On this day in history.

[giradman]

Salk Announces Polio Vaccine in 1953

Poliomyelitis has affected mankind for thousands of years with pictorial evidence in Egyptian artworks and likely a long pre-history - the viral infection causes muscle wasting and paralysis, which is often permanent - if the respiratory muscles are affected, then patients in the mid-1900 years were placed in 'iron lungs', temporarily or longer! Salk's development of a polio vaccine was a miraculous blessing, especially to the many children who could have been crippled or even have died. More in the quotes below and also some interesting summary facts HERE.

For myself (and 2 brothers), I was nearly 7 y/o when the announcement was made - we all received the injection - the Sabin oral vaccine developed later was a little easier for kids to swallow -

Some recommended films for those interested: 1) Warm Springs (2005) - HBO drama-documentary about FDR's struggle w/ his paralysis and the impact of Warm Springs - highly recommended; and 2) The Five Pennies - 1959 bioptic about Red Nichols, the jazz cornetist and his group the Five Pennies - his daughter develops polio and a dramatic presentation of her struggles to walk again (w/ braces) - BUT, Louis Armstrong has a prominent guest role in this film for us jazz fans! Dave

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952–an epidemic year for polio–there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. For promising eventually to eradicate the disease, which is known as “infant paralysis” because it mainly affects children, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time. (Source)

Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis. Since the virus is easily transmitted, epidemics were commonplace in the first decades of the 20th century. The first major polio epidemic in the United States occurred in Vermont in the summer of 1894, and by the 20th century thousands were affected every year. In the first decades of the 20th century, treatments were limited to quarantines and the infamous “iron lung,” a metal coffin-like contraption that aided respiration. Although children, and especially infants, were among the worst affected, adults were also often afflicted, including future president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1921 was stricken with polio at the age of 39 and was left partially paralyzed. Roosevelt later transformed his estate in Warm Springs, Georgia, into a recovery retreat for polio victims and was instrumental in raising funds for polio-related research and the treatment of polio patients. (Source)[

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[giradman]

The United States Officially Enters World War I Today in 1917

One of the deadliest conflicts in human history - "The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I were about 40 million: estimates range from 15 to 19 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel (Source)". However, the Influenza Pandemic starting in 1918 killed at least 2-3X that number of people worldwide (first quote below).

Remaining quotes about the US entry into WW I - the number of deaths and casualties suffered by the United States in the war was only several percent compared to the other Allies but many more died of the flu. For those who have yet to see They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson's recently restored and colorized WW I video footage documentary, then deserves to be on your 'To-Do' list (we saw the film in the theater back in December). Also, yet another new WW I book, The Great War in America (2018) by Garrett Peck is recommended - just started to read my copy. Dave

The 1918 influenza pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920; colloquially known as Spanish flu) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people around the world, including people on remote Pacific island sand in the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million (three to five percent of the world's population), making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. (Source)

Two days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally enters World War I. When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America’s closest trading partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter’s attempted quarantine of the British Isles. Several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. (Source)

On May 7, the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 were killed, including 128 Americans. The German government maintained that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels, but in November sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. With these attacks, public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. (Source)

In 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war. In late March, Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships, and on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. Four days later, his request was granted. (Source)

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[giradman]

American Revolution Begins on April 19, 1775 at Lexington & Concord!

Below the dotted line, a post I left a few years ago in this thread - also a nice discussion at the History Website for those interested. Just by coincidence, I'm finishing the book In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (October, 2018) by Nathaniel Philbrick (below w/ a map of Yorktown, where the US Revolution more or less ended w/ the surrender of Cornwallis in October 1781 - took two more years for the Treaty of Paris to officially end the war) - excellent narrative of the allied cooperation, both land and sea, between Washington and the French. Dave
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American Revolution Begins on April 19, 1775 at Lexington & Concord!

On April 19, 1775 in Lexington & Concord, Massachusetts, the first armed conflict between the Americans and British occurred w/ the 'shot heard around the world' on Lexington Green - beginning quote below from a Wiki Article - both towns are close to Boston, so an easy visit either by yourself (which I did a number of decades ago) or as part of likely many tours in the area. Pics below from the web - Dave

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War.[9] They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen of its colonies on the mainland of British America.

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[giradman]

Louisiana Purchase Concluded Between France and in United States in 1803

On April 30, a number of events occurred - first quote below from the History Website - decided to discuss the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, probably the most important achievement during Thomas Jefferson's administration - the following quotes provide the details (including the link). The cost was $15,000,000 which was a bargain at 3 cents an acre - the purchase double the size of the United States (and was not until the James Polk administration, 1845-1849, that a greater amount of territory was added to achieve the current size of the United States; of course, not counting the purchase of Alaska from Russia).

