Looking Back: Some 2010 Anniversaries

Happy New Year! The New Year is always a time to look to the future and reminisce about the past. It also provides a time to examine anniversaries of historical events. So, without delay, here are some anniversaries worth noting:

Five Years Ago (2005): Hurricane Katrina wipes out New Orleans. Over 1800 people died when Katrina struck. Government red tape and corruptions kept the levees from being upgraded to withstand a storm of that magnitude. Additionally, local and state officials failed to evacuate citizens in New Orleans resulting in a massive body count. On top of all this, the federal response was slow and incompetent thus demonstrating why government should not be allowed to run anything.

Ten Years Ago (2000): Bush vs. Gore. Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won the electoral college. It all came down to Florida's electoral vote. Gore decided to contest Democratic counties in Florida. During the multiple recounts, Gore made steady progress and cut into Bush’s lead in Florida. In recounts, the person leading the vote usually gains votes. Gore’s progress denotes possible vote fraud which led to protests. The Bush Campaign went to court. After a couple rounds in the Florida Supreme Court, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. On a 5-4 vote, they ended the madness in Florida and Bush became president. Gore’s mistake was not requesting a statewide recount at the beginning of this fiasco.

Twenty Years Ago (1990): Iraq invades Kuwait. Saddam Hussein decided to annex Kuwait. Iraq claimed it as a province. Hussein sent feelers to the Bush Administration about the invasion beforehand. The administration failed to warn off Hussein. As a result, Saddam felt he had a free hand and launched the invasion.

Twenty-Five Years Ago (1985): Gorbachev takes command. The Soviet Union buried three leaders during the Reagan Administration. Privately, President Reagan complained that he could not deal with the Soviets if their leaders kept dying. The Communist Party selected Mikhail Gorbachev to lead the country. Gorbachev was young and vigorous as opposed to the walking corpses that previously led the nation. Eventually, the new leader instituted reforms which backfired and helped destroy the USSR.

Fifty Years Ago (1960): Kennedy defeats Nixon. In the closest election anyone could remember, John Kennedy edged Vice-President Richard Nixon for the presidency. The election served as the transition in leadership from the Lost Generation to the G.I. Generation. Additionally, the first debate between Nixon and Kennedy proved the power of television. Radio listeners believed Nixon won the debate. Unfortunately for Nixon, more people saw the debate on television.

Seventy-Five Years Ago (1935): The Dust Bowl. Years of mismanagement of the nation’s farmland came home to roost. The topsoil was destroyed by generations of mismanagement and the great plains literally blew away. People on the east coast watched in amazement as Oklahoma blew into the ocean.

100 Years Ago (1910): Jack Johnson defeats Jim Jeffries. African-American boxer Jack Johnson beat all challengers. Whites demanded former champ Jim Jeffries return from retirement to defeat Johnson. Eventually, Jeffries relented and Johnson won the bout. Race riots broke out all over the country because a black man knocked out a white man in a boxing ring.

150 Years Ago (1860): Lincoln wins! In a bizarre presidential election, Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the presidency. There were two elections in 1860. In the South, John C. Breckinridge and John Bell squared off. Lincoln was not on the ballot. In the North, Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas battled. The North had the population and Lincoln won the North. So, Lincoln won the White House and the South left the Union.

200 Years Ago (1810): Macon’s Bill Number 2. Thomas Jefferson destroyed the American economy with his embargo. Congressman Nathaniel Bacon and President James Madison wanted to correct Jefferson’s error. President Jefferson believed Europe needed American goods and he could coerce the British and French into behaving on the high seas through an embargo. The two powers were seizing American ships to stop trade. Bacon’s bill promised to lift the embargo on whatever power promised to stop seizing American ships. Napoleon agreed, the U.S. dropped the embargo on France, and British-American relations suffered eventually leading to war in 1812.
300 Years Ago (1710): The Tuscarora Tribe protest land seizures. In 1710, the Tuscarora Indians sent a protest to the Pennsylvania colonial government. They complained about whites stealing their lands and enslaving their people.400 Years Ago (1610): Jamestown re-supplied. The winter of 1609-1610 was known as “the starving time” in Jamestown. The colonists lacked food and were surrounded by hostile Indians. They resorted to cannibalism. Eventually, the colony was re-supplied and repopulated with new colonists. This saved English North America.

500 Years Ago (1510): Slavery comes to the Americas. In 1510, Spanish King Ferdinand officially opened the New World to African slavery. This began 500 years of racial antagonism between whites and blacks in the Americas.