Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 32: Carry that weight

Pat Casey was born in 1939 in Los Angeles, and seemed to be heading towards juvenile delinquency until he wandered into Redpath's gym, where he discovered weightlifting. He began to spend all of his free time training, and quickly proved adept at powerlifting. By the age of 18 he'd done a 400 pound bench press, a mark only a dozen or so adult lifters had reached.

Casey was known for his marathon training sessions, easily spending up to six hours a day in the gym. He was also known for the voracious appetite that helped fuel those sessions, big meals washed down with up to six quarts of whole milk a day. He would top out at over six feet tall and 330 pounds, almost all of it upper body muscle.

All of this led up to Saturday, March 25, 1967, when Casey went where no lifter had gone before by cracking the 600 pound mark for the bench press by putting up 615 pounds. In his career he'd also record other firsts, such as the first 800 pound squat and the first 2000 pound three lift total (bench, squat, and deadlift).

Casey became a police officer after retiring from competitive lifting, and a private investigator after retiring from the police. He passed away in 2005 from cancer.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Satuday

Day 31: Take me down to Imperial City

Pedro de Valdivia was a conquistador who was also the first royal governor of Chile. His time in South America was focused mostly on fighting indigenous peoples and founding cities. Two of those cities - Santiago and Concepción - still exist today.

One that doesn't is La Imperial (or Ciudad Imperial), which de Valdivia founded on April 16, 1552. While the plan was for it to be a major city of New Spain, it came under attack during the Mapuche Rebellion of 1598 and during the War of Arauco and was eventually destroyed. The city was finally abandoned in 1600.

In its wake, though, rose two new cities - Carahue and Nueva Imperial - though they weren't established until the late 19th century. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 30: Ripple Rocked

Ripple Rock is an underwater mountain in the coastal waters of British Columbia, located in Discovery Passage, the strait between Vancouver Island and the Discovery Islands. It has two peaks, both underwater at low tide, and the presence of these peaks caused significant eddies from currents passing them as water receded. This posed a significant threat to ship traffic, with many ships choosing to wait until slack tide to pass.

The Canadian government decided the best way to solve this problem and open up the passage to shipping regardless of the tides, was to blow Ripple Rock up. Attempts in the 1940s proved unsuccessful, as barges meant to place charges were ripped from their anchoring cables. After studying the problem, it was determined that the best approach to this was to tunnel vertically from Maude Island, and then up into the twin peaks. This process took nearly three years to complete.

Once the tunnels were dug, over 1200 tons of Nitramex explosive were placed within them, and on Saturday, April 5, 1958, the explosives were detonated during a live coast-to-coast broadcast. Water and debris blew nearly 1000 feet into the air, with chunks of rock landing on both sides of the narrows. The height of both peaks had been significantly reduced, with clearance at low tide going from 10-20 feet to 45-50 feet. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 29: Strike one!

Saturday, April 1, 1972 saw a first in the history of Major League Baseball: all games were cancelled by a strike, which lasted just under two weeks. It ended on April 13, after owners agreed to increase payments into the players' pension fund by $500,000 (which was real money at the time) and add salary arbitration to the collective bargaining agreement.

While the strike started during exhibition season, it did run into the regular season and caused the cancellation of a number of games. They weren't replayed as owners refused to pay players for games they missed due to the strike. This resulted in teams not playing the same number of games, which fit right into the Curse of the Bambino, as the Detroit Tigers won the AL East by a half-game over the Boston Red Sox, who had played one fewer game than the Tigers.

This was only the first of many labor stoppages, from a lockout the following year that only delayed spring training to the 2021-22 lockout that delayed the start of the 2022 season.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 28: Don't lose your head

Kazimierz Łyszczyński was a minor Polish noble who was also a philosopher and soldier. You would expect the military service to be the danger to his life, but you'd be wrong.

Łyszczyński spent some time studying with the Jesuits, but had left the order by the time he picked up the book Theologia Naturalis, which attempted to prove the existence of divinity. Łyszczyński, finding the arguments complicated and not particularly convincing, took to writing notes in the margin mocking the arguments, including one that said "therefore God does not exist."

Which would have been a reasonable private joke, but when a local nuncio found the book and the comment, he found a way out of having to repay Łyszczyński a significant debt. The nuncio took the book to the bishop of Poznan, claiming it as evidence that Łyszczyński was an atheist. Not helping matters was that the nuncio also had a hand-written draft of a book Łyszczyński was working on that described reality from an atheistic perspective.

