TLW's Washington DCscope™ (Washington, D.C. Historyscope) |
By T.L. Winslow (TLW), the Historyscoper™ |
© Copyright by T.L. Winslow. All Rights Reserved. |
Original Pub. Date: June 17, 2017. Last Update: Nov. 2, 2020. |
Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to Washington, D.C. and Washington, D.C. history. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.
Washington, D.C. (modern-day pop. 6.2M/702K) started out as the world's first home of freedom since ancient Athens, and grew during the U.S. Civil War of 1861-5 to become the head of a hydra with tentacles spread over the other states exerting undue power not contemplated by the Founding Fathers. No surprise, the city has become a swamp of overpaid overpowerful bureaucrats, while the federal institutions that were supposed to preserve and protect the U.S. Constitution have instead turned it into ass wipe that they just give er, lip service to. That doesn't mean it isn't one of the world's most interesting cities, rife with rich conspiracy theories, which every historyscoper must scope to be worthy of the name. TLW hopes he did you historyscopers proud with this cool historyscope.
On Jan. 26-29, 1772 the Washington-Jefferson Snowstorm hits Va., dropping its greatest snow in the District of Columbia area, 3 ft., becoming the most seen since Euro settlement; both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson record it in their weather diaries after Jefferson and his new bride are caught in it, requiring them to abandon their carriage at Blenheim 8 mi. from Monticello, and complete the journey on horseback, arriving at a cold dark house after the servants had retired for the night.
On Dec. 23, 1788 the state of Md. cedes an area "not exceeding ten miles square" for the seat of the federal govt.; about two-thirds becomes the District of Columbia.
Whether or not you go for the theory that the Illuminati founded the U.S., the Jesuits and Roman Catholics don't take long to move into Washington, D.C. in force? On Jan. 23, 1789 after the Vatican approaches U.S. pres. George Washington about naming a new bishop in the U.S., which Washington consents to, although the distrust of the U.S. govt. is so great that it doesn't establish full diplomatic relations with the Vatican for almost two cents. (1984), Georgetown U. (originally Georgetown College) is founded in the Georgetown neighborhood of modern-day Washington, D.C. by John Carroll (1735-1815), who becomes Roman Catholic bishop of Baltimore, Md. on Nov. 6 (until Dec. 3, 1815), becoming the oldest Roman Catholic and Jesuit-affiliated univ. in the U.S.; after the U.S. Civil War they adopt blue and gray as school colors; by 1920 their athletic teams are nicknamed the Hoyas (Gr. "hoya" = what, such); Carroll, a Jesuit who returned to the U.S. in 1774 after their suppression in Europe, who was appointed in 1784 by Pope Pius VI as prefect apostolic of the U.S. at the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin becomes the first Roman Catholic bishop in the U.S., followed by archbishop in 1808; all the church groups in the U.S. are getting federal fever and seeking to nationalize their orgs. now.?; Georgetown U. incl. U.S. Pres. William Clinton, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, CIA dir. George Tenet, King Felipe of Spain, and 1K U.S. Foreign Service diplomats.
On Feb. 4, 1789 the 1789 U.S. Pres. Election by the electoral college elects Gen. George Washington (1732-99) as U.S. pres. #1 with 69 votes (unanimous) (69? get it?), but the sealed ballots are sent to New York City to be officially counted by Congress, and although the new U.S. govt. is supposed to go into effect on Mar. 4, a quorum does not assemble to hold the first session of the U.S. House of Representatives at Federal Hall in New York until Apr. 1, so the lawmakers adjourn; Washington is a Freemason, the first of 15 by the time of U.S. pres. #43 George W. Bush (a Freemason).
On Mar. 4, 1789 the U.S. Senate meets for the first time, with 8 of 22 members attending; on Apr. 1 the U.S. House of Reps. holds its first full meeting in New York City with 65 reps.; the first law passed is regarding oaths of office; at first the min. size for a Congressional district is 30K, and the number of House seats increases every decade until 1912, when it levels off at 435, with 210K avg. residents per district; by 2009 the avg. district has 650K, with the largest district being Nevada (960K) and the smallest Wyoming (493K).
In Washington Adam was jeopardized by a mad monster. Adam and Jack ran to the bureau, but in their hurry they broke a tile and poked a tailor. They filmed more buildings, pierced by a cannon which was linked by John's son to granite. The haze over garden and field sheltered Arthur, who cleaved his way in a hurry. He cleaved mockingly as he cried "A rose taffeta dress will hardlybe the right thing in a college, but whoever desires rose veils may truly wear them"? On Apr. 6, 1789 the electoral ballots are opened and counted, and George Washington, AKA "the Father of His Country", "the Sword of the Revolution", "the Surveyor", "the American Fabius", "the American Cincinnatus", "the Old Fox" (Lord Cornwallis' name for him), "the Sage of Mount Vernon", "the Farmer President", "His Excellency", "Town Destroyer" (Iroquois name for him) is elected as the first U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1797), with John Adams receiving 34 electoral votes to become the first U.S. vice-pres. (N.Y. Gov. George Clinton receives 3 electoral votes, and 32 more votes are scattered among various Federalists and Antifederalists); the first of 12 U.S. presidents who own slaves (last is #18 Ulysses S. Grant); on Apr. 21 John Adams (1735-1826) is sworn in as the 1st U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1797); on Apr. 30 the 1st U.S. Pres. Inauguration under the new constitution is held in Federal (City) Hall in New York City (outdoors) (near the future site of the Twin Towers in Manhattan?), where Washington begins a tradition by kissing the Bible, and adds the words "So help me God" to the 35-word oath of office in the Constitution (first pres. precedent), then goes to the Anglican St. Paul's Chapel (near the later site of the World Trade Center, which is miraculously untouched after 9/11?), sits through a 2-hour service and takes communion, then gives Washington's First Inaugural Speech, beginning "Fellow citizens of the Senate and the House of Representatives", and mentioning "an indissoluble union" and "that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe, who presides in the Councils of Nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect", and on Oct. 3 declares Nov. 26 (Thur.) a Nat. Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving with a Thanksgiving Proclamation, starting out "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor"; the inaugural buttons have a neat eagle and sunburst motif; Federal Hall at 26 Wall St., site of the 1735 Peter Zenger trial is the first capitol of the U.S. (until 1790), and is torn down in 1812 and replaced by the U.S. Customs House, then made into a U.S. nat. memorial in 1955; Washington's annual salary as pres. is $25K; he had offered to work for expenses, like during the war, but since he racked up a $400K bill for 1775-83, his salary becomes "the country's first economy wave" (Marvin Kitman); he refuses to shake hands, considering it demeaning to the presidency (wait till he sees Pres. Obama bow to kings?); on Apr. 23 Pres. Washington and first First Lady (she likes to be called "Lady Washington") Martha Washington (1731-1802) move into the first U.S. pres. mansion at 1 Cherry St. ("George Washington Slept Here") (cherry? get it?); next Mar. 22 Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. secy. of state (until Dec. 31, 1793), John Adams becomes the first pres. of the Senate, and on Apr. 1 Frederick Muhlenberg (1750-1801) becomes the first speaker (dean) of the U.S. House of Reps. (until Mar. 4, 1797); new U.S. Sen. from Conn. (1789-96) Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) (coiner of the term "United States") becomes Washington's personal spokesman, and chmn. of a committee organizing the U.S. federal court system; Washington issues the first executive order; at first Adams thinks he will actively direct the Senate, leading debate like a schoolmaster, but when he proposes that the president should be addressed as "His Excellency" instead of "Mister President", the members begin to distrust him and limit him to silently watching the proceedings, forever setting a precedent that makes the vice-pres. job pretty much useless? - cheese it?
On July 9, 1790 the U.S. House passes the U.S. Residence Act, ending a nat. quarrel in the spring about the location of the U.S. nat. capital, with Alexander Hamilton backing New York City (branded by his enemies as Hamiltonopolis), others backing Philadelphia, and Southerners backing the Potomac River area; Philadelphia is designated as the temporary nat. capital; Pres. George Washington selects the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) on the Potomac River in the swamp called Foggy Bottom (the closest commute to Mount Vernon) (on land originally inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Nacotchtanks) as the new U.S. capital, to be readied for govt. use by June 1800; the site incl. an additional 30.75 sq. mi. on the Va. side of the Potomac River, which are returned to Va. in 1846; after a contest, Irish-born architect James Hoban (1755-1831) is selected as architect for the President's House and the U.S. Capitol.
In 1791 Paris-born French engineer (Valley Forge veteran) Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825) draws up the original plan for the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.); a gridwork of parallel streets are overlaid with diagonal "grand avenues" which radiate from Jenkins' Hill (Capitol Hill) (site of the U.S. Capitol) and the Executive Mansion, which face each other along Pennsylvania Ave., with the President's Park to be located N of the President's House, later becoming Lafayette Square, and the President's Park South to be located S of the President's House, with the 1km circumference street in it called the Ellipse; a third focus is planned for the Supreme Court, but it ends up being put in the basement of the Capitol instead; there were a lot of Freemasons among the the Am. Founding Fathers, and they even laid out Washington, D.C. in a Masonic configuration? - the Satanic hexagram design is an Illuminati symbol in disguise?
In 1791 Alexandria, Va. becomes part of the District of Columbia (until 1846), making big money trading slaves.
On Oct. 12, 1792 the U.S. celebrates its first Columbus Day to commemorate the 300th anniv. of the big landing; on Oct. 13 the cornerstone of the President's House, the U.S. executive mansion is laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia (finished in 1800); Irish-born Am. architect James Hoban (1762-1831) models it after Leinster House, home of the duke of Leinster in Ireland (later seat of the Irish parliament); African-Am. slaves are used in the construction, along with Scottish immigrants; too bad, the British torch it in 1814, causing it to need whitewashing and end up with the name you know what.
On Oct. 2, 1799 after purchasing the land on July 23, the U.S. Congress establishes the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., becoming the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy; the S boundary is the Anacostia River, the W side is undeveloped marsh.
On Apr. 24, 1800 the U.S. Congress passes a bill transfering the seat of the U.S. federal govt. from Philly to the new capital city of Washington, D.C., and establishing the Library of Congress, funded by a $5K appropriation to order 740 books and three maps from London which are initially housed in a boarding house, then the U.S. Capitol.
On Nov. 1, 1800 as the U.S. federal govt. moves to Washington, D.C. from Philly, Pres. John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams move into the 132-room 14-acre Georgian mansion President's House (White House), where fires have to be constantly set to heat the cold rooms, and White House hostess #1 Abigail Adams uses one of the rooms for laundry; on Nov. 2 John writes to her, "I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof" - will he settle for one out of two?
On Nov. 17, 1800 after 10 years in Philly the Sixth U.S. Congress (Mar. 4, 1799-Mar. 4, 1801) convenes for the first time in Washington, D.C. in the partially completed U.S. Capitol bldg.
On Dec. 12, 1800 Washington, D.C. is officially established as the capital of the U.S.; its pop. is 14,093 incl. 10,066 whites and 4,027 blacks (783 free, 3,244 slave).
On Feb. 27, 1801 the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 is passed by the U.S. Congress, placing the District of Columbia under their control incl. Washington County to the N and E of the Potomac River, Alexandria County to the W and S of the Potomac River, and leaving the charters of Georgetown and Alexandria untouched; next year the city of Washington, D.C. is incorporated, a mayor-city council govt. established, and a jail built.
On Mar. 4, 1801 6 ft. 2.5 in. Va.-born Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), AKA "the Red Fox", "the Scribe (Pen) of the Revolution", "the Father of the Declaration of Independence", "the Sage of Monticello", "the Moonshine Philosopher of Monticello", "the Man of the People", "Long Tom", "Mad Tom", "the Negro President" (owes his V to the Three-Fifths Compromise) becomes the 3rd U.S. pres. (until 1809) in the 4th U.S. Pres. Inauguration, becoming the first pres. to be inaugurated at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., which he helped to design, and where he goes every Sunday for religious services in the House of Reps.; after he gets dissatisfied with the music at the Sunday services, and knowing that outgoing Pres. Adams invited them to perform at the Pres. Mansion earlier in the year, Jefferson gets the U.S. Marine Band (established on July 11, 1798) to play there, becoming a tradition; Jefferson names the music The President's Own, becoming the nickname for the band; Jefferson's First Inaugural Address calls America "the world's best hope", spurring Dr. Joseph Priestly in Mar. to write: "We can no longer say there is nothing new under the sun. For this whole chapter in the history of man is new. The great extent of our republic is new"; Aaron Burr (1756-1836) becomes the 3rd U.S. vice-president; 32-y.-o. snuff-loving Dolley Madison becomes his hostess, while his intellectual daughter Martha Washington Jefferson "Patsy" Randolph (1772-1836) becomes First Lady since he's a widower; next year Jefferson turns the State of the Union address from a speech into a written report sent to Congress, which is not changed for 112 years (until Pres. Wilson); the whole business is historic since Creation, becoming the first time a govt. changes hands between bitter political foes without violence, as ex-pres. Adams packs his bags and goes home to Quincy?; on Mar. 5 he appoints Am. Rev. War gen. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) as U.S. war secy. #5 (until Mar, 4, 1809), and former S.C. gov. (1789-92) Charles Pinckney (1757-1824) as U.S. minister to Spain (until 1805), with the Mission: Impossible of getting Fla. from Spain and Spanish acquiescence in the transfer of La. from France.
On July 4, 1801 the first public 4th of July reception is held at the White House, er, Executive Mansion in Washington, D.C.
On May 3, 1802 the city of Washington, D.C. is incorporated, with a mayor appointed by the U.S. pres. and the city council elected by property owners.
On May 20, 1809 the Long Street Bridge (originally Long Bridge) over the Potomac River in the District of Columbia opens, becoming the 2nd Potomac bridge after the 1797 one near Little Falls upstream of Georgetown; on Aug. 25, 1814 the British burn the N end, and the Americans burn the S end; it is rebuilt by 1816; it goes on to be washed away in 1831 and 1857 and rebuilt, becoming a favorite of Walt Whitman to use on long hikes outside Washington, D.C.
On Mar. 16, 1810 the U.S. Supreme (Marshall) Court rules 4-1 in Fletcher v. Peck to overturn the recission by the Ga. legislature of the Yazoo Land Fraud grant, upholding the law of property and contracts from legislative interference, and resulting in corporations being shielded from state regulations for the rest of the cent., becoming the first time the U.S. Supreme Court rules a state law unconstitutional, hinting that Native Ams. don't told title to their own lands; in 1814 Congress awards the lucky speculators $4.2M; meanwhile British-born neoclassical architect Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (1764-1820) builds a 2nd U.S. Senate chamber on top of the first, allowing the U.S. Supreme Court to move into the lower half of the 1st chamber in the North Wing of the U.S. Capitol, called the Old Supreme Court Chamber until 1812-9, when it vacates Washington, D.C. because of the British invasion, then returns until 1860, when it moves to the Old Senate Chamber (until 1935); Latrobe goes on to become U.S. Capitol architect #2 in 1815-17, and design the White House porticos.
Washington, D.C. is sacked and burned by cocky British brutes? In early Aug. 1814 the British fleet attempts to create a diversion for their northern invasion forces by entering Chesapeake Bay, landing 4.5K troops in Benedict, Md. (40 mi. from Washington) on Aug. 19, and on Aug. 24 routing a hastily assembled U.S. force at the Battle of Bladensburg (the first time a U.S. pres. personally leads troops into battle until ?); at night a British force commanded by cocky burner Rear Adm. Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet (1772-1853) marches into undefended Washington, D.C., and some British officers eat a meal prepared for Pres. and Mrs. Madison, who had fled with the 7K soldiers and 400 soldiers to Virginia (Dolley Madison remembers to have the Declaration of Independence packed up and sent to safety, along with the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Pres. George Washington); they then enter and burn every public bldg. in Washington, D.C. (White House, Capitol, Library of Congress, etc.), except the Patent Office, and capture the city on Aug. 25, but a "most tremendous hurricane" (tornado?) arrives suddenly, followed by a thunderstorm, which first compounds the damage then puts out the fires, causing the Brits to withdraw to attack heavily-defended Baltimore after Cockburn orders a newspaper publishing house destroyed, with the immortal soundbyte: "Be sure that all the C's are destroyed so that the rascals cannot any longer abuse my name", Cockburn's portrait standing in front of burning Washington, D.C. is printed weeks later in London; in the fall the U.S. Congress meets in the Patent Office; next Feb. Congress appropriates restoration funds, and the bldgs. are rebuilt by 1819; the burned President's Mansion is painted white, becoming the White House (not called that until the Theodore Roosevelt admin.); the Library of Congress is restocked with 6.5K books from Thomas Jefferson's library.
In 1815 the red brick Old Brick Capitol on Jenkins Hill (E slope of Capitol Hill) at 1st and A Sts., NE in Washington, D.C. is founded out of Stelle's Hotel (built 1800) as the temporary U.S. Capitol (until 1819); during the U.S. Civil War of 1861-5 it becomes the Old Capitol Prison; in 1865 it houses Lincoln's suspected assassins; in 1867 it is purchased by U.S. sgt.-at-arms George T. Brown, who turns it into three rowhouses called Trumbull's Row; in 1929 it is demolished to make way for U.S. Supreme Court Bldg.
In 1815 the Washington City Canal in Washington, D.C. opens, connecting the Anacostia River in the E to Tiber Creek, the Potomac River, and later the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal; it closes in the mid-1850s, and is filled in by 1871, with only the Lockkeeper's House (built in 1837) left standing at the SW corner of 17th St., NW and Constitutional Ave., NW near Constitution Gardens.
In 1816 the Greek Revival Episcopal St. John's Episcopal Church at Sixteenth St. and H St., NW in Washington, D.C. across Lafayette Square from the White House is built, designed by British-born neoclassical architect ("Father of Am. Architecture") Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (1764-1820), going on to be attended at least once by every sitting U.S. pres. starting with James Madison; starting with FDR, every U.S. pres. except Pres. Richard Nixon attends spiritual services on inauguration day, many at St. John's.
On Jan. 1, 1818 after Pres. James Monroe and his wife Eliza moved back into the restored White House in Oct., it is officially reopened.
On July 4, 1821 Pres. Monroe takes ill, and the White House is closed to the public; vice-pres. J.Q. Adams reads an original copy of the Declaration of Indepence in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The White House gets a new dome? On Mar. 4, 1825 (Fri.) brainy but politically inept dome-topped (pres. with highest IQ?) John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), AKA "Old Man Eloquent" (a char. from John Milton), "King John II", "Publicola" becomes the 6th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1829) in the 10th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C., during which all prior U.S. presidents except #1 George Washington are still alive; he and his daddy #2 John Adams (1797-1801) are the first two 1-term presidents; John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850) becomes the 7th U.S. vice-pres. (until Dec. 28, 1832); J.Q. Adams takes his pres. oath on a book of laws instead of a Bible; Monroe leaves the White House in debt, returning to Ole Virginny (hoping to die on the Fourth of July?); Adams' wife (since 1797) Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1775-1852) is the First Lady, becoming the first who was born abroad (London) (until Melania Trump in 2017); Floride Bonneau Calhoun (1792-1866) is the Second Lady, going on to engage in the Petticoat Affair, a social war against Margaret O'Neill Eaton, wife of war secy. John Eaton for her low moral standards; speaking of double standards, J.Q. Adams enjoys morning skinny-dipping in the Potomac River, and once has his clothes stolen; he has the first toilet installed in the White House, causing the device to be called the Quincy; the first U.S. pres. to write a treatise against Islam (until ?), and the first to pub. poetry (2nd is Carter); when Adams appoints Clay as secy. of state, Jackson accuses them both of a "corrupt bargain" (Adams buying Clay's support to become pres.); the Repub. Party begins to split into the pro-states-rights Democratic-Republican Party (later Democratic Party) and pro-federal-govt. Whig Party (favoring supremacy of Congress over the executive branch, plus modernization and economic protectionism); up-and-coming Dem.-Repub. James K. Polk is elected to the U.S. House of Reps. from Tenn. (until Mar. 3, 1839), where he is opposed to pres. J.Q. Adams, who appoints former Va. gov. (1812-4) James Barbour (1775-1842) as U.S. war secy. #11 (until May 23, 1828).
On July 4, 1825 Pres. J.Q. Adams marches from the U.S. Capitol to the White House in Washington, D.C. in a parade featuring a wheel-mounted stage representing the 24 U.S. states. On Sept. 7, 1825 the Marquis de Lafayette bids farewell to Pres. Adams at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Lucky number seven is the first American John Elway? On Mar. 4, 1829 (Wed.) "Old Hickory" (the hardest of woods) Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) of Tenn., AKA "the Hero of New Orleans", "King Andrew the First", "Mischievous Andy", "Sharp Knife" (Creek Indian nickname) becomes the lucky 7th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1837) in the 11th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (first pres. to be sworn in on the U.S. Capitol steps after he refuses a parade, and the first former POW to be pres. after his 1781 experience); by now he has been involved in 103 duels and altercations, 14 times as principal); John C. Calhoun of S.C. begins his 2nd term as U.S. vice-pres. #7, resigning on Dec. 28, 1832 after 3 years 299 days; First Lady is not Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson (1767-1828), since she dies of a heart attack two weeks after the election on Dec. 22, and is buried on Christmas Eve in her white inauguration gown after 10K attend her funeral; Andy Jackson, wearing black in mourning over his wife delivers his inaugural address before a crowd of 15K-20K (one of the shortest ever), then makes it through them to the White House, but he's the first pres. of the common man, so they follow him right up the steps to the lower floor, smashing china and glassware and destroying furniture in their joy, causing Jackson to sneak out under a human shield while they party on, after which Louis S. Glanzman depicts the unruly mob in his 1970 painting "Andrew Jackson's Inauguration"; Mass.-born politician Amos Kendall (1789-1869) becomes the intellectual force behind his admin., working to transform the U.S. from an agrararian repub. to a capitalist nation; not to waste his new shine, Jackson immediately begins a war on the Second Bank of the U.S. (founded 1816), controlled by Nicholas Biddle, attacking it in his Dec. 8 (written) First Annual Message to Congress, then withdrawing govt. deposits from state banks, causing Daniel Webster to say that he "seeks to influence the poor against the rich"; he also mentions "setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi" for pesky Injuns; Mo. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858) (great-uncle of the muralist) supports Jackson against the U.S. Bank, earning the title "Old Bullion" by his opposition to the issuance of paper currency - I can say I'm blessed to have been born in the backward 18th cent.?
On Mar. 4, 1833 U.S. Dem. pres. #7 (since Mar. 4, 1829) Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) is inaugurated for a 2nd term in the 12th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; Kinderhook, N.Y.-born Martin (nee Maarten) Van Buren (1782-1862) ("the Little Magician") becomes the 8th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1837); on May 29 Irish-born Philly atty. William John Duane (1780-1865) is appointed U.S. treasury secy. #11, but is dismissed on Sept. 22 for refusing Jackson's demand to transfer U.S. govt. deposits from the U.S. Bank to private banks, citing lack of authority from Congress; the Whig Party is formed to oppose "King Jackson" and his populist Dem. Party by Nat. Repubs. and Anti-Masonic dropouts, soon splitting into the Conscience Whigs in Northern states, who morally oppose slavery, and the Cotton Whigs in Southern states, who let their consciences relax when it comes to the New England textile industry.
In 1833 Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) and Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1805-91) of Germany invent the Electromagnetic Telegraph, testing it up to 9K ft. In 1835 New York U. art prof. Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872) invents and demonstrates the Morse Electric Telegraph based on prior work of Germans Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm E. Weber; he and his associate Albert Vail (1807-59) build and test it in Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, N.J.; in 1837 he exhibits it at the City College of New York, and invents Morse Code, which he can send at a shocking 10 words per min.; Morse and Maine Dem. rep. (1833-9) Francis Ormond Jonathan Smith (1806-76) lobby Congress for federal funding to build his telegraph system, and on May 1, 1844 after Congress appropriates $30K for a 37-mi. line, Morse sends the first telegraph message between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md., officially opening the line on May 24 while demonstrating it to a crowd of dignitaries in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court, sending the message "What hath God wrought" to Alfred Vail. Meanwhile in 1837 English inventor Sir William Fothergill Cooke (1806-79) and Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-75) patent an electric telegraph that is widely used in Britain.
On Jan. 30, 1835 as U.S. pres. #7 (1829-37) Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) leaves the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. after attending the funeral of S.C. Rep. Warren R. Davis, mad unemployed Lancashire, England-born house painter Richard Lawrence (1800-61) (who believes he's really Richard III of England) becomes the first person to attempt to assassinate a U.S. pres. when he fires a pistol at his back, which misfires, after which Davy Crockett et al. wrestle him to the ground while Jackson hits him with his cane, but he pulls out a 2nd pistol and fires at Jackson again, and it misfires again, after which he is arrested; after his defense atty. Francis Scott Key proves him insane, he ends up in mental hospitals for life, ending up in St. Elizabeths Hospital (Govt. Hospital for the Insane), future home of John Hinckley Jr.; after attributing his survival to Divine Providence, Jackson blames the Rothschilds, and Lawrence confirms that powerful banking interests in Europe had hired him to do it?; the odds of two consecutive misfires are 1 in 125K?; in the 1930s researchers at the Smithsonian Inst. examine the two pistols and find them both in good working order - Andy, you forgot your shawl?
The U.S. gets a magician president known for being behind the 8-ball? On Mar. 4, 1837 Dem. Kinderhook, N.Y.-born lawyer Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), AKA "Old Kinderhook" (son of a tavernkeeper in Kinderhook, N.Y.), "the Little Magician" (adept political manipulator) (behind the 8-ball?), "the Red Fox of Kinderhook" (bright red hair and sly ways), "the Flying Dutchman", "the Machiavellian Belshazzar", "Little Van" (on the short side), "Martin Van Ruin" (Panic of 1837), "the Sage of Lindenwald", "the American Talleyrand" (devious) becomes the 8th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1841) in the 13th U.S. Pres. Inauguration on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. after he and Jackson ride together to the Capitol in a small phaeton built from wood from the USS Constitution drawn by four gray horses; 3rd 1-term U.S. pres., after John Adams (1797-1801) and J.Q. Adams (1825-9); no more 2-term presidents until Grant (1869); first pres. of Dutch ancestry, and first born under the Stars and Stripes; the 8th U.S. pres. and 8th U.S. vice-pres., who lives to see the election of 8 different presidents from 8 different states; first N.Y. gov. to become pres. (Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR); First Lady shoulda been Hannah Hoes Van Buren (1783-1819); Richard Mentor Johnson (1780-1850) becomes the 9th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1841) after being elected by the U.S. Senate (first vice-pres. elected under the provisions of the 12th Amendment until ?) (Richard M., Johnson, 'Dutch' all in this year's White House?); Van Buren's inaugural address is a tribute to his boss Jackson, with the soundbyte: "In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success. But... I may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be found to attend upon my path", pledging "to tread generally in the footsteps of President Jackson"; he retains Jackson's entire cabinet; widower Andy Jackson (d. 1845) observes the inauguration of his hand-picked successor, then retires to the Hermitage - Mariiiiiiiiia, Mariiiiiiia, Maria I love you?
On Feb. 24, 1838 U.S. congressmen William Jordan Graves (1805-48) of Ky. and Jonathan Cilley (b. 1802) of Maine get in a duel with rifles at 80 paces on the Bladensburg, Md. dueling grounds, and on the 3rd round Cilley is killed, causing Congress to expel Graves and censure both of the seconds, who are also congressmen; next Feb. 20 Congress prohibits dueling in the District of Columbia.
In the 1840s Mary Ann Hall (-1886) becomes the madame of a 3-story brick brothel at 349 Maryland Ave., SW in Washington, D.C. four blocks W of the U.S. Capital; in 1864 the U.S. Army Provost Marshall pub. a list of 450 brothels in Washington, D.C., listing hers as having 18 hos, making it the city's largest out of 5K total hos; it closes in 1878.
In 1840 the unincorporated city of Silver Spring, Md. N of Washington, D.C. (modern-day pop. 79K) is founded by Francis Preston Blair Jr. (1791-1876) as a summer home near a mica-flecked spring near 7th St. Pike in modern-day Acorn Park; it goes on to become the HQ of the U.S. Food and Drug Admin. (FDA), the Nat. Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin. (NOAA), the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church; Blair goes on to help found the Repub. Party along with his daughter Elizabeth, who marries Samuel Phillips Lee, 3rd cousin of Robert E. Lee, whose son Francis Preston Blair Lee becomes the first popuarly-elected U.S. Sen.; Blair's son Montgomery Blair goes on to become U.S. postmaster gen. under Pres. Lincoln, representing Dred Scott before the SCOTUS.
Number nine, I am the tippy hairy walrus, coo coo whigchoo, Tyler is ten, and William and Mary come to him? On Mar. 4, 1841 (Thur.) 68-y.-o. Va.-born William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), AKA "Old Tippecanoe", "Granny Harrison", "General Mum", "the Log Cabin Candidate", "the Cincinnatus of the West" becomes the 9th U.S. pres (until Apr. 4, 1841) in the 14th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (oldest U.S. pres. at inauguration until ?) (last U.S. pres. born a British subject); first of four Whig presidents through 1853; John Tyler (1790-1862) becomes the 10th vice-pres. (until Apr. 4, 1841; both are born in Charles City County, Va.; First Lady is Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison (1775-1864), who is sick and stays at home in North Bend, Ohio until it's too late and never moves into the White House; on Mar. 4 Harrison becomes the first sitting U.S. pres. to have his photograph taken; on Apr. 4 Harrison dies from pneumonia caught while giving a long-winded 100 min. 8K-word (longest speech ever, combined with shortest term ever) inaugural address in the rain without a hat or coat, becoming the first U.S. pres. to die in office, the first Whig to become U.S. pres., and the first Whig to die in office, starting a disturbing trend known as the Zero-Year Presidential Curse (Curse of Tippecanoe), where from now on every U.S. pres. elected in a year ending in zero dies in office, until forgetful Reagan in 1980 (whose brain only dies, does that count?); on Apr. 6 Richmond, Va.-born (Va. Dynasty) pro-slavery pro-states-rights strict constructionist atty. (William and Mary grad.) John Tyler (1790-1862), AKA "His Accidency", "President Without a Party", "Traitor Tyler" becomes the 10th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1845) in the 15th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C., becoming the first veep to succeed to pres. upon the death of the incumbent, the first veep never to cast a tie-breaking vote as pres. of the U.S. Senate, and the first pres. not to have a vice-pres. (Fillmore, Johnson, Arthur); the 1st time that the U.S. has three presidents in the same year (Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler) (2nd time 1881); First Lady Letitia Christian Tyler (1790-1842) has been confined to an invalid's chair for the past two years, and dies next year; since there was no precedent, many are confused as to whether he is really the pres., despite his delivering an inaugural address; J.Q. Adams challenges his succession, claiming he can only wield the powers of the presidency but must remain vice-pres.; Tyler stands his hand, wins, and establishes a precedent, returning unopened all correspondence not addressed to him as pres.; as a former Dem. elected on a Whig ticket with a Whig Congress dominated by Henry "Mr. Whig" Clay, when he vetoes a bill chartering a new nat. bank and goes against the nationalist policies of the Whig party, Henry Clay leads a walkout of his cabinet (except secy. of state Daniel Webster, who leaves in 1843), and expels Traitor Tyler from the party, first calling him "His Accidency"; Tyler receives hundreds of assassination threats; meanwhile on Oct. 12 Tyler appoints John Canfield Spencer (1788-1855) (the special prosecutor who investigated the disappearance of William Morgan in 1826, and became a strong anti-Mason) as war secy. #17 (until Mar. 4, 1843), who goes on to propose a chain of army outposts from Council Bluffs, Iowa W to the Columbia River; too bad, next year his 19-y.-o. son, midshipman Philip Spencer (1823-43) is executed sans court-martial with two other sailors aboard the USS Somers for mutiny.
In 1841 Minerva, N.Y.-born free black man Solomon Northrup (1807-63) is kidnapped in Washington, D.C. and sold into slavery, regaining his freedom in 1853 and pub. the autobio. Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana; filmed in 2013.
The U.S. gets a one-term pig in a polk? On Mar. 4. 1845 (Tues.) Pineville, N.C.-born Tenn.-raised math. and classics major at the U. of N.C. (Jacksonian Dem.) James Knox Polk (1795-1849), AKA "Young Hickory", "the Dark Horse President", "the Napoleon of the Stump", "Polk the Plodder", "Polk the Purposeful", "the Last Known Consequential President" (first former Speaker of the House until ?) becomes U.S. pres. #11 (until Mar. 4, 1849) in the 16th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on a rainy day with morning thunderstorms; the last strong pre-Civil war pres.; the first inauguration reported by telegraph and shown in a newspaper illustration (in The Illustrated London News); former U.S. Sen. from Penn. (1831-3) and U.S. minister to Russia (1837-9) George Mifflin Dallas (1792-1864) becomes the 11th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1849); Polk's Inaugural Address is delivered in the rain to "a large assemblage of umbrellas" (J.Q. Adams) denounces protective tariffs, nat. banks, and implied powers, and claims title to Oregon; just before his inauguration Polk presents his ever-childless (is she sarah about it?) wife Sarah Childress Polk (1803-91) with a blue-gold Polk Inaugration Fan containing portraits of all 11 U.S. presidents on one side, and the signing of the DOI on the other (shall we shag now, or shall we shag later?); on Mar. 6 Polk appoints "To the victor belong the spoils" (1832 speech) N.Y. gov. (1833-8) William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) as U.S. war secy. #21 (until Mar. 6, 1849), and Penn.-born Robert John Walker (1801-69) as U.S. treasury secy. #18 (until Mar. 6, 1849); Polk writes to Mich. Sen. Lewis Cass discussing his new admin. and jobs, becoming the first U.S. pres. to mark his private papers "private".
In 1846 after initial predictions that it would become a great commercial and industrial center prove wrong, and the city only has a pop. of 50K, Congress returns 30.75 sq. mi. (78 sq. km) of Washington, D.C. on the Va. side of the Potomac River to the state of Va., leaving it with the original 10 sq. mi. Congress intended in 1790.
In Jan. 1846 Welsh-born Am. immigrant civil engineer John Plumbe Jr. takes the first photo of the White House.
On Aug. 10, 1846 the Smithsonian Institution is chartered by Congress in Washington, D.C. "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge", named after English scientist James Smithson (1765-1829), whose $500K bequest makes it possible; dir. #1 is physicist Joseph Henry (1797-1878), who leaves Princeton U. to devote full time to it.
In 1846-7 the District of Columbia Recession sees Congress return a 31 sq. mi. portion of its original 100 sq. mi. 1790 land grant W of the Potomac River to Va., incl. the city of Alexandria and Alexandria County, leaving 68.34 sq. mi. incl. 0.0236 sq. mi. on the W side of the Potomac River called Columbia Island.
In 1847 the Willard Hotel at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. is founded by Henry Willard after leasing six bldgs. built in 1816 by Col. John Taylor III (1770-1828) (wealthiest man of his time?) and combining them into a single 4-story structure, purchasing it in 1864 from Ogie Taylor, paying with U.S. currency instead of gold or silver like he agreed, launching a dispute over the purchase price that is settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1869 in Willard v. Tayloe; the hotel becomes the only one from which one can easily visit downtown Washington, D.C., becoming the favorite haunt of dignitaries incl. P.T. Barnum and Gen. Tom Thumb, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, the Duke of Windsor, Harry Houdini, Gypsy Rose Lee, Gloria Swanson, Emily Dickinson, Jenny Lind, and Charles Dickens, with Nathaniel Hawthorne writing the soundbyte: "The Willard Hotel more justly could be called the center of Washington than either the Capitol or the White House or the State Department"; on Mar. 4, 1853 Pres. Millard Fillmore stays there before his inauguration; in 1860 the first group of three sword-carrying Japanese ambassadors to the U.S. stay at the hotel with 74 other delegates, causing many lookie-loos go gather; in Nov. 1861 Julia Ward Howe writes the lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while staying there; in 1901 a new 12-story bldg. designed by Am. architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (1847-1918) opens, suffering a fire in 1922 that causes $250K damage, requiring U.S. vice-pres. Calvin Coolidge to be evacuated, along with several U.S. senators, March King John Philip Sousa, film producer Adolph Zukor, newspaper publisher Harry Chandler et al.; the Willard family sells-out in 1946, and the hotel closes in 1968, reopening in the late 1990s after restoration; in 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. writes his "I Have a Dream" speech in his hotel room there; in summer 2001 Steven Spielberg shoots the finale of his film "Minority Report" at the hotel.
On July 4, 1848 15K-25K attend a celebration in Washington, D.C. for the laying of the cornerstone to the Washington Monument (finished 1884); Ill. Rep. Abe Lincoln attends, along with James and Dolly Madison.
Just when the U.S. is destabilizing, it gets an unstable no longer rough and no longer ready old fart for president?
On Mar. 4, 1849 (Sun.) after pres.-elect Taylor refuses to be sworn in on a Sunday, Frogtown, Ky.-born Dem. Mo. Sen.
David Rice Atchison (1807-86), pres. pro-tem of the U.S. Senate becomes pres. of the U.S. for one day, which he spends
mostly sleeping; actually there was no pres. since Atchison's term had also expired?
Tailor Twelve for Me, Rough and Ready?
On Mar. 5., 1849 (Mon.) Va.-born "Old Rough and Ready" (sloppy dresser) Whig Gen. Zachary Taylor (1784-1850),
AKA "Old Rough and Ready", "Old Zack", "the Hero of Buena Vista", "Old Buena Vista" (a career soldier who never voted) becomes the 12th U.S. pres. (until July 9, 1850) in the
17th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
(Tyler 10, Taylor 12?); the first U.S. pres. not previously elected to any public office (and he lasts less than 500 days); his wife
Margaret Mackall "Peggy" Smith Taylor (1788-1852) likes to smoke a pipe in private;
Millard Fillmore (1800-74) becomes the 12th U.S. vice-pres. (until July 9, 1850);
Taylor's inaugural address incl. the soundbyte:
"As American freemen we can not but sympathize in all efforts to extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the same time we are warned by the admonitions of history and the
voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations. In all disputes between conflicting governments it is our interest not less than our duty to
remain strictly neutral, while our geographical position, the genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us
to the cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers. It is to be hoped that no international question can now arise which a government confident in its own strength and
resolved to protect its own just rights may not settle by wise negotiation; and it eminently becomes a government like our own, founded on the morality and intelligence of its citizens and upheld
by their affections, to exhaust every resort of honorable diplomacy before appealing to arms. In the conduct of our foreign relations I shall conform to these views, as I believe them essential
to the best interests and the true honor of the country";
Taylor eulogizes Dolley Madison as "our first lady for a half-century", becoming the first use of the term for the wife of a U.S. pres., although it doesn't become common until the 20th cent.
In 1850 the pop. of Washington D.C. is 51,687 incl. 37,941 whites and 13,746 blacks (3,687 free, 10,059 slave).
The final Congressional settlement of the slavery question, doo-dah doo-dah? On Jan. 29, 1850 U.S. Sen. (Whig-Ky.) (1848-52) Henry Clay (1777-1852) presents his Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., giving the three towering intellects of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster their day on the tottering nat. stage before they croak sans solutions; on Mar. 4 ailing U.S. Sen. (D-S.C.) (1845-50) John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850) has a speech read for him against the compromise and demanding equality and safety for the South, then dies in Washington, D.C. on Mar. 31; on Mar. 7 U.S. Sen. (Whig-Mass.) (1845-50) Daniel Webster (1782-1852) pushes for Union over slavery concerns and is pro-compromise before leaving office on July 22; newcomer U.S. Sen. (Whig-N.Y.) (1849-61) William Henry Seward Sr. (1801-72) (known for wearing yellow pantaloons and an outsized yellow handkerchief, and pausing theatrically during orations to dip into his snuff box) invokes "a higher law than the Constitution" and is against the compromise, as are U.S. Sen. (D-Miss.) (1847-51, 1857-61) Jefferson Finis Davis (1808-89) and Free Soil (ex-Whig) U.S. Ohio Sen. (1849-55, 1861) Salmon Portland Chase (1808-73), while 5'4" "Little Giant" U.S. Sen. (D-Ill.) (1847-61) Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813-61), chmn. of the Committee on Territories is for it, which carries a lot of weight; on Apr. 18 the matter is referred to a Senate committee of 13, with Clay as chmn.; in Apr. Compromise supporter Sen. (D-Miss.) (1847-52) Henry Stuart Foote (1804-80) draws a pistol on Compromise opponent Sen. (D-Mo.) (1821-51) Thomas Hart "Old Bullion" Benton (1782-1858) after Benton becomes enraged at Foote's verbal attacks and charges him, and is stopped by the other senators before he can fire; debate drags on as Pres. Taylor dies on July 9 in Washington, D.C. of enteritis after less than 500 days in office, and is succeeded by fill-more Millard Fillmore; on Sept. 20 a package of five bills is finally passed, ending a 4-year war over the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-Am. War of 1846-8; the Compromise abolishes the slave trade in Washington, D.C., even though the city adopted the laws of Md., keeping slavery legal, but that doesn't stop free blacks from flocking there, outnumbering slaves by 4-to-1 by 1860.
A lame mallard fills more useless years until the horrific U.S. Civil War? On July 9, 1850 (after 16 mo. in office) U.S. pres. (since 1849) Zachary Taylor (b. 1784) becomes the 2nd "big Whig" to die in office (after W.H. Harrison in 1841), five days after giving a long July 4th speech and eating a bowl of bad cherries infected with Asian cholera (not poisoned by arsenic by his enemies, as long believed?); on July 10 soft-spoken (born in a log cabin in Summerhill, N.Y.) (former cloth worker's apprentice and school teacher) New York atty. (future Know-Nothing) (last Whig pres.) Millard Fillmore (1800-74), AKA "the Accidental President", "the Wool-Carder President", "the American Louis-Philippe" (from his luxurious lifestyle) becomes the lucky number 13th (lame mallard?) U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1853) in the 18th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the U.S. Capitol in the chamber of the House or Reps. in Washington, D.C., becoming the 2nd unelected U.S. pres. (1st John Tyler) and 2nd U.S. pres. not to have a vice-pres. (1st John Tyler); Fillmore's wife (since 1826) Abigail Powers Fillmore (1798-1853) was his schoolteacher, and proves it by starting a library at the White House.
On July 4, 1851 Pres. Fillmore leads a ceremony for the laying of the "cornerstone of the new Capitol edifice"; Sen. Daniel Webster gives his last 4th of July oration.
On Dec. 24, 1851 the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. burns, destroying 35K vols.
In 1851 after building his first cast iron bldg. facades in New York City last May 7, Catskill, N.Y.-born James Bogardus (1800-74) of the U.S. builds the first three cast iron frame bldgs. in Washington, D.C., patenting his invention.
In Aug. 1852 the U.S. Congress appropriates $100K for the construction of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. to care for indigent mentally-ill D.C. residents along for insane patients from the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy; construction begins in 1853, and it opens to patients in Jan. 1855 as the Govt. Hospital for the Insane, which in 1916 becomes St. Elizabeths Hospital (no apostrophe); patients incl. Pres. Jackson would-be assassin Richard Lawrence, Pres. Garfield assassin Charles J. Guiteau, Pres. Reagan would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr, and Ezra Pound.
On Jan. 8, 1853 Clark Mills (1810-83), Equestrian Statue of Andrew Jackson; commissioned in May 1847; first equestrian statue made in the U.S.; Jackson's horse Duke is modeled by Mills' horse Olympus, who he trained to post on its haunches; cast from captured British cannon, and unveiled in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 8 (Sat.) at the 38th anniv. of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, attended by 20K, with U.S. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas as the keynote speaker; the base bears the inscription "Our federal union/ It must be preserved"; he places clones in New Orleans, La., Jacksonville, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn.
