Thomas Jefferson Warned About Too Much Power For the "Aristocracy of Our Monied Corporations" in the United States

 “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” 

—Thomas Jefferson

"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." 

—FDR, 1936

Thomas Jefferson might not have been the nearly perfect President and Founding Father the way that I was taught in the old school days. We know and accept that he was limited in some ways, and full of paradoxes. He was a slaveowner, even while writing all of those stirring words about freedom and breaking free.

However, he undeniably possessed a very brilliant mind. did understand the very real threat that the elite class - monied corporations and the aristocracy, which seems to be reviving in the United States in the 21st century - imposed on the young, fledgling American democracy.

More than one century later, another president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said many of these same kinds of things. Roosevelt's New Deal policies are often credited with building the American middle class and ushering in a long era of national prosperity, which many Americans still today consider the American "Golden Age."

Some of those words and thoughts are things which we might want to pay attention to in our modern age. Because it feels like history is running in cycles. Or perhaps it is a pendulum.

But here in the United States, that pendulum has been stuck going in the corporate, elitist direction for a very, very long time now. It appears to be stuck in that position, at least for now. 

Maybe we should go back and reread the words of Jefferson and Roosevelt to better understand his position regarding monied interests and corporations. Specifically, the threat that they posed to our American democracy. Because while he wrote those words hundreds of years ago, they somehow feel quite relevant to our present time and circumstances.

A picture I took of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington during a visit with my son  back in 2013. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.

June 18th: This Day in History

 

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 618 was the coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty's rule over China. There was a Swedish Vikings attack on Constantinople on this day in 860. Five monks at Canterbury reported an explosion on the moon (only known observation) on this day in 1178. In 1778 on this day during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, the British evacuated Philadelphia. The War of 1812 between the United States and Britain began on this day in 1812. On this day in 1815, Napoleon and France was defeated by British forced under Wellington and Prussian troops under Blucher at the Battle of Waterloo. On this day in 1915 during the Great War, better known now as World War I, French troops halted the fighting in the Artois region. On this day in 1940 during World War II, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and Il Duce Benito Mussolini of Italy met in Munich, Germany. In 1983 on this day, Sally Ride became the first woman in space when the 7th Shuttle Mission-Challenger 2 was launched. On this day in 1979, US President Jimmy Carter & Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT II treaty limiting nuclear weapons.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 618 was the coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty's rule over China.

• There was a Swedish Vikings attack on Constantinople on this day in 860.

• 1155 - Pope Adrian IV crowns Frederick I Barbarossa Roman-German Emperor

1178 - Proposed time of origin of lunar crater Giordano Bruno

• Five monks at Canterbury reported an explosion on the moon (only known observation) on this day in 1178.

1264 - The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.

1316 - Peace of Fexhe: prince-bishop Adolf II of Mark & Luikse towns

1529 - Blackfriars begin: Henry VIII & Catharina of Aragon

1538 - Treaty of Nice: ends war between Emperor Charles V & King French I

1541 - Irish parliament selects Henry VIII as king of Ireland

• 1574 - Polish King Hendrik of Anjou secretly leaves Poland

1580 - States of Utrecht forbid catholic worship

1583 - Richard Martin of London takes out first life insurance policy, on William Gibbons; premium was £383

1629 - Sea battle at Dungeness: Piet Heyn beat the Dunkirkers, commerce raiders in the service of the Spanish Monarchy

1639 - Treaty of Berwick: Ends the First Bishops' War between England and Scotland

1643 - Skirmish at Chalgrove Field: Prince Rupert parliamentary armies

1682 - William Penn founds Philadelphia, US

1757 - Battle at Kolin Bohemia: Austrian army beats Prussia

• 1767 - Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.

English Philosopher and Founder of Pennsylvania William PennEnglish Philosopher and Founder of Pennsylvania William Penn 

Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA

• In 1778 on this day during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, the British evacuated Philadelphia.

Jun 18, 1778: British abandon Philadelphia

On this day in 1778, after almost nine months of occupation, 15,000 British troops under General Sir Henry Clinton evacuate Philadelphia, the former U.S. capital.  

The British had captured Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, following General George Washington's defeats at the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of the Clouds. British General William Howe had made Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress, the focus of his campaign, but the Patriot government had deprived him of the decisive victory he hoped for by moving its operations to the more secure site of York one week before the city was taken.  

While Howe and the British officer corps spent the winter enjoying the luxury of Philadelphia's finest homes, the Continental Army froze and suffered appalling deprivation at Valley Forge.  Fortunately for the Patriots, an infusion of capable European strategists, including the Prussian Baron von Steuben; the Frenchmen Marquis de Lafayette and Johann, Baron de Kalb; and Poles Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Casimir, Count Pulaski, aided Washington in the creation of a well-drilled, professional force capable of fighting the British.  

The British position in Philadelphia became untenable after France's entrance into the war on the side of the Americans. To avoid the French fleet, General Clinton was forced to lead his British-Hessian force to New York City by land. Loyalists in the city sailed down the Delaware River to escape the Patriots, who returned to Philadelphia the day after the British departure. U.S. General Benedict Arnold, who led the force that reclaimed the city without bloodshed, was appointed military governor. On June 24, the Continental Congress returned to the city from its temporary quarters at York, Pennsylvania.

1779 - French fleet occupies St Vincent

• 1812 - War of 1812 begins as US declares war against Britain

Jun 18, 1812: War of 1812 begins

The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law--and the War of 1812 begins. The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress known as the "War Hawks" had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial land gains for the United States.  

In the months after President Madison proclaimed the state of war to be in effect, American forces launched a three-point invasion of Canada, all of which were decisively unsuccessful. In 1814, with Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire collapsing, the British were able to allocate more military resources to the American war, and Washington, D.C., fell to the British in August. In Washington, British troops burned the White House, the Capitol, and other buildings in retaliation for the earlier burning of government buildings in Canada by U.S. soldiers.  

In September, the tide of the war turned when Thomas Macdonough's American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburg Bay on Lake Champlain. The invading British army was forced to retreat back into Canada. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812. By the terms of the agreement, all conquered territory was to be returned, and a commission would be established to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada.  

British forces assailing the Gulf Coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, the U.S. forces under Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. The American public heard of Jackson's victory and the Treaty of Ghent at approximately the same time, fostering a greater sentiment of self-confidence and shared identity throughout the young republic. 

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

• On this day in 1815, Napoleon and France was defeated by British forced under Wellington and Prussian troops under Blucher at the Battle of Waterloo.

On this day in 1815, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.

Jun 18, 1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte suffers defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.  

The Corsica-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoleon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over the reigns of the French government and save his nation from collapse. After becoming first consul in February 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802, he established the Napoleonic Code, a new system of French law, and in 1804 was crowned emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral. By 1807, Napoleon controlled an empire that stretched from the River Elbe in the north, down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees to the Dalmatian coast.  

Beginning in 1812, Napoleon began to encounter the first significant defeats of his military career, suffering through a disastrous invasion of Russia, losing Spain to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula War, and enduring total defeat against an allied force by 1814. Exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, he escaped to France in early 1815 and set up a new regime. As allied troops mustered on the French frontiers, he raised a new Grand Army and marched into Belgium. He intended to defeat the allied armies one by one before they could launch a united attack.  

On June 16, 1815, he defeated the Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher at Ligny, and sent 33,000 men, or about one-third of his total force, in pursuit of the retreating Prussians. On June 18, Napoleon led his remaining 72,000 troops against the Duke of Wellington's 68,000-man allied army, which had taken up a strong position 12 miles south of Brussels near the village of Waterloo. In a fatal blunder, Napoleon waited until mid-day to give the command to attack in order to let the ground dry. The delay in fighting gave Blucher's troops, who had eluded their pursuers, time to march to Waterloo and join the battle by the late afternoon.  

