The Paducah Plane Jumper on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: A man fell to his death on this day in 1991 after clinging to the rear landing gear on an airplane after take-off at an airport in Paducah Kentucky.

On the evening of September 30, 1991, a young man approached an airport worker named Wes Weaver at Barkley Regional Airport in Paducah, Kentucky. The man said that needed to get out West in a hurry. He asked if he could trade his jacket in exchange for a flight. Wes believed that the man may have been involved in something criminal and was running from something. He did not believe that the man was crazy, nor did he believe he was on drugs or alcohol. He just seemed desperate. Wes told him that he could not help him and asked him to leave. He stood around for awhile, then went back through the hangar and left.

"What began as an odd encounter soon evolved into a tragic and perplexing mystery. Thirty minutes after Wes's initial encounter with the man, he saw him again while driving near the airfield. He watched as the man ran across a ditch, jumped onto the airport fence, climbed over it, and ran towards a plane sitting on the runway....the man had jumped onto a plane and then fell from it to his death. No identification of any kind was found on or near the body." Source

This case was solved in 1997 when a woman saw a rerun of the episode featuring this person on Unsolved Mysteries. The man was identified as Brian Duecker and according to his family he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. "Due to his schizophrenia, he was unable to hold down a job and often thought that people were following him. He also had difficulty separating his imagination from reality. It is believed that his mental issues may explain why he acted strangely at the airport and later jumped onto the plane." Source

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The Chevrolet Camaro on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Chevy Camaro first went on sale on this day in 1966. The original Camaro’s standard straight-6 engine delivered 140 horsepower. It currently delivers 323 horsepower. The 2015 Camaro ZL1 has 580 horsepower.

The Camaro is classified as a pony car and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. Pony cars are smaller than muscle cars. Muscle cars, like the Dodge Charger and Chevy Impala had the large V-8 motors. The Pony Car started with the Ford Mustang, and the popularity of that car lured other car manufacturers to make their own pony cars, like the Camaro, the Dodge Challenger, the Plymouth Barracuda and the old Mercury Cougar. 

The Camaro was discontinued in 2002 but revived 7 years later. "Before a new production version of the Camaro was even ready, the car appeared in the first of the Transformers movie series as the character Bumblebee.

A one-time version of the car had to be created for the film, and designers used existing concepts for the upcoming 2010 model to get the job done.

The role was a perfect match as the Camaro was well known for its bumblebee nose stripe back in the day. The stripe was originally offered on the Camaro in 1967 as part of the SS package." Source

Other movies that feature the Camaro are Gumball Rally, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Black Dog, Charlie's Angels (2000), Aloha, Bobby and Rose and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

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The Spaghetti House Siege on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: The Spaghetti House siege began on this day in 1975, at the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, London. Franklin Davies, a Nigerian student, led two other gunmen in an attempted armed robbery of the Spaghetti House, where managers of the chain had assembled to pay in the week's takings of approximately £13,000. When the armed robbery did not go as planned, nine Italian staff members were taken hostage, and moved into the basement. Another staff member escaped and raised the alarm, leading to a siege of six days.

The Metropolitan Police Service surrounded the restaurant and cordoned off the area. The gunmen, claiming to represent the Black Liberation Army, a Black Panther splinter group, demanded safe passage and an aircraft out of the country to Jamaica. Due to this being a sensitive issue Sir Robert Mark, the then Commissioner, consulted with the Home Office and refused.

The siege lasted for six days. The demoralized robbers and their captives emerged unharmed. The perpetrators, 28-year-old Nigerian student and ringleader Franklin Davies, 24-year-old West Indian man Wesley Dick and 22-year-old West Indian man Anthony Gordon Munroe were sentenced to 22, 18 and 17 years in prison respectively.

According to W. A. Tupman in Violent Business?: Networking, Terrorism And Organized Crime: "Subsequently, at the trial it was claimed that the BLA did not exist and the accused were simply criminals who wished to rob the restaurant for personal gain. It was frequently said at the time among cannabis users that 'If you want to buy dope North of the river [Thames], you have to deal with the IRA. South of the river it's the Black Liberation Army.' The author heard this said before the Spaghetti House Siege ever happened."

Subsequently a number of works were produced based on the siege, including books, documentaries, and at least one film, Spaghetti House, a 1982 Italian comedy-drama.

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The Wreck of the Old 97 on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: One of the most famous rail disasters happened on this day in 1903: The Wreck of the Old 97. Officially known as the Fast Mail, which ran from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina, the train derailed due to excessive speed in an attempt to maintain a schedule. 

The train derailed at the Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, where it careened off the side of the bridge, killing 11 on-board personnel and injuring seven others.

The disaster inspired several songs, the most famous being the ballad first recorded commercially by Virginia musicians G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter. Vernon Dalhart's version was released in 1924 (Victor Record no. 19427), sometimes cited as the first million-selling country music release in the American record industry, with Frank Ferera playing guitar and Dalhart playing harmonica. Since then, "Wreck of the Old 97" has been recorded by numerous artists, including Dalhart himself in 1924 under the name Sid Turner on Perfect 12147, The Statler Brothers (feat. Johnny Cash), Charlie Louvin of The Louvin Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Hank Williams III, Patrick Sky, Nine Pound Hammer, Roy Acuff, Boxcar Willie, Lonnie Donegan, The Seekers, Ernest Stoneman & Kahle Brewer, Carolyn Hester, Hank Thompson, John Mellencamp, Pink Anderson, Lowgold, Chuck Ragan, and David Holt. The music was often accompanied by a banjo and a fiddle, while the lyrics were either sung, crooned, yodeled, whistled, hummed, recited, or chanted. The song rivaled that of "Casey Jones" for being the number one railroading song of all time.

