We cannot escape history and neither can we escape a desire to understand it. ~Anonymous
1709 – Alexander Selkirk (also known as Alexander Selcraig), a Scottish sailor who spent more than four years as a castaway after being marooned on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean, was rescued. His escape from the island came by way of The Duke, piloted by William Dampier, and its sailing companion The Duchess.
Selkirk had joined buccaneering expeditions to the South Sea. One such expedition was aboard the Cinque Ports, commanded by William Dampier. The ship called in for provisions at the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile, and Selkirk judged that the ship was unseaworthy and asked to be left there.
By the time that he was rescued, he had become adept at hunting and making use of the resources that he found on the island. His story of survival was widely publicized when he returned home and became a likely source of inspiration for writer Daniel Defoe’s fictional character Robinson Crusoe.
Selkirk had been correct about the fate of the Cinque Ports. It later foundered off the coast of what is now Colombia. Some of the crew survived the loss of their ship but were forced to surrender to the Spanish. The survivors were taken to Lima, Peru, where they endured a harsh imprisonment.
1790 – The Supreme Court of the United States met for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding in the Royal Exchange Building on New York City’s Broad Street.
In September 1789, the Judiciary Act had been passed, implementing Article Three by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life. The same day, President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Two days for confirmation? Times have changed.
1887 – Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent “meteorologist,” was celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.
Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal – the hedgehog – as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State.
1918 – John L. Sullivan, the first Heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, died at the age of 59. Although his prolific career had produced sizable paydays, Sullivan squandered his wealth on alcohol and died with 10 dollars to his name.
1922 – The James Joyce novel Ulysses was published in Paris on the author’s 40th birthday.
1922 – When Lieutenant Tom Ziegler responded to a call about a “natural death” at the home of film director William Desmond Taylor, he found actors, actresses, and studio executives rummaging through the director’s belongings. He also found Taylor lying on the living room floor with a bullet in his back – not exactly suggesting a “natural” death.
Two of the actresses linked to Taylor got caught up in the scandal and saw their film careers die a quick death following the murder. Comedian Mabel Normand had been linked romantically with Taylor, but was sent to a sanatorium to recover from tuberculosis and died. While she was away, Mary Miles Minter, a teenager, became a star in Taylor’s silent films and fell in love with him. Charlotte Shelby, Minter’s mother, disapproved of the budding relationship.
After his murder, a love note to Taylor from Minter was found in his home, along with her nightgown in the bedroom. Other damning facts came to light. Minter had once tried to shoot herself with the same type of gun used in Taylor’s murder. Furthermore, Shelby had previously threatened the life of another director who had made a pass at her daughter. And to top it off, Shelby’s alibi witness received suspiciously large sums of money after the murder. Still, no one was ever prosecuted for Taylor’s death and the case remains officially unsolved.
Many years later, in Minter’s unpublished autobiography, she admitted that she and her mother were at Taylor’s bungalow on the night of the killing. Director King Vidor told people that Minter had ambiguously admitted that her mother had killed Taylor after finding her daughter at Taylor’s home.
1943 – The last German troops in the Soviet city of Stalingrad surrendered to the Red Army, ending one of the pivotal battles of World War II. Under a blistering attack from Soviet General Vasily Zhukov, German General Friedrich Paulus had radioed Adolf Hitler and asked for permission to surrender. Hitler responded by promoting Paulus to field marshal. Hitler noted that there was no known record of a Prussian or German field marshal ever having surrendered. The implication was clear: Paulus was to commit suicide. If Paulus surrendered, Hitler implied he would shame Germany’s military history.
But with their supply lines cut off, Paulus had no choice but to surrender German forces in the southern sector on January 31, and on February 2, the remaining German troops surrendered. Only 90,000 German soldiers were still alive, and of these only 5,000 troops would survive the Soviet prisoner-of-war camps and make it back to Germany.
1949 – In response to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s proposal that President Harry Truman travel to Russia for a conference, Secretary of State Dean Acheson brusquely rejected the idea as a “political maneuver.”
Secretary Acheson stated that he found this idea puzzling, arguing that treaty commitments and adherence to the United Nations Charter already excluded war between the two powers. In any case, the secretary concluded, President Truman was not willing to go “halfway around the world” to meet with the Soviet leader. Acheson also indicated his disappointment that any nation would “play international politics” with an issue as important as world peace.
1969 – Actor Boris Karloff (Frankenstein series of films, The Mummy, and of course, his voice work in How The Grinch Stole Christmas) died from pneumonia at the age of 81.
