US History – Sharing History

Crown v. Zenger: Freedom of the Press

November 17, 2023November 22, 2023US History, US RevolutionLeave a Comment

On November 17, 1734, the publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, John Peter Zenger, was arrested and charged with libel by the state of New York, then governed by the King of England, George II. Zenger had published critical pieces about the King’s appointed Governor of New York, William Cosby. Zenger was held in jail for nine months and tried for printing seditious libel. In an enormous upset, Zenger was found not guilty by the jury. The case Crown v. Zenger became a landmark decision in the freedom of the press.

In 1733, Chief Judge of New York, Lewis Morris, wrote a dissenting opinion about a case involving Governor Cosby. Consequently, Governor Cosby had Justice Morris removed from his seat. Morris then went on to write scathing criticisms of Cosby in the New York Weekly Journal, branding the governor a tyrant. In his quest to shut down the paper that dared oppose him, Governor Cosby had the publisher, John Peter Zenger, arrested and charged with libel. Unlike today, libel in the 18^th century referred to any writing that opposed His Majesty’s government— veracity of the statement notwithstanding.

Zenger was held in jail for nine months before his trial took place. He was presented before Chief Justice James De Lancey, the very judge the governor appointed to replace Lewis Morris. Justice De Lancey did not make things easy for Zenger or his attorneys, whom he had disbarred after they claimed that De Lancey shouldn’t be the one making the decision since the removal of Justice Morris had been unlawful in the first place. Zenger’s next lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, argued in front of the jury that “the question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. No! It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty.” He argued that while Zenger admitted to having published the criticism of the governor, the decision lay in whether or not the information was true.

Justice De Lancey ordered the jury to decide the case based only on whether or not Zenger had actually printed the information. The jury deliberated for only ten minutes before returning with a verdict of “not guilty.” This reversal was an early instance of jury nullification, in which a jury disregards the law and acquits the defendant despite the jury’s belief that they are guilty. The jury believed that the printed criticism of the governor was fact and therefore could not be considered libel. This changed the definition libel. Now, to be considered libel, information must be decidedly false. This change encouraged other publishers to call out corruption in government—an act instrumental in the ushering in of the American Revolution. Crown v. Zenger planted the seed that eventually bloomed in to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Learn more here:

“Call Me Ishmael”

November 14, 2023November 22, 2023US HistoryLeave a Comment

On November 14, 1851, the now acclaimed novel Moby Dick was published by Harper Collins in the United States. Its author, Herman Melville, had previously published several novels which all received mixed reviews and didn’t make him much money. He hoped Moby Dick, or The Whale, as it was titled in England, would catapult him to literary fame.

Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way. Reviews of the novel published immediately after its release concluded that “it is a crazy sort of affair, stuffed with conceits and oddities of all kinds . . .” and “extravagance is the bane of the book, and the stumbling block of the author. He allows his fancy to not only run riot, but absolutely to run amuck, in which poor defenceless Common Sense is hustled and belaboured in a manner melancholy to contemplate.” Moby Dick did not bring Herman Melville great success as a writer. It wasn’t until after his death in the 1920s and 30s that Moby Dick was declared one of the great American novels.

Herman Melville spent the years 1841 to 1844 having adventures across the sea that would provide the inspiration for his writing. He originally joined a whaling ship but abandoned it a year later only to be captured by cannibals on the Marquesas Islands. From there he traveled to Tahiti and Eimeo, became a harpooner on another whaling ship, and ended up in Honolulu, where he became a bookkeeper. In 1844, Melville returned to New England a member of the US Navy.

Upon his return, Melville wrote several novels, including Typee, Omoo, and Redburn. He also drafted Moby Dick. These writings were detailed, first-hand descriptions of life aboard a whaling ship and life on remote islands. Upon meeting famed American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne encouraged Melville to consider a more allegorical approach to writing. Melville rewrote Moby Dick, dedicating it to Hawthorne in gratitude for his advice. It was published in 1851.

Moby Dick never gained popularity during Melville’s life. However, in 1924, over 70 years after its original debut, Works of Herman Melville was published and Moby Dick finally got its proper due. It is considered one of the greatest American novels ever written and its vague allegorical nature has opened it up to over a century of interpretation and admiration.

Learn more here:

Order your copy of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick from an independent bookstore like this one: https://www.strandbooks.com/product/9780679783275?title=mobydick_or_the_whale

The Holland Tunnel: A Landmark Feat of Innovation

November 10, 2023November 22, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On November 13, 1927, the Holland Tunnel, the longest underwater tunnel of its kind in the world at the time, opened to public traffic. The tunnel connects Jersey City and Manhattan and supports the crossing of over 30 million vehicles every year.

