Bill Petro

History of Ash Wednesday: Where does the Ash come from?

Bill Petro — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:44 +0000

HISTORY OF ASH WEDNESDAY

In the Western church the first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday from the ceremonial use of ashes, as a symbol of penitence, in the service prescribed for the day. The custom is still retained in the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Anglican, Episcopal and Lutheran Churches. The ashes, obtained by burning the remains of the palm branches blessed on the previous Palm Sunday, are placed in a vessel on the altar and consecrated before High Mass. The priest then invites those present to approach and, dipping his thumb in the ashes, marks them as they kneel with the sign of the cross on the forehead, with the words:

Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.

This ceremony is derived from the custom of public penance in the early church. Initially, for converts wishing to be baptized into the church, they fasted for 40 hours before Easter, when many baptisms were performed. This practice later became a 40-day period of prayer and contemplation, and in some cases fasting. When the custom was extended to the entire congregation is not known, although it seems to have been in common use by the late 10th century, at least in the Western church.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Mardi Gras: Why is it called Fat Tuesday?

Bill Petro — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:30:34 +0000

HISTORY OF MARDI GRAS

In French, Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” and is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday as a last “fling” prior to the 40 days of Lent which precede Easter. Lent is a word that comes from the Middle English word “lente” which means “springtime” — so named for the season of the year in which it usually occurs. While the practice of Lent is not mentioned in the Bible, it has been a tradition in the Christian world since the mid 4th century. It seems to parallel the 40 days of fasting in the wilderness that Jesus experienced following his baptism.

Historically, Lenten fasting became mandatory, especially abstinence from eating meat. While recommended by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria in 330 AD, by the Middle Ages Lent was enforced throughout Europe, especially the forbidding of meat during the final weeks before Easter.

The word carnival comes from an old Italian word that means to “go without meat” or “removal of meat.” Festivals like Mardi Gras sprang up throughout parts of Europe as a means to prepare for the coming times of self-denial. Venice especially was a “party town” for centuries with its Carnevale di Venezia and its elaborate masks, which are still readily available in shops there today. In England, the Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday is called Shrove Tuesday, following Shrove Monday and is celebrated by eating rich food that won’t be consumed during Lent. In the British Isles and some former countries of the British Commonwealth, Pancake Tuesday is a popular way of celebrating the day and eliminating rich foodstuffs from the pantry during Lent.

As the Protestant Reformation spread throughout Europe, Lent became regarded more as a Roman Catholic institution, and was increasingly ignored by Protestants as a traditional observance from the the early 16th century on. This tendency did not reverse, especially in the US, until the 1980s. Today, more Protestant churches participate in Lent with devotions and Scripture readings, as well as special Ash Wednesday services.

What are the customs you observe on Mardi Gras?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Shrove Monday

Bill Petro — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:00:51 +0000

HISTORY OF SHROVE MONDAY

The Monday before Ash Wednesday is known as Shrove Monday. The three days before Ash Wednesday is also known as “Shrovetide,” starting with Quinguagesima Sunday and ending on Mardi Gras. Quinguagesima meant the fiftieth day before Easter, or specifically the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday which marked the beginning of Lent. Shrove is the past tense of shrive and is an Old English word meaning “to repent.” Repentance from sin was a common practice during this season.

As we’ll see in tomorrow’s article on Mardi Gras, meat was usually avoided during the Lenten period of 40 days. So during Shrovetide, immediately before Ash Wednesday, various meat dishes were enjoyed. Another name for Shrove Monday is Collop Monday. Collop is an Elizabethan English word that means a small piece of bacon, which was a part of the breakfast meal eaten on this day. The remaining fat was often kept for making pancakes the next day, on Shrove Tuesday.

Rose Monday, in German speaking countries is a transliteration of Rosenmontag which means “running Monday” and is the highlight of the German “Karneval”.

This day is also called Hall Monday and Merry Monday.

Will you strive to shrove this season?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Presidents Day: More than just Washington and Lincoln?

