I can be cynical, but to strenuously oppose giving women the right to vote and then appoint a woman to fill a Senate seat, knowing that she would be replaced before she could ever take her place on the Senate floor, is almost beyond belief. Further, Thomas Hardwick was running for the vacant seat himself. He lost to Walter George who was gentleman enough to allow the first woman senator to hold office for two days before presenting his own credentials. Not too many years later Mussolini was cynical enough about the power of the League of Nations, of which Italy was a member, to brutally invade Ethiopia. Such cynicism was not rewarded, Hardwick's political career lasted only until the middle of the following year, Mussolini hung on for another ten.
The Salem Village witch trials were brought to their conclusion by a sermon preached on this day, a patent was issued for the first motorized vacuum cleaner, Great Britain detonated its first atomic bomb, and the end of partitioning of Germany after World War II is celebrated.
After Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft had led the drive for a constitutional amendment to allow an income tax on individuals, Congress passed the bill establishing one. The rate ranged from 1% to 7%, and the entire tax code of the US including forms and instructions would have fit in a single 3-ring binder. It got worse with time, and inspired a number of comments, some of which are included here.
1692 - Increase Mather preached a sermon that was later published as "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men" which condemned the "spectral evidence" that had been the basis for the convictions in the Salem Village witch trials. No further trials were held and the Court of Oyer and Terminer was soon abolished.
1899 - US Patent No. 634,042 was issued to John S. Thurman of St Louis, Missouri for a motorized vacuum cleaner. The system was powered by a gasoline motor, mounted on a horse-drawn cart which went door to door, Thurman charged $4 per visit.
1913 - The Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 was passed by the US Congress, including the first income tax authorized by the 16th Amendment. An income tax to fund the Civil War had been in effect for 1862 to 1871, approved by patriotic necessity during the war but ultimately defeated by public opinion. A new income tax was passed in 1894 but was ruled unconstitutional the following year. The current corporate income tax dates to 1909.
1922 - Georgia Governor Thomas Hardwick appointed 87-year-old women's rights advocate Rebecca Latimer Felton to fill a vacant Senate seat. It was a shallow ploy to appeal to newly enfranchised women, the special election to fill out the term had already been held before she presented her credentials and took her seat for two days, the elected successor allowed her to make her point.
1935 - Italy invaded Ethiopia with three army corps totaling about 100,000 troops. Emperor Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) appealed to the League of Nations and Italy was ruled to be the aggressor, but mild sanctions had no effect. Ethiopians were helpless against aerial chemical warfare and were defeated in eight months.
1952 - The first British atomic weapon was detonated near Monte Bello Island, Australia at 8:00 am local time (00:00 GMT) in a test code-named Hurricane. The device was a plutonium implosion bomb similar to "Fat Man" mounted 2.7 meters below the waterline in HMS Plym, a 1450-ton frigate anchored in 40 feet of water. A crater 20 feet deep and 1,000 feet across was scoured in the sea floor.
Tag der deutschen Einheit - Day of German Unity, Germany - Commemorates the 1990 reunification of "Ost und West" after 43 years of separation. One witness of that day said, "It was Oktoberfest, The Fourth of July, the 500 Mile Race and Christmas all rolled into one." The transition since then has been difficult, as the most advanced economy in Europe has invested billions attempting to bring the noncompetitive socialist East up to speed.
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
- Albert Einstein
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf
has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when
its through, if you are a crook or a martyr.
- Will Rogers
I guess you will have to go to jail. If that is the result of not understanding
the Income Tax Law I shall meet you there. We shall have a merry, merry
time, for all of our friends will be there. It will be an intellectual
center, for no one understands the Income Tax Law except persons who have
not sufficient intelligence to understand the questions that arise under
it.
- Senator Elihu Root, during
1913 debates on the income tax law
The only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having
to pay an income tax.
- Lord Thomas Robert Dewar
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