Three events happened in Israel on this date. In AD 70 Titus and his Roman armies broke down the walls of Jerusalem in the first Jewish- Roman War. In 1099 during the First Crusade “Christian” soldiers captured the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem after a difficult siege. Fifty years later, in 1149 the reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulcher was consecrated in Jerusalem. Lots of fighting in between. Not sure there was any progress with all the fighting but at least some people did realize futility because, on this date in 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was formally disbanded, after causing a world of hurt to many people – especially to Jewish people.. Remember, the Holocaust didn’t arise out of a vacuum.
In Egypt the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1899, furthering our knowledge of ancient times. In 1916 here in Seattle, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporated Aero Products, which would later change its name to Boeing, which took us further into the flying future. And then in 2006, Twitter was launched. Some might argue whether that was a step forward or a step back.:)
The great Dutch painter Rembrandt was born on this date( 1606), as was Clemente Clarke Moore, the writer who brought us “A Visit From St Nicholas” (17779), and American mythologist Thomas Bullfinch (1796). Noted English activist and suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858), archeologist and author Clive Cussler (1931), and rocker Linda Ronstadt (1946) all share this birthdate. As well as a couple of series favorites Terry O’Quinn – John Locke from Lost (1952) and Lana Parilla -the Regina/The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time (1977). Ironically a few years before we saw her in OUAT she also appeared in a couple of episodes of Lost.
Lisa del Giocondo passed away in 1542 but everybody knows her enigmatic face – because she was the model for the Mona Lisa. We read the poetry and short stories of Anton Chekov (1904) read about the exploits of John J. “Black Jack” Pershing (1948), see models wearing Gianni Versace (1997), and study the historical works of James MacGregor Burns. And who can forget Mission Impossible with Martin Landau (2017).
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