On September 19, 1957, the U.S. detonates a 1.7 kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at the Nevada Test Site, a 1,375 square mile research center north of Las Vegas. It is the first fully contained underground nuclear detonation. Between 1951 and 1992, the U.S. would conduct more than 900 tests of nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site. On September 19, 1883, New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant national voting rights to women. New Zealand's female citizens take part in their first national election the following November. On September 19, 1827, a year-long feud between Norris Wright, the sheriff of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and not-yet-famous woodsman Jim Bowie comes to a deadly conclusion. The two had been the principles of first a political, then a financial dispute, and when Wright took a shot at Bowie on the streets of Alexandria one afternoon, Bowie resolved to begin carrying a knife with him at all times. On the 19th, the two were in attendance at a duel near Natchez, MS. Although the duel concluded with neither combatant drawing blood, a fight broke out among the witnesses. Bowie was shot in the hip, and when Wright jumped in presumably to finish him off, Bowie drew his knife and disemboweled him. There was ample eyewitness testimony that Bowie was defending himself, and he was not charged. It is generally believed that the knife Bowie defended himself with was not the famed "Bowie knife" he would carry later, but a smaller version that was likewise invented by his brother, Rezin.
On September 20, 1565, Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, FL. It is the first time European colonials battle on what is now American soil. The decisive defeat encouraged France to refocus its colonial efforts in America far to the north, in what is now Quebec and Nova Scotia in Canada. On the evening of September 20, 1777, near Paoli, PA, General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launch a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne. In what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre, the British attack under cover of darkness, using only bayonets and swords so as not to lose the element of surprise. Nearly 200 Americans are killed or wounded. Less than two years later, Wayne launches his own bayonets-only attack on British forces at Stony Point on the Hudson River, killing 94 and capturing nearly 500 British soldiers. On September 20, 1963, President John F. Kennedy makes a startling proposal. Speaking to the United Nations, Kennedy proposes that America and the Soviet Union abandon their "space race" in favor of a joint effort between the two superpowers to put men on the moon. The proposal is part detente - U.S./Soviet relations were improving after the Cuban Missile Crisis the previous year had been resolved peacefully, and part economics; Kennedy's rivals in Congress were beginning to grumble over the anticipated $20 billion price tag of proposed Project Apollo. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko applauds the speech, but when Kennedy is assassinated two months later, succeeding President Lyndon B. Johnson re-commits America to a solo moon landing project.
On September 21, 1938, a Category 3 hurricane slams into Long Island and southern New England, causing 600 deaths and devastating coastal cities and towns. Forecasters completely misread what would be called the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, or as some named it, the Long Island Express. Forecast to make landfall in southern Florida, the storm suddenly made a hard turn north on the 19th and, moving at 60 mph and constantly refueled by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, swept over Long Island and the New England states, leaving behind $306 million in damages, an equivalency today of about $18 billion. On September 21, 1792, the French Legislative Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. The measure came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power. On September 21, 1904, the Nez Perce leader Chief Himmahtooyahlatkekt (“Thunder Rolling Down from the Mountains”), known to the white man as Chief Joseph, dies on the Colville reservation in northern Washington at the age of 64. Americans of the time described him as a superhuman military genius, an Indian Napoleon. This was far more true of his younger brother, Olikut, who generally took charge when the Nez Perce were called to war. Joseph, however, consistently behaved more as a diplomat than a warrior in his 30-plus years as chief. On finally surrendering the Nez Perce to white authority in Montana (1877), Chief Joseph is famously quoted as saying, "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”
On September 22, 1776, Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British in New York City for spying. He had volunteered for the mission 12 days earlier, and was captured the previous day attempting to cross Long Island Sound into colonial-controlled territory, carrying incriminating documents. American folklore has it Hale's final words on the gallows were, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country," but there is no historical proof of that statement. On September 28, 1828, Shaka, ruler of the Zulu nation of southern Africa, is assassinated by his two half-brothers. The Zulu was just one of more than a hundred small, insignificant African tribes when Shaka became chief in 1812. A brilliant organizer and tactician, he captured numerous rival tribes and brought them into the Zulu nation, and controlled a territory the size of present-day Natal at the time of his death. He lost his mind with the death of his mother a year earlier and ordered a series of irrational acts, including the murder of pregnant women, leading to his assassination. On September 22, 1961, President Kennedy signs legislation establishing the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency. He promised unspecified steps during his election campaign to "reinvigorate" U.S. foreign policy, particularly towards third world nations; this was the result. As described by Kennedy, the Peace Corps would be an “army” of civilian volunteers–teachers, engineers, agricultural scientists, etc.–who would be sent to underdeveloped nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and elsewhere to assist the people of those regions. In addition to its humanitarian goals, Kennedy hoped such aid would help these countries resist the growing communist movement. Congress reluctantly appropriated $40 million to start the project; the Peace Corps would prove to be a valuable and relatively inexpensive weapon of deterrence throughout the Cold War.
