"I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.
"Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
"In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
"Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love."
Robert F. Kennedy said that in Indianapolis the evening King was shot, and was assassinated himself two months later. Thirty two years later there isn't much to add, except Amen.
1541 - Spanish ecclesiastic reformer and mystic Ignatius Loyola, 50, was elected the first General of the Jesuit Order, which he had helped establish the previous year.
1865 - Confederate forces under General Lee retreating from Richmond and Petersburg arrived at Amelia Courthouse hoping to find badly needed supplies from the Richmond and Danville Railroad. The supplies weren't there, and this almost became the site of the Confederate surrender.
1914 - The Perils of Pauline's first episode is shown in Los Angeles, the most famous suspense serial in cinema history. Week after week, Pauline (Pearl White) barely survives. She fights pirates, Indians, gypsies, rats, sharks, and her dastardly guardian (Koerner, played by Paul Panzer). Tie her to the railroad tracks!
1968 - US civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was only 39 at the time of his death. He insisted that nonviolence must remain central to the civil-rights movement, and was convinced that America would some day attain equal justice.
Liberation Day, Hungary - Celebrates the final withdrawal of Nazi troops in 1945.
1895 - Arthur Murray Teichman, Grew up on New York's lower East Side, poor, shy and scared stiff of dancing. Trained as a draftsman, but started teaching dancing at night, soon quit his day job. Masterful promoter. "Footprint" patterns were his idea, based on casual comment of a student, tenor Enrico Caruso. Expanded nationally, "Arthur Murray Dance Party" ran on TV from 1950-1961. Died 3 March 1991.
1906 - John Cameron Swayze, US broadcast journalist born in Wichita, Kansas, started in radio, moved to TV. His "Camel News Caravan" was a prototype for subsequent newscasts. After NBC replaced him with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley in 1956 he pitched Timex watches for 20 years, with the tag "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking." Died at his home in Sarasota, Florida 15 August 1995.
1928 - Maya Marguerite Angelou, US educator, author, journalist, singer, songwriter, playwright, and civil rights activist. Turbulent youth, career started with drama and dance. Married African freedom fighter, lived in Cairo for 5 years as editor of only English newsweekly in Middle East. Northern coordinator for Southern Christian Leadership Conference at Dr King's request. Her book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," an account of her youth, attacked as pornographic but filmed as two-hour CBS documentary. Champion of women's issues, particularly in Africa.
If you feel that you have both feet planted on solid ground, then the
university has failed you.
- Robert Goheen
He who has learning without imagination has feet but no wings.
- Stanley Goldstein
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under
his feet.
- James Oppenheim
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