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HISTORY: unwrapped – January 2008

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January 31, 2008 – Up, Up, and Away

The idea of using balloons for transportation had always intrigued George Washington from the time of the first manned flight in Paris in 1783. When the greatest of the aeronauts, Jean Pierre Blanchard, crossed the Atlantic to give a demonstration, Washington was present. The site chosen for the lift-off was the Walnut Street Prison courtyard in Philadelphia, the nation’s capital at the time. Arriving at 9:00 A.M., Washington presented Blanchard with a passport he himself had signed. Not knowing how far the balloonist might travel, Washington had thoughtfully prepared a passport, just in case. It would seem that the nation’s president had high hopes for Blanchard’s flight.

When the 46-minute flight ended in New Jersey, 15 miles away, Blanchard was met by two astonished farmers, one carrying a gun! Blanchard, who didn’t understand English, waved the paper with the presidential signature and produced a bottle of spirits. Fortunately for Blanchard, his actions lessened the tension, and he was given a warm reception and passage back to Philadelphia. The balloonist presented Washington with the first flag literally to fly over U.S. soil.

January 30, 2008 – Elvis Meets President Nixon

A photograph of President Nixon with Elvis Presley is the most requested item from the National Archives. More requested than the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, the photograph shows the president shaking hands with Elvis in the Oval Office of the White House. Elvis had written a letter to Nixon suggesting that he be given a badge and made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. On December 21, 1970, Elvis paid the president a visit, bringing gifts, which included a Colt .45 pistol and some family photographs. Elvis asked Nixon if he could be given a badge, and the president honored the request. Elvis was so happy that he hugged Nixon and asked if he could bring in his bodyguards to meet the president. Permission was granted, and President Nixon passed out gifts to his guests. A movie called When Elvis Met Nixon humorously tells this strange but delightful story.

January 29, 2008 – Go Fly a Kite

Building a bridge across Niagara Falls was a challenge that taxed both the skill and imagination of the best engineers. Two bridge companies, one from Canada and one from New York, commissioned Charles Ellet Jr. to construct the engineering marvel—a suspension bridge over the Niagara River. The first obstacle was stretching the first cable between the shores. A boat would be swept over the falls if it tried to cross.  It occurred to someone that flying a kite might be the answer to the dilemma. A contest was held with a five dollar prize being offered to the person who could fly a kite across the Niagara Gorge. A young American boy, Homan Walsh, won the contest on the second day of competition. The string of his kite was fastened to a tree on the American shoreline and the building of the new bridge began. On July 26, 1848, the first Niagara Suspension Bridge was completed, and Charles Ellet Jr. was the first to ride across in a horse and carriage. It was officially opened to the public on August 1. Soon after its completion, Charles Ellet Jr. and his brother began charging pedestrians and carriage traffic a fare for crossing the bridge in each direction without permission of the Bridge Directors. The brothers kept the money generated by the fares. The dispute over the fares had to finally be resolved in court.

January 28, 2008 – Magellan’s Miscalculations

Ferdinand Magellan’s (c. 1470–1521) passage across the Pacific Ocean was one of the most grueling voyages of all of sea-faring history. The crossing took nearly four months through an open stretch of blistering heat. When the ships ran out of provisions, the starving crew began to mix sawdust into thin fish broth and to eat the ox hides that covered the mainyards of the ships. The ox hides were soaked in the sea for four or five days to soften them and then cooked for a few moments on top of hot coals. Even rats lurking in the ship’s filth became a prized delicacy. As the sailors began dying one by one, Magellan knew that the voyage had become a race for their very lives.

Magellan’s miscalculations of the circumference of the earth were compounded by corrupt suppliers in Seville. Magellan had specified and paid for food reserves to last a year and a half but only received provisions for a six-month voyage. On January 24, 1521, after two months of sailing across the Pacific, Magellan and his crew sighted land, an uninhabited island east of Tahiti. There they found sea birds, turtle eggs, crabs, and fish. After gorging themselves on these rare delicacies, they continued to sail west. By March 5, the remaining crew members were once again on the verge of starvation. The next day the island of Guam was sighted. Magellan named it and its neighbor, Rota, Islas de Ladrones (“Isles of Thieves”). When the natives boarded the ships they overran them and took everything that was not nailed down.

