What Happened Today

Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Memphis in 1968 to support striking sanitation workers. As he arrived, he gave a speech where he declared that he might not get to the promised land with his audience, but that he had been to the mountaintop and seen it. The next day he was shot. Certainly, there were a lot of people who wanted to harm Martin Luther King, Jr., but it turned out the actual culprit was an escaped convict from Missouri named James Earl Ray. Ray was a career criminal with an obsession with the Presidential campaign of George Wallace and the nation of Rhodesia. While on the lam from prison, Ray became obsessed with killing Martin Luther King, Jr. James Earl Ray did it in one shot while King was on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel from across the street. Ray ended up fleeing to Canada immediately after the killing, then made his way to London, where he was arrested. After being returned to Tennessee, James Earl Ray pled guilty to killing Martin Luther King, Jr. A few days later, he would recant. Yet the odd story of James Earl Ray shouldn't overshadow the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jesse James was a sort of romantic folk hero, beginning when he was actually committing a series of violent bank and train robberies. His death at the hands of a gang associate, Robert Ford, only made his legend grow. That legend, that he was a Robin Hood figure robbing rich people to help the poor, was propagated by James himself, but in reality he was a criminal with an eager willingness to shoot people. Jesse James began his "career" as a Confederate bushwhacker, basically a roving guerrilla fighter, with his older brother Frank. After the Civil War, the James brothers went from attacking Union troops to robbing banks and trains. Eventually, the would team up with the Younger brothers and become nationally known robbers. After a disastrous robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, the Youngers are captured and the James brothers lay low. Yet Jesse never really could just lay low. He recruited a new gang, robbing more banks and trains, and got a new bounty on his head from the Governor of Missouri. His only associates, Robert and Charles Ford, were probably only there to collect the bounty, which happened when Robert shot Jesse James while he hung a picture on the wall.

The Falkland Islands were owned by Great Britain, even though they were right off the coast of Argentina. So the military government of Leopoldo Galtieri decided that an invasion of the Falkland Islands would be a good morale boost for the country. Since a 1976 military coup d'etat, the country had been ruled by the "National Reorganization Process" which committed a series of human rights atrocities. When Galtieri took power in December of 1981, the Argentine economy was suffering, civil unrest was increasing, and Argentina was increasingly isolated internationally.. Therefore, Galtieri led an invasion of a few small islands to boost a sense of patriotism, and for a little bit, it seemed to work. Then, the British gathered a Naval task force and within 76 days, the Falklands returned to British control. This surrender then led directly to the end of Galtieri's and the military's rule of Argentina.

While all celebrity deaths, especially the sudden and tragic ones, seem to move the culture, something was different about the death of Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye was one of the biggest music stars in the world who was beloved and respected as a songwriter and musician and had recently had a resurgence with the song "Sexual Healing." Despite that, he was shot by his father, Marvin Gay, Sr., at point blank range after the two had a serious physical altercation because Gaye was protecting his mother as his parents were fighting in the house Gaye had bought for them in Los Angeles. Marvin, Sr., was a physically abusive father who seemed to have special animus towards his namesake and beat his son almost daily. Marvin Gaye would develop a number of drug habits, which made him paranoid and violent, and he actually gave his father the gun that would kill him as a Christmas present to deter intruders. In the wake of the murder, Marvin Gay, Sr., would plead No Contest to Voluntary Manslaughter and serve probation, while an outpouring of emotion and grief came from the world of music.

United States President Millard Fillmore sent Commodore Matthew Perry and a fleet away from Norfolk in late 1852 to try and force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade. It was a bold move, as America was not quite a world power and Japan had been rigidly isolated from the rest of the world since 1600. Despite that, when Perry showed up in Edo Bay in 1853, the Japanese government knew something needed to be done regarding Perry and his large ships with impressive guns. Problematically, who exactly was in charge of the Japanese government was unclear, as the ruling Tokugawa Shogun was extremely ill and his son and heir was severely debilitated. Therefore, the highest councilor, Abe Masahiro, decided to deal with Perry. Perry remarkably said he wanted trade opened to US ships, but that he would come back in a year for their final answer. Perry actually showed back up in six months, and forced Japanese officials to agree to his terms in what became known as the Convention of Kanagawa. Within a year and a half, Britain, France, and Russia had negotiated similar deals and the Tokugawa shogunate was beginning to fall apart.

