1863

Today in History 07/13 (The Death of Marat)

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The Death of Marat' painting by Jacques-Louis David showing the murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat (© Sergio Anelli/Electa/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)(1793) Clash of ideologies ends in a bathtub assassination
As French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat lays in his bath, Royalist sympathizer Charlotte Corday stabs him in the chest with a kitchen knife and kills him. The act will lead to her being guillotined, and also inspire the famous Jacques-Louis David painting, ‘The Death of Marat.’
The Death of Marat is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David of the murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat. It is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution. David was the leading French painter, as well as a Montagnard and a member of the revolutionary Committee of General Security. The painting shows the radical journalist lying dead in his bath on 13 July 1793 after his murder by Charlotte Corday. Painted in the months after Marat’s murder, it has been described by T. J. Clark as the first modernist painting, for “the way it took the stuff of politics as its material, and did not transmute it”.
Date completed: 1793
Artist: Jacques-Louis David
Subject: Jean-Paul Marat
Period: Neoclassicism
Location: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Genre: History painting

Jacques-Louis David - Marat assassinated - Google Art Project
Jacques-Louis David – Marat assassinated – Google Art Project
wiki/The_Death_of_Marat
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(1793) Clash of ideologies ends in a bathtub assassination.
Also on this day,

1863 | US Civil War draft incites huge riots
Racial tensions and class warfare mix into a deadly brew as a protest by working-class whites against newly enacted Civil War draft laws spiral out of control into a city-spanning riot. Some 120 die and thousands are injured, with New York City’s black population the target of racist violence.
1977 | Blackout plunges New York City into chaos
Lightning strikes upstate power lines, resulting in a cascade of electrical station failures that plunge New York City into darkness. For the next 25 hours, scores of people are trapped in elevators and subway trains, while looting, arson, and panic break out in the hot summer streets.
1985 | Multi-continent one-day charity concert kicks off
An estimated 1.9 billion viewers in 150 countries tune in to Live Aid, a TV charity event of enormous scope featuring an array of rock and roll legends playing simultaneously in front of 100,000 in Philadelphia and 72,000 in London to raise money for African famine relief.

Today in History 07/13/17

Engraving of the draft riots on Lexington Avenue, New York City, July 13, 1863 (© Getty Images)(1863) US Civil War draft incites huge riots
Racial tensions and class warfare mix into a deadly brew as a protest by working-class whites against newly enacted Civil War draft laws spiral out of control into a city-spanning riot. Some 120 die and thousands are injured, with New York City's black population the target of racist violence.
The New York draft riots, known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racial insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.
Start date: Jul 13, 1863
End date: Jul 16, 1863

wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots
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Today in History 07/01 (Battle of Gettysburg)

Portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1864 (Public domain)(1863) Largest battle of the American Civil War begins
General Robert E. Lee arrays his Confederate forces at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to destroy General George Meade’s Union army. The three-day conflagration will result in both sides counting some 23,000 casualties each, a Union victory, and a calamitous retreat back to Virginia for Lee.
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war’s turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee’s invasion of the North.
Start date: Jul 01, 1863
End date: Jul 03, 1863

Gettysburg Battle Map Day1
Overview map of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863
wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg
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(1863) Largest battle of the American Civil War begins.
Also on this day,

1898 | Teddy Roosevelt leads Rough Riders in Cuba
A future US president, Theodore Roosevelt, leads his ‘Rough Riders’ at the Battle of San Juan Hill, helping the Fifth Army Corps win a decisive victory over Spain in Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
1903 | Bicycle racers take their first spin across France
The first Tour de France bicycle race begins as 60 riders start the six-stage, 1,509-mile loop from Montgeron to Paris. Nineteen days later, spectators will cheer Maurice Garin as he rides into the Paris velodrome almost three hours ahead of the second-place finisher.
1916 | WWI’s Battle of the Somme begins with massive British loss
A huge offensive along the Western Front near France’s Somme River results in Britain’s heaviest single-day loss in history, with upwards of 60,000 dead or wounded. WWI’s Battle of the Somme will rage for 4 months, cause a million casualties, and see the British advance about 6 miles.

