Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson -- June 29

JUNE 29 -- 1914 -- News hits America about onslaught of WWI; 1972 -- Supreme Court strikes down Death Penalty; 1940 - Batman's sidekick, Robin, loses parents; 1941 Joe DiMagggio breaks hitting record; 2011 -- Happy Divorsary Tom Cruise/Katy HOlmes; 1862 Battle of Savage's Station

JUNE 29

1914 – Here are the headlines from the New York Times: Heir to Austria’s Throne is Slain! With His Wife By a Bosnian Youth To Avenge Seizure of His Country.

Well this is a mess.

Though it didn’t really affect the United States on this particular day in 1914, Americans definitely kept a close eye out on a world that would now be dragged into becoming either an Axis or an Ally. Seems strange that one person’s death can lead to such worldwide destruction, until you consider world politics with Russia, Germany, the Austro-Hungarians, Serbs and Bosnians, and how they were entangled at the time. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and ‘13 led Serbian nationalists to free the Slavs that were south to Austro-Hungary. Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip and other nationalists were trying to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia as well as Herzegovina. 

Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia were shot dead in their automobile  in Sarajevo, Bosnia. On July 28, Austro-Hungary would declare war on Serbia. The Russians sided with Serbia, and the Germans sided with Austro-Hungary. France, who was bounded by treaty with Russia, jumped in as well against the Germans. That August, Germany would invade Belgium, and Britain would declare war against Germany.

Soon enough, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Japan, and of course, the United States, would all declare war against Germany. But for this one day, the news of the Austrian Heir’s assassination would send shockwaves instantly across the world, all the way to American newspaper headlines.

1972 – Supreme Court strikes down death penalty. …In Furman v Georgia, the US Supreme Court rules by a vote of 5-4 that capital punishment on the Federal level is unconstitutional. The debate of course rages on to this day, with many believing it’s in violation of the 8th amendment under the whole cruel and unusual punishment clause. Opposition to the death penalty peaked just several years before this, rising to 47% against. Then the tide turned and support grew for the death penalty in the 1970s and 80s, peaking in 1994 at 80%.

According to Wiki, arguments in opposition to the death penalty in the US include: the fact that a significant number of death row inmates are found to be innocent before execution, and that some executed criminals’ convictions have been subsequently shown to be unsafe; the disproportionately high chance of poor and ethnic minority individual’s to be sentenced to death compared with affluent whites committing similar crimes; lack of solid evidence for its deterrent effect; the 8th amendment clause I mentioned; and moral relativism, the idea that if it is wrong to kill then it is absolutely not relatively wrong, most religious bodies in the USS opposed the death penalty.

In Batman news 1940 – Monsters rubbed out circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick an orphan. Dick Grayson would of course become Batman’s sidekick, Robin. In baseball news… 1941 – DiMaggio extends hitting streak to 42, breaking Gentleman George Sisler’s record.

2011 – Happy divorsary Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes. …He jumped on Oprahs’ couch over that?! 1862 – Battle of Savage’s Station. …Edwin Sumner and the army of the Potomac had just been defeated at Gaines Mill and began a retreat toward the James River on June 29, 1862. Confederate General John B. Magruder’s army pursued along the Richmond and York river railroad and caught up with Sumner’s rear guard near Savage’s Station.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s divisions were stalled near the Chickahominy River, so Magruder had no reinforcements. According to civilwar.org, As the battle raged, a 32-pounder naval rifle mounted on a railway car lobbed massive shells at the Yankees near Savage’s Station.

The show of Southern firepower was impressive, but was of little help to the outnumbered Confederates. The two sides fought one another until darkness ended the battle in a stalemate. The Seven Days Battles, or the Peninsula Campaign, continued with the much larger Battle of Glendale and the Batle of White Oak Swamp on June 30. 1988 – Lionel Richie’s wife beats him. Hey you, save me! Brenda Richiew was arrested in Beverly Hills after finding Lionel with another woman. Supposedly Brenda beat her up too. She was released on $5000 bail and charges against her were eventually dropped. Yeah because otherwise she’d kick Lionel’s ass again!