While Magellan planned and executed the voyage to circumnavigate the earth, he was killed by Philippine natives before he could complete his voyage. It was his second in command, Juan Sebastian del Caño, who led the remaining crew to the finish line. Del Caño received official credit for the accomplishment when King Charles greeted him and awarded him a coat of arms showing a castle, two crossed cinnamon sticks, three nutmegs, and twelve cloves, and above them a globe bearing the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me, “Thou first circumnavigated me.”

January 25, 2008 – The First American Idol

He’s been dead for 30 years, but Elvis Presley through his estate earns millions more than he did when he was alive. New generations of young people continue to be fascinated by the man whose wiggling hips were once censored on TV and whose voice offered something special to listeners. Born in a simple shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis’ life should have been one of mediocrity considering his humble beginnings. He was catapulted from truck driver to recording star when he cut a record during his lunch break. Elvis came from a poor-white culture but loved black music. His songs reflected the blues and his country roots. Later musicians admit that they wouldn’t have made it without him. Elvis Presley was the creative that made rock ‘n’ roll popular to the masses. Our society, for ill or good, has never been the same since. By the way, Elvis had an identical twin who was stillborn. Can you imagine what the world would be like today if there had been two Presleys?

January 24, 2008 – The Foundation of Civilization

“The Battle of Britain,” said Winston Churchill on the 18th of June 1940, “is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.”1 Churchill saw something in his nation’s history and moral composition that made him identify Christianity with the preservation and advance of civilization. England had a long history of Christian influence that resulted in the advance of civilization around the world. America’s earliest founders did not break from their English heritage. In fact, they sought to establish old England in New England. Samuel Eliot Morison writes the following in his Builders of the Bay Colony:

New England was founded consciously, and in no fit of absence of mind. Patriots seeking the glory of England first called the attention of their countrymen to these shores. Commercial enterprise made the first attempts at settlement. Puritanism overlaid these feeble beginnings by a proud self-governing commonwealth, dedicated to the glory of God and the happiness of a peculiar people. These three main streams in the life of old England, the patriotic, the commercial, and the religious, mingled their waters on every slope.2

It’s no wonder that John Winthrop described colonial America as a “City on a Hill,” a light to the nations.

Order your copy of Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill

1 Quoted in John Baillie, What is Christian Civilization? (London, England: Oxford University Press, 1945), 5.

2 Samuel Eliot Morison, Builders of the Bay Colony (Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, [1930] 1981), 3.

The Star Chamber was a room in the palace at Westminster, England, where the king's council met. The room was named because of the star-decorated ceiling. From medieval times the king's council had ruled on specific legal cases that were beyond the jurisdiction of the common courts. By an act of Parliament in 1487, Henry VII strengthened the power of the council so nobles could be put on trial. In 1540 Henry VIII put the committee under his direct control that came to be known as the Court of Star Chamber. There was no jury and any punishment could be inflicted except the death penalty. The Star Chamber forced people to testify against themselves. By the time of Charles I, the Star Chamber had the reputation of being a "legal" way for the king to get rid of his political enemies. The authority of the Star Chamber was taken away by the Long Parliament in 1641 and restored the concept of "lawful judgment" of a defendant by "his peers or by the law of the land." The Courts of High Commission served a similar purpose but were directed at the clergy, especially Puritan ministers. They, too, were abolished in 1641.

Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook starred in the movie The Star Chamber (1983). When cases must be dismissed because of technicalities, a small cadre of judges resort to establishing a secret tribunal—a star chamber—to try cases and pass their own sense of justice. At first, justice seems to prevail. But before too long, things go awry. Open tribunals, as frustrating as they may be, are better than any star chamber no matter how perfectly conceived.