Jefferson immediately commissioned an exploration of the 'new' territory, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery - the expedition spanned about 2 1/2 years (May 1804 to September 1806) w/ much help from the Native Americans, especially an interpreter known as Sacagawea - the journey reached the present Oregon-Washington west coast (pics below of the size of the purchase, the expedition, and a Lewis & Clark w/ their guide). Finally, Ken Burns has done a wonderful film on this expedition (last pic) back in 2005 or so which I own - highly recommended for those interested. Dave

1789 - George Washington inaugurated as first president of the United States
1803 - Louisiana Purchase concluded between France and the United States
1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide (cyanide capsule + shot to the head)
1975 - South Vietnam surrenders after communists enter Saigon

On April 30, 1803, representatives of the United States and Napoleonic France conclude negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, a massive land sale that doubles the size of the young American republic. What was known as Louisiana Territory comprised most of modern-day United States between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, with the exceptions of Texas, parts of New Mexico, and other pockets of land already controlled by the United States. By the middle of the 18th century, France controlled more of the modern United States than any other European power: from New Orleans northeast to the Great Lakes and northwest to modern-day Montana. In 1762, during the French and Indian War, France ceded its America territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred nearly all of its remaining North American holdings to Great Britain. (Source)

In 1801, Spain returned the Louisiana Territory to France. Since the late 1780s, Americans had been moving westward into the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys, and these settlers were highly dependent on free access to the Mississippi River and the strategic port of New Orleans. U.S. officials feared that France, resurgent under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, would soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico. In a letter to Robert Livingston, President Thomas Jefferson asked Livingston to negotiate with French minister Charles de Talleyrand for the purchase of New Orleans. On April 11, 1803, Talleyrand asked a surprised Livingston what the United States would give for all of Louisiana Territory. It is believed that the failure of France to put down a slave revolution in Haiti, the impending war with Great Britain and probable Royal Navy blockade of France, and financial difficulties may all have prompted Napoleon to offer Louisiana for sale to the United States. (Source)

Negotiations moved swiftly, and at the end of April the U.S. envoys agreed to pay $11,250,000 and assumed claims of its citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000. In exchange, the United States acquired the vast domain of Louisiana Territory, some 828,000 square miles of land. In October, Congress ratified the purchase, and in December 1803 France formally transferred authority over the region to the United States. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of less than three cents an acre was Thomas Jefferson’s most notable achievement as president. American expansion westward into the new lands began immediately, and in 1804 a territorial government was established. On April 30, 1812, exactly nine years after the Louisiana Purchase agreement was made, the first of 13 states to be carved from the territory–Louisiana–was admitted into the Union as the 18th U.S. state. (Source)

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[giradman]

Leonardo da Vinci Dies Today in 1519 - 500th Anniversary Year!

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the world's greatest minds and the ideal for the 'Renaissance Man' - his interests and accomplisments were unbelievably diverse (just a brief summary in the first quote below from the Wiki link) - remaining quotes briefly discuss his bio and history - MUCH more at the link, so take a look, if interested. Finally, just a few pics, including ones of his two most famous paintings, i.e. the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum (which I've seen twice but from a distance because of the vast crowd) and the Last Supper, a sadly deteriorating fresco in Milan, Italy (seen just once) - restoration attempts continue to this day. Dave

Leonardo da Vinci - His Life Interests
- Art (paintings, frescoes, drawings, etc.)
- Anatomy (based on dissections & drawings)
- Writing (manuscripts, notes, diaries)
- Engineering and Inventions

Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank, he epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Many historians and scholars regard Leonardo the prime exemplar of the "Renaissance Man", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination", and he is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote". (Source)

Leonardo is renowned primarily as a painter. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most parodied portrait, and The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time. His drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. His painting Salvator Mundi sold for $450.3 million at a Christie's auction in New York on 15 November 2017, the highest price ever paid for a work of art. Perhaps 15 of his paintings have survived. Nevertheless, these few works compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivaled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting. (Source)

Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. A number of his most practical inventions are displayed as working models at the Museum of Vinci. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science. (Source)

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[giradman]

Bonnie & Clyde Shot to Death this day in 1934!

