Archive for December, 2008

On this day in 1957, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married, setting the stage for one of the best singing duos in history.

In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first Vice President of the United States to resign.

John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a leading United States Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun was an advocate of slavery, states’ rights, limited government, and nullification.

He was the first Vice President, (March 4, 1825 – December 28, 1832), under two different Presidents, Adams and Jackson, born as a U.S. citizen (his predecessors were born before the revolution) and also the first Vice President to resign his office.

After a short stint in the South Carolina legislature, where he wrote legislation making South Carolina the first state to adopt universal suffrage for white men, Calhoun, barely 30, began his federal career as a staunch nationalist, favoring war with Britain in 1812.

However, it is said by some historians, without stating clearly their point, that in the 1820s, the sometimes known as “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824 by Speaker of the House at the time, Henry Clay giving the Presidency, (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829), to 6th President John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay being rewarded with the Secretary of State under Adams, rather than to 7th President Andrew Jackson, (March 4, 1829 – March 4, 1837) led him to renounce nationalism in favor of states’ rights of the sort Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had propounded in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.

By going into senatorial duties, renouncing to the Vice Presidency, in 1832, he got more power, apparently, than keeping associated to Jackson.

On this day in 1947, Howdy Doody appeared on NBC.

On this day in 1972, former President Harry S. Truman died.

In 1956, Truman took a trip to Europe with his wife, and was a sensation. In Britain he received an honorary degree in Civic Law from Oxford University, an event that moved him to tears. He met with his friend Winston Churchill for the last time, and on returning to the U.S., he gave his full support to Adlai Stevenson’s second bid for the White House, although he had initially favored Democratic Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York for the nomination.

Upon turning 80, Truman was feted in Washington and asked to address the United States Senate, as part of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the floor. Truman was so emotionally overcome by the honor and by his reception that he was barely able to deliver his speech. He also campaigned for senatorial candidates. A bad fall in the bathroom of his home in late 1964 severely limited his physical capabilities, and he was unable to maintain his daily presence at his presidential library.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill at the Truman Library and gave the first two Medicare cards to Truman and his wife Bess to honor his fight for government health care as president.

On December 5, 1972, he was admitted to Kansas City’s Research Hospital and Medical Center with lung congestion from pneumonia. He subsequently developed multiple organ failure and died at 7:50 a.m. on December 26 at the age of 88. Bess Truman died nearly ten years later, on October 18, 1982. He and Bess are buried at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Truman decided against lying in state in the Capitol rotunda and a state funeral in Washington, opting instead for a simple service at the library.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Twas The Night Before Christmas was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

On this day in 1807, the U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act.

The Embargo Act was a series of laws passed by the Congress of the United States between the years 1806-1808, during the second term of President Thomas Jefferson. It was partly brought upon by the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair involving Britain attacking U.S. ships, and partly by Britain prohibiting its trading partners from trading with France. Britain and France were at war;[clarification needed] the U.S. was neutral and trading with both sides, although each side tried to hinder American trade with the other. Jefferson’s goal was to use economic warfare instead of military warfare to secure the rights of Americans. Initially, these acts sought to punish the United Kingdom for its violations of American rights on the high seas; among these were the impressment of sailors of American ships–sailors who claimed to be American citizens but whom the Royal Navy suspected as deserters. The later Embargo Acts, particularly those of 1807-1808 period, were passed in an attempt to stop Americans and American communities that sought to–or were suspected of intending to–defy the embargo. However, they caused significant economic damage to Americans – exports plummeted from $108 million in 1807 to $22 million in 1808.[1] These Acts were ultimately repealed at the end of Jefferson’s second (and last) term. A modified version of these Acts would return for a brief time in 1813 under the presidential administration of Jefferson’s successor, James Madison.

Nothing is like it used to be. These days, aides would get Plantar Fasciitis walking copies back and forth to the Hill.

On this day in 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Pilgrims, or Pilgrim Fathers (or Pilgrim Mothers), is a name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their leadership came from a religious congregation who had fled a volatile political environment in the East Midlands of England for the relative calm of the Netherlands to preserve their religion.

Concerned with losing their cultural identity, the group later arranged with English investors of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London to establish a new colony in North America. The colonists faced a lengthy series of challenges, from bureaucracy, impatient investors and internal conflicts to sabotage, storms, disease, and uncertain relations with the indigenous people. The colony, established in 1620, became the second successful English settlement in what was to become the United States of America. The first was Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607. The Pilgrims’ story has become a central theme of the history and culture of the United States.

On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.

Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

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