Milestones: December 12, 2023

December 12, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CHARLES DARWIN’S GRANDFATHER — THE POLYMATH ERASMUS ROBER DARWIN WAS BORN ON DEC. 12, 1731 (Julian Calendar). This physician, natural philosopher, scientist and poet wrote “The Botanic Garden,” which is said to have anticipated the Big Bang theory when it describes an explosion, a ‘mass’ which ‘starts into a million suns’. He was also a restless inventor, who created both an early copying machine and a speaking machine, but neither was patented. According to the Harvard University Department Of Organismic And Evolutionary Biology website, Erasmus Darwin was the first Briton to explicitly write about evolution, focusing on “the descent of life from a common ancestor, sexual selection, the analogy of artificial selection as a means to understand descent with modification, and a basic concept of what we now refer to as homology.” His later works, “The Love of the Plants (1789 and 1791) and “The Temple of Nature,” got him in trouble with Great Britain’s conservative leaders. “The Temple of Nature” was published posthumously, in 1803.

The father of 14 children between his two wives (he was widowed in 1770), Erasmus Darwin once declined the chance to become King George III’s personal doctor.

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VICTORY, BUT FOR A DIFFERENT REASON — THE LATE-19TH CENTURY ITALIAN PHYSICIST, ELECTRICIAN, INVENTOR AND RADIO PIONEER GUGLIELMO GIOVANNI MARIA MARCONI, ON DEC. 12, 1901, reached his greatest achievement when he received a successfully-transmitted message from his wireless telegraph company in England to his location St. John’s, Newfoundland. Marconi, who had been inspired by the works of German physicist Heinrich Hertz, experimented with the transmission of radio waves but did not receive much encouragement or support, and moved to England where he was able to secure both a patent and sound advice about protecting his intellectual property. Marconi set out to disprove the prevalent theory that the earth’s curvature would inhibit radio transmissions of more than 200 miles. The transmission, consisting simply of the letter “s” in Morse code, reached across the Atlantic, and the feat made him instantly famous. However, Marconi’s success resulted from a different factor, and his detractors were correct in asserting that radio waves would not follow the earth’s curvature. The transatlantic signal had gone into space, reflected off the ionosphere and boomeranged back to Earth.

Marconi won several honors and awards and shared the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics with Professor Karl Braun.

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KENYA GAINS INDEPENDENCE — THE EAST AFRICAN NATION OF KENYA OFFICIALLY DECLARED ITS INDEPENDENCE FROM GREAT BRITAIN ON DEC. 12, 1963. The Mau Mau Uprising of 1952, the related State of Emergency and the 1955 banning of political parties, and the suspension of civil rights for Black persons resulted in a huge massacre. The British government spent 55 million pounds suppressing the uprising but soon realized it no longer had the military force or finances to sustain control over its far-spread empire, and over the decade one African colony after another began declaring independence, with the Sudan and Ghana leading. A colonial government formed, facilitating land ownership for Kenyans and growing coffee and profiting from it. The Legislative Council in 1957 was opened to Black Kenyans, with 33 seats (roughly half) reserved for them.

Two days before the official date of Kenyan independence taking effect, United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, a personal representative of the president with the rank of special ambassador, delivered a message from Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to Kenyan Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta, who had been sworn in earlier that year, congratulating him on his new country’s achievement.

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SPENCER TRACY’S FAMOUS SPEECH — ACTOR SPENCER TRACY WAS NOT ACTING DURING HIS CLIMACTIC SPEECH IN FRONT OF KATHARINE HEPBURN, who played his wife and his real-life love. He made his speech, with his long gaze at Hepburn, in the groundbreaking and courageous film, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” which premiered on Dec. 12, 1967. The film was also one of three that year dealing with race relations in which Sidney Poitier appeared, the other two being “To Sir, With Love (about a Black teacher in a tough part of London) and “In the Heat of the Night” (opposite Rod Steiger, who accused Poitier’s character Mr. Tibbs of the murder of a wealthy white industrialist before needing to enlist Tibbs to help him solve the murder). “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” which Stanley Kramer directed, deals with the surprise engagement of a wealthy, liberal family’s daughter to a Black physician. This movie was filmed just five months after the famous civil rights case Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court ended miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriages, and it drew its inspiration from the case.

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Katharine Hepburn won for Best Actress and the script won for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.

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‘THE CODEX LEICESTER’ — AMERICAN OIL TYCOON ARMAND HAMMER ON DECEMBER 12, 1980 PAID $5,126,000 AT AUCTION FOR THE “CODEX LEICESTER,” a notebook containing scientific writings by the legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci. This manuscript from the early 16th century is one of about 30 that the polymath da Vinci wrote on many subjects and disciplines, and contains detailed drawings and notes written in his famous mirror-technique readable from right to left. This notebook, believed to have been written between 1506 and 1510, offered a rare glimpse into da Vinci’s genius, including his concepts on the water — tides, and relationship to the moon and earth. The Codex Leicester, whose own history has included several owners, is named for 18th century nobleman, Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester. When Hammer purchased the artifact in 1980, he renamed it “The Codex Hammer.”

Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates purchased the da Vinci notebook in 1994 for $30.8 million, and he restored its name to the more historical “Codex Leicester.” At the time, it was the most expensive book ever sold, but the manuscript’s price was overshadowed in 2021.

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LATIN AMERICA’S PATRON SAINT — THE MEXICAN COMMUNITY AND ROMAN CATHOLICS CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE each year on Dec. 12. The legend dates back to 1531, when an Aztec known as Cuauhtlatoatzin (renamed Juan Diego by the Spanish) experienced a vision of the Virgin Mother, who instructed her to have the local bishop build a shrine. St. Mary also instructed Juan Diego to pick roses at a time (winter) when they don’t normally bloom. Upon bringing the roses to the Bishop, Juan Diego and the prelate both witnessed a vision of the Virgin Mary. Thus, Our Lady of Guadalupe became the patroness of Mexico City. By 1746, she had become the patron saint of all of New Spain and by 1910 of all of Latin America.

The Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights has for many years celebrated in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This year, on Tuesday, Dec. 12, a procession will take place from partner parish St. Teresa of Avila at Classon Ave. and Sterling Place to the Co-Cathedral on Pacific Street. A 7 p.m. Mass at the Co-Cathedral follows.

See previous milestones, here.