So perhaps that margin note wasn't that much of a joke.

Łyszczyński was accused and went on trial, during which he claimed that his book was only part of the work, that was supposed to include the winning rebuttal of a Catholic. He stated that he'd stopped writing the work on the advice of a priest, which in hindsight seems like pretty bad advice.

Łyszczyński was found guilty and executed on Saturday, March 30, 1689. There is some doubt that Łyszczyński was an actual atheist, and over time his killing was seen by some as a case of legalized religious murder. That would change a bit during communist times, as the regime would tout Łyszczyński as a martyr to atheism. The true depths of his feelings will likely never be known, as almost nothing remains of his original writings or the trial transcript.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 27: Bye, Guy

Guy of Thouars is a minor French noble, who served as the regent of Brittany for his daughter, Alix, who served as duchess from 1203 until her death in 1221 (at least in name; in 1206 the French king Philip II made himself regent, and served in that role until Alix married, at which point her husband became duke).

 
Guy's most notable (infamous?) historic achievement was the 1204 siege of Mont-Saint-Michel, the island community and abbey which is separated from the French mainland at high tide. Guy led troops to take the island away from the Normans, but was unable to take the abbey due to its stout walls and hilltop location. So he chose to slaughter the townsfolk and set fire to the settlement, a blaze that would spread and burn the roofs of the abbey buildings. Which I guess could be seen as a minor victory, except that Philip wound up paying the abbot to replace the roofs.

Guy died on Saturday, April 13 1213, and was buried at Villeneuve Abbey, next to his wife (and the abbey's founder) Constance.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 26: Hail to the future Chief

James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, was born on Saturday, April 23,1791. For a president who didn't appear to be that good at presidenting, there are a number of aspects of his presidency worth noting:

• Buchanan was the last president born in the 18th century.
• He was the only President with military experience who was not an officer
• He was the last President to have fought in the War of 1812
• And, as most people know, he was the only bachelor President (a source of rampant speculation about his sexual orientation, though he did profess sadness at the sudden death of his fiancee Anne Coleman)

Of course, none of this outweighs his performance as President, which saw him consistently act in sympathy with southern slave owners and do little, if anything, to prevent the secession of the states that made up the future Confederacy. This table of Presidential rankings will give you an idea of how he's veiwed relative to the other Presidents. Spoiler alert: it's not good.

Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 25: Orders countermanded... for what it was worth

If there's any piece of Irish history that non-Irish people know about, it's the Easter Rising of 1916, an attempt at declaring a free Irish state that was put down by the British after a few days. Events of the preceding weekend, including those of Holy Saturday, April 22, made the success of the Rising unlikely at best.

The problems actually started on Good Friday, when rebel leader Sir Roger Casement was arrested and the shipment of 20000 rifles that he was supposed to take was scuttled in Cork harbor. The Rising needed those weapons if it were to have any chance to succeed, and on the following day Eoin MacNeill - founder and chief of staff of the Irish Volunteers - countermanded the plans made by other leaders of the Volunteers to mobilize its members for the Rising (an event MacNeill had only learned about two days before).

While MacNeill's orders had force within the Volunteers, those leaders in the organization who had planned the Rising decided to stay the course. They feared that not going through would be more damaging to the cause of Irish independence than failure. And they were sort of right - the Rising failed and its leaders executed, become martyrs for the cause. Ireland would become free within a decade, though not without further violence.

Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 24: Resolved

March 23, 1940 was the middle day of a three day general session of the All-India Muslim League, a political party formed to advance Muslim interests in British India. It was on this day that the session penned what came to be known as the Lahore Resolution, which argued for a unified, indepdendent Muslim state separate from an independent India.

Prior to the resolution, it was generally thought that Muslim areas of India would remain part of India, but have some sort of special status that would grant those areas greater autonomy. However, concerns about how a Hindu majority would actually rule over Muslim-majority areas led the party leaders to pen this resolution, which called for the Muslim areas of northwest and eastern India to be grouped into separate, independent nations.

Which is kind of what happened when India became independent in 1947. India and Pakistan were created as separate independent dominions, with Pakistan having territory on both sides of India. The partition was chaotic - some provinces where split based on religious lines, and the migration of people between the two dominions led to over 14 million people being displaced. 

In time, Pakistan declared itself an Islamic republic - the first country in the world to do so - and did so also on a March 23, this time in 1956. The country had two administrative regions - East and West Pakistan - until 1971, when Bangladesh declared its independence after a nine month civil war.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Satuday

Day 23: April fools?

