Sorry. Danger, Will Robinson. Robert’s ranting again … Stand back. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.
I blame myself, really. I watch, listen to and read way too much news. Yep, there – I said it. And, I’m not ashamed. I’m a news addict. No, the drugs and therapy sessions are not working.
This kerfluffle about Joe Biden’s statement that Obama, if elected, will be tested in some manner during his first year (six months, whatever) in office – it just spins your head, doesn’t it. What will be the next lame issue these goobers beat like a dead horse. Someone call PETA, please!
Well, it is quite silly all the back and forth of the talking heads out there in our pseudo-journalism world today. Where did journalism go? Do you know where I can find it? I miss journalism.
Why don’t they, instead of featuring talking (and often shouting) heads going back and forth on the matter … just do a wee bit of research to answer the question for their audiences?
Hey, if I can do it … don’t you think they can, too?
So, you decide for yourself. Here is a list of some major events from the first year of each President’s inaugural year, all the way back to good ‘ol Woodrow Wilson. You remember Woodrow, don’t you? :o)
Let’s look at these events (go ahead, if you’re tired of the ranting) – courtesy of InfoPlease.com – and you tell me, was there just one major event that tested the mettle of each U. S. President?
Why don’t these previously vaunted news organizations do this kind of research? They have staff and resources. I have a dog, cat, computer and an internet connection. (George & Shekiya did the research. I just sat here and … watched news). You’d think the news organizations would want to offer a few facts mixed in with all their ratings seeking nonsense. ~sigh~
No, it isn’t a perfect list. (Hey, they’re a dog & a cat.) I haven’t combed it completely – nor put them in perfect order. Still, I seem to recognize at least one event in the first year of each President that seems like it could have been a challenge to their mettle. How about you?
Did I mention that I miss journalism?
Yes, it was a stupid thing for Biden to say, given the environment of this election. He spun away from the message. He caused (as he is known to do) a stupid controversy to spin out of control. Still, he wasn’t really telling an untruth. Was he? And why in the world don’t CNN, MSNBC, FOX, the NYTimes.com and so many other ‘news’ organizations just do their damn homework! Hello?
1913 – Wilson
- Suffragettes demonstrate in London and Washington, D.C. Background: Woman Suffrage
- London peace treaty partitions most of European Turkey among the victors of first Balkan War.
- In second Balkan war, Bulgaria attacks Serbia and Greece and is defeated after Romania intervenes and Turks recapture Adrianople (June).
- Garment workers strike in New York and Boston; win pay raises and reduced hours.
- Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) and 17th (popular election of U.S. senators) adopted. Background: Amendments to the Constitution
- Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes law.
- World War I begins (June 28, 1914): Austria declares war on Serbia; Germany on Russia and France; Britain on Germany
1921 – Harding
- Um, Teapot Dome.
- Major treaties signed at Washington Disarmament Conference limit naval tonnage and pledge to respect territorial integrity of China.
- Congress passes Budget and Accounting Act, which creates the Bureau of Budget (June 10).
- U.S. Congress, in a joint resolution, declares WWI ended (July 2).
- First burial is held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery (Nov. 11).
1923 (August) – Coolidge
- Adolf Hitler’s “Beer Hall Putsch” in Munich fails; in 1924 he is sentenced to five years in prison where he writes Mein Kampf. He is released after eight months.
- Earthquake destroys one-third of Tokyo.
- Occupation of Ruhr by French and Belgian troops to enforce reparations payments.
- The second Ku Klux Klan movement in U.S. history grows, stirring widespread controversy and violence.
1929 – Hoover
- Um, the Depression started!
- Trotsky is expelled from U.S.S.R.
- First large-scale Jewish-Arab violence caused by a clash at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
- St. Valentine’s Day gangland massacre in Chicago (Feb. 14).
- Stock market prices plummet (Nov.-Dec.). U.S. securities lose $26 billion, marking the first financial disaster of the Great Depression
1933 – Roosevelt
- Um, the Depression … still goin’ on!
- Reichstag fire in Berlin; Nazi terror begins (Feb. 27).
- Hitler becomes German chancellor (Jan. 30).
- Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations.
- Giuseppe Zangara executed for attempted assassination of President-elect Roosevelt in which Chicago Mayor Cermak is fatally shot.
- Roosevelt inaugurated (“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”); launches New Deal.
- Prohibition repealed. OK, that doesn’t cound. Good news!
- Glass-Steagall Act bans banks from dealing in stocks and bonds.
1945 (April) – Truman
- FDR dies (April 12) and Harry S. Truman becomes president.
- Hitler commits suicide (April 30); Germany surrenders (May 7); May 8 is declared V-E Day.
- San Francisco Conference establishes the United Nations (April–June).
