It should not have been possible.
Out of a thin line of colonies came the most remarkable roster of exceptional men the world has ever seen.
At the same time. In the same place. For the same cause.
A printer who pulled lightning out of the sky and then talked France into funding a revolution. A 33 year old Virginian who wrote the sentence that would echo through every freedom movement since. A failed Boston businessman who could turn street anger into organized resistance across colonies. A penniless immigrant who built the financial spine of a nation before most men his age had found their footing.
They did not even like each other most of the time. They feuded, schemed, and attacked one another in the press. But when they aimed it all at the same impossible target...they hit it.
Most nations are lucky to get one or two men like that in a century. We got a room full of them at once.
On this day in 1846, the first recorded baseball game under modern rules was played on a field in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The team that wrote the rules was called the Knickerbockers. The other team was just a pickup group called the New York Nine.
You would think the guys who invented the rules would have an edge.
They lost 23 to 1.
The game took place across the river from Manhattan because there was no open green space left in the city big enough to play on. The whole sport almost did not get off the ground for lack of a field.
194 YEARS OLD. 🤯 Jonathan the tortoise was born around 1832. He has literally lived through the invention of the lightbulb, both World Wars, and the entire internet era. An absolute legend. 🐢👑
Happy 99th birthday, Harold Bray, the last living survivor of the USS Indianapolis. Of 1,196 men who served with him, just 316 survived the sinking. He is the last breathing. See more https://t.co/EEg00P06y6
@tufftony65@nut_history I believe Big Klu was the original. I like them and would be happy to see them return for the Reds. Others can imitate if they like. It is the purest form of flattery.
On this day in 1775, about a thousand farmers walked onto a hill in the dark, picked up shovels, and committed one of the most audacious acts of the entire Revolution before a single shot was fired.
The siege of Boston had become a waiting game. Both sides knew that whoever seized the high ground around the city would control it, and the Americans got word the British were about to grab the Charlestown peninsula. So on the night of June 16, Colonel William Prescott led roughly 1,200 men out onto that peninsula with orders to fortify Bunker Hill.
Then came the decision that historians still debate two and a half centuries later. Instead of digging in on Bunker Hill as ordered, the officers pushed forward to Breed's Hill, lower and far more exposed, sitting almost in the face of the British army and the guns of the Royal Navy in the harbor below. It was either a navigational mistake or a deliberate dare. Either way, it was breathtakingly bold.
What followed was a feat of nerve. Through the entire night these amateurs dug in near total silence, terrified that the sound of pick striking earth would carry across the water and bring down a bombardment before they finished. They threw up an earthen redoubt roughly 130 feet on each side, working without rest, hour after hour in the dark.
When dawn broke on June 17, British officers raised their telescopes and were stunned. Overnight, the rebels they had dismissed as a disorganized rabble had built a fort staring directly down at the king's army. A British admiral's ships opened fire almost immediately.
Hours later that ground became the bloodiest killing field the British would face in the whole war. But the legend was already born in the dark, in the dirt, on the night of June 16, when a thousand farmers decided to dig.
@BBGreatMoments Greg Maddux & Jamie Moyer jump immediately to mind. For my Redlegs of the last 50+ years, I think of Tom Browning, & Bronson Arroyo.
@OleTimeHardball Absolutely! He was overshadowed by Bench, Rose, Morgan, Perez & Foster but watching him play, there was no doubt of his talent and performance. He truly changed how the SS position was played on Astroturf. Defense was close to Ozzie’s but bat was far superior.
He was instantly my favorite pitcher! Tom Terrific was simply outstanding. I tried so hard to mimic his knee-dragging delivery but I was never that flexible.
On this day in 1977, baseball was rocked by one of the sport’s most shocking trades when the New York Mets sent franchise icon and future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds in a deal forever known as “The Midnight Massacre.” Seaver spent five-and-a-half seasons in Cincinnati, compiling a 75-46 record with a 3.18 ERA, and throwing the first no-hitter of his legendary career in 1978.
@GolfDigest Back when woods were actually made of wood! Those were the days. I would love to see today’s PGA stars try to play with equipment (woods, forged irons, wound balata balls, all leather golf shoes, the whole bit) from tbt ‘60s and ‘70s.
@BigSwingTempo Based on the golf scrambles I have played in, the chances that my playing partners are able to make a 10 foot putt even after getting 3 prior reads still is less than 25%.
🇺🇸 The 50 star American flag flying today was designed in 1958 by 17 year old Robert G. Heft as a high school class project.
He got a B-minus on it.
The teacher claimed the design "lacked originality" and jokingly remarked that if Heft didn't like the grade, he should get the flag accepted in Washington.
Heft called his teacher's bluff. He sent his physical prototype to his congressman, Walter Moeller, who forwarded it to the design pool.
Out of more than 1,500 submissions, President Eisenhower picked his design.
His teacher later changed his grade to an A.
Thank you, Robert! The flag is beautiful! 🇺🇸