Unfortunately I do not know your source, GeraldRube, but I spotted a small typo in your pleasantly readable story here:The correct Dutch title: "Het Achterhuis".

(achter = behind, at the rear; huis = house)
The French word 'acheter' means to buy, to purchase, or even to bribe.

1904
Henry Ford sets speed record

On this day in 1904, Henry Ford sets a land-speed record of 91.37 mph on the frozen surface of Michigan’s Lake St. Clair. He was driving a four-wheel vehicle, dubbed the “999,” with a wooden chassis but no body or hood. Ford’s record was broken within a month at Ormond Beach, Florida, by a driver named William K. Vanderbilt; even so, the publicity surrounding Ford’s achievement was valuable to the auto pioneer, who in June of the previous year had incorporated the Ford Motor Company, which would eventually go on to become one of America’s Big Three automakers.

Henry Ford was born on a farm in present-day Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863. In 1896, Ford, then an engineer in Detroit, built a four-wheel, self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine that he called the Quadricycle. Three years later, he founded the Detroit Automobile Company; however, by early 1901 the business failed. That same year, Henry Ford became involved in auto racing as a means to promote himself and gather investors for future automaking ventures. Late that year, the Henry Ford Company was established. The following year, Ford left the business after clashing with Henry Leland, who had been hired as a consultant. (Leland subsequently gave Ford’s company a new name: the Cadillac Automobile Company.)

On June 16, 1903, Ford incorporated a new company: the Ford Motor Company. In January of the following year, Ford set his record at Lake St. Clair, racing 1 mile in 39.4 seconds for a record speed of 91.37 mph. For the next several years, Ford continued to build race cars that met with varying degrees of success. In 1908, Ford launched a car for the masses, the Model T, which revolutionized the automotive industry–and American society in general–by providing affordable, reliable transportation for the average person. To promote the Model T, Ford entered it in races. In 1909, the Model T won a New York-to-Seattle race and although it was later disqualified due to a technicality, the event provided great advertising for Ford. Over the next few years, the Model T won a variety of races around the U.S. In 1913, Ford, who was reportedly unhappy with certain rules of auto racing, quit the sport. (Now that his company was a success, he didn’t require the publicity from racing anyway.)

In 1913, Ford Motor Company began employing the moving assembly line at its plant in Highland Park, Michigan, which reduced the assembly speed of a chassis from 12 hours and eight minutes to one hour and 33 minutes. The following year, Ford produced over 308,000 vehicles, more than the output of all other carmakers combined. The Model T, which was in production until 1927, became the world’s top-selling vehicle until the Volkswagen Beetle surpassed it in 1972. Henry Ford died at the age of 83 on April 7, 1947.

1128
Pope recognizes Knights Templar

On this day in 1128, Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.

Led by the Frenchman Hughes de Payens, the Knights Templar organization was founded in 1118. Its self-imposed mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to and from the Holy Land during the Crusades, the series of military expeditions aimed at defeating Muslims in Palestine. For a while, the Templars had only nine members, mostly due to their rigid rules. In addition to having noble birth, the knights were required to take strict vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. In 1127, new promotional efforts convinced many more noblemen to join the order, gradually increasing its size and influence.

By the time the Crusades ended unsuccessfully in the early 14th century, the order had grown extremely wealthy, provoking the jealousy of both religious and secular powers. In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V combined to take down the Knights Templar, arresting the grand master, Jacques de Molay, on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. Under torture, Molay and other leading Templars confessed and were eventually burned at the stake. Clement dissolved the Templars in 1312.

The modern-day Catholic Church has admitted that the persecution of the Knights Templar was unjustified and claimed that Pope Clement was pressured by secular rulers to dissolve the order. Over the centuries, myths and legends about the Templars have grown, including the belief that they may have discovered holy relics at Temple Mount, including the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant or parts of the cross from Christ’s crucifixion. The imagined secrets of the Templars have inspired various books and movies, including the blockbuster novel and film The Da Vinci Code.

Tell me, are you a psychic, GeraldRube?
I think you have touched upon so many items during these lessons in History that rings bells with me.
Today’s lesson is no exception.
I think I was just 11 when I read the biography of Albert Schweizer. I was mesmerized. I went with him to Africa. It was about the man and his deeds. That hospital in Africa – I moved in there!
I was sold on the geography, too.
He came from that disputed area of Elass-Lothringen/Alsace-Lorraine in the border region between France and Germany.
Please taste the words – and listen to them.
In German or in French. It doesn’t matter, does it?
And the icing of the cake: Lambarene – it is spelled Lambaréné which changes the pronunciation and sway it the French way.
I didn’t say it like that. I said Lambaraine – like in Sweet Lorraine. I’ll keep doing it to my death. I never forgot that name. I wake up in the middle of the night, and it’s there.
It has the same fairy tale evocations to me as ’Alhambra’.
Unforunately, I don’t think I shall ever go to Lambaraine …
Albert Schweizer, this renaissance man, made my childhood better.

1981
Ronald Reagan becomes president

Ronald Reagan, former Western movie actor and host of television’s popular “Death Valley Days” is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States.

More than any president since the Texas-born Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan’s public image was closely tied to the American West, although he was raised in the solidly Midwestern state of Illinois. In the 1930s, Reagan moved to California, where he became a moderately successful Hollywood actor. Thereafter, he always considered himself a true westerner in spirit.

Reagan’s image as a westerner was reinforced by his acting career. Although he acted in other genres as well, many of Reagan’s movies were B-grade Westerns like “Law and Order,” in which he played a sheriff who was the only law “from Dodge City to Tombstone!” When his movie career waned, Reagan made the transition to television as a host of the hugely popular showcase for western stories, “Death Valley Days.”

Reagan’s film and TV career not only won him public-name recognition but also helped establish his enduring “good-guy” reputation. A few of Reagan’s roles in non-western movies included men of questionable character, but in Westerns he usually played the brave and wholesome sheriff or cowboy who killed the outlaws, saved the school marm, and brought justice to the Wild West. Though it is difficult to estimate exactly how important such positive roles were for his subsequent political career, surely Reagan’s “white hat” movie image helped win him some confidence and votes.

Reagan’s politics also increasingly reflected the mythic western image of rugged independence and self-reliance. Although he had been a liberal New Deal Democrat as a young man, by the 1950s, Reagan had become a hard-line conservative. As president of the Screen Actor’s Guild (1947-52, 1959-60), he won national attention as an outspoken anticommunist, and he began to view even the mild federal socialism of the New Deal as destructive to individual initiative and freedom. Switching his allegiance to the Republican Party, Reagan won two terms as governor of California (1967-75), where he gained a devoted national following that helped him win the presidency.

During his eight years as president of the United States (1981-89), Reagan redefined the center in American politics, moving it away from the liberal Democrats and towards the conservative Republicans. Though his days as a western movie star were long past by then, Reagan continued to celebrate the mythic independence of the western pioneer as a parallel to modern conservatism. To drive home the point, Reagan made frequent and highly visible retreats to his California ranch, where he rode horses, fixed fences, and cut firewood for the TV cameras. This president, Reagan’s actions seemed to say, was a self-reliant cowboy at heart and only a reluctant politician.

After a long struggle with Alzheimer s disease, Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004. He was buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.