MARCH 2 –ELECTIONS: Why DeWitt Clinton lost to Madison in 1812; 1865 Battle of Waynesboro; ; 1904 Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss; SPORTS: 1951 1st NBA All-Star game; 1962 Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points, 1982 Happy Birthday Ben Roethlesberger, 2005 Jackie Robinson posthumously awarded Congressional Medal of Honor
MARCH 2
1769 – Happy birthday DeWitt Clinton.
He ran unsuccessfully against James Madison in the 1812 election and constructed the Eerie Canal. DeWeitt, nephew of Vice President and founding Uncle George Clinton, was a true New Yorker, which is exactly why opponents to President Jemmie Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights Madison wanted DeWitt to run against him, to which DeWitt agreed.
The Democratic – Republican Party had dominated the Federalist Party since John Adam’s first term. The slave-owning state of Virginia owned the presidential spot, and seeking re-election, Jemmie the Sage of Montpellier Madison chose former Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry as his VP. If you want to know about how he’s responsible for the name gerrymandering, or the process by which electoral districts are drawn based on party power, check out my July 17th ep.
But rather than focusing on slavery issues in the election of 1812, President Madison had already gotten America into another war with Great Britain. Uncle George died in office while serving the VP position for Jefferson and Madison, so the Federalists, desperate for a win, chose George’s nephew from New York, and ding ding, it was on. Nephew DeWitt took the entire New England area except Vermont. But the Democratic-Republicans would take the south and west again.
By the time the vote was counted, Jemmie, His Little Majesty Madison, won again 128-89. But you can’t keep a good man down. DeWitt had already served state senator, Us Senator, and mayor of New York City where he promoted free public education, allowing the Roman Catholics to vote, and establishing welfare organizations. Bruised but far from broken from losing the presidential election, Clinton Jr. became the leader in building an easy route to trade to the Mid-West through Lake Eerie.
As a boy, DeWitt was a naturist at heart, and he tried pushing a bill through legislation to explore that route since before he ran against President Jemmie. But his dream would have to wait until after America signed a peace treaty with Great Britain, and in April 1816, DeWitt Clinton got his funding for survey and construct the canal.
In 1817, Clinton was elected Governor of New York, which made it real easy for him to oversee the project. Like Uncle George, DeWitt Clinton would serve until he died, but before he did, on October 25, 1825. He showed the way for easy trade between New York and the Midwest.
Happy birthday DeWitt!
1865 – Battle of Waynesboro,
VA. Phillip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer –V- Jubal Early. The result: Union victory. I cannot think of an American general who has been more controversial in US history than Custer. He was once labeled a brilliant military officer who was a general before he had turned thirty years old.
Errol Flynn played him as a hero in Die With their boots on, but since the 1960s Custer has been seen as a racist exterminator who should have been brought up on war crimes in the eyes of many. On March 2 1865, Custer routed Confederate General Early’s forces, ending the conflict in the Shenandoah Valley. Early lost his men, artillery, canon, ambulances, everything. Early himself was barely able to escape Custer’s forces, and the Confederate presence in the Shenandoah Valley was there no more.
INVENTIONS/PATENTS:
1887 – Happy Birthday Harry Soref from Milwaukee Wisc, inventor of the padlock.
By the end of WWI, the average lock wasn’t very strong and could easily be broken with a hammer. Using more steel would be too heavy and expensive, so he designed the lock by using layers of thin pieces of steel in a laminated costruction. Legend has it Harry Houdini, magician extraordinaire, taught Soref the secret on escaping a trap by hiding the key under his tongue and between his fingers. Soref died in 1957.
1972 – Pioneer 10 launched to Jupiter.
According to nasa.gov, Not only was Pioneer 10 the first NASA mission to the outer planets, it had, it was also the first vehicle placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellar space, the first spacecraft to fly beyond Mars, the first to fly through the asteroid belt, the first to fly past Jupiter, the first to use all0-nuclear electrical power, and the first human made object to fly beyond the orbit of the outermost known planet in our solar system. And on March 2 1973, Pioneer 10 was launched from Cape Canavral in Florida. It’s headed towards the Taurus constellation, and is scheduled to pass within three light years of the star Ross-246 sometime in the next 32,000 Earth years.
Don’t miss it!
1904 – Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
When he was a young boy his mother would soothe him to sleep by chanting rhymes she remembered from her childhood. If only she knew the impact those rhymes would have on the rest of the world much later in life. Before the Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox and Socks and all the others, he wrote liberally political cartoons during WWII. In addition to 44 very successful children’s’ books his works have been shown in eleven children’s television specials, a Broadway musical, and a feature-length motion picture, not to mention two academy awards, two Emmy awards and the Pulitzer Prize.
1951 The first NBA All-Star game – East beat West 111-94 in Boston
1962 Philadelphia beats NY Knicks 169-147 – Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points – made 36 of 63 field goals, 28 of 32 free throws, and had 25 rebounds – ended the season with a NBA record 50.4 point average
1982 Ben Roethlisberger born
2005 Jackie Robinson is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
2017 congratulations Elaine Martin, not only is she the writer of Not Perfect Mom’s Club, she’s also possesses the world’s longest belly button hair, 6.6 inches. And yes, I almost did just upchuck in my throat.