JANUARY 26 — 1820 Happy birthday notetaker George Templeton Strong; 1863 Joseph Hooker takes command of the Army of Potomac; SUPER BOWL: 1986 Bears beat Pats 46-10, 1992 Redskins beat in SB 26, 1997 Packers beat Patriots 35-21, 2003 Hungover Raiders get slapped by Buccs at the Q in SD
JANUARY 26
1863 – Joseph Hooker takes command of the Army of the Potomac.
…Yesterday I discussed how he replaced Ambrose Burnside catastrophic attempt injured his foot at the battle of Antietam, but other than that appeared to be a fearless leader. The first thing he dealt with as commander was the low morale of the troops. He improved conditions, namely food, medical care, and leave. He also institutes a badge system where each division had its own unique insignia. That way, unit pride and identity invigorated the army.
That’s about as good as Hooker got as leading commander. It seemed Lincoln was having little to no luck in getting a solid commander who could take down Lee. He tried with Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope McClellan again, Burnside, and now Hooker. Instead, Hooker lost badly in Chancellorsville. Hooker resigned as commander, but later would go on to lead the Army of Cumberland to victory at the Battles of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain. After the war, Hooker retired from the Army and is buried in Cincinnati.
1858 –Happy anniversary Cyrus Hall McCormick and Nacy Fowler.
…Cyrus patented the Mechanical Reaper, which is a farming tool that cuts and gathers crops at harvest when they are ripe. Notice I didn’t say he invented it; in fact he took the ideas from Roman and Scottish designs, plus twenty years of work with his father and father’s slave, Jo Anderson. Cyrus did however patent it and came up with the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. 1819 Happy birthday Abner Doubleday, Union general-major and alleged inventor of baseball.
1875 – Electric dental drill is patented by George F. Green. This way dentists could try and salvage the tooth instead of just yanking it out. This device was large and bulky and didn’t sell well in the beginning since most dentists didn’t have electricity running in their office. By way of comparison, today’s dentist drills can reach speeds of 800,000 revolutions per minute, while this design could only reach 15. Ow! Just yank it out already!
2005 – Bush appoints Rice as America’s first African-American female secretary of state. Condoleezza Rice was born November 14, 1954, in Birmingham, Alabama. So you can imagine the racism she endured, yet she was able to get advanced degrees in political science and international relations from prominent schools, became a professor at Stanford, went to DC and worked with George HW Bush to help dissolve the Soviet Union and reunify Germany. In 2001 she was appointed national security advisor and went on to become the first black woman to be appointed Secretary of State. She worked with foreign affairs in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places, wrote a few books, and in August 2012 did the unthinkable: she successfully joined the Augusta National Golf Club. Unbelievable.
1986 – Chicago Bears beat the new England pats 46-10. Da bears had that really mean defense with Richard Dent.
1992 – Redskins beat the Bills in super bowl 26. Jim Kelly and his K-Gun no huddle offense were no match for the Redskins defense as Kelly got sacked and intercepted all day long. Harry Connick Jr. sang the national anthem.
1997 – Packers beat the Patriots 35-21. Antonio Freeman had an 81 yard touchdown but the MVP was Kick Returner Desmond Howard, who returned one for 99 yards for a TD. It was the Packer’s first Super Bowl since the second one. The game took place at the Louisiana super dome in New Orleans, so it was only fitting that the halftime show was played by the Blues Brothers and ZZ Top. Luther Vandross sang the national anthem.
2003 – Because the only super bowl Qualcomm San Diego sees is when another team not named the Chargers is playing it apparently;. Worse yet, bitter AFC west rival the Raiders played on these grounds, and because the Raiders were partying in Tijuana the night before and the center got arrested, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had their way with them, intercepting Rader QB Rich Gannon five times, three for touchdowns. Watching Shania Twain and Sting and No Doubt was much more interesting.