Bill Petro — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:30:17 +0000

HISTORY OF PRESIDENTS’ DAY

During my lifetime, two American holidays got consolidated into one. In 1971, a day between both Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12 and Washington’s Birthday on February 22 became a single holiday, Presidents Day — alternately spelled President’s Day or Presidents’ Day — to be observed on the third Monday in February, to honor all the past presidents of the United States. Both Washington’s and Lincoln’s pictures were typically displayed prominently in school rooms. School children in many states have felt cheated out of an extra day off of school ever since with the two Presidents’ birthdays being combined into one holiday. Is this a way of consolidating holidays for advertisers for “Presidents Day Sales?” Certainly some state and local governments observe it as Presidents Day. Nevertheless, Washington’s Birthday is still observed by U.S. Federal employees, though it rarely falls on Washington’s actual birthday. Lincoln’s Birthday is not a Federal holiday.

George Washington was known even during his lifetime as “the father of his country” though between him and Lincoln, Abraham looked more like the father and George’s long hair made him look more like the mother. Nevertheless, George was a natural leader, standing 6’4″ amongst troops that stood 5’9″. He appeared at the Continental Congress in uniform, the natural choice for military leader. He had experience in battle in the French and Indian War in America, fighting for the English King George III, but the American Revolutionary war saw him fighting for independence against the same King that he had earlier served. He stood bestride two periods of American history, the end of the Colonial Period and the beginning of the National Period. He served only two terms as President of the new United States of America, though many would have supported his rule for life. Napoleon of France was amazed that Washington would step down when he didn’t need to.

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most popular, best remembered, and most oft written about Presidents in American history. He too served during a time of bitter warfare, again with brother fighting brother and neighbor fighting neighbor, this time though during the American Civil War, or what became known in the South as the War Between the States. While this great conflagration had many economic and political causes, Lincoln’s name remains associated with the abolition of slavery. Lincoln, as Washington did, connected two periods of American history. In Lincoln’s case, he saw the end of the National Period and the very beginnings of the Modern Period which would follow the Civil War.

Two great wars, one for freedom of independent government, one for a different kind of freedom. More Americans died in that second war than all other wars Americans were ever involved in… because the dead were counted on both sides.

Two great Presidents. The first remembered for selfless deeds who served as first President when he might have been king. The other for his great words that began to heal a nation after the largest battle ever fought on American soil. As Lincoln remembered those who fought and died at the Battle of Gettysburg he concluded:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of St. Valentine’s Day

Bill Petro — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:00:35 +0000

HISTORY OF ST. VALENTINE’S DAY

Valentine or Valentinus, is the name of at least three martyred saints. The most celebrated are the two martyrs whose festivals fall on February 14, the one, a Roman priest, the other, bishop of Terni. It would appear from the legends that both lived during the reign of the Emperor Claudius (Gothicus); that both died on the same day; and that both were buried on the Via Flaminia, but at different distances from Rome. A third was a martyr in the Roman province of North Africa about whom little is known. It seems that the first celebration of the feast of St. Valentine was declared to be on February 14 by Pope Gelasius I in 496. Many authorities believe that the lovers’ festival associated with St. Valentine’s day comes from the belief that this is the day in spring when birds begin their mating. There is another view held, however.

In the days of early Rome a great festival was held every February called Lupercalia, held in honor of a god named Lupercus. During the founding days of Rome the city was surrounded by an immense wilderness in which were great hordes of wolves. The Romans thought they must have a god to watch over and protect the shepherds with their flocks, so they called this god Lupercus, from the Latin word, lupus, a wolf. One of the amusements on this festival day was the placing of young women’s names in a box to be drawn out by the young men. Each young man accepted the girl whose name he drew, as his lady love. Whether the customs of Lupercalia are perpetuated in Valentine’s Day remain unknown.

Customs have changed throughout the years, during Christian times the priests put the names of saints and martyrs into the boxes to be drawn out. The name that was drawn out was called one’s “valentine” and the holy life of that person was to be imitated throughout the year. It was at one time the custom in England for people to call out “Good morning, ’tis St. Valentine’s Day”, and the one who succeeded in saying this first expected a present from the one to whom it was said, making things pretty lively on St. Valentine’s Day.

