On This Day
1095 – Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.
The First Crusade (1095–1099) was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Urban called for a military expedition to aid the Byzantine Empire, which had recently lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuq Turks. The resulting military expedition of primarily Frankish nobles, known as the Princes’ Crusade, not only re-captured Anatolia but went on to conquer the Holy Land (the Levant), which had fallen to Islamic expansion as early as the 7th century, and culminated in July 1099 in the re-conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The expedition was a reaction to the appeal for military aid by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Urban’s convocation of the Council of Clermont was specifically dedicated to this purpose, proposing siege warfare against the recently occupied cities of Nicaea and Antioch, even though Urban’s speech at Clermont in the testimony of witnesses writing after 1100 was phrased to allude to the re-conquest of Jerusalem and the Holy Land as additional goals.
The successful Princes’ Crusade was preceded by the “people crusade”, which was a popular movement instigated by Peter the Hermit in the spring of 1096. Mobs of peasants and laymen travelled to Anatolia where they came up against the Turks, on the way attacking populations of Jews in the Rhineland. They were decisively defeated at the Battle of Civetot in October.
The Princes’ Crusade, by contrast, was a well-organized military campaign, starting out in late summer of 1096 and arriving at Constantinople between November 1096 and April 1097. The crusaders marched into Anatolia, capturing Nicaea in June 1097 and Antioch in June 1098. They arrived at Jerusalem in June 1099 and took the city by assault on 7 July 1099, massacring the defenders. A brief attempt by the Saracens to recapture Jerusalem was repulsed at the Battle of Ascalon.
During their conquests, the crusaders established the Latin Rite crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. This was contrary to the wishes of the Eastern Rite Byzantines, who wanted the land that the Muslims took from them returned, rather than occupied by Latin Catholics. After the retaking of Jerusalem, most of the crusaders returned home. This left the crusader kingdoms vulnerable to Muslim reconquest during the Second and Third Crusades.
Born On This Day
1894 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese businessman, founded Panasonic (d. 1989)
Kōnosuke Matsushita (松下 幸之助 Matsushita Kōnosuke, 27 November 1894 – 27 April 1989) was a Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic, the largest Japanese consumer electronics company. To many Japanese, he is known as “the god of management”.[citation needed] A biography of Matsushita’s life called Matsushita Leadership was written by American business management specialist John Kotter in 1998.
FYI
By Randall Colburn: R.I.P. Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants
Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 – November 26, 2018)[1] was an American cartoonist, animator, producer, and marine biology teacher. He was the creator of the Nickelodeon television series SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–), which he also directed, produced, and wrote. It has gone on to become one of the longest-running American television series as well as the highest-rated show ever to air on Nickelodeon.
Read more ->
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Hard cover $22.95, Kindle $13.99
Cujo: The Untold Story of My Life On and Off the Ice Hardcover – November 27, 2018
by Kirstie McLellan Day (Author), Curtis Joseph (Author)
Curtis Joseph, known affectionately to hockey fans around the world as Cujo, was an unlikely NHL superstar. The boy from Keswick, Ontario, didn’t put on a pair of skates until most kids his age were already far along in organized hockey, and he was passed over by every team in the NHL draft. Despite an unorthodox start, he would go on to play 18 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes, and Calgary Flames, winning an Olympic gold medal along the way. For the first time, in this revealing memoir, Joseph talks about his highly unusual upbringing and what led him to pursue hockey. Fans will not want to miss this untold story of perseverance and finding one’s own path.
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Two Nerdy History Girls: Victorian Fly-Cages
Thad Forester: How do I fit it all in? I know I’m not the only one who has lots of plans, but little time to put them in action.
By Nicholas Quah: Wild Thing, I think I love you (but the ultimate sustainability of your particular advertising model remains unclear)
Call for navel-gazing. We’re barreling to the end of the year, and there are three more Tuesday Hot Pod newsletters to go. Maybe because I’m turning 30 next year (and therefore increasingly aware of time and finality and mortality), I’m turned a little more introspective and will be spending the next few issues going back over some of the bigger stories and revisiting some trends/ideas that popped over the year.
And I’d love to hear what you think: What did you think were the biggest stories from the year? In your mind, how did 2018 work out for podcasting as a whole? For you? Let me know: nick (at) hotpodmedia (dot) com.
By Bill Adair: The red couch experiments: Early lessons in pop-up fact-checking
News from Science: CRISPR bombshell Chinese researcher claims to have created gene-edited twins, Meet the engineering professor who got Taiwanese voters to support nuclear power, Crashing the boards: Neuroscientist Maureen Condic brings a different voice to NSF oversight body and more ->
By Heather Chapman: Les Zaitz and the Malheur Enterprise show that people in rural areas want and need good journalism
By Heather Chapman: Why some hunters are moving away from lead bullets
By Open Culture Josh Jones: Alan Watts Dispenses Wit & Wisdom on the Meaning of Life in Three Animated Videos
By Open Culture DC: Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin Launch a New Music Podcast, Broken Record: Listen Online
Ideas
By Hometalk Highlights: The 15 Most Brilliant Uses People Came Up With for Plastic Containers
By The Juliart: Reverse Resin Intaglio
By gravatino: Cosmos Mariner: a Large Aperture Dobsonian Telescope
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 18 June 18, 2026Picture of the day Red-headed weaver (Anaplectes rubriceps leuconotus) male building nest in the Soysambu Conservancy, Kenya.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 17 June 17, 2026Picture of the day Lt. Col. Nick Rutgers preparing his F-15 Eagle for flight
Recipes
By In the Kitchen With Matt: Amazing Cinnamon Roll Twist Bread
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