RONIN, GOVERNMENT, TESTAMENTS, TREATIES AND FACEBOOK

The 4^th February reveals a number of items previously touched upon, in particular the continuing saga of the Chūshingura. (see blog 30^th January). It was on the 4^th February 1703 that forty-six of the forty-seven Ronin committed seppuku as a result of avenging their master’s death.

Washington's handwritten notes for

the first State of the Union Address, 1790

It was also on the 4^th February 1789 that General George Washington was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the United States Electoral College. He actually took office on the 30^th April 1789.  It wads under his Presidency that the Supreme Court was established, as well as the first executive offices of state, Secretaries of State, Treasury and War; the Postmaster General and the Attorney General. And so it began. The ‘tradition’ of inaugural address and State of the Union Address to the joint houses of congress, began with him.

Tischendorf

On the 4^th February 1859 The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt. Discovered is not exactly the correct term, rediscovered would be more appropriate.  One of the many Indiana Jones type archeologists of the period, Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf, a noted German biblical scholar, located it at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Mount Sinai on the 4^th February 1859. It was his third visit to the area. 

In 1844, he paid his first visit to the convent of Saint Catherine’s Monastery, on Mount Sinai, where he found, in a trash basket, forty-four pages of what was the then oldest known copy of the Septuagint. The monks were using the trash to start fires, Tischendorf horrified, asked if he could have them. He deposited them at the University of Leipzig, under the title of the Codex Friderico-Augustus, a name given in honour of his patron, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, king of Saxony. The fragments were published in 1846 although he kept the place of discovery a secret. In 1853, he made a second trip to the Syrian monastery but made no new discoveries. He returned a third time in January 1859 under the patronage of Czar Alexander II of Russia to find more of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus or similar ancient Biblical texts. On the 4^th  February, the last day of his visit, he was shown a text which he recognized as significant — the Codex Sinaiticus —an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Significant stuff indeed.

And on the 4^th February 1945, the Yalta Conference opened at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. It was here, on this day, only 67 years ago that the so called ‘big three’, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin began the carve up of what was left of Europe. It was three months before the actual unconditional surrender by Germany on the 8^th May 1945. The outcome of the conference was not brilliant. The performance writing was not at its best.

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Behind them stand, from the left, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, General of the Army George Marshall, Major General Laurence S. Kuter, General Aleksei Antonov, Vice Admiral Stepan Kucherov, and Admiral of the Fleet Nikolay Kuznetsov.

Key points of the meeting are as follows:

▪   Agreement to the priority of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After the war, Germany and Berlin would be split into four occupied zones.

▪   Stalin agreed that France might have a fourth occupation zone in Germany and in Austria but it would have to be formed out of the American and British zones.

▪   Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification.

▪   German reparations were partly to be in the form of forced. The forced labour was to be used to repair damage Germany inflicted on its victims.

▪   Creation of a reparation council which would be located in the Soviet Union.

▪   The status of Poland was discussed. It was agreed to reorganize the communist Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland that had been installed by the Soviet Union "on a broader democratic basis."

▪   The Polish eastern border would follow the Curzon Line, and Poland would receive territorial compensation in the West from Germany.

▪   Churchill alone pushed for free elections in Poland. The British leader pointed out that the UK "could never be content with any solution that did not leave Poland a free and independent state". Stalin pledged to permit free elections in Poland, but forestalled ever honouring his promise.

▪   Citizens of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia were to be handed over to their respective countries, regardless of their consent.

▪   Roosevelt obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the UN.

▪   Stalin requested that all of the 16 Soviet Socialist Republics would be granted UN membership. This was taken into consideration, but 14 republics were denied.

▪   Stalin agreed to enter the fight against the Empire of Japan within 90 days after the defeat of Germany.

▪   Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and brought to justice.

A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to be set up. Its purpose was to decide whether Germany was to be divided into six nations.

The Big Three also agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries (with the exception of the French government, which was regarded as collaborationist; in Romania and Bulgaria, where the Soviets had already liquidated most of the governments, the Polish government-in-exile was also excluded by Stalin) and that all civilians would be repatriated.

As can be noted, Stalin exerted considerable influence, much to the regret of Western politicians. It has taken a while to recover from the effects of the various conferences that took place, first at Tehran (1943), then Yalta, and next at Potsdam in July of 1945.

Hughes

And finally on the 4^th February 2004 Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz,  Chris Hughes and  Eduardo P. Saverin. All very rich young men.

Zuckerberg

Moskovitz

Saverin