A dark horse pierces through to the canon, er, Buchanan, who sees the first shots of the U.S. Civil War fired? On Mar. 4, 1853 (Fri.) 49-y.-o. Hillsborough, N.H.-born U.S.-Mexico War brig. gen., atty., former U.S. Rep. and U.S. Sen., and "dark horse" candidate (Doughface Dem.) (Bowdoin grad.) (good orator) (handsomest pres.?) (heavy drinker) Franklin Pierce (1804-69), AKA "Handsome Frank", "the Fainting General" (from a Mexican War incident where an artillery blast blew his saddle horn into his stomach), "Young Hickory of the Granite Hills" (the Andy Jackson of N.H.) becomes the 14th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1857) in the 19th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (youngest pres. so far) (first pres. to memorize his inaugural address, not to kiss the Bible, and to affirm rather than swear); last of four Whig presidents since 1841, and the first of two Doughface presidents (along with Buchanan); William Rufus de Vane (DeVane) King (1786-1853) becomes the unlucky 13th U.S. vice-pres., but dies on Apr. 18 before he can preside over the U.S. Senate after becoming the first vice-pres. to be sworn in (on Mar. 24) while in a foreign country (Cuba) while trying to recover from TB; First Lady is Jane Means Appleton Pierce (1806-63), who suffers from illness and depression, with all their children dying young and their youngest son killed in a train wreck shortly before the inauguration; Pierce goes for the Young America Movement, which seeks to expand the U.S. W and S with slavery intact, resulting in Bleeding Kansas, and making the Civil War a done deal?; on Mar. 7 he appoints former secy. of war (1845-9) William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) as U.S. secy. of state #21 (until Mar. 6, 1857), after which on June 1 he sends a learned circular to U.S. diplomats, recommending that they always do official biz dressed as ordinary U.S. citizens; British-born Jewish atty. Judah Philip Benjamin (1811-84), who married into a prominent New Orleans Creole family in 1833 and became a sugar plantation and slave owner in Belle Chasse, La., and became the first Jew to be nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court by outgoing pres. Fillmore this year (nominated again next year by Pierce), but declined, instead becomes a Whig U.S. Sen. from La. (until Feb. 4, 1861) (first Portuguese Jew), going on to challenge Jefferson Davis to a duel then make up and become friends, and get off an immortal soundbyte to Benjamin Wade of Ohio (who accused him of being an "Israelite in Egyptian clothing"): "It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain."
On Mar. 16, 1854 a Marble Block from the Temple of Concord in Rome donated by Pope Pius IX for the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. is stolen by anti-Catholic thieves, probably Know-Nothings, who probably threw it into the Potomac River.
If only they had limited the fighting to this? On May 19-20, 1856 Dem. Mass. Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-74) delivers a fervent abolitionist speech in the Senate titled The Crime Against Kansas, railing against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its authors, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Ill., and Dem. S.C. Sen. Andrew Pickens Butler (1796-1857), comparing Butler to Don Quixote and his mistress slavery to ugly Dulcinea, and getting personal (something about expectoration while speaking); on May 22 Dem. S.C. Rep. Preston Smith "Bully" Brooks (1819-57) (Butler's nephew) assaults Sumner in the Senate chamber with a light gutta-percha walking stick, beating him unconscious and permanently enfeebling him; Brooks gains fame throughout the South for his macho deed, and even though he resigns he is promptly reelected to the House, but dies next Jan. 27; Sumner is unable to resume his Senate seat for three years.
The worst guy they could have made president just now, a loose cannon on deck, not to mention his vice-president? On Mar. 4, 1857 (Wed.) Cove Gap, Penn.-born 65-y.-o. confirmed bachelor and elder statesman (Dickinson College grad.) James Bachelor, er, James Buchanan (1791-1868), AKA "Old Buck", "Old Fogey", "Old Public Functionary", "Ten-Cent Jimmie" (for his 1856 claim that 10 cents a day is enough for a working man to live on), "the Sage of Wheatland" (his estate near Mercersburg, Penn.) becomes the 15th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1861) (first bachelor pres. until ?) (last U.S. secy. of state to become pres. until ?) (2nd and last Doughface pres.) in the 20th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol (first to be photographed) Lexington, Ky.-born John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-75) becomes the 14th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1861) (youngest until ?); the inaugural parade is delayed because outgoing pres. Pierce is late; Pierce's long inaugural address refers to "the Territorial Question" (slavery spreading to the Am. West), supporting the let-voters-decide 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act without mentioning the rampant voter fraud, ending with the soundbyte: "We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments. Standing, as I do, almost within view of the green slopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited; Buchanan uses his charming niece Harriet Lane (1830-1903) as White House hostess (First Lady?); Buchanan chats at the inauguration with U.S. chief justice (since 1836) Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864), and urges the public to accept the upcoming (Mar. 6) Dred Scott decision, "whatever this may be" (the outcome had been leaked to him).
The pro-slavery powers pull their final rabbit out of their black hat, and it's dressed in a black robe, with a white lining? Talk about bad timing? On Mar. 6, 1857 (two days after Pres. Buchanan's inauguration) the U.S. Supreme Court led by Roman Catholic chief justice (1836-64) Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864) (pr. TAH-nee) rules 7-2 in Dred Scott v. Sandford (their worst decision?) (dissent by John McLean and Benjamin R. Curtis) that blacks "had for more than a century been regarded as... so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect", and therefore are not human beings but only one-fourth human, and property of their white masters, and cannot become citizens, even if taken by their masters into free states (incl. any of them new free or popular sovereignty states that them !*?!* nigger-loving abolitionists are trying to railroad in?); the defunct Missouri Compromise is nullified ex post facto, and popular sovereignty is ruled defunct, since Congress does not have the power to ban slavery in the territories; the decision "seemed a mortal blow to the newly created Republican Party" (Encyclopedia Britannica), putting it in a war with the court; speaking of blow, after the decision, Dred Scott and his family are sold to Peter Blow, the son of Scott's first owner (Joe Blow?), who gives them their freedom papers on May 26; all but one of the justices who join Marylander Taney are Southerners; - Roger B. Taney's portrait looks like one of those orangutan judges in the movie "Planet of the Apes", and Dred Scott's portrait looks like Levar Burton in "Roots"?
In 1857 Edward Miner Gallaudet (1837-1917) founds the Columbia Institution for the Dead, er, Deaf and Dumb and the Blind in Washington, D.C. on 2 acres of land donated by Amos Kendall, becoming pres. #1 (until 1910); in 1864 Pres. Lincoln signs a bill authorizing it to grant college degrees; it eventually becomes Gallaudet U.. On Apr. 8, 1864 the private Congressionally-chartered Gallaudet U. (originally Columbia Inst. for the Instruction of the Dead and Dumb and the Blind in 1857) is founded in Washington, D.C. for the deaf and hard of hearing, named after Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), father of pres. #1 (until 1910) Edward Miner Gallaudet (1837-1917), starting out as a grammar school and growing into higher education.
On Feb. 17, 1859 Northern and Southern leaders socialize together for the last time before the start of the U.S. Civil War at the Napier Ball in the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. to say goodbye to British ambassador Francis, Lord Napier.
In 1860 the Eighth (8th) (1860) U.S. Census reports the total pop. as 31,443,321 in a land area of 2,969,640 sq. mi. (10.6 per sq. mi.); black: 4,441,790; free blacks: 488K; the 23 Northern states have a combined pop. of 21M vs. 9M for the Confederate states (5M white, 4M slaves); blacks are over 50% of the pop. of S.C. and Miss., and over 40% of the pop. of Ala., Fla., Ga., La. and Va. (excluding W. Va.); the slave pop. was 500K at the end of the Am. Rev. in 1781; the over-65 pop. is 2.7% of the total (849K); one of every eight people in the U.S. is foreign-born; there are 1.6M Irish, 1.3M Germans (one-third Catholic), 588K British (mostly English), 72.6K Scandinavians, and 35.5K Chinese immigrants in the U.S.; pop. of Washington, D.C.: 75,080, incl. 60,763 in the city and 8.7K in the village of Georgetown, 14,316 black incl. 3,185 free and 11,131 slave.
On Feb. 22, 1860 Pres. Buchanan dedicates the Equestrian Statue of Lt. Gen. George Washington in Washington Circle in Washington, D.C., by S.C.-born sculptor Clark Mills (1810-83) authorized by Congress on Jan. 25, 1853; hows Washington leading an advance on the redcoats at the Jan. 3, 1777 Battle of Princeton, with the horse's mane copied from "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" by Jacques-Louis David (1805); cost: $60K.
On Mar. 9, 1860 Japanese ambassador to the U.S. (first) Niimi Buzennokami and his 74-man staff arrive in San Francisco, Calif., arriving on Apr. 25 in Washington, D.C., presenting their credentials to U.S. Pres. James Buchanan, and staying at the Willard Hotel, where a crowd of lookieloos arrives to gape and them and their swords; they then travel to New York City, causing a sensation.
On Feb. 4, 1861 U.S. gen.-in-chief Winfield Scott relieves Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee as cmdr. of federal forces in Tex. and stations him in Washington, D.C. to take command of the forces guarding the capital.
On Feb. 4-6, 1861 the Peace Conference of 1861 called by the Va. legislature meets in the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., presided over by former U.S. pres. John Tyler and attended by 21 states.
On Feb. 11, 1861 during a heavy rainstorm amid an umbrella-toting crowd of well-wishers, beard-growing pres.-elect Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln ("Her Satanic Majesty") (whose family is on the Confed. side in the war, and who doesn't want Abe to know how much she splurged in New York City on clothes, or that she accepted lavish gifts of clothes and jewelry, and later freaks at the 1864 election because her hubby's defeat would cause the bills to become due?) departs from Springfield, Ill. on a 12-day Train Trip to Washington, D.C., with the soundbyte that he has "a task greater than Washington", leaving family dog Fido (Tad's pet) behind, keeping silent to reporters on the train, then stopping in Philly on Feb. 22 to give a Speech in Independence Hall, with the soundbyte: "It was that which gave promise, that in due time the weight should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and all men have an equal chance. If this country cannot be saved without giving up this principle, I would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender"; his son Robert Todd Lincoln (future pres. of the Pullman Railroad) spends him time with the train engineers and misplaces the speech, causing fuming Lincoln to have to find it; on Feb. 23 (6 a.m.) after an assassination plot in Baltimore is claimed by detective Allan Pinkerton, he switches trains and arrives in Washington, D.C. secretly on a sleeper car disguised as a capped-cloaked invalid, and is greeted only by Maine-born U.S. Rep. (R-Ill.) (1853-69) Elihu Benjamin Washburne (1816-87), one of the seven Washburne brothers who founded the Repub. Party, after which he slips into Willard Hotel through the ladies' entrance, where he holds meetings in the lobby and conducts business from his room; after the newspapers find about his manner of entry they lampoon him as a coward, making him ashamed of it, and reinforcing his cabinet's low view of his abilities; this set him up to be careless about security and bring on his own assassination?
On Mar. 4, 1861 the U.S. Govt. Printing Office is founded in Washington, D.C. via a Congressional resolution of June 23, 1860, starting out with 350 employees and growing to 8.5K in 1972 before decreasing to 1.9K in 2019; on Dec. 17, 2014 the name changes to U.S. Govt. Pub. Office.
Good morning, it's time to taste a brand-new day, or, Stick with the home team? On Mar. 4, 1861 (Mon.) after detective Allan Pinkerton smuggles him into the Willard Hotel for his safety on Feb. 23, where he holds meetings in the lobby and conducts business from his room, 6'4" (tallest pres.) Ky.-born (from Ill.), AKA "Honest Abe", "the Rail-Splitter", "the Flatboatman", "the Sage of Springfield", "the Uncommon Friend of the Common Man", "the Great Emancipator", "the Abolition Emperor", "the Liberator", "King Linkum the First" (for his habit of locking political opponents up), "the Illinois Ape", "the Original Gorilla", "the Orangutan in the White House" (from his uncouth looks and behavior), "the Slave Hound from Illinois" (given him by William Lloyd Garrison, who calls him soft on slavery), "Father Abraham", "Uncle Abe", "the Ancient One" (for his ancient wisdom), "the Sectional President", "the Tycoon" (for his fast buildup of the Civil War admin.) Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) becomes the 16th U.S. pres (until 1865) in the 21st U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (featuring uniformed sharpshooters on every rooftop, incl. the unfinished U.S. Capitol Dome), becoming the first pres. born outside the original 13 colonies, and the first to own a cat (Hayes, McKinley, Wilson, JFK) (favorite song "Jimmy Crack Corn"?); Hannibal Hamlin (1809-91) becomes the 15th U.S. vice-pres.; this year and next the U.S. has six living presidents (Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, plus rebel pres. Davis) (only Lincoln is of the new Repub. Party); at the inauguration a guest steals silver and furnishings; Very Odd First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-82) likes to be called "Mrs. President Lincoln", and buys 300 pairs of gloves in a 4-mo. period; Lincoln's First Inaugural Speech contains many suggestions by William H. Seward, promising to hold onto Union possessions in the South, and characterized by a belief that the Confederacy will dissolve somehow on its own when the Southerners come to their senses, because the U.S. can become the greatest nation on Earth if it stays together; "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it... I hold that... the Union of these states is perpetual... In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of Civil War... We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave... will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature"; as Lincoln speaks, a Confederate flag is hoisted in Charleston, S.C. by a cheering crowd; at first Washington, D.C. is almost defenseless, with an armed guard of civilians guarding the White House, while Lincoln mumbles "Why don't they come?"; Buchanan retires to his Penn. home despondent over seven states already gone from the Union; Lincoln's cabinet: William Henry Seward Sr. (1801-72) (beardless) (state) (until Mar. 4, 1869), Ohio Sen. Salmon Portland Chase (1808-73) (beardless) (treasury) (until June 30, 1864), Simon Cameron (1799-1889) (beardless) (war) (until Jan. 14, 1862), Gideon Welles (1802-78) (bearded) (Navy) (until Mar. 4, 1869), Caleb Blood Smith (1808-64) (beardless) (interior) (until Dec. 31, 1862), St. Louis, Mo. judge Edward Bates (1793-1869) (bearded) (atty. gen.) (until Nov. 24, 1864), Montgomery Blair (1813-83) (beardless) (postmaster gen.) (until Sept. 24, 1864); big men Seward and Chase find it hard to accept Lincoln as pres., Seward saying "I, who by every right ought to have been chosen President, what am I now? Nothing but Abe Lincoln's little clerk!"; as soon as 11 Southern Senators are expelled from Congress, the Repubs. fulfill their campaign promises by passing a new higher tariff for the protection of Northern industry, followed next year by a homesteading act to please Westerners; secy. of war Simon Cameron immediately begins advocating the arming of fugitive slaves, but Lincoln nixes it; in Mar. Frederick Douglass pub. a Critique of Lincoln's Inaugural Address, complaining about Lincoln's decision to not interfere with the institution of slavery in the South, comparing the way he snuck into Washington D.C. with fugitive slaves, and calling Lincoln's acknowledgment of the South's "right of property" in slaves "weakness... and conciliation towards the tyrants and traitors"; Mary Todd Lincoln lavishly redecorates the White House, overspending her $20K Congressional appropriation by $10K, then engaging in budget fraud to keep her hubby from knowing about it, after which the Congress buries the difference in next year's appropriations bill.
On Apr. 12, 1861-May 9, 1865 the horrific U.S. Civil War sees the invention of the first modern weapon when N.C.-born agricultural equipment maker Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903) patents the 10-barrel hand-cranked hundreds-of-rounds-per-min. Gatling Gun (the first practical machine gun) just in time for use on some Johnny Rebs; it is first used by the Union Army in 1864, but luckily never sees extensive use.
On Apr. 17, 1861 slave state Va. secretly secedes (#8), causing rumors of an impending attack on Washington, D.C., causing the 50-man Kansas Frontier Guards, organized by U.S. Kan. Sen. James H. "Jim" Lane to be stationed in the East Room of the White House on the eve. of Apr. 18, only to be dismissed on Apr. 19 as fresh Union troops arrive, assigned to guard various positions in the city until Pres. Lincoln officially disbands them in a ceremony on Apr. 25.
In early Mar. 1862 Pres. Lincoln proposes that federal compensation be offered to any state which begins gradual emancipation, claiming that the cost in the border states would be no more than the cost of 87 days of the war; border state opposition kills it; on Mar. 6, 1862 Pres. Lincoln proposes a revised plan of compensated emancipation for slave owners in the District of Columbia and border states, which is passed on Apr. 3, and signed by Lincoln on Apr. 16 under the name U.S. District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, ending slavery in the District of Columbia, compensating the 900+ slaveowners about $300 each, and setting aside $100K to pay passage for those wanting to emigrate to Haiti or Liberia - no doubt hoping they all will, and there's more money available for that too?
In 1862 the U.S. Army Medical Museum (AMM) is founded in Silver Spring, Md. (near Washington, D.C.) by U.S. Army Surgeon Gen. Wiliam A. Hammond; in 1989 it is renamed the Nat. Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM).
On July 2, 1863 (Thur.) First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln overturns in her carriage while returning to Washington, D.C. from the soldiers' home, and hits her head on a rock, being bedridden for three weeks and suffering from headaches permanently; the seat had been loosened in an attempt to kill her hubby?
On Feb. 20, 1864 Washington, D.C. dentist Mahlon Loomis (1826-86) pub. the earliest description of an Electromagnetic (Radio) Transmission System (Wireless Telegraphy), containing the soundbyte: "A process by which telegraphic communications may be made across the ocean without any wires, and also point to point on the earth, dispensing with wires", demonstrating it in Oct. 1866 between two kites 14 mi. apart in Bear's Dean, Loudoun County; on July 20, 1872 he receives U.S. patent 129,971 ("Improvement in Telegraphing"), making him the inventor of radio?
On June 15, 1864 after the Battle of the Wilderness necessitates finding a burial site for the dead, and measles victim William Henry Christman (1843-64) becomes the first military burial there on May 13, U.S. Secy. of War Edwin M. Stanton signs an order establishing a military burial ground on the confiscated Arlington House estate of Confed. Gen. Robert E. Lee, his wife Mary Anna Lee (great-granddaughter of Martha Washington), and the Custis family, which becomes Arlington Nat. Cemetery (established May 13), designed by U.S. Army quartermaster gen. (1861-82) Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816-92); the land was part of the estate of John Parke Custis, son of First Lady Martha Washington; the mansion was built by his son George Washington Parke Custis; the first nat. Memorial Day ceremony is conducted there by Pres. Hoover on May 30, 1929; burials are desegregated on July 26, 1948.
On June 17-18, 1864 Confed. forces under Gen. Jubal Anderson Early (1816-94) defeat Union forces under Maj. Gen. David "Black Dave" Hunter (1802-86) at the Battle of Lynchburg in the Shenandoah Valley of Va.; Early then crosses the Potomac on July 5, invades Md. and Penn., and advances to the outskirts of Washington, D.C. on July 11 after the July 9 Battle of the Monacacy River (Junction) under Union Maj. Gen. Lewis "Lew" Wallace (1827-1905) (of Ben-Hur fame) slows him down (saving Washington?); after the Battle of Ft. Stevens in NW Washington, D.C. on July 11-12 sees 10K rebels under Gen. Jubal Early lose to 9.6K federal troops under Gen. Alexander M. McCook and Gen. Horatio G. Wright, with 500 rebel vs. 373 Union casualties, the invasion is aborted and Early turns back on July 12 (eve.), crossing the Potomac River at White's Ferry in Leesburg, Va. on July 13, bringing their booty with them, with Early uttering the soundbyte: "We didn't take Washington but we scared Abe Lincoln like Hell"; on July 12 Lincoln witnesses the attacks from Ft. Stevens through field glasses while dodging bullets, becoming the first U.S. pres. to see action while in office since Madison in the Battle of Bladensburg on Aug. 24, 1814.
In 1864 the U.S. Congress decides to use the Old Hall of the House of Reps in Washington, D.C. to house art, and invites each state to contribute two statues of prominent citizens for the new Nat. Statuary Hall, which opens in 1870; in 1933 the overflow statues begin to be displayed throughout the U.S. Capitol, with 38 statues left in the hall; Am. suffragist Frances Willard (1839-98) becomes the first woman represented.
The greatest speech in U.S. history? On Mar. 4, 1865 U.S. pres. #16 (since Mar. 4, 1861) Abraham Lincoln of the Union Party is inaugurated at the U.S. Patent Office (now a military hospital) in Washington, D.C. for a 2nd term in the 22nd U.S. Pres. Inauguration; first U.S. pres. to be elected for a 2nd term and not finish it (McKinley, Nixon); four cos. of African-Am. troops from the lodges of the African-Am. Masons and African-Am. Odd Fellows march in the procession to the U.S. Capitol, becoming the first time that African-Ams. march in the inauguration parade; Raleigh, N.C.-born Andrew Johnson (1808-75) becomes the 16th U.S. vice-pres. (until Apr. 15) (he never went to school and was taught to read to the other tailors by his boss while sewing, and to write and do math by his wife Eliza, and is drunk as a skunk during his inauguration); Hannibal Hamlin becomes a collector in the port of Boston, Mass.; on Mar. 4 Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, delivered to a biracial audience (the blacks considering him as their savior) is only 701 words, lasts 7 min., and is Biblical in tone, complete with a dramatic moment when the clouds part and bathe him in brilliant sunlight (stolen by the 1981 British film "Chariots of Fire"?), beginning with the soundbyte: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away", remarking on how both sides pray to the same God and read the same Bible, and how one people can force another people to sweat to give them free bread, considering the war as God's retribution on all whites for the sin of slavery (which started in Jamestown in 1619, 246 years earlier), and concluding: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds... to do all that shall achieve a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations"; John Wilkes Booth attends Lincoln's inauguration and inaugural ball, where Frederick Douglass is barred by guards until Lincoln orders him to pass, then calls him his friend and asks for his valued opinion on the speech, which Douglass calls a sacred effort.
Drinkin' with Lincoln for the last time, or, It's a nice day for a White Wedding? On Apr. 14, 1865 (Good Friday) after having a dream about being in a ship racing to an unknown shore and waking at 7 a.m., U.S. pres. #16 (since Mar. 4, 1861) Abraham Lincoln (b. 1809) spends the afternoon discussing postwar policy with his cabinet, saying that he wants "no persecution, no bloody work" or radical restructuring of Southern socioeconomic life, and signs a law establishing the U.S. Bureau of Secret Service as a branch of the Treasury Dept.; at 3:00 p.m. he takes a walk with his wife, talking about travel plans incl. the Rocky Mts., Calif., and Jerusalem before returning to Springfield, Ill. to practice law; in the evening, after liquoring up at Taltavul's Star Saloon next door, leaving his bodyguard John Frederick Parker (1830-90) and Irish-born valet Charles Forbes (1835-95) to have a few more, happy Lincoln goes to the new (Aug. 1863) Ford's Theater (between E and F Sts. on 10th St., across E Street from the modern-day FBI HQ) at about 8:15 p.m. to attend a performance of Tom Taylor's 1858 Our American Cousin, starring English-born co-producer Laura Keene (Mary Frances Moss) (1826-73); vice-pres. Andrew Johnson was offered tickets but declined; at 10:14 p.m. during Act 3 (waiting for the play's biggest laugh line), while sitting in an above-stage booth with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln and Maj. Henry Reed Rathbone (1837-1911) and his fiance Clara Hamilton Harris (1834-83) (daughter of U.S. Sen. Ira Harris of N.Y., a friend of Lincoln) (who accepted the invitation after the Grants declined at 11 a.m.), Shakespeare-lover Lincoln is shot in the back of the head by the left ear with a .44 Derringer pistol by "the youngest tragedian in the world", famous Shakespearean actor John Wilkes Booth (1838-65) (who learned that afternoon that Lincoln would be attending), who then fights off Basil, er, Henry Rathbone with a large dagger, severely wounding him in his left arm, after which he escapes by leaping onto the stage, catching his spur on the Treasury flag decorating the box and breaking his left fibula just above the ankle, then theatrically shouting "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (Thus Ever to Tyrants), followed by "The South is avenged", exeunting out the back door after Rathbone shouts "Stop that man"; Booth timed his shot to come during the laughter after the line: "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal, you sockdologizing old man trap" by Philly-born Asa Trenchard actor William Henry "Harry" Hawk (1837-1916) (who was onstage alone); his older brother Edwin Thomas Booth (1833-93) had just saved Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln at a train platform in Jersey City, N.J. a few weeks earlier, which saves his Shakespearean acting career and allows him to rise to the top later after he disowns John Wilkes Booth; Mary Todd Lincoln is the one who really shot Abe Lincoln?; Laura Keene IDs Booth and holds the dying Lincoln's head in her lap until he is taken to a house across the street; Lincoln's last words are "She won't think anything about it", in reply to his wife, who asked him "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging onto you so?"; Lincoln was mouthing some words about loving Jesus as he was shot, and planned on joining a Christian church on Easter Sunday?; his wallet is found to contain a Confederate $5 bill; Booth rides his horse over a bridge (the only one not closed?), talks his way past guards, then rides out of Washington (still decorated in honor of the war victory) before word of the shooting gets around, disappearing into the woods of Md., then leading the feds for 12 days on the greatest manhunt so far in U.S. history; at the same time Booth's accomplice Lewis Thornton Powell (AKA Paine or Payne) (1844-65) targets U.S. secy. of state William H. Seward, who is recovering from a fractured arm and jaw sustained nine days earlier when he was accidentally thrown from his carriage, talking his way past his servant William Bell by claiming to be delivering medicine, then attacking him in his bedroom and trying to shoot him, only to have the pistol misfire, then stabbing him repeatedly but not fatally in the neck before his frail daughter Fanny (d. 1866) squawks, bringing Seward's sons and house staff, who stop him after he stabs four others, incl. son Frederick William Seward (1830-1915) (asst. secy. of state, who is serving as acting secy.), whom he hits on the head with his pistol (either that, or Freddy was the first to confront him before he got to his daddy); vice-pres. Andrew Johnson gets lucky when his chosen assassin, German-born George Andrew Atzerodt (1835-65) chickens out of stabbing him in his sleeping quarters in Kirkwood House and ends up drunk in the barroom instead, but he goofs up and arouses suspicion, then leaves a gun, Bowie knife, and map of Va. in his hotel room, along with a bank book owned by John Wilkes Booth, and is arrested in bed on Apr. 20 in Germantown, Md.; meanwhile Lincoln is carried across 10th St. to the William Petersen Boarding House by three doctors and some soldiers, and placed naked diagonally on a bed on the 1st floor (since he was so tall), and dies the next morning (Apr. 15) at 7:22 a.m. after 23-y.-o. Army asst. surgeon Charles Augustus Leale (1841-1932) (first doctor to reach Lincoln after the shooting, who goes on to hold his hand to the end) assesses the wound as mortal, and U.S. Army surgeon gen. Joseph K. Barnes (1817-83) sticks things in his brain looking for the bullet, probably inducing his death (the Derringer ball stopped behind his left eye, and his frontal lobes weren't affected by the bullet?); Barnes continues his brilliant career by presiding over the death of U.S. Pres. James Garfield in 1881; Lincoln becomes the 2nd straight victim of the Zero-Year Presidential Curse (after W.H. Harrison); during the night war secy. Edwin M. Stanton unofficially runs the federal govt. from the rear parlor of the boarding house, and after the bad news utters the soundbyte "Now he belongs to the ages" (or was that angels?) (or was he referring to Charles Darwin (1809-82), and said apes?); between 1860 and his death approx. 450 songs and instrumental pieces were written about him, followed by 75 more funeral marches and 25 memorial pieces after death; Uncle Sam soon gains a beard in tribute to Abe; his death was the result of a conspiracy of world bankers or the Vatican?; he was actually suffering from the genetic syndrome called MEN 2B, had cancer, and would only have lived another year anyway? Let's go outback tonight? On Apr. 14/15 (early a.m.) after traveling with young outdoorsman David Edgar Herold (1842-65) and retrieving stored weapons and supplies in Surrattsville, Md., John Wilkes Booth makes it to the home of Confed. sympathizer, gentleman farmer, ex-slave owner, and physician Samuel Alexander Mudd (1833-83) of Oak Hill Plantation in S Md. 30 mi. SE of Washington, D.C., who sets his leg, then hustles him out to a chain of clandestine Southerners, incl. Thomas A. Jones, who helps him and Herold cross the Potomac into Va. after helping them hide in a pine forest ("Booth's lost week"); Booth met with Mudd in nearby Bryantown, Md. in Nov./Dec. 1864 to plan his escape route? In 1876 Black abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass utters the soundbyte that Abraham Lincoln "was pre-eminently the white man's president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men".
The best U.S. pres. in history is followed by the worst? On Apr. 15, 1865 (Sat. before Easter) poor white redneck Raleigh, N.C.-born vice-pres. #16 (former mayor of Greenville, Tenn., who was illiterate until age 21, and started out in 1834 by helping pass a new Tenn. constitution denying free blacks the right to vote, then became gov. of Tenn. in 1853, signing a law requiring blacks freed from slavery to be deported straight to Africa, but doesn't own slaves any more, and supported John C. Breckinridge in the 1860 election, and only met with Lincoln twice) (a drunken buffoon who had been widely written off until now, and was selected by Lincoln to reconcile the South with the North, although he is a Dem. not a Repub., and a total white supremacist who thinks of blacks as savages that should go back to the plantation and stay out of politics), Andrew Johnson (1808-75) of the Union Party (2nd and last pres. of this party) (the last Jacksonian pres. of the common people, white people that is, with a record 29 pres. vetoes vs. Jackson's record 12; Johnson's vetoes are overturned a record 15x) AKA "the Tennessee Tailor", "Sir Veto", "King Andy", "Andy the Sot", "Old Andy", "the Father of the Homestead Act" becomes the 17th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1869) in the 23rd U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the Kirkwood House in Washington, D.C. (the 2nd Andrew after #7 Jackson) (3rd U.S. pres. not to have a vice-pres. after Tyler and Fillmore); his inauguration is interrupted by a talking parrot?; his drunken impromptu inauguration speech starts by begging Lincoln's cabinet to remain with him, and finishes with such a venomous attack on the Confederacy that "it would have been better had he been struck dumb" (eyewitness); First Lady is Eliza McCardle Johnson (1810-76); during his first 6 weeks in office he makes speeches filled with vengeful statements against the Southern planter aristocracy and showing disdain for blacks; during his first 8 mos. in office, while Congress is in recess, Johnson oversees Reconstruction of eight Confed. states (Tenn., Ark., and La. had already been reconstructed by Lincoln), hoping for an egalitarian white South of yeoman farmers, but sees that tabled as traditional Southern leaders are returned to office by Southern voters, who petition for and get wholesale pardons; Repub. Party founder Francis Preston Blair Sr. gets pissed-off at Repub. Reconstruction measures and flops back to his, er, Jackson's Dem. Party, as does Montgomery Blair.
On Apr. 18-20, 1865 Pres. Lincoln's body lies in state in the East Room of the White House and then in the Capitol in Washington, D.C.; on Apr. 21 after a funeral procession down Pennsylvania Ave., it is placed aboard a funeral train that moves slowly through the country for 16 days, pausing for ceremonies at major towns from Baltimore to Chicago (N to New York and W to Springfield); on Apr. 30 it reaches Indianapolis, Ind., arriving at night in Chicago, where 125K file past his coffin for two days; on May 3 the train arrives at Springfield, Ill., and the body is interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery on May 4; in 1871 it is moved to a newly constructed tomb nearby; George M. Pullman offers the use of his new Pioneer railroad sleeping car for the final link of Lincoln's funeral train from Chicago to Springfield, gaining publicity which makes many railroad execs drop objections and begin making modifications in their bridges and station platforms; Mary Todd goes bonkers, resenting her son Robert's attempts to have her institutionalized.
On May 12, 1865 the military Trial of John Wilke Booth's Conspirators, under Maj. Gen. David Hunter (1802-86) (close friend and pallbearer of Lincoln) begins, and on June 29 Mary Elizabeth Eugenia Jenkins Surratt (b. 1823), Lewis Thornton Payne (Paine) (Powell) (b. 1844), George Andreas Atzerodt (b. 1835), David Edgar Herold (b. 1842), John Harrison Surratt (1844-1916), Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd (1833-83), Michael O'Laughlen (O'Laughlin) Jr. (b. 1840), Edmund Spangler (1825-75) (stagehand at Ford's Theatre, who claims that all he did was obey Booth's request to hold his horse), and Samuel Bland Arnold (1834-1906) are found guilty of conspiracy to murder Pres. Lincoln; after her first choice U.S. Sen. (Md.) Reverdy Johnson (1796-1876) passes her to him, Mary Surratt is defended by inexperienced atty. Col. Frederick Argyle Aiken (1837-78) (future city ed. of the Washington Post), whose defense argument rails at the way she is being railroaded, after he gets judge Andrew Wylie to sign a writ of habeas corpus granting her a new civil trial, but Pres. Johnson suspends it, all of which makes the public begin to believe in her innocence; on July 7 the first four are hanged at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., and Surratt becomes the first woman in U.S. history to be tried by a military tribunal, and the first witch, er, to be federally executed; John Surratt escapes to Canada, then England, then Rome, where he joins the Papal Zouaves, then is arrested by U.S. officials in Alexandria, Egypt on Nov. 23, 1866, and returns after the statute of limitations on all of the charges except murder expires, a hung jury (8 not guilty, 4 guilty) acquitting him of that in Md.; the rest of the conspirators are all later pardoned by Pres. Johnson, except O'Laughlin, who dies in prison of yellow fever; Dr. Samuel Mudd ("his name is mud") receives a life sentence for treason and conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln (4th person in U.S. history convicted of treason after Benedict Arnold, Thomas Dorr, and John Brown), and spends four years on the Dry Tortugas Island of Garden Key off Fla. ("the Devil's Island of the U.S.") ministering to yellow fever victims before being pardoned in Mar. 1869 by Pres. Andrew Johnson, broken in health; his conviction is not overturned until ?; Secret Service chief LaFayette Curry Baker (1826-68), who was in New York City when the assassination took place and had no direct responsibility for protecting the pres. becomes a scapegoat, accused of negligence, but goes on to lead the quick capture of Booth so brilliantly that he is promoted to brig. gen., then gets involved in a large and lucrative trade in pardons of former Confed. officers and men that extends into the White House, causing Congress to refuse to fund his operations, bragging tall-tale-telling Baker to resign, and the Secret Service to be disbanded; Union Brig. Gen. Thomas Maley Harris (1817-1906) serves on the assassination investigation committee, and in 1897 pub. Rome's Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, claiming a Vatican plot - justice for the rich is still the American Way?
On May 23-24, 1865 as the U.S. flag is flown at half-staff over the White time since Lincoln's death, a Grand Review of the Federal Armies is held in Washington, D.C., marching up Pennsylvania Ave.; Gen. Armstrong Custer's horse loses control, causing him to ride by the reviewing stand twice (Custer's last stand?); Meade's and Grant's armies are disbanded within a week; Custer emerges from the war having been wounded only once and having lost 11 horses shot from under him.
On July 5, 1865 the U.S. Secret Service is founded in Washington, D.C., headed by Col. William Patrick Wood (1820-1903) (Mexican-Am. War vet and head of the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.) (until 1869) to protect the money supply, nearly one-third of which is counterfeit because each bank prints its own, each with a different design, making the police powerless until the U.S. govt. issues its own greenbacks, which soon backfires when all the counterfeiters work toward a common goal and produce good fakes; pres. protection is not added until 1901; SS agents are paid a whopping $3/day and told that "their service belongs to the govt. through 24 hours of each day"; Wood offers a $25/head bonus, and within a year 200 boodlers (counterfeiters) are arrested; in 1870-4 the HQ is moved to New York City.
On Aug. 21, 1865 a military commission headed by Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace tries Swiss-born Capt. Henry Hartmann Wirz (b. 1823), POW camp cmdr. of Camp Sumter (Andersonville) Confed. Prison near Andersonville, Ga. for "murder, in violation of the laws and customs of war", after 12K Union POWs die there in 14 mo., up to 97 a day; after refusing a pardon in exchange for testimony against Jefferson Davis, he is found guilty, then hanged on Nov. 10 in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. at the foot of Capitol Hill, becoming the only U.S. Civil War soldier executed for war crimes; the fall fails to break his neck, and he dies slowly while being taunted by the vengeful observers; the Nat. Prisoner of War Museum is founded at the site; 25,976 Confeds. die in Union POW camps vs. 30,218 Yankees in Confed. POW camps.
On Jan. 8, 1867 after overriding Pres. Johnson's veto, Congress grants black citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote; on Mar. 2 Congress, to impose its will in the face of Southern feet-dragging over ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment passes the U.S. First Reconstruction Act, calling for the enfranchisement of former slaves in the Confederacy; this year and next the Radical Repubs. use the new phenomenon of concentrated federal power to try to gain more equality for blacks in the South.
On Mar. 2, 1867 Howard U. in Washington, D.C. is chartered by the U.S. Congress for freed slaves and their descendants, managed by the U.S. Dept. of Interior under the dir. of white Union Gen. Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909), AKA "the Christian General", who was a math prof. at West Point in 1857-61, lost his right arm in the Peninsular Campaign, fought at First Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, commanded Sherman's right wing in the March to the Sea, and became the first commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau (1865-74); on Sept. 25 Congress charters it; he becomes its first pres. in 1869 (until 1874). On Mar. 29 Congress approves the Lincoln Memorial.
In 1867 Washington, D.C.-born John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) joins the U.S. Marine Corps Band as an apprentice after his trombonist father (a member) gets him in; after leaving in 1875 and working in a theatrical pit orchestra, he returns in 1880 as its conductor, leading it under five U.S. presidents from Hayes to Harrison and playing at the inaugural balls of Garfield in 1881 and Harrison in 1889; in 1893 he helps create the sousaphone marching brass bass; in 1892 he leaves the Marine band and sets up the Sousa Band, which performs 15,623 concerts around the world by 1931; he goes on to become known as "the Am. March King", composing Semper Fidelis (1888) (USMC official march), The Thunderer (1889), The Washington Post (1889), The Liberty Bell (1893), Stars and Stripes Forever (1896) (U.S. Nat. March) et al.
On Mar. 4, 1869 46-y.-o. Point Pleasant, Ohio-born West Point grad. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (Hiram Ulysses Grant) (1822-85), AKA "Unconditional Surrender Grant", "the American Caesar", "the Hero of Appomattox", "Useless Grant", "Uncle Sam Grant", "the Galena Tanner" (his daddy's occupation in Point Pleasant, Ohio, and almost his) (a good artist known for modesty who smokes 20 cigars a day and hates hunting and the mistreatment of animals, the sight of blood making him ill, and is a speed junkie, horses that is) becomes the 18th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1877) youngest pres. until JFK) in the 24th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C.; outgoing Pres. Andrew Johnson doesn't attend the inauguration ceremonies after Grant refuses to sit with him in the carriage; the first time that special tickets are required for admission to the U.S. Capitol in inauguration day; eight divs. of soldiers march down Pennsylvania Ave. during the inaugural parade, becoming the grandest so far; the evening inauguration ball is held in the U.S. Treasury Bldg.; U.S. House Speaker #25 (since Dec. 7 1863) Schuyler Colfax Jr. (1823-85) of Ind. becomes the 17th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1873); Grant becomes the last of 12 U.S. presidents to have owned slaves, and the 4th and last of these not to own any while in office; ex-pres. Johnson later returns to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first pres. to do so (until ?); Grant likes to have breakfast in the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., causing favor-seekers to hang around; Julia Dent Grant (1826-1902) becomes the first First Lady to issue press releases; too bad, Grant gets into nepotism, appointing his wife's relatives and old army chums; on Mar. 5 Ill. Repub. Rep. (since 1853) Elihu Benjamin Washburne (1816-87) becomes U.S. secy. of state #25 (until Mar. 16), but ends up as U.S. minister to France on Mar. 23 (until Sept. 5, 1877), after being replaced on Mar. 17 by New York City-born Hamilton Fish (1808-93) as U.S. secy. of state #26 (until Mar. 12, 1877), becoming known as the pillar of the grand admin., going on to settle the Alabama claims, prepare for Hawaiian statehood, and make peace with Spain.
In 1869 the Corcoran Gallery of Art at 17th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. is founded by Riggs Bank co-founder William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), opening in 1874 and becoming one of the first fine art galleries in the U.S., and first major collection of Am. art; in 1890 the Corcoran College of Art and Design is founded; in 2014 it is dissolved and replaced by a non-profit, which gives its $2B 17K-piece art collection to the Nat. Gallery of Art, while the school is given to George Washington U.
On June 9, 1870 Pres. Grant meets with Sioux chief Red Cloud in the White House in Washington, D.C.
In 1871 the U.S. District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 creates a new city govt. for the entire District of Columbia, merging the separate municipalities of Washington, D.C. and Georgetown along with the county of Washington, with a gov. appointed by the U.S. pres., and an elected assembly; in 1874 Congress establishes a local govt. made up of three commissioners appointed by the U.S. pres., making Washington, D.C. the only U.S. city whose pop. doesn't elect its officials; it's really a conspiracy to create a 2nd secret U.S. Constitution, making Washington, D.C. into a city-state that's part of the Empire of the City incl. London and the Vatican?
In 1871-88 the French Empire style Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg. (originally the State, War, and Navy Bldg.), located just W of the White House at 17th St., N.W. between Pennsylvania Ave., State Place, and West Executive Dr. in Washington, D.C. is commissioned by Pres. Grant on the site of the 1800 Old State, War, and Navy Bldg and the White House stables, becoming the world's largest office bldg. (until ?), with 566 rooms and 10 acres of floor space; too bad, the architectural style clases with the neoclassical style of the other federal bldgs. in the city, causing public ridicule, with Mark Twain calling it "The ugliest building in America", and historian Henry Adams calling it an "architectural infant asylum", causing Taunton, England-born architect Alfred Buit Mullett (1834-90) to commit suicide on Oct. 20, 1890.
On Mar. 4, 1873 (Tues.) U.S. pres. #18 (since Mar. 4, 1869) Ulysses S. Grant (Hiram Ulysses Grant) (1822-85) is inaugurated for a 2nd term (until Mar. 14, 1877) in Washington, D.C. in the 25th U.S. Pres. Inauguration; Farmington, N.H.-born Henry Wilson (Jeremiah Jones Colbath) (1812-75) becomes the 18th U.S. vice-pres. (until Nov. 22, 1875); 150 canaries prepared to amuse guests at the inauguration ceremony freeze to death in their cages.
In 1873 the U.S. Nat. Aquarium in Woods Hole, Mass. opens under the Federal Fish Commission, becoming the first free public aquarium in the U.S.; in 1878 it moves to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., hosting holding ponds called Babcock Lakes, moving in the 1880s to a new bldg. called Central Station near the Fish Commission HQ on the site of the modern-day Nat. Air and Space Museum; in 1903 the U.S. Dept. of Commerce absorbs the Fish Commission as the Bureau of Fisheries, moving to the new Commerce Dept. Bldg. in 1932; in 1940 the Bureau of Fisheries is incorporated into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Dept. of the Interior; it closes on Sept. 30, 2013 after becoming the longest continuously-operating aquarium in the U.S.
