Major Mike | Today in History 12/22 (Dostoevsky Gets Reprieve)

Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1863 (© Elizaveta Becker/ullstein bild/Getty Images)

(1849) Dostoevsky spared at last minute from firing squad

Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky stands before a firing line but as the guns are about to fire gets a reprieve and is sent into exile. A member of an underground intellectual group, he’d been condemned to die for antigovernment activities. He’ll go on to write ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov.’

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky’s literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky’s oeuvre consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Lived: Nov 11, 1821 – Feb 09, 1881 (age 59)
Spouse: Anna Dostoyevskaya (m. 1867 – 1881) · Marya Dimiitryevna Isayeva (m. 1857 – 1864)
Siblings: Andrey Dostoyevsky (Brother) · Mikhail Dostoyevsky (Brother) · Varvara Dostoyevskaya (Sister) · Aleksandra Dostoyevskaya (Sister) · Vera Dostoyevskaya (Sister) · Nikolai Dostoyevsky (Brother) · Lyubov Dostoyevskaya (Sister)
Children: Lyubov Dostoevskaya (Daughter) · Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Son) · Sonya Dostoyevskaya (Daughter) · Alexey Dostoyevsky (Son)
Parents: Maria Nechayeva (Mother) · Mikhail Dostoyevsky (Father)
Education: Military Engineering-Technical University

Dostoevsky in 1876
wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky

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(1849) Dostoevsky spared at last minute from firing squad.
Also on this day,

1956 | Ohio zoo welcomes the first gorilla born in captivity

Colo is born at the Columbus Zoo on this day in 1956. Her parents had been surreptitiously put together at night by a zookeeper going against his boss’s orders to keep them separated. The success of Colo’s birth will spur a captive-breeding program for western lowland gorillas in zoos.

1967 | ‘The Graduate’ seduces movie audiences

Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft star in a new film by Mike Nichols. The story of an aimless recent college graduate resonates with audiences and critics alike. The movie also helps a folk duo from Queens, NY, graduate to superstardom.

2000 | Madonna marries British movie director

The pop star marries Guy Ritchie at a heavily guarded castle in the Scottish Highlands. The wedding is shrouded in so much secrecy that it’s 12 hours before the world’s media can confirm the ceremony has taken place. The couple will divorce in 2008.

Today in History ^12/22/17

General William T. Sherman circa 1854-65 (Public domain)

(1864) Sherman gives Lincoln the city of Savannah as a Christmas present

Union Gen. William T. Sherman wires President Abraham Lincoln a message: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah." The telegraph relieves Lincoln who had not heard from Sherman for weeks on his infamous March to the Sea across the South, but the capture of Savannah demonstrates the campaign's success.

Sherman's March to the Sea, more formally known as the Savannah Campaign, was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. His forces destroyed military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property and disrupted the Confederacy's economy and its transportation networks. The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender. Sherman's bold move of operating deep within enemy territory and without supply lines is considered to be one of the major achievements of the war.