Standard perception of Herbert Hoover is overwhelmingly negative, overwhelmingly wrong, and based on four years out of his long life. He was a successful and respected engineer, reinvigorated the Department of Commerce, and personally raised billions of dollars to provide food relief in disasters. Most of his life was devoted to public service as a private individual. He was the scapegoat of the Depression, but he had warned against the excesses of the stock market that started it, he didn't cause the drought, he didn't cause the banking crisis in Europe that exacerbated the situation in American finance. The first US president born west of the Mississippi River and the first to have a telephone on his desk, he got a bum rap.
One of the more pointless episodes of the French Revolution took place on this day in 1792. The king and his family, already under house arrest, were the target of a Parisian mob. The Swiss guards were all killed, but so were more than half of the mob, and the trial and execution of the king and queen wasn't affected at all.
It wasn't the start of time, but it was an important start of timekeeping, when Charles II established the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Today also marks the incorporation of Chicago, and the creation of the Smithsonian Institution.
1675 - Charles II laid the foundation stone for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The primary mission of the observatory was to devise a means of calculating time at sea to enable mapping and navigation, Greenwich Mean Time has been the base for timekeeping ever since.
1792 - Mobs stormed the Tuilleries Palace where King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their children were living under house arrest. Six hundred Swiss guards, the "Gardes-Suisses" outside the building and the "Cent Suisses" inside, were killed, but more than 3,000 members of the mob died in the assault.
1833 - The village of Chicago is incorporated as a town with a population of 350.
1846 - Pursuant to a legacy of $515,169 received from James Smithson of London, England the US Congress passed and President James K. Polk signed the Organic Act creating the Smithsonian Institution, providing for a "suitable" building with facilities for receiving and arranging objects of natural history, a chemistry lab, library, art gallery, and lecture halls.
1856 - A hurricane strikes the pleasure resort of Last Island southwest of New Orleans, the highest points of the island were under five feet of water. At least 200 persons died, bodies of some victims were found over six miles inland. The island was stripped of vegetation and split in two by the strong waves, the only survivor was a terrified cow.
Feast of Saint Laurence, Deacon and Martyr, A Spaniard who was chief deacon of the church at Rome, was steward of the finances of the church. According to pious tradition, when the pope and the other deacons were killed, he was offered his life in return for turning over the wealth of the church on this day in 258. He agreed, but claiming to need three days to gather it up he placed all the property of the church in safe hands and assembled the sick, aged, lepers, poor, widows, and orphans of the congregation and presented them to the prefect saying "These are the treasures of the church." The enraged prefect ordered him roasted slowly on a gridiron. After a time he said "You can turn me over, I'm done on this side." Patron saint of cooks (he was roasted), brewers, vintners, cutlers, and restaurateurs, among others.
1874
- Herbert Clark Hoover, US engineer, politician, relief organizer
- Born at West Branch, Iowa to a Quaker blacksmith. Father died 1880,
mother in 1884, "Bert" then lived with an uncle in the Quaker community
of Newberg, Oregon. Enrolled in the first class at Stanford University,
had paper route, laundry, and summer jobs with US Geological Survey, graduated
as a mining engineer, worked briefly at mines in California and Chicago,
two years in Australia, cabled a marriage proposal to his college sweetheart,
stopped at Monterey, California to marry her, they went to China where
Hoover's mining responsibilities were cut short by the Boxer Rebellion.
Caught in Tientsin, he built barricades, fought fires, she worked in the
hospital. Made home in London, but the couple circled the globe five times
by 1907 supervising or investing in various mining operations. Organized
evacuation of 120,000 Americans from London when World War I broke out.
Organized food relief for occupied Belgium, negotiating with both Germans
and British to get food to civilians, raising $1 billion to feed 11 million
in four years. When US entered war Hoover was appointed head of US Food
Administration, after war was head of American Relief Administration organizing
food supplies for central Europe and Russia. Secretary of Commerce under
Harding and Coolidge. Left that post to head relief efforts when a Mississippi
River floods left over a million homeless. Drafted by the Republicans
to enter 1928 race, elected 31st president. Asked banks and Federal Reserve
to reign in stock market speculation on margin, was ignored, markets crashed.
As economy started to improve rain stopped falling in Midwest, then European
banking crisis compounded domestic financial crisis. After 1932 defeat,
returned to Stanford, organizing private food relief for Europe, working
with Boys Clubs. Organized US postwar famine relief at request of presidnt
Truman 1946, headed Hoover Commission to study executive branch efficacy
and organization at request of Congress in 1947, headed similar commission
at request of president Eisenhower in 1953. Died at New York City on 20
October 1964.
Once upon a time my opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual
and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.
- Herbert Hoover
Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a
noble one.
- Herbert Hoover
Time is a storm in which we are all lost.
- William Carlos Williams
God Himself chasteneth not with a rod but with time.
- Baltasar Gracian
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