On this date in 1777 the Continental Congress approved a national flag:
In 1916 President Wilson issued a proclamation declaring June 14 Flag Day. The present design of the flag was established in 1818 — thirteen stripes to represent the original states and a star for each state. Until 1912 the arrangement of the stars was left to the discretion of the flag-maker. The current flag with 50 stars was established on July 4, 1960, when Hawaii was admitted to the Union. The Star-Spangled Banner at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 had 15 stars and 15 stripes. |
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Category: History
Brief narratives about people and events in the American past.
You have the right to remain silent
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found on this date in 1966 that Ernesto Miranda had not been informed of his rights before he confessed to the rape of a mildly retarded 18-year-old woman in 1963. His case was remanded to Arizona for a new trial. More importantly, the decision stated that the Constitution required that all persons arrested be informed of their rights before they were interrogated. These rights became known as Miranda Rights.
- You have the right to remain silent.
- Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
- You have the right to have an attorney present now and during any future questioning.
- If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you free of charge if you wish.
Ernesto Miranda was retried (he had remained in prison throughout on another conviction). He was found guilty on other evidence and sentenced for a second time to 20-30 years for rape. He was paroled in 1972 and for a time sold autographed “Miranda” cards such as the police carried.
Ultimately Miranda was stabbed to death in a bar fight in 1976.
Read the decision.
View Chief Justice Warren’s handwritten notes.
Listen to the oral argument [45 MB mp3 file].
AmericanHeritage.com had some background last year on the 40th anniversary.
America’s War Against Mexico
In a previous post I mentioned Timothy Henderson’s A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States
At the American Heritage Blog Henderson was interviewed. Here is the beginning of his answer to the last question, one concerning the Mexican War and today’s immigration issue. I urge you to read all of his answer, but here is the beginning of that answer.
I’m struck by how similar the debate on immigration is to the debates that preceded the U.S.–Mexican War. The debate tends to treat Mexico as if it were at best irrelevant to the issue, or at worst an agent of evil. It seems that the debaters seldom take into account that the problem now is identical to the problem then, namely the vast disparity in wealth and power between the two countries. Many of the migrants who come here have to abandon their families and endure tremendous hardship. It’s not as if they want to do that; they’re merely behaving as perfectly rational economic actors, going where the jobs are. So it’s offensive when people portray them as an evil brown-skinned horde intent on subverting our nationality and sapping our prosperity. Obviously, if Mexico were to become a prosperous and stable country, then the flow of illegal immigrants would slow to a trickle. Problem solved.
Once again, I urge you to read his entire response to the question, but here’s another money quote:
People who want to defend immigration happily point out that Mexicans are willing to do nasty, low-paid jobs that are just too hard or disgusting for Americans to do—and they say it as if this is a good thing. I have a hard time seeing that as a positive. Do we really want to encourage the formation of a permanent underclass of ethnically distinct people doing disagreeable menial labor? Isn’t that kind of what slavery was all about?
History books
A few weeks back NewMexiKen read The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
Of the two I recommend Stewart. His is clear, concise and more analytical. Bowen’s book is, I think, reflective of much history written a generation or two ago — a little too much he said, he said (there was no she said). It also changes approach in the middle, going from day-by-day to topic-by-topic. This is disconcerting. You know how today you can sometimes read nonfiction and it seems you can almost sense the cutting and pasting? With Bowen you can almost sense the “I’ll never get done doing this; I have to try another approach.”
Which isn’t to say Bowen’s book isn’t worthwhile. It is. It has been the standard work on the Constitutional Convention for more than 40 years.
But I’d read Stewart first.
Meanwhile, I’ve learned about A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States
There’s a interview with Henderson at the American Heritage Blog and, among other things he has this to say:
As for our own time, my suspicion is that most people nowadays don’t have many strong feelings one way or another about the [Mexican] war, simply because they know almost nothing about it. I talk to people all the time—intelligent, educated folks—who are genuinely surprised to learn that the Southwest came to us by way of a war with Mexico. That’s true even of people who’ve lived their entire lives in the Southwest, and of people who grew up in towns with names like “Buena Vista” and “Monterrey.” If more people knew the circumstances under which the United States began the war with Mexico, they might have cause to cringe. But my impression is that folks who like to read about wars tend to favor military history, and from a purely military standpoint the United States acquitted itself very well in Mexico.