- Potsdam Conference (Truman, Churchill, Stalin) establishes basis of German reconstruction (July–Aug.).
- US drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9).
- Japan signs official surrender on V-J Day (Sept. 2).
- Manhattan Project tests first atomic bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico (July 16).
- A B-25 bomber flies into the Empire State Building, damaging the 78th and 79th floors and killing 13 (July 28).
1953 – Eisenhower
- Joseph Stalin dies (March 5). Georgi Malenkov becomes Soviet Premier; Lavrenti Beria, Minister of Interior; Vyacheslav Molotov, Foreign Minister (March 6).
- East Berliners rise against Communist rule; quelled by tanks (June 17).
- Korean armistice signed (July 27).
- Moscow announces explosion of hydrogen bomb (Aug. 20). Background: nuclear weapons
- Tito becomes president of Yugoslavia.
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed in Sing Sing prison (June 19).
- Alleged Communist Charlie Chaplin leaves U.S. for good. Justice Dept. warns him any attempt to reenter the country will be challenged.
1961 – Kennedy
- US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3).
- 1,200 US-sponsored anti-Castro exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (April 17); the attackers are all killed or captured by Cuban forces.
- East Germany erects the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to halt flood of refugees (Aug. 13). (Here’s a hint: The Cold War)
- USSR detonates 50-megaton hydrogen bomb in the largest man-made explosion in history (Oct. 29).
- There are 2,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam. You do remember the Vietnam War, right?
- OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) formally constituted.
1963 (November) – Johnson
- There are 15,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam.
1964
- Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa (June 11).
- Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack US destroyers (Aug. 7).
- Khrushchev is deposed; Kosygin becomes premier and Brezhnev becomes first secretary of the Communist Party (October).
- China detonates its first atomic bomb.
1969 – Nixon
- Nixon begins “Vietnamization” in Southeast Asia.
- The United States, USSR, and about 100 other countries sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT).
- Russian and Chinese troops clash along the Ussuri River.
- 27-year-old Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi deposes King Idris of Libya and establishes a pro-Arabic, anti-Western, Islamic republic.
- Stonewall riot in New York City marks beginning of gay rights movement (June 28).
1974 (August) Ford
- Um, Nixon resigns.
- Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed. A collective military dictatorship assumes power (Sept. 12).
- Ford grants “full, free, and absolute pardon” to ex-President Nixon (Sept. 8).
1975
- Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia (April).
- The city of Saigon is surrendered and remaining Americans are evacuated, ending the Vietnam War (April 30).
- American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued in operation by US Navy and Marines, 38 of whom are killed (May 15).
- John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman found guilty of Watergate cover-up (Jan. 1); sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail (Feb. 21).
- President Ford escapes assassination attempt in Sacramento, Calif. (Sept. 5).
- President Ford escapes second assassination attempt in 17 days (Sept. 22).
- Carter pardons Vietnam war draft evaders (Jan. 21).
1977 – Carter
- Deng Xiaoping, purged Chinese leader, restored to power as Gang of Four is expelled from Communist Party (July 22).
- South African activist Steve Biko dies in police custody (Sept. 12).
- Nuclear-proliferation pact, curbing spread of nuclear weapons, is signed by 15 countries, including US and USSR (Sept. 21).
1981 – Reagan
- US-Iran agreement frees 52 hostages held in Teheran since 1979 (Jan. 20); hostages welcomed back in US (Jan. 25). Background: Iran Hostage Crisis
- Pope John Paul II wounded by gunman (May 14).
- Israel annexes the disputed Golan Heights territory (Dec. 14).
- Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated by Islamic extremists during a military parade in Cairo (Oct. 6).
- President Hilla Limann is overthrown in Ghana as Jerry J. Rawlings seizes power.
- President Reagan wounded by gunman, with press secretary and two law-enforcement officers (March 30).
- US Supreme Court rules, 4–4, that former President Nixon and three top aides may be required to pay damages for wiretap of home telephone of former national security aide (June 22).
- Reagan nominates Judge Sandra Day O’Connor, 51, of Arizona, as first woman on US Supreme Court (July 7).
- Air controllers strike, disrupting flights (Aug. 3); government dismisses strikers (Aug. 11).
1989 – Bush (41)
- US planes shoot down two Libyan fighters over international waters in Mediterranean (Jan. 4).
- Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death (Feb. 14).
- Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19 et seq.). More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.). Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.).
- Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet President (May 25).
- P. W. Botha quits as South Africa’s President (Aug. 14).
- Deng Xiaoping resigns from China’s leadership (Nov. 9).
- After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).
- Czech Parliament ends Communists’ dominant role (Nov. 30).
- Romanian uprising overthrows Communist government (Dec. 15 et seq.); President Ceausescu and wife executed (Dec. 25).
- US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of General Manuel Noriega (Dec. 20).
- Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound (March 24).
- US jury convicts Oliver North in Iran-Contra affair (May 4).
- Army Gen. Colin R. Powell is first black Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (Aug. 9).
- A San Francisco Bay area earthquake measuring 7.1 in magnitude, killed 67 and injured over 3,000. Over 100,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. (Oct. 17)
1993 – Clinton
- Twenty-two UN troops killed in Somalia (June 5).
- Yeltsin’s forces crush revolt in Russian Parliament (Oct. 4 et seq.).
- China breaks nuclear test moratorium (Oct. 5).
- Israeli-Palestinian accord reached (Aug. 28).
- Federal agents besiege Texas Branch Davidian religious cult after six are killed in raid (March 1 et seq.). Fire kills 72 as cult standoff in Texas ends with federal assault (April 19).
- Five arrested, sixth sought in bombing of World Trade Center in New York (March 29).
- Two police officers convicted in Los Angeles on civil rights charges in Rodney King beating (April 17); sentenced Aug. 4.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg appointed to Supreme Court (June 14).
- US agents blamed in Waco, Tex., siege (Oct. 1).
- House of Representatives approves North American Free Trade Agreement (Nov. 17); Senate follows (Nov. 21).
- Clinton signs Brady bill regulating firearms purchases (Nov. 30).
2001 – Bush (43)
- Congo president Laurent Kabila assassinated by bodyguard (Jan. 16). Son Joseph Kabila takes over amid continuing civil war.
- Ariel Sharon wins election in Israel (Feb. 6). Right-wing leader chosen overwhelmingly as nation’s fifth prime minister in just over five years during worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in years.
- The long-simmering resentment of Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians erupts into violence in March. The rebels seek greater autonomy within Macedonia. After six months of fighting, a peace agreement is signed (Aug. 13). British-led NATO forces enter the country and disarm the guerrillas.
- U.S. spy plane and Chinese jet collide (April 2); Sino-American relations deteriorate during a standoff. The 24 crew members of the U.S. plane were detained for 11 days and released after the U.S. issued a formal statement of regret.
- Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is delivered to UN tribunal in The Hague to await war-crime trial (June 29).
- Without U.S., 178 nations reach agreement on climate accord, which rescues, though dilutes, 1997 Kyoto Protocol (July 23).
- In response to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. and British forces launch bombing campaign on Taliban government and al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan (Oct. 7). Bombings continue on a daily basis.
- Irish Republican Army announces that it has begun to dismantle its weapons arsenal, marking a dramatic leap forward in Northern Ireland peace process (Oct. 23).
- At a UN-sponsored summit in Bonn, Germany, Afghani factions meet to create a post-Taliban government (Nov. 27). Hamid Karzai is selected as head of the transitional government (Dec. 5).
- Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapses after two months of bombing by American warplanes and fighting by Northern Alliance ground troops (Dec. 9).
- Israel condemns the Palestinian Authority as a “terror-supporting entity” and severs ties with leader Yasir Arafat following mounting violence against Israelis (Dec. 3). The Israeli Army begins bombing Palestinian areas.
- In final days of presidency, Bill Clinton issues controversial pardons, including one for Marc Rich, billionaire fugitive financier (Jan. 20).
- U.S. submarine Greeneville sinks Japanese fishing boat, killing 9 (Feb. 9).
- FBI agent Robert Hanssen is charged with spying for Russia for 15 years (Feb. 20).
- Race riots in Cincinnati continue for several days following a shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer (April 7 et seq.).
- Four are declared guilty in 1998 terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (May 29).
- Balance of the Senate shifts after Jim Jeffords of Vermont changes his party affiliation from Republican to Independent. The move strips Republicans of control of the Senate and gives Democrats the narrowest of majorities (50-49-1) (June 5).
- Bush signs new tax-cut law, the largest in 20 years – due to an economic downturn (costs him his future re-election bid) (June 7).
- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh executed (June 11).
- Budget surplus dwindles. The Congressional Budget Office attributes this rapid change in the nation’s fortunes to the slowing economy and the Bush tax cut (Aug. 22).
- Terrorists attack United States. Hijackers ram jetliners into twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh (Sept. 11). Toll of dead and injured in thousands. Within days, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network are identified as the parties behind the attacks.
- Anthrax scare rivets nation, as anthrax-laced letters are sent to various media and government officials. Several postal workers die after handling the letters (throughout October).
‘Nuff said? Yep.
Don’t even get me started on the new round of red baiting that’s going on, either.
I was raised in quite a liberal household. My parents supported McCarthy. No, I don’t mean Joe, either.
It often suprises me that, having grown up in such a liberal household, I turned out to be so conservative. Still, conservative or not – I pray I can tell the difference between facts and BS! Sheesh!
/rant
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