MAY 21 = Clara Barton Founds the American Red Cross

"But perhaps the most resilient worker of them all, and certainly the one who stirred up was a stiff-spined little spinster in a plain black dress and muddy boots who had brought the newly organized American Red Cross in from Washington. Miss Clara
Barton and her delegation of fifty doctors and nurses had arrived on the B&O early Wednesday morning."

- David McCullough

The American Red Cross was founded on today's date, May 21 in 1881.Clara Barton was named president  of the society, which held its first official meeting at her I Street apartment in Washington, DC, on this date with the help of Adolphus Solomons a prominent member of the American Jewish community in social welfare matters. Clara Barton was well captured in Mr. McCullough's description of her stirring up notice as she arrived with her Red Cross volunteers and marched right into the thick of disaster. It certainly fits everything ever written about this amazing woman Whether there were casualties from war or from natural disaster she always walked to the heart of the problem and took hands-action to fix it. And usually in a field which was considered men's work.

Clara Barton's Early Life - What Lead Her to Nursing?

 Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821, to Captain Stephen Barton, a local militia leader and Sarah Stone Barton one of five children in the family. She attended school at age three getting good marks in adding and spelling although socially she was quite timid. At age 10, when her brother David fell from the roof a barn and sustained serious head injury she took upon herself the job of nursing him back to health when most of the doctors had given up on him. She obviously had an ability to learn and the compassion to help those who were suffering. She taught in New Jersey and eventually had a job as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.

The Civil War Breaks Out.

In the spring of 1861, the bloodshed from the war started arriving in Washington D.C. where Clara worked at the time. She wanted to serve, so she went to the train station and saw all of the suffering.
She began nursing the wounded men. She provided  vital personal help to these men who were hungry and suffering from battle wounds, and who had very few supplies. So she began taking supplies to them at the unfinished Capitol building where they had been taken. Barton and some of the other women there provided food, decent clothing and began dressing their wounds. Through this experience, Barton learned the business of storing and distributing medical supplies. She also
offered emotional support to the men, reading to them, and writing letters home for them. From this point onward in her life she devoted herself to providing help and supplies to wounded soldiers. She even stored many of the supplies at her own home. In 1862 she was given permission by Quartermaster Daniel Rucker to work at the frontline of battle.

"The Angel of the Battlefield"

"I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them." - Clara Barton

She brought loads of supplies along with her in three army wagons for the suffering wounded going directly to them in the field hospitals. She even braved the havoc at Antietam where the shortage of supplies forced some surgeons to make bandages out of corn husks. She organized men who were able to practice first aid, prepare food and carry water. She paid for much of this with donations from citizens and much of it with her own funds (for which the government eventually reimbursed her). For the duration of the war, Barton had her wagons following the Union Army caring for the sick and wounded not just of the Union, but also tending Confederate prisoners as well. She became known as

"The Angel of the Battllefield." Many of the male surgeons objected to woman nosing into what they considered men's work but she ignored them and kept on working. During the union assault on Battery Wagner (July 18, 1863) many of the wounded were brought to Clara's care on Morris Island. There she would care or the sick, pass out mail and fresh food. Barton herself, based in her tent became very ill and had to be evacuated to Hilton Head. Of the action there, Barton said:

"We have captured one fort - Gregg - and one charnel house - Wagner - and we have built one cemetery, Morris Island.  The thousand little sand-hills that in the pale moonlight are a thousand headstones, and the restless ocean waves that roll and breakup on the whitened beach sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside." 

Clara Barton and the International Red Cross

After the grim carnage of the Civil War. Barton helped in identifying
the many missing soldiers left from combat and also in the hellish Confederate P.O.W. camp at Andersonville, Georgia. President Lincoln gave her the title "General Correspondent for the Friends of Paroled Prisoners" and her job was to answer the many inquiries from loved ones of the many soldiers marked "M.I.A.". She was thus required to scour the casualty lists, Prison roles, and parole
roles kept at Annapolis Maryland. In order to accomplish this Hurculean labor Clara produced the Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the United States and published Rolls of Missing Men, and had these rolls produced across the country. It was also at her behest that the many anonymous graves at Andersonville be identified and marked. in 1869, she went to Geneva, Switzerland as a member of the International Red Cross. She began searching for wealthy benefactors to contribute to an American chapter of the Red Cross.

