October 19, 1901: Edward Elgar Debuts His "Pomp and Circumstance Marches"

October 19, 1901, 125 years ago: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 and March No. 2 premiere, at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. The marches are conducted by their composer, Edward Elgar. Two days later, he conducts them again at Queen's Hall in London.

Elgar was born on June 2, 1857 in Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire, in the West Midlands of England. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.

In 1879, he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at Powick Hospital, a psychiatric institution outside Worcester. In 1882, he became a violinist with a Birmingham orchestra. He married Alice Roberts in 1886, and they lived in her hometown of Great Malvern, outside Worcester. By 1892, his own compositions began to be performed. In 1899, his Enigma Variations made him world-famous.

Elgar took the phrase "Pomp and Circumstance" from Act 3, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello:

Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th'ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!

Pomp and Circumstance was written in 6 "Marches": No. 1 in D major in 1901; No. 2 in A minor, also in 1901; No. 3 in C minor in 1904; No. 4 in G major in 1907; No. 5 in C major in 1930; and No. 6 in G minor, which remained unpublished at his death on February 23, 1934, from colon cancer, at the age of 76.

The five original marches were dedicated to friends of Elgar's: The conductor Alfred E. Rodewald, the composer Granville Bantock, and the organists Ivor Atkins, G.R. Sinclair, and Percy Hull. He did not get a chance to make a dedication for March No. 6.

Pomp and Circumstance, March No. 1 includes the trio section "Land of Hope and Glory." It is the section that truly popularized the work, since it became the "Coronation Ode" for the Coronation of King Edward VII on August 9, 1902.

It is often known as "The Graduation March," and is played as the processional tune at many high school and college graduation ceremonies. It was first played at such a ceremony on June 28, 1905, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where the Professor of Music, Samuel Sanford, had invited his friend Elgar to attend commencement, and receive an honorary doctorate of music. Elgar repaid the compliment by dedicating his Introduction and Allegro to Sanford later that year.

At the time, Woolwich Arsenal Football Club were playing soccer in South London. In 1913, they moved to North London, and became Arsenal F.C. In 1979, having had to go to 4 replays in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup against Sheffield Wednesday, the last 3 of them on neutral ground at Filbert Street, home of Leicester City, Arsenal fans -- nicknamed "Gooners," after the team's nickname, "the Gunners" -- adapted Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory" into this song:

We all follow The Arsenal

over land and sea!

(And Leicester!)

We all follow The Arsenal

on to victory!

The next season, after going to 3 replays of the FA Cup Semifinal against Liverpool, losing the Final to West Ham United, seeing Liverpool win the Football League title, and seeing Nottingham Forest win the European Cup, the Gooners redid the song again:

We hate Nottingham Forest!

We hate Liverpool, too!
(And Tottenham!)

We hate West Ham United!

But Arsenal, we love you!

September 14, 1926: The King-Byng Affair

William Lyon Mackenzie King

September 14, 1926, 100 years ago: Canada holds a general election. It is won by the Liberal Party, which means that its Leader, former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, will be returned to the job. And that means that the people of Canada were sending a message to their "mother country," Great Britain: We may still be a part of your Empire, but we will decide our own fate.

Since "Confederation" gave Canada a partial independence in 1867, the nation's head of state had been the British monarch, represented in-country by a Governor-General; and the head of government had been the Prime Minister, the Leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons.

In 1921, Julian Byng, 1st Baron Byng of Vimy, was named Governor-General of Canada by King George V. Lord Byng had been the commanding officer of the Canadian Corps at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France during World War I. As a result, he was called Canada's greatest military hero, and he replaced the Duke of Devonshire as Governor-General.

Julian Byng

The titles of the outgoing and incoming Governors-General was not unusual: From 1867 to 1952, the Governors-General included 2 Dukes, 6 Earls, 2 Lords who went on to become Earls after their fathers died, 3 Marquesses, 2 Viscounts, and 2 Barons.

Among them were the donors of the trophies for the championships of ice hockey and Canadian football, respectively: Frederick Stanley, who had to resign as Governor-General because his father had died, and passed to him the title of Earl of Derby; and Albert Grey, the 4th Earl Grey, grandson of Charles Grey, for whom Earl Grey tea was named.

In 1920, Robert Borden, who had been Prime Minister through World War I, retired, and handed the office off to Arthur Meighen. But in the next election, in 1921, his Conservative Party lost to the Liberal Party, and Mackenzie King -- usually referred to by his 3rd and 4th names, not by all 4 -- became the new Prime Minister. On October 29, 1925, Meighen returned to power with a coalition government, as he took the Tories to a lead in the Commons, but not a majority.

Arthur Meighen

King, however, thought he could retake the government by peeling off some members of the coalition. He combined the Liberal and Progressive caucuses to gain a plurality, and hung on to power. But the following year, due to a scandal that didn't involve King himself, the coalition fell apart.

King turned to Lord Byng, and asked him to exercise his power and dissolve Parliament, so that a new election could be called. Byng refused, citing the will of the people that had given Meighen the lead in the most recent election, and the right to form his coalition. On June 29, 1926, Byng asked Meighen to form a government, and he did.

Because of the possibility of losing a vote in the Commons, Meighen advised Byng to appoint the ministers of the Crown in an "acting" capacity only, to avoid triggering the automatic by-elections Ministers faced when accepting their appointments at the time. King used the technique to mock the government, and to further his accusation that Meighen had acted irresponsibly by accepting Byng's appointment, attracting Progressive support to take down the fledgling government. The government lost a motion regarding the "acting" Ministers by one vote, only 3 days after Meighen's appointment. With no other parliamentary leader to call upon, Byng called a new election for September 14.

King effectively campaigned against Byng, instead of against Meighen, and won the most seats in the House of Commons, although his party won a smaller proportion of the popular vote than the Conservatives. However, this was largely because the Liberals did not run candidates in all ridings, and had an informal electoral pact with the Progressives and Liberal-Progressives. In particular, the election results in the Province of Manitoba had the Conservatives capture almost 40 percent of the vote, twice the vote share of any other party, but not finishing 1st in a single riding, so they won no seats. Thus, King's Liberals were able to govern.

It became known as "The King-Byng Affair," and Byng returned to Britain at the end of the year. He was raised to the rank of Viscount. Meighen resigned as Conservative Leader. He ended up being knighted for his service to the British Empire. He was the last Prime Minister of Canada who saw himself as being a member of the British Empire, and so he was the last Prime Minister of Canada to be knighted as a result. He became Sir Arthur Meighen, despite the fact that his 1st government lasted 527 days, and his 2nd government lasted 89 days.

The incoming Prime Minister had not only defeated his predecessor: He had, for all intents and purposes, forced the Governor-General to resign, showing the Crown that Canada was its own nation, with its own government, speaking for its own people. Since 1926, no Governor-General of Canada, and no monarch of Great Britain, has tried to impose his or her will on the Prime Minister. All of which makes it weirder that the Prime Minister would be named "King."

With the Great Depression having started, Mackenzie King would lose the 1930 election, to a Conservative Party now led by Richard B. Bennett. But Bennett could not get Canada out of the Depression, and held off calling a new election for as long as he constitutionally could, finally standing for one in 1935. King and the Liberals won it.

Canada entered World War II along with Britain in 1939. Despite this, an election was held on time in 1940, and the Liberals slightly increased their majority. Another was held on time in 1945 -- between V-E Day and V-J Day, as it turned out, just as Britain's was -- and the Liberals lost seats, but hung on to enough seats to keep their majority. King retired in 1948, as Canada's longest-serving Prime Minister.

Julian Byng died in 1935, Mackenzie King in 1950, Arthur Meighen in 1960. Today, when Lord Byng is remembered, it is mainly as the husband of Evelyn Byng. During her time in Canada, she became a fan of the sport of ice hockey, and the Byngs attended Ottawa Senators games together in the nation's capital.

Evelyn Byng

In 1925, Evelyn donated the Lady Byng Trophy, to be awarded to "the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." After her death in 1949, the NHL changed the trophy's name to the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy.

The process of Canada becoming self-governing was further affirmed in 1982, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Queen Elizabeth II signed the Constitution Act, "repatriating" Canada's Constitution, meaning that Canada can amend the document as it sees fit, without getting the permission of Britain's Parliament. The British monarch remains Canada's head of state, but has little say over Canada's governance.

In 1952, right after becoming Queen of the United Kingdom, and thus also the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II had to appoint a new Governor-General of Canada. She chose Vincent Massey. He had the diplomatic credentials, but he was not of noble birth, the 1st Governor-General for whom this was true. Indeed, from Massey onward, no Governor-General of Canada has even received a knighthood.

In 1959, upon Massey's retirement, Queen Elizabeth appointed Georges Vanier, the 1st Francophone Governor-General. The Vanier Cup, the championship of Canadian college football, is named for him. In 1984, the Queen appointed Jeanne Sauvé, who became not only the 1st female Governor-General, but also the 1st lifelong civilian.

In 1999, the Queen appointed Adrienne Clarkson, who is of Chinese descent, making her the 1st nonwhite Governor-General. Given the strong Asian presence in Canada, especially in the West, it is not surprising that the country had an Asian head of state before it had a black one. It is also not surprising that the 1st black head of state was a Francophone: In 2005, following Clarkson's retirement, the Queen appointed Michaëlle Jean, who was born in Haiti.

In 2021, the Queen appointed Mary Simon, who is Inuk on her mother's side, making her the 1st Governor-General of Indigenous descent. She was the last of the 13 appointed by Queen Elizabeth. All previous British monarchs had appointed 17.

As of September 14, 2026, 5 of the last 6 Governors-General have been women, including the incumbent, Louise Arbour, a former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights.

*

September 14, 1926 was a Tuesday. Dick Dale, the lefthanded guitarist whose instrumentals helped launch "surf rock," was born on this day. 

July 22, 2006: The Emirates Stadium Opens

July 22, 2006, 20 years ago: The Emirates Stadium, the new home of North London's Arsenal Football Club, opens, just 500 yards from their former home since 1913, Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its neighborhood.

Arsenal had played at Highbury since 1913, but after the Taylor Report demanded that all British soccer teams convert to all-seater stadiums, its seating capacity was reduced to about 38,000. In order to compete for top players with the more successful teams in Europe, Arsenal needed a bigger stadium with better amenities to meet revenue needs.

The first event at the 60,704-seat bowl is a testimonial match for retiring forward Dennis Bergkamp.

The current Arsenal players are joined by several former club stars in a game against the club with whom the man Arsenal fans called "God" began, AFC Ajax of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The 1st half was each team's current players, although several on each side were unavailable due insufficient rest from the recently-concluded World Cup. Arsenal would have Bergkamp (the guest of honor usually plays in the testimonial, presuming he can), but no one else of note, as Thierry Henry was being held back for the "Legends" team in the 2nd half. In contrast, Ajax were able to field Maartin Stekelenburg, Jaap Stam, Wesley Sneijder, Jan Vertonghen, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, and a man who would later captain Arsenal, Thomas Vermaelen. In the 37th minute, Huntelaar scored the stadium's 1st goal.

Bob Wilson, the goalkeeper for Arsenal's 1971 Double-winning team, introduced the Legends teams. Ajax's players included Frank Rijkaard (who had just managed FC Barcelona to defeat Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League Final), Marco van Basten, Edgar Davids, Danny Blind, twins Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edwin van der Sar, and Ajax' greatest legend, Johan Cruijff, 59 years old and 22 years past his last competitve match, who managed and appeared as a substitute.

Arsenal's legends included Henry, David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Patrick Vieira, Steve Bould, Ian Wright, Emmanuel Petit, and 3 men who had played for both teams: Bergkamp, Marc Overmars and Nwankwo Kanu. Also appearing for Arsenal, though he had played for them for just 2 seasons, was Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who had captained the Netherlands at the World Cup, but had starred for Ajax's arch-rivals, Rotterdam side Feyenoord, and had played against Arsenal in the recent CL Final. No hard feelings on either side.