The bottom line, I think, is that for Americans—and most peoples of the world, I would guess—winning counts for a great deal, and the United States won the war with Mexico decisively. In the bargain, it achieved the objective of territorial expansion, which I think most Americans broadly supported. And when I read some of the rhetoric in the debate on immigration, I don’t see a nation wracked by guilt over past injustices to Mexico.
I’ll let you know what I think when I get Henderson’s book.
Lincoln Message Discovered
Today, the National Archives announced the discovery of a new Abraham Lincoln message written in President Lincoln’s own hand to Major General Henry Halleck. The message, which was found among the Adjutant General’s Records in the stacks at the National Archives Building, is dated July 7, 1863. . . .
Lincoln’s message said:
Major Genl Halleck
We have certain information that Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July. Now, if Gen. Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the litteral(sic) or substantial destruction of Lee’s army, the rebellion will be over.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN
NewMexiKen found some pretty interesting previously unknown handwritten messages in my career at the Archives — JFK to Nixon, Reagan to Nixon — but I have to admit, no Lincolns. The contents of the Lincoln message above have long been known from the telegram Halleck sent to Meade relaying its content.
Lee’s Resolutions
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 vote on the resolution was set aside until July 1st — it actually occurred on the 2nd. In the meanwhile a committee was formed to draft a formal declaration of independence.
Note in the resolution the plural ” free and independent states.”
New NewMexiKen Poll
NewMexiKen read yesterday about a movement in Vermont advocating that the state leave the United States. Other states have similar talk.
NewMexiKen thought the issue of secession had been settled in 1865. What do you think? The comments are available for you to elaborate.
{democracy:14}
June 6th
Levi Stubbs is 71. Stubbs was and is the lead vocalist of The Four Tops.
“The Four Tops deserve to be recognized both for their achievements and their longevity. On the latter count, the group performed for over four decades together without a single change in personnel – a record of constancy that is mind-boggling in the notoriously changeable world of popular music. As for their accomplishments, the Four Tops cut some of Motown’s most memorable singles during the label’s creative zenith, including “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “Bernadette.” The Four Tops’ greatest records were recorded at Motown with the in-house songwriting and production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland between 1964 and 1967.
It’s Stubbs who sings:
Now if you feel that you can’t go on
Because all of your hope is gone
And your life is filled with much confusion
Until happiness is just an illusion
And your world around is tumbling down
Darling reach out
C’mon girl
Reach on out for me
Reach out for me
Tennis Hall of Famer Bjorn Borg is 51.
Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti is 40. He was nominated for his supporting role in Cinderella Man.
Hall of Fame Yankee catcher Bill Dickey was born on June 6th, 100 years ago today. Not as well known as some other Yankees perhaps, Dickey nevertheless is one of the team whose number has been retired (with Yogi Berra’s — they both wore 8). FYI Martin 1, Ruth 3, Gehrig 4, DiMaggio 5, Mantle 7 and Maris 9 are among other numbers retired. Jeter wears 2.
Nathan Hale was born on June 6th in 1755. “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” he said when hanged by the British in 1776 as an American spy. Hale had volunteered to report on British positions in New York. He was caught when Scooter Libby’s ancestor revealed Hale’s covert identity to Robert Novak.
Robert Kennedy
. . . was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan early on this date in 1968. The 42-year-old brother of assassinated president John Kennedy died the next day. Read the story from The New York Times.
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Sirhan’s snubnosed .22-caliber Iver Johnson Cadet model revolver, which wounded five individuals in addition to killing Senator Kennedy. |
FDR
Acclaimed biographer Jean Edward Smith (John Marshall, Ulysses Grant) has published a new biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR
Early reviews are glowing. Smith’s Grant book garnered him a Pulitzer nomination in 2002.
(Actually, I figured this was an important book when I saw it stacked on the table at Costco the other day.)