January 22, 2008 – John Jay the Reluctant

John Jay, considered by many to be one of our country’s Founding Fathers, was first opposed to American independence. Jay was from a wealthy New York Huguenot family and had a successful law practice, which was cut short by escalation of hostilities with England. Jay was elected to the First Continental Congress and initially opposed the use of strong measures against England due, in part, to his family’s wealth and Tory connections. However, he did write Address to the People of Great Britain, which accused Parliament of “establishing a system of slavery” by denying Americans the same rights as Englishmen. During the Second Continental Congress, Jay opposed all discussion of independence. He was concerned that mob rule would prevail. Though he was absent during the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Jay became a strong supporter of the cause once independence was declared and served as president of Congress in 1778. He was appointed to write a peace treaty with England after the war and was given the role again in 1794, which resulted in the famous “Jay Treaty.” John Jay became the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. His long political career reflected his motto “Nothing is useful except what is honorable.”

January 21, 2008 – The Iron Empire

Joe Weider and his brother Ben Weider are the co-founders of International Federation of Body Builders. Joe was born in Montreal in 1922 and at the age of 17 began his publishing empire with $7. He built his own set of barbells out of wheels and axles from junk cars, and as an adult developed his own line of exercise equipment. His publishing empire includes numerous health and fitness magazines and books on fitness and bodybuilding. Weider was one of the very first physical culture advocates to incorporate nutrition into bodybuilding. Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar credits Weider with inspiring him and bringing him to the United States where he gained success through bodybuilding and feature films. So when you see Muscle & Fitness magazine at the local bookstore, remember that it all started with a teenager lifting car wheels on axels years ago.

January 18, 2008 – Washington's Vanishing Chef

George Washington faced a personal dilemma with political overtones when the nation’s capital moved from New York to Philadelphia. Disappointed with the food served in the new capital, Washington brought Hercules, his Mount Vernon chef. Hercules was accomplished in the culinary art, and he managed Washington’s kitchen with style and discipline. But the black chef posed a problem. Pennsylvania required that slaves be freed after six months of residency. Washington tried to get around this law by returning his household slaves to Virginia just short of the deadline. After several weeks, the slaves would be returned to Philadelphia. The president had vowed never to purchase another slave, but he nearly faced going back on those words when Hercules disappeared. Eventually a white housekeeper, who could also cook, took the place of the runaway chef. The flamboyant Hercules was never heard from again.

January 17, 2008 – The Good Doctor Warren

Joseph Warren is described as doctor, patriot, statesman, and an active participate in America’s fight for independence. He became involved with John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other Sons of Liberty leaders. He drafted the Suffolk Resolves, which advocated resistance to the British and were later endorsed by the Continental Congress. He sent William Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous ride to warn Concord and Lexington of impending British raids. He recruited and organized soldiers during the siege of Boston. He fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, rallying the troops again and again. On their final assault, Dr. Warren was killed when he was struck in the back of the head by a musket ball. He was only 34. Without a mother and father to care for them, the four Warren children were given financial assistance by Benedict Arnold. If you live in one of the 14 states that have a Warren County, it was probably named for the doctor who gave his life for his country.

January 16, 2008 – Giving Thanks to God

On Thursday, September 24, 1789, the First House of Representatives recommended the First Amendment to the states for ratification. Congressman Elias Boudinot proposed that Congress jointly request that President Washington proclaim a day of thanksgiving for “the many signal favors of Almighty god.” He “could not think of letting the session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining, with one voice, in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the blessings he had poured down upon them.” The colonists of another era were aware of the many instances of thanksgiving found in “holy writ.” Thanksgiving, as it was practiced by the colonists, was a religious celebration that shared the sentiments of their biblical forerunners, giving thanks to God for His faithful provision. “Twice en route the passengers [aboard the Arabella] participated in a fast, and once a ‘thanksgiving.’”

One of the earliest recorded celebrations occurred a half century before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. “A small colony of French Huguenots established a settlement near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. On June 30, 1564, their leader, René de Laudonnière, recorded that ‘We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please Him to continue His accustomed goodness towards us.’” May we do likewise this day as we gather together with our families and thank God for continuing to bless our nation.

