Hello all
Happy Sunday!
As the US presidential election draws closer, the Brits watch on with fascination at the sheer scale and spectacle of the process. The political tension was evident last week as the Secret Service thwarted a second attempt to assassinate Donald Trump.
Of course, presidential assassination attempts are not new to the United States. There have been at least eight since the turn of the 20th century, but I’m guessing others may have been quashed before they became public knowledge.
In the UK over the same period, there have been three failed attempts to assassinate a British prime minister: Herbert Asquith (1909), Margaret Thatcher (1984) and John Major (1991).
Unfortunately, assassination attempts sometimes succeed. The United States has experienced four presidential assassinations: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John F Kennedy (1963).
In the UK, the only prime ministerial assassination took place when John Bellingham shot and killed Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in 1812.
Like Donald Trump, Gerald Ford survived two assassination attempts, one of which was 49 years ago today, on 22 September 1975.
Despite having been checked out earlier in the year by the Presidential Secret Service, political activist Sara Jane Moore was able to take a pop shot at Ford as he left a hotel in San Francisco that afternoon. Moore spent 31 years in prison.
The other attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford was by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme only 17 days earlier. Moore and Fromme are the only two women to have attempted to assassinate a President of the United States.
On 25 September 1789, 235 years ago on Wednesday, the US Congress proposed 12 amendments to the new US Constitution. These 12 amendments were reduced to 10 in 1791 to become known as the Bill of Rights. The second amendment states:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The debate rolls on…….
Podcast episode... a look back
Episode 18. The Arizonian Nomad
Steven K. Roberts was born 72 years ago this Wednesday, 25 September 1952. Throughout his early years, Roberts combined travel with an entrepreneurial streak, supplying integrated circuits, building computers, writing for trade magazines and consulting.
It was no surprise then that on 28 September 1983, he upped sticks from his home in Columbus, Ohio to spend the next eight years cycling across America in nomadic style.
He continued to work en route. The first laptops had emerged, enabling him to write articles and communicate with clients along the way. Retrospectively, he has become known as the world’s first digital nomad.
Collins Dictionary
digital nomad
noun
a person who uses digital technology to work remotely while regularly travelling to different places
I had the pleasure of meeting a present-day digital nomad last year. Brenda Hater had a similar eureka moment to Steven Roberts during Covid.
She sold all three houses and now travels with her worldly possessions - one suitcase and a laptop. The laptop provides her means for working as a software consultant.
As for home, it can be in any one of the many house-sits she has experienced around the world, looking after people’s pets in their homes while they are away.
It was an invigorating conversation that reminded me we can, at any time, reflect on our lives as they are now and change how they might look in the future. Let me know what you think about that.
Schoolboy mistake - I didn’t take a photo of Brenda at the time, so I have shown you Steve K. Robert’s bike, BEHEMOTH, above, at its home in the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California. (‘Big Electronic Human Energized Machine, Only Too Heavy’!)
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music or just about any other podcast player of your choice. Check out the show notes for the links and transcript to learn more.
My favourite quote from the episode…
Not too many people would or could really do what I do. And that is because of the mantra of the six P's. So I have...
no Partner
no Pets
no Plants
no Parents
no Progeny, and therefore
no Problems. That's the sixth 'P'.
Dates with History…
Today…
Cecil Chubb was born in 1876 and attended a rival school to mine, Bishop Wordsworth’s, in Salisbury, Wiltshire. He built a successful career as a barrister and considerable wealth as an investor, racehorse owner and cattle breeder.
However, Cecil is most famous for a rather unusual purchase. One hundred and nine years ago this week on 21 September 1915, he bought Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument still standing on Salisbury Plain. I didn’t realise that buying Stonehenge was a thing! The total cost was £6,600, about £500,000 today.
Only three years later, Chubb generously donated the monument to the nation. Since then, it has been faithfully nurtured and restored. Today, more than one million people visit Stonehenge each year.
Today marks the 90th anniversary of Cecil Chubb’s death, 22 September 1934. He died at home a few miles up the road from me in the centre of Bournemouth.
Later this week….
Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of Malcolm Campbell breaking the world land speed record on 24 September 1924. Campbell reached a speed of 146 mph in a V12 Sunbeam at Pendine Sands, Carmarthen Bay. I have seen the Sunbeam several times at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire.
Campbell went on to break eight more land speed records. His son Donald would break the 400 mph barrier in 1964. The current land speed record stands at 763 mph (Mach 1.02….. i.e., supersonic).
By the way...
One hundred and thirty-two years ago today, 22 September 1892, a remarkable event occurred in the English county of Cumbria.
Sharpie, the diesel locomotive, was edging into sidings near the Lindal Station, Lindal-in-Furness. Thomas Postlethwaite, the driver, sensed something unusual was afoot. As he shut off the steam power, the ground in front of the train opened up in front of him.
Postlethwaite jumped clear with moments to spare, watching helplessly as Sharpie disappeared down a 30-foot sinkhole. During the attempted rescue, the hole deepened to 60 feet. Sharpie went down with it, where she remains to this day.
Question of the week...
Branwell Brontë died 176 years ago on Tuesday, 24 September 1848. He was a painter, writer and teacher. He was 31 years old when he died prematurely from alcohol and opium addiction.
Who were Branwell’s three famous literary sisters?
(answer at bottom of newsletter)
And finally...
If you and I are a similar age, you might remember the irrepressible comedy duo Laurel and Hardy singing...
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
On the trail of the lonesome pine
In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine
Where she carved her name and I carved mine
Oh, June, like the mountains I’m blue
Like the pine I am lonesome for you
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
On the trail of the lonesome pine
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine actually reached No. 2 in the UK pop charts in 1975, despite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy having died at least ten years earlier. For the record, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody prevented it from achieving the No. 1 spot.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a soft, sentimental ballad that frames the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia as a peaceful, tranquil area.
Roy Sullivan was no stranger to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Born and raised within view, Roy pursued a successful 36 career as a park ranger in the encompassing Shenandoah National Park.
For Sullivan, however, ‘peaceful and tranquil’ may not be adjectives that came to mind. You see, between the ages of 30 and 65, lightning struck Roy a record seven times.
The first strike was in 1942 while on duty in a fire lookout tower. His leg and foot received burns. After a 25-year gap, Roy was then struck a further six times on various parts of his anatomy every two to three years until 1977.
He was struck while fishing, driving his truck and even when ‘safely’ standing within the ranger station.
The story should have a happy ending; after all, Roy survived. However, in retirement he developed a fear of thunderstorms (fair enough!) and suffered from depression, partly through people avoiding him for fear of being struck themselves.
Roy took his own life 41 years ago on Saturday, 28 September 1983. The exact motive for his death remains a mystery.
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Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!
Steve
HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER
P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.
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Answer to Question of the week: From left to right: Anne (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), Emily (Wuthering Heights) and Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre)
NEXT WEEK'S BREEZER
Václav Havel: The playwright who scripted a revolution
LAST WEEK'S BREEZER
Pigeon Impossible - William of Orange's flap of honour
Attribution for cover page: John Wilkes Booth leaning forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln, 1865: See file page for creator info.
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