America is made safe for generations of John Waynes? On Mar. 2, 1877 after the U.S. Electoral Commission votes 8-7 on straight party lines to award the disputed electoral votes and the U.S. Pres. Election to Repub. candidate "Rutherfraud" Hayes, he sails in by 185 to 184 (1st time since 1824 that the winner of the popular vote loses the election); on Feb. 26 after Dem. leaders challenge the Commission, promising a filibuster, loser Samuel J. Tilden agrees to the wormy Compromise of 1877 ("the betrayal of the Negro") in a smoke-filled room in the new (1871) 5-story Wormley's Hotel at 1500 H St., N.W. in Washington, D.C., owned by freeborn black man James Wormley (1819-84), in which the Dems. agree to accept Hayes in return for a Southern cabinet member and removal of federal troops from Southern states, ending Reconstruction and giving white supremacists a stranglehold on Southern (cracker?) politics, after which Southern Black Codes soon effectively disenfranchise black voters for the next 90 years - and keep them away from our white wimmin?
The first U.S. pres. you can call on the telephone? On Mar. 4, 1877 (Sun.) Delaware, Ohio-born Harvard Law School grad. (wounded 4x in the Civil War) Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-93), AKA "Rutherfraud", "His Fraudulency", "the Usurper", "Old Eight-to-Seven" (the commission straight-party vote), "President De Facto", "the Great Unknown", "the Dark Horse President", "Granny Hayes", "Queen Victoria in Riding Breeches" (doesn't smoke, drink, or gamble), becomes the 19th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1881) in the 26th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C., becoming first U.S. pres. to take his oath of office in the White House (to keep it a secret until the hysteria dies down); first pres. to have a telephone in the White House (1879), and first to travel to the West coast; he promises to serve only one term, becoming known for the soundbyte: "He serves his party best who serves his country best"; his Temperance-pushing wife "Lemonade" Lucy Ware Webb Hayes (1831-89) becomes the first First Lady to graduate from a college (Wesleyan); in her White House "the water flowed like wine"; he tries to let the white upper class run the South again in the belief that they will protect blacks from violence, only to be bitterly disappointed, keeping the South a Crackerland for the next cent., spending his retirement working for civil rights for blacks and educational reform a la Jimmy Carter; U.S. Rep. (R-N.Y.) (1861-3, 1869-77) William Almon Wheeler (1819-87) becomes the 19th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1881); almost-3-term Grant retires to take a trip around the world and work on his memoirs; on Mar. 10 U.S. Sen. (R-Ohio) (since 1861) John Sherman (1823-1900), younger brother of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman becomes U.S. treasury secy. #32 (until Mar. 3, 1881).
On Dec. 6, 1877 The Washington Post newspaper is founded in Washington, D.C. by N.H.-born Dem. Stilson Hutchins (1838-1912); in 1880 Jewish journalist Joseph Pulitzer joins the staff; in 1888 Hutchins ends his allegiance to the Dems.; in June 1933 it is purchased at a bankruptcy auction by Jewish financier (Federal Reserve chmn. in 1930-3) Eugene Isaac Meyer (1875-1959), and it stays in the family until ?, becoming known for having its own foreign bureaus and for political reporting on the inner workings of the U.S. govt. incl. White House and Congress, reaching a modern-day circ. of 474K daily and 838K Sun.
In 1880 Queen Victoria presents U.S. Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes with the Resolute Desk, built from the timbers of the British ship HMS Resolute; he places it in the White House in Washington, D.C., becoming a favorite of every succeeding pres. except LBJ, Nixon, and Ford.
For 6-1/2 mo. the U.S. finally has a Christian preacher in the White House? On Mar. 4, 1881 (Fri.) Ohio log cabin-born Erie Canal boatman, traveling preacher (first preacher until ?), classics prof. and youngest-ever Union maj.-gen. James Abram Garfield (1831-81), AKA "Canal Boy", "Boatman Jim", "the Preacher President", "the Plow Boy of Ohio" becomes the 20th U.S. pres. (until Sept. 19, 1881) in the 27th U.S. Pres. Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (last log cabin pres.) (first lefty) (Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Obama) (first member of Congress to move directly to the presidency) (Harding, Kennedy, Obama); he entertains guests by writing Greek with one hand and Latin with the other; Fairfield, Vt.-born bewhiskered (full sideburns) Chester Alan Arthur (1829-86), AKA "Elegant Arthur", "Prince Arthur", "the Dude President" (for his fashionable Gilded Age clothes) "Our Chet", "the Gentleman Boss" becomes the 20th U.S. vice-pres. (until Sept. 19); James G. Blaine of Maine is appointed U.S. secy. of state (until Dec.); a birther controvery begins when he lies that he was born in 1830, and moved around a lot as a child, and his enemies decide he might not have been born in the U.S. as required, demanding that he provide proof of his birthplace, which he never Barack, er, does; Pres. Lincoln's atty. son Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926) is appointed U.S. secy. of war (until Mar. 4, 1885); Garfield names his dog Veto as a warning to Congress; Blanche Kelso Bruce (1841-98) is appointed register of the U.S. treasury (until June 5), becoming the first African-Am. whose signature appears on U.S. currency, getting reappointed on Dec. 3, 1897-Mar. 17, 1898- it's a filthy, filthy job?
Guiteaulong Little Doggies, 200 days if enough? On July 2, 1881 (Sat.) (9:30 a.m.) 200 days after taking office and two weeks after uttering the soundbyte: "Whoever controls the volume of money in our county is absolute master of all industry and commerce.. And when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate", U.S. pres. #20 (since Mar. 4) James Abram Garfield (b. 1831) is shot in the back at the Baltimore and Potomac Rarilroad Station in Washington, D.C. by Freeport, Ill.-born disgruntled atty. and disappointed office ssker Charles Julius Guiteau (1841-82) (who spent five years in the Oneida Community in Upstate N.Y., whose enjoyment of the sexual communism was ruined when women complained that he smelled?), who shouts "I am a stalwart and now Arthur is president"; on Sept. 19 as the nation is flooded with sometimes hourly reports on his condition, Garfield dies in Elberon, N.J. after 80 days of malpractice by physicians who stick unwashed instruments and fingers in him searching for the bullet, while Alexander Graham Bell tries in vain to help with a metal detector (coil mattress springs throw it off?); the bullet is found during the autopsy in a protective cyst 10 in. from the wound, but since the doctors didn't embrace the antiseptic techniques of Joseph Lister (1827-1912), he dies from iatrogenic (doctor-caused) infections, causing Guiteau to say, "Doctors killed Garfield; I just shot him"; Garfield, who is pres. for less than 8 mo. signs one extradition paper during his fatal illness; Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. on June 30, 1882; Garfield and Guiteau are autopsied by the Nat. Museum of Health and Medicine (Army Medical Museum) in Silver Spring, Md. (founded 1862); Garfield becomes the 3rd straight victim of the Zero-Year Presidential Curse (after W.H. Harrison and Lincoln); future Repub. vice-pres. #22 (1889-93) Levi Parsons Morton (1824-1920) had been asked by Garfield to be his running mate, but had preferred the job of U.S. minister to France (until 1885), causing Guiteau to feel he had been "passed over", giving him the reason to murder Garfield?; on Sept. 20 at 2:15 a.m. Fairfield, Vt.-born "Dude President" Chester Alan Arthur (1829-86) becomes the 21st U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1885) in the 28th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in his office at 123 Lexington Ave. in New York City (4th U.S. pres. not to have a vice-pres. after Tyler, Fillmore, and Johnson - next in ?); 2nd time that the U.S. has three presidents in the same year (Hayes, Garfield, Arthur) (first time 1841); a recent (1880) widower, he snubs Garfield's widow and uses his sister Mary Arthur (Mrs. John E.) McElroy (1841-1917) as his White House hostess, and won't move into the White House until it is redecorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1884-1933), who adds Tiffany glass to gaslight fixtures and windows, and installs an opalescent floor-to-ceiling glass screen in front of the entrance hall, all of which Teddy Roosevelt removes in 1902 to restore the White House to Federal style; Arthur appoints Ind. U.S. District Judge (since 1869) (former Civil War Union Maj. Gen. from Ind.) Walter Quintin Gresham (1832-95) as postmaster-gen. then treasury secy. (until 1884); in Dec. James G. Blaine resigns because of Arthur's connections with his political enemy Roscoe Conkling; when Arthur actually acts like a pres. and backs civil service reform and even prosecutes his own former political associates for graft, he becomes a lame duck, losing machine support while failing to win the reformers over, his lackadaisical presidency completing the migration of pres. powers to the Congress that is later reversed by presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson et al.
On July 4, 1881 the police chief of Washington, D.C. bans fireworks in tribute to the shooting of Pres. Garfield; instead, prayer meetings for his recovery are held throughout the U.S.
On May 21, 1882 the American Red Cross (ARC) is established in Washington, D.C. by former U.S. Civil War hospital nurse Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton (1821-1912) after she visits Geneva, Switzerland to recover from the war and the Internat. Red Cross asks her to start a U.S. branch, becoming its first pres. for 23 years (until 1904); John D. Rockefeller donates funds for a national HQ one block from the White House in Washington, D.C.; its first major relief operation is helping victims of the Sept. 4-6, 1881 Thumb Fire in Mich., followed by the May 31, 1889 Johnstown Flood in Penn.
On Mar. 13, 1884 the U.S. Congress adopts Eastern Standard Time (EST) for the District of Columbia.
On Oct. 13, 1884 the Internat. Meridian Conference of delegates from 25 nations in Washington, D.C. adopts the SE London suburb of Greenwich (pr. GREN-ich) as the location of the Prime Meridian, to be used in a worldwide system of time zones; San Domingo votes against, and France and Brazil abstain; the old Arago (Paris) Rose Line passing through Paris (Church of Saint-Sulpice) is abandoned by every country except France, which doesn't get with it for several decades- like living in a sexless marriage?
On Dec. 6, 1884 U.S. Army engineers set the capstone on the Washington Monument (begun July 4, 1848) N of Independence Ave. SW in Washington, D.C., designed by Charleston, S.C.born architect Robert Mills (1781-1855), who designed another one 20 years earlier in Baltimore, Md.; it is dedicated by Pres. Arthur on Feb. 21, 1885, and officially opened on Oct. 9, 1988, becoming the world's tallest manmade structure after the Cologne Cathedral (until 1889); it contains 36,491 stone blocks and is 555 ft. 5-1/8 in. tall, and its tip is made of 100 oz. of aluminum, the largest and costliest block of the metal yet cast (it was displayed at Tiffany's in New York City before being installed so that people could jump over it and pretend they were giants?); steam-powered elevators take visitors to the top in 12 min.; Leslie's mag. calls it an "unsightly pile on the Potomac", and Harper's says, "The huge shaft is in itself a rather meaningless memorial of a great man"; in 1998 it undergoes a $1.5M renovation - a giant white shaft sticking out of the U.S. capital city is meaningless?
A Dem. wins the White House during a Repub. era? On Mar. 4. 1885 (Wed.) Caldwell, N.J.-born former asst. district atty., Buffalo mayor, sheriff (who personally hanged two men when the executioner was not available, causing him to be called "Hangman of Buffalo" ), and N.Y. gov. #18 (since Jan. 1, 1883) (who paid a substitute to fight for him during the Civil War, proving that he knows how to hire and fire employees?) Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), AKA "Uncle Jumbo", "Grover the Good", "the Beast of Buffalo" (false rumors that he's a wife-beater), "His Obstinacy", "the Veto President" (vetoes more bills than any other), "the Pretender", "the Stuffed Prophet", "the Elephantine Economist" (250 lbs. in 1892), "the Perpetual Candidate" (three successive pres. campaigns) becomes the 22nd U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1889) in the 29th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., becoming the first Dem. elected since the U.S. Civil War (24 years), and the only pres. born in N.J.; he also closes the alphabet gap at the beginning after Adams and Buchanan (next available letter: D); Cleveland pulls a Pierce and gives his inaugural speech without notes, using a Bible given to him by his mother at age 15; he goes on to set a record for pres. vetoes (214?); Ohio-born Ind. U.S. Sen. (1863-9) and gov. (1873-7) Thomas Andrews Hendricks (1819-85), former leader of the Senate opposition to Lincoln's admin. becomes the 21st U.S. vice-pres., and dies on Nov. 25 ater 266 days; rich Bourbon Dem. William Collins Whitney (1841-1904) becomes U.S. Navy secy. #31 (until Mar. 4, 1889).
In 1885 the Gridiron Club is founded in Washington, D.C., holding annual spring dinners where the U.S. pres. is a guest of honor along with other powerful figures, and the U.S. Marine Band plays while frank off-the-record remarks are made, becoming Washington D.C.'s oldest and most prestigious journalist org. by modern times.
In 1887 the red brick Renaissance Revival Pension Bldg. at 401 F St., NW in Washington, D.C., designed by U.S. quartermaster gen. (1861-82) Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816-92), is built as the HQ of the U.S. Pension Bureau, becoming the largest brick bldg. in the U.S., going on to host several U.S. pres. balls; in 1980 Congress repurposes it as the Nat. Building Museum, and designates it a nat. historic landmark in 1985.
In 1887 the Thomas Jefferson (Main) Library of Congress Bldg. in Washington, D.C. is begun (finished 1897).
On Jan. 13, 1888 the Nat. Geographic Society is founded at the Cosmos Club in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. by an elite group of 33 explorers and scientists who are interested in travel; they officially incorporate on Jan. 27; in Oct. the Nat. Geographic Mag. begins pub.
Twenty-three is Benny? On Mar. 4, 1889 North Bend, Ohio-born Miami U. grad. and Presbyterian deacon in Ind. (good orator) (5'6 - only U.S. president shorter than the nat. avg.) Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) AKA "the Centennial President", "Young Tippecanoe", "the Pious Moonlight Dude" (for his romantic ways), "the Human Iceberg" (for his glacial personality), "Kid Gloves Harrison" (worn to prevent skin infection), "Little Ben" (for his short stature) (4th pres. with a beard until ?), (the Front Porch Campaigner" (for the almost 90 campaign speeches given from his Indianapolis porch), great-grandson of a DOI signer, grandson of "Old Tippecanoe" Pres. William Henry Harrison, and son of a U.S. Sen. becomes the 23rd U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1893) in the 30th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in a rainstorm in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. , becoming the 3rd time (1824, 1876) that the winner of the popular vote loses the election; the oath of office is administered by chief justice Melville W. Fuller in a rainstorm while ex-Pres. Cleveland holds an umbrella over his head; Shoreham, Vt.-born Levi Parsons Morton (1824-1920) of N.Y. becomes the 22nd U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1893); Buffalo Bill marches in the inaugural parade; the USMC Band conducted by John Philip Sousa plays at the inaugural ball in the Pension Bldg. before a large crowd; First Lady is former music teacher Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison (1832-92), who next year co-founds and becomes pres.-gen. #1 of the Daughters of the Am. Rev. (DAR), and is into China painting, starting a nat. craze; Harrison's inaugural address contains the soundbyte: "As president of the United States, I was present at the first Pan-American Congress in Washington D.C. I believe that with God's help, our two countries shall continue to live side-by-side in peace and prosperity"; Harrison soon proclaims that the pres. should be a passive figure, and proves it, although a record six new U.S. states are admitted during his term (N.D., S.D., Mont., Wash., Idaho, Wyo.); James G. Blaine becomes secy. of state again (#28, #31) (until June 4, 1892); Victorian Christian gentleman and Philly dept. store king John Wanamaker (1838-1922) is appointed U.S. postmaster gen. #35 (until Mar. 4, 1893), championing parcel post, rural free delivery, and postal savings banks; Abe Lincoln's eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926) is appointed U.S. minister to Britain (until Mar. 4, 1893); the White House is wired for electricity while Pres. Harrison is in office, but he and his wife are too afraid to touch the switches - put your feet up, Mister President, but not there?
On Jan. 20-Apr. 27, 1890 the First Internat. Conference of Am. States in Washington, D.C. sees delegates agree to form the Internat. Union of Am. Repubs., which evolves into the Org. of Am. States.
On Mar. 11, 1890 U.S. Rep. (D-Ky.) (1885-9) William Preston Taulbee (b. 1851) is shot on the E staircase of the House wing of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. by newspaper correspondent Charles E. Kincaid, dying later that day at Providence Hospital; blood stains are visible to modern times.
On Oct. 11, 1890 after an org. meeting on Aug. 8, the Nat. Society of the Daughters of the Am. Rev. (DAR) is founded in Washington, D.C. by First Lady Caroline Harrison (its first pres.-gen.) et al. to preserve the memory of the men and women who fought for independence in the Am. Rev. War; members must be women at least 18 years of age and directly descended from the heroes; it is incorporated by an act of Congress on Dec. 2, 1896, and begins pub. the Nat. Historical Mag.
On Dec. 5, 1892 after efforts by Methodist Episcopal Church bishop (chancellor #1) John Fletcher Hurst (1834-1903), the U.S. Congress passes a bill establishing American U. in Washington, D.C., which is signed by Pres. Benjamin Harrison on Feb. 24, 1893, opening for classes on Oct. 6, 1914 with 28 students; in 1949 it merges with the Wash. College of Law (founded in 1896 as the first coed law school in D.C.); it goes on to become known for political activism; alumni incl. Alice Paul, Robert Byrd, Goldie Hawn, David Gregory, Neil Cavuto, Judy Smith, Barry Levinson, and Star Jones.
Uncle Jumbo gets taken down the drain by the Panic of 1893, causing a Repub. landslide in 1894 and the agrarian-silverite seizure of his Dem. Party in 1896 and launching the Progressive Era? On Mar. 4, 1893 N.J.-born U.S. pres. #22 "Uncle Jumbo" Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) becomes the 24th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1897) in the 31st U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. during a snowstorm, making the man not from O-hi-O both the 22nd and 24th pres. (1885-9, 1893-7); Ky.-born Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1835-1914) becomes the 23rd U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1897); a ticket from Cleveland's first inaugration ceremony gets you into this one; former treasury secy. (under Pres. Arthur) Walter Quintin Gresham (1832-95) becomes secy. of state #33 (until May 28, 1895); after the appointment of receivers for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad on Feb. 20, Cleveland convinces Congress to repeal the 1890 U.S. Sherman Silver Purchase Act, leading to the Panic of 1893, blamed by the Cleveland admin. on mismanagement of silver and decline of U.S. gold reserves, causing the U.S. to experience its most severe depression so far; the homeless become a problem for the first time; anti-Roman Catholic activity heats up.
On Sept. 9, 1893 Am. celeb child Esther Cleveland (d. 1980) is born in the White House in Washington, D.C., the 2nd child of Pres. Grover Cleveland and Frances Cleveland, becoming the first child of a U.S. pres. born in the White House (until ?).
On Apr. 28, 1894 wealthy Penn.-born Socialist populist "General" Jacob Sechler Coxey Sr. (1854-1951) leads the ragtag 500-man Coxey's Army (Commonweal of Christ) of the unemployed to Washington, D.C., protesting unemployment and seeking legislation providing interest-free funds for roads to be built by the unemployed, arriving on Apr. 29, and on May 1 he is arrested for trespassing for walking on the grass before he can deliver his speech at the Capitol, being released on June 10 after being nominated for Congress in Ohio; after trying it again in 1914, he goes on to become mayor of Massillon, Ohio in 1931 and run for U.S. pres.
On Feb. 20, 1895 Am. abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass (Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) (b. 1817) dies in Washington, D.C. in his 20-room Cedar Hill Mansion at 1411 W. St. S.E. in the black Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he lived since 1877, which becomes the Frederick Douglass Nat. Historic Site in 1988; perched on a hilltop, it features a sweeping view of the Washington, D.C. skyline incl. the U.S. Capitol; "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
On Dec. 17, 1895 the Anti-Saloon League of Am. (founded as a state-level org. in Oberlin, Ohio in 1893) is formed in Washington, D.C. by atty.-turned-minister Howard Hyde Russell (1855-1946), author of "A Lawyer's Examination of the Bible" (1893), quickly growing to the most powerful Prohibition lobby in the U.S., passing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Prohibition Party and going on to get the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed in 1920; too bad, it gets in bed with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), stinking it up.
On Feb. 17, 1897 the U.S. Nat. Congress of Mothers is founded in Washington, D.C.; in 1908 it is renamed the Nat. Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Assocs., followed in 1925 by the Nat. Congress of Parents and Teachers or Parent Teachers Assoc. (PTA); on May 7, 1926 PTA Pres. Mrs. A.H. Reeve founds the Nat. Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, which merges with the Nat. PTA in 1970; in 1899 the Nat. PTA publicly complains about "the incompetency of parents", causing the scientific parenting racket to be born as experts rush to the fore?
A Mount Rushmore reject takes office in the White House? On Mar. 4, 1897 Niles, Ohio-born cigar-chomping piercing-stare Civil War Union Maj. and U.S. rep. (R-Ohio) (1885-91) William McKinley Jr. (1843-1901) ("the Major") ("the Mask of Calm") becomes the 25th U.S. pres. (until Sept. 14, 1901) in the 32nd U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (last U.S. Civil War vet); 2nd pres. to be elected for a 2nd term and not finish it (Lincoln, Nixon); N.J.-born Garret Augustus Hobart (1844-99) becomes the 24th U.S. vice-pres. (until Nov. 21, 1899); at the inauguration ball McKinley's wife faints?; Cleveland retires to Princeton, N.J., becoming a trustee and occasionally lecturing to students; First Lady is Ida Saxton McKinley (1847-1907), a semi-invalid who likes to crochet slippers for charity and wear Victorian high fashion while dosing on laudanum; McKinley becomes the creator of the 20th cent. presidency, incl. becoming the first to ride in an automobile, appear in motion pictures, and use a telephone, setting up a table for daily briefing of reporters, and deploying U.S. troops on his own authority, greatly increasing the power of the presidency; on Mar. 6 U.S. Sen. (since Mar. 4, 1881) (R-Ohio) John Sherman (1823-1900) (brother of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman) becomes U.S. secy. of state #35, but resigns next Apr. 27 shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish-Am. War; on Mar. 6 Chicago banker Lyman Judson Gage (1836-1927) becomes U.S. treasury secy. #42 (until Jan. 31, 1902), going on to work to get the currency backed solely by gold in 1900.
On Apr. 27, 1897 after Mrs. Grant overrules those who want it to be placed in Washington, D.C., the 150-ft. domed granite General Grant Nat. Monument (Grant's Tomb) (a clone of the Greek Mausoleum of Halicarnassus) at in Riverside Park at Riverside Dr. and W. 122nd St. in Upper Manhattan, N.Y. across from Riverside Church opens, going on to house the sarcophagi of Grant and his wife surrounded by busts of Union Army leaders; after a competition, it was designed by Am. architect John Hemenway Duncan (1854-1929), causing his fame to skyrocket, going on to design the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, N.Y. AKA Brooklyn's Arc de Triomphe.
On Feb. 10-14, 1899 the Great (St. Valentine's Day) Blizzard (Arctic Outbreak) of 1899 affects the U.S. E of the Rocky Mts., with Swift Current in modern-day Sask. Canada recording a record high 31.42 in. of Hg. on Feb. 11; on Feb. 11 the city of Washington, D.C. records its lowest temperature of -15F (-26C) (until ?).
In 1900 as "America's Century" starts, world pop. is 1.6B, a gain of 600M in a cent.; Spanish-speaking America: 44M; Brazil: 18M; Russia: 150M. The Twelfth (12th) (1900) U.S. Census reports a total pop. of 75,994,775 in a land area of 2,969,834 sq. mi. (25.6 per sq. mi.); the Amerindian pop. is down to a low point of 250K, and doesn't start rebounding for 20 years; pop. of New York City: 1.840M, of which 70% live in tenements; pop. of San Francisco: 350K; pop. of Washington, D.C. is 278,718 incl. 191,532 white and 86,702 black; 25% of the pop. of Chicago are 1st or 2nd gen. German immigrants; London 4.5M, Paris 2.7M, Berlin 2M, Tokyo 1.9M, Vienna 1.3M. Life expectancy: W Europe: 50 years; U.S.: 46.3 males, 48.3 females. 60% of the U.S. pop. lives in rural areas sans electricity, which doesn't stop those who have it from wanting the newfangled vacuum cleaner devices, with 200+ manufacturers springing up by 1920.
On Mar. 4, 1901 former N.Y. gov. #33 (1899-1900) Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858-1919) becomes U.S. vice-prs. #25 (until Sept. 14, 19010.
On Mar. 8, 1901 after being inspired by the City Beautiful Movement of the 1890s, the U.S. Senate forms the Senate Park Commission, with members incl. architect Daniel Burnham, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., architect Charles F. McKim, and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and U.S. Sen. (R-Mich.) (1889-1902) James McMillan (1838-1902) as chmn., which leaves for Europe on June 13 to view likely candidates for imitation; on Jan. 15, 1902 it releases the McMillan Plan and hosts an exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, attended by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, proposing the U.S. Nat. Mall, anchored on the E by the U.S. Capitol, on the W by West Potomac Park, on the N by the White House, and on the S by East Potomac Park, with the Washington Monument in the center.
On Sept. 14, 1901 New York City-born former North Dakota cowboy ("the Rough Rider") ("Hero of San Juan Hill") ("the Cyclone Assemblyman") ("the Lion") ("Old Four Eyes") ("Theodore the Meddler") ("the Big Stick") Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858-1919) (a Progressive Repub. into conservation of the wilderness) (a J.P. Morgan man, compared to McKinley, who was a John D. Rockefeller man) (the Morgans are allied with Britain and France, while the Rockefellers back Germany, helping lead to WWI?) becomes the 26th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1909) in the 34th U.S. Pres. Inauguration at the Ansley Wilcox House in Buffalo, N.Y. following the death of Pres. William McKinley earlier that day, going on to become the first modern pres., using the media to build an image and advance his agenda, the first imperial president, the youngest U.S. pres. at 42 years, 10 mo., 18 days, and the first in the 20th cent. to become pres. after being vice-pres. less than a year (Truman, Ford); first U.S. pres. to fly in an airplane, own an automobile, and dive in a submarine; he is sworn-in sans Bible, and attends in borrowed formal wear; his pet horse is named Bleistein; First Lady is Teddy's 2nd wife Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (1861-1948), who becomes the first to employ a full-time secy., leading to the creation of an official staff, while her formal dinners and ceremonial processesions elevate the position of First Lady; Abraham Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln witnesses McKinley's shooting, and was also present for the deaths of Garfield and his daddy, making him the "presidential angel of death" (Sarah Vowell); on Oct. 29 Czolgosz is electrocuted despite evidence of mental illness; on Oct. 28 Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) visits Pres. Roosevelt, becoming the first African-Am. to dine with a U.S. pres. at the White House, pissing-off the white establishment and sparking race riots that kill 34; on Oct. 12 Teddy officially names the Executive Mansion the White House.
On Oct. 23, 1901 (2:00 p.m.) a statue of Confed. Brig. Gen. Albert Pike (1809-91) by Italian-born Am. sculptor Gaetano Trenatnove (1858-1937) is dedicated at 3rd and D Sts., NW in the Judiciary Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C. by Masons to commemorate his work for them, accompanied by a parade of thousands of Masons, becoming the first Confed. officer with a statue in Washington, D.C. (until ?), and one of 18 Civil War monuments in Washington, D.C.
On Nov. 27, 1901 the U.S. Army War College is founded in Washington Barracks (modern-day Ft. Lesley J. McNair) in Washington, D.C. by U.S. war secy. Elihu Root and Pres. Theodore Roosevelt; on Feb. 21, 1903 Roosevelt attends the Masonic cornerstone laying ceremony in Roosevelt Hall; pres. #1 is in July 1902 Maj. Gen. Samuel Baldwin Marks Young (1840-1924) becomes pres. #1 until 1903, when he becomes U.S. Army chief of staff #1 (until 1904); on Feb. 21, 1903 the cornerstone is laid; classes open in 1904; in 1916 after Montgomery M. Macomb becomes pres. Pres. Woodrow Wilson accuses his staff and students of preparing for offensive war, threatening the U.S. neutrality stance; it closes during WWII and reopens in 1950 in Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., moving in 1951 to Carlisle, Penn.; alumni incl. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. Omar Bradley, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, Gen. Matthew Ridgway, Gen. Alexander Haig, and Gen. Tommy Franks.
On Jan. 28, 1902 after retiring from business to become a philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie founds the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. with a $22M endowment, with the first board of trustees incl. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, the pres. of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the House, the secy. of the Smithsonian Inst., and the pres. of the Nat. Academy of Sciences; Congress incorporates it in 1903; initial recipients of funding incl. physicist Albert A. Michelson, biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan, botanist Luther Burbank, and rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard; in 1904 funding is given only to research depts. not individuals, resulting in the development of Pyrex brand glass, hybrid corn, radar, and RNA interference science.
In 1902 Am. architect Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912) designs the triangular Flatiron Bldg. in New York City (at 23rd St., 5th Ave. and Broadway), as well as the Union Station in Washington, D.C. (opened Oct. 27, 1907); the Flatiron Bldg. acts as a wind tunnel, creating updrafts and viewing opportunities for men. On Nov. 2, 1903 A.E. Weed's The Flatiron Building on a Windy Day has its premiere, becoming a big hit by Crescent Films; "It is at this [N] corner where one can get a good idea of the prevailing types in hosiery and lingerie."
In 1902 after the W end of the 2nd floor is found too small for his family of six children and staff, causing First Lady Edith Roosevelt to hire the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White for a renovation, which Congress approves $500K for, the West Wing of the White House is built for $65K on the site of the greenhouses and stables, originally intended as a temporary office structure, with the Office of the Pres. and Cabinet Room on the E; in 1909 Pres. Taft expands the bldg. southward over the old tennis court, with the first Oval Office at the C of the S facade; Pres. Hoover rebuilds the West Wing and digs a partial basement supported with structural steel, which is damaged on Dec. 24, 1929 by an electrical fire, causing Hoover to rebuild it and add air conditioning; in 1932 Pres. FDR hires New York City architect Eric Gugler to redesign it to increase the space inside the same envelope, and he excavates a full basement under the lawn and adds underground offices, adding an unobtrusive penthouse story at the cost of narrow corridors and cramped offices; on the E side he adds a new Cabinet Room, Secy.'s Office, and Oval Office that gives the pres. greater privacy and concealed access to the White House; by the end of the cent. most staff members are moved to the Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg.
On Feb. 17, 1906 Pres. Roosevelt's beautiful rebellious daughter Alice Lee Roosevelt (1884-1980) (eldest child and only child with first wife Alice Hathaway Lee) (known for smoking cigs in public, riding in cars with men, staying out late partying, placing bets with a bookie, and keeping a pet snake named Emily Spinach and a Pekingese named Manchu given her by Chinese empress Cixi in 1902 during a diplomatic visit she went on with 35 congressmen incl. her future hubby, during which she jumped into the ship's pool fully clothed and coaxed the others to join her, and from which she returned with loads of silk from China and a killer string of pearls from Cuba, causing the junket to become known as "Alice in Plunder Land") marries Ohio Repub. Rep. Nicholas Longworth IV (1869-1931) in the East Room, becoming the 4th pres. daughter to be married in the White House (next 1913), and the most spectacular, with 1K guests; priceless gifts are sent by Pope Pius X and govt. heads; she goes to have her only child Paulina with progressive U.S. Sen. (R-Idaho) (1907-40) William Edgar Borah (1865-1940); "I can do one of two things. I can run the country or control Alice. I cannot do both." (Theodore Roosevelt).
On Mar. 17, 1906 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt first uses the term "muckrakers" in his Muckraker Speech about overdone investigative journalism to the Gridiron Club in Washington, D.C., saying they are like a man working in a stable who could "look no way but downward with a muckrake in his hand"; the term comes from John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" about "the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing"; on Apr. 14 Roosevelt dedicates the cornerstone of the Beaux-Arts style U.S. House Office Bldg. in Washington, D.C., repeating his muckraking speech; when asked to name names, he mentions his rival, N.Y. Dem. rep. William Randolph Hearst; on Jan. 9, 1908 a ceremony is held to draw marbles from a bag to assign House Chamber desks and the first-ever offices of their own (15'x23'), and the first selected is N.C. Rep. Claude Kitchin, who picks Room 430, which is later named for Ill. Speaker Joseph Cannon.
On Sept. 29, 1907 the foundation stone is laid for the Nat. Cathedral in Washington, D.C., with a speech given to a crowd of 10K by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and the bishop of London; the inscription reads: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14); Bethlehem Chapel opens for services in 1912; the cathedral is completed in 1990.
On Mar. 5, 1909 the Beaux Arts-style marble-limestone-granite U.S. Senate Office Bldg. N of the U.S. Capitol on Constitution Ave., First St., Delaware Ave., and C St. N.E. in Washington, D.C. opens, designed by Carrere and Hastings of New York City, featuring forced-air ventilation, steam heat, individual lavatories with hot and cold running water plus ice water, telephones, and electricity, connected to the U.S. Capitol via underground passages; it starts out with 98 suites and eight committee rooms, growing by 28 suits and two committee rooms in 1933 with the addition of the First Street Wing; in 1958 after the Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. opens, it becomes the Old Senate Office Bldg.; in 1972 it is renamed after U.S. Senator (D-Ga.) (1933-71) Richard Brevard Russell Jr. (1897-1971), a staunch segregationist (until ?); it goes on to host the 1974 Watergate hearings, the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, and the 1991 Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings, and be used as the HQ of the OSI org. in the TV series "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman"; in 1909 the Russell Caucus Room is renamed the Kennedy Caucus Room; in 2018 U.S. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer introduces a resolution to rename it after U.S. Sen. (R-Ariz.) John McCain.
On May 1, 1909 Walter Reed Gen. Hospital in Washington, D.C. is founded, named after U.S. Army yellow fever physician Maj. Walter Reed (1851-1902), growing from 80 to 5.5K beds; in 1951 it is renamed Walter Reed Army Medical Center; it is disbanded on Aug. 27, 2011.
On June 9-Oct. 16, 1909 the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expedition in Seattle, Wash. is attended by 3.7M; on June 9 Pres. Taft touches a key in Washington, D.C. sending a signal to open it, and another to New York City to start the New York to Seattle Automobile Race.
On Mar. 27, 1912 after Tokyo mayor Yukio Ozaki (1859-1954) and Japanese-born Am. chemist Jokichi Takamine (1854-1922) donate 3,020 Yoshino Cherry trees to the U.S. govt., two are planted in West Potomac Park on the N bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, becoming the start of the annual Nat. Cherry Blossom Festival.
On Apr. 22, 1912 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is founded in Washington, D.C. by Pres. Taft to counterbalance the labor movement via a meeting of 700 delegates from 44 states representing 343 voluntary orgs.; it starts with 297 commercial orgs. and 165K firms and individuals, employing a staff of four, which grows to 300 by 1921 and 470 by 2015; it goes on to back conservative mainly Repub. candidates.
On Mar. 3, 1913 (day before Wilson's inauguration) the Nat. Am. Woman Suffrage Assoc. (NAWSA) (founded in 1869 in Boston, Mass. as the Am. Woman Suffrage Assoc. and merged into the rival Nat. Woman Suffrage Assoc. in 1890, becoming the Nat. Am. Woman Suffrage Assoc., led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) stages a parade for women's suffrage in Washington, D.C.; members from across the U.S. incl. Holly Springs, Miss.-born (into slavery) African-Am. journalist Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1862-1931), who is told that all black suffragists are to walk at the back of the parade, but slips into the white Chicago delegation and gets away with it.
On Mar. 4, 1913 (Tues.) Va.-born "Schoolmaster in Politics" (Ph.D. in govt. - only pres. with a Ph.D. until ?) Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) becomes the 28th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1921) in the 37th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (only pres. to share a surname with a British PM?); Ind. gov. #27 (since 1909) Thomas Riley Marshall (1854-1925) becomes the 28th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1921); the Dem. Party controls both Congress and the White House for the first time in 20 years; Wilson's First Inaugural Address (first to be delivered to both houses of Congress in person) promises an end to tariffs, and offers a vision of a progressive nat. govt. that breaks up concentrated financial power (the New Freedom), causing the progressive Repubs. to back his Dem. Congress in a raft of new legislation; "Nowhere else in the world have noble men and women exhibited in more striking forms the beauty and the energy of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their efforts to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering, and set the weak in the way of strength and hope"; Wilson prohibits inaugural balls: he repudiates Taft's dollar diplomacy in China; he discontinues the tradition of inaugural balls this year and again in 1917; First Lady is Ellen Louise Axson Wilson (1860-1914) (dies Aug. 6, 1914); Taft, saying "I'm glad to be going" returns to Yale U. to teach law; on Mar. 5 Pres. Wilson appoints atty. (vice-chancellor of N.J. from 1904) Lindley Miller Garrison (1864-1932) as U.S. war secy. #46 (until Feb. 10, 1916); on Mar. 6 he appoints Calif. conservationist atty. Franklin Knight Lane (1864-1921) as U.S. interior secy. #26 (until Mar. 1, 1920) (a payoff for passing the U.S. Paul Raker Act this year, creating the Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite Nat. Park against opposition by the Sierra Club to provide greedy San Francisco with a water supply?), William Gibbs McAdoo (1863-1941) (pres. of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Co., which built the first underwater railway tunnels between Manhattan and N.J. in 1908) as treasury secy. #46 (until Dec. 15, 1918), David Franklin Houston (1866-1940) as U.S. agriculture secy. #5 (until Feb. 2, 1920), publisher Walter Hines Page (1855-1918) (partner of Frank N. Doubleday) as U.S. ambassador to Britain (until 1918), "Old South" novelist Thomas Nelson Page (1853-1922) as U.S. ambassador to Italy (until 1919), and German-born Jewish atty. Henry Morgenthau Sr. (1856-1946) as U.S. ambassador to Turkey (until 1916), who goes on to unsuccessfully lobby the sultan to stop the Armenian Genocide; on Mar. 17 after his cousin Theodore Roosevelt's splitting of the Repubs. paves the way for him, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is given Theodore's old job of asst. secy. of the Navy (until Aug. 26, 1920); during the Great War Wilson grazes sheep on the White House Lawn. On Mar. 4 Roane County, Tenn.-born, Windom, Tex.-raised Dem. schoolteacher Samuel Taliaferro "Sam" Rayburn (1882-1961) becomes U.S. Rep. from the 4th district of Tex. (until Nov. 16, 1961), going on to become House majority leader on Jan. 3, 1937-Sept. 16, 1940, House dean #37 on Jan. 3, 1953, and House Speaker #43 on Jan. 3, 1955 (until Nov. 16, 1961), becoming the longest-serving House Speaker (until ?).
On Aug. 4, 1914 - Nov. 11, 1918 the horrific World War I causes 15M deaths and 39M military casualties. and destroys the Old Order of white formerly Christian Europe. On Feb. 26-28, 1915 the Germans first use a Flamethrower (Flame Projector) in the village of Douaumont, France near Verdun, becoming the first of 653 flamethrower attacks in the war. On Apr. 1, 1915 French aviator Roland Garros (1888-1918) becomes the first pilot to shoot down an aircraft using a deflector gear, which allows shooting through the propeller; after more Vs against German aircraft on Apr. 15 and Apr. 18, he is shot down and the Germans capture his plane, after which Dutch designer Anthony (Anton Herman Gerard) Fokker (1890-1939) clones then improves the deflector gear into the synchronization (interrupter) gear, mounting them on the new Fokker E.I. in Aug., beginning the Fokker Scourge (Scare) as they shoot down nearly every enemy aircraft they encounter and generate the first German aces, incl. Max Immelmann (1890-1916); next year the French counter with the Nieuport 11 Bebe (Bébé), in which the gun is mounted on the top wing clear of the prop, and the British with the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b and Airco DH.2 (Feb. 1916), which mount the engine backwards with the prop in back, causing them to be called "pushers", ending the Fokker Scourge by spring 1917. In 1915 arsenic-based vomiting-sneeze gas Adamsite (DM) (diphenylaminechlorarsine) is synthesized by German chemist Heinrich Otto Wieland (1877-1957); in 1918 Am chemist Roger Adams (1889-1971) duplicates it, and both sides stockpile it, but it is allegedly never used on the battlefield. On Mar. 22, 1916 the British have their first success with their new Depth Charge off the SW coast of Ireland, destroying a German U-boat. Are you used to Hell yet, try this? On Sept. 15, 1916 Winston Churchill's pet project the Tank (Russian Water Closet) (Char-Schneider) is first used by the Brits in the Somme.
In 1914 houses of prostitution are banned in Washington, D.C. - making them more popular?
In 1914 Booz Allen Hamilton mgt. consulting firm is founded in Washington, D.C. by Edwin G. Booz; in 1940 it is hired by the U.S. Navy to help with WWI preparations, growing into the #1 private U.S. spy firm, with employees incl. Mike McConnell, James R. Clapper Jr., and Edward Snowden.
On July 2, 1915 after getting pissed-off at private sales of U.S. munitions to the Allies, German-born Cornell U. instructor Erich Muenter plants a bomb that destroys the U.S. Senate reception room, then on July 3 shoots J. Pierpoint Morgan Jr., then commits suicide on July 6.
In 1915 after Stanford U. dismisses economic prof. Edward Alsworth Roth over criticism of the Southern Pacific Railroad for hiring Chinese laborers, the Am. Assoc. of Univ. Professors s founded in Washington, D.C. by John Dewey and Arthur O. Lovejoy to promote academic freedom, reaching 47K members on 500 U.S. campuses by 2017.
In 1917-18 the pop. of Washington, D.C. zooms from 350K to 450K, causing a severe housing shortage; the Mall is turned into a parking lot.
On May 14, 1918 Sun. baseball becomes legal in Washington, D.C.
On May 15, 1918 after intermittent experiments since 1911, the U.S. Post Office Dept. officially establishes its U.S. Airmail Service, with flights between Washington D.C. and New York City (later Philly); one round/day except Sun.
On Aug. 6, 1918 the city of Washington, D.C. records its highest temperature of 106F (41C), which is matched on July 20, 1930 (until ?).
On Oct. 22, 1918 the cities of Baltimore, Md. and Washington, D.C. run out of coffins due to the Spanish Influenza epidemic.
On June 2, 1919 coordinated bombings in Washington, D.C. and six other cities are staged by militant followers of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani (1861-1931) as part of a campaign that killed several people incl. an anarchist with eight bombs this month; in June Galleani is deported back to Italy, which doesn't stop his followers (Galleanists) from carrying out the Sept. 16, 1920 Wall St. bombing that kills 38.
On July 19-24, 1919 after two black men "jostle" white Elsie Stephnick on 15th St., NW and New York Ave., the 1919 Washington Race Riot in Washington, D.C. kills six and injures 100.
On Sept. 17, 1919 a military parade up Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. salutes U.S. Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing and his troops returning from WWI.
