Vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment
The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace. Cohen, who wore a jacket that read "F*** the Draft" as he entered into a courtroom on April 26, 1968, had been charged with violating a California law that made it illegal to "use any vulgar, profane, or indecent language within the presence or hearing of women or children, in a loud and boisterous manner."
Cohen actually took off the jacket and folded it over his arm once inside the courthouse. However, a police officer in the building had seen it and sent the presiding judge a note suggesting that Cohen be held in contempt of court. When the judge declined, the officer arrested Cohen as he left the courtroom.
Cohen was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He described the jacket as his way of informing the public of the depth of his feelings against the Vietnam War and the draft. On appeal, and by a narrow vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court held that Cohen's jacket was protected by the First Amendment, despite the argument that it was so inflammatory that it "was certainly reasonably foreseeable that such conduct might cause others to rise up to commit a violent act against [Cohen] or attempt to forcibly remove his jacket."
The majority of the justices rejected this notion. They noted that when people go out in public they will occasionally see and hear things that they don't like. Justice Hugo Black, usually a stalwart defender of the First Amendment, was one of the dissenting judges, claiming that Cohen's act of wearing the jacket wasn't speech at all, but conduct that could be punished. However, according to the final decision, "those in the Los Angeles courthouse could effectively avoid further bombardment of their sensibilities simply by averting their eyes."
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
quote:those in the Los Angeles courthouse could effectively avoid further bombardment of their sensibilities simply by averting their eyes."
So does this mean I celebrate naked Tuesdays and have sex in an alley out side of a children’s center, as long as everyone knows to advert there eyes! It is okay for the few protestors as long as it is something they approve of at the time.
Posts: 206 | Location: Houston, TX USA | Registered: 05-11-06
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives; The unmentionable odour of death Offends the September night.
Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther until now That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz, What huge imago made A psychopathic god: I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.
Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About Democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book, The enlightenment driven away, The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again.
Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse: But who can live for long In an euphoric dream; Out of the mirror they stare, Imperialism's face And the international wrong.
Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, The music must always play, All the conventions conspire To make this fort assume The furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good.
The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart; For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have, Not universal love But to be loved alone.
From the conservative dark Into the ethical life The dense commuters come, Repeating their morning vow; 'I will be true to the wife, I'll concentrate more on my work,' And helpless governors wake To resume their compulsory game: Who can release them now, Who can reach the dead, Who can speak for the dumb?
All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.
Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Sept 7, 1940: The German air force began its blitz on London during World War II.
1776: World's first submarine attack
On this day in 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship Eagle in New York Harbor. It was the first use of a submarine in warfare.
Submarines were first built by Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebel in the early 17th century, but it was not until 150 years later that they were first used in naval combat. David Bushnell, an American inventor, began building underwater mines while a student at Yale University. Deciding that a submarine would be the best means of delivering his mines in warfare, he built an eight-foot-long wooden submersible that was christened the Turtle for its shape. Large enough to accommodate one operator, the submarine was entirely hand-powered. Lead ballast kept the craft balanced.
Donated to the Patriot cause after the outbreak of war with Britain in 1775, Ezra Lee piloted the craft unnoticed out to the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on September 7, 1776. As Lee worked to anchor a time bomb to the hull, he could see British seamen on the deck above, but they failed to notice the strange craft below the surface. Lee had almost secured the bomb when his boring tools failed to penetrate a layer of iron sheathing. He retreated, and the bomb exploded nearby, causing no harm to either the Eagle or the Turtle.
During the next week, the Turtle made several more attempts to sink British ships on the Hudson River, but each time it failed, owing to the operator's lack of skill. Only Bushnell was really able to competently execute the submarine's complicated functions, but because of his physical frailty he was unable to pilot the Turtle in any of its combat missions. During the Battle of Fort Lee, the Turtle was lost when the American sloop transporting it was sunk by the British.
Despite the failures of the Turtle, General George Washington gave Bushnell a commission as an Army engineer, and the drifting mines he constructed destroyed the British frigate Cereberus and wreaked havoc against other British ships. After the war, he became commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at West Point.
1911: Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested for stealing the Mona Lisa
On this day, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and jailed on suspicion of stealing Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum in Paris.
