OCTOBER 9 — 1985 Strawberry Fields in Central Park is dedicated to John Lennon; 1794 Pres. Washington calls to end Whiskey Rebellion; 1876 Bell calls Tom Watson two miles away
OCTOBER 9
9 1985 Strawberry Fields in Central Park is dedicated to John Lennon.
Strawberry Fields, named after the Beatles’ 1966 big hit as well as an orphanage in Liverpool England where John would cross through as a shortcut on the way to his house when he lived with his Aunt Mimi as a young lad. She didn’t wasn’t John to play there, but John would tell her it’s nothing to get hung about.
The 2.5 acre memorial is located between 71st and 74th Streets, was designed by landscape architect extraordinaire Bruce Kelly and features a quiet meditative zone. As fans will tell you, and I’m one of them,
John Lennon was so much more than just a songwriter and peace activist. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that all the world’s problems could be fixed with just one simple word: love. When he and Paul McCartney wrote All You Need Is Love, John made sure that 400 million people in 25 different countries could get the message, so he kept the message as simple as he could. Or like in the song Mind Games, love is the answer. And you that, for sure!
At least he did.
Just because he said things like Imagine all the people sharing all the world did not make him a communist. Remember what he said in the song Revolution: If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow. When he says Imagine no possessions, he means exactly that. Just imagine. He didn’t say give up everything you own. All he was saying was give peace a chance.
This is what the memorial is all about. It’s where he and Yoko liked to take their walks, down the street from their apartment in the Dakota Building in Manhattan. Every year on this day thousands of people flock to meditate and appreciate the love of John Lennon’s legacy.
1794 – President Washington calls to end the Whiskey Rebellion peacefully.
Don’t mess with another man’s whiskey. This Alexander Hamilton tax on our favorite grain and rye drink nearly led to a 2nd American Revolution. Not even joking. The young United States of America was in debt from the Revolution, some states more than others, namely the western ones. In December 1790, Secretary of Treasurer Hamilton thought it would be a good idea to tax distilled drink.
Now, young or old, in America we have a saying. No use crying over spilled milk. Spilled coffee on the other hand, just might get someone stabbed. So if the mistake of spilling coffee can be fatal, imagine what happens to spilled whiskey. I mean, why not just kick his Harley over while you’re at it. Let’s just say you don’t want to know.
This would be the first federal tax levied on a domestic product ever, and the wrong one to mess with. President George Washington was opposed to the idea initially, but after talking to representatives from Virginia and Pennsylvania, the idea of the tax seemed very much welcomed. Despite Thomas Jefferson’s urging for otherwise, the Tax was passed by Congress. For the mass producers, it wasn’t a big deal because they paid a lower rate of 6 cents per gallon due to high volume. But the smaller folks on the western side had to pay way more than that because of low volume, and the backlash was immediate.
May God have mercy on the poor tax official on a foolish errand of trying to collect? One of them was tarred and feathered by men dressed as women who took his horse and left him in the forest. The exact same thing happened to that tax collector’s replacement, only this one was tied to a tree in the same forest for five hours. Yet another tax collector’s home was broken into by an angry mob and his wife and children were beaten. Later on, his home was broken into again and he was held at gunpoint while his record book was taken from him. In the summer of 1794, Federal Marshall David Lenox began enforcing the collection on unpaid debts and joined the regional tax collection supervisor John Neville to collect throughout Alleghany County. Early on, an argument with a man who refused to pay, escalated quickly, and led to Neville’s Bower Hill house as well has his slave’s houses nearby, to be burnt to the ground by a mob of 700 people.
David Bradford, a big-time landowner, robbed a mail wagon and found several letters from Pittsburgh disproving of the attacks on Neville’s house. Bradford organized a group of 7,000 men to attack the city of Pittsburgh, and when they showed up on the east side, the citizens announced the writers of the confiscated letters were exiled from the city, and offered the insurgents several barrels of whiskey. Peace was now at hand, as the mob drank it all down and got happy again. Hamilton wanted to send a militia, but Washington decided rather on a peace envoy, led by….President Washington: the only time in American history a sitting president would lead armed forces.
In an alternate reality according L. Neil Smith in the Probability Broach, it would be Democratic-Republican leader Albert Gallitan that would join the rebellion, capturing and executing Washington, and Galatan being proclaimed the second US president until 1812. Interesting.
What really happened in this universe is that with a force of nearly 13,000 soldiers, when Washington headed to western Pennsylvania to squash the rebellion, the rebels had scattered and were nowhere to be found. Several suspects were rounded up and two of them faced trial, were convicted of treason but pardoned by Washington later on. The tax, which was virtually uncollectable, with the aid of Thomas Jefferson, would be repealed in 1802. As far as the handling of the rebellion itself, President George Washington proving to be the hero who survived America’s first real test of federal authority.
