“I am pleading to you as President of the U.S. in the interest of humanity law and order, and because of democracy worldwide, to provide the necessary federal troops within several hours.”
~Woodrow Wilson Mann
Mayor, Little Rock, Arkansas

1690 – The first newspaper was published in America. It was intended to be published monthly, “or, if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener.” It was never published again.
Censorship raised its ugly head. British authorities considered Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick to be offensive and ordered the publisher, Benjamin Harris, to cease publishing.

1775 – After aborting a poorly planned and ill-timed attack on the British-controlled city of Montreal, Continental Army Colonel Ethan Allen was captured by the British. After being identified as an officer of the Continental Army, Allen was taken prisoner and sent to England to be executed.
Allen ultimately escaped execution because the British government feared reprisals from the American colonies. He was imprisoned in England for more than two years until being returned to the United States on May 6, 1778, as part of a prisoner exchange.

1789 – The first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and sent them to the states for ratification.
The amendments – the Bill of Rights – were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government were reserved for the states and the people.

1890 – President Benjamin Harrison signed legislation establishing America’s second national park. Sequoia National Park was the first park created to protect a living organism – the giant sequoias – from logging.
Sequoia Factoid: The park is home to the General Sherman Tree – named after Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman. In 1931, the tree was identified as the largest tree in the world … but it isn’t.
It is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth, nor is it the widest, and it is not the oldest, but with a height of 275 feet, a diameter of 25 feet, an estimated trunk volume of 52,513 cubic feet, and an estimated age of 2,300–2,700 years, it is nevertheless among the tallest, widest, and longest-lived of all trees on the planet.

1911 – Groundbreaking began on Fenway Park in Boston. The cost to build the home of the Boston Red Sox was $650,000 and when it was completed in time for the 1912 season, the ballpark was considered a “technological marvel.”

1957 – Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students entered all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration.
After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order No. 10730 on September 24, federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.
Faubus appeared on television saying that Little Rock was “now an occupied territory.”
While conditions eventually calmed down on the campus, inside the school, little changed. “The Nine” endured an endless campaign of verbal and physical harassment at the hands of some of their fellow students for the remainder of the year.
More than 100 white students were suspended, and four were expelled. One of the Nine – Minnijean Brown – was expelled in February 1958 for retaliating against the abuse; she was struck by a white student and poured a bowl of chili over the head of the offender.
Ike Factoid: In February 1954, Eisenhower – who privately opposed the use of political power to enforce desegregation (“it’s morally wrong”) – shocked Earl Warren, the new chief justice, who was presiding over the (at the time) undecided blockbuster school-segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public education was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Eisenhower took Warren by the arm and asked him to consider the perspective of white parents in the Deep South. “These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks.”
The incident left such an impression that Warren recounted it in his memoirs some 20 years later.
He sanitized the slur from “black bucks” to “overgrown” Negroes, but Eisenhower’s racist comment stayed with Warren forever.

1958 – The Principality of Andorra signed a peace treaty with Germany.
It was long overdue.
While the tiny principality of Andorra (on the Spanish/French border) had declared war on Germany in 1914, no one thought to invite Andorran officials to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Maybe it was because Andorra’s army consisted of just 10 part-time soldiers that assembled only a few times a year for ceremonies.
Since no peace treaty was enacted, Andorra remained in a technical state of war with Germany. On this date in 1958, Andorra signed a reparation-free treaty, finally ending its “war” against Germany and ending its “involvement” in World War I.

1962 – Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in the 1st round to win the heavyweight boxing title.
Sports Illustrated writer Gilbert Rogin wrote “that final left hook crashed into Patterson’s cheek like a diesel rig going downhill, no brakes.”

1965 – The Kansas City Athletics started ageless wonder Satchel Paige in a game against the Boston Red Sox.
The 58-year-old Paige, a Negro League legend, proved his greatness once again by giving up only one hit in his three innings of play.

1965 – The Beatles Saturday morning cartoon series (it used their songs, not their voices) debuted on ABC.

1970 – Come on, get happy! The Partridge Family debuted on ABC.
The Beatles had served as the inspiration for The Monkees, and it was another group – the real-life family act the Cowsills – that inspired Screen Gems to dream up The Partridge Family.

1978 – A Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 collided in mid-air with a small Cessna over San Diego, killing 153 people.
The wreckage of the planes fell into a populous neighborhood and did extensive damage on the ground.