The 19th amendment
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 sex.
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.
- 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 in in 1953.
- Florida ratified in 1969.
- South Carolina rejected the amendment in 1920, but ratified 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.
Makes one proud to be a Yankee.
June 4th
Angelina Jolie is 32. So many men, so little time.
Doctor Carter — Noah Wyle — is 36.
Gordon Waller of Peter and Gordon (“World Without Love,” “I Go to Pieces”) is 62.
Chester Goode, Tom Wedloe and Sam McCloud were born on June 4th in 1924. That’s Dennis Weaver. Chester was from Gunsmoke, Tom Wedloe from Gentle Ben and Sam McCloud, of course, the Taos marshal in the NYPD. The best Weaver role though, was David Mann, the driver chased by the large truck in Steven Spielberg’s Duel.
The Battle of Midway was fought on June 4, 1942.
Sixty-five years ago today, the United States Navy gained the greatest victory in its history. Against overwhelming odds, it won the American equivalent of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and decisively reversed the strategic situation in the Pacific in a single day.
John Steele Gordon has the story at AmericanHeritage.com.
Tiananmen
The Chinese army crackdown on the protests in and around Tiananmen Square was 18 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 historic events there. The building in the background is the Great Hall of the People. At left is the Monument of the People’s Heroes. (Click photo for larger version.)
We’ll take Manhattan
Legend and a number of historical accounts have it that on this date in 1626, Manhattan Island was purchased from the Canarsee Delawares by the Dutchman Peter Minuit. Most accounts state that Dutch beads were part of the deal.
The only known document specifically relating to the acquisition was written in Amsterdam late in 1626 as a report to the board of the West India Company. It said, in part:
They [the crew and passengers of a returning ship] report that our people are in good heart and live in peace there; the women have also borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders; ’tis 11,000 morgens (about 22,00[0] acres) in size.
60 guilders has been estimated as worth from $24 to $300. Manhattan is actually about 15,000 acres, not 22,000.
The late bead historian Peter Francis argued in his prize-winning 1986 article “The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan Island” that, because this contemporary report does not mention beads, we cannot assume that beads were part of the transaction. According to Francis, beads were added to the story by Martha J. Lamb in her History of the City of New York (1877). It was only from then on that Dutch beads became part of the story. And, as a result, making the Delawares seem even more ignorant in light of Manhattan’s growing importance and wealth.
NewMexiKen however, wonders whether “for the value of 60 guilders” does not imply trade goods rather than coin. What use would Dutch money have been to the Delawares? And, if the transaction was strictly for money, why not report “for 60 guilders” rather than the vague “for the value of 60 guilders”? Trade goods were used in the purchase of Staten Island in August 1626 according to a copy of the deed – “Some Diffies, Kittles, Axes, Hoes, Wampum, Drilling Awls, Jew’s Harps, and diverse other wares” [Diffies are cloth]. What does “Wampum” mean in this Dutch account if not beads? The word “Wampum” comes from the Narragansett word for white shell beads.
More than likely the Delawares assumed they were “leasing” the use of the land. Permanent title would not have occurred to them. And $24 to $300 for a lease (whether in cash or goods) would not have been unattractive.
As the result of war, the Dutch traded New Amsterdam to the English in 1667 for what is now Suriname (Dutch Guyana).
May 24th
Victoria was born on May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III. None of her uncles had legitimate children who survived, so when her uncle William IV died in 1837, she became queen at age 18. Her reign lasted until 1901; the longest of any British monarch. She had nine children and is Elizabeth II’s great great grandmother.
The first passenger railroad in the U.S. began service between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, on May 24th in 1830. That’s 13 miles.
The first telegraph message was transmitted by Samuel F. B. Morse on May 24th in 1844. Sent from Washington to Baltimore it said, “What hath God wrought!”
The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24th in 1883. Click here for every fact you ever needed to know about this landmark.
The first Major League Baseball night game was played in Cincinnati on May 24, 1935. The Reds beat the Phillies 2-1. The Reds played seven night games that year (one against each National League opponent).