1967 Che Guevara is executed in Bolivia.
…The fact that he was an anti-imperialist is not the only thing that makes this story American. The fact that his image shows up on posters and T-Shirts I see all over places like Berkeley make it more American than Latin-American. Socialist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Ernest Rafael Guevara played an important role in Fidel Castro’s seizure of power from Cuba dictator Fulgencio Batista. Ironically his image all over the world symbolizes freedom, but Guevara was a totalitarian. He presided over the Cuban Revolution’s first firing squad.
He founded Cuba’s “labor camp”, which was used to imprison homosexuals, dissidents and AIDS victims. Yet in movies like the Motorcycle Diaries, he’s shown as a hero who rebels against the Catholic Church. He helped establish an unjust social. System in Cuba, yet he’s a symbol of justice. Rather than being acknowledged as the Marxist-Leninist that he is, his illustration shows him a free-thinking man. Che Guevara. It’s one of life’s interesting mysteries. The one thing that’s indisputable, regardless of anyone’s OPINION on Guevara, is the fact that My God! This man was handsome.
1855 – Joshua Stoddard patents the steam piano. We call it a steam n calliope. It’s used Says Wiki, Stoddard founded the American Steam Piano Company, patented the steam calliope, which was steam boiler, a set of valves, and 15 graded steam whistles played from a pinned cylinder that could be heard from up to five miles. He also patented the Stoddard horse-rake, a fruit pairing machine, a hay tedder, and a fire escape system.
1876 –Bell calls Tom Watson two miles away.
Born in Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell immigrated to Boston in 1871 to teach at a school for the deaf. His mother and wife were both deaf, and he had a strong interest in voice enhancing technologies. His father and grandfather were in the business of elocution, which focuses on human speech, articulation, diction, tone, all that stuff. He soon met electrical designer and mechanic Thomas Watson, who would become quite the assistant. Legend has it, after coming up with a type of acoustic telegraph; Bell took his invention to the US Patent office, two hours before Elisha Gray with a similar device.
Once Bell got the patent, he and Watson had a nice chat – from the next room. Bell called him on the phone on March 10th 1876, and said Tom, I Want you!!!! Actually it wasn’t that dramatic, and I believe he said Thom, I want to see you. Now came the real test of Bell’s invention. Wires were placed between Boston and Cambridge, and it would be on this day in 1876, as it agates on the plaque on the wall, the first two-way long distance telephone conversation was carried on for three hours. From here in Cambridge port, Thomas G. Watson spoke over a telegraph wire to ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL at the office of the Walworth Mfg. Company, 69 Kelby St. Boston Mass. It’s right there near the T-Shirt shop and 7-11.
Exactly what Bell and Watson discussed for three hours, I have no idea, and it’s probably irrelevant anyway. What’s important is that within the next ten years, over 150,000 people would have phones. These days of course, the work telephone is virtually ancient technology, since Google purchased the Android in 2005. Since then the features have piled on and on. Cambridge Mass, home of Kendall Square where we can find Google’s Open Handset Alliance, giving open source opportunities for anyone who wants to write software or develop an app.
Very cool.
1864 – The Battle of Tom’s Brook,
…otherwise known as the Woodstock Races. Shenandoah County, VA. Brig. Gen Alfred Torbert v CSA Maj. Gen. Thomas Rosser. Result – Union Victory. A big one, too. The previous week, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan defeated Confederate Gen. Jubal Early and pursued the Rebels up the Shenandoah Valley to Staunton, burning barns and mills along the way. Rosser’s forces began fighting the Yankees back, and Tolbert told his Generals, George Custer and Wesley Merritt not to counterattack, to which Sheridan overruled by ordering his cavalry to whip the enemy or get whipped themselves. Custer and Rosser were good friends and roommates when they attended West Point together, but today on October 9 they faced off in battle.
Sheridan would watch this battle unfold beyond the summit of Round Hill. Though outnumbered in manpower, Custer had the height advantage of Tom’s Creek, and overwhelmed Rosser’s forces, and the Rebels fled in what would become known as the Woodstock Races. The result was a Confederate rout, which affected the morale for the south for the remainder of the Shenandoah Campaign.
1869 – President Grant announces the death of former president Franklin Pierce. Purse, as Pierce was nicknamed, had a bit of a drinking problem. And why not, He lost his three children and didn’t handle it well. Being President is a brutal job, so that didn’t help his habits. By 1859, Pierce’s liver gave out and he passed away on October 8 and President the American Ceaser, Ulysses Grant, ordered suitable military and naval honors for the achievements Pierce made in the Mexican war of 1848.