The Book Of Yesterday | April 27
SAMUEL F.B. MORSE WAS BORN
April 27, 1791
Today is the 230th birthday of one of the great inventors of the Industrial Revolution who provided a unique innovation in communication, Samuel Finley Breese Morse or Samuel F.B. Morse. He was born in Charleston, Massachusetts in the United States, and was the eldest child of a pastor and geographer Jedidiah Morse and Elizabeth Anne Finley Breese.
He attended Yale University where he became interested in art and electricity, things that would give him a colorful career. Morse first became an artist, and while in Europe in 1832 he heard about the new electromagnet innovation, and it was there that his idea of making the electric telegraph entered, though he was not the first person to come up with such a concept.
Morse spent a long time developing the prototype of his electric telegraph, with the help of two companions Alfred Vail and Leonard Gail. January 6, 1838 when he successfully demonstrated and demonstrated his invention telegraph system at Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. His invention was a communication machine in which each press of a button sent it electric impulses, and each impulses generated by short and long presses represented a series of dashes and dots, with corresponding letters and numbers. . His invention enabled long-distance communication.
It was 1843 when Morse sought the support of the American Congress to fund and patent his invention. On condition that Morse be granted, Morse himself must lay the telegraph wires from Washington DC to Baltimore in Maryland, America. May 1844 when its first electric telegraph transmission "What hath God wrought" was sent to Maryland, adapted from the Bible verse Numbers 23:23.
Since then, many private companies have supported Morse's invention. The importance of the Morse telegraph was first seen during the American Civil War, in the year telegraph wires were spread throughout America, and later it also reached Africa, Europe to Australia, for greater long-distance communication anywhere in the world. This invention also inspired many other inventors to further improve the invention for communication.
But the 20th century saw a gradual decline in the use of the telegraph with the advent of modern telephones, faxes, and e-mail.
Samuel Morse died wealthy in New York City at the age of 80.
THE BATTLE ON THE BRIDGE OF THE RIVER BAGBAG
April 27, 1899
The victory of the army of the First Republic of the Philippines against the United States in the battle of Quingua (now Plaridel, Bulacan) under the leadership of General Gregorio del Pilar was only short -lived. town of Calumpit.
Even before this, the Americans had captured Quingua after the first victory of the Filipinos there. President Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the demolition of the bridge over the Bagbag river so that American forces could not pass through the line of Filipino trenches on the banks of the river. While this was happening, General Antonio Luna left his position in Bagbag with many soldiers to confront General Tomas Mascardo in the town of Guagua in Pampanga because of his stubbornness. General Luna wanted General Mascardo to send a reserve soldier to accompany the defense on the Calumpit-Apalit line which includes Bagbag, but General Mascardo was in Guagua to infect the soldiers there. So Bagbag was left almost defenseless and only General del Pilar and a few colonels were left to guard the mouth of the river.
Several Chinese porters helped push the train over the damaged rail to move the Americans' Vickers machine gun. Even though the bridge was damaged, the Americans went down the Bagbag river and attacked the Filipino line there. It was too late for General Luna to return to Bagbag because the Americans had already crossed the river. He could no longer prevent the advance of the enemy, so he was forced to leave his camp at Bagbag and it fell to the Americans.
This was also the scenario on the Pampanga river, when Colonel Frederick Funston led the Americans to cross the river using rafts. They attacked Filipinos on both sides. They also drove away the lines of the Filipinos and broke down the trench defenses on the banks of the river.
This was one of the greatest victories of the Americans in the Filipino-American war. Other Filipino defenses collapsed one after another in Santo Tomas, Pampanga and San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, as President Aguinaldo's forces retreated north. According to General Luna, 700 Americans were killed in the two -day offensive in Bagbag and Quingua, and 200 were killed among Filipinos.
THE FIRST SPANISH COMMUNITY ESTABLISHED IN THE PHILIPPINES
April 27, 1565
Exactly 34 years after Lapulapu's victory in Mactan in Cebu, the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded the first Spanish community in our country, in the province where Fernando Magallanes and Raha Humabon once met, in Cebu. This community became the ancestor of the present city of Cebu, which is also the first and oldest city in the Philippines.
On April 15, 1565, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi's fleet arrived in Cebu, now led by Raha Tupas, Raha Humabon's nephew, and after a short battle, Raha Tupas surrendered to the Spaniards and submitted to the flag. of Spain. Raha Tupas gave a piece of land there, on which the first Spanish community had already been established. This community was later named "Villa de San Miguel de Cebu", which de Legazpi claimed on behalf of King Felipe II.
This community expanded, and to protect the area the Spaniards built a concrete fort called Fuerza de San Pedro. It was a triangular fortress built in the center of this community, as the main fortress, guarded by thousands of Spanish soldiers. This community later grew as a port for Spanish ships arriving from Mexico, and a starting point for Spanish travelers who wanted to explore other lands to be conquered.
August 1595 when Pope Clement VII declared this community as a diocese under the leadership of the Archdiocese of Manila. This community became the city of Cebu, the oldest city in our country, where the country's first street, Calle Colon, is also located.
THE VICTORY OF MACTAN
April 27, 1521
From Cebu, Ferdinand Magellan's fleet went to the island of Mactan, to confront one of the island's two indigenous leaders, Lapulapu. It was at the request of Raha Humabon and another Mactan leader Zula, to subdue Lapulapu, who refused to submit to the Spanish flag and complied with the wishes of Raha Humabon, Zula and Magellan to pay tribute for them. Also under Magellan's influence on Raha Humabon, the Raha himself ordered all the leaders in Cebu to pay tribute on behalf of the King of Spain, and to submit to the Christian religion, which Zula immediately approved except just to Lapulapu.
So early on this day in 1521, aboard boats, the combined Spanish army led by Magellan himself, armed with guns, swords, axes, and iron armor and shields, and some native soldier who converted to Christianity, to force Lapulapu to surrender to Magellan's wishes. Raha Humabon wanted to help Magellan, but the latter told them to just let the Spanish warriors fight. But as soon as they descended into the waist-deep sea, they were met by raining arrows, spears and stones, which hit some of the armed Spaniards. When Magellan was surrounded by about 1,500 Lapulapu warriors and they were attacked on both sides. Magellan could not fight well in the waist-deep waters and rocky shores of the island, nor could they get their cannons close enough to support the Spaniards against Lapulapu. The guns and crossbows of the Spaniards also had no effect on Lapulapu's soldiers because they were far away from their boats. While the Spaniards and Lapulapu were fighting, Magellan was hit in the thigh by a poisoned arrow, paralyzing him and was followed by the stabbing of one of Lapulapu's warriors. When Magellan could no longer fight, he was struck by the spears of Lapulapu's soldiers. Antonio Pigafetta, who also sustained a wound as a result of the fighting, described all that happened, and the death of what they considered their “light, guide, and protection”. The rest of Magellan's soldiers scrambled back to their ships, when they found their leader dead as well as their comrades and their native allies.
The surviving soldiers of Magellan retreated back to Raha Humabon in Cebu, and while they were at a party prepared by Raha Humabon, the foreigners were suddenly ambushed, killing up to 30 soldiers. Juan Sebastian Elcano and Pigafetta escaped the massacre, and left Cebu. It is possible that the massacre was perpetrated by Magallanes' former slave Enrique de Malaya, who conspired with Raha Humabon. No one heard anything from Enrique after that. Before the remaining soldiers of the expedition left, they burned the ship Concepcion because no one was maneuvering it.
The victory of the Lapulapu in Mactan marks our history, the first battle between European forces and our ancestors, and the first struggle of our ancestors from the attempted foreign conquest.
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