Kenneth C. Davis's Blog, page 130

TODAY IN HISTORY: "Dream Day"

I know there is a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, honoring the civil rights leader on his birthday. But maybe that honor should have been set on this date instead. On August 28, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream Speech" to a crowd of more than 200,000 people in Washington, D.C. (March organizers said 300,00.)

Here is the New York Times account of the march and speech:

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0828.html#article

King's most memorable speec

Don't Know Much About Suffrage

"You've come a long way baby."

It was 233 years ago that the brilliant Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John, then working in Philadelphia on independence.

Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. . . Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and we will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

It only

Touch of Frost: A Videoblog

One of my favorite spots in Vermont is the Frost gravesite in the cemetery of the First Church in Old Bennington -just down the street from the Bennington Monument.

Robert Frost –New England's poet of snowy woods, stone wall and apple trees.

I hope this "touch of Frost" will inspire you to read some of his work.

Here's a link to Robert Frost's page at Poets.org

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192

It includes an account of Frost and JFK

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20540

After the

Don't Know Much About Nabokov

Today in 1958, America met Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov's most sensational novel was first published in New York by G.P. Putnam's Sons on this date, almost three years after the book was originally published in Paris. It became an instant bestseller.

But there's a lot more to Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) than Lolita.

Born into wealth in tsarist St. Petersburg, Nabokov fled Russia with his family in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. He published nine novels in Russian before switching to Englis

Chasing White Whales: A Videoblog

For the past 33 years, I have lived in New York's West Village where the streets are filled with literary "ghosts" –reminders of the great writers who lived and worked in this historic district of New York. Every day that I walk around the neighborhood, is like getting a literary education. It's one of reasons I love to live here.

Nearby is Grove Street, which is where Tom Paine once lived. They say the locals called it "Raisin Street" back then because Paine had recently written the Age of R

Don't Know Much About Salman Rushdie

Can you take pride in an anonymous book review? I do.

On today's date, August 15, in 1947, at midnight, India and Pakistan were born. The partition of mostly Hindu India and Islamic Pakistan created decades of war and mistrust.

But that moment also opens Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's fabulous 1981 novel and one of the great books of our times –a tale of a boy born at the moment of partition, mixing a Dickensian life with magical realism, set against the story of modern India.

When I was st

The Gift of the Meter Maid

She was the town's meter maid. And yes, the Beatles had recently sung about "Lovely Rita." But this lady was not exactly lovely in her uniform. She was a plus-sized meter maid, and she was not "the most comely of maidens." All of that probably made her already unpopular job even more difficult.

But this meter maid also sang in my church choir when I was a teenager. And one day after choir practice, she handed me a book, saying simply: "I think you will like this."

I was about fourteen. And I did

TODAY IN HISTORY: The "Negro Riots" in Watts

It started with a "DWB"– "driving while black." On August 11, 1965, an all-too-frequent stop of a young black man exploded into one of the worst urban riots in American history.

It did not end with a shared beer at the White House.

Where: Watts was a rundown district of shabby houses built near the highway approaching Los Angeles International Airport. Ninety-eight percent black, Watts was stewing in a California heat wave. In the stewpot were all the ingredients of black anger. Poverty. Overcrow

America's Hidden History: A Road Trip

Headed to the usual tourist spots like Boston and St. Augustine? Don't miss these often overlooked landmarks just down the road.

With the summer travel season upon us, many families are gearing up for trips to historic hot spots. Gettysburg, Philadelphia and Mount Vernon are all crowd-pleasers, but there are many other interesting sites that don't always attract throngs. Some are in national parks, some off the beaten path and some in the shadow of more familiar landmarks — literally, just a few

Today in History: The Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution

When Presidents Lie, Thousands Die.

That is today's history lesson on the 45th anniversary of passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by Congress on August 7, 1964. Since the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and Vietnam War might as well be the Punic Wars to some people, here is a quick refresher.

America was already twenty years into its Vietnam commitment when Lyndon Johnson and Kennedy's best and brightest holdovers decided to find a new version of Pearl Harbor. An incident was needed to pull Ameri