Today in History 01/01/18

Illustration of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation on July 22, 1862 (© Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)(1863) Emancipation Proclamation takes effect
President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order proclaiming the freedom of all slaves held in rebel states goes into effect, signaling an ideological change in the Union’s reasons for fighting the Civil War
The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave became legally free. Ultimately, the rebel surrender liberated and resulted in the proclamation’s application to all of the designated slaves. It did not cover slaves in Union areas that were freed by state action. It was issued as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the executive branch of the United States.
Start date: Sep 22, 1862
End date: Jan 01, 1863

Emancipation Proclamation
Initially, the Civil War between the North and the South was fought by the North to prevent the secession of the South and preserve the Union. Ending slavery was not a goal. That changed on September 22, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that slaves in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. One hundred days later Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious areas “are, and henceforward shall be, free.” Lincoln’s bold step was a military measure by which he hoped to inspire the slaves in the Confederacy to support the Union cause. Because it was a military measure, the proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, and left slavery untouched in the border states. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, it did fundamentally transform the character of the war. Henceforth, every advance of Federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and their own freedom. African Americans; Politics and government; Proclamations; Slavery; Slaves–Emancipation–Southern States; United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865
wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation
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Today in History 12/14/17

Undated photo of Emilie Todd Helm (© Helm and Todd family photographs and papers, 1850-1951, Univ. of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center, http://exploreuk.uky.edu)(1863) President Abraham Lincoln pardons his sister-in-law
Lincoln pardons his relative, the widow of a Confederate general. When a Union general grouses about her presence at the White House, Lincoln retorts, “My wife and I are in the habit of choosing our own guests. We do not need from our friends either advice or assistance in the matter.”
Benjamin Hardin HelmBenjamin Hardin Helm was a Kentucky politician, attorney, Confederate brigadier general, and a brother-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. He was also the son of Kentucky Governor John L. Helm. Helm was born in Bardstown, Kentucky. He attended the Kentucky Military Institute and the West Point Military Academy and then went to study law at the University of Louisville and Harvard University. He served as a state legislator and the state’s attorney in Kentucky. He also served as the assistant inspector-general for the Kentucky state guard. Helm was offered the position of Union Army paymaster by his brother-in-law, President Abraham Lincoln, a position which he declined. Helm felt it was an honor to serve in the Confederate States Army, where he was initially a colonel and later promoted to brigadier general. Helm commanded the 1st Kentucky Brigade more commonly known as The Orphan Brigade. He died on the battlefield during the Battle of Chickamauga. Helm was married to Emilie Todd, the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
Born: Jun 02, 1831 · Bardstown, KY
Died: Sep 21, 1863 · Catoosa County, GA
Children: Katherine Helm (Daughter) · Benjamin Hardin Helm, II (Son) · Elodie Lewis
Education: United States Military Academy
Parents: John L. Helm (Father)
Highlights
  • 1831: The son of lawyer and politician John L. Helm and Lucinda Barbour Hardin, Benjamin Hardin Helm was born in Bardstown, Kentucky on June 2, 1831.

  • 1846: In the winter of 1846, at age 15, Helm enrolled at the Kentucky Military Institute, where he remained for three months.

  • 1856: In 1856, Helm married Emilie Todd, a half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.

  • 1860: In 1860, he was appointed assistant inspector-general of the Kentucky State Guard, which he was active in organizing.

  • 1861: Helm was commissioned a colonel on October 19, 1861, and served under Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

  • 1862: He was promoted to brigadier general on March 14, 1862 and, three weeks later, received a new assignment to raise the 3rd Kentucky Brigade, in the division of Major General John C. Breckinridge.


Brigadier General Benjamin Hardin Helm (1831-1863)
Brigadier General Benjamin Hardin Helm (1831-1863)

wiki/Benjamin_Hardin_Helm
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Today in History 07/13/17

Engraving of the draft riots on Lexington Avenue, New York City, July 13, 1863 (© Getty Images)(1863) US Civil War draft incites huge riots
Racial tensions and class warfare mix into a deadly brew as a protest by working-class whites against newly enacted Civil War draft laws spiral out of control into a city-spanning riot. Some 120 die and thousands are injured, with New York City’s black population the target of racist violence.
The New York draft riots, known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racial insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.
Start date: Jul 13, 1863
End date: Jul 16, 1863

wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots
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