JULY 19 -- 1943 America bombs Rome; 1860 Lizzie Borden acquitted of murder; 1966 Happy Anniversary Frank Sinatra/Mia Farrow; 1942 Carver starts working with Ford
JULY 19
1943 – Americans bomb Rome.
...1800 Civilians died. War is hell folks, there are atrocities that happen, mistakes that are made, and people who die seemingly for nothing. In this case the purpose was to destroy railway yards and to break the will of the Italian people so they would lose faith in their leader, Il Duce. The Italians never thought the Americans would enter their eternal city of Rome.
Why? Because that’s what Mussolini had told them. Meanwhile Hitler was losing faith in Mussolini quicker than the Italian people were. Adolf Hitler knew that Mussolini was in trouble and had a little chat. When I say chat I mean a full on bereavement in German, which Mussolini couldn’t even understand without a translator. Mussolini already knew he was defeated in the war, but unsuccessfully tried to convince Hitler he had it under control.
The next day Hitler sent Field commander Erwin Rommel to take command of the Greek Islands in anticipation of Mussolini turning his back on the Axis powers and joining the Allies. And then the war got real interesting. More on that next week.
1814 — Happy birthday Samuel Colt. From Hartfort Connecticut, Colt came up with Colt’s Manufacturing Company, and made the mass production of the revolver commercially successful.
1860 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murdering her dad and stepmom. Forty whacks with an axe to the stepmom! She was acquitted of the charges and lived in obscurity in Massachusetts for the rest of her life. There have been numerous TV shows and movies about that, even a hard rock band from the 70s and 80s named after her. The most recent movie I believe is called Lizzie and it came out in 2012.
1966 – Happy anniversary Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow. He was 50, she was 21.
1942 – George Washington Carver and Henry Ford begin working on oil alternatives. Carver, as many of us remember him, was famous for making agriculture much easier for poor farmers. Using ordinary peanuts, Carver was able to make many products, like milk, cheese, soap, grease and more. He did invent peanut butter as some think. He also make hundreds of inventions out of sweet potatoes.
In 1942, he got together with his good friend in Dearborn Michigan, Henry Ford, to began making a synthetic rubber for the war effort. Carver finally found a way to make the rubber substituted from goldenrod, which is a plant weed. The Carver-Ford friendship is one of America’s great friendships, and in the late 1990s, Ford Motor Company awarded grants of $4 million over two years to the George Washington Carver School in Tuskegee in Alabama.
George Washington Carver, friends. Like a boss!