 During 1870, the Franco-Prussian War (July, 1870 - May, 1871)broke out with the French getting their clocks cleaned by Bismarck's armies, and their Emperor, Louis Napoleon captured at Sedan. During the course of this mess, the Prussians laid siege to Paris for @ five months.
Here again Clara was on the scene helping to prepare military hospitals, and was in charge of getting supplies to the embattled people of Paris. For her efforts she was rewarded the Prussian Iron Cross. Back in the United States, Clara started working on a project to acquire recognition of the International Committee of the Red Cross by the U.S. government. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878 demurred with the thought that the country was unlikely to face a calamitous occurrence such as the Civil War again.  She tried again with President Chester Arthur and succeeded with the idea that the Red Cross could be called in to deal with natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and forest fires. So Clara Barton was named President of the American Red Cross on this date in 1881.

The American Red Cross Expands

The Red Cross expanded it's meaning and activities with the outbreak of the Spanish American War (April - August, 1898), not only treating American wounded, but also treating refugees and prisoners of the Cuban side of that conflict. Throughout the 1880's wherever there were victims in need following tornadoes or floods along the Ohio River, the Red Cross usually with Barton herself was there with supplies of food, or medical items and general medical care for any who needed it. In

fact when the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was hit with a disastrous flood on March 13, 1889 the American Red Cross took up its first major relief operation with Clara Barton showing up with her corps of 50 doctors and nurses (Coverage in Johnstown newspaper above). They worked steadily and seriously, staying on the scene for a full five months. In 1897, Barton traveled to the Ottoman Empire and brought relief to the Armenian peoples being slaughtered by the Turks. And her final field expedition as President of the leader of the American Red Cross came in 1900 to the relief of huge humanitarian losses suffered by the people of Galveston, Texas following the hurricane that visited there in 1900.

Miss Barton was forced out as President of the American Red Cross in 1904 when criticism was voiced over issues of mixing personal and professional resources. At age 83, Clara had what has been described an egocentric management style which didn't fit well with the organization of charitable organization such as the Re Cross had grown into. She moved to her home at Glen Echo, Maryland wherein she died of pneumonia on April 12, 1912 at the age of 90.  She left us a quote from some time in her life which could be said to be her reaction to the all-male power structure with which she had done battle all of her life:

"I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past."

Of the good she had done with her life it is impossible to say enough.  When and where she saw suffering she moved immediately to assuage that suffering, settling only for whatever worked and
appeared to have little time for the traditional toes she stepped on. And there are literally millions of lives that were better off for her work, her determination and dedication.



Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Barton

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-red-cross-founded

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/clara-barton?gclid=CjwKCAjwqpP2BRBTEiwAfpiD-6ugVzPqHrFv7V-gYIOTbg6CbaBSs0H7OQXFyXwoc5G2VMiaP_ODaBoC4ncQAvD_BwE

https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v5.pdf

https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v5.pdf

"The Johnstown Flood" by David McCullough, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1968

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

FEBRUARY 18 = Pluto the Ninth Planet is Found , Then Kicked out of the Planets Club!.

 Pluto, once believed to be the ninth planet, was discovered  on today's date, February 18 in 1930 by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh working at the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff,  Arizona. Now I will readily admit that in this subject of the study of planetary bodies I am taking on a  subject  about which I know almost nothing. But this seemed like an important subject. So please forgive in advance for all of the mistakes I may end up making!

Planet out There?

First of a all planets are way too faraway to be discovered by simply going out and just taking a picture of it like the one above of Pluto and saying "there it is." In this case of Pluto, just as in the case of the many planets which have been discovered since way back in the 1930's a

planets existence can only be found by unexplained wobbles of the known orbits of known celestial bodies. In this case our view of the orbital patterns of Uranus and Neptune showed a sort of wobble that could only be explained by the gravitational pull of another planetary body (Clyde Tombaugh pictured above). The first man to propose the ninth planet was Percival Lowell based on these wobbles. Lowell calculated the likely position of this ninth planet and searched for it for a decade without finding it. On February 18, 1930, Tombaugh using some of Lowell's calculations, discovered the small faraway planet by the using a new astronomic technique of combining a blink microscope with the photograph plates. It was named "Pluto"   
after the Roman god of the underworld, the equivalent of Hades in Greek mythology. The discovery was confirmed by other astronomers and announced in March of that year.