John Hinckley, Jr. was not an assassin because the shots he fired at President Ronald Reagan missed. From a point blank range, he did manage to hit Reagan in the side, puncturing a lung, and severely injured White House Press Secretary James Brady and two law enforcement officers. Yet, ultimately, no one died, and Hinckley was captured instantly. Then it became clear that Hinckley was not just crazy enough to shoot the President, but severely mentally ill. Specifically, Hinckley was obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster, to the point of having moved to New Haven, Connecticut so he could stalk Foster while she attended Yale University. After not being able to directly confront her and leaving her bizarre letters, Hinckley decides his one option is to shoot the President. The aftermath of the attempted assassination had a few peculiar details. First, while Ronald Reagan was in surgery, it was unclear who exactly was in charge of the operation of the government. Second, the injury to James Brady led to great changes in the discussion of gun control. Finally, Hinckley being found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity changed the laws surrounding such a verdict around the country.

Mangal Pandey was a sepoy, one of the native Indian soldiers who fought for the Army of the British East India Company, and in many ways was just like many of his fellow soldiers. Or at least he was until he attempted to lead an uprising against his British officers in the spring of 1857. Trying to rally his company to mutiny, Pandey was only successful in injuring two officers and getting himself arrested. Precisely why Pandey might have wanted to mutiny is unclear, but many Indian soldiers were growing more and more concerned with the actions of the British East India Company. Specifically, the rumor that the brand new greased cartridges for the Enfield rifles were covered in pork or beef fat was never shot down by the British East India Company. Because most soldiers were Muslims or Hindus, this was seen as blasphemy, and the entire attitude was seen as a prelude to a mass conversion to Christianity. While Pandey was summarily charged with mutiny and executed, his small attempt at an uprising, as well as the British reaction, led directly to the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant was not particularly special among nuclear power plants until a safety valve got stuck open, causing radiation to be released from the reactor. To compound the issue, people working at the plant in the early morning hours of March 28, 1979 were unaware there was an issue, because the warning light system was not well functioning. By a shift change at 6 AM, an hour and a half after the problem arose, temperature levels were shockingly high and radiated coolant steam had to be released. This is also when authorities are alerted and an emergency is declared. The problem was fairly well contained pretty quickly, although the reactor was still melted, and state and federal agencies were able to handle everything fairly well. Still, many people in the area and around the country were reasonably unsettled by the fact a nuclear power plant had a meltdown. President Jimmy Carter formed a special panel to investigate the incident, and many people wondered what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could change to prevent future accidents. More importantly, Americans turn on the very concept of nuclear power.

Her real name was Mary Mallon, but the process that gave her the name Typhoid Mary began in 1906, when a public health official named George Soper researched a series of typhoid outbreaks in well off families. All of them seemed to have hired an Irish cook, about 40 years old, just weeks before the outbreak, and then had this cook leave just weeks after the outbreak. Knowing that typhoid was caused by less than stellar hygenic practices in food preparation, it became apparent this cook was a "healthy carrier" that was spreading the disease although she was not showing symptoms. Once Mary Mallon was identified as the suspect, she was tested for typhoid and held in quarantine when the tests were positive and she refused to quit cooking. Finally, she accedes to stop being a cook in exchange for her freedom in 1910. Over the next five years, Mary Mallon disappears, and repeated outbreaks of typhoid appear around an Irish cook serving various families. When she was located after a typhoid outbreak at a hospital, public health officials placed Mary Mallon in quarantine for good.

The Book of Mormon is perhaps the most important scripture for the Latter Day Saint movement, better known as Mormons. Yet when it was first published, the church did not even exist, as it was only officially incorporated two weeks later. As a scripture, it is certainly unique, as it tells the story of a group of Jewish refugees who went from Jerusalem to America 600 years before the time of Christ, then details their descendants until Christ would visit them in America. Even more remarkable is the story of the actual publication of the Book of Mormon itself. Joseph Smith, Jr, the founding prophet of Mormonism, said he had a vision of the angel Moroni, who led him to ancient golden plates that contained a remarkable story. After years, Smith pulled the plates from the ground, then translated them from "Reformed Egyptian" to English using seer stones, and had them transcribed by someone else. Or at least that was how Smith always put it. The actual story is fairly complicated to disentangle from various sources. More stunning, though, was the power the Book of Mormon would have after publication, when a whole new religious movement would be built upon the captivating nature of the Book of Mormon.