Gilbert M. Stack's Blog, page 116

Today in History: The First Episode of Dr. Who

On this day (November 23) in 1963 Dr. Who aired for the first time on the BBC. The episode was titled An Unearthly Child and William Hartnell starred as The Doctor. It was the first show to air on the BBC after they ended continuous coverage of JFK’s assassination. It is now the longest running science fiction television program in history.

I became quite obsessed with Dr. Who when I was in high school. The first episode I watched was the fourth doctor’s (Tom Baker) Robots of Death. Thanks to some friends of my father’s I was able to view every episode in the first twenty-two seasons. (Yes, I had a lot more time on my hands in those days. And to think, I thought I worked so hard.) I stopped watching religiously somewhere in the Colin Baker run because I couldn’t find the show while I was in college. I’ve seen the occasional episode since then and watched the movie starring Paul McGann with my wife but nothing ever came of that doctor. My niece is now a major fan but I find I don’t have the time to binge watch all the seasons since then, although it appears that the stories have greatly improved in quality since my viewing days.

Dr. Who is an important part of the culture now. I have worked plot elements (such as the ventriloquist dummy from the Talons of Weng Chiang) into role playing games I run for my son. (The dummy was nicer in my version.) Even though I don’t watch it anymore, I feel a bit warm and fuzzy inside knowing that it’s still going on.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Who!

Today in History: Turkey Pardoning

TURKEY PARDONING

Starting in 1947, the National Turkey Federation began giving the president a live turkey on Thanksgiving Day. John F. Kennedy announced he wouldn’t eat the bird. Ronald Reagan built on this when he jokingly pardoned the bird presented to him in 1987. George Bush, in 1989, made the pardoning of the turkey an annual tradition.

 

Today in History: The First Thanksgiving Day Parade

THANKSGIVING DAY PARADES

While we sit down to watch the parade this morning, here’s another piece of holiday trivia for you. While everyone thinks of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (started in 1924) as the definitive Thanksgiving Day Parade, it was not the first one. That honor goes to the 1920 parade in Philadelphia sponsored by Gimbels Department story. This parade is still held every year but now it’s called the 6ABC Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Today in History: The Origins of Thanksgiving

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING DAY

While American mythology generally credits the Pilgrims and the members of the Wampanoag tribe with celebrating the first Thanksgiving, harvest festivals in which communities express their gratitude for their blessings predate the arrival of Europeans in North America. Both the French and Spanish settlers adopted these customs and they also appear in Jamestown before the arrival of the Pilgrims.

The three day Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 was not referred to as a “Thanksgiving” feast at the time, but as a harvest celebration. It was attended by the 50 survivors from the Mayflower and 90 Wampanoags.

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation each year asking the individual states to set aside a day to thank God for His blessings and ask his aid in prosecuting the war. After the war, presidents continued to sporadically declare days of Thanksgiving until Abraham Lincoln made the final Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day in 1863. The last Thursday of November continued to be recognized as Thanksgiving Day until 1939 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt switched it to the second to last Thursday in November in an attempt to boost sales during the Great Depression by stretching out the Christmas season. (In 1939 there were five Thursdays in November.) Republicans protested the change as an insult to Lincoln and the public began to refer to November 30 as “Republican Thanksgiving” and November 23 as “Franksgiving” (For FRANKlin D. Rooesvelt). (Yes, our government during the Great Depression, with World War II having just broken out in Europe, really had nothing better to do than debate the proper day to be thankful.)

In 1941, Congress got involved and made Thanksgiving Day the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last day. This was seen as a compromise between the two positions. It also made the celebration a matter of federal law. (Of course, not every state could accept this compromise. Texas was the last holdout, abandoning the last Thursday of the month only in 1956.)

And that’s why we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November even today.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today in History: Judah Maccabeus

On this day (November 21) in 164 BCE Judah Maccabeus rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem after it had been defiled by the Seleucids. Judah was leading a rebellion against the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV who had ordered the Jewish people to abandon their religious practices. The Seleucids had a superior army and Judah’s tactics were in line with modern day guerilla warfare. He avoided confrontations with the Seleucid army and used hit and run tactics, only attacking significant forces when he held substantial advantages. The war ended a year after the temple was restored with a treaty that restored to the Jewish people their right to worship God according to their own customs.

Today in History: Diocletian

On this day (November 20) in 284 Diocletian was chosen by his legionnaires to become Roman emperor. He transformed the empire, stopping its long collapse, restoring stability, and instituting many needed reforms. Perhaps the most important of these reforms was his understanding that generals kept overthrowing the emperors because they were needed to defend the borders and their troops became too loyal to them. So Diocletian elevated a second man to the imperial office and two junior emperors so that his generals would already have skin in the imperial game. It was a strange idea, but it worked during his lifetime.

Diocletian’s most infamous action was the final substantial persecution of Christians within the empire. Romans, like all ancient and even some modern peoples, believed that success came to a people and victory was awarded them in battles because the gods were happy with them. The unwillingness of Christians to recognize the Roman gods was viewed by many traditionalists as a national security issue. They responded by persecuting the Christians, first with fines, then with imprisonment and finally with death.

Today in History: The Gettysburg Address

On this day (November 19) in 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the cemetery on the battlefield. There were five texts of the speech in Lincoln’s hand, each slightly different than the others, but the text that has come down to us has become a powerful statement of the founding principles of the United States and of the sacrifices which the men and women of our armed forces have made to protect those principles and the nation they guide.

The opening sentence of the address has become iconic. “Four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Our forefathers made a good start, but failed to get a lot right. Abraham Lincoln brought us closer to the mark. Let us hope that when future generations look back on us, that they will agree that we too moved the country closer to liberty and genuine equality.

I have had the pleasure of visiting Gettysburg on two occasions. The first was with my family when I was quite young and I don’t remember it as clearly as I would like. The second was with my brother and my father. We had just finished reading the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (later the movie Gettysburg would be based on this book). My father, brother and I walked the battlefield until we reached the Little Round Top and spent fifteen or twenty minutes reconstructing Joshua Chamberlain’s stand on the second day of the battle—the decisive point of the battle and arguably the entire war. Right as we finished, a park guide brought a group of tourists to the site and did in about 90 seconds what it had taken us much longer to do. It was a really good day. If you haven’t been to Gettysburg, it’s well worth the trip.

Today in History: The Push-Button Phone

On this day (November Eighteen) in 1963 the first push-button phone went into service. This was state of the art technology at the time. No more waiting for that dial to slowly unwind back to the start position. Funny how it now seems so antiquated…

 

Today in History: A Serial Murderer Caught

On this day (November 17) in 1894 H.H. Holmes was arrested in Boston. He is one of the first serial murderers caught in the modern era. He confessed to murdering 27 people (some of whom, strangely enough, were still alive at the time of his confession). Authorities prosecuted him on the 9 murders they could prove. (Later, pulp writers of the 1940s would inflate the number of his victims to over 200.)

Holmes’ first two victims were his mistress, Julia Smythe, and her young daughter, Pearl. Smythe’s husband abandoned her when he learned of her affair with Holmes and she became dependent on him. A few months later she and her daughter “disappeared”. He was executed on May 7, 1896.

Today in History: Interplanetary Contact

On this day (November 16) in 1965 the Soviet Union launched Venera 3, the first human-made probe to reach the surface of another planet. It’s not actually one hundred percent certain that Venera 3 reached the surface of Venus. Its radio failed but it seems likely that it crashed on the planet’s surface.