The 31-year-old poet was known for his radical views and support for extreme avant-garde art movements, but his origins were shrouded in mystery. Today, it is believed he was born in Rome and raised in Italy. He appeared in Paris at age 20 and quickly mixed into the city's bohemian set. His first volume of poetry, The Rotting Magician, appeared in 1909, followed by a story collection in 1910. A supporter of Cubism, he published a book about the subject, Cubist Painters, in 1913. The same year, he published his most esteemed work, Alcools, where he used a variety of poetic forms and traditions to capture everyday street speech. In 1917, his experimental play The Breasts of Tiresias was produced, for which he coined the term "surrealist."
Apollinaire's mysterious background and radical views led authorities to view him as a dangerous foreigner and prime suspect in the Mona Lisa heist, which took place August 22. No evidence surfaced, and Apollinaire was released after five days. Two years later, a former employee of the Louvre, Vincenzo Perggia, was arrested while trying to sell the famous painting to an art dealer.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced "nine eleven") consisted of a series of coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States, predominantly targeting civilians, carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. They were described by the United Nations Security Council as "horrifying terrorist attacks" .[1]
That morning, 19 men affiliated with al-Qaeda[2] hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. Two planes (United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11) crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower (One and Two). Both towers collapsed within two hours. The pilot of the third team crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. As well as the 19 hijackers, a confirmed 2,973 people died and another 24 remain missing as a result of these attacks
The attacks began with the hijacking of four commercial airliners departing from East Coast airports, fueled for flights to California. With jet fuel capacities of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms),[3] each aircraft effectively became an incendiary guided missile.
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223[4], wide-body aircraft crashed into the north side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (which was Eastern Daylight Time, or 12:46:30 UTC). United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222[5], crashed into the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223[6], crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC). United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222[7], crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC), with parts and debris found up to eight miles away. The crash in Pennsylvania is believed to have resulted from the hijackers either deliberately crashing the aircraft or losing control of it as they fought with the passengers. No one on board any of the hijacked aircraft survived.[8]
The fatalities were in the thousands, with 2,973 people killed, including 246 on the four planes, 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon.[9]Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers.[10] An additional 24 people remain listed as missing in the attack on the World Trade Center to this day.[11]
In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel, four New York City Subway stations, and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church were destroyed or badly damaged. In total, in Manhattan, 25 buildings were damaged and all seven buildings of the World Trade Center Complex had to be razed. Later, an eighth building, the Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex had to be condemned as well, due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower (it is, as of September 2006, waiting to be deconstructed). Communications equipment such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.[12]
Some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls from the hijacked flights. They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane. A total of 19 were later identified by the FBI, four on United 93 and five each on the other three flights.
The hijackers reportedly took control of the aircraft by using box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger. The 9/11 Commission could only establish that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools but some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.[13] Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the Commission Report the bombs were probably fake.
In the fourth aircraft, black box recordings revealed that—after discovering on their phones that planes had been deliberately crashed into buildings—crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers, who then rocked the plane in a failed attempt to subdue the passengers. According to 9-1-1 tapes, one of the passengers, Todd Beamer, had asked for the operator to pray with him before the passengers attempted to retake the aircraft. After praying, he simply said, "Let's roll." (The 9/11 Commission stated that Beamer later said "Roll it," most likely referring to a drink cart being used as a battering ram. This was, however, a separate incident, which took place after he had hung up on the operator. It is evidenced by cockpit recorders) The term "Let's roll" would later become the war cry for those fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). There is a dispute about the exact timing of the crash as the seismic record indicates that the impact occurred at 10:06 a.m. The 9/11 Panel reported that captured al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."
The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. During the course of the day, unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. This erroneous report, picked up by the wire services, made it into a number of newspapers published that day. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta 767–Flight 1989–had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
September 13, 1916: Children's author Roald Dahl is born
On this day in 1916, Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and James and the Giant Peach (1961), is born in South Wales.