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (and their gang) were notorious bank robbers in the early 1930s made 'famous' by the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde w/ Warren Beatty & Faye Dunaway - on this day in 1934 their car was ambushed by Texas and Louisiana state police and the two were killed by a hail of bullets. A retired Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer led of the posse that tracked down and killed the two - more of the story in the quotes w/ pics - Netflix has just made the film The Highwaymen starring Kevin Costner as Hamer & Woody Harrelson as Maney Gault, both former Texas Rangers brought out of retirement - we watched the film last month - highly recommended if you're into this history. Dave

On this day in 1934, notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police while driving a stolen car near Sailes, Louisiana. Bonnie Parker met the charismatic Clyde Barrow in Texas when she was 19 years old and her husband (she married when she was 16) was serving time in jail for murder. Shortly after they met, Barrow was imprisoned for robbery. Parker visited him every day, and smuggled a gun into prison to help him escape, but he was soon caught in Ohio and sent back to jail. When Barrow was paroled in 1932, he immediately hooked up with Parker, and the couple began a life of crime together. (Source)

After they stole a car and committed several robberies, Parker was caught by police and sent to jail for two months. Released in mid-1932, she rejoined Barrow. Over the next two years, the couple teamed with various accomplices to rob a string of banks and stores across five states–Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico and Louisiana. To law enforcement agents, the Barrow Gang–including Barrow’s childhood friend, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Henry Methvin, Barrow’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche, among others–were cold-blooded criminals who didn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in their way, especially police or sheriff’s deputies. Among the public, however, Parker and Barrow’s reputation as dangerous outlaws was mixed with a romantic view of the couple as “Robin Hood”-like folk heroes. (Source)

Texan prison officials hired a retired Texas Ranger, Captain Frank Hamer, as a special investigator to track down Parker and Barrow. After a three-month search, Hamer traced the couple to Louisiana, where Henry Methvin’s family lived. Before dawn on May 23, Hamer and a group of Louisiana and Texas lawmen hid in the bushes along a country road outside Sailes. When Parker and Barrow appeared, the officers opened fire, killing the couple in a hail of bullets. All told, the Barrow Gang was believed responsible for the deaths of 13 people, including nine police officers. Parker and Barrow are still seen by many as romantic figures, however, especially after the success of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. (Source)

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[giradman]

Secretariat Wins Triple Crown in 1973 After a 25-Year Hiatus!

For horse racing fans, this year's Triple Crown races were somewhat bizarre: 1) Kentucky Derby - Country House, a 65-1 longshot, won after a disqualification; 2) Preakness Stakes - War of Will; and 3) Belmont - Sir Winston; so 3 different horses w/ some surprises! But back in 1973, Secretariat was dominant in the Triple Crown Races - some discussion in my 'Kentucky Travelogue' HERE about horse racing, for those interested (and in the quotes below). Finally, there is an excellent movie from 2011 on Secretariat w/ Diane Lane (worth a watch - I own on BD). Dave

With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America’s coveted Triple Crown–the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in 2 minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance. Secretariat was born at Meadow Stables in Doswell, Virginia, on March 30, 1970. He was sired by Bold Ruler, the 1957 Preakness winner, and foaled by Somethingroyal. An attractive chestnut colt, he grew to over 16 hands high and was at two years the size of a three-year-old. (Source)

With easy victories in his first two starts of 1973, Secretariat seemed on his way to the Triple Crown. On May 5, he met Sham and Angle Light again at the Churchill Downs track in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. Secretariat, a 3-to-2 favorite, broke from near the back of the pack to win the 2 1/4-mile race in a record 1 minute and 59 seconds. He was the first to run the Derby in less than two minutes and his record still stands. Two weeks later, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Secretariat won the second event of the Triple Crown: the Preakness Stakes. The official clock malfunctioned, but hand-recorded timers had him running the 1 1/16-mile race in record time. (Source)

On June 9, 1973, almost 100,000 people came to Belmont Park near New York City to see if “Big Red” would become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown. Secretariat gave the finest performance of his career in the Belmont Stakes, completing the 1.5-mile race in a record 2 minutes and 24 seconds, knocking nearly three seconds off the track record set by Gallant Man in 1957. He also won by a record 31 lengths. Ron Turcotte, who jockeyed Secretariat in all but three of his races, claimed that at Belmont he lost control of Secretariat and that the horse sprinted into history on his own accord. (Source)

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[J. A.]

July 16, 1969:
50 years ago today, Apollo11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket. Members of the crew were Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael Collins. In the following days, Armstrong and Aldrin successfully landed on the Moon (Mare Tranquillitatis). Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the lunar surface. His words (small step for man, giant leap for mankind) are famous. The crew returned to Earth on July 24, 1969.
Apollo 11 - Wikipedia
Photos:
The crew

Apollo 11 - launch

Lunar module Eagle

The plaque on Eagle’s ladder

Buzz Aldrin’s bootprint

 

[giradman]

July 16, 1969:
50 years ago today, Apollo11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket. Members of the crew were Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael Collins. In the following days, Armstrong and Aldrin successfully landed on the Moon (Mare Tranquillitatis). Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the lunar surface. His words (small step for man, giant leap for mankind) are famous. The crew returned to Earth on July 24, 1969.
Apollo 11 - Wikipedia

BOY - seems so long ago - I was in medical school @ the U. of Michigan - wooing Susan my future wife and had just visited her family in New Jersey the month before. Watched the moon landing at a friend's house in Ann Arbor - WHAT at thrill. For those interested in this super historic event, please see the 2019 film described and linked below - Dave

Apollo 11 is a 2019 American documentary film edited, produced and directed by Todd Douglas Miller. It focuses on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, the first spaceflight from which men walked on the Moon. The film consists solely of archival footage, including 70 mm film previously unreleased to the public, and does not feature narration, interviews or modern recreations.The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2019, and was released theatrically in the United States by Neon on March 1, 2019. Apollo 11 has received acclaim from critics and grossed $10 million. (Source)

 

[giradman]

Assault of Battery Wagner and death of Robert Gould Shaw

Well, July 18 is quite a day on the History Website - below just 8 items selected, but I decided to discuss the Civil War (surprised - ) and the assault of Battery Wagner on Morris Island in 1863 (last 3 quotes below) - the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, African-American troops led by the the son of an abolitionist Boston family, Robert Gould Shaw - he and many of his men perished that day.

Two of our trips this year are pertinent to this story - first on a visit to Kiawah Island near Charleston, we did a day trip to Folly Beach (covered in my travelogue of that area) - the Morris Island Lighthouse (now in the water) can be seen from the northern end of Folly (see pics); then a few months later we went to Boston, home of Robert Gould Shaw w/ a wonderful bronze memorial to Shaw by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens on Boston Common, across the street from the State House; connections - how wonderful. Dave

P.S. The film mentioned below, i.e. Glory is highly recommended (partly filmed on Jekyll Island - another of my travelogues); second, the reason the lighthouse is now surrounded by the sea (construction of jetties to protect Charleston harbor) is also the explanation of why Fort Wagner no longer exists, i.e. underwater!

64CE- Nero’s Rome burns - did he start the fire and/or played a fiddle
1792 - Naval hero John Paul Jones dies in Paris
1863 - Assault of Battery Wagner & death of Robert Gould Shaw
1925 - Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ is published & he becomes Chancellor in 1933
1936 - Spanish Civil War breaks out w/ Franco aided by Germany & Italy
1940 - Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) nominated for a third term as US President
1969 - Senator Ted Kennedy drives car off bridge at Chappaquiddick Island
1986 - Video of Titanic wreckage released discovered by Robert Ballard

On this day, Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and 272 of his troops are killed in an assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. Shaw was commander of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, perhaps the most famous regiment of African-American troops during the war. Fort Wagner stood on Morris Island, guarding the approach to Charleston harbor. It was a massive earthwork, 600 feet wide and made from sand piled 30 feet high. The only approach to the fort was across a narrow stretch of beach bounded by the Atlantic on one side and a swampy marshland on the other. (Source)

Shaw and his 54th Massachusetts were chosen to lead the attack of July 18. Shaw was the scion of an abolitionist family and a veteran of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley and Antietam campaigns. The regiment included two sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Union artillery battered Fort Wagner all day on July 18, but the barrage did little damage to the fort and its garrison. At 7:45 p.m., the attack commenced. Yankee troops had to march 1,200 yards down the beach to the stronghold, facing a hail of bullets from the Confederates. Shaw’s troops and other Union regiments penetrated the walls at two points but did not have sufficient numbers to take the fort. Over 1,500 Union troops fell or were captured to the Confederates’ 222. (Source)

Despite the failure, the battle proved that African-American forces could not only hold their own but also excel in battle. The experience of Shaw and his regiment was memorialized in the critically acclaimed 1990 movie Glory, starring Mathew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman. Washington won an Academy Award for his role in the film. (Source)

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[scifan57]

July 20, 1969;
50 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on another world when their Lunar Module Eagle touched down at Tranquility Base. Early the next morning, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on another world when he stepped off the Lunar Module onto the surface of the Moon.

