DECEMBER 26 — 1777 Battle of Trenton Conclusion: Washington surprises Hessains; 1999 Child entertainer Jon-Benet Ramsey found dead; 1966 1st Kwanzaa
1776 — Washington surprises the Hessians.
Whoever said Washington never told a lie must be talking about a different George Washington, because lying was instrumental in defeating the strongest military in the world. Not only did Washington lie, he made others do it for him, because it was the only way.
Things had not gone well for General Washington during the beginning stages of the American Revolution. He lost New York Morale was low and so were supplies and equipment for his army. But on this day in 1776 Washington caught a huge break in New Jersey. Many historians say, including history.com itself that General Washington just snuck up on them because they were partied out and hangover from celebrating Christmas and by the time they got it together it was too late. That doesn’t sound like the Hessian army. They were outsourced by the British army not because they were sloppy drunks, but because they were keen and vicious. Besides, they were surprised because they really didn’t think Washington would show up., because Washington fooled them into thinking that they wouldn’t show up.
Washington had already made an attempt at espionage, and that attempt ended very badly, with Captain Nathan Hale, a young Yale graduate, was chosen to head to New York and get intelligence from the British. But the British had already taken Manhattan three days after Hale showed up, and Washington never saw him again as he was caught by the Redcoats and sent to hang on that very day. Civilians were no longer helping the Continental Army with food and supplies like they were several months prior as they put their Loyalist hats back on, fearing for their lives.
Washington learned a few things from the death of Hale, mainly that he would need a lot more than one spy, and he would need a ring of them to go deep. He had a plan to take back Trenton, and it started with the help of a friend of his, John Honeyman. Honeyman had fought for the British 20 years earlier, but now he was a butcher and bartender who traded with the British and Hessians in Trenton. Bartenders tend to get a lot of information, most of it useless in everyday life, but this was information Washington would need. The state was set. Washington found out through Honeyman there would be around 400 Hessians in Trenton, versus Washington’s 2,500 The Hessian army wa commanded by Colonel Johann Rall.
Honeyman had a story for him that went like this: that Honeyman, a Loyalist, was captured by the Continental Army and sent to General Washington directly, who imprisoned Honeyman. The facility he was jailed caught on fire, and Honeyman escaped. But while he was imprisoned, he learned that the Continental Army would not attack on Christmas. That’s lot of lies Washington had Honeyman tell right there in that conversation, and Honeyman was more than willing to do it. Rill took the bait, and called off the army for Christmas.
The whole story was such a big scam, it worked, as we can clearly see., and gave General Washington the hope that he needed to execute a network of spies, who would become the Culper Ring, to help Washington win the war by outsmarting the enemy, and by the end of the war, Washington would look more like Bugs Bunny and the British look like more like Elmer Fudd. huhuhuhuhuhuh
1820 – Moses Austin asks Spanish for Texas colony.
…Born in 1761 in Connecticut, Austin was the founder of the American lead industry and the first man to obtain permission from the Spanish to bring Anglo-American settlers into Spanish territory. In 1789 he was awarded a contract to place a lead roof on the Virginia capitol building. He ran into some financial problems during this time and obtained permission in 1798 from the Spanish to mine land in present day Missouri. Austinville was built and the town contained a lead mine and smelter and became the first Anglo American to settle west of the Mississippi.
Austin gained control of almost all the sweltering in the region. This period was known as the Moses Austin Period. After the war of 1812 the lead market collapsed and Austin found himself bankrupt. Eager to get back in the game, he founded the Bank of St. Louis, the first bank west of the Mississippi River. The bank failed shortly thereafter. Austin got real gutsy and set his eyes on Spanish Texas. On December 23 1820 he set out to San Antonio and on the 26th, was given permission by Governor Martinez gave “Austin permission to settle 300 Anglo families on 200,000 acres of Texas land.
On the way back to Missouri, Austin contracted pneumonia and his health declined rapidly. Within two months he was near dead, and was barely able to speak his wife. Mary Brown Austin. She wrote down in her memoir, “he drew me down to him and with much distress an difficulty of speech, told me it was too late, that he was going…he begged me to tell you to take his place tell dear Stephen that it is his dying fathers last request to prosecute the enterprise he had Commenced.” It was one of the most famous letters in Texas history. Their son Stephen Fuller Austin took over his dad’s quest and brought nearly 25,000 people into Texas, most of them Anglo-American.
1999 — Jon-Bonet Ramsey found dead.
On the 25th, the night before, the Ramsey’s, a very wealthy family, was having a Christmas party. Little JonBenet was tucked into bed at 9pm. In the morning, Patsy found the ransom note demanding $118,000 for the child’s return. The police were called and came over. They waited for the ransom call, but it never came.
The note was very strange, being three pages long. Like, most ransom notes I’ve seen have the words spelled out from cut and pasted magazine articles so no one would recognize the handwriting. The note went on and on about whom the kidnappers were and how they were going to behead JonBenet, and a bunch of other gibberish.
