On March 5…

“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
~Joseph Stalin

1770 – The Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers, taunted by a crowd of colonists, opened fire, killing five people.
A mob had formed around a British sentry on King Street (today known as State Street) and verbally abused him. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers, who were hit by clubs and stones.
They fired into the crowd without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others, two of whom later died of their wounds.
Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder, and they were defended by future President John Adams. Six of the soldiers were acquitted; the other two were convicted of manslaughter and were sentenced to branding on their hand.
The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most significant events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority.
Although he had acted as defense attorney, Adams wrote that the “foundation of American independence was laid.”

1829 – John Adams, the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island, died at the age of 61.
His grave on Pitcairn is the only known grave site of a Bounty mutineer.

1864 – General John C. Breckinridge took control of Confederate forces in the Appalachian Mountains of western Virginia.
The native Kentuckian was a former U.S. senator, U.S. vice president (under James Buchanan) and runner-up to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election.

1933 – The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) won 43.9 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections, well short of a majority.
They needed the votes of their coalition partner, the German National People’s Party (8.0 percent), to gain a slight majority in the Reichstag.
Although the Nazi-DNVP coalition had enough seats to conduct the basic business of government, Adolf Hitler needed a two-thirds majority to pass the Enabling Act, a law which allowed the Chancellor to enact laws without the approval of the Reichstag for a four-year period.
Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to arrest all 81 Communist deputies and kept several Social Democrats out of the chamber.
The Enabling Act was passed on March 23 with 444 votes for and 94 against, effectively turning the Hitler government into a de facto legal dictatorship.
In Case You’re Wondering Factoid: The NSDAP in the photo above stands for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party in German … (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).

1936 – At the 8th Academy Awards, Mutiny On The Bounty was voted the Oscar for Outstanding Production. Although that film had three actors nominated for Best Actor (Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone), Victor McLaglen (The Informer) took home the award.

1940 – In what would become known as the Katyn Massacre, six high-ranking members of the Soviet politburo, including General Secretary Joseph Stalin, signed an order to execute 25,700 Polish “nationalists and counterrevolutionaries” kept at camps and prisons in occupied western Ukraine and Belarus.
The executions (21,768 were confirmed) took place in April and May 1940 and included over 1,100 Polish military officers, 20 university professors, 300 physicians, and more than 100 writers and journalists.
The massacre is named after the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered.
Disturbing Aftermath: In 2012, declassified documents illuminating the Katyn Massacre were released and put online by the National Archives.
The released papers proved that U.S. officers informed Roosevelt administration officials of the concealed murder scene and the evidences months after a 1943 visit. It showed that Roosevelt was aware it was the Soviet Union behind the massacre – and not Germany as the Soviets had claimed.
Roosevelt suppressed public knowledge of the crime, but did so “out of military necessity” because Stalin was an ally whom the Americans were counting on to defeat Germany and Japan during World War II.
The records also contained other disturbing evidence. One of the most important messages that landed on Roosevelt’s desk was an extensive and detailed report from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Written by Owen O’Malley, the British ambassador to the Polish government-in-exile in London, the document pointed to Soviet complicity in the Katyn massacre.
“There is now available a good deal of negative evidence,” O’Malley wrote, “the cumulative effect of which is to throw serious doubt on Russian disclaimers of responsibility for the massacre.”

1946 – In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, MO, condemned the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe.
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
In the Soviet Union, Russian leader Joseph Stalin denounced the speech as “war mongering,” and referred to Churchill’s comments about the “English-speaking world” as imperialist “racism.”

1953 – Days after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died at the age of 73 after nearly three decades in power.
He is remembered to this day as the man who helped save his nation from Nazi domination – but also as the mass murderer of the century, having overseen the deaths of 20 million of his own people who died in labor camps, forced collectivization, famine and executions.

I promise that is the last reference to Stalin today.

1953 – Screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz died of uremic poisoning at the age of 55.
Mankiewicz is best known for his collaboration with Orson Welles on the screenplay of Citizen Kane, for which they both won an Academy Award.
Among the other screenplays he wrote or worked on were Man of the World, Dinner at Eight, Pride of The Yankees, and The Pride of St. Louis.
He was one of several to contribute to The Wizard Of Oz but was not credited.
In 1935, while Mankiewicz – a Jew – was a staff writer for MGM, the studio was notified by Joseph Goebbels, then Minister of Education and Propaganda under Adolf Hitler, that films written by Mankiewicz could not be shown in Nazi Germany unless his name was removed from the screen credits.

1959 – Bobby Darin recorded Dream Lover.
It became a multi-million seller, reaching #1 in England for four weeks and #2 on the U.S. charts.
The song featured a still unknown Neil Sedaka on piano. Playing on a Darin song was a personal thrill for the man who would someday become a superstar.
“I didn’t want to be a rock and roller. I wanted to be a Bobby Darin because he was the epitome of the performer, the sophisticated.”

1960 – Elvis Presley was discharged from the U.S. Army. “I can hardly wait to start singing, traveling, making movies, and above all, seeing the old gang and old Graceland.”
He also received his final Army paycheck – $9.81.

1963 – Country singers Patsy Cline (30), Hawkshaw Hawkins (41) and Cowboy Copas (49) were killed when their single-engine plane crashed in Camden, Tennessee.
Also killed was pilot Randy Hughes, Cline’s manager and touring guitarist.
In a tragic twist, the quartet was returning to Nashville from Kansas City, where they had performed at a benefit for the widow of DJ Cactus Jack Call, who had been killed in a car crash.

1963 – The Beatles recorded From Me To You and Thank You Girl.
They also attempted five takes of One After 909 before deciding to put the song on hold “for a bit.”
That “bit” lasted longer than they had planned. The song wasn’t worked on again until 1969 when it became part of the Let It Be project.

1966 – Just 26 minutes after take-off, BOAC Flight 911 crashed into Mount Fuji in Japan killing all 124 people on board.
Captain Bernard Dobson took the 707 into the air with no problem and then veered a few miles off course to give the passengers a better view of the famed Japanese landmark, Mount Fuji.
As the Boeing 707 approached the mountain, it was caught up in violent turbulence caused by tremendous wind gusts. The rear control surfaces of the plane were torn off and Captain Dobson lost control of the aircraft.
As it plunged toward the base of Mount Fuji, the plane literally broke apart.

1980 – Actor Jay Silverheels – born Harold J. Smith – died from complications of a stroke at the age of 67.
He appeared in Key Largo, Lust For Gold and Broken Arrow, but was best known for playing Tonto, the faithful companion to The Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1957.

1982 – Actor/comedian John Belushi died after being injected with a mixture of cocaine and heroin. He was 33.
Belushi spent the final week of his life at the Chateau Marmont, a hotel located at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. He was staying in bungalow number three in order to work on the script for Noble Rot, a comedy set in the early years of the California wine industry.
On March 5, Belushi’s fitness trainer Bill Wallace arrived at bungalow number three of the Chateau Marmont and found him dead. The cause of death was combined drug intoxication involving cocaine and heroin, a drug combination known as a speedball.
Catherine Evelyn Smith, a Canadian singer, rock groupie, and (most famously) a drug dealer, later admitted she had been with Belushi on the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot before leaving that morning. She was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter, and she served 15 months in prison.
Ghostbusters Factoid: Aykroyd conceived Ghostbusters as a project for himself and Belushi. The protagonists would travel through time and space to combat a host of demonic and supernatural threats.
Following Belushi’s death, and with Aykroyd’s concept deemed financially impractical, he was paired with Harold Ramis to rewrite the script.

1999 – Actor Richard Kiley died of bone marrow disease at the age of 76.
He won a Tony Award for Best Actor In A Musical twice … Man Of La Mancha and Redhead, and another for Best Actor In A Play … All My Sons, in addition to numerous films and television performances.

2006 – At the 78th Academy Awards, Crash was named Best Picture, beating strong opposition such as Brokeback Mountain and Capote.
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) won Best Actor, while Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) took home the Oscar for Best Actress.
George Clooney (Syriana) won Best Supporting Actor, and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) was named best Supporting Actress.

2013 – Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death, died of a massive heart attack after a prolonged battle with colon cancer. He was 58.
Economic actions performed by his government, such as deficit spending and price controls, proved to be unsustainable, with Venezuela’s economy faltering. At the same time, poverty, inflation and shortages increased.
Under Chavez, Venezuela experienced democratic backsliding, as he suppressed the press, manipulated electoral laws, and arrested and exiled government critics. His presidency saw significant increases in the country’s murder rate. and corruption within the police force and government.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2020 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.