Official "This Day In History" thread

[Dr Sardonicus]

In 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

The British government had subsidized the construction of the Lusitania, made modifications for possible wartime use, and had placed it on the list of "auxiliary" armed merchant cruisers, though had not pressed it into war service.

The ship also carried, unbeknownst to the passengers, but allowed by regulations, small-arms cartridges and shell casings.

After Lusitania arrived in New York, but before she sailed back to England, the German Embassy published the following:

NOTICE!
TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915

There is endless speculation about a second explosion, and why the ship sank as quickly as it did. There is no evidence of a second torpedo, one idea on offer. There are also theories that the second explosion was caused by the munitions in the cargo hold, by aluminum powder stored in the magazine, by coal dust from a bunker near the torpedo's impact, or by a boiler explosion.

On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

May 8, when the final documents were signed, is known as VE Day. When the preliminary surrender documents were signed, General Eisenhower issued the following statement:

The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

May 6:
o 1937 German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, NJ (36 die) -- Amazingly, 62 of the 97 passengers & crew survived. Underreported is that a US Helium embargo forced the Germans to use hydrogen instead. Despite the many precautions the engineers took to make the H2 containment as safe as possible, catastrophe was unavoidably built in.

The "underreporting" may be because it is a non sequitur. The History.com page gives a misleading statement on this. It's true that the US had banned the export of helium -- since 1927. But it's also true that Germany didn't request helium until after the Hindenburg crashed (newspaper clipping from the Lincoln NE Star below). There was at the time one other possible source of helium -- the Soviet Union.

But it was the expense of helium, and the logistical problems of storing it, that led to the abandonment of its use on the Hindenburg. Besides, of course, the Germans had had a long track record of using hydrogen safely in airships.

Flights To End If Helium Withheld - Eckener

NEW YORK, May 6

Dr. Hugo Eckener, Zeppelin pioneer, said today that if the United States government would not permit Germany to buy helium, trans-Atlantic passenger travel by dirigible would be ended. He arrived in the United States on the first anniversary of the crash of the Hindenburg.

"A horrible thing," he said. "It was due entirely to the use of hydrogen. Only by using helium can such accidents be prevented."

Dr. Eckener will go to Washington next week in an effort, he said to convince government officials to sell the precious non­ explosive gas, of which the United States has a commercial monopoly, to the German Zeppelin Transport Co.

Then, on March 12, 1938, the Nazis marched into Austria...

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

I presume you're referring to track athlete Caster Semenya -- yes, it's a tricky issue. Evolution is non-PC and has led to humans (among innumerable other species) being sexually dimorphic.

For instance, Araucaria araucana are generally dioecious but a few individuals are known to be both male and female. My pair have not yet reached puberty and so I've no idea which sex they are. Wait another 30-50 years and all will probably become clear.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

The "underreporting" may be because it is a non sequitur. The History.com page gives a misleading statement on this. It's true that the US had banned the export of helium -- since 1927. But it's also true that Germany didn't request helium until after the Hindenburg crashed (newspaper clipping from the Lincoln NE Star below). There was at the time one other possible source of helium -- the Soviet Union.

But it was the expense of helium, and the logistical problems of storing it, that led to the abandonment of its use on the Hindenburg. Besides, of course, the Germans had had a long track record of using hydrogen safely in airships.

History.com says this:

After the [October 1930] crash of the hydrogen-filled [UK airship] R101, in which most of the crew died in the subsequent fire rather than the impact itself, Hindenburg designer Hugo Eckener sought to use helium, a less flammable lifting gas. However, the United States, which had a monopoly on the world supply of helium and feared that other countries might use the gas for military purposes, banned its export, and the Hindenburg was reengineered.

And Wikipedia:

The disaster of the British airship R 101 prompted the Zeppelin Company to reconsider the use of hydrogen, therefore scrapping the LZ 128 in favour of a new airship designed for helium, the LZ 129 [Later named Hindenburg].
...
Helium was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest to use in airships, as it is not flammable.[11] One proposed measure to save helium was to make double-gas cells for 14 of the 16 gas cells; an inner hydrogen cell would be protected by an outer cell filled with helium,[11][12] with vertical ducting to the dorsal area of the envelope to permit separate filling and venting of the inner hydrogen cells. At the time, however, helium was also relatively rare and extremely expensive as the gas was available in industrial quantities only from distillation plants at certain oil fields in the United States. Hydrogen, by comparison, could be cheaply produced by any industrialized nation and being lighter than helium also provided more lift. Because of its expense and rarity, American rigid airships using helium were forced to conserve the gas at all costs and this hampered their operation.[13]