The Fast Mail was in another fatal accident earlier in the year of 1903. On Monday, April 13, the train left Washington at 8:00 a.m., en route to New Orleans. As the train approached Lexington, North Carolina, it collided with a boulder on the track, causing the train to derail and ditch, killing the engineer and fireman. The locomotive that was pulling the train is unknown. 

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The Beatles Abbey Road Album on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Abbey Road, the last recorded album by The Beatles, was released on this day in 1969. There are many mysteries surrounding the album cover. Paul is barefooted, and although he is left-handed, he is holding a cigarette in his right hand. There were a lot of "Paul is dead" conspiracies at the time so this only enhanced that narrative. On the back cover, we see the band’s name written in tiles on a wall and there’s a crack running through it, symbolizing the band's break-up.

Also: "For the only time in their career, The Beatles presented the world with an album cover that didn’t feature their name, or the title of the LP at all. Designer John Kosh claimed that EMI bosses were furious, but argued: 'The biggest band in the world, you don’t have to say who they are - everyone knows who they are.'" Source

Although the album was an immediate commercial success, it received mixed reviews. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticized the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and rank it as one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison's two songs on the album, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", have been regarded as some of the best he wrote for the group.

Since its release on September 26, 1969, the Album has sold nearly 27.5 million copies worldwide.

The Beatles still sell a ton of albums. "The Liverpudlian rockers were the sixth-bestselling album artist of the past decade, selling 10.3 million “pure” albums (not including album-equivalent units derived from streaming or individual song downloads). They were also the 10th-bestselling artist of 2019 in terms of total consumption, moving 2.26 million album-equivalent units, including over 2.6 billion on-demand audio streams." Forbes

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Eccentric Pianist Glenn Gould on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould was born on this day in 1932. His Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 is one of my favorite piano pieces ever. 

He was also quite eccentric: The piano had to be set at a certain height and would be raised on wooden blocks if necessary. A small rug would sometimes be required for his feet underneath the piano. He had to sit exactly fourteen inches above the floor, and would play concerts only while sitting on the old chair his father had made. He continued to use this chair even when the seat was completely worn through.

He was a hypochondriac and hated being touched. "He took many pills everyday to take care of health issues that he felt needed to be catered to; the medicines would clash with each other producing side effects that Gould would fight taking more medicines, in a vicious circle that only ended with his death." Source

He was a recluse and later in life would only communicate via letters and telephone. He was nocturnal, and was said to call his friends in the middle of the night and rant on for hours while they would fall asleep at the other end of the line.

He hated being cold so would always dress for winter. He was arrested once in Florida for dressing like that because he was suspected of being a vagrant. 

See also: The Science & Appreciation of Classical Music - 175 Books to Download

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Mormon Polygamy on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) officially renounces polygamy on this day in 1890. The 1890 Manifesto (also known as the Woodruff Manifesto or the Anti-polygamy Manifesto) is a statement which officially advised against any future plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Issued by church president Wilford Woodruff in September 1890, the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons. Upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruff's Manifesto as "authoritative and binding."

The Manifesto was a dramatic turning point in the history of the LDS Church. It advised church members against entering into any marriage prohibited by the law of the land, and made it possible for Utah to become a U.S. state. Nevertheless, even after the Manifesto, the church quietly continued to perform a small number of plural marriages in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, thus necessitating a Second Manifesto during U.S. congressional hearings in 1904. Though neither Manifesto dissolved existing plural marriages, plural marriage in the LDS Church gradually died by attrition during the early-to-mid 20th century. The Manifesto was canonized in the LDS Church standard works as Official Declaration 1 and is considered by mainstream Mormons to have been prompted by divine revelation (although not a revelation itself), in which Woodruff was shown that the church would be thrown into turmoil if they did not comply with it. Some Mormon fundamentalists rejected the manifesto.

Today, Utah has some of the strictest anti-bigamy laws in the country. The husband can get 20 years in prison, and each wife can get 5 years. One day after the show "Sister Wives" aired, Utah state authorities announced they were investigating the family.

See also: The Sex-Determinant in Mormon Theology

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The Mysterious Disappearance of David Lang on this Day in History

This Day in History: David Lang mysteriously disappeared on this day in 1880. David Lang was a farmer who lived near Gallatin, Tennessee. On September 23, 1880 David Lang vanished into thin air while walking through a field near his home. His wife, children, and two people who were passing by in a buggy all witnessed his disappearance.

Frank Edwards wrote of this in his book Stranger Than Science:

"David Lang had not taken more than half a dozen steps when he disappeared in full view of all those present. Mrs. Lang screamed. The children, too startled to realize what had happened, stood mutely. Instinctively, they all ran toward the spot where Lang had last been seen a few seconds before. Judge Peck and his companion, the Judge's brother-in-law, scrambled out of their buggy and raced across the field. The five of them arrived on the spot of Lang's disappearance almost simultaneously. There was not a tree, not a bush, not a hole to mar the surface. And not a single clue to indicate what had happened to David Lang.

