The Mysteries of History (May 13 Edition)
1920 — Debs Nominated; 1958 — Nixon Attacked in Venezuela; 1981 — Pope Shot; 1985 — Police Bomb MOVE Headquarters
public domain images of Eugene V. Debs from wikimedia commons
Many interesting things happened on this day in history, but none of them, in my opinion, are worthy of their own separate analysis, but here’s a brief synopsis of a few of the things:
In 1920, Eugene Debs, while incarcerated, was nominated as the Socialist Party’s choice for President. He had run and lost before, and although Debs (aka “Convict 2253”) did better at the polls this time than before, he still lost, so its significance is limited.
In 1958, then-Vice President Richard Nixon was attacked by an angry crowd in Venezuela while tooling along in a car along with his entourage. But, although it was a scary incident, they all got away; so again, the significance of the event doesn’t merit much more discussion than that.
Then, in 1980, the Pope was shot by an apparently insane man. But he recovered, so …
Finally, in 1985, in an attempt to stamp out a group of reportedly well-armed radicals, the police in Philadelphia dropped a bomb on MOVE (not an acronym) headquarters, which resulted in the deaths of many inside the building and the incineration of an entire block (whose residents had been evacuated prior to the attack on the building). That was a significant event, to be sure, as 11 people were killed including five children, but it is one of those stories that is almost impossible to unravel as to what the true situation was without actually being there and having been personally involved — as to determining who bears the most blame for the deaths. I recommend anyone interested to do their own research on it, perhaps by reading this article.
Questions: If you were alive for any of these events, do you remember them? If not, which ones (if any) had you heard of?
Read about “The Secret Lives of Kids” here.
