On this date in 1555, Catholicism was restored to England,
two years after the ascension of Mary Tudor (the eldest daughter of Henry VIII)
to the throne.The religious woes that
wracked England for nearly two hundred years were all tied up with the
Tudors.Henry VIII (who had once
defended the pope against Martin Luther) broke with Rome when the pope refused
to grant him an annulment from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon (the mother
of Mary Tudor), so that he could marry Anne Boleyn (later the mother of Mary’s
little sister, Elizabeth.)Henry’s
Church of England remained largely Catholic in doctrine and practice.When the old King died, he was succeeded by
his young son, Edward VI.Edward was a
zealous protestant and in his brief reign, the Reformation came with full force
to England.After Edward’s early death,
and an abortive attempt to put the Lady Jane Grey on the throne, Mary was
acclaimed Queen.It was a brief triumph
in a tragic life.Mary had been swept up
in her parents’ marital woes.As Henry
moved to break with the Church to get rid of her, Catherine of Aragon clung
increasingly to her Catholic faith, which she passed on to Mary.After her mother’s death, Mary’s life was
precarious.Forced to become a maid of
honor to her sister, Elizabeth, she was officially declared a bastard.Her father alternated between off-handed kindness
and frightening cruelty.He eventually
forced her to renounce her mother’s claims – an action that tortured Mary all
her life.Anne Boleyn wanted her
executed, and at several times during her father and brother’s reigns, her life
was in real danger.Mary came to the
throne determined to restore Catholicism to England, and she did with a
vengeance.Protestants were rooted out
and many consigned to the flames.Among
the most prominent victims was Thomas Cramner, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
who had been installed to that post by Henry VIII for the express purpose of
annulling the King’s marriage to Mary’s mother.While it is true that Mary was zealous in hunting down heretics, her
crimes were greatly exaggerated by subsequent protestant writers (and earned
her the enduring nickname, Bloody Mary.)In the end, her reforms came to nothing.Caught in a loveless marriage with a perpetually absent King Philip of
Spain, with no children, her health irretrievably broken by her cruel life;
Mary died just three years later.She
was succeeded by her sister, Elizabeth, who brought back Protestantism with a
vengeance; in the end, executing about as many Catholics as her sister had Protestants.
On this date in 1859, Frenchman Jules Leotard performed
the first trapeze act with the Cirque Napoleon in Paris.Leotard was born in 1838, the son of a
gymnastics instructor.He studied law
and actually passed his law exams; but by the age of 18, he was already
experimenting with ropes and rings, and his own innovation, the trapeze
bar.In addition to his ground-breaking
work as an acrobat, he also developed the one-piece gym wear that now bears his
name – the leotard.
Jules Leotard Bonus – Leotard was also the inspiration
for the hugely popular song, “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze.”
On this date in 1892, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger
became the first professional football player.Heffelfinger, a three-time All-American guard from Yale, was paid $500
by the Allegheny Athletic Association to play in a game against the Pittsburgh
Athletic Club.Thanks to Heffelfinger
and some other “imported” players, Allegheny carried the day.Heffelfinger went on to coaching jobs at the
University of California, Lehigh University and the University of
Minnesota.After careful research, the
NFL verified Heffelfinger as the first professional football player in 1960,
six years after his death in 1954.
On this date in 1918, the Austrian Emperor Karl, his
empire destroyed by the ravages of World War I, abdicated the throne, thereby
ending nearly 700 years of Hapsburg rule in central Europe.He had succeeded his father, Franz Joseph,
who had ruled for 68 years.Poor Karl
ruled less than two.
You know how Disney annoys the hell out of you by
putting their classic movies “in the vault,” so you can’t buy them except when
Disney re-re-re-re-(ad nauseum)-releases them in a “new” edition that costs
more?Well, there are certain Disney
movies that will never make it out of the vault.On this date in 1946, Disney released Song of
the South, but don’t look for it at Wal-Mart – the racial stereotypes are too
brutal for today’s sensibilities.From
the Black Crows in Dumbo, through a series of short cartoons, Disney willingly
played to the prejudices of the time (and to be fair, they were not alone in
this – cartoons and live action movies all bought into the prejudices of the
era.)There is actually a market at
comic book conventions for bootleg copies of these cartoons.So the next time you’re complaining about
having to shell out $30 for the “new” edition of Cinderella, remember – they’re
only trying to make up for the cartoons they can’t release.
