A Scottish cooper (barrel maker) was forced to flee his homeland because of his politics, and ended up responsible for apprehending Jesse James, Cole Younger, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, "Black Jack" Tom Ketcham, the Burrow Gang, Hillary Farrington, the Reno brothers, and William Randolph. Along the way he was shipwrecked and was responsible for inventing many of the tools and processes for investigating crime and tracking down the perpetrators. When he was investigating shipping theft for the Rock Island and Illinois Central Railroad he came to know the railroad's lawyer, one Abraham Lincoln from Springfield, Illinois. He later foiled a major assassination plot after Lincoln was elected and always regretted that politics kept him from being in charge of the Secret Service - he was sure that John Wilkes Booth would not have succeeded if he had been in charge of security in Washington City. (Yes, that's what everybody called it then, just like I do.) He was the first private eye, his name is Allan Pinkerton.
Harry Truman had the army take over the railroads on this day in 1950, in recognition of this and the importance of the railroads to Pinkerton's career, the quotes today are on the subject of trains.
Gross silliness can get you into the history books almost as well as being first with real accomplishments. On this day a couple was married on the parachute jump at Coney Island, and the first person swam across the English Channel. I'll leave it to the reader to decide which of those is which.
1609 - Galileo presented an eight-power telescope of his own design and construction to the Venetian senate. Because of its military potential he is granted life tenure at the University of Padua with a doubling of wages.
1875 - After 21 hours and 45 minutes Captain Matthew Webb arrived at Cape Gris Nez in France, becoming the first person to swim across the English Channel. Since then there have been 6,200 attempts, 470 individuals have succeeded a total of 600 times.
1901 - Clara Louise Maass dies of yellow fever in Cuba ten days after being bitten by a mosquito in an experiment to prove the cause of the disease. It was the second infection she had contracted this way, helping to prove both the cause of the disease and that there was no immunity granted to survivors.
1940 - Arno Rudolphi and Miss Ann Hayward exchanged their wedding vows seated in the sling of the Coney Island Parachute Jump and kissed as the parachute was released to start free fall. Heralded as "the first parachute wedding," the couple was loaded down with gifts from exhibitors at the fair.
1950 - US president Harry Truman issued Executive Order No. 10155, "Possession, Control, and Operation of Certain Railroads." Threatened by strikes by two unions, the order turned the operation of the nation's railroads over to the army.
1968 - The night before the Chicago National Convention opened in Chicago, Illinois, 5,000 anti-war protestors in Lincoln Park were bombed with tear gas and police moved in with billy clubs to drive the protestors out. Ten years later, Army sources estimated to CBS News that an astonishing one in six demonstrators in Chicago that week was actually some kind of government agent.
Independence Day, Paraguay - Although Paraguay revolted against Spain in 1811, led by Jose Gervasio Artigas, it did not lead to a sovereign state and Portugal annexed Uruguay to Brazil in 1821. It is the declaration of independence from Brazil in 1825 that is commemorated today.
1819 - Allan Pinkerton, US detective - Born to a Glasgow sergeant of police, cut school to hunt, quit to work when father died, apprenticed and became expert cooper. Joined the Chartists, a revolutionary group. Married Joan Carfrae in 1842 but learned at the wedding that he was to be arrested, sailed for Halifax, Canada the next day. Ship wrecked on reef off Nova Scotia, survivors stripped of valuables by Indias, decided to settle in Chicago. Found work as cooper at Lill's Brewery, later moved to Dundee to setup his own cooperage and thrived. To save cash rowed to an island to cut his own poles for barrel hoops, saw signs of a hiding place, within a week had captured band of counterfeiters with sheriff. Hired by town council to investigate source of bills, setup arrest of ringleader in Chicago, accepted job with Cook County Sheriff and moved family back to Chicago, quickly had reputation of honesty with a willing night stick. Chicago's first detective, poor pay led to opening private agency1850 - Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, "We Never Sleep." Ethics code, good pay for detectives, and legendary tenacity were effective, barrage of press releases fueled growth. Hired first woman detective, Kate Warne, 40 years before any police department hired women. Working an unrelated case for the railroad that would carry Abraham Lincoln to inauguration he uncovered an assassination plot to kill Lincoln in Baltimore, took charge of secretly moving the president-elect to Washington City. Lincoln wanted Pinkerton to create the Secret Service, George McClellan used the Pinkerton agents extensively in gathering intelligence, Lincoln had them tracking down leaks. Returned to Chicago after war, son Robert helped establish the first card-file of criminals and suspects, invented the mug shot, consulted with businesses that handled or moved cash, built alliances with police departments. Opened offices in the west, hounded outlaws to keep them on the defensive in hopes of forcing mistakes, caught a huge numer of the famous ones. Pinkerton slipped and fell on a Chicago street, bit his tongue and contracted gangrene, and died on 1 July 1884.
The most common of all antagonisms arises from a man's taking a seat
beside you on the train, a seat to which he is completely entitled.
- Robert Charles Benchley
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational
to read in the train.
- Oscar Wilde
Trains are wonderful.... To travel by train is to see nature and human
beings, towns and churches and rivers, in fact, to see life.
- Agatha Christie
If you board the wrong train, it's no use running along the corridor
in the other direction.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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