Day Tripping: March 25

Scribes, Sky jockeys, and Solidarity

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

Short Story Author

William Sydney Porter was sentenced to a five-year prison term for embezzling $850 from a Texas bank where he worked in 1898. Porter reportedly committed this crime to pay for his wife’s medical bills, who ended up dying of tuberculosis. William Porter served his jail term and in the process, he became one of the most prolific short story writers in American history.

You might better recognize this man by his pen name, O. Henry. While on the run in Honduras before returning and being arrested, Porter coined the phrase, ‘Banana Republic’ when describing the island country.

High Flyer

One day after crashing his biplane in a training exercise in the presence of General Higgins who ordered the new pilot be returned to flight school, Canadian airman Billy Bishop claimed his first combat victory in 1917 during World War I. After shooting down and mortally wounding Lieutenant Theiller, Bishop’s Nieuport aircraft began to have engine failure.

Billy landed safely in ‘no man’s land’ and ran 300 yards to the safety of an allied trench. When he wrote command of his experience and his victory, the General rescinded his order to send Bishop packing.

Billy Bishop went on to become a unit commander and the British Empire’s highest-scoring flying ace, earning him the Victoria Cross as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was then promoted as an RCAF Air Marshal during WWII in 1939.

Grassroots Leader

After a five day long march from Selma, Alabama in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. leads 8,000 civil rights activists to the steps of the state capitol in Montgomery. In the wake of enduring the recent Bloody Sunday assault at the Pettus Bridge, the throng grows to 25,000 black citizens and supporting whites as they descend on the capitol for a non-violent protest, demanding voting rights for African American citizens.

During the day, a white civil rights activist from Detroit named Viola Liuzzo is fatally shot by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Musical Milestones

Stevie Wonder makes an acceptance speech for winning an Oscar in 1985 for his song I Just Called To Say I Love You, during which he honours the imprisoned Nelson and calls attention to the Apartheid regime. The South African government bans Wonder’s music the following day, but the firestorm kicked off by the musician gains steam in the celebrity activist community.

Narratives

United States Customs confiscates 520 copies of the book Howl, a poem by Alan Ginsberg that was printed in England. The book was seized on the grounds of obscenity in 1957.

Remembrance

Composer of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Nocturnes, French composer Claude Debussy died in 1918.

Notable Births

1942 — The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tenessee

1947 — Reginald Kenneth Dwight, an iconic singer-songwriter we know as Sir Elton John.

1982 — Danica Patrick is the most successful female open-wheel racer.

K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray 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 Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS

The Story Of Day Tripping Through History What’s Past Is Often Present