Dakota Beacon

            Another year of rapid change now gone and with it have passed the hours and days of 2021. Year 2022 dawns presenting another opportunity to see clearly and act wisely.

            How unaware we are of the passage of time when thoroughly immersed in social media, entertainment, and the distractions of inconsequential activities. Meanwhile the “drum beat of time” marks cadence. What follows is not history, but rather the notation of historical markers as a measure of the increased rate of change over a millennia.

            1922. One hundred years ago seems like yesterday. A few of many events included:

  -- Lincoln Memorial dedicated after taking 7 years and $2,940,000 to build.

  -- Army Air Corps Lieutenant James Doolittle made the first coast-to-coast flight in a day.

  -- Reader’s Digest first appeared.

  -- Some 900,000 immigrants entered the US -- legally.

  -- Margret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League.

  -- Irish Republican Army was formally constituted. Sinn Fein terrorists killed British leaders.

  -- Famine killed 3 million Russians.

            1822. Here are a few prominent events two hundred years ago this year.

  -- Exploration on the upper Missouri River continued with the expansion of fur trade. Mike Fink (keel boater) and Jim Bridger (trapper and Army scout) find their callings.

  -- The “Sunday Times” began publication in London.

  -- US Army physician William Beaumont begins pioneering investigation on the action of human gastric juices.

  -- Pianist Franz Liszt made his debut in Vienna at age 11. He met composer Franz Schubert.

  -- New York City’s population reached 124,000. A family of 14 could live easily on $3,000 a year.

            1722. Another one hundred year bite in time produced these events.

  -- Kandahar’s Mir Mahmoud conquered Afghanistan then went on to invade what is now Iran. A 7-month siege of Isfahan left 80,000 dead. Survivors were reduced to eating human flesh.

  -- Easter Island discovered on Easter Sunday off the coast of Chile by Dutch explorer Roggeveen.

  -- Russia’s Peter the Great’s attack on the Ottoman Empire was cut short by plant disease. After his Cossacks and horses consumed rye infected by ergot hundreds of men and horses go mad and die.

  -- Broccoli was introduced into England some 70 years after the “Italian asparagus” became popular in France.

  -- Johann Sebastian Bach’s fame spread. This year saw the first performance of “The Brandenburg Concerti” as well as publication of “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”

            1622. Relatively speaking, this was a quiet year with four years into the Thirty Years War.

  -- Plymouth Plantation received 67 new arrivals forcing earlier colonists to go on reduced rations.

  -- Indian attacks on Virginia settlements killed 347 colonists within a few hours.

  -- Execution of Christian missionaries in Japan approached its zenith.

            1522. Aside from conflicts spurred by the Reformation and struggles between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires, this year was rather uneventful. Note the slowdown in the rate of change.

  -- Magellan’s crew returned to Seville on the ship Vittoria completing the first circumnavigation of the world. The ship’s cargo of valuable spices more than paid for the expedition.

  -- Hispaniola had a large slave rebellion. Ten more such rebellions would follow in Spanish possessions in the next few decades.

            1422. This marks another slow year in world history.

  -- Kings of France and England come and go. Nothing exciting.

  -- Lisbon became Portugal’s seat of government.

            1322. Another slow year in world history.

  -- Power struggles between and within European states marked this year.

  -- Philip V of France imposed steep taxes on French Jews extorting 150,000 livres from Paris Jews.

            1222. More events mark the drumbeat of time.

  -- Mongols made their first appearance in Europe as Genghis Kahn invaded Russian territories.

  -- Hungary banned Jews from owning property or holding public office.

  -- England’s Council of Oxford established April 23 as St. George’s Day. This Christian martyr died in the 4^th century and is said to have slain a dragon. St. George became the patron saint of England.

            1122. Only item of note: Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus and his hordes exterminated the Turks in the Balkans.

            1022. Holy Roman Emperor Henry II defeated Byzantine forces in southern Italy.

            The past has been with us a long, long time. Conflict, increased rate of change, and change without direction levies confusion and perplexity. The year 2022 promises more of the same.

            The “train” of time moves on with increasing speed stopping for no one. We are running pell-mell into the New Year eager for some sign of sanity and meaning.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).