Paper valentines date back to the 1500′s but it took the enterprise of America to make a buck at it. Esther A. Holland, who produced one of the first American commercial Valentines in the 1840′s sold $5,000 worth – when $5,000 was a LOT of money – in the first year.

How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Charles Dickens: 200 years

Bill Petro — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:00:28 +0000

HISTORY OF CHARLES DICKENS

Today marks the 200th birthdate of Charles Dickens, considered by many the greatest English writer since Shakespeare — at least he was during his lifetime in the Victorian age. He enjoyed the distinction of fame and a measure of financial success during his lifetime, starting in his 20s. Many of his novels were published serially in newspapers or 3 pence pamphlets. Think of them as early Twitter novels. And like Twitter, they’re forever: his novels are still in print.

Although he was born at Portsmouth on February 7, 1812, and he often spent his holidays in later years on the shores of Kent, he is most known for his intimate knowledge of London which is the setting of so many of his books. Indeed, presently London is having a Dickens of a time, with special events and exhibits all over town. In December I went to no less than three: the exhibit of his books at the British Library, the immersive Dickens exhibit at the Museum of London, and his only remaining residence in London at 48 Doughty Street now known as the Charles Dickens Museum which houses thousands of his personal effects.

When he was still young his family moved to Camden Town, London, around with he lived most of his life. Though he received an education as a child and was a voracious reader, his father’s profligate spending habits eventually landed him in debtor’s prison, and young Charles at 12 had to leave school and take work in a boot blacking factory near Covent Garden. Living as a boarder, on weekends he would visit his family who lived with his father in Marshalsea debtor’s prison in Southwark, south of the City and across the Thames. His painful recollections of his experiences during this time — and he had a phenomenal memory for detail — would provide motivation and content for many of his later novels: Little Dorrit, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and especially David Copperfield.

He took an early job as a law clerk and eventually as a freelance reporter, later acting as a court reporter where he witnessed important debates in Parliament. He never took to law, though he later wrote about its foibles in Bleak House. And he never cared much for what he saw in government circles, either in England nor when he crossed over to America, declining a dinner invitation from President Tyler. He furthered his craft through journalism, editing and publishing — having edited a number of periodicals — though his mature career was taken mostly in writing stories and novels.

As a young man he enjoyed the theatre, attending every night when he could and became friends with actors and stage managers. Though he toyed with the idea of performing when young, an illness during an audition delayed for many years a life of performance, but did not altogether put it out of mind.

Melodrama

Because of his affection for plays, his stories and their characters were dramatically drawn, larger than life, and his plottings were melodramatic. This easily lent his stories to theatrical adaptation, some were performed almost immediately after publication. Even in our day we have adaptions of A Christmas Carol by Mr. Magoo, Mickey Mouse, Bill Murray, and the Muppets.

Dickens’ writings were immensely popular even during his lifetime, and their serialization and cliff-hanger nature added even more to the drama. One such popular story was inspired from a particular event in his own life. In The Old Curiosity Shop, the character of Little Nell becomes more and more ill, and appears to be upon the point of death. Many of Dickens’ readers wrote to him imploring him to spare the life of the character Little Nell, but her death in his mind was inevitable.

Nevertheless, the death of this imaginary character deeply effected him, taking days for him to recover. In his own life, when he was living at 48 Doughty Street while writing The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, his wife’s sister Mary Hogarth lived with them. He became very attached to her.

When Mary died suddenly at the age of 17, Dickens was devastated and never really got over it, even years later.

Night Walks

As Dickens grew older he found himself subject to bouts do insomnia and would walk the streets of London at night, sometimes 10-12 miles a night. He’d see parts of the city not always viewable by day, the rough parts, the scary parts. He once wrote of walking at night by Bedlam (Bethlehem Mental Hospital) and wondering if in sleep we dream the same things as the insane do. Dickens would go on to say that no one knew the streets and back alleys of London better than he did.

