1925

Today in History 12/12 (Joel Roberts Poinsett)

Joel Roberts Poinsett (Courtesy of Wikipedia)(1851) Politician and diplomat Joel Poinsett dies
Joel Poinsett, who had served in the US House of Representatives and as Minister to Mexico, dies of tuberculosis. Poinsett had seen the Flor de Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve flower, in Mexico and sent samples of the plant back to the US—where it would become known as the poinsettia.
Joel Roberts Poinsett was an American physician and diplomat. He was the first U.S. agent in South America, a member of the South Carolina legislature and the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico, a Unionist leader in South Carolina during the Nullification Crisis, Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, and a co-founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts.
Lived: Mar 02, 1779 – Dec 12, 1851 (age 72)
Party: Democratic Party
Spouse: Mary Izard Pringle
Education: University of Edinburgh · Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
Children: William Allston Pringle (Son) · Edward J. Pringle (Son)
Parents: Dr. Elisha Poinsett (Father) · Katherine Ann Poinsett (Mother)
Highlights
  • 1800: In 1800 Poinsett returned to Charleston hoping to pursue a military career.

  • 1807: In January, 1807, Czar Alexander and Poinsett dined at the Palace.

  • 1816: In July 1816, Poinsett traveled to New York to meet Carrera.

  • 1818: After being re-elected to the South Carolina House in 1818, he became a member of the Committee on Internal Improvements and Waterways.

  • 1828: On 12 January 1828, in Mexico City, Poinsett signed the first treaty between the United States and Mexico, the Treaty of Limits, a treaty that recognized the U.S.-Mexico border established by the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty between Spain and the U.S.

  • 1851: He died of tuberculosis, hastened by an attack of pneumonia, in Stateburg, South Carolina, in 1851, and is buried at the Church of the Holy Cross Episcopal Cemetery.

Joel Roberts Poinsett, Secretary of War
TITLE: Joel Roberts Poinsett, Secretary of War CALL NUMBER: PGA – Fenderich, no. 182 (B size) [P&P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USZ62-23834 (b&w film copy neg.) RIGHTS INFORMATION: No known restrictions on publication. MEDIUM: 1 print. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [no date recorded on shelflist card]
wiki/Joel_Roberts_Poinsett
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(1851) Politician and diplomat Joel Poinsett dies.
Also on this day,

1925 | World’s first motel opens in San Luis Obispo, California
Arthur Heineman opens the Motel Inn in a town midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. As people began driving longer distances, Heineman sought to offer travelers a spot for the night beyond camping. Now, they could drive up to his “motor hotel” or “motel” and sleep in comfort.
1980 | Armand Hammer buys Da Vinci notebook for $5 million
At an auction in London, the oil tycoon outbids the room for a Leonardo da Vinci notebook, from around 1508, that contains notes and drawings about water and its properties. In 1994, the notebook will be on the block again, but this time it’ll go for $30.8 million.
2003 | Keiko, the orca star of ‘Free Willy,’ dies in Norwegian fjord
After a $20 million project to reintroduce him to the wild, Keiko succumbs to pneumonia off the coast of Norway. In captivity since he was a pup, Keiko never reintegrated with wild orca pods and continued to seek out human contact during his year and a half in the open ocean.

Today in History 12/12/17

This photo from 1942, provided by Boys Town, shows Boys Town founder Father Edward Flanagan, center, being surrounded by his charges (© Boys Town/AP)(1917) Father Edward Flanagan establishes Boys Town near Omaha
The 31-year-old Irish priest opens the doors to a Victorian mansion as a home for troubled boys. He starts out with just six kids, but numbers will quickly grow. Thanks to help from local citizens, Flanagan will move the home to a large facility outside of Omaha to serve more children.
Boys Town, formerly Girls and Boys Town and Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, is a non-profit organization dedicated to caring for its children and families, with national headquarters in the village of Boys Town, Nebraska. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated as a National Historic Landmark on February 4, 1985.
Founder: Edward J. Flanagan
Address: 14100 Crawford Street, Boys Town, NE 68010
Phone: (402) 498-1141
Opened: 1917
Tax ID: 47-0376606
CEO: Steven E. Boes (Since 2005)