What made this whole story is not that JonBenet was a famous six year old celebrity, but that the investigation was full of holes. For instance, why did the note ask for $118K? Interestingly enough, John had just got paid $118K as a Christmas bonus. So did the killer work with John, or did John write the note himself, coming up with a quick answer to the question, how much money should I demand for this fabricated note?
Either way it’s silly. I don’t know how much Colorado taxes on Christmas bonus, but here in California it’s like 50%. The money was to be delivered in a brown paper bag, which is weird because in movies it’s traded in a briefcase, duh, and the note was signed “Victory!” whatever that means. The paper that the note was written on came from inside the Ramsey’s house.
Supposedly after finding the note, Patsy called 911, and that call as weird. She said to the operator, we have kidnapping. If your child has been kidnapped usually you don’t call 911 saying, we have a code 207 Alpha here. Just sounds weird. Then Patsy gave the info and hung up on 911. Usually they stay on the phone until the police arrive.
Eight hours after she was reported missing, father John Ramsey found the child’s body in the basement, strangled with a fractured skull. This was after the police had been at the house. Found her! She’s a little blue, but here she is. Police discovered a broken window with no footprints leading inside. This is Colorado during Christmas folks, of course there’s snow outside. There was also an undisturbed spider web on the supposed point of entry.
Also in the basement was a suitcase the Ramsey’s claimed to have never seen. It contained a blanket with semen on it and copy of the Jungle Book. The sperm on the blanket belonged to JonBenet’s older half brother, John’s son from a previous marriage, who police say they proved was not in Boulder at the time. What about Burke, the 9-year old brother? He hated his little sister and was jealous of his fame.
He’s been accused of putting his own feces on her bedroom walls just to be gross. But he’s been cleared too. JonBenet was found with a cord wrapped around her neck and a drop of blood in her underwear that didn’t match anything on the police record database. So if it wasn’t the family, who was it? The case is still open. There’s also the possibility of a local Santa Clause, neighbor, and schoolteacher, all three men being very creepy in nature, but not present during the scene of the crime. Rock on conspiracy theorists, here’s one for you. JonBenet never died, she became Katy Perry.
According to the website twentytwowords.com, that’s a possibility. I don’t even think Katy Perry herself would find that funny.
2011 – 14th skydiving death in Perris California.
The concept of indoor skydiving is an interesting one; and here’s how it works: picture a 40’ tunnel with an array of 200-horsepower fans blowing rushes of air straight up the tunnel. This creates the sensation of actual freefalling, and anyone can roll up to the facility and sign up, and depending on your level of skill and experience, you can literally jump into this 150-mile environment. As any flier will tell you, you need to be careful whether you’ve had 1 jump or thousands.
On this day in 2011, Michael Ungar from Canada, 32 years old, had over 2,000 jumps, actually a sky-diving instructor, died before he hit the ground, it appeared. Four more deaths the same year at this facility.
U.S. Parachute Association director Scott Smith suggests despite the numbers, overall, it’s one of the safer indoor skydiving facilities. Perris is considered one of the world’s best indoor skydiving facilities with over 140,000 jumps per year.
1919 – Boston trades the Bambino in what would become quite possibly the worst trade in sports history. Books have been written about this one and sports historians are still debating it. If you’re a sports fan at all, you probably know that Babe Ruth’s best playing came when he was a Yankee. During his 14 years as a Yankee, the team won seven pennants and four World Series. The Red Sox, on the other hand, got a curse that lasted nearly nine decades until 2004. Sox owner Harry Frazee had a couple reasons for trading the Sultan of Swat. One, Babe Ruth was worth a lot of money, and second, he didn’t like Babe personally.
He called Babe Ruth a one-man team and said, He is likewise one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men ever to put on a baseball uniform. Boston fans were livid, and the Boston post called the trade a tremendous blow to the army of loyal fans. Nobody knows what the outcome would be if that trade had not taken place. For all we know. The Red Sox wouldn’t have been the Dead Sox for so long, and might be America’s team instead of the beloved Yankees.
Who knows.
2016 – Dontari Poe throws the Bloated Tebow Paass.
Kansas City Chief head coach Andy Reid dug once again his endless bag of tricks as the Chiefs, who were beating the Denver Broncos 27-10 with less than two minutes to go,Chiefs on the 2 yard line, 3rd and goal, and he sent in 346-lb defensive tackle Dontari Poe to just plow everyone over and run it in.
But he didn’t run it in; he threw it in a trick play that would be one the highlight of the Chiefs entire season. I couldn’t tell what was funnier, the fact that Reid would try this move in the first place with the scoreboard clearly showing the Chiefs had taken this game a long time ago, or the fact that Poe pulled it off when he easily could’ve just smashed his way in the end zone.
Poe became by the way the heaviest player to throw a TD in NFL history, by the way.
In either case, like tight end Travis Kelce said, it was one for the ages. Like a Boss!
1966 – The first Kwanzaa. It was started by Dr. Maulana Karenga as a celebration of African family, community and culture. Today it’s celebrated by millions of people of African descent throughout American and Canada.