Christmas Every Day

May 2

The sinking of the “Admiral Belgrano”

In April 1982, the Argentinian military junta was not doing well, plagued by civil unrest, human rights atrocities, and economic distress. In order to distract the public’s mind from their dictatorial government’s failures, the ruling generals decided to invade the Falkland Islands, a British colony populated almost exclusively by sheep farmers. The islands had been briefly occupied by Argentina in the early nineteenth century and it was a long-standing myth that these Islas Malvinas had been cruelly ripped from their rightful owners by nasty British imperialists. The generals reckoned that the military might of the British lion had grown toothless and that a female leader (Margaret Thatcher) would lack the martial spirit required for a fight; accordingly, Argentinian commandos were landed on the Falklands and other British possessions in the southern Atlantic. Big mistake. Thatcher ordered a military task force to retake the islands, an enormously difficult undertaking carried out over thousands of miles.

Among the ships dispatched south was the nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror carrying ship-killing torpedoes. When it reached the combat area it was particularly on the lookout for the Argentinian aircraft carrier Veinticino de Mayo but what it spotted first was the Admiral Belgrano, an American-built cruiser that had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and was later sold to Argentina. Conqueror launched three torpedoes at the cruiser, two of which exploded, tearing holes in the ship and causing it to rapidly sink with the loss of 323 crewmen. Even more significant than the destruction of the Belgrano was that its sinking persuaded the Argentinian navy to withdraw to port, leaving the job of attacking the British fleet to land-based aircraft.

The sinking of the Belgrano was immediately controversial, partly because of a tasteless headline in a London tabloid (see below) but also because the ship was outside the maritime exclusion zone and not heading toward the Falklands. Neither of the latter factors mattered militarily and the Argentine navy has always regarded the attack on the cruiser to have been a legitimate act of war.

By the famed Dr. Albertus Boli (no relation):

The Worker! How we love to sing his praises!
The Worker! How we hate to give him raises!
We praise him as the fount of every virtue,
And also ’cause his union pals can hurt you.

The Worker! He’s the hero of our story!
The Worker! His the fame and his the glory!
We gladly pay him tribute every Mayday,
As long as we don’t have to every payday.

It’s really best, although it may seem funny,
That he should work, and we should get the money:
For ’tis a truth that cannot be ignored
That Virtue ought to be its own reward.

1933

The death of a Greek poet

It was widely believed in the ancient world that great men were born and died on the same day of the year. Such was the case with Constantine Cavafy, born April 29, 1863 and died on his 70th birthday in 1933. Though he was scarcely heard of in his lifetime, his talent is now recognized to the extent that he is considered the greatest Greek poet of the 20th century. Strangely though, Cavafy had scarcely any experience of living in Greece.

Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, son of a prosperous Greek merchant, and he spent most of his life there, with short stints in Liverpool and Constantinople. He was employed for most of his life as a bureaucrat in the department of irrigation writing poetry only for the amusement of himself and his friends. Recognition from Greek literary circles came late in his life, and only after his death was he more widely known in translation. Some of his poetry was homoerotic; some was historical in inspiration. My favourite is “Ithaka”, the home island long sought by Ulysses:

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy –
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don’t in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn’t anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn’t deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you’ll have understood what these Ithakas mean. 

Here is a reading of it by Sean Connery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3n2Ox4Yfk

1865

The death of John Wilkes Booth

Having shot Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fled into hiding. While his fellow conspirators were being rounded up, Booth and accomplice David Herold headed south into territory where he might expect Confederate sympathizers to aid him. He paused at the house of Dr. Samuel Mudd to have his broken leg, suffered when he jumped to the stage at Ford’s Theatre, bound and set. (Mudd would later suffer imprisonment for this assistance.) The reward of $100,00 for his capture caused Booth and Herold to be extremely cautious because by now their identity was known and widely broadcast. Nonetheless, Booth was helped along his way by die-hard Confederates who provided shelter and horses.

On April 24, the fugitives reached the Virginia tobacco farm of Richard H. Garrett where the news of Lincoln’s death had not yet been learned; their plan was to make their way to Mexico but federal cavalry were hot on their trail. On the night of April 26, pursuers surrounded the barn where Booth and Herold slept and demanded their surrender. Herold quickly gave up but Booth announced his intention to fight on. The troops set the barn alight and fired into it, hitting Booth in the neck. He was dragged out of the barn and died on the porch of the farm house; his last words were “useless, useless!”

1865

The death of Abraham Lincoln

After four years of bloody civil war, America was at peace. The forces of the secessionist Confederate States had surrendered, slavery would be no more, and President Abraham Lincoln had announced that he was considering granting all African Americans the right to vote. But not all Confederate sympathizers were willing to lay down their arms: a group of plotters who had planned to kidnap Lincoln now decided to kill the president and members of his cabinet. Actor John Wilkes Booth would shoot Lincoln, ex-soldier Lewis Powell would target Secretary of State William H. Seward and carriage-maker George Antzerodt would attack Andrew Johnson, the Vice President.

On the evening of April 14, Booth entered Ford’s Theatre and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. He leapt to the stage shouting Sic semper tyrannis! (“Thus to all tyrants!”) and “The South is avenged!” Lincoln would die of his wounds the next morning. Powell entered Seward’s home and stabbed him, but the Secretary survived; Antzerodt backed out of his part and spent the night drunkenly wandering the streets. Booth died in a gunfight when surrounded by captors and the other two were hanged after a lengthy trial.

The assassination of Lincoln was undoubtedly a tragedy for the nation but particularly for the South which was deprived of the president’s moderation. As an observer said, “Those of Southern born sympathies know now they have lost a friend willing and more powerful to protect and serve them than they can now ever hope to find again.”