In repeated attacks, Napoleon failed to break the center of the allied center. Meanwhile, the Prussians gradually arrived and put pressure on Napoleon's eastern flank. At 6 p.m., the French under Marshal Michel Ney managed to capture a farmhouse in the allied center and began decimating Wellington's troops with artillery. Napoleon, however, was preoccupied with the 30,000 Prussians attacking his flank and did not release troops to aid Ney's attack until after 7 p.m. By that time, Wellington had reorganized his defenses, and the French attack was repulsed. Fifteen minutes later, the allied army launched a general advance, and the Prussians attacked in the east, throwing the French troops into panic and then a disorganized retreat. The Prussians pursued the remnants of the French army, and Napoleon left the field. French casualties in the Battle of Waterloo were 25,000 men killed and wounded and 9,000 captured, while the allies lost about 23,000.  

Napoleon returned to Paris and on June 22 abdicated in favor of his son. He decided to leave France before counterrevolutionary forces could rally against him, and on July 15 he surrendered to British protection at the port of Rochefort. He hoped to travel to the United States, but the British instead sent him to Saint Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. Napoleon protested but had no choice but to accept the exile. With a group of followers, he lived quietly on St. Helena for six years. In May 1821, he died, most likely of stomach cancer. He was only 51 years old. In 1840, his body was returned to Paris, and a magnificent funeral was held. Napoleon's body was conveyed through the Arc de Triomphe and entombed under the dome of the Invalides.

1821 - Opera "Der Freischutz" is produced (Berlin)

1822 - Part of US-Canadian boundary determined

1822 - Slave revolt leaders Denmark Vesey & Peter Poyas arrested in SC

British Botanist Charles Darwin

• 1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leave South Africa

1837 - Spain gets new Constitution

1863 - After long neglect, Confederates hurriedly fortify Vicksburg

1864 - At Petersburg, Grant ends 4 days of assaults

1872 - Woman's Suffrage Convention held at Merchantile Liberty Hall

1873 - Susan B Anthony fined $100 for voting for President

1879 - W H Richardson, a black inventor, patents the children's carriage

1887 - The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia is signed.

Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1892 - Macademia nuts 1st planted in Hawaii

1894 - Premier Roseberry declares Uganda a British protectorate

1898 - 1st amusement pier opens in Atlantic City, NJ

• 1900 - Empress Douairiere orders I-Ho-Chuan (Boxers) to kill all foreigners

1900 - Gen Luigi Pelloux resigns as premier of Italy

1903 - 1st transcontinental auto trip begins in SF; arrives NY 3-mo later

1908 - Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the Kasato-Maru ship

1909 - Nannie Burroughs forms national training School for Women

A war monument in Champlitte, France

On this day in 1915 during the Great War, better known now as World War I, French troops halted the fighting in the Artois region.

Jun 18, 1915: French troops halt fighting in Artois region        

After several weeks of heavy fighting, including savage hand-to-hand combat, with little success, French troops halt their attacks on the German trenches in the Artois region of France on June 18, 1915.  

Artois, located in northern France between Picardy and Flanders, near the English Channel, was a strategically important battlefield during World War I and saw heavy fighting throughout the conflict. Over the course of 1915, the most significant Allied offensives on the Western Front all took place in Artois. On May 9, French and British troops launched a two-pronged offensive around Vimy Ridge and Aubers Ridge respectively. Known as the Second Battle of Artois, the French attack was modestly successful, though the Germans retreated to better lines while inflicting significant casualties. More importantly, the battle convinced French and British commanders alike that the key to breaking through the German lines was twofold: attacking with sufficient artillery along a broad front, and having supporting formations move in behind the lead troops to carry the attack beyond the front lines, enabling the breakthrough to happen in one swift thrust.  

The French consequently began to build up a force of 900 heavy guns, over 1,000 field guns and 37 divisions for another major Artois offensive that fall. Meanwhile, fighting continued throughout May and into June, with the French opening up a diversionary assault on the Somme River, some 40 kilometers to the south, in an attempt to secure the village of Serre. In Artois, the town of Neuville St. Vaast finally fell to the French 5th Army on June 9. On June 16, hoping to press their advantage, the French launched further assaults on the German lines in Artois. Over the next 24 hours, French artillery fired over 300,000 shells around Neuville St. Vaast; the Germans still managed to outgun them, as the higher altitude of their lines allowed them to fire on French positions with greater ease. On June 18, the French command called off the battle in Artois, after many small advances and changes of control of territory, as well as some 18,000 French casualties.

1924 - Pope Pius XI's encyclical Maximam gravissimamque

1926 - Theodor Lessing laid-off "because he is a Jew" in Hanover

1927 - Paavo Nurmi runs world record 2000 m: 5:24.6

• 1928 - Amelia Earhart becomes 1st female to fly across Atlantic Ocean

1930 - Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Franklin Institute held.

1934 - US Highway planning surveys nationwide authorized

1936 - 1st bicycle traffic court in America established, Racine, WI

1936 - Polish parliament gives pres Ignacy Moscicki dictatorial power

On this day in 1940 during World War II, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and Il Duce Benito Mussolini of Italy met in Munich, Germany.

Jun 18, 1940: Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich

On this day in 1940, Benito Mussolini arrives in Munich with his foreign minister, Count Ciano, to discuss immediate plans with the Fuhrer, and doesn't like what he hears.  

Embarrassed over the late entry of Italy in the war against the Allies, and its rather tepid performance since, Mussolini met with Hitler determined to convince his Axis partner to exploit the advantage he had in France by demanding total surrender and occupying the southern portion still free. The Italian dictator clearly wanted "in" on the spoils, and this was a way of reaping rewards with a minimum of risk. But Hitler, too, was in no mood to risk, and was determined to put forward rather mild terms for peace with France. He needed to ensure that the French fleet remained neutral and that a government-in-exile was not formed in North Africa or London determined to further prosecute the war. He also denied Mussolini's request that Italian troops occupy the Rhone Valley, and that Corsica, Tunisia, and Djibouti (adjacent to Italian-occupied Ethiopia) be disarmed.  

Ciano recorded in his diary that Mussolini left the meeting frustrated and "very much embarrassed," feeling "that his role is secondary." Ciano also records a newfound respect for Hitler: "Today he speaks with a reserve and perspicacity which, after such a victory, are really astonishing."  

French President Charles De Gaulle

• 1940 - Gen Charles de Gaulle on BBC tells French to defy nazi occupiers

1940 - German occupiers slaughter cattle, pigs & chickens

Statue of soldier, author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London

• 1940 - Winston Churchill urges perseverance so that future generations would remember that "this was their finest hour"

1941 - Joe Louis KOs Billy Conn in 13 for heavyweight boxing title

1941 - Turkey signs peace treaty with nazi-Germany

1942 - Bernard W Robinson, becomes 1st black ensign in US Navy

1942 - Eric Nessler of France stays aloft in a glider for 38h21m

1943 - SS Police in Amsterdam sentence for 12 resistance fighter to death (Jewish, communists, homosexuality) at the census bureau

1944 - Farewell concert of Willem Mengelberg in Paris

1944 - U-767 sinks

1945 - William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) charged with treason

1946 - Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa. A road is named after this date in Panjim.

