Today in History: Unbreakable glass

It was a day like today.

On November 16, 42 BC was born the boy Tiberius Claudius Nero who would become Emperor of Rome. He was the adopted heir of the Emperor Augustus, who had reigned over the Mediterrenean world during a time of relative peace. It was during his reign that a minor official in Judea, Pontius Pilate, acceded to the wishes of local authorities and had Jesus of Nazareth crucified. Taking the thrown upon Augustus’ death in 14 AD, It was during Tiberius’ reign that a minor official in Judea, Pontius Pilate, acceded to the wishes of local authorities and had Jesus of Nazareth crucified. Even while he was one of Rome’s most celebrated military leaders, he proved ineffective as an emperor. Tiberius was to retire to the island of Capri, where he was to die in 37 AD. He was followed by Caligula, one of the sadistic and deranged rulers anywhere recorded in history.

It is said that Emperor Tiberius was one visited by a craftsman who presented him with what appeared to be a rather ordinary glass goblet that he had made. When the craftsman dashed the cup on the floor, it did not break. Rather than rewarding the man for inventing unbreakable glass, Tiberius had him killed because he had invented what the emperor was sure would make gold and silver less precious than dust. The secret to the glass was not re-discovered for 2,000 years.

Today the Roman Catholic Church notes as the feastday of Margaret, the queen of Scotland. The mother of eight, she was born in Hungary in 1045 to royalty. Her father was Edward Atheling, heir to the English throne, and her mother was Princess Agatha of Hungary. Her family returned to England when she was 10 years old but the Norman Conquest forced them into exile. By this time, her father had died, and her mother fled with her children. They boarded a ship which crashed onto the coast of Scotland where her family remained. Four years later, in 1070, at the age of 25, Margaret married the king of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore, and they had eight children. Her Christian virtue was an important influence on her husband’s reign. She was a model mother who worked for justice for the poor, improving their conditions, rebuilt churches, invited the Benedictines to Scotland and worked to build strong ties between the Celtic Church and Rome. She died in 1093, just four days after her husband and one of her sons were killed in battle. She was canonized in 1251 and named patron of Scotland in 1673.

Words of Wisdom:

On modernity, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said in Communism and the Conscience of the West “ The future conflict of the world will not be between Religion and Science, or between ‘rugged individualism’ and Socialism, but between a society which is spiritual and a society which is mechanical; between a society which adores God, and a society which claims to be God; between a society which absorbs man for secular ends, and a society which respects personality and uses the secular as a means to eternal ends. The world must make the choice…Men will enlist on one side or the other; we must battle either for brotherhood in Christ, or comradeship in anti-Christ.”