Category: History

Brief narratives about people and events in the American past.

Uncle Ben

Historian Gordon S. Wood has an insightful essay concerning Benjamin Franklin in the current The New York Review of Books. Unfortunately, only the first paragraph (which is duplicated here) is online without paying a charge of $4. You can buy the whole issue at the newstand for $4.50. (NewMexiKen has a subscription to the print edition.)

Americans cannot seem to get enough of Benjamin Franklin. During the past few years we have had several Franklin biographies, of which Walter Isaacson’s is the most recent and the finest; and more studies of Franklin are on the way. Part of the reason for this proliferation of Franklin books is the approaching tricentennial celebrations of his birth in 1706. But this isn’t enough to explain our longstanding fascination. He is especially interesting to Americans, and not simply because he is one of the most prominent of the Founders. Among the Founders his appeal seems to be unique. He appears to be the most accessible, the most democratic, and the most folksy of these eighteenth-century figures.

Yeah, well what about the shots from the grassy knoll?

The New Republic Online: Easterbrook:

This morning a New York Times reflection on the Kennedy assassination refers to the rifle Lee Harvey Oswald used “to kill the president, according to official accounts.” Please. Forty years and countless investigations later, we can believe that Oswald was the one who did it. All lingering doubts were erased by the 1994 book Case Closed by Gerald Posner.

The Gettysburg Address delivered on November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Time after time

From The History Channel

At exactly noon on this day [in 1883], American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies.

The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the U.S. had their own local time, generally based on “high noon,” or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone.

Efficient rail transportation demanded a more uniform time-keeping system. Rather than turning to the federal governments of the United States and Canada to create a North American system of time zones, the powerful railroad companies took it upon themselves to create a new time code system. The companies agreed to divide the continent into four time zones; the dividing lines adopted were very close to the ones we still use today.

Most Americans and Canadians quickly embraced their new time zones, since railroads were often their lifeblood and main link with the rest of the world. However, it was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones and put them under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Not quite over the hill

It interests NewMexiKen that he is just about exactly the average age of the first seven U.S. presidents at the time they took office.

Washington was the youngest of the first seven. He was 57 and 2 months. Adams 61 and 4 months. Jefferson 57 and nearly 11 months. Madison almost 58. Monroe 58 and 10 months. J.Q. Adams 57 and 8 months. Jackson a few days short of 62.

Average — about 58 and 9 months.

The first Dodge…

was completed on this date in 1914. When asked why the Dodge Brothers wanted to build their own car, John Dodge replied, “Just think of all the Ford owners who will someday want an automobile.”

Some background from This Day in Automotive History from the History Channel:

John and Horace, who began their business career as bicycle manufacturers in 1897, first entered the automotive industry as auto parts manufacturers in 1901. They built engines for Ransom Olds and Henry Ford among others, and in 1910 the Dodge Brothers Company was the largest parts-manufacturing firm in the United States. In 1914, the intrepid brothers founded the new Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company, and began work on their first complete automobile at their Hamtramck [Michigan] factory. Dodge vehicles became known for their quality and sturdiness, and by 1919, the Dodge brothers were among the richest men in America. In early 1920, just as he was completing work on his 110-room mansion on the Grosse Point waterfront in Michigan, John fell ill from respiratory problems and died. Horace, who also suffered from chronic lung problems, died from pneumonia in December of the same year. The company was later sold to a New York bank and in 1928 the Chrysler Corporation bought the Dodge name, its factories, and the large network of Dodge car dealers.

NewMexiKen applied for a job at Dodge Main in Hamtramck in 1965 or 1966, but ended up in an electrical equipment factory nearby — ITE Bulldog. Dodge Main was the original Dodge factory, ultimately demolished in 1980. Though I heard that work at Dodge Main was particularly tough and dirty I always thought it would have been cool to build cars, even if only for a summer. Or, more likely, especially if only for a summer.

The Atlantic Monthly – December 2003 Preview

NewMexiKen notes that the December issue of The Atlantic Monthly looks to be worth the price. It’s due out Tuesday.

Tour of Duty
by Douglas Brinkley
Senator John F. Kerry often cites his service in Vietnam as a formative element of his character. A new account of his time there—based on interviews with those who knew him well, and on his never-before-published letters home and his voluminous “war notes”—offers the first intimate look at a traumatic and life-altering experience

The Bubble of American Supremacy
by George Soros
A prominent financier argues that the heedless assertion of American power in the world resembles a financial bubble—and the moment of truth may be here. “The dominant position the United States occupies in the world,” he writes, “is the element of reality that is being distorted. The proposition that the United States will be better off if it uses its position to impose its values and interests everywhere is the misconception. It is exactly by not abusing its power that America attained its current position.”

The Backside of War
by P.J. O’Rourke
“At dawn on Thursday, March 20, when the first American missiles struck Baghdad, I was asleep in a big soft bed. My wife, watching late-night news in the United States, called me in Kuwait to tell me that the war had started. That was embarrassing for a professional journalist in a combat zone.” A noncombatant’s diary, from one of America’s great satirical foreign correspondents.

How to Kill a Country
by Samantha Power
Turning a breadbasket into a basket case in ten easy steps—the Robert Mugabe way. “The Zimbabwe case offers some important insights,” writes Samantha Power, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her recent book on the Rwandan genocide. “It illustrates the prime importance of accountability as an antidote to idiocy and excess. It highlights the lasting effects of decolonization. . . . And it offers a warning about how much damage one man can do, very quickly.”

Scrutiny on the Bounty
by Christopher Buckley
Entries from Captain Bligh’s secret logbook. “February 2, 1789. . . . Am much vexed on account of Mr. Christian. His mood-compass vacillates sharply between Histerical Agitation and Sullen Lethargy. I had so wanted this Voyage to be special for him.”

Things that will matter 200 years from now

A few weeks ago NewMexiKen posted the item What really matters. It included one person’s list of things from 1950 to 2000 that he suggested would still matter 200 years from now. NewMexiKen has been mulling this concept and is prepared to suggest my own list.

Seven things from NewMexiKen’s lifetime (to date) that will matter in 2200 (in no particular order).

  1. First extra-terrestial flight (moon landing).
  2. Discovery of DNA.
  3. Instantaneous audio/visual communications (worldwide television).
  4. First weapons of mass destruction deployed.
  5. Global warming realized.
  6. Personal worldwide communication (the Internet).
  7. Nuclear power.

Startling news

According to a report on archaeological excavations at Jamestown, Virginia, published in National Geographic last year, “Of the 6,000 settlers the London-based Virginia Company sent to Jamestown between 1607 and 1625, 4,800 died.”

Where are these 1,200 survivors, most of whom most be at least 400 years old by now?

In honor of all veterans


“The Allied powers signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany at Rethondes, France on November 11, 1918, bringing World War I to a close. Between the wars, November 11 was commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States, Great Britain, and France. After World War II, the holiday was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both world wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars.” (Source: Library of Congress)

Official Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day website.

Photo taken at the Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

More on the Fitzgerald

The ship was thirty-nine feet tall, seventy-five feet wide, and 729 feet long.

Lightfoot’s lyrics had one error — the load was bound for Detroit, not Cleveland.

There were waves as high as 30 feet that night; so high they were picked up on radar.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was only 17 miles from safe haven (Whitefish Point).

The captain and a crew of 28 were lost.

For more see S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online.

The Edmund Fitzgerald…

went down off Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, on this date 28 years ago.

The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald
©1976 by Gordon Lightfoot and Moose Music, Ltd.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called “Gitche Gumee.”
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the “Gales of November” came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin.
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left fully loaded for Cleveland.
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang,
could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing.
And ev’ry man knew, as the captain did too
’twas the witch of November come stealin’.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of November came slashin’.
When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin’.
“Fellas, it’s too rough t’feed ya.”
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
“Fellas, it’s bin good t’know ya!”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
and the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when ‘is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
if they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the “Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral.”
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call “Gitche Gumee.”
“Superior,” they said, “never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early!”

America’s sweetheart

“The tropical emotion that has created a legendary Sacajawea awaits study by some connoisseur of American sentiments. I have referred to the statement…that more statues have been erected to her than to any other American woman. Few others have had so much sentimental fantasy expended on them. A good many men who have written about her, including a couple with some standing as historians, have obviously fallen in love with her. Almost every woman who has written about her has become Sacajawea in her inner reverie. And she has received what in the United States counts as canonization if not deification; she has become an object of state pride and interstate rivalry.”
Bernard DeVoto, Course of Empire

And this was written 48 years before the Sacagawea dollar.

66 Things to Think About When Flying Into Reagan National Airport

David Corn (from 1998)

“The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.”

There’s more.

Guy Fawkes Day

From the HistoryChannel.com

At about midnight on the night of November 4-5, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar under the Parliament building and ordered the premises searched. Some 20 barrels of gunpowder were found, and Fawkes was taken into custody. During a torture session on the rack, Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy to annihilate England’s Protestant government and replace it with Catholic leadership….

By torturing Fawkes, King James’ government learned of the identities of his co-conspirators. During the next few weeks, English authorities killed or captured all the plotters and put the survivors on trial, along with a few innocent English Catholics.

Guy Fawkes himself was sentenced, along with the other surviving chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. Moments before the start of his gruesome execution, on January 31, 1606, he jumped from a ladder while climbing to the hanging platform, breaking his neck and dying instantly.

In 1606, Parliament established November 5 as a day of public thanksgiving. Today, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated across Great Britain every year on November 5 in remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot. As dusk falls, villagers and city dwellers across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow Parliament and James I to kingdom come.

The guy was a terrorist and 398 years later he still has a day named after him.