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Nearly 2 centuries ago, American revolutionaries dumped more than 90,000 pounds of tea off British ships into Boston Harbor. Wednesday marks the 247th anniversary of the historic Boston Tea Party protest and the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau isnt letting COVID-19 ruin the occasion.

In years past, the anniversary brought reenactments to Boston Harbor. With live performances out of the question this year, the floating Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum has teamed up with the visitors bureau to organize an online experience. Accessible for free, the virtual celebration will include a costumed dramatization of the original 1773 tea dump, an exploration of newspapers and letters from 1771 to 1775, and a question-and-answer session with museum experts.

We have had to pivot, said Shawn P. Ford, executive director of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. This December, our creative team has done a superb job creating a virtual commemoration of this important moment in history that helped shape our country.

The celebration begins Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. Advance registration is required via virtual.bostonteapartyship.com. Participants will receive instructions on accessing virtual materials.

Grace Griffin can be reached at grace.griffin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @GraceMGriffin.

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Party like it's 1773 at this virtual Boston Tea Party event - The Boston Globe

A crowdfunding campaign has launched to reunite two World War II veterans who fought against each other during the war and became as close as brothers after the war. The mission is to bring the two World War II veterans together again for a mini-documentary in Normandy, France.

They fought each other in Tunisia, Africa; however, they reunited decades after, and became friends, even as close as brothers. Sadly, there is not much time left, it may be even the last opportunity to do so. Graham lives in the United Kingdom and Charley in Germany, with their health decreasing and them getting older each day, it may be the last opportunity to have them meet again. But with your help, they may be able to reunite one more time and have their last encounter and story told in a mini-documentary.

In late March 1943, Allied and Axis forces prepared for one of the fiercest battles of the World War II African campaign near Mareth, Tunisia. It was here, where after four months on the run, Rommels Africa Corps took one of its last stands. Enclosed on one side by rocky, hilly terrain and the Mediterranean on the other, capturing Mareth proved a difficult proposition for the British Eighth Army.

In order to outflank the Axis forces, the British 8th Armored Brigade, along with New Zealand infantry swung southwest and then north through an inland mountain pass to attack the Axis troops from behind.

They ran into the German 21. Panzer Division. Karl Friedrich Charley Koenig, only newly arrived in Tunisia as a 19-year-old officer candidate, waited for his first combat as a loader in a Panzer IV of Panzer-Regiment 5.

Charley Koenig

Across the hardscrabble Matmata hills, Sherman tanks of the Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry Tank Regiment readied themselves for the attack. In one sat machine gunner and co-driver Graham Stevenson. Graham had fought at the battle at El Alamein and bailed out of a tank as a 17-year-old. Taking part in the hard fighting all along the way from Alamein through Tunisia, he had just barely reached the tender age of 18.

On March 23rd, Panzer Regiment 5 and the Sherwood Rangers tanks stalked one another and engaged in individual tank battles. Shells whistled loudly by Charleys tank, his experienced commander advising calm. Their Panzer IV would not be knocked out on this day, but it would not be for long.

The next day, a radio signal warned the Germans of an incoming RAF Hurricane IID tank buster attack. Scrambling out of their Panzer IV, Charleys crew moved side-to-side as Hurricanes swept in from all directions at nearly zero altitude firing their powerful 40-millimeter cannon.

An accurate Hurricane pilot hit the rear of the tank, shortly before a lone British artillery shell, fired out of the blue, made a direct hit on their front deck. A half-track arrived in the night to tow them to the be repaired. Charley was now out of the way, while Graham and his crew took part in the Tebaga Gap battle on March 26th, the Shermans and the Maori infantry inflicting a severe mauling on the 21. Panzer-Division.

Graham Stevenson

Graham survived Africa and returned to England with the Sherwood Rangers to train in Sherman DD swimming tanks for the invasion of Normandy. Due to a slight disagreement with a commanding officer that landed him in the guardhouse, he came in on Gold Beach, Normandy a bit later than his Sherwood Ranger comrades.

In his first day of hedgerow fighting, untested and frightened infantrymen escorting his tank fled under fire, leaving Graham and his tank commander to conduct their own reconnaissance. Just steps outside of his tank, Graham was hit and nearly killed by German machine gun fire. As an artery bled out, his life hung on a thread. Luckily, a nearby aid station saved his life. But his war ended there.

Charleys career ended in May, 1943, when he was taken prisoner by the Americans and transported to camps in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Belgium, and England before returning home in 1947. Even decades later, he could never forget the war in Africa, and his honorable opponents.

