On June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects ambient electrical charge in a jar, enabling him to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity. Franklin had been studying electricity for nearly a decade, along the way inventing the terms battery, conductor and electrician. He would also invent the lightning rod as a means to protect buildings and ships. On June 10, 1940, Norway surrenders to Germany. On the same day, Italy declares war on France and Great Britain. On June 10, 1935 in Akron, Ohio, recovering alcoholics Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith found Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a 12-step rehabilitation program that eventually helps countless people cope with alcoholism. Today AA has more than 80,000 local chapters, and other support groups such as Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous are modeled after its techniques. On June 10, 1692, Bridget Bishop becomes the first colonist hanged during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Over the next 5 months, 19 colonists will be executed on the charge of practicing witchcraft. On June 10, 1944, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall becomes the youngest person ever to play Major League Baseball when he pitches in a game for the Cincinnati Reds. With most able bodied American adults, including athletes, called to military service, baseball had to make due with both adolescents and previously retired players to keep the game alive through the war. Nuxhall's career will have two parts. The June 10 game was his only appearance of part 1; he would rejoin the Reds at age 23 and pitch for the next 15 years.
On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress appoints a 5-man committee - Thomas Jefferson (Virginia), John Adams (Massachusetts), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), Roger Sherman (Connecticut) and Robert Williams (New York) - to draft a declaration of independence. Knowing his eloquence with the written word, Adams proposes Jefferson write a first draft on his own. That draft, with only minor edits from the committee, will be presented to the Congress on June 28. On June 11, 1770, English explorer James Cook becomes the first European to see Australia's Great Barrier Reef. If he'd seen it sooner, he may not have run aground on it. On June 11, 1962, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, all inmates of the Alcatraz Federal Prison in San Francisco Bay, attempt escape. The place fake heads carved from wood in their bunks, crawl through holes dug with spoons, scale the fence and float into the bay on rafts fashioned from raincoats. Their fate is unknown, but since authorities can not conclusively prove they died in the attempt, it is classified a successful escape - the only one in the prison's 30 year history. On June 11, 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood become the first African Americans to enroll in the University of Alabama. They had been attempting to enroll for several days, but Governor George Wallace and members of the State Police personally blocked the door of the enrollment office. On the 11th, they are accompanied by members of the Alabama National Guard, federalized the previous day by President Kennedy. On June 11, 1979, beloved American actor John Wayne succumbs to lung cancer. He was 72 years old. Born Marion Morrison in California, he found work as a studio stage hand and was befriended by up and coming director John Ford, who gave Morrison his first onscreen role. He appeared, and eventually starred in, several mediocre westerns in the 1930's as Duke Morrison (a nickname from childhood), and Duke Wayne before finally taking the stage name John Wayne. His first screen success was in the 1939 Oscar winner Stagecoach. Over the next 3 decades he would become Hollywood's symbol of the All American Man, playing characters who were no-nonsense, rugged but easy going, and unfailingly patriotic. In 1969, Wayne would win his only Oscar, for playing tough, hard drinking US Marshall Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.
So, do you think they made it? I do. A mf'r doesn't dig a hole in a wall with a spoon only to freeze to death and get eaten by a shark.
And then get played in the movies by Clint Eastwood. I have to think Morris, at least, made it, for that reason alone.
