MARCH 6 — 1820 Monroe signs Missouri Compromise; 1857 DreadScott -V- Sandford decided; 1950 Silly Putty invented; 1972 Happy Birthday Shaq Attack
MARCH 6
1820 – President Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise.
According to the Library of Congress, In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Furthermore, with the exception of Missouri, this law prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36 degree 30 minute latitude line. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Three years later the Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. Speaking of the Dred Scott decision, amazingly enough 37 years later to the day:
1857 —Dred Scott v Sandford is decided.
Dred Scott was a slave whose owner was an army doctor. Scott lived with this doctor in Illinois and Wisconsin, which were free states. But then he went to Missouri after the doctor was called over there for duty. He died there, and Scott argued that he should be a free man since he lived on free soil for so long. The case went up to the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice Roger Taney, a former slave owner, did not agree with Mr. Scott. Basically under the Constitution, black people were not people. Therefore they were not nor could they become US citizens, and Scott had no right to sue in the first place. As a matter of fact, to take it even a step further, The Supreme Court ruled that Congress didn’t have the power to stop slavery in the first place, and therefore the Missouri Compromise I talked about a few minutes ago is repealed. President Lincoln was revolted by this decision and made a spoke out publicly against it. The Dred Scott Decision led to increasing tensions between the North and South, and within four years the full blown Civil War had broken out.
1950 – Silly Putty is invented. Although this has a complicated origin, it is credited to the Crayola Company in Pennsylvania or a research company in Connecticut, depending on which story you read. One thing that does appear to be consistent about its history is that it began as a result of an accident during WWII. The Japanese were invading rubber plants in the Pacific, which was obviously a much needed commodity for the war effort for things like boats, rafts, tires, etc. Synthetic rubber compounds were researched here in America while rubber was completely rationed.
Wikipedia says researchers independently discovered that reacting boric acid with silicone oil would produce a gooey, bouncy material with several unique properties. The non-toxic putty would bounce when dropped, could stretch farther than regular rubber, would not go moldy, and had a very high melting temperature. Very cool. It’s much more than a toy folks, although it’s great if you want read the newspaper backwards by sticking it on there and peeling it off and reading the image on the putty, that’s always fun., if you’re bored. it’s used in lunar missions, as well as medical and scientific applications.
1972 – Happy birthday Shaq. 7’1” 325. Helped to get the Lakers three-peat championships in 2000, 2001 and 02, and since he couldn’t get along with Kobe Bryant he was traded to the Miami Heat, and then helped Miami win the big one in 06. He had a coupld rap albums, one went platinum, which I had to buyin after I lost a bet that the Sacramento Kings would beat them incidentally; and he starred in two of his own reality showsws Shaq Vs and Shaq’s big Challenge, he got involved in law enforcement, and other fu n stuff. Happy birthday big fella!