What Happened Today

The United States Federal Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, was specifically designed to house the worst of the worst, mostly being populated at its opening by transferred inmates from the recently closed Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The idea was that prisoners would by in isolated units where they would have limited contact with other prisoners or the outside world. Yet by the early 1980s, USP Marion was dominated by prison gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood and the DC Blacks. In 1981, Thomas Silverstein, an Aryan Brotherhood member, stabbed an inmate named Robert Chappelle, a member of the DC Blacks. Then the leader of the DC Blacks, Cadillac Smith, was transferred to Marion, where he was killed by Silverstein and fellow Aryan Brotherhood member Clayton Fountain. Then, in October of 1983, Silverstein and Fountain managed to each, independently and just hours apart, get loose of their handcuffs and stab a prison guard. Silverstein killed officer Merle Clutts; Fountain killed officer Robert Hoffman. The deaths of Clutts and Hoffman prompted the Federal Bureau of Prisons to create the Supermax Prison at Florence, Colorado, changing the nature of maximum security in American prisons.

The Battle of Trafalgar is the greatest naval victory in British history, certainly judged by its place in cultural memory. By the time it took place in 1805, Britain's Royal Navy had established a blockade of all French ports, limiting the trading capabilities of Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire. What Napoleon wished was to invade Britain, meaning he would have to disrupt the blockade, and so he tried to distract the British with a combined French and Spanish fleet heading towards the Caribbean and drawing Admiral Horatio Nelson out. The British fleet would chase them back to Cadiz in Southern Spain. Off the coast of Spain, the two sides would engage. Nelson, already blind in one eye and missing an arm, took an unorthodox approach to beating the larger Franco-Spanish fleet. Nelson directed his fleet to form two columns and head directly at the enemy line, with the signal "England expects every man to do his duty." He smashed up the French flagship, engaged many ships in battle, and would even lose his life when French troops boarded his flagship, HMS Victory. Nelson's last words were "God and Country." For all of that, the Battle of Trafalgar established British naval supremacy and made Nelson a national hero.

In the middle of the Watergate investigation, President Richard M. Nixon asked Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was charged with investigating whether Nixon ordered a break in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters and then covered it up. When Richardson refused to do it and resigned in protest, Nixon asked Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned. This left the task to Solicitor General Robert Bork, who was now acting Attorney General and went along with it. This event quickly became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre." It was one of the most blatantly corrupt and stupid moments in the Watergate scandal. While many people were opposed to Nixon at the time, this moment created the feeling among many Americans, and many Congressman, that Nixon should be impeached. Instead, Nixon dug in. Although he was not immediately threatened with impeachment, the Saturday Night Massacre was what truly signaled Nixon's presidency was in danger.

The Confederacy was in a desperate situation in the fall of 1864, as their armies were being pushed back, their economy was spiraling from inflation, and their people were souring on the war. In that situation, things like raiding towns near the Canadian border seemed like it could make a difference. So in October 1864, Bennett H. Young, a Confederate veteran who had served under General John Hunt Morgan on his raids, gathered men in St. Albans, Vermont. St. Albans is just 15 miles from Canada, and the majority of Young's men were people who had fled to neutral Canada after escaping as prisoners of war. The plan was simple: the raiders would gather in St. Albans to rob banks, which would then cause panic in the Union and provide money to the Confederacy. Young managed to somewhat pull off the first goal, attacking three banks in the town simultaneously. His raiders collected over $200,000, but they also faced resistance from the town. They weren't even able to set the town on fire as planned. As soon as they reached Canada, they were arrested, but they weren't turned over because Canada was neutral in the American Civil War. Still, no other raids took place.

In the Sekogu period, Japan was divided into a large number of small provinces, each ruled by powerful daimyo and all at war with each other. Two of the most important daimyo were Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin. They seemed to constantly match each other. Takeda Shingen was known as the Tiger of Kai, while Uesugi Kenshin was the Dragon of Echigo. On a mountain plain known as Kawanakajima, the island between the rivers, they met in battle repeatedly. The Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima was their biggest and most well remembered engagement. Shingen had 20,000 men, while Kenshin held 18,000. Shingen took the first strategic move, sending a few thousand men toward the Uesugi forces to surprise them at night, forcing them into his main army's crane wing formation. Instead, Kenshin moved his troops toward the Takeda force first, with what was known as the winding wheel. This whirling formation kept fresh troops in the vanguard, and placed Kenshin in Shingen's tent. Shingen could only parry Kenshin's sword thrusts with his war fan. In the end, Uesugi Kenshin was driven back by Takeda bodyguards. The battle was astonishingly bloody, frustratingly inconclusive, and instantly legendary.

