“Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping; for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.” VP Thomas Marshall

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Today in History, January 6:  1919 – Former President Theodore Roosevelt dies in his sleep at his beloved home Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York at the age of 60.  Roosevelt advocated a “strenuous life” and he lived what he preached.  He overcame constant illness as a child to become an athlete, a cowboy, a New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of the “Rough Riders” in the Spanish-American War, Governor of New York, Vice-President, President, Explorer, Hunter, and many more adventures.  Many found him eccentric or worse (Mark Hanna said “Now look, that damned cowboy is President!”) but the entire world mourned his loss after all of his accomplishments.

Pioneers in Amusement, Electricity & Abuse

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Today in History, January 4: 1903 – Captured as a child in Southeast Asia, then smuggled to America and sold into slavery. Ironically named after a character from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, Topsy was forced to perform for crowds in a circus. On one occasion, a drunken spectator found his way into her tent and tormented her…teased her and burned her with his cigar…and ended up dead when she defended herself. Her owners took the opportunity to label her as a killer as advertising. When another incident occurred, they sold her to a menagerie at Coney Island. Her trainer, also a drunk, stuck her with a pitchfork while trying to make her work and was confronted by a police officer who objected (damned cops). The trainer, in anger, set her loose to rampage through Coney Island and later rode her to the police station to batter at the entrance. Through the fault of her captors, Topsy had by now gained such a bad reputation that she couldn’t even be given away. So her captors made even more money…advertising her execution. On this date, monitored by the ASPCA, she was fed poisoned carrots, then wired up and electrocuted by the Edison Electric Company (who also filmed the video below to commemorate the event). To make sure she was dead, ropes pulled by steam engines then strangled Topsy the elephant for 10 minutes. Ain’t we proud?

“I work here…I carry a badge…”

Today in History, January 3:  1952 – “Just the facts, ma’am.”  Jack Webb’s popular radio show, “Dragnet” premieres on television and begins a long career as a “police procedural.”  Webb was somewhat of a cop junkie, and used actual police reports to make the episodes which would become incredibly compelling and which would spawn an untold number of cop shows that only hoped to compare.  The show would directly have spin-offs Adam-12 and Emergency!  The episodes may seem campy now, but they display readily that technology may have changed, but the work hasn’t.

End of the “American Patrol”

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Today in History, December 15: 1944 – Think of any of your favorite singers, musicians, or groups, roll them altogether, and they aren’t as popular as Glenn Miller and his band were from 1937 to 1944. In September of 1942 Miller, at the apex of his popularity, gave up the luxuries of home and entered the US Army Air Corps as a Captain to lead the US Army Air Corps Band. He and the band went to England and gave concerts to the troops, which was richly received…On this date in 1944, Miller took off in a single engine aircraft from England en route to Paris to set up a show for the troops who had just taken that city back from the Nazis. Its the last time Miller was heard from, his plane went down over the English Channel; his remains nor his plane were ever found.

I can’t listen to this song without picturing all of the men and women…girls and boys…who put their lives on hold and saved the world during World War II, from Normandy to Iwo Jima to the Homefront.  Glenn Miller represented them, they were listening to his music before the war at High School dances and on radios before they went into combat.  Thank you, Mr. Miller.    https://youtu.be/FhZ-yTIXXYI

Movie Night on the Big E

Today in History, December 6: 1941 – The men of the USS Enterprise were supposed to be at Pearl Harbor.  They had finished a mission delivering a Marine Fighter Squadron to Wake Island, but then had run into bad weather…heavy seas had slowed their return to base.  The sailors on the screening destroyers were having a rough time, but the carrier, being a larger ship, fared better.  Tonight the crew was treated to a movie on the hangar deck; the newly released “Sergeant York” starring Gary Cooper as the World War I hero.  The crew were surely jealous of the airmen of the SBD Dauntless crews who would take off early the next morning and be in Pearl Harbor soon after…enjoying the luxuries of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and home.

Those airmen would be home early.  But within a few hours of watching the movie, they would be flying into chaos…as they approached Ford Island in Pearl Harbor they flew right into the Japanese surprise attack on December 7, 1941.  Several would not survive; those that did survive had to first pass IJN Zero fighters, then dive toward the airfield as American anti-aircraft gun tried to kill them.

For the nation as a whole, the fact that the men of the USS Enterprise enjoyed “Sergeant York” that Saturday night rather than being in Honolulu bars or aboard ship at her berth at Ford Island was nothing less than a blessing.  The Japanese Navy desperately wanted to catch American carriers that Sunday morning, helpless like the Battleships on Battleship Row.  But they were all at sea.

Nothing Lives Long. Except the Earth and the Mountains. -Death song of Chief White Antelope, age 75

Today in History, November 29:  1864 – The Sand Creek Massacre.

As the morning was dawning over the sleepy village, Chief Black Kettle saw them approaching, and hoisted the Stars and Stripes above his Tipi as a sign of brotherhood and peace.  And then the blue coated soldiers began firing.

The Cheyenne and Arapaho of Colorado had settled in for the winter along a bend in Sand Creek in eastern Colorado.  Resources in the barren area were in short supply and they expected a harsh time.  900-1,000 people in hundreds of Tipis, although many were out hunting buffalo that morning.

