Hello everyone,
Hope everyone is doing well & keeping cool. It was 90 here in Raleigh
today - that pink lemonade is calling my name...
I'm been getting a few replies to my e-mail regarding the special project
and the FGS submissions are starting to come in - thank you. Don't forget
the other members of the committee that are from NC - they have some
wonderful sites..
Just wanted to know if any of our new CCs are experiencing any challenges
with their sites or have any questions that they may need assistance with.
We have a lot of North Carolina historians and plenty of computer
expertise....
P.S. It is that time of year - vacations - it would be great if you could
drop Angie or any of us a note if you will be out for awhile - we definitely
appreciate your thoughtfulness, thanks to those of you that have...
Have a wonderful night & weekend - I'm housesitting starting tomorrow
morning and will be out until Sunday but should still be able to respond to
e-mail....
This Day in History - Little Food for Thought
(
http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/)
1929 Hunter S. Thompson is born
Pioneer of "gonzo" journalism, Hunter S. Thompson is born in Louisville,
Kentucky, on this day.
By age 10, Thompson was publishing his own two-page newspaper, which he sold
for four cents. By his early teens, he had already launched on the life of
drinking, vandalism, and pyromania that would turn him into a bestselling
writer. At age 18, he was jailed for robbery. After serving 30 days of his
50-day sentence, he was released after promising to join the Air Force.
While serving on a Pensacola, Florida, Air Force base, he became sports
editor of the base newspaper and later went to work for a paper in New York,
where he was fired for kicking a vending machine. He wrote conventional
journalism pieces for various magazines, and in 1967 he expanded one of his
articles into his first book, Hells Angels, which became a bestseller. In
1970, while covering the Kentucky Derby, Thompson went on a weeklong bender
and developed severe writer's block. He handed his scrawled notes to the
copy boys his editors sent after him, and the result, "The Kentucky Derby Is
Decadent and Depraved," was hailed as a landmark in journalism. One of his
editors dubbed the new style "gonzo," for its wild, careening style.
In 1972, Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas became a bestseller, as
did his 1972 Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, about the
Nixon-McGovern presidential election. Hunter wrote several other bestsellers
and now lives in Colorado, where he's very active in local politics.
SPANISH CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT:
On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War begins as a revolt by right-wing
Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain.
From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message
calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain's
leftist Republican government. Within three days, the rebels captured
Morocco, much of northern Spain, and several key cities in the south. The
Republicans succeeded in putting down the uprising in other areas, including
Madrid, Spain's capital. The Republicans and the Nationalists, as the rebels
were called, then proceeded to secure their respective territories by
executing thousands of suspected political opponents. Meanwhile, Franco flew
to Morocco and prepared to bring the Army of Africa over to the mainland.
In 1931, Spanish King Alfonso XIII authorized elections to decide the
government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy
in favor of a liberal republic. Alfonso went into exile, and the Second
Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate
socialists, was proclaimed. During the first two years of the Republic,
organized labor and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reforms, and
the independence-minded region of Catalonia and the Basque provinces
achieved virtual autonomy.
The landed aristocracy, the church, and a large military clique opposed the
Republic, and in November 1933 conservative forces regained control of the
government in elections. In response, socialists launched a revolution in
the mining districts of Asturias, and Catalan nationalists rebelled in
Barcelona. General Franco crushed the so-called October Revolution on behalf
of the conservative government, and in 1935 he was appointed army chief of
staff. In February 1936, new elections brought the Popular Front, a leftist
coalition, to power, and Franco, a strict monarchist, was sent to an obscure
command in the Canary Islands off Africa.
Fearing that the liberal government would give way to Marxist revolution,
army officers conspired to seize power. After a period of hesitation, Franco
agreed to join the military conspiracy, which was scheduled to begin in
Morocco at 5 a.m. on July 18 and then in Spain 24 hours later. The
difference in time was to allow the Army of Africa time to secure Morocco
before being transported to Spain's Andalusian coast by the navy.