Dahl's childhood was filled with tragedy. His father and sister died when Dahl was three, and he was later brutally abused at his boarding school. After high school, he traveled widely, joining an expedition to Newfoundland and later working in Tanzania. In World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot. He flew missions in Libya, Greece, and Syria, and was shot down in the Libyan desert, suffering serious injuries. (He saved a piece of his femur, removed in an operation after the accident, and later used it as a paperweight in his office.)
After he recovered, Dahl was sent to Washington, D.C., as an attachÝ. There, the writer C.S. Forester suggested he write about his war experiences, and 10 days later Dahl had his first publication, in the Saturday Evening Post.
Dahl wrote his first book, The Gremlins, for Walt Disney, in 1943, and the story was later made into a Disney film. He wrote several popular adult books, including Someone Like You (1953) and Kiss Kiss (1959), and began writing stories for his own four children in 1960. James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory became bestsellers. He also wrote the screenplay for Charlie (with a title change-the movie was called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and a James Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967).
Dahl did most of his writing on the family farm, writing two hours every morning, two hours every afternoon, and tending to the animals in between. He was divorced from his wife, Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, in 1983, and remarried. He died in 1990 at age 74.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
September 15, 1963 : Four black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham
A church bombing in an affluent African American neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, leaves four young African American girls dead. Denise McNair, 11 years old, and Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins, all 14 years old, were killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church, a site of past civil rights rallies. They were attending Sunday services when the dynamite bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan exploded. The tragedy helped to mobilize support for the civil rights movement.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified four suspects in the bombing, but for an unknown reason blocked prosecution of the case. The prime suspect in the bombing, Robert Chambliss, was finally tried and convicted in 1977 at the instigation of the Alabama state attorney. He died in prison eight years later. In 2001, Thomas Blanton was convicted of first-degree murder for his involvement in the bombing. A third suspect, Bobby Frank Cherry, was finally convicted in May 2002 and sentenced to life in prison, nearly 40 years after the murders. He died in November 2004 in an Alabama state prison.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
September 18, 1973 : Carter files report on UFO sighting
On this day in 1973, future President Jimmy Carter files a report with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), claiming he had seen an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in October 1969.
During the presidential campaign of 1976, Democratic challenger Carter was forthcoming about his belief that he had seen a UFO. He described waiting outside for a Lion’s Club Meeting in Leary, Georgia, to begin, at about 7:30 p.m., when he spotted what he called "the darndest thing I’ve ever seen" in the sky. Carter, as well as 10 to 12 other people who witnessed the same event, described the object as "very bright [with] changing colors and about the size of the moon." Carter reported that "the object hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved in toward the earth and away before disappearing into the distance." He later told a reporter that, after the experience, he vowed never again to ridicule anyone who claimed to have seen a UFO.
During the presidential campaign of 1976, Carter promised that, if elected president, he would encourage the government release "every piece of information" about UFOs available to the public and to scientists. After winning the presidency, though, Carter backed away from this pledge, saying that the release of some information might have "defense implications" and pose a threat to national security.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
September 19, 1893 : New Zealand first in women's vote
With the signing of the Electoral Bill by Governor Lord Glasgow, New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant national voting rights to women. The bill was the outcome of years of suffragette meetings in towns and cities across the country, with women often traveling considerable distances to hear lectures and speeches, pass resolutions, and sign petitions. New Zealand women first went to the polls in the national elections of November 1893.
The United States granted women the right to vote in 1920, and Great Britain guaranteed full voting rights for women in 1928.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Río de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarters at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.
On October 21, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. He was the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named "Pacific," from the Latin word pacificus, meaning "tranquil." By the end, the men were out of food and chewed the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On March 6, 1521, the expedition landed at the island of Guam.
Ten days later, they dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebú--they were only about 400 miles from the Spice Islands. Magellan met with the chief of Cebú, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In fighting on April 27, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.
After Magellan's death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return across the Pacific. The other ship, the Vittoria, continued west under the command of Basque navigator Juan SebastiÁn de Elcano. The vessel sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at the Spanish port of SanlÚcar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
This article is about the fire during the American Revolution. For the 1835 fire, see Great Fire of New York. The Great Fire was a devastating fire that burned through the night of September 21 – September 22, 1776 on the west end of what then constituted New York City at the southern end of the island of Manhattan.