In the 55th minute, Henry put a shot past van der Sar, then the star goalie of Manchester United. Ronald de Boer missed a penalty in the 61st. Kanu gave Arsenal the lead in the 80th. Every Arsenal player seemed to be trying to Bergkamp the ball to let him score, but it just didn't happen. It did still end 2-1 in Arsenal's favor. Afterward, Bergkamp said a few words to the crowd, and was picked up on his teammates' shoulders, and given a lap of honor.

The 1st competitive match at the stadium didn't go so well: On August 19, 2006, Arsenal opened their Premier League season at home, against Birmingham team Aston Villa. Olof Mellberg, a Villa defender, scored the 1st official goal at the stadium in the 53rd minute. Gilberto Silva scored the 1st Arsenal goal in the 84th, and the match ended 1-1.

Arsenal were in a transition period, and not just from the old stadium to the new one. Paying off the stadium debt meant selling off some stars, including Vieira the season before, and Henry the season after; and some players who were not yet stars.

Manager Arsène Wenger had won 3 Premier League titles and 4 FA Cups, including 2 Doubles in 1998 and 2002. But now, he had broken his great team up and rebuilt around youth: Whereas the centerpiece of his trophy-winning side had been French-Senegalese defensive midfielder Vieira, it would now be Spanish-Catalan attacking midfielder Cesc Fàbregas.

But it never seemed to be enough. There was a 2nd-place finish in 2008, trips to the Semifinals of both the CL and the FA Cup in 2009, and defeats in the League Cup Final in 2007 and 2011. But he couldn't finish the job. Over the next few years, for reasons of both finances and players' egos, Wenger would also have to sell Fàbregas, Ashley Cole, Freddie Ljungberg, Jens Lehmann, Aliksandr Hleb, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie. Wenger still managed to win the FA Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2017, and keep the team in the top 4 places in the PL, thus keeping them in the CL.

Some of these players were more easily forgiven for leaving than others, but many fans blamed Wenger, rather than team management who had to pay off the stadium's debt, for a period of "decline" that would have been considered a spectacular success by most teams' standards. Many people, including Arsenal fans, blamed the new stadium itself, claiming it lacked sufficient "atmosphere." Fans of arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur, as they had with the previous stadium, called it "The Library," since it sort-of rhymed with "Highbury." Begging the question: How would a Tottenham fan know what the inside of a library sounds like?

On a personal level, knowing that the United Arab Emirates are a dictatorship, treating women, immigrants, and people of religions other than Islam badly, but ignoring such things if they happen to be wealthy tourists for their resort cities such as Dubai, I would prefer that both the stadium's name and the team's shirts would no longer have Emirates Airways as a sponsor.

In 2018, Wenger was given the 1960 Casey Stengel treatment, and he "resigned." Then came a true decline, but it was stopped before it could become disastrous. Mikel Arteta, one of the Cup-winning players Wenger had signed, became the manager, and won the 2020 FA Cup, before restoring Arsenal's PL position. In 2026, he won the PL title.

Statues of Wenger, Bergkamp, Henry, former Captain Tony Adams, 1930s manager Herbert Chapman, and Ken Friar, who started working for Arsenal as a 12-year-old messenger boy and, in 2022, is the 87-year-old president emeritus of the club, now stand outside the stadium.

The Emirates Stadium has hosted international matches, including 9 by the Brazil national team through the 2025-26 season. It has also hosted concerts, including by Bruce Springsteen in 2008, Coldplay in 2012, Green Day in 2013, and The Killers in 2022. In 2008, considered "a shining example of Anglo-French co-operation," it hosted a summit meeting between Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

Fans of other big clubs, or would-be big clubs, wanted their own showplace stadium now. Manchester City had already gotten one in 2003. In 2016, West Ham United moved from Upton Park in the East End to the 2012 Olympic Stadium, renamed the London Stadium, not tucked so deep into East London, and, like Arsenal, their fans complained about a loss of atmosphere.

In 2019, Tottenham, a.k.a. "Spurs," having left their old White Hart Lane stadium, and spent 2 years playing home games at Wembley Stadium while the new stadium was built on the site of the old one, moved into Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which, to one-up Arsenal, had a slightly higher capacity of 62,850. Of course, Arsenal fans called The Lane "The Shithole," and noticed that the new stadium, from the outside, actually looked like a toilet bowl. Clearly, Spurs management didn't think the design through. Nevertheless, it has begun regularly hosting regular-season NFL games, as had the old Wembley, the new Wembley, and rugby venue Twickenham Stadium.

In Liverpool, Everton FC replaced Goodison Park with Hill Dickinson Stadium in 2025, while neighboring Liverpool FC have instead chosen to modernize and expand Anfield. Also in 2025, Manchester United approved a 100,000-seat "New Trafford," a.k.a. "Wembley of the North," adjacent to Old Trafford, hoping to open it by 2030. Contractual issues still stall West London team Chelsea FC's plans to either expand or replace Stamford Bridge, mostly rebuilt in the 1990s and 2000s but with one stand still in use since 1973.

June 23, 2016: The Brexit Referendum

June 23, 2016, 10 years ago: Voters in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland vote to leave the European Union in a national referendum. It was called "Brexit," short for "British Exit," in the leadup to the vote.

Britain had been a member of the European Communities since 1973, and of its successor, the European Union, since 1993. But many of its citizens were angry about the E.U. dictating economic policy, especially trade policy. And many (with considerable overlap with the previous group) were angry about the E.U.'s immigration laws, making Europe as a whole, and Britain in particular, more black, brown, and Muslim -- and less white and Christian.

Some voters admitted that they didn't really want to separate from the European Union, they just wanted to "send a message" to them. The message they intended to send was, "Respect us more." The message the EU received was, "We don't want you, so we're fucking off." The final vote was 17,410,742 for "Leave," and 16,141,241 for "Remain." Percentage-wise, that's 51.9 to 48.1.

As with American national elections, the city vote and the country vote were very different. In England, the vote was 53.4 Leave, 46.6 Remain. Most of the cities, including London, Liverpool and Manchester, voted to Remain. But the suburbs and the countryside vote to Leave. Wales was 52.5 Leave, 47.5 Remain. But Scotland was 62.0 to 38.0 Remain. Northern Ireland was 55.8 to 44.2 Remain, with the Catholic precincts being largely Remain, but its Protestant precincts were largely Leave. (The Republic of Ireland is an E.U. member, and has no desire to change that.)

