Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan, a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and of the storm god Susanoo. According to ancient chronicle of legends, the Nihon Shoki, Emperor Jimmu was born on February 13, 711 BCE. In those chronicles he became ruler in 660 BCE and ruled until he died at age 126 in 585 BCE.
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were both born 215 years ago, on February 12, 1809. ... This composite picture from the internet made me wonder how tall Darwin was. He was about 6 feet tall, although he stooped as he grew older. Lincoln was 6' 4". They never met but by the 1860s they both certainly had worldwide fame.
George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered on February 12, 1924 at Aeolian Hall in New York. The conductor was Paul Whiteman, the popular bandleader who had also commissioned the work. Gershwin himself played the piano, and Ross Gorman played the clarinet. The piece was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé, who is also known for his own "Grand Canyon Suite."
Here's an article that I found. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/12/1230433015/rhapsody-in-blue-gershwin-centennial-jazz-classical?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=classical&utm_term=music&utm_content=20240212&fbclid=IwAR3MIjsYapQ8GPasnEiffJBApNQqFl_jB7_c2-2K-Vtu3HlolZ4WNnQMEIo
A friend shared two other articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/arts/music/george-gershwin-rhapsody-in-blue.html?searchResultPosition=2&fbclid=IwAR2Wc_o0SK4VaOASAFTjlY5Bsr5qN3JIVP6WgoYP7JPpwUbVE4HMcYpe5Qo
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Thomas Hutchinson (1711-1780) was the Royal governor of Massachusetts from 1758 to 1774. He was a polarizing figure, loyal to both Massachusetts and to Great Britain on the eve of the Revolution. Here is his two-volume, “History of the Colony of Massachusets-Bay, from the First Settlement Thereof in 1928, Until Its Incorporation with the Colony of Plimouth, Province of Main, &c. By the Charter of King William and Queen Mary, in 1691.” The third volume is “A Collection of Corginal Papers Relative to the History of the Colony of Massachusets-Bay”. Some of my ancestors settled in Massachusetts in the 1630s. One ancestor was on the Mayflower.
I love old highway alignments: pavement and bridges that were abandoned when a new alignment was constructed. If you come into Highland, Illinois on U.S. 40 from the east, and if you're able to slow down and look through the trees at Lakeside Drive, you'll see this c. 1920 bridge and an early pavement that the modern U.S. 40 (just to the right in this picture) replaced. Route 40 across Illinois was called State Route 11 in 1918-1926 and was part of the transcontinental National Old Trails Highway. I took this picture in 2018.
"The day the music died" was 65 years ago today.
Back in the late '90s, there was an interesting show on VH-1 about "The Day the Music Died." I think it's on YouTube now. The "Winter Dance Party" was a series of midwestern concerts, so that rural and small town kids could enjoy these music stars in person. But there were very long bus trips in winter weather between concerts. So, a frustrated Buddy Holly chartered a plane for himself and two of his band members to get to the next gig early. Big Bopper had the flu and asked Holly's bassist Waylon Jennings to give up his seat for him, and Ritchie Valens made a coin toss with guitarist Tommy Allsup and got on the plane instead. Of course, all three musicians and the pilot were killed in the early morning of February 3, 1959. Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" really brought their memory back permanently into popular consciousness.
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Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was born (as Fernão de Magalhães) in around 1480. He pops up on birthday sites today. Magellan organized a Spanish expedition to the East Indies in 1519 to 1522, and after Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, his crew completed the first circumnavigation of the earth. A few years ago, the 500th anniversary events of his visit to the Philippines were held there, commemorating not only the introduction of Christianity to the islands but also Filipino resistance to Spanish colonialism.
Theology, tradition, pop culture...
In Christian churches, February 2 is Candlemas, also called the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, or the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, or the Meeting of the Lord. It is the fortieth day following Christmas, a halfway point between Christmas and the spring equinox. In the Gospel lesson for the day, Luke 2:22-40, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple forty days after his birth, to complete Mary’s purification and to perform pidyon haben, “the redemption of the first born” (Exodus 13:12-15, Leviticus 12). Because Simeon calls Jesus a light to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32), the festival became known as “candle mass.”
There is an old tradition that sunny weather on Candlemas means a long winter. This tradition was elaborated by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who added a critter to the tradition--first a badger, then a groundhog. The significance of Punxsutawney, PA is that they had the first Groundhog Day celebration during the late 1800s.
But the expression "like Groundhog Day", referring to the same routine or situation day after day, grew from the 1993 Bill Murray-Andie MacDowell-Chris Elliott film.
“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.”
Born February 2, 1882, Irish author James Joyce wrote the renowned books Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939). Ulysses is about the Odysseus-like adventures of friends Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus as they travel through Dublin on June 16, 1904---the day that Joyce and his future wife Nora had first hooked up. Finnegans Wake seems to be the dreams of the Earwicker family who live above a pub in Dublin. But Mr. Earwicker seems to have done something creepy and actionable, analogous in the dreams to the fall of Adam. But there is also some connection in the dreams to Christ's resurrection (as the titular Tim Finnegan revived during his own wake).
Last fall, Beth and I enjoyed visiting the Museum of Literature Ireland which has interesting information about Joyce, as well as copy #1 of Ulysses. Highly recommended when you visit Dublin!
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My mom once told me she liked Sam Wead (she pronounced it "Wade"; I assume that's right) and his store in Brownstown. Mom grew up near Brownstown and went to high school there. I saw this great old sign on eBay, gave it a bit in case someone else bid, and then bought it.
Looking through the 1971 Brownstown history, I discovered that a Pilcher cousin of ours first established the store, which still stands at 1st and Division Streets. He was David O. Pilcher, my grandma's father's first cousin.
A Brownstown friend told me on Facebook: "The building was called Pilcher Hall and the second floor was a vaudeville theater. The building later became home to The Golden Years Club. The building stilll had a stage and the cloth curtain was still intact years later. There was also a horizontal grand piano there well into the 21st century. The walls back stage had interesting histories about the acts that played there and the dates. They often listed all of the performers."
Mr. Wead died in 1950 and is buried in Brownstown's Griffith Cemetery.... My local history rabbit hole for the day, LOL.
