This Day In History Thread: Because We Need One?

[Gwynfrid]

December 22, 1895: Following up on his groundbreaking discovery a few weeks earlier, physicist Wilhelm Röntgen takes the first X-ray picture, of his wife Anna's hand.

[Asta Kask]

Approximately a hundred years ago, truce broke out in the trenches along the Western Front. During the Christmas week, there was widespread fraternization between soldiers of the Entente and the Central Alliance.

[veti]

23 December 1688: King James II of England flees the country, effectively bringing to an end the disastrous Stuart dynasty of British royalty.

23 December 1919: the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act comes into force in the UK, allowing women legally to enter the professions, sit on juries and as magistrates.

[Aedilred]

23 December 1688: King James II of England flees the country, effectively bringing to an end the disastrous Stuart dynasty of British royalty.

I wouldn't call them disastrous necessarily. There were a couple of disasters, but the same goes for most dynasties; I don't think the Stuarts were particularly worse than almost any other. And there were still another twelve years of Stuart rule after 1688 to go even if you don't count William and Mary.

[veti]

I wouldn't call them disastrous necessarily. There were a couple of disasters, but the same goes for most dynasties; I don't think the Stuarts were particularly worse than almost any other. And there were still another twelve years of Stuart rule after 1688 to go even if you don't count William and Mary.

If you were born at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, you could easily have lived through the Civil War, the Protectorate and the Restoration, and if you were reasonably healthy and lucky you could have survived to see the Glorious Revolution, all in one lifetime.

Unlike the Wars of the Roses, or the Anarchy of the 12th century, these weren't just dynastic squabbles between royal rivals, they were the product of real popular feeling against the crown. Neither the Tudors nor the Hannoverians ever put the country through such a concentrated century of ****-ups.

But I take your point about Queen Anne, an honourable footnote to her house.

[Gwynfrid]

Having read a biography of Charles II, I took away that his reign, while certainly full of troubles and himself a far from perfect monarch, was not that bad. Certainly I wouldn't call it disastrous; especially considering that he was having to contend with: France and The Netherlands, both at or near the peak of their power; the political and religious divisions inherited from his predecessors; and some sheer bad luck with the plague and fire in London.

[Aedilred]

Having read a biography of Charles II, I took away that his reign, while certainly full of troubles and himself a far from perfect monarch, was not that bad. Certainly I wouldn't call it disastrous; especially considering that he was having to contend with: France and The Netherlands, both at or near the peak of their power; the political and religious divisions inherited from his predecessors; and some sheer bad luck with the plague and fire in London.

Indeed. Considering what he had to work with I think he was in many ways one of our better kings; he played an excellent balancing act and did a great job of holding the country together during a very difficult period. There wasn't much wrong with James I either. Even Charles I, while obviously his reign ended in disaster, for the first part of it did a fairly creditable job of keeping the lid on things. While his personal stubbornness was certainly a decisive factor in the breakdown of government, he was also consistently opposed for most of his reign by a hard core of political and religious zealots who were determined to destroy the institution of the monarchy and the church, made demands of him that went against his conscience but refused to give him the money to enact them, persecuted any minister of his that showed signs of competence, and financed an invasion of England to undermine what had until that point been a relatively successful experiment in personal rule. He certainly screwed up a few times and played his part in what went wrong, but it would have taken a political genius of monumental proportions to have secured a different outcome, at least not without all but entirely abolishing the monarchy (which at the time was a much more radical, dangerous and unpopular suggestion than it would be today).

Compared to many of the other dynasties in English history - the Normans, who unleashed the Harrying of the North and one of the worst civil wars England ever endured, the Angevins, who bankrupted the country and invited a French invasion to put an end to another civil war, or even the Tudors, who inflicted upon England worse tyranny than even Charles I could have dreamed, religious strife the length and breadth of the kingdom, and an effective Spanish occupation, or the Plantagenets, who briefly lost control of the country altogether and who concluded their reign in a series of increasingly nasty civil wars - the Stuarts don't stack up too badly by comparison.

