Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson -- June 28

JUNE 28 -- 1971 Happy Birthday Elon Musk; 1778 Battle of Monmouth; 1820 Tomato goes on trial in NJ

1971 – Happy birthday American immigrant Elon Musk from South Africa. A

s a kid, he was picked on and beaten so badly he needed surgery at the age of 41 to repair a deviated septum. He’s only worth 20B. He left South Africa when he was 17 to attend Queens College in Canada, then onto the University of Pennsylvania where he got degrees in economics and physics. Rumor has it, he would throw parties and charge a $5 cover to help pay his rent. I also used to do that when I went to school near Chico State in northern California but the different is Elon paid his rent with the money and I always drank my profit. That explains a few things, right? Anyway, in 1995 he headed to Stanford to get his PhD in energy physics, but the Internet was taking off so he quit after two days pursuing a career in that.

A self-made man who taught himself programming at age 12, Elon created Zip2, whose product was an online city guide that he sold to Compaq computers for around $350Million. He earned his first billion dollars after the creation of x.com in1999, today now known as PayPal. But the world was not enough for a guy like Elon Musk, so he reached for the stars, literally.

In 2002 he created SpaceX, building little spaceships that would carry cargo to the International Space Station. Ten years later, Falcon9 rockets were designed to carry heavy payloads into outer space, and in February 2018 successfully tested the Falcon9 Heavy, carrying one of Elon’s Tesla Roadsters on it.

Oh, I didn’t mention Tesla? That was in 2008. Tesla Motors specializes as we all know in electric cars, battery efficiency and solar. In 2013 Tesla came out with the Model S, a sedan which could cover 265 miles between battery charges, actually won the Motor Trend Car of the Year award. In 2017 Tesla drove ahead of General Motors to become the top car manufacturing company in America.

The Hyperloop is another invention that is designed to put people in a pod and zip them around at 700 miles per hour. I say, if he can invent a device that could get people just one mile up or down the 405 in LA in a few minutes would be amazing. A newer company, called the Boring Company, which proposed a high speed rail tunnel, is designed to help passengers in Chicago get to downtown quickly from the O’Hare airport. His interest in Artificial Intelligence, or AI, began with Neural ink, which uploads software into a living human brain.

Marriage is tough for entrepreneurs, especially the successful ones, and this is one fact of life Musk has not been able to change. He’s been married twice and has had five children, one who died of SIDS right away.

It’s no wonder Elon Musk would have a cameo in the movie Iron Man 2, since he is considered the real life Tony Stark. He thinks like a tree, saying , “It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”

He’s considering   dropping thermonuclear weapons on both poles on Mars to warm it up a little bit, using nuclear fission to create two suns for the planet. What’s next for Elon Musk?

With a guy like that there’s just no telling.

1953 – Assembly on the first Corvette …begins in Flint, MI. This first generation of Corvettes is known as the solid-axle generation since independent rear suspension didn’t come until the second generation, which was the 1963 Sting Ray. Designer Harley Earl was hired by General Motors in 1927, and Harley loved his sports cars. Europe was coming up with some cool sports cars; MGs, Jaguars, Alfa Romeo’s, Ferraris, so America needed something that could rival that. The Corvette was introduced in January 1953 at the Motorama auto show in New York City. It was made of fiberglass instead of steel to keep costs down; it had a six cylinder engine and had an output of 150 horsepower. It was a convertible and did not have exterior door handles; you had to open it from the inside. The Corvette was an instant hit and production began June 28, 1953, and rolled of the line two days later. It’s gone through many generations, with the seventh beginning in 2014. It’s considered America’s sports car and is an absolute American icon. According to sema.org, California, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio lead that states for most Vettes owned. One in four Corvette owners modify their engine control systems, valve trains and electrical systems, while the most popular accessories include floor mats, license plate frames, and alarm systems. 82% of Vette owners are between ages of 40 and 69. Midlife crisis, anyone?

1778 –The Battle of Monmouth, …and Washington loses his temper. George Washington sent his second in command, General Charles Lee to harass the British who were heading from Philadelphia to New York City. Washington was moving his freshly trained army from Valley Forge to join the fight, but Lee retreated before they got there. Lee didn’t like that plan in the first place. He wanted to strike at the British columns in New Jersey rather than confront 15,000 redcoats, which is why Washington was sending the army from Valley Forge. Washington went off on Lee on June 28, 1778, furious that he had appointed Lee in the first place; Washington rallied his troops in agonizing heat, along with the help of Henry Knowles and Nathanael Greene. The British had Sir Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis. Both armies fought bitterly until nightfall when it got too dark. Clinton withdrew, and the result of the battle is inconclusive although it did demonstrate the vigor and maturity of the new army from Valley Forge. 1820 – The tomato is put on trial …in New Jersey and pronounced innocent by a jury of other vegetable peers. My salad has never been happier. The tomato, part of the Soanaceae family, had a bad rap for being in the same family as other poisonous plants. Col. Robert Givvon Johnson, according to brasscastlearts.com, from Salem County, NJ, consumed a quantity of ripe tomatoes on June 28, 1820 before an audience, in an effort to prove to h is neighbors that tomatoes were not only edible but also delicious and worthy of commercial cultivation. Not sure if this story’s legit considering in New Jersey during June tomatoes are still in blossom and aren’t even ready for consumption until September.