John C Fremont was an American frontier explorer, soldier, and first presidential candidate of the newly formed Republican party, but in 1848 on this date he was involved in the dispute in California over who was the military governor. Fremont lost and was court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders. His sentence was commuted and was reinstated by President Polk, but resigned from the military and went into politics.
Guy Fawkes on the other hand, got linked in the history books as the leader of the Gunpowder plot in London – found guarded the gunpowder and was executed on this date in 1606. He and his fellow conspirators were attempting to blow up the House of Commons and overthrow the monarchy.
In war news on this date Kaiser Wilhelm II (1917) ordered the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. And in 1918 ironically there was a series of collisions involving 8 British military warships, including 3 subs, in the North Sea that managed to sink 2 subs, damage 5 other warships, and cost over 100 soldiers lives, without any German activity at all.
In 1945 US Army private Eddie Slovik became the first US soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War. He was among 21,000 soldiers to be court-martialed, and 49 sentenced to die, but the only one where the sentence was carried out. Decades later in 1971 the Winter Soldier Investigations were started in 1971 to investigate possible war crimes by US soldiers in Vietnam.
Also, in 1865 the US Congress passed the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery, and sent it to the states f or ratification. And in 1988 Doug Williams became the first African American quarterback to play in the Super Bowl – and his team won.
Two American Nobel Prize winning chemists were born on this date Theodore William Richards in 1868 and Irving Langmuir in 1881. Three standout baseball players were also born this date – Jackie Robinson (1919), who broke the color barrier with the LA Dodgers, Ernie Banks (1931) who excited Cubs fans , and Nolan Ryan (1947) who frustrated many a batter with his fastballs.
We gained literary works with authors born this date – Zane Grey (1872) writing Westerns, and Norman Mailer (1923) with more edgier fiction. And our music got richer with Franz Shubert (1979) Austrian pianist and composer and Philip Glass (1937)
We said farewell, and many “good riddance’s to English conspirator Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the British Parliament and overthrow the monarchy, but was left guarding the gunpowder kegs under the building(1606). We said farewell to the witty Molly Ivins (2007) who talked about George W Bush (junior) – a fellow Texan -being “born with a silver spoon in his mouth”. And we bid a sad farewell to British author A.A.Milne (1956) who introduced us to Tigger, Eeyor, Kanga, Christopher Robin, and of course Winnie-the-Pooh. Kenny Loggins penned a tribute House at Pooh Corner in 1971, which I just love.
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