Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Using reconciliation to pass health care. Been there, tried that. Senator Robert K. Byrd made sure it didn’t happen.

That’s how we got the phrase, ‘flippin’ the Byrd’.

On this day in 1945, U.S. Marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima.

One of the first objectives after landing on the beachhead was the taking of Mount Suribachi. At the second raising of a flag on the peak, Joe Rosenthal photographed five Marines: Ira Hayes, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and U.S. Navy corpsman John Bradley raising the U.S. flag on the fourth day of the battle (February 23). The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography that same year, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.

On this day in 1946, Edith Houghton became the first female scout in the major leagues. In an age where women spend more time thinking about the best weight loss supplement, many women today might not comprehend the contribution Edith made to American culture, let alone baseball.

In the mid-1930s, baseball opportunities for women disappeared with the demise of the Bloomer Girls teams, and Edith turned, reluctantly, to softball, playing for the Roverettes in Madison Square Garden. When World War II broke out, she enlisted in the Navy’s women’s auxiliary, the WAVES, and played on their baseball team as well.

After the war, Edith wrote to Bob Carpenter, owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, asking for a job as a scout. Carpenter looked through her scrapbook and decided to give her a chance, making her the first female scout in the major leagues. Edith scouted for the Phillies for six years before being called up by the Navy during the Korean War.

On this day in 1924, the silent president, Calvin Coolidge spoke via radio to the American people.

I had no idea that he also did this:

On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted full U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans, while permitting them to retain tribal land and cultural rights. However, the act was not clear whether the federal government or the tribal leaders retained tribal sovereignty

Funny how the government always has gray areas when they deal with Native Americans. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Native Americans are some of the bravest. In an age where you can get phentermine no prescription, cheeseburgers that are 1400 calories, and mint chocolate chip ice cream, a nation should be able to retain their sovereignty.

On this day in 1932, sled dog racing hit the Olympics. What did the drivers do to keep in shape back then? What were their women like? I know they didn’t have the kymaro body shaper back then.

A sled dog race was included as a demonstration event at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. 5 contestants from Canada and 7 contestants from the United States competed. The event, run under the rules of the New England Sled Dog Club, ran twice over a 25.1 mile (40.5 km) long course. With six dogs per sled, each sled took off at three minute intervals, and intermediate times were given to the mushers at 4 miles (6.44km), 10.6 miles (17.06 km), and 22.46 miles (36.14km).

If you ask kids these days, they probably have no idea what the 15th amendment is. They don’t hesitate for a moment however to tell you all about a video game on the ps3 without error.

Amendment XV

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

On this day in 1972, Howard Hughes denounced Clifford Irving and sued his publisher for claiming to have written an autobiography about Hughes.

By 1958, Howard Hughes had become a recluse who hated any kind of public scrutiny. Whenever he found out that someone was writing an unauthorized biography about him, he bought the writer off. By the 1960s, he even refused to appear in court. According to various rumors, he was either terminally ill, mentally unstable, or even dead and replaced by an impersonator.

In 1970, in Spain, Irving met with an author and old friend, Richard Suskind, and spontaneously created the scheme to write Hughes’s “autobiography.” Irving and Suskind believed that because Hughes had completely withdrawn from public life, he would never want to draw attention to himself by denouncing the book or filing a lawsuit for slander. Suskind would do most of the necessary research in news archives. Irving started by forging letters in Hughes’s own hand, imitating authentic letters he had seen displayed in Newsweek magazine.

Irving contacted his publisher, McGraw-Hill, and claimed that he had corresponded with Hughes because of his book about de Hory and that Hughes had expressed interest in letting him write his autobiography. The McGraw-Hill editors invited him to New York, where he showed them three forged letters, one of which claimed that Hughes wished to have his biography written but that he wanted the project to remain secret for the time being. The autobiography would be based on interviews Hughes was willing to do with Irving.

Howard Hughes was in the Bahamas when he spoke to reporters about the hoax. In a mixup, Irving looked into booking some jamaica vacations just in case.

On this day in 1922, the tomb of King Tut was discovered in Egypt and t-shirts, souveniers and promotional tote bags haven’t been the same since.

The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun’s intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun’s burial mask remains the popular face.

If ancient Egypt needs a face, King Tut’s is a good choice.

On this day in 1835, Henry Burden patented the horseshoe manufacturing machine. I could spend all day looking up patents and other invention information. Using free web directories makes it easy to find some of the more detailed information on these discoveries.

The capacity of these works in the line of horseshoes alone is 60 shoes a minute, or 51,000,000 annually. In boiler bolts, 80 per minute are the work of the twelve rivet machines. In the spacious rolling mill (421 by 96 feet), devoted to merchant iron manufacture, is a splendid Corliss engine. 1400 workmen are employed, to whom $500,000 are annually paid in wages. The fruits of their labor are 600,000 kegs of horseshoes and 42,000 tons of iron, exclusive of pig, annually. Their yearly sales of horseshoes average about $2,000,000. Fifty horses are used, and 90,000 tons of coal expended annually by this establishment

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We should be thankful that Pierre Lallement was an inventor and not some couch potato who played on the xbox 360 all day long.

He filed the earliest and only patent for the pedal-bicycle in April 1866, the patent being awarded on November 20, 1866. His patent drawing shows a machine bearing a great resemblance to the style of dandy-horse built by Denis Johnson of London, with its serpentine frame, the only differences being the addition of the pedals and cranks, and a thin strip of iron above the frame acting as a spring upon which he mounted the saddle, to provide a more comfortable ride.