The Teapot Dome President? On Mar. 4, 1921 (Fri.) Blooming Grove, Ohio-born Repub. Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) ("President Hardly") ("Wobbly Warren") becomes the 29th U.S. pres. (until Aug. 2, 1923) in the 39th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. , becoming the first in which an automobile is used to transport the outgoing pres. and new pres. to/from the Capitol (first pres. to ride in a car at his inauguration, and to drive himself); first U.S. pres. elected with female suffrage; first incumbent U.S. Sen. and first newspaper publisher to become U.S. pres.; John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (1872-1933) becomes the 29th U.S. vice-pres. (until Aug. 2, 1923); Woodrow Wilson leaves the White House for his home on S Street; Harding holds a child welfare ball instead of an inaugural ball; a newspaperman who loves reporters, he restores the biweekly White House meetings scrapped by press-hating Pres. Wilson; First Lady Florence Mabel "Flossie" Kling De Wolfe Harding (1860-1924) (first coed college grad) is the wealthy daughter of the richest man in Marion, Ohio (who politically backs her hubby); Pres. Harding's Inaugural Address contains the soundbyte: "The recorded progress of our republic, materially and spiritually, in itself proves the wisdom of the inherited policy of noninvolvement in Old World affairs. Confident of our ability to work out our own destiny, and jealously guarding our right to do so, we seek no part in directing the destinies of the Old World. We do not mean to be entangled... The America builded on the foundation laid by the inspired fathers, can be a party to no permanent military alliance. It can enter into no political commitments, nor assume any economic obligations which will subject our decisions to any other than our own authority"; Harding appoints Welsh-born Moose Lodge head and former steel mill worker James John "Puddler Jim" Davis (Davies) (1873-1947) as U.S. labor secy. #2 (until Nov. 30, 1930), who goes on to work to restrict immigration, establish the U.S. Border Patrol, and survive three presidents (until 1930); on Mar. 4 millionaire financier Andrew William Mellon (1855-1937) becomes U.S. treasury secy. #49 (until Feb. 12, 1932), lasting for three presidents (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover); on Mar. 5 Charles Evans Hughes Sr. (1862-1948), close loser of the 1916 U.S. Pres. Election becomes U.S. secy. of state #44 (until Mar. 4, 1925), convening the Conference on the Limitation of Armament in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 12 (until Feb. 6, 1922); on Mar. 5 mining engineer Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) becomes U.S. commerce secy. #3 (until Aug. 21, 1928); former U.S. ambassador to France (1912-14) Myron Timothy Herrick (1854-1929) is reappointed (until 1929), just in time to greet Lucky Lindbergh; Harding fights the 1920 recession by cutting federal spending in half, cutting federal taxes by a third, and paying off debt.
On Jan. 27-28, 1922 the Knickerbocker Blizzard (Storm) in the upper South and mid-Alantic U.S. dumps 20+ in. of snow and causes the flat-roofed Knickerbocker Theatre movie house in Washington, D.C. (founded 1917) to collapse on Jan. 28 (9:00 p.m.), killing 98 incl. ex-Congressman Andrew Jackson Barchfield and injuring 133, becoming the biggest snowstorm in Washington, D.C. since the Washington-Jefferson Storm of Jan. 1772; Congress is adjourned during the storm; architect Reginald Geare commits suicide in 1927, followed in 1937 by owner Harry Crandall.
The final shrine to White is Right in America? On Feb. 12, 1922 (Pres. Abraham Lincoln's birthday) the $3M Lincoln Memorial in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. is dedicated, designed by Watseka, Ill.-born architect Henry Bacon (1866-1924), with the seated statue of Lincoln designed in 1920 by Exeter, N.H.-born sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, with interior murals painted by St. Louis, Mo.-born Jules Vallee Guerin (Jules Vallée Guérin) (1866-1946); poet Edwin Markham reads his poem Lincoln, the Man of the People, containing the soundbyte: "Into the shape she breathed a flame to light/ That tender, tragic, ever-changing face./ Here was a man to hold against the world,/ A man to match the mountains and the sea"; chief justice William H. Taft dedicates it again on May 30; the bldg. is of marble, granite, and limestone (all white), and there are 36 Doric pillars representing the 36 states in the Union in 1865; the white marble statue of Lincoln is designed by Daniel Chester French, and behind it are the words "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever"; the S wall decorations depict the Emancipation of the Black Race, with subordinate groups representing Civilization and Progress; the N wall represents Reunion and Progress in the Arts and Sciences; other walls contain the Gettysburg Speech and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address; the 2,029 ft. x 167 ft. Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is designed by Henry Bacon.
I can't stand the suspense, shoot me? In June 1923 Pres. Harding goes on a nat. speaking tour to assure the people that he isn't a crook?; Jess Smith (b. 1872), an aide working for U.S. atty.-gen. Harry M. Daugherty, known for showing off huge sums of money that he "earned" by corruption is found shot one morning in the left temple, his head in a waste basket and a pistol in his right (wrong, since he's a leftie?) hand; the pistol disappears and the body is buried without an autopsy; on Aug. 2 (eve.) after returning from Alaska (first pres. to visit it), where he drives the first (golden) spike in a railroad in Nenana, Pres. (since Mar. 4, 1921) Warren G. Harding (b. 1865) dies unexpectedly of a heart attack ("apoplexy") in a San Francisco, Calif. hotel, becoming the 5th straight victim of the Zero-Year Pres. Curse after W.H. Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley; his body is returned to Washington, D.C. on a funeral train greeted by 9M; no autopsy is performed; did Harding's wife "The Duchess" have him poisoned to avoid the disgrace of an imminent impeachment?
Silent Cal presides over a contented U.S.? On Aug. 3, 1923 (Fri.) (early a.m.) after the death of Pres. Harding the previous evening, Vt.-born storekeeper's son (Amherst College grad.) (former Boston mayor and Mass. gov.) (one of three mayors to become U.S. pres.), reserved, publicly noncommittal Vt. farmboy "Silent Cal" (high nasal voice) John Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) becomes the 30th U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1929) in the 40th U.S. Pres. Inauguration at the Coolidge homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vt.; his storekeeper daddy swears him in; his old-fashioned homespun look-feel rescues the stinking presidency, even though his gung-ho capitalism and famous soundbyte "The chief business of America is business" gives a blank check to crooks?; his inaugural address starts out: "No one can contemplate current conditions without finding much that is satisfying and still more that is encouraging. Our own country is leading the world in the general readjustment to the results of the great conflict. Many of its burdens will bear heavily upon us for years, and the secondary and indirect effects we must expect to experience for some time. But we are beginning to comprehend more definitely what course should be pursued, what remedies ought to be applied, what actions should be taken for our deliverance, and are clearly manifesting a determined will faithfully and conscientiously to adopt these methods of relief. Already we have sufficiently rearranged our domestic affairs so that confidence has returned, business has revived, and we appear to be entering an era of prosperity which is gradually reaching into every part of the nation. Realizing that we can not live unto ourselves alone, we have contributed of our resources and our counsel to the relief of the suffering and the settlement of the disputes among the European nations. Because of what America is and what America has done, a firmer courage, a higher hope, inspires the heart of all humanity"; gives 520 press conferences (most by a U.S. pres. until ?); first U.S. pres. to appear on a sound film (Aug. 11, 1924); in 1926 he becomes the first U.S. pres. to have his portrait on a coin during his lifetime (until ?), the Sesquicentennial of Am. Independence Half Dollar (1M coins struck at the Philly Mint); his act is carefully shaped by PR men Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886-1967) and "the Father of PR" Edward Louis James Bernays (1891-1995), who use newsreels and radio to portray him as that's no lie this is what you get gee ain't he cute and doesn't say much; First Lady Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge (1879-1957) (married 1905) was a teacher at the Clarke Inst. for the Deaf in Northampton, Mass. (perfect match?); he holds twice-weekly press conferences, silent or not; he keeps a mechanical horse in his White House dressing room for exercise, and gambles away a set of china from Benjamin Harrison's admin. at a White House poker game.
On Dec. 24, 1923 after First Lady Grace Coolidge persuades her husband to implement a plan of students from Washington, D.C. to put up a lighted Nat. Christmas Tree on the Ellipse near the White House, he throws the switch for the unveiling ceremony, which becomes an annual tradition called the Nat. Tree Lighting; Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first to make formal remarks during the ceremony; in 1954 the event marks the start of the mo.-long Pageant of Peace, with the Pathway to Peace composed of smaller trees representing the U.S. states, District of Columbia, and five territories; the ceremony is not held in 1942-4 due to WWII; the sources of the Nat. Christmas Tree vary each year, with cut evergreen trees used in 1923 and 1954-72, and living trees from 1924-53, and 1973-present.
On Mar. 4, 1925 U.S. pres. #35 (since Aug. 2, 1923) Calvin Coolidge is inaugurated for his 2nd term in the 41st U.S. pres. inauguration in the Eastern Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. which is broadcast live on 21 radio stations coast-to-coast, becoming the first inauguration oath administered by a former U.S. pres. (William Howard Taft); Marietta, Ohio-born banker Charles Gates Dawes (1865-1951) becomes the 30th U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1929).
On Aug. 8, 1925 the first Nat. Congress of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) opens; 25K-50K of 3M members march in Washington, D.C. demanding immigration restrictions based on race and national origin.
In 1925 the W section of Constitution Ave. (originally B St.) in Washington, D.C. begins a lengthening-widening process (ends 1933), receiving the new name on Feb. 26, 1931, forming the N border of the U.S. Nat. Mall and eventually running from the U.S. Capitol to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge to the W, and Capitol Hill, Kingman Park, and Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium on the E.
In 1928 Turkish-born Armenian-Am. architect Mihran Mesrobian (1889-1975) designs the Italian Renaissance-style Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C. based on the adjoining houses of John Hay and Henry Adams facing Lafayette Square.
Why do engineers always overmanage the economy and muck it up? On Mar. 4, 1929 (Mon.) West Branch, Iowa-born self-made well-traveled (China, Australia, Belgium) Quaker mining engineer (#1 U.S. political figure of the 1920s) Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964), "the Great Engineer", "the Great Humanitarian", "Herbie", ""the Hermit Author of Palo Alto", "the Chief", "the Grand Old Man", "Hoo-Yah", "Really Damn" (the last two picked up in China) becomes the 31st U.S. pres. (until Mar. 4, 1933) (first Quaker) (2nd elected without previous electoral experience or high military rank after Taft) (last cabinet secy. until ?) (2nd lefty pres. - 1st Garfield, next Truman) (first pres. born W of the Mississippi River) (first pres. with a telephone on his Oval Office desk, and first to hire an exec. staff) (workaholic with a prof. business style and strong work ethic, whose lack of charisma and lackluster speeches fail to inspire public confidence during the Depression) in the 42nd U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., with ex-pres. William H. Taft administering the oath of office (first recorded by sound newsreels) (2nd time that a former U.S. pres. administers the oath of office to a new U.S. pres.) Topeka, Kan.-born Charles Curtis (1860-1936) becomes the 31st U.S. vice-pres. (until Mar. 4, 1933); the first pres. to have a phone on his desk rather than on the wall in the hall; refuses to accept a salary as pres.; pet is King Tut (police dog); one of three U.S. presidents who live at least 30 years after taking office (Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford); First Lady is Louisia Henry "Lou" Hoover (1874-1944), a Stanford-educated geologist who met her hubby at Stanford U., and who likes to converse with him in Chinese to avoid being overheard; journalist George Edward Akerson (1889-1937) becomes the first-ever White House press secy. (until 1931); on Mar. 28 Henry Lewis Stimson (1867-1950) becomes secy. of state (until Mar. 4, 1933); former Choctaw Nation atty. Maj. Gen. Patrick Jay Hurley (1883-1963) becomes secy. of war (until 1933); Charles Francis "Deacon" Adams III (1866-1954), a prominent Repub. Party member and great-grandson of John Quincy Adams becomes secy. of the Navy (until 1933); Hooverball, a combo of volleyball and tennis using a 6-lb. medicine ball is born on the White House Lawn to keep Hoover fit, perfected by White House physician vice-adm. Joel Thompson Boone (1889-1974).
In May-June 1932 the 45K-man Bonus Army (Expeditionary Force) of WWI servicemen marches on Washington, D.C. demanding early payment of bonus certificates they aren't scheduled to receive until 1945 under the 1924 World War Adjusted Compensaction Act; after the bill is defeated in the U.S. Senate and the govt. offers to pay their expenses to return home and is rebuffed, Pres. Hoover orders federal troops to evict the last 2K from federal property, a job which Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) does with a little too much relish on July 28, costing Hoover politically, after which Congress passes several bonus bills that are vetoed by him and FDR until 1936; Gen. Smedley Butler later claims the existence of the Business Plot in July 1934, in which two wealthy industrialists offer him $30M and 500K troops along with support of the mainstream media to lead a coup against FDR and remove him from office in favor of a fascist regime, after which he testifies before the House of Reps, and the McCormack-Dickstein Committee backs him up, but no surprise, the mainstream media slams him, with the New York Times calling Butler's story "a gigantic hoax", after which FDR cuts a deal with the plotters.
In 1935 the $10M U.S. Dept. of Justice Bldg. at 950 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. in Washington, D.C. opens, located N of the Nat. Mall between the IRS Bldg. to the W and the Nat. Archives Bldg. to the E; in 2001 it is renamed after U.S. atty. gen. #64 Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1935 the Nat. Archives Bldg. at 700 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. in Washington, D.C. opens; in 1952 they begin displaying the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights to the public in the Rotunda.
In 1935 the U.S. Supreme Court Bldg. at 1 First St. N.E. in Washington, D.C. one block E of the U.S. Capitol is completed, designed by Cass Gilbert (1859-1934), with classical lines and small size, contrasting with the large modernist Federal bldgs. on the Nat. Mall; on May 4, 1987 it is designated a nat. historic landmark.
In 1936 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Bldg. at 12th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. opens, designed by architect Louis A. Simon (1867-1958).
On Mar. 24, 1937 the U.S. Congress founds the Nat. Gallery of Art at 4th St. and Constitution Ave. N.W. in Washington, D.C., endowed by Pittsburgh banker Andrew William Mellon (1855-1937) in his will, concentrating on Western art, becoming known for its Sculpture Garden.
On Jan. 7, 1939 African-Am. singer Marian Anderson (1897-1993) becomes the first African-Am. to sing at the Met as Ulrica in Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera"; in Feb. she is banned from singing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. because of her skin color by the lily-white Daughters of the Am. Rev. (DAR); a protest group led by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (who resigns) arranges for a separate concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Apr. 9 (Easter Sun.) for an audience of 75K - singing the death knell to a pure white world?
On Sept. 1, 1939 - Sept. 2, 1945 the horrific $3.5T World War II results in 24M military and 49M civilian deaths, and features the low point of the Jewish Holocaust (Shoah) by the German Nazis - I guess it was the Jews' fault for not ransoming themselves to go to Israel before they could round them up for the camps? The whole experience turns Jews from lovers into fighters, ramping up the Zionist movement with full world sympathy and support by new world superpower U.S., which has its own guilt trip because on Nov. 24, 1942 Budapest-born Am. Zionist leader Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise (1874-1949) announces in a press conference in Washington, D.C. that he was authorized by the U.S. State Dept. to confirm that the Nazis had murdered 2M Jews as part of a plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe; too bad, the nat. newspapers don't consider it front page news, and the U.S. govt. does nada. After the war ends and Americans tour the concentration camps in horror, Polish-born Jewish scholar Raphael Lemkin (1900-59), who single-handedly led an unsuccessful campaign to get the League of Nations to give internat. protections against genocide starting in 1933 finally gets what he wanted after his own people got it, namely the Dec. 9, 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Gen. Assembly Resolution 260), which doesn't come in force until Jan. 12, 1951, and which the U.S. still doesn't ratify until 1988.
On June 16, 1941 Washington Nat. Airport on the W bank of the Potomac River S of the 14th St./I-395 Bridge near Crystal City in Arlington, Va. 5 mi. S of downtown Washington, D.C. opens, becoming the nearest and 2nd largest D.C. airport after Dulles Internat. Airport 30 mi. to the W; on July 1 the airport's weather station becomes the official weather observation station for the Nat. Weather Service in Washington, D.C.; in 1998 the name is changed to Ronald Reagan Washington Nat. Airport.
9/11, Pentagon, naw? On Sept. 11, 1941 ground is broken for the 6.6M sq. ft. 5-floor Pentagon in Arlington County, Va. near Washington, D.C. on Hell's Bottom, an abandoned railyard, designed by architects George Edwin Bergstrom (1876-1955) and David J. Witmer (1888-1973), and supervised by Gen. Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (1896-1970), who later heads the Manhattan Project; it has five ring corridors per floor with a total length of 17.5 mi., housing 23K+ employees, surrounding a 5-acre plaza called Ground Zero; it is dedicated on Jan. 15, 1943; before this, war was managed from 17 different locations around Washington, D.C., then consolidated in Foggy Bottom (between Penn. Ave. and Constitution Ave.) (built on a swamp known for its vapors), which was too small and ends up as the HQ of the State Dept.; FDR ordered the building of a temporary structure for the duration of the war, but the generals secretly appealed to Virginia's Congressional delegation for permanent funds - guess what happens exactly 60 years later?
On Oct. 6, 1943 the Rabbis' March, led by Russian-born Zionist Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook) (1915-2001) (nephew of the chief rabbi of the Palestine mandate) sees 400-500 Orthodox rabbis march in Washington, D.C. demanding that the U.S. govt. help the Jews in Europe, which only pisses-off FDR, who sneaks out the back of the White House and snubs them, causing them to stand in front and read their petition to his secy. Marvin McIntyre, after which FDR sics the FBI and IRS on them, who grudgingly give them a clean bill of health.
On Apr. 25, 1944 the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is founded in Washington, D.C. by Tuskegee U. pres. (1935-53) Frederick Douglass Patterson (1901-88), Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) et al.; by 2005 it supports 65K students in 900 educational institutions with $113M in grants and scholarships.
In 1946 the Nat. Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Inst. is founded in Washington, D.C. - see Charles Lindbergh's plane hanging on wires?
On July 4, 1947 the annual 4th of July ceremony at the monument grounds in Washington, D.C. is televised for the first time.
In 1950 world pop.: 2.52B; Africa: 221M; Asia: 1.398B, Europe: 547M; Latin Am.: 167M; North Am.: 171.6M; Oceania: 12.8M; the Seventeenth (17th) (1950) U.S. Census reports the total pop. as 150,697,361 (14.5% increase) in a land area of 2,974,726 sq. mi. (50.7 per sq. mi) (3rd time that total U.S. land area is less than in a previous census); white pop. is 89.5%, an all-time max., and now it's downhill all the way?; pop. of ever-growing Washington, D.C.: 800K (1.5M in metro area) (blacks become a majority of the city's pop. in this decade, with almost all of those moving to the suburbs being white until the late 1960s); the U.S. contains 6% of the world's pop., but has 50% of its wealth, incl. 60% of the cars, 58% of the telephones, 48% of the radio sets, and 34% of the railroads; 1,768 U.S. newspapers pub. 59M copies daily.
In spring 1950 a bear cub nicknamed Smokey Bear (1950-75) is discovered in the burnt-out Lincoln Nat. forest in New Mexico's El Capitan Mts. clinging to the top of a small tree, and the U.S. Forest Service adopts him as their fire-prevention program symbol, with the motto, "Only you can prevent forest fires", using the voice of Jackson Weaver (1920-92) (until 1976); the 1952 song Smokey the Bear by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins adds "the" for rhyming purposes, causing endless confusion; the real bear is put in the Nat. Zoo in Washington, D.C. until retirement in 1975 at age 70 (in human years); his mate at the zoo is Goldie, but no cubs are born as he is a real gay bear; he is given his own personal zip code, 20252.
On June 24, 1950 Pres. Truman dedicates Friendship Internat. Airport, serving Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; in 1973 it is renamed Baltimore/Washington Internat. Airport; on Oct. 1, 2005 it is renamed Baltimore/Washington Internat. Thurgood Marshall Airport.
On Oct. 30, 1950 the nationalist Jayuya Uprising (Revolt) in Puerto Rico against the U.S. is quashed; on Nov. 1 while staying in the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs, Pres. Truman is the target of an assassination attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar Collazo (1914-94) and Griselio Torresola (b. 1925) (followers of Harvard-educated nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos), who is killed in a 38.5-sec. gunfight at the gates of the White House by Secret Service agents after they almost succeed in doing the job?
On May 24, 1951 racial segregation in restaurants in Washington, D.C. is ruled illegal.
On July 19-29, 1952 the Washington, D.C. UFO Invasion (Washington Flap) (Washington Nat. Airport UFO Sightings) sees a wave of UFO reports over two consecutive weekends, gaining headlines across the U.S. and becoming "the climax of the 1952 [UFO] flap... Never before or after did Project Blue Book and the Air Force undergo such a tidal wave of (UFO) reports" (Curtis Peebles); in Jan. 1953 as a result of the publicity and a CIA recommendation, the secret Robertson Panel, headed by Am. mathematician-physicist Howard Percy "Bob" Robertson (1903-61) meets, concluding that UFOs are not a direct threat to nat. security, but the reports could pose an indirect threat by overwhelming military communications, recommending a public education campaign; the panel's report is later contained in the internal CIA Durant Report by F.C. Durant of Jan. 14-18, 1953; the reports are later unclassified.
On ?, 1952 the first black Miss District of Columbia USA pageant is held in Washington, D.C. in parallel with the white Miss District of Columbia pageant (founded 1921).
The general who later warns of the grate powah of the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex Tribe oughta know, since he packs his cabinet with its chiefs? On Jan. 20, 1953 bridge-playing Repub. 5-star gen. Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) becomes the 34th U.S. pres. (until Jan. 20, 1961) in the 49th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C.; anti-Commie poker-playing Quaker Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-94) becomes the 36th U.S. vice-pres. (youngest so far); Ike becomes the first pres. in the 20th. cent. without a double letter in his name, unless you count initials; the first U.S. pres. to ride in a helicopter; the inaug. theme (first-ever?) is "Crusade in America"; Second Lady is Thelma Catherine Patricia "Pat" Ryan Nixon (1912-93) (Secret Service codename: Starlight) (a smoker); the Nixons have a pet cocker spaniel named Checkers (1952-64), who woulda been First Dog if he lived until 1969; the inaugural parade is the most elaborate ever held (until ?), with 22K service men-women and 5K civilians in the parade, which incl. 50 state floats costing $100K, along with 65 bands, 350 horses, 3 elephants, an Alaskan dog team, and the new Atomic Annie atomic cannon, plus a 642-plane flyover; First Lady is Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower (1896-1979) (Secret Service codeword: Springtime), who brings pink back with her fashion tastes; Aaron Copland's 1942 "A Lincoln Portrait" is withdrawn from the inaugural concert because of his alleged Communist connections; Ike's favorite books are Zane Grey Westerns, since he once considered working as a cowboy in Argentina; his Jehovah's Witnesses background is covered-up?; the unnamed balcony on the White House South Lawn becomes Truman's legacy; he renames Camp Shangri-La to Camp David in honor of his grandson Dwight David Eisenhower II; Robert A. Taft of Ohio becomes Senate majority leader, but in June has to give it up because of cancer, and dies on July 31; Ike appoints GM pres. (since 1941) Charles Erwin "Engine Charlie" Wilson (1890-1961) as U.S. defense secy. #5 (until Oct. 8, 1957) (known for the soundbyte: "What's good for General Motors is good for the country", and for telling the U.S. in 1944 that it needs a "permanent war economy"), M.A. Hanna steel manufacturing firm pres. George Magoffin Humphrey (1890-1970) as U.S. treasury secy. #55 (until July 29, 1957) (takes a pay cut from $300K to $22.5K), John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) as U.S. secy. of state #52 (until Apr. 22, 1959) (becoming known for his policy of brinkmanship, holding the nuclear club over other countries' heads), labor leader Martin Patrick Durkin (1894-1955) (a Dem.) as U.S. labor secy. #7 (who resigns on Sept. 10 and goes back to being pres. of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Union of the U.S. and Canada), Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994) of Utah (a Mormon Quorum of the Twelve member, who becomes LDS pres. #13 on Nov. 10, 1985) as U.S. agriculture secy. #15 (until Jan. 20, 1961) (starting the custom of beginning cabinet meetings with prayer and calling govt. price supports and other aid to farmers unvarnished Socialism), and James Douglas McKay (1893-1959) as U.S. interior secy. (until 1956); Mormon Ivy Baker Priest (1905-75) (mother of Pat Priest of The Munsters fame) becomes U.S. treasurer #30 (until Jan. 29, 1961); a few days before his retirement date comes up, Arthur Joseph Altmeyer's office of commissioner for social security (since 1937) is abolished in favor of a new commissioner of social security, causing a public outcry, but in a delicious gotchya, Altmeyer refuses the offer of a 1-mo. job with no responsibilities; Kan. Repub. Sen. (1950-69) Frank Carlson (1893-1987) (a buddy of Ike) brokers a deal through Ohio Sen. Robert Taft to become Senate majority leader, and organizes the first pres. prayer breakfast, going on to coin the phrase "worldwide spiritual offensive" in 1955 for Christian evangelicals fighting the Commies.
On Mar. 1, 1954 four Puerto Rican nationalists attack the House of Reps chamber in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., shooting 30 rounds from semi-auto. pistols from the Ladies' Gallery into the floor of the occupied House chamber after unfurling a Puerto Rican flag, shooting five U.S. reps., all of whom survive; after their death sentences are commuted by Pres. Ike, they are given 70-year min. sentences.
Let's skip the genealogies and go straight to the war? The greatest moment in Supreme Court history since the Dredd Scott decision of 1857, and the beginning of the Second Reconstruction of the Am. South (first in 1867)? On May 17, 1954 the U.S. Supreme (Warren) Court rules unanimously in Bolling v. Sharpe to desegregate the public schools of Washington, D.C.; meanwhile on May 17 after hearing arguments by NAACP counsel Thurgood Marshall (1908-93), the U.S. Supreme (Earl Warren) Court (which incl. three Southerners) rules unanimously 9-0 in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that "separate but equal" public schools are inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional, citing the 14th Amendment to reverse the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, and ending "the long habit of deception and evasion" (Ralph Ellison); assoc. justice Robert Jackson leaves the hospital (heart attack) to be present; chief justice Earl Warren (in office for 6 mo.) begins at 12:52 p.m. and meanders until 1:20 without indicating the decision made (no advance copies given to the press), then says: "To separate [black kids] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way never to be done... We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal"; the term "integration" is never used; the Court then says it will withhold compliance instructions until its fall term, when all sides are to prepare arguments on whether the federal district courts or a special master (sorry, crackers?) should be in charge; 17 states and the District of Columbia require school segregation by law, and four other states permit it, affecting 12M school children; Ga. and S.C. go especially bonkers; 1924 Dem. vice-pres. candidate John William Davis (1873-1955), known for arguing the most (140) cases before the U.S. Supreme Court loses his last one trying to defend S.C.'s public school segregation laws; a Gallup poll following the decision finds that over half the country approves; Pres. Eisenhower repents his decision to appoint Warren to the court, saying it's "the biggest damnfool mistake I ever made", and adds "The fellow who tries to tell me that you can do these things by force is just plain nuts", but obeys the court and immediately desegregates all District of Columbia schools on Sept. 7, and goes further, ending segregation on all Navy bases; in Jan. 1953 he had already appointed Bostonian Lois H. Lippman (-1999) as the first black member of the White House secretarial staff, along with E. Frederic Morrow (1906-94) as his admin. asst., becoming the first black to hold an executive position at the White House; the whole thing was started in 1950 by black Topeka, Kan. schoolteacher Lucinda Wilson "Cindy" Todd (1903-96), who was angry because her daughter Nancy Jane Todd (b. 1941) couldn't play in a school concert, and by Oliver L. Brown, who wanted his 9-y.-o. daughter Linda Brown (b. 1943) to attend white Sumner Elementary School in Topeka; the nine justices are Warren, Douglas, Black, Frankfurter, Jackson, Clark, Minton, Burton, and Reed; by 1964 less than 10% of Southern black students attend white schools; Cleveland, Miss. starts a court battle that lasts until May 16, 2016.
On May 17, 1957 (3rd anniv. of Brown v. Board of Education) the 3-hour Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is attended by 25K, and features Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his Give Us the Ballot Speech, establishing King as the "No. 1 leader of 16 million Negroes." (James L. Hicks)
On June 28, 1957 Pres. Eisenhower dedicates the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. at 2551 Mass. Ave., N.W. on Embassy Row, build by the Washington Mosque Foundation, whose members incl. reps from every Islamic nation on Earth with the soundbyte: "America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience. This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are... As I stand beneath these graceful arches, surrounded on every side by friends from far and near, I am convinced that our common goals are both right and promising. Faithful to the demands of justice and of brotherhood, each working according to the lights of his own conscience, our world must advance along the paths of peace"; it goes on to convert 14K to Islam by 2019 - Islamic infiltration of the U.S. begins?
In 1957 after a mass exodus of whites since the end of WWII and the Korean War combined with mass black immigration, the city of Washington, D.C. becomes the first major U.S. city with a majority African-Am. pop., with 372K whites and 372K blacks (744K total).
Virginia is for lovers, call 1-800-law-help? In June 1958 Central Point (near Richmond), Va. white man Richard Perry Loving (1933-75) and black-Amerindian Va. woman Mildred Delores "Bean" Jeter (1939-2008), who met seven years earlier and fell in love, resulting in her becoming pregnant, drive 80 mi. to Washington, D.C. and get married, only to be arrested in bed and charged with illegal cohabitation under the 1924 Va. Racial Integrity Act, convicted, then given a 1-year 1959 jail sentence, which they avoid by agreeing to leave the state for 25 years, but get around the stupid redneck wording of the agreement ("both accused leave Caroline County and the State of Virginia at once, and do not return together or at the same time to said county and state for a period of 25 years") by riding back in separate cars (should have said don't return separately or together, or reside together at the same time in said county or state, but the racially superior whiteys popped a head gasket?); they then write to U.S. atty.-gen. Robert F. Kennedy, who refers them to the ACLU, and anti-miscegenation (mixed-race marriage) laws are put on their hit list, with Jewish atty. Bernard S. Cohen filing a motion to vacate the sentence, only to see the courts show themselves up as frauds run by puppetmasters by failing to even respond, which just makes him madder, and after the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, he gets it taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court as a test case, and they strike down anti-miscegenation laws as unconstitutional on June 12, 1967 (6/6+6/7), causing it to be known as Loving Day; too bad, a drunk driver hits their car in 1975, killing Richard and costing Mildred her right eye. 6/6+6/67 and 6/7+6/7 are Thoroughly Good Black-White Love Days at the U.S. Zoo? Open season for black bucks to go after white wimmen? On June 12, 1967 ("Loving Day") the U.S. Supreme (Warren) Case rules unanimously in Loving v. Virginia; to strike down the 1924 Va. Racial Integrity Act, along with all 16 state laws against "miscegenation" (interracial marriage) (mistaken generation?), legalizing the June 1958 marriage of Mildred Delores "Bean" Loving (nee Jeter) (1939-2008) (black-Am. Indian) and Richard Perry Loving (1933-75) (white) in Washington, D.C.; no surprise, after a decade of civil rights action and ongoing black race riots it causes little public criticism by whites, although S.C. doesn't officially repeal its anti-miscegenation law until 1999; meanwhile on Mar. 17 African-Am. aspiring novelist Alice Walker (1944-) marries Jewish civil rights atty. Melvyn Roseman "Mel" Leventhal, and relocates with him from New York City to Jackson, Miss. to stick it in their faces as the state's first legally married interracial couple; on Nov. 17 1969 (17 mo. after MLK Jr. is shot) they have biracial daughter Rebecca Leventhal Walker (1969-); they divorce in 1976, after which Alice becomes estranged with her daughter, becomes lovers with singer Tracy Chapman, and becomes a supporter of the Palestinian cause.
On July 4, 1959 Pres. Eisenhower gives a speech and lays the third cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. as the 49-star U.S. flag (incl. Alaska) waves for the first time.
On June 16, 1960 the XXIII (23rd) amendment to the U.S. Constitution is sent to the states to be ratified by the 86th Congress. On Mar. 29, 1961 the Twenty-Third (23rd) (XXIII) Amendment is ratified, allowing the mainly black residents of the District of Columbia to appoint pres. electors and vote in U.S. pres. elections, starting in 1964, when it has three electoral votes, all of which but one go for the Dem. candidate until ?
Monday morning couldn't guarantee what? On Jan. 17, 1961 (Tues.) outgoing U.S. Pres. Eisenhower delivers Ike's Farewell Address from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., which is broadcast live on radio and TV, coining the phrase "Military-Industrial Complex" (MIC), with the soundbytes: "I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight. Happily, I can say that war has been avoided", and that the Cold War is a "prolonged and complex struggle with liberty at stake"; He then throws conspiracy theorists a bone with "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience", concluding "In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military-Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist"; the MIC then does just what he warned, and gets away with it?; as Pres. Eisenhower leaves office, there are only 900 "advisers" in Vietnam.
Knocking on Heaven's Door, or Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, or King Arthur and the Days of Camelot come to the White House, only to be defeated by the mean Dragon of the MIC? On Jan. 20, 1961 (Fri.) 43-y.-o. charisma-maximus Mass.-born Harvard-educated WWII Navy PT-boat hero (first to be knocked-off by the Military-Industrial Complex?) John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (1917-63) becomes the 35th U.S. pres. (until Nov. 22, 1963) in the 51st U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (youngest pres. until?) (first Boy Scout pres.) (first Gemini pres.) (first pres. with an air-conditioned limo) (continues the tradition of all Mass.-born presidents being born in Norfolk County, incl. John Adams and John Quincy Adams); "from a medical standpoint, he was a mess", having been hospitalized more than three dozen times and given last rites 3x; snowiest inauguration (8 in. of snow) until ?; Robert Frost delivers his poem The Gift Outright ("The land was ours before we were the land's"); Stonewall, Tex.-born U.S. Sen. (D-Tex.) (since Jan. 3, 1949) Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-73) becomes the 37th U.S. vice-pres. (until Nov. 22, 1963); JFK makes wearing hats uncool for decades to come?; the inaug. theme is "World Peace Through New Frontiers"; JFK's Inauguration Address, mainly written by his "intellectual blood bank" advisor Theodore Chaikin "Ted" Sorensen (1928-) (a Nebraskan with a Danish father and Russian Jewish mother), incl. the soundbytes: "The world is very different now, for man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe: the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty"; "Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all minkind? Will you join in that historic effort? In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility, I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for you country"; he adds "I now invite all nations, incl. the Soviet Union to join with us in developing a weather prediction program, in a new communications satellite program), and in preparation for probing the distant planets of Mars and Venus, probes which may someday unlock the secrets of the Universe"; on Jan. 21 JFK's brother Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (1925-68) becomes U.S. atty.-gen., with JFK explaining that it's "to give him... experience before he goes out to practice law" (which is OK despite nepotism because the Nixon Doctrine says that if the president does it it isn't illegal?); Yale U. grad Burke Marshall (1922-2003) is appointed by RFK as asst. atty.-gen. in charge of the U.S. Justice Dept.'s Civil Rights Div. (until Dec. 1964), initially chosen because he's not a known civil rights leader and turning JFK off, who says "I have nothing in common with that man", but who later distinguishes himself by using the U.S. govt. power to regulate interstate commerce as the tool to force black civil rights on states rather than the more obvious 14th Amendment; Dem. Pierre Emil George Salinger (1925-2004) (Jewish father, French Catholic mother) becomes White House press. secy., continuing with LBJ after JFK's death; Repub. Clarence Douglas (Douglass) Dillon (1909-2003) becomes treasury secy. #57 (until 1965); after turning down the treasury secy. job, Oakland, Calif.-born Repub. Robert Strange McNamara (1916-2009) ("an IBM machine with legs") (whose portrait resembles actor James Stewart crossed with a Scottish Terrier and Giant Poodle?) (pres. of Ford Motor Co. for five weeks, first who wasn't a descendant of Henry Ford, one of the Ford Whiz Kids, known for his slicked-back hair, frameless glasses, and statistical-quoting technocrat approach, who made the decision to dump the Edsel, and takes a $3M pay cut to take the $25K-a-year govt. job after visiting JFK in a snowstorm and telling him he has no experience and isn't qualified, to which JFK responds that he had no experience as pres. either but that didn't stop him) becomes U.S. defense secy. #8 (until Feb. 29, 1968) (first to exert civilian control over the military) (the Defense Dept. soaks up 10% of the GDP, and 50% of the federal budget), going on to see the U.S. and Soviet Union come to the brink of nuclear war 3x; Athens, Ga.-born "Cold War, hell it was a hot war"; Rockefeller Foundation head (a Dem. from Ga., who only takes the job after he gets a partial pension) David Dean Rusk (1909-94) becomes U.S. secy. of state #54 (until Jan. 20, 1969) after JFK snubs his too-liberal campaign foreign policy advisor Chester Bliss Bowles (1901-86) (Conn. gov. #78 in 1941-51) (who becomes undersecy., and is fired before the end of the year) for a conservative figurehead who gives an appearance of not appeasing the Commies, although Rusk is the odd man out in the admin. and a weak secy., and JFK really leans on his 25-year friend William David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech (1918-85) (British ambassador to the U.S.) and seems to know more about British than U.S. society and foreign policy, esp. U.S. civil rights, and regards Gore's boss British PM Harold Macmillan as a surrogate father after his own daddy's stroke?; on Jan. 21 Jewish-Am. Dem. Conn. gov. #80 (since Jan. 5, 1955) Abraham Alexander Ribicoff (1910-98) becomes U.S. HEW secy. #4 (until July 13, 1962); JFK goes hatless to his inaguration, and starts the trend toward 2-button suits? (easier to get out of when making out?); JFK favors John Wayne Westerns for White House viewing, and his favorite food is tomato soup with sour cream; he is a sex and drug (methamphetamime?) addict, which the press covers up; his two pet cats are named Kitten and Tom; First Lady Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy (1929-94) (Secret Service codename: Lace) last year hired Paris-born Am. fashion designer Oleg Cassini Loiewski (1913-2006) to create her own look, and he decided that she looks Egyptian, "the Cleopatra of the modern era", making use of her broad shoulders, flat chest, thin hips and long torso, causing her to bite big and spend $100K on haute couture clothes this year alone; she smokes cigarettes even though she is never photographed with one; Des Moines, Iowa-born fashion designer Halston (Roy Halston Frowick) (1932-90) gains fame for designing the pillbox hat work by Jackie Kennedy at JFK's inauguration, going on to redefine Am. fashion for Am. women in the mid-1970s, using cashmere and ultrasuede in relaxed urban lifestyle clothing that can be worn the entire day on any occasion; JFK orders a copy of the Robert Preston exercise song Go, You Chicken Fat, Go sent to every U.S. school; in Nov. 1960 UPI correspondent Helen Thomas (1920-) (Greek Orthodox of Lebanese descent) is assigned to the White House, becoming known as "the Sitting Buddha", sitting in the front row and asking the first question, and beginning the tradition of ending all the conferences with "Thank you, Mr. President"; she resigns from UPI on May 17, 2000 after 57 years a day after News World Communications Inc., owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon acquires it, and joins Hearst Newspapers; after on-camera remarks about Jews needing to leave Palestine and go back to Europe surface, she retires on June 7, 2010. After the assassination, the stages of grief of denial, guilt, anger, and acceptance result in the Oct. 25, 1967 release of the Hollywood musical Camelot, which gets retroactively applied to the fabled JFK years by his sad admirers.
Feces and urine are the same color for all races, but? On May 4, 1961 13 black and white Freedom Riders, incl. Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. (1924-2006) (white), Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael (1941-98) (black), atty. Mark Lane (1927-) (white), atty. Percy Ellis Sutton (1920-2009) (black), and Thomas Emmet "Tom" Hayden (1939-) (white), organized and led by James L. "Jim" Farmer (1920-99) (black) leave Washington, D.C. in a bus headed for New Orleans, La. to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals, outraging white racists with black-white pairs sitting side by side and sharing restrooms; the bus (along with the offending seats and potties) is bombed and burned in Montgomery, Ala. on May 20 by a white mob, who beat the riders with iron pipes as the police do nothing, prompting U.S. atty.-gen. Robert Kennedy to send U.S. marshals; on May 21 white demonstrators armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails surround the First Baptist Church (Colored) in Montgomery, Ala. (a few blocks away from the state capitol where Jefferson Davis had been elected provisional pres. of the Confederacy) as it holds a rally for the visiting Freedom Riders attended by more than 1K blacks, incl. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), but the Nat. Guard arrives to save the day; the Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Miss. on May 24 for disturbing the peace after leaving their bus. On May 14 a Freedom Riders bus is bombed near Anniston, Ala., and they are beaten by an angry mob. In June the U.S. Supreme Court voids the sentences of six Freedom Riders convicted in La. of trying to desegregate a bus terminal.
On Oct. 1, 1961 the $24M District of Columbia Stadium (begun July 8, 1960) E of the U.S. Capitol Bldg. near the W bank of the Anacostia River and the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C. opens, designed to host both baseball and football, with the first circular "cookie-cutter" design, becoming the home of the Washington Redskins (until 1996) and Washington Senators (until 1971).
On Dec. 21, 1961 the first section of the 64-mi.Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) surrounding Washington, D.C. is opened; it is completed on Aug. 17, 1964.
On Feb. 16-17, 1962 the leftist Students for a Dem. Society (SDS) and Boston SANE (Greater Boston Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy) hold the first anti-nuclear march on Washington, D.C., attended by 4K-8K students; on June 15 the Port Huron Statement is issued by the SDS - there is a Garden of Eden?
On Nov. 17, 1962 Washington Dulles Internat. Airport in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, Va. 26 mi. W of downtown Washington, D.C. opens, named after U.S. secy. of state #52 John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), with a main terminal designed by Eero Saarinen, becoming the busiest internat. airport in the mid-Atlantic area outside New York City (60K passengers/day).
In 1962 the Watergate Complex in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. begins construction (ends 1971), becoming one of the most desirable living spaces in the city.
On Aug. 28, 1963 the Great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. organized by Bayard Rustin (1912-87) sees Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68) deliver his I Have a Dream Speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to 200K while NBC-TV preempts daytime programming to provide live coverage; MLK Jr. calls the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence "a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir"; "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character"; ends with "Free at last!"; white actors Marlon Brando, James Garner, and Burt Lancaster attend, along with black actors Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte; longtime civil rights leader ("Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement") Dorothy Irene Height (1912-2010) stands on the platform with King during the speech, later saying she is disappointed that he didn't mention women's rights; folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary sing If I Had a Hammer, and Mary has an "apotheosis"; good friend Sammy Davis Jr. stands in front of the podium.
On Nov. 25, 1963 (Mon.) after Jackie Kennedy acts as de-facto pres. for two hours in the Red Room of the White House, receiving eight dozen internat. delegations solo, the John F. Kennedy State Funeral in Washington, D.C. sees his body laid to rest at Arlington Nat. Cemetery (in "the most beautiful spot", picked by Robert S. McNamara) in a cathartic nationally-televised event that features the caissons, the funeral march, Jackie leading the delegations on foot like a female pres., and his son John Fitzgerald "John-John" Kennedy Jr. (1960-99) (his 3rd birthday) saluting him while his mommy in a veil plays Madonna with Child; the bronze casket in which JFK was flown from Dallas to Washington, D.C. is dropped into a 9K-ft. military dump site off the Md.-Del. coast; JFK had set Nov. 25 as the date for a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam to relieve him from his duties in preparation for a gradual diminishing of the U.S. presence in Vietnam.
On Jan. 8, 1964 (Wed.) (6:00 p.m. CST) LBJ's First State of the Union Address in Congress in Washington, D.C. (first to be shown on prime time TV), contains the soundbyte "This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America", launching his War on Poverty; on Mar. 16 LBJ submits his $1B War on Poverty Program to Congress (ends 1968), designed by Keynesian economist Walter Wolfgang Heller (1915-87) (not to be confused with "Catch-22" author Joseph Heller), who suggested it to him the day after JFK's assassination; he signs it on Aug. 20, but when LBJ escalates the Vietnam War without raising taxes, threatening an inflationary spiral, Heller resigns; poverty in the U.S. was plummeting until LBJ declared war on it, dropping further from 22% to 12.6% by 1970, then increasing as people on welfare lose the incentive to work?; "Wars on nations change maps; war on poverty maps change" (Muhammad Ali) - war on spare change maps national poverty?
