1848

The bearded fellow above is one Lajos Kossuth born this day 1802, in Monok, Hungary. Bet you did not know that M. Kossuth is the earlier person ever born to have his voice recorded. It happened in 1890, in Turin Italy as he was giving a short, patriotic speech. Pretty par for the course because that is what he was a patriot, an Hungarian patriot to be precise. After entering his father's legal practice, he also began a political career. He wrote letters about the debates of his local county Assemblies. Those letters eventually got him arrested and charged with high treason in 1837. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but only did three. I say only because I am not the motherfucker that had to do the time. All in all, it probably seemed a life time to Kossuth. One small advantage of his imprisonment was that he had time to learn English. He learned it mostly by reading the Bible and Shakespeare. It was one of his later characteristics that he spoke English like he learned it, like a character out of Shakespeare. He played a major role in the Hungarian revolt against the Habsburg Empire in 1848, and was eventually elected regent-president of Hungary. The winter campaign of 1848-1849 in which Hungary tried in vain to win its independence was his finest hour, and his greatest failure all rolled into one. With help from Russia, the Habsburgs were able to defeat the revolution, and Hungary was frog-marched back into line as a province of Austria. Kossuth became a fugitive, and crossed the border into the Ottoman Empire alone in late 1849. He was to be an exile for the rest of his life. He eventually made his way to England where he was welcomed with open arms at first. However, he soon began to wear out his welcome, and traveled to the United States. His fellow exiles were not big fans of his, claiming that Kossuth was hogging the spotlight, and claiming to be the only true Hungarian revolutionary exile. He was stripped of his Hungarian citizenship, and there after refused to take part in several amnesties that were offered to other exiles that had participated in the revolt. He eventually settled in Turin, Italy, and died there still an unrepentant exile in 1894, but for being a hero of a nation that sorely needed heroes, and for maintaining his beliefs to the bitter, exiled end, Lajos Kossuth (September 19th 1902- March 20th, 1894 at the age of 91), you are my hero of the day.