The grownups searched the field around and around, and found nothing. Mrs. Lang became hysterical and had to be led screaming into the house. Meanwhile, neighbors had been altered by the frantic ringing of a huge bell that stood in the side yard, and they spread the alarm. By nightfall scores of people were on the scene, many of them with lanterns. They searched every foot of the field in which Lang had last been seen a few hours before. They stamped their feet on the dry hard sod in hope of detecting some hole into which he might have fallen -- but they found none.

David Lang was gone. He had vanished in full view of his wife, his two children, and the two men in the buggy. One second he was there, walking across the sunlit field, the next instant he was gone."

Over time, the grass around where Lang had disappeared turned yellow in a fifteen-foot diametric circle, leading to the belief that some form of energy had mysteriously transported him away.

Seven months later his children were said to have heard their father's voice imperceptibly calling out for help as they played near the spot of his disappearance. They never heard that voice again.

In the effort to debunk this story, the tale only becomes stranger. 

Ambrose Bierce, though largely forgotten now, was a popular author in the late 1800's. Many believe that the story of David Lang was lifted from Bierce's short story, "The Difficulty of Crossing a Field" published in 1893. Or did Bierce steal the story of Lang's disappearance? 

What makes this whole story stranger is that Ambrose Bierce, like the man in his story, and like David Lang...mysteriously disappeared. To this day, no one knows what happened to him.

The story does not end there. In 1999 an opera was composed called "The Difficulty of Crossing a Field." This opera was based on Ambrose Bierce's short story. The composer's name is DAVID LANG!. 

Wikipedia writes about this piece, "Also in 1999, Lang and playwright Mac Wellman based their opera The Difficulty of Crossing a Field on a short story by Ambrose Bierce, about an Alabama planter named Williamson who purportedly vanished while walking across a field in 1854. (Bierce's story reoccurs in urban-legend form, in which, coincidentally, the vanished man is often given the name David Lang.)"

The Howard's Mill movie is, I believe, based on Lang's story.

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Revolutionary Hero Nathan Hale on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Nathan Hale, was executed on this day in 1776. He was only 21 years old. 

Many patriots at the time, including some of the Founding Fathers, were quite young.

The Marquis de Lafayette was commissioned an officer at age 13. He went to the New World seeking to fight in the American Revolution. He was made a major general at age 19.

All Things Liberty compiled a list of the ages of key people during the American Revolution (a period spanning from 1765–1783) when the Declaration of Independence was signed. I have included all the names of those 39 and younger:

Andrew Jackson, 9 (this is correct)

(Major) Thomas Young, 12

Deborah Sampson, 15

James Armistead, 15

Joseph Plumb Martin, 15

Peter Salem, 16

Peggy Shippen, 16 (Benedict Arnold wife) 

Marquis de Lafayette, 18

James Monroe, 18

Henry Lee III, 20

Gilbert Stuart, 20

John Trumbull, 20

Aaron Burr, 20

John Marshall, 20

Nathan Hale, 21

Banastre Tarleton, 21

Alexander Hamilton, 21

Benjamin Tallmadge, 22

Robert Townsend, 22

George Rodgers Clark, 23

David Humphreys, 23

Gouveneur Morris, 24

Betsy Ross, 24

William Washington, 24

James Madison, 25

Henry Knox, 25

John Andre, 26

Thomas Lynch, Jr., 26

Edward Rutledge, 26

Abraham Woodhull, 26

Isaiah Thomas, 27

George Walton, 27

John Paul Jones, 28

Bernardo de Galvez, 29

Thomas Heyward, Jr., 29

Robert R. Livingston, 29

John Jay, 30

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, 30

Benjamin Rush, 30

Abigail Adams, 31

John Barry, 31

Elbridge Gerry, 31

Casimir Pulaski, 31

Anthony Wayne, 31

Joseph Brant, 33

Nathanael Greene, 33

Thomas Jefferson, 33

Thomas Stone, 33

William Hooper, 34

Arthur Middleton, 34

James Wilson, 34

Benedict Arnold, 35

Samuel Chase, 35

Thomas Knowlton, 35

William Paca, 35

John Penn, 35

Hercules Mulligan, 36

Andrew Pickens, 36

Haym Solomon, 36

John Sullivan, 36

George Clymer, 37

Charles Cornwallis, 37

Thomas Nelson, Jr., 37

Ethan Allen, 38

Charles Carroll, 38

King George III, 38

Francis Hopkinson, 38

Carter Braxton, 39

George Clinton, 39

John Hancock, 39

Daniel Morgan, 39

Thomas Paine, 39

The average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, more than a dozen of them were 35 or younger. The average age of the US Senate in 2021 was 64.

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The Brutal Death of Edward II On This Day in History

 

This Day in History: King Edward II was murdered on this day in 1327. He is said to have been murdered, after being deposed and imprisoned by his wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, by having a horn pushed into his anus through which a red-hot iron was inserted, burning out his internal organs without marking his body. This account of his death was propagated and possibly linked to his rumored homosexuality.

There are other theories however.

One theory is that Edward escaped Berkeley Castle in 1327 with the help of a servant and ultimately retired to become a hermit in the Holy Roman Empire. The body buried at Gloucester Cathedral was said to be that of the porter of Berkeley Castle, killed by the assassins and presented by them to Isabella as Edward's corpse to avoid punishment.

Another theory is that Mortimer and Isabella had Edward secretly released, and then faked his death, a fiction later maintained by Edward III when he came to power.

Was that the worst death of a monarch? 

