All Things in Moderation

1992 – Boston Celtic great Larry Bird announces his retirement after a 13 year career. A 3-time NBA champion, 2-time NBA Finals MVP, and 3-time season MVP, Bird’s long-time rivalry with Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers is largely credited with reviving the moribund NBA of the 1970’s and propelling it to new found heights of popularity. I had never been an NBA follower, but found myself in Boston at the height of the Celtics success during the 1980’s and became a huge Bird and Celtic fan. He was a wonder to watch, both because of his talent and the arrogant self-confidence he exuded, typified by the story of his participation in the inaugural 3-point shooting contest at the 1986 All-Star game. Apparently all of the participants had been gathered in the locker room just prior to the event for a meeting with NBA officials, and Bird had not yet arrived. Finally he walked in, looked around the room and announced “Who’s coming in second?” One of my favorite Bird moments below. (BTW, check out those shorts.)

1991 – With the Soviet Union slowly disintegrating as a result of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, hard-line communists within his administration along with the heads of the Soviet army and the KGB launch a coup, placing Gorbachev under house arrest his Crimean vacation villa. Gorbachev refuses their demand for his resignation, and a state of emergency is declared with vice president Gennady Yanayev attempting to seize control of the government. The coup was thwarted in large part when Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who himself was inexplicably not detained, calls for a general strike to protest the coup, and rallies the people of Moscow to gather at the Russian White House. Major Evdokimov, chief of staff of a Tamanskaya tank battalion declares his loyalty to Yeltsin, providing Yelstin with a base to resist the coup. The coup eventually falls apart and Gorbachev is restored to power, but it accelerates the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with the emboldened Yeltsin asserting Russian independence, followed by most of the rest of the Soviet Republics. Within 5 months, the Soviet Union will officially cease to exist.

1963 – James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi. Meredith had one year earlier become the first African American admitted to the university, the result of a court order which had to be enforced over the objections of the university by US marshals sent to the school by President Kennedy. While Meredith’s enrollment was accompanied by violent protests including 2 deaths, his graduation ceremony was reported to be uneventful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIuSiip20U

1920 – The 19th amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote to women, officially becomes law when Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the amendment. Women had already gained the right to vote in only 15 states, and the ratification marks the culmination of nearly a century of the women’s suffrage movement. Susan B. Anthony, a major force behind the movement from the middle of the 19th century, did not live to see this day, having unfortunately died in 1906.

1872 – The first ever mail order catalog is issued by Aaron Montgomery Ward. The first catalog is a single 8″ by 12″ piece of paper, but within a decade it will grow into a 500 page book with over 20,000 items for sale.

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1998 – Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president in history to testify in front of a grand jury. The testimony arises out of an earlier deposition in which Clinton had lied about having a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, prompting Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr to charge Clinton with perjury. Clinton’s grand jury testimony becomes infamous for his parsing the meaning of the word “is”. Asked if he was lying when he had claimed that “there’s nothing going on between us,” Clinton says “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement.” The whole episode leads to Clinton’s becoming only the second president to ever be impeached, although he was eventually acquitted by the Senate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs

1987 – Rudolf Hess, the last living member of the Nazi inner circle, asphyxiates himself with a lamp cord in Spandau Prison. He was 93. The third highest ranking Nazi, behind Hitler and Hermann Goring, Hess was captured and imprisoned by the British in 1941 after he parachuted into Scotland in a bizarre and unauthorized attempt to negotiate a peace agreement with the British. Following WWII Hess was tried at Nuremburg with other high ranking Nazis, and was sentenced to life in prison. At the time of his death, he was the only remaining resident of Spandau Prison.

1978 – Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman complete the first ever transatlantic balloon flight when they land their craft, the Double Eagle II, in a barley field in France. The flight, covering 3,233 miles and taking 137 hours, had begun in Preque Isle, Maine, and is the 18th attempt to cross the Atlantic in a balloon. The crew itself had tried and failed to achieve the feet a year earlier in the Double Eagle I.

1974 – The Night Chicago Died by UK band Paper Lace tops the US charts. The song tells the story of Al Capone’s defeat at the hands of police in a street battle on the East Side of Chicago. No such battle ever actually took place, as Capone was in fact arrested and imprisoned on tax evasion charges, and indeed there is no “East Side” of Chicago, as the center of downtown Chicago sits on the west coast of Lake Michigan. Still, the song goes Platinum in the US, with more than 1 million in sales. The song is in fact the band’s second big hit, the first being Billy Don’t Be a Hero, although it was a cover version of Billy by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods that hit number 1 in the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryVh9BuwOs4

1933 – Yankee great Lou Gehrig plays in his 1,308th consecutive game, topping the previous consecutive game record held by Everett Scott. Gehrig, known as the Iron Horse, will go on to play in 2,130 consecutive games, eventually removing himself from the lineup on May 2, 1938, in response to symptoms of what will later be diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a rare disease that will go on to take Gehrig’s life and which, as a result, will come to more popularly be known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Gehrig’s streak, which will stand as a record for 57 years, almost came to an end 4 years earlier. Suffering from back pain on July 13, 1934, Gehrig is listed in the away game lineup as a shortstop rather than his normal first base, and after getting a hit in the top of the first inning, Gehrig is removed for a pinch runner having never played in the field.