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker met at Bible college, and were married on April 1, 1961. After graduation they moved into ministry, but quickly became part of the Christian Broadcasting Network, hosting a kid's show before Jim became the first host of The 700 Club. They would leave CBN and move to California to help launch the Trinity Broadcasting Network, but differences with that network's founder saw the Bakkers relocate to Charlotte.

It was there that Jim was approached to buy two hours of time per day on a local TV station. He did so, launching The PTL Club, a religious-themed talk show much like The 700 Club. The show was a success, and its growth allowed the Bakkers a national audience. The money sent in by that national audience allowed the Bakkers to open Heritage USA, a campus with a theme park, TV studio, and other attractions. At one point it was the third-largest theme park by number of visitors in the US.

And then everything fell apart. The government had been investigating PTL and the Bakkers as far back as 1979, over allegations that church funds were being redirected for personal use. A later IRS investigation suggested taking away PTL's tax exempt status in 1985. But nothing really happned to the Bakkers until the 1987 rape accusation by former church secretary Jessica Hahn. 

Bakker denied the accusation but did admit to an affair and a hush money payment to Hahn. He never was charged for a crime over the accusation, but did wind up facing 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. He was found guilty on all of them, and sentenced to 45 years in prison (he once had Lyndon LaRouche as a cellmate). That sentence was eventually reduced to eight years, of which he served five.

Once out, Bakker returned to television with a self-named show, offered mostly on sattelite TV. His religious outlook became apocalyptic, focusing on end times prophecy and the sale of bulk freeze dried food. During the Covid-19 pandemic he got into legal trouble for hawking colloidal silver products as a cure.

Tammy Faye would divorce Bakker in 1992, got remarried, and became an unexpected gay icon based on her early support and advocacy for people with AIDS. She would also co-host a talk show with Jim J. Bullock, make other TV appearances, and wrote books. She had a long battle with colon cancer, which eventually claimed her life in 2007.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 22: Adieu, Pierre

The Vérendrye family were involved in the French fur trade in Canada, and were involved in trying to expand the French reach into the Great Plains and the Canadian prairie. In 1732, two brother from the family set out to find the "River of the West," a river believed to flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Or at least we think that's what they were doing. The documentation of the trip is pretty sparse, just one surviving journal and a lead plate dug up in 1913. It's believed they were the first Europeans to cross the Great Plains and see the Rocky Mountains, though there's some speculation that what they actually saw was the Black Hills. There are a number of problems trying to connect the information in the journal to present-day locations, as there are no coordinates (the expidition's astrolabe kept breaking) and names for peoples and landmarks changed over time.

One thing we do know is that the brothers buried the lead plate mentioned earlier in what is today Fort Pierre, South Dakota, which appears to claim the land for France. That being done the brothers left on April 2, 1734, headed for home. Their trip took three months and surviving a Sioux raid. The family did not follow up with further trips, as without a river to the Pacific or a new source of furs there was no future profit to justify more trips.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 21: TV twofer

April 15, 1933 gave us not just one iconic TV figure, but two, as it was the birth date of both Elizabeth Montgomery and Roy Clark.

Montgomery is best known for playing Samantha Stevens on Bewitched (making this the second mention of the show during this Lentorama, which is two more than I was expecting). Clark parlayed his music career into hosting the country variety show Hee Haw for nearly 30 years (as well as being a common guest host for The Tonight Show during the 1970s). 

Both would work steadily after their best-known TV work ended, Montgomery focusing on dramatic roles while Clark would focus more on music, and was named to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009. Montomgery passed away in 1995 from cancer, while Clark would outlive Montgomery by more than two decades, passing from complications of pneumonia in 2018.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 20: Rockin' in Rovinj

OK, they may not have literally been rockin', but I have to think that the people of this city felt the March 26, 1503 earthquake with an epicenter at Medvednica (a mounain in north-central Croatia), which had an estimated intensity of VII or VIII (very strong to severe). This was the first-ever earthquake recorded in what is now that country, or at least the first quake for which documentation has survived. There have been a number of earthquakes in the region since this one, not surprising as geologists have found a fault line running near the mountain.

