On May 30, 1922, former President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William H. Taft dedicates the Lincoln Memorial. Congress authorized a memorial to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1867, but it was not until 1911 that funding was authorized. Architect Howard Bacon designed the monument to resemble the Parthenon in Athens; the 19-foot tall statue of a seated Lincoln was designed by artist Daniel Chester French and sculpted by the Piccirilli family of sculptors. On May 30, 1593, English playwright Christopher Marlowe is stabbed and killed in a fight over a tavern bill in Kent. He was 29 years old. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, Marlowe gained popularity while still at Cambridge for his play, Tamburlaine the Great. He would write just 5 more plays before his death, most notable of which was Dr. Faustus. Marlowe was out of jail on bail following a charge of heresy when he was killed. On May 30, 1964, Dave McDonald and Eddie Sachs are killed in a fiery 7-car crash on the second lap of the Indianapolis 500. It is the only fatal crash in Indy 500 history to have claimed more than one driver's life (2 drivers were killed in the 1911 and 1933 races, but in separate crashes). It was also the first time the 500 was red-flagged (racing stopped completely due to an on-track incident). McDonald lost control of his car in turn 4 and hit the inside wall, his car exploding and spinning back onto the track, where it collided with Sachs, who was killed instantly. McDonald died of smoke inhalation later that day. Other drivers involved included Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser, who would both go on to become 3-time Indy winners. When the race resumed, A.J. Foyt would go on to win the second of his record-four Indy 500's. By the start of the '65 race, the United States Auto Club, governing body for IndyCar racing at the time, had mandated the switch from gasoline to methanol-powered cars to reduce the chance of such fiery crashes.
On May 31, 1962, the Israeli government executes Otto Adolf Eichmann by hanging for crimes against humanity. As a Nazi SS officer, Eichmann was placed in charge of "the final solution of the Jewish question" and in that role, oversaw the assembly and transportation of up to 4 million Jews to concentration camps for extermination. He escaped the Allies at the end of the war and fled to Argentina, where he lived anonymously until Israeli intelligence was tipped off to his location in 1957. Suspecting the Argentinian government would not extradite him, Israel smuggled Mossad agents into the country during Independence Day celebrations in 1960 and kidnapped him. A televised trial (held while Argentina demanded his return) followed, with a jury dismissing Eichmann's defense of "I was only following orders." Following his death, Eichmann was cremated and his ashes dumped in international waters in the Mediterranean. (Eichmann in 1942 and during his trial in 1961) On May 31, 2009, Millvina Dean passes away at age 97 in Hampshire, England. At two months old, she was the youngest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic, and at her passing, was the last survivor of the disaster. Dean's parents were emigrating to the US where her father was going to co-own a tobacco shop with his cousin in Kansas. They had booked passage on another ship, but a coal strike caused their sailing to be cancelled and the White Star Line switched their booking to Titanic. Following the iceberg collision, she was placed in Lifeboat 10 with her mother and older brother; her father remained aboard and did not survive. After rescue, Dean's mother decided to return with the rest of her family to England. Millvina's death comes on the anniversary of the Titanic's launch in 1911. On May 31, 2000, CBS TV network debuts Survivor, a "reality series" based on a Swedish TV product. In the limited-run series, 16 competitors divided into two teams are placed in an isolated environment (in this case, Palua Tiga, an island off Malaysia) with limited supplies. The teams compete against each other in a series of challenges, after which the members of the losing team must vote one of their number out of the competition. The process continues until four remain, at which time the teams are dissolved and the last four compete individually; the previously eliminated players conduct the final votes. American Richard Hatch won the first competition, which was a runaway ratings hit and winner of 2 Emmys for CBS. Production on the 44th Survivor competition begins this month.
On June 1, 1990 in Washington, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign a major agreement on Chemical Weapons. The Chemical Weapons Accord of 1990 required both superpowers to cease the production of chemical weapons immediately, and also to begin reducing their CW stockpiles by 80% by the end of 2002. Most of the world's industrial nations had developed and stockpiled chemical weapons since the beginning of World War I. In 1993, the US and the USSR would lead a movement for a comprehensive ban on chemical weapons that would be signed by 150 other nations. On June 1, 2004, Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols is sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without parole. It is the most life sentences ever given to one individual, and is reliably considered the longest prison sentence in world history. On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb prepared by Nichols and Timothy McVeigh went off at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in OKC, killing 168 people. Nichols is housed in a "supermax" facility in Florence, CO, housed in a cell block referred to as "bomber's row" (also the residence of Atlanta Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph and 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef). McVeigh was executed for his role in the bombing in 2001. On June 1, 1974, Emergency Medicine magazine publishes an article called "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary," by Dr. Henry Heimlich. In the article, Dr. Heimlich states that the commonly accepted method for helping a choking person - vigorous slaps on the back - can actually worsen the emergency, and proposed the use of abdominal thrusts by squeezing the victim from behind, just below the diaphragm. Less than 3 weeks later, a Seattle newspaper would report on a layman using Heimlich's method to relieve a choking victim. Within 2 years, the American Red Cross would begrudgingly (saying there is no science to the method) recommend the Heimlich Maneuver be used in instances where back-slapping failed, and in 1986, removed the back-slap from its literature as a treatment for choking (it has since reverted to its pre-1986 recommendations). While there are no reliable records to confirm how many people have been saved from death or injury through the Heimlich Maneuver, Dr. Heimlich, who died in 2016, once put the number at 50,000.
On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial U.S. Citizenship for Native Americans was a gradual process. Following the Civil War, a NA had to have 50% or less native blood to be eligible. Republicans in Congress pushed for citizenship during Reconstruction, though SCOTUS would rule the 14th Amendment did not refer to NAs. During World War I, citizenship was granted to NAs who volunteered for military service. Despite the all-inclusiveness of the ICA, many states denied Native Americans the right to vote as recently as 1948. (Coolidge with 4 Osage Indians on the White House lawn) On June 2, 1967, the State of Colorado executes convicted mass murderer Luis Monge in its gas chamber. Monge is the last person executed in the U.S. before SCOTUS invalidated all death penalties in a consolidation of three cases, Furman v Georgia, Jackson v Georgia and Branch v Texas (1972). The decision was 5-4, but while the majority all cited the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of the 8th Amendment, they couldn't agree that the death penalty itself was unconstitutional. Over the next 4 years, 37 states would pass new capital punishment laws that eliminated the ambiguities SCOTUS found objectionable. On June 2, 2004, "a software engineer from Salt Lake City, Utah, Ken Jennings" becomes the champion of Jeopardy! Jennings would go on to become the most successful game show contestant of all-time, winning 74 consecutive Jeopardy! matches with a grand prize total exceeding $2.5 million. But his streak almost didn't start; asked in "Final Jeopardy" to identify the first woman to win Olympic medals in 5 different events, Jennings' written answer was, "Who is Jones?" Despite the rather common last name, host Alex Trebek accepted the answer for Marion Jones, noting "in terms of female athletes, there aren't that many." Jennings would have lost had the answered not been accepted. Appearing on numerous invited special Jeopardy! events since then (as well as affiliations with other game shows) has increased Jennings' game show total income well beyond the $4 million mark. He now shares hosting duties for Jeopardy! with actress Mayim Bialik. On June 2, 1970, New Zealand-born race car driver/builder Bruce McLaren is killed when he crashes an experimental car of his own design in England. He was 32 years old. McLaren entered his first race at age 15 in a car built by he and his mechanic father. Mentored by Australian Grand Prix champion Jack Brabham, he joined the Formula 1 circuit and became the youngest Grand Prix winner in history by winning the 1959 U.S. Grand Prix at age 22. He would win four F1 races in his career, and in 1965 co-drove in the first of Ford's historic four-win streak at the 24 Hours of LeMans. He also jumped into the Canadian-American Challenge Cup Series (Can-Am) in its infancy, and in 1969 won all 11 races of the series. A month before his death, McLaren brought 3 cars to the Indianapolis 500, two of which would qualify. McLaren Racing would never win at Indy, but its innovative designs helped break the 200 mph barrier later in the 70's. The team's F1 program has won 183 Grand Prix races and 8 builder's world championships since 1966. Its subsidiary, McLaren Automotive, is a major player in the exotic sports car field. McLaren is a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
