APRIL 17 –1961 Bay of Pigs underway; 1964 Happy Birthday Ford Mustang
APRIL 17
1804 – Young Polly Jefferson dies in the White House. Thomas and Martha Jefferson had four children together, and Mary would be the youngest. Mrs. Jefferson passed away tragically in 1782, long before her husband would be the third president. When she was eight, Polly lived briefly with John and Abigail Adams, where Abby wrote to Dad, Polly is “the favorite of every creature in the House. She is a child of the quickest sensibility, and the maturist understanding, that I have ever met with for her years.” Not uncommon at the time, Polly married her third cousin John Wayles Eppe, with whom she had two children. But just like Mama Jefferson, Polly was prone to sickness, and it just seemed to get worse as time went on.
Meanwhile in the White House, major shakeups were happening. Financing for the Lewis and Clarke expedition to survey the western territories of North America was under fire from the owners of the land, the Spanish. And of course, Native Americans, who would prove to be tremendous allies for Lewis and Clarke.
With France, Jefferson had secured the Louisiana territory from Napoleon for $15M; $3M in gold transferred to France, and the rest covered by U.S. bonds. As a slave owner, President Jefferson was opening up new territories to fuel the slavery issue and didn’t even realize it at the time. The lands would also cause issues during current events, such as the soon-to-be Indian Wars and War of 1812. For the 18044 presidential elections, Jefferson had dropped his current Vice President Aaron Burr, and replaced him with George Clinton. Yet another election between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, once again Charles Pinkney of New England versus Thomas Jefferson. The Federalists had already spun out of control and had no fight in this rematch, but they gave everything they had to smear the other party. They said the Louisiana Purchase was unconstitutional, his military expansion was unwarranted, he was having children with his slave Sally Heming, like…..and? Ding, ding. The election is on, and the 12th amendment would be used for the first time, which would provide clear choices of votes between the president and vice president.
In the election of 1796, there was no party line drawn between first and second place, and whoever had the top two votes through the Electoral College would be president and vice president, respectively. That’s how Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, very uncomfortably wound up playing second fiddle to Federalist President John Adams. It made no sense, and changed for the 1800 election, where Electors could vote for a certain party ticket. That’s how Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied the vote in the Electoral College, this time with no clear indication of which actual candidate the Electors preferred in a ranking order of first and second place. But Federalist Alexander Hamilton had blocked enough of Burr’s votes to give the election to Jefferson. Now, the rules were clear, and Thomas Jefferson, along with running mate George Clinton, former Revolutionary War hero dominated the election, as in, what Federalist Party.
It was so lopsided; Jefferson’s 45.5 percentage point victory margin remains the largest beside the unanimous vote for George Washington. Jefferson would serve another four years as president, then turning the office to his successor Secretary of State James Madison. Clinton would continue to serve VP under him. But now, these were tough times for America’s Apostle of the Constitution and the Pend of the Revolution.
Polly, or Mary, as a young child returning to Virginia from France, changed her name to Marie. These days, if she and her father were still alive, he might suggest she Anglicize the name a bit and change it to Maria. Long Tom would watch his older daughter play the harp, while young Maria would cry. “I asked her if she was sick. She said no, but the tune was so mournful.” Thomas Jefferson in fact had a lot on his mind on this day in 1804.
1961-The Bay of Pigs begins.
Epic fail. In 1959, communist Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government and forced President Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro took over the oil refineries, which had been controlled by US corporations Esso and Standard Oil and Anglo-Dutch Shell. America retaliated by refusing to import sugar, so Castro retaliated that by nationalizing most US owned assets on the island, including banks and sugar mills.
This went back and forth; a French ship was sunk in the Havana harbor and the cause was never determined but Castro blamed it on the US, the US stopped exporting anything to Cuba except for medicines and some foods, and Cuba responded by taking control of nearly 400 American private run businesses such as Coca Cola and Sears Roebuck.
At a meeting of Organization of American States in Costa Rica in 1960, Secretary of State Christian Herter publicly blasted Castro for “following faithfully the Bolshevik patter” by instituting a single party political system, taking governmental control of trade unions, suppressing civil liberties, and removing both the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, and spreading communism.
Castro blasted back by accusing the US, and New York City specifically as “superfree, superdemocratic, superhumane, and supercivilized city”and that the American poor were “in the bowels of the imperialist monster” and criticized the US media by being controlled by Big Corporation. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had enough of this!
And Ike started brewing up a plan to overthrow Castro’s regime since Castro was getting real cozy with the Soviet Union. President Ike came up with the idea, and his predecessor JFK endorsed it. When Kennedy took over office, he gave the invasion the nod, and next thing you know, over 1400 paramilitaries, divided into five infantry battalions and one paratrooper battalion, assembled in Guatemala on April 13.
On April 15, the CIA sent a couple B-26 bombers and attacked Cuban air fields. Then, on the night of April 16, the invasion began in the Bay of Pigs. It didn’t go well for Americans and was over by April 20th.
This made Castro’s support very strong and his never ending dictatorship was fortified. The Soviet Union and Cuba were now besties, and the USSR started supplying Cuba with missiles, and almost went to nuclear blows with America in the Cuban Missile Crisis later on. JFK tried to take the blame for it, but the damage was done and America didn’t look good. Anywhere. Still doesn’t to a lot of countries to this day because of that. But before you get all Che Guevira on me, remember one thing. At least here in America we can talk about it and have that discussion in the first place.
1964 – Today’s bad ass award goes out to the pony car.
On April 17th, the Ford Mustang was introduced at a world’s fair in New York. It was expected to sell about 100,000 in the first year. Instead what happened in its first year it showed up in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. It debuted on the racetrack within a month at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. It sold its one millionth Mustang in three years, and had about 500 fan clubs. That’s more than I have, I think. Like a boss! Today it has sold over 9 million.