Something Un-Fun
When my parents moved here, we cut down and tore out all the bushes around the house. Having lived in North Carolina where the critters seem to be super-sized, they’d seen the havoc that can be caused by the little critters on the siding. Of course their neighbors poo-pooed the ripping out of these bushes.
I’m not a big fan of shrubbery next to the house either. Flowers invites in bees and wasps and being that I truly enjoy the outdoors, killing a bee just seems…well…eco-unfriendly. So I’ve gotten rid of most of the shrubs flowers and bushes near any doorways. Except near the garage.
Anyway…there’s one bush right next to the garage door. It’s a god-awful thing but would take some kind of end-loader to rip it out. So I beat, hack, chop and torture the living hell out of that bush, but the damn thing just won’t die. And it’s right next to the garage door. So apparently the other day, as I was about to go to work, a pair of God’s little creatures snuck into my garage. See where this is going.
My garage door opener is a fickle thing as well. When it rains it won’t close. The moisture must expand the door, causing it to trip the safety features, and it pops back open. So yesterday, when I got home the door wouldn’t close. Tried again and it wouldn’t close. Frustrated with it on the third try, I pulled the plug on the opener, released the catch and slammed the door. Boom…
When I was locking the door, I felt like I stepped on something. With the plug pulled on the door opener, the light on the opener didn’t work either. Too tired and too ornery to look I decided it would wait until I woke.
What I found when I woke were two furry little dead rabbits. They had snuck into the garage and probably got into some motor oil or transmission fluid or something and died. I just got done cleaning up the little critters from my floor and am not exactly a happy camper right now.
Bryan/Harris H-18-LK-G Sailplane
If powered flight doesn’t seem dangerous enough, you could always try gliding.
Built for one, this engineless plane would be the closest thing to soaring like a bird.
Constructed from metal and foam, the light-weight design attempts to bring safety to powerless flight.
White-tailed Deer: Resting Doe
I also hiked through Lake Kegonsa during the weekend and got some nice close in shots of a doe.
She walked across the trail in front of me and then laid down.
The flies pestered both her and I, but she stayed and let me photograph.
On This Day, June 23: Hitler Tours Paris
June 23, 1940
Hitler takes a tour of Paris
On this day in 1940, Adolf Hitler surveys notable sites in the French capital, now German-occupied territory.
In his first and only visit to Paris, Hitler made Napoleon’s tomb among the sites to see. “That was the greatest and finest moment of my life,” he said upon leaving. Comparisons between the Fuhrer and Napoleon have been made many times: They were both foreigners to the countries they ruled (Napoleon was Italian, Hitler was Austrian); both planned invasions of Russia while preparing invasions of England; both captured the Russian city of Vilna on June 24; both had photographic memories; both were under 5 feet 9 inches tall, among other coincidences.
As a tribute to the French emperor, Hitler ordered that the remains of Napoleon’s son be moved from Vienna to lie beside his father.
But Hitler being Hitler, he came to do more than gawk at the tourist attractions. He ordered the destruction of two World War I monuments: one to General Charles Mangin, a French war hero, and one to Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Brussels. The last thing Hitler wanted were such visible reminders of past German defeat.
Hitler would gush about Paris for months afterward. He was so impressed, he ordered architect and friend Albert Speer to revive plans for a massive construction program of new public buildings in Berlin, an attempt to destroy Paris, not with bombs, but with superior architecture. “Wasn’t Paris beautiful?” Hitler asked Speer. “But Berlin must be far more beautiful. [W]hen we are finished in Berlin, Paris will only be a shadow.”
“Hitler takes a tour of Paris,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6465 [accessed Jun 23, 2009]
Mississippi River From Wyalusing State Park
The bluffs along the Mississippi River in southern Wisconsin offer some incredible views.
Located on the bluffs above the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, Wyalusing State Park offers spectacular views right from the doorway of your tent or camper with camping allowed right on the edge of the bluffs.
I’ve seen people with motorboats, kayaks, and fishing boats, so no matter which recreational use of the river you prefer, it has plenty of room for all.
But don’t forget to look up and to scan the trees, because the Mississippi River is home to many species of birds, including Turkey Vultures…
and American Bald Eagles.
On This Day, June 21: US Constitution Ratified
June 21, 1788
U.S. Constitution ratified
New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.
By 1786, defects in the post-Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce. Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On September 17, 1787, after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.
