History Day..........
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History Day!! On this day in 1965, America's first two person spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy! Virgil, 'Gus' Grissom and John Young blasted off together on Gemini 3! (In my opinion, you had to be REALLY brave or REALLY crazy to ride a rocket! Maybe a little of both!!)
And in other historical news.....
1743, Handel's 'Messiah" had its premiere in London
1775, Patrick Henry called for America's independence from Britain, giving his memorable speech--"Give me liberty or give me death!"
1806, explorers Lewis and Clark, having reached the Pacific Ocean, turned around and started back!
1919, Mussolini started his Fascist movement in Milan, Italy. Didn't turn out so well for Benito!
1925, the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' --okay, the trial wasn't today, but the law was enacted that forbade any public school teacher from teaching anything but Creationism. A couple months later, Scopes was indicted and later convicted in the "Monkey Trial". He was fined one hundred dollars.
1942, during WWII, the US government began moving Japanese Americans from their homes to detention camps. (Amazing to think about now, isn't it??)
And that's it for me! What've you got?
posted by Maureen Child @ 1:10 PM
8 Comments:
At 2:41 PM,
Pat said…
Let me dig around and see what I've got.
1688- Champagne, a bubbly white wine, is invented in France by Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk.
1945- Adolf Hitler marries Eva Braun in an air-raid shelter in Berlin, Germany, and on the same day, they commit suicide together.
1964- The release of the Beatles first movie "A Hard Days Night".
At 2:59 PM,
Maureen Child said…
Pat!!
Ooooooh. Champagne. Shouldn't ol' Dom be made a saint??
Ah yes, the lovestory of Adolf and Eva....how creepy is THAT??
LOLOL.......A HARD DAY'S NIGHT! Been awhile since I've thought of that!!
those were great!
At 10:33 PM,
Pat said…
I remember going to see A Hard Days Night with my best friend. Whenever it got to a point in the movie where the Beatles were singing, everyone started screaming their lungs out. Such madness!! I'm glad I have those memories though.
At 9:09 AM,
Maureen Child said…
Oh, God, me too! I stood in line eight hours to get a ticket to that movie!! My friends and I were right there screaming with everyone else! LOL
Oh!! And I actually WON a ticket on a radio program to see the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl!
At 1:01 PM,
Erika said…
This is so much fun! I went a little overboard. Sorry.
1634: The first colonists to Maryland arrive at St. Clement's Island on Maryland's western shore and found the settlement of St. Mary's.
1975: In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, King Faisal is shot to death by his nephew, Prince Faisal.
On this day in 1774, British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city’s residents pay for the nearly $1 million worth (in today’s money) of tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the “Boston Tea Party” of December 16, 1773.
1901: The Mercedes was introduced by Gottlieb Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.
1920: Walter P. Chrysler resigned as executive vice president in charge of automotive operations for General Motors (GM).
1932: The Supreme Court hands down its decision in the case of Powell v. Alabama. The case arose out of the infamous Scottsboro case. Nine young black men were arrested and accused of raping two white women on train in Alabama. The boys were fortunate to barely escaped a lynch mob sent to kill them, but were railroaded into convictions and death sentences. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions on the basis that they did not have effective representation.
Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, the alleged victims, were not the virtuous women that the white establishment in Alabama had tried to portray. In fact, both were prostitutes who had concocted the charges out of thin air. Bates eventually recanted her testimony. The accused boys were not given lawyers until the morning of the trial and these attorneys made almost no effort to defend their clients. On the same day that the case began, the defendants were convicted and received death sentences.
1955: The U.S. Customs Department confiscates 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's book Howl, which had been printed in England. Officials alleged that the book was obscene.
At 1:58 PM,
Maureen Child said…
Erika! Good job!!
Boy, you really gotta watch your back when you're king, huh??
And I'm thinking Britain didn't get much of that money they demanded!!
Good God, the Scottsboro boys. Was that not the most hideous thing ever?? Anybody know what happened to the boys later? Please God, they didn't stay in jail.
And wouldn't you love to know what was considered 'obscene' in 55??
At 1:59 PM,
Maureen Child said…
Oh, and Erika, NEVER apologize for digging up interesting history tidbits!! it IS fun!
At 2:06 PM,
Erika said…
I was curious too, so here's what the rest of the article said. How blind was justice in the 1930's? Apparantly VERY!
The blatant unfairness of the case attracted the attention of liberals across the country. The transcript of the trial left the Supreme Court with no other choice but to throw out the convictions. Still, Alabama insisted on retrying the defendants. This time, Samuel Liebowitz, one of the premier defense attorneys of the day, came to represent the Scottsboro nine. It didn't matter.
The jury, all white men because black men were systematically excluded, convicted once again. In fact, there would be many more trials of the Scottsboro defendants over the years and each time the jury convicted and was later reversed on appeal. When the saga finally ended, all of the defendants were finally released. But not after they had served an average of ten years for the phantom crime.
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