On December 9, 1872, P.B.S. Pinchback, Lt. Governor of Louisiana, is named acting Governor following the impeachment of Henry Warmouth. A free man of color (son of a white Georgia planter and one of his African slaves), Pinchback is America's first African-American Governor. He served only six weeks - the remainder of Warmouth's term - but did not seek re-election, having already been elected by his fellow Republicans to the U.S. Senate. However, his was one of several elections contested by the Democrats over alleged voting irregularities, and Pinchback never served in the Senate (the hearings over his seating were held in Congress and Pinchback spoke on his own behalf, becoming the first African-American to ever speak on the House floor). On December 9, 1531, a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego sees a vision of the Virgin Mary on the Hill of Tapayec near Mexico City. Speaking in Diego's Aztec language, the Virgin asked that a church be built in her honor on the site. Diego immediately sought an audience with Archbishop de Zumarraga, who did not believe him. Mary would appear to Diego again that same day, urging him to continue on her behalf. In all, Mary would appear to Diego 4 times on the site, now known as Guadalupe. On the fourth appearance, she assured Diego that his deathly ill uncle had been healed, and told him to collect flowers from the hill and bring them to the Archbishop. Legend says the flowers he found were not native to Mexico, but he did as asked, collecting the flowers in his cloak. When Diego opened the cloak for the Archbishop, the flowers fell out and revealed an image of the Virgin imprinted on the fabric. The cloak (which can not be explained by science) is now enshrined in The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the most visited Catholic shrine in the world. On December 9, 1851, the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in North America is established in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1844 in London by philanthropist George Williams, the YMCA is devoted to the promotion of physical, mental and spiritual fitness. Williams and several friends who, like him, had migrated to London seeking work at the height of the Industrial Revolution, were disappointed that the city's diversions aimed at young men seemed to be limited to taverns and brothels. Today, there are about 12,000 YMCA's in 120 countries world-wide. Many were established with inexpensive hotel-style bording, though such facilities in the U.S. are rare today. (In a recent interview, Village People lead singer Victor Willis said it always bothered him that the group's disco-hit "YMCA" was seen as a "gay anthem." He said the song was strictly in praise of the organization's values)
On December 10, 1942, the Allied nations receive their first notification of the Holocaust in progress in eastern Europe. The notification came via a letter written and signed by Edward Raczynski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland's Government-in-exile, located in London, and circulated to the 26 nations that signed the Declaration of United Nations (the Allies). Raczynski's note named Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor as extermination camps being operated within Poland. In his note, Raczynski also became the first diplomat to call for the protection of Jews being persecuted by the Germans anywhere, not just in his own nation. On December 10, 1902, workers open the floodgates of the newly constructed Aswan Dam, creating the Lake Nasser reservoir. The largest masonry dam ever constructed at the time (6200 feet long, 36 feet tall), the dam is located near Aswan, Egypt, about 1000 miles up the Nile River from Cairo. Built to control flooding and store water for the dry seasons on the lower Nile, the dam worked as designed, but didn't create a large enough reservoir. Two modification to raise the dam's height (1907-1912 and 1929-1933) also proved inadequate, and the nation would construct the Aswan High Dam 6 miles upriver in the 1960's. The original is now known as the Aswan Low Dam or the Old Dam. On December 10, 1968, a lone perp pulls off the largest robbery in the history of Japan. Four employees of Nihon Shintaku Ginko (Nippon Trust Bank) were transporting a little over 294 million yen (about $817,000 at the 1968 exchange rate) to the Toshiba factory when they were stopped by a man dressed as a police officer on motorcycle just outside the factory. He told the bankers that word had been received that a bomb had been planted on the car and ordered them out. He then crawled under the car, emerging moments later to frantically order the men to run, as smoke began to creep from under the car. But the man then stole the car and the money. Despite a plethera of physical evidence (the motorcycle, the stolen car with a road flare used to fake the bomb, two more cars the thief stole in advance to cloud his escape) and the largest criminal investigation in Japanese history, the culprit was never caught. The statute of limitations (criminal) ran out in 1975 and civil liability expired in 1988, leaving the perp completely free to tell his story, but no one has ever come forward to take credit for the "300 million yen robbery." (photo montage of the suspect)
On December 11, 1990, one of the largest traffic incidents in U.S. history claims 12 lives. On Interstate 75 in eastern Tennessee between Chattanooga and Knoxville, a series of collisions ultimately collected 99 vehicles and injured 42 people in addition to the 12 killed. It was the worst incident ever on a 10-mile stretch of road known for fog-related calamities, the 5th involving 10 or more vehicles since 1974. The topography of the area - two separate valleys in a stretch of the Appalachian Mountains, also several creeks and a reservoir - make it prone to heavy fog that can develop very quickly. The state DOT had installed warning lights at each end of the area after the previous incident (1979, 18 vehicles, 17 casualties), but they had been malfunctioning over the past few days and investigators think many drivers may have ignored them. On December 11,1978, a group allegedly led by organized crime boss Jimmy Burke (below) pulls off (at the time) the largest cash robbery in U.S. history. The story begins with Louis Werner, an employee of John F. Kennedy International Airport in NYC who was deep in gambling debt. He tipped off his bookie that Lufthansa Airlines would be flying a large shipment of cash into the airport. Word got to Burke, who put together the group that broke into the terminal at 3:00am, took hostages and eventually made off with $5 million in cash and another $800,000 in jewelry. Over the next 7 months, 9 of the culprits were murdered, either on Burke's orders or by Burke himself, to avoid having to share the money. Werner would be the only person to do time for the crime; Burke, who died in prison (unrelated crime) in 1996, was never charged. None of the money has ever been recovered. The Lufthansa heist was used as a plot point in the 2001 movie "Goodfellas". On December 11, 1934, Bill Wilson takes his last drink. A Vermont native and career Army National Guard officer, Wilson took his first drink at age 21 and learned too late that he was susceptable to alcoholism. He sought medical treatment at least four times before, at age 39, he met up with an old drinking buddy who had achieved sobriety through spiritual means. Wilson would meet with his friend's religious group a few times, but eventually decided his best hope of treatment would be mutual support with other alcoholics. He and another member of the group, Bob Smith, began working together and brought others into their fold, eventually publishing a book on the subject called "Alcoholics Anonymous." It included a list of suggested activities to aid in recovery they called the "Twelve Steps." Alcoholics Anonymous now has support groups in 180 countries and helps an estimated two million people. Wilson died in 1971; throughout AA's growth over the decades, he was known only to the public as "Bill W.", his full name not being released (controversially so) until his obitiuary was published. AA members traditionally seek out other members in public by discretely asking if they are "friends of Bill." In 1999, Time Magazine listed Wilson as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On December 12, 1945, the US Military Government in the Far East declares the People's Republic of Korea (PRK) to be illegitimate in its zone of occupation. Following the Japanese surrender in August, the Korean peninsula was divided into two zones, with the Soviet Union occupying the north zone and the U.S. occupying the south. Korean activists - most notably Lyuh Woon-hyung (below) - quickly began forming a network of committees that met and declared themselves the PRK in early September. Lt. General John Hodge, military governor of the American zone, quickly saw the potential for communist intrusion and declared the PRK illegitimate. He also began supporting Lyuh's political rival, Sigmun Rhee, helping him to build the provisional government that became the Republic of Korea in May, 1948. Hodge's fears of Soviet interference were well-founded; while outwardly accepting the PRK acclimation, they immediately began installing their own reps on the committees in their zone, leading to the PRK being replaced by the (communist) Democratic People's Republic of Korea in September, 1948. Lyuh was assassinated by a right-wing terrorist group in 1947, and is that rare individual who is fondly remembered in both North and South Korea. On December 12, 1930, Major League Baseball redefines the home run. Previously, a home run was awarded for any ball that cleared the outfield fence in fair territory, whether it left on the fly or bounced over the fence. The 1930 rule change designated a ball bouncing over the fence to be an automatic double (often called a ground rule double, which is a misnomer, as "ground rule" designates rules needed for individual field peculiarities, such as a ball lost in the ivy of Wrigley Field). Baseball stats did not differentiate between HRs that flew over the fence from those that bounced, so previous records were not altered. (Historians do not believe that any of Babe Ruth's record 60 homers in 1927 were of the bounce variety). Al Lopez of the Brooklyn Robins is believed to have hit the last official "bounce home run" in September 1930 at Ebbetts Field. On December 12, 1970, The Doors perform at the iconic Warehouse concert hall in New Orleans. No one knew at the time that it would be the band's last concert with Jim Morrison as lead singer. I wrote a narrative based on what I read in a nola.com article (the photo below is an actual photo from the show), but the youtube video below is far better.
Me neither, but growing up in nola, I remember always hearing radio commercials for concerts at The Warehouse. Too young for concerts, though. I would love to be able to go back in time and see just one show at that place.
On November 17, 1969, the U.S. Air Force officially closes Project Blue Book. The project was the USAF's third in-depth look at the UFO phenomenon. The first, Project Sign, began in late 1947 and concluded within a year that "flying saucers" were real and likely extraterrestrial in origin. Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg rejected the report and ordered Project Grudge at the end of 1948, with Capt. Edward Ruppelt (left in photo) as Director. Ruppelt quickly reached the conclusion that his unspoken mandate from the Air Force was to "debunk" all sightings, and when several senior officers agreed, Grudge was scrapped in place of Project Blue Book beginning in 1952. Ruppelt would eventually coin the term "unidentified flying object" to replace "flying saucer". By its conclusion (Ruppelt was reassigned in 1953), Project Blue Book was study more than 12,500 UFO cases, and conclude that most could be scientifically explained, that none were extraterrestrial in nature, and that UFO's presented no threat to national security. On December 17, 1944 - at the height of the Battle of the Bulge, German SS troops massacre American prisoners of war. The "Malmedy Massacre" was actually two incidents on the 17th; at 4:30am, infantry assigned to the 1st Panzer Division (armored) executed dozens of Americans shortly after their capture at a fuel depot near Bullingen, Belgium. The Division then moved on Malmedy, where it surprised a smaller American armored column and quickly forced its surrender. Roughly 120 prisoners were assembled in a nearby field and machine gunned. Though many escaped, 84 Americans were killed in the two incidents. The escapees soon reached the American lines and reported the massacre to the Inspector General; troops were quietly and unofficially advised not to be taken alive. A post war tribunal held 3 SS officers responsible; all received death sentences, though none were carried out, and all 3 were released from prison by 1956.
