Let’s welcome April 17, 2023. It will only be staying with us for a few hours. It will probably clean out the kitchen, mess up the bathroom, drink all our beer and slip away in the middle of the night. Just like its cousin did yesterday when April 16th paid us a visit and its other cousin, April 18 will do tomorrow. The 17 brings with it a long list of things we can celebrate beginning with Bat Appreciation Day, Blah, Blah, Blah Day, Boston Marathon Day, Ellis Island Family History Day, International Ford Mustang Day, International Haiku Poetry Day, Malbec World Day, National Cheeseball Day, National Crawfish Day, National Kickball Day, and Nothing Like a Dame Day. Now some history: On this day in 1492 Christopher Columbus signed a contract with the King of Spain to find the “indies”, convert people he found to Catholicism, remit to Spain 10% of all the riches found and in return, become the governor of all the lands found. On this day in 1534 Sir Thomas More was arrested and confined to the Tower of London for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His headless body lies beneath Church of St. Peter ad Vincula and his head, once impaled on a spike on London Bridge, lies in the family vault in Canterbury. On this day in 1861 Virginia seceded from the Union. On this day in 1863 Colonel Grierson (Union) along with 1,700 mounted soldiers began a 600 mile journey into the Confederacy to tear up railroads, free slaves, burn Confederate storehouses, and do as much damage as possible to the infrastructure from Southern Tennessee to Mississippi. This military action is known as “Grierson’s Raid”. This is the day in 1790 that Ben Franklin died at the age of 84. He said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” “There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try and please everyone else.” “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” I’ll end with “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” Abide.
