June 10

The 17th century was a very trying time in the Western hemisphere, particularly for women. Ambitious women faced a myriad of obstacles to their achieving any sort of success in their chosen profession. While little has changed four centuries on, it is doubtful that women today face the obstacles that demure Bridget Bishop did. On the 10th in 1692 she was hanged at Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts. She had been found quite guilty of “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries.” Upon reflection immediately prior to her hanging, she purportedly called out ‘Who needs it? This job is such a royal pain in the neck.’ The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, exonerated Miss Bishop in 1956.

June 9

Without Les Paul, rock and roll and pop music would have been impossible. He invented both the solid body electric guitar and multi-track recording. Paul was born on the 9th in 1915 and is still performing today. In spite of his contributions to music, he didn’t win a Grammy until he was 90, when he won two in 2005, at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul and Friends: American Made World Played.

June 8

Creative accountants will never have any great difficulty finding work. Consider Colombia, our fellow occupant of the delightful western hemisphere. On the 8th in 1999, Colombia’s leaders announced that they had decided to include their trade in illegal drugs, which then exceeded half a billion dollars, in their determination of Colombia’s Gross National Product.

June 7

Richard Henry Lee was a Virginian and the sixth president of the Continental Congress. On the 7th in 1776, he presented to the second Continental Congress a resolution, which has come to be known as the Lee Resolution. The resolution read in part “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.” When the resolution was put to a vote 12 of the 13 colonies voted to approve it. The single exception was New York, which chose to abstain. And some people wonder where New Yorkers get their contentious and disagreeable natures.

June 6

June 6th in 1896 was a very big day for a very small boat. No, this has absolutely nothing to do with Gilligan. On that day, Frank Samuelson, a down-at-heels fisherman and, George Harbo, a merchant seaman in similar straits, dropped an 18-foot open rowboat into the water off The Battery in New York with the stated intention of rowing to the aptly named Scilly Isles off the English coast, which they succeeded in doing in 55 days. Their navigation equipment consisted of a compass, a sextant and a copy of the Nautical Almanac. The inspiration for their trip was a $10,000 cash prize being offered by Richard Fox, publisher of the National Police Gazette, to the first intrepid souls to row across the Atlantic. To say that the two men had an eventful crossing would be a serious understatement. On July 6, 31 days into their journey, the pair found themselves in the position of having to bail out the boat 30 times because the persistent gales, which seem to have dogged them throughout their journey, insisted on continually filling their boat with water. Nonetheless, they kept their eyes on the prize and they bailed when necessary and continued, presumably happily, on their way.

June 5

Airplanes have fascinated me since a very early age. Sadly, there is a tendency for the most interesting planes to be those designed for military use. The B-17 and the DC-3[i] are undeniably beautiful planes. Don’t even think about getting me started on the SR-71, commonly referred to as the Blackbird. I am also drawn to formations of planes making their way across the sky. It was, however, more than a little disturbing to see F-111s flying over Manhattan after the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers in 2001. One series of flights that I would have loved to seen, in spite of the rather precarious position it would have put me in occurred on the 5th in 1944 when more than 1000 British bombers dropped more than 5000 tons of bombs on German gun emplacements in Normandy.

[i] Originally designed for civilian use, it was adapted for military use because of its reliability

June 4

In 1917 on the 4th the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded and three women, Laura Elizabeth Richards (pictured), Maude H. Elliot, and Florence Hall, won a Pulitzer for their biography of Julia Ward Howe. In addition to being Richards’ mother and the subject of the award-winning book, Julia Ward Howe also wrote the words to the popular song The Battle Hymn of the Republic.