MARCH 13 — 1798 Happy birthday First Lady Abigail Fillmore; 1962 McNamara reject Operation: Northwood; BASKETBALL: 1960 Wilt Chamberlin gets 53 points, 1965 Boston Celtics become 1st NBA team to win 61 games in one season, 1996 Princeton upsets UCLA
MARCH 13
1798 happy birthday first lady Abigail Fillmore!
Abigail Powers, the last first lady to be born in the 18th century, were born in Saratoga on this day in 1798 to preacher Lemuel and Abigail Powers in Saratoga New York. When Reverend Powers died shortly after Abigail’s birth, her mother moved the family west to Sempronius. Little Abigail received a good education, learned how to speak French, play the harp, and became a teacher herself at the age of 16, which officially makes Abigail Fillmore the first First Lady to have a job before becoming first lady.
At age 21, a spark ignited with 19 year old student Millard Fillmore at the Academy of New Hope. It took a young Millard a while to get his law career off the ground, so the two didn’t get married until February 5 1826. Abigail gave birth to their only son Millard Jr, and subsequently Millard Sr. was able to move his new family to Buffalo, where Abigail gave birth to Mary. Millard would become elected congressman in 1836, where she dealt with the glamour of politics.
But Abigail just wanted her books…Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and everything else from her childhood library left by her father, as well as other books that were on her Amazon book list that Millard would pick up from libraries in New York City and Philly libraries on his way to Congress meetings.
In 1849, her hubby would be elected vice president under General Zachary Taylor and a year and four months later, Taylor died. Just like Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Fillmore didn’t want to even step foot in the White House. I’ll go over Peggy Taylor in my Sep 21st ep. Dealing with a broken ankle that wasn’t set right by doctors, Abigail cared not to take over the first lady roles, but rather left those duties to 20-year old daughter Mary. Her husband although she whispered in his ear to veto the Fugitive Slave Act,
The American Louis Phillippe went ahead with it, upsetting his Whig constituents, and was not invited to the next nomination for president. Democrat Frank Pierce would win, and 26 days after the inauguration, Abigail died of pneumonia, March 30, 1853.
Happy birthday Abigail!
1942 – Secretary of War Robert Patterson approves the US army’s latest weapon: dogs!
Now, our canine friends have been man’s best friends since the dawn of time itself, but on March 13 1942 the US made the bond official as the Army launched K-9 corps. Dogs for Defense was a civilian organization started by members of the American Kennel Club as an idea to use sentry dogs for supply depots. The Quartermaster Corps began experimenting and the experiment was a huge hit.
The list of dog breeds that would become part of the corps would be German Shepards, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman Pinschers, collies, Siberian Huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo dogs. Their proved to be quite useful in WWII, acting as sentry, scout, patrol, messenger and mine dogs. Our canine friends were sent to war to fight.
Legend has it, during the latter days of the pacific theater, the Japanese never ambushed or attacked a patrol led by war dogs.
According to the army’s website, the courage and loyalty of these dogs have continued to save lives and prevent injuries since the creation of the K-9 Corps.
1887 – Chester Greenwood patents earmuffs.
Why? Because he from Maine and it’s fricking cold over there. He was a grammar school dropout who liked to go iceskating but got tired of holding hands to his ears to keep them warm.
He tried wrapping a scarf around his head but it was too ichy and it never stayed on. So he grabbed some wire and made two ear shaped loops and asked his grandma to sew fur on them. He took this idea and became a kajillionaire through the ZGreenwood ear protection factory. The earmuff, everyone. +
You’re welcome world!
1962 McNamara rejects Operation Northwood.
Yeah, good call on that one,
Bob. Drafted by the Joint Chief of Staff and signed by the chairman, and bloodthirsty General Lyman Lemmitzer, Northwood was a fake terrorist operation in cities within the United States, conducted by the CIA, in order to blame it on Cuba in order to start a war.
Who writes this stuff, you ask?
Well, Limitzer would later become NATO Commander, but for now, here’s what was written in the papers he signed: A series of well-coordinated incidents will be planned to take place in and around Guantanamo to give genuine appearance of being done by hostile Cuban forces. “A ‘Remember the Maine’ incident could be arranged in several forms: a. we could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba…”
“We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities, and even in Washington.”
“The terror campaign could be pointed at refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated)…” “Use of MIG type aircraft by US pilots could provide additional provocation. Harassment of civil air, attacks on surface shipping and destruction of US military drone aircraft by MIG type planes would be useful as complementary actions…”
Yeah, thanks but no thanks, Chairman.
According to James Bamsford in his book Body of Secrets it’s unclear as to whether President Jack Kennedy was told on the full proposal in a briefing days later, and besides, other creative methods were considered to remove Fidel Castro from power in Cuba, but for now,
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Mr. Policy Analysis who escalated the Vietnam War, rejected it, and none of the plans were ever used.
1836 – Sam Houston begins his retreat.
Otherwise known as the Runaway Scrape, this occurred between the disastrous Battle of the Alamo and Battle of Jacinto where Sam Houston began a series of retreats from the Mexican army to buy him time to train and properly equip his men with guns and food. Just over a week before this, Texas had announced its independence from Mexico, and Mexican general Santa Anna. For nearly a month after the Alamo fell, Houston led his men on one retreat after another, seemingly running away from the Mexican army but in fact he was buying himself some time to train his soldiers. As Santa Anna continued his pursuit, he burned down the towns of Harrisburg and New Washington, scaring away thousands of Texas residents.
But on April 21, Houston told his men to remember the Alamo, turned around and faced a surprised Mexican army that was practically twice the size of Houston’s now disciplined soldiers. The Mexican army attempted a disorganized retreat, but were captured by Houston’s men. Among those captured were Santa Anna himself who was forced to sign an agreement of immediate withdrawal of all Mexican troops from the Texas land. The Mexicans never seriously threatened the people of Mexico after that.
BASKETBALL:
1960 Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA playoff record with 53 points
1965 Boston Celtics become the 1st NBA team to win 61 games in a season – will end with 62
1996 #13 seeded Princeton beats defending champion UCLA 43-41 in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament