On March 11…
“So fierce was the wind that sparrows could not fly against it … When dusk came there was no abatement of the fury of the blizzard. It howled more and more loudly, accentuated by the darkness and absence of all distracting sounds.”
~New York Daily Sun
March 12, 1888
1855 – Gang leader William Poole (aka “Bill the Butcher”) was buried in Brooklyn.
He was the leader of the Washington Street Gang, which later became known as the Bowery Boys gang. A known skilled knife fighter, as a result of his profession as a butcher, Poole was a known gambler, a heavy drinker, and an extremely brutal thug.
He had been shot by associates of John Morrissey, a political arch rival, on February 25, and died at the age of 33 on March 8.
Over 6,000 mourners attended Poole’s funeral and burial in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Film Factoid: Daniel Day-Lewis played a heavily fictionalized (and very brutal) version of Bill the Butcher, renamed William Cutting, in the 2002 Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, which earned 10 Academy Award nominations.
1861 – Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published.
The book, by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world’s first science fiction novel.
1888 – The Great Blizzard of ’88, one of the worst blizzards in American history, struck the Northeast, killing more than 400 people and dumping as much as 55 inches of snow in some areas.
New York City ground to a near halt in the face of massive snow drifts and powerful winds from the storm, but it was not the only area to suffer. Along the Atlantic coast, hundreds of boats were sunk in the high winds and heavy waves.
The snowfall totals north of New York City were historic: Keene, NH received 36 inches; Bellows Falls, VT was hit with 35 inches; New Haven, CT got 45 inches; and Troy, NY was hit by 55 inches of snow over 3 days.
In addition, thousands of wild and farm animals froze to death in the blizzard.
1941 – President Franklin Roosevelt effectively ended American neutrality in World War II when he signed into law the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.
Five minutes after the bill was signed, Roosevelt approved a list of undisclosed quantities of war materials to be transferred at once from the American Army and Navy to the British and the Greeks.
1942 – After struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, General Douglas MacArthur abandoned the island fortress of Corregidor under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt.
Left behind at Corregidor and on the Bataan Peninsula were 90,000 American and Filipino troops, who, lacking food, supplies, and support, would soon succumb to the Japanese offensive.
1946 – Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, was captured by British troops. Affidavits that Höss made while imprisoned in Nuremberg included …
“I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943, and estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease, making a total dead of about 3,000,000. This figure represents about 70% or 80% of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners.”
Later estimates of the number who died were around one million, a substantially lower figure. It has been speculated that Höss exaggerated his estimate as a result of the beatings and threats to which he had been subjected shortly before he gave this affidavit.
But consider this: 1 million or 3 million isn’t the real point. The fact that the murders – and that is exactly what they were – happened at all was enough to warrant his execution.
On April 2, 1947, he was hanged next to the crematorium of the former Auschwitz I concentration camp.
1970 – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released their Déjà Vu album.
It topped the Billboard Album Chart for one week and generated three Top 40 singles: Woodstock, Teach Your Children, and Our House.
Steel Factoid: The pedal steel guitar on Teach Your Children was played by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead.
1970 – Novelist Erle Stanley Gardner died of natural causes at the age of 80.
Using the pen name of A.A. Fair, he authored a series of detective novels centered on the fictional private detective firm of Cool and Lam, but he is best known for writing (under his real name) 80 Perry Mason novels between 1933 and 1973.
1970 – The Beatles released Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) in the U.S.
The single version of Let It Be, produced by George Martin, featured a softer George Harrison guitar solo and the orchestral section mixed low, while the album version, produced by Phil Spector, featured a more aggressive guitar solo with the orchestral sections mixed much louder.
Chart Factoid: While the single reached #1 in the U.S. and 12 other countries, it peaked at #2 in England. It was kept from the top of the British chart by Wand’rin’ Star (from the film Paint Your Wagon) by actor Lee Marvin!
Mom Factoid:According to Paul McCartney, the song’s reference to “Mother Mary” was not biblical. He has maintained that his mother Mary – who died of cancer when he was fourteen – was the inspiration for lyric.
Stone Factoid: The B-side included a saxophone solo played by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.
And just because … Here is the B-side.
1977 – Film director Roman Polanski was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl at the home of Hollywood star Jack Nicholson.
In August 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with the 13-year-old girl. In December of that year he went to prison for a 90-day psychiatric study but was released after 42 days.
Polanski, who had expected to be put on probation, fled to Paris in February 1978 after learning that the judge planned to reject his plea deal and impose a prison term. Since he fled the United States before final sentencing, the charges are still pending.
1992 – Director/Screenwriter Richard Brooks died from congestive heart failure at the age of 79.
