Random News and Notes 2 August

On this date:

• 47 – Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, “veni, vidi, vici,” (I came, I saw, I conquered).
• 216 – Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae. After avidly studying the tactics of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus eventually bested his Carthaginian adversary.
• 1776 – Fifty-six congressional delegates affix their signatures to an enlarged copy of the Declaration of Independence.
• 1790 – The first US census starts.
• 1802 – Napoleon Buonaparte is named Consul for life by the French Senate after a plebiscite from the French people.
• 1819 – The first parachute jump from a balloon is made by Charles Guille in New York City.
• 1847 – William A. Leidesdorff launches the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
• 1862 – The Army Ambulance Corps is established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.
• 1876 – Wild Bill Hickok is shot in the back of the head by a young gunslinger named Jack McCall while playing poker in Deadwood South Dakota.
• 1918 – The first American and British troops land in Arkhangelsk in northern Russia as part of an Allied intervention in the civil war raging in that country.
• 1923 – President Warren G Harding dies of an embolism in San Francisco. Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as President the same day.
• 1934 – With the death of Paul Hindenburg, Adolph Hitler ascends to the Chancellorship of Germany.
• 1950 – The First provisional Marine Brigade arrives in Korea.
• 1960 – U.S. destroyer Maddox is reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. This attack is part of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led to great US participation in Vietnam
• 1990 – Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. Mere days later this editor and the rest of his battalion of the 82nd Airborne would land in Saudi Arabia.

There was a shooting at an In-N-Out in Twin Falls Idaho yesterday. (Quick aside, why does GD Twin Falls Idaho get an In-N-Out and the closest one to this editor is 1000 miles away?) Back to the story. An as-yet unidentified man opened fire at the restaurant with an AR type rifle. A good samaritan engaged the bad guy with a suppressed pistol.

That man, Jordan Salinas, posted this on Facebook just two years ago:

He apparently neutralized the shooter and prevented more deaths. As it is, three people are dead including the shooter and 11 more are reported wounded. The authorities have been pretty tight lipped about this incident, but when I know more, you’ll know more.

This is why I bang the training drum so much. Jordan was ready for the situation, acted and prevented a greater tragedy. Go find a good instructor and do some actual training. And Stay Frosty.

A pair of firefighting helicopters collided while on a run in Greece. The crash happened Sunday in Greece’s Psatha area as crews from Elefsina military airport tackled a wildfire threatening homes and land. One crew of two was rescued safely after their pilot made contact, but the status of the second helicopter’s crew remains unclear amid ongoing searches in rugged terrain.

Wildfires are rapidly spreading across parts of Greece as powerful winds continue driving flames toward communities, forcing mass evacuations.

From the Outdoors desk we have a video of a fishing guide in Alaska calmly filming a mother brown bear fishing from just feet away. Soldotna based guide Carter Brown shot the footage from his guide boat while fishing on the Kenai river.

You can tell that he has had similar close encounters before.

This next one comes from that MVAP sports desk. Apparently there is a new women’s “professional” baseball league. Your editor is a huge baseball fan and he knew nothing of it until the video below crossed his feed.

Aynway, the Los Angeles Queens staged a thrilling comeback from a four-run deficit to beat the New York Heights 10-8 in the sold-out inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League game on August 1 at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.