On Wikipedia Wednesday I take the Wiki’s word for it about what happened on this date in history (give or take a day) and vamp up the rest to connect the events.  It’s okay.  I’m a trained historian. You won’t get history like this anywhere else.

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“Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.”  Few movie lines are as memorable to my generation as that one, uttered by Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride.  I’m surprised at how many people have not seen this movie.  There are films that people say you’ve gotta see, and then there is The Princess Bride.  If you haven’t seen it yet, go.  Right now.  We‘ll wait.

Now then, where were we?  (That’s a reference to Peter Falk who played grandpa in TPB but I digress).  The Wiki has led us this Wednesday to a more people driven look through time.  For example, Patinkin’s birthday was yesterday, November 30th, and he has plenty of company.  Winston Churchill (1874) and Mark Twain (1835) shared that birthday.

But let us come to the real link of the day, director Ridley Scott who shares the same birthday.  Scott is known for many films.  Alien, Gladiator, and this year’s Robin Hood come to mind.  In order to make a film about Robin Hood, Scott had to really know his stuff including legendary British monarchs like Henry I who just happened to die on this date in 1135.

I’m not sure how much Henry I had in common with Henry Ford besides a first name, but they were both mighty powerful.  Ford solidified his empire forever on December 1, 1913 when his motor company introduced the first moving assembly line.  The world would literally never be the same.

Automobiles helped make America great but have also spelled tragedy for some.  As a matter of fact, another one of the November 30 birthday boys nearly lost a leg in a 1990 car wreck.  His name is William Michael Albert Broad but you know him better as Billy Idol.   Most people don’t think of Idol as an actor.  Sure he was in The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler and you may even remember his appearance alongside Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) in The Doors.  But did you know he was supposed to be the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day?  Director James Cameron even had storyboards with Billy Idol as the liquid metal machine.  How different our perception would be of Idol had he not been in that accident.  The effects of that time are still around today.  The man who eventually replaced Idol as T-1000, Robert Patrick, was tapped again by Cameron last year for one of the all-time mega (and horribly overrated) movies, Avatar.

My hero weighs the options: Archaeologist or professor?

So instead of acting fame, we remember Idol for songs like Rebel Yell.  The most notorious Rebels I can think of fought for the South during the Civil War.  Perhaps no man despised those Rebels more than John Brown, a vigilante willing to kill in order to stop slavery.  My students and I still aren’t sure if he was a heroic martyr or psychopathic madman, but he played a big part in bringing the country to a decision point after his raid on Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia.  For that failed slave revolt, he was captured and executed by hanging on December 2, 1859.  Now you’ll understand why the United Nations has designated tomorrow as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

John Brown is also known for murdering a couple of slave-supporting settlers in “Bleeding Kansas,” named for a border war in Missouri and surrounding territories.  Some years later, in 1884, a man named Harrison Ford was born in that state.  Despite becoming an actor on the silent screen and stage this man actually holds no relation to the actor of the same name that we all know today.  Here’s where it really gets wild.  The original Harrison (not Henry) Ford died on December 2, 1957.  Sure, that’s the anniversary of John Brown’s death but this Ford died from injuries sustained in a (wait for iittt) car accident. 

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.  Well, we at least got us some crazy connections, so here’s a final one for ya.  Of the two Harrison Fords in Hollyweird history, you know I was majorly influenced by the latter for his role as Indiana Jones.  I wanted to be him, but the archaeologist thing didn’t work out, so I ended up being a professor instead.  One out of two ain’t bad.  But that’s not the final piece because many people remember Ford for his role in a Sci-Fi cult classic called Bladerunner, the 1982 movie directed by?  You guessed it–Ridley Scott.

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