This day in history...

On May 24, 1775, Boston merchant John Hancock is elected President of the Second Continental Congress. Clearly a patriot, Hancock has nevertheless been an unwitting spark to the rebellion over the previous decade. A raid on one of his sloops in 1768 incited a violent riot that drove the British out of the city briefly. And it was a confrontation at Hancock's dock in 1770 that sparked the demonstrations that led to the Boston Massacre. A little over a year from now, Hancock will be the first member of the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence.


On May 24, 1917, the British Royal Navy introduces a new tactic for hopefully protecting supply ships on the Atlantic; the convoy. For the first time, merchants will sail from the Americas in a group, protected from German U-boat activity by several ships of the Navy that will escort them for the entire voyage. The convoy also includes at least one troop transport. The convoy system is an immediate success; the Allies lost 373 ships to the U-boats in the previous month. Over the next year, more than a million troops will sail to Europe in convoys, with the loss of fewer than 700.


On May 24, 1976, California kicks France's vintage ass. The field of battle is Paris' Intercontinental Hotel and the weapon of choice is wine. It is British wine merchant Steven Spurrier who throws down the gauntlet. Spurrier is a purveyor of French wines only, but is open minded about other nations' product, and after a wine tasting tour of California's infant Napa Valley wineries proposes a competitive tasting. Spurrier would later say he had no intention of embarrassing his French colleagues, but that's exactly how it went down at the event, dubbed the Judgement of Paris. A panel of nine wine experts - all French - is convened, and in a blind taste test of 10 reds and 10 whites, California is the winner. The French press managed to ignore the results for several months (though the industry essentially black-balled Spurrier from wine events for a year), but the Judgement of Paris is a huge shot in the arm for the Cali wine industry. Bottles of the winning vintages are now on display in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History (Spurrier on the right in photo).

 

I almost linked a clip from that to the post instead of the picture.

 

On May 25, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln suspends habeas corpus, the right of an arrested citizen to demand that authorities show just cause for the arrest in court. The citizen in question is Maryland state legislator John Merryman, arrested for his part in attempting to block Union troops as they marched from Baltimore to Washington. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney (hearing the case in his full-time role as a federal circuit court judge) immediately ruled that only Congress had the authority to suspend habeas corpus, but Lincoln remained defiant, and Merryman was not even arraigned until July 13, when he was released on bond. He was never brought to trial. Although SCOTUS backed Taney's original decision following the war, habeas corpus has been the subject of numerous high court cases throughout American history.


On May 25, 1953, the U.S. army conducts its first - and only - field test of a nuclear artillery shell. The W9 was 55 inches long, 11 inches in diameter, and weighed 850 pounds. It was test fired at Area 5 of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site from a purpose-designed mobile cannon, designated the M65 and nicknamed "Atomic Annie" and generated about 15 kilotons of explosive force as expected, roughly equivalent to the Hiroshima bomb. Three other W9's were test detonated, though not fired from a cannon, before the devices were retired and dismantled in 1957.


On May 25, 1979, 6-year old Etan Patz is abducted during his 2-block walk from home to the school bus stop. His body is never found, and the crime is not solved until 2012, when Pedro Hernandez, an 18-year old working in the neighborhood at the time, is arrested and confesses. He is not convicted until 2017, and is sentenced to 25 years for first degree kidnapping and second degree murder. In 1983, President Reagan designates May 25th to be National Missing Children's Day in Patz' honor, and in 1985, his image becomes one of the first used in the nationwide Missing Children Milk Carton Program (local versions of the program had been introduced in Iowa and Illinois a year earlier). The Milk Carton Program produced few successes, and was phased out when the Amber Alert System was introduced in 1996.

 

On May 26, 1940, the British launch Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and French troops from Dunkirk. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops had been driven into the small port city on the Strait of Dover when the Germans launched blitzkrieg on Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium two weeks earlier. The port was too shallow to accommodate naval vessels, and the Admiralty put out the call for civilian assistance. Hundreds responded; estimates are as many as 1,200 shallow draft boats, some commandeered by the navy, but many operated by their civilian owners. With the troops constantly harassed by German artillery and aircraft, Winston Churchill had hoped for 45,000 to be evacuated from the Dunkirk beaches. That number was reached in two days; by June 4 nearly 340,000 had been rescued.


On May 26, 1865, more than 6 weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrenders the trans-Mississippi Division at New Orleans. Smith himself was not present; he sent a subordinate general while he resisted to the last, conducting guerilla type operations in Texas until word reached him of the surrender. Smith then fled the country, hiding out in Cuba for a few months before accepting an amnesty agreement the following November. At his death in 1893, Smith was the last surviving full Confederate general.