Despite a U.S. ban on the export of helium under the Helium Control Act of 1927,[14] the Germans designed the airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the US government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National Munitions Control Board would refuse to lift the export ban, they were forced to re-engineer Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift.[11] Despite the danger of using flammable hydrogen, no alternative lighter-than-air gases could provide sufficient lift. One beneficial side effect of employing hydrogen was that more passenger cabins could be added. The Germans' long history of flying hydrogen-filled passenger airships without a single injury or fatality engendered a widely held belief they had mastered the safe use of hydrogen. Hindenburg's first season performance appeared to demonstrate this.

The wording "they could convince the US government to license its export" sounds like a form of request to me. No point requesting Helium itself until you get the export ban lifted, so you first request the latter.

=================

Some other May 7th historic events:
o 1355 1,200 Jews of Toledo, Spain killed by Count Henry of Trastamara
o 1429 English siege of Orleans broken by Joan of Arc and the French army -- The Brits did not forget that little humiliation.
o 1660 Isaack B Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni
o 1697 Stockholm's medieval royal castle is destroyed by fire, the Codex Gigas (world's largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript) survives by being thrown out a window -- See, there *is* such a thing as a good defenestration.
o 1718 The city of New Orleans founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville
o 1765 HMS Victory launched; Admiral Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, 40 years later
o 1789 First US Presidential inaugural ball (for George Washington in NYC)
o 1792 Captain Robert Gray discovers Grays Harbor (Washington) -- I remain amazed at the historical frequency of coincidence whereby explorers happen to discover eponymous locales. I mean, all of the harbor-colors Mr. Gray could have happened on in his voyages, he just happened to land at one sharing his name. Amazing!
o 1824 Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th (Chorale) Symphony, premieres in Vienna, often regarded as his greatest work
o 1866 German premier Otto von Bismarck seriously wounded in assassination attempt -- His rudder having been disabled by a lucky shot, Bismarck was forced to circle endlessly while enduring continuous shelling. He sank several hours later.
o 1873 US marines attack Panama -- I've not listed most of them, but I'm struck at how many "US marines attack Caribbean/Central-American country X" entries I've come across in just the past few weeks of perusing history-today entries.
o 1895 Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the world's first radio receiver in St. Petersberg. Celebrated as Radio Day in Russia. -- A full 17 years pre-Marconi. They later named a budget brand of vodka in Popov's honor.
o 1908 Emperor Franz-Joseph celebrates his golden jubilee with festivities throughout the Austro-Hungarian empire -- Enjoy it while it lasts, pal.
o 1934 World's largest pearl (6.4 kg) found at Palawan, Philippines -- That must've been one irritated oyster.
o 1938 Dutch Minister of Justice Goseling calls fugitives of Nazi-Germany "undesired strangers" -- Calls for building of a yuuge wall, demands Mexico pay for it.
o 1945 World War II: Unconditional German surrender to the Allies signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims -- But not all the Nazis got the memo:
o 1945 SS open fire on crowd in Amsterdam, killing 22
o 1946 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees
o 1952 The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer -- Of the electronics firm Dumm and Dummer, no doubt.
o 1954 French surrender to Vietminh after 55-day siege at Dien Bien Phu
o 1954 US, Great Britain & France reject Russian membership of NATO
o 1957 Indians' pitcher Herb Score is hit by a line drive off Gil McDougald -- Wikipedia notes "Score struck out 245 batters in 1955, a Major League rookie record that stood until 1984, when it was topped by Dwight Gooden ... It was the first time in MLB history a regular starting pitcher averaged over one strikeout per inning." After recovering from the resulting injury but suffering a torn throwing-arm tendon and never regaining his old form, Score was a television and radio broadcaster for the Cleveland Indians from 1964 through 1997 - I grew up in NE Ohio and recall his play-by-play. The famous Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland is right across the street from the apartment building where I lived from 1993-1999, and features the grave of Ray Chapman, an Indians player who died in 1920 after being struck in the head by a pitch (an underhanded one, pardon the pun). Other notables in said cemetery include the later President Garfield and oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

And Wikipedia:

The wording "they could convince the US government to license its export" sounds like a form of request to me. No point requesting Helium itself until you get the export ban lifted, so you first request the latter.

