Today is National Dwarfism Awareness Day! According to the National Day Calendar:
“Every year on October 25, International Dwarfism Awareness Day celebrates little people. The day also spreads awareness for achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder that causes dwarfism. Achondroplasia means “without cartilage formation.” It occurs in one in every 15,000 to one in 40,000 live births. Those who have this condition are called dwarfs, which is why this condition is also called dwarfism. Other preferred ways to refer to those with achondroplasia include little people or people of short stature. One word little people do not like to be called is a midget. In 2015, Little People of America (LPA) issued a statement calling for the word to be abolished. They feel it is a derogatory slur to refer to people of short stature.”
It’s also National Greasy Foods Day – so go out and get some french fries!
Now let’s get into the history of October 25…
In Government…
Government is going to do what government does — attempt to coerce, then force, citizens to do it’s will. In 1452, most of Amsterdam, around 75%, was destroyed by fire. While the government attempted to influence citizens to rebuild with stone, they didn’t. As a result, on this day in 1521, Emperor Charles V banned wooden buildings in Amsterdam. But clearly he didn’t ban wooden shoes.
In a more tangible example for Americans, on this day in 1760, George III became the King of Great Britain. Twenty years later in 1780, after King George was defeated, John Hancock became the first Governor of Massachusetts.
Americans’ newfound freedom was immediately reigned in by authoritarians, however, and in 1829 Pennsylvania opened the world's first prison that relied entirely on solitary confinement for rehabilitation, the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It closed in 1971, and is now a museum.
It seems like every politician is a criminal these days but, as we’ve discussed many times on this show, there is nothing new under the sun. In 1923, the US Senate published its first report on the Teapot Dome scandal. Six years later, remarkably on the same day as the first report, former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in the scandal. Fall became the first ever US Cabinet member to go to jail. Compared to the crimes we now know of, the list of federal politicians to go to prison is way too short.
In 1960, Cuba nationalized all remaining US businesses in the country and, in 1962, US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demanded an answer about Soviet missile bases in Cuba from USSR UN representative Valerian Zorin. Stevenson is quoted as saying, answer "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over."
In “what were they thinking” history, in 1971, the United Nations voted to expel Taiwan and admit the Communist People's Republic of China instead. Three years later in 1974, almost as a prediction of things to come, the US Air Force fired the first ICBM. From the NY Times at the time:
“The Air Force, in a step toward development of a strategic missile with mobility in the air and on land, has successfully test fired for the first time an Intercontinental ballistic missile dropped from an airplane, the Defense Department announced today.”
History is full of commies and, in 1983, the US invaded Grenada, a nation just 1/2000 of the US population because, according to the Reagan administration, the Marxist regime there was a threat to the US nationals on the island. In hindsight, it was their relations with Cuba. From the History Channel:
“President Ronald Reagan, citing the threat posed to American nationals on the Caribbean nation of Grenada by that nation’s Marxist regime, orders U.S. forces to invade and secure their safety. There were approximately 1,000 Americans in Grenada at the time, many of them students at the island’s medical school. In little more than a week, Grenada’s government was overthrown.”
In 1986, South Africa was barred from a meeting of the International Red Cross and, as a result, South Africa removed the Red Cross from their nation. From UPI at the time:
“The Pretoria government ordered all 16 members of the International Red Cross mission to leave the country 'as quickly as possible' Sunday in reprisal for South Africa's ouster from a Red Cross conference in Geneva. The South African delegation was expelled from a meeting of the International Red Cross conference Saturday by a vote of 159-25 on a resolution from Kenya protesting its policy of apartheid, a method of racial separation.”
In 2004, Fidel Castro announced that transactions using the American Dollar would be banned by November 8. And in 2020, Chile overwhelmingly voted to scrap the constitution drafted during the reign of Augusto Pinochet.
Like I said, government is gonna government. We have to resist communism.
In Culture…
American culture has been a wild ride, and I’m not sure we’re in a good place. But it wasn’t always so insane. For example, in 1861 the first telegraph message was sent from St. Louis to San Francisco, and in 1870, postcards were first used in the USA – big day for communication! Just ask John Steinbeck who, on this day, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
In 1964, the first recorded football blooper, "The Wrong Way Run,” occurred when Viking Jim Marshall ran 66 yards in the wrong direction for a safety. Boy that’s embarrassing! In other embarrassing moments, in 1981, George Steinbrenner scuffled with two fans in a hotel elevator. According to the NY Times, he was cheerful despite his wounds:
“George Steinbrenner's lip was still swollen and his injured left hand throbbed inside its plaster cast this morning when the Yankees began their trip home, but the owner was in a chipper mood after what he described as a fight with two young men in a hotel elevator last night. ‘Where were you when I needed you?’ Steinbrenner asked Graig Nettles, the third baseman, who was involved in a fight with Reggie Jackson, the right fielder, 11 days ago in Oakland after the Yankees had swept the American League championship series. ‘You told us to go to bed early,' Nettles replied. 'There are other ways to get guys loose and this is the last time I'm doing it this way,' Steinbrenner said as he strolled through the chartered DC-10 listening to the players joke about their boss's misadventure.”
Media releases on this day included:
1975: “Still Crazy After All These Years," by Paul Simon
1978: "Halloween", starring Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut, is released
1995: "Victor/Victoria", starring Julie Andrews on Broadway
There were also many innovative firsts on October 25:
1906: Audion patented, a pioneering development in radio and broadcasting
1930: First scheduled transcontinental air service began
1955: Tappan sells first microwave oven
1960: First electronic wrist watch placed on sale in NYC
2017: First ichthyosaur fossil found in India
2018: First work of art produced by AI sells for $432,500
2021: Elon Musk made a record $25 billion in one day
2021: NASA claims to have detected the first planet outside our galaxy
Finally in culture, in 1988, ABC News reported on the popularity of pot bellied pygmy pigs' as pets. It’s better than literal vampire pot bellied goblins, though right?
In Death & Destruction…
It seems rough in the world today, and Joe Biden talking about it doesn’t make it any better, let’s be honest. But every day is a rough day when you look through the lens of history. Buckle up, folks.
1854: 100 killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade
1918: 398 died when the Princess Sophia hit a reef off Alaska
1935: 2,000 killed in Hurricane-produced floods in Haiti
1941: 16,000 Jews massacred in Odessa, Ukraine
1953: 26 die when coal mine in Belgium explodes
1957: Albert Anastasia, Cosa Nostra crime boss, murdered in a barber's chair
1993: One killed in Air Nigeria hijacking
2009: 155 killed, 721 wounded in Baghdad bombings
2012: 65 killed, $80M in damage when Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Cuba and Haiti
2013: 74 Boko Haram members killed in Nigeria
2016: 4 killed on a theme park ride at Dreamworld, Australia – Also, apparently this theme park – Nightmare World – didn’t learn a damn thing!
2018: 17 killed when school bus was washed away in flash floods near the Red Sea
Birthdays
Death Days
1760: George II (Aortic Dissection)
1806: Henry Knox (Chicken Bone)
1993 Vincent Price (Lung Cancer)
2002: Richard Harris (Hodgkin’s Disease)
2017 Fats Domino (Natural Causes)
On This Day is published Monday through Friday. Watch the Today’s History podcast weekdays at 12PM ET! Don’t forget to visit bootlegproducts.com and use coupon code MYAMERICA!
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