DECEMBER 6 — 1941 FDR reaches out yet again to Hirohito; 1884 Washington Monument completed; 1921 Edison Speaks on Wealth in the NY Times; 1988 Roy Orbison dies
DECEMBER 6
1941 – FDR sends letter to Japanese emperor asking to prevent further death and destruction. Convinced by intelligence that the Japanese were going to invade Thailand, the British had sent their 11th Indian Division there to meet the Japanese. But 600 miles above Hawaii, Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, announced to his men: “The rise or fall of the empire depends upon this battle. Everyone will do his duty with utmost efforts.” The supposed attack on Thailand would be just a bluff. Meanwhile in America, life went on. There were fifteen days of Christmas shopping left in America, and folks on Saturday December 6th, we’re shopping in places like Sears & Roebuck, F.W. Woolworth, Montgomery Ward, and the Ben Franklin five and dime.
The Washington Redskins were getting ready to play the Philadelphia Eagles for a championship game. Rita Hayworth had the number one song at that time. In Japan, who had hundreds of daily newspaper, most of them reflecting Japan’s political propaganda, sending the people of Japan a completely different story of the reality of the war. One newspaper said:”Japan might be forced to abandon her peaceful endeavors, and we watch tensely to see whether Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Churchill will commit on an epochal crime and further extend the world upheaval.” And a significant number of the US Pacific fleet would be anchored in Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, sitting ducks. To be continued.
1884 – The Washington Monument is completed. First in War, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. To quote their website, The Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills and eventually completed by Thomas Casey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, honors and memorializes George Washington at the center of the nation’s capital. The structure was completed in two phases of construction, one private (1848-1854) and one public (1876-1884). Built in the shape of an Egyptian obelisk, evoking the timelessness of ancient civilizations, the Washington Monument embodies the awe, respect, and gratitude the nation felt for its most essential Founding Father. When completed, the Washington Monument was the tallest building in the world at 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches.
1877 — Thomas A. Edison finished his first phonograph design. I mean, since he was at the time working on the telegraph and the telephone, why not? The Wizard of Menlo Park Edison figured out a way to record sound on cylinders coated with tinfoil. However one of his closest associates, John Kruesi from Switzerland, bet Tommy Edison 2 bucks that it wouldn’t work. Although Kruesi worked with Thomas the Wizard on many inventions, including the quadruplex telegraph, the carbon microphone, and the incandescent light bulb as well as a system of electric lighting, today he bet the wrong man. And so the machine was created with two needles; one for recording and one for playback. Edison spoke the nursery rhyme to Mary Had a Little Lamb with one needle and a mouthpiece, and to Kruesi’s shock, play it back successfully with the other. Two buck Johnny Boy, fork it over. In other Edison news…
1921 – Edison speaks up on wealth in the New York Times.
If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Yes, Edison said a lot of interesting things. He denounced religion and was politically driven as well. It was on this day in 1921 the Time printed one of his more famous quotes regarding Henry Ford’s muscle shoals. Ford was looking to seek $5M bond to lease lands and begin Developments started by the government at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River. Essentially he wanted to take 75 miles of river in Northern Alabama at the unfinished Wilson Dam and place a couple plants that he could use to produce nitrate fertilizer. That’s as far as the story went, he never got the grant from Congress.
But Henry Ford’s buddy Thomas Edison quipped an interesting one regarding Congress’s funding for the project: If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20 per cent, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who directly contribute to Muscle Shoals in some useful way.” … if the Government issues currency, it provides itself with enough money to increase the national wealth at Muscles Shoals without disturbing the business of the rest of the country. And in doing this it increases its income without adding a penny to its debt. “It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30,000,000 in bonds and not $30,000,000 in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens the usurer, and the other helps the people.
Interesting. What Edison talking about something a little deeper than just Muscle Shoales?
Or something else may a bank issuing money out of thin air, like the Federal Reserve? You be the judge.
2006 – The Iraq Study group, which was a 10-person bipartisan panel appointed in 2006 to assess the situation on the US-led war on Iraq. It basically urged a strong pull back of US troops in Iraq.
2007 –Billy Joel released a new Pop single called “Christmas in Fallujah”, which featured the vocals of 21-year-old singer Cass Dillon. At 58, Joel said he felt he was too old to sing the song, which was inspired by letters he received from soldiers in Iraq.
1988 — Roy Orbison died of a heart attack at the age of 52. He had regained a huge fan following with solo hits, “You Got It” and “Mystery Girl” along with a million selling album with The Traveling Wilbur’s.