"Sounds like a form of request" doesn't conjure an actual formal request out of thin air. I looked and looked for a record of such a request before 1938, but I couldn't find one. I did find a number of statements to the effect that the use of helium was abandoned due to its cost. With the 1938 helium request, I had no problem finding a newspaper article about it.

And there is way other than repealing the law, called a "waiver," basically allowing an exception. The law would stay in place, but would be deemed not to apply to the present case, or to be overridden by present circumstances. As I mentioned, the request for helium was made, one year after the Hindenburg crashed. The agreement was drawn up granting the request, but it remained unsigned because of the Anschluss.

[Dr Sardonicus]

May 8

On this day...

In 1794, Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror.

The Famous Scientists web page has, among many other items,

Antoine Lavoisier revolutionized chemistry. He named the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; discovered oxygen’s role in combustion and respiration; established that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen; discovered that sulfur is an element, and helped continue the transformation of chemistry from a qualitative science into a quantitative one.
<snip>
"In performing experiments, it is necessary… that they be simplified as much as possible, and that every circumstance that could complicate the results should be completely removed."
-- Antoine Lavoisier, Elementary Treatise on Chemistry
<snip>
"Experiments upon vegetation give reason to believe that light combines with certain parts of vegetables, and that the green of their leaves, and the various colors of flowers, is chiefly owing to this combination."
-- Antoine Lavoisier, Elementary Treatise on Chemistry
<snip>
In 1794 Lavoisier was branded a traitor because of his involvement with taxation. He was also unpopular with revolutionaries because he had supported foreign scientists whom the revolutionaries wished to strip of their assets.

Lavoisier was sentenced to death by the revolutionaries. Trumped-up charges against him included stealing money from France’s Treasury and giving it to France’s enemies.

Antoine Lavoisier died by the guillotine at the age of 50 on May 8, 1794 in Paris. Marie-Anne’s father and 26 other people were executed on the same occasion.

At the end of 1795, in a U-turn, the French government found Lavoisier innocent of all charges. By then, of course, it was too late: he was just another innocent victim of the revolution’s Reign of Terror.

"It took them only an instant to cut off that head, but France may not produce another like it in a century." -- Joseph-Louis Lagrange

In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.

This was just the start. He got an even more rousing reception in Caracas, Venezuela 5 days later. According to History.com,

During a goodwill trip through Latin America, Vice President Richard Nixon’s car is attacked by an angry crowd and nearly overturned while traveling through Caracas, Venezuela. The incident was the dramatic highlight of trip characterized by Latin American anger over some of America’s Cold War policies.

By 1958, relations between the United States and Latin America had reached their lowest point in years. Latin Americans complained that the U.S. focus on the Cold War and anticommunism failed to address the pressing economic and political needs of many Latin American nations. In particular, they argued that their countries needed more basic economic assistance, not more arms to repel communism. They also questioned the American support of dictatorial regimes in Latin America simply because those regimes claimed to be anticommunist—for example, the U.S. awarded the Legion of Merit medal to Venezuelan dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1954; Jimenez was overthrown by a military coup early in 1958.

The more things change...

I was a bit young to follow the news back then, but I remember my parents talking about Nixon's return. Wikipedia remembers it well...

Eisenhower ordered that Nixon should receive a "hero's welcome" on his return; all U.S. government employees in Washington, D.C. were given the day off work to turn-out for the arrival of the vice-president. Nixon deplaned before "a cheering crowd of 10,000" that included the congressional leadership and ambassadors from most Latin American countries. Eisenhower personally greeted Nixon at the airport and the two then traveled to the White House along a route lined by 100,000 people.

Life credited Nixon for his "courage" and said "his coolness had been remarkable". According to Pathé News, Nixon reflected "calm, rather than concern." For weeks after the attack, Nixon received standing ovations "wherever he went ... a new high in his life". By contrast, The New Republic claimed the attack was a hoax set up to help Nixon's chances in the U.S. presidential election, 1960.

All twelve agents of Nixon's Secret Service detail received the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service from Eisenhower at Nixon's request.

[Dr Sardonicus]

May 9

On this day...