Technology

Dickens was an early adopter of some advanced technologies of his day and took advantage of the growing rail system, steam-powered ships, and the telegraph. He even used the telegraph to send coded messages to his mistress while abroad. On his first trip to the United States he boarded The Britannia, the first Cuinard wooden paddle-steamer ship built to sail from Liverpool to Boston. This was to be his first trip to an appreciative America.

A Christmas Carol

The telling of melodramatic ghost stories especially around Christmas time was a popular practice during the Victorian period. Dickens’ fascination with ghost stories, mesmerism, and spiritualism led him to include ghostly apparitions in his other works as well, but in A Christmas Story, as he called his “Ghostly little book” Dickens, according to G.K. Chesterson, succeeded in transforming Christmas from a sacred festival into a family feast.

The Ghost Club

Dickens was interested in the extra-ordinary in his teenage years and had an early interest in mesmerism (which later became known as hypnotism) along with the growing appreciation of spiritualism, which he often sought to find rooted in scientific fact. While he did not become as fascinated with spiritualism and seances as other authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle he often included accurately reported stories of ghostly apparitions in magazines he edited.

In his teens, one of Dickens’ favorites was The Terrific Register, a penny weekly magazine which dealt with murder, ghosts and cannibalism. He related that it would “make myself unspeakably miserable, and frightening my very wits out of my head…which, considering that there was an illustration to every number in which there was always a pool of blood, and at least one body, was cheap.”

Dickens became one of the earliest members of The Ghost Club when the Cambridge group organized in London in 1862. Two decades later, the author of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle was a member.

Performances

Later in his life Dickens would, as part of his speaking tours, do dramatic readings from his works. A Christmas Carol was one of the most popular and was included in his first public reading in 1853, but one of his favorites was a passage from Oliver Twist that describes the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes. Dickens would stand at a small table that had a raised platform upon which he’d rest his hand that held his annotated book, where he’d read the underlined passage with DRAMA, as he wrote in the margin. He would deliver this reading often, though each delivery would take a lot out of him. He died in 1870 about a month after his last public reading of A Christmas Carol, at the age of 58.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of the Super Bowl: Just another Religious Holiday?

Bill Petro — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:00:16 +0000

HISTORY OF THE SUPER BOWL

The Super Bowl, also known as simply Superbowl — a territory acquisition athletic contest played upon a fixed agrarian grid using as a token an inflated porcine prolate spheroid — is the most important holiday of the year in America. Some will say that it is a secular holiday, others argue that it is truly a religious holiday.

And there are many reasons why: it has a liturgy, lots of prayer, rituals, and indeed these rituals have changed throughout history. It used to be that commercials were the part of the service that was intended for taking a bio break, but not in recent years. The commercials are now the most important part (for some) of the service, and indeed some (like me) watch Superbowl specifically for the advertisements.

Food

After Thanksgiving Day, more food is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year. These are usually selected for their high caloric index, sodium content, crunch factor as well as carbonated inebriating fluids.

Decorations

Not only is food is a major part of this holiday, so too are decorations. Consider Supermarkets (named after Superbowl) which decorate the chip aisle as it if is Christmas. If you work for Frito-Lay, it is Christmas.

Advertisements

Advertisers will pay up to $100,000 per second for an advert. A 30-second commercial will go for $3M and the slots have been sold out since the beginning of last summer. Who can forget the introduction of Apple Macintosh, directed by Ridley Scott, during the 1984 Super Bowl, when:

On January 24th, Apple Computer

will introduce Macintosh.

And you’ll see why

1984 won’t be like “1984.”

Here is a collection of YouTube videos of some of the most popular advertisements.

History

Super Bowl is the modern name, since 1967, for the professional football championship contests, which extend back into antiquity, Roman antiquity to be precise. This will be Super Bowl XLVI, to honor those Roman roots of gladiatorial contests.

This contest is between the conferences of the National Football League (NFL), so named for the “League” the unit of measurement to express the distance a Roman citizen could walk in 1 hour. The modern game, however, is about 4 times that length of time.