This quake may have been the first documented, but it's not particularly well documented, at least not online. The one thing I did find is that the quake caused the tower of the Church of St. Mark in Zagreb to collapse. It was fixed, and the church is now one of the city's most notable tourist attractions, thanks to its colorful tiled roof.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 19: Gus has his first successful launch

Virgil "Gus" Grissom was born on April 3, 1926, and had a pretty typical childhood growing up in Indiana.  He liked to build model airplanes as one of his hobbies, and did spend time hanging out at the airport in Bedford, Indiana, where a local lawyer would take him on flights and teach him the basics of flying.

Grissom graduated from high school towards the end of World War II, enlisting in the Army Air Corps after graduation. While he received basic flight training, he mostly worked as a clerk. He would get his chance to fly in combat during the Korean War, where he completed 100 missions and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, among other awards. He was rotated back to the US, and eventually wound up becoming a test pilot for the Air Force.

Being a test pilot with an engineering degree (picked up at Purdue betwen the wars) made him an attractive candidate to join NASA, and after a grueling competition Grissom was named one of the seven Mercury astronauts. Grissom would fly in both the Mercury and Gemini programs; his Mercury flight almost ended in tragedy when the emergency bolts for his capsule's hatch blew unexpectedly, causing the capsule to flood. Grissom was rescued but the capsule sank.

Unfortunately, Grissom was not so lucky as one of the astronauts for the Apollo 1 mission. A fire broke out in the command module during a pre-flight test, killing Grissom and his fellow crewmates, Roger Chaffee and Edward White. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 18: But was he a duck?

Edward Wightman grew up in what appears to have been relatively comfortable circumstances, was educated at a grammar school and went into the clothing business established by his mother's family. It was when he also became an Anabaptist minister that things started to take a turn.

As Wightman's status within his religious community grew, he became more comfortable voicing opinions on dogma that fell outside of orthodoxy. He believed in the mortality of the soul (saying it died with the body and was resurrected on Judgement Day), argued against infant baptism (saying that those being baptized should have an understanding of the sacrament), and rejected the Trinity. 

That last part is what really got him into trouble. He was charged with heresy and found guilty, not helped by a volume of theological arguments that he published to explain his views (a copy of which he sent to James I, maybe not the best thing to send the Defender of the Faith). Wightman was sentenced to burning at the stake, but when the time came he said he would recant, and was pulled from the flames.

Of course, he wound up not recanting, but repeated his beliefs even more passionately when he was brought back to court. Back to the fire he went, and on Saturday, April 11, 1612, Wightman became the last person to be burned at the stake in England for heresy. Not long afterwards James I decided that heretics should be locked away in prison, where they could be forgotten rather than become a public spectacle. It wasn't until 1677 that burning at the stake was legally proscribed as a punishment for heresy.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 17: Paris Expos-ed

The Exposition Universelle, also known as the 1900 Paris Exposition, opened on Saturday, April 14. This world's fair (France's fifth) looked to celebrate the century that had just ended and spur scientific and industrial development for the century to come. To that end, the fair unveiled a number of innovations, from a moving sidewalk to electrified buses to a 360 foot high Ferris wheel (things running on electricity were big at this fair).

The fair also attracted other events during its run, most notably the 1900 Olympic Games. The fair also played a large role in the dissemination of Art Nouveau, which heavily influenced the fair's advertising and design. While most of what was built for the fair was destroyed or repurposed, one way you can see this influence today is in two surviving Metro entrances designed by Hector Guimard (at Port Dauphine and Abbesses stations). The fair also gave us the Gare d'Orsay train station, which is now the Musee d'Orsay

The fair would close in mid-November, and France waited a whole 37 years before hosting another fair.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 17: Polymath produced

David Rittenhouse was born outside of Philadelphia on April 8, 1732.  An inheritance of carpenter's tools and books allowed young David to display a knack in making working scale models of mills and the like. While he was never formally schooled, his self-study would also show an aptitute for math and science. 

These combined interests would lead to a varied career as a maker of scientific instruments, a surveyor, and astronomy. He would complete the Mason-Dixon survey of the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, make significant astronomical observations of Venus and Uranus, and serve as the treasurer of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. He would become the first director of the US Mint, and even produced its first coins, hand-striking them using metal from flatware donated by George Washington.

Today, Rittenhouse is remembered through Rittenhouse Square, one of Philadelphia's original city squares, and the David Rittenhouse Laboratory, which houses the Physics and Astronomy and Mathematics departments at the Univerisity of Pennsylvania (a building I've spent a number of weekends in, especially for someone not from Philadelphia or a UPenn student).

