History Shows Mistakes Made

History gives us a great view of the past. And looking back at the past it’s obvious that some things that were considered right and accepted would now be considered way out of our character. There has always been wrong decisions made, even by the Supreme Court. One those was made on May 18, 1896 with their Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

As a result of this case the concept of ‘equal, but separate’ became acceptable by upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation in public accommodations (particularly railroads).

The case began as a result of a Louisiana Law that that required separate but equal accommodations for African Americans and Whites on railroads. The Citizen’s Committee to Test the Separate Car Act was formed by both whites and blacks and they enlisted Homer Plessy, who was 1/8 black, but under Louisiana Law considered black, to get arrested for sitting in the ‘White’ car.

The case was heard by Judge John Howard Ferguson who ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies as long as they operated within state boundaries and therefor not in violation of either the 13th or 14 amendment.

The Supreme Court with a ruling of 7-1, Justice David Josiah Brewer did not hear the case, allowed for the law to stand and made public policy the separation of the two races. Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only one to dissent and he predicted the court’s decision would become infamous. He wrote:

But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.

The Supreme Court overruled the Plessy decision on May 17, 1954 as part of the Brown v. Board of education case. The Brown case was presented to the court by future justice Thurgood Marshall, who was working for the NAACP. Unanimously the Supreme Court ruled that segregation violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

Rodgers and Hart

Richard Rodgers is perhaps the greatest American musical composer. His greatest fame came with his work with Oscar Hammerstein II and the many musicals they were involved with in the mid 20th Century. The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma, South Pacific and many more.

But Rodgers had been a successful composer long before his work with Hammerstein. In 1919 at the age of 16 me met Lorenz Hart when they worked together to write songs for an amateur club show. Their first broadway show opened on May 17, 1925 at the Garrick Theatre. The show was called the Garrick Gaieties.

Lorenz Hart was born in 1895 to a Jewish German immigrant family in Harlem, New York. To nearly all, but his mother, he was called Larry.

When the motion pictures began to talk in the late 20′s, many broadway performers and writers went to Hollywood. The song writing team of Rodgers and Hart were included in those ranks. It was in Hollywood in 1934 that they wrote Blue Moon.

By 1935, the team was brought back to Broadway by Billy Rose to write the the songs for his production, Jumbo. Between 1936 and 1943 the team worked on 8 musicals among them Babe in Arms and Pal Joey.

The final collaboration between Rodgers and Hart was the revival of their A Connecticut Yankee. The show included six new songs by the team and opened on November 17, 1943. By this time Rodgers had already began working with Hammerstein. Hart had been ill while they worked on the project. He developed pneumonia and died on November 22, 1943.

Olga Korbut – Darling of the 1972 Olympics

The 1972 Summer Olympics had some very memorable events. There was the sad, the deaths of the Israeli athletics and the enjoyable, the seven Gold Medals won by American swimmer, Mark Splitz. But the show stopper was the young Gymnastic from Belarus, part of the the Soviet Union, Olga Korbut.

Olga Korbut was born on May 16, 1955. She began her training at the age of 8 and at 11 enter a sports school headed by former Olympian Renald Knysh.

In 1972 many of Gymnastic Athletics were older then the 17 year old Korbut. Her success, especially with her acrobatic routines on the uneven parallel bars and balance beam, caused a change in the sport. There was a focus prior to 1972 on elegance, afterwards it was more focused on athleticism.

In 1972 she won 3 Gold metals, the team Gold and two individual Gold in Balance Beam and Floor Exercise. Amazingly she finished only with the Silver for the Uneven Bars, it was her performance on the Uneven Bars during the team competition that wowed those in attendance and watching on TV. She missed the mount on the bars and this caused her to fall to second.

She returned to the 1976 games and again won a Gold metal for Team competition and a Silver in the Balance beam. The 1976 games had Nadia Comeneci as the darling of Gymnastics.

The Stonewall Dies

The American Civil War may have been decided on May 10, 1863. It was on that day that General Thomas Jonathan Jackson died from complications of pneumonia eight days after he was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. (May 2, 1863) His death was for certain a setback for the Confederate Army affecting its military leadership as well as the morale of its army.

He was wounded by friendly fire. One the moon lite evening of May 2nd he rode out onto the plank road to determine the feasibility of a night attack. As hhe and his staff was returning they were incorrectly identified as Union cavalry by men of the Second Corps who opened fire. The wound itself was not life-threatening although his arm was amputated

Jackson, who had gained the nickname Stonewall at the First Battle of Bull Run, is considered one of the most gifted tactical commanders in United States history. General Robert E. Lee considered the lost of Jackson to be just like losing his right arm.

