On this day in 1851, Herman Melville's Moby Dick is released to the American public. It is his sixth novel, and unfortunately, it is not popular at its release; performing so poorly, in fact, that Melville is not far from giving up writing to take work as a customs inspector in NYC. But Moby Dick is "rediscovered" in the 1920's, roughly 30 years after Melville's death, and goes on to become one of the most beloved works of American literature. On this day in 1881, Frank "Buckskin" Leslie kills Billy "The Kid" Claiborne in a shootout of outlaws in Tombstone, AZ. Claiborne is one of the survivors of the Gunfight at OK Corral a year earlier, but he doesn't survive challenging Leslie to a fight, believing Leslie had killed his friend Johnny Ringo earlier in the year. (Anyone who has seen the movie Tombstone knows Doc Holliday killed Ringo, but in fact, historians are not sure who got him) On this day in 1970, a charter jet returning most of the Marshal University football team home from a game comes down 2 miles short of the runway in Kenova, WV. Everyone on board, including the head coach, 37 players, support staff, 25 school boosters, and the flight crew, is killed.
On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation. But in less than 5 years, the Congress will decide the Articles is an inadequate document, and work on a constitution for the new country will begin. On this day in 1806, Lt. Zebulon Pike is leading an expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory, following a more southerly route than Lewis and Clark had before him. As the sun comes up this morning, Pike spots an imposing mountain in the distance, and tells his men they should be able to climb it and come back down before dinner. But he's grossly underestimated the mountain's height, being unfamiliar with the size of the Rocky Mountains. Pike will soon declare the mountain impossible to climb, and as settlers move into the territory, the mountain is later named Pike's Peak in his honor. On this day in 1957, Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev challenges the USA to a "shooting match".....with missiles. In an interview with an American reporter, Krushchev brags about Soviet missile superiority, claiming that the United States did not have intercontinental ballistic rockets; “If she had,” the Russian leader sneered, “she would have launched her own sputnik.” He then issues a challenge: “Let’s have a peaceful rocket contest just like a rifle-shooting match, and they’ll see for themselves.” Coming just days after a government evaluation asserting the US had indeed fallen behind the USSR in missile development was leaked to the press, Krushchev's comments is fuel for critics of President Eisenhower's foreign policy.
On this day in 1972, the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) establishes the World Heritage Program, to protect places of cultural, historic, and natural significance. Today the program protects about a 1,000 National Heritage sites around the world, such as Easter Island, the Galapogos Islands, the Pyramids, and in Louisiana, the burial monuments at Poverty Point. This one's for Shane.....on this day in 1907, Oklahoma enters the Union as the 46th state. On this day in 1959, The Sound of Music premiers on Broadway. Other than the fact that a former nun married a former captain with a large number of children from a previous marriage, the story has practically no basis in reality, and the real-life Maria Von Trapp is not happy about it. But American audiences love it, and the show win Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical (Mary Martin).
On this day in 1553, Queen Mary dies and the throne of England and Ireland passes to her 25-year old half-sister, Elizabeth. Under Elizabeth I, England expanded the strength and reach of its navy until the nation had become a true world power by her death in 1603. On this day in 1869, the Suez Canal opens, giving European nations a shortcut around Africa to the Indian Ocean and Asia. But not at first. The Canal when opened is only 25 feet deep, and fewer than 500 ships use it in its first year. But improvements begin in 1876, and the canal is soon one of the most heavily trafficked waterways in the world. On this day in 1968, NBC gives us the "Heidi Bowl." The Jets and the Raiders (10 future Hall of Famers on the field between them) are playing a classic game; at the 2:00 warning there have already been 8 lead changes. The game is also running unusually long, and its already 7pm on the east coast when the Jets kick a field goal to take 32-29 lead with 1:05 to play. That's when NBC pulls the plug; after the commercial, it switches directly to its scheduled program, a movie adaptation of the children's story, "Heidi" which the network was counting on for high viewership in Sweeps Week. That had been the plan all along, but NBC execs actually made a last minute decision to stay with the game. But they could not get through to programmers, because the network phone lines were already jammed with non-football fans urging NBC to air the movie as scheduled. Which is what happened, and football fans were outraged as they were left to learn from the crawl on the bottom of the screen that the Raiders scored 2 TDs in 9 seconds to win the game 43-32. As a result of this game, the NFL's next network contract stipulated that no telecast would be interrupted in a team's home market.
On this day in 1978, cult leader Jim Jones leads about 900 of his followers into a mass suicide at his compound/commune in Guyana. Jones led his followers from California to Guyana 3 years earlier, promising they would build a socialist utopia, and oh by the way, escaping charges of financial fraud and physical abuse of cult members, including children. But the commune became a virtual prison for its members, and when Congressman Leo Ryan (D-CA) visited on a fact finding mission on the 17th, several cult members spilled the beans. On Jones' orders, Ryan and 4 of his party were killed at the airport as they prepared to return home. Calling it a "revolutionary act", Jones then encouraged the entire community to drink a concoction of powdered fruit juice laced with cyanide (yes, this is where the phrase "drink the kool-aid" originated). The death toll, including the Ryan party murder, was 909, about a third of whom were children. On this day in 1883, at noon to be exact, American and Canadian railroads initiate the concept of time zones across the continent. The speed of railroad travel had begun causing scheduling problems for the railroads. The companies all agreed to a map of 4 time zones, which the public quickly adopted to using as well. It wasn't until 1918 that the US government got on board. Today's time zone boundaries are very close to the original boundaries created by the railroads almost 240 years ago. On this day in 1999, 12 Texas A&M students are killed during the construction of a massive bonfire to celebrate the annual game against the University of Texas. The bonfire had been part of the A&M-UT pregame tradition for nearly 100 years, and the school billed the annual bonfire as "the world's largest." But the structure (59 feet tall and consisting of about 7,000 logs) collapsed around dawn while students worked at its top. In addition to the dead, 27 were injured. Investigators determined that the wiring used to tie the logs together was not strong enough, and that the construction effort in general was "without adequate physical or engineering control."
On this day in 1863, President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address. The speech is delivered at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery, established as the final resting place for those who died at Gettysburg in July. Just two weeks before the dedication, caretaker David Willis sent the president an invitation to "make a few appropriate remarks." Lincoln's speech was delivered in under 3 minutes, but it is considered one of the definitive statements of American history. (Below is one of two known photographs of Lincoln at Gettysburg) On this day in 1942, the Soviet Army launches Operation Uranus, the counteroffensive to relieve the besieged city of Stalingrad. The city had been under German attack for 2 months, with the 2 sides fighting for virtually every yard of ground. Earlier in the month, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin orders massive reinforcements under General Georgi Zhukov to defend the city named for him. Within 3 days, the attacking Germans are encircled by nearly half a million Soviet troops, but they hold out until late January before surrendering. On this day in 1975, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, a film about patients in a mental institution, opens in theatres. The film becomes the first in decades to sweep the 5 major Oscars (Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress), and earns Jack Nicholson his first Oscar after 4 previous unsuccessful nominations.