One final tragic note. The military officer in Lincoln’s box, Major Henry Rathbone, attempted to detain Booth but was badly stabbed in the attempt and passed out from loss of blood. His companion for the evening was his fiancée Clara Harris who helped tend to his wounds. They married and had three children but Rathbone’s mental health declined. In 1883 he attacked his children and murdered his wife who died trying to protect them; he spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

1948

Deir Yassin Massacre

It is well to remember, when contemplating the Middle East today, that terrorism has been used by every side in the struggle to carve out territory and achieve ethnic security. Muslims of every sect, Christians, and Jews have all resorted to assassination and atrocity. On this day in 1948 Jewish extremists from the Stern Gang (already infamous for its willingness to ally with Nazis in World War II in fighting the British; their assassination a U.N. envoy would come later) and the Irgun (bombers of the King David Hotel) entered the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and killed about 150 inhabitants. After the massacre the surviving women and children of the village were paraded triumphantly through Jerusalem streets.

The village had no military significance and had in fact signalled its desire to remain neutral and on good terms with its Jewish neighbours. The murders seem designed to be part of a policy of ethnic cleansing — not just in eradicating the Palestine presence from this site but encouraging a mass flight of others to avoid a similar fate. The looting, rape, and execution of prisoners after the battle appear to be part of that plan.

Though the aftermath of the massacre was witnessed by British officers and Red Cross officials, confirmed by testimony from Jewish military sources, supporters of the Jewish extremists still claim that the Deir Yassin murders were a myth designed to discredit Zionism.

1949

Icelanders riot over NATO

The savage Viking heart that slumbers in every Icelander’s breast was awakened to near-violent action in March, 1949 when its government announced that the island nation would join the anti-Communist North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Left-wing parties, already resentful at the presence of an American airbase, wanted nothing to do with the Cold War, opposition to Russia, or any military spending. A crowd of protesters gathered outside the Alþingishús, (the Parliament building), harsh words were spoken, and rocks were hurled (note the damage above). Someone was almost hit by a stone. Fortunately, the bloodthirsty mob was dispersed by the police before further atrocities could occur.

Today Iceland remains a member of NATO but has no standing military except its Coast Guard.

44 BC

The Ides of March conspirators assassinate Caesar

The Roman republic was a state formed around 500 BC after the overthrow of an early monarchy. It rose from a collection of towns in the Tiber valley to become a Mediterranean empire but its military successes eroded its political culture. Instead of self-sacrifice and service to the “res publica”, Roman leaders now vied to command armies and battle each other. The first century BC saw civil wars with dictators carrying out massacres of fellow Romans and the state degenerating into a rivalry of gangsters.

The most successful of these gang leaders was Gaius Julius Caesar, who had defeated rivals such as Pompey and added Gaul and Egypt to Roman control. Many of his fellow senators saw his power growing to such an extent that they feared the republic would once more become a kingship. Caesar had recently been named “dictator for life” and had been hailed in the streets as “rex”, though he made a show of refusing kingly honours.

On the Ides of March 44 BC, a group of senators calling themselves “the Liberators” accosted Caesar on his way to the Senate and stabbed him 23 times, leaving him to bleed to death. Their proclamation that they had delivered Rome from tyranny was not well-received and Rome again fell into civil war. The armies of the conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius were defeated by those of Marc Antony, Marcus Lepidus and Octavius Caesar — the so-called Second Triumvirate. In time Antony and Octavius would fall out out and make war, which resulted in Octavian ending the republic and becoming the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar.

1956

Khrushchev’s Secret Speech

“On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” was a speech given to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It denounced the enormities of the rule of Joseph Stalin, criticizing the former leader for violating the principle of “collective leadership”, fostering a cult of personality, repressing artists, exaggerating his role in World War II, and murderously purging innocent Party members. It did not take Stalin to task for many other of his crimes and the failure of his ideologically-motivated economic disasters.

The speech, which lasted four hours, was read to a closed session but word of it soon leaked out, causing dismay and wonderment in the Communist world. Some, particularly in Stalin’s home region of Georgia, reacted with violence, others were disheartened to learn of the feet of clay of their idol, others reacted with delight that truth had finally been disclosed. It marked the beginning of a relaxing of Soviet rule under Khrushchev (who, of course, had been a willing servant of Stalin in many of his crimes.)

1959

Diefenbaker cancels the Arrow

Certainly the most beautiful warplane ever built, the CF-105 Avro Arrow was to be the jet fighter of the 1960s but it ended up a heap of scrap and a national aerospace disaster.

In the early Cold War period the main Soviet threat to North American airspace was deemed to be the long-range bomber coming over the Arctic and strategies were devised to counter these fleets. Some advocated high-speed fighter interceptors while others argued for anti-aircraft missiles armed with nuclear warheads that would explode in the midst of the bomber swarm over northern Canada.

Industrialized nations all sought to build their own military  aircraft rather than rely on foreigners for them. Canada had built their CF-100 Canucks in the 1950s but the Arrow was expected to greatly outdo those, and, indeed, every other fighter of the era. Powered by the Orenda Iroquois engines, Arrow could reach speeds twice the speed of sound and carry air-to-air missiles. Tests were highly encouraging; the aviation firsts of the fly-by-wire control system were ready to go; the Arrow was expected to enter mass production in 1959 and dazzle the world.

Then politics interfered. The Russian successes in their space program heightened the fear of attack from space, leading to the decision by John Diefenbaker’s Conservative Defence Minister George Parkes that Canada could not afford both a fighter program and a missile-defence program. The Arrow would have to go. On this date in 1959 the project was cancelled putting thousands of highly-skilled technicians out of work and ending any future for advanced aerospace industrial research in the country. Many of these specialists moved to the United States to take part in the American space program.