James Bowie (1796–1836) was a nineteenth-century American pioneer and
soldier who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution,
culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo. Countless stories
of him as a fighter and frontiersman, both real and fictitious, have
made him a legendary figure in Texas history. Born in Kentucky, Bowie
spent most of his life in Louisiana, where he was raised and later
worked as a land speculator. His rise to fame began in 1827 on reports
of the Sandbar Fight. What began as a duel between two other men
deteriorated into a melee in which Bowie, having been shot and stabbed,
killed the sheriff of Rapides Parish with a large knife. This and other
stories of Bowie's prowess with the knife led to the widespread
popularity of the Bowie knife. Bowie's reputation was cemented by his
role in the Texas Revolution. After moving to Texas in 1830, Bowie
became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the vice governor
of the province. His fame in Texas grew following his failed expedition
to find the lost San Saba mine, where his small party repelled an
attack by a large Indian raiding party. At the outbreak of the Texas
Revolution, Bowie joined the Texas militia, leading forces at the
Battle of Concepcion and the Grass Fight. In January 1836, he arrived
at the Alamo, where he commanded the volunteer forces until an illness
left him bedridden. Bowie died with the other Alamo defenders on March
6. Despite conflicting accounts of the manner of his death, the "most
popular, and probably the most accurate" accounts maintain that he died
in his bed after emptying his pistols into several Mexican soldiers.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowie>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1469:
Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile , a marriage that
paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single
country, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon>
1781:
American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis
officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George
Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown>
1943:
Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first
isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin>
1986:
President of Mozambique Samora Machel and 43 others were killed when
his presidential aircraft crashed in the Lebombo Mountains just inside
the border of South Africa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samora_Machel>
2001:
SIEV X, an Indonesian fishing boat en route to Christmas Island
carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sank in international waters, killing
353 of them.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIEV_X>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jury-rig (v):
1. To make an improvised rigging or assembly from whatever is
available.
2. To create a makeshift, ad hoc solution from resources at hand
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jury-rig>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.
--Thomas Browne
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne>