Infinite Wisdom

"Either death or victory."

--	Callicratidas, Spartan Admiral, Killed in action, Arginusae, 406 B.C.

La Triviata

• There is a tale – perhaps apocryphal – that once, during the height of the Raj, after British and Indian troops who had taken part in a minor campaign on the Northwest Frontier were awarded service medals, the tribesmen who had opposed them requested similar recognition, on the grounds that without their uprising there would have been no fighting in the first place and thus no one would have received anything!


• At the time it was breached in June of 1944, Hitler’s Atlantic Wall contained 17.3 million cubic meters of concrete and 1.2 million metric tons of steel.


• In the aftermath of the Battle of Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777), which postponed British occupation of the American capital at Philadelphia for several days, thus enabling Congress to escape, the grateful legislators donated 30 hogsheads (roughly 7,161 liters), of rum to George Washington for distribution to his troops, amounting to about a half-pint for each man in the army.


• Upon completion of his command in the Low Countries and Germany in 1708 the Duke of Marlborough reportedly shipped home to England some 15 tons of gold coin, derived from his official “cut” of all contracts let by the army.


• When Alexander the Great began boasting of being the son of the god Zeus, his mother, Olympias, protested, “Will this boy not stop me slandering before Hera, lest she take cruel vengeance upon me for dallying with her husband?”


• The U.S. Navy Song, Anchors Aweigh, was written specifically for the graduation of the Naval Academy Class of 1907.


• The English word “knight” ultimately derives from the very early Anglo-Saxon cniht, which means “boy” or “lad.”


• When, on April 15, 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, the battleships Yashima and Hatsuse sank after striking mines outside Port Arthur, the Russian commander, Rear Admiral Vilgelm Vitgeft sent an uncoded wireless message thanking imaginary submariners for their successful attack, thus causing the Japanese to take extra precautions against a non-existent undersea threat.

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