A 50-Year Memory: He Wouldn't Run Again.

March 31, 1968:
"I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party as your President."

I was on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Several of us were returning to school after spring break. I seem to remember it was  a foggy evening as we listened to the president's address to the nation. Like most, we were stunned and elated.

Tom Wicker reporting in the New York Times after the speech described Johnson as talking about the progress made in his years as president. But they

"must not now be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. ...I have concluded that I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing."
And so it was that the man who won the biggest political landslide in American history, when he defeated Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona in the Presidential election of 1964, renounced the idea of a second term. (Link)

LBJ knew he was losing support. McCarthy had shown Johnson's vulnerability. Bobby Kennedy was waiting in the wings. He was president of a deeply divided nation. He didn't know it at the time but it was very quickly going to get much, much worse.It was stunning, but soon to be overtaken by events in Memphis, Los Angeles, and the streets of Chicago and Prague.

One of the most chaotic and challenging years was just beginning.

A Day of GREAT Historic Significance

Just fooling around on the Web and decided to check "On This Date" lists. On This Day led it off with what would be, if real, the single most important date in World History...

4004 BC - Creation of the world begins according to the calculations of Archbishop James Ussher

Ussher can be laughed at, but in his day it took a great deal of scholarship and research in many areas to be able to do what he did. That doesn't mean it's for real. Many of the "young earth creationists" may cite his work to prove their stance, but it goes against all science to see it the way Ussher did.

In a bit of historic irony, also on this date:

1977 - Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announces that 34-billion-year-old one-celled fossils, the earliest life forms, had been discovered

Had to smile at that!

In the history of more recent events, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this one. This IS an historic date in American professional sports, and for many of us, something akin to a day of religious significance:

1921 - Green Bay Packers play 1st NFL game, 7-6 win over Minneapolis

Then there are those of us who lived through Watergate and the shenanigans of our then President, Richard Nixon. If Ussher and the Packers' events are beginnings, this was the beginning of the end:

1973 - Nixon agrees to turn over White House tape recordings to Judge Sirica

One of the great works of the musical stage started on this date:

1991 - "Les Miserables" opens at Mogador Theatre, Paris

And in other news of the past:

1956 - Hungarian citizens began an uprising against Soviet occupation. On November 4, 1956 Soviet forces enter Hungary and eventually suppress the uprising.

1956 - NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording. The tape of Jonathan Winters was seen coast to coast in the U.S.

1958 - Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He was forced to refuse the honor due to negative Soviet reaction. Pasternak won the award for writing "Dr. Zhivago".

This post is a public service for the historic and 

educational growth of all my readers.

More Musical Memories

I was listening to Bob Dylan while trying to figure out what to write for this day's post. So I looked at this date in music history. (See tomorrow when it comes for why I was listening to Bob Dylan.)

So here were some of the important events on this date.

First a real piece of history for jazz:

• 1922 - The New Orleans Rhythm Kings recorded for the first time.

 Two dates from the history of a small  group from Great Britain:

• 1958 - George Harrison joined the band Quarrymen. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also members.
• 1966 - The Beatles ended their fourth American tour at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, CA. It turned out that the show was their last public concert.

Here was one of the great songs:

• 1964 - Roy Orbison's single "Oh, Pretty Woman" was released. The song was Orbison's second #1 hit in the U.S and his third in the U.K.

In the out-in-left-field category:

• 1977 - 3 people were arrested in Memphis after trying to steal Elvis' body. As a result his body was moved to Graceland.

A BIG congratulations for 25 years clean and sober:

• 1990 - Elton John checked into a rehab center in Chicago, IL, for bulimia, drinking and drugs.

And one of the really off-beat stories. This is nothing but funny (to everyone but Isaac Hayes and Bob Dole):

• 1996 - Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote the Stax classic "Soul Man," sent a protest letter to presidential candidate Bob Dole requesting Dole to stop using his song, which his supporters had changed to "I'm A Dole Man."

# # # # # # # #

This Week in History

Some notes of absolutely little interest, but potentially interesting?

1948- A 67-year memory:

1st - The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
3rd - Cleveland's Satchel Paige make his 1st start & goes 7 innings
3rd - FDR advisor Alger Hiss accused of being a "communist"
4th - 5 day Southern States filibuster succeeds in maintaining America's poll tax
5th - Cleveland Indians set club record for most double plays in a game (6)
6th - Bob Mathias, US, wins decathlon at London Olympics
6th - Fanny Blankers-Koen (Neth) is 1st woman to win 3 golds at Olympics
7th - Delfo Cabrera wins 11th Olympic marathon (2:34:51.6)

1965- A 50-year memory:

1st - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Waterloo Golf Open
2nd - Morley Safer's sends 1st Vietnam report indicating we are losing
5th - Dave Marr wins PGA title
6th - 32nd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Cleveland 24, All-Stars 16 (68,000)
6th - Beatles release "Help" album in UK
6th - Indian troops invade Pakistan
6th - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act prohibiting voting discrimination against minorities

Maybe the Second Most Important

From today in "history":

1919 Charles Strite patents pop-up toaster

The biggest thing since, well, sliced bread!


Of course, I'm not one to stop at just one. How about other Second Bests, (or runners-up, or first-losers?)

There's always Buzz Aldrin coming down 

on the surface of the moon after Neil Armstrong.

 Don't forget the Brooklyn Dodgers after the Giants'

Bobby Thomson lifted one out of the park.

Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl,

beaten by the Green Bay Packers.

And to get political for a moment,

George W. Bush in the 2000 election.