The NFL is divided neatly into two unequal halves, the NFC (National Football Conference) and the AFC (American Football Conference), these are each further subdivided into Meetings, Get-Togethers, and One-On-Ones.

The Super Bowl will not involve the ICFL (Continental Indoor Footfall League) as it is not a TLA (Three Letter Acronym). The winner of the Super Bowl will be declared the “world champions of football,” of course ignoring other inhabited countries who may point out that they call soccer “football,” and they have a championship involving not a bowl, but a cup. And involvement from teams from outer space is out of the question.

Where does the word “bowl” come from? Originally, it comes from the Rose Bowl, a college football contest, played in Pasadena, CA which is done in an elliptical stadium. Now a stadium is where foot races were held in ancient Rome, but spectator gladiatorial contests like this were held in amphitheaters, like the Colosseum in Rome, or Flavian Amphitheater, so named from the ancient Greek word because they were made up of two theaters joined together or theaters on both sides, but that is more ancient history than most people can handle.

Half Time

Nominally named for being approximately in the middle of the game, or 2 quarters in, or 4 bits worth, or 50 cent, but not the singer. Unlike many other football broadcasts, this part is actually shown to the audience watching from home. These festivities consist of first-class and second-rate musical performers, some who have questionable taste in attire, others who have costuming clumsiness or “wardrobe malfunctions.”

2 Minute Warning

Super Bowl, while using a clock, does not intend that this is to be understood as representing actual “wall clock” time, rather, it uses poetic license to represent an epochal period that could last 30 minutes or an hour and a half, given overtimes.

Celebration

There is one reason for celebrating at the end of Super Bowl, especially for “football widows” or “football widowers” like me. It means the end of the professional football season for the year!

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Groundhog Day

Bill Petro — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:00:22 +0000

HISTORY OF GROUNDHOG DAY

Groundhog Day comes from Candlemas Day, observed for centuries in parts of Europe on February 2 where the custom was to have the clergy bless candles and distribute them to the people. This seems to have derived from the pagan celebration of Imbolc — the Feast of the goddess Bridget, or in Christian Ireland St. Bridget’s Day and alternatively “The Purification of the Virgin” commemorating the time when St. Mary presented Jesus at the Temple at Jerusalem. It comes at the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. The Roman Legions, it is said, originally brought the tradition to the Germans.

In more modern times, says the old Scottish couplet:

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear
There’ll be two winters in the year

By the 1840s the following idea caught on in the U.S., particularly in Pennsylvania whose earliest settlers were German immigrants. If the groundhog sees its shadow on a “bright and clear” day, six more weeks of winter are ahead.

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania is the headquarters of the celebration where the groundhog “Punxsutawney Phil” regards his shadow at Gobbler’s Knob, a wooded knoll just outside the town.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Facebook: The Social Network at Eight

Bill Petro — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:30:52 +0000

HISTORY OF FACEBOOK

This Saturday marks the 8th birthday of the social networking site Facebook. What started back at Harvard — and initially only open to college students or those with email addresses that ended in .edu until September 2006 — Facebook is now the fastest growing social network with over 800 million people using it to connect with friends, relatives and co-workers around the world. Half the active users login daily. Last year at this time, there were 600 million on board, meaning there are more people on Facebook than there are people in the United States. In January of 2009 it surpassed MySpace to become the largest social network in terms of US traffic. It is now the largest in the world, with 58% of users outside the US. Increasingly users access it via mobile devices, with popular clients on many smartphones.

Facebook is a company, a platform, a brand, a phenomenon, a veritable force of modern culture. There are over half a million applications on Facebook. Facebook Connect is becoming a popular authentication protocol. A year ago over 80 thousand websites offering it. Over a million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook.

Following recent private investments of capital in Facebook, the estimated value of the company is rumored to be north of $100B, over three times greater than last year. Speculation abounds about an anticipated IPO for the company.

