This Month in History
Momentous or Merely Memorable
- By Alison McLean
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2010, Subscribe
50 Years Ago
It’s Debatable
Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon face off in the first televised presidential debate September 26, 1960. As a tanned, fit-looking Kennedy debates a thin, wan Nixon (recovering from the flu and recent knee surgery) in need of a shave, the subject is policy, but the take-home message is that on TV, appearances matter. Exactly how much the event affects Kennedy’s fall victory is itself a matter of debate, but more than half of voters report the contest influenced their opinion. Nixon declines to debate in 1968 and, as president, in 1972.
70 Years Ago
Underground Art
Four teenage boys exploring a fox den in a French hill near Montignac on September 12, 1940, discover a cavern with walls covered in a menagerie of enormous bulls, horses and deer. The more than 2,000 artworks in the cave, known as Lascaux—including one rare image of a human—date to the Paleolithic period, circa 18,000 years ago. Open to the public in 1948, the cave closes in 1963 as part of an ongoing effort to protect the art from the contaminating effects of visitors and climate changes.
110 Years Ago
Imperfect Storm
The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history slams into Galveston, Texas, on the afternoon of September 8, 1900. Many of the island city’s 37,000 residents have survived storms before and believe they can ride this one out too.
“I just felt that it could not come,” says Bible teacher Ida Austin. But the hurricane brings 130-mph winds and a 15-foot storm surge that overwhelms the 8.7-foot- high island, destroying the city and killing more than 6,000 people. Today Galveston sits behind a 17-foot-high sea wall— surmounted in 2008 by Hurricane Ike.
150 Years Ago
Late Bloomer
Anna Mary Robertson is born in Greenwich, New York, September 7, 1860, some 75 years before she embarks on the painting career that makes “Grandma Moses” a household name. A farm wife—
she marries Thomas Moses in 1887—she starts painting when arthritis puts an end to her needlework. In 1938, her naive paintings of old-timey rural life, displayed in a drugstore window, catch a collector’s eye, and Moses is soon exhibiting in New York City. She paints some 1,600 works to popular acclaim before dying, in 1961, at age 101.
390 Years Ago
Pilgrims’ Progress
The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, England, September 6, 1620, with 102 passengers determined to start a colony in the New World. Beset on the 66-day voyage by storms that damage the ship, the colonists, their leader William Bradford writes later, “commited them selves to the will of God, and resolved to proseede” rather than return. They land at Cape Cod November 11.
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Comments (3)
Where can I get a copy of the picture - 390 years ago - Pilgrims Progress - The Mayflower getting ready to set sail?
Posted by Joy Horne on August 28,2010 | 08:54 PM
Your statement about the Galveston seawall being surmounted by Hurricane Ike in 2008 is incorrect. In fact, as strong as Ike's storm surge was, the area behind the seawall-protected part of the gulf-facing south side of the island was the only part that did not sustain widespread flooding. Instead, the surge washed around the elevated seawall into Galveston Bay, from which it backwashed onto the lower, north side, flooding homes and businesses across much of the island.
Posted by Gary Hoffman on August 26,2010 | 03:04 PM
390 Years Ago: Who painted the picture of the ship docking?
Posted by Jeanne Schofer on August 21,2010 | 05:38 PM