1902

Today in History 09/01 (Sally Hemings)

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Painting of President Thomas Jefferson (© John Parrot/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images)(1802) Newspaper alleges US president has an illicit relationship
Virginia’s Richmond Recorder newspaper prints a scandalous story regarding President Thomas Jefferson and a woman whom he “kept, as his concubine,” asserting that she is “one of his own slaves.” The truth of Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings will be investigated centuries later via DNA testing.
Sarah “Sally” Hemings was an enslaved woman of mixed race owned by President Thomas Jefferson of the United States. There is a “growing historical consensus” among scholars that Jefferson was the father of her five children, born after the death of his wife Martha Jefferson, and that he had a long-term relationship with her. Four children survived to adulthood. Hemings died in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1835.
Born: 1773 · Charles City County, VA
Died: 1835 · Charlottesville, VA
Nationality: American
Children: Harriet Hemings (Daughter) · Eston Hemings (Son) · Madison Hemings (Son) · Beverly Hemings (Son)
Parents: John Wayles (Father) · Betty Hemings (Mother)
Siblings: Martha Jefferson (Brother) · Mary Hemings (Sister) · John Hemings (Brother)
Highlights
  • 1773: After John Wayles died in 1773, his daughter Martha and her husband Thomas Jefferson inherited the Hemings family among a total of 135 slaves from his estate, as well as 11,000 acres of land.

  • 1787: Polly and Sally landed in London, where they stayed with Abigail and John Adams from June 26 until July 10, 1787.

  • 1789: Sally Hemings remained in France for 26 months; slavery was abolished in that country after the Revolution in 1789.

  • 1799: unnamed daughter (or possibly named Thenia after Hemings’ sister Thenia) (born in 1799 and died in infancy)

  • 1802: Jefferson having a sexual relationship with Hemings was first reported in 1802 by one of Jefferson’s enemies, a political journalist named James T. Callender, after he noticed several light skinned slaves at Monticello.

  • 1835: Hemings died in Charlottesville, VA, in 1835.

A philosophic cock
Caricature of Jefferson and Hemings, ca. 1804
wiki/Sally_Hemings
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(1802) Newspaper alleges US president has an illicit relationship.
Also on this day,

1859 | The sun spits out a solar superstorm
A coronal mass ejection is released from the sun and impacts the earth’s atmosphere with a brilliant “white light flare,” as described by English astronomer Richard C. Carrington, forming fantastical auroras that are said to have been bright enough to read by at night, and packing enough interference to cripple the globe’s telegraph systems.
1902 | Paris moviegoers head to the moon and back
Jules Verne novels have inspired a new moving picture from French artist Georges Méliès, a fanciful frolic chronicling a lunar landing and a meeting with inhabitants of the moon. ‘A Trip to the Moon’ will open just over a month later in the US and eventually will be called the first science-fiction film.
1939 | History’s most destructive war dawns with a massive invasion
In WWII’s opening salvo, Hitler’s armed forces descend on Poland with blitzkrieg force and, getting assistance from the Soviet Union, will decimate the country’s archaic military, controlling the nation within a month. Per their Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the USSR will divide up the conquered territory.

Today in History 09/01/17

German tank unit after the defeat of a Polish battalion at the Brda River in Poland in 1939 (© ullstein bild/Getty Images)(1939) History's most destructive war dawns with a massive invasion
In WWII's opening salvo, Hitler's armed forces descend on Poland with blitzkrieg force and, getting assistance from the Soviet Union, will decimate the country's archaic military, controlling the nation within a month. Per their Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the USSR will divide up the conquered territory.
The Invasion of Poland, known in Poland as the September Campaign or the 1939 Defensive War, and in Germany as the Poland Campaign or Fall Weiss, was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Free City of Danzig, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov-Tōgō agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty.
Start date: Sep 01, 1939
End date: Oct 06, 1939
Battle of Poland
Ribbentrop-Molotov
Planned and actual divisions of Poland, according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, with later adjustments

wiki/Invasion_of_Poland
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Today in History 08/22 (Cadillac Auto Founded)