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1977 – Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n Roll, is found dead on the bathroom floor of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis. He was 42 years old. Despite declining health in his final years, Presley continues to tour extensively, with 100 shows in 1976 and 55 more in 1977 before is death. (In fact he is scheduled to fly out on yet another tour the night of his death.) Overweight and taking numerous prescription drugs, there are times when he can barely remember the words he is supposed to sing. Still, his concerts continue to sell-out, and a reported 80,000 people line the streets for his funeral procession. Presley remains to this day the greatest selling solo artist of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JxrzO3sNTY

1974 – The Ramones make their first appearance at New York City’s famous music club CBGB. A vanguard of the punk rock genre, The Ramones find limited commercial success but are often hailed as one of the most influential punk rock bands ever, and even place 26 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 100 artists of all time list. I never got the attraction, to be honest, although I did find their 1979 movie Rock ‘n roll High School to be amusing when I was a teenager. And for some reason I find Blitzkreig Bop to be oddly likeable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYh1lRR1m6Y

1955 – US singer/entertainer and activist Paul Robeson is denied his appeal to force the US to issue him a passport. One of the most famous black entertainers in the world, he had become controversial for of his outspoken criticism of US civil rights policies and for his support for the Soviet Union, which included a tribute to “the great Stalin” upon the death of the Soviet dictator in 1953. His passport was initially denied in 1950 while he was investigated for communist ties, and while he was finally allowed to travel in 1958, he remained under FBI investigation until his death in 1976. As an entertainer, Robeson is perhaps most well known for his renditions of ‘Ol Man River.

1948 – Yankee and home run king George Herman “Babe” Ruth dies of cancer at the age of 53. Ruth had been a member of the early New York baseball dynasty of the 1920’s and 30’s, and held the record for most career home runs (714) for 39 years, until it was broken by Hank Aaron in 1974. Regarded as the first true sports celebrity, Ruth once famously quipped, when asked about the fact that he made more money than President Hoover, “I had a better year.” Ruth’s body lays in state in front of Yankee Stadium for 2 days, as more than 10,000 file past to see him for the last time.

1896 – While salmon fishing in Canada’s Yukon territory, George Carmack and his two companions discover gold in a creek bed near the Klondike River. Over the next two years “Kloondike fever” will run rampant and 50,000 people will travel to the area in search of gold, marking the last major gold rush of the American west. Among the 50,000 is a young man named Jack London, who fails to find gold but uses his experiences to become a renowned writer of short stories. Large scale mining would continue in the area until 1966, producing some $250 million in gold.

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1989 – In his 2nd start following treatment for a cancerous tumor in his pitching arm, Dave Dravecky of the league leading San Fransisco Giants breaks his arm while throwing a pitch to Tim Raines. Dravecky later retires from baseball after breaking his arm a second time during the Giants celebration following their pennant clinching victory, and will eventually have his left arm and shoulder entirely amputated. He is currently an author and motivational speaker. (The video of the break is out there, but it is included with some other gruesome injuries you probably don’t want to see.)

1979 – Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is released in theaters. Beset by all kinds of production problems including a change in the lead after one week of shooting (Harvey Keital as Willard was quickly dropped by Coppola), a heart attack in mid-film (Martin Sheen), unprepared starring actors (an overweight Marlon Brando ad libbed most of his role since he didn’t know his lines), and weather problems (a typhoon destroyed several of the sets), production costs soared and the release date was postponed several times. Coppola himself suffered a nervous breakdown. Still, the film was met with critical acclaim and garnered 6 Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Coppola later released a documentary of the making of the film, taken largely from home movies filmed by his wife, called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-eUEKmdg-E

1969 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival, advertised as “3 days of peace and music”, opens on the grounds of Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York on Friday, August 15. Although Bethel permit authorities are told to expect no more than 50,000 people, some 186,000 tickets are sold prior to the event. Unable to manage security for the expected numbers, the events organizers decide at the last minute to open the gates for free admittance, and at its peak about 400,000 people are in attendance. Thirty three different bands are scheduled to appear, including some of the top performers of the day such as Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and CSN&Y. The concert becomes a defining event of the 1960’s and the decade’s youth culture. The final act, former army paratropper Jimi Hendrix, finished up Monday morning and included this now historic nod to his country.

