Tag Archive for ‘dontknowmuch.com’
TODAY IN HISTORY: The “Negro Riots” in Watts
It started with a “DWB”– “driving while black.” On August 11, 1965, an all-too-frequent stop of a young black man exploded into one of the worst urban riots in American history. Where: Watts was a rundown district of shabby houses built near the highway approaching Los Angeles International Airport. Ninety-eight percent black, Watts was stewing [...]
Of “Mosques,” Memorials and Burning Convents
In polite society, one supposedly never discusses religion or politics. In America, it seems we can rarely separate the two. The latest fracas over faith in the public square involves the plans for Cordoba House, an Islamic Center, including a “mosque,” to be built two blocks from Ground Zero. Proposed to bridge the differences between [...]
TODAY IN HISTORY: Don’t Know Much About® Tocqueville in America
Happy Birthday, Monsieur Tocqueville (born July 29, 1805; died April 16, 1859) Observing a Choctaw tribe—the old, the sick, the wounded, and newborns among them—forced to cross an ice-choked Mississippi River during the harsh winter, Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote, “In the whole scene, there was an air of destruction, something which betrayed a final [...]
TODAY IN HISTORY: A Very Significant Amendment
I know. The mere mention of Constitutional Amendments automatically sends most of us for the snooze button. But this one is different. On July 28, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was declared in effect. On July 9, 1868, the state of South Carolina ratified the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing the [...]
Don’t Know Much About® “Papa”
Ernest Hemingway, the larger-than-life American novelist, was born on July 21 in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899. They called him “Papa.” One of America’s most successful and admired novelists, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) once compared his bare-bones style to an iceberg: “There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows.” Beneath Hemingway’s famously [...]
TODAY IN HISTORY: Don’t Know Much About® Bastille Day!
Vive la France! On July 14, 1789, an angry crowd stormed a state prison in Paris that stood as a symbol of royal tyranny. They surrounded the Bastille in order to seize the gunpowder stored inside. Troops fired on the rebels, but the people overpowered them. The bloody French Revolution had begun. The people of [...]
Today in History: Don’t Know Much About® New York’s Bloody Draft Riots
On July 13, 1863, New York City exploded in a four-day long murderous riot, still considered one of the deadliest urban riots in American history. The cause of the riots–violent opposition to the Civil War draft law.
Jefferson’s Version-A few key differences
Today , July 2d is the day the Continental Congress actually voted in favor of independence for America. It took two more days of debate to approve Thomas Jefferson’s explanation of that vote, the Declaration of Independence. Once again the New York Public Library is displaying a handwritten version of the Declaration, written by Jefferson. [...]
