Category: History

From the Library of Congress:

On April 12, 1818, a new flag flew over the U.S. Capitol for the first time. The flag’s thirteen stripes represented the original colonies, and its twenty stars symbolized the number of states in the Union.

The first national flag, emblazoned with thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, was modified in 1795 when Kentucky and Vermont entered the Union. A flag with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes was used during the war of 1812. It was the fifteen star and fifteen stripe flag which flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Continued expansion of the Union meant Congress soon again faced the prospect of adding to the number of the flag’s stars and stripes. Thus, in 1818, Congress settled on the expediency of altering the flag according to its present formula whereby stripes represent the original thirteen colonies, and stars are coincident with the number of states in the Union. The Independence Day following the admission of a State was set as the occasion for adding new stars to the flag. With the admission of Hawaii, the fiftieth star was added to the flag on July 4, 1960.

Photo is of the Star Spangled Banner.

Head Quarters of the Armies of the United States
Appomattox C.H. Va. Apl 9th 1865

Gen. R. E. Lee
Comd’g C.S.A.

General,

In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms to wit; Rolls of all the officers and men be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands – The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority as long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they may reside—

Very Respectfully
U. S. Grant
Lt. Gen

The ill-fated René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, reached the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi River on this date in 1682 and claimed the Mississippi watershed in the name of France, naming it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.

Je, René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, en vertu de la commission de Sa Majesté que je tiens en mains, prêt à la faire voir à qui il pourrait appartenir, ai pris et prends possession, au nom de Sa Majesté et de ses successeurs de sa couronne, de ce pays de la Louisiane, mers, havres, ports, baies, détroits adjacents et de toutes les nations, peuples, provinces, villes, bourgs, villages, mines, minières, pèches, fleuves, rivières compris dans l’étendue de ladite Louisiane.

According to The Writer’s Almanac:

On this day in 1887, teacher Annie Sullivan taught her blind and deaf student Helen Keller that the spelled-out letters “W-A-T-E-R” meant the liquid that flowed out of the pump.

NewMexiKen supposes that these days “W-A-T-E-R” would mean that liquid flows out of a plastic bottle. Not long ago I saw The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. Catch it if you get a chance. Great story, incredible Oscar-winning performances by both Bancroft and Duke.

It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace–but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

The last paragraph of Patrick Henry’s famous speech, given on this date in 1775 before the Second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church, Richmond. The entire speech may be found here.

The authors of three acclaimed books, one on constitutional law, one on the intellectual history of the American South and one on the history of Israel Hill, a free black community built in Virginia, will be awarded the Bancroft Prize for 2005, Columbia University announced today.

The winners are Melvin Patrick Ely, “Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War” (Alfred A. Knopf); Michael J. Klarman, “From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality” (Oxford University Press); and Michael O’Brien, “Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860” (two volumes, The University of North Carolina Press).

One of the most coveted honors in the field of history, the Bancroft Prize is awarded annually by the Trustees of Columbia University to the authors of books of exceptional merit in the fields of American history, biography and diplomacy. The 2005 awards are for books published in 2004.

Via Yahoo — Columbia University Announces 2005 Bancroft Prize Winners

Here’s a list of previous winners (since 1948).

This debate has continued since Nixon left office more than 30 years ago. The first time it was presumed settled was in 1974.

From the report in The New York Times:

The director of Richard M. Nixon’s presidential library, under fire from historians for canceling a conference on the Vietnam War, has agreed to eventually make public hundreds of hours of tapes that have been kept secret because they involve Mr. Nixon’s political rather than governmental work.

The library director, John H. Taylor, also agreed that the Nixon estate would make public most of Mr. Nixon’s papers from before and after his presidency. He said the library would work with the National Archives to revise its exhibit on the Watergate scandal, which some historians have said minimized Mr. Nixon’s responsibility, and would help plan a new Vietnam conference.

Mr. Taylor made the promises in an exchange of letters this week with Allen Weinstein, head of the National Archives and Records Administration, who said in an interview yesterday that he would hold the Nixon Library to its word.

NewMexiKen was custodian of Mr. Nixon’s pre-presidential archives for many years (as an employee of the National Archives). Many of those papers were donated to the United States while Mr. Nixon was president. Nice to see that most will be made public soon.

It’s March 15, the Ides of March. The word “ides” comes from the earliest Roman calendar, said to have been created by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. The word “ides” is from the Latin “to divide.” The Ides were meant to mark the full moon, but since the solar calendar months and lunar months are of different lengths, the ides lost its original meaning. On this day in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was on his way to a Senate meeting in Rome. He met up with the soothsayer who had warned him days before to “Beware the Ides of March.” Caesar pointed out that the Ides had come, and the soothsayer replied, “Yes, but they have not yet gone.” Caesar breathed his last breath a short time later, stabbed to death by a group of conspirators after entering the Senate house.

The Writer’s Almanac

entered the Union as the 23rd state on this date in 1820.

and his forces attacked Columbus, New Mexico, on this date in 1916.

Why? Columbus had a garrison of about 600 U.S. soldiers. Villa had been sold blank ammunition by an arms dealer in the town. The United States was supporting Carranza in the continuing Mexican revolution. A few days earlier 10 Mexicans had been “accidentally” burned to death while in custody in El Paso during a “routine” delousing with gasoline.

The attack at dawn lasted about three hours before American troops chased Villa’s forces into Mexico. The town was burned and 17 Americans, mostly private citizens, were killed. About 100 of Villa’s troops were reportedly killed. The arms dealer was absent from Columbus that morning. He had a dental appointment in El Paso.

The next day President Wilson ordered General Jack Pershing and 5,000 America troops into Mexico to capture Villa. This “Punitive Expedition” was often mis-directed by Mexican citizens and Villa allegedly hid in the dust thrown up by Pershing’s vehicles. (The American Army used aircraft for reconnaissance for the first time. This is considered the beginning of the Army Air Corps.)

Unsuccessful in the hunt, by February 1917 the United States and Pershing turned their attention to the war in Europe. Minor clashes with Mexican irregulars continued to disturb the border from 1917 to 1919. Engagements took place near Buena Vista, Mexico, on 1 December 1917; in San Bernardino Canyon, Mexico, on 26 December 1917; near La Grulla, Texas, on 8-9 January 1918; at Pilares, Mexico, about 28 March 1918; at Nogales, Arizona, on 27 August 1918; and near El Paso, Texas, on 15-16 June 1919.

NewMexiKen’s very own grandfather served in Columbus during World War I, making him the first NewMexiKen.

Villa surrendered to the Mexican Government in 1920 and retired on a general’s pay. He was assassinated in 1923.

was decided by the Supreme Court on this date in 1841. The National Archives has a web page on the Amistad with links to images of several documents. The Archives summarizes the case:

In February of 1839, Portuguese slave hunters abducted a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone and shipped them to Havana, Cuba, a center for the slave trade. This abduction violated all of the treaties then in existence. Fifty-three Africans were purchased by two Spanish planters and put aboard the Cuban schooner Amistad for shipment to a Caribbean plantation. On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to Africa. On August 24, 1839, the Amistad was seized off Long Island, NY, by the U.S. brig Washington. The planters were freed and the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven, CT, on charges of murder. Although the murder charges were dismissed, the Africans continued to be held in confinement as the focus of the case turned to salvage claims and property rights. President Van Buren was in favor of extraditing the Africans to Cuba. However, abolitionists in the North opposed extradition and raised money to defend the Africans. Claims to the Africans by the planters, the government of Spain, and the captain of the brig led the case to trial in the Federal District Court in Connecticut. The court ruled that the case fell within Federal jurisdiction and that the claims to the Africans as property were not legitimate because they were illegally held as slaves. The case went to the Supreme Court in January 1841, and former President John Quincy Adams argued the defendants’ case. Adams defended the right of the accused to fight to regain their freedom. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the Africans, and 35 of them were returned to their homeland. The others died at sea or in prison while awaiting trial.