1971 – One week after toppling the regime of Ugandan leader Milton Obote, Major General Idi Amin declared himself president of Uganda and chief of the armed forces. Amin soon revealed himself as an extreme nationalist and tyrant.
In 1972, he launched a genocidal program to purge Uganda of its Lango and Acholi ethnic groups. A Muslim, he reversed Uganda’s friendly relations with Israel and sought closer ties with Libya and the Palestinians. In 1976, he made himself president for life and stepped up his suppression of various ethnic groups and political opponents in the military and elsewhere.
In 1978, Amin invaded Tanzania in an attempt to annex the Kagera region and divert attention from Uganda’s internal problems. In 1979, Tanzania launched a successful counteroffensive with the assistance of the Uganda National Liberation Front, forcing Amin to flee the country. He was believed to have been responsible for the murder of as many as 300,000 Ugandans, though he never stood trial for his crimes.
1980 – Details of ABSCAM, an FBI operation to uncover political corruption in the government, were released to the public. In the operation, FBI agents posed as representatives of Abdul Enterprises, Ltd., a fictional business owned by an Arab sheikh. Under FBI video surveillance, the agents met with the officials and offered them money or other considerations in exchange for special favors, such as the approval of government contracts for companies in which the sheikh had invested.
Of the 31 targeted officials, one U.S. senator (Harrison A. Williams [D-NJ]) and six members of the U.S. House of Representatives (John Jenrette [D-SC], Raymond Lederer [D-PA], Michael “Ozzie” Myers [D-PA], Frank Thompson [D-NJ], John M. Murphy [D-NY], and Richard Kelly [R-FL]) were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981.
• Prior to a Senate vote on his expulsion, Williams – proclaiming his innocence to the very end – resigned on March 11, 1982. Sentenced to three years, he served two years in Federal prison.
• Jenrette was defeated for reelection in 1980 and resigned from Congress. He served 13 months in prison.
• Lederer was convicted in January 1981. The House Ethics Committee voted to expel him on April 28, 1981. Lederer resigned the following day, citing “personal legal problems” that interfered with his ability to serve his constituents. He served 13 months in prison.
• Myers was expelled from the House of Representatives on October 2, 1980, by a vote of 376 to 30. He served 3 years in prison.
• Thompson resigned his seat on December 29, 1980, several weeks after his defeat. He served 3 years in prison.
• Murphy unsuccessfully ran for re-election in 1980. He served 18 months in prison.
• Kelly lost his bid for re-election in 1980, and initially had his conviction overturned in 1982 on the basis that the FBI had unlawfully entrapped him. However, a higher court reinstated the conviction in 1984, and he served 13 months in prison.
1990 – South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela. Shortly thereafter, for the first time in 20 years, photographs of Mandela were allowed to be published in South Africa. de Klerk was true to his word. Mandela was released on February 11 after serving 27 years in prison.
1992 – Bert Parks, best known for hosting the annual Miss America telecast from 1955 to 1979, died of lung cancer at the age of 77.
1995 – Actor Donald Pleasance (Halloween series of films, The Great Escape, You Only Live Twice, The Greatest Story Ever Told) died from complications following heart valve replacement surgery. He was 75.
1996 – Actor Gene Kelly (An American In Paris, Anchors Aweigh, For Me And My Gal, Take Me Out To The Ballgame, Singin’ In The Rain) died following a series of strokes. He was 83.
2005 – Former Heavyweight champion Max Schmeling, whose two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cultural events because of their national associations, died of natural cause at the age of 99.
His fights with Louis – in particular, the 1938 battle – came at a highly emotional time. Louis, with his poor, black roots, was adopted by American fans as the symbol of America as a land of opportunity. In contrast, Americans perceived Schmeling and his ties to Hitler (although he despised the German leader) as an obvious threat to those opportunities and ideals.
Louis avenged the 1936 loss by knocking Schmeling out in the rematch. Schmeling later said, “Looking back, I’m almost happy I lost that fight. Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory. I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. “
Later in life, Schmeling and Louis became close friends and he assisted his former rival financially in his later years, eventually financing Louis’ military funeral in 1981
2014 – Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Scent Of A Woman, Charlie Wilson’s War, Doubt, The Master and winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor in Capote) died at the age of 51 from what was officially ruled an accident caused by “acute mixed drug intoxication, including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine.”
In addition to his magnificent film work (and I only scratched the surface above), his performances in three Broadway plays – True West, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Death of A Salesman – all led to Tony Award nominations.
He truly was, as described in his New York Times obituary, “perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation.”
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2016 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.