On September 23, 1846, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovers the planet Neptune from the Berlin Observatory. French astronomer Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier had earlier theorized the existence of an eighth planet after studying gravity-induced disturbances in the motions of Uranus. Neptune, a blue gas giant, has a diameter four times that of Earth, eight known moons and a ring system containing three bright and two dim rings. It completes an orbit of the sun once every 165 years. On September 23, 1933, the first American geologists arrive in Saudi Arabia to begin the search for oil, per an agreement reached earlier in the year with Saudi King Abdel Azia. The partnership between Abdel Aziz’s government and Standard Oil became known as the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco). The company would make its first commercially viable oil strike in the eastern desert of the country in 1938. I'd heard it said once that during the Gulf oil boom, a criminal told the FBI that the bad guys all knew the place to go if you needed to disappear was Morgan City, LA. You could go to work offshore and no one would ever know you were there. I have to wonder if the following is the source for that.... On September 23, 1981, a two-month nationwide manhunt ends when suspected murderer and author Jack Henry Abbott is apprehended in Morgan City, LA. Abbott was a career criminal who wrote to author Norman Mailer while in prison for murder in Utah. He had heard Mailer was corresponding with Utah death row inmate Gary Gilmore for a book, but that Gilmore was making up much of what he was saying. Abbott offered Mailer the truth about prison life, and the resulting book, In The Belly of the Beast, received positive reviews. Mailer helped Abbott gain parole in June, 1981 and set him up in a halfway house in NYC in June, 1981. Despite his immediate welcome into New York's literary circles, it took Abbott just six weeks to fall to his old instincts, killing a waiter and fleeing, first to Mexico and then Morgan City. Mailer would again intervene, successfully petitiioning that Abbott get the minimum 15 year sentence, saying, "Culture is worth a little risk." Abbott's ensuing notariety propelled In The Belly of the Beast onto the best-seller list. He committed suicide in 2002.
On September 24, 1964, the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (The Warren Commission, named after its chairman, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren) presents its findings to President Lyndon B. Johnson; that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in the murder of Kennedy, and that the Secret Service's preparations for the fateful 11/22/63 trip to Dallas had been inadequate. The Commission heard testimony from more than 500 witnesses and made several visits to the assassination site in preparing its conclusion. Despite their report, conspiracy theories on the assassination continue to circulate, so much so that in 1979, Congress revisits the matter. They reach the same conclusion as The Warren Commission. On September 24, 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, threatened by the U.S. Government with revocation of basic rights and the confiscation of sacred temples, reluctantly issues the Mormon Manifesto, in which all church members are required to follow civil laws regarding polygamy. The concept of "plural marriage" had been practiced mostly in secret by the church since its founding in the 1840's; historians estimate LDS founder Joseph Smith had more than 50 wives. But the "privilege" was accorded only to men in the church, and then only to those who demonstrated spiritual and economic worthiness. Its estimated that no more than 15 percent of LDS members practiced polygamy at any given time. On September 24, 1948 in Hamamatsu, Japan, journeyman motorcycle mechanic Soichiro Honda forms the Honda Motor Company. Starting with a cache of cheap 2-stroke motors he acquired and adapted to run on turpentine, Honda quickly expanded and improved his product; by the 1960's his C100 Super Cub (below) was the world's top selling motorcycle. At about the same time, Honda began producing small, fuel efficient cars. The Civic introduced in the early 70's was the company's first entry into the world auto market. The Accord (below), introduced in 1976, would become the world's best selling car in the late 80's. Soichiro Honda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1989, two years before his death at age 84.