The result? Within hours, Britain's financial markets crashed. In 48 hours, the pound lost 1/5th of its value, although, within the week, it recovered to the point where the loss was "only" 1/8th of its value. Prime Minister David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, was forced to resign both posts on July 13, 2016.

His successor, Theresa May, didn't complete the Leave process fast enough for the "Brexit Means Brexit" crowd, and she was forced out of office on July 24, 2019, giving the job to Boris Johnson, Britain's 1st openly bigoted Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher was forced out in 1990.

Soon, the people behind a recent failed referendum on Scottish independence began talking about a new referendum, on whether Scotland should leave the U.K. and rejoin the E.U.

On June 3, 2026, nearly 10 years after the referendum, a poll by Statista Research Department showed that 57 percent of British citizens thought Leave was a mistake, while only 30 percent thought it was right -- a net shift of 13 points. Statista called it "Bregret."

A YouGov poll showed that thinking Leave was a mistake was an opinion held by 56 percent of people in England, 61 percent in Wales, and 75 percent in Scotland.

It may just be that, by the time the Duke of Cambridge becomes King William V, he will reign over "The United Kingdom of England-but-not-London-or-Merseyside and East Belfast," a stagnant country, while London, Liverpool, Wales, Scotland and a united Ireland are in a thriving European Union. And those left behind will have not buyer's remorse, but seller's remorse.

March 9, 1776: "The Wealth of Nations" Is Published

March 9, 1776, 250 years ago: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, is published in London by Strahan and Cadell. Just 3 weeks earlier, they had published Volume I of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon. The Wealth of Nations, as this book's title is usually shortened to, becomes the biggest-selling work of economics in history.

Adam Smith's date of birth is unknown, but he was recorded as having been baptized on June 5, 1723, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, so it is generally accepted that he was born in Kirkcaldy a few days earlier, perhaps only one day.

His father, also named Adam Smith, was a Scottish Writer to the Signet (a senior solicitor), advocate and prosecutor (judge advocate), and also served as comptroller of the customs in Kirkcaldy. Smith's mother was born Margaret Douglas. Two months before Smith was born, his father died, leaving his mother a widow.

The father must have left the mother a good deal of money, because the son was able to attend the Burgh School of Kirkclady, described by a Smith biographer as "one of the best secondary schools of Scotland at that period." He entered the University of Glasgow at the age of 14, and graduated at 17. He moved on to Oxford University, and, based on his later writings, found it unsatisfying, learning more from the books in the Bodleian Library than from the professors.

In 1748, he began lecturing at the University of Edinburgh. Two years later, he met a literary and philosophical hero of his, David Hume. Smith would join Hume as a leading figure of what became known as the Scottish Enlightenment, and both are now featured in statues on the front of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

In 1759, Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments, with writings that would shock people who only know him as "the father of capitalism":

The rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, though they mean only their own conveniency, though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species.

The success of this book allowed him to assume a tutoring position that facilitated travel throughout Europe, where he encountered intellectual figures of his era. In response to the prevailing policy of safeguarding national markets and merchants through the reduction of imports and the augmentation of exports, a practice that came to be known as mercantilism, Smith laid the foundational principles of classical free-market economic theory.

In 1776, he published The Wealth of Nations. In it, he developed the concept of division of labor, and expounded upon how "rational self-interest" and competition can lead to economic prosperity.

He laid out a system of political economy with the famous metaphor of the "invisible hand" regulating the marketplace through individual self-interest. He provided a comprehensive analysis of different economic aspects: The accumulation of stock, price determination, and the flow of labor, capital and rent. The book contained Smith's critique of mercantilism, and of high taxes on luxury goods. For these reasons, he and his book upheld as exemplars by economic conservatives.

But the book also contained things to which liberals could point. He criticized the slave trade, with which Britain and its colonies, including the soon-to-be United States, were then heavily involved. He also denounced monopolies, advocating for free competition and open markets.

He made the point that transportation of goods makes economies possible, and points out that the strongest nations had the strongest economies, because they had the best transportation: Access to the sea, including through wide harbors and wide rivers.

It explained why it could be predicted, though he did not do so, that New York would surpass London as the leading city in the world over the next 150 years. What Smith also could not have predicted was the rise of railroads, which helped both Britain and America more than the rest of the world; and the development of air travel and transport.

In other words, Smith had unwittingly predicted the rise of vast fortunes through railroad companies, but also the development of the suburbs of major cities that the railroads would develop, allowing the creation of a vast middle class, especially in the English-speaking world -- including in European and Asian countries where English is, effectively, everyone's second language, regardless of what their first language is. And he unwittingly predicted how farm products could more easily get to the cities, making even agriculture a prosperous profession for a smart farmer.

In other words, Smith showed that increasing demand was the way to make an economy grow, not increasing supply. The supply-side economists of the late 20th Century totally misread him.

The book's 1st edition sold out in 6 months, causing William Strahan, publisher of both Smith and Gibbon, to write to a friend, "What you say of Mr. Gibbon's and Dr. Smith's book is exactly just. The former is the most popular work; but the sale of the latter, though not near so rapid, has been more than I could have expected from a work that requires much thought and reflection (qualities that do not abound among modern readers) to peruse to any purpose."

And to university professor and Enlightenment philosopher Adam Ferguson, Gibbon wrote, "What an excellent work is that with which our common friend Mr. Adam Smith has enriched the public! An extensive science in a single book, and the most profound ideas expressed in the most perspicuous language."

In 1778, Smith was appointed to a post as Commissioner of Customs in Scotland. From 1787 to 1789, he occupied the honorary position of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. He died on July 17, 1790, in Edinburgh, after what is described only as "a painful illness." He was 67 years old. He never married, and is not known to have had any children.

February 17, 1776: "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" Is Published

Edward Gibbon

Common Sense by Thomas Paine wasn't the only important piece of writing to be published in 1776, the year of American independence -- which, of course, depended on an important piece of writing, which Common Sense helped to set up. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith turned out to be pretty important.