But Why Was Pluto "Demoted" From Planetary Status?

Pluto exists within the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. And there had been debate for some time on whether it should have  been declassified to just a minor dwarf planet within the Kuiper belt. The discussion came to  a conclusion within the International Astronomical Union with an official definition of a "Planet" quoted directly from Wikipedia:

   (Above: Pluto as photographed from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998.) 

1.) The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
2.) The object must be massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity. More       specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape defined by hydrostatic   equilibrium.
3.) It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Again quoting directly from Wikipedia which is far beyond my level of understanding:

"Pluto fails to meet the third condition. Its mass is substantially less than the combined mass of the other objects in its orbit: 0.07 times, in contrast to Earth, which is 1.7 million times the remaining mass in its orbit (excluding the moon). 
The IAU further decided that bodies that, like Pluto, meet criteria 1 and 2, but do not meet criterion 3 would be called dwarf planets."

  There was considerable disagreement within the scientific community about this  announcement by the IAU. The portion which said Pluto would no longer be considered a planet, due to new rules that said planets must “clear the neighborhood around its orbit.” Since Pluto’s oblong orbit overlaps that of Neptune, it was disqualified.  Alan Stern, principal investigator with NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto dismissed the reclassification out of hand: ""the definition stinks, for technical reasons". Stern has said that under IAU's new rules, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune would not qualify as planets because they all share their orbits with asteroids. Stern also stated that fewer than 5% voted  for it and thus the kick Pluto out of the planets decision was not representative of the many of the astronomical scholars. Again as I said at the start this is way outside my field, so if I've made  some glaring errors please do feel free to write in on the response box below, and as long as you don't get TOO nasty I will publish it right here.  

Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pluto-discovered

JANUARY 9 = 1861 "Star of the West" is Fired Upon

The American Civil War begun in earnest in April of 1861 when shots were exchanged between Union batteries in Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and Confederate guns on the shore installations.  But the first actual shots were fired on this day, January 9 in 1861 when shots were fired upon the merchant ship "Star of the West" (above) as she attempted to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter.

States Seceding, the Union Dissolving

   This all came about during the secession crisis that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln on November 6, 1860. Sectional differences had divided the United States for years. There were arguments about state's sovereignty, but  the main dividing factor was the practice of slavery in the southern states.  Lincoln's Republican Party had run on a platform which pledged not to interfere with slavery where it already existed, but which opposed the extension of  slavery into the territories as they became states. The election was held, and with the opposition so divided between pro and anti-slave elements, Lincoln won with nearly 40% of the popular vote but a commanding majority of the electoral votes - 180 of  the 303 available. Many of the Southern states had been threatening to secede from the Union, and this mindset was very strong in South Carolina. On Nov. 8, the newspaper the Charleston Mercury, published a dark message: "The tea has been thrown overboard—the revolution of 1860 has been initiated.” And South Carolina indeed lead the way formally seceding from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860.

Fort Sumter - in Charleston Harbor

  On seceding from the Union on that day South Carolina demanded the the withdrawal of the Federal garrison in Fort Sumter right out in the middle of Charleston Harbor.  The small number of Federal troops still in Charleston after secession had been moved there by their

commander, Major Robert Anderson in (left) to "prevent the effusion of blood." President James Buchanan refused to cave in on this one point.  But Maj. Anderson and his 80 men required supplies and perhaps reinforcements. But Pres. Buchanan sent a civilian supply ship instead of a military ship, so as to keep the crisis from expanding by provocative action. The ship sent was "The Star of the West", a purely civilian ship. Sent on Jan. 5, Star of the West was cruising into a hornet's nest. Cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy - the Citadel - had set up a battery of guns on Morris Island, and were waiting.

The Shots Are Fired!

