Fifty years of Chinese rule in Tibet

Technically, today is the 50th anniversary of China's invasion of Tibet that brought that country under Communist rule. Of course, for several years prior to that, Tibet had been dominated by the Chinese, and 10 March 1959 was just the beginning of active rule after the Tibetans got a bit peeved by the fact that the Chinese were encroaching on their affairs. The fact that the United States, which went to war in Korea and Vietnam to stop tiny Communist countries from expanding, ignored this breach of international boundaries is somewhat disconcerting. It's not like we "learned" our lesson in Korea - we went to war in Vietnam after this. The Americans believed that Tibet was Commie, too, although they didn't do much research into it, which is probably why they ignored the invasion. I don't mind realpolitik at all, because it's all that states really practice, but I do mind when it's dressed up as ideological concerns, which it usually is. The U. S. should have said, "Tibet is of absolutely no strategic use to us, so what do we care if the Chinese take it over?" At least that would have been honest.

The most famous boner in history!

I missed the 100-year anniversary of the most famous boner in history! Well, at least sports history. And no, I'm not talking about the current usage of "boner." I'm talking about mistakes, man! Yes, 23 September 1908 was the day of Merkle's Boner!

Fred Merkle, a member of the New York Giants, was on first base during a game against the Chicago Cubs. A game-winning hit was nullified when Johnny Evers, Chicago's second baseman, saw that Merkle failed to go to second base after the run scored, and when he tagged second, the umpire called Merkle out on the force play. It's a lot more complicated than that (read about it at the link!), but that's why you always, always, always see players touch the base that they need to go to. It's all because of a play that happened a century ago.

This is why baseball is awesome. Merkle's Boner. Hee hee.

Here's the box score, in case you're interested. Box scores are awesome, too.

21 March 1152

The annulment of the marriage of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine becomes final.

Eleanor, the richest woman in Europe and one of the most remarkable figures in European history, had married the king in 1137 when she was fifteen. She went on crusade with him, but failed to produce a male heir and was growing bored with her royal husband. Louis wanted a son, so on this day, his annulment, based on consanguinity (the default excuse for annulment back in the day) became final. He did get his son, but Eleanor went off and married Henry of Anjou, almost ten years her junior, and three months after the wedding, bore him a son. Henry, of course, shortly thereafter inherited the throne of England as Henry II, and between his lands and Eleanor's, he became the most powerful monarch in Europe. This annulment and subsequent marriage meant English kings for centuries had land claims in France, and led to lots and lots of wars.

Eleanor is a fascinating person. She outlived her husband and a few of her sons, dying early in the thirteenth century, well past 80. And then Kate Hepburn played her in the movie.

19 March 1314

Jacques de Molay is burned at the stake.

Good ol' Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars. In 1307, King Philip of France decided he wanted the Templars' vast wealth that was stored on French territory, so he suppressed the Order and came up with a bunch of charges against them, which may or may not be true. Molay tried to defend himself in front of the Pope, who was technically the Templar's liege lord and the only one who could condemn him, but Philip, whose puppet Clement V was, convoked a royal council and sentenced Molay to be burnt.

Molay, of course, cursed both Philip and the Pope, and within the month, Clement was dead, and six months later, Philip, still relatively young, was also dead. Good job, Jacques! And, of course, the Templars entered into legend and got wrapped up in the Holy Grail mystery that Dan Brown has made so much money off of.

18 March 1890

Otto von Bismarck forced to resign as Germany's chancellor.

Lots of interesting stuff today - the death of Ivan the Terrible, the destruction of the Paris Commune - but this might be the most significant event. Bismarck had been the virtual ruler of first Prussia and then, from 1871, a united Germany for 28 years, but he had a lot of enemies, especially among Germany's liberals and young'uns. In 1888 Prince Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm II, and he didn't like Bismarck either - partly because he felt that Bismarck was holding him back from becoming a truly great leader. Wilhelm, a bit of a wuss, didn't fire Bismarck, but worked against him for two years until this date, when the old Iron Chancellor finally quit. Interestingly enough, the "liberal" Wilhelm immediately began a long process of belligerence that led to a world war that Bismarck almost certainly would have done anything he could to avert. Bismarck led his country into plenty of wars - with Denmark, with Austria, with France - but only when he was positive they would win. World War I, despite Wilhelm's confidence, was a daunting task, and Bismarck probably would have left Austria to its fate.

Bismarck is a fascinating dude. Edward Crankshaw's nice biography is a very good read, if you're interested in him.

15 March 963

Basil II nominally becomes Byzantine Emperor.

Sure, it's the Ides of March, but Basil II is much cooler than Julius Caesar! Who the heck is Basil II? I'm so glad you asked. Basil, known as "the Bulgar-Slayer" because he slew many Bulgars,¹ was five years old today when his father, Romanus II, died and he became titular emperor. When he was 18 he reached his majority and, after a power struggle, became the greatest emperor at least since Justinian (527-565) and possibly since Constantine (306-337). He was ugly and coarse, with no interest in learning, and apparently died a virgin, which is kind of weird. But he was a great general. He came to the throne at a time in Byzantine history when it appeared the apogee of the empire had come and gone, but he enlarged its territory greatly, mainly at the expense of the Bulgars, who had vexed the Greeks before. Under their ruler Samuel, they fought long and hard against Basil. Finally, in 1014, Basil destroyed the Bulgarian army. He celebrated his victory in brutal fashion - he had his captives blinded and sent them back to Samuel with guides whom he only blinded in one eye. He was a hell of a lot nicer once he had subjugated the territory, however.

Basil also helped bring Christianity to Russia, as he made an alliance with Vladimir, the prince of Kiev, in 988, offering his sister to the prince in marriage only if Vladimir became a Christian. So he wasn't all bad!

Basil died in 1025. The Byzantine Empire never achieved the greatness it did under him, although there were some strong emperors.

¹ That has to be one of the top ten nicknames of all time, doesn't it?

12 March 1938; 13 March 1905

Hitler creates the Anschluss; Mata Hari makes her public debut.

14 March is a sucky day in history, so I'll try to make up from missing the past two days. On 13 March 1938, Hitler entered Austria after 5 years of trying to incorporate the country into his Reich. He had tried everything, but the Austrians had futzed around, and they were going to hold a plebiscite which might not have supported integration with Germany. The vote was going to be held on 13 March, so Hitler felt his hand was forced. He entered Austria with the excuse of "restoring order" in Austrian towns - order that had been upset by rioting Nazis. Two days later, on 14 March, he proclaimed that the two German states were one. And so his attempted bloodless conquest of Europe began. He did quite well for a while.

Meanwhile, on 13 March 1905, Margaretha Zella appeared on stage as "Mata Hari," an Indian girl raised in service of the god Shiva. She was a Dutch girl who had moved to Java early in life with a domineering husband whom she eventually divorced. When she moved back to Europe, she had no prospects, so she decided to take off her clothes for profit! She was good at it, too, touring Europe and taking numerous lovers. She became a spy during World War I, but the French became convinced she was a double agent and arrested her. After a sham trial, she was shot in 1917.

Okay, I lied - on 14 March 1492 Isabella of Castile ordered the expulsion of 150,000 Jews from the re-united Spain. And so a sub-section of society that made Muslim Spain the cultural capital of Europe was kicked out, and Spain entered a nice period of time they liked to call the Inquisition. Good job, Spain!

11 March 1942

Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines.

MacArthur's defense of the islands was hamstrung by a lack of air and sea power. The Japanese invaded only two weeks after Pearl Harbor, and MacArthur organized a swift defense that was doomed from the start. On this day, he was finally persuaded to retreat, leaving behind the defenders, who surrendered to the Japanese a month later. In Adelaide a week after his retreat, MacArthur uttered his famous promise: "I shall return," and in October 1944 he kept his promise. However, at this point in the war, things were going poorly for the Allies, as the Philippines was added to a long list of defeats - Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, Tobruk, Guam, Wake, and Singapore. Good thing that damned liberal media didn't get involved, or we'd all be speaking Japanese now!

10 March 1831

The French Foreign Legion is founded.

And inspires the movie Beau Geste and the very funny satire of that movie, The Last Remake Of Beau Geste.

I don't have a lot to say about the Legion that I haven't already said in this book review, so if you're interested, go check it out. Interesting group, the Legion.

9 March 1862

The first battle of ironclad ships.

Lots of interesting stuff today, but I decided to highlight the Monitor and the Merrimac, because it was probably the most significant thing.

These two ships met off Hampton Roads, Virginia, and fought an inconclusive battle, but one that forever changed naval warfare. The Merrimac had been doing some damage to Union ships and was far larger and more heavily armed than the Monitor, which had been built specifically to stop the Merrimac. After many hours of close fighting, the Merrimac withdrew, but neither ship was really damaged. Neither ship had much of an impact on the war as a whole - the Merrimac was scuttled when the Confederacy withdrew from Norfolk, while the Monitor was lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras. But the fact that these ships proved that ironclad ships were viable meant that the age of wooden ships was effectively over. They lasted a while, of course, but were dinosaurs from this date on.

