112 years ago today, my ancestors went through the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906.My maternal grandmother, Mary Ellen Mylon Corey, lived in San Francisco at the time with her parents (my great-grandparents), Thomas J. Mylon and Rose Ann Conlon Mylon, and her siblings. They lost everything but escaped with their lives.One year later, this was published in the Coast Seamen’s Journal:
San Francisco’s First Birthday
“The city that is now San Francisco is one year old to-day. There was a city of San Francisco a year and a day ago; an old city, as time runs in this new land; the embodiment of fifty years of stirring Western life; a fair city, a rich city, a gay city; set at the gate where the Farthest West meets the Farthest East, and sharing many of the characteristics of both; a loved city, whose generous faults are remembered with no less affection than its virtues. That city is gone, never to return. Its place is in history, and in the memories and affections of men. One year ago the world woke up to learn that that city had been destroyed. To-day, the people of a new city already founded on its ruins, meet to celebrate their first anniversary.”
Photo: San Francisco City Hall After the Earthquake [public domain]
Today is the 50th anniversary of the very first A's game in Oakland after they left Kansas City. I was in attendance April 17, 1968, with my folks and my best friend, Rod Zecher (who, with his wife, Jennifer, blessed us with a visit just last week—great friendships last!). The Orioles won, but we saw the first A's HR in Oakland, by Rick Monday. Plus, the dedication speech before the game was given by California Governor Ronald Reagan.
On this day in 1633, Galileo Galilei went on trial for the second time. The Inquisition ultimately ruled that he had "rendered [himself] vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine ... that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world.” Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Some 300 years later, the Catholic Church cleared his name of heresy. I shot this pic of Galileo's Astronomic Observatory Tower in Padua, Italy, 11 years ago.
