Professor Walter's History Lessons

Jimmy Carter and the Swamp Rabbit Incident

On April 20, 1979 President Jimmy Carter had gone on a solo fishing trip in Plains, Georgia.  While fishing he was approached by a rabbit swimming toward him.  Press Secretary Jody Powell wrote this account of the creature in her book.

The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon climbing into the Presidential boat.

Eventually Carter was able to get the rabbit to swim away, but the press found the story too interesting to let go.  Soon Carter was being questioned about the incident at press conferences and town hall meetings.  There was even discussion of a suit being filed under the Freedom of Information Act to release a photo of the incident.  After Reagan took office a copy of the picture was released to the press.

-Professor Walter

Photo Courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library

The only U.S. President who was not officially mourned upon his death

John Tyler, Jr. was the tenth president of the United States from March 29, 1790 to January 18, 1862.  While Tyler holds the distinction of being the first president to take office after the death of a president, he is also the only president to not be nationally mourned at the time of his death.  This is because of a stance he took during the American Civil War.

Tyler was a slave owner throughout his life and worked to prevent the war with the Virginia Peace Convention in February of 1861.  When war began he served as a Virginia delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress, and was elected to the Confederate States House of Representatives, but died on  before Congress had assembled.  Due to his loyalty to the Confederacy, based in his belief in states rights, Tyler was denied the traditional day of mourning in Washington D.C.  He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

-Professor Walter

A landmark nearly forgotten

In 1833 the First Baptist Church of Washing was built 10th St., NW., between E and F Streets in Washington D.C.  In 1861 the congregation moved to a new structure and sold the building to John T. Ford who renovated it into a theater called Ford's Athenaeum.  A fire in 1862 destroyed the building, but Ford rebuilt it into a 2,400 seat theater that was called a "magnificent new thespian temple".  The new building opened in August of 1863.

On April 14th 1865, during a showing of Our American Cousin, the actor John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Lincoln in the theater.  Lincoln was taken to William Petersen's boarding house where he died the next morning.

Congress purchased the theater from Ford for $100,000 and issued an order preventing it from ever being a place of public amusement again.  The theater was gutted and re-purposed for use by the U.S. Military, Library of the Surgeon General, and as an Army Medial Museum.  In 1887 the building exclusively became a clerk's office for the war department.  In 1893 the front of the building collapsed killing 22 and injuring 68, leading many to believe the building was cursed.  The building was repaired and used as a government warehouse until 1928 when it was handed over to the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks.  In 1932 it was transferred to the National Park Service and opened as a Lincoln Museum.  At this time it was declared a national historic site. 

The theater was in poor condition until restoration was brought about by a two decade long lobbying effort by Democratic National Committeeman Melvin D. Hildreth, Jr. and Republican North Dakota Senator Milton D. Young. Hildreth started in 1945.  In 1955 Congress passed a bill to prepare a study to restore the building to return it to a Lincoln era appearance.  In 1964 Congress approved funds for the restoration which was completed in 1968.  On February 5th 1969 the first play since Lincoln's assassination was held in the newly renovated Ford's Theater.  To celebrate Lincoln's 200th birthday, the theater was renovated and upgraded in 2009.

-Professor Walter

Bob Hope for President

Bob Hope was a long time Republican donating to various political campaigns.  His popularity was not missed by those in his party and he was approached at one point as a potential presidential candidate.  Hope had to decline.  He was, in fact, a foreign born naturalized US Citizen and was not eligible for the position.  He was born in London, England and was a British citizen.

-Professor Walter

The unexpected risk of high efficiency traffic lights

There is a large effort across the United States to replace traditional light bulbs with LED lights.  LED lights last longer, use less power, and are more efficient.  Some of the areas where they have become prevalent include flashlights, vehicle lights, and traffic lights.  Unfortunately, while these new innovations do perform as expected, there are benefits to the traditional lights that are often overlooked.

In 2009 Wisconsin had deployed some of these newer traffic lights.  In December, as the winter came on full, the value of inefficiency became apparent.  Traditional lights draw more power than they release in light.  The remaining power is released as heat.  With the new efficient lights, there is no heat release.  As such, the ice and snow that falls during a storm builds up on the lights obscuring the glow.  Without the heat to melt it the traffic lights vanish in the storm.  City workers have had to resort to climbing up and scraping the ice during the storms to keep the roads safe. 

While the new lights have saved thousands in electricity bills, thee benefit of the inefficiency of the older bulbs was never considered and the lack of heat created it's own problems.  A final solution is still pending.

-Professor Walter

From an air tragedy to roadside navigation

On September 1st 1983 Korean Air Lines civilian Flight 007 deviated from it's course.  It was en-route from Anchorage, AK to Seoul, South Korea.  The deviation caused it to stray toward Soviet airspace.  The navigation error was likely caused by an auto-pilot error.  The Soviets dispatched three Su-15 Flagon fighters and a MiG-23 to intercept.  The exact details of what transpired vary based on the account, but the result is uniform.  Flight 007 was shot down killing 246 passengers and 23 crew members.  There were no survivors.  It was one of the tensest moments of the Cold War.

