1905

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Today in History 05/27/17

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Jedediah Smith, only known likeness, drawing circa 1835 (© REX Features)(1831) Pioneering mountain man meets his end
Jedediah Strong Smith, 32, has earned his middle name by surviving three massacres, a bear mauling, and travels through the vast wilds of the American West, including the unforgiving Mojave Desert. Exploring near the Santa Fe Trail in present day Kansas, Smith is killed by Comanche warriors.
Jedediah Strong Smith, was a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the North American West, and the Southwest during the early 19th century. After 75 years of obscurity following his death, Smith was rediscovered as the American whose explorations led to the use of the 20-mile-wide South Pass as the dominant point of crossing the Continental Divide for pioneers on the Oregon Trail.
Born: Jan 06, 1799 · Bainbridge, NY
Died: May 27, 1831 · Ulysses, KS
Romance: NN Smith
Parents: Sally Smith (Mother) · Jedediah Strong Smith, I (Father)
Children: Gordon Smith (Son)
Siblings: Austin Smith · Peter Smith · Ira Smith
Highlights
  • 1822: Coming from a modest family background, Smith traveled to St. Louis and joined William H. Ashley and Andrew Henry’s fur trading company in 1822.

  • 1826: Smith and his party of 15 other men left the Bear River on August 7, 1826, and after retrieving the cache he had left earlier, headed south through present-day Utah and Nevada to the Colorado River, finding increasingly harsh conditions and difficult travel.

  • 1828: Smith and his party of 15 other men left the Bear River on August 7, 1826, and after retrieving the cache he had left earlier, headed south through present-day Utah and Nevada to the Colorado River, finding increasingly harsh conditions and difficult travel.

  • 1829: Late in 1829, Smith Jackson and Sublette wrote another letter to William Clark.

  • 1830: Smith later wrote a letter to Secretary of War John Eaton in 1830 making the location of the South Pass public information.

  • 1831: The only known portrait of Jedediah Smith, painted after his death in 1831, showed the long hair he wore over the side of his head, to hide his scars.

wiki/Jedediah_Smith
Russian and Japanese warships clash at the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, 27-28 May 1905 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1905) First naval battle of its kind pits Russia vs. Japan
The first and only ‘decisive’ naval battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, and also the first in which radio communications play a decisive role, the Battle of Tsushima will result in a crushing blow to the mighty Russian Imperial Navy, as Japanese forces destroy almost their entire fleet.
The Battle of Tsushima, also known as the Battle of Tsushima Strait and the Naval Battle of the Sea of Japan in Japan, was a major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. It was naval history’s only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, and the first naval battle in which wireless telegraphy played a critically important role. It has been characterized as the “dying echo of the old era – for the last time in the history of naval warfare ships of the line of a beaten fleet surrendered on the high seas.”
Start date: May 27, 1905
End date: May 28, 1905

wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
Louis Zamperini peers out of the hatch nose of a bomber on Jan 1, 1943 (© Jack Rice/AP Photo)(1943) A survivor’s incredible odyssey begins
Former Olympic track runner and now US Army Air Corps bombardier, Louie Zamperini is shot down 850 miles south of Oahu, Hawaii. He will survive 47 days on the open ocean, only to be captured, imprisoned, and tortured in Japanese POW camps, all of which prove Zamperini is “unbreakable.”
Louis Silvie “Louie” Zamperini was a US prisoner of war survivor in World War II, a Christian evangelist and an Olympic distance runner. Zamperini took up running in high school and qualified for the US in the 5000m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He finished 8th in the event. In 1941 he was commissioned into the United States Army Air Forces as a Lieutenant. He served as a bombardier in B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. On a search and rescue mission, mechanical difficulties forced Zamperini’s plane to crash in the ocean. After drifting at sea for 46-47 days he landed on the Japanese occupied Marshall Islands and was captured. He was taken to a prison camp in Japan where he was tortured. Following the war he initially struggled to overcome his ordeal. Later he became a Christian Evangelist with a strong belief in forgiveness. Zamperini is the subject of two biographical films, the 2014 Unbroken and the 2015 Captured by Grace.
Lived: Jan 26, 1917 – Jul 02, 2014 (age 97)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Spouse: Cynthia Applewhite (m. 1946 – 2001)
Movies: Zamperini: Still Carrying the Torch
Education: Torrance High School · University of Southern California
Children: Cissy Zamperini (Daughter) · Luke Zamperini (Son)
Highlights
  • 1943: His death had mistakenly been announced previously, when the US government classified him as KIA during World War II, after his B-24 Liberator aircraft went down in 1943, and no survivors were located by the military.