1947 - Cincinnati Red Ewell Blackwell no-hits Boston Braves, 6-0

1948 - American Library Association adopts Library Bill of Rights

Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister Winston ChurchillSoldier, Author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill 1948 - National Security Council authorizes covert operations for 1st time

1948 - Phillies pitching great Robin Roberts debut, loses 2-0 to Pirates

1948 - UN Commission on Human Rights adopts Intl Decl of Human Rights

1949 - "Along Fifth Avenue" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 180 perfs

1950 - Cleve Indians score 14 runs in 1st inning, beat A's 21-2

• 1951 - De Gaulle wins French parliamentary election

• 1953 - Egypt proclaimed a republic, General Neguib becomes president

1953 - USAF C124 Globemaster crashes near Tokyo killing 129 servicemen

1953 - Eugene Stephens is 1st to get 3 hits & Red Sox score 17 runs in 1 Inning (7th) Red Sox beat Detroit 23-3

1954 - Pierre Mendèsforms French government

1955 - "3 for Tonight" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 85 performances

1956 - Last of foreign troops leaves Egypt as British leave Suez Canal

• 1957 - John Diefenbacker (C) takes office as PM of Canada

1959 - 1st telecast transmitted from England to US

1959 - Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.

1960 - "Destry Rides Again" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 472 perfs

Golfer Arnold PalmerGolfer Arnold Palmer 1960 - 60th US Golf Open: Arnold Palmer shoots 280 at Cherry Hills in Denver

1960 - Giants hire Tom Sheehan as baseball's oldest debuting manager (66)

1960 - Real Madrid wins 5th Europe Cup 1

1961 - CBS radio cancels Gunsmoke

1961 - KBMT TV channel 12 in Beaumont, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting

1961 - Mary Lena Faulk wins LPGA Eastern Golf Open

1963 - 3,000 blacks boycott Boston public school

1964 - African Groundnut Council forms in Dakar

1967 - 67th US Golf Open: Jack Nicklaus shoots 275 at Baltusrol GC NJ

1967 - Houston Don Wilson no-hits Atlanta Braves, 2-0

1967 - Monterey International Pop Festival rocks Southern California

1967 - Susie Maxwell wins LPGA Milwaukee Jaycee Golf Open

1968 - Supreme Court bans racial discrimination in sale & rental of housing

1972 - BEA Trident crashes after takeoff from Heathrow killing 118

• 1972 - West Germany wins soccer world championship

1972 - US Supreme Court, 5-3, confirms lower court rulings in Curt Flood case, upholding baseball's exemption from antitrust laws

1973 - NCAA makes urine testing mandatory for participants

1974 - Gaston Thorn forms Luxembourg government

1975 - Fred Lynn gets 10 RBIs in a Red Sox 15-1 victory over Tigers

1975 - Gary Gilmour takes 6-14 in Cricket World Cup semi v England

1975 - NBC News & Information Service (24 hr news) premieres on radio

1976 - A Joseph William Turner watercolor auctioned for £340,000

1976 - St Louis Cards Lou Brock & Hector Cruz hit inside-the-park HRs

1976 - Bowie Kuhn voids A's sales, totaling $35 million, of Joe Rudi & Rollie Fingers to Red Sox, & Vida Blue to Yankees

1977 - Billy Martin & Reggie Jackson get into a dug out altercation

1977 - Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten & Paul Cook, beaten & robbed by London pub

1977 - Space Shuttle test model "Enterprise" carries a crew aloft for 1st time, It was fixed to a modified Boeing 747

1978 - 78th US Golf Open: Andy North shoots a 285 at Cherry Hill CC in Denver

1978 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Bankers Trust Golf Classic

1978 - Victor de la Torre wins Peru election

1979 - Billy Martin becomes Yankee manager (2nd time), replacing Bob Lemon

1979 - Sri Lanka beat India by 47 runs in Cricket World Cup upset

American President Jimmy Carter

• On this day in 1979, US President Jimmy Carter & Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT II treaty limiting nuclear weapons.

Jun 18, 1979: Carter and Brezhnev sign the SALT-II treaty

During a summit meeting in Vienna, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT-II agreement dealing with limitations and guidelines for nuclear weapons. The treaty, which never formally went into effect, proved to be one of the most controversial U.S.-Soviet agreements of the Cold War.  

The SALT-II agreement was the result of many nagging issues left over from the successful SALT-I treaty of 1972. Though the 1972 treaty limited a wide variety of nuclear weapons, many issues remained unresolved. Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union began almost immediately after SALT-I was ratified by both nations in 1972. Those talks failed to achieve any new breakthroughs, however. By 1979, both the United States and Soviet Union were eager to revitalize the process. For the United States, fear that the Soviets were leaping ahead in the arms race was the primary motivator. For the Soviet Union, the increasingly close relationship between America and communist China was a cause for growing concern.  

In June 1979, Carter and Brezhnev met in Vienna and signed the SALT-II agreement. The treaty basically established numerical equality between the two nations in terms of nuclear weapons delivery systems. It also limited the number of MIRV missiles (missiles with multiple, independent nuclear warheads). In truth, the treaty did little or nothing to stop, or even substantially slow down, the arms race. Nevertheless, it met with unrelenting criticism in the United States. The treaty was denounced as a "sellout" to the Soviets, one that would leave America virtually defenseless against a whole range of new weapons not mentioned in the agreement. Even supporters of arms control were less than enthusiastic about the treaty, since it did little to actually control arms.  

Debate over SALT-II in the U.S. Congress continued for months. In December 1979, however, the Soviets launched an invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet attack effectively killed any chance of SALT-II being passed, and Carter ensured this by withdrawing the treaty from the Senate in January 1980. SALT-II thus remained signed, but unratified. During the 1980s, both nations agreed to respect the agreement until such time as new arms negotiations could take place.

1980 - Dutch 2nd Chamber joins oil boycott of South Africa

1980 - Mrs Shakuntala Devi mentally multiplies 2 13-digit #s in 28 sec

1981 - Kimberley Ann Smith, of NC, 17, crowned America's Junior Miss

1981 - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart retires (replaced by Sandra Day O'Connor, 1st woman on US Supreme Court)

1981 - Test cricket debut of Terry Alderman, v England at Trent Bridge

1981 - Vaccine to prevent hoof & mouth disease announced

1981 - The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California.

1982 - ABC's All Talk radio network expands to 22 stations

1982 - Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended by Senate by 85-8 vote

1983 - "Pump Boys & Dinettes" closes at Princess Theater NYC after 573 perfs

In 1983 on this day, Sally Ride became the first woman in space when the 7th Shuttle Mission-Challenger 2 was launched.

Jun 18, 1983: First American woman in space

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, the space shuttle Challenger is launched into space on its second mission. Aboard the shuttle was Dr. Sally Ride, who as a mission specialist became the first American woman to travel into space. During the six-day mission, Ride, an astrophysicist from Stanford University, operated the shuttle's robot arm, which she had helped design.  

Her historic journey was preceded almost 20 years to the day by cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, who on June 16, 1963, became the first woman ever to travel into space. The United States had screened a group of female pilots in 1959 and 1960 for possible astronaut training but later decided to restrict astronaut qualification to men. In 1978, NASA changed its policy and announced that it had approved six women to become the first female astronauts in the U.S. space program. The new astronauts were chosen out of some 3,000 original applicants. Among the six were Sally Ride and Shannon Lucid, who in 1996 set a new space endurance record for an American and a world endurance record for a woman during her 188-day sojourn on the Russian space station Mir.