But that was for the present and the future. There was also a very important book about the past, which contained warnings for the present and the future. And it had the same publisher as The Wealth of Nations:

February 17, 1776: Volume I of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published in London by Strahan and Cadell. It becomes the biggest-selling work of history in history.

It was reissued in a succession of 6 revised editions between 1776 and 1789. Volumes II and III appeared in 1781, and the final three volumes -- IV, V and VI -- were issued together in 1788.

Edward Gibbon was born on May 8, 1737 in Putney, then in Surrey, now a part of South-West London. He attended a boarding school run by Catherine Porten, known to her students as "Aunt Kitty." Gibbon later wrote that it was she who gave him "the first rudiments of knowledge, the first exercise of reason, and a taste for books which is still the pleasure and glory of my life."

Included among these books was An Universal history, from the earliest account of time. Compiled from original authors; and illustrated with maps, cuts, notes, &c. With a general index to the whole. This was a 65-volume universal history of the world published in London between 1747 and 1768. It was one of the first works to attempt to unify the history of Western Europe with the stories of the known world.

He enrolled at Oxford University, left without graduating, and spent time in France and Switzerland, where the only major romance of his life happened, with a woman named Suzanne Curchod. But his wealthy father, a staunch Protestant, threatened to cut him off if he married Suzanne, a Catholic. Edward wrote, "I sighed as a love, but I obeyed as a son." She later married an official in the French government, and died during, but not as a result of, the French Revolution.

Gibbon published a study of literature, establishing his reputation as a writer, and served in the Seven Years' War (known in America as the French and Indian War). This service gave him a greater understanding of military life, ancient as well as current. He visited Rome, and gave it the nickname by which it would be known thereafter: "The Eternal City." He wrote:

It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted fryars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind.

He returned to London in June 1765, and inherited his father's vast estate in 1770. His literary output led him to meet the leading man of letters in Britain at the time, Dr. Samuel Johnson, joining his Literary Club; and also Johnson's publishers, Strahan and Cadell. William Strahan (1715-1785) was Scottish, served in Britain's House of Commons, and was a friend and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Cadell (1742-1802) was from Bristol, in England's West Country. Each man's son continued the family business for a while after the father's death.

In 1771, Strahan and Cadell published The Man of Feeling, a novel of moral philosophy by Henry Mackenzie, establishing their reputation as well as his, making it possible to take them seriously when they published the works of Gibbon, Smith, Johnson, Scottish philosopher David Hume, Scottish poet Robert Burns, and others. Cadell was quoted as saying, "I had rather risk my fortune with a few such Authors as Mr Gibbon, Dr Robertson, D Hume … than be the publisher of a hundred insipid publications."

In 1774, Gibbon was elected to Parliament from Liskeard, in Cornwall, in the West Country, and remained in that seat until losing in 1780. In 1781, he won a seat in Lymington, in Hampshire on the South Coast, and held that seat until 1784. (It Britain, it is hardly unusual for a Member of Parliament to represent different constituencies in his or her career. Winston Churchill, himself a historian when he wasn't politicking, had 5 different constituencies over his 64 years in the Commons.)

Gibbon's initial plan was to write a history "of the decline and fall of the city of Rome," and only later expanded his scope to the whole Roman Empire. He leaned heavily on the French writers who became usually known as Montesquieu (a baronial title) and Voltaire (a pen name).

Although he published other books, Gibbon devoted much of his life to this one work. His autobiography, published after his death as Memoirs of My Life and Writings, was devoted largely to his reflections on how the book virtually became his life. He compared the publication of each succeeding volume to a newborn child.

The six volumes cover, from AD 98 to 1590, the peak of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and its ermergence as the Roman state religion in the early 4th Century AD, the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, the rise of Genghis Khan in the early 13th Century and Tamerlane in the late 14th Century, and the fall of Constantinople and thus the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire in 1453, which triggered the shifting of Europe's gaze from East to West, and thus the Age of Exploration.

(By concluding with 1590, it was as if someone in 2026 were writing about Gibbon's own time as the conclusion of a long study.)

According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to "barbarian" invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. He began an ongoing controversy about the role of Christianity, but he gave great weight to other causes of internal decline and to attacks from outside the Empire.

Like other Enlightenment thinkers, many of them not so enlightened on the subject of Roman Catholicism, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages -- usually defined as the time from the fall of the Western Empire until the fall of Constantinople -- as a priest-ridden, superstitious Dark Age. It was not until his own era, the "Age of Reason," with its emphasis on rational thought, he believed, that human history could resume its progress.

Gibbon suffered from gout, and from a rather embarrassing condition that left him with enlarged and painful testicles. Surgery to correct this in 1794 failed, resulting in peritonitis, which killed him at the age of 56.

Many writers have used variations on the series title, usually shortened to "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," including using "Rise and Fall" in place of "Decline and Fall." These include William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and David Bowie's album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. (What Bowie made of what happened to Gibbon, only he knew.)

January 22, 1901: Queen Victoria Dies

One of the last photos of Queen Victoria.

Her son, King Edward VII, is on the right.

His son, King George V, is on the left.

And his son, King Edward VIII, is the boy in the sailor suit.

January 22, 1901, 125 years ago: Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, head of state for about one-quarter of all the people then living on planet Earth, does the unthinkable.

She dies.

She passes away at the age of 81, at Osborne House, her country estate on the Isle of Wight, 88 miles southwest of London. The last of a series of strokes brought her life to a close, 63 years after she took the throne, longer than any English or British monarch ever had, breaking the record of her grandfather, King George III, who lasted just under 60 years. Three entire generations of her subjects had known no other monarch of Britain except her.

She was born on May 24, 1819, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, a son of King George III. Her uncle, King George IV, died without legitimate children. So did his brother, King William IV. And Edward died before either George or William. So Victoria became Queen when she was only 18, on William's death on June 20, 1837.

At the time, through the mental incapacity of George III, and the dissipation and profligacy of George IV and William IV, the British monarchy was at its lowest point since Oliver Cromwell chopped off the head of Charles I in 1649.

