11 th October

1521 Great Britain’s King Henry VIII denounced Martin Luther’s teachings.

1779 Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski died. (General Pulaski Memorial Day)

1884 Eleanor Roosevelt was born.

1932 The Democratic National Committee sponsored a television program.

1962 Pope John XXIII’s Ecumenical Council convened. (See January 25th entry.)

Casimir Pulaski was a hero in the fight for Polish independence before he came to the United States in 1777. Two years later, Pulaski led a charge against British forces in Savannah, Georgia. He was mortally wounded and died two days later. Today is General Pulaski Memorial Day which commemorates the passing of Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski.

Eleanor Roosevelt elevated the role of First Lady to a stature on par with that of the Commander in Chief. And she became the only First Lady to be honored with her own statue at a presidential memorial. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on this day in 1884 in New York City. She was President Theodore Roosevelt’s niece, and had married her cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Throughout her life, she was an awkward public speaker. But the courage of her convictions and her undeniable determination to succeed won public attention for both civil and human rights at home and abroad even when she was eventually appointed as an ambassador to the Untied Nations.

Christianity’s defenders often made strange bedfellows in history’s final analysis. Great Britain’s King Henry VIII publicly denounced the teachings of Martin Luther in a book entitled, Assertion of the Sacraments. On this day in 1521, King Henry presented a published copy to Pope Leo X. But the king’s printed reprisal of Martin Luther’s teachings didn’t stop Cambridge University scholars and British printing presses from spreading the Protestant founder’s word. The moral of this story comes from an old adage: People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

The first political telecast took place on this exact day in 1923. Sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, it was broadcast from New York. Few people were able to receive or view that program, but it was the beginning of a relationship that proliferates today. Paid announcements and programs are as much a part of political campaigns as the whistle-stop tours of long ago. As every politician knows, you have to be seen by the people to be elected by the people.