JUNE 15 — 1767 A Tragic Love Story: Andrew and Rachel Jackson; 1967 Walt Disney’s Club 33 opens; 2006 George W. Bush designates national monument in northwestern Hawaiian islands
JUNE 15
1767 – Happy birthday Rachel Donelson Jackson,
…perhaps the greatest President’s wife who never enjoyed what it would be like to be a first lady. That might be the biggest reason why we never see a portrait of Mrs. J smiling. That or the fact that she’d had enough of the negative spotlight in being in that position.
Rachel, the tenth of eleven children, was born in present day Chatham, VA in June 1767. Her father moved along with most of the entire Donelson family, over 1,000 miles in a huge flotilla, flatboat and wagon from Pittsylvania County, literally around 60 cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, etc. to Tennessee, where they became some of the first white settlers of present day Nashville. The Cherokees and Chickasaws didn’t take too kindly to these white settlers, and made life tough for them, forcing the Donelson’s to Harrodsburg, KY.
Rachel, with her beautiful dark eyes, at this point in her life had been taught the basics of running a household, and then at 18 years old, she married Lewis Robards, where she would run his entire plantation. Their marriage was a nightmare from the start. Some say Rachel was a flirt, and many others say Lewis was an abusive jerk. He would physically beat her, and she would run to her mom’s in Harrodsburg. And who there would she flirt with, but a young lawyer renting a room at mom and dad’s house, who hadn’t even earned the nickname of Old Hickory just yet. Nonetheless, at the same age, the magic between Andrew and Rachel was instantaneous. Chances are, Captain Robards picked up on that attraction.
As the story goes, Robards begged her back, she went back to him, and as these ugly situations go, he likely beat her one last time, and she ran to the arms of Andrew Jackson at Natchez in Mississippi, where the two would secretly get married. She told Andy she divorced the scumbag, and in her defense she thought she did. This is where it gets a little complex. See, Andy Jackson returned to Nashville in 1791, where the Robards told him she was absolutely divorced from Lewis, and Andy believed them. But some of them may have done that, foreseeing Jackson’s future political power, as a means of taking down Jackson.
Andy and Rachel eloped in Catholic Spanish-ruled Mississippi where Protestant marriages weren’t legit. That was their first problem with the marriage; the second, Lewis didn’t actually proceed with the divorce paperwork. Not only was Rachel commit adultery, but Jackson’s political future would have to deal with the scandal. Call Old Hickory any name you can, but the second you insult his wife, you would be putting your life on the line. So, they tried getting married again, this time in 1794.
Andrew Jackson, who had lost his family to British soldiers during the American Revolution, found a home with the Donelsons who loved and adored Andy. He built the Hermitage in 1804, for his wife, complete with a chapel for her as well as a flower garden. What a couple. Where Andy was harsh and outspoken, Rachel was reclusive and inward. As his popularity grew to the point to where he was much more than a great General, and now the future leader of the United States, Rachel grew antisocial; personally awkward, stressed and depressed and inwardly ashamed for the criticism she began receiving. Unable to bear children, she blamed her own womb for her sins, and the political pressure mounted.
Her husband was not only running for president in the face of scandal, but carried a bullet in her honor in his chest throughout his final day and Rachel was noted for saying “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than live in that palace in Washington.”, and continued to defend her own honor. As far as Old Hickory was concerned, the poisonous arrow of scandal finally pierced her heart, on the 22nd of December 1828; just days after her husband won the 1828 presidential election. Old Hickory showed up at his inauguration several weeks later with a band of mourning for his lost Rachel, a solemn voice as he delivered his inaugural address to the nation.
Most of the newspapers who had slandered her name, like the Nashville Whig, the Washington Telegraph, the Boston Statesmen and many others, retracted their slanderous statements. Rachel would be buried in her pretty white dress back in the flower gardens of the Hermitage, an appropriate name for a girl who was reclusive to the national presidential spotlight.
Happy birthday Rachel!
1863 – 2nd battle at w3inchester
…VA ends in Federal defeat; 1350 casualties. In fact Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was gaining some serious ground in the north. He moved his army from Rappahannock River around Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was heading towards Pennsylvania.
Lee divided his army and sent the regiments toward the Shenandoah Valley, using the Blue Ridge Mountains as a screen. Abe Lincoln had to send out an emergency call for 100,000 men from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia to protect Washington D.C.
Lee wasn’t actually headed to DC, but Lincoln didn’t know that and just needed to protect the Federal capital.
