Marion Morrison died on this day in 1979 – no, not Marilyn Manson, who is a whole different story – a few years after making his last film, The Shootist, which told the saga of an aged gunfighter dying of cancer facing one last battle, all the while the actor’s body was riddled with the actual disease. Of course, we know him better in history by his stage name, John Wayne, or, more colloquially, The Duke. The story goes that after a long and varied life – three marriages, all to Spanish or Hispanic ladies – the Duke entered the Church on shortly before facing his Creator. Not a bad end for any cowboy. His unmarked tombstone simply read: Feo, Fuerte y Formal – Ugly, Strong and Dignified. We could use a few more men like Marion.

The first two female generals of the United State military were also appointed on this day in 1970. I’m not sure what John Wayne would have thought of that, or of leading women into battle. It’s certainly hard to imagine him being led by women into battle. I don’t think that’s what was meant by women and children first…

This is also the traditional day of the sack of Troy, with the giant wooden horse, Greeks bearing gifts, and all that, in 1184 B.C.. This, at least, according to the polymath Erastothenes, chief librarian of the library of Alexandria, one of the great wonders of the world, that is, until it was destroyed and all its treasures put to the torch by the iconoclastic Muslims, under the Caliph Omar, in 642 A.D., as they ravaged across the North of Africa, creating the now ironically iconic Islamic crescent.

If only the Duke had been around…

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