August 18: Today in History

womenvoteAugust 18, 2014 – Segment 1

Marc discusses events from this day in history, including women’s suffrage passing in 1920, the Battle of Britain in 1940, and the first black person graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1963.

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August 18: This Day in History

Today is

Long Tan Day, also called Vietnam Veterans Day (Australia)

On This Day

1587 –Virginia Dare, was born on this day in the Roanoke colony of North Carolina, becoming the first British child to be born in the New World.  Dare was the granddaughter of the ill-fated colony’s Governor, John White. The child disappeared with the rest of the inhabitants of the lost colony of Roanoke.

1590 –Governor of Roanoke, John White, returns to North Carolina to find the colony abandoned and looted, with no details of the inhabitants or their whereabouts.  White had left the colony three years ago to obtain supplies for the colony from England.  He returned to Roanoke on the third birthday of his granddaughter Virginia Dare; the first British child to be born in the New World.  White returned to find the colony abandoned and looted, as buildings were ransacked and collapsed.  Due to harsh weather White was forced to call off the search and head back to England.  The people of Roanoke were never heard from again.

1612 –The trials of the Pendle witches takes place in England.

1868 –French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

1891 –Major hurricane strikes Martinique leaving 700 people dead.

1920 –The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified guaranteeing women’s suffrage.  The movement began with the first convention of women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. The right to vote was at the fore of the women’s right movement; and after 70 years, in May, 1919, the amendment won the necessary two thirds vote in Congress and was put forth for ratification.  Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment on this day in 1920 completing the process and making it illegal to deny any persons the right to vote on the basis of sex.

1938 –The Thousand Islands Bridge in New York connecting the United States with Ontario Canada over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1940 –Battle of Britain –‘The Hardest Day’ Luftwaffe attacks the RAF over the skies of Great Britain in largest ever air battle.  Germany targeted the RAF central command, as well as docks and power stations across England.  Both sided sustained heavy casualties, but the RAF eventually bested the Luftwaffe.  The British lost 34 fighters whilst the Germans lost 75 planes.

1944 –Paris railroad workers strike against Nazi occupiers, bringing the city to a virtual standstill. At the time of the strikes in 1944, there was a network of 20,000 resistance fighters operating within Paris.  Rumor of liberation and civil protest spurned strikes citywide.  Not only were rail road workers on strike, policemen disappeared from the streets of Paris whilst petrol stations were bombed and communication wires destroyed.

1950 –President Harry S. Truman appoints Edith Spurlock Sampson as an alternate United States delegate to the United Nations, making her the first African American to represent the United States at the United Nations. In 1927 Edith Spurlock Sampson became the first woman to receive a Masters of Law degree from Loyola University.  She enjoyed a long career in both law and social work in the city of Chicago and was appointed Assistant States Attorney (prosecutor) for Cook County in 1947.  As well as being a delegate to the United Nations, Sampson also held a membership on the U.S delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

1950 –Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.

1958-Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in the United States.

1963 –The first United States postage stamp designed by an African American goes on sale. The stamp was designed by graphic artist George Olden and commemorated the 100th year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

1963 –James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.  The University refused to admit Meredith, leading him to seek legal action.  The NAACP filed suit against the school and on the 1st of October 1962, the Supreme Court ruled against the University.  Meredith’s attempts to register at Ole Miss’ saw the city of Oxford erupt into violence, including the University campus being stormed by a segregationist mob.  Two people died and dozens were injured during the citywide violence.  Meredith went on to graduate with a Bachelors in Political Science from the University of Mississippi. He later received his JD from Columbia University in 1968.  He stayed heavily involved in the movement for equality and civil rights, no matter the risk.  In 1968, James Meredith was shot in Memphis Tennessee as he lead marchers during the “The March Against Fear”.  Meredith serves as the president of the Meredith institute, a non-profit, dedicating to promoting language arts in African American communities.