Beginning on December 7, five states–Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut–ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.
On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution–the Bill of Rights–and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.
“U.S. Constitution ratified,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5111 [accessed Jun 21, 2009]
1834 – Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical mechanical reaper for farming. His invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size.
1913 – Georgia Broadwick became the first woman to jump from an airplane.
1938 – In Washington, U.S. President Roosevelt signed the $3.75 billion Emergency Relief Appropriation Act.
1954 – The American Cancer Society reported significantly higher death rates among cigarette smokers than among non-smokers.
1958 – In Arkansas, a federal judge let Little Rock delay school integration.
1963 – France announced that they were withdrawing from the North Atlantic NATO fleet.
1982 – A jury in Washington, DC, found John Hinckley Jr. innocent by reason of insanity in the shootings of U.S. President Reagan and three other men.
1985 – Scientists announced that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.
1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.
2004 – SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Mike Melvill, reached 328,491 feet above Earth in a 90 minute flight. The height is about 400 feet above the distance scientists consider to be the boundary of space.
June 21, 1964
The KKK kills three civil rights activists
Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney are killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob near Meridian, Mississippi. The three young civil rights workers were working to register black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the ire of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), caused a national outrage.
When the desegregation movement encountered resistance in the early 1960s, CORE set up an interracial team to ride buses into the Deep South to help protest. These so-called Freedom Riders were viciously attacked in May 1961 when the first two buses arrived in Alabama. One bus was firebombed; the other boarded by KKK members who beat the activists inside. The Alabama police provided no protection.
Still, the Freedom Riders were not dissuaded and they continued to come into Alabama and Mississippi. Michael Schwerner was a particularly dedicated activist who lived in Mississippi while he assisted blacks to vote. Sam Bowers, the local Klan’s Imperial Wizard, decided that Schwerner was a bad influence, and had to be killed.
When Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, a young black man, were coming back from a trip to Philadelphia, Mississippi, deputy sheriff Cecil Price, who was also a Klan member, pulled them over for speeding. He then held them in custody while other KKK members prepared for their murder. Eventually released, the three activists were later chased down in their car and cornered in a secluded spot in the woods where they were shot and then buried in graves that had been prepared in advance.
When news of their disappearance got out, the FBI converged on Mississippi to investigate. With the help of an informant, agents learned about the Klan’s involvement and found the bodies. Since Mississippi refused to prosecute the assailants in state court, the federal government charged 18 men with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney.
Bowers, Price, and five other men were convicted; eight were acquitted; and the all-white jury deadlocked on the other three defendants.
On the forty-first anniversary of the three murders, June 21, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. The 80-year-old Killen, known as an outspoken white supremacist and part-time Baptist minister, was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
“The KKK kills three civil rights activists,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1043 [accessed Jun 21, 2009]
World War II American Airplane: Grumman (Columbia) J2F-6 Duck
Primarily used for reconnaissance, Grumman’s J2F-6 “Duck” served before, during and after World War II.
Variations of this plane served as medical transport, air taxi and photo-reconnaissance. Designed for a crew of two, pilot and rear gunner, a third crewman could be added in the space behind the wing in the float.
Donated to the EAA Aviation Foundation in 1974, a fourteen month restoration projected began in 1982 resulted in how the plane appears today. This plane can be found at EAA Airventure Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
For more information see: Grumman J2F-6 Duck
On This Day, June 18: Waterloo
June 18, 1815
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo
At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte suffers defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.
On June 16, 1815, he defeated the Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher at Ligny, and sent 33,000 men, or about one-third of his total force, in pursuit of the retreating Prussians. On June 18, Napoleon led his remaining 72,000 troops against the Duke of Wellington’s 68,000-man allied army, which had taken up a strong position 12 miles south of Brussels near the village of Waterloo. In a fatal blunder, Napoleon waited until mid-day to give the command to attack in order to let the ground dry. The delay in fighting gave Blucher’s troops, who had eluded their pursuers, time to march to Waterloo and join the battle by the late afternoon.
