Edited by Gerald Boerner
Introductory Comments:
This was a day on which a number of significant events are noteworthy, especially on the international scene. On this day in 1968, the USS Pueblo and her crew were captured by the North Koreans when the ship navigated out of international waters. The crew would be held captive for eleven months before being released. Why was this such an important event? The USS Pueblo was an intelligence ship and carried sophisticated surveillance equipment that would be useful to our possible future enemies.
But the more important international event on this day in 1973 was the announcement by President Richard Nixon of the peace accord negotiated by our National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Doc Tho. The Paris Peace Accords set the conditions for a cease fire between the two countries, the withdrawal of American troops, and the release of the American POWs. These accords were formally signed on January 27th. The Vietnam War had generated a deal of dissent among the draft-aged college population.
On the home front, this day was marked by some relatively minor events and a couple of blockbuster events. The first of the blockbusters was the induction of that great African American, multi-sport star, Jackie Robinson, into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 (Cooperstown, Ohio). Robinson was a multisport athlete at UCLA and then played in the Negro Leagues down South; the major leagues were still segregated. But in 1947, Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed Robinson to a contract to play for the Major League team — he broke the “color” barrier. During his early years on the team, he was showered by jeers, racial slurs, and discriminatory treatment, but he “turned the other cheek” and let his play speak for him. And what a speech that was! He was outstanding and opened the way for other Blacks, Hispanics, and other minority players to enter the major leagues. His induction into the Hall of Fame was another barrier that he broke; all previous “negroes” were in a separate Hall of Fame for the Negro Leagues. Robinson was inducted on the first try by a unanimous vote in 1962, the first year that he was eligible. He was a real “man’s man”!
The other blockbuster event that occurred on this day was a miniseries that aired on ABC-TV for eight days starting this day in 1977. What miniseries was this? ROOTS, the story of an African who was captured by a slaving tribe in his native West African homeland, sold to white slavers, surviving the ocean voyage to the American South where he would be sold into the degradation of slavery on a southern plantation. The story was based on the book, Roots, by Alex Haley and purportedly represents his family’s experience in America through a slave, Kunta Kinte, played by the unknown Black actor, LeVar Burton (who would later star in Star Trek, The Next Generation.) The nation would be captivated for the next week and would come face-to-face with the horrors of slavery. This was a breakthrough a major cultural barrier and a basis for cultural understanding. Who can forget the baby held by his father and lifted up to the sky in dedication (baptism, if you will). This miniseries, I believe, brought a whole new sense of pride and hope for a past as well as a future to new generations of Blacks.
A critical event occurred during the legislative flurry of LBJ’s Great Society was the passage of Twenty-Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in 1964. This amendment barred the imposition of poll taxes and other barriers used to keep African Americans from voting in Federal Elections. The major impact of this amendment was upon southern states where it was used to prevent the poor and African American populations from voting and thus upsetting the status quo.
And the final major event of this day was Elizabeth Blackwell becoming the first female in the United States to receive a medical doctorate in 1849. After being rejected by the major medical schools, she was admitted to Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York; she would provide medical services to the troops during the Civil War and opened the way for the women of later years to become physicians, not just nurses or midwives.
Of much less consequence were several other event that are associated with this day. The first permanent bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minnesota was opened in 1855. The Wham-O Toy Company produced and sold a new concept in toys, the “Pluto Platter,” or Frisbie, patterned after the pie tins used by the Frisbie Pie Company; the game based on this toy was a rage amongst university students.
We now will proceed to examine some of the events that are associated with day in history... GLB
These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2012 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved[ 1361 Words ]
Quotations Related to Jackie Robinson:
[ http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jackie_robinson.html ]
“Above anything else, I hate to lose.”
— Jackie Robinson
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
— Jackie Robinson
“There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.”
— Jackie Robinson
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.”
— Jackie Robinson
“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”
— Jackie Robinson
“The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.”
— Jackie Robinson