1869 – Celluloid patented
…by John Wesley Hyatt in Albany NY. Celluloid was first widely used as an ivory replacement, as well as movie and photography film industries, which used only celluloid films prior to acetate films that were introduced in the 1950s.
It’s also highly flammable, difficult and expensive to produce and not used in much of anything except ping pong balls, musical instruments and guitar picks.
1967 — Walt Disney’s Club 33 opens.
Maybe. Actually the whole club is a big mystery.
Only the elite of the elite knows who’s on the membership roster, it costs $10,000 a year if you can ever get in and the answer’s usually no.
According to gawker.com, a plate of chicken fingers on the menu with a salad and chocolate cake from the kid’s menu costs $59. Built besides being an expensive club with a 14 year waiting list, questions abound as to the name’s origin. Was Club 33 named after its address in the Disneyland’s New Orleans Square, or after the number of corporate sponsors Walt had? Or…was it named after the highest level of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Because it wouldn’t be a party without the Illuminati.
Now it turns into a fancy brothel where, says gawker, Biannual sex parties featuring Mickey Rooney and Mira Sorvino, a psychic reading with Allison DeBois, who can predict the date of your death, and children’s fingers to feed to your chickens because you’re an eccentric billionaire. It’s only fair because remember, for $59, children can eat the chicken fingers.
That’s a clucking good time right there! The Club isn’t that secret anymore, we all know Bobby Kennedy had a fling with Minnie Mouse in the exclusive jazz lounge. Since 1967 other Club 33s have opened in various other Disneyland parks, including Shanghai and Tokyo.
1877 – First African American graduate of West Point.
…According to archives.gov, Lt. Henry O. Flipper’s Quest for Justice: “As honorable a record in the Army as any officer in it.”
Born a slave in Thomasville, Georgia on March 21, 1856, Flipper was appointed to the US Military Academy in 1873. He overcame harassment, isolation, and insults to become the first black man to be commissioned officer in the regular US Army.
Flipper was stationed first at Ft. Still, Oklahoma, later served at Forts Elliott, Quitman and Davis, Texas. He served as a signal officer and quartermaster, fought Apaches, installed telegraph lines, and supervised the building of roads. At Ft. Sill, he directed the construction of a drainage system that helped prevent the spread of malaria.
In 1881 he was accused of embezzlement, found guilty and was dishonorably discharged. He tried to clear his name and was reinstated into the army and restoring his rank in 1898.
He died in 1940 without vindication, but in 1976, the Army granted him an honorable discharge, and in 1999, President Bill Clinton issued him a full pardon. The National Archives and Records Administration calls Lt. Flipper a man who served his country with honor and fought injustice tenaciously.
2006 President George W. Bush designates the northwestern Hawaiian islands a national monument.
It was the second time Bush had utilized the Antiquities Act of 1906 to do so, the first time designating an African burial ground in Manhattan. Known as the Papahanaumouakea, this was huge, he stated., and influenced to sign it after he and first lady Laura watched a documentary called Voyage to Kure.
Years later in October 2016 President Barack Obama expanded on this area, quadrupling it in size and making the world’s largest marine reserve at 582,578 square miles That means it’s off limits to commercial fishing, dumping, but still open for local fishing and scientific research.
Not coincidentally at the same time, 24 countries and the European Union declared 600,000square miles of the Ross Sea in Antarctica also off limits.
1938 – 1st night game at Brooklyn Ebbets Field
… (Reds 6, Dodgers 0) As Cincy Red Johnny Vander Meer hurls unprecedented 2nd consecutive no-hitter. In the ninth inning, with stadium lights on for a sellout crowd of 48,000 and the Reds up 6-0, Vander Meer was ready to make history.
After fielding a lazy ground ball hit by Dodger left fielder Buddy Hasssett to lead off the inning, Vander Meer began to show signs of nerves. He proceeded to walk the bases loaded with one out, bringing centerfielder Ernie Koy to the plate. Koy hit a dribbler to Reds third basemen Lew Riggs, who, afraid of making a mistake, threw home to catcher Dolph Camilli instead of turning a double play.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Dodger shortstop Leo Durocher stepped up to the plate. Durocher had a habit of delivering clutch hits, but after walloping a foul ball into the stands in right field, Durocher managed only a slow fly ball to center field, where Harry Craft gloved it for the final out to secure Vander Meer’s place in history.
2002 – Happy anniversary Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards,
…who got married under a rose arch dotted by over 1000 blooms in Brentwood, CA. Sheen has been married three times, has five kids and one grandchild.