Posts Tagged → history
History of the British Flag
In 1603, James VI of Scotland inherited the English and Irish thrones (as James I), thereby uniting the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland in a personal union (which remained separate states).[10] On 12 April 1606, a new flag to represent this regal union between England and Scotland was specified in a royal decree, according to which the flag of England (a red cross on a white background, known as St. George’s Cross), and the flag of Scotland (a white saltire on a blue background, known as the Saltire or St. Andrew’s Cross), would be joined together, forming the flag of Great Britain and first union flag:
“By the King: Whereas, some differences hath arisen between Our subjects of South and North Britaine travelling by Seas, about the bearing of their Flagges: For the avoiding of all contentions hereafter. We have, with the advice of our Council, ordered: That from henceforth all our Subjects of this Isle and Kingdome of Great Britaine, and all our members thereof, shall beare in their main-toppe the Red Crosse, commonly called St. George’s Crosse, and the White Crosse, commonly called St. Andrew’s Crosse, joyned together according to the forme made by our heralds, and sent by Us to our Admerall to be published to our Subjects: and in their fore-toppe our Subjects of South Britaine shall weare the Red Crosse onely as they were wont, and our Subjects of North Britaine in their fore-toppe the White Crosse onely as they were accustomed.”
This royal flag was at first for use only at sea on civil and military ships of both England and Scotland, whereas land forces continued to use their respective national banners.[15] In 1634, King Charles I restricted its use to the royal ships.[16] After the Acts of Union 1707, the flag gained a regularised status as “the ensign armorial of the Kingdom of Great Britain”, the newly created state. It was then adopted by land forces as well, although the blue field used on land-based versions more closely resembled that of the blue of the flag of Scotland.
Various shades of blue have been used in the Saltire over the years. The ground of the current Union Flag is a deep “navy” blue (Pantone 280), which can be traced to the colour used for the Blue Ensign of the Royal Navy’s historic “Blue Squadron”. (Dark shades of colour were used on maritime flags on the basis of durability.) In 2003 a committee of the Scottish Parliament recommended that the flag of Scotland use a lighter “royal” blue, (Pantone 300). (The Office of the Lord Lyon does not detail specific shades of colour for use in heraldry.)
A thin white stripe, or fimbriation, separates the red cross from the blue field, in accordance with heraldry’s rule of tincture where colours (like red and blue) must be separated from each other by metals (like white, i.e. argent or silver). The blazon for the old union flag, to be compared with the current flag, is Azure, the Cross Saltire of St Andrew Argent surmounted by the Cross of St George Gules, fimbriated of the second.
Wales had no explicit recognition in the Union Flag as it had been a part of the Kingdom of England since being annexed by Edward I of England in 1282 and its full integration by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, and was therefore represented by the flag of England.
Protectorate Jack, 1658–60
The Kingdom of Ireland, which had existed as a personal union with England since 1541, was likewise unrepresented in the original versions of the Union Flag. However, the flag of The Protectorate from 1658 to 1660 was inescutcheoned with the arms of Ireland. These were removed after the Restoration, supposedly because Charles II disliked them.
The original flag appears in the canton of the Commissioners’ Ensign of the Northern Lighthouse Board. This is the only contemporary official representation of the pre-1801 Union Flag in the United Kingdom and can be seen flying from their George Street headquarters in Edinburgh.
Taunton, Massachusetts, USA, has in recent years used a flag with the old style Union Flag. Likewise, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, has been known to fly a flag containing the Kings Colours since 1973.
This version of the Union Flag is also shown in the canton of the Grand Union Flag (also known as the Congress flag, the First Navy Ensign, the Cambridge Flag, and the Continental Colours), the first widely used flag of the United States, slowly phased out after 1777.
Lord Howe’s action, or the Glorious First of June, painted in 1795, shows a Union flying from HMS Queen Charlotte on the “Glorious First of June” 1794. The actual flag, preserved in the National Maritime Museum, is a cruder approximation of the proper specifications; this was common in 18th and early 19th-century flags.
The British Army’s flag is the Union Flag, but in 1938 a “British Army Non-Ceremonial Flag” was devised, featuring a Lion on crossed blades with the St Edward’s Crown on a red background. This is not the equivalent of the ensigns of the other armed services, but is used at recruiting and military or sporting events, when the Army needs to be identified but the reverence and ceremony due to the regimental flags and the Union Flag would be inappropriate.
