AUGUST 27 — 1908 Happy Birthday LBJ; 1776 Battle of Brooklyn Heights; 2007 Vick pleads guilty for Bad Newz Kennel
AUGUST 27
1908 – Happy birthday LBJ. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas. As a young lad, he once ran away from home and made it all the way out to California. He made it back to Texas and dated a girl named Kitty Clyde. Her dad disapproved of Lyndon, believing he would never go anywhere in life. As president of the US, Lyndon would take Kitty and her husband on a ride on Air Force One. Lyndon attended Southwest State Teachers College, now Texas State University San Carlos and became a teacher. His political career began when he served as secretary for Congressman in Texas. At age 21, he married Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor. In 1937 he was elected to the of Representatives, where he served five terms, but when he lost the Senate seat in 1941, he left Congress to join the navy where he served as a lieutenant commander in WWII. After his plane was hit by Japanese fighter pilots, Johnson was awarded the Silver Star by Gen. MacArthur. He ran for Senate in 1948, becoming the first candidate to travel by helicopter. During his campaign, he’d fly from town to town throughout Texas. Many people had never seen a helicopter in person, so this drew large crowds. Those helicopters are pretty loud, you know. He would be elected in the primaries by 87 votes, earning the nickname Landslide Lyndon. In 1953, he became the youngest minority leader ever for the Democratic Party, worked his way up to house Majority Leader, and then Vice President of the US, at which point his career completely stalled. Being vice president means you don’t set policy, and in Lyndon’s case, he wasn’t a big hit with the Kennedy’s. As an example, once, Lyndon invited Bobby Kennedy to go deer hunting at his ranch in Texas. Bobby shot a deer but was holding the rifle wrong, and got knocked off his feet. Lyndon thought it was hilarious and told Bobby that someone needs to teach him to shoot like a man. Bobby didn’t take them words well, and the two were never friends since. That didn’t help Lyndon’s pull as vice president, under Bobby Kennedy’s brother John F. Considering Lyndon and Bobby were the only ones who were allowed to use the Rose Garden at the White House, well, let’s just say it was awkward. John Fitzgerald, God rest his soul, was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Lyndon was sworn in as President of the US on Air Force 1. As president, LBJ was able to push bills through that JFK couldn’t, such as the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregation and discrimination in the country. He also continued with JFK’s tax cut policies. LBJ served without a Vice President during the tenure of his first term, and then chose Hubert Humphreys to be his VP candidate for the 1964 election. All the way with LBJ was his campaign slogan, and Landslide Lyndon did it again, beating out Republican candidate Barry Goldwater by a whopping 15M votes, collecting 61%. During the campaign, his party ran a V ad that showed a girl picking pedals off a flower counting to ten. When she reached the number ten, a male voice came on and counted from 10 to 0. Then an atomic bomb went off and the commercial ended with a mushroom cloud going up in the sky.
During his second term, according to whitehouse.gov,.The Great Society program became Johnson’s agenda for Congress: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. LBJ actually appointed the first African-=American to his cabinet, as Thurgood Marshall was chosen Supreme Court Justice. In foreign policy, and when I say foreign in this case I mean not on planet Earth, Neil Armstrong and his crew made a giant leap for mankind on the moon. However, in other foreign affairs, back on planet Earth, the Vietnam War undid his political career. Like the three presidents before him, he wanted to end the spread of communism in Asia. The number of American troops under LBJ’s administration in Vietnam rocketed from 16,000 to over a half million. Despite the Civil Rights Act, racism and riots continued through the streets. College campuses grew angry with Vietnam, and Johnson decided not to seek another term, stating: “I shall not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president,” He decided to devote his efforts, without the interference of politics, to the quest for peace. When he left office, peace talks were under way; he did not live to see them succeed, but died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch at age 64 on January 22, 1973, just one day after the Paris Peace Accords were signed between the US and South Vietnam. Or as Lyndon would have put it: “Poverty has many roots, but the taproot is ignorance.” Happy birthday LBJ!
1776 – Battle of Brooklyn heights. The British had retreated from Boston, and General George Washington correctly presumed that they would come back in New York. On August 22, British General William Howe and his army of 32,000 men arrived at Staten Island, where Howe gave Washington a change to accept a pardon from the Crown, when Washington famously replied “Those who have committed no fault want no pardon.” Washington ordered General Israel Putnam to cover Brooklyn Heights, placed General John Sullivan to the south and stationed Lord Sterling to the southwest on the Heights of Guan. However General Howe and 10,000 British came into Brooklyn Heights by coming in through the rarely used Jamaican Pass on the east and surrounded Washington. The British easily defeated Washington’s undisciplined soldiers at Brooklyn Heights at Gowanus Pass and then outflanked the entire Continental Army. Washington and his men retreated to Manhattan by boat. Legend has it; George Washington was the last one to leave. The British owned New York up until the end of the Revolution.
2007 – NFL Quarterback Michael Vick pleads guilty in running the Bad Newz Kennel. This infamous dogfighting ring in Virginia was located on a 15-acre property in Virginia. Vick had just signed a sweet deal with the Atlanta Falcons as the starting quarterback for a record 10-year, $130 million contract, much of which he had to give back to the Falcons. Vick and his partners executed possibly eight dogs that wouldn’t fight in a ring by hanging, drowning them or electrocuting them. Vick’s image was stained forever, although he made a very small comeback upon prison release when he returned to the NFL and played for the Philadelphia Eagles.