On This Day

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Hello dear friends. I am still here, just been busier than normal lately. Seems the days go by so much faster and finding time to be on some of my regular sites like here, is getting harder to find. Hoping things are more settled now and I can be here a little more often other than once or so a week. With that said, let's take a look back at what happened on this day in history. 1777 During the American Revolutionary War, the British army would go into town of Danbury, Connecticut and systematically destroy most of it by burning down homes, barns and storehouses. It took a week before the Continental Army leaders got word of the attack. They sent some 500 men to go and attempt to stop the British forces. Severely outnumbered, the Continental Army was able to stop the British forces from completely destroying the city of Danbury. 1913 In one of the US's most disgraceful acts of bigotry, Leo Frank a Jewish owner of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, would be falsely accused of rape and murder and a mob would take him from prison and hang him for a crime he did not commit. 13-year-old Mary Phagan, who worked in the factory, was found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the factory. Near her lifeless body were two crude notes pointing the criminal act towards the night watchman, Newt Lee. It soon became clear he was innocent as he was illiterate. The factory's custodian, Jim Conley, was one who first pointed out to the police about Newt Lee's involvement. When he realized that wasn't the path the police would continue down, he then told them it was Leo Frank who did the horrendous crime. Despite the absurdity of Conley’s claims, they nevertheless took hold. The prosecutor was Hugh Dorsey, a known bigot, would threaten the jurors into giving a guilty verdict. The judge, Leonard Roan, allowed the blatantly unfair trial to go forward even after he was privately informed by Conley’s attorney that Conley had admitted to Frank’s innocence on more than one occasion. Georgia governor John Slaton initiated his own investigation and quickly concluded that Frank was completely innocent. Three weeks before his term ended, Slaton commuted Frank’s death sentence in the hope that he would eventually be freed when the publicity died down. Unfortunately for Leo Frank, a mob who was stirred into a frenzy by Hugh Dorsey and other bigots would go to the prison where Frank was being held, brought him back to Atlanta to be lynched. 1000's of Jewish residents of the city fled in fear because police refused to stop the murder of Leo Frank. 1915 The Treaty of London was signed by Italy, who at this point considered itself neutral during WW1. The allied countries of France, Britain, and Russia promised Italy more land in signing the treaty. Most Italians wanted Italy to remain neutral, yet they joined in the war against Austria-Hungary in May of that year. 1920 Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring 7 goals in Canada's 12-1 beating of Sweden in the gold medal match. 1931 Lou Gehrig hits a homerun but is called out for passing a runner, a mistake costs him AL home run crown. He and Babe Ruth tie for season. 1941 At Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, the organ is used during the game for the first time. 1954 At the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia the Salk polio vaccine field trials began. It involved almost 2 million children from the USA, Canada and Finland. The trials which used for the first time the now standard double blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo. One year later the trials were considered a great success, and the vaccine became the standard part of childhood immunizations in America. 1956 The first modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas 1977 During the disco craze of the late 70s Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager would open the famous Studio 54 in New York City. The discotheque would close its door on February 4, 1980. 1986 The worst nuclear accident in the worlds history took place on this day when the fourth reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union exploded. 31 died and radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe. 2005 Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of the country. 2012 Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was found guilty of war crimes including rape and mutilation in Sierra Leone. His conviction was the first for war crimes by a former head of state in an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II. Happy Birthday to Emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius Dutch lawyer (designed civil code law book), Joan Melchior Kemper American ornithologist and painter (The Birds of America), John James Audubon Landscape architect (designed Central Park), Frederick Law Olmsted American silent character actor famous for his 'slow burn' (Laurel & Hardy films; Duck Soup), Edgar Kennedy American boxer (Olympic gold - light heavyweight, 1920) and bobsledder (Olympic gold - 4-man team,1932), Eddie Eagan American Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (MLB single season record 191 RBI 1930, Chicago Cubs) Hack Wilson Chinese-American modernist architect (Louvre Pyramid; JFK Library; Dallas Symphony Hall; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) I M Pei Actress, comedian one of my favorites, Carol Burnett Chinese Singaporean actor and martial artist. Jet Li Slovenian-American model First Lady of the US, Melania Trump American tennis player, John Isner We said goodbye to French physician (coined the term "physiology"), Jean Fernel age 61 Assassin of US President Abraham Lincoln, John Wilks Booth age 26 French athlete and spy for Nazi Germany, Violette Morris age 51 American actor (Mr Smith Goes to Washington), Edward Arnold age 66 American burlesque actress (Gypsy), "Gypsy" Rose Lee age 59 American actor ("Jack Ewing" on Dallas), Jim Davis age 65 Jazz pianist, organist, and bandleader ("One O'Clock Jump"; "April In Paris"), Count Basie age 79 American actor (All the King's Men, Highway Patrol) Broderick Crawford age 74 American comedienne and actress (I Love Lucy) Lucille Ball age 77