Relive the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Mission in Real Time!.

50 Years Later, Apollo 11 Moon Landing Reminds America What It's Capable Of

There are actually very few photos of Neil Armstrong on the Moon. Most of the photos are of Buzz Aldrin, like this one. You can see Neil Armstrong reflected in Aldrin’s visor.

 

[giradman]

Jesse Owens Wins 4th Gold Medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics!

The XIth Olympiad was held in Berlin in August of 1936 with Hitler hoping for a major propaganda boost w/ his German athletes; however, Jesse Owens (1913-1980), an Afro-American track star deflated Adolph's 'balloon head'! Below just the first two paragraphs from the History Website - check the link for much more, if interested.

My now departed father-in-law, an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan (my alma mater) was a spectator in 1935 when Owens astounded the sports world at the Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor (first quote below). In 2016, the movie Race was released which portrays Owens performance in the Big Ten track meet and also at the 1936 Olympics - own as a BD and highly recommended. Dave

Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump, and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan—a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport". (Source)

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African American track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Games in the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years. In their strong showing in track-and-field events at the XIth Olympiad, Jesse Owens and other African American athletes struck a propaganda blow against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the Berlin Games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority. (Source)

Born the son of Alabama sharecroppers in 1913, Owens emerged as a major track talent while attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio. Later, at Ohio State University, he demonstrated himself to be one of the greatest athletes in the world. In a single day of competition–May 25, 1935–Owens broke the world records for the 220-yard dash, the 220-yard low hurdles, and the running broad jump, and equaled the world record for the 100-yard dash. The next summer, Owens and 311 other American athletes, including 17 African Americans, traveled to Nazi Germany to represent the United States at the XIth Olympiad. (Source)

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[scifan57]

August 13, 1961;
East Germany began constructing what became known as the Berlin Wall to prevent citizens from fleeing to West Berlin. Berlin Wall - Wikipedia

Checkpoint Charlie

Map of divided Berlin.

 

[giradman]

World's First Submarine Attack During Revolutionary War This Day in 1776!

"David Bushnell of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westbrook,_Connecticut']Westbrook, Connecticut, was an American inventor, a patriot, one of the first American combat engineers, a teacher, and a medical doctor; he invented the first submarine to be used in battle, as well as a floating mine triggered by contact.[/url]". His submersible American Turtle was the first 'submarine' used in war to attempt sinking an enemy ship using an attached 'time bomb' - the mission failed (during the Civil War, the H.L. Hunley successfully sunk a Union warship in Charleston Harbor, the first such success; however, the entire crew was lost - for a more complete story, see my Carolina Coastal travelogue, if interested).

The link above and quotes below provide more discussion - the pics are from the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut - I've been to Mystic Harbor but never visited this museum which just might be added to my 'bucket list' - Dave

On September 7, 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship Eagle in New York Harbor. It was the first use of a submarine in warfare. Submarines were first built by Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebel in the early 17th century, but it was not until 150 years later that they were first used in naval combat. David Bushnell, an American inventor, began building underwater mines while a student at Yale University. Deciding that a submarine would be the best means of delivering his mines in warfare, he built an eight-foot-long wooden submersible that was christened the Turtle for its shape. Large enough to accommodate one operator, the submarine was entirely hand-powered. Lead ballast kept the craft balanced. (Source)

Ezra Lee piloted the craft unnoticed out to the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on September 7, 1776. As Lee worked to anchor a time bomb to the hull, he could see British seamen on the deck above, but they failed to notice the strange craft below the surface. Lee had almost secured the bomb when his boring tools failed to penetrate a layer of iron sheathing. He retreated, and the bomb exploded nearby, causing no harm to either the Eagle or the Turtle. During the next week, the Turtle made several more attempts to sink British ships on the Hudson River, but each time it failed. Only Bushnell was really able to competently execute the submarine’s complicated functions, but because of his physical frailty he was unable to pilot the Turtle in any of its combat missions. During the Battle of Fort Lee, the Turtle was lost when the American sloop transporting it was sunk by the British. Despite the failures of the Turtle, General George Washington gave Bushnell a commission as an Army engineer, and the drifting mines he constructed destroyed the British frigate Cereberus and wreaked havoc against other British ships. After the war, he became commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at West Point. (Source)

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[J. A.]

September 28, 1953
American astronomer (one of the most important astronomers of all time) Edwin Powell Hubble dies in San Marino, California, USA.

Edwin Hubble - Wikipedia