Random News and Notes 20 September

On this date:

• 480 BC – Themistocles and his Greek fleet win one of history’s first decisive naval victories over Xerxes‘ Persian force off Salamis.
• 1519 – Ferdinand Magellan embarks from Spain on a voyage to circumnavigate the world.
• 1561 – Queen Elizabeth of England signs a treaty at Hampton Court with French Huguenot leader Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The English will occupy Le Havre in return for aiding Bourbon against the Catholics of France.
• 1565 – Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. The French, commanded by Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, lost 135 men in the first instance of colonial warfare between European powers in America.
• 1604 – After a two-year siege, the Spanish retake Ostend, the Netherlands, from the Dutch.
• 1777 – Near Paoli, Pennsylvania, General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launch a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne in what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre.
• 1784 – The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily, the first daily publication in America, appears on the streets.
• 1806 – Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark pass the French village of La Charette on the Missouri River, the first white settlement they have seen in more than two years.
• 1850 – The slave trade is abolished in the District of Columbia.
• 1853 – The Allies defeat the Russians at the Battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.
• 1863 – Union troops under George Thomas prevent the Union defeat at Chickamauga from becoming a rout, earning him the nickname “the Rock of Chickamauga.”

• 1881 – Chester Arthur is inaugurated after the death of James Garfield, becoming the third person to serve as president in that year.
• 1932 – In his cell at Yerwada Jail in Pune, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest of the British government’s decision to separate India’s electoral system by caste.
• 1934 – Bruno Hauptmann arrested for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby.
• 1952 – Scientists confirm that DNA holds hereditary data.
• 1973 – In a pro tennis bout dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes,” Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in Texas.
• 1977 – Socialist Republic of Vietnam admitted to the United Nations.
• 1984 – Suicide car bomber attacks US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 22.
• 2001 – US Pres. George W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, declares a “war on terror.”.
• 2011 – US military ends its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and allows gay men and women to serve openly.

No Photos this week. They will be back in their regular slot next week. Now, News!

Apparently train robberies are becoming a thing again. Instead of blocking the tracks with sleepers or piles of rocks, the new tactics involve jamming a flaming van onto the tracks to stop the train. Then the group raids containers before fleeing in multiple vehicles. No arrests followed this most recent incident on BNSF tracks in San Bernardino County, which is part of a wave of organized thefts including a September 4 raid near Amboy that netted $50,000 in boots and tools, leading to two arrests after a deputy’s pursuit.

Authorities note groups are using bolder tactics like fires to halt trains, raising alarms over rail security in the Inland Empire and High Desert.

A video out of Lynn, MA, shows a group of masked teens in hoodies storming a McDonalds and viciously assaulting a drive thru worker, with no one stepping in to help.

I just. . .

This one bugs me on a deep level. Watch:

I have been involved in hockey since I was a bit younger than the kids in this video and played right up until I joined the Army when I was playing local on a local Juniors team. I also did my share of coaching when the spawn was playing. Any kid that pulled some shit like that was going home and probably not playing again at least that season. A slash like that can kill. The worst part to me is it looks like that kid had done it before.