During the American Revolutionary War, on September 15, 1776, British forces under General William Howe occupied New York City, which then only consisted of the southern end of Manhattan. American General George Washington had recognized the inevitability of this event and had withdrawn the bulk of his army from harm’s way. Washington and Congress rejected the counsel of some that the city be set on fire by departing soldiers as a means to deny a comfortable home to British soldiers during the coming winter. Instead, the Continental Army left the city intact and marched north to Harlem Heights at the opposite end of Manhattan Island, about 10 miles from the enemy. In the early hours of September 21, however, fire broke out in the city, most likely in the Fighting Cocks Tavern at Whitehall Street. Strong winds quickly spread the flames among tightly packed homes and businesses. Residents poured into the streets, clutching what possessions they could, and found refuge only on the grassy town commons. The fire raged into the daylight hours and eventually consumed between 400 and 500 buildings — about one-quarter of the city. This resulted in the British Army and Loyalist collaborators occupying the undamaged buildings for the remainder of the confluct, leaving the city's remaining residents in squalor during the war.
Nathan Hale was arrested in Queens for spying the same day. Unsubstantiated rumors have since attempted to link him to the fires, but there is nothing indicating he was arrested for any more than espionage.
Among the buildings destroyed was Trinity Church, New York. However St. Paul's Chapel was to survive.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Missed a couple of days (damn computer) so Im going to make up...
September 22, 1992
My eldest daughter was born at 9:13 a.m. She was 6lbs 1 oz. She's 14 and a freshman in High School this year. Where does the time go?
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
The first Congress of the United States approves 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and sends them to the states for ratification. The amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government were reserved for the states and the people.
Influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the Bill of Rights was also drawn from Virginia's Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason in 1776. Mason, a native Virginian, was a lifelong champion of individual liberties, and in 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention and criticized the final document for lacking constitutional protection of basic political rights. In the ratification process that followed, Mason and other critics agreed to approve the Constitution in exchange for the assurance that amendments would immediately be adopted.
In December 1791, Virginia became the 10th of 14 states to approve 10 of the 12 amendments, thus giving the Bill of Rights the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it legal. Of the two amendments not ratified, the first concerned the population system of representation, while the second prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened. The first of these two amendments was never ratified, while the second was finally ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
On this day, poet T.S. Eliot is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
Eliot's distinguished family tree included an ancestor who arrived in Boston in 1670 and another who founded Washington University in St. Louis. Eliot's father was a businessman, and his mother was involved in local charities.
Eliot took an undergraduate degree at Harvard, studied at the Sorbonne, returned to Harvard to study Sanskrit, and then studied at Oxford. After meeting poet and lifelong friend Ezra Pound, Eliot relocated to England. In 1915, he married Vivian Haigh-Wood, but the marriage was unhappy, partly due to her mental instability. She died in an institution in 1947.
Eliot began working at Lloyd's Bank in 1917, writing reviews and essays on the side. He founded a critical quarterly, Criterion, and quietly developed a new brand of poetry. His first major work, The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, was published in 1917 and hailed as the invention of a new kind of poetry. His long, fragmented images and use of blank verse influenced nearly all future poets, as did his masterpiece The Waste Land, published in Criterion and the American review The Dial in 1922. While Eliot is best known for revolutionizing modern poetry, his literary criticism and plays were also successful. In 1925, he accepted a job as an editor at Faber and Faber, which allowed him to quit his job at the bank. He held the position for the rest of his life.
Eliot lectured in the United States frequently in the 1930s and 1940s, a time when his own worldview was fluctuating: He converted to Christianity. In 1957, he married his assistant, Valerie Fletcher. The couple lived happily until his death in 1965.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
September 27, 1940 : The Tripartite Pact is signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan
On this day in 1940, the Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The Pact provided for mutual assistance should any of the signatories suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war. This formalizing of the alliance was aimed directly at "neutral" America--designed to force the United States to think twice before venturing in on the side of the Allies.
The Pact also recognized the two spheres of influence. Japan acknowledged "the leadership of Germany and Italy in the establishment of a new order in Europe," while Japan was granted lordship over "Greater East Asia."
