On This Day: October 26
Today's History Show Notes - Episode 19
Today is National Mincemeat Day! That might not sound like a real thing in America, but in 15th-century England mixing spiced meat and fruit served as a way of preserving meat without salting or smoking. You can also get it in a jar, and I’m sure that it’s not at all gross.
We never did mincemeat pie, but my French Canadian grandmother made a delicious meat pie called Tourtiere – sans fruit so not mincemeat – and my mother makes it every year. I cannot give out the family recipe, but if you want to try it out, here is a solid recipe from All Recipes.
In case that’s a bridge too far for you, it’s also National Pumpkin Day.
Government
Before we talk about government history, as a side note, are you pro astrology or pro werewolf? For the record, he’s got his sides mixed up.
I grew up in Georgia, and until 1749, the Georgia Colony was unique among Britain’s American colonies. Shortly after its founding in 1732, in 1735, Georgia founders and trustees banned black slavery as a matter of public policy. Unfortunately, on this day in 1749, they reversed course and ruled slavery legal.
James Oglethorpe, Founder of the GA Colony (Photo: Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.
The decision followed a wave of settlers from other colonies relocating to GA and eventually griping about the oppressive restrictions of the British trustees. They slowly began to roll back restrictions, and unfortunately, they went too far. No person has the right to enslave another. The original settlers had the right idea.
Just 25 years later in 1774, the First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia, and on the same day in the same year, Minutemen organized in US colonies. It could be said that the earliest of the Minutemen were the Sons of Liberty, though they are historically classified as provocateurs and dissidents. I maintain that the American Revolution would not have happened without the Sons of Liberty.
Two years later in 1776, Benjamin Franklin left for France to convince the French to support the American Revolution. This was one of the first diplomatic missions of the American Revolution. That said, Benjamin Franklin was a strange one.
Moving to the Civil War, on this day in 1864, Union troops ambushed and killed William T. Anderson, a confederate guerilla known as "Bloody Bill" in Missouri. Bloody Bill earned this nickname for his gruesome deeds and high death count on the western front of the Civil War.
More than a decade after the Civil War ended, in 1881 on this day, occurred the most famous shootout in the Wild West: The Gunfight at the OK Corral. During this famous exchange, lawman Wyatt Earp took on a group of outlaws known as the Cowboys. The shootout lasted 30 seconds and left three dead and three injured.
Moving into the 20th century, in 1916 American eugenicist and white supremacist Margaret Sanger was arrested for obscenity when she was reportedly advocating birth control — no doubt to control the population of African Americans, a desire she promoted with pride when she spoke at KKK meetings. They should have killed her right there and then — think of how many babies of all colors would have been saved without this vile woman and her evil ideas.
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, another vile racist, had his veto of the Volstead Act — the National Prohibition Act — overridden by the US Senate in a vote of 65 to 20. From Senate.gov:
“The Eighteenth Amendment provided that the ‘Congress and the several states’ would have power to enforce Prohibition by legislation, but the sweeping Volstead Act left the states no room for local option or any other flexibility. Ironically, the law called for a vast increase in the federal government’s intervention in society just as ‘limited government’ advocates were coming into office. Prohibition corresponded with the presidencies of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, and with a parsimonious Congress that was reluctant to appropriate sufficient funds for effective enforcement of the Volstead Act.”
Before you go thinking Wilson was in favor of state’s rights, he wasn’t. He just wanted the people drunk and stupid. In case you need proof, Prohibition was overturned by the 21st Amendment, a campaign promise of FDR. Yes, that big federal government guy, FDR.
In 1949, President Harry Truman increased minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents, and in 2001, the United States passed the PATRIOT Act. Crazy how they had that thing ready to go by October!
Finally in US History, on October 26, 2020, the US Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
In World History today:
1918: Cecil Chubb gives Stonehenge to the British.
1951: Winston Churchill was re-elected as British Prime Minister.
1955: Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed Vietnam a republic with himself as President.
1956: Vietnam finalized its constitution.
1972: Henry Kissinger declared, "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam.
1994: Jordan and Israel signed a peace accord that is still in effect today, 29 years later. Peace is possible.
Culture
In 1861, the year the Civil War began, the Pony Express, which allowed for communication between Missouri to California, ended after 19 months — on this day — when the telegraph went mainstream.
In media and entertainment, in 1927 Duke Ellington released Creole Love Call on this day. Then 54 years later in 1981, Queen and David Bowie released "Under Pressure.” And in 1984, Terminator debuted in the US!
In sports on this day, in 1951, Rocky Marciano defeated Joe Louis by TKO in the 8th round at Madison Square Garden. Ostensibly for boxing related advisory, 37 years later in 1988, Donald Trump billed Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 months of consulting.
There were several innovative firsts on this day as well:
1858: Rotary washing machine patented
1940: P-51 Mustang’s Maiden flight
1954: Chevrolet Unveils the V-8 engine
1958: PanAm first transatlantic jet flight (NY to Paris)
1970: "Doonesbury" comic strip debuts
1972: Tours of Alcatraz began
Death & Destruction
Now that we’re done with culture, you know what time it is — it’s time for D&D! Everyone take a deep breath…
1859: 450 killed in a storm off the coast of Wales that took down over 100 vessels.
1985: 97 killed when Hurricane Juan hits the US.
2002: 150 hostages and 50 Chechen rebels died in the Moscow Theatre Siege.
2003: 15 died in the Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in Californian history.
2012: 41 killed and 50 injured by a suicide bombing of a mosque in Afghanistan
2012: 64 killed in West Burma sectarian clashes.
2012: 2 killed, $300M in damage when Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in the Bahamas.
2017: 47 killed, dozens injured in explosion at fireworks factory in Indonesia.
Birthdays
1854: C. W. Post (Cereal Bro)
1911: Mahalia Jackson (Gospel Singer)
1914: Jackie Coogan (Child Actor)
1946: Pat Sajak (Host)
1947: Hillary Clinton (War Criminal)
1963: Natalie Merchant (Musician)
1973: Seth MacFarlane (Producer+)
1996: Pasaye (Twin Anomaly)
Death Days
1879: Angelina Grimké (Natural Causes)
1902: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Heart Failure)
1952: Hattie McDaniel (Breast Cancer)
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!
I have made mincemeat with the meat from the neck of an elk. I make mincemeat cookies. Moist and delicious.