Admittedly, they were with only a couple of exceptions rubbish in Scotland, and if that's counted against them then they did pretty much suck more often than not.

Anyway, that's drifting off topic.

23rd December (right date this time)

1588 - Henry, Duke of Guise, who has become effectively ruler of France as head of the Catholic League, is assassinated by a loyalist of King Henry III. According to some reports, this was to pre-empt Guise's own planned assassination of the king. Open war erupts, with the royalists joining forces with the Protestants against the League, and the following year the king is indeed assassinated himself by an agent of the League.

1967 - Birth of Carla Bruni, singer and model, later "First Girlfriend" (and later First Lady in fact) of France.

[Gwynfrid]

1588 - Henry, Duke of Guise, who has become effectively ruler of France as head of the Catholic League, is assassinated by a loyalist of King Henry III. According to some reports, this was to pre-empt Guise's own planned assassination of the king. Open war erupts, with the royalists joining forces with the Protestants against the League, and the following year the king is indeed assassinated himself by an agent of the League.

That would be "Henri" for both men, if you don't mind the nitpicking
While it's not sure Guise was plotting the king's assassination, it's fairly clear he was hoping to be his successor, since Henri III was childless and the guy next in line for the throne, Henri of Navarre (yes, another Henri) was a protestant while Guise was the leader of the ultra-catholic League. Guise was also allied with the King of Spain, and when he was killed, a search of his body revealed a note in his hand: "To maintain war in France, it takes 700000 écus every month", leaving little doubt about his role in the ongoing civil war.

[Aedilred]

That would be "Henri" for both men, if you don't mind the nitpicking

I am, like, 97% certain it's spelt "Henry" and pronounced "'Enery"

I am rather inconsistent when it comes to names of foreign historical figures and whether I anglicise them or not - I think for the most part I follow standard naming practice, although it does vary from historian to historian. Otherwise, of course, there would have been at least five "Henris" of England, two Guillaumes, a Willem, etc. but that is both unnecessarily complicated and looks a bit pretentious.

(I suppose this would also be the time to mention that all the King Henri/ys of France after II are misnumbered anyway, as are all the English ones after II and all the English Edwards to boot).

[Gwynfrid]

(I suppose this would also be the time to mention that all the King Henri/ys of France after II are misnumbered anyway, as are all the English ones after II and all the English Edwards to boot).

Do you mean we should increase the count by one because one English Henry was crowned during the Hundred Years War? I guess this makes sense from England's perspective. On the other hand, the French king wasn't about to leave the Treaty of Troyes stand... Especially after having won the war in question. So, he just found legal scholars to declare the treaty invalid. By the way, that treaty labeled him a criminal and hinted he was a bastard, so his viewpoint is rather understandable.

[Shekinah]

December 23, 562 AD: The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople reopened with a rebuilt dome after a series of earthquakes caused the original to collapse. Good thing that doesn't happen in Civ.

[Scarlet Knight]

On December 23rd, 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France.

[Greenish]

December 24, sometime in 1320's (quick search failed to nail the exact year): Christmas Peace is declared in Turku, (then) Sweden. The declaration has since been an annual event (though it has not been made on 11-12 years due war or other unrest).

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and whatnot!

[Shekinah]

December 24, 1818: The first performance of "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht) is performed in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

Ein frohes Fest (a joyous holiday)!

[Scarlet Knight]

December 24, 1997, Woody Allen, the 62-year-old director marries 27-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former girlfriend Mia Farrow, in a small ceremony in Venice, Italy.

Thus reminding us that evil never takes a holiday.

[Killer Angel]

December 24, 1955: NORAD tracks Santa

[Gwynfrid]

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[Aolbain]

{Scrubbed}

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Thread locked for review.

[Haruki-kun]

The Winged Mod: After reviewing this thread we have decided that it will remain closed. It is far too close to politics and too likely to devolve into politics again.