1983 - IRA's Joseph Doherty arrested in NYC

1984 - 84th US Golf Open: Fuzzy Zoeller shoots a 276 at Winged Foot GC NY

1985 - Boston Red Sox Fred Lynn gets 10 RBIs

1986 - De Havilland Twin Otter & Bell 206 helicopter collide, kills 25

1986 - Don Sutton becomes 19th pitcher to win 300 games

1986 - Heike Friedrich swims female world record 200m freestyle (1:57.55)

1986 - Papua New Guinea score 9-455 in 60 overs v Gibraltar, ICC Trophy

1987 - Charles Glass, ABC journalist, kidnapped in Lebanon

1988 - Jeff Hamilton, hits 8,000th Dodger home run

1989 - "Starmites" closes at Criter Ctr SR Theater NYC after 60 performances

1989 - 89th US Golf Open: Curtis Strange shoots a 278 at Oak Hill CC NY

1989 - Comet Churyunov-Gerasimenko at perihelion

1989 - Laura Davies wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open

1990 - 1st ever lose for Cameroon in Soccer World Cup, USSR-4 Cameroon-0

1990 - 1st sudden death US Open Golf Championship is won by Hale Irwin

Russian President Boris YeltsinRussian President Boris Yeltsin 1991 - Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia, arrives in US

1991 - Mud storm in Antofagasta Chile, kills 80

1991 - SF Giant pitcher Dave Dravecky's cancerous left arm is amputated

1991 - Yankee pitchers pick-off 3 Toronto Blue Jays

1992 - Ottawa Senators make goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz their 1st draft

1992 - Tampa Bay Lightning make goalie Wendell Young their 1st draft

1993 - Expo's Dennis Martinez is 92nd to win 200 games

1993 - Toru Takemitsu's "Archipelago" premieres in Aldeburgh England

1994 - Aleksander Popov swims world record 100m free style (48.21 sec)

1994 - Gay Games open in NYC

1994 - US ties Switzerland 1-1 in their 1st game of 1994 soccer World Cup

1995 - 95th US Golf Open: Corey Pavin shoots a 280 at Shinnecock Hills NY

1995 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Rochester International Golf Tournament

• 1996 - Ted Kaczynski, suspected of being the Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminal counts.

2000 - 100th US Golf Open: Tiger Woods shoots a 272 at Pebble Beach, California

Golfer Tiger WoodsGolfer Tiger Woods 2001 - Protests occur in Manipur over the extension of the ceasefire between Naga insurgents and the government of India.

2001 - 101st US Golf Open: Retief Goosen shoots a 276 at Southern Hills CC OK

2003 - Google launches AdSense, a program that enables website publishers to serve ads targeted to the specific content of their individual web pages, many of which like HistoryOrb.com go on to start their own publishing businesses

2006 - The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat is launched.

2012 - 15 people are killed and 40 injured in a suicide attack in Baquba, Iraq

2013 - 31 people are killed and 60 are injured by two suicide bombings in al-Qahira, Baghdad

2013 - 27 people are killed and 30 are injured by a suicide bomb in Sher Garh, Pakistan

2013 - Russia passes a law banning foreign same-sex couples from adopting children

1155 - Frederick I Barbarossa was crowned emperor of Rome.   1429 - French forces defeated the English at the battle of Patay. The English had been retreating after the siege of Orleans.   1621 - The first duel in America took place in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.   1667 - The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames toward London.   1778 - Britain evacuated Philadelphia during the U.S. Revolutionary War.   1812 - The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great Britain. The conflict began over trade restrictions.   1815 - At the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon was defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon abdicated on June 22.   1817 - London's Waterloo Bridge opened. The bridge, designed by John Rennie, was built over the River Thames.   1861 - The first American fly-casting tournament was held in Utica, NY.   1873 - Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S. President.   1898 - Atlantic City, NJ, opened its Steel Pier.   1915 - During World War I, the second battle of Artois ended.   1918 - Allied forces on the Western Front began their largest counter-attack against the German army. (World War I)   1925 - The first degree in landscape architecture was granted by Harvard University.   1927 - The U.S. Post Office offered a special 10-cent postage stamp for sale. The stamp was of Charles Lindbergh’s "Spirit of St. Louis."   1928 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales.   1936 - The first bicycle traffic court was established in Racine, WI.   1939 - The CBS radio network aired "Ellery Queen" for the first time.   1942 - The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.   1948 - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights.   1951 - General Vo Nguyen Giap ended his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.   1953 - Seventeen major league baseball records were tied or broken in a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers.   1953 - Egypt was proclaimed to be a republic with General Neguib as its first president.   1959 - A Federal Court annulled the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.   1959 - The first telecast received from England was broadcast in the U.S. over NBC-TV.   1961 - "Gunsmoke" was broadcast for the last time on CBS radio.   1966 - Samuel Nabrit became the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.   1975 - Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox hit three home runs, a triple and a single in a game against the Detroit Tigers.   1979 - In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2.   1982 - The U.S. Senate approved the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act for an additional twenty-five years.   1983 - Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger.   1998 - The Walt Disney Co. purchased a 43% stake in the Web search engine company Infoseek Corp.  Disney movies, music and books   1998 - Nine commemorative U.S. postage stamps were reissued. The stamps were considered to be classically beautiful examples of stamp engraving.   1998 - "The Boston Globe" asked Patricia Smith to resign after she admitted to inventing people and quotes in four of her recent columns.   1999 - Walt Disney's "Tarzan" opened.  Disney movies, music and books   2000 - In Algiers, Algeria, the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a preliminary cease-fire accord and agreed to work toward a permanent settlement of their two-year border war.   2009 - NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to the Moon. It was the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998.   2009 - Greenland assumed control over its law enforcement, judicial affairs, and natural resources from the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenlandic became the official language.



1812 The War of 1812 began. 1815 Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by British, German, and Dutch forces. 1873 Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election. 1928 Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She completed the flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours. 1948 The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights. The General Assembly would give it final approval on Dec. 10, 1948. 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.


The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jun18.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Some Pictures From My Very Early Morning Walk Today

Last evening, I took a walk. For the first time this year (late spring technically, but it feels like summer), I actually saw some lightning bugs. They are among the aspects of the summertime that I have long loved. One of the things I enjoy the most.

Then, I disciplined myself to wake up early (predawn) this morning in order to take another walk. It was nice and blessedly cool, almost chilly. It was not even quite five in the morning when I stepped out. At that hour, I am almost always alone walking around town. During the summertime, it sometimes is still daytime, so it feels doubly strange. Visually, it looks light enough that people would be out and about. Yet all is quiet, with barely any traffic and few other signs that anyone in these neighborhoods is awake or going about their day.

It is a nice feeling to have, sometimes. Real peace and solitude.

And there were some things which seemed worth taking a picture of. One of them happened almost right away, when I saw the pastel colors of dawn in the eastern sky.

Later, I took some pictures of little patches of farms and woods which might give you the impression that I live in the middle of the countryside, even though this Hillsborough is mostly suburban. At least where I live, it is. The western part of the town still has farms and open fields and woods and such, but I don't really live within easy walking distance of that. 

Still, these pictures came out nicely, I think. And I did not touch these up or enhance the colors or anything. They are as I originally took them.

Take a look and enjoy.

Happy Birthday to Jello Biafra!

   

Today is the birthday of Eric Reed Boucher, better known by his punk name Jello Biafra. He turned 65 today.       

Biafra is a very outspoken punk musician who was the frontman for the Dead Kennedys, the No WTO Combo, and his current band, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which recently enjoyed a new release. In addition, Biafra has had numerous collaborations with other musicians and bands, including the Offspring, MoJo Nixon, the Melvins, NoMeansNo, DOA, and some others, as well.              

He started his own record label, Alternative Tentacles, which had grown impressively over the course of years and now decades, even though it has remained largely a grassroots record label, which had also delved into publishing books.              

One thing nobody can accuse Biafra of is shyness. He is very outspoken on political matters, and has a regular video series that can be viewed on Youtube known as “What Would Jello Do?” or WWJD for short. On these videos, Jello gives his summaries and opinions on key political matters of the day.

This birthday post for Biafra is a little different than the past. He suffered a stroke months ago and is still recovering. One hopeful sign is that I saw a picture of him up and about and at a San Francisco Giants baseball game, of all things. Would not have pegged him of a fan of sports, especially major league sports. But hey, he always is full of surprises. And it really did seem like an encouraging sign to see him out and about in the world again. That was the first time that I can remember hearing from him directly in a number of months. 

Biafra was born Eric Boucher on this day in 1958. 

Here's wishing Jello the very best and a Happy Birthday.

And here's to many more!

June 17th: This Day in History

 

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 362, Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria. In 653 on this day, St Martin I ended his reign as Catholic Pope. Ali ibn Abu Talib was chosen to be Kalief of Islam on this day in 656. In 1291 on this day, Acre was reconquered after 200 years of Crusader control by Mamluks under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil. On this day in 1397, the Union of Kalmar established between Denmark, Sweden & Norway. Vlad III the Impaler attempted to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia on this day in 1462. The Battle of Deptford Bridge was fought on this day in 1497, as forces under King Henry VII soundly defeated Cornish rebels led by Michael An Gof. In 1579 on this day, Sir Francis Drake landed on the coast of California at what is now known as Drakes Bay, although at the time he named it "New Albion." On this day in 1745, a New England colonial force captures Louisburg, in Cape Breton Island, from the French. On this day in 1775 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, the Battle of Bunker Hill (which was actually Breed's Hill) commenced. On this day in 1789 during the French Revolution, the Third Estate, which represented the common people of France, declared itself the Assemblée nationale (national assembly). This was a major step in the direction of challenging the previously absolute authority of the French monarchy. On this day in 1885, the dismantled State of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, arrived in New York Harbor aboard French ship `Isere' after being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases. Imperial Japan officially declared war on China on this day in 1938. The last public guillotining in France took place on this day in 1939 as Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, was guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre. On this day in 1940 during World War II, France asked Germany for terms of surrender. The Republic of Iceland was proclaimed on this day in 1944 at Thingvallir, Iceland, following a referendum in which the vast majority of Icelanders voted to abolish the monarchy and favored independence from Denmark. On this day in 1991, the South African Parliament repealed the Population Registration Act, which had served as a cornerstone of apartheid, requiring racial classification of all South Africans at birth. Yet despite the official repeal, the racial divisions as defined in this act still continued in South African culture. 

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 362, Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.  

• In 653 on this day, St Martin I ended his reign as Catholic Pope.

• Ali ibn Abu Talib was chosen to be Kalief of Islam on this day in 656.

676 - Deusdedit III ends his reign as Catholic Pope

1091 - Floris II de Vette becomes earl of Holland

1119 - Charles the Good becomes earl of Flanders

• In 1291 on this day, Acre was reconquered after 200 years of Crusader control by Mamluks under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil.

• On this day in 1397, the Union of Kalmar established between Denmark, Sweden & Norway

• Vlad III the Impaler attempted to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia on this day in 1462.

• The Battle of Deptford Bridge was fought on this day in 1497, as forces under King Henry VII soundly defeated Cornish rebels led by Michael An Gof.

1535 - English Catholic Cardinal John Fischer state rights

1565 - Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.

1579 - Anti-English uprising in Ireland

• In 1579 on this day, Sir Francis Drake landed on the coast of California at what is now known as Drakes Bay, although at the time he named it "New Albion"

1580 - Battle at Hardenberg: Spanish troops beat rebels

1583 - Brabant: Duke of Parma beats French mercenaries

1609 - Netherlands, England & France sign 12 year Covenant

1631 - Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.

1665 - Battle at Viciosa: English & Portuguese army beat Spain

1700 - Massachussetts orders priest to leave the colony

1734 - French troops occupy Philipsburg at Rhine

• On this day in 1745, a New England colonial force captures Louisburg, in Cape Breton Island, from the French.

1773 - Cúcuta, Colombia is founded by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar

Statue of a Continental Soldier of the American Revolutionary War of Independence in Trenton, New Jersey

• On this day in 1775 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, the Battle of Bunker Hill (which was actually Breed's Hill) commenced. British General William Howe lands his troops on the Charlestown Peninsula overlooking Boston, Massachusetts, and leads them against Breed's Hill, a fortified American position just below Bunker Hill, on this day in 1775.    As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, American General William Prescott reportedly told his men, "Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" When the Redcoats were within 40 yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, throwing the British into retreat. After reforming his lines, Howe attacked again, with much the same result. Prescott's men were now low on ammunition, though, and when Howe led his men up the hill for a third time, they reached the redoubts and engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand combat. The outnumbered Americans were forced to retreat. However, by the end of the engagement, the Patriots' gunfire had cut down nearly 1,000 enemy troops, including 92 officers. Of the 370 Patriots who fell, most were struck while in retreat.    The British had won the so-called Battle of Bunker Hill, and Breed's Hill and the Charlestown Peninsula fell firmly under British control. Despite losing their strategic positions, the battle was a morale-builder for the Americans, convincing them that patriotic dedication could overcome superior British military might.    The British entered the Battle of Bunker Hill overconfident. Had they merely guarded Charlestown Neck, they could have isolated the Patriots with little loss of life. Instead, Howe had chosen to try to wipe out the Yankees by marching 2,400 men into a frontal assault on the Patriots' well-defended position on top of the hill. The British would never make the same mistake again.

Le Drapeau Tricolore (Tricour Flag) which was a product of the French Revolution, and which remains the national flag of France to this day.

• On this day in 1789 during the French Revolution, the Third Estate, which represented the common people of France, declared itself the Assemblée nationale (national assembly). This was a major step in the direction of challenging the previously absolute authority of the French monarchy. 

A statue of the Marquis de Lafayette

• The Champ de Mars massacre took place on this day in 1791 in Paris during the French Revolution, Just days after it was announced that King Louis XVI would keep his crown under a constitutional monarchy shortly after he had attempted to flee France during the Flight to Varennes, crowds of republican protesters had gathered at the Champ de Mars (which is close to where the Eiffel Tower now stands). Lafayette and his men moved in to disperse the crowd, and a massacre followed. This would lend an image of Lafayette supporting the king, which compromised the heroic image people had of him prior to this event. In time, he felt it necessary to flee to Belgium.

• 1815 - Stephen Decatur conquerors Algerian frigate Mashouda

1824 - Bureau of Indian Affairs established

Inventor Charles GoodyearInventor Charles Goodyear 

• 1837 - Charles Goodyear obtains his 1st rubber patent

• 1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result

1850 - Paddle-wheeler "G P Griffith" burns off Mentor Ohio (206 die)

• 1855 - Heavy French/British bombing of Sebastopol, Crimea: 2,000+ killed

1856 - Republican Party opens its 1st national convention in Philadelphia

1861 - Battle of Boonville, MI-Brigadier General Lyon defeats Confederate forces

1863 - Battle at Middleburg, Virginia

1863 - Battle of Aldie, Confederates fail to drive back Union in Virginia

1863 - Naval Engagement at Warsaw Sound GA-USS Weehawken vs CSS Atlanta

1863 - Travelers Insurance Co of Hartford chartered (1st accident insurer)

1864 - -18] Confederate troops pull back out Solves/lost Mt, Georgia

1864 - 640m long ponton bridge over James River Virginia finished

1864 - General John B Hood replaces General Johnston

1864 - Skirmish at Mud Creek/Noyes's (Nose) Creek, Georgia

Statue of Crazy Horse Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In the back is the mountain where his likeness is being carved. Closer to the camera is how the mountain sculpture is set to look like when completed.

1876 - Battle of Rosebud/Battle Where Girl Saved Her Brother

Jun 17, 1876: Indians hammer U.S. soldiers at the Battle of the Rosebud  Sioux and Cheyenne Indians score a tactical victory over General Crook's forces at the Battle of the Rosebud, foreshadowing the disaster of the Battle of Little Big Horn eight days later.    General George Crook was in command of one of three columns of soldiers converging on the Big Horn country of southern Montana that June. A large band of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians under the direction of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and several other chiefs had congregated in the area in defiance of U.S. demands that the Indians confine themselves to reservations. The army viewed the Indians' refusal as an opportunity to dispatch a massive three-pronged attack and win a decisive victory over the "hostile" Indians.    Crook's column, marching north from Fort Fetterman in Wyoming Territory, was to join with two others: General Gibbon's column coming east from Fort Ellis in Montana Territory, and General Terry's force coming west from Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory. Terry's force included the soon-to-be-famous 7th Cavalry under the command of George Custer. The vast distances and lack of reliable communications made it difficult to coordinate, but the three armies planned to converge on the valley of the Big Horn River and stage an assault on an enemy whose location and size was only vaguely known.    The plan quickly ran into trouble. As Crook approached the Big Horn, his Indian scouts informed him they had found signs of a major Sioux force that must still be nearby. Crook was convinced that the Sioux were encamped in a large village somewhere along the Rosebud Creek just east of the Big Horn. Like most of his fellow officers, Crook believed that Indians were more likely to flee than stand and fight, and he was determined to find the village and attack before the Sioux could escape into the wilderness. Crook's Indian allies—262 Crow and Shoshone warriors—were less certain. They suspected the Sioux force was under the command of Crazy Horse, thee brilliant war chief. Crazy Horse, they warned, was too shrewd to give Crook an opportunity to attack a stationary village.    Crook soon learned that his allies were right. Around 8 a.m. on this day in 1876, Crook halted his force of about 1,300 men in the bowl of a small valley along the Rosebud Creek in order to allow the rear of the column to catch up. Crook's soldiers unsaddled and let their horses graze while they relaxed in the grass and enjoyed the cool morning air. The American soldiers were out in the open, divided, and unprepared. Suddenly, several Indian scouts rode into the camp at a full gallop. "Sioux! Sioux!" they shouted. "Many Sioux!" Within minutes, a mass of Sioux warriors began to converge on the army.    A force of at least 1,500 mounted Sioux warriors caught Crook's soldiers by surprise. Crazy Horse had kept an additional 2,500 warriors in reserve to finish the attack. Fortunately for Crook, one segment of his army was not caught unprepared. His 262 Crow and Shoshone allies had taken up advanced positions about 500 yards from the main body of soldiers. With astonishing courage, the Indian warriors boldly countercharged the much larger invading force. They managed to blunt the initial attack long enough for Crook to regroup his men and send soldiers forward to support his Indian allies. The fighting continued until noon, when the Sioux-perhaps hoping to draw Crook's army into an ambush—retreated from the field.    The combined force of 4,000 Sioux warriors had outnumbered Crook's divided and unprepared army by more than three to one. Had it not been for the wisdom and courage of Crook's Indian allies, Americans today might well remember the Battle of the Rosebud as they do the subsequent Battle of the Little Big Horn. As it was, Crook's team was badly bloodied—28 men were killed and 56 were seriously wounded.    Crook had no choice but to withdraw and regroup. Crazy Horse had lost only 13 men and his warriors were emboldened by their successful attack on the American soldiers. Eight days later, they would join with their tribesmen in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which would wipe out George Custer and his 7th Cavalry.

• 1877 - Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.

1880 - John Ward, Providence, pitches perfect game vs Buffalo

1882 - Tornado kills 130 in Iowa

A couple of pictures of the Statue of Liberty, likely taken by my father during our visit in the summer of 1983. Upon close examination, you will likely find that this was before the torch was replaced with the present gilded gold that now adorns it.

• On this day in 1885, the dismantled State of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, arrived in New York Harbor aboard French ship `Isere' after being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases. The copper and iron statue, which was reassembled and dedicated the following year in a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland, became known around the world as an enduring symbol of freedom and democracy.    Intended to commemorate the American Revolution and a century of friendship between the U.S. and France, the statue was designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi (who modeled it after his own mother), with assistance from engineer Gustave Eiffel, who later developed the iconic tower in Paris bearing his name. The statue was initially scheduled to be finished by 1876, the 100th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence; however, fundraising efforts, which included auctions, a lottery and boxing matches, took longer than anticipated, both in Europe and the U.S., where the statue’s pedestal was to be financed and constructed. The statue alone cost the French an estimated $250,000 (more than $5.5 million in today’s money).    Finally completed in Paris in the summer of 1884, the statue, a robed female figure with an uplifted arm holding a torch, reached its new home on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor (between New York City and Hudson County, New Jersey) on June 17, 1885. After being reassembled, the 450,000-pound statue was officially dedicated on October 28, 1886, by President Cleveland, who said, “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected.” Standing more than 305 feet from the foundation of its pedestal to the top of its torch, the statue, dubbed “Liberty Enlightening the World” by Bartholdi, was taller than any structure in New York City at the time. The statue was originally copper-colored, but over the years it underwent a natural color-change process called patination that produced its current greenish-blue hue.    In 1892, Ellis Island, located near Bedloe's Island (which in 1956 was renamed Liberty Island), opened as America’s chief immigration station, and for the next 62 years Lady Liberty, as the statue is nicknamed, stood watch over the more than 12 million immigrants who sailed into New York Harbor. In 1903, a plaque inscribed with a sonnet titled “The New Colossus” by American poet Emma Lazarus, written 20 years earlier for a pedestal fundraiser, was placed on an interior wall of the pedestal. Lazarus’ now-famous words, which include “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” became symbolic of America’s vision of itself as a land of opportunity for immigrants.    Some 60 years after President Calvin Coolidge designated the statue a national monument in 1924, it underwent a multi-million-dollar restoration (which included a new torch and gold leaf-covered flame) and was rededicated by President Ronald Reagan on July 4, 1986, in a lavish celebration. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the statue was closed; its base, pedestal and observation deck re-opened in 2004, while its crown re-opened to the public on July 4, 2009. (For safety reasons, the torch has been closed to visitors since 1916, after an incident called the Black Tom explosions in which munitions-laden barges and railroad cars on the Jersey City, New Jersey, waterfront were blown up by German agents, causing damage to the nearby statue.).  Today, the Statue of Liberty is one of America’s most famous landmarks. Over the years, it has been the site of political rallies and protests (from suffragettes to anti-war activists), has been featured in numerous movies and countless photographs, and has received millions of visitors from around the globe.

1894 - 1st US poliomyelitis epidemic breaks out, Rutland, Vermont

1895 - US Ship Canal (W 225th St) in the Bronx completed; cutting Marble Hill off from Manhattan

1897 - William Frank Powell, NJ educator, named minister to Haiti

1898 - US Senate agrees to annex Hawaii

1898 - The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.

1901 - The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.

1911 - Belgium government of De Broqueville forms

1915 - League to Enforce Peace forms in Philadelphia

1916 - 1st national congress of Sarekat Islam at Bandoeng Java

1916 - US troops under Gen Pershing march into Mexico

1917 - British king George V takes the name Windsor

1919 - "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres

1920 - Dutch 2nd Chamber accept Anti-revolution law

• 1928 - Amelia Earhart leaves Nfld to become 1st woman (passenger) to fly Atlantic (as a passenger in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stultz)

1930 - Bradman scores 131 in the 1st Test cricket at Trent Bridge

1930 - Chuck Klein sets Phillies hitting streak at 26 straight games

1932 - Oil tanker Cymbeline explodes in Montreal, Canada

• 1932 - Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.

1933 - Kansas City Massacre: 1 FBI agent, 4 cops & 1 gangster killed by mob

1937 - Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" opens in NY

• Imperial Japan officially declared war on China on this day in 1938.

