JUNE 11 –1943 Happy Birthday Goodfella Henry Hill; 1963 JFK forces Alabama Gov. Wallace step aside; 1880 — Happy Birthday Jeanette Rankin; Happy Birthday Golden Driller, Tulsa OK
JUNE 11
1943 – Happy BD Henry Hill.
This mafia boss-turned FBI informant was born in Brooklyn on June 11 1943. He worked up the ranks in the Lucchese crime family since he was 12. His dad was Irish and his mom was Sicilian, so Hill could never be a made Mafia member since he wasn’t full blooded Italian.
Nonetheless, he grew close to family capo Paul Vario and started working petty crimes for him. The crimes got more serious as time went on; Hill participated in a host of illegal pursuits, including truck hijackings, loan sharking and drug dealing.
Henry became the gangster he’d always wanted to be, dating girls, boozing, partying, and gambling. After beating up a non-paying gambler whose sister happened to work at the FBI, hill was sentenced to 10 years in jail. There he learned that Mafia members received preferential treatment by convicts and guards, who were paid off by crime families.
Upon release, he got into the cocaine business and was doing quite well except for his addiction to the drug. He became a risk, and on the Mafia hit list. That’s when he became a federal witness, and through his testimony he brought down some of New York’s most feared mobsters, including Vario.
Hill, his wife and two children entered the US Federal Witness Protection Program in 1980, but got kicked out of the program after he blew his cover. He never could shake the reputation of being a rat and a drug addict despite his reform attempts.
Hill amazingly died of natural causes one day after his 69th birthday. Nicolas Pileggi wrote the bestselling novel Wiseguy in 1986, and in 1990 Martin Scorce made it into an Academy award winning film called Goodfellas.
1963 The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
…went down at the University of Alabama on June 11. George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, in a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever, and stop the desegregation of schools, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two black students.
President John F Kennedy about had enough, and issued Proclamation 3542, which ordered Wallace and all personal acting in concert with him to cease and desist from obstructing justice. Wallace still refused to move, until JFK federalized the national guard, then General Huentry Graham commanded Wallace to step aside, saying “Sir it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States.”
Yeah, Wallace because it’s the United States, not confederates states. Remember.
1880 – Happy birthday Jeannette Rankin.
She’s the first woman in the US Congress, elected in Montana in 1916 and again in 19490. After being elected in 1916 she said I may be the first o woman member of congress but I won’t be the last. Her two terms coincided with US entry in both world wars.
A lifelong pacifist, she was one of 56 members of Congress who voted against entry into World War 1 in 1917, and the only member who voted against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
1913 – Happy birthday Vince Lombardi!
He coached his way to five NFL championships in seven years, including winning the first two Super Bowls. Lombardi is considered by many to be one of the best and most successful coaches in NFL history. That’s why the super bowl trophy is named after him. Like a boss!
He never had a losing season as a head coach in the NFL compiling a regular season winning percentage of 72.8 (96-34-6) and 90% (9-1) in the postseason.
2019 Golden Driller celebrates its 53rd birthday at the International Petroleum Expo.
Standing 76’ tall, this big oil drilling fella is the 6th largest statue in the United States. He was originally built in 1952 by the Mid-Continent Supply Company of Ft. Worth, displayed at the IPE in 59, and moved to the Tulsa County Fairgrounds in Oklahoma in 1966, where he has stood since. With his right hand on an oil derrick that was actually used in Seminole, the Golden Driller has survived hurricanes, graffiti and shotgun blasts here and there.
In 1979 he became a state monument by the Oklahoma legislature, and in 2006, he won the grand prize in a quirkiest American destination. Best of all, he was once featured in a Zippy the Pinhead comic strip. His plaque reads: “Dedicated to the men of the petroleum industry who by their vision and daring have created from God’s abundance a better life for mankind.” God bless America indeed!