September 9

Have you ever felt that at times your family puts just a little too much pressure on you? Do they constantly impress upon you the importance of living up to their standards? What ever you face in this regard should be considered in light of the expectations that Mary Stuart’s parents had when it concerned their daughter’s future. On the 9th in 1543, Mary, aged nine months, was crowned Queen of Scots. My guess is that she still had to eat all of her strained peas. Technically, Mary had actually become Queen when her father, King James V, died on December 14, 1542. She was six days old at the time.

September 8

On the 8th in 1810, the ship Tonquin, owned by John Jacob Astor[i], sailed from New York harbor bound for the Columbia River in Oregon. It was Astor’s intention to establish a site in Oregon to take advantage of the lucrative fur trading business there. Astor had bought the boat specifically for that purpose. The cargo on board the Tonquin included trade goods, seeds, building material for a trading post, tools, and the frame of a schooner to be used in the coastal trade. Additionally there was a crew of 34 people including the captain[ii]. Following a circuitous route, which took them to the Falkland Islands, around Cape Horn, and then to Hawaii, they finally reached Oregon on March 22, 1811, when they arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River. Due to the rather treacherous sand bar there, it took them three days to figure out a way into the river. They then headed upstream and founded the city that was to become Astoria, Oregon.
[i] Astor was the first millionaire in the United States.
[ii] There were four partners of the company: Duncan McDougall, David and Robert Stuart, and Alexander McKay. Additionally there were 12 clerks and 13 Canadian voyageurs, plus four tradesmen: Augustus Roussel, a blacksmith, Johann Koaster a carpenter, Job Aitkem a boat builder, and George Bell a cooper.

September 7

When someone mentions shipwrecks and Lake Michigan, I immediately recall the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, probably because of that song by Gordon Lightfoot. The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was indeed a tragedy, which resulted in not only the loss of a very big boat, but the lives of its 29 crewmembers as well. It pales however, when you consider another wreck, that of the Lady Elgin, which sank in Lake Michigan with a loss of the 400 passengers who were onboard at the time of the sinking on the 7th in 1860.

In a gale, the Lady Elgin had been rammed by the schooner Augusta. The Augusta suffered only minor damage and thought the Elgin had as well so they steamed off. It took less than 20 minutes for the Elgin to break apart and sink.

September 6

Catharine Esther Beecher was born on the 6th in 1800, in the rustic town of East Hampton, New York, on the eastern end of Long Island. She was an educator who vigorously fought to increase the opportunities available to women who wished to be educated. She was also a vocal proponent of kindergarten for children of both sexes. Her family was chock full of extraordinarily talented siblings. Her sisters were Isabella Beecher Hooker[i], a prominent suffragist, and author Harriet Beecher Stowe[ii] and her brothers, Henry Ward Beecher[iii] and Charles Beecher[iv] were renowned ministers.
[i] Isabella was an author and outspoken advocate of women’s suffrage.
[ii] She wrote the groundbreaking novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin
[iii] He is buried in Brooklyn, New York’s Green-Wood Cemetery
[iv] He would become the state of Florida’s superintendent of public education.

September 5

The United States Army faces many challenges as it attempts to manage the personnel requirements of the War on Terror. Even in the best of times, recruiting has been problematic for the military services. They do their best however and maintain an active public relations office to entice people to enlist. At their website, they remind people “There is no limit to the opportunities in the Army — so there’s no limit to what you can learn and achieve. The Army strengthens you, and your future, with expert training in one of over 150 different jobs for Soldiers on Active Duty and over 120 in the Army Reserve.” The Army needs men and women and it attempts to make the experience of being put in positions of grave danger as attractive as they can. I rather doubt that they had someone like Howard Unruh in mind however when they began their recruiting campaign. On the 5th in 1949, Unruh, an Army sharpshooter who served his country in World War II, left his home in Camden, New Jersey with a self-loading, semi-automatic German Luger. He then proceeded to stroll around the neighborhood shooting and killing thirteen of his neighbors. Unruh is now 86 years old and a permanent resident of the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. One psychiatrist reported that Unruh still insists, "I'm no psycho. I have a good mind. I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough." Unruh was the first single episode mass murderer in the United States.

September 4

Geronimo[i], leader of the Chiricahua Apache, led his people in a thirty year war against the United States military, in an attempt to prevent American encroachment on his people’s tribal lands. While over the time in which Geronimo waged war he would experience intermittent victory, he was ultimately fighting a losing battle for homeland security. On the 4th in 1886, Geronimo[ii] and what was left of his tribe surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles[iii] in Arizona.
[i] Geronimo’s given name in his tribal language of was Goyaałé, which translates as 'One Who Yawns'
[ii] In 1918, Geronimo’s remains were stolen. When recovered, the Indian chief's great-grandson, Harlyn Geronimo of New Mexico, wrote to President Bush, the Elder, requesting his help in returning the remains:
According to our traditions the remains of this sort, especially in this state when the grave was desecrated ... need to be reburied with the proper rituals ... to return the dignity and let his spirits rest in peace.
[iii] Miles would later lead the Army in the December 29, 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee in which more than 200 Sioux men, women and children were slaughtered.

September 3

Of the 232 recognized nations on Earth, there are only four countries physically smaller than the Most Serene Republic of San Marino[i]. Marinus of Rab, a Christian stonemason, fled the persecution he encountered and ended up in the Italian town of Monte Titano where he built a church. On the 3rd in 301, this town would become the republic of San Marino. Marinus died in 366 and would be elevated to sainthood shortly after his death. Today, San Marino is the oldest republic in existence, and the nation with one of the oldest constitutions, which was originally adopted in the early seventh century. Its ranking as the fifth smallest nation fails to take into consideration the many micro-nations that have declared their independence. Some of these nations, like Sea-Land, whose dominion is limited to an abandoned offshore drilling platform, take their independence and autonomy quite seriously. They issue passports, postage stamps and put on a very good front of being an actual nation. Nations bearing names like Terre d’Riches and the Commonwealth of Cyberia prove that not everyone has lost their sense of humor. Taking into account the current state of affairs in world travel, I think that you might want to consider not crossing an international border with a passport issued by the Purple Bunny Federation.
[i] They are in ascending order: Vatican City, Monaco, Nauru, and Tuval