On This Day: December 01
Today's History Show Notes - Episode 45
It’s Antarctica Day, marking the signing of the Antarctic Treaty on this day in 1959.
It’s also National Pie Day and National Bartender Day. Now let’s get onto today’s history…
In Government…
In 1641, Massachusetts became the first of the US colonies to give statutory recognition to slavery. From Mass.gov:
“…slavery was legally sanctioned in 1641. During the colonial era, numerous laws were passed regulating movement and marriage among slaves, and Massachusetts residents actively participated in the slave trade. Historians estimate that between 1755 and 1764, the Massachusetts slave population was approximately 2.2 percent of the total population; the slave population was generally concentrated in the industrial and coastal towns.”
In 1824, election deadlock between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson led the House of Representatives to decide the outcome in favor of Adams. Isn’t questioning the outcome of elections unAmerican and a new phenomenon?
In 1842, Philip Spencer, the first US naval officer condemned for mutiny, was hanged aboard the USS Somers at the age of 19. And 42 years later in 1884, a gang of 80 Texan cowboys rose up against deputy sheriff Elfego Baca for arresting Charles McCarthy and, on this day in Baca held them off.
Moving into the 20th Century, in 1915, the US requested that Germany withdraw its military and naval attaches from their Embassy in Washington. Future CIA Director Stansfield Turner (1977-81) was born in 1923. In the middle of the century, the US began rationing gasoline in 1942. Pablo Escobar was born in 1949 and, in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested on this day for refusing to move to the back of a bus and give her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1989, Nadia Comăneci requested political asylum after arriving in NYC. It was granted to the five-time Romanian Olympic gold medalist. It’s important to give solid American advice to asylum seekers.
And in 1992, Amy Fisher was sentenced 5-15 yrs for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco. From Good Housekeeping in 2019:
“Following her release from prison in 1999, Amy stayed in Long Island and wrote newspaper columns and a book called If I Knew Then, according to A&E. Four years later, she married former New York City police officer Louis Bellera. Amy asserts that Louis guided her toward a career in the sex industry, a claim that Louis denied to the New York Post. The two divorced in 2015. Amy now has three kids.
Like Mary Jo and Joey, Amy has appeared on multiple TV segments and shows. She has legally changed her name and is now residing in Long Island after previously living in Florida with her kids, reports the Post.”
In world government history today:
800: Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican
1640: Portuguese coup against the Habsburgs; Portugal regains independence
1821: Santo Domingo coup; independence from Spain
1822: Dom Pedro becomes Pedro I, first crowned emperor of Brazil
1918: Iceland gains independence (sort of) under Danish crown
1931: Ottawa Royal Mint begins operation as Royal Canadian Mint
1934: Leningrad Mayor Sergey Kirov assassinated, Stalin capitalizes for Great Purge
1942: Britain publishes “The Beveridge Report” -- plans for a post-war welfare state
1948: Abdullah Trans Jordan named as King of Palestine
1965: South Africa declares children of white fathers are white
1973: David Ben-Gurion died
1991: Ukrainian people vote for independence
2018: Yellow-vest movement with 36,000 protesting across France
In Culture…
In the classical arts, Franz Liszt debuted as a pianist in Vienna in 1822 at age 11. Other moments on this day include:
1716: Etienne-Maurice Falconet was born (French Sculptor)
1761: Madame Tussaud was born (French Sculptor)
1887: Sherlock Holmes first appears in print as "Study in Scarlet"
1924: Gershwin's "Lady, Be Good!" musical opened in NYC
2018: UN declares Syrian shadow puppetry in urgent need of saving
Thank God for the UN.
Major Moments and Milestones
Robert W. Welch Jr., founder of the John Birch Society, was born on this day in 1899. The Game of Bingo was invented in 1929 by American toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe. In 1951, the Golden Gate Bridge closed due to high winds and, in 1998, Exxon announced they were buying Mobil for $73.7B (USD) and creating the world's largest company – energy and otherwise.
