September 21, a Momentous Day in History

Once again it’s Watticism Day whatever that is. But do you really realize how significant this day, September 21, really is? In Malta it’s Independence Day, in the Philippines it’s Thanksgiving.

On this day in Patriotism: in 1814 Francis Scott Key’s poem “The Star Spangled Banner,”— to which we are subjected at each and every sporting event, where we are forced to reveal our disturbingly-matted ‘hat hair,’ while reflecting reverently on how oh-so-unquestionably-right Our Great Nation is in all affairs (Don’t spill your beer, meathead!) —was published in “The Baltimore American.”

There have been some pretty damned notable birthdays, too. 1886 saw the birth of Teiichi Igarashi Japan, who would grow up to climb Mt Fuji at age of 99. Larry Hagman, Captain Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, was born in 1931. Deep-voiced folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen entered this world in 1934. Author of The Stand (and millions of other books) Steven King squeezed down the birth canal in 1947. Bill Murray, 1950. The chubby girl in Hairspray who would become the bodacious talk show host of a painfully inane talk show, Ricki Lake, came into being in 1968.

Others came to the end of life’s journey and shuffled off this mortal coil on this day. There have been a couple of impressive deathdays. Before Han Solo there was Nathan Hale. The original rebel spy was hanged in 1776. In 1915, Victorian stick-in-the-mud, Anthony Comstock, died. (Though his spirit seems to be alive and well and kicking in today’s America.)

In 1784, Ben Franklin was involved in publishing the first daily newspaper in America, Penns Packet & General Advertiser. 1906 saw the first baseman for the hated Yankees tie Hal Chase’s record of 22 put-outs in a game. (There are only 27 outs in a game altogether. What was the lazy SOB doing on the other five outs?) US President Warren G Harding signed “a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine” in 1922. Nine years later Britain gave up on the gold standard. A bastard of a 1938 Hurricane (with 183 MPH winds) hit New England and proved lethal to 700 unlucky people. In 1956 the hated Yankees stranded a record 20 men on base, Mantle hit a 500′ (plus!) home run, but the Red Sox beat their ass 13-9 at Fenway anyway. In 1972— what a year —authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines. Couldn’t he wait until after Thanksgiving? Come on. In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor— who would later time her retirement perfectly to bring about the end of America as we know it —became the first woman on the Supreme Court. In 2005, Montag, just a simple online personality trying to make his way in the universe, received a piece of fan email from an entity identified as “Glickman.” The subject line: “Elevate sex drive to new levels.” That’s big time, baby!

All but one of the facts above are listed on this web site which also offers this thought for the day: “Make new friends but keep the old, One is silver the other gold.” So cheezy it should be burned into a slab of distressed wood and hung as knick-knack in a painstakingly over-decorated country cottage. Apropos nonetheless.