  • 1946: Louis Zamperini married Cynthia Applewhite on May 25, 1946; their marriage lasted 55 years till 2001.

  • 2010: In 2010, Zamperini detailed his experiences in Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, written by Laura Hillenbrand.

  • 2011: In May 2011, Zamperini was guest of honor at Magellan Christian Academy’s graduation ceremony with over 700 attendees at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.

  • 2011: In late July 2011, Zamperini received the Kappa Sigma Golden Heart Award during the Kappa Sigma 68th Biennial Grand Conclave held at the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

  • 2014: After Zamperini’s death on July 2, 2014, the Tournament announced that it is “committed to honoring him as the Grand Marshal of the 2015 Rose Parade”.

wiki/Louis_Zamperini
Russian writer and former Nobel Prize-winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn arrives at Vladivostok airport on May 27, 1994 (© Michael Evstafiev/AFP/Getty Images)(1994) Banished son of Russia returns to his motherland
Winner of 1970’s Nobel Prize in Literature, author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to the homeland that exiled him for the very writing that garnered him acclaim. Communism’s fall now allows the author of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ to be reunited with a country he hasn’t seen for 20 years.
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and communism and helped to raise global awareness of its Gulag forced labor camp system. He was allowed to publish only one work in the Soviet Union, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, in the periodical Novy Mir. After this he had to publish in the West, most notably Cancer Ward, August 1914, and The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”. Solzhenitsyn was afraid to go to Stockholm to receive his award for fear that he would not be allowed to reenter. He was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1994 after the state’s dissolution.
Lived: Dec 11, 1918 – Aug 03, 2008 (age 89)
Spouse: Natalia Dmitrievna Svetlova (m. 1973 – 2008) · Natalia Alekseevna Reshetovskaya (m. 1957 – 1972) · Natalia Alekseevna Reshetovskaya (m. 1940 – 1952)
Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature (1970) · State Prize of the Russian Federation (2006) · Templeton Prize (1983)
Education: Southern Federal University · Rostov State University
Children: Ignat Solzhenitsyn (Son) · Stepan Solzhenitsyn (Son) · Yermolai Solzhenitsyn (Son)
Parents: Taisiya Solzhenitsyna (Mother) · Isaakiy Solzhenitsyn (Father)

wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn
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Today in History 03/17/17

Illustration of Saint Patrick (© Archive Photos/Getty Images)(461) Patrick, Irish bishop, dies
Legend has it that on this day the Christian missionary and bishop Patrick dies in Ireland. He will be revered for his works and life, and by the seventh century he will have become Ireland’s patron saint. Patrick’s thoughts on green beer and ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ t-shirts will be lost to the ages.
Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, along with saints Brigit of Kildare and Columba. He is also venerated in the Anglican Communion, the Old Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland.
Born: 387 AD · Banwen, United Kingdom
Death place: Ireland
Parents: Calpurnius (Father) · Conchessa (Mother)
Siblings: Darerca of Ireland (Sister)
Highlights
  • 396 AD: A. B. E. Hood suggests that the Victoricus of St. Patrick’s vision may be identified with Saint Victricius, bishop of Rouen in the late fourth century, who had visited Britain in an official capacity in 396.

  • 403 AD: At the age of 16 in 403 AD Saint Patrick was captured and enslaved by the Irish and was sent to Ireland to serve as a slave herding and tending sheep in Dalriada.

  • 431 AD: The date 432 was probably chosen to minimise the contribution of Palladius, who was known to have been sent to Ireland in 431, and maximise that of Patrick.

