What Happened Today

The Motion Picture Association of America was formed as a trade organization for the largest movie studios in America. As such, it was founded with the idea of putting together a respectable face to society and government. It did two things to advance this idea, first by hiring the former Postmaster General Will Hays, and second by introducing a Production Code. Although there were always guidelines for content in film, from 1930 forward there was a specific list of what could be in movies and from 1934 it was strictly enforced. Banning sexual content, celebrations of criminal activity, and anything that "lowered moral standards," the Production Code allowed for censorship of content produced in Hollywood. After World War II, movies increasingly were pushing the boundaries of the Code, and by the 1950s foreign films were being shown that never were put under the code. By the mid-1960s, the Code seemed outdated. When Jack Valenti, a former advertising man and adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, became president of the MPAA, one of his first goals was to eliminate the Production Code. What Valenti and the MPAA did was create a ratings system that told audiences what kind of content was in a specific movie.

Martin Luther's Ninety Five Theses was a piece of writing in a specific genre, in which priests could challenge the doctrine or theology of the Roman Catholic Church by asking for a disputation. Yet the tone and content of Luther's disputation marked his out as something more than an invitation for debate. His main subject was indulgences, the practice of offering a good deed for the limiting of a soul's time in purgatory. Luther specifically attacked the practice of raising money by asking for money for the Church and calling it an indulgence. More shockingly, Luther did not just dispute theology, but attacked the specific priests offering indulgences and the Pope who had ramped them up. That Pope Leo X, was Luther's opposite, as he was a son of Lorenzo de Medici whose main attributes as a Pope were his distinct worldliness. Luther was an Augustinian Friar who was obsessed with his own salvation. When he attacked the Pope, Luther believed he was acting according to the will of God and the scripture of Jesus Christ. Armed with that idea, Luther's Ninety Five Theses would lead to a split from the papacy and kick off the Protestant Reformation.

In 1938, Orson Welles was a hot shot theater actor and director, whose innovative and modern theatrical productions had been successful enough to get him his own radio anthology series, The Mercury Theatre on the Air. For his Halloween episode, Welles decided to do something different, beginning with adapting the H.G. Wells horror novel The War of the Worlds. The radio play was not presented as a radio drama, but rather as regular programming with a dance band that was being interrupted by breaking news reports. These news reports recounted a Martian invasion in New Jersey and New York. Finally, Welles came on as a professor recounting the aftermath of the invasion at the end. Welles' radio drama did have warnings that this was merely fiction. Nonetheless, a sense of panic swept the nation. Listeners called their local radio stations and newspapers for confirmation of the invasion. The next day, headlines blasted that a general hysteria was caused by Orson Welles' radio play. Such concerns were overblown to a large extent, but "The War of the Worlds" made Orson Welles a national celebrity and helping him launch a film career.

Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the most famous men of Elizabethan England, at various times a soldier, landowner, poet, pirate, explorer, courtier, and Member of Parliament. Born into a Protestant family in Devon, he first became rich when he suppressed Catholics in Ireland and gained Irish land in return. From there, he became a key figure in Elizabeth's court, which allowed him to sit in Parliament and get a charter to explore the New World. Mostly, Raleigh was trying to enhance piracy against the Spanish, and his most notable achievement in the New World was the colony of Roanoke, which disappeared without a trace. He would become the Governor of Jersey, in the Channel Islands, in order to improve the defenses against further Spanish invasions. He was there when Elizabeth died and was succeeded by her cousin James VI, the King of Scotland, who would be James I of England. He would also instantly arrest Raleigh for his involvement in a plot. Raleigh perhaps just listened to the conspirators, but he still spent 13 years in the Tower of London. In 1616, he was released and allowed to lead an expedition to the Americas, as long as he did not attack the Spanish. Then he did just that, and so on his return James arrested him and sentenced him to death. Raleigh was executed in the Palace Yard at Westminster by beheading.

When the United States became aware that the Soviet Union had placed missiles in Cuba, the Cold War was in serious danger of becoming an active, hot war. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had ramped up their nuclear programs, threatened each other, and engaged in proxy wars; neither side had done anything to create all out war between the two powers. This changed when the U.S. found missiles in Cuba, launching the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the reasons was because the U.S. had not been doing usual reconnaissance in September and early October. The revelation of these missiles led to a serious discussion of what should happen regarding Cuba. President John F. Kennedy seriously considered invading Cuba, but decided on a US Naval blockade of Cuba. This blockade was then consistently threatened by the Soviets. Meanwhile, Cuba seriously considered a preemptive first strike. Then the Cubans shot down the plane of Major Rudolf Anderson, who would be the only casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Just when it appeared a real war would take place, Nikita Kruschev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba if the US removed missiles in Turkey, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.

From the moment war broke out, the Franco-Prussian War was a massive disaster for the French. After initial battles in the summer of 1870, the large force under Marshal Francois Bazaine went into the fortifications of the city of Metz in Eastern France. There, the French Army was put under siege by a Prussian force led by Prince Friedrich Karl. In order to assist the beleaguered soldiers at Metz, French Emperor Napoleon III formed the massive Army of Chalons to relieve Metz. Unfortunately for him, he never made it to Metz. At the Battle of Sedan, on September 1 and 2, Napoleon III would not just be routed by a Prussian Army, but actually would be captured. The French Empire was dissolved, and a new Third French Republic was proclaimed. Yet the force at Metz held out under Bazaine, who was trying to keep the Empire going with himself as a leader. Meanwhile, the Government of National Defense in Paris was trying to restructure the French war, as Paris was now under siege. By October 27, Bazaine's men were threatened with starvation, and he surrendered. Notably, he refused allowing his men to perform in honors of war, and quietly was captured by the Prussians.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was actually a small exchange of fire, lasting no more than 30 seconds, and it did not take place at the O.K. Corral, but in an empty lot down the street. Tombstone, Arizona was a town of 7,000 people in 1881, and all of them had arrived in the previous two years. This included the Earp brothers, Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan. The Earps were native Iowans, and Virgil arrived in town as a Deputy U.S. Marshal. He would also become the town marshal, and often made his brothers deputies in his battles with the "Cowboys," a gang of outlaws involved in cattle rustling allied with the Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan. Matters came to a head when a Cowboy named Ike Clanton was in court, and the Earps attempted to disarm the Cowboys who had come to Tombstone, following a local ordinance banning weapons in town. In the middle of the afternoon, Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday confronted Billy and Ike Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne. Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury would be shot dead. It would be nearly fifty years before the story of the shootout became Wild West legend, thanks to a book about Wyatt Earp.

The Crimean War was not the most popular war Britain ever fought in, largely because aligning with the French and the Ottomans to curb Russian influence in the Black Sea wasn't a top priority for most Britons in 1854. Yet the Crimean War also featured some problematic moments by British commanders, perhaps best represented by the Battle of Balaclava. The British and French came to the port of Balaclava to attack the Russian Naval stronghold of Sevastopol. Despite that, the Russians came toward Balaclava for battle first, and in the early morning hours of October 25, the Russians began the battle by attacking the allied positions. This action was curbed when a Russian cavalry force was met by "The Thin Red Line," a Highland Regiment that held off the attack. The most famous moment of the Battle was still to come, however, as at the end the overall commander Lord Raglan gave an order for a cavalry charge. His head of cavalry was the Earl of Lucan, and the head of light cavalry was the Earl of Cardigan, brothers-in-law who despised each other. The result was Cardigan leading "The Charge of the Light Brigade," a futile and confusing attack that would be well remembered by Alfred Tennyson's poem.

In Iceland in 1975, women made about 60 per cent of what men did on average. To address that and other inequalities, a strike was planned across Iceland in which women would do absolutely no work. Called "Kvennafrídagurinn," or the women's day off, it was planned throughout 1975. Remarkably, about 90 per cent of Iceland's female population participated. This made a wide variety of industries shut down. Newspaper typesetters were largely women, so newspapers could not be printed. Schools and daycares were largely shut down, and men took their kids to offices, because women did not do any work, including childcare and housework. Most strikingly, 20,000 women, of a total national population of 225,00, gathered in Reykjavik for a rally. The effort around Kvennafrídagurinn worked almost as planned. Men in Iceland woke up to the need for reform. A gender equality law was passed through the Parliament the next year, and Vigdis Finbogadottir would become Iceland's, and the world's, first democratically elected president. Kvennafrídagurinn did not shift the wage gap, but it still holds a place in Icelandic cultural memory.

The English Civil War was not seen by either the Royalist or Parliamentarian side as a war that would last too long. Open warfare broke out because King Charles I of England didn't call a Parliament for 11 years, until he needed money to fight a war in his other Kingdom, Scotland. Once called, Parliament attempted to impose many restrictions on Charles in the realms of politics, religion, and especially taxation. Charles tried to ignore them, to little effect. Yet it appeared neither side wanted a large scale military conflict. By 1642, the relation between King and Parliament broke down enough for each side to begin raising armies. The Royalists had an advantage in military leaders, while Parliament was able to get armories and weapons caches. In August of 1642, Charles raised his Royal Standard at Nottingham, essentially declaring war. Deciding to move towards London, Charles' army encountered a Parliamentary army at Edgehill in Warwickshire. The Royalists began with a successful cavalry charge, but the Parliamentarians countered with their infantry. Ultimately, the battle was a stalemate, which led to more inconclusive fighting that would go on for years.