Junipero Serra was a Franciscan monk, living simply under a vow of poverty but accumulating great political power in Mexico and then California. When the king of Spain banned the Jesuits from Spain and her colonies, the Franciscan's filled the void and Serra took the lead in mission work, first in Baja California and then Alta California - which became the current state. The natives baptized in his string of missions totaled twice the population of colonists, strengthening Spain's claim to the territory. There is a certain controversy over his treatment of the natives in the missions. Once baptized they became subject to the padres and worked for the missions, in keeping with the times they could be punished by flogging and imprisonment. On the other hand, the Spanish army would probably have been far more harsh in their treatment of the indigenous population, and Serra had enough control over the army to prevent that. One step short of sainthood, he was beatified in 1988.
Today is the anniversary of the discovery of Tasmania, the first day the bizarre French Revolutionary calendar was used (with only three days of rest per month it wasn't popular for long), the first time that certain minorities voted in local government in the US, and the first televised murder in history, possibly the only one.
It was also the birth of a legend in the Pacific Northwest, the legend of "D. B. Cooper." At least that's how he came to be known, although it was a media error. He bought a ticket as "Dan Cooper," and the police investigated a Portland resident named "Daniel B. Cooper" briefly before clearing him, but the initials stuck. Of the $200,000 he jumped with only 5,800 was recovered, it is believed that Cooper died in the jump. All 727s have since been modified so the rear stairway cannot be activated during flight.
1642 - Sailing under orders of Antony van Diemen, Governor of the Dutch East Indies, Abel Tasman landed on Tasmania and named it Van Diemen's Land. He discovered New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji, as well as circumnavigating Australia without ever seeing it, before returning to Batavia (now Djakarta) on 14 June 1643.
1793 - France adopted a "de-Christianized" Revolutionary Calendar. The year was divided into 12 months of 30 days each beginning on 22 September 1792 (and applied retroactively to some records), with five (or six, in leap years) feast days added at the end. Weeks were abolished, with each tenth day a day of rest. Napoleon abolished the Revolutionary Calendar at the end of the real 1805.
1805 - To determine where their party would camp for the winter, a potentially crucial matter of survival, Lewis and Clark put the matter to a vote. Clark's black slave, York, votes - 60 years before other US slaves were emancipated and enfranchised. Sacajewea also votes, more than 100 years before either Indians or women would vote in civilized parts of the country.
1963 - Jack Ruby, big-hearted ill-tempered owner of a Dallas strip-joint called the Carousel Club, shot Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being transferred from the Dallas police station to a county jail. The shooting was captured live on television and seen by millions.
1971 - A passenger identifying himself as Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington by displaying a bomb to a stewardess. In Seattle he demanded four parachutes and $200,000, released the other passengers, and asked to be flown to Mexico via Reno at an altitude of no more than 10,000 feet with the flaps and landing gear down. At 8:00 pm he lowered the rear stairway of the 727, at 8:13 he took the cash and parachutes and jumped over southwest Washington.
New Regime Day, Democratic Republic of the Congo - Commemorates the 1964 establishment of the Tshombe government, which ruled for only a year. It was the result of the "rural insurgencies" and was called the "second independence" in the country then called Zaire, only four years after independence from Belgium.
1713
- Junipero Serra, Spanish churchman - Born Miguel Jose Serra at
Petra on the island of Mallorca, distinguished himself at a Franciscan
school there. At 15 he went to a larger Franciscan school at Palma, the
capital of Mallorca, and a year later entered the Order of Saint Francis
of Assisi as Junipero and was ordained a priest. At 24 he received his
doctorate from the University of Luliana at Palma, in 1743 he became a
professor there. In 1749 he sailed for Mexico with a party of Franciscans,
he insisted on walking the 200 miles from Vera Cruz to Mexico City where
he was a teacher, school administrator, and missionary, first in the capital
and then in the Sierra Gorda to the north. In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled
from Spanish colonies, Serra became the head of the Franciscan mission
in Baja California. At this time he was 54, asthmatic, and had a leg wound
that would not heal. To protect Spanish claims in Alta California a series
of missions was planned, and Serra was chosen to lead the effort, establishing
Mission San Diego in 1769, followed by eight others including his permanent
headquarters San Carlos Borromeo at Carmel in 1770 - each mission was
about 30 miles apart, a day's walk, along El Camino Real. He was known
for mortification of his flesh, wearing heavy shirts with sharp wires
pricking his skin, whipping himself, and scarring the flesh of his chest
with a candle. Critics claim he was a harsh master to the natives working
in the missions, defenders say he protected them from worse at the hands
of the Spanish army. He did win supremacy over the army, and had one general
replaced. He had traveled over 24,000 miles, almost all on foot according
to his vow of poverty, at the time of his quiet death at his mission at
Carmel on 28 August 1784, and is buried in the sanctuary floor.
The crime bill passed by the Senate would reinstate the Federal death
penalty for certain violent crimes: assassinating the President; hijacking
an airliner; and murdering a government poultry inspector.
- Knight Ridder News Service dispatch
It is long accepted by the missionaries that morality is inversely proportional
to the amount of clothing people wore.
- Alex Carey
We may not know the whole story in our lifetime.
- Earl Warren, regarding the
assassination of President John F Kennedy
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