December 3: This Day In History

Frederick Douglass, North StarDecember 3, 2014 – Segment 1

Marc talks about what happened on this day in history, including the day Andrew Jackson became President of the United States, the day Fredrick Douglass published the first edition of the North Star, and the day Bob Marley was shot twice near his home in Jamaica in an assassination attempt.

Today is,

–Advocates Day, India

–International Day of People with Disability, International

–International Day of the Basque Language, Basque Country and Diaspora

On this day,

1818 – Illinois was admitted to the union as the 21st state.

1828  – Andrew Jackson was elected as the seventh President of the United States.

1847 – Fredrick Douglass published the first edition of the North Star.  The first edition of the paper stated “It has long been our anxious wish to see, in this slave-holding, slave-trading, and Negro-hating land, a printed-press and paper, permanently established, under the complete control ad direction of the immediate victims of slavery and oppression.’ The Slogan of the paper was “Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the father of us all, and we are all brethren.”

1910 – Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.

1910 – The Industrial Workers of the World Brotherhood of Timber Workers Union was organized on this date.

1912 – Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia sign an armistice with the Ottoman Empire, temporarily halting the First Balkan War.

1925 – The final Locarno Treaty is signed in London, establishing post-war territorial settlements.

1927 – Laurel and Hardy release their first film, Putting Pants on Phillip.

1946 – Female retail clerks launched the great Oakland General Strike  Other workers joined in with over 100,000 walking off the job.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Oakland_General_Strike

1948 – The Un-American Activities Committee announced that Whitaker Chambers, a former communist spy had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.

1959 – Britain and Egypt agree on independence for Sudan. http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/britain-and-egypt-agree-independence-sudan

1959 – The current flag of Singapore is adopted six months after Singapore became self-gocerning within in the British Empire.

1967 – A group of Surgeons in Cape Town, South African led by Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first human heart transplant. http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/dr-chris-barnard-performs-worlds-first-human-heart-transplant

1970 – Jennifer Josephine Hosten from St. George’s, Grenada became the first Black person to win the Miss World contest.

1971 – Pakistan launches a pre-emptive strike against India and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.

1976 – Bob Marley is shot twice near his home in Jamaica, in an assassination attempt.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley#1974.E2.80.931976:_Line-up_changes_and_shooting

1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran.

1984 – A chemical leak fro a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more  than 3,800 people outright and causes injuries to a further 150,000 – 600,000 others, in ne of the worst industrial disasters in history.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

1988 –  Johnstone Mfanafuthi Makhathini ANC’s head of Department of International Affairs, dies in exile in Zambia.  http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/johnstone-mfanafuthi-makhathini-ancs-head-department-international-affairs-dies-exile-za

1997 – South Korea struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $55 billion bailout of its foundering economy.

1997 – Representatives from  121 countries sign the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting the manufacturer an deployment of anti-personnel landmines.  The United States, Russia, and Peoples Republic of China do not sign.

2002  – World Food Program warns the UN that a record 38 million people are at risk of starvation in Africa.http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/world-food-program-warns-un-record-38-million-people-are-risk-starvation-africa

2009 – Comcast and GE announced joint venture plans, with Comcast owning a 51% controlling stake in NBC Universal.

Births

1766 – Barbara Fritchie, American Civil War Unionist (d.1862), American flour miller and food products manufacturer

1826 – George Brinton McClellan, American general (d.1885)

1838 – Octavia Hill, English activist and leader of the British open-space movement (d.1912)

1842 – Charles Alfred Pillsbury (d.1889)

1857 – Joseph Conrad, Polish-English author, (d.1924)      http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/

1884 – Rajendra Prasad, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st President of India (d.1963)

1895 – Anna Freud, Austrian/English psychoanalyst.  (d.1982) http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/annafreud.html

1911 – Helen Gray Edmonds, educator and author, was born in Lawrenceville, Virginia.  Edmonds earned her Bachelors of Arts degree in history from Morgan State University in 1933 and her Master of Arts degree in 1938 and Ph.D. in 1946 from Ohio State University.

1922 – Ralph Alexander Gardner, scientist who specialized in the development of hard plastics, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Gardner earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois School of Chemistry in 1943 and took a research job with the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked on the Manhattan Project which resulted in the development of the atomic bomb.

1934 – Abimael Guzman, Peruvian philosopher and academic, former leader of the Shining Path during the Maoist insurgency known as the internal conflict in Peru.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abimael_Guzm%C3%A1n

Deaths

1866 – John Sweat Rock, teacher, doctor, dentist, lawyer and abolitionist, died.  (b.1825)

1978 – William Grant Still “the dean” of African American classical composers, died.  (b.1895)

1845 – Gregor MacGregor, Scottish soldier and explorer, fought against the Spanish Crown during the struggle for South American independence, con-man, colonizer. (b.1786) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor

1875 – Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, hall of fame poet and novelist, died.  (b.1917)

1894 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author and poet (b.1850)

2000 – Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet and academic (b.1917)

2013 – Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egyptian poet (b.1929) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/egypt-poet-ahmed-fouad-negm-dies

Sources: The People History; This Day in Labor History; Wikipedia List of Historical Anniversaries; This Day in Women’s History; This Day in African History;History.com; History Orb; Yenoba; Selected Black Facts; Phil Konstantin’s North American Indian History; and This Day in Music