Category: History

entered the Union on this date in 1876, thereby becoming the 38th state.

or read it, you will remember the harrowing story Quint (Robert Shaw) tells of surviving the sinking of the cruiser Indianapolis. It was on this date in 1945 that the ship, which had carried the Hiroshima atomic bomb, was torpedoed by the Japanese. According to the U.S. Navy:

The ship capsized and sank in twelve minutes. Survivors were spotted by a patrol aircraft on 2 August. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once, and the surrounding waters were thoroughly searched for survivors. Upon completion of the day and night search on 8 August, 316 men were rescued out of the crew of 1,199.

Shark attacks began with sunrise of the first day and continued until the survivors were removed from the water almost five days later.

The Navy web site includes oral histories with Indianapolis Captain McVay and Japanese submarine Captain Hashimoto. The Discovery Channel has a wealth of material.

The site dedicated to the Indianapolis is perhaps the best source.

“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”

Henry Ford

Oddly enough, the man who said history was more or less bunk established one of the great historical museums — the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

was born on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan, on this date in 1863. Though a tinkerer, Ford’s claim to fame is not for inventing the automobile but, as the Library of Congress tells us, for the mass production of them.

From the time he was a young boy, Ford enjoyed tinkering with machines. Farm work and a job in a Detroit machine shop afforded him ample opportunities to experiment. He later worked as a part-time employee for the Westinghouse Engine Company. By 1896, Ford had constructed his first horseless carriage which he sold in order to finance work on an improved model.

Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, proclaiming, “I will build a car for the great multitude.” In October 1908, he did so, offering the Model T for $950. In the Model T’s nineteen years of production, its price dipped as low as $280. Nearly 15,500,000 were sold in the United States alone. The Model T heralds the beginning of the Motor Age; the car evolved from luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man.

Ford revolutionized manufacturing. By 1914, his Highland Park, Michigan plant, using innovative production techniques, could turn out a complete chassis every 93 minutes. This was a stunning improvement over the earlier production time of 728 minutes. Using a constantly-moving assembly line, subdivision of labor, and careful coordination of operations, Ford realized huge gains in productivity.

In 1914, Ford began paying his employees five dollars a day, nearly doubling the wages offered by other manufacturers. He cut the workday from nine to eight hours in order to convert the factory to a three-shift workday. Ford’s mass-production techniques would eventually allow for the manufacture of a Model T every 24 seconds. His innovations made him an international celebrity.

to the United States Constitution was ratified on this date in 1868. The first section of the Amendment reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

the Department of Foreign Affairs (which became the Department of State), was established by Congress on this date in 1789.

ratified the Constitution on this date in 1788, thereby becoming the 11th state.

It was on this date in 1847 that Brigham Young gazed at Utah’s Valley of the Great Salt Lake and made his famous declaration.

From the Library of Congress (which ought to know):

It is said that on July 23, 1904, Charles E. Menches of St. Louis, Missouri conceived the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby invented the ice cream cone.

Sixty years ago today, German military officers failed in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb in a briefcase. Four were killed but Hitler, though wounded, was saved by the heavy wooden table on which he was reviewing maps. This from the BBC —

Adolf Hitler has escaped death after a bomb exploded at 1242 local time at his headquarters in Rastenberg, East Prussia.

The German News Agency broke the news from Hitler’s headquarters, known as the “wolf’s lair”, his command post for the Eastern Front.

A senior officer, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, has been blamed for planting the bomb at a meeting at which Hitler and other senior members of the General Staff were present.

Hitler has sustained minor burns and concussion but, according to the news agency, managed to keep his appointment with Italian leader Benito Mussolini.

*****

Von Stauffenberg was arrested the same day and shot. The rest of the conspirators were tried and hanged or offered the chance to commit suicide.

Eight of those executed were hanged with piano wire from meat-hooks and their executions filmed and shown to senior members of the Nazi Party and the armed forces.

Apollo 11

It was 35 years ago this evening (U.S. time) that man first walked on the moon, an event that NewMexiKen believes centuries from now will rank as the most historic happening in our lifetimes.

The New York Times has its next day coverage on-line, including the historic front page (of which I have two copies).

I can remember watching the TV that evening thinking how cool it would be if some creature came crawling over the horizon into the field of view of the live camera.

It was on this date 200 years ago that Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States, killed Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury and the man depicted on the $10 bill even today.

From the Library of Congress:

At dawn on the morning of July 11, 1804, political antagonists and personal enemies Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr met on the heights of Weehawken, New Jersey to settle their longstanding differences with a duel. The participants fired their pistols in close succession. Burr’s shot met its target immediately, fatally wounding Hamilton and leading to his death the following day. Burr escaped unharmed. This tragically extreme incident reflected the depth of animosity aroused by the first emergence of the nation’s political party system.

Both men were political leaders in New York: Burr, a prominent Republican, and Hamilton, leader of the opposing Federalist party. Burr had found himself the brunt of Hamilton’s political maneuvering on several occasions, including the unusual presidential election of 1800, in which vice-presidential candidate Burr almost defeated his running mate, presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson. In 1804, Hamilton opposed Burr’s closely fought bid for governor of New York. On the heels of this narrow defeat, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel on the grounds that Hamilton had publicly maligned his character.

For an excellent telling of the story of the duel, see Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers.

joined the Union as the 44th state on this date in 1890.

The horse on the Wyoming license plate is a depiction of Steamboat, an early twentieth century bronc that could not be ridden.

English and American troops under British Major General Edward Braddock were routed by French and Indian forces near Fort Duquesne (modern Pittsburgh) on this date in 1755. The leading colonial officer, George Washington, had two horses shot out from under him, his coat torn by bullets and his hat shot off, but he survived.

Brad DeLong answers the question raised first by Matthew Yglesias.

The comments with DeLong’s posting are particularly interesting.

July 4th Wednesday [Clark]

ussered in the day by a discharge of one shot from our Bow piece, proceeded on, passed the mouth of a (1) Bayeau lading from a large Lake on the S. S. which has the apperance of being once the bed of the river & reaches parrelel for Several Miles Came to on the L. S. to refresh ourselves &. Jos: Fields got bit by a Snake, which was quickly doctered with Bark by Cap Lewis. (2) Passed a Creek 12 yds. wide on L. S. comeing out of an extensive Prarie reching within 200 yards of the river, as this Creek has no name, and this being the we Din[e] (on corn) the 4th of July the day of the independance of the U. S. call it 4th of July 1804 Creek, Capt. Lewis walked on Shore above this Creek and discovered a high moun from the top of which he had an extensive view, 3 paths Concentering at the moun Saw great numbers of Goslings to day which Were nearly grown, the before mentioned Lake is clear and Contain great quantities of fish an Gees & Goslings, The great quantity of those fowl in this Lake induce me to Call it the Gosling Lake, a Small Creek & Several Springs run in to the Lake on the East Side from the hills the land on that Side verry good— (3) We came to and camped in the lower edge of a Plain where 2d old Kanzas village formerly Stood, above the mouth of a Creek 20 yds wide this Creek we call Creek Independence as we approached this place the Praree had a most butifull appearance Hills & Valies interspsd with Coops [copses] of Timber gave a pleasing deversity to the Senery. the right fork of Creek Independence Meandering thro: the middle of the Plain a point of high Land near the river givs an allivated Situation. at this place the Kanzas Indians formerley lived. this Town appears to have covd. a large Space, the nation must have been noumerous at the time they lived here, the Cause of their moveing to the Kanzas River, I have never heard, nor Can I learn; war with their neghbors must have reduced this nation and Compelled them to retire to a Situation in the plains better Calculated for their defence and one where they may make use of their horses with good effect, in persueing their enemey, we Closed the [day] by a Discharge from our bow piece, an extra Gill of whiskey.

Source: Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online June 7, 1804

Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson has a nice op-ed piece on the Declaration in The New York Times.

NewMexiKen would be amiss not to remember that wonderful coincidence of history — that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on this date in 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Jefferson was the primary author of that document; Adams, along with Benjamin Franklin, was also key in its evolution.

Adams and Jefferson were colleagues during Revolution, but fell apart over political differences during their terms as president (Adams 1797-1801, Jefferson 1801-1809). After Jefferson left office they resumed a remarkable correspondence that lasted until their deaths.

How times have changed. As historian Joseph J. Ellis has noted, “It’s difficult to comprehend Bill Clinton developing a correspondence with George W. Bush.”

Details and images of the Declaration of Independence from its custodian, the National Archives of the United States.

entered the Union as the 43rd state on this date in 1890.

assassinated President James A. Garfield on this date in 1881. Garfield was the second president assassinated. According to the Library of Congress:

Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded the new President James A. Garfield in the lobby of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot in Washington, D.C. as he yelled, “I am a [Republican] stalwart and [Vice President] Arthur is President now!” Guiteau, a lawyer with a history of mental illness, blamed the president for not selecting him for a job at the U.S. Consulate in Paris.

Afflicted with religious delusions, the factionalism of the election of 1880 had given Guiteau’s paranoia a political focus. He expressed several times the conviction that he had been commissioned by God to murder Garfield, and was surprised to discover that his action was deplored by Garfield’s political opponents and supporters alike. In spite of Guiteau’s manifest insanity at his trial, his attorneys were unable to gain an acquittal on that basis.

President Garfield did not die immediately, but lingered for 11 weeks, during which time surgeons attempted to find the bullet which had lodged in his back. In spite of Joseph Lister’s discoveries on the use of antiseptics in surgery, the practice of sterilization had not caught on, and Garfield’s wound was probed by the unwashed fingers of many physicians. The infection which ensued in his wound caused his death.

On September 6, Garfield was sent to the New Jersey shore in an attempt to aid his recovery. Despite initial signs of improvement, he died two weeks later of an infection in his back and an abdominal hemorrhage. Charles J. Guiteau was hanged on June 30, 1882.