  Early in the morning of today's date, January 9, Star of the West captain John McGowan tried to move his ship into a channel near Fort Sumter. The Cadets on Morris Island fired a shot across the merchant vessel's bow to warn her off. Still Star of the West tried to move on forward. The cadets began to open fire (below). Major Anderson gave no thought to returning fire from his batteries on

Sumter.  If he had it might have initiated a full fledged  military engagement, and the Civil War might have started right then and there. Some batteries on nearby Fort Moultrie scored a couple of hits on their target, causing some damage on the ship. At this point, Capt. McGowan in charge of his unarmed ship decided to exit the channel and make a safe withdrawal.

So ended thee initial shots of  America's bloodiest war... a  small little skirmish in a Southern harbor in which nobody was killed or even harmed. A few weeks later after Lincoln had been inaugurated, 11 southern states had seceded from the union. And on April 12, 1861 the batteries in Charleston harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter itself, and the real shooting had begun.




Sources =

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/charleston-at-war-in-star-of-the-west-gets-first/article_27c54d7b-af4a-57a2-8273-d5902a0965a3.html

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/star-of-the-west-is-fired-upon


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter

"The Civil War" Prod. by Ken Burns, written by Geoffrey C. Ward Vol. 1
"The Cause".

DECEMBER 3, "The Who" Concert Tragedy

  On the evening of today's date - December 3, in 1979 at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum the press of concert-goers outside of the entry doors to a  show being performed by the British rock group  called "the Who" pushed forward with enough force to cause the death of 11 people who were trampled by the crowd.  23 other people sustained injuries in a situation so chaotic  that the concert was performed to the end, before the band members were even told of the deaths.

The Crowd Began Gathering Early

   "The Who" was on on the late part of a successful world tour which had taken them to Detroit and Pittsburgh in the days before their Cincinnati appearance at the Riverfront Coliseum (which is now called the Heritage Bank Arena).  The event seemed to be a success from the monetary side. 18, 348 tickets had been sold. The vast majority of these had been "General Admission" or "Festival Seating' which meant that instead of being actual seats with numbers on them, they were in the large open floor area directly in front of the stage.  And the spots where one stood were of course on a "first come first serve" basis. The Concert had been scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. but by 7:00 the crowd waiting to enter which had been gathering since about 5:00 had grown to about 8,000. By 7:00 only two of the doors had been opened at the far right of the main entrance area. Why the late opening and of only two doors is something which I've not been able to discover.

The "Stampede" Begins.....

  Then at about 7:15, "the Who's" "Quadrophenia" movie began playing as an opening to the concert. At this point, the crowd appeared to think that the band had started the concert early.   So the situation quickly became dangerous when the entire crowd thinking that they were missing the concert began to surge toward the two open doors in a way that left some people being pushed to the ground and being literally crushed under the forward  force of the crowd's movement.  At total of eleven people who were unable to tear themselves away were knocked to the ground or simply crushed by the  pushing and died of asphyxiation. Other people recalled being lifted off the ground and being carried along as if by a wave of the ocean. Some felt themselves being moved horizontally in and on top of the crowd. In some reports such as the Enquirer it was called a "stampede." The Concert did actually go on as planned as those who were inside had gotten there without knowing about the mob scene outside. The members of the band did't know of the chaos outside, and were not told of it until after the concert's end. In fact Cincinnati Safety Director Richard Castellini had thought of cancelling the Concert until he heard that the problem was on the outside, not in the arena itself.

In the Aftermath of the Chaos

   There was much to discover in the aftermath, but few people willing to take responsibility. Lt. Dale Menkhaus, who was in charge of the 25 man policemen who were assigned to police the event could see early on what a problem the crowd was turning into. He told one of the

concert promoters that more doors needed to be opened,  but was told that the doors couldn't be opened until the sound check was over. And coliseum officials who had been told that more doors needed to be opened wouldn't comment on why more doors weren't opened.  Some local TV news outlets described it as a drug crazed mob when it was obviously just too many people being squeezed through only a couple of open doors. The band when they were told of the deaths were obviously enough stunned and horrified. When they began a concert in  Buffalo the following night, band leader Roger Daltry said;  "We lost a lot of family last night. This show's for them." The city of Cincinnati also placed a ban on "Festival" seating on December 27, 1979, which, with minor exceptions, remained in place for the next 25 years. The families of the victims sued the band, the concert promoter and the city of Cincinnati. The suits were settled in 1983, awarding each of the families of the deceased @ $150,000, and roughly $750,000 to be divided among the 26 injured.

