I Know What You Got Last Christmas
The Maundy Morning Newsletter - This Week in History December 19 - 25.
Yesterday was Sunday, so that means today is Monday! Thank you for supporting Okay History.
Last Christmas, I bought Anonymous the biography of Benjamin Franklin written by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson has written quite a few biographies over the years. Anonymous read his book on Einstein. Isaacson is set to write a biography on Elon Musk, which will surely be a comedic piece.
But back to Ben Franklin, who, on December 19, 1732, published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack. The annual publication dove into many topics and included weather forecasts, math problems, and a calendar for the upcoming year. It was wildly popular mostly because Franklin was clever with words when providing new stories or just general fiction to get people to purchase the pamphlet the following year.
Poor Richard was the pseudonym Franklin used to put everything together. I imagine it would have been much more popular if people knew he had written it because he was Benjamin Franklin.
Poor Richard’s Almanack ran for 25 years and inspired almanacs in the future. The Old Farmer’s Almanac began publishing in 1793 and still has Ben Franklin on the cover.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:
Congress passed the Embargo Act on December 22, 1807. France and England were at war during this time, and we needed to pass a law that asked everyone to stop stealing our sailors and respect our sovereignty.
The Lincoln Tunnel opened on December 22, 1937. Named after the #1 ranked Abraham Lincoln, the tunnel connects New Jersey to New York via the Hudson River. To celebrate its opening, we launched bombs from military ships. I have no idea where they landed, but this seems completely unnecessary.
President GHW Bush pardoned Casper Weinberger on December 24, 1992. Casper was Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State and was indicted for lying to Congress regarding the Iran-Contra affair. Merry Christmas.
I forgot to mention that no one correctly guessed the winning state. I did enjoy being told how disappointed you were at every stage of my rankings. The next time I rank the states, I’m going to do a “What did I learn from the last time I ranked them here” section and fill in the information of everything I got wrong!
Seriously, I’m grateful everyone enjoyed the project. Thanks for all the kind words.
I’ll be on a Friday break for the next few weeks with the holidays coming up. I hope you all have a blessed Hanukkah and Christmas, and I’ll see you here next Monday.
Okay,
Chris
Caspar Weinberger was Secretary of Defense, not State. I know because I worked for him (through about 96 intervening layers of command) for 81 days of Basic Training and related fun and joy.