Welcome to August 6, 2022. I’m anxious to get this post started. I learn something new everyday I write it. It may be a something that happened or a new prospective from a quote. All good. We have lots of holidays on this list for August 6th. It’s Balloons to Heaven Day, Farmworker Appreciation Day, Hiroshima Day, International blues Music Day, Mead Day, National Disc Golf Day, National Gossip Day, National Jamaican Mustard Day, National Root Beer Float Day, and Wiggle Your Toes Day. Now to our history. On this day in 1661 the Treaty of the Hague was signed, and the Dutch sold New Holland (Brazil) to Portugal for 63 tons of gold. On this day in 1675 Russian Tzar Alexis banned foreign hair styles worn by men below the nobility. This is the day in 1861 that the US Congress passed the First Confiscation Act which allowed the Union to seize rebel property and free all slaves. On this day in 1901 Kiowa land in Oklahoma was opened for white settlement. Not a good day for the Kiowa tribe. This is the day in 1914 that Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlisted in the French Foreign Legion becoming the first American to fight in WWI. On this day in 1934 American troops left Haiti which we had occupied since 1915. On this day in 1945 the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In 1960 on this day Chubby Checker performed “The Twist” on the Dick Clark Show. Today we will visit the English poet Ben Johnson who died on this day in 1637. Ben said, “Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death.” “No man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.” “What excellent fools religion makes of men.” I’ll wrap up this post with a toast from Ben: “To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.” Abide.