1945 – Japan’s Emperor Hirohito takes to the radio for the first time ever and announces Japan’s unconditional surrender. This is the first time his voice has ever been heard by the vast majority of Japanese citizens. Noting that “the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable”, the Emperor says that “Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.” Although Japan’s official surrender will not be signed until early September, August 14-15 (US/Japan time zones) is generally accepted as V-J Day.

1914 – After 30 years of of digging, first by the French and later by the US, the Panama Canal is officially opened to commercial traffic, cutting the time it takes ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in half. While the canal was originally completed and owned by the United States, it reverted back to Panamanian control in 1999. Interestingly, owing to the geography of Panama, traveling through the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific will have one traveling eastward, not westward.

Famous Birthdays – Napoleon Bonaparte (1769), T.E. Lawrence (1888), Julia Child (1912), Ben Affleck (1972)

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2003 – At 4:10pm, power across 8 US states and parts of Canada goes out, resulting in the second most widespread blackout in history. The blackout extends from Massachusetts all the way to Michigan and into Ontario, Canada, effecting more than 55 million people across the two countries. Although power is restored to some areas by 11pm, it takes 2 days for power to be fully restored to all areas. An investigation later reveals that it was triggered simply by lines in Ohio coming into contact with trees, and a faulty alarm system that failed to promptly alert technicians to transfer power from the overloaded lines, resulting in a cascading overload that eventually brought down the whole system. I was in London at the time, but my colleagues often reminisce about the night they slept in the office because it was the only place that had power (backup generator) and hence AC in the 90 degree heat.

1994 – Illich Ramirez Sanchez, a Venezuelan terrorist more commonly known as Carlos the Jackal, is finally captured after more than 20 years of terrorist activity across Europe and the Middle East. Implicated in a number of assassination attempts, hostage takings, and bombings, Sanchez is eventually tried and imprisoned in France for the 1975 murder of two Paris policemen and Michel Moukharbal, a Mossad agent who had identified Sanchez to the policemen. With the assistance of local authorities, Sanchez was captured in Sudan, where he had been given asylum after being expelled from Syria in 1991. After a minor operation, Sanchez was tranquilized by his bodyguards while he slept, and handed over to the French. He remains in a French prison, his most recent appeal having been denied on June 26, 2013.

1935 – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law the Federal Ponzi Scheme Social Security Act. The act provides benefits to both retirees and the unemployed, to be funded by a special payroll tax imposed on both employees and employers. It is a bold assertion of heretofore unknown federal power, but legal challenges are eventually defeated in a SCOTUS 5-4 decision, one of several decisions to uphold New Deal legislative efforts that reversed an earlier trend of New Deal courtroom defeats, a reversal that coincidentally came after Roosevelt proposed legislation that would allow him to essentially pack the Supreme Court with his own justices, diluting the power of the sitting justices.

1945 – Word of Japan’s impending surrender to the Allies sparks a coup in Japan, with over 1,000 Japanese troops storming the Imperial Palace in an attempt to prevent the surrender proclamation from being announced. Troops loyal to the Emperor repulse the attacks, and the Emperor delivers the proclamation the following day. (More on which tomorrow!)

1765 – Colonists gather on the corner of Essex Street and Orange Street (later Washington Street) under an Elm tree in Boston to protest the passage of the Stamp Act, an act of the British Parliament that required colonists to purchase a British stamp for every official document obtained. The protestors hung an effigy of the local stamp-duty collector in the tree, the first public act of defiance for those who would later call themselves “Sons of Liberty” (sexists that they were), and the beginnings of the movement that would grow into the American independence movement and eventually the American Revolution. The tree, from then on to be named the Liberty Tree, became a symbol of American protest against the British, but would eventually be cut down by loyalists in 1775 when the Continental Army laid siege to the British occupied city.

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August 13 is an incredibly boring day in history. Only a couple of things worthy of note.

1982 – Cameron Crowe’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High opens in theaters across the nation. Based on Crowe’s book of the same name chronicling his undercover experiences in a San Diego high school, the film features a slew of soon-to-be household names, including Nicholas Cage, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Forest Whitaker, Phoebe Cates, Anthony Edwards, Judge Rheinhold, and most famously Sean Penn as the stoner Jeff Spicoli.

1925 – Cuban strongman Fidel Castro is born in the eastern Cuban province of Oriente. Castro will successfully lead the overthrow of the Batista government in 1959, and will survive as the dictator of Cuba until he steps down, passing power to his brother, in 2008.

1899 – Legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock is born in London. Hitchcock is best known for his suspense-thrillers as well as for his unique use of camera angles and editing techniques in order to build tension. Hitchcock also makes quick cameo appearances in all of his films, making for an interesting game of trying to find where he appears in each film. See if you can find Alfred in the opening credits of North by Northwest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxjwurp_04

1521 – After a 3 month siege, Hernan Cortes and his Spanish conquistadors finally capture the capitol of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan. The fall of the city effectively marks the end of the Aztec Empire, which lasted just under 100 years.

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