The Holland Tunnel was commissioned in 1920 by the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission. They hired engineer Clifford M. Holland as chief engineer on the project. He had previously worked as a tunnel engineer on the construction of the first New York subway and therefore was an excellent candidate for the job. Holland dedicated himself to the problems faced by building an underwater tunnel that was so long. In fact, he was so dedicated, the media referred to him as “the Head Mole.” The team began by pushing cylindrical steel pieces into the river’s bottom starting at each shore and meeting in the middle. Shortly after this achievement in 1924, Holland passed away.

Strangely enough, the second engineer to be assigned to the project, Milton Freeman, passed after only five months of working on the project. It was the third engineer, Ole Singstad, who solved the most significant problem of this long tunnel: ventilation. He installed an automatic ventilation system by building two ventilation towers on each side of the river. They housed 84 fans that could refresh the air every 90 seconds, keeping the travelers safe from any fumes inside. This innovation was the first of its kind in the world and an inspiration for many underwater vehicular tunnels afterward.

The design of this indispensable method of transportation was such an important step in the development of tunnel design that in the 1980s, the bridge was named a National Historic Civil and Engineering Landmark.

Learn more here:

“Big Cat:” A Basketball Pioneer

October 31, 2023October 30, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On October 31, 1950, Earl Lloyd became the first African American to play in an NBA game. Three years after Jackie Robinson’s debut as part of the MLB, Lloyd took the court as a player for the Washington Capitols, scoring six points and pulling down 10 rebounds. A legendary defensive player, Lloyd did more than just play a good game. He helped to pave the way for players of color who entered the league after him.

Earl Lloyd was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1928. There, he was a stand-out high school basketball player. He went on to play for West Virginia State University. Immediately following his graduation in 1950, Lloyd was the second African American drafted into the NBA, chosen in the ninth round by the Washington Capitols. He played for the first time on October 31, 1950 in a game against the Rochester Royals. Lloyd was the first of the three African American players drafted that year, including Chuck Cooper and Nat Clifton, to play. He was also the first African American to win an NBA title in 1955.

Following his years playing basketball, which were fraught with discrimination and vitriol by fans, hotels, and restaurants as the team traveled, Lloyd became the first African-American assistant coach in the league for the Detroit Pistons. He became the head coach three years later. Lloyd said of his time in the NBA that he was “in the right place at the right time. I don’t play it up or down. I just hope I conducted myself where I made it easier for others, and I think I did.”

Learn more here:

Transforming the Workplace: The Fair Labor Standards Act

October 24, 2023October 23, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On October 24, 1940, the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed two years earlier, went into effect in the United States. A sweeping reform bill that included provision for a federal minimum wage, weekly limits on working hours, and heavy restrictions on child labor, the act changed the labor market, setting the standards that we abide by now. There has been a call in the last few years for labor reform to adjust the workplace to the world we live in now. So, how did they make it happen in 1938?

A change in labor standards was an election promise by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt began his first term under the shadow of the Great Depression. He signed the National Industrial Recovery Act, hoping to raise wages and create jobs. There were provisions for a shorter work week, a $12 per week minimum wage, and child labor restrictions. Unfortunately, most parts of the bill, including restrictions on child labor, were struck down as unconstitutional by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court at the time. This sentiment trickled down through the circuit courts as well. One judge said, “the so-called Child Labor Amendment . . . will result in the filing, by the coming generations, of the reformatory institutions and prisons beyond their capacity. The failure of parents to teach and compel children to perform reasonable and proper labor while yet young is the prime cause of the wave of crime in this country.”

In 1936, Roosevelt campaigned on labor reform as the basis for his second term. He won the election 523 electoral votes to 8. He felt that this proved the country’s commitment to labor reform. To encourage change, Roosevelt suggested that he might add seats to the Supreme Court to be sure the three branches of legislature were on the same page. Shortly after, conservative Justice Owen Roberts sided with the liberal judges in a case regarding minimum wage. This opened the gate to more legislation moving through the House and Senate regarding minimum wage, child labor, and weekly hour ceilings. Frances Perkins, Roosevelt’s Labor Secretary and the first female member of the cabinet, worked tirelessly to put together labor reform packages that would accomplish what they wanted while still appealing to the Republican members of Congress. What finally convinced Republicans to move the bill through were two Senate seats in Republican strongholds that were lost to pro-labor reform candidates. At this point, many Republican congress members seemed ready to make a deal. The bill that finally made it through in 1938—the Fair Labor Standards Act—provided for a 40-cent-per-hour minimum wage, a 40-hour work week, and a restriction on hiring children under the age of 16.

