Today in History - March 1
• Knights Templar Grand Master burned in Paris
• Mysore's Tipoo Sahib signs treaty with British
• Lend-Lease ruins British exports
-- Compiled by James Finlayson-Bald
Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and another Templar are burned at the stake in Paris in 1314. Note the shape of the island, representing the Île de la Cité (Island of the City) in the River Seine in the centre of Paris, where the executions took place.
Image: Detail of a miniature in the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis, BL Royal MS 20 C vii f. 48r. Current location of the MS: British Library, London.
On this date:
1314--James of Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, after years of imprisonment and torture, was burned to death in Paris.
1513-- Giovanni de Medici, cleverly, became Pope as Leo X.
1702--"Daily Courant" first British daily newspaper appeared.
1784--Treaty of Peace with Tippoo Sahib, Sultan of Mysore, signed by British (but they still took his sons hostage).
1864--The Bradfield reservoir in Sheffield burst and over 250 people drowned in the flooding.
1893--New York was authorised to purchase Fire Island as a quarantine station.
1917--Beginning of a four day revolt by the Russian armed forces.
1926---Eamon de Valera resigned as head of Sinn Fein.
1941--The Lend-Lease Bill was signed by Congress. At this time British resources were ended; payments currently due had been met only by a loan of gold from the Belgian Government-in-Exile. Lend-Lease transformed Britain into a dependent American satellite warrior state. Britain had to agree not to sell any articles abroad which contained Lend-Lease material, nor any goods, even if British made, similar to goods received under Land-Lease. An organisation of American officials in England policed these regulations. British export trade in products of advanced technology collapsed as the result of Land-Lease and could not be revived because of Lend-Lease regulations and American supervision of them. Interestingly these regulations applied only to Britain, the less compliant Russians took all they could by way of aid without surrendering a jot of their independence.
Today's birthdays:
-- Torquato Tasso, Italian poet (1544-1595).
-- Harold Wilson, politician (1916-95).
Thought for today:
If you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost,
The above article was written by James Finlayson-Bald.
Edited and illustrations added by David Paul Wagner.
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