On June 23, 1964 the Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt Bridge (begun 1960) over the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Va. opens; it serves as the W end of Constitution Ave.
On Apr. 17, 1965 the Students for a Dem. Society (SDS) hold their first Vietnam War protest in Washington, D.C., the March Against the Vietnam War, drawing 25K.
On May 20-21, 1967 the Spring Mobilization Conference in Washington, D.C. sees 700 anti-Vietnam war activists meet to evaluate their Apr. 15 demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco, Calif., forming the Nat. Mobilization Committee to End the War (MOBE), with plans for a big demonstration in the fall.
On Aug. 6, 1967 the Peace Torch Marathon sees a torch lighted in Hiroshima, Japan, then flown to San Francisco, Calif. on Aug. 27 before being run to Washington, D.C., arriving on Oct. 21 in time for the March on the Pentagon.
On Oct. 21, 1967 the March on the Pentagon, organized by the 150-member Nat. Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE) sees 50K-70K anti-Vietnam War protesters march in Washington, D.C. to "Confront the War Makers", becoming the first of the bi-annual anti-Vietnam war demonstrations by the counter-culture, becoming the prototype for the demonstrations at the 1968 Dem. Convention in Chicago; Jerry Rubin is the project dir.; the biggest rally is held at the Lincoln Monument, featuring speaker Dr. Benjamin Spock - you had me at hell no I won't go?
On Nov. 7, 1967 after Pres. Johnson replaces the 3-commissioner govt. of Washington, D.C. with a single mayor-commissioner, asst. commissioner, and 9-member city council appointed by the U.S. pres., LBJ appoints Walter Edward Washington (1915-2003) as mayor-commissioner #1 (until Jan. 2, 1975), becoming the first African-Am. mayor of a major U.S. city, followed by Richard Hatcher (Gary, Ind.) and Carl Stokes (Cleveland, Ohio); after he sends his first budget to Congress, Dem. Rep. John L. McMillan of the House Committee on the District of Columbia sends him a truckload of watermelons; during the Apr. 1968 riots over the assassination of MLK Jr., he ignores FBI dir. J. Edgar Hoover's orders to shoot rioters, uttering the soundbyte: "I walked by myself through the city and urged angry young people to go home. I asked them to help the people who had been burned out."
On Jan. 15, 1968 the 90th U.S. Congress (begun Jan. 3, 1967) opens its 2nd session in Washington, D.C. (ends Jan. 3, 1969); former U.S. Rep. (R-Mont.) (1917-19, 1941-3) Jeannette Pickering Rankin (1880-1973) (first female U.S. Rep., known for voting against U.S. entry into WWI and WWII) leads 5K women of the Jeannette Rankin Brigade in a march on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to protest the Vietnam War and show some woman power - does that make you cra-a-a-zy?
Camera crews go out and bravely shoot what's going on here? No matter who's zooming whom this year, people find one thing they can agree on? On Apr. 3, 1968 after the Citizens Board of Inquiry Into Hunger and Malnutrition in the U.S. claims that federal food aid programs reach only 18% of the nation's poor, and that there is widespread hunger in 250 "hunger counties" in 23 states, causing him to travel across the U.S. to gather a "multiracial army of the poor" for a Poor People's March (Campaign) to Washington, D.C. on May 12-June 24, with the goal of forcing Congress to enact a Poor People's Bill of Rights while uttering the soundbytes that Congress has shown "hostility to the poor" while appropriating "military funds with alacrity and generosity", but only providing "poverty funds with miserliness", and causing Reader's Digest to warn of a possible "insurrection", MLK Jr. utters the soundbyte: "It really doesn't matter what happens now.... some began to... talk about the threats that were out, what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers.... Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
4-4-6-8, what happened to 2 (Jr.?) Only 40 years from shooting uppity black leaders down to Barack Obama? On Apr. 4, 1968 (Thur.) 39-y.-o. Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929) is assassinated on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel in Memphis (where he is staying in Room 307) as he is about to lead demonstrations by striking black sanitation workers (on strike since Feb.), sparking Holy Week Riots in 126 U.S. cities for the next several days (worst in U.S. history since the U.S. Civil War), incl. Washington D.C., Chicago, Ill., Baltimore, Md., Kansas City, Mo., New York City, Detroit, Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio, Miami, Fla., Pittsburgh, Penn., and Louisville, Ky., and Wilmington, Del., killing 46 (41 black), injuring 21K, and setting 2.6K fires; federal troops are called out to quell the riots in Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Chicago; Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley gives "shoot to kill" orders to police, who arrest 3K after nine are killed, 500 injured, and $11M property damaged; Baltimore has 5.8K arrests, six killed, 900 injured, and $14M in property damage; Washington, D.C. has 8K arrests (incl. Norman Mailer (1923-2007), who runs for mayor of New York afterward and gets 5% of the vote), 11 killed, 1K injured, and $24M in property damage, and the city's new black mayor Harold E. Washington pisses-off FBI dir. J. Edgar Hoover by giving orders that looters are not to be shot; across the country 21.27K arrests are made, and 55K federal troops and Nat. Guardsmen are called out; on Apr. 4 Bobby Kennedy announces MLK Jr.'s death in Indianapolis, Ind., uttering the soundbyte "What we need in the United States is not division, what we need in the United States is not hatred, what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black"; a Nat. Day of Mourning is proclaimed by Pres. Johnson on Apr. 7 (Sun.); on Apr. 5 public statements by black singer James Joseph Brown (1933-2006) in Boston help calm blacks and prevent a riot; more public statements by NFL star James Nathaniel "Jim" Brown (1936-) do ditto ("Black isn't positive or negative, it's just a color"); NBC Monitor weekend radio show host Frank McGee (1921-74) had interviewed MLK Jr., asking him how he felt being a target for assassination, to which he responded that he had given serious thought to the possibility; on Apr. 8 King's widow takes her husband's place at the head of 42K demonstrators in Memphis; on Apr. 9 services for King attended by world leaders and celebs (no U.S. presidents) are held in Atlanta, Ga., after which Ga. gov. (1967-71) Lester Maddox denies him the honor of lying in state at the state capitol; MLK Jr.'s widow Coretta Scott King offers the unofficial leadership of the U.S. civil rights movement to famous entertainer Josephine Baker (1906-75), who declines; the murder is later pinned on white ex-con James Earl Ray (1928-98), who escaped in 1967 from the Miss. State Penitentiary, and who is arrested on June 8 at the London airport carrying a fraudulent Canadian passport under the name Ramon George Sneyd of Toronto by Scotland Yard detectives led by Thomas M.J. "Tom" Butler (1913-), and on July 19 he is put in Shelby County jail in Memphis; after receiving a 99-year sentence he later recants his confession, and doubts remain after his death - ties into the JFK and RFK assassinations, as LBJ's resignation is part of a deal to let Hoover gets his payback by having his enemy MLK Jr. bumped off while he runs the federal uninvestigation again?
On May 12-June 24, 1968 after Pres. Johnson's 1964 War on Poverty wakes them up to their potential of forming a lobby, the multiracial Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)-led Poor People's Campaign (Poor People's March on Washington), led by MLK Jr.'s SCLC successor Ralph Abernathy (1926-90) sees 50K-100 march from Marks, Miss. to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate for a $30B federal anti-poverty bill, setting up Resurrection City; with Abernathy uttering the soundbyte: "The poor are no longer divided. We are not going to let the white man put us down anymore. It's not white power, and I'll give you some news, it's not black power, either. It's poor power and we're going to use it"; on May 14 they arrive in Washington, D.C., set up shantytowns, and hold daily demonstrations; Mrs. King comes out of her hubby's shadow and gives a major speech; on June 19 (Juneteenth) Solidarity Day sees tens of thousands join Resurrection City.
The Sock It to Me President get what he asks for? On Jan. 20, 1969 Richard "Tricky Dicky" "King Richard" Milhous Nixon (1913-94) becomes the 37th U.S. pres. (until 1974) (2nd Quaker after Hoover, and neither of them last 8 years?) in the 54th U.S. Pres. Inaguration in Washington, D.C.; 3rd pres. to be elected for a 2nd term and not finish (Lincoln, McKinley); his wife Pat Nixon swears him in on a family Bible; Spiro Theodore "Ted" Agnew (1918-96) becomes the 39th U.S. vice-pres. (until Oct. 10, 1973); Nixon's First Inaugural Address contains the soundbyte: "We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But as our eyes catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse the remaining dark. Let us gather the light. Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness, and, riders on the Earth together, let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers, but sustained by our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man"; First Lady is Thelma Catherine Patricia "Pat" Ryan Nixon (1912-93) (Secret Service codename: Starlight) (a smoker); the Nixons used to have a pet cocker spaniel named Checkers (1952-64), who woulda been First Dog; Nixon becomes known for raising his arms in a giant V sign with his first two fingers extended from closed fists in small V signs; a Gallup Poll finds that he's the most admired American; the Paris Peace talks begin negotiating full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam; on Jan. 22 the new cabinet is sworn in, incl. Neb.-born Melvin Robert Laird (1922-) as defense secy. (until 1973) (who coins the term "Vietnamization"), William Pierce Rogers (1913-2001) as sec. of state (until Sept. 3, 1973), Nixon's campaign mgr. John Newton Mitchell (1913-88) (JFK's WWII PT boat unit cmdr.) as U.S. atty.-gen. #67 (until 1972), issuing the soundbyte "Watch what we do, not what we say", and U. of Neb. chancellor Clifford Morris Hardin (1915-) as agriculture secy. (until 1971); on Jan. 22 construction magnate Winton Malcolm "Red" Blount Jr. (1921-2002) becomes U.S. postmaster-gen. #59 (until Jan. 1, 1972), running into a giant postal strike next Mar.; Senate delay causes Alaska gov. #2 (since 1966) Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel (1919-2010) to be sworn-in as interior secy. #38 on Jan. 25 (until Nov. 25, 1970), becoming a strong environmentalist, demanding controls of the Alaskan oil industry and offshore oil rigs; 29-y.-o. former Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland (a non-journalist) (non-Jew, sorry) Ronald Louis Ziegler (1939-2003) becomes White House press secy. (until 1974), youngest ever; Jewish TV Guide pub. Walter Hubert Annenberg (1908-2002) sells the Philadelphia Inquirer and Phila. Daily News to Knight Newspapers for $55M, and is appointed U.S. ambassador to Britain, becoming so popular that they knight him; Pres. Reagan later appoints his wife Leonore Cohn "Lee" Annenberg (1918-2009) as State Dept. chief of protocol; Nelson Rockefeller backer Henry Kissinger claims to meet Nixon for the first time after he becomes pres., which doesn't stop his enemies from claiming he was maneuvering to become nat. security adviser all along; Nixon flops on U.S. policy toward the French nuclear program, deciding to help it to sow divisions in Europe by skirting U.S. law; Ill. rep. (since Jan. 3, 1961) John Bayard Anderson (1922-2017), who broke with conservative Repubs. last year by voting to end racial discrimination in housing becomes chm. of the House Repub. Conference (until June 8, 1979), going on to criticize Nixon for his Vietnam War policies and become one of the first Repubs. to call for his resignation over the Watergate scandal.
In Jan. 1969 Pres. Nixon tells aide Egil "Bud" Krogh Jr. (1939-) to reduce crime in the District of Columbia; in Aug. U.S. physician Robert L. Dupont reports that 44% of those arrested test positive for heroin, and favors treatment of felons with methadone, causing 10K U.S. addicts to be put on it by next year, despite fears about it also being addictive; burglaries in D.C. fall sharply by May of next year, but heroin addiction is not stopped.
On Aug. 3, 1969 manic-depressive Washington Post publisher (since 1946) Philip Leslie Graham (b. 1915) (friend of JFK and LBJ) commits suicide with a shotgun, and his wife (since 1940-) Katharine Meyer Graham (1917-2001) becomes publisher of The Washington Post (until 1979), going on to hire Watergate uncoverup boss Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (1921-) as executive ed. (until 1991), and bring in billionaire Warren Buffett, who becomes a major shareholder and eminence grise.
Four dead in O-Hi-O brings Pres. Nixon down from his high horse? On May 4, 1970 (Mon.) (noon) 1K students stage a Days of Rage protest at Kent State U., and after throwing rocks, four students are killed and nine wounded by Ohio Nat. Guardsmen firing M-1 rifles (67 shots in 13 sec.), sparking outrage and disorder, escalating the existing rage and causing many U.S. campuses to be closed; the Kent State Martyrs incl. Allison Krause (b. 1951), Jeffrey Glenn "Jeff" Miller (b. 1950), Sandra Lee Scheuer (b. 1949) (pr. like Shawyer), and William Knox Schroeder (b. 1950); a photo by student John Paul Filo of the Valley Daily News showing 14-y.-o. Mary Ann Vecchio (1956-) kneeling beside dead Miller stirs worldwide indignation; on May 4 Robert Curtis "Bob" Lewis (1947-) graduates from Kent State U. with its first anthropology degree, then develops the theory of De-Evolution and in 1973 co-founds the New Wave group Devo; in May U.S. interior secy. (since 1969) Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel (1919-) writes a Letter to Pres. Nixon critical of his Vietnam War policy and his views on students, as well as the views of vice-pres. Spiro Agnew, getting him fired on Nov. 25. On May 8 the Hard Hat Riot sees construction worker rednecks break up a Days of Rage protest on New York City's Wall St. and force City Hall officials to raise the U.S. flag back to full staff after they had lowered it to half staff in memory of the Kent State Martyrs, making a statement that it's not just hippies vs. the govt. anymore? - trust the Gorton's fisherman? On May 9, 1970 a Days of Rage Student Protest in Washington, D.C. brings 75K-100K peaceful protesters pissed-off at the Kent State Massacre; that night, after having trouble sleeping, Pres. Nixon drives to the Lincoln Memorial at 4:15 a.m. and talks with amazed student protesters for an hour, becoming known as the Nixon Pre-Dawn Visit, uttering the parting soundbyte: "I know you want to get the war over. Sure you came here to demonstrate and shout your slogans on the ellipse. That's all right. Just keep it peaceful. Have a good time in Washington, and don't go away bitter."
On July 4, 1970 thousands attend Honor America Day in Washington, D.C., backed by Pres. Nixon and Bob Hope; Billy Graham delivers the keynote address.
Here they come, walking down the street, not a skirt or bra among them, only shirts, pants and feet? They may be a little late, but the 1970s are gonna feel their wrath? On Aug. 26, 1970 (5:00 p.m.) the Women's Strike for Equality on the 50th anniv. of the passing of the 19th Amendment is held in New York City by 50K women led by Am. feminists Betty Friedan (1921-2006), Gloria Steinem (1934-), Bella Savitsky Abzug (1920-98), and Katherine Murray "Kate" Millett (1934-) (sans open lezzies, although Millett is still a closet one and that's OK) march down Fifth Ave. in New York City; signs read "Don't iron while the strike is hot", "Hardhats for soft broads", "I am not a Barbie Doll", "Storks fly - Why can't mothers", "We are the 51% minority", and "We have the right to vote for the man of our choice"; Friedan utters the soundbyte "Man is not the enemy; man is a fellow victim"; another march is held in Washington, D.C. by 1K, another in Boston, Mass. by 1K, and another in San Francisco, Calif. by 2K; the major TV networks ridicule the strike, with Eric Sevareid calling the feminist movement an infectious disease and the members "a band of braless bubbleheads"; Howard K. Smith denies the credibility and justification for the movement, which ABC-TV eventually retracts after the women's movement launches a boycott of all four major networks; meanwhile in July mainly-Jewish Dems. Friedan, Steinem, Abzug, Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) (Baptist), Letty Cottin Pogrebin (1939-) et al. form the Nat. Women's Political Caucus, with the motto "A woman's place is in the House" (of Reps.), working for reproductive freedom, affordable child care, and passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA); Pres. Nixon issues a proclamation designing this day as Women's Equality Day at the bequest of House Rep. Abzug; co-founder Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-77) (a black activist from Miss.) utters the soundbyte: "I got a black husband, six feet three, 240 pounds, with a 14 shoe, that I don't want to be liberated from. We are here to work side by side with this black man in trying to bring liberation to all people."
March becomes the Month of the U.S. College Student as they score epic Vs against their own all-powerful government, cutting it down to size, starting with getting them where they live? On Mar. 1, 1971 (1:32 a.m.) the 1971 U.S. Senate Bombing sees a ground floor restroom in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol bombed in protest of U.S. involvement in Laos, causing $300K in damage after a 30-min. telephone warning; the Weather Underground claims responsibility; Capitol police begin searching all visitors - which Lethal Weapon episode was that?
On Apr. 19-23, 1971 Operation Dewey Canyon III is carried out by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Washington, D.C., a mock "limited incursion in the country of Congress", with 1.1K veterans marching across the Lincoln Memorial Bridge to the Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where a bunch of Gold Star mothers are locked out, placing their wreaths at the gate; on Apr. 20 200 veterans listen to hearings of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on proposals to end the war; on Apr. 21 50+ march to the Pentagon and unsuccessfully attempt to surrender as war criminals; on Apr. 22 a large group of veterans demonstrate on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that they should have ruled on the Vietnam war's constitutionality, after which 110 are arrested; on Apr. 23 (Fri.) 800+ veterans throw their medals away on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
On May 1, 1971 the 1971 May Day Protests begin in Washington, D.C. leading to mass arrests and cries of civil rights violations, disturbing the Nixon admin. as damaging. On May 3 All Things Considered debuts on U.S. public radio (until ?), hosted by Robert Conley, with daily in-depth news analyses supposedly not controlled by the govt. or major corps.; the first broadcast to 90 stations is about anti-Vietnam War protests in Washington, D.C. On May 3-5 thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe stage demonstrations in Washington, D.C. aimed at (duh?) shutting the govt. down; on Jan. 16, 1975 the ACU wins a $12M damage suit on behalf of 1.2K protesters whose rights were violated when they were arrested during the demonstrations.
On Sept. 8, 1971 the $71M John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on the Potomac River next to the Watergate Complex opens three days after the debut there of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
On May 27, 1972 an African Liberation Day March against Apartheid in South Africa draws 60K in cities across the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, and 30K in Washington, D.C.
The Watergate break-in becomes the Democrats' Big Silver Bird? On June 17, 1972 (Sat.) (2:00 a.m.) the Watergate Scandal begins when five men are arrested by D.C. police for breaking into the Dem. Nat. Committee HQ in the Watergate Complex in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. (built in 1962-71), on the Georgetown Channel not far from the White House at the intersection of Virginia Ave., New Hampshire Ave., and Rock Creek & Potomac Pkwy. after black night watchman Frank Wills (1948-2000) finds and removes some duct tape from a door lock, returns and finds it put back, the calls police; the arrested Watergate Burglars incl. Bernard Leon Barker (1917-2009) (ex-member of the Batista Cuban secret police) (the fake Secret Service agent on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963?), electronics expert James Walter McCord Jr. (1924-), Eugenio R. "Musculito" Martinez (1924-) (Cuban), Frank Anthony Sturgis (Fiorini) (1924-93) (Am. who worked in Cuba), and Virgilio R. Gonzalez (1926-) (Cuban), who are carrying cameras and electronic surveillance equipment (their 2nd break-in, with the mission of removing bugs they had placed the 1st time); on June 17 after being put up to it by Jeb Stuart Magruder (1934-), deputy dir. of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), who was put up to it by former U.S. atty.-gen. #67 (1969-72) John Newton Mitchell (1913-88) (chmn. of CREEP, Nixon's campaign mgr., and WWII cmdr. of JFK's PT boat unit), former FBI agent and atty. George Gordon Battle Liddy (1930-) (mastermind of the burglary, who supervised it from a hotel across the street) approaches U.S. atty.-gen. #68 (1972-3) Richard Gordon Kleindienst (1923-2000) (born in Winslow, Ariz.) at a private golf club in Bethesda, Md. and asks him to get the burglars released and to help coverup that it traces to CREEP, and although he doesn't get them released, he also fails to rat on them, which would have broken the case open for the public, causing him to hang on until Nixon fires him as a patsy; on June 19 Mitchell says that they were not "operating either on our behalf or with our consent"; on June 19 White House press secy. Ronald Louis Ziegler calls the break-in a "third-rate burglary"; the scandal begins after CREEP and White House consultant Everette Howard Hunt (1918-2007), consultant to pres. special counsel (1969-73) Charles Wendell "Chuck" Colson (1931-2012) until Mar. 29, and known for directing CIA activities against Fidel Castro are linked to the burglars, starting with Hunt's number being found in the burglars' address books, with the White House admitting that Hunt met Barker earlier in June; on June 20 Nixon tells Colson that he has a "dangerous job"; Hunt, Liddy, and Seattle, Wash. atty. Egil "Bud" Krogh Jr. (1939-) later reveal that they were created in June-July 1971, and named the White House Plumbers by Henry Kissinger's former aide David Young (1936-) for their work in plugging leaks, and claim that Hunt recruited four of the five burglars (except McCord) from a team who worked on the Bay of Pigs invasion in order to see if Castro was making contributions to the McGovern campaign; meanwhile Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (1943-) and Carl Bernstein (1944-), working for "Woodstein!"-shouting ed.-in-chief (1965-91) Benjamin Crowninshield "Ben" Bradlee (1921-2014) and publisher Katharine Graham (1917-2001) are assigned to the arraignment of the Watergate burglars, after which they meet with mysterious govt. figure "Deep Throat", deputy FBI dir. William Mark Felt Sr. (1913-2008) (who keeps his identity secret until 2005), who tells them to "follow the money", and makes Woodward stick a red flag in his balcony flower pot to request meetings, and they soon lock-on to the trail leading straight to the Oval Office, causing every political scandal in the U.S. to be tokenized into some kind of "-gate"; on Aug. 30, 2016 the CIA document Working Draft - CIA Watergate History is declassified, revealing that Eugenio Martinez was "actively being paid by the CIA at the time of the arrests on June 17, 1972" to do the break-in.
One way or another, I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha? On June 20, 1972 Pres. Nixon and aide H.R. Haldeman discuss Watergate in the Smoking Gun Conversation; later prosecutors find an 18.5-min. gap in the White House tape (#342) of the conversation, allegedly erased accidentally (on purpose) on Oct. 1, 1973 by Nixon's secy. Rose Mary Woods (1917-2005).
On Jan. 20, 1973 U.S. pres. #37 (since Jan. 20, 1969) Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated for his 2nd term in the 55th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; Spiro T. Agnew continues as the 39th U.S. vice-pres. (until Oct. 10, 1973); the inaug. theme is "Spirit of '76"; Nixon's 2nd inaugural address contains the soundbyte: "As America's longest and most difficult war comes to an end, let us again learn to debate our differences with civility and decency. And let each of us reach out for that one precious quality government cannot provide - a new level of respect for the rights and feelings of one another, a new level of respect for the individual human dignity which is the cherished birthright of every American. Above all else, the time has come for us to renew our faith in ourselves and in America. In recent years, that faith has been challenged. Our children have been taught to be ashamed of their country, ashamed of their parents, ashamed of America's record at home and of its role in the world. At every turn, we have been beset by those who find everything wrong with America and little that is right. But I am confident that this will not be the judgment of history on these remarkable times in which we are privileged to live. America's record in this century has been unparalleled in the world's history for its responsibility, for its generosity, for its creativity and for its progress. Let us be proud that our system has produced and provided more freedom and more abundance, more widely shared, than any other system in the history of the world. Let us be proud that in each of the four wars in which we have been engaged in this century, including the one we are now bringing to an end, we have fought not for our selfish advantage, but to help others resist aggression. Let us be proud that by our bold, new initiatives, and by our steadfastness for peace with honor, we have made a breakthrough toward creating in the world what the world has not known before - a structure of peace that can last, not merely for our time, but for generations to come."
The U.S. Supreme (Burger) Court rows and wades into the government-backed slaughter of infants (until ?) On Jan. 22, 1973 (Mon.) (after reading what version of the U.S. Constitution?) the U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 in Roe v. Wade that women don't have an absolute right "to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses", but that she does have the right to surgical infanticide (abortion) during the first 3 mo. (trimester) of pregnancy, after which for the next 3 mo. the state may "regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health", after which during the last 10 weeks the state may prohibit abortion, splitting the nation into two camps, politicizing abortion, and giving the Repub. Party a mission from God to overturn it (until ?); justices William Rehnquist and Byron White (a JFK appointee who also dissented in the Miranda case) are the dissenters, with Rehnquist writing the minority opinion, and White calling the decision "an exercise in raw judicial power" that will result in "interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life"; Harry A. Blackmun writes a long majority opinion containing a history of abortion that has nothing to do with the Constitution, and ending up citing a "right of privacy" sans an explicit mention in it; Cardinal Krol of Philly calls it an "unspeakable tragedy for this nation", while Planned Parenthood Federation of Am. pres. Alan F. Gutmacher calls it "a wise and courageous stroke for the right to privacy and for the protection of a woman's physical and emotional health"; Jane Roe later turns out to be La.-born Norma Leah McCorvey (1947-) who grew up in Tex., was sent at age 15 to board with a distant relative who raped her, got a job as a roller-skating carhop in a cowgirl outfit and married a patron who later beat her, discovered she was bi, and got pregnant and gave three babies up for adoption before the decision came down, then later becomes an anti-abortion activist after admitting that at least the pregnancy in question wasn't caused by rape, and that her attys. Sarah Ragle Weddington (1945-) of Tex. and Linda Nellene Coffee (1942-) used her to start the case against notorious Dallas DA Henry Wade; every year after this a March for Life is held on Jan. 22 in Washington, D.C. to protest the decision, politicizing all future U.S. Supreme Court nominations (until ?); meanwhile French police arrest a physician for performing an abortion, causing 10K to march in protest and legislation to legalize abortion to be introduced in the French parliament, which is passed next year; meanwhile 14M new IUDs are inserted in women in China, up from 6M in 1973, but that doesn't stop pop. growth.
On Apr. 6, 1973 Georgetown U.-educated White House counsel John Wesley Dean III (1938-) begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors.
On May 17, 1973 the televised U.S. Senate Watergate Hearings in Washington, D.C., chaired by U.S. Sen. (D-N.C.) (1954-74) Sam James Ervin Jr. (1896-1985) begin; non-televised hearings began on Apr. 17; on May 18 Archibald Cox (1912-2004) is appointed special prosecutor for the case - his what is bald?
Nixon's Bloody Saturday is ultimately ruined by Buttery Monday? On July 16, 1973 (Mon.) after prompting by Fred Dalton Thompson, former White House aide (deputy asst. to Nixon) Alexander Porter Butterfield (1926-) tells the Senate Watergate Hearings that virtually all pres. meetings had been recorded on tape, but the White House claims executive privilege; he never volunteered the info., but gave it up after a direct question by N.J.-born chief counsel (son of Russian Jewish immigrant parents) Samuel Dash (1925-2004), with the soundbyte "I was hoping you fellows wouldn't ask me that"; on Aug. 29 after a legal fight incl. Nixon going on TV with a pile of looseleaf notebooks he claims contain transcripts, Judge John Sirica orders the original audio tapes turned over, and the U.S. Court of Appeals backs him up on Oct. 12, fomenting an epic constitutional power struggle - as Nixon tries to coverup the tire tracks in his own boxers?
Nixon reaches a moment when he coulda been king if only the army'd gone along or had more gasoline, and/or he weren't a *!?!* Quaker? On Oct. 19-20, 1973 (night) the Saturday Night Massacre starts when Pres. Nixon loses his appeal, and rejects the U.S. Appeals Court order to turn over his secret White House tapes, offering a compromise of release of written summaries; when this is turned down by Archibald Cox, Nixon orders atty.-gen. Elliot L. Richardson and deputy atty.-gen. William Ruckelshaus to handle his, er, fire Cox, but both refuse and resign, and on Oct. 20 solicitor gen. (since Mar. 21) Pittsburgh, Penn.-born Robert Heron Bork (1927-2012) is appointed as acting atty.-gen. (until Dec. 17), complying with Nixon's order on Oct. 20 (night), AKA Bloody Saturday; on Oct. 23 after dreams of a military coup dance in his head, Nixon caves in and agrees to turn over the tapes to Judge Sirica, and does so on Oct. 26 after sweating tears of blood; on Nov. 1 (after sodomizing himself for a few days in private?) Nixon appoints Tex.-born Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski (1905-82) (a religious Roman Catholic Dem. and friend of LBJ, who refused to serve as a prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials because the laws didn't exist at the time of the acts, then voted for Nixon twice, and only expected to uncover misconduct by his aides) as Watergate special prosecutor (until Oct. 25, 1974).
On Feb. 22, 1974 unemployed tire salesman Samuel Joseph Byck (1930-74) attempts to hijack a Delta DC-9 airplane at Baltimore-Washington Internat. Airport in order to crash into the White House in Washington, D.C. and kill Pres. Nixon, killing pilot Fred Jones and aviation officer George Neal Ramsburg before being seriously wounded and shooting himself in the head.
On May 7, 1974 the citizens of the District of Columbia approve the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (enacted last Dec. 24), giving them their first elected govt. in 100+ years; they also have one non-voting member in the House of Reps.
On July 4, 1974 Frederick Douglass' speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is reenacted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
On July 27, 1974 the House Judiciary Committee, chaired over by N.J. Dem. (1949-89) Peter Wallace Rodino Jr. (1909-2005) votes 27-11 to recommend Nixon's impeachment on a charge that he had personally engaged in a "course of conduct" designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case; on July 29 it votes 27-11 to approve a 2nd article of abuse of power and failure to uphold laws; on July 30 by 27-11 it votes a 3rd article of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas, and votes 26-12 against an article of impeachment relating to demeaning his office by misconduct of personal financial affairs; after the Aug. 5 release of the Smoking Gun Tape, the 10 Repub. reps. who had voted against all three articles of impeachment announce that they will support impeachment in a full House vote.
8-8-7-4, King Richard is no more? On Aug. 8, 1974 (Thur.) (eve.) (same day he was nominated for pres. in 1968?) after being told by Repub. Senators Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott, and John Rhodes on Aug. 7 that there are enough votes to convict and remove him, and flopping on his earlier assertions that he would fight to the bloody end, Pres. Tricky Dicky Nixon (1913-94) goes on TV and admits "some" wrong judgments, then announces his resignation, effective at noon EST Aug. 9 (first U.S. pres. to resign), taking the Sea King VH-3A Marine One heli from the White House South Lawn to Andrews AFB in Md., then taking Air Force One to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Calif., then traveling to his new hideaway home in San Clemente, Calif. along with loyal-to-the-end press secy. Ronald Ziegler, who later utters the soundbyte: "I was the only one on that plane to San Clemente with Nixon when power changed hands. I was there with Nixon in exile. I will publish a good book someday"; Nixon later writes: "As the helicoper moved on to Andrews, I found myself thinking not of the past, but of the future. What could I do now?"; during his presidency Nixon viewed more than 500 movies in the White House (Jimmy Carter later comes in 2nd with 465); Johnny Carson's nightly jabs at him help cement his fall; his approval rating in Calif. has dropped to 24%; his daughter Julie says, "Now I can wear hot pants"; Ziegler also utters the soundbyte: "Thank goodness, I was one of the few members of the Nixon White House staff who was never indicted and I was not part of the coverup", and in 1988 he becomes CEO of the Nat. Assoc. of Chain Drug Stores; future U.S. pres. George Herbert Walker Bush was not only involved in JFK's assassination but in Nixon's ouster, which he engineered to get him out of the way?
The President that Ford Motor Company built? On Aug. 9, 1974 (Fri.) (noon) Omaha, Neb.-born U. of Mich. All-American football center and Yale Law School grad. ("The right sort of sports fan" - McGeorge Bundy, pres. of the Ford Motor Co. Foundation) Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford Jr. (1913-2006) (not "Gerry") becomes the 38th U.S. pres. (until 1977) in the 56th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Room of the White House Washington, D.C., becoming the first unelected "25th Amendment President", AKA the "Accidental President" (895-day term of office), and the first person to serve as pres. and vice-pres. without winning election to either office (first in a position to make deals to get himself the job with pure backroom politics?); first pres. with a changed name (Leslie Lynch King Jr.) (next Clinton); 4th lefty U.S. pres. (last Truman, next Reagan); 5th pres. who was never elected to the office (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur); warmest non-traditional date inauguration (89F, partly cloudy and hazy) until ?; 25th atty. to become pres. (next ?); as Ford is being sworn in, Nixon's plane is 13 mi. SW of Jefferson City, Mo., losing the designation Air Force One; Ford's Inauguration Address takes pains to say that it is not an inauguration address, and incl. the soundbyte: "Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men... I am acutely aware that you have not elected me by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers"; wanting to be known for his Washington-like integrity rather than his brains, he adds "I'm not a Lincoln I'm a Ford"; he has the U.S. Marine Corps Band play the U. of Mich. fight song instead of Hail to the Chief, and doesn't "change" after becoming pres.; he orders a truck with Nixon's White House papers stopped, and Congress passes an act authorizing their seizure on behalf of the U.S. people, and ordering pub. of parts not containing state secrets or purely personal matters; First Lady is drinks-like-a-fish free-talking former beauty queen Betty Bloomer Warren Ford (1918-2011) (Secret Service codename: Pinafore), who becomes the first Women's Libber First Lady, in favor of birth control, abortion, and equal rights for women; they have a pet golden retriever named Liberty (1974-), who becomes First Dog after being given to them in the fall; daughter Susan Elizabeth Ford (1957-) holds her high school senior prom in the White House; a Vail, Colo. lover since 1968, Ford turns Vail into the Western White House, with Secret Service agents screened for ability to ski.
On Dec. 19, 1974 after 4 mo. of Congressional hearings, and Senate confirmation on Dec. 12, the House confirms "the Spendthrift of Albany" Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908-79), and he is sworn-in as the 41st U.S. vice-pres. (until Jan. 20, 1977) by U.S. chief justice Warren Burger in the U.S. Senate Chamber; the hearings reveal his net wealth as $218M, incl. an avg. annual income for the past 10 years of $4.6M before taxes; his wife (since 1963) is Margretta Large Fitler Murphy "Happy" Rockefeller (1926-2015), the great-great-great-granddaughter of U.S. Civil War Union gen. George Gordon Meade (1815-72) - how much did it cost?
On Jan. 2, 1975 after being appointed mayor-commissioner by Pres. LBJ in 1967, and winning the first mayoral election in 1974, Dawson, Ga.-born Walter Edward Washington (1915-2003) becomes the first home-rule mayor of Washington, D.C. (until Jan. 2, 1979).
On Sept. 30, 1975 the $126M 2.8M sq. ft. ugly 2-headed monster J. Edgar Hoover Bldg. (begun Mar. 1965) at 935 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. in Washington, D.C. across from their former HQ in the Dept. of Justice Bldg. at 950 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. is dedicated as the HQ of the FBI by Pres. Ford (until ?).
On Mar. 27, 1976 the Washington Metro (Metrorail) rapid transit system in Washington, D.C. opens, growing to six lines, 91 stations, and 117 mi. of route.
On July 4, 1976 (Sun.) year-long celebrations of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (DOI) reach their height, with celebrations and fireworks displays, along with the Italian tall ship Amerigo Vespucci sailing into New York Harbor; a record 10,471 U.S. flags fly over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
On Sept. 18, 1976 a Unification Church Rally at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. draws 300K; Rev. Sun Myung Moon delivers his U.S. Bicentennial speech "America and God's Will".
On Sept. 21, 1976 exiled former Chilean ambassador to the U.S. Orlando Letelier (b. 1932) (an outspoken critic of Augusto Pinochet) is assassinated in Washington D.C. by a car bomb under orders of Gen. Manuel Contreras (1929-), head of Pinochet's Chilean secret police (DINA); 25-y.-o. Am. woman Ronni Moffitt (b. 1951) is also killed; ex-CIA agent Michael Townley later admits to using anti-Castro Cubans to do the job.
Captain Underpants to the rescue? On Jan. 20, 1977 (Thur.) Plains, Goober State (Ga.)-born peanut farmer and U.S. Naval Academy grad. in nuclear physics James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (b. 1924) becomes the 39th U.S. pres. (until Jan. 20, 1981) in the 57th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (last inauguration held in the East Portico until ?); first U.S. Naval Academy grad. to become pres., first Southerner since Zachary Taylor, first to use his nickname in an official capacity, and first to skip his middle name in his oath, using "Jimmy Carter"; one of three U.S. presidents to live at least 30 years after his inauguration (Herbert Hoover, Gerald R. Ford); first U.S. pres. to live 40 years after his inauguration; a no-frills stickler, he surprises everyone by insisting on walking from the U.S. Capitol to the White House, and selling 10K bleacher seats for $25 each to help pay for the inaugural parade, then becoming the first pres. to walk to the White House; later he insists on carrying his own bags, and causes an outcry by attempting to do away with the playing of "Hail to the Chief"; the Carter Inaugural Address begins by thanking Ford for "all he has done to heal our land"; he goes on to become known as a failed pres. for failing to get reelected, while getting more legislation passed than any recent pres. except LBJ; Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (1928-) becomes the 42nd U.S. vice-pres.; First Lady is Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter (1927-) (Secret Service codename: Dancer), who was active during the campaign and continues her active role in his admin.; Pres. Carter appoints Cyrus Roberts Vance (1917-2002) (LBJ's deputy secy. of defense, who resigned and advised him to pull out of South Vietnam) as U.S. secy. of state #57 (until Apr. 28, 1980), and Patricia Roberts Harris (1924-80) as U.S. secy. of HUD (later HHS) #6 (until Sept. 10, 1979), becoming the first African-Am. woman to enter the U.S. pres. line of succession (lucky #13); Carter appoints Polish-born Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (1928-) as nat. security advisor #10 (until Jan. 20, 1981), who appoints Samuel Phillips Huntington (1927-2008) as his deputy, coming up with the "Cooperation and Competition" U.S.-Soviet policy that publicly talks of cooperation and detente with the Soviets while privately pushing for supremacy over them, causing them to argue frequently; liberal Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (1912-94) (D-Mass.) becomes U.S. House Speaker #47 (until Jan. 3, 1987); Harold Brown (1927-2019) becomes U.S. defense secy. #14 (until Jan. 20, 1981), becoming the first scientist and nuclear weapons expert to head the U.S. Defense Dept.; Carter promises to make human rights the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, which course Reagan and G.H.W. Bush later drop, but Clinton resumes; Carter becomes the first U.S. pres. not to appoint a Supreme Court justice since Truman, and later becomes the first elected pres. since 1932 not to win a 2nd term.; Am. singer Cher (1946-) later utters the soundbyte that because of his inexperience with Washington politics, the Dem. Congress "cut him off at the knees".
On Mar. 9, 1977 the Hanafi Muslim Siege begins when 12 Black Muslim extremists of the Hanafi Movement (splinter group of the Nation of Islam), incl. founder (1968) Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis (Ernest 2X McGee) (-2003) (former jazz drumer born in Gary Ind. as Ernest Timothy McGhee) invade the city hall, B'nai B'rith HQ, and Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. in protest of the airing of the 1976 Moustapha Akkad film Mohammed, Messenger of God, which they mistakenly believed broke the taboo about showing their prince of darkness prophet on film, taking 149 hostages, killing radio reporter Maurice Williams and police officer Mack Cantrell, wounding future mayor Marion Barry, and holding the hostages for two days Allah Akbaring like cowboys on beans, also demanding that a group of men convicted of killing their relatives be handed over so they can execute them; on Mar. 11 the siege ends after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join the negotiations, and they are convicted on July 23, and given 21-120 year sentences - the religion of peace, right?
On Nov. 15-16, 1977 Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visits Pres. Carter in the White House in Washington, D.C. amid protests that are quashed by police; on Dec. 31 Pres. Carter visits Tehran, and gives a New Year's toast to the Shah, uttering the immortal soundbyte: "Iran, under the great leadership of the shah, is an island of stability"; after that proves false, the two countries hold no more "substantive" meetings until May 2007.
On Feb. 11, 1978 the Longest Walk by AIM begins on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, Calif., ending on July 15 in Washington, D.C. after 3.2K mi., carrying their Sacred Pipe to lobby Congress for 11 pieces of legislation; supporters incl. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, actor Marlon Brando, and boxing champ Muhammad Ali; Pres. Carter refuses to meet with them; in July 2008 they stage the Longest Walk 2. On Aug. 11, 1978 Pres. Carter signs the U.S. Am. Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), protecting Native Am. religious practice and sacred sites incl. the use of peyote in worship.
On July 9, 1978 after it remains only three states short, a March for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) on the Mall in in Washington, D.C. draws 100K, demonstrating for a 7-year extension of the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) past Mar. 22, 1979, and on Aug. 15 the U.S. House of Reps votes 233-189 to extend the deadline by 39 mo., followed on Oct. 6 by the U.S. Senate by 60-36; too bad, Phillis Schafly's anti-ERA movement wins and it's not ratified (until ?).
On Feb. 5, 1979 the Washington, D.C. Tractorcade sees 6K family farmers drive their tractors to Washington, D.C. to protest farm policy, and get herded into the Nat. Mall by police; too bad, they arrive during a snowstorm, causing their tractors to be turned into snowplows.
A tiny incident is seized on by environmentalists to stop the true solution to fossil fuels? On Mar. 28, 1979 (4:00 a.m. EST) there is a little ole accident at the new Metropolitan Edison Co. Three Mile Island Nuclear Station in Dauphin County near Harrisburg and Middletown, Penn. when the Unit Two reactor almost melts down after losing cooling water, dumping tons of water into an auxiliary bldg. through an improperly open valve, causing 144K to be evacuated despite little radiation being released; Pres. Carter tours the facility on Apr. 1 along with Penn. gov. Dick Thornburgh; the bad publicity causes 11 nuclear reactor projects in the U.S. to be canceled this year, and no new construction is announced until 2010; on May 6 125K march in Washington, D.C. to oppose nuclear power and nuclear weapons; other nations incl. the Soviet Union, Japan and France continue to build them; it costs $1B and takes until 1993 to remove the damaged nuclear fuel - are people living downwind inflicted with increased cancer rates, or was this a staged disaster to test the fledgling FEMA?
On July 4, 1979 the first annual free Capitol Fourth July 4th concert is held on the West Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., featuring the Nat. Symphony Orchestra, ending with Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" complete with cannon fire before the fireworks; on July 4, 1981 PBS-TV begins broadcasting it, hosted by E.G. Marshall, with conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and entertainer Pearl Bailey.
On Oct. 14, 1979 the First Nat. March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C. sees 75K-125K march demanding equal civil rights for LGBTs along with protective civil rights legislation; 2nd march on Oct. 11, 1987.
On Nov. 4, 1979 enraged at the U.S. granting asylum to the Shah, and fearing a repeat of the U.S.-backed Aug. 19, 1953 coup that overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh, a crowd of 3K Iranian Basij paramilitary militia pretending to be students seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 90 hostages, incl. 53 Americans, beginning the Iran Hostage Crisis, holding 53 Americans hostage for 444 days until Jan. 20, 1981, demanding that the U.S. send the shah back for trial; in Nov. Iranian deputy PM Ebrahim Yazdi (1931-) resigns over the hostage crisis, going on in 1995-2011 to become leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran (founded 1961); 13 women and blacks are released on Nov. 22; Richard Queen is released in July 1980 after becoming ill, leaving 52 hostages; on Dec. 16 the shah leaves for Panama via Tex.; after he dies on July 27, 1980, it takes a regime change in the U.S. to get the hostages released - and arms for hostages? On Nov. 5, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini declares the U.S. the "Great Satan", and Israel the "Little Satan", and on Nov. 6 Satan, er, he takes power in Iran. On Nov. 8 Ted Koppel (1940-) (son of German Jewish immigrants, hired in 1963) begins his ABC News special late night broadcasts, with a brief spot on The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, anchored by Frank Reynolds, and by Christmas he takes over the late evening staple, which features insets reading "DAY 45", etc., with a map of Iran and a blindfolded hostage next to it. On Nov. 9, 1979 amid mucho anti-Iranian sentiment, a Protest Against Iran is held in Washington, D.C., with signs reading "Deport all Iranians" and "Get the hell out of my country". In Dec. 1979 the Nat. Christmas Tree at the White House in Washington, D.C. is kept dark except for the top light pending release of the Iranian hostages.