The guillotine (below), which was invented during, and became one of the most fearful symbols of,  the French Revolution. It got the nickname "the razor of the nation."

• The last public guillotining in France took place on this day in 1939 as Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, was guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.

Statue of soldier, author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London

• On this day in 1940 during World War II, with things going very badly for the Allies. British Prime Minister famously reassured his countrymen that Britain would fight on and that "we will never surrender."

Jun 17, 1940: British and Allied troops continue the evacuation of France, as Churchill reassures his countrymen  On this day in 1940, British troops evacuate France in Operation Ariel, an exodus almost on the order of Dunkirk. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill offers words of encouragement in a broadcast to the nation: "Whatever has happened in France... [w]e shall defend our island home, and with the British Empire we shall fight on unconquerable until the curse of Hitler is lifted."    With two-thirds of France now occupied by German troops, those British and Allied troops that had not participated in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk, were shipped home. From Cherbourg and St. Malo, from Brest and Nantes, Brits, Poles, and Canadian troops were rescued from occupied territory by boats sent from Britain. While these men were not under the immediate threat of assault, as at Dunkirk, they were by no means safe, as 5,000 soldiers and French civilians learned once on board the ocean liner Lancastria, which had picked them up at St. Nazaire. Germans bombers sunk the liner; 3,000 passengers drowned.    Churchill ordered that news of the Lancastria not be broadcast in Britain, fearing the effect it would have on public morale, since everyone was already on heightened alert, fearing an imminent invasion from the Germans now that only a channel separated them. The British public would eventually find out—but not for another six weeks—when the news finally broke in the United States. They would also enjoy a breather of another kind: Hitler had no immediate plans for an invasion of the British isle, "being well aware of the difficulties involved in such an operation," reported the German High Command.

• On this day in 1940 during World War II, France asked Germany for terms of surrender.   With Paris fallen and the German conquest of France reaching its conclusion, Marshal Henri Petain replaces Paul Reynaud as prime minister and announces his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis. The next day, French General Charles de Gaulle, not very well known even to the French, made a broadcast to France from England, urging his countrymen to continue the fight against Germany.    A military hero during World War I, Petain was appointed vice premier of France in May 1940 to boost morale in a country crumbling under the force of the Nazi invasion. Instead, Petain arranged an armistice with the Nazis. The armistice, signed by the French on June 22, went into effect on June 25, and more than half of France was occupied by the Germans. In July, Petain took office as "chief of state" at Vichy, a city in unoccupied France. The Vichy government under Petain collaborated with the Nazis, and French citizens suffered on both sides of the divided nation. In 1942, Pierre Laval, an opportunistic French fascist and dutiful Nazi collaborator, won the trust of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and the elderly Petain became merely a figurehead in the Vichy regime.    After the Normandy invasion in 1944, Petain and Laval were forced to flee to German protection in the east. Both were eventually captured, found guilty of high treason, and sentenced to die. Laval was executed in 1945, but provincial French leader Charles de Gaulle commuted Petain's sentence to life imprisonment. Petain died on the Ile d'Yeu off France in 1951.

French President Charles De Gaulle

On this day in 1940 during World War II, French General De Gaulle departed Bordeaux for London.

1940 - Germany occupiers ration bread in Holland

1940 - USSR occupies Estonia

1940 - World War II: sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.

1943 - Player-manager Joe Cronin of Red Sox hits two 3-run pinch home runs

1944 - -19] French troops under Lattre de Tssigny conquer Elba

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 

• 1944 - Hitler secretly meets with von Rundstedt in Marjival Soissons

Flag of Iceland

• The Republic of Iceland was proclaimed on this day in 1944 at Thingvallir, Iceland, following a referendum in which the vast majority of Icelanders voted to abolish the monarchy and favored independence from Denmark. 

1944 - Resistance fighter/poet Col Blake arrives in London

• 1945 - Day of Unity in West Germany (National Day)

1946 - SW Bell inaugurates mobile telephone commercial service, St Louis

1947 - 1st round-the-world civil air service leaves NYC

1947 - Earnest Reuter becomes mayor of Berlin

• 1947 - Pan Am Airways chartered as 1st worldwide passenger airline

1948 - Joe Cronin pinch hit HRs in both ends of a doubleheader

1950 - 1st kidney transplant (Chicago)

1950 - Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia & Syria sign security pact

1951 - "Flahooley" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 40 performances

1952 - 2 mine cave-ins at Charleroi, Belgium

1953 - Most runs scored in 1 inning (17 by Red Sox)

Flag of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), better known as East Germany

1953 - Riots in East Germany for reunification

• Jun 17, 1953: Soviets crush antigovernment riots in East Berlin  The Soviet Union orders an entire armored division of its troops into East Berlin to crush a rebellion by East German workers and antigovernment protesters. The Soviet assault set a precedent for later interventions into Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.    The riots in East Berlin began among construction workers, who took to the streets on June 16, 1953, to protest an increase in work schedules by the communist government of East Germany. By the next day, the crowd of disgruntled workers and other antigovernment dissidents had grown to between 30,000 and 50,000. Leaders of the protest issued a call for a general strike, the resignation of the communist East German government, and free elections. Soviet forces struck quickly and without warning. Troops, supported by tanks and other armored vehicles, crashed through the crowd of protesters. Some protesters tried to fight back, but most fled before the onslaught. Red Cross officials in West Berlin (where many of the wounded protesters fled) estimated the death toll at between 15 and 20, and the number of wounded at more than 100. The Soviet military commanders declared martial law, and by the evening of June 17, the protests had been shattered and relative calm was restored.    In Washington, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that the brutal Soviet action contradicted Russian propaganda that the people of East Germany were happy with their communist government. He noted that the smashing of the protests was "a good lesson on the meaning of communism." America's propaganda outlet in Europe, the Voice of America radio station, claimed, "The workers of East Berlin have already written a glorious page in postwar history. They have once and for all times exposed the fraudulent nature of communist regimes." These criticisms had little effect on the Soviet control of East Germany, which remained a communist stronghold until the government fell in 1989.

1953 - Sup Court Justice Wm O Douglas stays executions of spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg scheduled for next day their 14th anniversary

1954 - CIA exile army lands in Guatemala (JF Dulles & United Fruit Co)

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky MarcianoHeavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano 1954 - Rocky Marciano beats Ezzard Charles in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1954 - Televised Senate Army McCarthy hearings ends

1956 - Golda Meir begins her term as Israel's foreign minister

1957 - "So Rare" by Jimmy Dorsey Orch peaks at #2

1957 - Tuskegee boycott begins (Blacks boycotted city stores)

1958 - Radio Moscow reports execution of Hungarian ex-premier Imre Nagy

1958 - The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opened, and is still open to this day

1959 - Eamon de Valera elected pres of Ireland

1961 - Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev defects to west in Frankfurt

• 1962 - Brazil Beats Czechoslovakia in soccer's 7th World Cup at Santiago

1962 - Lou Brock is 2nd to HR into Polo Grounds right-center field bleachers

Baseball Player Ted WilliamsBaseball Player Ted Williams 1962 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Cosmopolitan Golf Open

1963 - British House of Commons debates Profumo-Christine Keeler affair

1963 - Supreme Court rules against Bible reading/prayer in public schools

1965 - 11.08" (28.14 cm) of rainfall, Holly, Colorado (state 24-hour record)

1965 - 1st bombing by B-52 (50 km north of Saigon)