The Industrial Revolution was in its early stages. Railroads were a new thing. Photography was in its infancy. There were no telephones, no telegraphs, no railroads, no automobiles, no air vehicles except hot-air balloons, no recorded sound, no recorded images. Victoria had more in common with Alfred the Great, who unified England 1,000 years before her reign, than she did with King Charles III, born 48 years after her death.

She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ending the House of Hanover. They produced 9 children:

* Victoria, who married Crown Prince Friedrich of Germany, who became Kaiser Friedrich III, and they were the parents of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

* Albert Edward, who became King Edward VII of Britain. He married Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. Their son became King George V of Britain, and their daughter Maud married King Haakon VII of Norway.

* Alice, who married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (in Germany). Their daughter, Alexandra, married Czar Nicholas II of Russia.

* Alfred, who became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (in Germany). His daughter, Marie, married King Ferdinand I of Romania.

* Helena, who married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (in Germany).

* Louise, who married John Campbell, the 9th Duke of Argyll (in Scotland).

* Arthur, who inherited his grandfather's titles of Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Connaught is in Ireland, and Strathearn is in Scotland), and served as Governor-General of Canada. His daughter, Margaret, is an ancestor of the monarchs of Sweden and Denmark.

* Leopold, who became the Duke of Albany (in Scotland). And:

* Beatrice, who married Prince Henry of Battenberg (in Germany). Their daughter, Victoria Eugenie, married King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

And so, Victoria was "The Grandmother of Europe." Her son Albert Edward, or "Bertie," thus became "The Uncle of Europe." And Christian IX of Denmark became "The Father-in-Law of Europe."

Bertie was 59 years old when he finally became King, and, most of that time, because he was a disobedient child and then a compulsive womanizer, frequently cheating on Alexandra, Victoria never fully trusted him. As he put it, "I don't mind praying to an Eternal Father, but I seem to have been afflicted with an eternal mother."

Victoria lived long enough to be wildly cheered at her Golden Jubilee (50th Anniversary) in 1887 and her Diamond Jubilee (60th Anniversary) in 1897; to have her voice recorded in 1888; and to be filmed at a garden party at Buckingham Palace in 1898, and on a state visit to Dublin, Ireland in 1900.

But in her last years, she was beset by rheumatism, which combined with her passion for comfort food to make walking impossible; and she was nearly blind due to cataracts. Later in 1900, she began to suffer strokes. Her last diary entry was written from Osbourne House on Sunday, January 13, 1901, and referred to her daughters Helen, or "Lenchen," and Beatrice. It reads:

Had a fair night, but was a little wakeful. Got up earlier & had some milk. — Lenchen came & read some papers. — Out before 1, in the garden chair, Lenchen & Beatrice going with me. — Rested a little, had some food, & took a short drive with Lenchen & Beatrice. — Rested when I came in & at 5.30, went down to the Drawing room, where a short service was held, by Mr Clement Smith, who performed it so well, & it was a great comfort to me. — Rested again afterwards, then did some signing & dictated to Lenchen.

Nine days later, on January 22, at 6:30 PM, she died of another stroke at Osborne House. Bertie and Kaiser Wilhelm, her eldest grandson, were in the room. She was laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum, on the grounds of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, about 25 miles west of Central London. She and her husband, Prince Albert, are the Mausoleum's only occupants.

Victoria was played by Blanche Forsythe in Sixty Years a Queen in 1913, Jenny Jugo in Victoria in Dover in 1936, Anna Neagle in Victoria the Great in 1937 and Sixty Glorious Years in 1938, Renée Asherson in Happy and Glorious in 1952, Romy Schneider in a remake of Victoria in Dover in 1954, Julie Harris in Hallmark Hall of Fame's Victoria Regina in 1961, Lola Brooks in The Young Victoria in 1963, Annette Crosbie in Edward the Seventh in 1975, Lurene Tuttle on an episode of Voyagers! in 1983, Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown in 1997 and its sequel Victoria & Abdul in 2017, Victoria Hamilton in Victoria & Albert in 2001, Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria in 2009, Amanda Root in The Black Prince in 2017, and Jenna Coleman in Victoria in 2019.

Her son, Edward VII, reigned until he died in 1910. His son, George V, reigned until he died in 1936. His son, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne later that year, in favor of his brother, George VI. He reigned until he died in 1952. His daughter became Queen Elizabeth II, and she broke all longevity records for English and British monarchs, celebrating a Platinum Jubilee (70th Anniversary) in 2022. She died later that year, and her son became King Charles III.

January 20, 1936: King George V Dies

January 20, 1936, 90 years ago: King George V -- in full, George V, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India -- dies at Sandringham House, the monarchy's country retreat in Norfolk, England. He was 70 years old.

Born George Frederick Ernest Albert of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on June 3, 1865, he was the 2nd son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and thus grandson of Queen Victoria. At the time, he was 3rd in line for the throne, behind his father and his older brother.

The Prince's 1st son was Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Nicknamed "Prince Eddy," he was engaged to Princess Mary, the daughter of Germany's Duke of Teck, but was a compulsive womanizer, and there were rumors of what would now be called a gay affair.

It has been rumored that Eddy's tendency toward London prostitutes made him Jack the Ripper, and a late 20th Century book about the case was titled Prince Jack. Records show that he was at Windsor Castle on the nights of all 5 "canonical Ripper murders," and, given modes of transportation in 1888, couldn't possibly have gotten out, gone to London, committed any of them, and gotten back without anyone noticing him.

Another rumor is that the royal physician, Dr. William Gull, killed those prostitutes to cover up Eddy's involvement, which (some said) involved an illegitimate child. But Gull was 71 years old at the time, and recovering from a stroke, making it unlikely that he could have overpowered even a woman.

On January 14, 1892, Eddy died, only 28 years old, officially of an influenza epidemic that was then raging through Britain. More salacious historians have suggested that his sex life caught up with him, and that he died of syphilis.

