George McGovern, a very good man if a very poor presidential candidate, is 88 today.
Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona was born in El Paso 69 years ago today. We know her as Vikki Carr. She had three top 40 hits, including “It Must Be Him,” which topped at number 3 in 1966.
Howard Schultz, the developer of Starbucks, is 57 today.
Anthony Edwards, “Goose,” is 48 today.
The artist Edgar Degas was born in Paris on this date in 1834. He is especially identified with dance as a subject. Degas is considered an Impressionist, even a founder of the school, but he rejected the term. That’s Degas’s L’Absinthe.
Sam Colt was born on this date in 1814.
Sam Colt’s success story began with the issuance of a U.S. patent in 1836 for the Colt firearm equipped with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets. Colt’s revolver provided its user with greatly increased firepower. Prior to his invention, only one- and two-barrel flintlock pistols were available. In the 163 years that have followed, more than 30 million revolvers, pistols, and rifles bearing the Colt name have been produced, almost all of them in plants located in the Hartford, Connecticut, area. The Colt revolving-cylinder concept is said to have occurred to Sam Colt while serving as a seaman aboard the sailing ship Corvo. There he observed a similar principle in the workings of the ship’s capstan. During his leisure hours, Sam carved a wooden representation of his idea. The principle was remarkable in its simplicity and its applicability to both longarms and sidearms.
George McGovern, counter to his pacifist image, was a war hero in World War II. As a B-24 pilot, he flew 35 missions over heavily defended, strategic targets in southern Europe. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely crash-landing his damaged heavy bomber on a short runway at an English fighter base, saving the lives of all his crewmen. On his final mission, his plane was hit more than 100 times by flak, a couple of crewmen — including the flight engineer — were wounded, and the plane’s hydraulic system rendered non-functional. McGovern got the plane back on the ground safely. When the war was over, he flew relief flights to Northern Italy, taking food and medicine to refugees until he was ordered home.
I’ve always found it fascinating that Richard Nixon — who served mostly as a clerk — successful in painting McGovern as being somehow afraid to fight. It’s a little bit like Bush vs. Kerry, with the one who served the easier duty calling into question the devotion of the one who served heroically. I think it says a lot about us as a country that we fall for that kind of crap.
Thanks, Tom.