In repeated attacks, Napoleon failed to break the center of the allied [line]. Meanwhile, the Prussians gradually arrived and put pressure on Napoleon’s eastern flank. At 6 p.m., the French under Marshal Michel Ney managed to capture a farmhouse in the allied center and began decimating Wellington’s troops with artillery. Napoleon, however, was preoccupied with the 30,000 Prussians attacking his flank and did not release troops to aid Ney’s attack until after 7 p.m. By that time, Wellington had reorganized his defenses, and the French attack was repulsed. Fifteen minutes later, the allied army launched a general advance, and the Prussians attacked in the east, throwing the French troops into panic and then a disorganized retreat. The Prussians pursued the remnants of the French army, and Napoleon left the field. French casualties in the Battle of Waterloo were 25,000 men killed and wounded and 9,000 captured, while the allies lost about 23,000.
Napoleon returned to Paris and on June 22 abdicated in favor of his son. He decided to leave France before counterrevolutionary forces could rally against him, and on July 15 he surrendered to British protection at the port of Rochefort. He hoped to travel to the United States, but the British instead sent him to Saint Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. Napoleon protested but had no choice but to accept the exile. With a group of followers, he lived quietly on St. Helena for six years. In May 1821, he died, most likely of stomach cancer. He was only 51 years old. In 1840, his body was returned to Paris, and a magnificent funeral was held. Napoleon’s body was conveyed through the Arc de Triomphe and entombed under the dome of the Invalides.
“Napoleon defeated at Waterloo,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6932 (accessed Jun 18, 2009).
1155 – Frederick I Barbarossa was crowned emperor of Rome.
1778 – Britain evacuated Philadelphia during the U.S. Revolutionary War.
1812 – The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great Britain. The conflict began over trade restrictions.
1817 – London’s Waterloo Bridge opened. The bridge, designed by John Rennie, was built over the River Thames.
1873 – Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S. President.
1928 – Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales.
1942 – The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.
1959 – A Federal Court annulled the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.
1979 – In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2.
1983 – Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
June 18, 1798
Adams passes first of Alien and Sedition Acts
President John Adams passes the Naturalization Act, the first of four pieces of controversial legislation known together as the Alien and Sedition Acts, on this day in 1798. Strong political opposition to these acts succeeded in undermining the Adams administration, helping Thomas Jefferson to win the presidency in 1800.
At the time, America was threatened by war with France, and Congress was attempting to pass laws that would give more authority to the federal government, and the president in particular, to deal with suspicious persons, especially foreign nationals. The Naturalization Act raised the requirements for aliens to apply for U.S. citizenship, requiring that immigrants reside in the U.S. for 14 years before becoming eligible. The earlier law had required only five years of residence before an application could be made.
Adams, in fact, never enforced the Naturalization Act. Nevertheless, he came under heavy fire from the Republicans, led by Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who felt that the Naturalization Act and its companion legislation was unconstitutional and smacked of despotism. So disgusted was Jefferson with Adams’ enthusiastic support of the law that he could no longer support the president and left Washington during the Congressional vote. Former President George Washington, on the other hand, supported the legislation. Adams signed the second piece of the legislation, the Alien Act, on June 25. This act gave the president the authority to deport aliens during peacetime. The Alien Enemies Act, which Adams signed on July 6, gave him the power to deport any alien living in the U.S. with ties to U.S. wartime enemies. Finally, the Sedition Act, passed on July 14, gave Adams tremendous power to define “treasonable activity” including “any false, scandalous and malicious writing.” The intended targets of the Sedition Act were newspaper, pamphlet and broadside publishers who printed what he considered to be libelous articles aimed primarily at his administration. Abigail Adams urged her husband to pass the Sedition Act, calling his opponents “criminal” and “vile.”
Of the four acts, the Sedition Act was the most distressing to staunch First Amendment advocates. They objected to the fact that “treasonable activity” was vaguely defined, was defined at the discretion of the president and would be punished by heavy fines and imprisonment. The arrest and imprisonment of 25 men for supposedly violating the Sedition Act ignited an enormous outcry against the legislation. Among those arrested was Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, who was the editor of the Republican-leaning Philadelphia Democrat-Republican Aurora. Citing Adams’ abuse of presidential powers and threats to free speech, Jefferson’s party took control of Congress and the presidency in 1800.
“Adams passes first of Alien and Sedition Acts,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=661 (accessed Jun 18, 2009).
Voyager
This airplane achieved the goal of flying around the world non-stop without refueling. Stuffed inside this tiny cockpit, Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager accomplished the goal in a little over 9 days.
Using composite materials, designer Burt Rutan built an airplane that weighed less than a thousand pounds, however its gross weight at take-off fully fueled was over nine thousand pounds. The flight began with over seven thousand pounds of fuel and ended with only a hundred and forty pounds of fuel remaining.
