JANUARY 1 — 1863 Emancipation Proclamation takes effect; 1896 R.I.P. Alfred Beach (subway prototype); 1958 Merle Haggard hears Johnny Cash play at San Quentin; NCAA: 1988 Miami beats Oklahoma, 1983 Penn State beats Georgia, 1902 Michigan beats Stanford in 1st Rose Bowl
JANUARY 1
1863 – The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect. After three years of a bloody civil war, President Abraham Lincoln declared that all persons held as slaves are and henceforward, shall be free. This proclamation exempted border slave states that were loyal to the union and the three Confederate states that were under Union control at that time. This changed the nature of the Civil War, folks. Before it was about states seceding the nation. I can hear some people out there saying it was about economics poor agriculture versus industrialism.
Whatever you want to call it; the Union fighting the Civil War proved to the world that it was about freedom. After all, Lincoln personally felt slavery was morally reprehensible. This would be about Real freedom of all men. Now the liberated were the liberators as nearly 200,000 former slaves joined the Union army to fight their former captors. In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would end officially end slavery in America. Even though Tom Morello from Rage Against the machine would argue we’re still slaves in the workforce and capitalism in general.
1896 – Alfred Ely Beach passes away. From Springfield Mass, he’s probably best known for designing New York City’s earliest subway prototype; called the beach Pneumatic Transit. He also patented a typewriter for the blind. No he didn’t do the Braille dots for drive up
ATM machines.
1958 – San Quentin inmate Merle Haggard hears Johnny Cash play.
…Like a lot of folks from Oklahoma and Texas, Merle’s family moved to California during the great expression to try and find a way to earn a living. When Merle was a child, his father died of a brain hemorrhage, which deeply affected Merle. He learned how to play guitar at the age of 12 but started getting into trouble because his mom was away at work trying to support the family. She tried to send him to a juvenile detention center to whip him into shape one weekend but it only made him worse. He made several trips to jail several times during his teenage years and was able to escape a few of them. When his buddy Caryl Chessman, whom they nicknamed rabbit, was sent to death row, Merle decided to turn his life around.
And on January 1st, Johnny Cash came to San Quentin to play a concert. As Merle would say, Cash had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards – he did everything the prisoners wanted him to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan. Country legend Merle haggard credits Cash with giving him the inspiration to begin a career after prison that by the way includes 8 #1 hits on the country charts.
1961 Houston Oilers beat LA Chargers in the 1st AFL championship game – George Blanda threw 3 TDs for Houston
1988 Miami beats Oklahoma for college football championship – Jimmy Johnson’s #2 ranked and undefeated Miami beats Barry Switzer’s #1 ranked and undefeated Sooners
1983 Penn State beats Georgia for college football championship – Georgia with their Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker had been the only undefeated team in the NCAA
1981 Georgia beats Notre Dame for the college football championship – Georgia completed only one pass for 7 yards – outgained ND 328 to 127 as Herschel Walker gained 150 yards on the ground
1902 The first Rose Bowl game is played – Michigan beat Stanford 49-0