Category: History

… was assassinated in Sarajevo on this date in 1914, igniting what we know as World War I.

Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary. After the Emperor’s son had committed suicide and Ferdinand’s own father had died, Ferdinand was first in succession to the Emperor. He was considered likely to be a reformer, which upset Balkan nationalists.

In all, there were seven assassins along the route of the Archduke’s car, all Bosnian Serbs. The third of the seven, Nedelko Cabrinovic,

threw a bomb, but failed to see the car in time to aim well: he missed the heir’s car and hit the next one, injuring several people. Cabrinovic swallowed poison and jumped into a canal, but he was saved from suicide and arrested. He died of tuberculosis in prison in 1916.

The seventh was Gavrilo Princip.

Princip heard Cabrinovic’s bomb go off and assumed that the Archduke was dead. By the time he heard what had really happened, the cars had driven by. By bad luck, a little later the returning procession missed a turn and stopped to back up at a corner just as Princip happened to walk by. Princip fired two shots: one killed the archduke, the other his wife. Princip was arrested before he could swallow his poison capsule or shoot himself. Princip too was a minor under Austrian law, so he could not be executed. Instead he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and died of tuberculosis in 1916.

It was the Archduke and Sophie’s fourteenth wedding anniversary. The Archduke’s last words were, “Sophie dear, Sophie dear, don’t die! Stay alive for our children.”

In the aftermath of the assassination, diplomatic efforts failed, perhaps because both Austria and Serbia feared loss of national prestige. Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany sided with Austria; Russia supported Serbia as required by treaty. France was obligated to support Russia in any war with Germany or Austria-Hungary. Britain was obligated to support France in an any war with Germany.

Source for quotes and some background: The Balkan Causes of World War One.

… at the end of World War I was signed on this date in 1919, five years to the day after the assassination that sparked the war.

The United States Senate never ratified the Treaty, as much for political as diplomatic reasons.

… died on this date in 1829.

Smithson’s will left the bulk of his estate to his nephew, Henry James Hungerford. But should his nephew die without children—legitimate or illegitimate—a contingency clause stated that the estate would go to “the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge…”

Source: The Smithsonian Institution

The nephew did indeed die without children and in 1838 approximately $500,000 in gold was brought to the United States. After a decade of indecision and debate about how best to carry out the bequest, the Smithsonian Institution was created by Act of Congress (1846).

Here’s what that gift has led to:

• African Art Museum
• National Air and Space Museum and Udvar-Hazy Center
• American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery
• National Museum of American History
• National Museum of the American Indian
• Anacostia Museum (African American history and culture)
• Arts and Industries Building (Discovery Theater)
• Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
• Freer and Sackler Galleries (Asian art)
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Zoo
• National Museum of Natural History
• National Portrait Gallery
• Postal Museum
• Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle)

According to the Smithsonian:

Senator John C. Calhoun opposed acceptance of the Smithson bequest, largely on the grounds that to do so on behalf of the entire nation would abridge states’ rights. He maintained that Congress had no authority to accept the gift. He also asserted that it would be “beneath [U.S.] dignity to accept presents from anyone.”

First posted here five years ago today.

---

It’s my first day in the building, I have not taken a single vote, I have not introduced one bill, had not even sat down in my desk, and this very earnest reporter raises his hand and says:

“Senator Obama, what is your place in history?”

I did what you just did, which is laugh out loud. I said, place in history? I thought he was kidding! At that point, I wasn’t even sure the other Senators would save a place for me at the cool kids’ table.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama in commencement address at Knox College

On June 24th 503 years ago today, the Italian Giovanni Caboto, sailing for the English as John Cabot, made landfall. He and his English crew were the first reported Europeans to see North America. (Leiv Eiriksson had been in the area nearly 500 years previously, but left no record.)

Cabot’s own log and maps, if he had them, have never been located, and scholars have debated his route. He may have landed first in Labrador or Newfoundland or even Nova Scotia.

Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage has a good presentation.

“What the Wilsons did was just desperately terrible. It was really the grandest deception in the world. It’s really a very shocking story.”

