It was 94 years ago today when President Wilson went before Congress and asked that the United States declare war upon Germany. In hindsight, of course, few can argue against such action….but as the New York Times reported at the time, not everyone was in favor of it:
Trouble-making Pacifists Barred
The President delivered this speech before an audience that had been carefully sifted. All day Washington had been in the hands of belligerent pacifists, truculent in manner, and determined to break into the Capitol. They tried to take possession of the Capitol steps, up which the President must go when he entered, and met the same fate that Coxey’s rioters fell in with twenty-three years ago at the hands of the police, who dispersed them.
A handful of them fell upon Senator Lodge and assaulted him. Others entered the Vice President’s room and were so aggressive that they were put out. But by nightfall the authorities had them eliminated, so far as any possibility of trouble was concerned, and they were not admitted to the Capitol at all.
Two troops of the Second Cavalry guarded the approaches, and admitted nobody who could not be vouched for and the building swarmed with Secret Service men, Post Office Inspectors, and policemen on guard to see that no harm form the lovers of peace befell the President of the United States in his charge of a constitutional duty.
He came at 8:30, guarded by another troop of cavalry. If he had come in the afternoon, as he wished to do, he would have made his entry through thousands of pacifists camped outside the building and parading its corridors and waiting for him. But at night it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a disturber to get within pistol shot of the Capitol, and even those who could get into the building itself could not get into the galleries without special tickets.
The first event that Wiki lists for today is “1513 – Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on, and names, Florida, becoming the first European known to do so“, and the latest is “2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out; hardest hit is in Tennessee with 29 people killed.“
Some other stuff that happened includes:
1792 – United States Mint is established.
1902 – The first full-time movie theater in the United States opens. Located in Los Angeles, California it was appropriately called “Electric Theatre”
1982 – Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
If you happen to see Emmylou Harris and/or Dr. Demento today, please give them my warmest birthday wishes.