Tidbits of History, December 11

December 11 is:

National “Have a Bagel” Day
Foodimentary.com
The bagel originated in Poland and it was designed for Lent.
Its name derives from the Yiddish word ‘bengal’, meaning ‘ring’ or ‘bracelet’.
The hole in the center of the bagel is for multiple bagels to be threaded onto a dowel, which allows bakers to transport the bagel more easily.

National Noodle Ring Day

Scaling Day or L’Escalade:
L’Escalade, or Fête de l’Escalade (from escalade, the act of scaling defensive walls) is an annual festival held in December in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrating the defeat of the surprise attack by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy during the night of 11–12 December 1602. The celebrations and other commemorative activities are usually held on 12 December or the closest weekend.

President James Madison, born March 16, 1751Publication of Federalist Paper #20: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union written by James Madison in 1787. Federalist Paper #20 is the third written by Madison on the subject of the inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation. In his previous papers he outlined the problems of confederacy which hampered ancient Greece, Germany, Poland, and the Swiss Cantons. In this paper he describes the system in the Netherlands. He concludes that a government under the Articles leads to “imbecility in the government, discord among the States, foreign influence and indignities; a precarious existence in peace and peculiar calamities from war”.

French Revolution : King Louis XVI of France was put on trial for treason by the National Convention in 1792.

Header IndianaIndiana Admission Day (1816) nineteenth state

  • Capital: Indianapolis
  • Nickname: Hoosier State
  • Bird: Cardinal
  • Flower: Peony
  • Tree: Tulip Tree
  • Motto: The crossroads of America

See our page Indiana for more interesting facts and trivia about Indiana.

Marconi sent first transatlantic radio signal, Cornwall to Newfoundland in 1901.

Monument, December 11, 1919On December 11, 1919, the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, erected a monument to the Boll Weevil, the pest that devastated their fields but forced residents to end their dependence on cotton and to pursue mixed farming and manufacturing. Measuring an average length of six millimeters (one-quarter inch), the insect entered the United States via Mexico in the 1890s and reached southeastern Alabama in 1915. It remained the most destructive cotton pest in North America for much of the twentieth century.

A congressional report of 2002 found that intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001, were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented that day’s terrorist attacks.

Christmas Music:

Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:

Winter WonderlandWinter Wonderland

(by clicking the Windows Media Player icon button, a midi file will play [if it’s installed on your computer]. No music has been embedded.
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.)

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