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 16: Holy Saturday comes early

March 21, 1818, doesn't appear to be particularly notable, except in one way that's pretty meta. This is the earliest day on which Holy Saturday can occur in Western Christianity, and Holy Saturday won't occur on March 21 again until 2285, a gap of 467 years. That's a pretty unusual length of time between Holy Saturdays, at least based on it happening on March 21 about once a century between 1500 and 1818.

Expect a post about the latest possible Holy Satuday (April 25), especially if it comes with an equally large gap.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 15: Pyhäjoki artichokey

Russia and Sweden fought a war in 1808 and 1809, an offshoot of the Napoleonic Wars that roiled Europe during the early part of the 19th century. The Battle of Pyhäjoki took place on April 16, 1808, though it was less of a battle and more of a contested retreat.

Sweden was not ready for war; apparently the only person who thought they were was their king, Gustav IV Adolf (though he was likely counting on support from Great Britain to keep the Russians at bay). In any event, Russia invaded in February 1808 and were able to defeat what defenses Sweden could put up.

Pyhäjoki is the place where Sweden chose to make a stand, but the leader of Swedish forces, Wilhelm Mauritz Klingspor, ordered the retreat to continue based on the agreed upon strategic plan. This proved difficult, as the practicalities of retreating meant that only one Swedish battalion could fight the Russians at a time. In the end, the Swedes lost a little under 200 men in that day's fighting.

The retreat was probablly the right move - once the harbors thawed out the British were able to get invovled, and Sweden was able to fight back more effectively - but in the end Sweden ceded all of Finland to Russia. Gustav IV Adolf wasn't on the throne to see that happen, as before the end of the war he was deposed by a coup (one of whose leaders was Klingspor). 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 14: Permanently on the level

Unless you are a particularly astute student of the history of Amsterdam, mathematics, or systems for measuring water levels, you've probably not heard of Johannes Hudde. A mayor of Amsterday in the late 17th century, his earlier study of mathematics led him to develop a couple of namesake rules about polynomial roots. He corresponded with several of the leading mathematicians of the day, and both Newton and Leibnitz referenced his work in their own development of calculus.

However, Hudde's most notable accomplishment came as part of his mayoral duties. He developed a system that would keep the water in Amsterdam's canals at a constant level, as denoted by marker stones placed near various canals. This system would be adopted in other countries, and would eventually lead to the system in use today by the EU. 

Hudde died on Holy Saturday, April 15, 1704.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 13: The Birth of Derwood the Second

Dick Sargent, born on April 19, 1930, is forever destined to be the answer (or part of the answer) to the trivia question about who played Darrin Stephens on Bewitched.  It's not his only role - his filmography boasts work from the mid 1950s up to the early 1990s - but it's easily his best-known.

What may not be remembered as well is his 1991 coming out, which he did to help highlight the elevated suicide rate among younger gay people. He was able to support a number of LGBT-focused organizations before he died in 1994 from prostate cancer.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 12: A major award

Margaret MacDonald grew up in Nova Scotia, but moved to New York to study nursing. After graduating in 1895, she went to Panama and cared for workers on the Panama Canal. She would become one of the first military nurses during the Spanish-American War, when she worked on a hospital ship caring for American soldiers. She would also serve as a nurse during the Boer War in South Africa.

Upon returning to Canada she was named the head nurse of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, where she insisted on implementing professional standards to military nursing. Her dedication to military nursing would pay off when, on April 11, 1914, she would be named Matron in Chief and became the first woman to rise to the rank of major in any military service related to the British empire.

Her service in World War I focused more on leadership than practical nursing, and in making military nursing a realistic career opportunity for women. She would return to Canada in 1919 and was involved in the reorganization of Canada's military medical service until her retirement the following year.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 11: No More Labouring

James Callaghan was a British politician, the prime minister before Margaret Thatcher and the last Labour prime minister until Tony Blair. He served in the office from 1976 to 1979, and is the only person to have held all four of what is known in the UK as the Great Offices of State (Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and Prime Minister).

Callaghan took office after the retirement of Harold Wilson, at a point where Labour's majority in the House of Commons was dwindling. He entered into a "confidence and supply" agreement with the Liberal Party, but economic turmoil led several smaller parties to support the Conservatives, which helped destabilize the deal with the Liberals. This led to a vote of no confidence in Callaghan in March of 1979, and a Labour loss in the ensuing general election.

Callaghan would hold on as Labour leader for another year, and stayed in Commons until 1987, at which point he was the longest-serving MP with 42 years service. That year he was also awarded the Order of the Garter and was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff.

