This Day in History October 17, 107 A.D.

According to church history, on this date in 107 A.D., Ignatius of Antioch died.  I have heard of this person, but I actually knew nothing about him.  So let's learn about this great man of God together, shall we?


He was born in Syria, and he converted to Christianity.  He eventually became bishop of Antioch.   The Emperor of Rome, Trajan, visited Antioch in the year 107 A.D., and he made Christians choose between denying their faith and death.  Ignatius boldly refused to deny his faith, so the emperor arrested him and ordered him sent to Rome in chains.


En route to Rome, he wrote seven letters.  He never once tried to escape his martyrdom.  To quote from one of his letters, he wrote:  "...nearness to the sword is nearness to God; to be among the wild beasts is to be in the arms of God; only let it be in the name of Jesus Christ. I endure all things that I may suffer together with him, since he who became perfect man strengthens me."  This was written with the knowledge of the kind of death he would face.


When he arrived in Rome, the public spectacles of killing Christians was almost done.  According to church tradition, it was on this day in 107 that he was quickly thrown in to the arena and immediately devoured by two hungry lions.


When I read stories of martyrs, I am humbled.  So often, I sit here in my warm home in a free country and complain about my lot in life.  I am well-fed, and I have a job.  I have enough money to meet my needs and many of my wants.  I live in the most privileged country of the world, and I know Jesus as my Savior.  What do I have to complain about?  


Sadly, martyrdom is not a thing of the past.  It still goes on today, and one day I may face it.  May I have the same mindset as Ignatius and those who have gone on before.

If you would like to read more, please check out these links:
http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11629594/
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1171

This Day in History October 5, 1930

Did you ever used to watch the Goodyear blimp as you were growing up?  I was always excited to look up and see it in the sky or see it on TV.  I don't know why it was fascinating to me, but it was.  I can remember wanting to ride in that blimp.  I don't think about blimps much these days, but this day in history concerns a terrible tragedy concerning a blimp.

Dirigibles or Airships (the real term for blimps) date back to as early as 1783.  In 1785, Jean Pierre Blanchard crossed the English Channel with a balloon equipped with flapping wings and a bird-like tail. In 1852, Henri Giffard flew 17 miles in a steam-powered airship. They continued to be perfected well into the 20th century.

In the 1920's, the major European powers competed to build bigger and better blimps in order to rule the airspace.  The R-101 (pictured at the beginning of this post) was Great Britain's finest achievement.It was 777 feet long, weighed 150 tons, and could carry up to 100 passengers.  Six Rolls Royce engines were its source of power.

Its maiden voyage was fraught with trouble, and it was grounded for nearly a year.  And it was October of 1930 when it was brought back into service. Lord Thompson was the great champion of this cause.  He was one of the four passengers that day along with 52 crew members.  With great anticipation of a Far Eastern destination, the blimp took of the evening of October 4, 1930. (Some sites say October 5--I wish all the sites would agree.  It seems that no matter what that the crash happened on October 5.)

From the beginning, there was real trouble.  The crew accidentally released four tons of water ballast that was meant to control the altitude. They also took off in a horrible storm that was over the English Channel (even though blimps were known to be dangerous during bad weather).  Once the blimp reached the air over France, it was unable to keep level altitude.  Because of the blackness of the night, the pilots were unaware of the danger (they were flying only 250 feet above the town of Poix).  Within a very short time, the blimp began skimming the trees and then hit a small ridge.  The impact instantly ignited the hydrogen supply, and 48 of the 56 were killed (though some sites say all were killed).  Two men who at first were survivors later died in the hospital.  There are varying numbers listed,  so all I can really say is that almost all of the people on board were instantly killed.

The following video says there were 57 people aboard with 7 survivors. It is a long  video, so feel free  to watch portions of it or not at all.  But I found it sort of interesting.


For lots of great information, check out all these sites:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/blimp-crashes-in-france
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=5794.0
http://www.philbrick2255.org.uk/pdf/r101airship.pdf

Here's hoping that we all have a better day today than these poor souls.

My 12 Things Update

I have kept meaning to give you an update on this.  I think I have a challenge for this month and for next month.  I can generally only tackle one month at a time.  Check out last month's post about this challenge.

Quoting myself from last month:
For September, I would like to learn how to design a better blog. I also plan to do this without spending money. So, that is my goal for September. I don't want to say anything about October or the rest of the year yet, but that will be coming.


Yep, I did that!  I ended up winning a giveaway, and my blog was redone.  And then I got better at blogging.  I know I have not arrived yet, but I am certainly on my way.  So to October:

My goal for the month of October is to "throw out fifty things" like the book I have been reading.  I am not actually going to do all the paperwork, but I am already throwing things out.  I got rid of an entire box of clothes this weekend.  I am applying what she says in the book.  

As for November:

I plan to do a craft that I will present to my daughter.  My daughter loves snakes, and I happened to see this over on  Blue Cricket Design.  

I plan to work on this in November. I hope I can do it, but I am somewhat  crafty.  But that is not my focus now.

On to my challenge!