Tommy Chong, he’s Chong of Cheech and Chong, is 69.
Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, that is Gary Burghoff, is 67.
Priscilla Presley is 62.
Alfred Molina is 54.
Rosanne Cash is 52. She was born a month before her father released his first record, “Cry, Cry, Cry.”
John C. Reilly is 42.
Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 24th 66 years ago. That’s Bob Dylan, of course.
From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
Bob Dylan is the pre-eminent poet/lyricist and songwriter of his time. He re-energized the folk-music genre, brought a new lyrical depth to rock and roll when he went electric, and bridged the worlds of rock and country by recording in Nashville. As much as he’s played the role of renegade throughout his career, Dylan has also kept the rock and roll community mindful of its roots by returning often to them. With his songs, Dylan has provided a running commentary on a restless age. His biting, imagistic and often cryptic lyrics served to capture and define the mood of a generation. For this, he’s been elevated to the role of spokesmen – and yet the elusive and reclusive Dylan won’t even admit to being a poet. “I don’t call myself a poet because I don’t like the word,” he has said.
Angels and Ages
A fascinating survey of recent Lincoln literature by Adam Gopnik in this week’s New Yorker. He begins:
This all began on a very long plane ride, East Coast to West, when I was reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals,” her book about Abraham Lincoln and his political competitors, and how, in the course of the Civil War, he turned them into a collegial Cabinet. It is a well-told, many-sided story, which attempts to give context to Lincoln without diminishing him, to place him among his peers and place him above them, too.
Coming to the end of the book, to the night of April 14, 1865, and Lincoln’s assassination, I reached the words that were once engraved in every American mind. At 7:22 A.M., as Lincoln drew his last breath, all the worthies who had crowded into a little back bedroom in a boarding house across the street from Ford’s Theatre turned to Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s formidable Secretary of War, for a final word. Stanton is the one with the long comic beard and the spinster’s spectacles, who in the photographs looks a bit like Mr. Pickwick but was actually the iron man in the Cabinet, and who, after a difficult beginning, had come to revere Lincoln as a man and a writer and a politician—had even played something like watchful Horatio to his tragic Hamlet. Stanton stood still, sobbing, and then said, simply, “Now he belongs to the ages.”
Or did Stanton say, as others have claimed, “Now he belongs to the angels”? Read the article and . . .
The Civil War in 4 minutes
May 23rd
Jewel is 33 today. Joan Collins is 74. Marvin Hagler is 55. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Jewel’s last name is Kilcher.
Drew Carey is 49.
Lauren Chapin, who played the youngest daughter, Kathy or Kitten, on “Father Knows Best,” is 62.
Benjamin Sherman Crothers — known to us better as Scatman Crothers — was born May 23rd in 1910. Crothers is best remembered as the permissive orderly in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the concerned chef in The Shining and as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man. He was also a successful composer and singer and did a number of cartoon voices. The nickname Scatman came from his scat singing. Crothers died in 1986.
Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23rd in 1934. The FBI has a web page with details about Bonnie and Clyde, including a photo of each. Not exactly Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman (who portrayed Clyde’s brother Buck). All three were nominated for an acting Oscar, as were Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons. Parsons, who played Buck’s wife Blanche in the 1967 film, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
William Harvey Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on May 23rd in 1900 — for duty performed nearly 37 years earlier at Fort Wagner, S.C. Sergeant Carney was the first African-American to receive the Medal of Honor. Carney was a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, the regiment whose story was told in the film Glory (1989) with Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick. Carney was not portrayed in the film by name. The citation for Carney’s Medal of Honor reads: “When the color sergeant was shot down, this soldier grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon. When the troops fell back he brought off the flag, under a fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded.”
The beginning of William Clark’s entry in 1804: “Wednesday May 23rd 8 Indians Kick: [Kickapoo] Came to Camp with meat we recved their pesents of 3 Deer & gave them Whisky ….”
Lucky Lindy Lands at Le Bourget
Paris, May 21 — Lindbergh did it. Twenty minutes after 10 o’clock tonight suddenly and softly there slipped out of the darkness a gray-white airplane as 25,000 pairs of eyes strained toward it. At 10:24 the Spirit of St. Louis landed and lines of soldiers, ranks of policemen and stout steel fences went down before a mad rush as irresistible as the tides of ocean.
