We have a couple of border changes today involving the US. The Louisiana Purchase was approved by the Senate, moving the western border a long way toward the Pacific, but necessitating the agreement with England 15 years later about the northern limit of that territory. When MacArthur returned to the Philippines it didn't change any border, but we could say it moved the front - and some mark it as the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
We also have the first woman to get into medical school, her approval was a joke but her service certainly wasn't. When blacks weren't allowed in the major leagues, they had their own Negro League, so they had to have their own World Series for several years. And one of the most un-American activities of all time took place on this day when the House Un-American Activities Committee took on Hollywood.
I have been taken to task recently for what were regarded as glowing biographical coverage of Eleanor Roosevelt and Pierre Trudeau. Apparently I need to say that there were many things done and said by both of these individuals that I strongly disagree with, but that doesn't detract in the slightest from their historical importance. Every day offers a wide range of persons born on that day, and what I look for is wide interest, strong character, significant impact, and (I'll be honest) easy access to a range of information. I don't dwell on the negative if it isn't important to the person's contribution, and I try to be accurate. Of course I blew it in the e-mail version with Trudeau, putting him in charge of the Labour Party - Canada doesn't have one, he was the head of the Liberal Party.
1803 - The US Senate voted 24 to 7 to ratify the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, approving a land purchase that was way beyond the authority of Robert Livingston, US minister to France, who had negotiated it. The price of $15 million for the western part of the Mississippi River drainage worked out to three cents an acre and doubled the size of the US.
1818 - The Convention of 1818 between the United States and Great Britain set the border between the US and British North America (now Canada) at the 49th parallel from the most northwestern point of Lake of the Woods in Minnesota to the Stony (now Rocky) Mountains. The area to the west was to remain in dispute for ten years, free and open to citizens of both nations.
1847 - After being turned down by 29 medical schools, Elizabeth Blackwell's application to attend Geneva Medical College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was accepted by a vote of the all-male student body. They thought it was a prank by a rival school, but Blackwell finished at the top of the class and was the first woman to earn the M.D. degree.
1924 - The "First Colored World Series" of baseball opened at Kansas City, Missouri. The series, between the Kansas City Monarchs and the Philadelphia Hillsdales from Darby, Pennsylvania, was won by the Monarchs, five games to four (plus a thirteen-inning tie). The first three games were held in KC, the series organized by Negro League president Rube Foster then moved to Baltimore and closed at Chicago.
1944 - "People of the Philippines; I have returned." The US Seventh Fleet delivered over 60,000 troops to Red Beach, Palo, Leyte. General Douglas MacArthur came ashore after the Marines had secured the beach head and called on the Filipinos, whose guerilla action had made the landing possible, to rise against the Japanese occupation.
1947 - The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) opened hearings on communism in the motion picture industry. Chairman J. Parnell Thomas assured national attention by calling the stars, Richard Nixon was on the committee, Ronald Reagan was called to testify. Seven writers, two directors, and one producer challenged HUAC's investigation and were jailed for a year in 1950, over 300 were blacklisted and either ended their movie careers or worked under pseudonyms.
Revolution Day, Guatemala - Commemorates the 1944 revolution and the beginning of land reform and Guatemala's "ten years of spring." General Jorge Ubico Castañeda had been forced out in June over student protests and violent reprisals, on this day part of the military joined the students and workers and unseated Ubico's crony and acting president General Federico Ponce Valdés.
The rights you have are the rights given you by this Committee. We will
determine what rights you have and what rights you have not got.
- J. Parnell Thomas, Chairman
of the House Un-American Activities Committee
When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any firearms
with me. I said, 'Well, what do you need?'
- Steven Wright
All great stories have three acts. In the first act, the heroes are introduced
to great fanfare. In the second, the heroes, on the verge of victory,
stumble and take a fall. And in the third act, the heroes return, victorious,
to win the battle.
- Ted Leonsis
The perfect journey is circular - the joy of departure and the joy of
return.
- Dino Basili
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Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.