Thomas Jackson was the third child of Julia Beckwith (née Neale) Jackson (1798 – 1831) and Jonathan Jackson (1790 – 1826). Both of Jackson’s parents were natives of Virginia and were living in Clarksburg, in what is now West Virginia. He was named for his maternal grandfather.

Jackson was appointed to the United States Military Academy in the summer of 1842, at the age of eighteen years old. His appointment came due to another cadet, Gibson Butcher, who had resigned after one day of service. Jackson replaced him in the class. Four years later on June 30, 1846 he left as a commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant.

He was 17th in his class of 59. Included in the class was Union General George B. McClellan, who was 2nd, and Confederate Generals Ambrose Powell (A.P.) Hill and George Edward Pickett, who was last. In all the class had 20 men who became Generals with 19 of them serving in the Civil War, 10 on the Union side and 9 for the Confederates.

Author James Jones – He Wrote About WWII and More

James Ramon Jones was born in Robinson, Illinois on November 6, 1921. He was the second son of Ramon and Ada Jones. His older brother his older brother was George W. He also had a younger sister, Mary Ann.

On November 10, 1939, three days after his eighteenth birthday he enlisted in the United States Army. One of his first assignments was with the air corps (it later became the US Air Force) and was shipped to Hickman field in Hawaii. In 1940 he transferred to 27th Infantry, which was at Schofield Barracks, also located in Hawaii. He was at Schofield when Japan attacked in December 7, 1941.

He left Hawaii on December 6, 1942 to be stationed on Guadalcanal. He was there during the Japanese attack and from those experiences he wrote The Thin Red Line. To many it is the best book about WWII.

Even before the war he had dreams of being a writer. After the war he was able to work with Maxwell Perkins, Thomas Wolfe’s editor. Jones admired the work of Wolfe. He first novel was From Here to Eternity, based on his experiences in Hawaii prior to the attack of December 7, 1941. It was published in 1951 and made into a movie in 1953. The movie won Best Picture Oscar.

Jones went on to complete what he called his WWII trilogy with The Thin Red Line in 1961 and Whistle in 1978. The central characters are actually the same in all three books, though their names were somewhat altered. From Here to Eternity features Warden and Prewitt, who become Welsh and Witt in The Thin Red Line and Mart Winch and Bobby Prell in Whistle. Similarly, Corporal Fife in The Thin Red Line reappears as Marion Landers in Whistle, as does the cook, Storm, who becomes Johnny “Mother” Strange.

While working to finish Whistle, Jones died of congestive heart failure on May 9, 1977. Knowing that he had little time remaining, but wanting to finish the novel at times he worked 14 hours a day on it. When he died he had completed all but the final three chapters. Those chapters were completed by Willie Morris based on notes and taped conversation that Jones had already written.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola was first sold on May 8, 1886 at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. It was sold as a patent medicine for 5 cents. At the time carbonization was thought to good for heath. For the first few months only a few glasses were sold each day.

The formula was created by John Sith Pemberton. It was originally a cocawine, an alcoholic beverage that combined wine and cocaine. In 1886 Georgia introduced Prohibition which forced him to replace the wine with non-alcoholic syrup.

When Pemberton began work on a coca and kola (cola) nut beverage, his intention was to develop a product to stop headaches and calm nervousness. It’s also thought that he was trying to create a pain reliever for himself and other wounded Confederate veterans.

The famous Coca-Cola logo was created in 1885 by Frank Mason Robinson. Robinson at the time was Pemberton’s bookkeeper. Not only did Robinson name the product he was the one who chose the logo’s distinctive cursive script, a typeface known as Spencerian script.

Coca-Cola used the imagine of Santa Claus so well in some of their ads of the early 20th century, some have credited them with the invention of the modern Santa Claus, the Jolly Old Elf in the red suit. That image was common by the time and derives greatly from the 19th century drawings of Santa Claus by Thomas Nast.

In 1971 Coca-Cola started to use an advertising jiggle called, ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sings.’. The song was written by roger cook, Roger Greenaway, Bill Backer and Billy Davis. The jiggle was so popular that it was recorded by the New Seekers and became a Number 1 hit.

Lorenz Hart

May 2nd is the anniversary of the birth of Lorenz Hart. Many many not know the name, but few don’t know at least one of the many songs he wrote along with Richard Rodgers during the 1920′s, 30′s and into the 40′s. He wrote the lyrics to Blue Moon, The Lady Is a Tramp, Where or When, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, Falling in Love with Love, My Funny Valentine and many others.

Lorenz Hart was born in 1895 to a Jewish German immigrant family in Harlem, New York. To nearly all, but his mother, he was called Larry.