  Who or what was responsible for their lost lives? The idea of "festival seating" which crammed too many people into such a restricted spot? Was it whomever kept all but two of the doors closed, and why? Was it not having enough security personnel on handle such a huge crowd? We'll likely never have an answer.


Below is a list of those who were killed that night, along with their age, and hometowns:

Walter Adams, Jr., aged 22, Trotwood
Peter Bowes, aged 18, Wyoming, Ohio
Connie Sue Burns, aged 21, Miamisburg
Jacqueline Eckerle, aged 15, Finneytown
David Heck, aged 19, Highland Heights, Kentucky
Teva Rae Ladd, aged 27, Newtown
Karen Morrison, aged 15, Finneytown
Stephan Preston, aged 19, Finneytown
Philip Snyder, aged 20, Franklin
Bryan Wagner, aged 17, Fort Thomas, Kentucky
James Warmoth, aged 21, Franklin

May they all rest in peace.


Sources =

 https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/12/02/who-concert-tragedy-40-years-ago-stampede-kills-11-persons-coliseum-rock-concert/2590113001/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rock-roll-tragedy-why-11-died-at-the-whos-cincinnati-concert-93437/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_concert_disaster

OCTOBER 24 - Transcontinental Telegraph is Completed

On today's date, October 24 in 1861, the last link in the Transconti -nental telegraph system was completed, and the United States for the first time had instantaneous communication from the east coast to the west. From Washington to California news and communication was for the first time immediate. The world had become a lot smaller by just the clicking of a small device like the one pictured above, the telegraph sounder.

The Need for Coast to Coast Communication

"California and the Pacific Northwest. This ground was rich enough to grow fruits and vegetables in abundance, and lumber was in limitless forests.  And GOLD had been discovered there in 1848." As I wrote in my Blog about the Transcontinental Railroad (1869) and all that went along with it  ( https://historysstory.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-10-trans-continental-railroad-is.html), California had suddenly become very important. In fact it had already become a state in September of 1850. Well, just as the physical commute from the east coast to

California was nearly a killer proposition, getting news and communication was nearly as tough. It took weeks for mail to get through, and the Pony Express, a mail service delivering news, etc. using "young skinny wiry fellows, Orphans preferred, willing to risk death daily" (Poster right) and a series of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California, took ten days. And it only operated from April 3, 1860, to October 1861

"What hath God Wrought.."

This biblical phrase (Numbers, 22:23) "What hath God wrought" was the first message sent on May 24, 1844  on a new device developed by Samuel F.B. Morse (below) and others by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between receiving stations, utilizing a code developed by Morse and thus known as Morse code. This assigned each number, letter or character a unique sequence of short and long signals called

"dots" and "dashes." This new invention revolutionized communication service between cities in the U.S.  Efficient telegraphic stations had been set up throughout the 1840's And 1850 there were lines linked most eastern states, with a similar, separate network of lines linking the booming economy of California. The need to integrate the western state with its federal government and the financial and political centers in the east became self evident.

Funding the Transcontinental Telegraph

The move to set up a transcontinental telegraph line started in 1860 when Congress approved a subsidy of $40,000  to any company that would commit to the construction of a telegraph line which would link the western network with the eastern. The main challenge was to cover the space currently missing any coverage between Salt Lake City and western Missouri. The Western Union Company  took up the challenge. In a way very similar to that which would rule the Transcontinental Railroad a few years later, the work would be done by two teams working to the center from opposite ends.

In charge of the eastern team was Edward Creighton. In charge of the western team was James N. Gamble (right) - yes that Gamble, of the Proctor & Gamble Co. whose beautiful home on Werk Road in Cincinnati was recently demolished for no good reason. The first pole went up on July 4, 1861 and by the project's completion in October of that same year they had planted 27,500 poles holding 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of single-strand iron wire over some very rough country.

Operational Difficulties.....

There were naturally some operational difficulties to be overcome in the construction. There was of course a Civil War raging not far from this area so acts of sabotage were a frequent concern. Also there was a bit of trouble with the indigenous tribes through whose land the poles and wires were being erected. In 1861 some Sioux warriors cut and

removed a section of wire for fashioning bracelets. Later, some of those wearing the bracelets fell ill.  A Sioux medicine man determined the illness was the great spirit of the "talking wire" avenging its desecration.  Thereafter, the Sioux stayed clear of the wire. And of course in the treeless Plains the logs had to be shipped by 200 oxen over the Sierra Nevada mountains, along with wire and glass insulators.  According to Gamble that portion of the job took over a month.

The Completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph

But in spite of the difficulties the line was completed in just four months; a surprise to President Lincoln (and most everyone else) who thought that it would take years. And the total cost came to a half million dollars. In the first  message sent over the new system, Steven J. Field addressed to President Lincoln a message which sought to reassure the President that Transcontinental Telegraph would bind the western states to the Union:

"They (the people of California) believe that it will be the means of strengthening the attachment which bind both the East & West to the Union & they desire in this the first message across the continent to express their loyalty to that Union & their determination to stand by the Government in this its day of trial They regard that Government with affection & will adhere to it under all fortunes.

 Stephen J Field,  Chief Justice of California"



Sources  =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_telegraph

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/western-union-completes-the-first-transcontinental-telegraph-line

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/10/25/1861-first-transcontinental-telegraph-was-sent-to-dc/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-original-wire-the-telegraph-at-150/

https://www.historynet.com/western-union-things-right-west-got-message.htm 

OCTOBER 17 = Al Capone is Convicted of Tax Evasion

On today's date, October 17 in 1931 Al Capone (left) was  convicted of Income Tax Evasion and sentenced to 11 years in Federal Prison. After a lifetime of violence, killing and bloodshed it took the long arm of the Internal Revenue Service to at long last put this ruthless criminal behind bars.

The Rise of "Scarface" Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born on January 17, 1899 to  Italian immigrant parents in New York City.  He started the crooked path early, being expelled from school at 14. He joined a street gang and it was in such company that he acquired at age 17 during a fight the facial scar which gave him the nickname which he personally hated. But this kid had a lifetime of crime ahead of him, and his scar was certainly no hindrance. While he was still a teenager he took up with the Five Points Gang and made himself useful as a bouncer in their brothels. In 1920 he moved to Chicago, becoming a trusted lieutenant to Johnny Torrio, the head of a crime syndicate which supplied alcohol which was then illegal under the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 1920 this amendment established prohibition as the law of the land. Torrio was nearly killed in an attack by the North Side gang and was sufficiently frightened to retire while he still was alive.  He returned to Italy handing over the reigns of his organization to Capone in 1925.

Capone Goes for Bigger Profits

  Al decided to expand the business, particularly the illegal liquor end of things, and he wasn't shy about using increasingly violent means to do it, effectively going to war with the North Side gang

which had attacked Torrio. Violence increased as did the body count while Capone's men fought it out with North Side thugs and their leaders Dean O'Banion and George "Bugs" Moran (right). At stake was control of the bootleg liquor business and the millions of dollars to be raked in from it and the brothels which they controlled.  Of course Capone was careful to pay off the various politicians, policemen, judges, in particular Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson which protected him from too much law enforcement. Capone became a kind of celebrity and enjoyed every minute of it. He

loved it when the crowds would cheer for him when he showed up at baseball games. He even cultivated a certain Robin Hood image by opening soup kitchens (left) to feed poor men hit by the economic depression which was at its worst. Anybody who could bring relief to the millions left unemployed was certain to be a popular man with the public.

The St. Valentines Day Massacre

But the violence could get to be too much. Capone wanted to wipe out the North Side gang and the influence of its Irish-American leader, "Bugs" Moran once and for all.  On February 14, 1929, seven members of the North Side gang were lured into a garage by several men dressed as Chicago policemen. There the men were lined up against a wall and were shot down in cold blood. It may be that Capone's men thought

that the group they had murdered included Moran himself. But it did not.  In fact, it was Moran himself put the finger squarely on his blood rival by commenting to the press: "Only Al Capone kills like that." Capone had taken the precaution of being out of town at that time. No investigation was able to link the murders into Capone's hands, but he  was widely believed to be the one behind it. His  public image was severely damaged by this brazen murder in broad daylight leading to calls for Government action, while the papers began referring to Al as "Public Enemy No. 1"