1896: First certified public accountants
1909: First Israeli kibbutz founded
1913: First drive-up gasoline station opened
1913: First moving assembly line in the world (Model T Ford)
1922: First skywriting over US – "Hello USA" by Capt Turner, RAF
1936: First Hydroponic plant patent
1952: First successful sexual reassignment operation
1953: First Playboy magazine; First Playboy centerfold (Marilyn Monroe)
1982: First artificial heart (Dentist Barney B Clark)
Maserati died in 1975 and, in 1996, Peter Bronfman died. Bronfman was a Canadian businessman and the former co-owner of Montreal Canadiens and Labatt Brewing.
Trust the Science
In 1783, Jacques Charles and Nicolas Roberts made the first untethered ascension in a gas hydrogen balloon in Paris. In 1866, Everest died.
But the most important moments in science today came in 1959 when 12 nations signed the Antarctic Treaty for scientific peaceful use of the continent. On the exact same day in the same year, the first color photograph of Earth was allegedly received from outer space. Trust the science.
In related deaths, Aleister Crowley died in 1947, and the British-Indian guy that came up with “primordial soup theory” J. B. S. Haldane died in 1964.
Teach the World to Sing
Musicians be crimin’ on this day in history. In 1960, Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested and then deported from Hamburg, Germany after being accused of attempted arson. Tupac Shakur was convicted on sexual assault charges in 1994, and was eventually sentenced to up 4 1/2 years in prison and, five years later in 1999, Jay-Z stabbed Lance "Un" Rivera at a NYC club.
There are a number of musical releases on December 1 throughout history, including:
1967: "Axis: Bold as Love" (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
1971: "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" (John and Yoko)
1972: "Hi, Hi, Hi" (Wings)
Finally, Blue Öyster Cult’s Eric Bloom was born in 1944 and, in 1988, Roy Orbison gave his final concert at The Front Row Theater in Cleveland. At least it wasn’t Detroit.
All the World’s a Stage
American murder victim Matthew Shepard was born on this day in 1976. In 2018, Egyptian actress Rania Youssef was charged for "inciting debauchery" – because of her outfit. And on the same day as the first successful sex change operation, decades later in 2020, Ellen Page became Elliot Page, coming out as trans.
There were also a lot of movie premieres today:
1903: "The Great Train Robbery" (First Western)
1956: "The Girl Can't Help It" (Musical Comedy)
1982: "Tootsie" (Trans Comedy)
1984: "Beverly Hills Cop" (Dramatic Comedy)
2003: "The Return of the King" (Fantasy)
2014 "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (Fantasy)
On the idiot box, in 1957, Seminal rock band Buddy Holly & The Crickets made their "Ed Sullivan Show.” More than 20 years later, the Sex Pistols were branded as “rotten punks'' for using profanity on TV. In 1985, the TV miniseries "Anne of Green Gables" premiered in Canada, based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
In non content-related idiot box history:
1988: First World Aids Day recognized
1994: Jim Bakker released from jail
1997: Westinghouse identifies as CBS
Entertainment birthdays today include:
1935: Woody Allen
1940: Richard Pryor
1945: Bette Midler
1970: Sarah Silverman
1986: Andrew Tate (Exhibitionist)
2003: Robert Irwin (Steve’s Kid)
In Death & Destruction…
Another slave ship sank today in 1768. The Fredensborg went down off Tromøy in Norway, and was rediscovered in 1974. In 1938, a school bus and train collided in Salt Lake City and, in 1974, the LA Skid Row slasher killed the first of eight victims.
In a more macro D&D update, in 2016, the UN admitted its peacekeepers were responsible for the 2010 cholera epidemic in Haiti that claimed the lives of 30,000 people. Other D&D today include busses, trains, and bombs:
1958: 92 students, 3 nuns killed in Our Lady of Angels School fire in Chicago
1972: 2 killed, 127 injured in 2 car bomb explosions in Dublin
1974: 92 killed in Boeing 727 crash in Virginia
1981: 180 killed in Yugoslavian charter flight crash in Corsica
1993: 18 killed in Northwest plane crash in Minnesota
2012: 8 killed, 36 injured after a bus overturned in Bolivia
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