On September 25, 1775, Colonel Ethan Allen is captured by British troops as Allen's troops withdraw from an aborted attack on Montreal. Allen is transported to London for execution, but the death sentence is commuted and Allen spends two years in an English prison before being returned to the colonies in a prisoner exchange. In 1778, he is made major general of the Vermont militia, but the colony had claimed its total independence a year earlier and declared itself the Republic of Vermont. Allen would spend the rest of his life (which ended in 1789) campaigning for Vermont statehood; it was granted two years after his death. On September 25, 1894 - four years and a day after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints rejects the practice of polygamy - President Grover Cleveland issues a general pardon to all Mormons who had previously engaged in unlawful marital practices in the U.S. In the second year of this thread and trying not to repeat myself, sometimes the pickings will get a little slim. But....good news! Yesterday my copy of Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth, The Official Touring History, reached my hands. So I'll share the occasional tidbit, such as..... On September 25, 2004, during the European leg of their 30th Anniversary (R30) Tour, Rush plays for the first and only time in the Czech Republic, before an audience of 7,000+ in Prague. Nothing notable about the show itself, but booking rep Howard Ungerleider writes that he and several of the crew got wasted on Italian liquor on the bus ride to the next gig (Hamburg, Germany), and stopped at a shop in the middle of the Black Forest that was open all night (it was 3am) and was known for their amazing collection of garden gnomes. Ungerleider bought several and spent the rest of the tour sneaking them on stage where the in-house cameras were sure to pick them up. (The picture below was taken two weeks later in Rotterdam. Note the red spot over Alex's left knee. That's the hat of that night's guest gnome. You can't see it in the picture, but its standing on the back of a ceramic sheep, another acquisition from the gnome store.)
On September 26, 1960 Republican Vice President Richard Nixon and Democrat U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy square off in the first of 4 presidential candidate debates. It is the first time the debates are televised to the nation, and they represent the beginning of a fundamental shift in the priorities of the American voter. Nixon is the more experienced of the two and is riding the coattails of a successful administration under Eisenhower, but he comes across on camera as uncomfortable and unpolished. Kennedy's record in Congress is respectable, but he's a veritable babe in the woods, the youngest major party presidential candidate ever. But the camera loves him; he's handsome, well-spoken and relaxed under the harsh TV lights. Although Nixon fares better in the later debates, the first impression is made, and Kennedy scores an upset. His VP choice and eventual successor, Lyndon Johnson, is more Nixon-like in his demeanor, and its noteworthy that Johnson in '64 followed by Nixon in '68 and '72, win without debating on TV. The televised presidential debate returns permanently for the '76 election, a race that will be won - once again - by a camera friendly political upstart in Jimmy Carter. On September 26, 1820, Daniel Boone, perhaps America's first great pioneer, dies quietly in his sleep in his son's home near present-day Defiance, MO. He was 86 years old. Born in what was then the Pennsylvania Colony, Boone would spend much of his adult life blazing trails from the coast-bound English colonies and later early United States, across the Appalachian mountains and into the wilderness that would become the Kentucky Territory. As others followed and began civilizing the Kentucky frontier, Boone stayed ahead of the pack, striking further west and helping to establish some of the earliest Missouri settlements. On September 26, 1969, ABC television debuts the "story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls." Created by TV hitmaker Sherwood Schwartz, The Brady Bunch would become the iconic '70's TV sitcom (situation comedy), focusing on a blended family in which a widow and widower each bring 3 children (girls from mommy Carol, boys with daddy Mike) into their new marriage. Through 5 seasons and 177 episodes, America watches the Brady kids growing up before their eyes (the series ends at oldest child Greg's high school graduation), dealing with the growing pains of sibling rivalry, braces, first dates and bashed noses with a wholesome goodness that is now seen as farcically cliche'. A tell-all book by Barry Williams ("Greg") called Growing Up Brady, would later reveal that things behind the scenes were often not nearly as wholesome as they seemed on-camera.
McTiger, McTiger McTiger. You really scraped the bottom of the barrel to say the Brady Bunch was a historical event