On June 6, 1966 - the second day of his "March Against Fear" - civil rights activist James Meredith is shot and wounded by a white would-be assassin. Three years earlier, Meredith had become the first black man to successfully enroll at the University of Mississippi. Disappointed by the slow progress of the movement, Meredith began the March in Memphis, TN, intending to walk to Jackson, MS with a small black-only delegation to promote African-American voter enrollment. On the sixth, a white man named James Norvell stepped from a wooded area and, screaming "I only want Meredith!", shot the leader 3 times with a shotgun loaded with birdshot. The shooting rallied several civil rights groups to the cause, and by the time the March reached Jackson on June 26, had grown to 15,000, including Stokely Carmichael, who made a speech along the way in which he first coined the phrase "Black Power." Meredith was treated for his wounds and rejoined the March on the 25th. On June 6, 1833, Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride the "Iron Horse." Purely a pleasure trip, Jackson boarded a B&O Railroad train at Ellicott's Mills, MD and rode to Baltimore, traveling what had become America's first passenger line 3 years earlier (see page 181 of TDIH). Rail passenger service was quickly accepted by the American people; by 1840 the US had about 3,000 miles of passenger rail service, nearly double that of the entire European continent. On June 6, 1970, CBS television network cancels Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., beginning the "rural purge." Beginning in the late 50's all 3 major networks tried out situation comedies that featured "naive but noble rubes" in the American heartland. CBS in particular leapt into rural America, starting with The Andy Griffith Show, and later adding Lassie, the variety show Hee-Haw, and most notably, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, 3 shows which frequently criss-crossed characters in the fictional rural town of Hooterville. The rural presence was so prominent that the competition joked that "The Tiffany Network" (an old CBS nickname) had become "The Hillbilly Network." Though the ratings remained high, by 1970 the programs were losing favor with young adult viewers, who saw them as irrelevant to modern times. Gomer Pyle (the show itself was not rural, but was a spin-off featuring an Andy Griffith Show character) was the first to go, though star Jim Nabors was given a variety show to host. Next was Mayberry R.F.D, which was a continuation of Andy Griffith after the star left the program. By 1974, the purge was complete; as Green Acres character actor Pat Buttram said, "They cancelled everything with a tree in it."
On June 7, 1944, the Allies launch Operation Mulberry. It is D Day +1, and the beaches at Normandy are secure. Having learned from experience the difficulties of capturing and holding an existing port, the Allies determined in 1943 that they would build their own harbors once they held a beachhead on the European continent. Designed and constructed in England (Winston Churchill had conceived artificial harbors in 1915), the components for two Mulberry harbors were built in 400 parts and towed across the English Channel. Mulberry "A", located at Omaha Beach (American sector) was severely damaged by a storm during installation and had to be abandoned. Mulberry "B" at Gold Beach (nicknamed "Port Winston" in the British/Canadian sector, pictured below) however, would be active for 10 months and was the port of entry to the continent for 2.5 million men and more than 4 million tons of supplies. (right; components of Mulberry "B" in 1990 photo) On June 7, 1929, the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See agree to the Lateran Treaty. The key document of the Lateran Pacts settles the "Roman question"; the temporal power of the papacy over civil Rome. The Lateran Treaty would recognize Vatican City as an independent state within Rome's boundaries, under the sovereignty of the Holy See. It also laid out the terms for Italy to financially compensate the Roman Catholic Church for the loss of the Papal States 50 years earlier. In 1948, the Italian Constitution was amended to formally recognize the relationship between the state and the Church. On June 7, 1961, the Milwaukee Braves become the first major league team to hit four consecutive home runs in one inning. In the top of 7th inning against the Cincinnati Reds, future Hall of Famers Eddie Matthews (below) and Hank Aaron knocked Reds starter Jim Maloney out of the game with back-to-back jacks. Marshall Bridges came out of the bullpen and was promptly greeted with two more long balls, by Joe Adcock and Frank Thomas. The four consecutive home runs feat has since been duplicated nine times, most recently by the White Sox in 2020.
I missed this last week, but since there's no hard date attached and its timely, here you go: On or about June 1, 1944, British military intelligence (MI5) arrests Leonard Dawe, crossword puzzle creator for the Daily Telegraph. Some background: in August, 1942, MI5 noted that the Telegraph's puzzle included the word "Dieppe" (clue: French port) the day before the Brits launched an amphibious attack on the port city. Now concerned that the puzzle could be used in espionage, MI5 noted in the early months of 1944 the use of the words "gold", "sword" and "Juno" (the code names for the Normandy landing beaches of the British/Canadian sector), but decided they were innocuous. But between May 2-June 1, the words "Utah", "Omaha" (the American sector beaches), "overlord" (code name of the Normandy operation), "mulberry" and "neptune" (specific operations within the overall invasion plan) appeared. MI5 became even more alarmed when it realized Dawe's fulltime job was as headmaster of a school who's property bordered one of the invasion staging camps. It was finally determined that Dawe frequently asked the boys of his school for crossword suggestions, and that the boys may have heard the words from soldiers in the town, but ultimately had no idea of their significance. Dawe revealed details of the arrest in a 1958 interview. (photo: landing craft staging area in Southampton)
