A Warped View

 

  Looking up what happened on a certain day of the year on Wikipedia gives a warped view of history. Take today, June 9, for example. From ancient times up to the present, there are hints from events that most of us have at least heard of. The emperor Nero was both married and committed suicide on this day. The first event was presumably a happy one and occurred in 53 A.D. when Nero was 15. He had already been emperor for a year. His suicide took place fifteen years later when the Roman Senate declared him an enemy of the state.

  During his first years as emperor, Nero was under his mother’s thumb. He rankled at that and had her murdered. We must remember that his mother had the previous emperor (Claudius) poisoned so she could rule through her son. Different values back then.

  Nero is mostly remembered for fiddling while Rome burned. Like so many historical myths, this is a mashup of partial truths, cobbled together by unfriendly witnesses.  Nero did perform in plays and competed in chariot races, which was considered disgraceful for an emperor. At least it was considered so by the aristocrats. The common people loved Nero because he gave them bread and circuses, paid for by taxes on the aristocrats, who made up the Senate. When Rome burned, the fire was blamed on Nero, and within a few years he was dead.

  Also on this day in 1534, the French explorer Jacques Cartier published his map of the Saint Lawrence River. The French claimed Canada and a good chunk of the present day U.S. But they were so busy killing each other in France over religious differences that they didn't send large numbers of settlers to the New World. When Britain started pushing France around, France lacked the manpower to defend her colonies.

  We usually think of the British Navy as all-powerful, but on this day in 1667, the Dutch sailed up the Thames River and destroyed several British ships. It was the worst defeat for the British Navy in its history. The British started a building program and soon regained their supremacy, only faltering during the battle of Yorktown, leading to American independence. Thanks France.

  One final glimpse into something most of us know little about. On this day in 1856, five hundred Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa for Salt Lake City. The Mormons had been around since 1830. Wherever they settled, they made themselves obnoxious to the locals who would force them out of their area. In 1846 the Mormons moved to Utah where there were only poorly armed Indians to contend with. Utah belonged to Mexico, but the country was so rugged the Mexicans stayed away and they soon lost it to the U.S. in the Mexican War.

  The Mormon Church recruited heavily in Great Britain, urging new members to move to Utah.  By the 1850s only the poorest Mormons remained in Britain.  They were given help to travel to Iowa City, which was as far west as the train went. Of course these immigrants couldn't afford oxen to travel west so the Church provided them with two-wheeled handcarts. The carts, designed by Brigham Young, weighed 60 pounds and were meant to carry 250 pounds, but could carry up to 500 pounds in a pinch. The first ones broke down a lot  

  Each cart carried the belongings for five people. Food and large sleeping tents were carried in ox-drawn wagons.  Five hundred Mormons headed west on this day in 1856 on the 1,300 mile journey to Salt Lake City.  They arrived in Salt Lake in late September with minimal loss of life. Later companies were advised by experienced team leaders to wait till spring at the Mormon outpost in Florence, Nebraska, but were ordered by headquarters to keep going.  They ran into October blizzards in Wyoming, and around twenty percent of the immigrants died before rescue teams from Salt Lake City could reach them.

  The Mormon Trail paralleled the Oregon trail. Traces of both these trails can still be seen in Nebraska. Only ten percent of all Mormon immigrants traveled using handcarts, but today the handcart is emblematic of the Mormon pioneering spirit.

"The kid needs to walk today, Martha."