1964 –South Africa banned from participating in the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo over its refusal to condemn apartheid.  South Africa was given a deadline of the 31stof December 1963 to eradicate racial discrimination from all sports programs. When they refused to comply the IOC handed down the ban.  The ban wasn’t lifted until the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, when the International Olympic Committee felt that South Africa had made sufficient advances in the integration of sport.

1971 –British Army shot ‘unarmed; disabled man, the British Army is accused of shooting dead an unarmed disabled man during disturbances in Northern Ireland city of Strabane, County Tyrone.  Eamon McDevitt was a 24 year old and was deaf and mute. Witnesses say he was unarmed when he was shot by British Army soldiers.  The army went on record and stated that the young man had brandished a weapon.  Over 23 witnesses have come forward to testify on behalf of McDevitt.  Strabane served as the headquarters for the Provisional IRA and was witness to many incidents of violence from the 1970’s until the late 1990’s.

1978 –Memphis Tenn. settles with striking police officers and firefighters.

1977 – Activist, Steve Biko is arrested at police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William’s Town, South Africa. The activist led the Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa and co-founded the Black Peoples convention in 1972.  Under the Terrorism Act, Biko was totally censored by the apartheid regime.  His movements were restricted and he was banned from distributing any literature or speaking to more than one person at a time in public.  Biko was also forbidden from attempting any communication with any media.  Biko was arrested and detained in Pretoria where he was severely beaten.  He would eventually die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa’s apartheid policies.

1988 –Indiana, Senator Dan Quayle was nominated as George H.W. Cush’s running mate during the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.

2008 –Pervez Musharraf resigned as the president of Pakistan amid efforts by opposition lawmakers to seek his impeachment.

2008 –Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, the third President of the Republic of Zambia dies.

Birthdays

1450- Marko Marulic, Croatian poet

1579 –Countess Charlotte Flandrina of Nassau

1774 –Meriwether Lewis, American soldier, explorer and politician. Co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

1892 –Walther Funk, German economist and politician

1900 –Glenn Albert Black, American archaeologist

1904 –Max Factor, Jr., American businessman

1910 –Herman Belin`ski, Polish-American pianist, composer and conductor

1917 –Caspar Weinberger, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of defense

1934 –Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author

This day in music

1910 –Herman Belin`ski, Polish-American pianist, composer and conductor

1921 –Blues singer Mamie Smith and her Jazz Band.  Record the hit single “Sax-o-phoney Blues”.

1943 –Edwin Hawkins, Hall of Fame Gospel, R&B pianist and choir director was born on this day in Oakland, California.  Hawkins co-founded the Northern California State youth choir.  The choir’s debut album “Let Us Go Into The House of The Lord” featured the single ‘Oh Happy Day’.  The song was arranged by Hawkins and went on to sell 7 million copies worldwide

1955 – Pete Seeger testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he is asked if he has performed for communists. Seeger replies: “I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color of their skin, or situation in life. I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.”

1958 –Mile Davis records Gil Evans’ arrangements of ‘Porgy and Bess’.

1973 –Diana Ross has second No.1 single as a solo artist with the song ‘Touch Me In The Morning’.

1973 –Big band and jazz legend Gene Krupa plays for the last time with the members of the original Benny Goodman Quartet. The percussionist died later that month at the age of 64.

1979 –Chic goes to No.1 with single “Good Times”.

1993 –Ice Cube releases single ‘It Was a Good Day’ off of his third solo album ‘The Predator’.

2004 –Film score composer and conductor, Elmer Bernstein dies at the age of 82 in Ojai California.

 

August 14: This Day in History

Molefe-Kete-Asante-01August 14, 2014 – Segment 1

Marc shares some of the things that happened on this day in history, including the US invasion of Nicaragua in 1912, the birth of Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentrist and Professor of African Studies at Temple University, and the death of William Randolph Hearst.