  • 457 AD: In 457 “the elder Patrick” (Irish: Patraic Sen) is said to have died: this may refer to the death of Palladius, who according to the Book of Armagh was also called Patrick.

  • 535 AD: The death of Patrick’s disciple Mochta is dated in the annals to 535 or 537, and the early hagiographies “all bring Patrick into contact with persons whose obits occur at the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth”.

  • 2008: Confession of Saint Patrick written by Saint Patrick was first published on November 26, 2008.

wiki/Saint_Patrick
Edward, the Black Prince (1330-1376), eldest son of King Edward III of England, circa 1360. Engraved by R. Godfrey from an original. (© Kean Collection/Getty Images)(1337) Edward, the ‘Black Prince,’ is England’s first duke
Beloved for his military heroism, King Edward III’s son, Edward of Woodstock, receives the first duchy granted in England, becoming Duke of Cornwall. The “Black Prince” will die before his father and never ascend the throne.
Edward of Woodstock KG, called the Black Prince, was the eldest son of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, and the father of King Richard II of England. He was the first Duke of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales and the Prince of Aquitaine.
Lived: Jun 15, 1330 – Jun 08, 1376 (age 45)
Spouse: Joan of Kent (m. 1361)
Children: Richard II of England (Son) · Edward of Angoulême (Son)
Buried: Canterbury Cathedral
Parents: Edward III of England (Father) · Philippa of Hainault (Mother)
Siblings: Joan of England (Sister) · John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (Brother) · Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (Brother) · Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (Brother) · Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
Highlights
  • 1341: In 1348 he was made a Founding Knight of the Garter.

  • 1360: The Poitiers Campaign in the Aquitaine-Loire region, which crippled the French army for the next 13 years, fomenting the anarchy and chaos which would cause the Treaty of Brétigny to be signed in 1360.

  • 1361: Edward gained permission for the marriage from Pope Innocent VI and absolution for marriage to a blood-relative (as had Edward III when marrying Philippa of Hainault, his second cousin) and married Joan on 10 October 1361 at Windsor Castle.

  • 1367: Peter of Castile, thrust from his throne by his illegitimate brother Henry of Trastámara, offered Edward the lordship of Biscay in 1367, in return for the Black Prince’s aid in recovering his throne.

  • 1372: In 1372, he sailed on an expedition with King Edward III but failed to land on the French Coast due to contrary winds.

  • 1376: Edward the Black Prince contracted an illness on this expedition that would ail him until his death in 1376.

wiki/Edward,_the_Black_Prince
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York, 1906 (© Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum)(1905) Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt marry
Arguably the most accomplished power couple in American political history is united in marriage, as Eleanor Roosevelt’s uncle Teddy gives away his niece at her wedding to a distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American politician, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, having held the post from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office, and served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements.
Lived: Oct 11, 1884 – Nov 07, 1962 (age 78)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Spouse: Franklin D. Roosevelt (m. 1905 – 1945)
Children: Elliott Roosevelt (Son) · Anna Roosevelt Halsted (Daughter) · James Roosevelt (Son) · Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. (Son) · John Aspinwall Roosevelt (Son) · Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (Son)
Education: The New School · Allenswood Academy (1899 – 1902)
Parents: Anna Hall Roosevelt (Mother) · Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (Father)
Highlights
  • 1905: Returning to the U.S., she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905.

  • 1905: Eleanor married Franklin on March 17, 1905 (St. Patrick’s Day), in a wedding officiated by Endicott Peabody, the groom’s headmaster at Groton School.

  • 1918: The Roosevelts’ marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin’s controlling mother, Sara, and after discovering an affair of her husband’s with Lucy Mercer in 1918, Roosevelt resolved to seek fulfillment in a public life of her own.

  • 1940: The Roosevelts’ marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin’s controlling mother, Sara, and after discovering an affair of her husband’s with Lucy Mercer in 1918, Roosevelt resolved to seek fulfillment in a public life of her own.

  • 1954: In 1954, Tammany Hall boss Carmine DeSapio led the effort to defeat Eleanor’s son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., in the election for New York Attorney General.