When Pierre Laporte was kidnapped by the Front de Liberation du Quebec, no one thought he would be seriously harmed. Laporte was the Deputy Premier of Quebec and the Minister of Labor, while the FLQ was seeking specific political goals. The FLQ was a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist group seeking Quebecois sovereignty through violent means, in particular planting bombs around the province. Yet in October of 1970, the FLQ's activities took a different approach.  On October 5, a group of FLQ members kidnapped James Cross, the British Trade Representative. Then on October 10, they kidnapped Laporte. Their idea was to use the hostages to get the release of political prisoners, publication of their manifesto, and other political concessions. The situation was tense, and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau famously said, when asked how far he would go against the FLQ, "Just watch me." It was the FLQ that would go too far, however, as they strangled Laporte. Immediately, they announced this fact and upped their demands to release James Cross. It didn't work, but instead saw a greater resolve by the government and dwindling support for the FLQ.

By 1793, Marie Antoinette had gone from Queen of France and Navarre to the widow Capet. She was born an Austrian princess, married the heir to throne of France as a teenager, and then ascended to become Queen upon his succession as Louis XVI. Yet in 1789, the French Revolution broke out. The key concern was the fact the nation was bankrupt, which many people blamed on the free-spending queen. Swiftly, the royal family would be taken from the Palace of Versailles to Paris' Tuileries Palace in Paris. Marie Antoinette became, if possible, more hated. She attempted to flee with her family to Austria, and her influence on her husband was seen as blocking reforms. Many of these factors led to the declaration of the French Republic in 1792. Immediately, King Louis XIV, now addressed as Citizen Capet based on his dynastic name, was charged with treason. Louis would be executed in January 1793. Marie Antoinette's life did not seem threatened initially. The Revolutionary Tribunal, however, was seeking charges against her. They received help from eight year old Louis, Marie Antoinette's son. In a quick trial, she was found guilty of treason, sentenced to die, and taken to the guillotine at Place de la Revolution.

Mata Hari was a spy during World War I, which is why she was executed by a firing squad. The problem was that she wasn't much of a spy, but more someone engaged by both sides' intelligence offices who talked alot. Mata Hari was a dancer, one of the most famous entertainers in Paris in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Saying she was a Javanese princess trained in the art of Hindu dance, she was a sensation for her burlesque shows that ended with her in a bejewled bra. In reality, Mata Hari was a Dutchwoman named Margarethe Zelle who was divorced from a Dutch officer she lived with in Java. After her fame as a dancer waned, Mata Hari became a significant member of Paris' social elite, consorting with a number of men. During World War I, she fell in love with a Russian pilot. His injury was the impetus for her to travel between France and Germany, something she could do as a Dutch citizen. She would continue bouncing between the nations, by going through other neutral countries, and sharing secrets with both sides. When a double agent Mata Hari knew about was executed, the French grew suspicious. They arrested her, she was found guilty of espionage, and executed by firing squad.

Although John Flammang Schrank shot former President Theodore Roosevelt at point blank range while Roosevelt was campaigning for another term in 1912, Roosevelt was not seriously harmed. This was because Schrank's bullet went first through Roosevelt's fifty page speech, then bounced off of Roosevelt's glasses case and just barely lodged in Roosevelt, next to his rib. In fact, Roosevelt gave a full campaign speech before receiving treatment. This made Schrank's assassination attempt a mere historical footnote. Yet it took place in a bizarre presidential election and could have had a bigger impact. Roosevelt was running on a third party ticket, the Progressive Party, because he was unhappy with the conservative direction the presidency took under his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt also was worried about the Democratic nominee, moderate Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, because Wilson could win. Had Schrank been a more successful assassin, perhaps such a bizarre election would have become even more outrageous. Instead, Schrank would be immediately arrested, ruled insane, and died in an insane asylum four decades later.

Through his own brilliance as a military commander and his marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte's sister, Joachim Murat rose to become King of Naples. One of many rulers installed by Napoleon's invasions, Murat would be king for 7 years as an ally to the French Empire. As Napoleon initially began to falter in 1814, Murat's Kingdom of Naples would distance itself from Napoleonic France. During the Congress of Vienna, which was trying to sort out Europe after the Emperor was in exile on Elba, the alliances proved to distrust Joachim Murat. When Napoleon returned from exile, Murat tried to launch a force into Northern Italy to assist Napoleon. He would be turned back and stripped of his crown. Meanwhile, Napoleon would be defeated for good in June of 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. Murat attempted to reclaim his throne, but an invasion of Pizzo in Southern Italy was immediately squashed. He was imprisoned and sentenced to die by firing squad for treason. Famously, Murat refused a blindfold or binding, facing the firing squad bravely.