Crammed into this tiny cockpit one pilot would fly the plane while the other rested. Neither pilot got much rest and the difficult trip proved physically and emotionally draining, while ground crews encouraged the pilots and meteorologists from around the world helped steer them clear of weather. A truly amazing test of man and machine’s endurance.
For more information about this plane see: http://www.airventuremuseum.org/collection/aircraft/Scaled%20Composites-Rutan%20Voyager.asp#TopOfPage
On This Day, June 17: Statue of Liberty
June 17, 1885
Statue of Liberty arrives
The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, arrives in New York City’s harbor.
Originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the statue was proposed by French historian Edouard Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the 151-foot statue was the form of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch. In February 1877, Congress approved the use of a site on New York Bedloe’s Island, which was suggested by Bartholdi. In May 1884, the statue was completed in France, and three months later the Americans laid the cornerstone for its pedestal in New York. On June 19, 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty arrived in the New World, enclosed in more than 200 packing cases. Its copper sheets were reassembled, and the last rivet of the monument was fitted on October 28, 1886, during a dedication presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.
On the pedestal was inscribed “The New Colossus,” a famous sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus that welcomed immigrants to the United States with the declaration, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. / I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Six years later, Ellis Island, adjacent to Bedloe’s Island, opened as the chief entry station for immigrants to the United States, and for the next 32 years more than 12 million immigrants were welcomed into New York harbor by the sight of “Lady Liberty.” In 1924, the Statue of Liberty was made a national monument.
“Statue of Liberty arrives,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5107 [accessed Jun 17, 2009]
1789 – The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.
1848 – Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854 – The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.
1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.
1876 – General George Crook’s command was attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
1924 – The Fascist militia marched into Rome.
1931 – British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1953 – Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting against the East German government.
June 17, 1972
Watergate burglars arrested
Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Senate investigations eventually revealed that President Richard Nixon had been personally involved in the subsequent cover-up of the break-in; additional investigation uncovered a related group of illegal activities that included political espionage and falsification of official documents, all sanctioned by the White House. Nixon became increasingly embroiled in the political scandal.
On July 29 and 30, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, charging that Nixon had misused his powers to violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, obstructed justice, and defied Judiciary Committee subpoenas. To avoid almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigned from office on August 9.
The Watergate affair had a far-ranging impact, both at home and abroad. In the United States, the scandal shook the faith of the American people in the presidency. In the final analysis though, the nation survived the constitutional crisis, thus reinforcing the system of checks and balances and proving that not even the president is above the law.
Nixon’s resignation had dire consequences for the Vietnam War. Nixon had always promised that he would come to the aid of South Vietnam if North Vietnam violated the terms of the Paris Peace Accords. With Nixon gone, there was no one left to make good on those promises. When the North Vietnamese began their final offensive in 1975, the promised U.S. support was not provided and the South Vietnamese were defeated in less than 55 days.
“Watergate burglars arrested,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1914 [accessed Jun 17, 2009]
On This Day, June 16: Nureyev Defects
June 16, 1961
Russian ballet star Nureyev defects
Rudolf Nureyev, the young star of the Soviet Union’s Kirov Opera Ballet Company, defects during a stopover in Paris. The high-profile defection was a blow to Soviet prestige and generated international interest.
Nureyev became a star of Russian ballet in 1958 when, at barely 20 years old, he was made one of the Kirov Opera Ballet’s featured soloists. The Kirov and the Bolshoi ballet companies were two of the jewels of Soviet cultural diplomacy, and their performances earned worldwide accolades and respect for the arts in the USSR. In June 1961, the Kirov Company finished a run in Paris. On June 16, just as the company was preparing to board a flight home, Nureyev broke from the group and insisted that he was staying in France. According to eyewitnesses, other members of the troupe pleaded with Nureyev to rejoin them and return to the Soviet Union. The dancer refused and threw himself into the arms of airport security people, screaming, “Protect me!” The security officials took Nureyev into custody, whereupon he asked for political asylum. The Kirov Company fretted over the loss of its star and Soviet security guards fumed over Nureyev’s defection. Eventually, the troupe flew back to Russia without the dancer.
Nureyev’s high-profile defection was a double blow to the Soviet Union. First, it detracted from the quality of the Kirov Company, which had featured the young prodigy prominently in its performances throughout the world. Second, it severely damaged Soviet propaganda that touted the political and artistic freedom in Russia.
Nureyev continued with his career after his defection. During the next 30 years he danced with England’s Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. He was in great demand as both a dancer and choreographer, and even made a few films (including a disastrous turn as the silent film star Rudolf Valentino). In 1983, he took over as ballet director of the Paris Opera. In 1989, he briefly returned to the Soviet Union to perform. He died in Paris in 1993.
“Russian ballet star Nureyev defects,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2700 [accessed Jun 16, 2009]
0455 – Rome was sacked by the Vandal army.
1815 – Napoleon defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny, Netherlands.
1858 – In a speech in Springfield, IL, U.S. Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved. He declared, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
1897 – The U.S. government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
1909 – Glenn Hammond Curtiss sold his first airplane, the “Gold Bug” to the New York Aeronautical Society for $5,000.
1922 – Henry Berliner accomplished the first helicopter flight at College Park, MD.
1932 – The ban on Nazi storm troopers was lifted by the von Papen government in Germany.
1952 – “Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl” was published in the United States.
1958 – Hungarian prime minister Imre Nagy was hanged for treason. He had been the prime minister during the 1956 uprising that was crushed by Soviet tanks.
1963 – 26-year-old Valentina Tereshkova went into orbit aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft for three days. She was the first female space traveler.
1977 – Leonid Brezhnev was named the first Soviet president of the USSR. He was the first person to hold the post of president and Communist Party General Secretary. He replaced Nikolai Podgorny.
1989 – Hungarian prime minister Imre Nagy was reburied. The funeral brought at least a quarter of a million people to the streets of Budapest. Nagy had been prime minister during the 1956 uprising that was crushed by Soviet tanks. He was hanged for treason on June 16, 1958.
June 16, 1999
SLA member captured after more than 20 years
On this day in 1999, Kathleen Ann Soliah, a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), is arrested near her home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Soliah, who now calls herself Sara Jane Olsen, had been evading authorities for more than 20 years.
In the mid-1970s, the SLA, a small, radical American paramilitary group, made a name for itself with a series of murders, robberies and other violent acts. They were most well-known for the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst, who became a member of the group. In April 1975, members of the SLA robbed a bank in Carmichael, California, and, in the process, killed one of the bank’s customers, Myrna Opsahl. According to Patty Hearst, who served as the group’s getaway driver that day, Soliah took part in the robbery.
Four months later, in August 1975, Lost Angeles policemen discovered a bomb where one of their patrol cars had earlier been parked. Though police believe it had been designed to explode when the car moved, it had failed to detonate. Soliah was indicted for the crime in 1976 but by then she had already left town, and did not return, becoming a fugitive for nearly 23 years. Soliah eventually settled with her husband, a doctor, and three children in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she continued to advocate for various causes under the assumed name Sara Jane Olsen.
In the spring of 1999, however, Soliah’s case was featured on an episode of television’s America’s Most Wanted; she was arrested several weeks later. In 2002, as part of a plea bargain, she pled guilty to two counts of planting bombs and was sentenced to five years and four months in jail. The Board of Prison Terms then changed her sentence to 14 years. After pleading guilty to the attempted bombings, she was arraigned for the Opsahl killing and was later convicted and sentenced to another six years.
In 2004, a judge threw out the adjusted 14-year term, saying the board “abused its discretion” in changing the sentence. Olsen remains in prison in California.
“SLA member captured after more than 20 years,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1038 [accessed Jun 16, 2009]
White-tailed Deer: Exceptional Hearing
For my constant readers, who have read these posts from time to time, you know that a friend of mine asked me, “If I could get closer?” I had asked her how I could improve my deer shots. The reason I’m bringing this up again is because I’ve noticed an issue with my camera. I’m using a Canon EOS Rebel XSi. I like it. I had a Kodak P850 before this camera and liked it too, but it had a very slow recycle time (nearly ten seconds) from when you take a picture until you could take another. The Rebel will take pictures as fast as you can push the button and if that isn’t fast enough, you can just hold the button down and it will continuously take shots.
The issue I’m noticing with the Rebel is noise. Deer have exceptional hearing. I’ve noticed, for instance, when I’m within eighty feet or so, when the auto-focus locks on, the deer’s ears will twitch. The auto-focus will make an audible beeping noise to let you know the camera has focused. In these photos I’m showing you today, this doe is still over a hundred and fifty feet away. She doesn’t know I’m squatting underneath a pair of trees half way up the hill. With little wind, she won’t pick up my scent.