On Mar. 22, 1980 the Mobilization Against the Draft and Draft Registration Rally in San Francisco, Calif. is followed by another march on Mar. 23 in Washington, D.C. attended by 30K to protest Pres. Carter's proposed renewal of draft registration.
An actor can become president of the United States? On Jan. 20, 1981 70-y.-o. Tampico, Ill.-born Rock River bodyguard (saved 77 people), Eureka College (Disciples of Christ) grad., radio announcer, male model and Hollywood B-movie actor Ronald Wilson "Dutch" Reagan (1911-2004) ("the Great Communicator") becomes the Biblical Number 40th (until Jan. 20, 1989) U.S. pres. (oldest person elected pres. so far) (first divorced pres.) in the 58th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (Secret Service codename: Rawhide); warmest (55F) inauguration day until ?; the 5th lefty U.S. pres. (last Ford, next G.H.W. Bush); 2nd to skip using his middle name in the oath (1st Jimmy Carter); George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018) becomes the 43rd U.S. vice-pres. (Secret Service codename: Tumbler); First Lady is Anne Francis "Nancy" Robbins Davis Reagan (1921-2016) (Secret Service codename: Rainbow); Reagan places a standing order for 720 1-lb. bags of Jelly Belly brand jelly beans (306,070 beans) each month, costing $2,880, later uttering the soundbyte: "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans"; Second Lady is Barbara Bush (nee Pierce) (1925-2018); Reagan's First Inaugural Address (held for the first time on the terrace of the West Front of the Capitol) contains the soundbyte: "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem"; minutes after he is sworn-in, Iran releases the U.S. hostages, and they are flown to Algiers after 444 days in captivity, in return for which the U.S. unblocks some Iranian funds and Iran agrees to repay U.S. bank loans; U.S. Sen. (R-Nev.) (1974-87) Paul Dominique Laxalt (1922-2018), Reagan's closest friend in politics becomes known as "the First Friend"; inheriting 10% inflation and 20% interest rates and setting out to undo LBJ's Great Society, Reagan hires long-haired Baby Boomer number-cruncher "budget guru" David Alan Stockman (1946-) as dir. of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (until Aug. 1985) to go over thick computer printouts in an attempt to understand what items to cut; on Feb. 18 Reagan announces a simultaneous across-the-board 30% tax cut to curtail the welfare state combined with a massive military buildup to please the flag-wavers, relying on future economic growth to pay for it while braving giant deficits, which critics call Reaganomics (called Voodoo Economics by George H.W. Bush while vice-pres.), and arch-foe House Speaker Tip O'Neill says is only for people making over $50K a year; in Feb. Reagan presents the U.S. Economic Tax Recovery Act to Congress, with the first-ever trillion-dollar budget submitted to Congress, which balloons the deficit from $1T to over $4T in 12 years; he begins the dismantling of the power of labor unions and the deindustrialization of the U.S.?; he sets a goal of packing the Supreme Court with new justices to overturn the nasty Roe v. Wade ruling, ending up with three (O'Connor, Kennedy, Scalia), with his successor Bush Sr. a ppointing two more (Souter, who replaces liberal icon William Brennan, and Thomas, who replaces liberal icon Thurgood Marshall); Reagan appoints Donald Thomas Regan (1918-2003) as White House secy., Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger (1917-2006) as defense secy. (soon becoming known as "Cap the Knife" for his cost-cutting ways), West Point-graduated Ill. agriculture dir. John Rusling Block (1935-) as U.S. agriculture secy. #21 (until Feb. 14, 1986), Notre Dame-educated fellow Irishman Raymond James Donovan (1930-) as labor secy. #17 (until Mar. 15, 1985), and (after influence by Colo. conservative beer magnate Joseph Coors) Wyo.-born (schmucky-looking?) James Gaius Watt (1938-), 1979 founder of the anti-environmentalist Mountain States Legal Foundation ("dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property...") as interior secy. #43 (until Nov. 8, 1983); on Feb. 5 he testifies before Congress, uttering the soundbyte: "We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber"; he also becomes known for the soundbytes: "I don't know how many future generations we can count on until the Lord returns", "We don't have to protect the environment - the Second Coming is at hand", and "My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns"; after more strings pulled by Coors, Reagan further angers environmentalists by appointing Wyo.-born atty. Anne McGill Gorsuch (later Burford) (1942-2004) (former deputy district atty. in Denver, Colo. and rep. from Colo.) as dir. #4 of the EPA (first female) (until Mar. 9, 1983), who goes on to slash the budget by $200M and cut staff by 23%; he makes one good pick, Duncan, Okla.-born staunch anti-Communist Repub. Jean Jordan Kirkpatrick (nee Jeane Duane Jordan) (1926-2006) who becomes U.S. U.N. ambassador #16 (first woman) (Feb. 4, 1981 to Apr. 1, 1985), becoming known for her Kirkpatrick Doctrine of U.S. support for any anti-Commie govt., incl. authoritarian regimes, causing Noam Chomsky to call her the "chief sadist-in-residence of the Reagan administration", uttering the soundbyte: "What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving"; the Reagan Doctrine of overwhelming the global influence of the Soviet Union to end the Cold War incl. supporting any and all anti-Communist guerrillas while seeking to change the Soviet Union from within is masterminded by Polish Jewish immigrant Richard Edgar Pipes (1923-2018); Jewish-Am. thinker ("the Godfather of Neoconservatism") Irving Kristol (1920-2009) (who defines neoconservatives as "liberals mugged by reality") works to support Reagan's domestic agenda incl. supply-side economics, raising big bucks to create an apparatus of conservative think tanks that later boost the Bushes into the White House, brokering a tactical alliance between Jewish neocons and Christian evangelicals, even anti-Semitic ones as long as they are against the pesky Muslims; Jimmy Carter leaves office broke and bitter, his peanut warehouse in Plains, Ga. $1M in debt, and breaks tradition by criticizing his successor Reagan, but soon begins pursuing high-minded projects, working with Millard Dean Fuller (1935-2009), 1976 founder of Habitat for Humanity Internat., and founding the Carter Center in 1982, setting out to become a super Peter Pan statesman?
On May 3, 1981 the People's Anti-War Mobilization (PAM) Coalition draws 25K to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. to protest U.S. policy in El Salvador and other leftist issues; MC is boxer Larry Holmes.
On Sept. 19, 1981 the Solidarity Day March in Washington, D.C., organized by the AFL-CIO to protest Reagan admin. labor and domestic policies esp. Pres. Reagan's firing of 12K striking air traffic controllers on Aug. 5 is attended by 260K; a repeat is held on Aug. 31, 1991, organized by 180 labor, civil rights, religious, and environmental groups to turn federal govt. attention away from foreign issues to domestic issues, attended by 250K-325K.
On Mar. 26, 1982 groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the black granite Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., designed by architecture student Maya Ying Lin (1959-), who last May 6 was selected from 1,422 entries; on Nov. 10 it is opened to its first visitors, then dedicated on Nov. 13; it displays the names of all 57,692 (later 58,318) killed or missing.
On Nov. 27, 1982 an Anti-Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Protest in Washington, D.C. protests the first KKK rally there in 57 years, injuring 11 police officers, who arrest 38 after the Klansmen arrive sans robes and speak in Lafayette Park.
On Dec. 25, 1982 NBC-TV debuts the annual 1-hour variety show Christmas in Washington, recorded at the Nat. Bldg. Museum in Washington, D.C., attended by the U.S. pres. and First Lady; it switches to TNT in 1998 until 2014; the debut show features a clip of Pres. Reagan reading the Christmas story "A Solitary Life" to a group of children.
In 1983 African-Am. comedian Eddie Murphy stages Eddie Murphy: Delirious at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., performing shirtless in red leather pants and matching jacket unzipped to his navel, bringing U.S. comedy to a new level with profanity and impressions of James Brown et al., and riffing on how Michael Jackson "ain't the most masculine fellow in the world".
On Jan. 20, 1985 U.S. pres. #40 (since Jan. 20, 1981) Ronald Reagan is inaugurated for a 2nd term in the 59th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington, D.C.; George Herbert Walker Bush continues as the 43rd U.S. vice-pres. (until Jan. 20, 1989); on Jan. 21 after 7F temps. and -25F wind chills cause it to be moved indoors, he delivers his 2nd inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; it contains the soundbytes: "It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent and fair. That's our heritage; that's our song"; the coldest inauguration (until ?) - cut?
On Mar. 1, 1986 the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament leaves Los Angeles, Calif., arriving in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 15 after traveling 3.7K mi.
On Mar. 9, 1986 the First March for Women's Lives Reproductive Rights Rally in Washington, D.C., organized by the Nat. Org for Women (NOW) is attended by 80K; in 1992 another march is attended by 750K; on Apr. 25, 2004 another march is attended by 1M.
On Apr. 25, 1987 (Sat.) the Mobilization for Justice & Peace in Central America & Southern Africa sees ? march down Constitution Ave., past the White House, and to the W steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; speakers incl. Rev. Jesse Jackson and actor Ed Asner; music is provided by Jackson Browne, and Peter, Paul and Mary; the first time that religious and union leaders join to protest U.S. foreign policy?'; it is timed to prevent U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan Contras?
On May 24, 1987 (Sun. of Memorial Day Weekend) the Rolling Thunder veterans' motorcycle advocacy group for POWs and MIAs makes its first annual Run to the Wall to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.; by 2001 it draws 200K motorcyles, growing to 350K in 2008, and 500K in 2018.
On Oct. 11, 1987 the Second Nat. March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights AKA The Great March (first on Oct. 14, 1979) sees 200K homosexual/gay rights activists march in Washington, D.C. demanding protection from discrimination and federal money for AIDS research and treatment, becoming the first nat. coverage of AIDS Coalition to Unlease Power (ACT UP) (formed in Mar.); future Dem. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi participates in the march; the AIDS Quilt is displayed for the first time at the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C., containing 1,920 panels; 7K watch 2K same-sex couples being married on the Nat. Mall, becoming known as The Wedding.
On Dec. 6, 1987 (Sun.) Freedom Sun. for Soviet Jews sees 250K gather on the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. to call for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to extend his Glasnost policy to Soviet Jews and allow them to emigrate, becoming the largest Jewish rally in Washington, D.C. history (until ?). On Dec. 7, 1987 Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sets foot on U.S. soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington, D.C. Summit with Pres. Reagan on Dec. 8-10; on Dec. 8 (1:45 p.m.) they sign the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear missiles, becoming the first-ever agreement between the U.S. and Soviet Union to reduce the size of their nuclear arsenals; Am. pianist Van Cliburn performs for Gorbachev at the White House; by May 1991 the two countries eliminate 2,692 missiles; too bad, on Oct. 20, 2018 Pres. Trump announces that the U.S. is withdrawing from the treaty after accusing Russia of non-compliance, and the U.S. formally pulls out on Feb. 1, 2019, followed by Russia on Feb. 2.
On Apr. 29-30, 1988 the Washington for Jesus demonstrations by 200K Christian right believers in Washington, D.C. are led by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, William Bright, and Benson Idahosa, featuring a videotape address by Pres. Ronald Reagan, who announces plans to make the following Thur. a Nat. Day of Prayer, turning onservative Christians on to political activism and unifying their stances against homosexuality, abortion, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, divorce, and women's liberation, increasing support for Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; another rally is held in pouring rain in 1996, attended by 75K.
On Jan. 12, 1989 pres.-elect Bush completes the selection of his cabinet, naming retired Adm. James David Watkins (1927-)
as U.S. energy secy. #6 (until Jan. 20, 1993), and former education secy. (1985-8) William John Bennett (1943-)
as U.S. drug czar (dir. of the Office of Nat. Drug Control Policy) #1 on Mar. 13 (until Dec. 13, 199), pushing zero tolerance to incl. casual drug users, even though he smokes and drinks; on
June 15 he appears on Larry King Live, saying "I don't have any problem" with beheading drug dealers; meanwhile he pub. the moral tract
The Book of Virtues,
recommending self-control as the answer to society's problems - Bennett, hell I broke it?
On Jan. 25, 1989 the Senate Armed Services Committee opens confirmation hearings on the nomination of former U.S. Sen. (R-Tex.) (1961-85)
John Goodwin Tower (1925-91) (chmn. of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1981-5) to be secy. of defense; on Feb. 23 it votes
against recommending him, after which on Mar. 8 four undecided Senate Dems. announce that they have decided against him, and on Mar. 9 the Senate rejects President Bush's nomination of
John Tower for defense secy. by a vote of 53-47, becoming the first cabinet nominee of a newly-elected U.S. pres. to be rejected; on Mar. 10 Bush announces the nomination of Lincoln, Neb.-born Repub.
Wyom. Rep. (since Jan. 3, 1979) Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (1941-), who is unanimously confirmed on Mar. 17, and sworn-in as
U.S. defense secy. #17 on Mar. 21 (until Jan. 20, 1993).
The CIA infiltrates the White House?
On Jan. 20, 1989 Milton, Mass.-born Yale U. grad, WWII U.S. Navy pilot, and CIA dir. #11 (1976-7) ("the Resume Candidate")
George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018) becomes the 41st U.S. pres. (until Jan. 20, 1993) in the
60th U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.,
becoming the first Pres. George since #1 George Washington, the first incumbent vice-pres. elected by direct election in 152 years since Van Buren, as well as the
first CIA dir. to become pres., and the sixth lefty U.S. pres. (last Reagan, next Clinton); continues the tradition of all Mass.-born U.S. presidents being born in Norfolk County
(John Adams (1735-1826), John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), JFK); the inaug. theme is "Peace, Prosperity, and Independence"; Bush's
inaugural speech
promises to lead in a "moment rich with promise"; "A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek a window on men's souls. In fact, I yearn for a greater tolerance, and easygoingness
about each other's attitudes and way of life"; 1974 crypto-literate Indiana U. law grad James Danforth "Dan" Quayle (1947-) becomes the
44th U.S. vice-pres. (until Jan. 20, 1993); his wife (whom he met in law school at Indiana U.) is Marilyn Tucker Quayle (1949-)
(tuck a quail joke here?); First Lady is Barbara Bush (1925-)
(who bears a striking resemblance to George Washington?) (Secret Service codename: Tranquility); First Dog is springer spaniel Millie (1985-97).
On Jan. 18, 1990 in an FBI sting at the Vista Hotel in Washington, D.C., the city's mayor #2 (since Jan. 2, 1979) (Dem.) Marion Shepilov Barry Jr. (1936-2014) is arrested for drug possession; he is later convicted of a misdemeanor after his June trial shows fuzzy 90-min. videotapes of him making sexual advances toward longtime model friend Rasheeda Moore (working for the police) in Room 727, arguing with her about whether to smoke crack, then lighting and smoking the pipe himself, after which the feds rush in and bust him, causing him to exclaim "I got tricked... Bitch set me up"; she testifies that she used drugs with him 100x+ in 1986-9.
On Apr. 28, 1990 amid a record 16M abortions in the U.S. this year, the March (Rally) for Life 1990 sees 200K demonstrate in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. against abortion and the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision in "Webster v. Reproductive Health Services" that upheld Roe v. Wade, while the leftist-controlled media snubs it; they go on to establish a dept. of state legislation to pass pro-life laws in state legislatures.
The brains of LBJ, the gonads of Elvis? On Jan. 20, 1993 Hope, Ark.-born Georgetown U. grad, Oxford Rhodes scholar (first to become pres.) and Yale Law School grad., former Ark. gov. (1983-92), saxophone player ("first black U.S. pres.") (first pres. whose middle name honors a predecessor) (Ronald Wilson Reagan, whose middle name was his mother's surname, was born the year before Woodrow Wilson's election) (2nd pres. who took a stepfather's surname) (first was Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.); 3rd youngest president (Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy) (4th post-WWII pres. with Southern ancestry) (Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Carter) ("first pres. to wear a tangerine lalalala speedo"?) (can't type) William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (1946-) (Secret Service codename: Eagle/Elvis after his favorite singer) becomes the 42nd U.S. pres. (until Jan. 20, 2001) in the 61st U.S. Pres. Inaguration in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; first Baby Boomer U.S. pres; the 7th lefty U.S. pres. (last G.H.W. Bush); 2nd pres. with a changed name (William Jefferson Blythe III) (first Ford) (next ?); Albert Arnold "Al" Gore Jr. (1948-) (Secret Service codename: Sawhorse/Sundance) becomes the 45th U.S. vice-pres. (until Jan. 20, 2001); the 2nd time that the U.S. has six living presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton); the youngest combined age of pres. and vice-pres. (90) (until ?); Clinton's first inauguration ball is in keeping with his status as America's first Baby Boomer pres., and features Maya Angelou reciting her poem On the Pulse of the Morning, and Fleetwood Mac performing "Don't Stop" (Bill's favorite thing for a woman to say?), scaring conservatives half to death and crystallizing desperate all-out desires to 'get' him?; Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (1947-) (Secret Service codename: Evergreen) becomes the first First Lady to have her own office in the White House, where it is rumored that she is the real president, has hairy balls, etc. (the first FLOTUS to become POTUS?); First Dog is Labrador retriever Buddy (1997-2002) (named after Bill's dog trainer great-uncle Henry Oren "Buddy" Grisham, who died 3 mo. before it was born in Sept.), and First Cat is Socks (1989-2009) (who was "voted out of office" when Buddy arrived, because he can't stand him); First Daughter Chelsea Victoria Clinton (1980-) (Secret Service codename: Energy) is kept out of the public spotlight; Pres. Clinton appoints Warren Minor Christopher (1925-) as U.S. secy. of state #63 (until Jan. 17, 1997) (not the actor William Christopher who played Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H, he was born in 1932), Leslie "Les" Aspin Jr. (1938-95) as U.S. defense secy. #18 (until Feb. 3, 1994), Robert Bernard Reich (1946-) as U.S. labor secy. #22 (until 1997), Tex.-born former Denver, Colo. mayor (who was ousted after he failed to provide enough snowplows for a major snowstorm, making him the man for a national appointment?) Federico Fabian Pena (Peña) (1947-) (Hispanic) as U.S. transportation secy. #12 (until Feb. 14, 1997), Ronald "Ron" Harmon Brown (1941-96) (Dem. Nat. Committee chmn. since 1989) as U.S. commerce secy. #30 (until Apr. 3, 1996) (first black), and Alphonso Michael "Mike" Espy (1953-) as U.S. agriculture secy. #25 (until Dec. 31, 1994) (first black in the job); former Ariz. gov. (1978-87) Bruce Edward Babbitt (1938-) becomes U.S. interior secy. #47 (until Jan. 20, 2001); Lebanese-Am. Donna Edna Shalala (1941-) becomes HHS secy. #18 (until Jan. 20, 2001) (first Arab-Am., and longest-serving until ?); Oxford-educated William Anthony Kirsopp "Tony" Lake (1939-) becomes nat. security advisor #18 (until 1997); Leon Edward Panetta (1938-) becomes White House chief of staff (until Apr. 14, 1997); black atty. Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (1935-) is one of Pres. Clinton's key advisors; Lani Guinier (1950-), Clinton's first nominee (Apr.) to lead the U.S. Justice Dept.'s Civil Rights Div. is dropped in June after her writings backing racial quotas cause her to be called one of "Clinton's quota queens" by the Wall Street Journal; in 1998 she becomes the first African-Am. to receive tenure at Harvard Law School; economist Joseph Stiglitz (1943-) joins the Clinton admin. along with Lawrence Henry Summers (1954-), working up to chmn. of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1995-7, and proposing the "Third Way" of a limited but essential role of govt. in the marketplace, ending with financial deregulation incl. of derivatives; after joining the World Bank in 1997, he flops and ends up as a critic of the Bush-Obama bank bailouts; too bad, Clinton wastes his first weeks in office alienating the military by suggesting they allow gays, and by nominating non-starter Zoe (Zoë) Eliot Baird (1952-) for atty. gen., who is found to have not paid taxes on illegal, er, domestic help, which is called Nannygate; former Watergate atty. (who worked with Hillary Clinton in 1974) Bernard W. Nussbaum (1937-) becomes pres. counsel; Egyptian-born pro-Israel Israeli-Am. billionaire ("Power Rangers" media mogul) Haim Saban (1944-) serves on the President's Export Council, sleeping in the White House several times during Clinton's two terms, later pumping money into the William J. Clinton Foundation in Little Rock, Ark., reaching $8M-$10M by 2013, then publicly supporting Hillary Clinton in her 2008 U.S. pres. bid; right before Hillary Clinton announces her candidacy for U.S. pres. in 2015, he gives an interview to Israel's Channel 1, answering a question about her position on the pending nuke deal with Iran by claiming to "know where she stands but I can't talk about it"; Bill Clinton becomes known for freewheeling brainstorming sessions with people of all ranks incl. low-ranking people who probably shouldn't be wasting his time. Clinton becomes known for freewheeling brainstorming sessions with people of all ranks incl. low-ranking people who probably shouldn't be wasting his time.
On July 4, 1993 A Capitol Fourth in Washington, D.C. honors POWs and MIAs from the Vietnam War; Johnny Cash sings "The Old Rugged Cross", and he and June Carter cash sing "Jackson".
On Oct. 16, 1995 the Million Man March for African-Am. men, organized by the black supremacist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (1933-) is held in Washington D.C., although only 400K black men show up, incl. young Barack Obama (1961-), who is inspired by it, uttering the soundbyte: "What was lacking among march organizers was a positive agenda, a coherent agenda for change"; Farrakhan's advisor is black radical academic Cornel Ronald West (1953-), a personal friend of Barack Obama, who later introduces him at his first fundraiser in Harlem in 2007.
On Oct. 12, 1996 the Immigrants Rights March in Washington, D.C. becomes the first nat. march for equal rights for immigrants.
On Jan. 20, 1997 U.S. pres. #42 (since Jan. 20, 1993) William Jefferson Clinton is inaugurated for a 2nd term in the 62nd U.S. Pres. Inauguration in the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; Al Gore continues as the 45th U.S. vice-pres. (until Jan. 20, 2001); Ark. poet Miller Williams reads his poem "Of History and Hope"; the inaug. theme is "Building a Bridge to the 21st Century"; Clinton's Second Inaugural Address waxes lyrical about "a place called Hope"; the last U.S. pres. inaugural address of the 20th cent., and first to be broadcast live on the Internet.
On Apr. 18, 1997 the 7-story 250K sq. ft. Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW in Washington, D.C. opens as a shrine to journalism and the U.S. First Amendment, attracting 815K visitors/year, losing money despite high admission fees; on Jan. 25, 2019 Johns Hopkins U. announces plans to buy it for $372.5M for graduate programs.
On May 2, 1997 the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial next to the Tidal Basin in in Washington, D.C., designed by Am. modernist architect Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) et al. is dedicated, becoming the first U.S. pres. monument since the 1943 Jefferson Memorial; his paralysis is concealed, pissing-off disability rights advocates, so on Jan. 2001 a bronze statue of FDR in a wheelchair is added.
On Oct. 4, 1997 U. of Colo. football coach Bill McCartney's Promise Keepers hold a rally in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. titled "Stand in the Gap: A Sacred Assembly of Men", which draws 750K, mostly white males, who beg forgiveness for racial insensitivity, infidelity, spousal abuse, child abandonment, etc., and ask for help from Jesus.
On Jan. 17, 1998 the Drudge Report, an independent website becomes the first to report the hanky-panky between Pres. Clinton and White House intern Monica Samille Lewinsky (1973-), showing that the Web is now scooping the mainstream media. Sex scandal in the White House involving the head of the country brings the best Democrat president since ? to the midnight hour? On Jan. 23 the Lewinsky Scandal begins after revelations about a cum, er, semen-stained navy-blue dress of 20-something White House intern Monica Samille Lewinsky (1973-) surface in the news; U.S. Pres. Clinton, already facing sexual harassment charges by Paula Corbin Jones (1966-), is accused of having sexual relations (beejay) with Lewinsky; after hearing about it, Hillary Clinton hits Bill over the head with a book, leaving blood all over their beds, requiring several stitches; on Jan. 26 Clinton tells the Am. people the boner that "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky"; on Jan. 27 Hillary Clinton blames it all on a "vast right-wing conspiracy". The mean Puritanical Republicans loose the dogs of war? On Sept. 11 independent counsel Kenneth Star delivers the 445-page Starr Report to the U.S. House of Reps. after a 4-year $40M investigation (witch hunt?) into the Clintons; it charges Pres. Clinton with 11 impeachable offenses, all involving perjury or obstruction of justice - lying to them about personal things that they shouldn't have had the power to ask in the first place? The head of our country is impeached for getting out of hand with aide Monica Lewinsky? On Oct. 5 after a House vote led by Jesuit-trained Ill. Rep. Henry Hyde (1924-2007), who utters the soundbyte: "What we are telling you today are not the ravings of some vast right-wing conspiracy, but a reaffirmation of a set of values that are tarnished and dim these days, but it is given to us to restore them so our Founding Fathers would be proud", the Clinton Impeachment Inquiry begins; Calif. Rep. Gary Condit and other moderate-conservative Blue Dog Dems. vote for the inquiry; on Nov. 13 Paula Jones drops her case against Clinton for $850K; her atty. is up-and-coming Gloria Allred (1941-); on Oct. 8 the U.S. House of Reps. votes 258-176 to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to launch an impeachment inquiry against Pres. Clinton; 31 Dems. vote with the Repub. Salem Witch Hunters looking for a stain on the pres.; the JC opens hearings on Nov. 19, which feature Ken Starr as the star; on Dec. 11-12 On Dec. 1 the House Judiciary Committee widens the scope of its inquiry to incl. the election campaign; on Dec. 11 it votes 21-16 to approve articles of impeachment; on Dec. 17 the House decides to postpone its impeachment vote until the Gulf Crisis is resolved; on Dec. 19 House Resolution 611 (introduced by Henry Hyde on Dec. 15) is passed, making Clinton the 1st elected U.S. pres. and 2nd U.S. pres. to be impeached (Andrew Johnson in 1868); he is impeached on two of four proposed articles by narrow partisan majorities, 228-206 for perjury to a grand jury, and 221-212 for obstruction of justice; a 2nd count of perjury in the Paula Jones case fails by 205-229, and an abuse of power count fails by 148-285; four Repubs. oppose all four articles, five Dems. vote for at least one.
On May 5, 1998 the $768M Ronald Reagan Bldg. and Internat. Trade Center at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. in downtown Washington, D.C. opens, designed by German-born architect James Ingo Freed (1930-2005), becoming the firt federal bldg. in the city with both governmental and private sector purposes; it houses the U.S. Agency for Internat. Development, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Woodrow Wilson Internat. Center for Scholars; too bad, 9/11 causes non-govt. access to be restricted; after Reagan's death in 2004, the building is draped in black with photos on the windows.
On July 24, 1998 (3:40 p.m.) police officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson are shot and killed on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. by gunman Russell Eugene Weston Jr. (1956-) of Rimini, Mont., who pulls it out and begins firing when asked to walk through a metal detector; Weston is injured, and a Va. tourist is injured by stray gunfire in the first shooting inside the Capitol since 1954, and the deadliest since its 1800 opening; the first two policemen killed on duty at the Capital, they are later buried in Arlington Nat. Cemetery; Weston is locked up in a mental institution sans trial (until ?), refusing to take medications for paranoid schizophrenia until a May 2001 federal court order backed in July 2001 by a federal appeals court.
On Jan. 7, 1999 after House Judiciary Committee member (1995-2003) (R-S.C.) Lindsey Olin Graham (1955-) brings the House's case to it, the U.S. Senate begins the Clinton Impeachment Trial (2nd U.S. pres. to be tried before the Senate, after Andrew Johnson), presided over by chief justice William Rehnquist; on Feb. 12 after a motion sponsored by Olympia Jean Snowe (1947-) (R-Maine) and Susan Margaret Collins (1952-) (R-Maine) to allow the Senate to vote separately on the charges and the remedy (on the grounds that picayune perjury charges aren't grounds for removal from office), he is acquitted even though his perjury charge is 55-45 for (10 Repubs. against, 0 Dems. for); the obstruction charge is a 50-50 vote (5 Repubs. against, 0 Dems. for) - he cums close but no cigar?
On Apr. 28-30, 2000 the Millennium March on Washington in suport of LGBT rights in Washington, D.C. is attended by 200K-1M, and incl. the Equality Rocks Concert, featuring Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, George Michael, Pet Shop Boys, and Garth Brooks.
On May 4, 2000 young Philippine hackers launch the Love Bug (I Love You) Virus, which by displaying the message "I love you" and invites the recipient to call up an attachment, which sends itself to everyone on their Web mailing list then trashes and shuts down the recipient's computer, spreading to Asia, Europe, and the Americas, paralyzing communications; 70% of Germany's computers are infected; the British House of Commons shuts down its e-mail to stop the virus, and govt. offices in Washington, D.C. are infected; total damage is as high as $10B (e-bucks?).
If you're looking for a noble profession try law? On June 7, 2000 U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, D.C. orders the breakup of Microsoft Corp., saying that it "has proved untrustworthy in the past" and doesn't appear to accept his ruling that it has broadly violated U.S. antitrust laws, saying "There is credible evidence in the record to suggest that Microsoft, convinced of its innocence, continues to do business as it has in the past and may yet do to other markets what it has already done" to dominate operating systems and Internet software; he breaks Microsoft into two separate competing cos. (for at least 10 years), one for its Windows op. system and the other for its computer application software (Microsoft Office, Access, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) and Internet businesses (Internet Explorer browser, etc.); Microsoft appeals, calling the ruling "an unwarranted and unjustified intrusion into the software marketplace", while the govt. seeks an immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court - heavily armed and heading north on Main Street?
On Dec. 12, 2000 Amtrak's first Acela Express train leaves Union Station in Washington, D.C., arriving in Boston, Mass. in 6 hours 43 min., 12 min. behind schedule; billed as able to go 150 mph and shorten the ride between Washington and New York City by 15 min., it is held to 70-90 mph by the law of N.Y. and Conn., and can only achieve full speed on the 18-mi. stretch in R.I., and is still slower than France's Grande Vitesse, although it weighs half as much.
On Dec. 30, 2000 the Clintons buy a $2.85M 5-bedroom colonial-style brick home on Whitehaven St. near Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., designating their Chappaqua, N.Y. home as their primary residence.
In 2000 chemists at the Naval Research Lab. in Washington, D.C. produce samples of Octanitrocubane, a long-sought hydrocarbon derivative expected to be the most powerful non-nuclear explosive.
On Jan. 10, 2001 after a fight by the Nat. Org. on Disability a bronze lifesize Statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt In A Wheelchair, by Robert Graham (first statue showing a world leader in a wheelchair) is dedicated in Washington, D.C. by Pres. Clinton; an example of a govt. coverup, only two photos of him in a wheelchair exist?
An actor yes, but a chimp in the White House? On Jan. 20, 2001 New Haven, Conn.-born pickup truck-riding Tex. ranch owner, oilman, Yale and Harvard grad., F-102 pilot, and former Texas gov. George Walker "Dubya" Bush (1946-) (Secret Service codename: Tumbler/Trailblazer) becomes the 43rd U.S. pres. (until Jan. 20, 2009) in the 63rd U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. (2nd pres. son after J.Q. Adams to win the White House, and first pres. with an MBA degree), only this one goes two terms and becomes one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history; the first monkey pres.?; has and his daddy George H.W. Bush have a striking resemblance to British Queen Elizabeth II and/or Prince Charles?; Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (1941-) (Secret Service codename: Angler) (whom Bush calls "Big Time") becomes the 46th U.S. vice-pres. (until 2009), the 2nd born in Neb. (first Gerald Ford); the inaug. theme is "Celebrating America's Spirit Together"; the 3rd time that the U.S. has six living presidents (Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.); Bush is sworn-in on the same Bible used by the last "George" to be president, George Washington; First Lady is Laura Lane Welch Bush (1946-) (Secret Service codename: Tempo) (a smoker until her hubby was elected gov. of Texas?); First Dog is Scottish terrier Miss Beazley (2004-14) (father named Clinton); Lawrence Ari Fleischer (1960-) becomes White House press secy. #24 (until July 15, 2003); John David Ashcroft (1942-) (former member of the "Singing Senators" with Larry Craig et al.) becomes U.S. atty.-gen. #79 (until Feb. 3, 2005); on Jan. 22 Stephen John Hadley (1947-) becomes deputy U.S. nat. security adviser (until Jan. 26, 2005); Donald Henry Rumsfeld (1932-) becomes U.S. defense secy. #21 (until Dec. 18, 2006), the oldest (69), and earlier the youngest (43) (#13 under Pres. Ford in 1975-7).
On Apr. 30, 2001 bodacious chic Chandra Ann Levy (b. 1977) mysteriously disappears in Washington, D.C. after leaving a health club near her apt.; on July 5 her aunt tattles on her romantic affair with Calif. Dem. Rep. Gary Adrian Condit (1948-), and his nervous actions end up ruining his career; meanwhile on May 22, 2002 her skeletal remains are found in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., and on Apr. 22, 2009 El Salvadoran illegal immigrant Ingmar A. Guandique (1982-), who had been convicted of assaulting two other women in the park is charged with her murder, and convicted on Nov. 22, 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison; in June 2015 he is granted a new trial, and on July 28, 2016 prosecutors drop the case in exchange for deportation.
On Sept. 11, 2001 (Tues.) the 9/11 Attacks see the New York City skyline changed after 19 lowdown cowardly stinking crazed Satan-controlled Muslim raghead jihad terrorist scumbags (incl. 15 Saudis) hijack four U.S. commercial airliners and take over the unprotected cabins, using flying lessons given them in the U.S. to steer and crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City (dedicated in Apr. 1973), and also the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.; Am. Airlines Flight 11 (Boeing 767) from Boston to Los Angeles hits the North Tower at 8:46:26 a.m. with a direct hit that disables all the elevators; actor Tony Perkins' wife Berinthia "Berry" Berenson-Perkins (b. 1948) is on Flight 11; United Airlines Flight 175 (Boeing 767) from Boston to Los Angeles hits the South Tower at 9:02:54 a.m. at an angle, permitting people to escape; Flight 175 has a mysterious pod attached to the undercarriage, indicating that the whole show is really being run by the govt. and the plane was unmanned and remotely-controlled?; Am. Airlines Flight 77 from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles hits the SW face of the Pentagon at 9:43 a.m. on the 60th anniv. of its groundbreaking; it was really a U.S.-launched missile, and was covered-up?; Pres. Bush had a meeting scheduled with affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood after he arrived back at the White House; Pres. Bush first informs the nation of "an apparent terrorist attack on our country" at 9:30 from the school; at 9:45 a.m. the FAA grounds all civilian domestic and internat. flights to-from the U.S., although an El Al (Boeing 747) flight is allowed to take from JFK Airport to Tel Aviv at 4:11 p.m.; commercial flights resume on Sept. 13, followed by private flights on Sept. 14; on Sept. 20 a flight containing Bin Laden family members is allowed to leave the U.S., carrying four Americans; on Sept. 11 NBC-TV commentator Tom Brokaw answers a speculation by Matt Laurer with "This is war. This is a declaration and execution of an attack on the United States", later chanting "War! War!"; "When I saw the second airplane hit, I knew jihad has come to America" (Nonie Darwish); the South Tower implodes at 9:59:04 a.m., followed by the North Tower at 10:28:31 a.m., after the jet fuel ignites tons of paper, which causes internal temps as high as 2K F; Pres. Bush is informed of the South Tower crash at 9:07 a.m. by White House chief of staff (2001-6) Andrew Hill "Andy" Card Jr. (1947-) while visiting with 2nd grade (mainly black) students at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., and turns red, but stays with the kids, reading aloud from the children's story The Pet Goat (by Siegfried Engelmann and Elaine C. Bruner) with them; British-born former U.S. Army officer Cyril Richard "Rick" Rescoria (b. 1939), vice-pres. of security at Morgan Stanley (scheduled for retirement at year's end) dies after helping 2.7K coworkers to safety; after rushing in to help not knowing about the impending collapse; 343 firefighters die in the Twin Towers, and firefighter (Argentine native) Sergio Gabrial Villanueva (b. 1968) becomes a hero; Hollywood actor Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (1957-) (a former NYC firefighter) quietly returns to Engine Co. 55 and works 12-hour shifts, trying to avoid publicity; two Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J. police officers survive the towers' collapse and are rescued from the rubble after 22 hours; 300K are evacuated by boat in lower Manhattan after hundreds of craft answer a Coast Guard call for help "From All Available Boats" and converge on the West Side; meanwhile United Air Lines Flight 93 from Newark, N.J. to San Francisco, Calif. carrying 37 passengers and seven crew is hijacked by Beirut, Lebanon-born pilot (al-Qaida member) Ziad Samir Jarrah (1975-2001) and three Saudi Arabia-born muscle men Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Nami (1977-2001), Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi (1980-2001), and Saeed Abdallah Ali Sulayman al-Ghamdi (1979-2001), crashing at 10:03 a.m. near Shanksville in Somerset County, Penn. (60 mi. SE of Pittsburgh and 150 mi. NW of Washington, D.C.) after the 33 all-American passengers are first cowed by a fake body bomb then fight back against the four ragheads instead of cowering like sheep, and kick the surprised terrorists butts, although too late to prevent the crash; Flight 93 passenger Todd Morgan Beamer (b. 1968) becomes a U.S. hero when he quarterbacks the makeshift anti-raghead team with the all-American words "Let's roll!", which are heard on his cellphone; his sad-proud wife Lisa later founds the charity Heroic Choices; the Flight 93 Nat. Memorial is established on Sept. 24, 2002, and dedicated on Sept. 10, 2011; 2,976 are killed in the 9/11 attacks, incl. 2,605 in New York City, 125 at the Pentagon (incl. 55 military personnel), and 246 on the four planes, with 24 listed as missing, becoming the most Americans lost on U.S. soil since the Sept. 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam, and the greatest single-day civilian loss of life in the U.S. since the May 31, 1889 Johnstown Penn. Flood; Time mag. pub. a 9/11 tragedy issue with a cover photo by Lyle Owerko; many Palestinians openly celebrate the attackon the Great Satan U.S.; Iraqi pres. Saddam Hussein utters the soundbyte: "The American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity"; the govts. of Cuba, Iran, Libya, and North Korea join a worldwide chorus denouncing the attacks; Arab leaders denouncing the attacks incl. King Hussein of Jordan, Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak, and Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri; some Muslims around the world express sympathy for the 9/11 victims, incl. a moment of silence at a World Cup match between Bahrain and Iran on Sept. 14, and a candlelight vigil by Palestinians in Jerusalem on Sept. 15 along with another in Tehran; on Sept. 14 Ireland holds a nat. day of mourning, becoming the only country other than the U.S. and Israel to do so; the Taliban in Afghanistan condemns the attacks but denies that Osama bin Laden is behind them; bin Laden also denies involvement, claiming that there is a govt. within the govt. of the U.S. that wants to turn the 21st cent. into a cent. of conflict between Islam and Christianity, suggesting U.S. Jews and intel agencies, but later admits responsibility in an Oct. 29, 2004 video; the mastermind was mechanical engineering-trained Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (1964-); the economic repercussions cost the U.S. economy $1T (same as Bush's June 7 tax cut); 40K workers work at "The Pile" at Ground Zero for the next 8 mo., removing 1M tons of rubble, and 69% of them later develop permanent lung problems known as "WTC Cough"; NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson films the smoking WTC from space; New York Fire Dept. chaplain (Roman Catholic Franciscan friar) Father Mychal (Michael) Fallon Judge (b. 1933) dies at the WTC, becoming the "Saint of 9/11" ("God is going to make the headlines some day rather than the Devil, so don't give up"); St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at 130 Liberty St. is destroyed, and the govt. stalls in rebuilding it until ?; St. Paul's Chapel at 209 Broadway facing Church St. opposite the E side of the WTC, where new U.S. pres. #1 George Washington prayed after his first inauguration on Apr. 30, 1789 is not harmed, and the syacmore tree in its courtyard becomes known as the 9/11 Sycamore, with a memorial later built for it (Isaiah 9:10); at 8:30 p.m. Pres. Bush gives a great Red-Blooded Am. Cowboy Speech from the White House, with the soundbyte "Make no mistake about it, the U.S. will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts"; the U.S. launches into a new kind of war, the Global War on Terror (Terrorism) (ends ?); Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida org. are immediately suspected and become the world's most-wanted criminals, despite of a lack of hard evidence; Egyptian-born 9/11 ringleader ("Emir of the WTC Attack") Mohamed Mohamed Atta (b. 1968) (Mohamed Attacker?) (who created the jihad cell in Hamburg, Germany in the late 1990s, incl. three of the four pilots) is found to have met in Prague with an Iraqi spy, throwing suspicions on Saddam Hussein, and New York City-born U.S. nat. security adviser Richard N. Perle (1941-) allegedly either blames the 9/11 attack on Iraq or wants retaliation to incl. them; Pres. Bush activates the "shadow govt." of 75-150 top officials working 90-day shifts in underground bunkers on the East Coast; the Five Dancing Israelis incident starts with a woman named Maria claiming to see a white van with five men in it filming the burning Twin Towers, allegedly with shouts of joy, who are alleged to be Israeli Mossad agents, although they are interviewed and deny dancing etc., causing conspiracy theorists to claim 9/11 was a Mossad operation; New York City Mayor Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani (1944-) leads the city in a heroic manner after the attacks, earning the title "America's Mayor", and calling the deaths "worse than anyone could bear"; "Vanity Fair" ed. Graydon Carter comments "I think it's the end of the age of irony"; British Queen Elizabeth II comments "Grief is the price we pay for love"; Russian pres. Vladimir Putin orders a massive expansion of intel-gathering efforts in North Am. and W Europe; a folded $20 U.S. bill shows the Twin Towers burning?; Algerian-born British airline pilot Lotfi Raissi becomes the first person accused of participating in the 9/11 attack, and is held for five mo. in Belmarsh hi-security prison in London, then put through nine years of hell until being cleared on Apr. 23, 2010; the 20-ft. Ground Zero Cross, a fortuitous configuration of fallen I-beams draws memorial messages and becomes a religious monument; Alicia Esteve Head, who is in Spain on 9/11 arrives in the U.S. in 2003 and pretends to be 9/11 Twin Towers survivor Tania Head, becoming er, head of the survivors' network until she is exposed in 2007, becoming the subject of the 2012 book The Woman Who Wasn't There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception by Robin Gaby Fisher; ; meanwhile by 2003 a joke translation of Quran 9:11 begins circulating: "For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced, for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace"; later conspiracy theorists begin exposing the 9/11 attacks as really perpetrated by the U.S. govt. to give them a pretext to destroy the last bastions of the Bill of Rights in the name of homeland security and give them a coverstory to invade the Middle East at will to secure oil, and point to a giant 9/11 conspiracy and coverup, incl. the framing of Muslim terrorists, who allegedly could never have accurately flown the airliners into the WTC, the fact that no fighters were scrambled to accept any of them, the fact that Osama bin Laden et al. were originally trained by the U.S., the problem that eight of those named on the FBI's list of 19 names later turn up alive and well living in different countries, and the evidences of the deliberate demolition of WTC Bldg. 7, which hadn't been struck by an airplane; later civil engineers prove WTC Bldg. 7 was in free-fall for 2.5 sec., pointing to planted explosives; others claim to rebut conspiracy allegations; did the U.S. govt murder its own people to make a power grab, then stage a coverup, stay tuned?; in Aug. 2009 a group of law enforcement officers and others who participated in the 9/11 rescue and cleanup develop immune system cancer and other health problems; by 2010 3K WTC survivors are still experienced long-term PTSD; on Mar. 11, 2010 they reach a $657.5M settlement; Saudi princess Haifa bint Faisal, wife of U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Prince Bandar bin Sultan is later discovered to have donated money via a conduit to two of the 9/11 hijackers; the CIA is plagued by guilt and panic amid rumors of a coming 2nd wave of attacks, with some analysts working around the clock with their children sleeping on the floor, causing them to get the White House to authorize enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) incl. waterboarding, sensory deprivation, and prolonged stress positions.