“Well, I made it,” smiled Lindbergh, as the little white monoplane came to a halt in the middle of the field and the first vanguard reached the plane. Lindbergh made a move to jump out. Twenty hands reached for him and lifted him out as if he were a baby. Several thousands in a minute were around the plane. Thousands more broke the barriers of iron, rails round the field, cheering wildly.
Why Lincoln Fell Gravely Ill After Delivering His Gettysburg Address
Many school children in the United States memorize President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, considered one of history’s most brilliant speeches and a model of brevity and persuasive rhetoric.
But according to two medical researchers at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, most historians have failed to recognize that when Lincoln delivered it on Nov. 19, 1863, he was in the early stages of a life-threatening illness — a serious form of smallpox. Their report appears in the current issue of Journal of Medical Biography, a scholarly quarterly published by the Royal Society of Medicine Press in London.
Almost a third of those contracting this serious form of smallpox in the mid-19th century died, the researchers said.
Link via Andrew Sullivan. NewMexiKen agrees with Sullivan: “Ju[s]t when you thought he couldn’t be more impressive a figure …”
Off with ‘er ‘ead
The Writer’s Almanac has an informative little piece on Anne Boleyn on this, the 471st anniversary of her beheading (for adultery, Henry was very strict).
‘Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal’
The Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Brown v. Board of Education on this date in 1954.
We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia were effected. Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia had mandatory segregation. Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming had laws that permitted segregation, though the law had never been applied in Wyoming.
The Board of Education in the case title is the Topeka, Kansas, board. The decision actually dealt with four cases from Kansas (Topeka), South Carolina (Clarendon County), Virginia (Prince Edward County), and Delaware (New Castle County).
The decision was 9-0.
The 100, Make That 43, Greatest Americans
NewMexiKen first took a look at the AOL-Discovery Channel 100 Greatest Americans list two years ago today. Here’s the list with my comments.
The Jamestown Test
Washington Post columnist John Kelly dresses up as John Smith to see what people know about Jamestown. Silly and light-hearted, but I thought it had its moments.
The Jamestown Test [5-minute video]
Give ’em Hell, Harry
Harry Truman was born on May 8th in 1884.
The Truman Library has the Truman diary online. The diary, which was just discovered in 2003, was kept intermittently by the President during 1947. It is fascinating reading.
The entry for July 25:
At 3:30 today had a very interesting conversation with Gen[eral] Eisenhower. Sent for him to discuss the new Sec[retary] for National Defense. Asked him if he could work with Forestal [sic]. He said he could. Told him that I would have given the job to Bob Patterson had he stayed on as Sec[retary] of War. I couldn’t bring myself to force him to stay. He has three daughters comming [sic] on for education and I know what that means, having had only one. But she is in a class by herself and I shouldn’t judge Patterson’s three by her. No one ever had a daughter equal to mine!
After the discussion on Forestal [sic] was over Ike & I visited and talked politics. He is going to Columbia U[niversity] in NY as President. What a job he can do there. He’ll do it too. We discussed MacArthur and his superiority complex.
When Ike went to the far east on an inspection tour in 1946 I asked him to tell Gen[eral] Marshall, then special envoy to China, if he’d accept appointment to Sec[retary] of State. Byrnes was tired, sick and wanted to quit. Ike, when he returned came in and said “Gen[eral] Marshall said yes.” So when Byrnes quit I appointed Marshall and did not even ask him about it!
Ike & I think MacArthur expects to make a Roman Triumphal return to the U. S. a short time before the Republican Convention meets in Philadelphia. I told Ike that if he did that that he (Ike) should announce for the nomination for President on the Democratic ticket and that I’d be glad to be in second place, or Vice President. I like the Senate anyway. Ike & I could be elected and my family & myself would be happy outside this great white jail, known as the White House.
Ike won’t quot [sic] me & I won’t quote him.
David McCullough’s Truman