In a bit of personal history one of my far distant relatives, on my mother’s side, Myles Standish, was appointed the military commander of the English colony at Plymouth in 1621. In an odd twist of political history, the presidential election resulted in a tie for electoral votes between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, so the election was thrown into the US House of Representatives to resolve. The problem was that they were running on the same ticket but both got votes for President even though Jefferson was on the ticket as President and Burr as vice president. This resulted in a constitutional amendment that mandated the clear designation of nominees for president and vice president.
in 1863 there were held meetings for the organization which would come to be known as the Internation Committee of the Red Cross. In 1867 the first ship passed through the Suez Canal. And in 1996 in Philadelphia world champion Gary Kasparov defeated the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
The inventor of the stethoscope (1816) French physician Rene Laennec was born in 1781. The patriarch of the German Krupp arms manufacturing empire, Freiderich Alfred Krupp was born in 1854 – his handiwork was displayed mightily in WWI and WWII. The actor who made a career of one-man presentation as Mark Twain, Hal Holbrook, was born in 1925. And the daughter of President Truman who went on to make a career of writing murder mysteries – Margaret Truman – was born in 1924.
This date was also the birthday of Huey Newton, who along with Bobby Seale, founded the Black Panther Party. He was born in 1924. The violence that ensued overshadowed the community involvement of the party, including a Free Breakfast for Children program, food banks, medical clinics, legal advice, and community schools. Huey Newton learned to read through Plato’s Republic and earned a Ph.D. in sociology at UC Santa Cruz.
And Michael Jordan turns 60 today.
French actor and playwright Moliere stepped off the stage in 1673. Apache chief Geronimo ceased his fight for native tribal land and rights in 1909. Jazz great Thelonious Monk ended his musical life session in 1982. And the neverending monologue of conservative rabble-rouser Rush Limbaugh finally went silent in 2021.
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