JANUARY 15 — 1870 First appearance of Democratic Donkey; 1919 Molasses floods Boston; 1973 Nixon announces suspension of military action in N. Vietnam; SUPER BOWL: 1978 Cowboys beat Broncos, 1967 Packers beat Chiefts
JANUARY 15
1870 – 1st appearance of the Democratic Donkey. Cartoonist Thomas Nast drew the jackass as a representation for the Democratic Party in Harper’s weekly. Political cartoons were much more powerful than they are today; they actually had the power to sway voters in a certain direction instead of getting stuck on the back of the editorial page in the newspaper like today. The cartoon was called A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion. The dead lion represented the late Edwin McMasters Stanton, President Lincoln’s secretary of war during the last couple years of the Civil War. In the background is an eagle perched on a rock, representing the postwar federal domination in the South, and in the far background is the White House.
Nast is not the first to draw this association; the donkey was drawn to represent Andy Jackson, though Jackson was honored by it, saying the donkey is steadfast, determined and willful. We’re not exactly sure why Nast drew the elephant to represent the Republican Party, my guess is that since Nast was a staunch republican he intended for the elephant to symbolize the party as a large and powerful creature. The donkey and elephant represent the Democratic and Republican parties to this day.
1919 – Molasses floods Boston. Goo anyon? The United States Industrial Alcohol building, located on Commercial Street near N. End Park in Boston apparently had a flawed tank that wasn’t strong enough to hold a full load of molasses. Around noon on January 15, 1919, on an unusually warm day for that time of year, the tank exploded and a giant wave about 8 feet high of hot sticky molasses gushed out and wreaked havoc in the city. Freight cars were swept away, a local firehouse was knocked over, and 21 people and dozens of horses died that day. The more the people and animals thrashed in the waist high molasses, the harder they got stuck. After a lengthy court case, The US Industrial Alcohol Company was found to be at fault and had to pay out nearly $1M in damages to the victims’ families.
1973 — Nixon announces suspension of military action in North Vietnam. Nixon was trying to use the madman theory to get North Vietnam into surrendering. He actually said to his aide in the executive branch H.R. Halderman: call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We’ll just slip the word to them that, “for God’s sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about communism.
We can’t restrain him when he’s angry—and he has his hand on the nuclear button” and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace. It didn’t work for two reasons, one China and Russia weren’t scared to use nukes either, and two, America was sick of the Vietnam War. Although Nixon managed to reduce the troops from 540,000 or 95,000, thus keeping his campaign promise, it would be the Christmas bombing just one month prior that terrorized North Vietnam to the negotiating table.
1978 — Dallas Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos 27-10, Denver threw 4 interceptions and had 4 fumbles. 1967 Super Bowl 1 is won by Green Bay, beating the Chiefs 35-10.