On the afternoon of July 17, the plan for the next morning was discovered in
the Moroccan town of Melilla, and the rebels were forced into premature
action. Melilla, Ceuta, and Tetuán were soon in the hands of the
Nationalists, who were aided by conservative Moroccan troops that also
opposed the leftist government in Madrid. The Republican government learned
of the revolt soon after it broke out but took few actions to prevent its
spread to the mainland.
On July 18, Spanish garrisons rose up in revolt all across Spain. Workers
and peasants fought the uprising, but in many cities the Republican
government denied them weapons, and the Nationalists soon gained control. In
conservative regions, such as Old Castile and Navarre, the Nationalists
seized control with little bloodshed, but in other regions, such as the
fiercely independent city of Bilbao, they didn't dare leave their garrisons.
The Nationalist revolt in the Spanish navy largely failed, and warships run
by committees of sailors were instrumental in securing a number of coastal
cities for the Republic. Nevertheless, Franco managed to ferry his Army of
Africa over from Morocco, and during the next few months Nationalist forces
rapidly overran much of the Republican-controlled areas in central and
northern Spain. Madrid was put under siege in November.
During 1937, Franco unified the Nationalist forces under the command of the
Falange, Spain's fascist party, while the Republicans fell under the sway of
the communists. Germany and Italy aided Franco with an abundance of planes,
tanks, and arms, while the Soviet Union aided the Republican side. In
addition, thousands of communists and other radicals from France, the USSR,
America, and elsewhere formed the International Brigades to aid the
Republican cause. The most significant contribution of these foreign units
was the successful defense of Madrid until the end of the war.
In June 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean Sea and cut
Republican territory in two. Later in the year, Franco mounted a major
offensive against Catalonia. In January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was
captured, and soon after, the rest of Catalonia fell. With the Republican
cause all but lost, its leaders attempted to negotiate a peace, but Franco
refused. On March 28, 1939, the Republicans finally surrendered Madrid,
bringing the Spanish Civil War to an end. Up to a million lives were lost in
the conflict, the most devastating in Spanish history. Franco subsequently
served as dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.
64 A.D. Fire of Rome
A fire erupts in Rome, spreading rapidly throughout the market area in the
center of the city. When the flames finally died out more than a week later,
nearly two-thirds of Rome had been destroyed.
Emperor Nero used the fire as an opportunity to rebuild Rome in a more
orderly Greek style and began construction on a massive palace called the
Domus Aureus. Some speculated that the emperor had ordered the burning of
Rome to indulge his architectural tastes, but he was away in Antium when the
conflagration began. According to later Roman historians, Nero blamed
members of the mysterious Christian cult for the fire and launched the first
Roman persecution of Christians in response.
1925 Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
Seven months after being released from Landsberg jail, Nazi leader Adolf
Hitler publishes the first volume of his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf.
Dictated by Hitler during his nine-month stay in prison, Mein Kampf, or "My
Struggle," was a bitter and turgid narrative filled with anti-Semitic
outpourings, disdain for morality, worship of power, and the blueprints for
his plan of Nazi world domination. The autobiographical work soon became the
bible of Germany's Nazi Party.
In the early 1920s, the ranks of Hitler's Nazi Party swelled with resentful
Germans who sympathized with the party's bitter hatred of Germany's
democratic government, leftist politics, and Jews. In November 1923, after
the German government resumed the payment of war reparations to Britain and
France, the Nazis launched the "Beer Hall Putsch"--their first attempt at
seizing the German government by force. Hitler hoped that his nationalist
revolution in Bavaria would spread to the dissatisfied German army, which in
turn would bring down the government in Berlin. However, the uprising was
immediately suppressed, and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years
in prison for high treason.
Sent to Landsberg jail, he spent his time dictating his autobiography, Mein
Kampf, and working on his oratorical skills. After nine months in prison,
political pressure from supporters of the Nazi Party forced his release.