January 15, 2008 – Botched Bibles

Several English Bibles published in the seventeenth century get their nicknames because of typographic errors. The so-called Murderer’s Bible misprints “murderers” instead of the correct word “murmurers” in Jude 16. Mark 7:27 was made to read: “Let the children first be killed” (instead of “filled”). The Wife-Hater Bible tells a man to hate his own wife: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father . . . yea, and his own wife also.” Of course, “wife” should read “life.” The first edition of the King James Bible correctly has Matthew 26:36 stating, “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane…” The second printing reads, “Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called Gethsemane.” The Adulterer’s or Wicked Bible, a 1631 King James Version, leaves out an essential “not” and commands “Thou shalt commit adultery.” King Charles fined the printer Robert Barker the enormous sum of £300 and took away his license to print Bibles. An Oxford edition of 1717 was known as the Vinegar Bible because the chapter heading to Luke 20 had “Vinegar” for “Vineyard” in the title “The Parable of the Vineyard.” A 1716 KJV Bible made a common typographical mistake by transposing letters.  Instead of John 8:11 reading, “Go, and sin no more,” it read, “Go and sin on more.” The Printer’s Bible laments that “printers” (not “princes”) “have persecuted me without cause” (Ps. 119:161). Considering how these botched Bibles got their name, the Psalm might not be too far off.

January 14, 2008 – The Comic Book Police

Dr. Fredric Wertham, a prominent psychiatrist, made his mark in cultural history when he decided to take on the comic book industry in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He claimed there was a direct link between reading “crime comics” and juvenile delinquency. A number of magazines—Reader’s Digest and Scouting—published articles by Wertham and other comic critics warning parents of the dangers of the pulp stories. In the September 1954 issue of Scouting, the official publication of the Boy Scouts, Wertham stated his thesis: “The keynote of crime-comic books is violence and sadism. This is featured in the illustrations and in the text. In one typical crime comic . . . one story alone has ten pictures of girls getting smacked in the face, beaten with a whip, strangled, choked by hand, choked with a scarf. In addition, two men are killed and one man is crippled."

While these articles caught the notice of parents, it was an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Wertham in the November 1953 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal that put the comic book industry on notice that things were about to change. Early in 1954, he followed up the article with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, a book-length indictment of the industry. In addition to his attacks on crime and horror comics, Wertham even claimed that Batman and Robin were having a homosexual relationship and Wonder Woman was a lesbian role model!

There was such a hue and cry against these graphic comics that Congress got into the act. Hearings were called by the Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency to look into the matter. Publishers were in a panic. Some comic book publishing houses went out of business. Those that remained joined forces and created the Comics Code Authority that served as a self-censoring agency within the industry. Nearly every book written on the history of comics mentions Frederick Wertham. He was the devil incarnate, the Joe McCarthy of the comic industry.

William M. Gaines, publisher of The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, Haunt of Fear, Weird Fantasy, and a humorous comic titled Mad, refused to capitulate to the strong-arm tactics of Wertham and the Senate. Even so, enough bad publicity had been generated that Gaines had to suspend publication of his horror and suspense titles. A late addition to his comic library of titles was Mad. Because it was not singled out by Wertham and the Senate committee, Mad slipped under the radar. Gaines did an end-run around the Comics Code by turning Mad into a magazine. The newly formatted comic became known as Mad Magazine.

There’s one more twist to this story. William Gaines inherited the comic business from his father Max Gaines who died in a tragic boating accident. The elder Gaines drafted a set of guidelines for artists and writers, something his son avoided like the plague and denounced when the Comics Code Authority was established:

“Never show anybody stabbed or shot.”

“Show no torture scenes.”

“Never show a hypodermic needle.”

“Never show a coffin, especially with anybody in it.”

Max Gaines also published Picture Stories from the Bible, Picture Stories from Science, Picture Stories from American History, and Picture Stories from World History.

Most comic book publishers have dropped the Comics Code, and the comics that William Gaines published are now worth a lot of money. I guess he’s having the last laugh on poor Dr. Wertham.