John Cage’s 4’33”
John Cage’s 4’33”
The work, 4?33? (pronounced Four minutes, thirty-three seconds or, as the composer himself referred to it, Four, thirty-three) is a three-movement composition by American avant-garde composer John Cage (19121992). It was composed in 1952 for any instrument (or combination of instruments), and the score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements (the first being thirty seconds, the second being two minutes and twenty-three seconds, and the third being one minute and forty seconds). Although commonly perceived as “four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence”, the piece actually consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed. Over the years, 4?33? became Cage’s most famous and most controversial composition.
Conceived around 19471948, while the composer was working on Sonatas and Interludes, 4?33? became for Cage the epitome of his idea that any sounds constitute, or may constitute, music. It was also a reflection of the influence of Zen Buddhism, which Cage studied since the late forties. In a 1982 interview, and on numerous other occasions, Cage stated that 4?33? was, in his opinion, his most important work.
Galileo knows how to party
The only sad part about this is that when Tio Cruz’s Dy-no-mite song gets forgotten by history, this will no longer be hilarious 🙁
Stanley Watras, Radon man
Stanley Watras was an employee at Limerick nuclear power plant who set off the radiation alarms on his way to work in 1984. Other employees searched his house and found that he had radon poisoning in his basement that was unrelated to the nuclear power plant.
It was calculated that about 100,000 Bq/m³ (2,700 pCi/L) was contaminating his house and the risk of living there was equal to that of smoking 135 packs of cigarettes a day. This was the first time evidence of the danger of radon exposure was found. After this, standards were set and most homeowners began concerning themselves with radon levels.
Lessons from history: flinch to live
John Sedgwick is a perfect example that you shouldn’t allow aggressive superiors to intimidate or shame you into risky behavior.
Sedgwick (September 13, 1813 – May 9, 1864) was a teacher, a career military officer, and a Union Army general in the American Civil War. His death at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House is often considered a well known tale of irony.
Sedgwick fell at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864. His corps was probing skirmish lines ahead of the left flank of Confederate defenses and he was directing artillery placements. Confederate sharpshooters were about 1,000 yards (910 m) away and their shots caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, “What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”
Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, “I’m ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye.
Source: Crocker III, H. W. (2006). Don’t Tread on Me. New York: Crown Forum. pp. 219.
The history behind “Black Friday”
Ever wonder why the day after Thanksgiving is called “black friday”? We did some digging on the good old internets and found the answers…
Stress from large crowds
The earliest uses of “Black Friday” refer to the heavy traffic on that day, an implicit comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black Tuesday (the 1929 stock-market crash) or other black days. The earliest known references to “Black Friday” (in this sense) are from two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, that explicitly refer to the day’s hectic nature and heavy traffic. The first reference is in an article entitled “Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor,” in The New York Times:
Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it “Black Friday” – that day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army-Navy game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion.
The derivation is made even more explicit in an Associated Press article entitled “Folks on Buying Spree Despite Down Economy,” which ran in the Titusville Herald on the same day:
Store aisles were jammed. Escalators were nonstop people. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the economy, folks here went on a buying spree. . . . . “That’s why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today ‘Black Friday,'” a sales manager at Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a crowd of jaywalkers. “They think in terms of headaches it gives them.”
Both articles have a Philadelphia dateline, suggesting the term may have originated in that area.
Accounting practice
More recently, a false assumption has been circulated that the term originates from the theory that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season. When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period where retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year’s profits (the black). (Retailers’ profitability varies, but some retailers are indeed dependent on the holiday season for their profits.) This sense has been traced back to a November 26, 1982, broadcast of ABC News’ World News Tonight, which said:
Some merchants label the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday because business today can mean the difference between red ink and black on the ledgers. But this year hefty sales are vital not only to the stores but to the entire economy.
The primary flaw in this theory is that retailers (and their stockholders) would assume an acceptable loss for nearly eleven months out of the year in the hopes of finally earning a profit in the last five weeks. An examination of the quarterly SEC filings of any major retailer such as Wal-Mart or Target clearly shows that retailers intend to and actually do make profits during every quarter of the year. Because the heavy traffic etymology is contemporaneous with the earliest known uses of the term, while the black ink theory apparently was not suggested until several years later, the accounting practice origin is likely to be Urban Legend.