From The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 3), an analysis of President Wilson’s stroke. Fascinating that the man could be incapacitated and remain in office. The study includes this:

The subsequent role played by the president’s doctors, his family and political friends was complex.  But it is clear that they were involved in a coverup.  Since the president was actually impaired — at least physically — what do you tell the Washington news corps?  Or do you deny it to yourself and others?  A determined group of gatekeepers intervened: Ike Hoover, Dr. Grayson and Edith Bolling Wilson, Wilson’s second wife, who became the de facto president of the United States.

. . . ratified the U.S. Constitution on this date in 1788, the ninth state to do so. Nine was the number necessary to put the Constitution into effect. It ought to be a national holiday.

Live Free or Die

On June 20, 1893, a jury filed into a Massachusetts courtroom crammed with reporters from all over the country, and announced a verdict in a case that had gripped the nation for nearly a year. Lizzie Borden, age 32, stood accused of murdering her wealthy father and stepmother with a hatchet.

American Heritage has the story.

… joined the Union as the 35th state on this date in 1863.

View President Lincoln’s handwritten corrections to Secretary of State Seward’s opinion on the admission of West Virginia. “Western is not the name. It is ‘West‘ Va.”

Napoleon met his Waterloo at the Belgian village of Waterloo on this date in 1815.

The BBC has a concise history of the battle beginning with this introduction:

The Battle of Waterloo was fought thirteen kilometres south of Brussels between the French, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General Blücher from Prussia. The French defeat at Waterloo drew to a close 23 years of war beginning with the French Revolutionary wars in 1792 and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars from 1803. There was a brief eleven-month respite when Napoleon was forced to abdicate, exiled to the island of Elba. However, the unpopularity of Louis XVIII and the economic and social instability of France motivated him to return to Paris in March 1815. The Allies soon declared war once again. Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo marked the end of the Emperor’s final bid for power, the so-called ‘100 Days’, and the final chapter in his remarkable career.

Defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon’s reign. He was exiled to the island of St. Helena where he died in 1821 at age 51.

… on which the fate of America depends.”

Or so Abigail Adams wrote to husband John the day after the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was fought on June 17, 1775. The first major battle of the American Revolutionary War, it was fought more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.

After the action at Lexington and Concord in April (Paul Revere’s ride, the shot heard ’round the world), the reinforced British were camped in Boston. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety determined to contain the British in the town by occupying the heights of Charlestown north of Boston (and Dorchester south of it). The strategy was dubious, however, because the militia did not have artillery to defend the heights once occupied.

Regardless, by the morning of June 17, some 1,200 Americans were entrenched on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown — not Bunker Hill, which is higher and would have been a better choice. (In other words, the battle is known by the wrong name.) Reinforcements increased the number to 1,500 by afternoon.

The Americans were bombarded by British cannon shooting uphill and without much effect. Around 3:30 some 2,200 British troops attacked the fortified position — uphill, carrying 125 pound knapsacks. The first two assaults were thrown back, but the third succeeded as American gun powder ran out after about two-and-a-half hours.

Though the British took the hill, they suffered more than 1,000 casualties — “The dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold.” American losses were less than 500.

The Battle of Bunker Hill encouraged the colonies. It proved that American forces could inflict heavy losses on the British. It also had the effect of confining the British out of their own excessive caution. There was no more military action around Boston and the Redcoats withdrew the following March. (By then the Americans under George Washington did have cannon on Dorchester Heights.)

An American officer, William Prescott, is said to have ordered during the battle, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

The Massachusetts Historical Society has an excellent web site relating to the Battle of Bunker Hill.

O.J.’s cruise down the freeway in the white Bronco was 16 years ago today.

Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speech at Springfield, Illinois, 152 years ago today.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as well as South.

The speech was made at the Illinois Republican State convention that had nominated Lincoln for U.S. Senator. It was a precursor to the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the campaign that followed, which Lincoln lost. It seems to be about as succinct a statement of the core issue of the American Civil War as one could find.

The phrase “a house divided” comes from Matthew 12:25 — “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”

It was on June 7 in 1776 that the idea of independence was first officially proposed in the Continental Congress. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced and John Adams seconded the following:

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

The Avalon Project

The vote on the resolution was set aside until July 1st — it actually occurred on July 2nd. On June 11th Congress appointed the Committee of Five to draft a formal declaration of independence — John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut.

Note in the resolution the plural ” free and independent states.”

June 7: Resolution introduced
July 2: Resolution approved (12 colonies for; New York abstained, later voted for)
July 4: Declaration of Independence approved

On the Fourth of July we celebrate the birth announcement, not the birth.

… first looked west from Cumberland Gap into what is now Kentucky on this date in 1769. The Kentucky Historical Society celebrates June 7 as “Boone Day.” Boone was not the first person through Cumberland Gap; he wasn’t even the first European-American. He was, however, instrumental in blazing a trail, which became known as the Wilderness Road. According to the National Park Service:

Immigration through the Gap began immediately, and by the end of the Revolutionary War some 12,000 persons had crossed into the new territory. By 1792 the population was over 100,000 and Kentucky was admitted to the Union.

During the 1790s traffic on the Wilderness Road increased. By 1800 almost 300,000 people had crossed the Gap going west. And each year as many head of livestock were driven east. As it had always been, the Gap was an important route of commerce and transportation.

A few of NewMexiKen’s very own ancestors went down that road on their way, ultimately, to Illinois.

NewMexiKen photos 2006. Click either image for larger versions.

A good day to watch the opening half-hour of Saving Private Ryan and marveling at the courage and determination it portrays.

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Forces:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Image of Eishenhower’s original

Audio of Eisenhower

Thanks to Tom for the idea.

The original, unamended Constitution does not say who can or cannot vote. The Constitution specifically leaves it up to the states:

Article I. Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

Senators were chosen by state legislatures. The president, of course, by Electors.

The subsequent amendments for race, color and prior servitude (15th), gender (19th), poll tax (24th) and age (26th) simply told the states that they could not deny the vote for those reasons.

The Chinese army crackdown on the protests in and around Tiananmen Square was 21 years ago today. According to estimates by the Chinese Red Cross (accepted at the time by the U.S. State Department) some 2,600 protesters and military were killed and another 7,000 wounded.

This declassified State Department cable (June 22, 1989) provides the account of a witness to the violence on the night of June 3-4. The students believed that the military would be firing rubber bullets. The witness tells that “he had a sickening feeling when he noticed the bullets striking sparks off the pavement near his feet.”

This second declassified cable provides an hour-by-hour chronology of the events of the night of June 3-4, 1989.

While difficult to read, these documents tell the story as American diplomats reported it.

NewMexiKen took this photo in Tiananmen Square just three years after the events there. The building in the background is the Great Hall of the People. At left is the Monument of the People’s Heroes.

SECTION 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Congress sent the 19th Amendment to the states for ratification on this date in 1919. By August of 1920, the necessary 36 states (of 48) had ratified the amendment and it went into effect.

It’s interesting to note the 12 states that had not yet ratified, including several that had rejected the amendment.

• Connecticut ratified in September 1920.
• Vermont ratified in 1921.
• Delaware rejected the amendment in 1920, but did ratify in 1923.
• Maryland rejected the amendment in 1920, but ratified it in 1941.
• Virginia rejected the amendment in 1920, but ratified it in 1952.
• Alabama rejected the amendment in 1919, but ratified it in 1953.
• Florida ratified in 1969.
• South Carolina rejected the amendment in 1920, but ratified it in 1969.
• Georgia rejected the amendment in 1919, but ratified it in 1970.
• Louisiana rejected the amendment in 1920, but ratified it in 1970.
• North Carolina ratified in 1971.
• Mississippi rejected the amendment in 1920, but ratified it in 1984.

Not that long ago.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor tells us:

On this day in 1718, the French Canadian Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville discovered the city that would come to be called Crescent City, the Big Easy, and the City That Care Forgot. But he called it La Nouvelle Orléans, New Orleans, named for Philippe d’Orléans, the Regent of France.

Follow the link above to read a little about New Orleans’ literary history, including a comment from David Simon on the uniqueness of the city.

Also this — The Founding French Fathers of New Orleans.

Herb Morrison reporting — with a human if not altogether professional reaction.

Thirty-six were killed — 13 of the 36 passengers, 22 of the 61 crew, and one ground crew member.

The Hindenburg did not explode because it was filled with hydrogen as long thought. The outer skin of the big German aircraft — longer than three 747s — was painted with an iron oxide, powdered aluminum compound to reflect sunlight (to minimize heat build up). The powdered aluminum was highly flammable and was ignited by an electrostatic charge in the imperfectly grounded zeppelin.

How flammable is iron oxide and aluminum? It’s the fuel used to launch the Shuttle.