Day Tripping: March 10

Connections, Cops, and Confessions

Welcome to my daily feature where each day on the calendar marks a part of our shared history.

In For First Contact

This was the day when the voice was heard on the other end of the line for the first time. Thomas Watson clearly heard his boss say, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” When Watson arrived at Alexander Graham Bell’s side from the adjoining office to informed he had heard every word, science and the world of communication changed forever in 1876.

The briefest of telephone conversations gave proof to the idea that vocally transmitted waves were possible, and no matter who actually invented the technology, it was Bell’s perseverance that paid off.

Out At Second Base

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was an ardent baseball fan but on this day in 1951, he declined the offer to become Commissioner of Major League Baseball. He was not the first or last political type to tapped for the job. California Senator Earl Warren declined just before Hoover’s offer, and years later, Richard Nixon did likewise.

The ramifications of a figure like Hoover leaving the FBI for MLB would have been highly significant to both organizations. We can only wonder what would have been.

Locked Up For Life

On the same day as his forty-first birthday, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to murdering Martin Luther King Jr. in 1969. The confession occurred slightly less than one year after Ray shot King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, fled to Toronto, Canda and then to England where he was subsequently caught trying to board a plane for Belgium.

Ray served nearly thirty years of a 99-year sentence before dying at age seventy. He also had one year added to his sentence for an attempted escape.

Musical Milestones

1981 — At a Jeff Beck concert in London, Jimmy Page plays on stage for the first time since Led Zeppelin broke up. What a show it must have been with two former lead guitarists of The Yardbirds performing together.

Narratives

Hairy Ape, a play about class struggle and identity written by Eugene O’Neill premiers in New York in 1922.

Remembrance

A co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and former Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin dies at eighty-five in 1992.

Notable Births

1934 — The first human to reach space, Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino, Russia.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article dedicated to the days of our history. I hope to see you tomorrow for another instalment.

K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Joseph M. Learned Maryam Merchant Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, PhD. Terry Trueman Dr Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus