On March 6…

“To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World:
Fellow citizens & compatriots—I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna—I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man … our flag still waves proudly from the walls … I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch.”
~ Lt. Col. William Barrett Travis
Commander of the Texian forces at the Battle of the Alamo

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1836 – The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.
The Texians – residents of Mexican Texas and later, the Republic of Texas – repelled two early morning attacks by the 1,800 Mexican troops, but were unable to fend off a third. As Mexican soldiers scaled the walls, most of the Texian fighters withdrew into interior buildings. Those unable to reach the inside were slain by the Mexican cavalry as they attempted to escape.
Most Alamo historians place the number of Mexican casualties at 400–600, while eyewitnesses counted182–257 Texians killed.
Among the names of those who died were Davy Crockett, James Bowie, and William Travis, who wrote the stirring plea for assistance at the top of this article on February 24.

1857 – In its Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in a federal court.
The court, by a 7-2 vote, declared that African-Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States.

1933 – At 1:00 a.m., President Franklin Roosevelt issued Proclamation 2039 ordering the suspension of all banking transactions, effective immediately. He had taken the oath of office only thirty-six hours earlier.
The proclamation also forbade the hoarding of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency, under penalty of $10,000 and/or up to five to ten years imprisonment
Background:Before the Election of 1932, there were rumors that FDR would confiscate gold if elected. These rumors spread and people ran to banks to withdraw their funds. The night before the election, FDR denied that he would do such a thing.
On March 1, outgoing president Herbert Hoover told Roosevelt that 5 to 15 million dollars a day of gold withdrawals were bleeding from U.S. banks. Gold was being shipped offshore and went into hiding.
By March 2, over 200 million dollars in gold had been taken out of banks.
The following day panic spread to the Federal Reserve as 110 million dollars in gold was paid out to foreign banks from New York and Chicago banks. Another 40 million dollars in gold was paid out by other banks on that same day.
On March 3, Hoover made a personal appeal to FDR to address the gold confiscation rumors, and for the two of them to issue a joint statement to close the banks. Roosevelt said that he did not feel it was necessary.
Aftermath: Americans had no access to banks or banking services. They could not withdraw or transfer their money, nor could they make deposits. The crisis began to subside on March 9, when Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act.
On March 13, four days after the emergency legislation went into effect, member banks in Federal Reserve cities received permission to reopen.
By March 15, banks controlling 90 percent of the country’s banking resources had resumed operations and deposits far exceeded withdrawals, although 4,000 banks would remain closed forever and full economic recovery was still years in the future.
And Then… On April 15, Hoover’s fears were realized. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 which required all persons to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 per ounce.
The price of gold from the Treasury for international transactions was then raised by the Gold Reserve Act to $35 an ounce

1958 – The Everly Brothers recorded All I Have To Do Is Dream at RCA Studios in Nashville
When the single was released in June 1958, it became the first single to be at #1 on all of the Billboard singles charts (Pop, R&B, and Country) simultaneously.
Outside the United States, All I Have To Do Is Dream saw massive success in various countries, most notably England, where it topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks.

1970 – Bombs being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse by the radical Weathermen Underground group accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members.
The bombs were intended to kill Army soldiers and non-commissioned officers who would be attending an NCO dance at nearby Fort Dix that evening, and to randomly kill people in Butler Library at Columbia University.
The activists wanted to “bring the war home” and “give the United States and the rest of the world a sense that this country was going to be completely unlivable if the United States continued in Vietnam.”
An FBI report stated that the group had enough explosives to “level both sides of the street.”

1970 – Charles Manson’s album Lie: The Love and Terror Cult was released to raise funds for his defense.
The album cover parodied Manson’s cover appearance on Life magazine with the “f” taken out.
The album had been primarily recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles on August 8, 1968. Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world – the one preferred by producer Phil Spector – and was the venue for hundreds of chart-topping recordings by the Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, Buffalo Springfield, the Monkees, Ronettes, Righteous Brothers, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Jan and Dean, and many more.
Two thousand copies of Manson’s album were pressed but only 300 were sold.
Just in case you’re interested…

1981 – After 19 years, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as anchorman of The CBS Evening News.

1981 – The Electric Light Orchestra recorded Hold On Tight at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany.
The single, released in July 1981, went top ten in most countries, hitting the top spot in Spain and Switzerland, #2 in Germany, #4 in the UK, and #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1987 – A British ferry leaving Zeebrugge, Belgium, capsized, drowning 188 people. The Herald of Free Enterprise carried 543 people, 84 cars and 36 trucks on board as it headed across the English Channel to Dover.
The ferry was designed to allow vehicles to drive on and off the ship quickly and easily. However, it was the unofficial policy of the ship’s crew to leave port with the bow doors open and to close them as the ship was already moving, a practice that allowed a small, but normally inconsequential, amount of water into the ferry.
The March 6 trip left port with the doors open and the person assigned to close them was asleep in a bunk. The crew members who were supposed to take over this assignment were unable to close the doors as the ferry pushed out to sea.
The vehicles in the hold were tossed back and forth in the water, and a sudden shift in weight caused the ship to tip. Within minutes, the ferry capsized.

1990 – Ed Yielding and Joseph T. Vida set the transcontinental speed record by flying a SR-71 Blackbird from Los Angeles to Virginia in 64 minutes, averaging 2,124 mph.

