9/9 Open Thread - The Day The US Was Named + Teutoburger Wald

On 09-09-1776, the Continental Congress named their domain "The United States of America". Simple and descriptive, they were a union of separate states, which were localed in America. At that time, I suspect, North America and South America hadn't come into their own as separate continents, and the entire "new world" was simply referred to as America. As far as I know, there was no other "United States", though there was at least one "United Provinces", so "America" was somewhat superflous until "The United States of Mexico" came along. Of course, USofA people mostly refer to 'Los Estados Unidos de Mexico" as simply "Mexico". Similarly, they mostly refer to the USofA as simply "Merrikuh"; so, though still arguably superflous, it has become our name. That's pretty ironic, since we are no longer a union of states located in America and haven't been since August 21, 1959. Ah well.

Throughout history certain battles are generally regarded as having seriously altered the course of history. One such occurred on September 9th in what is now Germany. On September 8 through September 11, 9 (CE), an alliance of Germanic tribes under the leadership of Arminius utterly and completely annihilated three Roman Legions, six cohorts of Roman auxiliaries, and three squadrons of Roman cavalry under the leadership of one Publius Quinctilius Varus (yes, that damn Varus). As near as I can tell, the principal ambush and massacre happened on September 9, with a skirmish on the 8th diverting the Romans into a trap, and the 10th and 11th devoted to pursuit and mopping-up. For the record, that damn Varus was a truly horrible piece of work and thoroughly merited such a fate. Even though their eagles were eventually recovered, two of the lost legions (Legio XVII and Legio XIX) were never reconstituted. Legio XVIII was briefly reconstituted under Nero, but later disbanded. This is generally regarded as Rome's greatest military defeat. Following their victory, the Germans then made a complete sweep of all Roman forts, towns and garrisons east of the Rhine and constituted a serious threat to cross the Rhine and invade "Gaul". The continuous steady expansion of the Roman Empire was stopped cold in the Region, and Rome never again attempted to conquer, hold, and rule German territory east of the Rhine outside of Mainz, which was established on the eastern bank of the Rhine some 80 years later.

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On this day in history:

In 9 CE Varus and his legions were annihilated at Teutoburger Wald. In 1493 Columbus, with 17 ships and 1,200 men, left Cadiz on his second voyage In 1739 the largest slave uprising in Britain's North American colonies erupted near Charleston, South Carolina. In 1776 the Continental Congress officially named its domain the United States. In 1791 the capital of the USofA was named after President George Washington. In 1839 polymath John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph. In 1850 California was admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state. In 1863 The US' Union Army entered Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1892 Jupiter's third moon, Amalthea, was discovered. In 1923 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, founded the Republican People's Party of Turkey. In 1940 George Stiblitz became the first to operate a computer remotely. operating a Bell Labs Computer in New York from a modified teletype at Dartmouth College. ATDT, and all that. 1945 – The Empire of Japan formally surrendered to China. In 1956, Elvis made his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Some were shocked, some were thrilled, some watched something else and some were reading or having sex, or something. In 1965 the US Department of Housing and Urban Development was established. In 1966 the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was signed into law by LBJ. In 1971 the Attica Prison Riot began In 2016 the government of North Korea conducted its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test. World leaders condemned the act, but the DPRK hasn't been invaded

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Some people who were born on this day:

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.

~~ Leo Tolstoy

1585 – Cardinal Richelieu, politician, eminence grise, all around sob cardinal 1629 – Cornelius Tromp, Dutch general/admiral, well worth reading about, unless you're an anglophile 1737 – Luigi Galvani, electrifying physician and physicist 1754 – William Bligh, admiral, extremely skilled small boat sailor and navigator, asshole extraordinaire 1828 – Leo Tolstoy, author and playwright 1868 – Mary Hunter Austin, author, poet, and critic 1876 – Frank Chance, victim of poetry or doggerel as the case may be, friend of Tinker and Evers 1894 – Arthur Freed, composer and producer 1927 – Elvin Jones, drummer and bandleader 1934 – Sonia Sanchez, poet, playwright, and activist 1935 – Chaim Topol, actor, singer, and producer 1940 – Joe Negroni, doo-wop singer 1941 – Otis Redding, singer, songwriter, and producer 1941 – Dennis Ritchie, computer scientist, created the C programming language 1942 – Inez Foxx, singer 1942 – Danny Kalb, singer and guitarist 1945 – Dee Dee Sharp, singer 1945 – Doug Ingle, singer, songwriter, and keyboard player 1946 – Bruce Palmer, bass player 1947 – Freddy Weller, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1950 – John McFee, singer, songwriter, guitarist, doobie, and producer 1952 – Per Jørgensen, singer and trumpet player 1952 – David A. Stewart, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1967 – Chris Caffery, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

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Some people who died on this day:

Women hold up half the sky.

~~ Mao Zedong

1087 – William the Bastard, aka William the Conqueror, king 1569 – Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painter 1834 – James Weddell, sailor and navigator 1901 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter and illustrator 1976 – Mao Zedong, philosopher, revolutionary, and politician 1993 – Helen O'Connell, singer and actress 1996 – Bill Monroe, mandolin player, singer, and songwriter 2003 – Edward Teller, physicist 2014 – Firoza Begum, singer

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: California Admission Day National Wiener Schnitzel Day Wonderful Weirdos Day National Steak au Poivre Day

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John Herschel

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