In 1991, he sought out the Sherwood Rangers and found Ken Ewing, head of the southern branch of the Sherwood Rangers Old Comrades Association. It wasnt long before they became like brothers. After Charley attended ceremonies for the regiment in Normandy and Holland, he was invited in as a member of the Association, where he was accepted wholeheartedly by the remaining British World War II veterans, including Graham, who was in the same tank crew with Ken.

Graham and Charley in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Graham and Charley in Bayeux

On Gold Beach, the German bunker which stood in the way of the Sherwood Rangers entry into Normandy still stands sentinel. On that spot this June 6th , the Sherwood Rangers dedicated a plaque to the tankers who fought and died to take this beach.

Now, Graham and Charley are the only members of Sherwood Rangers Old Comrades Association left alive who fought in Africa 75 years ago. Their friendship, which has transcended the brutality of war to reveal that mutual respect, healing, and reconciliation can exist between former enemies, sends a powerful message to future generations.

Heather Steele, Founder and CEO of non-profit organization World War II History Project, has launched a $25,000 crowdfunding campaign to make this reunion and filming of a mini-documentary happen. You can help make this possible Ive spoken with Heather and shes incredible passionate to make this happen. There are various perks available for your kind donations from getting personalized postcards from the Veterans to flying in a WWII bomber or riding a tank!

Click here to Donate to the Crowdfunding Campaign!

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The Boston Tea Party and the ungrateful colonists who started it all - We Are The Mighty

By: Express News Service | Mumbai | Updated: December 14, 2020 11:00:17 amTaking on the government for convening a two-day session, Fadnavis said, It is a clear tactic of escapism. The government does not want to answer questions. Therefore, it is citing Covid-19 for holding a two-day session.

The BJP on Sunday boycotted the customary tea party convened by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the eve of the Winter Session of the legislature, which will be held in Mumbai on Monday and Tuesday.

Addressing mediapersons at BJP headquarters in Mumbai, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, said: We have decided to boycott the CMs tea party, as this is a non-responsive government. It has not addressed problems of any segment.

Taking on the government for convening a two-day session, Fadnavis said, It is a clear tactic of escapism. The government does not want to answer questions. Therefore, it is citing Covid-19 for holding a two-day session.

The Winter Session is always held in Nagpur and for a period of minimum two weeks When political parties are holding meetings and addressing conclaves where a large number of workers are gathering, what is the problem of convening a two-week session, he asked.

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Maharashtra: BJP boycotts CMs tea party, says to avoid answering questions, govt taken escapist route - The Indian Express

By Guy Busby

SPANISH FORT While results were challenged in some other states, Alabamas election went well in November, Secretary of State James Merrill said Saturday.

Merrill spoke at the Stop the Steal rally in Spanish Fort. The event was sponsored by the Common Sense Campaign TEA Party to protest what supporters said was fraud in the November presidential election.

Merrill said careful planning helped the election go well in Alabama despite setbacks in the days before the polls opened.

We know everything went well in Alabama and thats the reason we havent heard anything about it, Merrill said. Its interesting that there are very few people in our state that even know that we had between 800 and 1,000 polling sites in our state that didnt even have power four days before the election because of Hurricane Zeta. But we worked together with our power partners to ensure that everything was in place. When you see that kind of support and that kind of encouragement going together, its clear that things are going extraordinarily well.

He said officials in some states did not follow guidelines set for elections. Many of the states where results were challenged do not have statewide regulations for election procedures.

I know a lot of people are very concerned about the way that the elections went in the other states, specifically some of those states that have been mentioned in lawsuits, but I think the thing that we saw was that people went outside the scope and boundaries of their assigned duties as election officials or chief executives in those states. We had major concerns and major issues that needed to be addressed that people felt like their only recourse was going through the legal process, Merrill said.

Merrill spoke the day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a suit filed by Texas officials challenging election results in four states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden. Merrill said one problem with some of the lawsuits, including the one filed by Texas, is not the merits of the case, but the qualification of the parties to file a complaint.

One of the problems that you see is that people without standing have actually filed lawsuits, Merrill said. In order for you to make sure that your case is properly adjudicated to reflect the views or you and your fellow citizens in your community, you have to make sure that you have standing so that when it goes to the court of law, theres going to be an opportunity, A, for the judge to agree to hear it and, B, to say that what youre bringing to them has merit.

