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September 29, 2014 – Segment 1
Marc shares some of the events that happened on this day in history, including the beginning of the British Mandate of Palestine, the 1991 military coup in Haiti, and the birth of Jerry Lee Lewis.
On this day,
1789 – US Department of War establishes a regular army with the strength of several hundred men.
1829 – The Metropolitan Police of London (later known as the MET)http://www.victorianweb.
1885 – 1st electrical tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England
1910 – The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes is formed to assist African Americans migrating from the south to adapt to life in the north and reduce the pervasive racism that they faced.
1923 – British mandate for Palestine takes effect. The document which was signed by 51 member countries of the League of Nations, laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The law also states intent to “seeing that no Palestinian territory shall be ceded or leased to or in any way placed under the control of the government of any foreign power” (other than Britain, as Mandatory Palestine and the newly created Transjordan to the west were both under direct British rule). In an attempt to quell tensions between Arabs and Jews provisions were created within the document, to ensure that all peoples within the territory were granted equal rights and the freedom to worship any religion they chose. Proviso to the objective of the mandate: “nothing should e done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of exisiting non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
1931 – Three members of the United Mine Workers of America were shot to death during a parade in Saskatchewan by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1938 – Munich agreement was signed on this day by Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain. The agreement grant ceded Sudetenland Czechoslovakia to the Germans after a year of building tensions on the German/Czech border; and acts of violence carried out by pro-Nazi Germans of Czech descent from Sudetenland who joined Himmler’s newly formed SS and carried out terrorist attacks in Prague. There was much dispute over Great Britain and France’s support of Hitler over the question of Sudetenland. Soviet foreign Minister Maxim Litivinoff said it best when, addressing the League of Nations he aptly accused Britain and France of avoiding a problematic war today in favor of a larger war later. Hitler took control of the territory and slowly began annexing large pieces of Czechoslovakia. By the 15th of March 1939, the Germans occupied the entire country.
1941 – Babi Yar massacre, Kiev, Soviet Union. On the 28th of September, nine days after invading Kiev posted a notice in the city center calling for all Jews to report
by 8 o’clock the next morning at the corner of Melnikovsky and DokhturovStreets (near the cemetery). They were told to bring all their documents, money, valuables and warm clothes as they would be deported. The notice continued “Any Jews not carrying out this instruction and who is found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilian entering flats evacuated by Jews and stealing property will be shot.”
The next morning thousand arrived for deportation and waited in line for hours. The line moved to the gates of the Jewish cemetery. There the Jews were ordered to leave their belongings. They were lead in groups of ten through a barricade that was guarded by German soldiers. This was the point of no return. The small groups were then led through a corridor made up of soldiers, who had clubs that they used to beat the Jews as they passed through. The Jews were led to Babi Yar, a large ravine in the north of Kiev; there they were ordered to strip and were shot at the ravines edge. 33,771 Jews were killed by gunshot between the 29th and 30th of September and is considered the largest single massacre in the history of the holocaust. Roughly 100,000 people would be murdered at Babi Yar by wars end as the Germans brought Gypsies, patients from local hospitals, POWs and many others to ravine to be killed.
1942 – Hugh Muzac becomes the first African American Captain of a US merchant ship when he took over command of the SS Booker T Washington
1971 – Oman joins the Arab League
1975 – WGPR in Detroit Michigan becomes the first Black owned and operated television station, as Amyre Porter, Doug Morrison and Sharon Crews became the nations first African – American primetime news team.
1979 – John Paul II becomes the first Pope to visit Ireland
1979 – Sir William Arthur Lewis becomes the first black person to win an Noble Prize in category other than peace. Lewis was born in Castries Saint Lucia in 1915. He received his Ph.D. in 1937 from the London School of Economics and was appointed vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. Lewis was knighted in 1963 and served as a full professor in the Department of Economics at Princeton University until his retirement in 1983. Lewis died in 1991 and is buried on the grounds of the Saint Lucian community college named in his honor.
1982 – Chicago Tylenol murders. Extra Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide poisoning were taken unknowingly in the Chicago area and claimed the lives of 7 victims aged from 12 to 35 years. It was determined by investigators that the poisoned capsules were laced on store shelves and not in the Tylenol factories. The murders are still unsolved as perpetrator has never been caught. The murders gave way to tamper proof packaging.
1991 – Military Coup in Haiti. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed by the Haitian army led by General Raoul Cedras. Aristide was to push through policies that would combat drug trafficking. Many of the key players behind the coup were known drug traffickers. Aristide was put in exile under the protection of the United States.
1995 – John Hope Franklin was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom the nations highest civilian honor.
2013 – Over 42 people are killed by Boko Haram at the college of AgricultureGujba, Nigeria
Birthdays
1527 – John Leslie, Scottish bishop, advisor to Queen Mary
1758 – Horatio Nelson, English naval commander
1848 – Caroline Yale, American educator of the deaf
1926 – Charles Henry “Chuck” Cooper, the first Black player to be drafted by a NBA team was born on this day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1933 – Samora Moises Machel, the first President of the Republic of Mozambique
1948 – Bryant Charles Gumble, television and sportscaster was born on this day in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1951 – Michelle Bachelet Jeria, Chilean physician and politician, The first woman to be elected President of Chile and the first Executive Director of UN Women.
1955 – Gwendolyn Ifill, journalist, television newscaster and author was born on this day in New York City.
29th September: This Day in Music
1907 – Gene Autry ‘America’ singing cowboy. Autry had 25 successive Top 10 Country hits in his career
1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis, Singer, Pianist/keyboards. Hits include 1957’s ‘Great Balls of Fire’ and 1958’s ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ on’
1937 – Joe ‘Guitar’ Hughes, US blues guitarist; worked with T-bone Walker, BB King, Bigh Joe Turn
1939 – Tommy Boyce, singer-songwriter. Cracked top 10 of the US singles chart with Bobby Hart and ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite’ he also wrote ‘Last Train to Clarksville’, ‘I’m not Your Stepping Stone and ‘Scooby Doo Where Are You’. Boyce sold over 40m records world wide
1942 – Jean-Luc Ponty, violinist born on this day in Avranches, France
1943 – Manuel Fernandez of Los Bravos, the first Spanish rock band to have a US hit single with 1966 single ‘Black is Black’.
1958 – Mick Harvey, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, hit single with PJ Harvey ‘Henry Lee’
1969 – Donald DeGrante (DeVante Swing), Jodeci, vocals
On this day in Music
1932 – Coleman Hawkins and Red Allen record “The Day You Came Along.”
1947 – Dizzy Gillespie plays Carnegie Hall with his big band with guests Ella Fitzgerald, and Charlie Parker.
1958 – Tommy Edwards’ ‘It’s All in The Game’ hits No. 1
1967 – Gladys Knight and the Pips release ‘I Heard it Through The Grapevine’
1969 – Merle Haggard release “Okie From Muskogee’, a song protesting those protesting the war in Vietnam. The song went on to reached number 1 on the Hot Country Singles Charts.
1980 – Kurtis Blow released his Self Title Album which contained hit singles, ‘The Breaks’. ‘Rappin’ Blow’ and ‘Takin’ Care of Business’ which was one of the first rap/rock fusion records
2011- Sylvia Vanderpool “Little Sylvia” rap imerpsario who is considered the Mother of Hip-Hop died on this day at the age of 75. She was a singer, producer and record label executive and founder of the hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She is credited as the driving force behind singles ‘Rappers Delight’ by the Sugar Hill Gang and ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash.
