Day Tripping: March 7
Divorce, Discovery, and Civil Disobedience
Welcome to my daily feature where each day on the calendar marks a part of our shared history.
The Answer Is No
Pope Clement VII replies with a pointed denial of King Henry VIII’s request to divorce Catherine of Aragon in 1530. Having been warned by her that Henry planned to marry Anne Boleyn, the pope first threatened to excommunicate the English king. His warning went unheeded as the king continued in pursuit of an annulment in his marriage to Catherine.
Less than a year later, King Henry VIII had had his fill of the Catholic church’s denials, decreed himself the Sole Protector and Supreme Head of the Church of England.
The Answer Is Yes
In a race to beat Elisha Gray to the US patent office for similar inventions for a variable resistance featured acoustic telegraph, the telephone, was granted to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. Gray contended that his water-based variable was first, but Bell proved that he had written a similar plan using mercury much earlier.
After proof of his invention’s functionality, Bell and his partners offered to sell the patent to Western Union for $100,000. The president of the company declined, stating the telephone was merely a toy. He would later reveal that he would have gladly paid $25million, much too late.
We Want Answers
A twenty-five-year-old future congressman named John Lewis led six hundred people through the streets of Selma, Alabama and onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. They were determined to march over fifty miles to the state capital in Montgomery to confront Governor George Wallace with demands for equal voting rights for African American citizens.
Wallace ordered state troopers to use whatever force was necessary to quell the march, and when protesters met armed police after cresting the bridge, Bloody Sunday ensued. John Lewis and co-leader of the march Hosea Williams were severely beaten and teargassed along with other protesters while television cameras rolled.
The footage was aired on New York television, breaking into a premiere broadcast of Judgement at Nuremberg, the teleplay that depicted the horrors of the Holocaust. Journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff were quoted, “The juxtaposition struck like psychological lightning in American homes”.
Musical Milestones
The single version of We are the World is released to worldwide success in 1985. The song was co-written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson in aid of charity for victims of the battle famine in Africa. Produced by Quincy Jones, the USA for Africa members who recorded the song included Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, and Stevie Wonder.
Let’s get this kind of power back!
Narratives
In response to pressure from the public to bring back his illustrious detective, Arthur Conan Doyle publishes The Return of Sherlock Holmes collection in 1905 after being presumed missing or dead.
Remembrance
Eclectic film director of A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and 2001 A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick passed away in 1999 at age seventy. Truly one of a kind filmmaker.
Notable Births
1956 — The roll of Walter White brought Bryan Cranston to prominence as a superior actor. His work since adds proof to the pudding.
1964 — Wanda Sykes is one of the funniest and most intelligent comedians I’ve seen in a long time. Her Netflix standup show comes highly recommended.
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