Learn more here:

The Conviction of Scarface

October 17, 2023November 26, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On October 17, 1931, Alphonse Capone, legendary mob boss of the Chicago area, was convicted of five counts of federal tax evasion. Capone was a career gangster who, according to the New York Times, went from “the lowly position of a $75-a-week punk for Johnny Torrio, head of Chicago’s gangsterdom and master panderer, to undisputed control of all the illegal sources of revenue in the city and its suburbs.” This career involved violation of prohibition laws, murder, prostitution rings, bribery, and trafficking of narcotics. In the end, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York to Italian immigrants. At the age of 14, Capone left school and joined the South Brooklyn Rippers, a teen gang. By 16, he was a member of the Five Points Gang and fell under the tutelage of legendary mob boss, Johnny Torrio. It was around this time while working at a mob-run brothel, Capone got into an altercation with another man and ended up with a knife wound across his cheek. This is what gave him his infamous nickname: Scarface.

In 1919, following a series of violent events, Capone and his family escaped to Chicago where Torrio was working in the Colosimo mob, which ran brothels around the city. The following year, Prohibition was passed, and a new business opportunity opened itself up to the mob. When Colosimo refused to participate in bootlegging, Torrio had him killed. Torrio and Capone teamed up to create the Chicago Outfit, running an incredibly profitable bootlegging business. After Torrio’s retirement, Capone found himself in charge. He expanded the Outfit’s prostitution, bootlegging, and gambling businesses, and through massive bloodshed, expanded the gang’s territory. Throughout it all, Capone avoided jail by paying off city officials and intimidating witnesses.

Capone’s notoriety peaked after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, in which seven members of a rival gang were brutally shot outside a Lincoln Park garage. It was around this time that the FBI started investigating Capone. The IRS eventually found evidence that Capone had not paid his federal income taxes for the years between 1924 and 1929. In 1931, he was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and fined $50,000. Capone served two years in Atlanta, but when it became clear that he was still able to run the Outfit from prison, he was moved to Alcatraz in 1934. Capone was released in 1939 with dementia, a symptom of his advanced syphilis. He died in Florida in 1947 at the age of 48. Upon the occasion of his death, the New York Times wrote, “Though ‘Scarface Al,’ once Public Enemy No. 1, died in bed in the midst of luxury, his career ended in mental and physical horror. Among the funeral wreaths his old gangster associates will doubtless shower on his bier there should be at least one inscribed, ‘The wages of sin is death.’”

Learn more here:

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

October 13, 2023October 12, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On October 13, 1792, George Washington laid the cornerstone for the building that would become the White House. Washington chose the location of the building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. but opened up the design of the house itself to submissions. Architect James Hoban’s design for a Georgian-style mansion was chosen in 1792, and construction started that year. In two centuries since, the White House has been burned down, rebuilt, and renovated. It has seen 44 presidents and their families move in and out and has been the site of countless historic moments and decisions.

Though George Washington was the president to begin building the White House, he never got the chance to live in it. It took eight years for the building to be built by enslaved people and Scottish stonemasons. James Madison and his wife were the first to move into the building in 1800. In 1814, as part of the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the White House. It took three years to rebuild and be ready for residency again. The next extensive renovation came in 1902 under the direction of President Theodore Roosevelt. He converted the second-floor offices into bedrooms for his six children and began construction on the West Wing to make room for staffers. In the 1940s, the building was found to have major structural problems and was completely rebuilt over the course of four years. The most recent renovation took place in the early 60s when Jackie Kennedy redesigned much of the White House and reawakened public interest in the building by hosting a televised tour.

Thomas Jefferson was the first president to open the White House to the public for tours and that tradition continues today. Over 1.25 million people visit the White House every year. Approximately 400 people work in the White House full-time. Strangely enough, despite all these people coming in and out and the numerous renovations of the building completed over the years, the original cornerstone laid in October 1792 by George Washington and a group of Freemasons has never been found. During the 1940s renovation, President Truman specifically asked construction workers to search for it, but it never turned up. The missing cornerstone remains a historical mystery worthy of a National Treasure movie.

Learn more here:

The Great Dissenter

October 3, 2023October 3, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On October 2, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court. Marshall was nominated to the position by President Lyndon B. Johnson following a storied legal career in which Marshall fought tirelessly for racial justice. During his 24 years on the bench, Marshall never gave up on his ultimate goal: equality for all.

Thurgood Marshall was born in Maryland in 1908. He was the son of a railroad porter and an elementary school teacher and the grandson of an enslaved person. He was incredibly bright and graduated from college with honors. When applying to law school, Marshall received a rejection from the University of Maryland based solely on his race. After earning his law degree at Howard University, Marshall came back to the University of Maryland, this time to sue the university for violating the Fourteenth Amendment by denying admission based on race. He won.

