What Happened Today

Henry Ford wanted to make a car that could be used by everyday people for everyday purposes, which stood in stark contrast to the typical view of cars in the late 19th and 20th centuries. As a capable mechanic and inventor, Ford attempted to make a car of his own for years. Finally, Ford was able to hit on an affordable car by perfecting an assembly line that was remarkably efficient. His own goal was to make a car his own workers would use, which meant he also made a very easy car to use. This fit in well with his beliefs about the role of capitalism and its benefits to society. Unfortunately, it also fit in well with Ford's nastier beliefs.

The 1960 Presidential Election between Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon of California and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was one of the closest, hardest fought contests in history. The candidates were close on many issues, while partisan politics were being reshaped across the country. The election was therefore largely fought over personal matters, with Nixon seeming out of touch and Kennedy facing questions about his Catholicism. So when Nixon and Kennedy met for a debate on September 26, there were many people weighing the candidates. Suppsoedly, Kennedy won the television audience, while Nixon won the radio audience. Even if that's hard to prove, a weakened Nixon, he had been in the hospital two weeks earlier, came off poorly and would lose one of the closest elections in American history.

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was illegal in Brown v. Board of Education. Actual integration, though, was a few years in coming in many places, both because there was serious opposition to it and because the logistics were quite complicated. The Little Rock school board targeted 1957 as the year for integration, allowing the local NAACP to select nine model African-American students and Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to deploy the Arkansas National Guard to prevent those students from entering Central High School. After three weeks where the Little Rock Nine stay home, President Dwight Eisenhower takes control of the National Guard in Arkansas. Along with the 101st Airborne, National Guardsmen then made sure the Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School.

The Meiji Restoration not only overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate and restored the power of the Japanese Emperor, but it also sought to rapidly modernize Japan. Naturally, this angered many people, notably the samurai whose entire lifestyle was being taken away. In the far south of Japan, in the Satsuma region, a leader named Saigo Takamori began gathering disaffected samurai and soliders in Kagoshima and its environs. A full scale rebellion broke out once the Imperial Government sent military officials to work with Saigo. After some initial success, Saigo Takamori is surrounded on a hill named Shiroyama, while being outnumbered 60 to 1. The Japanese Imperial Army, led by Yamagata Aritomo, waited patiently, then launched an artillery bombardment and a final attack. The Battle of Shiroyama ended with Saigo's death and a total defeat of his men.

In the early nineteenth century, businessmen would play sports in their leisure time, gathering to partake in informal games like town ball. When a New York group was unable to use their typical empty lot in Manhattan, one of them, Alexander Cartwright, found a space to play in New Jersey called Elysian Fields. To pay the $75 a year rent and make sure people would show up regularly, Cartwright formed the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, taking the name from Cartwright's volunteer fire brigade. They also established clear rules for the club and the game they would play, which bear a strong resemblance to modern rules. These structures allowed the game to be played by other clubs and in other places, while the club structure would be copied widely.

The Salem Witch Trials are infamous in American history, but the details and complexities often get lost underneath the horror of looking back on the events of Salem. One of the keys to knowing why they happened is understanding the nature of Puritan beliefs, but another one is to realize that the government was thoroughly wrapped up in the church's interest. The whole thing was an incredibly deliberate process resulting from ecstatic fits by two girls, and the authorities did what they thought was correct. Once this ended up with the executions of twenty people, including eight on one day, most people in Salem and Massachusetts started to dislike the entire process of the trials.

Lucha libre, the particular brand of professional wrestling developed in Mexico, was primarily created by Salvador Lutteroth and Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre. It would grow to become an icon of Mexican popular culture and a signature brand of wrestling, featuring extremely theatrical storylines, highly acrobatic maneuvers, and colorfully decorated wrestling masks. Yet in 1933, Lutteroth was simply bringing the American form of professional wrestling to Mexico City. By the next year, at the 1st EMLL Anniversary Show, a masked wrestler first appeared, although he was the American grappler Cyclone Mackey. Eventually, Lutteroth would develop Mexican stars like El Santo, Blue Demon, and Gory Guerrero, and create a genuinely Mexican wrestling promotion.

The unification of Italy, better known as the Risorgimento, was culminated when troops loyal to King Victor Emmanuel II entered the city of Rome. This meant that the Papal States, areas directly controlled by the Pope, ceased to exist, and the entire Italian Peninsula except for Vatican City itself was one nation. The actual fall of the Papal States was seen as inevitable, despite opposition to unification by Pope Pius IX. Italian troops were even hoping for a surrender of the city, rather than an actual engagement. The actual people did want to join a unified Italy, while the Pope said he was then a prisoner in the Vatican.

When George Washington announced he was stepping down as President of the United States of America in a lengthy newspaper article, the young nation was shocked. Not only did people not really step down from power in the eighteenth century, almost all Americans wanted Washington to remain in power. George Washington was the General of the Continental Army, the President of the Constitutional Convention, and First President of the United States. While his arguments against partisan division and foreign entanglements, which took up the bulk of Washington's address, were largely ignored, the very act of stepping down after two terms of President set a template that ensured the continuation of the American government.

Lord Haw-Haw was the name given by British critics to the propagandist that hosted the Nazi radio program "Germany Calling." Lord Haw-Haw was actually many different people, but William Joyce, a former British Fascist, would become indelibly tied to the role of Lord Haw-Haw. Where other Lord Haw-Haws were not always enthusiastic about their broadcasts, Joyce would embrace it wholeheartedly. When the Allies invaded Germany, Joyce became a target for British troops, who arrested him near the Danish border. Joyce was handed over to British Military Police, then tried for treason. William Joyce would be the last person executed in Great Britain executed for treason.