As I’ve mentioned in another article, some people live in Facebook, enjoying the “walled garden” environment where they can send messages, update their status, comment on other people’s status, announce events, share photos, tag them, give gifts, chat, use custom applications, and play games — all in this same environment, without using other services. Not only is Facebook becoming an aggregator of web services, it is also becoming the go-to location for clubs, groups, even churches — where people can share publicly or privately their taste, ideas, opinions and interests. It’s becoming the new “social dashboard.”

This has exemplified and accelerated the Web 2.0 concept of “transparency” discussed in detail in Wired Magazine.

Recruiters are using an applicant’s “social graph” to ascertain suitability.
Job seekers are using it to network to previous fellow-coworkers and employers.
Friends are expanding their networks through friends-of-friends.
Parents are on Facebook to keep an eye on their children.
Older folks are using it to keep their finger on the “pulse” of what younger people are talking about.
Companies are using it to create online “buzz.”
Websites now sport “ShareThis” on Facebook links. Mine does at the bottom of this article.
Celebrities, performers, and the President are members.
During the State of the Union address it became the back channel for comments.

Security and privacy issues continue to haunt Facebook — some foreign governments have blocked access in the past — and reflect members’ uncertainty in an increasingly networked and public world. The Privacy Policy is longer than the U.S. Constitution, and is about as frequently consulted by users. Facebook account hacking, spam, and phishing malware is more of a concern than even last year. Recently, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s fan page was hacked. Nevertheless, people still continue to join and expand their personal network across work, school, and a variety of real and virtual associations. And it’s not just among Generation-Y, although the average age in the world is 28.2 years of age — over a year older than the CEO when last year he was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. In Southeast Asia the average age is 24.1, and in the US it’s 31.2.

Do you have a Facebook profile? Mine is here.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.

History of Australia Day

Bill Petro — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:30:22 +0000

HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA DAY

For my friends Down Under, where I’ll be speaking in a week.

Did you know that the history of European Australia is tied to the American Revolutionary War?

Back when America was part of the British Commonwealth it was convenient for England to transport its convicts to the Colonies. Indeed, it was considered more humane to “transport” prisoners than to execute them, and there were getting to be so many convicts.

Following the 1730s, the population began to increase, and concurrently with the rise of the Industrial Revolution crime was becoming a greater problem in England. What to do with all the prisoners? Even the debtor prisons were swelling. America seemed like a likely landing place. In 1732, a royal charter was granted to a group of philanthropists — interested in helping the “worthy poor” — namely the Trustees of the Province of Georgia.

But the goal of settling Georgia as a repository for convicts was never fully realized, despite recent claims to the contrary. A number of disagreements and altercations between the American Colonies and the British Crown — which we don’t have time to go into here — resulted in the American War of Independence from Britain which you have no doubt read about. It was in all the papers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet British Captain James Cook (not Kirk, not Hook) arrived in Australia in 1770 claiming it for the British Empire, and sailing down the coast arrived at what is now called Sydney. One part of the area was lush with various flora and fauna and caused Captain Cook to later write in his journal that he named it Botany Bay.

Up until this time about 60,000 convicts had been transported to America, but the aforementioned American Revolutionary War in the 1770s and ’80s put an end to this destination for prisoners and the British government needed an alternative. Australia was it. On May 13, 1787 the First Fleet was assembled in Portsmouth, England and sailed to Botany Bay, arriving on January 20, 1788. They established the first European colony in Australia on January 26, 1788. Over the next 80 years more than 165,000 convicts were transported to Australia. One may like to think that these Australians might otherwise have become Americans.

Since 1988, the 200th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet, national participation in Australia Day has increased and in 1994 all Australian States and Territories began to celebrate a unified public holiday on that day for the first time.

It should be noted that SS Botany Bay is the name of the sleeper ship in the original Star Trek episode “Space Seed.” Khan Noonien Singh, played by Ricardo Montalban, is encountered — along with his fellow eugenically enhanced would-be world conquerers — by Captain James Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the first season episode, and then again in the movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

So on this historic Australia Day, take an Aussie to lunch since Americans have so much in common with them culturally… and talk about Star Trek.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian, mate
www.billpetro.com

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment, or subscribing to the news feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader, or to your email.