Notes from around the Human Experience…
DID WE CALL IT OR…WELL, ACTUALLY WE DIDN’T CALL IT: Saturday night’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor actually lasted longer than a lot of people – including the wizards here at your Daily Dose – thought it would go, with Mayweather stopping McGregor by TKO in the tenth round.
CYA! CYA! Regular readers of this crap might recall we had our bases nicely covered, having bravely offering scenarios showing neither fighter getting out of the second round. Mayweather was too old. McGregor was too inexperienced. Good thing we didn’t offer betting advice.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: Mayweather, now 50-0, got lucky. His put his undefeated record, not to mention his legacy, on the line for one final payday and got away with it. There was no guarantee he would. He can now retire as one of the very best there was at what he did, boxing and making piles of cash.
Once McGregor made it out of the early rounds, everything else was gravy. Nobody knows what he felt inside once the brash exterior was brushed away, but he has every right to feel that 10 rounds with Mayweather, even though he lost, wasn’t too far removed from victory. McGregor did well early, too, before Mayweather restored some order in the later rounds and McGregor tired.
Dry, Technical Matter: We were hoping for a complete mismatch so we could jump on our high horse and say what suckers everyone was for buying into this fiasco, but we were wrong. Make no mistake, this bout was not sanctioned by any of the 83 international boxing governing bodies and was nothing more than a spectacle, about as athletically relevant as a regular season NBA game. Its sole purpose was to make rich people even richer, but the sporting public, more or less, got their money’s worth this time.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Rome falls to a foreign enemy of the first time since the 4th century BC on this date in 410, when the Visigoths complete their invasion and sacking of the city after three days.
While there wasn’t a wholesale slaughter of the natives as was common back then, many Romans were made refugees, taken prisoner or sold into slavery and, of course, the entire city was relieved of their valuables. Though Rome would continue for a few more decades, this invasion was a major reason Rome would fall before the century was out.
FunFact: It was the first time Rome had fallen since 390 or 387 BC, depending on whose accounts and dating system you want to believe, when they were invaded by the Gauls.
USA! USA!: The Black Hawk War ends on this date in 1832 when Sauk leader Black Hawk surrenders to the US Army.
The war had begun in April when Black Hawk led a group of Indians from Iowa, which was then Indian territory, into Illinois. No one is entirely sure why Black Hawk entered Illinois, though it was possible he was trying to reclaim land ceded to the United States in 1804. It wasn’t the first time Black Hawk had done battle with the US, having fought for the British in the War of 1812.
Oh Yeah: After his surrender, Black Hawk, along with some other Indians, were taken on a tour of eastern cities. After the tour, Black Hawk settled in what is now southeastern Iowa, where he died in 1838.
Those Zany Canadians: Five women from Alberta – known in Canada as the Famous Five – ask the Supreme Court of Canada to decide whether women are persons on this date in 1927. The question stemmed from Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867 which states, in part:
The Governor General shall from Time to Time, in the Queen’s Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon qualified Persons to the Senate…
The Famous Five wanted to know if Persons included women.
Not The Opinion They Were Looking For: Turns out it didn’t. The Court heard arguments the following March and ruled in April, 1928 that:
Understood to mean ‘Are women eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada,’ the question is answered in the negative.”
“The Exclusion Of Women From All Public Offices Is A Relic Of Days More Barbarous Than Ours…”: The opinion would later be overturned on appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a quaint, British institution that at the time was the final court of appeal Commonwealth nations, and still is for some.
Really Dry Technical Matter: This was not a court case the Supreme Court was ruling on, it was what is known up north as a reference case, which is a request for an advisory opinion from the court.
Great Moments In Being Close To Mars And Stuff: Mars and Earth are a mere 34.646 million miles apart on this date in 2003, the closest they’ve been in 60,000 years. It will be the closest the two planets will get until August, 2287 when they will be 34.603 million miles away.
FunFact: When both planets are on opposite sides of Mr Sun, Earth and Mars can be as many 249 million miles apart.
Quotebook: There must have been something more those men struggled for…something that held out great promise to all the people of the world for all time to come. – Abraham Lincoln, speech to New Jersey legislature, February 1861
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The last time prior to 1978 the Catholic Church had three popes was 1605: Clement VIII, Leo XI and Paul V.
Today’s Stumper: Three future presidents fought in the Black Hawk War. Name them. – Answer next time!