Callaghan would pass away on March 26, 2005. At 92 years of age. he is the longest-living prime minister in British history. Sort of like the British version of Jimmy Carter.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 10: Thanks, John

On April 14, 1781, the Continental Congress of the United States voted a resolution thanking navy captain John Paul Jones for his service. Which leads to the question: why?

It's not that he wasn't due thanks, given his performance in the Revolutionary War. It's just the timing is weird, as the war was still on and you'd think he'd still be out there fighting the British. On the other hand, his record of battle seems to have dried up after his deafeat of the HMS Bonhomme Rirchard (which was two years before the thanking), so maybe Congress knew what was coming.

Jones would in fact struggle to get commissions, and wound up spending a fair amount of time in Europe, including two years as a rear admiral in the Russian navy. Jones died in 1792 and lay in relative obscurity in a Paris cemetary until he was repatriated in 1905. Today, Jones is at rest in the chapel crypt at the US Naval Academy.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 9: Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

For centuries, Dubrovnik was the capital of the Republic of Ragusa, a political entity on the southern Dalmatian coast. It's nominal independence came with fealty to larger powers (like Venice or the Ottoman Empire), and despite calling itself a republic it was run by the aristocracy. None of this mattered when, on April 6, 1667, the city suffered what is estimated as a 6.4 magnitude earthquake.

The quake devastated the city, destroying upwards of three-quarters of all public buildings. The death toll was estimated as between 3000 and 5000 people. The casualties included a number of aristocrats and the city's leader, the rector Simone Ghetaldi. Not surprisingly, the city entered a period of lawlessness after the quake, though the majority of the crime was theft of building materials.

The quake did hasten the decline of the republic, which would eventually be conquered by Napoleon and made part of the Kingdom of Italy. Dubrovnik today is part of an independent Croatia, and is very popular with tourists, thanks in part to its distinctive architecture - which came as a a result of the rebuilding after the earthquake.

 Lentorma 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 8: End of the Road 

Henry Leland worked in machine shops in his early life, where he developed skills in precision manufacturing and engineering that he would apply to various fields, most notable automobiles. He built engines for Oldsmobile before moving on to found Cadillac, which he would sell to General Motors in 1909 but run until 1917. At Cadillac he was responsible for introducing the idea of interchangable parts, which cut down production costs, and an electric starter motor to replace the hand crank.

Leland left GM due to a dispute over making weapons during World War I (Leland was a pacifist who opposed the company making engines and vehicles for military use). He apparently got over his objections, as he founded the Lincoln Motor Company off of a major contract to build airplane engines for the US government. When World War I ended the company shifted to automobile production, but struggled to transition and went into receivership. Ford was the only bidder, and bought the company for below its appraised value, seen as revenge for Leland selling Cadillac to GM. 

Leland and his son assusmed they would be allowed to stay on to run the company, similar to what happened with Cadillac. Ford had other ideas, and forced both Lelands out of the company in 1922.

Leland spent the last ten years of his life dabbling in progressive political causes, and passed away on March 26, 1932.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 7: Continental Navy Blocked

The Continental Navy executed a raid on Nassau, Bahams in early April, 1776, capturing a couple of forts and seizing all of the military equipment and stores they could fit on their ships before withdrawing to head back to New England. The fleet split into two columns, comprised of Continental naval vessels and prize ships captured at Nassau and during the trip home.

One of the columns encountered the HMS Glasgow, a dipatch ship sailing from Newport, Rhode Island to Charleston, South Carolina, in the early hours of Saturday, April 6 off of Block Island. Three Continental ships engaged the Glasgow, but none were able to do so effectively. The Glasgow's more effective fire damaged the Continental ships, and allowed the Glasgow to retreat to Newport. The Continental fleet broke off the engagement, as it did not want to fight the British naval squadron headquartered there. 

The skirmish, known as the Battle of Block Island, was a win for the British, as the Glasgow only suffered four casualties, while the Continental ships counted 24. In the aftermath of the encounter, the commanders of the USS Columbus and USS Hazard were both accused of a variety of charges. A court martial cleared the commander of the Columbus, but the Hazard's commander was convicted and forced to surrender his commission.

Commodore Esek Hopkins, who was in charge of the Continental fleet, also came under scrutiny, both for disobeying orders (he was supposed to sail to Virginia and the Carolinas rather than Nassau) and for distributing prizes without consulting Congress. He would hang on for a couple of years, but was finally dismissed from the navy in 1778.