As a Yale graduate, Eli Whitney (1765–1825) was known for his “handiness” and is best remembered for his cotton gin invention (1793), which brought great wealth to many but gave Whitney a meager return on his investment. The cotton engine, “gin” for short, automated the separation of cottonseed from the short cotton fiber. It was such a simple machine that it was easily duplicated and reproduced.Whitney also introduced a technique that proved to be the most revolutionary invention in American history. In 1798, he built a firearms factory near New Haven, Connecticut. Unlike many American industries of his day, Whitney did not build from the top down. He first built all the machinery he would need for his method of production and devised a system of interchangeable parts for muskets. This new technique was adopted all over the country as a defense measure and soon was being applied to other inventions paving the way for mass production and the industrial revolution.

January 10, 2008 – Meeting the Final Judge

Clarence Darrow is remembered as the lawyer who defended teaching evolution in the 1925 case that became known as the “Monkey” Trial. A year earlier, Darrow saved two wealthy students, accused of kidnapping and murder, from the death penalty by arguing that they were products of their environment. When asked how he would sum up his life, Darrow quoted the Bible, a book he had publicly ridiculed most of his life. He then said, “I have lived a life without purpose, without meaning, without direction. I don’t know where I came from. And I don’t know what I’m doing here. And worst of all, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I punch out of here.” Darrow’s accomplishments would give him no assurance and comfort when he stood before the Judge of the universe in the only courtroom that mattered.

January 9, 2008 – Politically Incorrect Jefferson

The modern-day image of Jefferson as a social and political liberal would be shattered after a single reading of his Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments. Capital punishment is maintained for murder and treason while rescinded for all other crimes. Even so, other crimes receive some rather harsh and politically incorrect penalties. Consider these examples:

•"If any person commit petty treason, or a husband murder his wife, a parent his child, or a child his parent, he shall suffer death, by hanging, and his body be delivered to Anatomists to be dissected" (Sec. IV).

•"Whosoever committith murder by poisoning, shall suffer death by poison" (Sec. V).

•"Whosoever shall be guilty of rape, polygamy, or sodomy with man or woman, shall be punished; if a man, by castration, a woman, by boring through the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch in diameter at the least" (Sec. XIV).

•"Whosoever committith a robbery, shall be condemned to hard labour four years in the public works, and shall make double reparation to the persons injured" (Sec. XX).

•"All attempts to delude the people, or to abuse their understanding by exercise of the pretended arts of witchcraft, conjuration, enchantment, or sorcery, or by pretended prophecies, shall be punished by ducking and whipping, at the discretion of a jury, not exceeding fifteen stripes" (Sec. XXIX).

Ouch! Considering these views, there is no way that Thomas Jefferson could ever run for political office today.

January 8, 2008 - The Harmonica Wizard

DeFord Bailey was one of the biggest stars of the Grand Ole Opry, which was broadcast live on Saturday nights from a Nashville radio station. Bailey claimed he had been given a harmonica instead of a rattle when he was a baby, and he learned to mimic all kinds of sounds with the instrument. Most listeners had no idea that the popular “Harmonica Wizard” was a black man. Fans who saw the show live in Nashville didn’t seem to mind. After 15 seasons on one of the most successful radio shows in the country, Bailey was fired for unclear reasons. He opened a shoeshine business just a few blocks away from the Opry’s auditorium and rarely performed in public again. But as the first black musician to join the regular cast of the Opry, he paved the way for future black entertainers.

January 7, 2008– Lewis and Clark’s MVP

The Shoshone woman Sacajawea had been kidnapped and sold to a French-Canadian fur trader. The fur trader was hired as interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Sacajawea and her newborn son also joined the party. She collected plants, nuts, and berries which were used for food and medicine. When a boat nearly capsized, she retrieved important books and instruments before they floated away. Clark wrote that the Indians believed they were friendly when they saw the Indian woman and her baby. During meetings with Indian chiefs, Sacajawea was the interpreter. Her vote counted when it was determined where the party would spend the winter. Lewis and Clark honored Sacajawea for her efforts in making the expedition a success by naming a river in her honor.