The shutter also makes noise. This deer is still a hundred and fifty feet away in these shots. When I took this photo, the shutter made the usual noise of opening and closing and her head shot up. If you’ve ever startled a deer you know how fast they can move. These deer are used to people and they’re used to me taking their pictures, but still, this deer is over a hundred and fifty feet away and she heard the shutter on my camera.
At that point she knew exactly where I had hidden. She moved up the hill and I stepped out to take more shots, thinking she would run away.
Instead she just continued to forage.
On This Day, June 15: Henry Ossian Flipper
June 15, 1877
First African American graduate of West Point
Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1856, is the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Flipper, who was never spoken to by a white cadet during his four years at West Point, was appointed a second lieutenant in the all-African American 10th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sill in Indian Territory.
The United States Military Academy–the first military school in America–was founded by Congress in 1802 for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Established at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point.
Located on the high west bank of New York’s Hudson River, West Point was the site of a Revolutionary-era fort built to protect the Hudson River Valley from British attack. In 1780, Patriot General Benedict Arnold, the commander of the fort, agreed to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for 6,000 pounds. However, the plot was uncovered before it fell into British hands, and Arnold fled to the British for protection.
Ten years after the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy in 1802, the growing threat of another war with Great Britain resulted in congressional action to expand the academy’s facilities and increase the West Point corps. Beginning in 1817, the U.S. Military Academy was reorganized by superintendent Sylvanus Thayer–later known as the “father of West Point”–and the school became one of the nation’s finest sources of civil engineers. During the Mexican-American War, West Point graduates filled the leading ranks of the victorious U.S. forces, and with the outbreak of the Civil War former West Point classmates regretfully lined up against one another in the defense of their native states.
In 1870, the first African American cadet, James Webster Smith, was admitted into the academy but never reached the graduation ceremonies. It was not until 1877 that Henry Ossian Flipper became the first to graduate, after enduring four years of prejudice and silence. In 1976, the first female cadets were admitted into West Point. The academy is now under the general direction and supervision of the department of the U.S. Army and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students.
“First African American graduate of West Point,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5095 (accessed Jun 15, 2009).
1215 – King John of England put his seal on the Magna Carta.
1752 – Benjamin Franklin experimented by flying a kite during a thunderstorm. The result was a little spark that showed the relationship between lightning and electricity.
1775 – George Washington was appointed head of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress.
1836 – Arkansas became the 25th U.S. state.
1844 – Charles Goodyear was granted a patent for the process that strengthens rubber.
1846 – The United States and Britain settled a boundary dispute concerning the boundary between the U.S. and Canada, by signing a treaty.
1864 – An order to establish a military burial ground was signed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The location later became known as Arlington National Cemetery.
1911 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. was incorporated in the state of New York. The company was later renamed International Business Machines (IBM) Corp.
1978 – King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor.
1989 – In Shanghai three Chinese workers were sentenced to death for setting fire to a train during a pro-democracy protest.
1992 – It was ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court that the government could kidnap criminal suspects from foreign countries for prosecution.
June 15, 1863
Lincoln calls for help
On this day, President Abraham Lincoln calls for help in protecting the capital.
Throughout June, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was on the move. He had pulled his army from its position along the Rappahannock River around Fredericksburg and set it on the road to Pennsylvania. Lee and the Confederate leadership decided to try a second invasion of the North to take pressure off Virginia and to seize the initiative against the Army of the Potomac. The first invasion, in September 1862, failed when the Federals fought Lee’s army to a standstill at Antietam.
Lee later divided his army and sent the regiments toward the Shenandoah Valley, using the Blue Ridge Mountains as a screen. After the Confederates took Winchester, Virginia, on June 14, they were situated on the Potomac River, seemingly in a position to move on Washington, D.C. Lincoln did not know it, but Lee had no intention of attacking Washington. All Lincoln knew was that the Rebel army was moving en masse and that Union troops could not be certain as to the Confederates’ location.
On June 15, Lincoln put out an emergency call for 100,000 troops from the state militias of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia. Although the troops were not needed, and the call could not be fulfilled in such a short time, it was an indication of how little the Union authorities knew of Lee’s movements and how vulnerable they thought the Federal capital was.
“Lincoln calls for help,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2213 [accessed Jun 15, 2009]
