1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This was a gutsy move on Lincoln’s part, because it was right before a midterm election. Granted, he had spent the summer using the press to prepare people for it, but it was still a shock. Lincoln was a moderate, so he didn’t want an immediate end to the war, like the Democrats, or immediate abolition, like the radicals. His Proclamation only freed slaves in the Confederacy, not the contentious border states — a distinction that’s probably been made by every AP U.S. history teacher in the country. Karl Marx called the Emancipation Proclamation an “unheroic, heroic document” as he obviously wished Lincoln had gone further, but what do communists know anyway? Democrats gained seats in the House because of the Proclamation, but they didn’t take the majority. And while the Proclamation was initially a shock, it was soon embraced. When it took effect in January, black troops began fighting for the Union. Eventually, 10 percent of the Union army, 180,000 soldiers, were black.
1960, Scott Baio was born. You probably don’t know Scott Baio for his role as Chachi in “Happy Days.” So, you also probably don’t know that he reprised his role in the spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi” and then went on to play Charles in “Charles in Charge.” You also probably wouldn’t recognize him, even if you saw him when he guest-starred on “Full House,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “Touched by an Angel” or “The Nanny.” You may know him, however, as the Bluths’ family lawyer, Bob Loblaw, in “Arrested Development.” (Bob Loblaw dedicated Pepperdine’s law school parking lot, and it’s officially known as Bob Loblaw’s law lot.) A B-list actor with no prospects, VH1 made him the subject of a reality show in 2007: “Scott Baio is 45 … and Single.” The show was a success both for VH1 and Baio, because a year later VH1 aired “Scott Baio is 46 … and Pregnant,” which focused on Baio as he and his wife, Renee, had a baby girl.
1975, Sara Jane Moore tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Someone else had tried to assassinate Ford 17 days earlier. Also, Moore was picked up by the Secret Service the day before her attempt for carrying an illegal firearm but was released. She shot at Ford the next day with a different gun and missed the president’s head by six inches due to the gun’s faulty sights. A Marine tackled her before she could take a second shot. Moore pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, but she escaped for a few hours once in 1979. Ford, a life regent at Pepperdine and dedicator of the Brock House, lived longer than any other president and died in 2006 at the age of 93. Moore was paroled in 2007 and appeared on the “Today” show in 2009. She regrets the radical politics of her youth and is glad her assassination attempt failed.
1980, Iraq invaded Iran. Iraq was trying to take advantage of Iran in the wake of their recent revolution. Iraq also feared its own suppressed Shiite majority would be inspired to rise up as the Iranians did. So, fearing border conflict, Iraq went on the offensive. Two years later, Iran was winning and on the offensive. A total of eight years passed before the whole thing was over and done. Iraq and Iran fought in the style of World War I, employing trench warfare and chemical weapons. This war was the longest conventional war of the 20th century and ended up costing more than a $1 trillion and one million lives. Strategically, American support for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq aimed to counter-balance revolutionary Iran, but ended up literally backfiring when America went to war against Hussein in 1990 and 2003. Ironically, Donald Rumsfeld went to Baghdad in 1983 to shake Hussein’s hand and discuss military aid. And, appropriately, China freely sold arms to both sides in this war.
2003, David Hempleman-Adams became the first person to cross the Atlantic in an open wicker basket hot air balloon. Up, up and away in his beautiful balloon, Hempleman-Adams flew from New Brunswick, Canada, to Blackpool, United Kingdom. (Incidentally, New Brunswick is the reason Nebraska’s postal abbreviation is NE and not NB. Because if mail bound for pine trees ended up in corn fields, who knows what would befall us all.) Hempleman-Adams, a Brit, is actually a very daring adventurer who holds four honorary titles of nobility. He’s the only person to have reached the magnetic and geographic North and South Poles and to have climbed the highest peaks on the seven continents. In 2005, he dined with Bear Grylls at a table suspended beneath a hot air balloon that was flying at over 24,000 feet. When they finished their meal of asparagus, salmon and summer fruits, they parachuted down to Earth. And while he doesn’t always drink beer, when he does he prefers Dos Equis
