Tidbits of History, September 19

September 19 is:

International Talk Like A Pirate Day ;
National Butterscotch Pudding Day

1676 – Jamestown, Virginia colony was burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon’s Rebellion.

Sept 19, 1778, The Continental Congress passed the first budget of the United States.

September 19, 18811881 Death of James Abram Garfield , twentieth President of the United States. Garfield was serving in the House of Representatives when he was elected President, the only active Representative to have been elected to the presidency. Garfield was also the first left-handed President. Garfield was inaugurated on Mar 4, 1881.

Garfield was shot July 2, 1881 by assassin Charles J Guiteau. On September 19, 1881 Garfield had a massive heart attack and a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, blood poisoning and pneumonia. He was 49 years old.

Unusual information about Garfield:

  • It is said you could ask him a question in English and he could simultaneously write the answer in Greek with one hand and in Latin with the other.
  • President Garfield’s mother was the first president’s mother to attend her son’s inauguration.
  • Garfield was the first president to campaign in multiple languages. He often spoke in German with German-Americans he encountered along the campaign trail.
  • To stay in shape and build muscles, James Garfield liked to juggle Indian clubs, a popular exercise device during the late 19th and early 20th century. The clubs were shaped like bowling pins and were swung in patterns as part of an exercise routine.

1893 New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all women the right to vote

1945 – Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) is sentenced to death in London. Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to wartime traitor William Joyce, remembered for his propaganda broadcasts that opened with “Jairmany calling, Jairmany calling”, spoken in an unintentionally comic upper-class accent.

Charlie ChaplinThe United States barred Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England. He was accused of being a Communist sympathizer in 1952.

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