On Sept. 17, 2001 Pres. George W. Bush gives a Speech on Islam at a mosque in Washington, D.C., telling Am. Muslims that they should feel safe, with the soundbyte "Islam is peace."
On Apr. 15, 2002 (Mon.) a Nat. Solidarity Rally for Israel is held in Washington, D.C., organized by Jewish leader Malcolm Hoenlein (1942-), and attended by thousands; Elie Wiesel utters the soundbyte: "There is no sacred cause that justifies suicide bombings."
On Oct. 2, 2002 after preliminary shootings on Feb. 16-Sept. 26, the Beltway (D.C.) Snipers, Baltimore, Md.-born U.S. Army vet (Nation of Islam convert) John Allen Muhammad (1960-2009) and his Muslim-convert "son", Kingston-Jamaica-born Am. teenager Lee Boyd (John Lee) Malvo (1985-) begin terrorizing the U.S. East Coast from their blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan, finally being arrested on Oct. 24 at a W Md. rest stop after killing 17 and injuring 10 in gas stations and parking lots with sniper rifles as part of a jihad; on May 23, 2006 Malvo testifies in a 2nd trial in Rockville, Md. that Muhammad had plans to used the $10M federal govt. ransom to set up a Canadian terrorist training camp for 140 homeless black kids, and planned to kill six random people a day for 30 days and then kill kids and pigs, er, police with explosives in Baltimore, then blow up the funeral of the police officer(s); after the Oct. 9 shooting of Dean Myers in Manassas, Va., Muhammad gets upset that the quota is not being met?; Malvo is sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole, and Muhammad to death; on Nov. 10, 2009 Muhammad is executed by lethal injection at Greensville Correctional Center in Va. Watch video.
In 2002 the Nat. Iranian-Am. Council is founded in Washington, D.C. by Iranian-born Zoroastrian Trita Parsi (1974-).
On Jan. 16, 2003 Protests Against the Iraq War are held worldwide, incl. 30K in Washington, D.C.; on Jan. 18 more protests are held worldwide, incl. 50K in San Francisco, Calif., 45K in Seattle, wash., and tens of thousands in Washington, D.C., with Rev. Jesse Jackson uttering the soundbyte: "We are here because we choose coexistence over coannihilation"; meanwhile Pres. Bush tries to find an excuse to force U.S. troops into a war with Iraq (not realizing that Iraq is all that is keeping Iran from forming a Shia Sword all the way to Israel?); the admin. denies allegations that Bush is just a puppet of the multinat. oil corps. who want to use an occupied Iraq (home of the second largest oil reserves in the Middle East?) as a base to control Middle East oil (especially untapped Caspian Sea oil), or a puppet of the Zionist regime and Israel, or that the euros versus dollars issue has anything to do with it, but France, Russia, and Germany split with the U.S. and actively discourage U.S. invasion of Iraq as Bush builds up an invasion force that says screw you world.
On July 7, 2003 Am. leftist activist (aide to Pres. Clinton) John David Podesta (1949-) founds the liberal Center for Am. Progress in Washington, D.C., which is later described as the "official Hillary Clinton think tank"; on July 31, 2016 the report From Russia with Money: Hillary Clinton, the Russian Reset, and Cronyism, alleging that Hillary's campaign chmn. John Podesta sat on the board the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama along with Russian officials that received $35M from the Russian govt. of Vladimir Putin, and failed to fully disclose it on federal forms, after which the firm was the subject of the Panama Papers massive global offshore money laundering scandal, which incl. Mass.-based Joule Unlimited, owned by Joule Global Stitching, Russian investor Viktor Vekselberg and his Renova Group, and Swiss investor Hansjoerg Wyss and his Wyss Foundation, all of which are involved with the Clinton Global Initiative; this was done at the same time that Hillary was into her reset strategy with Russia, spearheading the transfer of advanced U.S. technology.
On Oct. 25, 2003 the Nat. March on Washington to Bring Troops Home in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. is attended by 100K.
On Dec. 19, 2003 the Nat. Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is founded on the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C.; on Feb. 22, 2012 Pres. Obama attends the groundbreaking ceremny; it opens on Sept. 24, 2016.
In 2003 the Tharwa (Arab. "wealth") Foundation is founded in Washington, D.C. by Syrian-born dissident Ammar Abdulhamid (1966-).
On Apr. 25, 2004 the March for Women's Lives in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. sees 500K-1.15M (largest protest in U.S. history?) protest the Nov. 5, 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act; pro-life protesters line the route in spots.
On May 2, 2004 Sonoyo, one of the last 500 Sumatran tigers left on Earth gives birth to three cubs at the Nat. Zoo in Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 29, 2004 the Nat. World War II Memorial between the Washington and Lincoln Monuments in Washington, D.C. opens; on May 29 it is dedicated by Pres. George W. Bush.
On May 17, 2004 (Mon.) at a 50th anniv. observance of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., black entertainment millionaire and Ph.D in Education Bill Cosby delivers his Pound Cake Speech, a litany of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and other moral values that need to be taught to black youths and families, causing the press to have a field day when a few black leaders see him as blaming the victim.
On June 5, 2004 ex-pres. Ronald Reagan (b. 1911) dies of pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, becoming the first U.S. pres. to die in the 21st cent. and 2nd longest-lived U.S. pres.; on June 9-11 he lies in state in the Nat. Cathedral in Washington, D.C. (first state funeral since LBK in 1973); on June 11 his funeral is attended by 25 world leaders (compared to 100 for Tito in 1980, 60 for Brezhnev in 1982, and 40 for Rabin in 1995) and 14 foreign ministers, after which he is flown to Calif to be interred at his pres. library.
Muhammada Rasul Bush? On June 28, 2004 the U.S. Supreme (Rehnquist) Court rules 6-3 in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld that the U.S. govt. has the power to detain enemy combatants incl. U.S. citizens, but that the ones who are U.S. citizens must have the right to due process to challenge their enemy combatant status; on J une 28 it rules 6-3 in Rasul v. Bush that foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) detention camp have constitutional rights and can petition federal courts for writs of habeus corpus to review the legality of their detention, reversing a decision of Washington, D.C. circuit judge Merrick Garland, causing Congress to try to get around them by passing the U.S. Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the U.S. Military Commissions Act of 2006, denying habeas corpus to "unlawful enemy combatants" regardless of citizen status, with the govt. having the sole right to label them to keep them locked up indefinitely without charges - how long until the first U.S. president-for-life begins using it to lock up millions?
On Aug. 1, 2004 the U.S. govt. warns of possible Al-Qaida attacks against several specific financial institutions in New York City, Washington D.C., and Newark, N.J., putting them on Orange (High) Alart), putting security checkpoints in the Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom neighborhoods and erecting fences around monuments, limiting tours of the White House, turning it into Fortress Washington; on Aug. 3 Tom Ridge defends his decision to tighten security in those cities, admitting it's all based on 4-y.-o. intel; the vehicle inspects around the U.S. Capitol are removed in Nov. - what's in your wallet?
On Sept. 21, 2004 a United Airlines flight from London to Washington, D.C. is diverted to Bangor, Maine at the order of U.S. officials after discovering that Yusuf Islam (1948-), the singer known until 1977 as Cat Stevens (formerly Stephen Demetre Georgiou) is aboard, claiming he is on the Terrorist Watch List for activities linking him with terrorism; he is arrested and put on a plane back, returning to London on Thur., saying "Half of me wants to smile, and half of me wants to growl"; on Nov. 10 he is presented with a Man of Peace award by Mikhail Gorbachev's foundation in Rome, followed by other recognition, and after many back-and-forths and a successful libel suit in Britain he is quietly allowed to enter the U.S. in Dec. 2006.
On Sept. 21, 2004 the 250K-sq.-ft. Nat. Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., on the Nat. Mall next to the Air and Space Museum opens; it features an exterior of Kasota limestone from Minn. with a unique curvilinear design suggesting carving by wind and water.
On Apr. 26, 2005 Washington, D.C.-born Muslim "rock star" scholar Ali al-Timimi (1963-) is convicted of exhorting Muslims in Va. to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops in the days following 9/11, and given life without parole; on July 13 he is sentenced to life in prison for "soliciting treason" by exhorting his followers to join Lashkar-e-Taiba and fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan at a small mosque in Falls Church, Va.; his 11-man Va. Jihad Network, which incl. CAIR civil rights and comm. dir. Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer played paintball to train for jihad; all are sentenced to terms ranging from 46 mo. to life.
On July 9, 2005 a panda is born at the Nat. Zoo in Washington, D.C.; another is born on Aug. 2 at the San Diego Zoo.
On July 27, 2005 about 300 Boy Scouts out of 40K at their 2005 Nat. Scout Jamboree (July 25-Aug. 3) at Ft. A.P. Hill, near Bowling Green, Va. (S of Washington, D.C.) are treated for heat sickness in 100+ deg. F heat while waiting for Pres. Bush to arrive at a memorial service for four Scout leaders who were killed by a power line while pitching a tent on July 25; Bush cancels the visit because of high winds.
On Sept. 24, 2005 the Sept. 24, 2005 Anti-Iraq War Protest in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. is attended by tens of thousands incl. Cindy Sheehan; on Sept. 25 about 400 stage a lame counter-rally; on Sept. 26 370 protesters are arrested in front of the White House during another anti-Iraq War protest, the first being Cindy Sheehan.
On Oct. 10, 2005 an open letter by Am. poet Sharon Olds (1942-) to First Lady Laura Bush declining an invitation to the Nat. Book Festival in Washington, D.C. contains the soundbyte: "So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it."
On Oct. 15, 2005 the Millions More Movement is held on the 10th anniv. of the Million Man March; too bad, only a few thousand show up.
On Feb. 8, 2006 (6:30 p.m.) a security sensor in the Russell Senate Office Bldg. in Washington, D.C. indicates the presence of a nerve agent in the attic, causing 200 staffers and eight senators to be held in a parking garage for three hours until tests give the all-clear.
Just try living without us Hispanics doing your menial jobs? On Apr. 10, 2006 2M illegal immigrants and supporters come out of the shadows and declare May 1 a Nat. Day of Action for Immigrant Justice AKA the Great Am. Boycott (El Gran Paro Estadounidense), staging mass rallies throughout the U.S., incl. 125K in New York City, 100K in Phoenix, Ariz., and 50K in Atlanta, Ga.; this time, wising up, the wannabe Americans no longer wave Mexican flags but try the more PC U.S. flags; the New York rally incl. Koreans and other nationalities; meanwhile the Center for Am. Progress in Washington, D.C. pub. a Report on Rounding Up Illegal Aliens, claiming it would cost $215B over five years to round them up and ship them back (20K each?) - they each get their own car to drive home in? Nobody mentions dissolving the cruddy Mexican govt. and annexing Mexico to the U.S.?
On Apr. 20, 2006 Pres. Bush meets with Chinese Pres. Hu Jintai in Washington, D.C., and Hu is interrupted in a speech by Wenyi Wang (1958-), who shouts at him to stop persecuting the Falun Gong, causing Bush to apologize for her brief freedom of speech before she is manhandled and her mouth cupped by Secret Service agents and taken to jail like in er, Commie China on trumped-up charges of intimidating foreign officials?; when Bush later asks Hu when China will become a democracy with free elections, he responds, "I don't know what you mean by a democracy... we always believe in China that if there is no democracy, there will be no modernization" - whose achievement of rhetorical B.S. is greater, East or West?
On Apr. 20, 2006 U.S. nat. intel dir. John Negroponte gives a speech at the Nat. Press Club in Washington, D.C. marking his first year on the job, saying that "The United States intelligence community comprises almost 100,000 patriotic, talented and hard-working Americans in 16 federal departments and agencies" - so what happened in Iraq?
On Apr. 28, 2006 five members of the U.S. Congress incl. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), John Oliver (D-Mass.), and Jim Moran (D-Va.) are arrested and led away in plastic handcuffs from the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. in protest of govt. atrocities in the Darfur region, along with six others; on Apr. 30 thousands attend a D.C. rally urging the U.S. govt. to end genocide in Sudan.
On May 8, 2006 Jane K. Fernandes, the new pres. of Gallaudet U. in Washington, D.C. faces protests from its 1.9K-student body for not being "deaf enough" for the job, because, even though born deaf, she learned to speak and only picked up sign language as an adult?; on Oct. 29 the board of trustees votes to revoke her appointment after weeks of protests shut down the campus.
On May 31-June 1, 2006 the 75th Scripps Nat. Spelling Bee, the first to feature prime-time TV coverage (on ABC) is held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C., and 13-y.-o. Katherine "Kerry" Close of Spring Lake, N.J. wins with "ursprache" (a parent language), becoming the first female to win since 1999.
On June 28, 2006 Ill. Sen. Barack Obama gives a keynote speech to the liberal Christian org. Call to Renewal in Washington, D.C., dissing Alan Keyes for saying that Jesus Christ wouldn't vote for him, then making light of the Bible a la Tom Paine: "And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is okay and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount, a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our Bibles. Folks haven't been reading their Bibles" - neither has he, he just found a Web site with a list of crap and regurgitated it?
On July 4, 2006 U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq publicly read portions of the Declaration of Independence at the Nat. Archives in Washington, D.C.
On July 20, 2006 Pres. Bush makes his first appearance as pres. at an annual convention of the NAACP in the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.; chmn. Julian Bond had in the past compared Repubs. to Nazis and Bush to Hitler, but new pres. Bruce Gordon has mellowed the group out?
On Aug. 17, 2006 U.S. District Judge (since 1979) Anna Diggs Taylor (1932-) in Detroit, Mich. rules that the NSA's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, and orders it ended; meanwhile U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler (1938-) in Washington, D.C. rules that cigarette makers did violate racketeering laws and deceived the public for over 50 years about the health hazards of smoking, but that she couldn't order them to pay the $10B-$130B sought by the govt., nor order a national stop-smoking program, because an appeals court ruling permits only forward-looking remedies, although she does order them to publish "corrective statements", and to stop labeling cigarettes as "low tar", "light", "ultra light" and "mild" because of the way people smoke them.
On Oct. 1, 2006 the annual Red Mass of Roman Catholic U.S. Supreme Court justices is held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., led by Archbishop Donald Wuerl, and is attended by four of the five Roman Catholics on the court, except Alito.
On Nov. 13, 2006 ground is broken for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. next to the Nat. Mall between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials; it opens on Aug. 22, 2011.
On Jan. 2, 2007 the U.S. declares a nat. day of mourning for Pres. Ford, and an elaborate funeral service is held in Washington, D.C., with Pres. Bush saying "In President Ford the world saw the best of America", and Pres. George H.W. Bush calling him a "Norman Rockwell painting come to life"; on Jan. 3 Ford is laid to rest on the grounds of his pres. museum in Grand Rapids, Mich.
On Apr. 23, 2007 (guess whose birthday?) the conservative Am. Council of Trustees and Alumni in Washington, D.C. releases The Vanishing Shakespeare, a report complaining about fewer U.S. colleges requiring English students to study Shakespeare, which says "A degree in English without Shakespeare is like an M.D. without a course in anatomy. It is tantamount to fraud" - critics mumble something about white men suck?
On Apr. 24-25, 2007 the EPA P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) Expo in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. features students competing for an award for the best sustainable design.
On Apr. 30, 2007 "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey (1956-2008), who is charged with running a prostitution ring in Washington, D.C. announces that she will out many prominent people incl. "a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent CEO, several lobbyists and a handful of military officials", incl. Randall L. Tobias (1942-), top foreign aid adviser in the U.S. State Dept. (who resigned on Apr. 27), and U.S. Defense Dept. consultant Harlan Kenneth Ullman (1941-), who coined the phrase "shock and awe"; her defense is that the girls were told to provide only a "high-end fantasy service", not sex, at $300 for 90 min.
On June 10, 2007 admin. law judge Roy L. Pearson makes a mockery of the U.S. court system by pursuing a $54M lawsuit against Jin Nam, Soo and Ki Y. Chung of Custom Cleaners of Washington, D.C. for losing a pair of his pants in 2005, claiming they displayed a sign guaranteeing "unconditional satisfaction", and trying to twist the words into the language of the city's consumer protection law imposing $1.5K/day fines for violation, asking $3K (double since there's two legs?) for each of 1.2K days they failed to satisfy him, times three for the number of owner-employees, plus $500K for his legal costs, among other demands; the poor immigrant Asian owners already offered him $12K to settle after giving his pants back and him claiming a switch, but on June 25 smart judge Judith Bartnoff throws the bum out of court, making him pay $1K in clerical costs.
On July 10, 2007 a USA Today/Gallup poll gives Pres. Bush a 29% approval rating, down from 33% a mo. earlier, with 62% of Americans saying he made a mistake sending U.S. troops to Iraq, and 70% favoring withdrawal of most forces by Apr.; meanwhile Bush says that the U.S. will be able to pull back troops "in a while", but asks Congress to wait until Sept. to pass judgment; meanwhile Bush nemesis Cindy Sheehan and supporters begin a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting at her war protest site near Pres. Bush's Crawford, Tex. ranch, arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 23, demanding Bush's impeachment, after which Sheehan quits the Dem. Party for caving in to him, and announces her candidacy as an independent for the San Francisco seat of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not introducing articles of impeachment against the bum.
On Mar. 19, 2008 the Mar. 19, 2008 Anti-War Protest is held around the world incl. Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 1, 2008 the National Harbor, Md. waterfront development S of Washington, D.C. at the junction of the Capital Beltway and the Anacostia Freeway near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge opens.
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command? On Apr. 15, 2008 Pope Benedict XVI arrives for his first U.S. visit, becoming the first pope to be greeted by a U.S. pres. at Edwards AFB in Washington, D.C., where evangelical Methodist cowboy Pres. George W. Bush calls him "the most listened-to man in the world", apologizing for the Church's sex scandals while salivating over the 70M U.S. Catholics, whose numbers grow daily with illegal immigration; popey makes no public statements on Iraq because of the murder of Christian churchmen changing his mind about pulling out too quick?; on Apr. 16 a musical ceremony on the White House Lawn sings happy birthday to him, and he goes on to admit that the clergy sex-abuse scandal has been "very badly handled", then adds "What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?"; on Apr. 17 he meets with victims of sexual abuse in the Boston area, and is given a list of 1K children who were abused going back several decades by Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley of Boston, issuing the soundbyte "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse"; on Apr. 18 the pope gives an address to the the U.N., saying that respect for human rights and not violence is the key to solving many of the world's problems (what church has more experience?), and complaining about decision power resting in the hands of a few powerful (unnamed) nations; he leaves on Apr. 20 after leading a Mass before 60K at Yankee Stadium in New York City and telling them to be "obedient" to Church authority - a contradiction?
On Apr. 19, 2008 (13th anniv. of the 1995 Okla. City Bombing) 30 members of the Nat. Socialist Movement march in Washington, D.C. to protest illegal immigration.
On June 3, 2008 Barack Obama makes history by becoming the first African-Am. U.S. pres. delegate for a major political party, reaching the 2,118 delegates needed despite Hillary Clinton winning the 2008 South Dakota Dem. Primary by 55%-45% and not conceding until June 7, when she finally gives up trying to figure out how to strongarm him into a vice-pres. nomination and throws her support behind the Man, saying that electing him will achieve her goals of universal health care, a strong economy, and the end of the Iraq War, while calling her 18M primary twats, er, votes "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" (I'd like to view that ceiling?); Obama also wins the 2008 Mont. Dem. Primary by 56%-41%; virtually all of Africa (not just his daddy's home country of Kenya) goes er, ape-shit with happiness at the big news?; before giving a speech in St. Paul, Minn. to celebrate his V, Obama exchanges a fist bump with wife Michelle, which Fox news anchor E.D. Hill calls a "terrorist fist jab", causing her show to be canned; meanwhile John McCain gives a speech in Kenner, La., claiming that he has stronger credentials to be an independent agent of change than Obama, and a Pew Research Center Poll indicates that only 49% of independents have a favorable impression of Obama now, vs. 62% in Feb.; Obama meets with Hillary on June 5 at the home of Calif. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and informs her that he's not going to ask her to be his running mate, and on June 6 she holds a meeting at her Whitehaven St. home in Washington, D.C. to plan her concession speech; about this time Barack Obama secretly informs Iran that he will be much easier to bargain with than Pres. Bush?
On June 27, 2008 after policeman Dick Heller challenges the District of Columbia's de facto handgun ban (a 1976 law requiring handguns to be registered, while never issuing any registrations) the U.S. Supreme (Roberts) Court rules 5-4 in District of Columbia v. Heller that Washington, D.C. may not ban personal gun ownership, and that there is an individual right to bear arms independent of militias for self-defense, throwing the zillions of state and local gun laws up for grabs, and giving anti-Second Amendment forces their Roe v. Wade later when Scalia suddenly dies; "Undoubtedly, some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of the nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct" (Antonin Scalia); "Today's ruling recognizes that gun ownership, like the freedom of speech or the right to freely assemble, is a fundamental right" (U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard); "Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner and for whatever purpose" (Scalia); the ruling only applies to weapons "in common use" incl. handguns, and not to dangerous or unusual weapons; the ruling only applies to D.C. until "McDonald v. City of Chicago" (2010); on June 27 the NRA sues San Francisco, Calif. to overturn its ban on guns in public housing.
On Aug. 25, 2008 Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic And Internat. Studies in Washington, D.C. issues a report claiming that "the U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban", and calling for the U.S. to treat Pakistani territory as a combat zone; meanwhile the U.S. military death toll in Afghanistan this year is 101.
In Dec. 2008 United We Dream is founded in Washington, D.C. for "the elimination of barriers to higher education for immigrant youth" by working to persuade the U.S. public and legislators to embrace the DREAM Act as enlightened policy rooted in "principles of social inclusion and justice".
The first 99-44/100% pure president, a combination Lincoln, FDR, JFK, MLK Jr., and Gandhi, plus a disturbing Play-Do makeup incl. doses of Osama bin Laden, Idi Amin, Dorothy Gale from Kansas, and the Wizard of Oz from Emerald City? On Jan. 20, 2009 (Tue.) the 2009 (64th) U.S. pres. inaguration sees 6'1" 170-190 lb. Hawaiian-born (Kenyan-born?) Harvard Law School grad. (black) (lefty) (Christian) (closet Muslim?) (closet Marxist?) Barack (Arab. "blessed") Hussein (Arab. "handsome") Obama (Kenyan "crooked") II (1961-) (Secret Service codename: Renegade) (known for saying "Well, Look" at the start of his answer to questions, along with "Let me be clear" and "Make no mistake") become Dem. U.S. pres. #44 (until Jan. 20, 2017) (first African-Am. and first urban pres.) (first U.S. pres. to have Internet access at his desk, have a BlackBerry, and use email daily) (first Pacific pres.) (3rd U.S. pres. to win the Nobel Peace Prize) (a stooge of the Zionist Illuminati?) (11th U.S. pres. to grow and/or use cannabis after Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Taylor, Pierce, Lincoln, JFK); Richard Tosaw, a lawyer from Modesto, Calif. sells 4K $20 printed cardboard periscopes called Obama-Scopes that "make you two feet taller" and help improve one's view of the proceedings; Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden Jr. (1942-) (Secret Service codename: Celtic) becomes the 47th U.S. vice-pres. (until ?) (first Roman Catholic vice-pres.); First Lady is Princeton-educated Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (1964-) (Secret Service codename: Renaissance); first children are Malia Ann Obama (1998-) (Secret Service codename: Radiance) and Natasha "Sasha" Obama (2001-) (Secret Service codname: Rosebud); Second Lady is Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (1951-) (Secret Service codename: Capri); First Dog is Bo Obama (2008-) (Portuguese Water Dog or Portie), a gift from Sen. Edward Kennedy and his wife Victoria "Vicki" Kennedy, and named after R&B singer Bo Diddley; Obama takes his oath of office on the same velvet-bound Bible used at his hero Abrahama, er, Abraham Lincoln's first (1861) inaguration, and another Bible used by MLK Jr. before a record 1.9M crowd, who brave 17F weather (no arrests?); the inaugural theme is "A New Birth of Freedom", a phrase taken from Lincoln's Nov. 19, 1863 Gettysburg Address allegedly to celebrate the 200th anniv. of his birth year; Sen. Edward Kennedy experiences a seizure during a lunch for Obama, but recovers; Obama's 2009 Inauguration Speech, written by 27-y.-o. white guy Jonathan E. "Jon" Favreau (1981-) doesn't live up to expectations of being full of great JFK-caliber soundbytes, skips past Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln to George Washington, and flip-flops from promising to walk on water to calling for sacrifice and service from the pop., with the soundbytes: "A man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath. So let us mark this day with remembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled"; "On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics"; "We must pick ourselves up"; "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist"; Harlem, N.Y.-born black poet Elizabeth Alexander (1962-) recites her inaugural poem Praise Song for the Day, becoming the 4th poet to read at a U.S. pres. inauguration (Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993, Miller Williams in 1997); Obama becomes the first U.S. pres. to address "the Muslim World", uttering the soundbyte that the U.S. is "a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews, and Hindus and non-believers"; as he assumes office, 79% of Americans incl. 59% of those who voted for John McCain are optimistic about his admin.; the Dow Jones plunges 4%, becoming the worst inauguration day slide (until ?); he inherits a $1.3T deficit from the Bush admin., and by Mar. he increases the 2009 deficit to $1.8T, while his own spending programs will more than double the nat. debt from $8T to $17.3T ($15.4T?) by 2019, equal to 82.4% of the GNP, although he does promise to halve the 2009 deficit by 2014; Obama's look, funny ears, and intellectual style cause him to be compared to Star Trek's Spock; his political philosophy is a combo of Abe Lincoln and John Dewey?; too bad, a growing groundswell of anti-govt. hostility begins by Americans who fear that Obama is plotting to take the U.S. Socialist, Fascist, or Islamic, or foist a OWG on the U.S. complete with concentration camps, causing a fervor of frantic Internet postings by extremists incl. Tex. radio show host Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones (1974-), leading to Tea Parties in the spring, town hall meeting disruptions in the summer, the Birther Movement, which questions the validity of his birth in U.S. territory, fears that the swine flu virus was manufactured, and fears that he is handing the U.S. over to Muslim Sharia; in the evening Obama hosts the first-ever pres. ball open to the residents of mainly-black Washington, D.C., sweetly dancing with his wife Michelle to music by African-Am. singer Beyonce (Beyoncé) Giselle Knowles (1981-), who sings the 1960 Etta James hit At Last; Obama begins going gray 44 days into his presidency?; after chief justice John Roberts flubs the oath of office, he gives it to Obama again in the White House before nine witnesses; on Jan. 20 Ariz. gov. (since 2003) Janet Napolitano (1957-) (former atty. of Anita Hill, known for being tough on illegal immigration while opposing the $3.9M-per-mi. U.S.-Mexico border fence, with the soundbyte: "You build a 50-ft. wall, somebody will find a 51-ft. ladder)) becomes U.S. homeland security secy. #3 (first woman) (until Sept. 6, 2013), Kenneth Lee "Ken" Salazar (1955-) becomes U.S. interior secy. #50 (until Apr. 12, 2013), Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu (1948-) becomes U.S. energy secy. #12 (until Apr. 22, 2013), Arne Duncan (1964-) becomes U.S. education secy. (until Jan. 1, 2016), former Iowa gov. #40 (since 1998) Thomas James "Tom" Vilsack (1950-) becomes U.S. agriculture secy. #30 (until Jan. 13, 017), and Eric Ken Shinseki (1942-) becomes U.S. veterans affairs secy. #7 (until May 30, 2014); on Jan. 21 Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947-) becomes U.S. secy. of state #67 (until Feb. 1, 2013), vowing to end the paranoia of the George W. Bush era by not worrying exclusively about the safety of the U.S., with the soundbyte "I don't get up every morning just thinking about the threats and dangers, as real as they are. I also get up thinking about who we are and what we can do"; Egyptian-born Dalia Mogahed (1974-) becomes the first veiled Muslim woman to serve in the White House; on June 23 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton appoints Kashmir-born Farah Pandith (1968-) as her special rep to reach out to Muslim communities; on Jan. 21 Pres. Obama signs Executive Order No. 13489, barring release of his birth certficate, fueling rumors that he wasn't really born in the U.S. and thus isn't eligible to become pres., meaning that every act of office he commits is legally void; his refusal to release a long list of other documents adds fuel to the fire and make him a mystery man; no wonder that his name all by itself causes many to think he's a Muslim plant, plus the funny way he hides his birth certificate and the fact that he might have been indoctrinated into Islam as a child (maybe the birth certficate is half and half too?; many note his startling resemblance to Osama bin Laden; in his first year, he receives 30 death threats a day (4x what GW Bush faced), stretching the Secret Service; a poster of Obama as the Joker (as portrayed by the late Heath Ledger) with the word "Socialism" at the bottom becomes a hit with conservatives; it was made by 20-y.-o. U. of Ill. history student Firas Alkhateeb (1979-) using Adobe Photoshop.
On Apr. 29, 2009 the U.S. House by 249-175 passes the U.S. Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, giving special federal protection to gays and providing state and local authorities with federal funds; a weaker bill died two years ago under a veto threat by Pres. Bush; the bill was spurred by the 1998 killing of Wyo. college student Matthew Shepard; in the wrong hands it could be used to put people on trial for their beliefs and org. memberships?; too bad, it is snuck through the House on Oct. 8 in a defense authorization bill, passing by 281-146, and passed 68-29 by the Senate on Oct. 22, then signed by Pres. Obama on Oct. 28.
On Sept. 12, 2009 the Taxpayer March on Washington (9/12 Tea Party) sees 200K-800K march from Freedom Plaza to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., protesting Pres. Obama's positions on federal spending, health care reform, taxation et al.
On Oct. 9-10, 2009 the Washington Green Festival in Washington, D.C. features 125 speakers incl. leftist radicals William "Bill" Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Amy Goodman, and Cornel West.
On Oct. 10, 2009 Pres. Obama appears at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington, D.C. and renews his pledge to end the military's ban on openly gay service members, with the soundbyte: "You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman"; on Oct. 11 (Nat. Coming Out Day) (11th anniv. of the murder of Matthew Shepard) the Nat. Equality March in Washington, D.C. (first in the city since the 2000 Millennium March) sees hundreds of thousands march for across-the-board equal federal protection for LGBTs throughout the U.S.
In 2010 a record 25 of the 182 accredited ambassadors in Washington, D.C. are female, incl. Hunaina Sultan Al-Mughairy from Oman, the first female ambassador from an Arab country, and Meera Shankar, first female ambassador from India in over 50 years.
On Feb. 4, 2010 Pres. Obama holds a Nat. Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., bemoaning the "erosion of civility" and saying there's a growing sense that "something is broken" in Washington, D.C.; he also takes a rare shot at the Birthers who question his U.S. citizenship, saying "Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith, or for that matter, my citizenship."
On Feb. 5-6 and Feb. 9-10, 2010 the Snowpocalypse (Snowmageddon) buries the Washington, D.C. area in 30 in. of snow, causing govt. workers to be told to stay home on Feb. 8-10; a 3rd blizzard hits on Feb. 25-26.
On Mar. 3, 2010 same-sex marriage becomes legal in Washington, D.C., becoming #6 after Conn., Iowa, Mass., N.H., and Vt.
On Mar. 21, 2010 200K march for immigration reform in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 4, 2010 (Sun.) Pres. and Mrs. Obama attend Easter service at the black methodist Allen Chapel AME Church in SE Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 7, 2010 attempted shoe bomber Mohammed al-Modadi is subdued by federal air marshals on United Airlines Flight 663 en route from Washington, D.C. to Denver, Colo. with 157 passengers and six crew; he turns out to be a diplomat in the Qatar embassy with full diplomatic immunity, and isn't charged.
On Apr. 12-13, 2010 Pres. Obama meets with 46 world leaders in Washington, D.C. (largest gathering of world leaders since the U.N. organizing meeting in San Francisco in 1945) at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit; after hearing that Middle Eastern nations are waiting to task him for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Benjamin Netanyahu of #47 Israel bugs out; on Apr. 11 Obama, who has already called a nuclear attack by terrorists "the single biggest threat to U.S. security" admits that if al-Qaida acquired nukes, it "would have no compunction at using them", and says that it "could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come", but doesn't incl. Iran in that assessment; on Apr. 13 Obama presses for tightened sanctions on Iran, but Russia balks at gasoline restrictions, and obtains a voluntary agreement to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years; Chile becomes the first nation to agree to surrender all its highly enriched uranium, 40 lbs. obtained from Britain and France for two research reactors; meanwhile an Apr. 11 report by Jane's Defense Weekly says that Israel has 100-300 nuclear warheads; on Apr. 12 Russian pres. (since 2008) Dmitry Medvedev (1965-) warns Israel that if they attack Iran it might lead to a nuclear war; on Apr. 13 China says that any sanctions must promote a diplomatic way out of the nuclear standoff, while continuing its transfer of nuclear technology ot Pakistan and Iran; on Apr. 14 U.S. Ariz. Rino Sen. John McCain says that the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran, which is going to get nukes unless the U.S. hurries up and "pulls the trigger", meaning on sanctions not guns; at the close of the summit, Obama utters the soundbyte "Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them", pissing-off McCain, who calls the remark a "direct contradiction to everything America believes in"; on Apr. 17-18 Iran holds its own nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran, attended by Russia; Ayatollah Ali Khameini calls the U.S. the world's "only nuclear scofflaw"; on Apr. 27 Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi calls the U.S. decision to not invite Libya a "political blunder" that will discourage Iran and North Korea from giving up their nuclear ambitions.
On Apr. 22, 2010 Am. Christian evangelist Franklin Graham (1952-), son of Billy Graham is disinvited to speak at a May 6 Pentagon prayer service by the U.S. Army for remarks he made in 2001 describing Islam as evil, with spokesman Col. Tom Collins callins his remarks "not appropriate", adding "We're an all-inclusive military, we honor all faiths"; Graham replies that Obama is "giving Islam a pass", adding "Look at the violence that they have portrayed against women, it's just horrific"; on Mar. 1-9 a survey by LifeWay Research reveals that 4 in 10 U.S. Protestant pastors believe that Islam is dangerous and promotes violence; his affiliation with Shirley Dobson's Nat. Day of Prayer Task Force is in violation of govt. regs anyway?; on Apr. 27 the Council on Am.-Islamic Relations (CAIR) calls on Congress to ban Franklin also, after which on May 5 35 Repub. congressmen call on the U.S. Defense Dept. to reinvite him, and on May 6 he takes the podium at the Nat. Day of Prayer on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; meanwhile on Apr. 22 the U.S. Office of Public Engagement meets with Arab-Am. leaders, incl. Hatem Abudayyeh, whose Chicago home is searched in late Sept. as part of an anti-terrorism probe after he is connected with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Rev. Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
On May 14, 2010 Sarah Palin keynotes the Celebration of Life Breakfast of the Susan B. Anthony List in Washington, D.C., saying that an "emerging feminist coalition" will produce a "better America in this exceptional country" after the Nov. elections, harkening back to the feminism of the Am. West frontier days.
On May 19-20, 2010 U.S. Pres. Obama and Mexican pres. Felipe Calderon stage a U.S.-Mexico Summit in Washington, D.C. to join in a push for a major overhaul of U.S. immigration rules, with Obama uttering the soundbyte that they have agreed to work toward a U.S.-Mexico border that is "modern, secure and efficient" and stops the flow of "drugs, weapons and cash" (not people?); after saying "In the 21st century, we are defined not by our borders but by our bonds" and calling the Ariz. law "a misdirected expression of frustration over our broken immigration system", and mentioning that his admin. is taking a close look at its civil rights implications, Obama calls for comprehensive immigration reform but admits that he needs Repub. support to pass it; on May 20 a partisan Congress greets Calderon, who calls for more money to control the gun flow over the border and a ban on assault rifles, and calling the Arizona Senate Bill 1070 "a law that not only ignores a reality but also introduces a terrible idea of racial profiling as the basis for law enforcement", becoming a first as a foreign leaders slaps Congress in the face and they clap and cheer; on May 20 7-y.o. 2nd grader Daisy (of Peruvian descent) makes nat. news by telling First Lady Michelle Obama that her hubby is "taking everybody away that doesn't have papers", and that her mother doesn't have any, after which the govt. says it won't deport them, and she asks to visit the White House; on May 25 Pres. Obama announces that he's requesting $500M to send 1.2K Nat. Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border,giving a total of 18K, or about 9/mi.
On May 26, 2010 Pres. Obama's deputy nat. homeland security advisor John O. Brennan gives a speech at the Center for Strategic and Internat. Studies in Washington, D.C., praising his master Pres. Obama to the skies, and attempting to justify Obama's Cairo speech of June 2009, with the soundbytes: "Our enemy is not terrorism, because terrorism is a tactic. Our enemy is not terror because terror is a state of mind, and as Americans we refuse to live in fear. Nor do we describe our enemy as 'jihadists' or 'Islamists' because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women, and children"; "Moreover, describing our enemy in religious terms would lend credence to the lie - propagated by al-Qaeda and its affiliates to justify terrorism - that the United States is somehow at war against Islam. The reality, of course, is that we never have been and will never be at war with Islam. After all, Islam, like so many faiths, is part of America. Instead, the President's strategy is clear and precise. Our enemy is al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates. For it was al-Qaeda who attacked us so viciously on 9/11 and whose desire to attack the United States, our allies, and our partners remains undiminished. And it is its affiliates who have taken up al-Qaeda's call to arms against the United States in other parts of the world."
On June 24, 2010 Pres. Obama meets with Russian pres. Dmitry Medveded in Washington, taking him to his favorite hamburger joint, Ray's Hell Burger for cheddar cheeseburgers with jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, and Coke, sharing french fries with him; Obama issues a 10-page factsheet claiming to have "reset" the relationship with Russia, and endorsing Russian membership in the World Trade Org. (WTO).
On June 28, 2010 the FBI announces the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies in the 10-year Operation Ghost Stories, eight of them on deep-cover assignments in the Acela Corridor (Boston-New York City-Washington, D.C.), incl. redheaded femme fatale Anna Chapman (1982-); on June 29 Bill Clinton gives a speech in Moscow at the Kremlin-front Investment Bank for $500K for 1 hour to set up the uranium deal selling 20% of U.S. uranium to Russian control; after all 10 spies plead guilty on July 8, and Hillary Clinton makes a quick dirty deal with Vladimir Putin, they are deported to Russia, which promises to release four U.S. prisoners in exchange.
On July 26, 2010 Hollywood dir. Oliver Stone gives an interview, claiming that Jews are "the most powerful lobby in Washington, D.C., and dominate the media, also defending Hitler and Stalin, saying "Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein, German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support", also "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people - 25 or 30 [million killed]"; he adds that Stalin "fought the German war machine more than any person"; in actual fact, Jews do control Jewywood?
In July 2010 U.S. homeland security secy. Janet Napolitano launches a See Something, Say Something campaign to encourage commuters in Washington, D.C. subway stations to report behavior suspicious of terrorism; in Dec. it's expanded nationwide.
On Aug. 28, 2010 conservative Mormon talk show host Glenn Beck holds his Restoring Honor to America rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th anniv. of MLK Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech", which he claims is accidental; 87K-500K attend to hear about how the U.S. needs to return to God; the crowd is not all-white but racially diverse; MLK Jr.'s niece Alveda King speaks at the rally, along with Sarah Palin; the rally raises $5.5M for wounded soldiers; on Aug. 29 after murmurs about his Mormonism, Beck appears on Fox News Sunday, and utters the soundbyte that despite his claim to be a Christian, the American people don't recognize "Obama's version of Christianity".
On Aug. 31, 2010 the White House in Washington, D.D. hosts the Coordinating Council of Muslim Orgs. (CCMO) to hook it up with U.S. govt. agencies and provide them "funding, government assistance, and resources" and "cut through red tape", despite the CCMO having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood whose stated goal is to undermine the U.S. and take it over for Islam, where church-state separation is thrown out of the window every time, along with any church and non-Muslim state. Meanwhile as a clincher Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave a Sunday sermon on Aug. 29, 2010 claiming that anybody who believes that Obama is a Muslim is a "psychopath".
On Sept. 7, 2010 prominent Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders hold an "emergency summit" in Washington, D.C. to denounce "the derision, misinformationa and outright bigotry" over Am. Muslims, esp. in the Ground Zero Mosque debate - they never denounce the intolerance, bigotry, supremacy, anti-Semitism etc. of Muslims worldwide?
On Sept. 15, 2010 Pres. Obama addresses the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Inst. 33rd Annual Award Gala in Washington, D.C., and omits the word "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence.
On Sept. 19, 2010 Pres. Obama makes his first appearance in a church since Easter Sun. at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.; it later is revealed that the church also invited Jerusalem-born Muslim guest speaker Dr. Ziad J. Asali (1942-), 2003 founder of the Am. Task Force on Palestine, which promotes a 2-state solution, with Asali known as the official U.S. delegate to the funeral of Yasser Arafat; ask the PC media why they tried to cover it up, although Obama left before he spoke; meanwhile his moderate Repub. point man Colin Powell appears on NBC's "Meet the Press", calling all the talk of his secret Muslim leanings and foreign birth "nonsense", saying "Let's not go down low... Let's attack him on policy, not nonsense."
On Oct. 3, 2010 the labor union and NAACP-led One Nation Rally on the Mall in Washington, D.C., meant to counter Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally slams the Repubs. and conservatives for racism and bigotry; too bad, the crowd is tiny, and the Communist Party USA openly endorses it.
On Oct. 12, 2010 the Union for a Popular Movement Party of French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy cancels a planned debate on "Immigration, Islamism: Is France Threatened?" for fear of you know what; meanwhile on Oct. 12 the al-Qaida mag. Inspire pub. an article urging Islamic terrorists to target crowded restaurants in Washington, D.C. in order to massacre U.S. govt. workers; another article suggests using a pickup truck as "the ultimate mowing machine" to mow down the enemies of Allah; another calls on Muslims to emulate the Ft. Hood treason jihadist; meanwhile on Oct. 1 clueless dhimmi Diane Sawyer of clueless ABC-TV's "20/20" hosts a segment on Islam portraying it as peaceful and misunderstood, hoping for a "reconciliation" between Americans and American Muslims, and on Oct. 3 CNN internat. correspondent Christiane Amanpour (1958-) (Persian Muslim father, British mother) hosts Town Hall Debate: Should Americans Fear Islam?, both of which whitewash Islam and portray those who are warning of its dangers incl. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer as intolerant "Islamophobes" - my pickup truck or yours?
