*[Source: history.com]

Confession: I do most of my writing a day before posting. So I’m really always a day behind — or is it ahead? — which usually doesn’t matter, except for “this day” in history. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I am presenting — hopefully for one day only — Yesterday in History. I’ll try to catch up soon.

And for September 2, 2024, we start way back in:

1666: Great Fire of London begins. The royal baker for King Charles II — one Thomas Farrinor — did the unthinkable, and failed to properly extinguish his bakery oven before turning in for the night. Around midnight, some errant sparks struck the firewood lying next to the oven, and before long, the entire house was on fire.

Because most of London’s homes in those days were built of oak timber, and many of the poorer structures were covered in highly flammable tar for insulation; and because the houses in neighborhoods were built close together; the fire spread like . . .well, like wildfire. And firefighting in those times consisted of “bucket brigades,” using hand pumps and pails of water passed hand to hand.

Thomas Farrinor and his family managed to escape the flames, but a bakery assistant was the first of 16 victims of the ensuing conflagration. By the time it was over — some four days later — 13,000 houses, nearly 90 churches, scores of public buildings, and many historic landmarks were gone. An estimated 100,000 people were left homeless. One result of the disaster was a complete restructuring of the city’s building codes.

And it all happened without the help of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.

*. *. *

1789: Congress founds U.S. Treasury. The United States started out in debt — from the borrowings that had funded the Revolutionary War — so when the Constitution was ratified in 1789, the government established a permanent Treasury Department in hopes of controlling the national debt.

That seems to have worked well.

*. *. *

1944: Navy aviator George H.W. Bush and his squadron attacked. World War II; torpedo bomber pilot in Pacific theater; attacked by Japanese anti-aircraft guns; bailed out over ocean; floated on raft; rescued by submarine crew; lived to become President.

Now, that’s how you teach history!

*. *. *

1945: Japan surrenders, bringing an end to WWII. Just a few days short of four months after the end of the war in Europe, it was finally over in the Pacific.

It might have had something to do with those two big bombs . . .

*. *. *

1945: Vietnam declares its independence from France. Just hours after Japan’s surrender ending World War II, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam from France, declaring: “All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!” Strange words from the man who ended up ruling Communist North Vietnam.

Considering the history of that country over the next half century, they might have been better off sticking with France. But you can’t un-ring a bell.

*. *. *

1969: Vietnamese president and communist icon Ho Chi Minh dies. And on the 24th anniversary of his big day.

At least he was spared the next six years of that war.

*. *. *

1969: First U.S. ATM opens for business.

Well, at least something good happened that day. What would we do without our cash machines?

Too bad Ho Chi Minh never got to use one.

*. *. *

2013: Diana Nyad, 64, makes record swim from Cuba to Florida. This was a lady who had been a champion swimmer in high school; later swam the 28 miles around Manhattan Island in a little less than than eight hours; and set a record by swimming 102 miles from North Bimini, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida, in 27.5 hours.

She then retired from endurance swimming and switched to the much less exhausting fields of journalism and motivational speaking.

Why, at the age of 64, she decided to make another attempt at the Cuba-to-Florida route (she had tried and failed four times previously), I can’t even imagine. And she did it — all 110 miles of it — in 53 hours, without the use of a shark cage for protection.

She must have been in great shape. She must also have been nuts.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/3/24