Marshall won several more high-profile cases, striking down laws and policies that allowed for racial discrimination in housing and schools. In 1938, Marshall became Chief Counsel of the NAACP. His most well-known legal victory is that of Brown v. Board of Education. Through this case, segregation in public schools was deemed unconstitutional. After winning this case, Marshall became a circuit judge and U.S. Solicitor General before becoming a Supreme Court Justice.

As a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Marshall championed affirmative action, the right to privacy, and a woman’s right to choose, the same rights that have been struck down by the Supreme Court in recent years. During his years on the court, Justice Marshall was often referred to as “The Great Dissenter,” and the necessity of dissension might be his greatest legacy. In a commencement address that Justice Marshall gave at the University of Virginia in 1978: “Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.”

Learn more here:

The Birth of the U.S. Army

September 29, 2023October 3, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On September 29, 1789, the First Congress of the United States passed an act that allowed for the establishment of the United States Army. Though the Continental Army had fought during the revolution and was officially established under the Articles of Confederation, it wasn’t until 1789 that the Army of the United States of America as we know it existed.

During the course of the Revolutionary War, it is estimated that approximately 230,000 men served as members of the Continental Army. Once the war ended, the Framers of the Constitution thought it important that the U.S. have a standing army to protect it from any number of outside threats. When these men wrote the Constitution, they said, “The Congress shall have Power . . . To raise and support Armies.” This would be checked by the executive branch as the president would be the Commander in Chief of that army.

By September 29, 1789, the last day of their first session, the First Congress had still not written any legislation regarding the army. President George Washington was insistent that they do so. He wrote a letter to Congress saying, “I am particularly anxious it should receive an early attention as circumstances will admit; because it is now in our power to avail ourselves of the military knowledge disseminated throughout the several States by means of the many well instructed Officers and soldiers of the late Army.” Congress passed the act that day, writing: “An act to recognize and adapt to the Constitution of the United States, the establishment of the troops raised under the resolves of the United States in Congress assembled.”

At the time that the U.S. Army was established in 1789, it is estimated they had about 800 members. Now it is estimated that the U.S. Army has approximately 450,000 personnel. The U.S. Army also has the highest amount of military spending in the world: approximately 800 billion U.S. dollars each year.

Learn more here:

Here’s the Story: A Pop Culture Phenomenon

September 26, 2023October 3, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On September 26, 1969, the first episode of acclaimed television show “The Brady Bunch” appeared on ABC. While most of us now are familiar with the Bradys and can probably sing at least one verse of their iconic theme song, the show was actually not very popular during its original five seasons. It wasn’t until the late 70s, when the show was in reruns, that children and teens became infatuated with this ideal American family. What was it about the Bradys that drew such a dedicated fan base almost a decade after its original airing?

“The Brady Bunch” was created by Sherwood Schwartz, who was also the creator of the famous 1960s sitcom, “Gillian’s Island.” Apparently, Schwartz got the idea for the show when reading an article in the Los Angeles Times that said that in 1966, “30 percent of marriages involved children from a previous relationship.” Schwartz wrote the pilot and submitted it to several networks who weren’t sure about a television show with such an unfamiliar premise. Shortly after, however, the movie Yours, Mine, and Ours starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda premiered and became a hit. After its success, ABC picked up Schwartz’s pilot with a similar premise and began filming the first season.

The show, in which Carol Martin and Mike Brady get married and bring their six children (her three girls: Marcia, Jan, and Cindy and his three boys: Greg, Peter, and Bobby) to live in a beautiful home in an LA suburb, revolved around the children and the pitfalls they faced in the process of growing up. During the years it originally aired (1969-1974), critics did not have great things to say about the show, claiming it was too cheesy. After its cancellation, ABC began rerunning the episodes on weekday afternoons. Children and teens who were just getting home from school gathered around the television set to watch. An article in Entertainment Weekly from the 90s suggests that the show resonated so deeply with this group because “the show was a picture of stability while Vietnam and the sexual revolution rocked the rest of the world. While our real-life parents were splitting up at an alarming rate, those goody-goody Bradys were telling us a shameless lie about family life. We desperately believed it. Most of all, this was the family that the latchkey kids came home to every day after school, the family we could always count on.”

In the 50 years since the Bradys appeared on television, many television shows featuring unique family structures have become national treasures, including “Full House,” “Modern Family,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” What television executives learned from the Bradys and then applied to these other shows is that we love to see a family that takes a difficult situation and makes it good and funny and wholesome.

Learn more here: