6th of January

- 1781 -

In the Battle of Jersey British forces repel an attempted invasion by the French. Being located so close to the French coast the channel island of Jersey was of immense strategic importance in any war between England and France (hardly an infrequent occurrence). The French (along with, it should be pointed out, the Catawaba, Dutch, Iroquois, Lenape and Spanish) were assisting the American revolutionaries in the war (a decision some may have regretted later in light of what happened to the Reserve of 1763 or the Philippines).

Na, I can’t see any lines on this map.

The British had used the island as a base for privateers and a general pain in France’s derrière for a number of years so anybody who relieved the Englanders of their prize was sure to receive the highest prestige for doing so. The plan was hatched by Baron Philippe de Rullecourt, an ambitious army colonel and general knock-about lad who was promised much by Louis XVI if he could pull of the job. A condition of the job was that it had to look like a private operation free of French fingerprints (going so far as staging a fake mass-desertion from the Army).

De Rullecourt chose a night when most of the English ships based there would be out looking for the Dutch and all locals would be completely sloshed to land on the island (which was very clever). He did, however, manage to misplace nearly half his force by the time he had landed (which wasn’t), meaning he would be attacking a heavily fortified island outnumbered 10-1 instead of 5-1 (which really, really wasn’t). Things went about as well as could be expected. De Rullecourt was wounded in the battle and died the next day having proved that while many people have huge brains and many people have huge balls it’s a truly rare gift to have both.

- 1838 -

Samuel Morse successfully tests the telegraph.

Given the man’s views one expects he was trying to find a more efficient way of delivering warnings against the dangers of “Popery” (which up ‘til now I’d thought was something my grandmother used to keep her wardrobe smelling floral).

". . _ .     _     . _ _ ."

- 1994 -

Nancy Kerrigan is attacked at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit. Talk show hosts finally start telling jokes about someone other than John Wayne Bobbit.

- 2010 -

More recently the Ady Gil (a 78’ boat with a top speed of 41 knots and a 13 ton displacement) was apparently “rammed” by a Japanese whaling ship (231’ with a top speed of 18.8 knots and a DWT of 628 tons) one can only presume that Japanese people are . . . magical?