4 - 9 April 2024

 This week’s items: Notable events; Nov 2024; Israel; bird flu; the world stood still. 

A short break until Tuesday, 30 April. 

Notable events. 3 April 1865: U.S. troops occupied Confederate capital of Richmond. 1944:  SCOTUS struck TX law limiting Democratic primaries to only Whites. 1948: President Truman signed Marshall Plan for European aid. 1968: MLK, Jr. made his final speech. 1973: Portable handheld phone demoed. 2017: Divided U.S. Senate committee recommended Neil Gorsuch. 2020: President DJT announced guidelines for face masks, but did not don on himself. 

4 April 1841: President Harrison died of pneumonia. 1917: U.S. Senate voted 82-6 to declare war on Germany. 1945: USSR “freed” Hungary from the Nazis. 1949: 12 nations signed NATO treaty. 1968: MLK, Jr. assassinated in Memphis. 1974: Hank Aaron’s 714th homer tied Ruth’s record. 1983: Shuttle Challenger’s initial orbit. 2018: President DJT ordered National Guard to U.S. - Mexico border. 

5 April 1621: The Mayflower sailed back to England. 1764: Parliament passed the hated Sugar Act. 1887: In AL, teacher Anne Sullivan helped a blind Hellen Keller to “see.” 1951: Atomic spies Ethel & Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death. 1987: Fox Broadcast began. 2010: In WV, 29 coal miners killed and in China 115 miners were freed. 2019: At the border in CA, President DJT declared the U.S. was “full.”

6 April 1896: Modern Olympics began in Athens.1864: LA opened a constitutional convention to write a document banning slavery. 1909: Peary expedition reached N. Pole. 1917: U.S. entered WW I. 1954: Sen. McCarthy (R, WI) charged respected newsman E. R. Murrow had been a communist. 1974: ABBA hit the music world. 2021: MLB switched All Star game from Atlanta to Denver. (*1 below)

7 April 1922: Tea Pot Dome financial scandal began. 1949: “South Pacific” opened on Broadway. 1954: President Eisenhower enunciated the flawed “domino theory” on communism’s spread. 1962: Cuba tried & convicted nearly 1,200 of treason for failed Bay of Pigs invasion. (*2) 1966: USN recovered H-bomb mistakenly dropped near Spain. 1994: Tribal civil war erupted in Rwanda. 2022: K. Brown Jackson confirmed as first Black female SCOTUS justice. 

8 April 1513: de Leon’s expedition reached FL. 1864: Senate passed (38-6) the 13th Amendment. 1913: 17th Amendment (direct election of senators was ratified. 1943: President FDR froze wages. 1953: President Truman seized steel industry to avert a strike. 1992: Tennis great A. Ashe said he had AIDS. 1974: Hank Aaron’s 715th homer broke Ruth’s record. (*3) 2013: Last living Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz died (103). 2024: Solar eclipse occurred. 

9 April 1865: Lee surrendered to Grant. 1939: Black operatic soprano Marion Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial. (*4) 1942: U.S. surrendered Bataan to the Japanese. (*5) 1959: NASA named and presented America’ first seven astronauts. 1996: President Clinton signed a line item veto bill. (*6) 2003: Jubilant Iraqis celebrated Hussain’s overthrow. 2010: SCOTUS Justice Stevens announced his retirement. 

*1 The move was a reaction to changes in GA voting laws that made it harder for minorities to vote. *2 Viking River Cruises offers a trip to the site; historical but otherwise unremarkable. *3 Aaron (a Black) was subjected to death threats and provided police protection. *4 The Daughters of the American Revolution had denied her permission to sing in Constitution Hall. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt arranged the outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial — perhaps an even more significant location. *5 President FDR ordered Gen. MacArthur off the island to avoid capture. *6 SCOTUS declared the law unconstitutional in 1998. 

November 2024: Despite pressure from DJT and Gov Pillen (R), legislators in NB overwhelmingly declined to enact a “winner take all” system for their Electoral College votes. NB and ME are the only two states that award EC votes to the winner of each congressional district. 

Israel. (1) President Biden told Israel’s Netanyahu that further support depends on swift steps to protect civilians. The well marked vehicles of aid workers bombed. (2) In U.K., > 600 lawyers and retired judges have called on their government to halt airs sales to Israel.  

Bird flu. The contagion appears to have sped  to dairy cows in several states and at least on person in TX. The cost to U.S. taxpayers is steadily rising as Dept. of Agriculture has allotted $500M for poultry farmers. 

A stopped world. Or so it seemed, depending on your location. That was certainly true if you lived along the path of totality! The eclipse certainly dominated U.S.TV coverage. 

Saturday, 30 March 2023

 Hello, again. 

Back after a lengthy absence.

This week’s items: notable events; revolutions; fragility; dog parks; preserving history. 

Notable events. 29 March 1861: Lincoln order relief for Ft. Sumpter; 1943: WW 2 rationing of meat, fats, and cheese began (*1 below); 1951: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg convicted of spying for the USSR; 1971: U.S. Army Lt. Calley convicted of My Lai massacre; 1973: Last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam; 1974: 8 OH national guardsmen indicted for Kent State shooting; 2004: President G. Bush welcomed 7 former USSR block nations into NATO. (Much to Russia’s protestations.)

30 March 1822: FL a U.S. territory. 1842: Dr. Jefferson in GA used ether in an operation. 1867: Sec. of State Seward purchased AK for $7.2M from Russia. 1870: 15th Amendment (vote for all male citizens) declared in effect. 1981: President Reagan shot and wounded. 2010: Obama [health] Care signed into law. 2020: FL arrested mega church pastor for his Sunday violation of COVID restrictions. 2023: Manhattan grand jury indicted DJT. 

31 March 1491: Spanish monarchs expelled Jews from Spanish soil. 1917: U.S. took posssession of Virgin Islands from Denmark. 1968: President LBJ announced he would not seek/accept re-nomination. 1991: USSR’s Warsaw Pact ended. 1995: MLB players ended 232-day strike. 2005: Terri Schiavo died after 13-day right-to-die court fight in FL. 2020: Price Harry & wife stepped down from royal family. 2022: Scientists announced end to deciphering of human genome.  

1 April 1972: 1st MLB strike began (12 days). 1891: Wrigley Co. founded in Chicago. 1924: Hitler sentenced to five years for Beer Hall Putsch. 1945: U.S. landed on Okinawa. 1970: President Nixon banned cigarette ads on radio & TV. 1976: Apple Computer founded. 1977: U.S. Senate voted to full disclosure of outside income. 2003: Pfc. Jessica Lynch rescued from Iraqi hospital. 2017: Bob Dylan received Nobel Literature prize. 

2 April 1792: U.S. mint created. 1865: President Davis & cabinet fled Confederate capital. 1917: Presideent Wilson asked for declaration of war on Germany. 1892: Argentine troops seized Falkland Islands. 1995: MLB strike ended. 2007: SCOTUS ruled CO2 & other greenhouse gasses were pollutants. 2013: N. Korea said it would restart its plutonium reactor. 2020: Covid-related deaths passes 1M. 

3 April 1968: MLK, Jr. made final speech in Memphis. 1865: U.S. occupied Confederate capital of Richmond. 1936: Bruno Hauptmann electrocuted for Lindbergh baby kidnapping/death. 1944: SCOTUS ruled against TX law banning Blacks from Democratic primaries. 1948: President Truman signed Marshall Plan for European aid. 1973: Handheld portable phone demoed. 2020: President DJT announced face-covering guidelines, but declined using one. 

*1: I remember mom used to take me to the meat market where the butcher invariably gave me a cold, pre-cooked wiener to much on, no ration card required. 

On a cleanup foray. an Atlantic article, “Revolutions Take Generations” floated up. The Bastille, the Russian Revolution, the so-called “color revolutions of the early 2000s, the “intifada revolution” come to mind. 

The author notes “..both cheerleaders and critics have misunderstood the age of revolutions—and a central dynamic of modern politics. Far from being composed of sharp ruptures, revolutionary change in the 18th and 19th centuries was a generational affair. The revolutionary transformations demanded a long and difficult apprenticeship in the practice of mass politics. It was a younger cohort of revolutionaries, acculturated to social mobility by its early experiences, that finally managed to create mass movements after 1800. Recognizing the incremental pace of political change in the age of revolutions should spur us to rethink our expectations of what revolution can do, both in the present and for the future.”

The speed of world events sped up (telegraph, under-sea cables, radio, satellite and www.), as did the forces driving change. Groups may coalesce in ever-shorter periods, their goals changing with equal rapidity. 

A leader’s death, martydom or otherwise, can spur further action or bring death to the movement. Dylan might well have said, “the answer is blowing in the electronic wind.” 

Fragility. Not normally a concern — until a solid, massive ship loses power for mere seconds, veers, and collapses what was a seemingly immovable structure. Suddenly, the supply chain for an area, a state, a nation, the world is disrupted. For how long is anyone’s guess. 

Dog park. There is talk of closing metro Denver’s Zeckenbark Dog Park (one of 16 in metro Denver). 

Preserving history. Boulder’s Daily Camera notes the continuing efforts to properly identify and preserve the Fort Chambers-Poor Farm site. The site’s connection to the infamous Sand Creek Massacre (Cheyenne and Arapahoe) complicates the matter.