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

The History.com page includes the following sequel:

Anna Jarvis had originally conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and families. Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge and visiting one’s mother or attending church services. But once Mother’s Day became a national holiday, it was not long before florists, card companies and other merchants capitalized on its popularity.

While Jarvis had initially worked with the floral industry to help raise Mother’s Day’s profile, by 1920 she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized. She outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother’s Day flowers, cards and candies.

Jarvis eventually resorted to an open campaign against Mother’s Day profiteers, speaking out against confectioners, florists and even charities. She also launched countless lawsuits against groups that had used the name “Mother’s Day,” eventually spending most of her personal wealth in legal fees. By the time of her death in 1948 Jarvis had disowned the holiday altogether, and even actively lobbied the government to see it removed from the American calendar.

This is my second Mother's Day as an orphan. Last year on Mother's day, my siblings and I went around scattering some of her ashes. My older sister's self-absorption in her resentments about our mother (and our father, and about how the whole rest of the world is just so unfair to her) are fading memories. What stands out much more clearly is something a neighbor said to me while I was caring for my mother, and coping with my older sister's behavior: "You will only ever have one mother."

The way mothers are supposed to feel about their children (but alas, not all do), is captured in the Book of Kings, Chapter 3:

16 Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.

17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

18 And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

19 And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

20 And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

22 And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.

23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

26 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

In 1961, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton N. Minow decried the majority of television programming as a "vast wasteland."

A critic for the New Yorker took this and ran with it:

Television is a vast, phosphorescent Mississippi of the senses, on the banks of which one can soon lose one's judgment and eventually lose one's mind. The medium itself is depressing. The shuddering fluorescent jelly of which it's made seems to corrode the eyes of the spectator and soften his brain. [....]

— Jonathan Miller, The New Yorker (November 16, 1963).

[LaurV]

You forgot Romanian communist party.
(nostalgia.... haha)

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by LaurV

You forgot Romanian communist party.
(nostalgia.... haha)

I am sorry you haven't forgotten, or haven't been able to forget -- at least not yet...

[ewmayer]

Re. TV as a vast wasteland, one wonders what T.S.Eliot might have written about it were he minded to do so. "Ratings month is the cruellest month", mayhap? I do know what that American sage & poet Frank Zappa had to say about it:

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks . . .
Don't touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go

I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go

A few other happ'nins of 9 May, the first 500 years ago today from my birth country:
o 1519 Austrian adel and burgerij in uprising against central government
o 1865 President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end; this is the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War
o 1873 Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression
o 1877 Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day becomes the Independence Day of Romania.
o 1901 A financial panic begins in the USA following the struggle between two groups to control the railroads between the Great Lakes and the Pacific
o 1916 British-France Sykes-Picot conference over division of Turkey -- More drawing-lines-on-maps evildoing
o 1922 The International Astronomical Union formally adopt Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system, which with only minor changes, is still used today -- The menmonic when I first heard it was "Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right now sweetheart". Not that one might conclude astronomy was a male-dominated field back then, or anything.
o 1926 1st flight over the North Pole claimed by Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett. Later discovery of Byrd's diary suggests they may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole due to an oil leak. -- It's rumored this inspired Maxwell Smart's "missed it by *this* much" gag on Get Smart.
o 1941 British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen
o 1944 1st eye bank opens in New York -- How did they handle overdrafts, I wonder.
o 1944 Russians recapture Crimea by taking Sevastopol
o 1945 Norwegian nazi collaborators Vidkun Quisling arrested -- "Quisling" has since entered the lexicon as a synonym for 'traitor', including in German, interestingly.
o 1960 US becomes the first country to legalize the birth control pill
o 1962 Laser beam successfully bounced off Moon for 1st time

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

I am sorry you haven't forgotten, or haven't been able to forget -- at least not yet...

Well, thanks for the compassion, for the most of the time when May 8 and 9 were big celebrations (early days, because later they mostly celebrated the beloved leader only), I was a child, and for me May 8 and 9 were fun, free candies, no school, haha... Occasionally they gathered us to stadiums where we practiced color-shifting card-boards, or sometimes parades and marches, but this was still fun... Later, the birthdays of the party became lees important and they were usually shadowed by May 1st, which was every year one of the biggest celebrations - one reason was to get the mind of the people away from the Easter (orthodox Easter is later than yours, for example this year was on April 28-29-30).
But few things, indeed, I will never forget. And I am not talking about free candies or the days with no school..