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1902 Cadillac (© AP)(1902) Henry Ford ditches his second company and Cadillac is born
Named for the man who founded Detroit in 1801, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac, Michigan’s newest car company launches. The Cadillac Automobile Company rises from the ashes of the Henry Ford Company, after Ford leaves his company over a squabble with investors.
Cadillac, formally the Cadillac Motor Car Division, is a division of the U.S.-based General Motors that markets luxury vehicles worldwide. Its primary markets are the United States, Canada, and China, but Cadillac-branded vehicles are distributed in 34 additional markets worldwide. Historically, Cadillac automobiles have always held a place at the top of the luxury field within the United States. In 2017, Cadillac’s U.S. sales were 156,440 vehicles and its global sales were 356,467 vehicles.
Founded: Aug 22, 1902
President: Steve Carlisle (Since 2018)
Founders: Henry M. Leland · William Murphy · Lemuel Bowen
Phone number: +1 8003334223
Parent organization: General Motors

Cadillac adv 1921
A 1921 Cadillac advertisement
wiki/Cadillac
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(1902) Henry Ford ditches his second company and Cadillac is born.
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1485 | Death of a king ends a dynasty and a three-decade war
The York white rose and the Lancaster red rose meet at the Battle of Bosworth Field, where England’s King Richard III is killed by blows to his crown-encircled head, ending the royal Plantagenet line. Henry Tudor’s triumph will usher in a new dynasty as the Wars of the Roses fade.
1851 | ‘America’ sails to victory
The ‘Auld Mug’ trophy is awarded for the first time to the winners of a sailing race around England’s Isle of Wight. The schooner ‘America’ sails into first place with an ample lead, and so the competition between the world’s best racing yachts will be known as the ‘America’s Cup.’
1986 | ‘Stand by Me’ explores childhood friendships
Rob Reiner’s ‘Stand by Me’ hits theaters. Based on Stephen King’s novella ‘The Body,’ the movie tells the story of four boys searching for a missing boy’s corpse. ‘Stand by Me’ will help make stars out of Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell, and earn more than $52 million at the box office.

Today in History 08/22/17

Painting depicting Richard III (left) during the Battle of Bosworth on Aug 22, 1485 (© Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)(1485) Death of a king ends a dynasty and a three-decade war
The York white rose and the Lancaster red rose meet at the Battle of Bosworth Field, where England's King Richard III is killed by blows to his crown-encircled head, ending the royal Plantagenet line. Henry Tudor's triumph will usher in a new dynasty as the Wars of the Roses fade.
The Battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York that raged across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by his victory became the first English monarch of the Tudor dynasty. His opponent, Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed in the battle. Historians consider Bosworth Field to mark the end of the Plantagenet dynasty, making it a defining moment of English and Welsh history.
Date: Aug 22, 1485
Henry Tudor and Rhys ap Thomas' march through Wales
March through Wales, to Bosworth Field

wiki/Battle_of_Bosworth_Field
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Today in History 05/31/17

Statue depicting the pharaoh Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt (© Prisma/UIG/Getty Images)(1279 BCE) A great pharaoh takes the Egyptian throne
A reign that will last 66 years begins, as Ramesses II becomes Pharaoh of Egypt under the 19th Dynasty. He will go on a building spree of massive proportions, soundly defeat many enemies, bolster his kingdom’s economy and territory, and live an impressive 90 or so years.
Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great and Ozymandias, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He often is regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. His successors and later Egyptians called him the “Great Ancestor”. Ramesses II led several military expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.
Lived: 1303 BC – 1213
Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
Spouse: Bintanath · Nefertari · Isetnofret · Nebettawy · Henutmire · Maathorneferure
Buried: KV7 · Deir el-Bahari
Children: Merneptah (Son) · Bintanath (Daughter) · Ramesses (Son) · Amun-her-khepeshef (Son) · Meryatum (Son) · Khaemweset (Son) · Pareherwenemef (Son) · Nebettawy (Daughter) · Meritamen (Daughter) · Sethi (Son) · Henuttawy (Daughter) · Isetnofret II (Daughter) · Ramesses-Meryamun-Nebweben (Son) · Simentu (Son) · Meryre (Son)
Parents: Seti I (Father) · Tuya (Mother)

wiki/Ramesses_II
The Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace on the Thames Embankment, London, circa 1865 (© Otto Herschan/Getty Images)(1859) London’s parliament building gets a really large timepiece
Set 316 feet above the Houses of Parliament, a new clock looks out over London, calibrated twice daily with Greenwich Observatory to ensure exact timekeeping. The booming chimes from its 13.5-ton ‘Big Ben’ bell, and its four 23-foot-diameter clock faces, will come to symbolize London.
Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London and is usually extended to refer to both the clock and the clock tower as well. The tower is officially known as Elizabeth Tower, renamed to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012; previously, it was known simply as the Clock Tower.
Address: Bridge St, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA
Phone: 020 7219 4272
Opened: 1859
Height: 316 feet (96.30 m) (Architectural)
Architect: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
Architectural style: Gothic Revival architecture

