1838 and 1840).

Today in History: The Battle of the Cravant

On this day (July 31) in 1423, England and its Burgundian allies defeated the Dauphin’s forces at the Battle of the Cravant. For all practical purposes, France was in the midst of a civil war caused by rival factions fighting for control over the government during the mental illness of Charles VI and aggravated when the Dauphin assassinated his Burgundian rival. Burgundy allied with England under Henry V and together they successfully dominated a significant amount of French territory including Paris. The Dauphin broke his peace treaty with England when Henry V died leaving an infant son as king, but the Burundians and English rallied together to defend the town of Cravant from the Dauphin’s siege. The Dauphin outnumbered the English forces by 2-3 times, but was outmaneuvered. He attempted to withdraw but 4000 Scottish troops serving under his command refused to retreat and the English smashed them, breaking the Dauphin’s army, and taking a couple of thousand prisoners. Things would continue to get worse for the Dauphin until a young peasant girl named Joan came to him bearing a message she insisted came from God.

Today in History: The Sinking of the Indianapolis

On this day (July 30) in 1945, the USS Indianapolis was shot by a torpedo while returning to the Philippines after delivering parts of “Little Boy”, in preparation for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Indianapolis had been sent without a destroyer escort despite the fact that the navy knew that enemy submarines were patrolling the oceans they were transiting. Because of the secret nature of their mission, the crew was not missed immediately, and it was not discovered that the cruiser had sunk until a PV-1 Ventura discovered it 4 days later. Of the 1,195 crew members, approximately 300 drowned when the ship sank. The others faced exposure, salt-water poisoning, and dehydration while they waited for rescue in the water. Then the sharks came, at times killing as many as one man every ten minutes. Only 316 people ultimately survived.

In November 1945, Captain Charles McVay was court-martialed and convicted of “hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag.” The conviction was controversial. McVay’s orders were to “zigzag at his discretion, weather permitting” but he had not been told that the navy knew an enemy submarine was patrolling the water he was crossing. Furthermore, the commander of the submarine who sank him testified that zigzagging would not have saved the Indianapolis. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz remitted McVay’s sentence and permitted him to retire as a rear admiral. The families of the crew were divided on the subject of the court martial. One piece of hate mail that McVay received read, “Merry Christmas! Our family’s holiday would be a lot merrier if you hadn’t killed our son.” McVay committed suicide in 1968 at the age of 70.

In 1997, twelve year old student, Scott Hunter, became interested in the Indianapolis after learning about it in the movie, Jaws. He interviewed 150 survivors, read 800 documents concerning the sinking, and became convinced that Captain McVay had been unjustly convicted. He then convinced his congressman of the same and got a Congressional Investigation started. As a result, Congress passed a resolution (signed by Bill Clinton) clearing McVay’s name and the Navy soon did likewise. In all of World War II, McVay had been the only U.S. naval captain court-martialed for his ship being sunk.

Today in History: The Siege of Damascus Was Broken

On this day (July 29) in 1148 the Siege of Damascus was decisively defeated marking the beginning of the end of the Second Crusade and the start of very bad times for the Crusader States. It was bad enough that the crusaders had attacked the only friendly power in the region but there failure broke the trust between the leaders of the various crusader states making them far more vulnerable to their enemies.

Today in History: The U.S. Occupation of Haiti

On this day (July Twenty-Eight in 1915 the United States under President Woodrow Wilson occupied Haiti. The military intervention followed four years of assassinations and political instability in Haiti combined with U.S. concerns over Imperial Germany’s longstanding interest in the strategically placed island. Many American business interests were also unhappy that Germany controlled about 80% of Haiti’s foreign trade. German success in Haiti came from the willingness of their merchants to marry into prominent Haitian families, permitting them to bypass the constitutional restriction against foreigners owning property in Haiti. At the same time, however, German businessmen fueled the instability in Haiti by floating high-interest loans to rebellious political factions.

Trying to strengthen American commercial interests in Haiti, Wilson backed an effort to take control of the National City Bank and the National Bank of Haiti, including sending marines in December 2014 to seize the gold reserves of the banks and move them to the New York City vault of the National City Bank. A pro-American dictator took power in February 2015 but was assassinated 5 months later prompting Wilson to seize control of the country. The American occupation would last for 19 years. Herbert Hoover negotiated an end to the occupation but hadn’t completed it by the time he left office. In 1933, FDR completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of his “Good Neighbor” policy.

Today in History: The Navigation Acts

On this day (July 27) in 1663, England passed the Second Navigation Act mandating that all trade with its American colonies be transported in English ships and pass through English ports. This kept the colonies from taking advantage of global competition to get the best price possible for their export goods and similarly forced them to pay more for English imports as there was no legal foreign competition. (The colonists learned to skirt the law through smuggling.) The Navigation Acts built resentment towards England which would only grow in the following century.

Today in History: George McClellan Takes Command of the Union Army

On this day (July 26) General George McClellan was given command of the Union’s Army of the Potomac. The Union army was in significant disarray after their lost at the First Battle of Bull Run. McClellan took over and trained it into a “modern” professional army. While McClellan made an excellent “trainer” of armies, he did not prove to be a capable battle commander. He routinely vastly overestimated the size of his opponents and consistently failed to take advantage of his own numbers leaving large portions of his army disengaged during important battles. He did not get along well with Lincoln (whom he derided in private) and was removed from command after failing to pursue the Confederates after the Battle of Antietam. In 1864, he ran for president on the Democratic ticket. The military loved McClellan but voted for Lincoln by a 3-1 margin, securing a Republican victory and continuation of the war effort. After the war, McClellan served as Governor of New Jersey from 1878-1881.

Blood Ties Is Now Available for Pre-Order

My new novel, Blood Ties, is now available for pre-order. It’s part of my October celebration--Occult-tober. Here's the blurb of the novel:

It seemed like such an easy case. All attorney Liz Dunn had to do was escort Ryan Hart to meet his long lost uncle in the tiny country of Carpathia on the Transylvanian border. Ryan stood to gain a ten million dollar estate. Liz wanted the hefty check that would keep her law firm in the black. But Ryan’s dying uncle, the enigmatic Stefan Carpathios, planned to get something far more sinister in return. In an ancient land where legends come to life, Liz is about to discover that the world is much more complex than she believed and a blood tie can be an exceedingly dangerous thing.

Blood Ties is 25% off until it's release date on October 4.You can find it at Amazon.