On October 21, 1805, a British Fleet of 27 ships of the line commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined Spanish and French fleet of 33 ships of the line commanded by Admiral Villeneuve of France at the Battle of Trafalgar. Actually, the Franco-Spanish fleet was annihilated, though a storm played a role in that too. Nelson's victory seemingly fulfilled Lord St. Vincent's Quip to the House of Lords that "I do not say the French cannot come, I only say they cannot come by sea". This particular battle is one of which one writes little, or very great amounts. I'll chose the former course, but will address Hardy's failure to anchor. Hardy was Nelson's Flag Captain and though Nelson had instructed him to anchor while he lay dying, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood then assumed command of the combined fleet and instructed him not to. It is really that simple, orders is orders and all that. All of the speculation about the impact of that decision is speculative, duh. History has a finality to it, such that we cannot perfectly re-create the exact original conditions and then change a single detail and run the experiment again. There is only one actual test case, and in it, the British did not anchor.

Today is also Babbling Day. This holiday occurs annually on October 21 whether it is an election year or not!

On this day in history:

On October 21, 1520, Ferdinand Magellan "discovered" the straits now known as the Straits of Magellan.

On October 21, 1797, the "frigate" USS Constitution was launched.

On October 21, 1805, The Battle of Trafalgar was fought

On October 21, 1824, Portland Cement was patented

On October 21, 1854, Florence Nightingale was sent off to the Crimean war with a staff of 38 nurses.

On October 21, 1867, The Medicine Lodge Treaty was signed. I don't know enough about it to speak on it.

On October 21, 1879, Thomas Edison applied for a patent of his version of an electric light bulb.

On October 21, 1921, – President Harding deliversed the first speech by a sitting U.S. president against lynching in the Deep South.

On October 21, 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls was published

On October 21, 1945, French women voted for the first time in the legislative election

On October 21, 1967, The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organized a march on the Pentagon. %0 thousand or so marched and nobody listened or cared except those who were already commies peaceniks.

On October 21, 1983, The meter was re-defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. This was part of a growing push to redefine certain basic units in terms of fundamental physical constants culminating in the redefinition of the SI base units in 2019. This (r)evolution in our measurement system also, at long last, resulted in the inclusion of the gopher mole and one of our basic units of measurement.

On October 21, 1994, North Korea and the US sign edan Agreed Framework that required North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections in exchange for certain actions by the US. The DPRK foolishly complied with its terms but the US, of course, didn’t uphold it’s part of the deal and then GWB first declared the DPRK to be part of an “axis of evil” and eventually declared war on it as part of his “with us or against us” speech.

On October 21, 2005, pictures of the dwarf planet later named Eris were taken and later used to document its discovery. Eris was not amused, I mean, even the ancient Greeks knew she could be touchy if disrespected. Damn. GWB's re-election soon followed, and everything since.

On Octobere 21, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq would be complete by the end of the year. Many believed him. Heh.

Some people who were born on this day:

“The last level of metaphor in the Alice books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician.”

~~ Martin Gardner

1687 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, athematician and theorist
1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, philosopher, and critic
1833 – Alfred Nobel, chemist and engineer, invented dynamite
1877 – Oswald Avery, physician and microbiologist
1886 - Eugene Burton Ely, soldier and pilot, first shipboard aircraft take off and landing
1912 – Don Byas, saxophonist and educator
1914 – Martin Gardner, mathematician, logician, and author
1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet player, composer, and bandleader
1921 – Jim Shumate, fiddler and composer
1925 – Celia Cruz, singer
1929 – Ursula K. Le Guin, author and critic
1940 – Manfred Mann, keyboardist and producer
1941 – Steve Cropper, guitarist, songwriter, producer, and actor
1942 – Elvin Bishop, Pigboy Crabshaw, guitarist, singer and songwriter
1943 – Ron Elliott, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and composer
1946 – Lux Interior, singer and songwriter
1946 – Lee Loughnane, singer, songwriter, and trumpet player
1950 – Leela Vernon, musician, "Queen of Brukdown", and cultural conservationist
1952 – Brent Mydland, keyboard player
1953 – Marc Johnson, bassist, composer, and bandleader
1955 – Fred Hersch, pianist and composer
1957 – Steve Lukather, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Some people who died on this day:

“Athens showed and the United States of the twenty-first century confirmed, imperialism undercuts democracy by furthering inequalities among its citizens.”

~~ Sheldon S. Wolin

1805 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, awesome British Admiral
1965 – Bill Black, bass player and bandleader
1969 – Jack Kerouac, novelist and poet
1980 – Hans Asperger, physician and psychologist
1984 – François Truffaut, actor, producer, director and screenwriter
2006 – Sandy West, singer,songwriter, drummer, and runaway
2015 – Sheldon Wolin, philosopher, theorist, academic and fabulous instructor. Once held class on a picket line.

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

Apple Day (UK)
Trafalgar Day (UK)
Babbling Day

Today's Tunes

Babble Day

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Don Byas

Dizzy Gillespie

Jim Shumate

Celia Cruz

Manfred Mann

Steve Cropper

Babble Day

Elvin Bishop

Ron Elliott

Lux Interior

Lee Loughnane

Leela Vernon

Brent Mydland

Marc Johnson

Babble Day

Fred Hersch

Steve Lukather

Bill Black

Jack Keroac

Sandy West

BONUS Elvin Bishop(et al)

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

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Trafalgar, Babble Day, Eris, Coleridge, Martin Gardner, Dizzy Gillespie, Ursula K. Le Guin, Elvin Bishop, Jack Keoac, François Truffaut, Steve Cropper, Martin Mann, Bill Black, Sandy West