He directed and wrote the screenplay for Blackboard Jungle, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, In Cold Blood, Looking For Mr. Goodbar, and Elmer Gantry, for which he won an Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay.
1996 – Actor Vince Edwards died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 67.
He appeared in several films, including The Killing, Murder By Contract, Hiawatha and The Devil’s Brigade, but was best known for playing the title role on television’s Ben Casey.
Edwards recorded several albums in the 60s when Ben Casey was at its peak in popularity. His style was definitely that of a crooner.
Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me was released as a single and reached #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962.
1997 – Sir Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for “services to music.” Twenty years later, he was given a “promotion” when he was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour.
Knighthood Factoid: In 2017, Ringo Starr became Sir Richard Starkey when he was knighted by Prince William for his “contributions to music and charities.”
You Have To Be Alive Factoid: Many Beatles fans still wonder when the honor will be given to John Lennon and George Harrison. It’s not going to happen. Under the current rules, you must be alive to receive the honor from the royal family.
Lennon’s contentious relationship with the crown might have led to him rejecting the offer had it been made in his lifetime. In 1969, he returned the MBE the Beatles received in 1965 as an act of protest against the Vietnam War.
For George, it’s possible he would never have received an offer. In 2000, he turned down an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from the Queen because it was believed he considered it a snub, given Paul’s knighthood.
2002 – Two columns of light soared skyward from ground zero in New York as a memorial to the victims six months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Tribute in Light began initially as a temporary commemoration of the attacks but has become an annual commemoration, currently produced on September 11 by the Municipal Art Society of New York.
Assembled on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage south of the 9/11 Memorial, the twin beams reach up to four miles into the sky and are comprised of eighty-eight 7,000-watt xenon light bulbs positioned into two 48-foot squares, echoing the shape and orientation of the Twin Towers.
2004 – Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding more than 2,000 in an attack linked to al-Qaeda-inspired militants.
2009 – 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer went on a shooting spree at the Albertville-Realschule school in Winnenden, Germany, killing nine students and three teachers.
Dozens of police arrived at the scene but Kretschmer escaped and fatally shot a gardener outside a psychiatric hospital opposite the school. He then hijacked a car (taking the driver hostage) and fled 20 miles to a car dealership in Wedlingen. Once inside he murdered two more people before a gun battle began with police and he was shot in both legs.
He left the rear of the building and ran across a yard to a neighboring business complex, where he shot and injured two police officers in an unmarked police vehicle. After calmly reloading his pistol, Kretschmer shot himself in the head as police cornered him.
The night before the massacre, Kretschmer had issued a warning in an Internet chat room but no one took him seriously.
“I’ve had enough. I’m fed up with this horrid life. Nobody knows what I’m capable of. I am scared, I have weapons here, and I will go to my former school tomorrow and then I will really do a grilling. Possibly I get away, so keep your ears open, you will hear from me tomorrow. Just remember the name of the place, Winnenden.”
2010 – Merlin Olsen died of peritoneal mesothelioma at the age of 69.
Olsen spent his entire 15-year career in the NFL as a defensive tackle with the Los Angeles Rams and was an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As a sportscaster, he was NBC’s lead football analyst for a decade. As an actor, he played the role of farmer Jonathan Garvey on Little House On The Prairie before starring in the title role of Father Murphy.
Olsen was a 1962 graduate (summa cum laude) of Utah State University. He was named to the State of Utah’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Utah State University Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2009, the football field at Romney Stadium was named Merlin Olsen Field.
2012 – U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales shot and killed sixteen Afghan villagers – mostly women and children – as they slept.
Army investigators said Bales – who was on his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan – was the only person responsible for the shootings and the deaths were the result of two separate attacks. Their report said Bales returned to Camp Belambai in Kandahar Province after the first attack and left the camp an hour later to commit the second attack
In order to avoid the death penalty, Bales pleaded guilty to 16 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder in a plea deal.
On August 23, 2013, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He is incarcerated in the maximum security section of United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
2015 – Jimmy Greenspoon died of metastatic melanoma at the age of 67.
While he was best known as the keyboardist for Three Dog Night from 1968 until his death, Greenspoon was also a prolific session musician, playing with Eric Clapton, the Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, and America, among others.
And as shown below, he also recorded his own music as a solo artist.
2016 – Keith Emerson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 71.
The keyboardist (and founding member) for Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Emerson wrote and arranged much of ELP’s music on albums such as Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery, combining his own original compositions with classical or traditional pieces adapted into a rock format.
Hailed by several music critics as “perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock history,” he had become depressed because nerve damage had hampered his playing, and he was worried that he would perform poorly at upcoming concerts in Japan and disappoint his fans.
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2020 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.