Information may want to be free, but the USA wants it to be secret, most secret or top secret. We classify everything we can and lie about much of the rest. There are probably some folk or rock songs I could play appropriate to this topic but they probably all contain at least one swear word and WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Ah the hell with it.

On this day in 1066, William the Bastard, aka William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, bearing the banner "gules two lions passant guardant", landed on the southeast coast of England at Pevensey Bay and used some old Roman Ruins at the site to set up a fortification. It doesn't get very interesting until October 14 because Harold Godwinson, the last anglo-saxon king of Engelonde, wielding the Dane Axe and representing Britain, was out of town. Willie the Bastard got squared away first and then marched to Hastings where he met and defeated Godwinson on 10/14/1066.

On September 28, 1542, Juan Cabrillo arrived in what is now known as San Diego (California) and misnamed it San Miguel. It's an easy mistake to make out here, where the map is simply littered with places named San This and Santa That, not to mention El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula.. So, I'll just hand this off to Wikipedia here ...

On September 28, he landed in what is now San Diego Bay and named it "San Miguel".[18] A little over a week later he reached Santa Catalina Island (October 7), which he named "San Salvador", after his flagship.[19] On sending a boat to the island "a great crowd of armed Indians appeared" — whom, however, they later "befriended". Nearby San Clemente Island was named "Victoria", in honor of the third ship of the fleet. The next morning, October 8, Cabrillo came to San Pedro Bay, which was named "Baya de los Fumos" (English: Smoke Bay). The following day they anchored overnight in Santa Monica Bay. Going up the coast Cabrillo saw Anacapa Island, which they learned from the Indians was uninhabited.

The fleet spent the next week in the islands, mostly anchored in Cuyler Harbor, a bay on the northeastern coast of San Miguel Island. On October 18 the expedition saw Point Conception, which they named "Cabo de Galera". Cabrillo's expedition recorded the names of numerous Chumash villages on the California coast and adjacent islands in October 1542 — then located in the two warring provinces of Xexo (ruled by an "old woman", now Santa Barbara County, California) and Xucu (now Ventura County, California).

On November 13 they sighted and named "Cabo de Piños" (possibly either Point Pinos or Point Reyes), but missed the entrance to San Francisco Bay, a lapse that mariners would repeat for the next two centuries and more, most likely because its entrance is frequently shrouded by fog. The expedition may have reached as far north as the Russian River or even the Columbia before autumn storms forced them to turn back. Because of the vagueness of his description, it is uncertain which northern river the expedition sighted. Coming back down the coast, Cabrillo entered Monterey Bay, naming it "Bahia de Los Piños".

On November 23, 1542, the little fleet arrived back in "San Salvador" (Santa Catalina Island) to overwinter and make repairs. There, around Christmas Eve, Cabrillo stepped out of his boat and splintered his shin when he stumbled onto a jagged rock while trying to rescue some of his men from attacking Tongva warriors. The injury became infected and developed gangrene, and he died on January 3, 1543 and was buried. A possible headstone was later found on San Miguel Island. His second-in-command brought the remainder of the party back to Navidad, where they arrived April 14, 1543.

I'm sorry, but that is ludicrous From San Diego to Santa Catalina is about 86 miles and it took a bit over a week. 25 miles further to San Pedro, a day. 23 more miles to Santa Monica, another day. 25 days to go from Point Conception to maybe Point Reyes (Drakes Bay, heh, snort) 351 miles. Next they travel an unknown distance north, make a U-turn and get back to Santa Catalina in 10 days. So how much further did they go north, given that it took them 36 days to go roughly 500 miles from Santa Catalina to Point Reyes?

a) They went 90 miles further north to the Russian River, and made a 600 mile return journey, for a total distance of around 700 miles. In 10 days. After averaging about 14 miles per day from Point Concepcion to Point Reyes.

b) They went about 830 miles further north to the Columbia River and made a 1,330 mile return journey for a total distance of around 2,160 miles. In 10 days. In winter. Off the Northern California and Oregon coasts. In winter. By sail. With tons of rain, high winds and a dangerous and rocky uncharted lee shore everywhere along the route. In 1542. In 10 days. In winter.




HOW THE HOLY HELL IS THIS REMOTELY CONFUSING TO ANYBODY? Snort! It's obvious that in either case they used magik but far less in the first case.

On this day in history:

1066 – William the Bastard landed in England



1238 – King James I of Aragon conquered Valencia from the Moors.



1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrived at what is now San Diego, California.



1779 – Samuel Huntington was elected President of the Continental Congress



1781 – Colonial forces backed by a French fleet began the siege of Yorktown (It's tricky besieging a chunk of the coast without a fleet)



1787 – The Congress of the Confederation voted to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.