7 March 161

Marcus Aurelius becomes emperor.

Marcus Aurelius was the last in a remarkable succession of rulers of Rome that saw the empire reach its greatest extent and enjoy its true Golden Age. He succeeded his father-in-law Antoninus Pius (who had adopted him to ensure his ascendancy) when he was almost 40, and ruled for 19 years. He was not killed by his son Commodus, and he died in Vienna, not the wilds of Germany. However, Commodus was as bad as the movie Gladiator makes him out to be, and his reign began a long, slow decline of Roman power.

Aurelius is probably most famous for his Meditations, which he wrote down during his years as emperor. He had always been impressed by Greek philosophy and apparently saw himself in that mold. He ruled with moderation and toleration, forbidding the execution of senators and tolerating Christianity, although there is no evidence that he wanted to restore the Republic. He died in 180 at the age of 59, and evil Joaquin Phoenix messed things up for Rome. Boo hoo. Rome from AD 98 (the accession of Trajan) to 180 must have been an interesting place to live. It was, as I mentioned, the Golden Age.

4 March 1193

Saladin dies.

Saladin, for those who don't know, was a Kurd who united the Muslim empires of Syria and Egypt in the 1170s and 1180s before turning his eye to those nasty little infidel invaders from the West, the Crusader Franks. In 1187 he destroyed the Frankish army at Hattin and retook Jerusalem. This prompted the Third Crusade, on which Richard I of England, known as the Lion-Hearted, rode. Richard and Saladin never fought the apocalyptic battle historians wanted them to, but Saladin hassled Richard enough that he left the Holy Land in 1192, only to fall into the clutches of some Austrian duke and languish in prison for a while as his brother, the mane-less John, and his henchman, the bearish Sheriff of Nottingham, made life miserable for those noble foxed, Robin Hood and Maid Marian. What? I may be getting my information from a Disney movie? Oh, sorry.

Saladin is a fascinating dude. He realized that the Crusaders were only still around because the Muslims were busy fighting amongst themselves, so he unified them. If stories are to be believed, he was ridiculously chivalric, once instructing his army to stop bombarding a particular room in a Crusader castle because a wedding feast was going on in it. Even if the stories aren't true, Saladin was a learned man who cared for his subjects and was at least interested in Christianity, even though he thought Christians were woefully uneducated about the True Faith.

After Saladin's death, his sons and relatives squabbled over his empire, allowing the Crusaders to hang around in the Levant for another 100 years. He's a huge hero in the Islamic world, not surprisingly. Muslims across the Middle East are still waiting for another Saladin to come along.

3 March 1513

Juan Ponce de León sets sail for the Fountain of Youth.

De León was the governor of Puerto Rico when he heard rumors about the Fountain of Youth on an island to the north. On this date he set sail, and about the time of the Easter Feast he sighted land, and he named it Pascua Florida, or "Flowery Easter." De León didn't find the Fountain of Youth, but he did find natives, who killed him in 1521.

I wonder if de León really believed in the Fountain of Youth. We tend to think of people from earlier time periods as far more superstitious, but this seems a bit extreme, even for the early sixteenth century. He had gotten rich largely through the slave trade, so maybe he thought there was a new source of revenue in the north. I don't know much about de León, so I can't say.

"Pascua" is one of those cool cognates that have bled into English. It comes from the Latin, and we get "paschal" from it. For some reason in English it has been converted into forms of "Easter" - Krys's grandmother is named "Esther," which in Italian is "Pasqua." Language is cool.

2 March 1962

Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a basketball game.

This event has been in the news recently because of Kobe Bryant's 81-point effort a while back, the second-most points ever scored in a NBA game. Wilt scored 28 points on free throws (he only missed four, and he was a notoriously bad free-throw shooter) and made 36 field goals, a truly remarkable evening. The game was played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for some reason, and very few people saw it. The NBA was not the big-time sport it is today. The 1962 season is perhaps the greatest season in history - Wilt averaged 50 points a game, and scored over that number 45 times. When people talk about the best pure player in basketball history, Wilt has to be near the top. He doesn't get as much credit as he should because his contemporary, Bill Russell, won more championships (usually beating Wilt's teams to get to the Finals), but he and Julius Erving (and yes, I'm a Philly homer, and they both played for Philly teams) should get more credit as the greatest players in NBA history, because much like Babe Ruth in baseball, they completely changed how the game is played. Michael Jordan is obviously the best player ever, but Jordan owes a lot to Dr. J.

Anyway, Wilt's Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks that night, 169-147. That must have been a fun game to see.