A MUCH NEEDED BREAK!

By Edwin Cooney

I like to browse through history dates to see what I can come up with regarding coincidences and matters of significance. Such findings, if seldom instructive, can be most interesting and even fascinating. Such is the case with this very date of October 17th.

Several events of national significance occurred on past October 17ths. However, an event occurred on one October 17th that's just plain fascinating.

Before getting to it, I am compelled to remind you that on Wednesday, October 17th, 1781, British Commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown ending a month’s siege and bringing with it American independence.

On Wednesday, October 17th, 1860, the British inaugurated their annual British Open Golf Tournament which was won by Willie Park, Sr. It was the first of the title events that are held today. The winner received the “Challenge Belt" but there was no prize money. What was valuable or significant about the prize my source doesn't reveal.  

On Tuesday, October 17th, 1933, physicist Albert Einstein fled Nazi Germany and found asylum here in America, securing his valuable and personal safety and our deliverance over Adolf Hitler and Imperial Japan in World War II.

On Saturday, October 17th, 1931, gangster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sent to prison for 11 years.

However, the most fascinating event I discovered for the first time that occurred on this very day happened on Monday, October 17th, 1814.

This event would be remembered as the Great London Beer Flood. The Meux and Company Beer Brewery suffered the sudden eruption of a giant vat containing 150,000 gallons of beer. That mighty splash sent beer throughout the brewery with such force as to set off a chain reaction of large vat eruptions of beer. As the beer left the plant, over 300,000 gallons of brew were surging forward.  The beer crushed a wall and went through four homes, demolishing two of them. Next, the wall of amber water rolled through a funeral parlor where people were celebrating a wake and five mourners drowned. Once it had attacked a family as it sat at tea, most of its work was done. By the time it was over, ten good citizens were dead and hundreds of pounds of property damage had been done. 

As you can imagine, a group of mighty angry Londoners launched a suit against the brewery. Alas, the jury eventually ruled that the incident wasn't a crime of any sort, but an "act of God." The brewery continued to function for another 108 years until 1922 and a pub that sits at the site of the long lamented brewery annually puts out a "special porter” (whatever that is!) to commemorate the occasion. 

Whatever news event occurs this Monday, October 17th, 2022 may be more important or significant than the last instance I have just related, but can it be more fascinating?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY