RetroMental: Time Capsules

On this day in history many people woke up and didn’t realize what happened the day before. It would take a bit longer for many people to hear of the Watergate break-in, but eventually, it led to the downfall of President Nixon.

The Watergate scandal was an American political scandal during the presidency of Richard Nixon that resulted in the indictment and conviction of several of Nixon’s closest advisors, and ultimately in the resignation of the President himself, on August 9, 1974.

The scandal began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. Investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and later by the Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the press revealed that this burglary was one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon’s staff. They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations. This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy the silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in.

Of course the Watergate Hotel was covered by business insurance and nothing inside the hotel was actually destroyed. The political damage, however, never be repaired.

On this day in 1974, The Entertainer earned a gold record.

You can find out more about this day in history at Those Were The Days, and InfoPlease.

On this day in 1989,

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminating in the Tiananmen Square massacre (referred to in China as the June 4 Incident, to avoid confusion with two other Tiananmen Square protests) were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) beginning on April 14. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world.

I remember that day well. People in China stood up for their human rights, while Americans wondered what was on sale at Circuit City. Sometimes we forget what’s important, don’t we?

On this day in 1869, Thomas Edison received a patent for the electric vote recorder.

Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie’s father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison’s first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where as an employee of Western Union he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire. Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss’s desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.

One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of Edison’s earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U. S. Patent 90,646), which was granted on June 1, 1869.

Can you imagine what would be happening if Thomas Edison lived in the age of PS3 players and other such electronic devices?

Today, as in the past, there are problems that must be solved and challenges that must be met. We can tackle them with our full strength and creativity only because we are free to work them out in our own way. We owe this freedom of choice and action to those men and women in uniform who have served this nation and its interests in time of need. In particular, we are forever indebted to those who have given their lives that we might be free.
Ronald Reagan, May 26, 1983

Today, as in the past, there are problems that must be solved and challenges that must be met. We can tackle them with our full strength and creativity only because we are free to work them out in our own way. We owe this freedom of choice and action to those men and women in uniform who have served this nation and its interests in time of need. In particular, we are forever indebted to those who have given their lives that we might be free.
Ronald Reagan, May 26, 1983

I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth, I’m just taking a nice break from full time blogging while I get my full time business up and running. Visit the new site, Aria Interactive.

On this day in 1975, Saigon fell into the hands of the North Vietnamese.

Chaos, unrest, and panic broke out as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U.S., and foreign nationals from various parts of the city and from the U.S. embassy compound. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin’s belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached.

Schlesinger announced early in the morning of April 29, 1975 the evacuation from Saigon by helicopter of the last U.S. diplomatic, military, and civilian personnel. Frequent Wind was arguably the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on April 29, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited seats. Martin pleaded with Washington to dispatch $700 million in emergency aid to bolster the regime and help it mobilize fresh military reserves. But American public opinion had soured on this conflict halfway around the world.

American opinion soured as quick as a Colonix kit. One day your golden, the next day, when people find out what’s really going on, you’re toast.

On this day in 1945, American Forces liberated the Dachau concentration camp.

Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.

Opened in March 1933[1], it was the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of National Socialist (Nazi) NSDAP party and the German Nationalist People’s party (dissolved on 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”[2]

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps…

In the 1940’s people had no idea where Dachau was, until they saw it on the news. At least they knew where Germany was. These days most kids don’t even know where the Outer Banks are located, let alone a war that happened more than 60 years ago.

You can find out more about this day in history at Those Were The Days, and InfoPlease.

On this day in 1940, Glenn Miller’s signature song, Pennsylvania 6-5000, was recorded.