On June 12, 1987, standing in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, President Ronald Reagan addresses a West Berlin audience to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the city's founding. Calling out Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev by name, Reagan orates, " “There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace....Secretary General Gorbachev, if you seek peace–if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe–if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Two years later, Berliners on both sides of the infamous barrier would do just that. On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of immensely popular former football star turned actor O.J. Simpson, is brutally stabbed to death in front of her Brentwood, California home, along with close friend Ron Goldman. It doesn't take long for investigators to suspect Simpson himself as the killer..... On June 12, 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers is gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, MS home. A veteran of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Evers will be buried in Arlington National Cemetary with full military honors. White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is charged with the killing, but two all-white juries deadlock on his conviction. It will be 1994 before the state re-opens the case, and a mixed race jury convicts and sentences Beckwith to life in prison. He died in 2001. On June 12, 216, 29-year old Omar Mateen forces his way into Pulse, a popular Orlando, FL nightclub that caters to Latinos and homosexuals. Mateen is carrying an AR-15 rifle and a handgun, and he begins firing into the crowd, many of whom don't at first recognize the sound of gunfire over the blaring dance music. Forty-nine people are killed in what was, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Mateen barricades himself in a bathroom, and moments before being shot and killed by police, calls 9-1-1 and pledged his allegiance to ISIS, the Islamic terrorist network. Evidence which came to light afterward would lead investigators to suspect that Mateen had actually intended to shoot up a Disney World location, but got spooked by police and diverted to Pulse. (below: flowers and memorials at Pulse after the shooting) On June 12, 1920, Man O’ War wins the 52nd Belmont Stakes. Today, at a mile and a half, the Belmont is the longest of the 3 Triple Crown races, but in 1920, the race was a mile and 3 furlongs. The Kentucky Derby was the longest, at a mile and a quarter, and Man O' War's trainers decided the distance was too grueling and did not enter. Man O' War would win the second jewel, The Preakness, and then win the Belmont in a record time of 2:16.8, knocking nearly 2 seconds off the old record. In 1925, the Belmont's length is changed to a mile and a half, and Man O' War's mile and 3 furlong time is retired into the race record book. Curious coincidence: both Man O' War and Secretariat, Belmont record holder at its current length, were called Big Red by their owners and handlers.
I read a story a while back speculating that the 2 brothers made it to somewhere in South America and lived to a ripe old age. There were letters to family members here in the states. I think the other guy might have lived somewhere here in the USA. I would post a link if I knew where to find it. As far as escaping from prison and getting to South America they would have had to had some helo with money and fake passports and then if they weren't going to resume a life of crime and risk getting caught in a foreign country they would have had to had somebody sending them money until they could get jobs.
On June 13, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court establishes the rights of the accused with its decision in Miranda v. Arizona. The case stems back to the March 2, 1963 arrest of Ernesto Miranda on a kidnapping charge. Miranda confessed but later recanted, and was then convicted. The ACLU took up his appeal and argued that the confession was coerced and conflicted with facts presented at trial. SOCUS overturned his conviction and established the list of rights we've all heard countless times on cop TV shows, known as The Miranda Warning. Epilogue: after the SC ruling, Arizona retried Miranda and found him guilty again. He did 6 years. Today in 323 BC (the exact date is a calculation from the current calendar to the old), Alexander the Great fell sick and died in Babylon at age 33. A classically educated military genius, Alexander first led troops into combat at age 16. He ascended to the throne of Macedonia on the assassination of his father, Phillip II. Within 2 years, he would successfully carry out his father's desire of conquering Asia Minor and the Persian Empire, never losing a battle despite being consistently outnumbered. He then looked east and conquered Afghanistan, Central Asia and northern India, finally stopping his campaign when his army simply refused to go any farther after 8 years of non-stop conquering. He had no heirs at the time of his death, and his empire quickly fragmented. On June 13, 1971, the New York Times begins publishing portions of a 47-volume Pentagon analysis of how the U.S. commitment in Southeast Asia grew over a period of three decades. The documents had been stolen by a former Defense Department analyst turned antiwar activist named Daniel Ellsberg. When the U.S. Senate prove uninterested in investigating the documents, Ellsberg gave them to the Times. The publication of what is now known as "The Pentagon Papers" led to nationwide debates about the people's "right to know" information deemed classified by the government. On June 13, 1962, Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita" premiers in U.S. theatres. It is an adaptation of Vladimir Nabakov's controversial novel about Humbert Humbert, a man obsessed with young girls (he called them nymphets) and his relationship with one in particular, a 12-year old nicknamed Lolita. Kubrick's early big-name choices for the lead roles shied away because of the controversial nature of the novel; Sue Lion and James Mason were eventually cast. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the backlash from the Catholic Church and government censor during production caused Kubrick to change so much of the film, he later admitted he wished he had never made it.