King Aelle had executed the legendary Viking Ragnar Lothbrok by having him thrown into a pit of snakes. In 866, Ragnar’s son, Ivar the Boneless, invaded Northumbria to exact revenge against his father’s killer.

The Great Viking army invaded Northumbria in mid-866, and had managed to take York by year’s end. Like his contemporary Alfred the Great, the defeated Aelle fled to the countryside and in 867 raised a new army to retake the city. Unfortunately, Aelle was not as successful as Alfred in his return, and while some accounts have him merely falling in battle, Norse accounts record that he was captured and subsequently executed by blood eagle, described thus:

"They caused the bloody eagle to be carved on the back of Aelle, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, and then they ripped out his lungs.:

Thank God the History Channel was there to film the execution:

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The MGB Sports Car on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The MGB sports car was introduced by MG Cars on this day in 1962. Over the next 18 years, 500,000 MGBs would be sold, making it the best selling sports car in history.

The MGB is a two-door sports car manufactured and marketed from 1962 until 1980 by the British Motor Corporation (BMC), later the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland, as a four-cylinder, soft-top sports car.

Also on September 20, 1893, the Duryea brothers' first automobile was constructed and successfully tested on the public streets of Springfield, Massachusetts. The Duryea brothers were America's first gasoline-powered commercial car manufacturers. "In March 1896, Charles and Frank Duryea offered for sale the first commercial automobile, the Duryea motor wagon. Two months later, New York City motorist Henry Wells hit a bicyclist with his new Duryea. The rider suffered a broken leg, Wells spent a night in jail and the nation's first traffic accident was recorded." Source

Rocker Lita Ford on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: English-born American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Lita Ford was born on this day in 1958. She was the lead guitarist for the all-female rock band the Runaways in the late 1970s, before embarking on a successful glam metal solo career that hit its peak in the late 1980s. The 1989 single "Close My Eyes Forever", a duet with Ozzy Osbourne, remains Ford's most successful song, reaching No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Lita Ford is one the top women of Rock and Roll, yet she never really makes the list of the top women of Rock and Roll. VH1 compiled a list of the top 100 women of Rock (http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1999/vh1women.htm). Aretha Franklin was number one on this list. Aretha Franklin is without a doubt a great singer, but she is not Rock and Roll. She is known as the "Queen of Soul" for a reason. 

Joni Mitchell is number 5 on the list, but I don't consider Joni Mitchell's music as Rock. Her style is more of a mixture of folk and jazz.

Billie Holiday is number 6 on the list. Billie Holiday is Jazz and Swing, not Rock and Roll.

Madonna is number 8 on this list. Madonna performs pop, electronica and dance music, not Rock and Roll.

Patsy Cline is number 11. Patsy Cline is a great Country music singer, she is not Rock and Roll. 

I could go on. Perhaps if lists liked this narrowed their considerations for actual women in Rock, there would be room for female rockers like Lita Ford, or Lee Aaron, Lisa Dalbello, Suzi Quatro, Maria Brink, Amy Lee and Wendy O. Williams.

Two Unsolved Political Killings on This Day in History

 

Valerie Percy, 21, daughter of U.S. Senate candidate Charles H. Percy, was murdered in the family mansion in the Chicago suburb of Kenilworth, Illinois on this day in 1966. She had been stabbed to death in her bed. Percy would win election to the Senate in November, but nobody would ever be charged with the murder, and the crime would remain unsolved at the time of his death 45 years later. In 2014, a new book on the murder would identify the late William Thoresen III, who lived with his wealthy family less than two blocks from the Percy home, as the likely suspect. Ironically, Thoresen suffered a fate similar to that of Miss Percy, murdered while lying in his bed.

Also, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, was killed in a plane crash on this day in 1961. New evidence supports a theory that the pioneering U.N. secretary general was assassinated.

"Questions surrounded the crash from the first. For one thing, writes Susan Williams in her 2011 book Who Killed Hammarskjold?, the British high commissioner at Ndola, Lord Alport, showed little concern after the U.N. plane failed to land at its scheduled time, instead insisting that Hammarskjold had decided to go elsewhere. Then there was the fact that search for the plane’s wreckage and crash site didn’t begin for hours after the crash, though witnesses had reported seeing a great flash in the sky soon after midnight. 

Local residents in the area had seen a second plane in the sky that night, but their testimony was discounted or ignored by colonial authorities, the Guardian reported in 2011. The crash’s sole survivor, U.N. security officer Harold Julien, also spoke before he died of an explosion on board the plane, but the authorities assumed he was too ill and sedated to be taken seriously.

Two days after Hammarskjold's death, former U.S. President Harry Truman insinuated to reporters that the U.N. leader had been assassinated, saying he 'was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said _when they killed him._'" Source

There is also evidence suggesting the plane was shot down. A CIA report claimed the KGB was responsible.

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Batman on This Day in History

This day in history: Today is Batman day. The first Batman Day was held in 2014 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Batman in Detective Comics in 1939. 

Did you know: Bruce Wayne was named after two real heroes: Robert the Bruce, a Scottish national hero, and Mad Anthony Wayne, a hero of the American Revolution. 

The creation of Batman was inspired by Zorro, the Shadow and Dracula. 

The name Gotham came from a random placement in the phone book. Writer Bill Finger simply opened the phone book and placed his finger on "Gotham Jewelers." 

According to Forbes, Bruce Wayne is worth $7 billion. 

