Poet Thomas Gray

Born December 26, 1716, Thomas Gray was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He published only 13 poems in his lifetime, although they were so popular he was offered the role of Poet Laureate. His best known poem is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751). Here are two of the stanzas: 

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

         Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;

Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

         The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,

         And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,

Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.

         The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Lincoln, who brooded on mortality, loved the poem. He referred to his own early years with that line, "the short and simple annals of the poor."

Also: the poem was the source of the title Humphrey Cobb's 1935 novel "Paths of Glory," which Stanley Kubrick made into his 1957 film of the same name.

Apollo 8

 The Apollo 8 mission, December 21–27, 1968, was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. Without landing, the crew circled the moon ten times on Christmas Eve. On the ninth orbit, each crew member read  portions of the creation story from the book of Genesis. 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Commander Frank Borman concluded, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth." The crew began their return to Earth on Christmas Day. 

1968 had included the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, the escalation of the Vietnam War, unrest in American and world cities, police violence outside the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. To see the first view of Earth from space was such a compelling end to the year, to say the least.

The Sears Christmas Catalog

When I was ten, I decided I wanted to keep the Sears Christmas catalog "for posterity." Helped by parents who rarely threw anything away, I managed to save the book all these years (although it was missing in storage for a while). 

Here are several pages of toys that you could order (or that you could ask Santa for), plus a few pages of grown-up fashion of the time.  Fun to see!  Minimum wage in 1967 was $1.40.

Copied under fair use principles. 

Happy birthday, Gustave Eiffel

Called "the magician of metal", Gustave Eiffel was a French civil engineer. His company constructed several railway bridges, viaducts, and buildings. Most famously, his company designed and built the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris. The company also built the metal framework for the Statue of Liberty in New York. Later, Eiffel made contributions in the fields of meteorology and aerodynamics. He was also lead singer for the '90s Europop group Eiffel 65--not really. 

He was born December 15, 1832. The second picture is from our 2019 visit, when I was stunned at how huge the tower is.

(See my July 2019 post: http://paulstroble.blogspot.com/2019/07/artsy-photos-of-eiffel-tower.html) 

80th Anniversary of Glenn Miller's Disappearance

Big band conductor, composer, arranger, and popular recording artist Glenn Miller, along with a friend and their pilot, disappeared 80 years ago today. Miller was in France and had experienced two flight cancellations. He was in a hurry to rejoin his unit. A friend invited him on his own flight and so Miller, without official authorization, joined them. The plane is presumed to have crashed into the English Channel but no wreckage was found. The next day, the Battle of the Bulge began, and so it took a few days for officials to figure out that Miller was on that missing flight. His wife Helen was notified on December 23, and a press release went out on December 24.

80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge, aka the Ardennes Offensive, began eighty years ago--December 16, 1944--with a German surprise attack upon Allied troops in Belgium and Luxembourg. The Germans hoped to surround and destroy the four Allied armies and force a negotiated peace. Bad weather, fatigued Allied troops, and poor aerial reconnaissance made the area a good target for Axis forces. Although the offensive was broken by December 27, another month was required to return Allied forces to its previous front line. German armored forces never recovered. Allied casualties were 77,000-83,000, the third deadliest campaign in U.S. history, after the Normandy invasion and the Meuse–Argonne offensive of 1918. German casualties were 63,000-75,000+.

From: https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/battle-of-the-bulge-one-of-the-bloodiest-battles-of-wwii/ Copied under fair use principles. 

Erasmus Darwin

Born December 12, 1731, Erasmus Darwin was an English physician, natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor, and poet. His long poem "The Botanic Garden" contained suggestions about biological evolution that influenced his famous grandson, Charles Darwin. Erasmus was also the great-grandfather of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Charles wrote and published a short biography of him in 1879. Here it is, published by Charles' London publisher John Murray, which published "Origin of Species" and all his several subsequent books.

Poem Against Racism

 One of my poems was the featured piece at the website of the Poets Against Racism & Hate group.  The poem, “Where Wisdom Calls,”  is a section of a longer work, was first published in Walking Lorton Bluff (Finishing Line Press, 2020). The poem was featured in the film "Poetry in Motion: St. Louis Poets Take the Mic" at the 22nd Annual Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase in July 2022.

https://poetsagainstracism-usa.org/4q-2024/

Leo X

 Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici) was born on this day in 1475. Leo spent crazy amounts of money, patronizing the arts and funding the War of Urbino. He is associated with the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, because his granting of indulgences for donors to St. Peter's reconstruction was criticized by Martin Luther in the latter's 95 Theses. Leo eventually issued a statement (the papal bull Exsurge Domine ("Arise, O Lord") condemning Luther's stance. This picture is Raphael, "Portrait of Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’Medici and Luigi de’Rossi", c. 1518.