The I.R.S. Finally Bags Al 

As Capone's fortune rose, so did the Treasury Department's interest in his income. A ruling by the Supreme Court in May of 1927 worked in the government's favor. In U.S. -v- Sullivan it was determined that “gains from illicit traffic in liquor are subject to the income tax (and) would be taxable” by the government.  Al Capone claimed for years that he had no income which was taxable, so this was exactly what the feds needed to reel in Capone. Led by Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson a group from Treasury known as "the T men" they quietly followed Capone's money and gathered the necessary evidence to show that Capone had made millions off of income for which he had never paid taxes. And on today's date Mr. Capone was convicted on 22 counts of Income Tax Evasion, was sentenced to 11 years in prison was fined $50,000 ($847,111 in today's dollars), charged court costs and ordered to pay back taxes of $215,000 (now, $3,642,576).

Jail is Tough on Al

Capone began serving his sentence in Atlanta, but there were charges that he was allowed too many luxuries there, so his residence was changed to the Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. There, the warden, one James Aloysius Johnston, proved to be a more difficult man to deal with than Capone had dealt with before. There would be none of luxuries that Al had enjoyed before.  As prisoner # AZ-85, Capone occupied a normal cell of 5 ft. by 9 ft., working in  the prison laundry. These surroundings in a claustrophobically small cell in a damp place like Alcatraz is to anyone who has ever toured the place as this writer once did a few years ago, were not conducive to anybody's good health.  At Alcatraz, Capone's body, ravaged by syphilis, began to turn against him leading eventually to insanity. He was released from the Rock after only four years there, and eventually died of a stroke on January 25, 1947 at his home in Palm Island, Florida.

Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone

 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/capone-goes-to-prison

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2018/10/17/al-capone-sentenced-to-prison-for-tax-evasion-on-this-day-in-1931/#35da68ae7c4c

https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-should-know-about-al-capone 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Torrio

https://www.history.com/topics/crime/saint-valentines-day-massacre

OCTOBER 4 = The Soviets Launch "Sputnik"

"Our movies and television programs in the fifties were full of the idea of going into space. What came as a surprise was that it was the Soviet Union that launched the first satellite. It is hard to recall the atmosphere of the time."

— John Logsdon, Dir. of Space Policy Institute

On today's date, October 4 in 1957 the Soviet Union (Russia) launched an orbital space satellite, which they called "Sputnik, after the Russian word for "satellite". As one can see from viewing the image of it above, it was a rather odd looking craft that looked something like an octopus extending it's tentacles. But in terms of the Cold War (the period from @ 1946 through the mid 80's when U.S./Soviet relations were at their most tense) it came as a rude  awakening to the American people that the Soviets may have gained an edge over the in the race in the Space Race.

"Sputnik": What & Why?

   "Sputnik" was was the first artificial satellite ever launched into space from earth. Measuring about 58 meters (23 inches) in diameter and weighing 184 lbs. of polished metal with four external antennas which broadcast radio signals back to earth which were strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators all over the world. The information being collected was tracking and studying the density of the upper atmosphere which could be deduced from "Sputnik's drag on earth's orbit, and the effects of its radio signals gave data about the

ionosphere. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit took it to a distance of 584 miles at it's farthest point from earth, 143 miles at its closest. And it took @ 101.5  minutes to orbit the earth. As to why the Russians launched it, well they were looking for a way to show that their system was as advanced as that in the U.S. perhaps more so. So the Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev  (above) gave the program his full backing.

The Space Race

  Many Americans were shocked that the Soviets that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. to the punch in such a public fashion. And they felt very uneasy about having this damned Soviet contraption flying over our skies. Perhaps the satellite could eventually be used to spy or even launch weapons on this country. Eisenhower himself (below)was not

worried about it. Many in his administration dismissed 'Sputnik" as a "useless hunk of iron". But others were more concerned. As David Halberstam wrote in The Fifties, "The success of Sputnik seemed to herald a kind of technological Pearl Harbor, which was exactly what Edward Teller said it was."  Whatever the case, the Russians and the U.S. continued one-upping each other with various "firsts" - until the U.S. wrote the final note on the subject by landing Apollo 11 with Armstrong and Aldrin landing on the moon itself in July 20 of 1969, effectively handing the U.S. the win in the Space Race.

Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/sputnik-memo