• 1965 - Kinks arrive in NYC beginning their 1st US tour

1966 - Peter Green joins John Mayall's Bluebreakers

1967 - "Somebody To Love" by Jefferson Airplane peaks at #5

• 1967 - 1st Chinese hydrogen bomb explodes

1967 - Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park performed

1967 - China becomes world's 4th thermonuclear (H-bomb) power

1967 - Longest doubleheader 9:15 (Tigers & Athletics)

1968 - Belgium government of Eyskens-Merlot forms

1968 - KQEC TV channel 32 in SF, CA (PBS) begins broadcasting

1968 - Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy" goes gold

Singer-songwriter & Actress Barbra StreisandSinger-songwriter & Actress Barbra Streisand 1969 - "Oh! Calcutta!" opens in NYC (almost entirely in the nude)

1970 - Edwin Land patents Polaroid camera

1970 - Led Zeppelin begins their last European tour

1972 - "Long Haired Lover From Liverpool" by Little Jimmy Osmond peaks at #38

1972 - 5 arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party HQ at Watergate

Jun 17, 1972: Nixon's re-election employees are arrested for burglary  Five burglars are arrested in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington, D.C. James McCord, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, and Eugenio Martinez were apprehended in the early morning after a security guard at the Watergate noticed that several doors leading from the stairwell to various hallways had been taped to prevent them from locking. The intruders were wearing surgical gloves and carrying walkie-talkies, cameras, and almost $2,300 in sequential $100 bills. A subsequent search of their rooms at the Watergate turned up an additional $4,200, burglary tools, and electronic bugging equipment.    Although there was no immediate explanation as to the objective of the break-in, an extensive investigation ensued, eventually unveiling a comprehensive scheme of political sabotage and espionage designed to discredit Democratic candidates. McCord, who was one of the burglars, was also Richard Nixon's security chief for the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Nixon campaign funds were ultimately linked back to the Watergate break-in. In addition, equipment used during the burglary had been borrowed from the CIA. In the fall of 1972, Nixon was re-elected into office, but the probe continued.    FBI agents soon established that hundreds of thousands of dollars in Nixon campaign contributions had been set aside to pay for a massive undercover anti-Democratic operation. According to federal investigators, CREEP had forged letters and distributed them under Democratic candidate's letterhead, leaked false and manufactured information to the press, seized confidential Democratic campaign files, and followed Democratic candidates' families in order to gather damaging information.    During an interview with the Senate select Watergate committee on July 16, 1973, former White House aide Alexander Butterfield revealed that Nixon had been taping all of his conversations and telephone calls in the White House since 1971. After losing a battle in the Supreme Court to keep these tapes private, Nixon was heard approving the cover-up of the Watergate burglary less than a week after it happened. During a June 20, 1972, discussion of the Watergate scandal between the President and former White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, an 18 1/4-minute gap had been inexplicably erased, causing frustration and speculation from investigators.    On August 9, 1974, President Nixon resigned-the first U.S. president to do so. However, newly elected President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon a month later, saving him from facing criminal charges.

• 1972 - Chile president Allende forms new government

1972 - Looking Glass releases "Brandy"

1972 - Five White House plumbers apprehended after second burglary of Democratic Natl HQ, Watergate

1973 - 1st du Maurier Golf Classic (La Canadienne): Jocelyne Bourassa

1973 - 73rd US Golf Open: Johnny Miller shoots a 279 at Oakmont CC PA

1973 - Russian party leader Brezhnev visits US

1975 - Voters in Northern Mariana Is approve commonwealth status with US

1976 - ABA (Nets, Pacers, Nuggets & Spurs) merges into NBA

• 1976 - Indonesia annexes Portuguese East-Timor

Scientist and Inventor Edwin LandScientist and Inventor Edwin Land 1978 - Ron Guidry sets Yankee record with 18 strike-outs

1979 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Sarah Coventry Golf Tournament

1981 - Battle between Moslems & Christians in Cairo, 14 killed

• 1982 - US President Reagan 1st UN Gen Assembly address ("evil empire" speech)

1982 - President Galtieri resigns after leading Argentina to defeat

1984 - Ayako Okamoto wins LPGA Mayflower Golf Classic

1984 - John Turner succeeds Pierre Trudeau as premier of Canada

Picture of the space shuttle at Expo Park in Los Angeles, California

• 1985 - 18th Space Shuttle Mission (51-G)-Discovery 5 launched

1986 - Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger resigns Antonin Scalia nominated

1987 - With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.

1988 - Givens' Family reports Mike Tyson beats his wife Robin Givens

1988 - Microsoft releases MS DOS 4.0

1988 - Soyuz TM-5 launches

1991 - Pres Zachary Taylors body is exhumed to test how he died

Flag of South Africa during the apartheid era

• On this day in 1991, the South African Parliament repealed the Population Registration Act, which had served as a cornerstone of apartheid, requiring racial classification of all South Africans at birth. Yet despite the official repeal, the racial divisions as defined in this act still continued in South African culture. 

1992 - Conn Gov Lowell Weicker & WFAN DJ Don Imus change places for 1 day

1992 - Phila 76ers trade Charles Barkley to Phoenix Suns

1992 - Slaughtering by Inkhata-followers at Boipatong, South Africa, kills 42

1993 - Indians' Carlos Baerga hits 3 home runs against Detroit

1994 - 1994 World Cup soccer match begin, Germany vs Bolivia in Chicago

1994 - OJ Simpson doesn't turn himself in on murder charges, LA cops chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours, eventually gives up (seen live on TV)

1996 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Syracuse NY on WAQX 95.7 FM

1997 - NHL announces it will add Nashville in 1998, Atlanta in 1999 & Minneapolis-St Paul & Columbus, Ohio in 2000

2008 - First day of legal same-sex marriage in California

2012 - France's Socialist Party wins a majority in the legislative election

2012 - Greek voters return to the polls after the failed May 6 election

0362 - Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.   1579 - Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England. (California)   1775 - The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston.   1789 - The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution.   1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.   1837 - Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a process that made rubber easier to work with.   1848 - Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague.   1854 - The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.   1856 - The Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia.   1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.   1872 - George M. Hoover began selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas. The town had been dry up until this point.   1876 - General George Crook’s command was attacked and defeated on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.   1879 - Thomas Edison received an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the trustees of Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ.   1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.   1912 - The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burned in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.   1913 - U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.   1917 - The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army. (World War I)   1924 - The Fascist militia marched into Rome.   1926 - Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join.   1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean.   1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S.   1931 - British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.   1932 - The U.S. Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed around the Capitol.   1940 - The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.   1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.   1941 - WNBT-TV in New York City, NY, was granted the first construction permit to operate a commercial TV station in the U.S.   1942 - Yank, a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, began publication. The term "G.I. Joe" was first used in a comic strip by Dave Breger.   1942 - "Suspense" debuted on CBS Radio.   1944 - French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.   1944 - The republic of Iceland was established.   1950 - Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL.   1953 - Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting against the East German government.   1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.   1965 - Twenty-seven B-52’s hit Viet Cong outposts but lost two planes in South Vietnam.   1969 - Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow.   1970 - North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.   1982 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on "The CBS Morning News."   1985 - Judy Norton-Taylor was photographed for "Playboy" magazine.   1991 - The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population Registration Act. The act had required that all South Africans for classified by race at birth. 

1775 The Battle of Bunker Hill took place during the American Revolution. 1885 The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere. 1928 Amelia Earhart embarked on the first trans-Atlantic flight by a woman. 1944 The Republic of Iceland was established. 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no locality may require recitation of Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools. 1972 Burglary of Democratic Party headquarters in Washington, DC, started the Watergate political scandal. 1994 O. J. Simpson's slow-speed chase by the police, watched by millions on TV, ended in his arrest. 2002 Australian scientists announced that they had "teleported" a laser beam—breaking it up and reconstructing it in another location. 

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jun17.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory