What Happened Today

As Clan McDonald allowed soldiers led by Robert Campbell of Glenlyon to dine with them and showed them hospitality in their castle in the Scottish Highlands, they believed nothing bad would happen to them. Instead, the soldiers massacred many members of Clan McDonald and forced a number of women and children to flee into the winter, where they would die of exposure. Really, this event was part of the larger conflicts caused by the Glorious Revolution, when the Protestant monarchs William and Mary took the throne from Mary's father, James II. Catholic highland clans in Scotland still supported James, but William's forces kept winning battles. One of the last groups to accept William's authority was Clan McDonald, which is presumably why soldiers came after them. The other factor was that the Campbells and the McDonalds had a long feud. No matter what, the Massacre of Glencoe would stand a long while in historical memory.

James Oglethorpe launched the Colony of Georgia as a way to help people in debtors' prison, and he carefully designed a plan for the colony which sought "agrarian equality." This utopian colony outlawed slavery, alcohol, and large landholdings, while also carefully selecting the "worthy poor" to be the original colonists. On the other hand, the British crown and government agreed to found the colony because Georgia would be a buffer zone between Spanish Florida and the British colonies in Carolina. Although Oglethorpe implemented his initial plan in the city of Savannah, featuring characteristic squares, the sense of practicality would win out in Georgia. Slavery would be allowed within a decade and the colony became devoted to being a moneymaking opportunity. None of that was possible, though, except with the initial leadership of James Oglethorpe.

When Nelson Mandela left Victor Verster Prison, the only official thing that was happening was Mandela was out of prison after over a quarter of a century behind bars on treason charges resulting from the Rivonia Trial and a sabotage campaign. More significantly, though, it was the most clear sign that Apartheid in South Africa was ending. The President of South Africa, F.W. de Klerk had announced that the African National Congress, the most significant black political party, was newly re-legalized just a few days previously. Mandela would go on to work with de Klerk to end Apartheid, establish a new truly democratic government, and establish a "Rainbow Nation." Mandela would be the President, while de Klerk was his number two. All of this occurred because Nelson Mandela was released from jail, something only de Klerk could do while he was President of South Africa.

When Gary Powers was shot down in his U-2 spy plane over Russia in 1960, the Soviet Union immediately held his capture up as a significant victory over America. The USA stumbled, and while Powers was convicted of espionage and his plane was analyzed and then displayed, the Eisenhower Administration was unsure what to do. It became clear that getting Powers back on American soil was most important. However, this wasn't too easy to pull of, because the actual exchange had to sort out. Fortunately, the US was holding a man who claimed to be a great spy named Rudolph Abel, who was actually a minor KGB agent named Willie Fisher. Abel led a spy ring in New York that had as its greatest achievement losing a hollow nickel with microfilm in it. He was arrested in 1957 after the defection of his chief assistant, who had been recalled to Moscow. The exchange of Powers and Abel was a simple resolution to a massive event, which also is emblematic of the nature of the Cold War.

When the Beatles first arrived in America, they were by far the biggest band in Britain and had made serious inroads in the USA. Yet when they landed at JFK Airport, the Beatles were greeted by thousands of fans and a mob of reporters. Their real breakthrough in America came two days later, however, when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Ed Sullivan was the arbiter of cultural import in the 1960s, and by featuring the Beatles on his show, Sullivan signalled that the Beatles were significant. Sullivan's taste was overshadowed by the overwhelming desire of American audiences to see the Beatles. Teenage girls screamed through the entire performance. More strikingly, some 70 million people watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and an estimated 60% of all televisions were tuned in to the Beatles' performance. From that point on, the Beatles were the biggest band in America.

Mary, Queen of Scots lived in Scotland for only a very small portion of her life. She was queen from the time she was just a week old, after the death of her father James V, but as a young child moved to France because she was promised to be married to Dauphin Francis of France, who later became King. By 1560, though, Mary was back in Scotland, a widow after the death of her husband, and the heir to the throne of England, held by her childless cousin Elizabeth. In Scotland, Mary wed her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, but then was embroiled in a number of intrigues and plots, one of which resulted in her husband's death. Mary was suspected of plotting to kill Darnley, but found refuge in England and abdicated in favor of her 1 year old son, James VI. In England, Mary was held in luxurious captivity. That is, until she became involved in one of the many Catholic schemes to assassinate Elizabeth, the Babington Plot. Therefore, Elizabeth signed an execution warrant, which was carried out at Fotheringhay Castle.

A bonfire of the vanities was just that, a large fire made up of various things considered to be unserious, inappropriate, or sinful. One of the most famous ones was conducted in Florence in 1497 at the instigation of a Dominican friar named Girolamo Savonarola. Savonarola was essentially the ruler of Florence, although actual power was held by politicans allied to Savonarola. Gaining his fame as a preacher and religious prophet, Savonarola saw his status boosted when French King Charles VIII invaded Italy and seemed to fulfill Savonarola's prophecies. The invasion also saw Piero de Medici, effective leader of the city, banished from Florence and made Pope Alexander VI side against Savonarola. On the other hand, Savonarola decided to keep criticizing the church and root out sin and vice in Florence. His 1497 bonfire of the vanites seemed to take everything too far, and his excommunication and political downfall came shortly thereafter.

The notion that free African-Americans, whether they were former slaves or born freemen, should "colonize" the West Coast of Africa was quite popular in the early nineteenth century. A section of abolitionists thought that free blacks would never find true equal rights in America, other Northern leaders wanted to have less competition for white labor, and certain slaveholders believed any free African-Americans would invariably lead to slave rebellions. The American Colonization Society would be formed to send free African-Americans to Africa, and they had a target in the community of Freetown in Sierra Leone, which was established by the former slaves who had become British Loyalists in the American Revolution. Yet there were a number of free African-Americans who were completely willing to head to a distant, unfamiliar continent, and those first colonists would go on to establish Liberia.

Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1994, 31 years after the crime was actually committed. De La Beckwith was arrested and brought to trial twice in the 1960s, but both times all-white juries deadlocked on a verdict. The evidence in the case was actually quite good, as De La Beckwith's gun was found near the crime scene with his fingerprint on it. De La Beckwith was also a prominent White Citizens' Council member, who was annoyed at the lack of direct action taken by the group in their efforts to preserve segregation. Yet De La Beckwith would not be convicted of Evers' murder in the 1960s. He would brag at Klan rallies and Christian Identity meetings that he killed Medgar Evers. After the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported on state sponsored activities to protect in the late 1980s and 1990s, authorities bring De La Beckwith to trial for a third time. Finally, a jury of eight African-Americans and four whites find him guilty.

When a large number of states had seceded from the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln, they quickly realized they needed to band together in a larger government. So delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama, they knew they had to work fast. Although they were working a month before Lincoln's inauguration, they wanted to make sure they were ready to go. They had two advantages in working quickly, namely that they knew the United States Constitution well and that they were united on the issue of protecting slavery. Therefore, the provisional government could be formed almost immediately, with Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander Stephens as Vice President. It would be Stephens, in a speech one month later, who would clearly elucidate the reason for forming a government, that they were built on the "cornerstone" of white supremacy and the defense of slavery.