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September 30, 2014 – Segment 1
Marc talks about what happened on this day in history, including the day of the Elaine Massacre in Phillips County, Arkansas during Red Summer, the first convention of the National Farm Workers Association, and the birthday of Ann Jarvis, American activist and co-founder of Mother’s Day.
Today is,
Independence Day or Botswana Day, celebrating the independence of Botswana from United Kingdom in 1966
International Translation Day, International Federation of Translators
Blasphemy Day, United States, Canada
On This Day
1541 – Spanish conquistador Hernando do Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance.
1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf derWieden in Vienna, Austria.
1860 – On this day the worlds first hydroelectric power plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. The plan was owned and operated by paper manufacturer H.F. Rogers who drew inspiration from Thomas Edison’s steam powered plants in New York. The plant was named The Appleton Gas Light Co. (later Appleton Edison Light co.) and generated enough energy from one water wheel to power H.F. Rogers’ two paper mills and his residence.
1888 – “A Murder of a Most Atrocious Character” was how the murder of Elizabeth Stride was described on the front page of the London broadsheet, Lloyds Weekly Newspaper. On the 30th of September the bodies of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were found at almost the exact time in Whitechapel, London. The women were the third and fourth victims of Jack the Ripper, the elusive serial killer who’s depraved crimes terrorized the people Victorian London’s impoverished Whitechapel district in the late 1880’s. The body of Elizabeth Stride was discovered dumped at the gate of No.40 Berner street, outside of the International Workingman’s Club (founded by Jewish Socialists in 1884). Her throat was cut, leading investigators to believe that the murderer had been interrupted, given the state of the second body that was found near by.
Catherine Eddowes suffered a more brutal and savage fate. Her body was discovered by PC Edward Watkins in Mitre Square at 1:45 am. Eddowes body was completely mutilated, her throat was cut as were both her cheeks and eyelids. The tip of her nose had been sliced off as was part of her ear. It was also reported later by coroners that her uterus and one of her kidney had also been removed by the killer and kept as souvenirs. The next morning the central news agency received a postcard sent “From Hell” confessing to the murders and signed by Jack the Ripper. The post card further sensationalized the murders, but was ultimately dismissed as a hoax by investigators, a sentiment corroborated by modern Ripper historians.
1899 – Mother Jones and the wives of striking miners in Arnot, PA. descend upon the mine clanging pots and pans. The frighten of the mules and their scab drivers. The miners eventually won their strike in (citation)
1919 – Red Summer 1919: Elaine Massacre, Phillips County Arkansas. On this day a small group of black sharecroppers and tenant farmers, met and formed The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The Union was made up of both men and women who were seeking to receive fair wages as well as wages that were owed to them by white landowners. Two white officers came upon the church and entered. A row followed and gunshots were exchanged, leaving one officer dead and another wounded. The local sheriff called for the white men of the county to “Hunt Mr. Nigger in his lair” and invited armed white men from neighboring Mississippi to participate in the massacre hundreds of black men, women and children. Only 25 murders were officially reported, but we know today that the actual number was in the hundreds, with many of the victims bodies being dumped in the Mississippi River. The US military was eventually brought in to restore peace after two days of savagery andbloodshed in Arkansas. The aftermath saw 65 Black men charged with “conspiracy to rise up and overthrow white planters, take their land and rape their women.’ The charged were represented by Scipio Jones a lawyer from Little Rock Arkansas and the newly formed NAACP. 25 men were sentenced to death and the rest were set free. No whites were charged.
1946 – An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 to Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.
1949 – The Berlin Airlift ends after 15 months, over 250,000 flights and the delivery of 2 million tons of supplies, to the people of west Germany. The Soviet Union had blockaded all ground traffic into Germany in an effort to force Great Britain, France and the United States to comply with their demands regarding the fate of Germany. The people of West Germany were left without food, clothing or medical supplies. The Berlin airlift was a major Cold War victory for the United States.
1962 – The first convention of the National Farm Workers Association is convened with hundreds assembled in an abandoned movie theater in Fresno, California. The group’s distinctive flag. a black eagle symbol on a white circle in a red field is revealed. (ufw.org)
1962 – James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi
1993 – Colin Luther Powell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President William Jefferson Clinton
1996 – The United States Congress passes an Amendment that bars the possession of firearms for people who were convicted of domestic violence, even misdemeanor level
1997 – France’s Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silences during the systemic persecution and deportation of Jews by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.
2005 – 12 cartoons commissioned by Jyllands-Posten culture editor, Flemming Rose, were published in the popular Danish daily. Rose affirms that he commissioned the cartoons “in response to several incidents of self censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam.” The cartoons were seen as an insult to Islam and a deliberate provocation. There were mass protests around the world, which saw boycotts of Danish companies, Libya closing its embassy in Copenhagen and Saudi Arabia recalling its ambassador to Denmark.
Birthdays
1801 – Zacharias Frankel, Bohemian Rabbi and theologian; founded Conservative Judaism
1802 – Sir Charles Stanford, Irish born English composer, conductor and teacher
1832 – Ann Jarvis, American activist and co-founder of Mothers day
1882 – Hans Geiger, German physicist; introduced the Geiger Counter
1883 – Nora Stanton Barney, American civil engineer, architect and suffragist http://en.wikipedia.
1924 – Truman Capote, American author
1928 – Elie Wiesel, Romanian-American author, Nobel Prize laureate, holocaust survivor
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Sources: The People History; This Day in Labor History; Wikipedia List of Historical Anniversaries; This Day in Women’s History; This Day in African History;History.com; History Orb; Yenoba; Selected Black Facts; Phil Konstantin’s North American Indian History; and This Day in Music