1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire was drafted



1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passed a law that freed all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves.



1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defined the length of a meter. (It was a meter, that was easy peasy)



1919 – Race riots began in Omaha, Nebraska.



1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation was completed by a team from the US Army.



1928 – Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.



1941 – Ted Williams had a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.



1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ended the United Arab Republic



1970 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser died of a heart attack in Cairo.



1971 – The Parliament of the UK passed the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, banning the medicinal use of cannabis.



1973 – The ITT Building in New York City was bombed in protest over ITT's involvement in the coup d'état in Chile.



1995 – Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat signed the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.



2008 – Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.



2009 – The military junta leading Guinea attacked a protest rally, killing or wounding 1,400 people.



2018 – The 7.5 Mw 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami, left 4,340 dead and 10,679 injured.

Some people who were born on this day:

Confucius Say...

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.

He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.

Study the past if you would define the future.

However, Buckaroo Banzai, he say:

Remember: no matter where you go, there you are.

551 BC – Confucius, teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

1573 – Théodore de Mayerne, physician

1605 – Ismaël Bullialdus, astronomer and mathematician

1746 – William Jones, philologist and scholar

1803 – Prosper Mérimée, Farchaeologist, historian, and author

1809 – Alvan Wentworth Chapman, physician and botanist

1836 – Thomas Crapper, plumber, invented the ballcock

1852 – Henri Moissan, chemist and academic

1852 – Isis Pogson, astronomer and meteorologist

1856 – Kate Douglas Wiggin, author and educator

1860 – Paul Ulrich Villard, chemist and physicist

1868 – Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writer best known for her biography of Voltaire,

1890 – Florence Violet McKenzie, electrical engineer

1892 – Elmer Rice, playwright

1893 – Hilda Geiringer, mathematician

1900 – Isabel Pell, socialite Resistance fighter

1907 – Bhagat Singh, activist

1923 – Tuli Kupferberg, singer, poet, and writer

1924 – Marcello Mastroianni, actor and singer

1925 – Seymour Cray, computer scientist

1925 – Martin David Kruskal, physicist and mathematician

1928 – Koko Taylor, singer

1930 – Tommy Collins, country music singer and songwriter

1932 – Víctor Jara, singer, songwriter, poet, and director

1933 – Johnny Mathis, singer and songwriter

1936 – Emmett Chapman, guitarist, invented the Chapman Stick

1937 – Glenn Sutton, country music songwriter and record producer

1938 – Ben E. King, singer, songwriter .and producer

1942 – Edward "Little Buster" Forehand, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1947 – Rhonda Hughes, mathematician and academic

1950 – Paul Burgess, drummer

1951 – Jim Diamond, singer, songwriter, and musician

1952 – Andy Ward, drummer

1954 – George Lynch, guitarist and songwriter

1955 – Kenny Kirkland, pianist

1960 – Jennifer Rush, singer and songwriter

1967 – Moon Unit Zappa, singer, actress, zappa, and author

1968 – Trish Keenan, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1968 – Sean Levert, R&B singer, songwriter, and actor

1969 – Éric Lapointe, singer, songwriter, and keyboard player

1971 – Joseph Arthur, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1981 – Greg Anderson, pianist and composer

1981 – Iracema Trevisan, bass player

Some people who died on this day:

~~ Harpo Marx

“While there is a lower class I am of it, while there is a criminal class I am of it, while there is a soul in prison I am not free.”

1891 – Herman Melville, author and poet

1895 – Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist

1899 – Giovanni Segantini, painter

1938 – Charles Duryea, engineer and businessman

1953 – Edwin Hubble, astronomer and scholar

1964 – Harpo Marx, comedian, actor, and singer

1966 – André Breton, author and poet

1970 – John Dos Passos, novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright

1991 – Miles Davis, trumpet player, composer, and bandleader

1993 – Peter De Vries, editor and novelist

2013 – George Amon Webster, singer and pianist

2019 – José José, singer, guitarist, and bassist

2024 – Kris Kristofferson, singer, songwriter, and actor

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Freedom from Hunger Day

International Day for Universal Access to Information

World Rabies Day

Today's Tunes

William the Bastard

Juan Cabrillo

Tuli Kupferberg

Koko Taylor

Víctor Jara

Johnny Mathis

Emmett Chapman

Ben E. King

Moon Unit Zappa (fer sure, fer sure)

Harpo Marx

Miles Davis

Jose Jose

Kris Kristofferson

Just gotta do it

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, INFORMATION, William the Bastard, Cabrillo, Yorktown, Confucius, Koko Taylor, Victor Jara, Miles Davis, Emmet Chapman, Ben E King, Moon Unit