The Twelfth of Ever

    The concept of a base 12 system seems to be inherent in humans, not only in their bodies, but in their history and culture as well. In fact, some of the most significant events in history have occurred in a 12-year cycle.
   Here are a few examples of the Power of Twelve in history, beginning with the year 1492, when Christopher Columbus made his voyage to America.
  That same year back home was when a royal decree ordered all Jews and Muslims either to convert to Catholicism or leave the country. The background to this attitude was a fear that Jews and Muslims, as immigrants, would take over the country. That was at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, which had begun 12 years earlier. (Didn't expect that, did you? But then, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.)
   Later in the series of 12-year cycles, in 1620, the Pilgrims land in Massachusetts.
   Now fast-forward to 1752, the year that begins the 12th cycle after the Columbus voyage. In that year, the Liberty Bell is delivered to Philadelphia.
   Twelve years later, in 1764, Parliament imposes taxes on products shipped to the colonies. But the colonists object, and in another 12 years, they declare independence.
   So begins the series of 12-year cycles in American history:

   1776 -- American independence is declared, leading to 1787, the 12th year of independence, when a Constitution is written.
   1788 -- A new cycle begins, and the new Constitution is ratified.
   1800 -- The federal government moves from New York to the new city of Washington, DC.
   1812 -- War, as the new nation confirms its freedom from Britain.
   1824 -- Illinois abolishes slavery, the first state to do so. John Quincy Adams becomes president despite losing the popular vote.
   1836 -- Texas declares independence from Mexico. Battle at the Alamo is fought.
   1848 -- Political upheaval in Europe, gold is discovered in California, the U.S. acquires Texas and a vast amount of territory throughout the West, and the Seneca Falls convention declares for the rights of women.
   1860 -- Abraham Lincoln is elected president.

   Skip two cycles, and we come to:

   1896 -- John Philip Sousa composes "The Star-Spangled Banner."
   1908 -- The Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
   1920 -- Prohibition begins in America, ushering in the Roaring Twenties.
   1932 -- The Great Depression is at its worst, Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president, and Adolf Hitler rises to power in Germany.
   1944 -- D-Day, the invasion of Normandy and the beginning of the end of World War II.
   1956 -- The Supreme Court declares bus segregation unconstitutional.
   1968 -- In one of the most crucial years in American history, Martin Luther King is shot, Robert Kennedy is shot, Richard Nixon is elected president, and Donald Trump becomes exempt from military draft because of bone spurs.
   Starting with 1968 as Year One of this cycle, we get to 1979 as Year Twelve, when the fictional movie "The China Syndrome," dealing with the collapse of a nuclear power plant, is released. Twelve days after its release, the real nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island collapses.
   1980 -- The start of a new cycle. In this year, John Lennon is shot, Ronald Reagan is elected president, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeats the Russian team and wins a gold medal in what has been called a "miracle on ice."
   1992 -- Bill Clinton is elected president, and is later impeached but not convicted.
   2004 -- George W. Bush is re-elected president, after losing the popular vote four years earlier.
   2016 --In this year, the beginning of the current 12-year cycle, Donald Trump is elected president.

   Whatever that may portend remains to be seen, but there is hope, because in that same year of the 12-year cycle, the Chicago Cubs finally win the World Series again.