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Monday, October 13, 2008
[1754 - Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley), Revolutionary War heroine, born near Trenton, New Jersey]
13 October 1775 Resolution of the Continental Congress
Establishing what is now the United States Navy
Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.
That a Committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expence, and lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to fit out the vessel.
Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes, and that the said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel, and also an estimate of the expence.
Source: Journal of the Continental Congress, 13 October 1775, in William Bell Clark, editor, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 2, p. 442 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966).
[1775 - Continental Navy established]
[1792 - President's (later White) House cornerstone is laid]
[1821 - Rudolf Virchow, scientist, born in Schivelbein (Pomerania)]
[1902 - Wilbur Shaw, racecar driver, Indianapolis Speedway 3X winner & president, born in Shelbyville, Indiana]
[1909 - Herblock (Herbert Block), editorial cartoonist, born in Chicago]
[1915 - Cornel (Cornelius Louis) Wilde, actor, director, born in Manhattan]
[1917 - Burr Tillstrom, Emmy Award-winning puppeteer, born in Chicago]
[1921 - Yves Montand (Yvo Livi), actor, born in Monsummano Terme, Italy]
[1924 - Nipsey Russell, comedian, actor, born in Atlanta, Georgia]
[1925 - Lenny Bruce (Leonard Alfred Schneider), comedian, born in Mineola, New York]
[1931 - Eddie (Edwin Lee) Mathews, Baseball Hall of Famer, born in Texarkana, Texas]
These Are No Kittens
Three little bureaucrats,
Lost their baseball hats,
And they began to cry,
Oh, President, dear,
We sadly fear,
New Orleans we have lost.
What! Lost the Big Easy,
You incompetent bureaucrats,
Then you shall have no pie.
Meow, bend and say ow,
You shall give me a black eye.
Three little bureaucats,
Compromised their integrity,
Hung subordinates out to dry.
Oh, President, dear,
Do you not hear,
We spun it with our alibi?
What! Blamed your subordinates?
Then you're good bureaucrats!
But I smell a rat close by.
Meow, meow,
We smell a rat close by.
William's Whimsical Words:
Cronies in high places
Are bound to disgrace us.
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