More than 56 lawsuits have been filed challenging Bidens election. At least 46 of those have been denied, dismissed, settled or withdrawn, according to reports.

Event organizer Lew Campomenosi questioned the Supreme Court ruling but said the decision will make the effort to stop Bidens election more difficult. He said the decision ignored constitutional issues that needed to be addressed.

Lets put it this way, it doesnt make it easy and I think thats part of the problem that were dealing with right now, Campomenosi said. How are we supposed to keep the motivation and stay in the fight? There are state court decision that still have to be made.

Merrill also asked rally participants to support Republican efforts to win two Senate runoffs in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate. He said Alabama residents can send donations to the candidates and volunteer to support the campaigns.

In Georgia, Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are challenged by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. If both Democrats win, each party would have 50 senators when the new term begins, and the tie-breaking vote would go to Vice-President Kamela Harris when she takes office.

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'Stop the Steal' rally held in Spanish Fort - Gulf Coast News Today

Bill Hand|Sun Journal

Since it all seems to be about praising or loathing a vaccine today, I thought this would be a good time to look into the history of a couple of them. This week lets look at the one that most famously got the whole inoculation thing started.

Smallpox makes COVID-19 look like a very small potato. Or it did. Before it was all but eradicated it killed 500 million people in the 20th century alone. Those who caught it had a 30 percent fatality rate, and an even worse 80 percent fatality for infants. Even surviving it was a trip through hell.

An article in the World Journal of History, The Smallpox Epidemics in America

Author S. Forman in his book Dr Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill and the Birth of American Liberty described it like this:

The head is swollen to a monstrous size, the eyes are entirely closed, the lips swollen and of a livid color, the face and surface of the whole body are covered with maturated pustules, from which issue purulent matter; the miserable being has the appearance of a putrid mass, and scarcely the semblance of a human form remains.

Survivors like Washington carried the scars for life.

The BBCs Richard Hollingham noted that 400,000 people in 18th century Europe died of it every year and, in 1721, an outbreak in Boston took 8 percent of the population.

The one good thing about it was, if you got it once and lived, you probably wouldnt get it once again (well, I suppose if you got it once and died, you probably wouldnt get it again either). But catching it just to get it over with was a pretty dicey game.

Still, they tried a form of it learned from China. Doctors and even ministers (Cotton Mather was one) took dried scabs or fresh pus from victims, lanced open a wound on a healthy person, and slipped the stuff under their skin. As a rule, they developed a mild form of the smallpox -- a few even died but as a whole they came out far better than the full-blown sufferers.

Curiously enough, cows in England had their own version of smallpox a kinder, gentler thing called cowpox that was more of an inconvenience than a killer. Milkmaids who spent a lot of time around these cows sometimes contracted the disease, developing pustules (a grossly descriptive word) on their hands but little more… and they never developed smallpox.

One farmer, Benjamin Jetsy, got an idea from this. In 1774 he scratched the pus from lesions on a cows udder and then got it into the skin of this wife and sons whether he made the scratches to do this, or they already had them, I dont know. The family may have been grossed out, but they never developed smallpox.

In 1796 a country doctor named Edward Jenner in Gloucestershire (the English never have been very good at naming places, aside from London) began hearing stories about the efficacy of the cowpox. He remembered his own childhood inoculation with smallpox and the misery that ensued and so he began to come up with an idea for an experiment. Rats were plentiful of course but he bypassed them when he chose a subject. He chose a child.

By legend he scraped some cowpox pus from the hand of a milkmaid named Sarah Nelms and injected into both arms 8-year-old named James Phipps. James got a little bit sick and Jenner waited for him to recover a bit, and then he took some smallpox fluid, scraped up some of the boys skin and put it in him. He did not develop the disease. He injected him a few more times to see if he would catch it and he did not. I imagine the kids life was miserable. So was Sarahs cow that she caught cow pox from. The beasts skin now hangs in the library at St. Georges Medical School.

Jenner had proven his case. It was the first full knowledge of using a milder form of disease to prevent a harsher form and traditionally, that is what vaccinations have been since that time, with the exception of the new COVID one.

Vaccine actually comes Vaccinia, which is Latin for cowpox. And Vaccinia is such a pretty word that you could name your daughter that, if it werent for the fact that some day, she would find out what it means.

Although he could not have known the real science behind his discovery, Jenner is known as the father of immunology and the creator of the first true vaccine.

Contact Bill at bill.hand@newbernsj.com or 252-229-4977.

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Mr. Jenner and the smallpox vaccine - New Bern Sun Journal