President Reagan took one step, with a major impact, to prevent this kind of navigation error from occurring again.  On September 16th 1983 President Reagan announced that the Global Positioning System (GPS) would be available for civilian use free of charge.  The GPS system allows a computer to triangulate location anywhere on the Earth within a very small margin of error.  It was developed for the military, however as a civilian tool it has been integrated into most cell phones as well as a variety of navigation tools such as vehicle GPS and On-Star.  Now anyone can get from point A to point B with one of these navigation devices.

-Professor Walter

Margarine, constant foe of the butter industry

In 1869 Emperor Louis Napolean III of France offered a prize to whomever could create a substitute for butter that could be used for the armed forces and lower classes.  The French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés created a substance called oleomargarine.  His initial attempts ar marketing margarine met limited commercial success and in 1871 he sold his patent to the Dutch company Jurgens.  As early as 1877 laws began to be enforced that would prevent the spread of margarine.  

The butter industry was concerned about the new artificial butter and took significant steps to prevent its success.  Their tactics involved the use of tariffs, and taxes.  Then they went further, attacking one of margarine's biggest problems.  Margarine is naturally white, or near white.  Manufacturers wanted to add yellow food coloring to make it look better, but that was banned in many countries.  In the United States legislators went a step further and, in some states, enforced a rule that margarine had to have pink food coloring so that it would appear unappealing.  This coloring law was stopped buy the Supreme Court, but the ban of other coloring remained strong.

In the 1960s the laws banning color were finally dropped, and margarine, as you know it, was now on the store shelves.  Today the battle between butter and margarine continues, with butter pulling ahead thanks to concerns with trans-fats and consumers determination that taste of more important than saturated fat content.

-Professor Walter

The first time a United States President attended a synagogue service

In 1874 President Ulysses S. Grant and his full cabinet attended the dedication of the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington D.C.  This was the first time an American President had attended such a service.  This was a political attempt by Grant to change his tarnished image that resulted twelve years earlier when he issued General Order 11 as Major-General Grant.

General Order 11 was an order that was issues on December 17, 1862 which ordered the expulsion of all Jews in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.  The order was prompted by Grant's belief that the Jews were the people primarily responsible for running the black market trade in southern cotton.

General Order No. 11 stated:

1. The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the Department [of the Tennessee] within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.
2. Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters.
3. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.

In a letter of the same date sent to Christopher Parsons Wolcott, the assistant United States Secretary of War, Grant explained his reasoning:

Sir,

I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into Post Commanders, that the Specie regulations of the Treasury Dept. have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied of this have I been at this that I instructed the Commdg Officer at Columbus [Kentucky] to refuse all permits to Jews to come south, and frequently have had them expelled from the Dept. [of the Tennessee]. But they come in with their Carpet sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel any where. They will land at any wood yard or landing on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy Cotton themselves they will act as agents for someone else who will be at a Military post, with a Treasury permit to receive Cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying gold.

There is but one way that I know of to reach this case. That is for Government to buy all the Cotton at a fixed rate and send it to Cairo, St Louis, or some other point to be sold. Then all traders, they are a curse to the Army, might be expelled.

A few weeks after its release President Abraham Lincoln revoked the order.  Grant later stated that it had been written by a subordinate, and he had signed it without reading it.  Lincoln, in reference to the order, stated "to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad".  He went on to state that no American would be wronged because of religious affiliation and that he drew no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

-Professor Walter

The Bellamy Salute

In 1892 Francis Bellamy, a Baptist Minister and Christian socialist created the Pledge of Allegiance.

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all"

President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed that it would be used on October 12, 1892, Columbus Day, in public schools.  Since that time the words have been changed four times to the current version from 1954.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The pledge was originally accompanied by the Bellamy salute.  The Bellamy salute had the arm outstretched with the palm upwards.  It changed so that the palm was downwards after some time.  However, with the advent of WWII, the similarity between the pledge and the Nazi salute led many to be uncomfortable.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the hand over the heart salute that is so familiar today.  Officially the removal of the Bellamy salute occurred on December 22nd 1942 when congress amended the Flag Code.

-Professor Walter

Honor Restored After Being Taken Away 72 Years Earlier

In 1872 Buffalo Bill Cody received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action while serving as a civilian scout for the 3rd Cavalry Regiment.  Shortly after Cody's death in 1917 the U.S. Congress revised the standards for the medal and revoked 911 medals that has been awarded to civilians or for actions that did not meet the new higher standards.  Among those who lost their medals was Mary Edwards Walker, a nurse during the battle of Bull Run.  In 1977 President Jimmy Carter posthumously reinstated her award.

That move led to the investigation of other awards that had been removed including Cody's.  On June 12th 1989 Cody's as well as four other civilian scout's awards were reinstated.  45 yeas after first being awarded the medal was revoked, 72 years after that is was reinstated.

-Professor Walter