Infinite Wisdom

"If only things would finally boil over – we are ready; the sooner, the better for us."

La Triviata

• Because Army Regulations did not permit him to subscribe to any publications, during the Mexican War, the Quartermaster General of the Army, Thomas S. Jesup, was forced to borrow newspapers in order to keep track of commodity prices and shipping movements.
• Fearing that the Germans might capture Moscow, on July 3, 1941, Stalin secretly ordered Lenin’s body removed from Moscow and sent to a secure location several hundred miles east.
• In mid-2007 a sword reportedly worn by Napoleon at the Battle of Marengo in 1800, was sold at auction by his brother Jerome’s descendants for $6.8 million.
• In the final weeks of peace before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, British civil defense authorities distributed some 38 million gas makes, roughly enough to provide for about 80 percent of the population.
• During the Cyprus crisis of 1974, as they prepared for possible war with Turkey, Greek troops demonstrated their devotion to the national patrimony by destroying several ancient sites to build defenses, most notably a wall on the island of Lesbos that had been built before Homer had sung of the wrath of Achilles.
• Between 1808 and 1814, Napoleon ennobled about 3,600 people, of whom 59 percent were military personnel.
• In 1853, Commander Charles E. Wilmot, the rather eccentric skipper of HMS Harlequin dressed his boat crew up as harlequins, that is as clowns.
• Marcus Servilius Geminus Pulex, who served as Roman Consul in 202 B.C., had during his military career answered 23 challenges to single combat by enemy soldiers, each time coming away the victor.

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