Regardless, it made his brother George 2nd in line to the throne. And, far be it for the British royal family to waste a good candidate for marriage: On July 6, 1893, George and Mary of Teck were married. They went on to have 5 children: Edward, known to the family as David, eventually named Prince of Wales; Albert, known to the family as Bertie, eventually named Duke of York; Mary, the Princess Royal, who married the Earl of Harewood; Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and John, who had epilepsy, and died of a severe seizure in 1919, only 13 years old.

Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, and George's father became King Edward VII. George became Prince of Wales. On May 6, 1910, Edward died, and, not quite 45 years old, his son became King George V.

George and Mary had 2 coronations: On June 22, 1911, as King and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland at Westminster Abbey in London; and on December 12, 1911, as Emperor and Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar. Victoria had been proclaimed Empress of India in 1877, and Edward VII proclaimed Emperor of India in 1903, but neither ever visited India, and were crowned in absentia. (Edward VIII and George VI held the title of Emperor of India, but never went there while on the throne.)

At first, George was popular. Then came World War I, and George found 2 of his 1st cousins on opposite sides: Czar Nicholas II of Russia on his, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany on the other. (The words "Czar" and "Kaiser" both come from the Latin title for Emperor, "Caesar.")

As Lord Mountbatten, the King's nephew, said in a documentary over half a century later, the people of Britain came to despise all things German: "They insulted German governesses. They wouldn't listen to German music. They even kicked dachshunds in the streets. And the press played this up, and made things much worse."

To make matters worse than that, the Germans had planes named Gotha bombers. And another 1st cousin, Charles Edward, was the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and commanded German troops. And George V was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the family name of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. George V, Charles Edward, and Wilhelm II were all grandsons of Victoria and Albert, while Nicholas II married a granddaughter of Victoria and Albert.

H.G. Wells, one of the pioneers of science fiction, and a socialist opposed to all monarchies, wrote that George was "presiding over an alien and uninspiring court." Reading this, George blew his stack: "I may be uninspiring, but I'm damned if I'm an alien!"

So the decision was made to change the family name, taking it from the Castle in Berkshire that had been a country home to the family since William the Conqueror in 1070: The House of Windsor. This decision proved popular. (The Mountbatten name was also new: They formerly had the German name Battenberg.)

After the war, the monarchies of Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey were abolished, and those of Italy and Belgium seriously diminished. The monarchy of Spain would also fall during George's reign, although that had nothing to do with World War I, in which Spain was neutral. Ireland was partitioned, and only the 6 Counties that made up Northern Ireland remained under George's reign.

George remained popular, but not healthy, smoking too much. He nearly died in 1928, while Edward, Prince of Wales, was on vacation (or "on holiday," as the British would say). He was guilted into coming home, just in case, but by the time he arrived, his father had taken a turn for the better.

In 1935, the 25th Anniversary of his reign, a Silver Jubilee was held for the King. By this point, he had become the 1st British monarch to make speeches over radio, including the institution of the annual monarch's Christmas Message, and publicly thanked the people for their devotion and their love.

But the end was near. His royal physician was Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount of Penn, and he was considered a poor doctor. Someone even wrote a short poem:

Lord Dawson of Penn

killed many men.

That's why we sing

"God save the King."

On the night of January 20, 1936, George seemed to be close to death, and Dawson sent a bulletin to the BBC: "The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close." But it wasn't moving fast enough for Dawson's tastes. As Kenneth Rose, columnist for the Daily Telegraph, and winner of an award for his 1983 biography of George, said of the text of the bulletin, for the 1994 documentary The Windsors: A Royal Family:

We now know that that wasn't true. Lord Dawson thought that the King ought to die at midnight, so that the death could be announced in the morning edition of The Times, rather than, as he put it, "less appropriate evening journals." 

Dawson wrote in his diary:

At about 11 o'clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the Patient but little comporting with that dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene. Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers & keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end.

In one syringe, he prepared a dose of cocaine, enough to be lethal all by itself. In another, he prepared a similarly fatal dose of morphine. He told his nurse, Catherine Black, to inject the morphine into the King's neck, and he would do the same with the cocaine. Miss Black refused to murder her King. Dawson did both of them himself. Seeing what was being done, King George V, head of state for of one-quarter of the planet, with his mental faculties intact until the end, spoke his last words, to his doctor: "God damn you!"

At 11:55 PM, he was pronounced dead. The next morning, The Times of London, having their deadline met, got their scoop, so that the trashy tabloids would not announce it first. Not until 1986 -- 50 years after the King's death, 41 years after Lord Dawson's, and 3 years after the publication of Rose's biography -- was the royal euthanasia/assassination revealed to the public.

George V remains the only monarch of England and/or Great Britain to have been murdered since the execution of King Charles I in 1649.

He was succeeded by his son, who became King Edward VIII. His private life was already so tawdry that George said Edward would ruin himself in 12 months. George gave his son 1 month's too much credit. On December 10, 1936, Edward abdicated, in favor of George's 2nd son, Albert, who became King George VI. He died in 1952, and his daughter, the granddaughter of George V, took the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Mary died on March 24, 1953, a few weeks before Elizabeth was crowned. Edward, Duke of Windsor, lived in exile until 1972.

Of the other 3 children of King George V and Queen Mary: Mary, the Princess Royal, married the heir to the Earldom of Harewood, and became Countess of Harewood, living until 1965; Henry became Duke of Gloucester, served as Governor-General of Australia from 1945 to 1947, and lived until 1974; and George became Duke of Kent and a Commodore in the Royal Air Force, dying in a plane crash in 1942.

King George V has been played by Michael Osborne in Edward the Seventh in 1975, Marius Goring in Edward & Wallis in 1978, John Warner in The Treaty in 1991, David Troughton in All the King's Men in 1999, Tom Hollander in The Lost Prince in 2003, Michael Gambon in The King's Speech in 2010, Simon Jones in the film of Downton Abbey in 2019, and Tom Hollander again (also playing his cousins, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II) in The King's Man in 2021.

Dilbert and the Galloping Gourmet

Scott Adams has died. Graham Kerr, as of this writing, is still alive.

It won't surprise me if you don't recognize either name. Neither has been famous for a long time.

As far as I know, they never met.

