SEPTEMBER 10 — 1833 Andrew Jackson shuts down Second Bank of U.S.; 1989 Happy Birthday Waldo Semon, invented vinyl; 1945 Miracle Mike the chicken survives decapitation
SEPTEMBER 10
1833 – Andy Jackson shuts down the Second Bank of the United States.
…This was known as the Bank War and Old Hickory, who by the way served as president from 1829-1837, had already warned his Vice President Martin Van Buren The Bank is trying to kill me, Mr. Van Buren, but I will kill it. And that he did. President Andrew Jackson was a true frontiersmen and he had a major beef with the banking system, which he felt was making the industrial and commercial rich in the north even richer, and ignoring the agricultural people of the south. Getting Old Hickory Jackson to work with the banks was like trying to pee and sneeze at the same time. Just wasn’t working. Back in 1791, George Washington and Treasurer Alexander Hamilton created the first bank of the US, and its charter was due to expire in 1836.
King Andrew the first, as National Republicans called him, also had personal problems with the banking system causing his financial misfortunes, mainly in land speculation and worthless bank notes.
Now on the other side of all this, Kentucky and Massachusetts senators Henry clay and Daniel Webster worked with bank president Nicholas Biddle to make rechartering the bank a referendum on the legitimacy of the institution in the presidential election of 1832. Jackson argued the bank was unconstitutional. Congress disagreed and voted to recharter it. Old Hickory vetoed the recharter, despite the fact he knew he’d lose votes in the Banks home of Pennsylvania.
During the election, the bank was the main focus point between Jackson and his opponent, Henry Clay. Jackson successfully argued the incompatibility between hard money and paper money sections and scored an overwhelming victory in the election. Not to be outdone, Biddle promised to continue the fight, saying “just because Jackson has scalped Indians and imprisoned judges does not mean he is to have his way with the bank.”
On September 10, 1833, Jackson quickly removed all federal depots in the bank. Well that’s one way to balance the budget. Just zero the whole thing out. Awesome. The Whig party emerged to oppose the Jacksonian’s. Biddle continued the economic warfare but its charter officially expired in 1836. Jackson won.
1898 – happy birthday Waldo Semon from Alabama. He basically invented vinyl.
1963 – JFK gets opposing views on Vietnam. Maj. Gen Victor Krulak, a highly decorated officer who saw combat missions in WWII as well as Korea and Vietnam, now Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and senior Foreign Service officer Joseph Mendenhall had completely opposite opinions on the stability of government in Vietnam and the progress of the war. Brute Krulak said progress in the war against the Cong was going great, however Mendenhall said he Keim regime in Saigon was near collapse and lacking popular support in South Vietnam. President Kennedy famously asked them if they even went to the same country.
In baseball news…
1933 – First Negro league Allstar game is played at Comiskey Park, West beat the East 11-7.
1945 – Miracle Mike gets his head cut off.
Mike was a yummy, juicy, 2.5 chicken that was going to be eaten for dinner that night by the Olson family in Colorado. Mrs. Olson, just call her Clara, was expecting her mother to join the family for dinner, and mama liked the neckbone. Mr. Olson, just call him Lloyd, was a good son-in-law and would see to his Clara’s mom got her wish.
He went to slaughter the chicken, then unnamed, positioned the ax perfectly, and swung down. Too perfectly, actually. Like all chickens running around with their heads cut off, which is what I look like every Monday morning, that’s exactly what Mike did. But the little guy apparently was just kept running around and refused to be part of that night’s dinner.
I don’t know if the Olson’s ordered pizza that night, or what they did for dinner, but they were not eating that chicken. The next morning, Lloyd checked up on our fowl friend, and there was Mike, sleeping in a position that would normally be with his head under his wing.
This thing would not die.
Lloyd began feeding him water and grains from an eyedropper directly into Mike’s exposed neck. The story was literally unbelievable by everyone who heard it, and Mike was thought to be a hoax. Until Lloy drove 250 miles to the University of Utah and showed it to scientists. Turned out Lloyd’s aim was just a little off when he swung the ax. He left most of the next alright, but in doing so he left the brain stem and one ear still on the body.
He also either missed the jugular, or somehow a clot quickly formed and stopped the bleeding. Regardless, Miracle Mike survived for another 18 months, growing from 2.5 pounds to a full fledge 8 pounder. I doubt seriously there are a lot of chickens out there with a $10,000 insurance policy, but that’s what Lloyd got for Miracle Mike and took him to various cities around America, charging 25 cents per person to witness this this perplexing poultry. New York. Atlantic City, Los Angeles, and San Diego, folks came in droves to see the Wonder Chicken.
But then in Arizona at a hotel on March 17, 1947, the poor fell started chocking, and Lloyd couldn’t find the eyedropper to clear out his esophagus in time. Mike died that night, but his spirit lives on in Colorado. Every year during the third weekend in May, in Fruita Colorado, Mike’s festival begins, where you can see a 300-pound 5 foot tall statue of the little fella.