In 1919, he met the 16 year old Richard Rodgers when they worked together to write songs for an amateur club show. Their first broadway show opened on May 17, 1925 at the Garrick Theatre. The show was called the Garrick Gaieties.

When the motion pictures began to talk in the late 20′s, many broadway performers and writers went to Hollywood. The song writing team of Rodgers and Hart were included in those ranks. It was in Hollywood in 1934 that they wrote Blue Moon.

By 1935, the team was brought back to Broadway by Billy Rose to write the the songs for his production, Jumbo. Between 1936 and 1943 the team worked on 8 musicals among them Babe in Arms and Pal Joey.

The final collaboration between Rodgers and Hart was the revival of their A Connecticut Yankee. The show included six new songs by the team and opened on November 17, 1943. Hart had been ill while they worked on the project. He developed pneumonia and died on November 22, 1943.

Thomasina Winifred Montgomery aka Tammi Terrell

Tammi Terrell died from a brain tumor in 1970 at the young age of 24 and with that the career of a R&B and soul singer ended. Had she not died she would probably be mentioned along with Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin as soul greats. Even though her career was short her duets with Marvin Gaye, another performer whose career was shorten with a tragic early death, still are played on radio everyday.

Tammi Terrell was born on April 29, 1945 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Her birth name was Thomasina Winifred Montgomery. By the time she was 13 she was performing live and signed with Scepter Records in 1961 using the name Tammy Montgomery.

Between 1961 and 1964 she recorded songs for three different labels. Scepter Records, where she was first signed, Try Me Records, which was owned by James Brown and Checker Records. Berry Gordy signed her to his Motown label in 1965.

After a pair of singles that were only of moderate success, Motown teamed her with Marvin Gaye. She recorded as a duo with him singing songs composed by the husband and wife team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

On October 14, 1967 just as the team of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were reaching the top of the charts and recording their second album, Tammi Terrell collapsed during a concert at Hamden-Sydney College in Virginia. Shortly afterward she would be diagnosed with the brain tumor that would take her life a few years later on March 16, 1970.

In all the duo would release three albums. Some of the songs on the albums were songs that Terrell recorded as a solo act and the Gaye vocals were overdubbed at a later time. It is even rumored that Valerie Simpson recorded many of the vocals credited to Tammi Terrell on the duo’s third and final album Easy.

Shores of Tripoli

A line in the Marine Corp. Hymn goes;

“From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli”

The shores of Tripoli refer to the Battle of Derne which occurred on April 27, 1805 as part of the First Barbary War. An attachment of Marines under the command of Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon lead an attack on the city. By the end of the day an American flag was flown over the fortification. This was a first in American history.

Tripoli is the largest city in Libya. The city is a major sea port and in the early 19th century the area was prone to piracy. It was because of these practices that a naval force was sent from the United States to blockade Tripoli. Something that really hasn’t changed much in modern times.

The Barbary Wars gave the United states a better military reputation. Prior to this there had been little to no military action by the Americans outside of their own country. This showed the World that they could fight a war away from home.

Located at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland is The Tripoli Monument. It was carved of Carrara marble in Italy in 1806 and brought to the United States as ballast on board the USS Constitution. It is the oldest military monument in the U.S. The monument honors the heroes of the First Barbary War: Captain Richard Somers, Lieutenant James Caldwell, James Decatur, Henry Wadsworth, Joseph Israel, and John Dorsey.

For those who may be wondering the “Halls of Montezuma” refer to the Battle of Chapultepec which took place near Mexico City in September 1847 during the Mexican-American War.

Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess, born April 26, 1894, can be considered one of Adolf Hitler’s many henchmen. In the early days of the Nazi Party as one of Hitler’s deputies he rose to the ranks of third in the German leadership behind Hitler and Hermann Göring.

On May 10, 1941 he left Germany suddenly for Scotland. His intention was to negotiate peace with the British a country in which he was not completely in favor of being in War.

Instead he was captured and imprison. Hess was declared insane by a bewildered Hitler, and effectively disowned by the Nazis.

He was tried at Nuremberg and in spite of his mental condition was sentenced to life in prison. He committed suicide on August 17, 1987 at age 92, the last of the prisoners tried at Nuremberg.

Although there are some who don’t believe he committed suicide. He was discovered with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck in a secure area of Spandau Prison. He also had severe arthritis in his fingers and needed assistance for small things such as tying his shoes.

Spandau Prison was constructed in 1876. After the end of World War II it was used to house the seven Nazi war criminals sentenced to imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials. After the death of Hess it was demolished in 1987 in part to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.