On this day in history...

[Heid the Ba]

That sucks about the dogs, but they had good lives.

[Lance]

That sucks about the dogs, but they had good lives.

Thank you.

At least he's not spoiled.

[Heid the Ba]

For certain definitions of "spoiled" . . .

[Heid the Ba]

Friday 13th? Doesn't affect me because I don't live in the Middle Ages.

[Heid the Ba]

18th September 1948: Operation Polo ends after India drives it's armoured division into Hyderabad and accepts the surrender of the Nizam, and incorporated the princely state into the republic. The Nizam was a Muslim ruler with a mostly Hindu population a long, long way from either Pakistan who wanted to remain independent. India thought differently.

[Richard A]

Goa suffered a similar fate - its predominantly Catholic population preferred remaining a Portuguese colony to being incorporated into a predominantly Hindu state. India didn't like that either. It has, though, kept its culture, not least its distinctive cuisine, which can be found in a few restaurants here - as well as, presumably, rather few more there!

[Heid the Ba]

19th September, the 262nd day of the year. And who doesn't love an Me 262?

[Richard A]

19th September, the 262nd day of the year. And who doesn't love an Me 262?

That should almost be in "Any fact that fits the numbers"!

[Heid the Ba]

20th September 1920 – Black and Tans burn the town of Balbriggan and kill two local men in revenge for an IRA assassination. That should put an end to all that nonsense.

[Richard A]

21 September 1922, US President Harding signed a joint resolution for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

[Heid the Ba]

1642 – First English Civil War: The Battle of Powick Bridge, the first engagement between the primary field armies of the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, ended in a Royalist victory. Wrong but wromantic beat right but repulsive, as the saying has it.
1779 – American Revolution: John Paul Jones, naval commander of the United States, on board the USS Bonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head. We'll claim this one as a Scottish victory since Jones was born in Galloway.
1803 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: The Battle of Assaye is fought between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. Wellesley's first victory, wrong and repulsive beat right and romantic, to coin a phrase.

[Heid the Ba]

26th Sept 1688: The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.

My favourite exam question was in British History 2 and simply said: "The Glorious Revolution was neither. Discuss."

[Arneb]

150 years ago today, the first match of a new game called "football" was held in Germany, with students of the Martino-Katharineum High School, Braunschweig, Kingdom of Hannover. Two PE teachers of that school, by the names of a Konrad Koch and August Hermann, imported the idea from England.

Apparently, two teams were each guarding a rectangular box on opposing sides of the pitch (a military drill ground on that occasion), trying to place a pig bladder sewn into leather and inflated with air (called a "ball") into the opposing team's box (called a "goal") while simultaneously trying to prevent the other team from doing the same. Each team had a "goal", but there was only one "ball" - so in order to place it into the opposing teams "goal", you had to first wrestle it from the competing team and transport it towards the "goal" against their efforts to regain it. Now crucially, the "ball" was only allowed to be touched by foot (hence the name, football), which made carrying it considerably more difficult, and no actual wrestling was allowed between the opposing team members. It really seems you were only allowed to kick the ball around, not the opposing players.

Now I can certainly appreciate that the PE teachers responsible for introducing this game made an effort to help immunize the German youth against slacking, effemination, laziness and hedonism, as rampant then as they are today. But please, what kind of nonsense was this? The German press were up in arms, rightly calling the "sport" "Fußlümmelei" (foot-tykery), or even more succinctly, "the English disease" (a term usually referring to rickets, which the English and their "industrial revolution" had basically invented). And of course, it wasn't to last. The game never gained traction, and was soon relegated to the dustbin of history, where it belongs. I mean, can you imagine anyone spending valuable time with this tomfoolery? In front of spectators, maybe, even on television? We can all be happy it never took off. The English-speaking countries are pretty insignificant in this world, culturally, and no wonder they are if this is what they had to give to the world.

If I may ask our denizens of the British isles - is this stuff still being played over where you live? I would sincerely hope the impulse to engange in such silliness to have dried up in the last century and a half, but maybe the foot-tykes are still around somewhere in the more remote corners of your Kingdom at the edge of European civilization? Any information is much appreciated.

[Richard A]

26th Sept 1688: The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.

My favourite exam question was in British History 2 and simply said: "The Glorious Revolution was neither. Discuss."

I never knew that the city council of Amsterdam, or indeed the council of any Dutch city, expressed a formal view on this. I had always assumed that, in keeping with the times, William just went ahead and did it.

Incidentally, did anyone hear the reports yesterday of BoJo's claim in his autobiography that he considered a Special Forces raid on Leiden in 2020? Apparently exfiltration afterwards was to have been by articulated truck via the Channel ports. Bit early for 1 April - on the other hand, if anyone could have come up with a harebrained scheme like this, it was BoJo.

[Richard A]

150 years ago today, the first match of a new game called "football" was held in Germany, with students of the Martino-Katharineum High School, Braunschweig. Two PE teachers of that school, by the names of a Konrad Koch and August Hermann, imported the idea from England.

Apparently, two teams were each guarding a rectangular box on opposing sides of the pitch (a military drill ground on that occasion), trying to place a pig bladder sewn into leather and inflated with air (called a "ball") into the opposing team's box (called a "goal") while simultaneously trying to prevent the other team from doing the same. Each team had a "goal", but there was only one "ball" - so in order to place it into the opposing teams "goal", you had to first wrestle it from the competing team and transport it towards the "goal" against their efforts to regain it. Now crucially, the "ball" was only allowed to be touched by foot (hence the name, football), which made carrying it considerably more difficult, and no actual wrestling was allowed between the opposing team members. It really seems you were only allowed to kick the ball around, not the opposing players.

Now I can certainly appreciate that the PE teachers responsible for introducing this game made an effort to help immunize the German youth against slacking, effemination, laziness and hedonism, as rampant then as they are today. But please, what kind of nonsense was this? The German press were up in arms, rightly calling the "sport" "Fußlümmelei" (foot-tykery), or even more succinctly, "the English disease" (a term usually referring to rickets, which the English and their "industrial revolution" had basically invented). And of course, it wasn't to last. The game never gained traction, and was soon relegated to the dustbin of history, where it belongs. I mean, can you imagine anyone spending valuable time with this tomfoolery? In front of spectators, maybe, even on television? We can all be happy it never took off. The English-speaking countries are pretty insignificant in this world, culturally, and no wonder they are if this is what they had to give to the world.

If I may ask our denizens of the British isles - is this stuff still being played over where you live? I would sincerely hope the impulse to engange in such silliness to have dried up in the last century and a half, but maybe the foot-tykes are still around somewhere in the more remote corners of your Kingdom at the edge of European civilization? Any information is much appreciated.

Something similar persists. But beyond our shores, variations have emerged. In the version popular in the Netherlands, you are allowed to wrestle the other players, which I am given to understand sometimes gives rise to confusion when Dutch teams play abroad. The English team itself, of late, does not tend to win championships, in keeping with the English cultural principle that it is our national duty to assist the natives of overseas lands in their development.

[Heid the Ba]

"the English disease"
I believe that in France that relates to non-specific bumfoolery and general gayladding.

[Richard A]

"the English disease"
I believe that in France that relates to non-specific bumfoolery and general gayladding.

You would be surprised, Heid! A story for another time.

[Мастер]

Wiedervereinigung

[Arneb]

Also, Germany paid the final instalment of its WWI (yes, One!) reparation debt to her international creditors on this day in 20210.

[Heid the Ba]

I think we have an extra digit in there Doc.

10th October 630:The Battle of Karbala marks the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. That should put an end to all that Sunni - Shia malarkey.