Pierce Brosnan was supposed to play Batman in the 1989 Batman instead of Michael Keaton.

Is Batman a Libertarian? His companies include-

Wayne Airlines

Wayne Automotive

Wayne Aviation

Wayne Biotech

Wayne Botanical

Wayne Chemicals

Wayne Construction

Wayne Electric

Wayne Electronics

Wayne Energy

Wayne Entertainment- parent company of The Daily Planet newspaper

Wayne Foods

Wayne Healthcare

Wayne Industries

Wayne Manufacturing

Wayne Medical

Wayne Mining

Wayne Oil

Wayne Pharmaceuticals

Wayne Records

Wayne Research Institute

Wayne Retail

Wayne Shipping

Wayne Stage

Wayne Steel

Wayne Studios

Wayne Technologies

Wayne Television

Wayne Weapons

Wayne Yards

Also he runs the Wayne Foundation. Which is “the holding company for the Thomas Wayne Foundation and the Martha Wayne Foundation; it is the largest transparently operated private foundation within the DC Universe.”

This at least makes him a Capitalist, providing these aren't aligned with Government in any way (which would make him a Corporatist/Fascist). 

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The 1920 Wall Street Bombing on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Wall Street bombing occurred on this day in 1920, in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The blast killed thirty people immediately, and another ten died later of wounds sustained in the blast. There were 143 seriously injured, and the total number of injured was in the hundreds.

The bombing was never solved, although investigators and historians believe it was carried out by Galleanists (Italian anarchists), a group responsible for a series of bombings the previous year. The attack was related to postwar social unrest, labor struggles, and anti-capitalist agitation in the United States.

The Wall Street bomb killed more people than the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times, which was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil up to that point. 

The Galleanists were not very effective in their bombings as they always failed to hit their targets: capitalists, police, or judges. Their casualties were themselves and bystanders.

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Mormon Biographer Fawn M. Brodie on This Day in History

 

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This Day in History: Fawn M. Brodie was born on this day in 1915. Brodie was an American biographer and one of the first female professors of history at UCLA, who is best known for writing No Man Knows My History (1945), an early biography of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint (Mormon) movement.

In No Man Knows My History, Brodie presented the young Smith as a good-natured, lazy, extroverted, and unsuccessful treasure seeker, who, in an attempt to improve his family's fortunes, first developed the notion of golden plates and then the concept of a religious novel, the Book of Mormon. This book, she asserts, was based in part on an earlier work, View of the Hebrews, by a contemporary clergyman, Ethan Smith. While previous "naturalistic approaches to Joseph's visions had explained them through psychological analysis", regarding Smith as honest but deluded, Brodie instead interpreted him as having been deliberately deceptive. In No Man Knows My History, Brodie depicts Smith as having been a deliberate impostor, who at some point, in nearly untraceable steps, became convinced that he was indeed a prophet—though without ever escaping "the memory of the conscious artifice" that created the Book of Mormon. Jan Shipps, a preeminent non-LDS scholar of Mormonism who rejects this theory, nevertheless called No Man Knows My History a "beautifully written biography ... the work of a mature scholar [that] represented the first genuine effort to come to grips with the contradictory evidence about Smith's early life."

The title, No Man Knows My History, alludes to a comment Joseph Smith made in a speech shortly before his death in 1844.

No Man Knows My History has never been out of print, and 60 years after its first publication, its publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, continues to sell about a thousand copies annually. 

See also Over 300 Books on Mormons (Latter Day Saints) on DVDrom (Joseph Smith etc)

Killed by a Scarf on This Day in History

This Day in History: Isadora Duncan, an American dancer, broke her neck in Nice, France on this day in 1927 when her long scarf became entangled in the open-spoked wheel and rear axle of the automobile in which she was riding.

"The 'long scarf syndrome' was first described in medical literature in 1971, when two skiers sustained head and neck injuries after the free ends of their scarves became entangled in ski tows. A year later, 11 more cases were described, involving entanglement of scarves in moving machinery. Five of the victims died from asphyxia due to strangulation, six suffered facial wounds and fractures." Source

One woman in Edinburgh in 2001 and another Indian woman in 2020 died when their scarves got caught in the spokes of a rickshaw.

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Milton S. Hershey on This Day in History

This day in history: Chocolateer Milton S. Hershey was born on this day in 1857.

From Lawrence W. Reed:

What’s your favorite candy bar?

When I was asked that question, I had to think about it for a moment because I like a lot of them. However, there’s one that I consume far more of than any other so I decided that one must be my favorite: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, marketed by the famous Hershey Company. The firm is one of the largest and most successful chocolate manufacturers on the planet today (about $8 billion in sales in 2019), though it’s worth noting that its founder tasted failure before he ever enjoyed the flavor of success.

Hershey's History

Milton S. Hershey’s story began in southeastern Pennsylvania and you can’t do it justice without noting the impact of business failure on his early life. Even before any of his own businesses flopped, Milton had a front-row seat to his father Henry’s seemingly endless entrepreneurial misfires.

Hershey family biographers figure Henry to have been an affable man, not nasty or violent in any way, but a dreamer who never could translate his visions into a bottom line with a positive number. To little avail, he chased after investments and businesses of a stunning variety. Here’s a partial list of the ventures in which he lost money from Pennsylvania to Colorado: a perpetual motion machine, oil wells, farming, farm equipment, cough drops, cabinetry, silver, livestock remedies, picture-painting, and second-hand junk dealing.