*

Graham Victor Kerr was born on January 22, 1934 in Brondesbury, North London. His Scottish parents ran hotels. In one of his books, he said, "My name is pronounced 'care' -- not 'cur,' as in the case of Bill Kerr; and not 'car," as in the case of Deborah Kerr." (Bill Kerr was an Australian actor, and Deborah Kerr a Scottish actress.)

He grew up in East Sussex, in the south of England, and learned to cook while serving in the British Army's Army Catering Corps. Upon his discharge, with the rank of Lieutenant, he went into the family business, managing hotels. He moved to New Zealand, and hosted a television show there, winning an award as "Personality of the Year." He was brought over to Australia, and became a star there.

In 1968, he moved to Canada, with a show on CJOH-Channel 13, a CTV show in the national capital of Ottawa. It was named The Galloping Gourmet, for the book he and wine expert Len Evans had recently written. The show was produced by Graham's wife, the former Treena Van Doorne.

The nickname was the result of a 35-day worldwide trek to the finest restaurants around the globe. The show was taped in front of a live audience. The title was echoed in the opening of each episode, where Kerr entered the stage area by running in and leaping over a chair in the dining room set, a stunt conceived by Treena. Many episodes featured a prerecorded segment with Kerr in a part of the world wherein that episode's dish originated.

The foods he presented were not exactly healthy: Like PBS host Julia Child, he used liberal amounts of butter, cream, fat and wine. He even drank the wine during his demonstrations. PBS picked the show up, and it was a hit all over North America.

The show came to an end in 1972, after the Kerrs were hurt in a car crash, and needed time to recover. Treena later suffered from tuberculosis, after a misdiagnosis of lung cancer. These setbacks convinced both of them to get religion in 1975.

Shortly thereafter, his new show, Take Kerr, debuted, but his newfound faith changed things. The hymn "This Is the Day the Lord Has Made" became his theme song, he quoted Scripture, and switched to healthier recipes, including no more wine. He later confessed that he blamed himself for a part in America's obesity epidemic, and apologized for his former on-air habits of slightly naughty language and drinking. People realized the new Graham Kerr wasn't so funny without the naughtiness, and the show did poorly, and was canceled.

He bided his time, and allowed the audience to catch up with him, as the 1980s were a more conservative decade in his target countries: America elected Ronald Reagan, Canada elected Brian Mulroney, and Britain elected Margaret Thatcher. Later shows such as The Graham Kerr Show and Graham Kerr's Kitchen did better than Take Kerr, making him something of an elder statesman. He lightened up a little, and stopped objecting to old episodes of The Galloping Gourmet appearing on cable networks like The Food Network. Treena passed away in 2015. Graham remarried in 2024, and lives in the suburbs of Seattle. If he makes it to January 22, he will be 92 years old.

*

Scott Raymond Adams was born on June 8, 1957 in Windham, Greene County, in the Catskill Mountains of the Hudson Valley of New York State. He was a fan of the comic strip Peanuts, but was also interested in economics, and got a degree in that subject from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. He went west, and earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

(Anybody old enough to be shocked that a Trump fan went to that famously leftist school should be reminded that it's not as leftist as it was in the 1960s.)

He rose to management at Pacific Bell, but saw how inefficient the corporate world could be. On April 16, 1989, while still working there, he launched his comic strip Dilbert with United Media. Dilbert was an "office drone," resembling comedian Drew Carey, except that, like comic strip character Little Orphan Annie, he had no eyeballs (though, unlike Annie, he wore glasses). A distinguishing feature was Dilbert's turned-up tie.

By 1995, he was successful enough that he was able to leave Pac Bell and write the strip full-time. That same year, he developed what became the title of his first book, The Dilbert Principle: Companies tend to promote incompetent employees to management, to minimize their ability to harm productivity. The Dilbert Principle is inspired by the Peter Principle, which is that employees are promoted based on success until they attain their "level of incompetence," and are no longer successful. UPN ran an animated Dilbert series in the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 TV seasons.

Liberals loved Dilbert, because most of them hated their bosses and jobs, too. That's why it seemed to be such a betrayal when Adams seemed to turn right: He endorsed Mitt Romney for President in 2012, and Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. It was flabbergasting: How the hell could the guy who wrote Dilbert endorse for President two of the biggest asshole businessmen in American history?

It got worse. In 2016, he said that Hillary Clinton's candidacy for President would "lower the status of men in America." In 2020, he said that if Joe Biden won, "Republicans would be hunted." Biden won, and Republicans were not hunted. On February 22, 2023, on his podcast Real Coffee with Scott Adams, he described black people as a "hate group," and said, "the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people; just get the fuck away." Dilbert was canceled 32 days later, on March 26, 2023.

He married and divorced twice, with each wife bringing 2 children to the marriage, but he had no biological children.

On May 19, 2025, he announced on his podcast that he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, and that he didn't think he had long to live. He had tried taking ivermectin, one of the drugs that Trump had recommended to prevent COVID in 2020, which had failed completely in that regard, and Adams said that it failed to help his cancer, too. He tried a more proven treatment, and it reduced his pain significantly, but by the end of 2025, the cancer had spread to his spine, and he was paralyzed.

He also claimed that, after years of atheism and mockery of religion, he had become a born-again Christian. It did not help him in life as much as it helped Graham and Treena Kerr, as he died today, January 13, 2026, at the age of 68, in the Bay Area community of Pleasanton, California. Whether his conversion has helped him in death, I am, as yet, in no position to know.

The reaction online to his death was not kind. Many people said that he had sold his soul to Trump and the MAGA movement, and that they had no sympathy for him.

Having gone through a lot of pain in my life -- thankfully, none of it due to cancer so far -- I do have some sympathy for him. But, while he was still healthy, I would have liked to have asked him, "What the hell is the matter with you? You know what this guy is like. How can you still support him?"

Graham Kerr got religion, changed because of it, was criticized for that, and had the good grace to step back from the public eye for a while, and not make a nuisance of himself.

 

Scott Adams did not.

Graham Kerr is still alive, and is still fondly remembered.

Scott Adams is no longer the former, and is unlikely to become the latter.