- 238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors.
Two emperors at once? A bit of a tangle. Or maybe even, a knot.
- 1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissions Amerigo Vespucci chief navigator of the Spanish Empire.
That must have been the same Ferdinand who, with Isabella, saw Columbus off in 1492.
- 1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony’s population, during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
Wait. What? The Indians were the ones doing the massacring?
- 1630 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
Spoilsports.
- 1765 – The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies.
And we all know what that led to.
- 1784 – The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current location in Wat Phra Kaew [on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok], Thailand.
I’ve not seen the real one, but I’ve seen the replica, which is in Chiang Rai.
- 1794 – The Slave Trade Act of 1794 bans the export of slaves from the United States, and prohibits American citizens from outfitting a ship for the purpose of importing slaves.
- Good idea. That long ago. Really?
- 1933 – Cullen–Harrison Act: President Franklin Roosevelt signs an amendment to the Volstead Act, legalizing the manufacture and sale of “3.2 beer” (3.2% alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume) and light wines.
Big of him.
- 1943 – World War II: The entire village of Khatyn (in what is the present-day Republic of Belarus) is burnt alive by Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118.
It took a very long time for this story to be told, but I’m glad it was.
- 1972 – The United States Congress sends the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.
Heh.
- 1972 – In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court decides that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives.
Huh.
- 1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels.
- 1978 – Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope suspended between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- 1982 – NASA‘s Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.
- 1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, leading to a number of studies into the effect that ice has on aircraft.
I remember all four of those events.
- 1997 – Tara Lipinski, aged 14 years and nine months, becomes the youngest women’s World Figure Skating Champion.
Remember that, too.
- 2013 – At least 37 people are killed and 200 are injured after a fire destroys a camp containing Burmese refugees near Ban Mae, Thailand.
And that. The situation has not improved much since.
- 2016 – Three suicide bombers kill 32 people and injure 316 in the 2016 Brussels bombings at the airport and at the Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station.
- 2017 – A terrorist attack in London near the Houses of Parliament leaves four people dead and at least 20 injured.
- 2019 – The Mueller report on the election of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election is submitted to the United States Attorney General.
LOL on the last one. Not the previous two, though. Awful.
- 2020 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the country’s largest ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.
- 2020 – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announces the country’s first ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.
And here we are.
But for me, at this moment, and in this month, it’s a time of remembering and reflection. March 2021 is the twenty-first anniversary of the death of the late Mr. Right’s first wife. I wrote about her, and about the way in which we somehow, surprisingly, managed to make our fractured families whole, in my post, Amazing Grace.
It’s the month of my father’s birthday (he would have been 102 this year).
It’s the first anniversary of the month in which, after much struggle, I recognized and gave in to the inevitable, and began to move my husband of almost 40 years into a hospice program. (Curses on Covid 19, and how difficult that, on top of everything else, made our last months. And blessings on our doctors, home health, and hospice providers who somehow made it all bearable, all the way up until the end, on July 3, 2020. I’ll never forget the couple from the funeral home who showed up at about 5AM to take Mr. Right away for his final ceremonies. They were human. And kind. And in defiance of all Fauci-esque protocols at the time, and maskless, we stood in the driveway and hugged each other and cried. I will never forget that moment and how salvific, in a very bleak time, it was for me.)
And it’s the third anniversary of a conversation, and a decision made as a result, that somehow wrecked a beloved friendship, cost me dearly in financial and emotional terms (for reasons I’ve come to understand have very little to do with me. but everything to do with circumstances beyond my control, and with stupid, ignorant, malicious, and interfering others), but which has passed like water under the bridge at this point, disappearing Into the West and no longer mattering (all that much, and only very rarely) to me:
Life goes on. I think that’s the message that those who love us, even those beyond the grave, would like us to remember.
And so I try to. And I hope and pray that all reading this who’ve had an equally, or even more difficult year that I have, can remember it too. This too shall pass. God Bless.
Excelsior!