January 4, 2008 - The Moon-Landing Hoax

The Central and Union Pacific Railroads joined their construction efforts on May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah, with the ceremonial driving of the Golden Spike into the track that joined East and West. One hundred years later, on July 20, 1969, two Americans landed on the moon. While railroads transformed commerce, communication, and travel in the United States, Moon landings abruptly stopped with no commercial benefits after six missions. Bill Kaysing thinks he knows why.

Kaysing claims in his book We Never Went to the Moon that the missions were a scam. After a number of technological mishaps, NASA realized it did not have the expertise to make President Kennedy’s dream of putting a man on the Moon before the close of the decade a reality. To avoid shutting down NASA, losing funding, and giving the Soviet Union a reason to believe that America was behind them in missile design, an elaborate hoax was supposedly concocted to fool the world. Taking a page from Hollywood, Kaysing claims that an elaborate Moon-set was constructed somewhere in the Southwest region of the United States. What we saw on television during those eventful days was special effects, “a near seamless piece of performance art.” The only real things the public saw were an empty Saturn V rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral and the return of the astronauts in a sealed “dummy space capsule that was dropped from a C5-A transport plane.”

Nearly everyone was in on the hoax, even Walter Cronkite! Anyone who tried to blow the lid off the planned ruse would pay the ultimate price. As a warning, so Kaysing theorizes, three astronauts were killed in a launchpad “accident” on January 27, 1967, mostly to keep Gus Grissom quiet. Grissom had been complaining about safety issues and threatened to go public. Again, this is according to Kaysing. If any of this story sounds familiar, you might remember the 1978 movie Capricorn One, starring O.J. Simpson, Telly Savalas, Elliott Gould, and James Brolin. The movie was about a faked mission to Mars. The only difference is that these astronauts had a conscience and wanted to get the true story out to the world.

There are millions of people who believe Kaysing is on to something. Mistrust of the government runs deep. But if it’s all true, why have so many people been able to keep the secret for so long? This is where all conspiracy theories break down. Too many people have to keep too many secrets for too long.

January 3, 2008 - In Search of a Good Wife

John Calvin, the Reformer, thought little of marriage until he lived for a short while with a pastor and his wife whose home was known as “the inn of righteousness.” Their happy marriage made an impression upon Calvin, and he realized that he needed someone to take care of him. He told his associates he was in the market for a wife who was not too fussy or fastidious, who was economical, patient, and interested in his health. Soon after giving up his search for a wife, a friend encouraged him to consider a widow in Calvin’s church. It wasn’t long before Calvin, Idelette, and her two children became a family. Though they only had nine years together before tuberculosis took Idelette, Calvin grieved that his best life’s companion had been taken from him, and he never remarried.

January 2, 2008 –The Radium Girls

The young women hired by the U.S. Radium Corporation in 1917 felt fortunate to be earning three times more money than the average factory worker. With World War I in progress, there was a high demand for glow-in-the-dark military instruments. The women had no idea that the radium-treated paint they used was extremely unsafe and would cause them great physical harm. Over the next twelve years, hundreds of young women applied radium-activated paint to factory products. For amusement, the women painted their nails and teeth with the glowing radium mixture and then turned off the lights to see themselves glow in the dark. In 1927, five women, who became known as the “Radium Girls,” sued the U.S. Radium Corporation for severe disfiguring illnesses caused by radium exposure. Their perseverance set a precedent in case law for the right of individual workers to sue employers for damages caused by labor abuse.

January 1, 2008 – The Black Yankees

The myth that there was no slavery in New England has been shattered as more evidence has come to light. The enslaved men and women of New England elected their own governors and kings, and elected officials carried authority in the black community and mediated disputes. Blacks worked in fishing, trade, shipbuilding, dock work, and construction. Many of them became success stories like Samuel Gipson who began his own business. When he died, he left his estate to a young clerk he employed. Gipson’s amazing story of success is more remarkable because he had spent most of his life as a slave, and his heir was the son of the man who had owned him! The new evidence is proving how much the black community contributed to the development of the cities of New England.