2000 – Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Moonglows and Earth, Wind & Fire were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
Drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, bassist James Jamerson, guitarist Scotty Moore, and saxophonist King Curtis were inducted into the Sidemen wing.
Billie Holliday and Nat ‘King’ Cole were inducted as Early Influences and record label executive Clive Davis was inducted as a Non-Performer.
Clapton’s induction made him the only performer in rock and roll history to be a three-time member of the Hall. He had previously been inducted with The Yardbirds and Cream.

2006 – Dana Reeve, author, actress, activist for disability causes, and the widow of actor Christopher Reeve, died of lung cancer at the age of 44 … just seven months after her husband had passed.

2007 – Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
Four months later, President George W. Bush commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, calling it “excessive.”
The president’s spokesman at the time, Tony Snow, denied accusations that Bush’s decision was political, saying that he “is getting pounded on the right because he didn’t do a full pardon.”

2013 – Alvin Lee died at the age of 68 from complications following surgery to correct an atrial arrhythmia.
He was the lead singer/guitarist with Ten Years After and was best known for his virtuoso performance of I’m Going Home at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

Weekend Bonus Info…

ON MARCH 7…

1965 – A group of 600 civil rights marchers was brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.The march was organized by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee director of Direct Action James Bevel to protest a February 26 death of activist and Deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson after being mortally shot several days earlier by state trooper James Bonard Fowler, during a peaceful march in nearby Marion, Alabama.
State troopers and county police attacked the unarmed marchers with clubs and tear gas in an event that became known as Bloody Sunday with 17 marchers hospitalized.
Law enforcement officials overwhelmed activist Amelia Boynton, whose photograph, showing her gassed and beaten unconscious on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was publicized worldwide.

1986 – Divers from the USS Preserver located the crew cabin of Challenger on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
No official investigation into the Challenger disaster has concluded for certain the cause of death of the astronauts.
It is almost certain that the disintegration itself did not kill the entire crew as 3 of the 4 Personal Egress Air Packs that were recovered had been manually activated.
PEAPs do not provide a pressurized air flow and would still have resulted in the astronauts losing consciousness within several seconds.

1999 – Director/Screenwriter Stanley Kubrick died of a heart attack at the age of 70.
It would take too much time to list all of the films he directed and either wrote or co-wrote, so I’ll just include a few.
Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket.
Kubrick was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, but despite the impressive resume listed above, he won only one (Best Special Visual Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey).

2011 – Charlie Sheen was fired from the sitcom Two and a Half Men by Warner Bros. Television following repeated misbehavior and weeks of the actor’s angry, often-manic media campaign against his studio bosses.
Following his dismissal, Sheen had highly publicized events which were broadcast on television and the Internet. He made statements in television interviews, suggesting that he was a “warlock” with “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA”, and that he was “winning.”
He also said in one interview, “I’m tired of pretending I’m not special. I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars.”

2013 – Singer Claude King died of natural causes at the age of 90.
He was best known for his million selling 1962 song Wolverton Mountain, which topped the Country Music chart for nine weeks and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Music chart.

ON MARCH 8…

1782 – At the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio, ninety-six Native Americans were killed by U.S. militiamen from Pennsylvania.
The Lenni Lenape (also called the Delaware) had been surprised by a raiding party of 160 Pennsylvania militia led by Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson. The American militia rounded up the Christian Lenape and accused them of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania.
Although the Lenape denied the charges – and in fact they had not been involved in any raids – the militia held a council and voted to kill them. The Lenape requested time to prepare for death and spent the night praying and singing hymns. They were held in two buildings, one for men and one for women and children.
The next morning on 8 March, the militia brought the Lenape to one of two “killing houses”, one for men and the other for women and children. The American militia tied the Indians, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts.
In all, the militia murdered and scalped 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children, then piled the bodies in the mission buildings and burned the village down.
Several years later, missionary John Heckewelder discovered the remains and buried them in a mound, as shown above, on the southern side of the village.
No charges were brought against Williamson or any of his men.

1966 – Bob Dylan recorded Just Like A Woman at Columbia Studios in Nashville.
The song – from Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde album – was released as a single in the U.S. during August 1966 and peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1966 – The Rolling Stones recorded Paint It Black at RCA Studios in Los Angeles.
The song – which featured Brian Jones on sitar – was released as a single off the Aftermath album and reached #1 in both the U.S. and England.

1971 – Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali by unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The fight – the first of three epic bouts between the heavyweights – was broadcast by closed circuit to 50 countries in 12 languages via ringside reporters to an audience estimated at 300 million.

1974 – John Denver recorded Annie’s Song.
The song – written as a tribute to his wife (at the time) – was released as a single from Denver’s album Back Home Again album, and reached #1 in the U.S., England, Canada and Ireland.

1999 – Baseball Hall of Fame player Joe DiMaggio died of lung cancer at the age of 84.
“Joltin’ Joe” played his entire 13-year career as a centerfielder for the New York Yankees and is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time; perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak in 1941, a record that still stands.
He was a three-time Most Valuable Player Award winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships.

2016 – Record producer Sir George Martin died of natural causes at the age of 90.
He was referred to as the “Fifth Beatle” in reference to his extensive involvement as producer for the group.
In addition to his work with the “Fab Four”, Martin also produced recordings by Paul McCartney (both as a solo artist and with Wings), Ringo Starr, America, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Peter & Gordon, Cilla Black, Elton John, and Little River Band, among others.
Martin produced thirty #1 singles and sixteen #1 albums in the UK – plus twenty-three #1 singles and nineteen #1 albums in North America.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

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