History & Comment for May 19, 2025

A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Monday the 19th of May 2025

There always seems to be some historic marriages in the events list.   In 1499 Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales.   Aragon is a portion of Modern Spain and of course the Prince of Wales is first in line for the English throne.   First, this was an arranged marriage and the couple were not present at the ceremony.   This type of thing was common for political ends.   The unusual detail is Catherine was just 13 and the time.   Arthur he was 12.   As the prince of Wales,  his marriage was in the planning stages from the age of 3.    His Father wanted to solidify an alliance with the Spanish Monarchs.   Arthur and Catherine took up housekeeping in 1501.  

Fairy tales will end with and they lived happily ever after.    But that was not the case.   Arthur died of disease less than a year later.  The King still interested in the politics, suggested Catherine marry Arthur’s younger Brother Henry and now in line for the throne.    

Today religious scholars see no issue with marring a widow.  But the point will come up a couple of decades later.   

We could go down a rabbit hole here.   The Biblical principal is pretty clear.   Marriage should be one-man and one-women for life.   The idea is an example of God’s love and devotion to mankind.   Spouses are not without their warts and neither is Man in his relationship with God.  The forgiveness required to make a marriage work is a graphic and powerful pattern.   Society has made a total mockery of it.  I would like to say that the Christian Church has managed to do a significantly better job, but that is simply not the case.   Divorce statics for the Church are only slightly better than outsiders.  

English history in North America dominates the narrative, especially in the States.  But if we look North the French influence is stronger.    French Explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for his second of three voyages to the New World.   After his third in 1541 and 42, he retires from exploring and lives happily ever after.   Cartier explored the area of the St Lawrence Seaway. 

Scientific discoveries and assigning who was the original inventor is often a complex matter.   In 1743 Jean-Piere Christin develops a mercury thermometer dividing the span between the freezing point and the boiling point into 100 divisions.   He calls it the Centigrade Scale.  Swedish Scientist Andres Celsius had announced a similar scale the year before.  

King George the 2nd grants a charter to the Ohio Company for lands near the forks of the Ohio River, that’s in 1749.  This extends from a portion in Western Pennsylvania into Present day Indiana.   The Issue was not completely settled as the French wanted to claim the land also.   This was one of the issues that caused the French and their native allies to fight the French and Indian War with the British. 

Tarriffs are in the news in 1828.  President John Quincy Adams signs an Act to protect wool producers.     In the present day. Walmart is telling customers that tariffs will result in price increases.   The question is why is so much of their inventory imported?  

The Mexican – American War comes to an end.  When the dust settles the US will gain California, Nevada, Utah and part of four other Present-day States.  The US will also pay $15 million dollars.     This is just months before Gold is found in California.  One has to wonder how that bit of information might have changed the deal. 

William Hicock opens his first Wild West show in Omaha, Nebraska in 1883.   Buffalo Bill will take the show across America and Europe, it will help define the American West.   This would have been about the middle of the Wild West period, which generally extends from the end of the Civil War and the building of the transcontinental Railroad to the beginning of the 20th Century.    Maybe the most classic decade would be the 1870s.  At least in popular culture.    The idea of Characters being Civil War veterans is a key point.    

Canada establishes the first national park system in 1911.   But this was just the oversight.  The first actual park was Banff National Park, established in 1883.  Yellowstone was the world’s first national Park, being established in 1871. But Yellowstone is not in Canada. 

Immigration quotas are not a new thing. Nor the debate.  Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act in 1921 restricting where and how many immigrants can enter each year.  It limited the number of new immigrants to 3% of the population from the country in the US in the 1910 census.   The goal was to limit immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe.  Countries in the Americas were not limited. Which brings up a valid question.  When did Mexico and Central America become such a quagmire?  

Egypt closes the Suez Canal to Israeli ships and commerce in 1950, just two years after Israel declared its nation status.   It was under President Carter that Egypt agreed to the Camp David Accords and began to play a bit nicer.   

North and South Vietnam were split in 1954. We might argue that this was a type of appeasement to Ho Chi Minh, the communist agitator in the North.   The region had been under French colonial rule since the late 1880’s.   On this day in 1959, the North Vietnamese Army establishes a faction to maintain a supply line into the South to support sympathetic paramilitary groups.   

President Reagan signs the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986.   It addressed abuses and harassment by the Bureau of ATF.   There are some thoughts on the architecture of the 2nd Amendment.   The word state is often misinterpreted as the Government.   When the intend as more along the lines of a free condition.  Antagonist, also do not want to let the second clause stand alone.   “The right of the people to keep and bear arms”.     It is not linked or conditioned by the first clause.   The third error in leftist thought is what is arms?    The meaning was clearly any type of military arms they could afford.   Folks want to forget that there were merchants in the colonies who were quite wealthy and used those funds to arm the colonist. 

Prince Harry and American Meghan Markle are wed in 2018, as almost 1 in 4 of the world’s population watch the broadcast.   

Birthdays:

Johns Hopkins was born into some money in 1795, on a tobacco plantation in Maryland.  He made a handsome sum on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.   A quaker, he used his resources to help the poor and needy.   I suspect you have heard of Johns Hopkins University and Hospital. 

Songwriter Mickey Newbury in 1940.     His most famous song might be what was written as a protest song.   American trilogy was made famous by Elvis.    He was frequently mentioned as an influence to Waylong Jennings and the outlaw country movement, but held great disdain for it and being pigeonholed in general.   He is quoted as saying; “I've told 'em I quit playing cowboys when I grew up. I just get turned off by all that." That thought alone might put him at the forefront. 

Pete Townshend of the Who is 80 today.   

Speaking of Waylon Jennings, son Shooter is 46.   Shooter may in fact have some skill and talent, but like a list of second and third generation artist, cannot seem to be as original as their famous parents.   Waylon was able to bridge the gap between early rock and outlaw country. He was original.   This might be said of a several artist.  The next generation struggles between continuing the legacy and being their own. 

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