On one unfortunate occasion, Henry filled a basement with canned tomatoes, intending to sell them but they fermented and exploded. The police caught him dumping the mess without a permit and forced him to clean it up and dump it someplace else. Henry wanted to get rich quick, but only got poorer even quicker—until in his twilight years his far more accomplished son was able to bail him out.

Hershey's Persistence

Still, I admire Henry for doing what the old adage instructs: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.” He possessed in bushels at least one trait Milton inherited from him: persistence. America’s 30th president, Calvin Coolidge, had a few good words to say about that:

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Henry Hershey’s persistence never paid off for himself, but it ultimately did for his son. To Milton’s credit, he never let his own failures or those of his father slow him down. The rest of us have enjoyed of a few billion pounds of chocolate as a pleasant consequence.

In 1872 at age 14, Milton took a job at Royer’s Ice Cream Parlor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After a short period, he convinced the owner to move him from the ice cream section into the candy side of the business. It made him a life-long confectioner.

Milton took what he learned from Mr. Royer’s shop and set off at age 19 for Philadelphia, where he aimed to cater to the huge crowds attending the country’s Centennial Exhibition. There he started his first company, Spring Garden Confectionary Works, and sold taffy to many a happy customer. He loved to experiment with candy recipes and soon came up with a soft, chewy caramel that proved to be a big hit. Things went well for the company for a while, even after the Exhibition ended, but Milton increasingly found it hard to deal with emerging competition and keep his costs under control. In the year he turned 24, the Spring Garden Confectionary Works went belly-up.

Next stop was Colorado, where Milton’s dad Henry was in the midst of a flop in the silver business. The two of them teamed up and then headed to Chicago, where they opened a candy shop they abandoned after a few months’ struggle. Milton decided to try his luck in New York but not before stopping in Lancaster long enough to borrow some money from relatives. Henry opted to stay behind and try something else.

“If failure is the best instructor,” writes biographer Michael D’Antonio, young Milton Hershey “could argue that he had earned a doctorate in Philadelphia, Denver, and New York.” Why D’Antonio didn’t include Chicago in there, I don’t know. In any event, Milton’s New York adventure ended in 1886 just as the ones in the other cities did—in bankruptcy. Penniless and now approaching 30 years of age, he went back to Lancaster where he first learned to make candy a decade and a half before.

Some people in the same predicament might have given up, changed professions, or simply found a job working for somebody else. Not Milton Hershey. He was determined to be the success his father wasn’t, and in the one business he loved more than any other. His own relatives gave up on him and turned him down for another loan. But he formed a new enterprise nonetheless—the Lancaster Caramel Company—and prepared to give it whirl.

This time, Milton got it right. He had learned much from his earlier mistakes. His exceptional caramels took off. D’Antonio writes,

Hershey spent days at his kettles, tinkering with the caramels. He added nuts to some, and covered others with sugar icing. He found that a little corn syrup…improved the “chew.” Gradually, he added new premium brands—named Lotus, Paradox, and Cocoanut Ices…For less wealthy customers he produced Uniques, which were made with skim milk and priced at eight for a penny.

Milton and his company prospered quickly. He became a prominent and respected Pennsylvania businessman, employing hundreds of people by the time of the Columbian Exposition (or “World’s Fair”) in Chicago in 1893. That’s when Milton, attending the fair, visited a German company’s extensive chocolate exhibit equipped with a small factory that transformed cocoa beans into candy bars.

Hershey's Reflections

Chocolate at the time was a rich man’s luxury, unaffordable to the average American. So smitten with it was Milton that when the Exposition closed, he arranged to buy the entire exhibit, factory and all. He had made his money in caramels but decided in Chicago that caramel was a passing fad. The future was in chocolate. For the little town of Derry Church, where he opened his first chocolate factory in 1894, that proved to be an understatement. The town was renamed and has been known ever since as Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Milton never again worried about bankruptcy. He and his wife founded a famous school for orphan boys, now one of the richest schools in the world because of the endowment they bequeathed it. Milton died in 1945 at the age of 86, beloved by the citizens of Hershey, PA and legions of chocolate lovers in some 70 countries. He was to chocolate was Henry Ford was to automobiles and Steve Jobs was to computers: He revolutionized a luxury for the few into a treat for the masses.

Reflecting late in his life on the success that eluded him in his earliest days, Milton offered these observations:

I didn't follow the policies of those already in the business. If I had, I would never have made a go of it. Instead, I started out with the determination to make a better nickel chocolate bar than any of my competitors made, and I did so.

I believed that, if I put a chocolate on the market that was better than anyone else was making, or was likely to make, and keep it absolutely uniform in quality, the time would come when the public would appreciate it and buy it.

Business is a matter of human service.

About those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, there’s something else I should tell you. Among Milton Hershey’s many candy innovations, that wasn’t one of them. They were the creation of a former dairy farmer named H. B. Reese who actually worked for Milton for a time, then left the Hershey Company in 1923 to start his own candy business in his basement. His peanut butter cups were so popular that he eventually abandoned his other products and focused on them exclusively. When H.B. died in 1956, his six sons took over the company and merged it seven years later with the Hershey Company, where it remains a delectable subsidiary to this day.

I hope this glimpse into the Hershey story inspires the reader to more than just another chocolate bar. If it encourages you to learn more about the importance of persistence in the face of failure, that would please me immensely. Toward that end, I’ve included links to a number of excellent articles on that very topic, below.