In 1997 Steven Spielberg directed a fine movie concering the case with Anthony Hopkins portraying John Quincy Adams. Morgan Freeman and Anna Paquin are other “stars” in the film, but many critics thought Djimon Honsou as Cineque was the heart of the film. Retired Justice Harry Blackmun played Justice Joseph Story.

was handed down by the Supreme Court on this date in 1857.

The Missouri State Archives has an extensive report on Dred Scott, from which the following is taken:

[Chief Justice] Taney’s “Opinion of the Court” stated that Negroes were not citizens of the United States and had no right to bring suit in a federal court. In addition, Dred Scott had not become a free man as a result of his residence at Fort Snelling because the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional; Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the federal territories. Furthermore, Dred Scott did not become free based on his residence at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), because his status, upon return to Missouri, depended upon Missouri law as determined in Scott v. Emerson. Because Dred Scott was not free under either the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 or the 1820 Missouri Compromise, he was still a slave, not a citizen with the right to bring suit in the federal court system. According to Taney’s opinion, African Americans were “beings of an inferior order so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”… Taney returned the case to the circuit court with instructions to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction.

It fell to Mexican forces on this date in 1836.

was born on this date in 1475.

Detail from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

officially became the national anthem of the United States on this date in 1931.

The inspiration for the song.

entered the Union as the 27th state the on this date in 1845.

On March 1, 1692, Salem, Massachusetts authorities charged Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and a slave woman, Tituba, with practicing witchcraft. The arrests inaugurated the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Over the following months, more than 150 men and women in and around Salem were jailed on sorcery charges. Nineteen people eventually hanged on Gallows Hill and an additional victim was pressed to death.

Cousins Abigail Williams and Betty Parris began entering trance-like states and suffering from convulsive seizures in January. By late February, prayer, fasting, and medical treatment had failed to relieve the girls’ symptoms and quiet the blasphemous shouting that accompanied their fits. Pressured to explain, they accused three local women of sorcery.

A recent epidemic of small pox, heightened threats of Indian attack, and small town rivalries, primed the people of the Salem area for the mass hysteria that characterized the witch trials. Although social status and gender offered little protection from accusations, historians note that single women particularly were vulnerable to charges of practicing witchcraft. Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba all lacked male protectors.

Acting on the recommendation of the clergy, civil authorities created a special court to try accused witches. As the number of imprisoned people approached 150, however, public opinion shifted against the proceedings. On October 29, 1692, Massachusetts Governor William Phips dissolved the special court. When the remaining witchcraft cases were heard in May 1693, the Superior Court failed to convict anyone.

In the 1950s, playwright Arthur Miller explored the Salem witchcraft trials in The Crucible. Writing during a period when concern about “subversive activities” ran high, Miller used his play to protest the red scares of the postwar era. Once again, Miller implied, innocent people were sacrificed to public hysteria. Called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, Miller refused to supply names of people he met years before at an alleged Communist writers meeting. The resulting contempt conviction was overturned on appeal.

Library of Congress

Ohio became the 17th state on this date in 1803.

Nebraska became the 37th state on this date in 1867.

From Today in History from the Library of Congress:

On February 28, 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first U.S. railway chartered for commercial transportation of freight and passengers. Investors hoped a railroad would allow Baltimore, the second largest U.S. city at that time, to successfully compete with New York for western trade. New Yorkers were profiting from easy access to the Midwest via the Erie Canal.

Construction began at Baltimore harbor on July 4, 1828. Local dignitary Charles Carroll, last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid the first stone.

The initial line of track, a 13-mile stretch to Ellicott’s Mills (now Ellicott City), Maryland, opened in 1830. The Tom Thumb, a steam engine designed by Peter Cooper, negotiated the route well enough to convince skeptics that steam traction worked along steep, winding grades.

LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover briefly discuss Janet Leigh’s suitability for a Presidential appointment.

Transcript and recording via WhiteHouseTapes.org.

An absolute classic. Don’t miss this!

Transcript and recording via WhiteHouseTapes.org.

JFK Orders “Some of Those Blue Pills”.

Transcript and recording via WhiteHouseTapes.org.