wiki/Big_Ben
Survivors stand by homes destroyed when the South Fork Dam collapsed on May 31, 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania (© AP Photo)(1889) 20 million tons of water wipes out Johnstown, Pennsylvania
A deluge of rainfall and a deteriorating dam lead to one of America’s worst disasters when the South Fork Dam breaks apart above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, releasing a torrent of destruction. A 60-foot-high wall of water and debris half a mile wide roars 14 miles downriver, killing 2,209.
The Johnstown Flood occurred on May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled that of the Mississippi River, the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$17 million of damage.
Fatalities: 2,200
Date: May 31, 1889

wiki/Johnstown_Flood
Soldiers digging trenches during the 2nd Boer War in South Africa circa 1900 (© SSPL/Getty Images)(1902) UK claims more of South Africa after bloody Boer War
The 20th century’s first large-scale international conflict ends when the British Empire claims victory over the South African Republic and the Orange Free State in South Africa. Tens of thousands of human lives were lost, and an astounding 300,000 horses perished, in the Second Boer War.
The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa: the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, the Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was further supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India and New Zealand. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain. Inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War.
Start date: Oct 11, 1899
End date: May 31, 1902

wiki/Second_Boer_War
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Today in History 05/17/17

Monument to Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, in Place d'Armes, Montreal. (© Glenn Van Der Knijff/Getty Images)(1642) French missionaries found Montreal
Hired to build a Catholic mission near the St. Lawrence River, 30-year-old Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve and his group of settlers found Ville-Marie de Montreal. The future city of Montreal faces an uncertain future at first, and the population will dwindle to 50 by a decade later.

The history of Montreal, located in Quebec, Canada, spans some 8,000 years. At the time of European contact, the area was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, a discrete and distinct group of Iroquoian-speaking indigenous people. They spoke Laurentian. Jacques Cartier became the first European to reach the area now known as Montreal in 1535 when he entered the village of Hochelaga on the Island of Montreal while in search of a passage to Asia during the Age of Exploration. Seventy years later, Samuel de Champlain unsuccessfully tried to create a fur trading post but the Mohawk of the Iroquois defended what they had been using as their hunting grounds.

A mission named Ville Marie was built in 1642 as part of a project to create a French colonial empire. Ville Marie became a centre for the fur trade and French expansion into New France until 1760, when it was surrendered to the British army, following the French defeat of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. British immigration expanded the city. The city’s golden era of fur trading began with the advent of the locally owned North West Company.

Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. The city’s growth was spurred by the opening of the Lachine Canal and Montreal was the capital of the United Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849. Growth continued and by 1860 Montreal was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada. Annexation of neighbouring towns between 1883 and 1918 changed Montreal back to a mostly Francophone city. The Great Depression in Canada brought unemployment to the city, but this waned in the mid-1930s, and skyscrapers began to be built.

World War II brought protests against conscription and caused the Conscription Crisis of 1944. Montreal’s population surpassed one million in the early 1950s. A new metro system was added, Montreal’s harbour was expanded and the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened during this time. More skyscrapers were built along with museums. International status was cemented by Expo 67 and the 1976 Summer Olympics. A major league baseball team, the Expos, played in Montreal from 1969 to 2004 when the team relocated to Washington, DC. Historically business and finance in Montreal was under the control of Anglophones. With the rise of Quebec nationalism in the 1970s, many institutions relocated their headquarters to Toronto.


wiki/History_of_Montreal
Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs (© Mary Delaney Cooke/Corbis via Getty Images)(1875) First Kentucky Derby held
With African-American jockey Oliver Lewis on board, Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby at a new track founded by the grandson of explorer William Clark. Eight years later, the venue will become known as Churchill Downs.
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race that is held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds and fillies 121 pounds.
2017 winner: Always Dreaming
First occurred: 1875

wiki/Kentucky_Derby
Fragments of the 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism are seen at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. (© Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)(1902) 2,000-year-old computer discovered
A Greek archaeologist examining finds from the haul of the Antikythera shipwreck notices a gear wheel embedded in rock. Decades later, examinations by X-ray and gamma ray will reveal the bronze gear clockwork Antikythera mechanism to be a complex ancient analog computer.

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek analogue computer and orrery used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendrical and astrological purposes. It could also track the four-year cycle of athletic games which was similar, but not identical, to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.

Found housed in a 340 millimetres (13 in) × 180 millimetres (7.1 in) × 90 millimetres (3.5 in) wooden box, the device is a complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears. Using modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University peered inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates back to 150-100 BC and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The motion, known as the first lunar anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and he may have been consulted in the machine’s construction, the scientists speculate. Its remains were found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments, which are now divided into eighty-two separate fragments after conservation works. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear is approximately 140 millimetres (5.5 in) in diameter and originally had 224 teeth.

The artefact was recovered on May 17, 1902 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, which in antiquity was known as Aigila. Believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists, the instrument has been variously dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC, or in 205 BC, or within a generation before the date of the shipwreck (in about 150 BC).

After the knowledge of this technology was lost at some point in antiquity, technological works approaching its complexity and workmanship did not appear again until the development of mechanical astronomical clocks in Europe in the fourteenth century.

All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, along with a number of artistic reconstructions of how the mechanism may have looked.


wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
(From left) George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit, the lawyers who led the fight before the US Supreme Court for abolition of segregation in public schools, descend the court steps in Washington, DC, on May 17, 1954 (© AP)(1954) US Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional
A lawsuit against unfair segregation is heard before the Supreme Court, and the unanimous ruling finds that establishing separate public schools for black and white students is unconstitutional. ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ will be a major landmark in the growing civil rights movement.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court’s unanimous decision stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the Civil Rights Movement, and a model for many future impact litigation cases. However, the decision’s fourteen pages did not spell out any sort of method for ending racial segregation in schools, and the Court’s second decision in Brown II, 349 U.S. 294 only ordered states to desegregate “with all deliberate speed”.
Start date: 1951
End date: May 17, 1954
Educational Separation in the US prior to Brown Map
Judgement, Brown v. Board of Education

wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
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Today in History 05/08/17

Rumor the German Shepherd at the Westminster Kennel Club 141st Annual Dog Show (© Eugene Gologursky/WireImage/Getty Images)(1877) First Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show held
A group of hunters who had formed the Westminster Kennel Club hold their first dog show at Gilmore’s Garden, later renamed Madison Square Garden. The show is an immediate success and will become the second-longest running continuously held sporting event in the U.S.
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a prestigious all-breed conformation show that has been held in New York City annually since 1877. Currently, the breed and Junior Showmanship competitions are held at Piers 92 and 94, while the group and Best in Show competitions are held at Madison Square Garden. The number of entries is so large at nearly 3000 that two days are required for all dogs to be judged.
Website: hwww.westminsterkennelclub.org
First occurred: May 08, 1877

wiki/Westminster_Kennel_Club_Dog_Show
The first business to sell Coca-Cola was at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy, 1886, in Atlanta, Georgia (© John Van Hasselt/Sygma/Corbis)(1886) First bottles of Coca-Cola sold
Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, begins offering a bubbly beverage called Coca-Cola, a patent medicine said to ease ailments such as dyspepsia, headache, impotence, and morphine addiction. The drink will become rather popular as time goes by.
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink produced by The Coca-Cola Company. Originally intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton and was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century. The drink’s name refers to two of its original ingredients, which were kola nuts and coca leaves. The current formula of Coca-Cola remains a trade secret, although a variety of reported recipes and experimental recreations have been published.
Website: www.cocacola.com
Inventor: John Pemberton

wiki/Coca-Cola
The ruins of Rue Victor Hugo and La Place Du Mouillage after the blast of the Mount Pelée volcano on May 10, 1902 at St. Pierre, Martinique (© Archive Farms/Getty Images)(1902) Saint-Pierre buried after Mount Pelée erupts on Martinique
Called “the Paris of the Caribbean,” Saint-Pierre is wiped off the map as Martinique’s Mount Pelée volcano erupts with a fury, sending black clouds of superheated gases and dust 420 mph over the seaside town. More than 30,000 will perish in what will be the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.
Mount Pelée is a semi-active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of layers of volcanic ash and hardened lava. The volcano is currently in a quiescent state, which means it is not active, but is registering seismic activity.
Last eruption: 1932
Elevation: 4,583 feet (1,397 m)
Prominence: 4,583 feet (1,397 m)
Mountain range: Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc

wiki/Mount_Pelée
People celebrating VE Day along the Champs Élysées in Paris on May 8, 1945 (© Serge DE SAZO/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)(1945) German surrender ends WWII in Europe
With the unconditional surrender of the German military now official, the Allies and their supporters celebrate with massive VE Day demonstrations around the globe. The deadliest conflict in world history is over in Europe, but WWII still rages on in the Pacific.
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day, was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.
Allied Army Positions on May 10 1945

wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day
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