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On this day in history:

1559: Tristan de Luna y Arellano has been appointed to establish Spanish settlements on Pensacola Bay by the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico. His expedition of thirteen ships, several priests, 500 soldiers, and 1000 settlers arrive in Pensacola Bay, in Florida. Much of the expedition is killed or starves because of a hurricane which strikes the area a few days later.

1720 – The Spanish military Villasur expedition is wiped out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.

1806: Lewis and Clark first reach a Minnetaree and Mandan village.

1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa.

1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.

1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.

1885 – Japan’s first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.

1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan’s “The Lost Chord”, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison’s phonograph in London, England.

1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye’s death.

1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

1935 – Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.

1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States

1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1960, 14 August – Belgian troops are finally replaced by UN peace-keeping forces in the Republic of Congo.

1971 – Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.

1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens at the USA Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.

2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.

 

Born on this day in history:

Ernest E. Just, internationally renowned biologist and pioneer of cell division, was born in Charleston, SC, on this date in 1883.

1928: Lina Wertmuller born (movie director, screenwriter) Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director. She is the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award for Directing, with her 1976 film, Seven Beauties.

Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentrist and Professor of African Studies at Temple University, was born in Valdosta, GA, on this date in 1942.

1945 – Steve Martin, American actor, singer, producer, and screenwriter

Earvin “Magic” Johnson, one of the greatest basketball players of all-time, was born in Lansing, MI, on this date in 1959.

1990 – Stefanie Mavronis – Producer, Marc Steiner Show

 

Died on this day

1951 – William Randolph Hearst, American publisher and politician, founded the Hearst Corporation (b. 1863)

 

Music History

1956 : Washington DC disc jockey Bob Rickman forms the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Elvis Presley after reading too many news articles that make him out to be a hick and/or a threat to society.

1961 : Wanda Jackson’s “Right Or Wrong” enters the charts

1967 : Britain’s new Marine Broadcasting Offences Act goes into effect, forcing all but one of the country’s famous “pirate” (i.e., unlicensed) radio stations off the air. Radio Caroline remains on the air for another six months or so.

1971 : Elton John: recorded Indian Sunset, “Rotten Peaches,” “Madman Across The Water”

1995 : Grateful Dead meet and decide to break up after the recent tragedy of founder/leader Jerry Garcia’s death.

 

Music History BIRTHDAYS:

1924 : Lee Adams

1926 : Buddy Greco

1940 : Dash Crofts (Seals and Crofts)

1941 : David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)

1941 : Connie Smith

1942 : Lionel Morton (The Four Pennies)

1946 : Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone)

1947 : George Newsome (The Climax Blues Band)

1947 : Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span)

1951 : Slim Dunlap (The Replacements)

1956 : Sharon Bryant (Atlantic Starr)

1960 : Sarah Brightman

1970 : Kevin Cadogan (Third Eye Blind)

1991 : Tony Orlando and his wife Francine become the proud parents of their first child, Jenny Rose.

 

Music History DEATHS:

1964 : Johnny Burnette

1965 : Charles Fizer (The Olympics)

1988 : Roy Buchanan

1988 : Robert Calvert (Hawkwind)

1992 : Tony Williams (of The Platters) dies of emphysema at age 64 in Manhattan, New York.

1994 : Clifton Clowers, the real-life Tennessee mountain man who was the subject of Claude King’s 1964 country smash “Wolverton Mountain,” dies at the ripe old age of 101, still on the mountain (which is actually spelled “Woolverton”). Clowers apparently couldn’t keep suitors away from his daughters as well as the legend suggested, as he leaves behind fifteen grandchildren, twenty-seven great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren

2010 : Richie Hayward (Little Feat)

2013 : Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult)

Sources: The People HistoryThis Day in Labor HistoryWikipedia List of Historical AnniversariesThis Day in Women’s HistoryThis Day in African History;History.comHistory OrbYenobaSelected Black FactsPhil Konstantin’s North American Indian History; and This Day in Music