June 28

John Baker Omohundro died on the 28th in 1880. As a frontier scout, cowboy and actor he was known as Texas Jack. When the Old West was dying and that way of life turned in to a sideshow, Texas Jack hooked up with William F. Cody and embarked on a successful career as a performer and as the star of many dime novels. He reached a level of celebrity that paid rather well. Which goes a long way towards explaining the difference of the appearance that he gave as a frontiersman (left) and then as an actor (right).
Buffalo Bill Cody was awarded a Medal of Honor in 1872 for gallantry in action while serving with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. The medal would be revoked on February 27, 1917 because he was a civilian at the time of the action. The army would restore it to him in 1989. They apparently understood his excuses for being a no-show at the ceremony.

June 27

Joshua Slocum was born in the middle of the 19th century. I stumbled upon him when I was looking for the wreck of the General Slocum, a steamship that caught fire and burned to the waterline on June 15, 1904, resulting in the deaths of over 1,000 people. This just goes to show you that key-word searches are sometimes wildly off base. There was however a bit of the mariner in Joshua Slocum, quite a lot actually. But simply having the last name Slocum does not make for a connection with the steamship General Slocum tragedy. The steamship was not named for Joshua or anyone in his family. I enjoyed finding Joshua however because I learned that on the 27th in 1898 Joshua Slocum, at the helm of his 37’ sloop-rigged sailboat, pulled into the harbor in Newport, Rhode Island. His journey had begun with his sailing, alone, out of Fairhaven, Massachusetts on April 24, 1895. His arrival in Rhode Island marked the end of the first solo circumnavigation of our world. In 1900, he wrote the book Sailing Alone Around the World. Slocum disappeared in November 1909 when sailing his boat, the Spray, through Strait of Magellan.

June 26

Abner Doubleday has a name closely tied to the game of baseball. He was born on the 26th in 1819. Legend has it that he invented the game in a cow pasture owned by Elihu Phinney in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839, which might explain why the Baseball Hall of Fame is located there. What is rarely mentioned however, is that Doubleday also commanded a Union force during the American Civil War and fired the first shot in the defense of Fort Sumter at the opening of that battle.

June 25

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma was born on the 25th in 1900. He died when a bomb placed on his boat by the IRA exploded on August 27, 1979. It would be callous of me to ask at this point “What’s small, white and travels at 300 miles per hour?” The answer, of course, is Lord Mountbatten’s deck shoe across Donegal Bay.

June 24

When does a person cross a line and changes from being a freedom fighter to being a terrorist and traitor? Apparently, it happens when the people holding all the cards say so. On the 24th in 1497, Cornishmen Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank were taken from their cells in the Tower of London, executed and then had their heads unceremoniously put on pikes, which were then placed on London Bridge. I have thus far been unable to discover who got the contract for the t-shirts and postcards.

June 23

On the 23rd in 1887, the Rocky Mountains Park Act became law in Canada. This act was drafted, passed and became law for the sole purpose of creating Canada’s first national Park, Banff National Park. Following as it does on the heels of Yellowstone National Park, created in 1872, Banff became the second National Park in all of North America. The Yosemite National Park, established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, was the first.

June 22

Do you put off cleaning up until someone says, “you had better clean this place up, it’s a death trap”? I am bad about housecleaning but I like to think that my place isn't all that bad. Honestly, my place could be a lot worse. In Ohio, a small state that borders Pennsylvania, fronts on that skinny little Great Lake, and is just across the border from Canada, things finally did get just that bad. On the 22nd in 1969, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire. It’s not all as bad as it seems tough. At the very least Randy Newman, Adam Again and R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe have all gotten decent songs out of the thing.