1707 The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji, lasting 17 days. We have seen Mt Fuji in the distance on a bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya.
1773 Guests at the Boston Tea Party dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbour in protest of the Tea Act of 1771 introduced to prop up the East India Company by giving it a monopoly against Dutch traders who were undercutting the Company on price. The Tea Partists dressed as Mohawk Indians to shift the blame on to the innocent. Blame shifting remains a Tea Party speciality.
1899 Italian football club A.C. Milan founded as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club by Englishmen Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin. Cricket? And two English founders! Athletic Club Milan. Go figure.
1907 President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched the Great White Fleet around the world on a two year voyage. Warships visiting ports was a well established practice at the time, but Roosevelt’s fleet, painted white to signify its peaceful intent, was enormous with sixteen battleships and 50 escort ships. Every ship was fully crewed and all nearly brand new, and of the latest design: all steel and coal-burning. The voyage was in part a training mission for the navy which had until that time concentrated on operations in coastal waters and not blue water out of sight of land. It also demonstrated American power to would be predators after the assault on Venezuela earlier by European creditors. It visited Sydney as the postcard below indicates.
1946 The House of Dior was founded with financial backing from Marcel Boussac. Still going with a revenue of more than $40 billion and about 125,000 employees in 2017.
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