During the next few years, Hitler and the other leading Nazis reorganized
their party as a fanatical mass movement that was able to gain a majority in
the German parliament--the Reichstag--by legal means in 1932. In the same
year, President Paul von Hindenburg defeated a presidential bid by Hitler,
but in January 1933 he appointed Hitler chancellor, hoping that the powerful
Nazi leader could be brought to heel as a member of the president's cabinet.
However, Hindenburg underestimated Hitler's political audacity, and one of
the new chancellor's first acts was to use the burning of the Reichstag
building as a pretext for calling general elections. The police under Nazi
Hermann Goering suppressed much of the party's opposition before the
election, and the Nazis won a bare majority. Shortly after, Hitler took on
absolute power through the Enabling Acts. In 1934, Hindenburg died, and the
last remnants of Germany's democratic government were dismantled, leaving
Hitler the sole master of a nation intent on war and genocide.
1969 Incident on Chappaquiddick Island
Shortly after leaving a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Edward "Ted"
Kennedy of Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a
tide-swept pond. Kennedy escaped the submerged car, but his passenger,
28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, did not. The senator did not report the fatal
car accident for 10 hours.
On the evening of July 18, 1969, while most Americans were home watching
television reports on the progress of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission,
Kennedy and his cousin Joe Gargan were hosting a cookout and party at a
rented cottage on Chappaquiddick Island, an affluent island near Martha's
Vineyard, Massachusetts. The party was planned as a reunion for Kopechne and
five other women, all veterans of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968
presidential campaign. Bobby Kennedy was Ted Kennedy's older brother, and
following Bobby's assassination in June 1968 Ted took up his family's
political torch. In 1969, Ted Kennedy was elected majority whip in the U.S.
Senate, and he seemed an early front-runner for the 1972 Democratic
presidential nomination.
Just after 11 p.m., Kennedy left the party with Kopechne, by his account to
drive to the ferry slip where they would catch a boat back to their
respective lodgings in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. While driving down
the main roadway, Kennedy took a sharp turn onto the unpaved Dike Road,
drove for a short distance, and then missed the ramp to a narrow wooden
bridge and drove into Poucha Pond. Kennedy, a married man, claimed the Dike
Road excursion was a wrong turn. However, both he and Kopechne had
previously driven down the same road, which led to a secluded ocean beach
just beyond the bridge. In addition, Kopechne had left both her purse and
room key at the party.
Kennedy escaped the car and then dove down in an attempt to retrieve
Kopechne from the sunken Oldsmobile. Failing, he stumbled back to the
cottage, where he enlisted Gargan and another friend in a second attempt to
save Kopechne. The three men were unsuccessful; her body was not recovered.
The trio then went to the ferry slip, where Kennedy dove into the water and
swam back to Edgartown, about a mile away. He returned to his room at the
Shiretown Inn, changed his clothes, and at 2:25 a.m. stepped out of his room
when he spotted the innkeeper, Russell Peachey. He told Peachey that he been
awakened by noise next door and asked what time it was. He then returned to
his room.
Was Kennedy trying to establish an alibi? In Leo Damore's Senatorial
Privilege--the Chappaquiddick Cover-up (1988), the author recounts an
interview with Joe Gargan in which Gargan claimed that Kennedy had plotted
to make Kopechne the driver and sole occupant of the automobile. Whatever
Kennedy's intentions, on the morning of July 19 he went back to
Chappaquiddick Island and then returned to Edgartown. At 9:45 a.m., 10 hours
after driving off Dike Road bridge, Kennedy reported the accident to
Edgartown Police Chief Dominick Arena and admitted that he was the driver.
On July 25, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident,
received a two-month suspended sentence, and had his license suspended for a
year. That evening, in a televised statement, he called the delayed
reporting of the accident "indefensible" but vehemently denied that he been
involved in any improprieties with Kopeche. He also asked his constituents
to help him decide whether to continue his political career. Receiving a
positive response, he resumed his senatorial duties at the end of a month.
There is speculation that he used his considerable influence to avoid more
serious charges that could have resulted from the episode. Although the
incident on Chappaquiddick Island derailed his presidential hopes, Kennedy
continued to serve as a U.S. senator of Massachusetts into the 21st century.