What Happened Today

In American cultural memory, the Boston Tea Party was a signal event in the lead up to independence and revolution. At the time, it was a strange act undertaken a few people in Boston who were fed up with the taxation policies of the Parliament of Great Britain. Specifically, they hated having no representation in Parliament, and the colonists believed that many of the taxes placed on imports, especially tea, were targeted against Americans. Many British politicians thought this was a bit rich considering what people actually living in Britain faced. These issues got pushed further by the obnoxious reaction to protests by Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson. So a few leading citizens of Boston dressed as Mohawk warriors dumped tea off of a transport ship to show their displeasure. Many people throughout the colonies believed these men were ridiculous and unhelpful.

The United States Constitution was put in place because the Articles of Confederation were clearly not working, and the individual states agreed to ratify it in 1789. Nonetheless, many people were still greatly concerned about the power now entrusted in the federal government and the fact that many of the rights fought for in the Revolution were not guaranteed. So one of the first bills introduced in the first congress was actually a series of amendments to the Constitution that did all of these things, drafted by one of the chief architects and promoters of the Constitution, James Madison. By guaranteeing rights and delineating what powers belonged to the states, the Bill of Rights essentially completed the Constitution, allowing it to have more support among the states.

Roald Amundsen made history by being the leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole. He was not well recognized for this effort, though, for a wide range of reasons. Amundsen's rather utilitarian approach, which included eating some of his sled dogs, did not endear him to many people, especially the British. The other reason many Brits were unhappy with Amundsen was that he beat Robert Falcon Scott's simultaneous British expedition. Then a strange circumstance happened. Instead of being lauded for finding the best method for reaching the South Pole, Amundsen fell well behind Scott in many appreciations, despite the fact that Scott perished on his return. Scott became a martyr, while Amundsen became the nasty, underhanded trickster. This odd view of the two expeditons would hold for decades, despite Amundsen being objectively much more successful.

What the Imperial Japanese Army did upon entering Nanking in 1937 was not necessarily unusual in war. Yet the scale and brutality of the murder of civilians and sexual assault of women throughout the city that had been the Chinese capital until just few weeks before made it something else entirely. Not only were Japanese troops murdering any Chinese civilians on sight and raping any women and girls they could find, Japan itself seemed to be shrugging its shoulder at the events. What made the world take notice were a few Westerners, including a Nazi Party member named John Rabe, who tried to move people out of the city and kept diaries and other records. No other countries could do anything at the time, though, because of world politics, and politics have continued to shape the way the events in Nanking are discussed.

The 2000 U.S. Presidential Election was one of the strangest in American history, largely because it was so close. Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote by about a half of a percent, but on election night, Texas Governor George W. Bush was declared the winner on the back of a narrow victory in Florida. Then the Florida vote was put in doubt, casting the whole election into chaos. Yet everything was done through legal measures. The Gore Campaign wanted a recount to narrow or overtake Bush's slim lead in Florida, but then the nature of the recount was challenged and deadlines were fast approaching. The case ended up before the Supreme Court, with the election being capped off by the close decision of 5-4 where partisan lines were obvious and judicial reasoning was surprising for many justices. Most importantly, the decision insured George W. Bush would become President of the United States.

The Lufthansa heist was one of the great crimes of the twentieth century, as it took less than an hour to take almost six million dollars from a vault at Kennedy Airport in New York and no one was ever convicted of a crime related to the heist. Yet the masterminds would almost immediately be recognized as Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill, two associates of the Luchhese crime family. Although the surveillance by police and federal authorities could not result in an actual arrest, Burke grew paranoid and began killing close associates. Once Henry Hill was arrested on an unrelated narcotics charge, wiretaps of Burke discussing murdering Hill and Burke's own bizarre behavior made Hill turn on his associates. Everything that happened after meant that no one would be charged with the Lufthansa heist, almost all of the people ended up either dead, in jail, or on the run.

King Edward VIII of Great Britian ascended to his throne in January of 1936, but decided to abdicate and hand his crown to his younger brother Albert, who would become King George VI. The reason Edward made this decision was that he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee in the process of ending her second marriage. Edward started seeing Simpson in 1934 as Prince of Wales, while having an affair with the American born wife of a British peer, Lady Furness. Edward, one of the most famous men in Europe, was seen with Simpson, creating tension with his family. Edward also made enemies of most politicians, particularly Labour Party members, and showed a strange fondness for the Nazis. When the Prime Minister refused to stay on if Edward married Simpson and stayed King, Edward chose to get married, avoiding a constitutional crisis.

Juan Diego was an Aztec man who converted to Christianity under the auspices of the Franciscans after the conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernan Cortes. In 1531, he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary near Tepeyac hill. This vision would help spur Mexican Catholicism in the 16th century. Of course, it's also not entirely clear whether Juan Diego actually existed or even had an actual vision. What definitely happened is that Our Lady of Guadalupe, the apparition of the Virgin Mary, became central to Mexican Catholic belief and the shrine on Tepeyac hill became an important religious site. Largely this occured because the vision Juan Diego had was a perfect combination of Aztec beliefs and Spanish Catholic beliefs, creating a syntetic Catholicism in Central America.

John Lennon's murder was truly shocking for many reasons. Lennon was a beloved celebrity and icon. He also died instantly after being shot by Mark David Chapman in front of his apartment building. Most Americans heard about it from sportscaster Howard Cosell during a broadcast of Monday Night Football. And as if the act itself was not appalling enough, the aftermath proved to be extremely confusing. Chapman's reasoning was more than a little bit odd, as he seemed to target Lennon through some mix of Evangelical Christianity and an attachment to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Really, Chapman's underlying reasons remain hard to understand years after he killed John Lennon.

When the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, the real issue from the point of view of the American leadership was that there was no declaration of war or hostilities before the attack. Most Americans were shocked at the massive loss of life and Navy ships. All of this would lead to America's immediate entry into World War II, against both the Empire of Japan and their allies Germany and Italy. While Japan succeeded with their immediate goals at Pearl Harbor, the attack was largely a huge tactical mistake. The Japanese Navy never made it further than Hawai'i, or even made it back there. America would eventually roll back the Japanese Navy to Japan itself and win in both theaters of the war, all of which was the result of the attack on Pearl Harbor.