On Oct. 15, 2010 Am. Muslims hold a Jummah Prayer on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with the slogan "Jesus: The Messiah of Jerusalem"; despite being billed as a meeting for 100K, only a few hundred show up.
On Oct. 19, 2010 (5 a.m.) multiple shots hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., doing no damage to bulletproof windows; meanwhil more shots are fired at the Nat. Marine Corps Museum in Triangle, Va. (36 mi. S of Washington, D.C.).
On Oct. 26, 2010 Va. Muslim Farooque Ahmed (1976-) is arrested for helping al-Qaida plan terrorist attacks around the Washington, D.C. area, incl. the DC Metro; the tip leading to his arrest came from the Muslim community.
On Oct. 30, 2010 the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. is hosted by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (in character), and attended by 215K, becoming a spoof of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally and Al Sharpton's Reclaim the Dream Rally; it features surprise guests Yusuf Islam AKA Cat Stevens and Ozzy Osbourne; Ariana Huffington leases 200 buses from Manhattan to bring in supporters, but there are far less than at Glenn Beck's rally.
On Nov. 26, 2010 Pres. Obama gets inadvertently elbowed in the upper lip by Rey Decerega during a friendly basketball game at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C., requiring 12 stitches.
On Dec. 6, 2010 Awais Younis (AKA Sundullah "Sunny" Ghilzai and Mokhammed Khan) is charged with posting threats on Facebook to bomb the Washington, D.C. Metro Subway.
On Dec. 8, 2010 Baltimore, Md. Muslim convert Muhammad Hussain (Antonio Martinez) (1989-) is arrested for a plot to blow up an Armed Forces recruiting center in Cantonsville (near Baltimore), Md. with a car bomb; he was allegedly "grinning from ear to ear" and shouting "Allahu Akbar" while trying to detonate a fake bomb; on Jan. 26 he pleads guilty, saying he was motivated by his belief that the U.S. is at war with Islam.
On Jan. 3, 2011 the 112th U.S. Congress convenes (until Jan. 3, 2013); the Tea Party comes to power in the U.S. as several freshman legislators arrive in Washington, D.C.; the first time that women reps decline since 1978; Eric Ivan Cantor (1963-) of Va. becomes House majority leader (until July 31, 2014), the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress in history (until ?).
On Jan. 6, 2011 (12:30, 12:45) two packages addressed to Md. gov. Martin O'Malley blow up inside two govt. office bldgs. in Md.; one has a message indicating anger at the govt.'s terror warnings; on Jan. 7 another package addressed to Janet Napolitano ignites in a Washington, D.C. postal facility.
On Feb. 3, 2011 Pres. Obama addresses the Nat. Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., claiming his Christian faith as "a sustaining force" in his life, and praying for an end to violence in Egypt.
On Apr. 11, 2011 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton gives a news conference with Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb in Washington, D.C., and decries the marginalization of women in the Islamic world, saying they must be empowered for true democracy in the Middle East.
On Apr. 19, 2011 Pres. Obama holds an Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House in Washington, D.C., with the soundbyte: "I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason, because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there's something about the resurrection, something about the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ that puts everything else in perspective."
On Apr. 19, 2011 a Boeing 737 carrying First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Jill Biden has a close call with a Boeing C-17 military transport jet that gets within 2.94 mi. as they are about to land at Andrews AFB near Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 24, 2011 Pres. Obama and his family attends Easter Sun. service at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., which was founded in 1863 by freed slaves from Fredericksburg, Va.
On May 19, 2011 (12:15 p.m. EDT) Pres. Obama gives his 2011 Speech on the Middle East at the U.S. State Dept. in Washington, D.C., hailing the "extraordinary change" taking place, and stating that "The United States believes... the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps", reversing longstanding U.S. policy that this was only the Palestinians' goal, becoming the first U.S. pres. to require it as a starting point for negotiations with Palestinians, with the soundbyte: "We know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security, by history, and by faith"; "A new generation has emerged, and their voices tell us that chance cannot be denied"; "The status quo is unsustainable. A lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples", adding "Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state", and that the "future of Jerusalem" remains to be worked out; he adds: "The full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces should be coordinated with the assumption of Palestinian security responsibility in a sovereign, non-militarized state. The duration of this transition period must be agreed, and the effectiveness of security arrangements must be demonstrated", meaning that Obama's plan is for Israel to first unilaterally withdraw to the 1967 borders, then later negotiate some border swaps; he also calls for Syrian pres. Bashar Assad to "lead that transition [to democracy] or get out of the way"; he also pledges $1B in aid to the Muslim Brotherhood-infested Egyptian regime; Jews do a double-take when he says that Israel must be able to defend itself "by itself", and calls for a "full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces"; the speech causes former Mass. gov. Mitt Romney to say that Obama "threw Israel under the bus"; Obama then meets with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, who even before the meeting voices his displeasure with the speech, calling Israel's pre-1967 borders "indefensible", and calling on him to reaffirm the U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, with the soundbyte "Among other things, those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines. Those commitments also ensure Israel's well-being as a Jewish state by making clear that Palestinian refugees will settle in a future Palestinian state rather than in Israel. Without a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem outside the borders of Israel, no territorial concession will bring peace"; "Equally, the Palestinians, and not just the United States, must recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, and any peace agreement with them must end all claims against Israel"; he says that Israel also needs a military presence along the Jordan River, and won't deal with the terrorist org. Hamas; Obama's speech causes U.S. Jews to begin to turn on him; after the speech, Obama allegedly flew into a rage with his people, shouting "What the fuck was that?"; on May 21 the Palestinians defy Obama, pressing on for a Sept. U.N. declaration of statehood, while Obama gives a speech to AIPAC, assuring them that his commitment to Israel is "ironclad", that the U.S. demands Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, and that the borders he's talking about are not identical to the June 4, 1967 lines, although he fails to recognize that they were never borders, only armistice lines dating back to 1949; AIPAC member Mort Zuckerman later utters the soundbyte "For the first time since their state's founding Israelis feel Americans aren't behind them"; U.S. Sen. majority leader (D-Nev.) Harry Reid utters the soundbyte "The place where negotiating will happen must be the negotiating table, and nowhere else. Those negotiations will not happen, and their terms will not be set, through speeches, or in the streets, or in the media. No one should set premature parameters about borders."
On May 29, 2011 (10:45 p.m.) United Airlines Flight 990 (Boeing 767) en route from Washington, D.C. to Ghana with 144 passengers is disrupted when a passenger lowers his seat too far, causing the person behind him to start a fight, ending in the flight returning to Dulles Airport while U.S. F-16 jets are scrambled.
On July 10, 2011 the Middle East Quartet meets in Washington, D.C., and endorses Pres. Obama's May 19 speech.
On July 11, 2011 the Middle East Quartet (U.S., EU, U.N., Russia) meets in Washington, D.C. to discuss ways to revive the stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations; Palestinian pres. Mahmoud Abbas utters the soundbyte that the U.S. should not have veto power over its decisions; U.S.-Israeli relations reach a historic new low?
On July 13, 2011 a blog post in the Canadian anti-consumerist org. site Adbusters launches the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, calling for a peaceful demonstration for people regardless of their access to wealth, which is held on Sept. 17, attended by 1K, spreading around the U.S. and the world. On Oct. 1, 2011 Occupy D.C. begins in McPherson Square in Washington, D.C. with two encampments; on Oct. 29 Howard U. students join; on Nov. 22 a group who set out from New York City arrive; on Feb. 4, 2012 police raid them, arresting 11 but leaving 15 tents; on June 10, 2012 they vacate.
On Sept. 11, 2011 (9/11/11) the U.S. Nat. Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the old WTC site in in Manhattan, N.Y. opens on the 10th anniv. of 9/11, incl. the biggest manmade waterfall on Earth, and the Tribute in Light; Pres. Obama delivers a 9/11/11 Speech that carefully avoids blaming Islam for 9/11, and even implies that it was an act of God by quoting Psalms 46:8: "Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has wrought desolations in the Earth"; no surprise, the weekend event A Call to Compassion at the Nat. Cathedral in Washington, D.C. features a Muslim imam and a Buddhist nun, but no evangelical Christians, pissing-off Frank Page, pres. of the Southern Baptist Convention; American fear of an imminent terrorist attack is near the low point, at 38%; Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu gives a speech in Jerusalem, warning of Islamic radicals achieving the "ultimate terrorist nightmare" of getting nukes.
On Sept. 28, 2011 26-.y.-o. Mass. Muslim Rezwan Ferdaus is arrested for a plot to bomb bldgs. in Washington, D.C. with remote-controlled aircraft filled with plastic explosives.
On Oct. 11, 2011 U.S. officials claim to have disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabian ambassador (since 2007) Abdel Al-Jubeir (1962-) along with bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C., and arrest Am. Muslim Manssor Arbabsiar; on Oct. 13 Pres. Obama says that there is no doubt that members of the Iranian govt. knew of the plot, and warns that they will be held accountable for their "reckless behavior"; the Obama admin. also accuses Iran of trying to recruit a Mexican drug cartel member into the plot, and ramps up its internat. sanctions on Iran, with vice-pres. Joe Biden saying that "Nothing has been taken off the table"; Iranian foreign minister Ramin Mehmanparast calls the claims "ludicrous", and blames Zionists; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich shows that this plot is a "very embarrassing and difficult moment" for the Obama admin., and shows that Obama is clueless about Iran; did the Obama admin. break the news to divert attention from the Fast and Furious scandal that's putting heat on U.S. atty.-gen. Eric Holder? On Oct. 11 the Israeli cabinet approves a deal to return kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after 1,934 days in captivity, in return for 1,027 Arab POWs, 477 of them convicted terrorists; no surprise, Saudi cleric Awad al-Qarni issues a $100K reward to any Palestinian who kidnaps another Israeli soldier, after which Saudi prince Khaled bin Talal (brother of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal) pledges $900K more; on Nov. 5 Saudi king Abdullah provides his private plane to ferry them to the hajj in Mecca free of charge, while Mahmoud Abbas promises to build homes for them.
On Nov. 8, 2011 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management criticizes a congressional proposal to add FDR's June 6, 1944 D-Day Prayer to the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C., saying that it would "dilute" its "central message", along with its ability to "inspire" visitors.
On Nov. 22, 2011 a Repub. pres. debate in Washington, D.C. sees leading candidate Newt Gingrich advocate that some illegal aliens be allowed to stay in the U.S., after which he says that he is "prepared to take the heat".
On Dec. 12-14, 2011 a Muslim-dominated fake Meeting on Religious Tolerance hosted by U.S. ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook in Washington, D.C. gives the OIC yet another chance to try to undermine free speech in the U.S., thanks to Hillary Clinton, who announced it in July in Turkey.
On Dec. 16, 2011 Pres. Obama addresses the Union for Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C., and defends his record in Israel with the soundbyte: "No U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel's security than ours. None. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. It is a fact", pointing to support of Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system, its efforts to help the besieged Israeli embassy in Cairo in Sept., and actions to counter attempts to delegitimize Israel in the U.N.; meanwhile the Emergency Committee for Israel runs an ad with the title "Why Does the Obama Administration Treat Israel Like A Punching Bag?"
On Jan. 15, 2012 Pres. Obama attends mosque, er, Zion Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., his 3rd church attendance in 1 mo.
On Mar. 16, 2012 actor George Clooney is arrested at a protest at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C. along with Nick Clooney, MLK III, NAACP pres. Ben Jealous, and several congressmen.
On Mar. 24, 2012 the Reason Rally in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. sees 20K demonstrate for secularism and religious skepticism, becoming known as the "Woodstock for atheists and skeptics"; it is followed by Reason Rally 2016 at the Lincoln Memorial on June 2, 2016.
On Apr. 3, 2012 Repub. pres. candidate Mitt Romney wins primaries in Md., Wisc., and Washington, D.C., while Pres. Obama secures the Dem. nomination with wins in Wisc., Md., and Washington, D.C.
On Aug. 15, 2012 after looking them up on the Southern Poverty Law Center Web site, Floyd Lee Corkins II (b. 1985) attempts to enter the HQ of the anti-same-sex-marriage Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., shooting guard Leonardo Johnson in the left arm before being wrestled to the ground; on Sept. 19, 2013 he is sentenced 25 years in prison.
On Nov. 3, 2012 the Million Puppet March in Washington, D.C. in support of continued funding for public TV draws 1.5K, becoming the largest puppet march in history (until ?).
On Nov. 6, 2012 (Tues.) the 2012 U.S. Pres. Election is a V for Pres. Barack Obama over wealthy Mormon Repub. challenger Willard Mitt Romney (1947-) (not officially backed by the LDS Church), with 332 vs. 206 electoral votes, and 26 vs. 24 states, plus Washington, D.C.; Obama wins 65.9M votes (51%) vs. 60.9M (47.2%) for Romney; $6B is spent by both sides on the election; Latinos comprise 10% of the electorate for the first time; Pat Buchanan utters the soundbyte: "White America died last night. Obama's reelection killed it. Our 200 plus year history as a Western nation is over. We're a Socialist Latin American country now. Venezuela without the oil"; Colo. and Wash. become the first U.S. states to legalize recreational marijuana use.
On Jan. 20-21, 2013 after announcing that he's converting his campaign org. into a permanent lobby org., the 65th U.S. Pres. Inauguration is held in Washington, D.C.; Pres. Obama's 2nd Inaugural Address lays out an unabashedly liberal agenda, making climate change his #1 priority; it incl. the soundbytes: "My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together. For we, the People understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it"; "Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms"; "We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations"; it features the first-ever layperson invited to give the invocation, Myrlie Evers-Williams (1933-); Obama makes the first-ever reference to gay rights; during his first term Obama increased the nat. debt by $50,521 per household, more than the first 42 presidents in 53 terms combined; the number of Americans "not in the labor force" increased by 8,332,000; the number of Americans collecting disability increased by 1,385,418 (1 per 13 full-time workers, vs. 1 in 51 in Dec. 1968); Obama's first term approval rating averaged 49.1%, among the least for post-WWII presidents.
On Feb. 17, 2013 the Forward on Climate movement holds protests in major U.S. cities incl. 35K in Washington, D.C., calling for Pres. Obama to act on his inaugural pledge about climate change and reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
On May 3-July 6, 2013 the Solar Impulse by Swiss designers Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg makes the first solar-powered airplane flight across the U.S. from San Francisco, Calif. to Washington, D.C. in 105 hours 41 min. (33.14 mph avg.).
On Sept. 11, 2013 (9/11) 1M-2M bikers roll through Washington, D.C., while the announced Million Muslim March fizzles, with less than a dozen Muslims showing up.
On Sept. 16, 2013 (8:16 a.m.) the Washington Navy Yard Shooting sees 34-y.-o. African-Am. Navy reservist (Buddhist) Aaron Alexis (b. 1979) of Ft. Worth, Tex. enter the Naval Yard in Washington, D.C. near the White House and shoot and kill 12 employees and injure three with a Remington 870 12-gauge shotgun before being killed, becoming the 2nd deadliest mass murder on a U.S. military base after the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting.
On Oct. 1, 2013 after Congressional deadlock over funding Obamacare, the U.S. begins a partial shutdown, incl. the Statue of Liberty; a group of WWII vets storm the WWII Memorial in the Washington, D.C. Mall after they find it barricaded; meanwhile Obamacare itself begins.
On Oct. 3, 2013 (Day 3 of the govt. shutdown) Conn. black woman Miriam Carey (b. 1979), allegedly with mental problems goes beserk in her black Infiniti on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., charging DC authorities and ending up gunned down and killed; she had an 18-mo.-o. infant in her back seat; it is Obama's love child?
On Oct. 4, 2013 mentally-ill N.J. man John Constantino (1949-) sets himself on fire with gasoline on the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C., and is put out by the crowd before being airlifted to MedStar Washington HospitalCenter, where he dies hours later.
On Oct. 8, 2013 despite the federal govt. shutdown, the Obama admin. authorizes the Camino Americano: March for Dignity and Respect at the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C.; eight lawmakers are arrested.
On Oct. 11, 2013 (a.m.) dozens of truck drivers block the inner loop of the Washington, D.C. Beltway to protest Obamacare; 3K drivers were originally planned.
On Oct. 13, 2013 the Million Vet March sees WWII vets attack the "barrycades" surrounding the WWII and Lincoln Memorials on the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C.
On Oct. 26, 2013 a Rally Against the NSA and its spying on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. is attended by 2K, with protesters carrying signs saying "Stop Mass Spying", "Thank you, Edward Snowden", and "Unplug Big Brother".
On Feb. 7, 2014 new U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson gives his first major speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., uttering the soundbyte about the 11.5M+ illegal immigrants: "They're here, and they're not going away."
On Feb. 25, 2014 Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announces that she'll defy congressional Repubs. and implement D.C.'s new local law allowing residents to smoke pot, even if they try to put her in jail.
On Mar. 7, 2014 the first Nat. Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship is held by the Nat. Press Club in Washington, D.C.
On Mar. 12, 2014 the U.S. Council of Muslim Orgs. (USCMO) is founded in Washington, D.C. as an umbrella org. by 10 Muslim-Am. groups incl. the Muslim Am. Society (MAS), Council on Am.-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Am. Muslims for Palestine to give Muslims greater clout in U.S. politics; on June 10 it holds its inaugural banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal City, Va. - but Islam is just a religion?
On Apr. 25, 2014 the Deputies Committee of senior U.S. policy officials meets in Washington, D.C. to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq; meanwhile the U.S. quietly expands the number of intel officers in Iraq - it's safe to dance?
On May 15, 2014 a federal judge upholds registration requiremnts for hand guns in Washington, D.C.; on July 26 federal judge Frederick J. Scullin rules that a ban on carrying handguns in public in Washington, D.C. is unconstitutional, invalidating a 2008 law requiring handguns to be kept at home.
On June 7, 2014 (Sat.) the first-ever U.S. military color guard marches in the gay pride parade in Washington, D.C..
On June 22, 2014 (Sun.) Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge becomes the first openly transgender priest to deliver a sermon from the Canterbury Pulpit at the Nat. Cathedral in Washington, D.C.; presiding over the service is the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Right Rev. Gene Robinson - Sodom and Gomorrah jokes here?
On Aug. 4-5, 2014 Pres. Obama holds the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. for 50 African heads of state amid hundreds of protesters.
On Sept. 9-11, 2014 the In Defense of Christians Conference in Washington, D.C. sees Eastern and Western church leaders bemoan the fate of Christians in the Middle East; too bad, one of the organizers is James Zogby, pres. of the Israel-hating Arab Am. Inst., and on Sept. 10 U.S. Rep. (R-Tex.) Ted Cruz is booed off the stage by anti-Israel elements of the audience, with the soundbytes: "Those who hate Israel hate America, and those who hate Jews hate Christians", "Christians "have no greater ally than Israel", and "Antisemitism is a corrosive evil, and it reared its ugly head tonight."
On Nov. 4, 2014 (Tues.) the 2014 U.S. nat. elections are a landslide for the Repubs., who take complete control of the House and Senate; the worst election performance by a sitting president's party since Truman; the first Congress with 100 women concurrently serving; marijuana is legalized in Washington, D.C., Ore., and Alaska; meanwhile in Iraq the annual Shiite Ashoura celebration takes places sans murders.
Muslim infiltration of the federal govt. proceeds at jet speed? On Nov. 13, 2014 (Thur.) the U.S. House of Reps in Washington, D.C. allows Muslim imam Hamad Ahmad Chebli of the Islamic Society of N.J. to deliver the opening prayer; on Nov. 14 (a.m.) (Fri.) (after Muslim Brotherhood influence?) (100th anniv. of the last call to jihad by the Ottoman caliphate) the first-ever Muslim prayer service (Jumu'ah) is held at Wash. Nat. Cathedral in Washington, D.C., run by Rev. Canon Gina Campbell; Christian woman Christine Weick (1964-) of Tenn. yells "Jesus Christ is Lord", and is ejected; Rev. Franklin Graham calls it "sad to see".
In 2014 the Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope in Washington, D.C. is founded by Bshara Nassar to "bring the Palestinian refugee story to Washington, D.C."
On Feb. 12, 2015 the PC press-snubbed Defeat Jihad Summit in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Center for Security Policy to rebut Pres. Obama's upcoming Countering Violent Extremism Summit features speakers incl. Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Newt Gingrich, Steven King, and Scott Perry from the U.S., Geert Wilders from Denmark, Israeli ambassador Yoram Ettinger, and Lord Malcolm Pearson from Britain.
On Feb. 25, 2015 Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announces that she'll defy congressional Repubs. and implement D.C.'s new local law allowing residents to smoke pot, even if they try to put her in jail.
On Mar. 16, 2015 (10:15 p.m.) United Flight 1074 (Boeing 737) takes off from Dulles Internat. Airport in Washington, D.C. en route to Denver, Colo., after which Muslim passenger ? shouts "Jihadis in the cargo hold" and begins running toward the cockpit until he is subdued by other passengers, after which he starts crying "I'm sorry".
On Mar. 23, 2015 White House chief of staff Denis McDonough calls for an end to Israel's "50-year occupation" in a speech at the J Street Conference in Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 11, 2015 shots are fired at the U.S. Capitol Bldg. in Washington, D.C., causing it to be put on lockdown.
On Apr. 15, 2015 Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi makes his first official visit to Washington, D.C., getting into a pissing contest with the Saudis, criticizing their air campaign in Yemen, with a Saudi official responding that there is "no logic to those remarks".
On Apr. 17, 2015 FBI dir. James Comey utters the soundbyte that he requires every new special agent and intel analyst to go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. as part of their training.
On May 22, 2015 Pres. Obama gives a speech at the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., uttering the soundbyte: "I can say that no U.S. president, no administration, has done more to ensure that Israel can protect itself."
On June 8-12, 2015 the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) sponsors a conference in Washington, D.C. held by the Obama admin. that incl. members of the Muslim Brotherhood, causing Egypt to ask U.S. ambassador Stephen Beecroft to answer for it in Cairo.
On June 9, 2015 the 2015 Pentagon 4th Gay Pride Celebration in Washington, D.C. features top brass incl. U.S. defense secy. Ashton Carter, U.S. Army secy. John McHugh, transgender Army Office of Energy Initiatives exec dir. Amanda Simpson et al.; MC is U.S. Brig. Gen. Randy S. Taylor, who introduces his husband Lucas; meanwhile seven oepely gay U.S. ambassadors, along with Randy Berry, the U.S. State Dept.'s first special envoy for LGBTI persons pub. a joint letter in The Advocate, which is reposted on the White House Web site, calling for internat. free trade agreements to help export U.S. values incl. human and LGBTI rights.
On June 11-12, 2015 the 10th Internat. Conference on Climate Change in Washington, D.C. is attended by the world's leading climate change skeptics, sponsored by the Chicago-based Heartland Inst. (founded 1984).
On June 15, 2015 (night) U.S. Rep. (D-Fla.) Debbie Wasserman Schultz becomes the first voting member of Congress to officiate a same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C. in Fla. House near the Supreme Court Bldg. and U.S. Capitol; the lucky suckers are Robert Wolfarth and Alex Fernandez.
On June 18, 2015 after Pres. Obama attends her investiture ceremony at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. on June 17, new U.S. atty. gen. Loretta Lynch addresses LGBT activists of Lambda Legal in Washington, D.C., uttering the soundbyte: "We are finally witnessing the cascade of equality... that will forever reshape this country", adding that the U.S. Justice Dept. and Pres. Obama back them 100%.
On Sept. 9, 2015 the Tea Party-sponsored Stop the Iran Deal Rally is held on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; speakers incl. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck, who announces a plan to bring in "vetted" immigrants from Syria, with the soundbyte "We can save more people by Christmas than Oscar Schindler", and Sarah Palin, who utters the soundbyte that Pres. Obama doesn't trust Americans to "change our own light bulb of our own choosing", but does trust a "death cult" in Iran, adding: "This treaty will not bring peace. You don't reward terrorism - you kill it. You don't lift sanctions, you crack down on their assets. You cut off their oil and drill baby drill for our own."
On Sept. 10, 2015 La. Repub. Gov. Bobby Jindal gives a speech at the Nat. Press Club in Washington, D.C., uttering the soundbyte about Donald Trump: "He is shallow. There is no substance. He doesn't know anything about policy. He has no idea what he is talking about. He makes it up on on the fly", adding: "Donald Trump's never read the Bible... [because] he's not in the Bible", causing Trump to reply: "I only respond to people that register more than 1% in the polls. I never thought he had a chance and I've been proven right"; Jindal drops out of the pres. race on Nov. 17.
On Sept. 22-27, 2015 Pope Francis visits *the U.S., landing in Washington, D.C. and meeting with Pres. Obama in the White House on Sept. 23 (the 266th pope meeting Obama on the 266th day of the year, which is also the period of human gestation?), during which Obama utters the soundbyte: "So we stand with you in defense of religious freedom and interfaith dialogue, knowing that people everywhere must be able to live out their faith free from fear and free from intimidation"; on Sept. 23 after a popemobile tour of Washington, D.C., where he kisses a baby, Francis becomes the first pope to perform a mass in the U.S. at the Nat. Cathedral; on Sept. 24 he becomes the first pope to address the U.S. Congress (joint session), telling them to seek the "common good", after which Rep. Bob Brady (D-Penn.) grabs his half-full drinking glass and swipes it, drinks from it, and saves the rest for sprinkling on his children; (George Washington and Thomas Jefferson roll over in their graves?); after Obama invites prominent gay and pro-abortion activists to the pope's reception, Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee utters the soundbyte that the decision is "classless" and a "new low", saying that the Obama admin. "will go down as the most anti-Christian in American history"; on Sept. 25 the pope delivers an address to the 70th U.N. Gen. Assembly in New York City, and visits the 9/11 Memorial before giving a mass at Madison Square Garden for 18K; on Sept. 26 the pope gives a speech outside Independence Hall in Philly, standing at the same lectern that Pres. Lincoln used to deliver the Gettysburg Address, addressing illegal immigrants, with the soundbytes: "Please don't ever be ashamed of your traditions", "You remind American democracy of the ideals for which it was founded, and you remind us that society is weakened whenever and wherever any injustice prevails; "Do not forget what happened here more than two centuries ago. Do not forget that Declaration that proclaimed all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and that governments exist to protect and defend these rights", adding that the Catholic invaders, er, immigrants "bring many gifts to the U.S"; while in the U.S., Pope Francis visits with Ky. clerk Kim Davis, later taking pains to deny that it "be considered a form of support for her position"; he also secretly meets with gay couples incl. Yayo Grassi and Iwan Bagus.
On Sept. 25, 2015 Chinese pres. Xi Jinping visits the White House in Washington, D.C. for the first time just as Pope Francis leaves town for New York City; he and Pres. Obama announce a global climate change agreement approved by the pope, and a pact to stop state-sponsored cyberattacks; on Sept. 26 Xi Jinping meets in Seattle, Wash. with tech corp. CEOs incl. Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, and Satya Nadella of Microsoft to discuss Chinese cyber espionage and rook them into pressuring Washington, D.C. into not imposing sanctions; on Sept. 28 Jingping hosts a meeting on women's rights at the U.N., causing Hillary Clinton to call him "shameless" when he is persecuting women's activists at home, causing China to respond that she's a "demagogue" like "big mouth" Donald Trump; on Sept. 25-27 the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is approved by the U.N. Gen. Assembly to bring the internat. community "to the cusp of decisions that can help realize the... dream of a world of peace and dignity for all" (U.N. secy.-gen. Ban Ki-moon), containing 17 sustainable development goals incl. an end to world poverty and hunger, gender and wealth equality, action against climate change et al.; it's really an insidious Satanic plan for a New World Order (NWO)?
On Oct. 10, 2015 (Sat.) the Justice or Else Rally in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. celebrates the 20th anniv. of the Million Man March, with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan hogging the microphone for 2 hours, praising #BlackLives Matter and damning with the white devil establishment, with the soundbyte: "Moses was not an integrationist and neither are we. Let me be clear, America has no future for you or for me. She can't make a future for herself, much less a future for us."
On Oct. 10-11, 2015 the Global Rally for Humanity sees anti-Islam protests in front of mosques in 20 cities across the U.S., led by USMC vet Jon Ritzheimer; "The world is saying no to Islam"; "Standing up against Islam does not mean you're a racist or a bigot, it simply means you're not an idiot and can see the reality of Islam around the world."
On Dec. 6-7, 2015 the Muslim Reform Movement to combat Islamic extremism is announced at a summit in Washington, D.C. , with Danish delegate Naser Khader uttering the soundbyte: "We cannot say that the Islamic State are not Muslims. That is what they call themselves. If we the Muslims do not face the problem of violence that links to Islam in our time, how will we ever succeed in ripping Islam out of the hands of these destructive powers and lift our religion into the 21st century?"
On Feb. 4, 2016 the 2016 Nat. Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. features a speech by supposedly Christian Pres. Obama, who reverses 1,400 years of history by claiming that Christians don't need to fight their worse enemy Islam, making it about us rather than them, with the soundbyte: "Fear does funny things. Fear can lead us to lash out against those who are different, or lead us to try to get some sinister other under control", adding that "a good cure for fear" is Jesus.
On Mar. 20-22, 2016 the Am. Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. sees Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz et al. (not Bernie Sanders) give speeches, with Hillary uttering the soundbyte that "Tehran's fingerprings are on nearly every conflict across the Middle East", and "Iran remains an extremist regime that threatens to annhilate Israel", while supporting Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, and Cruz uttering the soundbyte that if he becomes pres. he will rip up Obama's nuclear deal with Iran "one day one", and not tolerate any Iranian ballistic missile tests: "Hear my words, Ayatollah Khomeini. If I am president and Iran launches a missile test, we will shoot that missile down."
On Mar. 30, 2016 Iranian author Salman Rushdie, who lives under a death threat fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini gives a talk at the NYU Academic Center in Washington, D.C., with the soundbyte that it is a mistake for Pres. Obama not to use the term "Islamic terrrorism".
On Mar. 30, 2016 exiled Muslim leader Dolkun Isa, head of the World Uighur Congress receives an award in Washington, D.C. from the Victims of Communism Memoral Foundation, pissing-off China, which issues a protest; on Mar. 31 Pres. Obama meets with Chinese pres. Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C., agreeing to cooperate on confronting the North Korean nuclear threat, pledging commitment to its denuclearization and agreeing to pass stringent new U.N. sanctions to punish it for its recent nuclear and missile tests.
On Apr. 2, 2016 Democracy Spring sees 100+ progressive groups begin 10 days of nonviolent protest marches from Philly to Washington, D.C. to "end the corruption of big money in politics and protect the right to vote for all Americans"; 900-1.2K are arrested.
On Apr. 12, 2016 Pres. Obama dedicates the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality Nat. Monument in Washington, D.C., using the opportunity to plug the pres. candidacy of Hillary Clinton, with the soundbyte: "I want them to come here and be astonished that there was ever a time when women could not vote. I want them to be astonished that there was ever a time when women earned less than men for doing the same work. I want them to be astonished... that there was ever a time when a woman had never sat in the Oval Office", adding: "I don't know how long it will take to get there, but I know we're getting closer to that day."
On Apr. 27, 2016 Donald Trump delivers his Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., spelling out an America First approach, staying fuzzy but explaining "We must as a nation be more unpredictable"; meanwhile former House Speaker John Boehner gives an interview to David M. Kennedy of Stanford U., calling Ted Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh", saying "I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life", while claiming to be friends with Donald Trump, calling him a "texting buddy".
On June 5, 2016 Miss USA 2016 (65th) Pageant in Las Vegas, Nev. (first broadcast on Fox) is won by Deshauna Barber (1989-) of Washington, D.C. after social media decides the winner for the first time.
On July 10, 2016 Dem. Nat. Committee staffer Seth Conrad Rich (b. 1989) is murdered by a gunman as he walks home in Bloomingdale, Washington, D.C.; despite nothing taken, police call it a botched robbery; WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange later implies that he is the source of the damaging emails posted days before the Dem. Nat. Convention; this adds to the recent suspicious deaths of U.N. official John Ashe (June 22), Victor Thorn (Aug. 1), and Shawn Lucas (Aug. 4).
On Aug. 3, 2016 the FBI announces that Washington, D.C.-area transit police officer Nicholas Young (1980-) of Fairfax, Va. has been charged with attempting to support ISIS, becoming the first U.S. law enforcement officer to be charged with a terror-related crime.
On Sept. 22, 2016 after protests outside U.N. HQ by former U.S. Sen. Joe Liberman et al. on Sept. 21, Iranian pres. Hasan Rouhani gives a speech to the U.N. Gen. Assembly, blasting "the usurping Zionist regime" as well as the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for fueling terrorism, also accusing the U.S. of not complying with the nuclear deal, eroding its credibility; on Sept. 21 Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari gives a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., dissing the media for failing to "call out the Iranian government's Holocaust denial".
On Sept. 24, 2016 Pres. Obama dedicates the Smithsonian Institution's Nat. Museum of African Am. History and Culture on the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. (opened Dec. 19, 2003), featuring the Contemplative Court, complete with a cylindrical fountain raining down from a skylight to the center of the room.
On Nov. 8, 2016 the 2016 Washington, D.C. statehood referendum sees 86% of voters (244K out of 284K) vote to advise the city council to petition Congress to admit the District of Columbia as the 51st state.
On Dec. 4, 2016 after the Pizzagate conspiracy theory spreads on the Internet, based on emails by John Podesta leaked by WikiLeaks, claiming a pedophile ring in the Dem. Party (incl. the Clintons), 28-y.-o. Edgar Welch (1988-) from Salisbury, N.C. fires three shots at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington, D.C. with an AR-15-style assault rifle.
On Jan. 19, 2017 (eve.) after Donald Trump and his family land ceremoniously in Washington, D.C., the Deploraball in Washington, D.C. for Trump supporters is crashed by hundreds of black mask-wearing anarchist protesters; performers incl. country star Toby Keith; fake news outlet CNN is disinvited.
The don of a new era? On Jan. 20, 2017 (12:00 a.m.) (7th min. of the 7th hour on the eve of the Hebrew sabbath) (during a sudden light shower) the 2017 (66th) U.S. Pres. Inauguration in Washington, D.C. sees New York City-born, Queens, N.Y.-raised Wharton School-educated real estate billionaire and TV personality (Presbyterian?) Donald John Trump (1946-) (Hebrew numerical value 424, same as Messiah Ben David AKA King David, who died at age 7, vs. Hillary Rodham Clinton = 255 = Amalek) (Secret Service codename: Mogul) (known for using 8th grade language filled with repetition) become Repub. U.S. pres. #45 (until ?) (70 years, 70 mo. and 7 days old - oldest elected U.S. pres.) (married 3x) (five children and eight grandchildren); former gov. #50 of Ind. (2013-17) Michael Richard "Mike" Pence (1959-) (Secret Service codename: Hoosier) becomes U.S. vice-pres. #48 (until ?); the end of a globalized U.S.? the inauguration is watched by 30.6M TV viewers on 12 TV networks, becoming the 2nd highest Nielsen rating since 1981; before the ceremony Trump attends a private religious service at St. John's Episcopal Church, led by Southern Baptist Rev. Robert Jeffries; First Lady is Slovenian-born Roman Catholic Melania Trump (Melanija Knavs or Knauss) (1970-) (Secret Service codename: Muse), insisting that the White House be exorcised before moving in; at the inauguration she wears a baby-blue dress and jacket from Ralph Lauren, stirring comparisons with Jackie Kennedy; Second Lady is Kan.-born Karen Sue Pence (nee Batten) (1958-) (Secret Service codename: Hummingbird); Trump's hotshot daughter (2nd First Lady?) is New York City-born Ivanka Marie Trump (1981-) (Secret Service codename: Marvel), who wears a white Oscar de la Renta dress at the inauguration; the inauguration is boycotted by 67 Dem. congresspersons (most since Abraham Lincoln), but not Hillary and Bill Clinton, who are thanked by Trump at the luncheon in the Capitol; Trump's cabinet picks incl. no Hispanics (first time since 1981); Trump's 2017 Inauguration Speech punches the Washington, D.C. establishment in the mouth while telling the American People that they run it now, repeating the phrase "America First"; on Jan. 20 Pres. Trump's Cabinet starts with retired USMC gen. James N. "Mad Dog" Mattis (1950-), who becomes U.S. secy. of defense #26 (until ?); on Jan. 20 retired USMC gen. John Francis Kelly (1950-) becomes U.S. homeland secy. #5 (until ?); Sean Michael Spicer (1971-) becomes White House press secy. #30 (until July 21); within a few hours of taking the oath of office, Trump signs a sweeping executive order to federal agencies to "ease the burden" of Obamacare in preparation for its total abolition.
On Jan. 21, 2017 (day after his inauguration) the anti-Trump 2017 Disrupt J20 Women's March (1st Annual Women's March), funded by leftist puppetmaster George Soros sweeps the globe from Australia to the U.S. and U.K., attended by 3.2M-5.2M; 200K protest in downtown Washington, D.C.; pop star Madonna wears a pussy hat, designed by Jayna Zweiman (1978-), and mentions dreams of "blowing up the White House"; protesters carry signs reading "Pussy trumps tyranny", "Keep your politics off my pussy", "Stay cunty", and "My neck, my back, my pussy will grab back"; no arrests are made.
On Feb. 2, 2017 (a.m.) Pres. Trump addresses the Nat. Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., opening with the soundbyte about Trump critic Arnold Schwarzenegger and his poor ratings hosting "The Apprentice": "I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings"; he also utters the soundbytes that "religious freedom is under threat", and vowing to "get rid of an totally destroy the Johnson Amendment" that bars pastors from endorsing candidates from the pulpit - unless they're black?
On Mar. 22-23, 2017 the Anti-ISIS Coalition meets in Washington, D.C. (first since Dec. 2014).
On Apr. 22, 2017 1M protesters in 600 U.S. cities stage an anti-Trump March for Science, incl. the Scientists' March on Washington in Washington, D.C., attended by 100K concerned over climate change and Pres. Trump's stance on it; on Apr. 29 (100th day of the Trump admin.) another People's Climate March in Washington, D.C. is atttended by thousands in sweltering heat, while the U.S. EPA announces that its main climate change Web site is "undergoing changes" to better reflect its "new direction"; 300 sister marches are held in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle et al.; the march in Denver is held in a spring snowstorm.
On Apr. 25, 2017 Pres. Trump speaks at the U.S. Holocaust Museum's Days of Remembrance in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., uttering the soundbytes: "This is my pledge to you: we will confront anti-Semitism,. We will stamp out prejudice, we will condemn hatred, we will bear witness and we will act", "Those who deny the Holocaust are an accomplice to this horrible evil. We'll never be silent, we just won't. We will never, ever be silent in the face of evil again", and "The state of Israel is an eternal monument to the undying strength of the Jewish people."
On May 14, 2017 the Miss USA 2017 (66th) Pageant is held at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev., hosted by Julianna Hough and Terrence J; the winner is Naples, Italy-born Miss Washington D.C., Kara Deidra McCullough (1991-), (runner-up in 2015 and 2016), becoming the first 2-peat for Washington, D.C. since 1988-9; she pisses-off the PC police by calling health care a privilege for the working and not a right, and for calling herself an equalist rather than a feminist; 7th winner born outside the U.S.
On July 25, 2017 the U.S. Federal Appeals Court in Washington, D.C. rules 2-1 in Wrenn v. District of Columbia that people seeking concealed handgun permits don't have to show "good reason", but have a 2nd Amendment right regardless of reasons.
On Dec. 12, 2017 after traveling to Libya 2x in 2011, former Washington, D.C. Metro Transit police officer (Muslim convert) Nicholas Young (1979-) of Fairfax, Va. is charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS and giving misleading statements to federal agents, becoming the first U.S. law enforcement officer to be charged with a terror-related crime; his computer reveals his fascination with Nazis and hatred of Israel, complete with photos of him in Nazi SS uniform; on Dec. 18, 2017 he is found guilty, and on Feb. 23 is sentenced to up to 60 years in priz.
On Dec. 18, 2017 Queens, N.Y.-born U.S. rep. (D-Tex.) (1995-) Sheila Jackson Lee (1950-) gets passenger Jean-Marie Simon of Washington, D.C. bumped from a United Airlines flight from Houston, Tex. to Washington, D.C., causing a pissing contest that is ended by Lee pulling out the race card.
On Mar. 20, 2018 (a.m.) a male school shooter at Great Mills H.S. in St. Mary's County, Md. 60 mi. SE of Washington, D.C. is stopped by heroic sheriff Tim Cameron.
On Nov. 8, 2018 the Nobody Is Above the Law Protest is held nationwide incl. Washington, D.C. to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, organized by MoveOn.
On May 27, 2019 Rolling Thunder makes its last ride in Washington, D.C.
On June 25, 2019 Ill. gov. J.B. Pritzker signs a law legalizing recreational use of marijuana, making it state #11 after Colo. (2012), Wash. (2012), Alaska (2014), Ore. (2014), Calif. (2016), Maine (2016), Mass. (2016), Nev. (2016), Mich. (2018), and Vt. (2018), along with Washington, D.C. (2014).
On June 30, 2019 a Gallup Poll finds that 64% of Americans oppose D.C. statehood.
On July 4, 2019 Pres. Trump holds his Salute to America 4th of July parade in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C., complete with tanks like Ike had in 1953 and JFK had in 1961, hamming it up with a speech that pisses-off leftists and Dems., containing the soundbyte: "It is the epic tale of a great nation whose people have risked everything for what they know is right and what they know is true. It is the chronicle of brave citizens who never give up on the dream of a better and brighter future. And it is the saga of 13 separate colonies that united to form the most just and virtuous republic ever conceived. On this day, 243 years ago, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to declare independence and defend our God-given rights."
On July 16-18, 2019 the Second Ministerial Advance to Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 1998 U.S. Religious Freedom Act, hosted by the U.S. State Dept. and incl. reps from 106 nations is attended by U.S. vice-pes. Mike Pence.
On Sept. 21-23, 2019 the 2019 U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City is attemded by 100+ world leaders; Pres. Trump drops by at the start but doesn't speak, then leaves to attend a meeting on religious freedom, and addresses the U.N. Gen. Assembly on Sept. 24; on Sept. 23 #ShutDownDC sees dozens of climate protesters disrupt traffic in usually-deadlocked Washington, D.C.
On Sept. 23, 2019 the 2019 U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City is attemded by 100+ world leaders; Pres. Trump drops by at the start, cutting in front of Greta Thunberg, but doesn't speak, then leaves to attend a meeting on religious freedom, preparing to address the U.N. Gen. Assembly on Sept. 24; Greta Thunberg gives her well-rehearsed, outgoing speech (impossible for an Assburger sufferer, although Trump's upstaging act might have made her speech more anger-filled?), with the big soundbyte: "My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams, my childhood with your empty words, and yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecological systems are collapsing. We're in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and eternal fairy tales of economic growth. How dare you? For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. How can you look away and come here saying you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are nowhere in sight? You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I really want to believe that, because if you really understood the situation and kept on failing to act, you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe"; French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer utters the soundbyte: "One shouldn't create a generation of people depressed over the subject of climate change"; meanwhile Thunberg and 15 other children file a complaint with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey for failing to act against climate change; meanwhile #ShutDownDC sees dozens of climate protesters disrupt traffic in usually-deadlocked Washington, D.C.; Greta Thunberg's coach is Luisa-Marie Neubauer, indicating backing by the usual leftist billionaire suspects George Soros, Bill Gates et al. Watch video - Greta Thunberg.
In 2054 the PreCrime Unit of the police dept. of Washington, D.C. uses three psychic precogs to see crimes before they happen and apprehend them preventatively - 2002 Steven Spielberg film Minority Report.