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The Daily Dose/February 17, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
GREAT MOMENTS IN TOLERANCE: Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher and astronomer who had the nerve to suggest the Sun was merely one of millions of stars, the universe was infinite and that Jesus Christ was more or less a really good magician, was burned at the stake in Rome on this date in 1600. He was 52.
FunFact: Bruno actually started out as a priest, spending eleven years in the Dominican order.
Bruno, however, was not cut out for the church. He had a tendency to draw attention to himself due to, as the Catholic Encyclopedia coyly - and fairly accurately - puts it "...the originality of his views and outspoken criticism of established theological doctrine"
This led to a somewhat varied career which by and large followed a similar pattern of arriving in a city where he would do some teaching and writing before inevitably falling out of favor. His wanderings would take him to various cities in Italy before he headed to France. He spent two years (1583-85) in England before wearing out his welcome there and returning to France, which didn't like him any more the second time around. He ended up in Germany, where he taught for a couple of years before, again, being forced to flee. He spent some time in Prague before returning to Germany where this time even the Lutherans got tired of him. He returned to Italy in 1592 where it only took him a few months to fall out of favor and get arrested.
Justice Delayed Is An Execution Delayed: After some quibbling between the Venetian and Roman inquisitions, Bruno was extradited to the Roman Inquisition in 1583. For reasons that were never explained, was obliged to wait until the spring of 1599 for his trial to begin.
Get Out Your History Books:Thomas Jefferson is elected the third President of the United States on this date in 1801, when the House of Representatives, deciding a presidential election for the first time, elects him over Aaron Burr. Both men had received 73 votes in the Electoral College.
History buffs will note that Burr wasn't a candidate for president, but was actually Jefferson's running mate. Under the Electoral College system then in place, electors cast two votes without specifying which was for president and which was for vice-president.
Parties had a way around this though, usually designating an elector to cast a vice-presidential vote for someone other than the declared candidate. For example, in the 1800 election the Federalists trotted out President John Adams and Charles Pinckney and one elector voted for John Jay for vice president, giving Adams 65 electoral votes to 64 for Pinckney and one for Jay.
This was too complicated for the Democratic-Republicans, though. They were unable to produce an elector who was either able or willing to cast a vice-presidential vote for someone other than Burr, resulting in both Jefferson and Burr receiving 73 electoral votes.
Dry, Technical Intrigue: An elector from New York, hoping to get Burr elected president, cast both his ballots for Burr, which should have been enough to give him the presidency he wasn't running for in the first place. Burr, however, was a resident of New York and casting two votes for him was a violation of Article II, Section I of the United States Constitution which states, in part, that:
"The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves."
The elector's ballot was changed to reflect a vote for Jefferson and a vote for Burr.
Dry, Technical Matter: Voting, in the outgoing, Federalist-controlled House of Representatives began on February 11. In accordance with the Constitution each state had one vote, meaning the winner had to convince nine of the 16 states to vote for him, with Jefferson - thanks in part to lukewarm support from Alexander Hamilton who considered him the lesser of two evils - finally earning ten votes on the 36th ballot.
FunFact: History generally praises Burr for his conduct as vice-president, particularly regarding his role as President of the Senate. In 1804 Burr would kill Hamilton in a duel.
Run Silent, Run Deep: The CSS H.L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to sink a warship on this date in 1864, sinking the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor during the American Civil War. Shortly thereafter the Hunley itself would sink, killing all eight crewmen. Why it sank has never been determined.
This Sure Took Long Enough: Culminating a quest that man began two thousand years before Christ, the first ship passes through the Suez Canal, connecting the Red and Mediterranean seas. on this date in 1867. It would be two more years, however, before the canal opened to commercial shipping.
Shots! What would become the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution and repeal Prohibition, passes the US Senate and is sent to the several states on this date in 1933. It would be ratified in December, 1935.
Pass, Then Pick Away: Nine years after it was established, the Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield, Massachusetts on this date in 1968.
MORE RUGBY! After considering the merits of rugby sevens, which has seven players playing seven minutes halves instead of 15 players playing two forty minute halves, we thought about ways how this principle could be applied to American professional sports.
The best candidate, of course, would be football, because that is only played once a week. Instead of a month long playoff season, the NFL could gather all teams at one site and play 14-minute games with six players on a side on a regulation 100-yard field.
Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: Six man football, of course, has been played by small high schools in the United States since the 1930's.
Here Try This: Even better, the NCAA, so concerned about all class time major college football players would miss with a playoff, could utilize this plan to hold a 16-team playoff in one weekend.
In Other News: The NBA, which is in desperate need of some livening up, could play a 14-minute game with three players on a side. Baseball could play entire season in a couple of weeks by playing two inning games with six players and starting everybody off with a 3-2 count.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: {I would} turn from war to peace and politics. If, that is, I get through all right. I think myself I shall...Let us laugh at fate. It might please her. - Winston Churchill, 23, Letter to mother while fighting in India, 1897
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The United States has won the most Olympic rugby gold medals, two, in Antwerp in 1920 and Paris in 1924.
Today's Stumper: What three men are enshrined in the basketball hall of fame as both a player and a coach? - Answer next time!
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