A footnote: There was a fourth signatory to the Pact-Hungary, which was dragged into the Axis alliance by Germany in November 1940.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
September 28, 1066: William the Conquerer invades England
When William the Conqueror landed in England on this day, September 28, 1066, his invasion had the approval of Pope Alexander II who gave him a banner to crusade under. Its repercussions on the church in England were enormous, going far beyond the stone architecture of the great Norman cathedrals that we still admire.
William claimed authority over the church in the entire region that he ruled. He ousted almost all of the English-born bishops and abbots, replacing them with Normans. He installed tough-minded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury; and Lanfranc's rules became the law of the English church.
William worked closely with Lanfranc, who organized the church and, using English precedents (some of them forged), brought the Archbishop of York under the authority of Canterbury. William preferred to deal with one church hierarchy, not two.
Bishops became part of the feudal military structure. Each one was required to send a certain number of knights to William's armies. The justice dispensed by many small church courts was shifted to a few bishops and administered by archdeacons that the bishops had to appoint. The conquering king retained the right to overrule the decisions of church courts and to hear all cases in which a layman was in conflict with the church.
William personally attended the local church councils which now became more frequent. He acted as master of all they did.
Under the Norman reforms, bishops' seats were moved to cities. For example, Dorchester was moved to Lincoln. Priests were required to be celibate. Until then, their marriage had been tolerated. Now marriage was "grand fathered" out, with parish priests allowed to keep their wives, but not the higher clergy; and no new priest could be ordained without swearing to be celibate. William laid down three rules: no pope would be recognized in his kingdom and no letter from a pope received unless first approved by him. No church council might enact a ruling without his sanction and the church dare not reprimand any of his noblemen without his consent.
Late in William's reign, Pope Gregory VII demanded that William swear fealty to him (that is, accept the pope as his feudal lord). Apparently Gregory believed that since William had sought a pope's permission to invade England, he owed his kingdom to the pope. William indignantly rejected the idea. The pope and the king also clashed because the king appointed bishops whom he expected to be loyal to him, whereas the pope considered that bishops owed their first loyalty to Rome.
These differences never came to a head and William was always a strong supporter of the church in his dominions. His policy fought pluralism (churchmen holding more than one position) and simony (buying church positions). Whether he did more harm than good to the church in England is debated to this day. But no one doubts that he drastically changed it.
Resources: Douglas, David C. William the Conqueror; the Norman impact upon England. (Berkeley: University of California, 1964). Thurston, Herbert. "William the Conqueror." The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. (Robert Appleton, 1912). "William the Conqueror." The Dictionary of National Biography, founded in 1882 by George Smith; edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. (London: Oxford University Press, 1921-1996). Various internet articles.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Damn computer again - missed to many days to make up. Today will have to do.
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October 11, 1965, Dorothea Lange dies.
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or camera to her, but I do remember she asked no questions. I did not ask her name or history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. ~Dorothea Lange on "Migrant Mother" Quoted in Richard Lacayo and George Russell, Eyewitness: 150 Years of Photojournalism (New York: Time, 1995), page 101.
On October 11, 1965, photographer Dorothea Lange died in San Francisco at the age of seventy. Lange is best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the tragic consequences of the Great Depression and profoundly influenced the development of documentary photography.
Lange began her career in New York, later migrating to San Francisco where she opened a portrait studio in 1918. With the onset of the Depression, Lange turned her camera lens from the studio to the street. Her searing studies of homelessness immediately captured the attention of local photographers and led to her employment with the federal Resettlement Administration (RA), later called the FSA. From 1935 to 1940, Lange's work for the RA and FSA brought the plight of the poor and forgotten, particularly displaced farm families and migrant workers, to public attention. Distributed free of charge to newspapers across the country, her poignant images quickly became icons of the era.
In 1941, Lange was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for excellence in photography. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, she gave up the prestigious award to record the forced evacuation of Japanese-Americans to armed camps in the American West. Selections from this controversial series, can be viewed through the Dorothea Lange section of Women Come to the Front—an online exhibition highlighting the work of women journalists, photographers, and broadcasters who documented World War II at home and abroad.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Where does the time go?