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Monday, January 1, 2018
Texas History Minute nearby Bruceville. He served in the First Infantry Division, but his service record was spotty. He had attained the rank of sergeant twice but was demoted due to a number of incidents while drunk. While American troops arrived in France, they continued training while preparing to enter combat later in 1917. Not long afterward, Edwards found himself in bitter fighting. In October, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre by France, one of their highest Dr. Ken Bridges honors, for his actions helping a French unit. A month later, he Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, was with another French infantry writer, and history professor. He unit that came under heavy artillery fire from the Germans. can be reached at One French soldier was blinded by drkenbridges@gmail.com. an exploding shell and was caught in the open. Edwards jumped out What is the secret of being a hero? of the trenches and pulled the man This was the question asked of one to safety. The grateful French of the most noted heroes of World awarded him the Medaille War I in 1928. Daniel Edwards Militaire. thought a moment and replied, “When you get the proper In late May 1918, his unit was combination of courage and of fear attacked by the German army near – and more fear than courage – you the French village of Cantigny. have . . . It.” The Texas native had His unit fell back, but Edwards a colorful life. While some parts of and three others stayed to protect his life are hard to verify, his the others while they found safety. record of gallantry in World War I He single-handedly carried an 80was well-documented and made pound machine gun over his him into a celebrity. Whatever else shoulder, fighting off the his life might have been, when Germans. The four were in a lives were on the line, Edwards did chaotic mess of machine gun fire whatever it took to save others. and flamethrowers, and the other three died. Edwards found himself In April 1897, according to family alone fighting German bayonets, and army records, Daniel which pierced his wrists and Richmond Edwards was born in the stomach while he fired away. tiny farming community of Mooreville, just south of Waco in Bloodied and in searing pain, he Falls County. Some sources, continued to fire at the Germans, however, claim his birth date as refusing to be pulled out himself 1888. However, his mother died until his unit was safe and relieved when he was very young. He was by a fresh company of American wild and undirected as a youth by troops later that night. He was his own admission. Bored with taken to the nearest hospital to school, he dropped out after the recover and was awarded the eighth grade and went to work on Silver Star for his gallantry that his brother’s ranch in Coleman day. In 1923, some years after the County. war, the army awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross for Edwards drifted from one his service at Cantigny. adventure to the next and was reported as a man who enjoyed Ultimately, Edwards became one life. Many details of his life are of the most decorated American difficult to verify, as his own tall soldiers of World War I. He spent tales often conflicted with one the next six weeks in a field another. He alternately claimed to hospital near the front lines. His have worked in a bar in New wounds were severe enough that Orleans or fought with Pancho he was on his way back to the Villa in Mexico during the United States. On July 9, an Mexican Revolution and even increasingly desperate German serving with the army in the Army launched a withering attack Philippines or with the 1914 on his unit. Seeing his friends American occupation of Veracruz, fighting desperate battle, Edwards Mexico, though the army had no pulled himself out of his hospital records of his service in those bed and stepped onto the days. His gifts as a storyteller, battlefield. His actions that day however, so charmed his audiences would earn him the Congressional that they scarcely minded the Medal of Honor. For years occasional truth stretched out of afterward, Edwards modestly shape. deflected the attention from his actions. “It is all a matter of selfWhen the United States entered preservation,” he said. World War I in April 1917, he was not far from his hometown and Part 2 continues next week. quickly enlisted in the army in
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New Year's Day History In 45 B.C., New Year’s Day is after his successor. celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar Celebration of New Year’s Day in takes effect. January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those Soon after becoming Roman who strictly adhered to the Julian dictator, Julius Caesar decided that calendar did not observe the New the traditional Roman calendar was Year exactly on January 1. The in dire need of reform. Introduced reason for the latter was that Caesar around the seventh century B.C., the and Sosigenes failed to calculate the Roman calendar attempted to follow correct value for the solar year as the lunar cycle but frequently fell 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. out of phase with the seasons and Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error had to be corrected. In addition, the added seven days by the year 1000, pontifices, the Roman body charged and 10 days by the mid-15th with overseeing the calendar, often century. abused its authority by adding days to extend political terms or interfere The Roman church became aware of with elections. this problem, and in the 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit In designing his new calendar, astronomer Christopher Clavius to Caesar enlisted the aid of Sosigenes, come up with a new calendar. In an Alexandrian astronomer, who 1582, the Gregorian calendar was advised him to do away with the implemented, omitting 10 days for lunar cycle entirely and follow the that year and establishing the new solar year, as did the Egyptians. The rule that only one of every four year was calculated to be 365 and centennial years should be a leap 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days year. Since then, people around the to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on world have gathered en masse on January 1, rather than in March. He January 1 to celebrate the precise also decreed that every four years a arrival of the New Year. day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C., he changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July) after himself. Later, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August)