The Civil War raged further east, and in Colorado and New Mexico a few months previous.  Colonel John Chivington of the Colorado Volunteers had fought in those battles, but now was looking for a new fight.  After a family of settlers was killed, allegedly by Arapaho or Cheyenne, the Governor tasked Chivington with raising a regiment to defend against hostile Indians.  But his regiment’s enlistment was nearly up and he hadn’t found any.  So he took over 700 troops to attack the peaceful village along Sand Creek.

After the attack on the settlers, the white authorities told the peaceful Indians to encamp at military forts and facilities where they would be protected.  Chief Black Kettle had spoken to the commander of a nearby fort seeking to comply.  He was told to keep his people at Sand Creek until the commander received further orders, and they would be safe.

Hundreds of women and children dropped to their knees in front of the soldiers that morning, imploring them for mercy.  There was no mercy given as the women and children were shot down or had their skulls caved in.  Many then ran for the creek where they sought cover, or fled north.  For the next several hours Chivington’s soldiers chased them down and killed as many as they could.

Seeing what was happening, Chief White Antelope approached the soldiers, folded his arms, and began singing his death song, “Nothing lives for long.  Except the Earth and the Mountains.”

Chief Black Kettle carried his wounded wife and fled north towards another band of Cheyenne.  He would make his way to Oklahoma, where he led his people to again attempt peaceful existence.  He would live two days shy of four years more…when he and his wife would be chased down and killed by soldiers of George Custer’s command at the Massacre along the Washita River.

One of the Union officers present that day refused to follow commands and ordered his company not to fire; and tried to save some of the victims.  Captain Silas Soule was career Army and recognized the cowardly acts being carried out.  The next day he wrote a letter to a Major friend of his back east, telling of the horrific behavior of Chivington’s “mob”.  He told of women and children having their brains bashed in.  He said that Chiefs had their ears and genitals cut off as trophies, and all those killed were scalped.  The crazed killers cut out many of the women’s genitalia as souvenirs.

Chivington would escape court martial by resigning from the Volunteers.  But even during the Civil War, the government and the people were aghast at the atrocities carried out at Sand Creek, and Congressional hearings were held in 1865, which Captain Soule testified at against Chivington.  For his trouble he was gunned down in the street in Denver a few months later.  His murderers were never prosecuted.

The assault was intended to force peace for the nascent settlements in Colorado.  It had exactly the opposite effect, as the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and others fought a decade’s long war with the settlers, their trust of the white people destroyed.

The story was eventually almost forgotten, and was a touchy subject when it was spoken of.  However Colorado eventually began to come to terms with this dark part of its history, and in 2007 the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established, run by the National Park Service.  Many visit the site in homage to the approximately 200 Native Americans who died that day.

Several of the sites I read in preparation for this posting indicated the subject was not covered much until the 2000’s.  However if you read (or watch) James Michener’s “Centennial”, you’ll find that he covered the events very well, just with a change in names.

Today in History,October 2: 1919

img_3523Today in History, October 2: 1919 – President Woodrow Wilson (D) had been on a whirlwind tour of the nation, 8,000 miles in 22 days, pushing America’s entry into the League of Nations (precursor to the United Nations). On September 25 in Pueblo, Colorado, suffering from exhaustion and recovering from a bout with influenza, he collapsed. He made it back to DC before suffering a debilitating stroke that paralyzed his left side and left him bedridden. His wife Edith, fiercely protective, cut off almost all access to him in order to keep his incapacitation a secret. She signed off on paperwork and made decisions without consulting the President, claiming she was only acting as a steward to him. He would eventually recover enough to take part in cabinet meetings, but his participation was severely limited. As for the League of Nations? Wilson’s Republican opponents in the Congress, ferociously opposed to the League, continued to fight it, and with the election of Republican President Warren Harding, the League of Nations issue died.

Today in History, September 30: 1938

img_3516 “You had a choice between war and dishonor. You have chosen dishonor; you shall have war” – Winston Churchill.  European powers sign the Munich Agreement surrendering the Sudetenland and parts of Czechoslovakia with a promise that Germany will remain peaceful. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain rushes home to declare “peace in our time”. That radical Winston calls him on it. It isn’t long before the Panzers and Stukas are in action again. When the Nazis took over these lands, part of their excuse was that there were many Germans living in those places that deserved to be under German governance.

The Defense of Ft. McHenry

img_3507Today in History, September 14: 1814 – “The Defence of Ft. McHenry”. A young American attorney, Francis Scott Key, had been negotiating the release of prisoners on British ships when he was held on board during the bombardment of Ft. McHenry in Baltimore…so that he couldn’t relay British plans during the War of 1812. He watched through the night of the 13th as the Brits bombarded the fort, and was inspired on the morning of the 14th when the stars and stripes were still flying. The British gave up…and Key wrote a poem called “The Defence of Ft. McHenry” which he published in a local paper, “The Patriot.” It would be years before his poem would be renamed “The Star Spangled Banner” and made the national anthem in 1931…so of course he never knew. Oh, but if our history could be left to only our proudest moments. Key would become a US District Attorney. He defended Sam Houston for assaulting another Congressman. He also was a forceful opponent of emancipation…his grandson would be imprisoned in the same Ft. McHenry he wrote about because he was a Confederate sympathizer…and his sister would marry Roger B. Taney…the future Supreme Court Chief Justice who would forever prove the Court fallible in the Dred Scott Decision. He was also the namesake for a distant cousin…F. Scott Fitzgerald. But in 1814, Francis Scott Key was a Patriot who penned the future National Anthem.