Thank you, Milton Hershey, for never giving up! You finally made it to the top, hurt no one along the way, and benefited the world more than all but a few of your fellow citizens. Henry would be VERY proud!

For additional information, see:

Failure Made Disney Great by Lawrence W. Reed

https://fee.org/articles/failure-made-disney-great/

The Bright Side of Failure by Walter Block and Matthew Ragan

https://fee.org/articles/the-bright-side-of-failure/

Failing Well is the Key to Success by Brittany Hunter

https://fee.org/articles/failing-well-is-the-key-to-success/

The Only Failure We Have to Fear is the Fear of Failure by Dwight R. Lee and Richard B. Mackenzie

https://fee.org/articles/the-only-failure-we-have-to-fear-is-the-fear-of-failure/

The Success of Failure by Thomas W. Hazlett

https://fee.org/articles/the-success-of-failure/

The Rise and Fall of the Edsel by Anthony Young

https://fee.org/articles/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-edsel/

Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams by Michael D’Antonio

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hershey-michael-dantonio/1100300290?ean=9780743264105

Built on Chocolate: The Story of the Hershey Chocolate Company by James D. MacMahon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1575440334/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Milton Hershey and the Chocolate Industry by Katie Kawa

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1499421354/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lawrence W. Reed

Lawrence W. Reed is FEE's President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow, and Ron Manners Global Ambassador for Liberty, having served for nearly 11 years as FEE’s president (2008-2019). He is author of the 2020 book, Was Jesus a Socialist? as well as Real Heroes: Incredible True Stories of Courage, Character, and Conviction and Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism. Follow on LinkedIn and Like his public figure page on Facebook. His website is www.lawrencewreed.com.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Philosopher Albert Camus on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Author and philosopher Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on this day in 1957. Camus wrote that there "is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy." He told a sad & poignant story of a building manager who had killed himself because he had lost his daughter five years before, which greatly changed him and that the experience had “undermined” him. According to Camus "A more exact word cannot be imagined. Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined."

Though he once was a Communist, he dropped that ideology in favor of freedom:

"The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude."

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

"Political utopias justified in advance any enterprises whatever."

"The welfare of the people…has always been the alibi of tyrants…giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience."

"The tyrannies of today…no longer admit of silence or neutrality…I am against."

"The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the state. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action."

"Absolute domination by the law does not represent liberty, but without law there is no freedom."

"Freedom is not a gift received from the State."

"Freedom is not a reward or a decoration…It’s a long distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting."

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to get better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse."

"Liberty ultimately seems to me, for societies and for individuals…the supreme good that governs all others."

"Is it possible…to reject injustice without ceasing to acclaim the nature of man and the beauty of the world? Our answer is yes."

"We have to live and let live in order to create what we are."

"The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom."

"Without giving up anything on the plane of justice, yield nothing on the plane of freedom."

"More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself."

Buy this book: The Folly of Socialism (40 Chapters) for 99 cents on Amazon

The Mormon Mountain Meadows Massacre on This Day in History

The Mountain Meadows Massacre concluded on this day in 1857. In American history, this was the other 9/11. 

The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a series of attacks that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train. The massacre occurred in the southern Utah Territory at Mountain Meadows, and was perpetrated by settlers belonging to the Utah Territorial Militia (officially called the Nauvoo Legion), together with some Southern Paiute Native Americans. The wagon train, made up mostly of families from Arkansas, was bound for California, traveling on the Old Spanish Trail that passed through the Territory.

Mark Twain wrote of this in the late 1800's:

The persecutions which the Mormons suffered so long — and which they consider they still suffer in not being allowed to govern themselves — they have endeavored and are still endeavoring to repay. The now almost forgotten "Mountain Meadows massacre" was their work. It was very famous in its day. The whole United States rang with its horrors. A few items will refresh the reader's memory. A great emigrant train from Missouri and Arkansas passed through Salt Lake City, and a few disaffected Mormons joined it for the sake of the strong protection it afforded for their escape. In that matter lay sufficient cause for hot retaliation by the Mormon chiefs. Besides, these one hundred and forty-five or one hundred and fifty unsuspecting emigrants being in part from Arkansas, where a noted Mormon missionary had lately been killed, and in part from Missouri, a State remembered with execrations as a bitter persecutor of the saints when they were few and poor and friendless, here were substantial additional grounds for lack of love for these wayfarers. And finally, this train was rich, very rich in cattle, horses, mules, and other property — and how could the Mormons consistently keep up their coveted resemblance to the Israelitish tribes and not seize the "spoil" of an enemy when the Lord had so manifestly "delivered it into their hand"?

Wherefore, according to Mrs. C. V. Waite's entertaining book, "The Mormon Prophet," it transpired that —

"A 'revelation' from Brigham Young, as Great Grand Archee or God, was despatched to President J. C. Haight, Bishop Higbee, and J. D. Lee (adopted son of Brigham), commanding them to raise all the forces they could muster and trust, follow those cursed Gentiles (so read the revelation), attack them disguised as Indians, and with the arrows of the Almighty make a clean sweep of them, and leave none to tell the tale; and if they needed any assistance they were commanded to hire the Indians as their allies, promising them a share of the booty. They were to be neither slothful nor negligent in their duty, and to be punctual in sending the teams back to him before winter set in, for this was the mandate of Almighty God."

