Commies Everywhere – So They Said
April 14, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays, Maui Curmudgeon No Comments |
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Ex-Spouse Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — kupa ‘Amelika: American Citizen PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Gumi bilong kok: Condom HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Only the blind gropes in the darkness.” HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Have you no sense of decency?” (Lawyer Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy, June 9, 1954)
WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Draft of Maui County General Plan WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — JibJab.com PODCAST OF THE WEEK — The Ethicist, NYT BLOG OF THE WEEK — TheRoot.com
April 14th, 2008: This week two interesting historical events happened, in a way one occurring from the other, though years apart.
On April 14, 1963, a strike was called by the International Labor Workers Union (ILWU), against 23 of Hawaii’s 25 sugar plantations, including all those on Maui. The union warned its members that they should expect a long strike to redress long-held grievances which the union had not previously been able to address. The strike lasted more than a month.
Previously, this week in 1950 saw meetings at Iolani Palace on Oahu. The U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities held hearings on – what else – commies in the country. Specifically, these meetings addressed strikes, and “alleged communist influence in Hawaii labor groups”. More specifically, the committee was called to address the recent ILWU strike on Oahu docks. At that time, seven were arrested for “subversion”.
The committee called 68 witnesses, and with some pride we note that the majority of them – 39 – refused to testify. The committee went home unhappy, but the committee pressed no formal charges against anyone. The seven were exonerated.
Though Hawaii was not yet a state, its residents showed many U.S. citizens the courage freedom takes to win.
The photo is an actual Honolulu Advertiser shot of the hearings at Iolani.
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — April 14th
- 1611: The word “telescope” is first used by Prince Federico Cesi
- 1775: The first society to free slaves is formed in Philadelhia Pennsylvania
- 1817: The first American school for deaf is established (Hartford Connecticut)
- 1818: U.S. Medical Corp forms
- 1828: The first edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary is published.
- 1860: The first Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco from St. Joseph Missouri
- 1865: President Abraham Lincoln is fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC (President Lincoln dies the next day)
- 1894: Thomas Edison gives the first public showing of his Kinetoscope (motion pictures)
- 1910: A weakened and gravely-ill Mark Twain is carried from the steamship that has brought him back from Bermuda and transported to his Stormfield Estate in Redding, Connecticut (he dies one week later)
- 1912: The “unsinkable” British liner Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic while on it’s maiden voyage and begins sinking
- 1931: Spain becomes a republic with the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII
- 1935: “Black Sunday”: After weeks of dust storms in the Plains states of the U.S., the day starts with skies clear and sunny that turn black by mid-afternoon from one of the worst dust storms of the 1930’s – the decade of drought (when the story about this storm is written tomorrow by AP reporter Robert Geiger, he coins the phrase “dust bowl” for the drought-ridden Plains states)
- 1939: John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is first published
- 1986: U.S. Warplanes attack targets in Libya in response to a terrorist attack on April 5th
- 1997: James McDougal, who has agreed to cooperate with Whitewater prosecutors investigating President and Mrs. Clinton, is sentenced to a term of three years in prison for 18 felony fraud and conspiracy counts
- 2003: U.S. commandos in Baghdad captured Abul Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985.
- 2007: Singer Don Ho died in Honolulu, Hawaii, at age 76.
BORN ON THIS DAY — April 14th
- 1578: Philip III, King of Spain & Portugal
- 1629: Christian Huygens, astronomer
- 1889: Arnold Toynbee, historian
- 1889: Efim D Bogoljubov, Russian chess player
- 1904: Sir John Gielgud, actor
- 1925: Rod Steiger, actor
- 1932: Loretta Lynn, singer
- 1941: Julie Christie, actress
- 1941: Pete Rose, baseball player
- 1968: Anthony Michael Hall, actor
- 1973: Adrien Brody, actor
- 1977: Sarah Michelle Gellar, actress
- 1996: Abigail Breslin, actress (“Little Miss Sunshine”)