1980 – John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham, the 32-year old drummer with Led Zeppelin, died of asphyxiation caused by choking on his own vomit after a 24-hour drinking binge.
Bonham’s “breakfast” on September 24 consisted of sixteen shots of vodka and one bite of a breakfast sandwich. He then proceeded to drink the rest of the day while the band rehearsed. By the time he went to bed that evening, it was estimated he had consumed forty shots of vodka. He was found dead the next morning.

1982 – Just weeks after being relieved of duty as a Camp Hill State Prison (Pennsylvania) guard following a conflict with a supervisor, George Banks went on a killing spree that left 13 people, including five of his children, dead.
In 1983, Banks was sentenced to death by electrocution, but in 2010 – following years of appeals – Luzerne County Judge Joseph Augello declared Banks’ psychological disorders rendered him incompetent to be executed.

1983 – Maze Prison in Northern Ireland – considered one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe – was the site of a mass escape by 38 Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners.
The IRA had planned a logistical support operation involving 100 armed members, but due to a miscalculation of just five minutes, the prisoners found no transport waiting for them and were forced to either flee across fields or hijack vehicles.
Nineteen prisoners were recaptured within two days. By 1992, five more had been caught and three killed in ambushes.
Only two of the escapees, Gerard Fryers and Seamus Campbell, remain unaccounted for.

1984 – Actor Walter Pidgeon died two days after his 87th birthday following a series of strokes.
He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in Mrs. Miniver and Madame Curie.
Pidgeon appeared in over 120 other films, including How Green Was My Valley, The Bad and the Beautiful, Forbidden Planet, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Advise & Consent, and Funny Girl.

1991 – Klaus Barbie died in prison in Lyon, France of leukemia and cancer of the spine and prostate at the age of 77.
The “Butcher of Lyon” had been convicted four years earlier for crimes against humanity after being arrested in Bolivia … and I will not give the details of those crimes because they were among the most brutal any Nazi ever committed.
Barbie Factoid: In 1947, Barbie was recruited as an agent for the 66th Detachment of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps. The U.S. used Barbie and other Nazi Party members to further anti-Communist efforts in Europe.
The CIC used him to report on French intelligence activities in the French zone of occupied Germany because they suspected that the French had been infiltrated by Communists.
The French discovered that Barbie was in U.S. hands and, having sentenced him to death in absentia for war crimes, made a plea to John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, to hand him over for execution, but McCloy refused.
Instead, the CIC helped him flee to Bolivia via a system of escape routes organized by U.S. intelligence services, and by Croatian Roman Catholic clergy.

2005 – Actor Don Adams (best known as Maxwell Smart, (Agent 86 in the television comedy Get Smart) died of lymphoma at the age of 82.
He may have played a bumbling fool on the show but in real life, he was very clever.
Gambling that Get Smart would be a success, Adams took a much smaller salary when offered a chance for a 33 percent piece of the show.
That decision paid off. He received a regular income for many years due to the show’s popularity in reruns.

2012 – Singer Andy Williams (‘Moon River’, ‘Butterfly’, ‘Days Of Wine and Roses’, ‘Can’t Get Used To Losing You’) died of bladder cancer at the age of 84.

2013 – Billy Mure (session guitarist) died at the age of 97 of natural causes.
Among the many songs Mure recorded were Chances Are (Johnny Mathis), Splish Splash (Bobby Darin), Diana (Paul Anka), Bobby’s Girl (Marcie Blaine), A White Sports Coat And A Pink Carnation (Marty Robbins), Tell Laura I Love Her (Ray Peterson) and Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (Brian Hyland).

2016 – Golfing legend Arnold Palmer died while awaiting heart surgery. He was 87.
In a career spanning more than six decades, he won 62 PGA Tour titles and won seven major golf tournaments: The Masters (4 times), The (British) Open (twice), and the U.S. Open.
He won ten events on the Senior Tour, including five senior majors. He played on six Ryder Cup teams … well, I could go on and on but I’ll let the words of another golfing legend, Jack Nicklaus, put Palmer’s career into perspective.
“Arnold transcended the game of golf. He was more than a golfer or even great golfer. He was an icon. He was a legend. Arnold was someone who was a pioneer in his sport. He took the game from one level to a higher level, virtually by himself.”

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2018 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.