  • 1962: Eleanor and Miller’s relationship is said to have continued until her death in 1962.

wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt
Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister, is shown speaking at the United Nations, Oct 22, 1970. (© AP)(1969) Israel elects its first female prime minister
Golda Meir makes history as Israel’s first woman prime minister and only the fourth woman in the world to lead a national government. She will be nicknamed ‘The Iron Lady’ and hold office until she resigns five years later.
Golda Meir was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, stateswoman and politician and the fourth elected Prime Minister of Israel.
Lived: May 03, 1898 – Dec 08, 1978 (age 80)
Spouse: Morris Meyerson (m. 1917 – 1951)
Movies: Golda
Previous offices: Ministry of Interior (1970 – 1970) · Prime Minister of Israel (1969 – 1974) · Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1956 – 1966) · Labor Minister of Israel (1949 – 1956)
Children: Sarah Meyerson (Daughter) · Menachem Meyerson (Son)
Siblings: Tzipke Mabovitch (Sister) · Sheyna Mabovitch (Sister)
Highlights
  • 1913: In 1913 she had begun dating Morris Meyerson (Myerson).

  • 1916: She attended the teachers college Milwaukee State Normal School (now University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee), in 1916, and probably part of 1917.

  • 1917: When Golda and Morris married in 1917, settling in Palestine was her precondition for the marriage.

  • 1956: In 1956, she became Foreign Minister under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.

  • 1969: Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister.

  • 1978: On December 8, 1978, Meir died of lymphatic cancer in Jerusalem at the age of 80.

wiki/Golda_Meir
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Today in History 01/22/17

Queen Victoria's funeral procession in 1901 (© The Print Collector/Getty Images)(1901) Queen Victoria dies after 63-year reign
The Victorian Era comes to an end as the longest-reigning monarch in British history dies at 81, having ascended to the throne at 18. The Edwardian Era will follow as her son takes the throne.
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India.
Lived: May 24, 1819 – Jan 22, 1901 (age 81)
Height: 5′ 0″ (1.52 m)
Spouse: Albert, Prince Consort (m. 1840 – 1861)
Children: Edward VII (Son) · Victoria, Princess Royal (Daughter) · Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (Daughter) · Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (Daughter) · Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Parents: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (Father) · Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Mother)
Movies: Queen Victoria’s Last Visit to Ireland
Highlights
  • 1819: The Duke and Duchess of Kent’s only child, Victoria was born at 4.15 a.m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London.

  • 1830: In 1830, the Duchess of Kent and Conroy took Victoria across the centre of England to visit the Malvern Hills, stopping at towns and great country houses along the way.

  • 1835: At Ramsgate in October 1835, Victoria contracted a severe fever, which Conroy initially dismissed as a childish pretence.

  • 1840: During Victoria’s first pregnancy in 1840, in the first few months of the marriage, 18-year-old Edward Oxford attempted to assassinate her while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert on her way to visit her mother.

  • 1847: She did undertake her official government duties, yet chose to remain secluded in her royal residences—Windsor Castle, Osborne House, and the private estate in Scotland that she and Albert had acquired in 1847, Balmoral Castle.

  • 1888: Victoria’s eldest daughter became Empress consort of Germany in 1888, but she was widowed within the year, and Victoria’s grandchild Wilhelm became German Emperor as Wilhelm II.

  • 1901: She died on Tuesday, 22 January 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81.

wiki/Queen_Victoria
Drawing depicting the 1905 Russian Revolution 'Bloody Sunday' in St. Petersburg, Russia (© Archiv Gerstenberg/ullstein bild via Getty Images)(1905) ‘Bloody Sunday’ sparks Russia’s first revolution
Approaching St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace to petition Tsar Nicholas II, unarmed demonstrators are shot down by Imperial Guards. Hundreds are killed, sparking outrage and ultimately leading to revolution.
For the 1972 event in Northern Ireland, see Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday or Red Sunday is the name given to the events of Sunday, 22 January 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, when unarmed demonstrators led by Father Georgy Gapon were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
Date: 1905

wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)
Women demonstrating in New York in 1977 for legal abortions (© Peter Keegan/Keystone/Getty Images)(1973) US Supreme Court rules on Roe v. Wade
In a 7-2 ruling, the US Supreme Court decides in favor of the 14th Amendment’s right to privacy extending to a woman’s decision to have an abortion within the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. It was decided simultaneously with a companion case, Doe v. Bolton. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state’s interests in regulating abortions: protecting women’s health and protecting the potentiality of human life. Arguing that these state interests became stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion to the third trimester of pregnancy.
Start date: 1971
End date: 1973

wiki/Roe_v._Wade
Ted Kaczynski is escorted into federal courthouse in Helena, Mont., in 1996 (© Elaine Thompson/AP)(1998) The ‘Unabomber’ pleads guilty to charges
After 17 years making and sending mail bombs from his Montana cabin, Ted Kaczynski pleads guilty to federal charges stemming from his 1996 arrest, and will receive life in prison without parole.
Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski, also known as the “Unabomber”, is an American anarchist and domestic terrorist. A mathematical prodigy, he abandoned a promising academic career in 1969, then between 1978 and 1995 killed three people, and injured 23 others, in a nationwide bombing campaign targeting people involved with modern technology. In conjunction with this campaign he issued a wide-ranging social critique opposing industrialization and modern technology, and advancing a nature-centered form of anarchism.
Born: May 22, 1942 (age 74) · Evergreen Park, IL Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
Movies: The Net
Siblings: David Kaczynski (Brother)
Education: Harvard University · University of Michigan
Highlights
  • 1942: Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942, in Evergreen Park, Illinois, to second-generation Polish Americans, Wanda (née Dombek) and Theodore Richard Kaczynski.

  • 1971: In 1971, he moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water, in Lincoln, Montana, where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills in an attempt to become self-sufficient.

  • 1994: In 1994, Burson-Marsteller executive Thomas J. Mosser was killed by a mail bomb sent to his North Caldwell, New Jersey home.

  • 1996: In 1996, a docudrama was produced titled Unabomber: The True Story, featuring actors Dean Stockwell as Ben Jeffries, Robert Hays as David Kaczynski and Tobin Bell as Ted Kaczynski.

  • 1996: Kaczynski’s brother, David—who would play a vital role in Kaczynski’s capture by alerting federal authorities to the prospect of his brother’s being involved in the Unabomber cases—sought out and became friends with Wright after Kaczynski was detained in 1996.

  • 1996: In 1996 the Evergreen Park Community High School District No. 231 was also placed on lockdown while FBI agents searched Kaczynski’s school records.

  • 1996: In February 1996, Bisceglie provided a copy of the 1971 essay written by Ted Kaczynski to the FBI.

wiki/Ted_Kaczynski
3.2.j17

A Historical Day

(1831) Pioneering mountain man meets his end
1831 Jedediah Strong Smith, 32, has earned his middle name by surviving three massacres, a bear mauling, and travels through the vast wilds of the American West, including the unforgiving Mojave Desert. Exploring near the Santa Fe Trail in present day Kansas, Smith is killed by Comanche warriors..
(1905) First naval battle of its kind pits Russia vs. Japan
The first and only ‘decisive’ naval battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, and also the first in which radio communications play a decisive role, the Battle of Tsushima will result in a crushing blow to the mighty Russian Imperial Navy, as Japanese forces destroy almost their entire fleet.. 1905
(1943) A survivor’s incredible odyssey begins
1943 Former Olympic track runner and now US Army Air Corps bombardier, Louie Zamperini is shot down 850 miles south of Oahu, Hawaii. He will survive 47 days on the open ocean, only to be captured, imprisoned, and tortured in Japanese POW camps, all of which prove Zamperini is “unbreakable.”.
(1994) Banished son of Russia returns to his motherland
Winner of 1970’s Nobel Prize in Literature, author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to the homeland that exiled him for the very writing that garnered him acclaim. Communism’s fall now allows the author of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ to be reunited with a country he hasn’t seen for 20 years. . 1994