On May 26, 1962, British clarinetist Acker Bilk takes the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with his single "Stranger on the Shore." It is the first single recorded by a British artist to reach the top of the charts in America, and though it will be Bilk's only number one, many rock and roll historians consider this to be the beginning of the "British invasion," coming nearly 18 months before The Beatles score their first number one in America with "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

 

I'm a day late on this, but want to get it in. On May 25, 1974, Donna Halper, music director for WMMS radio in Cleveland, receives a promotional copy of the self-titled debut album for a Canadian trio, called Rush. Halper samples the disc and plays a cut, called "Working Man," in afternoon drive time that day. Listener response is so positive that Halper is soon playing the song at 5:00pm on a daily basis. Rush fans, not to mention the band members themselves, today consider Halper hugely responsible for the band taking off with U.S. audiences. Halper is now a consultant and music historian; she gave the introductory speech when Rush received its star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

Let's call May 27, Man's Inhumanity to Man Day

On May 27, 1940, several platoons of British soldiers are separated from the main body of the British Expeditionary Force awaiting evacuation from Dunkirk. In the village of Paradis, the Royal Norfolk Regiment battles units of the German SS, fighting to the last shell before 99 survivors raise the white flag. The Germans react to the surrender by stripping the men of all useful items, marching them into a pit and machine gunning them. They then went though the bodies with bayonets and pistols to ensure there were no survivors, but they incredibly missed two. The survivors crawled to a farmhouse where the farmers tended their injuries, but with no hope of escape they surrendered again. This time they were properly received. The officer who ordered the massacre, Captain Fritz Knochlein, was hanged for war crimes after the war.


On May 27, 1937, Cuban officials refuse asylum to 937 German and Polish Jews, who had escaped Europe aboard the SS St. Louis. Their intention was to seek proper immigration documentation to the U.S. once they arrived in Cuba, but they were met in Havana with a combination of bureaucratic red tape and anti-Semitism. Twenty-eight Jews with valid visas were permitted into the country. After several days of negotiating on the refugees' behalf without success, the captain of the St. Louis embarked for Florida, where they were also denied entry, with a repeat performance occurring in Canada. Out of options, the St. Louis sailed to Antwerp, Belgium, where several Jewish organizations had obtained entry visas accepted by France, Great Britain and the Netherlands. Its believed roughly 700 of the St. Louis refugees survived the war.


On May 27, 1887, a gang of 7 horse thieves - all white - attack, rob and kill a group of Chinese gold miners on the Snake River in the Washington Territory (present day Idaho). Accounts vary on the number of dead, from 10 to 34. The thieves got away with several thousand dollars worth of gold, but the brutality of the attack - the bodies were mutilated and thrown in the river - suggests to historians that there was an element of Asian bias (attacks on Asian immigrants in the frontier northwest were common) to the crime. Only three of the murderers were caught; they were acquitted by all-white juries. In 2005 the site of the attack was changed from Hell's Canyon to Chinese Massacre Cove, and a monument was erected in 2012.

 

On May 28, 1961, The London Observer publishes a front page op-ed by attorney Peter Benenson called "The Forgotten Prisoners," an appeal for the release of so-called prisoners of conscience around the world. Benenson was inspired to write by the story of two Portuguese students supposedly imprisoned by the dictatorial regime there for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom in a public restaurant. While some now question whether that story was even true, the article sparked a movement that led to the formation of Amnesty International, which today is one of the leading organizations for human rights in the world, with more than 10 million members world-wide.


On May 28, 1937, Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH ("Company for the Preparation of the German Volkswagen Ltd.") is founded. The roots for Volkswagen are planted in the late 1920's, a time when only about one in fifty German families can afford a car. A number of notable Germans, including Adolf Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche, have a hand in the formation of the government-funded company, with the mission of producing a no-frills affordable family car. The result was the car now instantly recognizable as the Volkswagen Beetle. Only a handful were produced before WWII began, and the company now admits it widely used slave labor to maintain production of both the Beetle and military vehicles during the war. The factory in the purpose-built town of Wolfsburg fell in the British Occupation Zone after the war, and it was almost dismantled under treaty terms for its part as a military manufacturer. Ironically, the company was saved by the British army's need for a light transport, and 20,000 Beetles were ordered for the purpose. In 2016 and '17, VW led the world in auto sales, with 40% of their cars going to China.


On May 28, 1998, popular comedian actor Phil Hartman is shot and killed by his wife Brynn, who then killed herself. He was 49 years old. Hartman reached stardom as a writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live. He later starred in the sitcom NewsRadio, did extensive voice work on the animated comedy The Simpsons, and helped Paul Reubens develop the character Pee Wee Herman. Friends of the Hartmans say Brynn had a history of drug and alcohol problems.

 

I almost wrote "Steve Spurrier (no, not that one)"

Still having fun doing these, but sometimes its a challenge not to repeat things I did last year. And we're approaching the 2 year anniversary of the thread, which will make it even harder. People need to start doing more historic things, other than making an ass of themselves in the name of wokeness.