AUGUST 21 – 1959 Hawaii becomes 50th state; 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates; 2001 New York’s original transit cars get dumped in Atlantic Ocean; 1931 Babe Ruth hits 600th Home Run
AUGUST 21
1959 – Hawaii becomes America’s 50th State.
America has toppled 14 governments between 1893 coup of Hawaii and the occupation of Iraq. Stephen Kinzer in his book Overthrow: America’s century of regime changes has stated the outcome has never been good. It’s a good debate, nonetheless, and like Hawaii, it’s like saying that Hawaii flourished thanks to America and the sugar industry, but sugar causes cancer and kills people. And the debate goes on. Many local Hawaiians still don’t like Americans, comparing Americans to invading imperialists, but they can at least complain in whatever language they want, as opposed to the Japanese they’d be speaking if it weren’t for America. Of course, this isn’t a poli-sci (political scientist) class, this is US History. So. That said, let’s get to the fun part about Hawaii.
Did you know it’s the only state in the US that grows coffee? That’s worth a US overthrow right there. Hawaiian has only 12 letters in the alphabet, all vowels a-e-i-o-u and consonants H-J-L-M-N-P-W. From east to west, Hawaii is the widest state, and it supplies 1/3 of the worlds commercial pineapples. It also the worldwide leader in harvesting macadamia nuts and orchids.
1858 – Lincoln Douglas debates. In this corner in the blue shorts, elected to Congress in 1846 in the House, trying to ban slavery in new territories, now in the 1850’s oppose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and leader of the new Republican Party to try to take the Senate seat in Illinois: Abraaaaaam Lincolnnnnnn! In that corner, in the grey shorts, also elected to Congress in 1846, now incumbent of the Illinois Senate seat seeking his third term for the Democratic Party: Stephennnnn Douglasssss. These two had already spoken to the town public in Springfield, where Lincoln gave his famous House Divided Could Not Stand speech, and once in Chicago, where Douglas opened up his campaign, The two men now agreed to take on the rest of the counties in Illinois, Tens of thousands of folks came in to watch these debates from all over Illinois and surrounding states by horse and buggy, boats, and trains. And ding, ding, it was on. Lincoln proposed that Douglas’s sovereignty position, which allowed the individual states and territories to decide about the slavery issue by themselves, was an irresponsible conflict that would spread throughout the union, and that the mere concept of slavery went against the country’s founding father’s belief that are men are created equal.
Douglas obviously disagreed. Our founding fathers were slaveholders, he stated, and issues such as slavery needed to be decided by the people on the local level. Lincoln argued that the moral debate of slavery would not go away, and Douglas argued by stating that federal involvement to end slavery could lead the nation to a civil war. Douglas would wind up winning the debate in end, however these debates helped to catapult Linton into the national spotlight, eventually leading to his election as President of the US.
2001 – Goodbye Dr. Zizmor.
Redbird hits the ocean floor to make a new home for New York’s marine life. On purpose, mind you! From 2001-2010 old retired railroad cars were dumped into the ocean from Delaware to South Carolina to create reefs, one carriage at a time. 1300 Redbirds, the original New York City transit cars, needed to be scrapped, and transit officials looked to other countries to take these old asbestos filled chunks of metal, but they didn’t want it. Not China, Pakistan, India, or Turkey.
So dumping them here in the Atlantic would create condos for fish all along the east coast of North America. They won’t mind the asbestos right? Correct, according to the EPA, Environmental Potation Agency. As a result, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control authorized the dumping of these cars for the convenience of blue mussels and black sea bass.
1841 – John Hampton patents the venetian blind. 1888 – William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine. Why because he worked at a bank as a clerk and got bored with counting numbers all day. There were already adding machine prototypes in existence, but they were flawed and most of the time gave out incorrect numbers. Burroughs resigned from the bank and worked on his adding machine, patenting it in 1888.
1935 – America goes from Big Band to Swing this night, when Benny Goodman played at the Palomar Hotel in Los Angeles. African American jazz musicians already dominated the music scene, led by Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway, and Fletcher Henderson. On August 21 1935, Goodman played in front of thousands of young people and millions heard on the radio around the country. Swing music would continue to rule the 1930s and 40s.
1931 – Babe Ruth hits his 600th HR, off George Blaeholder of Browns