Tuesday April 8, 2014

KALW

Published April 8, 2014 at 6:17 AM PDT

On This Day In History
1525 --- Albert von Brandenburg, the leader of the Teutonic Order, assumes the title "Duke of Prussia" and passed the first laws of the Protestant church, making Prussia a Protestant state.

1789 --- The U.S. House of Representatives held its first meeting.
1862 --- John D. Lynde of Philadelphia patented the first aerosol dispenser.
1913 --- The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was ratified.

1916 --- At the Boulevard Race in Corona, California, an early racing car careens into a crowd of spectators, killing the driver and two others. At the time, racing events were still a relative rarity and the fatal accident helped encourage organizers to begin holding races on specially built tracks instead of regular streets. The first

organized race of "horseless carriages," as they were then called, was held in France in 1894. The winning speed was less than 10 miles per hour and the winner was disqualified because his steam-driven tractor was deemed not to be a practical vehicle. The first Grand Prix was held 12 years later.

1935 --- President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes almost $5 million to implement work-relief programs. Hoping to lift the country out of the crippling Great Depression, Congress allowed the president to use the funds at his discretion. The act was unprecedented and remains the largest system of public-assistance relief programs in the nation's history.

1941 --- Earle Graser, the eight-year voice of the radio program, The Lone Ranger, died in an auto accident. Brace Beemer, previously the show’s announcer, took over the title role and stayed on the air for 14 years.
1944 --- Russian forces led by Marshal Fedor Tolbukhin attack the German army in an attempt to win back Crimea, in the southern Ukraine, occupied by the Axis power. The attack would result in the breaking of German defensive lines in just four days, eventually sending the Germans retreating. Crimea was the territorial plaything of many great powers, from the Ottoman Turks to the Russia of Ivan III. It had declared its independence in 1918 but was occupied again by Germany in 1941. It was "liberated" by the Russians, only to find itself trapped within the greater Soviet Union. It once again declared itself an independent republic in the 1990s.

1950 --- Senator Joseph McCarthy labels Professor Owen Lattimore "extremely dangerous so far as the American people are concerned" in a carefully worded public speech, but stops short of calling him a Soviet spy. The speech was yet another example of McCarthy's ability to whip up damaging Red Scare hysteria with no real evidence.

1953 --- Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, is convicted by Kenya's British rulers of leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial government. An advocate of nonviolence and conservatism, he pleaded innocent in the highly politicized trial. One of modern Africa's first nationalist leaders, Kenyatta was a great defender of

Kenyan and African culture, and wrote eloquently on the plight of Kenyans under colonial rule. He played little part in the Mau Mau uprising of 1952 but was imprisoned for nine years along with other nationalist leaders. Upon his release in 1961, Kenyatta became president of the Kenya African National Union and led negotiations with the British for self-rule. In 1963, Kenya won independence, and in 1964 Kenyatta was elected president. He served in this post until his death in 1978.

1962 --- Bay of Pigs invaders were sentenced to thirty years imprisonment in Cuba.

1964 --- The Supremes recorded "Where Did Our Love Go." The song was their first No. 1 single.
1969 --- The Montreal Expos and the New York Mets played in Shea Stadium in New York in the first international baseball game in the major leagues.

1971 --- Chicago became the first rock group to play Carnegie Hall in New York City. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago scored big

with these hits: Make Me Smile, 25 or 6 to 4, Saturday in the Park, Old Days, Baby, What a Big Surprise, Hard to Say I’m Sorry and many others.

1974 --- It was one historic night in sports in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record by collecting his 715th round-tripper. Hammerin’ Hank trotted into baseball immortality as the Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7 to 4. Aaron's playing career spanned three teams and 23 years. He was with the Milwaukee Braves from 1954 to 1965, the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 1974 and the Milwaukee Brewers from 1975 to 1976. He hung up his cleats in 1976 with 755 career home runs and went on to become one of baseball's first African-American executives, with the Atlanta Braves, and a leading spokesperson for minority hiring. Hank Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

1975 --- Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians became first black manager of a major league baseball team.
1977 --- The Clash's self-titled debut album was released in Britain.
1986 --- Actor Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Eastwood won in a landslide victory, receiving 72.5 percent of the vote.
1988 --- Former U.S. President Reagan aid Lyn Nofzinger was sentenced to prison for illegal lobbying for Wedtech Corp.

1994 --- Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home outside Seattle, Washington, with fresh injection marks in both arms and a fatal wound to the head from the 20-gauge shotgun found between his knees. Cobain's suicide brought an end to a life marked by far more suffering than is generally associated with rock superstardom. But rock superstardom never did sit well with Kurt Cobain, a committed

social outsider who was reluctantly dubbed the spokesman of his generation. "Success to him seemed like, I think, a brick wall," said friend Greg Sage, a musical hero of Cobain's from the local punk rock scene of the 1980s. "There was nowhere else to go but down."

1994 --- Western nations prepare evacuation efforts as Hutu extremists in Rwanda conduct a genocidal massacre that kills hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis.

2002 --- Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama for her play "Topdog/Underdog."
2005 --- Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty to a series of bombings, including the fatal bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, in order to avoid the death penalty. He later cited his anti-abortion and anti-homosexual views as motivation for the bombings.

KALW NEWSLETTERS