Tidbits of History, July 14

July 14 is:
Pandemonium Day
National Nude Day
Macaroni Day
National Grand Marnier Day

In 1771 Franciscan Friar Junípero Serra founded the Mission San Antonio de Padua in present-day Monterey County, California, near the present-day town of Jolon.

Bastille Day, the national festival of France commemorates the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the release of political prisoners.

Alexander Mackenzie completed his journey in 1789 to the mouth of a great river. Mackenzie had hoped the river would take him to the Pacific, but it flowed into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America.

1798 – Congress passed the Sedition Act which made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.

James McNeill Whistler, the famed American-born painter and designer, was born July 14, 1834. For samples of his works (besides “Whistler’s Mother”), see Wikiart

In 1868 Alvin J. Fellows received a U.S. patent for a spring tape measure.

Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner in 1881. I highly recommend Ry Cooder’s song to be found at YouTube.

Irving Stone, American author, was born on July 14, 1903. He is best known for his novels, Lust for Life, a biographical novel about the life of Vincent van Gogh, and The Agony and the Ecstasy, a biographical novel about Michelangelo.

Gerald R. Ford Jr. , the 38th president of the United States, was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1913. His name at birth was Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; his step-father adopted him and changed his name.

July 14, 1933 – Gleichschaltung: in Germany, all political parties were outlawed except the Nazi Party.

From Today in Science
1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring . It called for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffered from alleged genetic disorders.
In 1933, a sterilization law was passed in Nazi Germany, known as Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses (Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring), to be effective 1 Jan 1934. Any German was a target if suffering from any of the following mental conditions that were expected to be hereditary: congenital mental deficiency, schizophrenia or manic-depressive insanity. Other expected herediatry conditions included: epilepsy, Huntington’s chorea, blindness, deafness, any severe hereditary deformity or even severe alcoholism. Within a few years, up to an estimated 400,000 Germans were involuntarily sterilized in pursuit of this national goal of “racial hygiene,” to eliminate handicapped descendants. Most operations, often by female tubal ligations or male vasectomies, were done in 1934-37.