Boys Town NFS
Nebraska Family Services building in "Boys Town", Nebraska, just outside Omaha. AKA Father Flanagan's Boys' Home , W. Dodge Rd., Boys Town, Nebraska. This is the general place that the movieBoys Town was based on. A National Registered Historic Place and National Historic Landmark.

wiki/Boys_Town_(organization)
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Today in History 07/10 (Scopes Trial)

(From left) Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan confer at the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 (© AP)(1925) Evolution goes on trial in Tennessee
Renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow defends John Scopes for the crime of teaching the theory of evolution, and former US Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan is counsel to the prosecution in a highly publicized and contentious court case that’s quickly branded ‘the Monkey Trial.’
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
Start date: 1925
End date: Jul 21, 1925
Judges sitting: John T. Raulston

Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial
William Jennings Bryan (seated at left) being interrogated by Clarence Seward Darrow, during the trial of the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 20, 1925. That Monday afternoon, because of the extreme heat, Judge Raulston moved court proceedings outdoors. The session was held on a platform that had been erected at the front of the Rhea County Courthouse to accommodate ministers who wanted to preach during the time of the trial. Defense lawyers for Scopes (John R. Neal, Arthur Garfield Hays, and Dudley Field Malone) are visible seated to the extreme right. One of the men at left, with his back to the photographer, appears to be Scopes. The court reporters are seated at the table. Creator/Photographer: Watson Davis Medium: Black and white photographic print Dimensions: 3 in x 4.25 in Culture: American Geography: USA Date: 1925 Persistent URL: photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?id=5269 Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives Collection: Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Trial Photographs – During 1925, Watson Davis (1896-1967), Science Service managing editor, took numerous photographs while covering the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes trial as a reporter. In what was dubbed “The Trial of the Century,” Scopes was tried and convicted for violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. William Jennings Bryan served on the prosecution team, and Clarence Darrow defended Scopes. Almost eighty years later, the nitrate negatives, including portraits of trial participants, and images from the trial itself and significant places in Dayton, were discovered in archival material donated to the Smithsonian by Science Service in 1971. Marcel C. LaFollette, an independent scholar, historian and Smithsonian volunteer uncovered these rare, previously unpublished photographs of the 1925 Tennessee vs. John Scopes “Monkey Trial” in the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA). In 2005, SIA restored fifty-two of the negatives with funds granted by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. Included here are thirty-nine of the images. All images belong to the Record Unit 7091: Science Service, Records, 1902-1965 collection of SIA. All photographs were taken by Watson Davis, Managing Editor of Science Service, while he was in Dayton, Tennessee, June 4-5, 1925, and July 10-22, 1925. LaFollette identified and dated each of these images, and has published a new book highlighting these and other images from the trial entitled, Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century, University Press of Kansas, 2008.
wiki/Scopes_Trial
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(1925) Evolution goes on trial in Tennessee.
Also on this day,

1553 | A 16-year-old begins her nine-day reign of England
By all accounts an exceptionally intelligent young woman, Lady Jane Grey has the misfortune of attaining the throne of England at a time when Catholics and Protestants are waging merciless power plays. She will last a scant nine days as queen before being imprisoned and later executed.
1890 | Wyoming becomes America’s 44th state
President Benjamin Harrison signs legislation making Wyoming the 44th state. The eastern part of the region had been acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase, and the western portion ceded to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War.
1913 | Aptly named Death Valley sizzles with record-smashing high
With hot spots like ‘Furnace Creek’ and ‘The Devil’s Golf Course,’ California’s Death Valley doesn’t surprise with a mercury rise, but the temperature today tops out at 134° F, the highest ever recorded on Earth, and a record that will stand more than a century later.