The command of the "revelation" was faithfully obeyed. A large party of Mormons, painted and tricked out as Indians, overtook the train of emigrant wagons some three hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, and made an attack. But the emigrants threw up earthworks, made fortresses of their wagons, and defended themselves gallantly and successfully for five days! Your Missouri or Arkansas gentleman is not much afraid of the sort of scurvy apologies for "Indians" which the southern part of Utah affords. He would stand up and fight five hundred of them.

At the end of the five days the Mormons tried military strategy. They retired to the upper end of the "Meadows," resumed civilized apparel, washed off their paint, and then, heavily armed, drove down in wagons to the beleaguered emigrants, bearing a flag of truce! When the emigrants saw white men coming they threw down their guns and welcomed them with cheer after cheer! And, all unconscious of the poetry of it, no doubt, they lifted a little child aloft, dressed in white, in answer to the flag of truce!

The leaders of the timely white "deliverers" were President Haight and Bishop John D. Lee, of the Mormon Church. Mr. Cradlebaugh, who served a term as a Federal Judge in Utah and afterward was sent to Congress from Nevada, tells in a speech delivered in Congress how these leaders next proceeded:

"They professed to be on good terms with the Indians, and represented them as being very mad. They also proposed to intercede and settle the matter with the Indians. After several hours' parley they, having (apparently) visited the Indians, gave the ultimatum of the savages; which was, that the emigrants should march out of their camp, leaving everything behind them, even their guns. It was promised by the Mormon bishops that they would bring a force and guard the emigrants back to the settlements. The terms were agreed to, the emigrants being desirous of saving the lives of their families. The Mormons retired, and subsequently appeared with thirty or forty armed men. The emigrants were marched out, the women and children in front and the men behind, the Mormon guard being in the rear. When they had marched in this way about a mile, at a given signal the slaughter commenced. The men were almost all shot down at the first fire from the guard. Two only escaped, who fled to the desert, and were followed one hundred and fifty miles before they were overtaken and slaughtered. The women and children ran on, two or three hundred yards further, when they were overtaken and with the aid of the Indians they were slaughtered. Seventeen individuals only, of all the emigrant party, were spared, and they were little children, the eldest of them being only seven years old. Thus, on the 10th day of September, 1857, was consummated one of the most cruel, cowardly, and bloody murders known in our history."

The number of persons butchered by the Mormons on this occasion was one hundred and twenty.

With unheard-of temerity Judge Cradlebaugh opened his court and proceeded to make Mormondom answer for the massacre. And what a spectacle it must have been to see this grim veteran, solitary and alone in his pride and his pluck, glowering down on his Mormon jury and Mormon auditory, deriding them by turns, and by turns "breathing threatenings and slaughter"!

An editorial in the Territorial Enterprise of that day says of him and of the occasion:

"He spoke and acted with the fearlessness and resolution of a Jackson; but the jury failed to indict, or even report on the charges, while threats of violence were heard in every quarter, and an attack on the U. S. troops intimated, if he persisted in his course.

"Finding that nothing could be done with the juries, they were discharged, with a scathing rebuke from the judge. And then, sitting as a committing magistrate, he commenced his task alone. He examined witnesses, made arrests in every quarter, and created a consternation in the camps of the saints greater than any they had ever witnessed before, since Mormondom was born. At last accounts terrified elders and bishops were decamping to save their necks; and developments of the most startling character were being made, implicating the highest Church dignitaries in the many murders and robberies committed upon the Gentiles during the past eight years."

Had Harney been Governor, Cradlebaugh would have been supported in his work, and the absolute proofs adduced by him of Mormon guilt in this massacre and in a number of previous murders, would have conferred gratuitous coffins upon certain citizens, together with occasion to use them. But Cumming was the Federal Governor, and he, under a curious pretense of impartiality, sought to screen the Mormons from the demands of justice. On one occasion he even went so far as to publish his protest against the use of the U. S. troops in aid of Cradlebaugh's proceedings.

Mrs. C. V. Waite closes her interesting detail of the great massacre with the following remark and accompanying summary of the testimony — and the summary is concise, accurate, and reliable:

"For the benefit of those who may still be disposed to doubt the guilt of Young and his Mormons in this transaction, the testimony is here collated and circumstances given which go not merely to implicate but to fasten conviction upon them by 'confirmations strong as proofs of Holy Writ':

"I. The evidence of Mormons themselves, engaged in the affair, as shown by the statements of Judge Cradlebaugh and Deputy U. S. Marshal Rodgers.

"2. The failure of Brigham Young to embody any account of it in his Report as Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Also his failure to make any allusion to it whatever from the pulpit, until several years after the occurrence.

"3. The flight to the mountains of men high in authority in the Mormon Church and State, when this affair was brought to the ordeal of a judicial investigation.

"4. The failure of the Deseret News, the Church organ, and the only paper then published in the Territory, to notice the massacre until several months afterward, and then only to deny that Mormons were engaged in it.

"5. The testimony of the children saved from the massacre.

"6. The children and the property of the emigrants found in possession of the Mormons, and that possession traced back to the very day after the massacre.

"7. The statements of Indians in the neighborhood of the scene of the massacre; these statements are shown, not only by Cradlebaugh and Rodgers, but by a number of military officers, and by J. Forney, who was, in 1859, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory. To all these were such statements freely and frequently made by the Indians.

"8. The testimony of R. P. Campbell, Capt. 2d Dragoons, who was sent in the spring of 1859 to Santa Clara, to protect travelers on the road to California and to inquire into Indian depredations."

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