senate joint resolution 1

After it was revealed that less than a one percent margin in the popular ballot in the US 1968 presidential election had netted Richard Nixon a domineering fifty-six percent of the electors in the Electoral College (populists George Wallace and retired General Curtis LeMay of the American Independence Party also ran), Congress came for the first and closest time in history to abolishing the institution during debates held in the chamber on this day in 1969, bi-partisan support three hundred thirty-nine in favour with seventy against.
The bill to rescind the institution through constitutional amendment, sponsored in response to public concern by Brooklyn representative Emanuel Celler (*1888 – †1981, serving in Congress just two months shy of fifty years), received endorsement by Nixon and was championed in the Senate by Birch Bayh (*1928 – †2019, whose successful bid for senator in 1962 was larger attributed to the catchy campaign jingle ‘Hey, look him over,/He’s your kind of guy./His first name is Birch,/His last name is Bayh.’).
The motion, debated in the senatorial chamber the next September, on the eighth, however encountered opposition from smaller states, fearful that they would face political marginalisation without the outsized power of their electors (see also) and progress was stymied with filibustering. Though Nixon did not publicly withdraw his support, he also refused to try to persuade any fellow Republican to alter their stance, causing the attempt to fall short of the required threshold.

fall into the gap

Originally operating as an outlet Levi-Strauss blue jeans, pioneering the wall of denim concept since no retailer had heretofore been able to successful stock popular pants sizes and styles (carrying them all), selling those exclusively along with a selection of record albums and cassette tapes, the first store of the clothing chain The Gap was opened by Donald George and Doris Feigenbaum Fisher on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco on this day in 1969. Due to the limited selection it was originally going to be called Pants and Discs, but the savvy business woman, philanthropist and art collector Fisher suggested that they would reach across the generation gap, appealing to the younger and older demographic.

hushpuppies

By coincidence, respectively on this day in Tennessee (near the Opryland theme park) in 1969 and then three days later in Kentucky—neither places one would necessarily associate with fresh fish—the first eateries of the seafood themed restaurants Captain D’s and Long John Silver’s began serving.
It’s cannon given the fact that the restaurant is named after the galley-master and chief cook—and undercover pirate—aboard the Hispaniola in Treasure Island. I have no memory of the former—maybe there was a turf battle between these natural rivals—but do remember going to the latter not overly often but pretty regularly as a kid and remember the fishing village kitsch with the planks and the heavy ropes and associated all wooden decks with piers and ships because of it.

an aquarian exposition

On this day fifty years ago, the dairy farm of Max Yasgur became the venue for thirty-two musical acts, officials in the village of Woodstock some seventy kilometres away banishing the concert for failing to past zoning regulations and building code in July. Designated as a for-profit venture with tickets priced aligned with how contemporary outdoor events are priced, the concert became free—the first two hundred thousand or so in advanced sales were sold-out, once a couple hundred of thousand more showed up for the festival than organisers could handle. Among the artists invited to participate that did not attend because of scheduling conflicts or previous engagements included Bob Dylan, James Taylor, the Beatles, Chicago, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zepplin and the Rolling Stones.

zebra crossing

On this day in 1969, photographer Iain Macmillan staged the iconic image that would be used as the album cover for the Beatles Abbey Road, captured outside their recording studio.
Released in September of the same year, the picture fueled elaborate but false narrative that Paul McCartney had died and was replaced with an imposter (a conspiracy instigated by MI5 to shelter the public from trauma), and that the “funeral procession” was a sort of confession with McCartney barefoot and walking out of step with the other band members and holding a cigarette (often airbrushed out) in his right hand—whereas any fan would know him to be left-handed. Furthermore, the number plate of the white Volkswagen Beetle in the background behind George Harrison has the characters 28IF—supposedly representing McCartney’s age if he had lived.  The rumour is a persistent and perennial one.

tc-50

Previously we’ve looked at some of the artefacts that accompanied the astronauts on their mission to the Moon, and now on the anniversary of their splashdown and safe return, we’re reminded how the crew beta-tested new technologies—and not just the obvious ones or Tang—but also the prototype for Sony’s Walkman, the rather revolutionary cassette player becoming commercially available a decade later. Though not quite the soundtrack from Guardians of the Galaxy (I wonder if the plot device was an homage), the best part of learning about this is that the playlist is available and includes Spinning Wheel, Everyday People and Angel of the Morning by Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, charting in the previous year
. 

statio tranquillitatas

Yet embroiled in a lawsuit levied against the US space agency by the founder of the American Atheist association for the astronauts’ recitation during Apollo 8’s lunar orbit during Christmas Eve of the first ten verses of the Book of Genesis and demanded that they refrain from evangelising while in space, after touching down on the Moon, in the six-hour interim before stepping outside the lander, flight engineer Buzz Aldrin—in that spirit—took Sunday communion in private.
A church elder of a Presbyterian congregation, his kit was prepared ahead of time by his pastor and the chalice used during the lunar ceremony is in possession of the church near Galveston, Texas where Johnson Space Center exists today. The chalice is used for a special commemoration on the Sunday closest to the original date each year. The remander of the time was a designated sleep-period, but too excited, the break was cut short. “This is the LM [Landing Module] pilot,” Aldrin said, taking the com, “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.”

space race

Via Mysterious Universe, on this fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 from Cape Canaveral we learn that according to one imminent historian, John F Kennedy, who famously charged his nation with committing “itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” did not intend for the Space Race to become the bi-polar, ideological struggle and ongoing rivalry that it since morphed into but rather entertained it might be an international collaborative effort that might help foster peace and cooperation.
In an interview granted to the Telegraph (possible paywall) ahead of his book release, John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute and former member of the NASA advisory council. Delivering that speech before Congress in May of 1961 with the Bay of Pigs standoff only recently diffused, US-Soviet tensions were heightened and the private meeting between Nikita Khrushchev and JFK in Vienna a few weeks later was probably dominated by negotiation on nuclear proliferation and spheres of influence, but there is evidence to suggest that Kennedy might have broached the idea of a joint mission to the lunar surface. Later even entertained before a United Nations assembly, it’s a matter of some speculation why this did not occur but is nonetheless satisfying to indulge what the common effort might have looked like for geopolitics. Though crewed landing on the Moon was not itself a shared endeavour, the détente and cooperation was ushered in with the last mission of the programme itself, with the Apollo-Soyuz test project conducted in July of 1975.

for here am i sitting in a tin can

Though lyrically and stylistically informed by the previous year’s release of the Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey (previously), David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (previously) had a delayed release—a version was recorded back in February—owing to an earlier split with his old record label and Bowie’s new artists and repertoire managing group decided to release the song on this day in 1969, just nine days ahead of the Apollo 11 mission, to capitalise on the publicity of that event. Due to the tone and the unresolved finish, the BBC network of stations refrained from playing the song until the crew of the lunar excursion were safely back on Earth.

calpe mons

In response to a constitutional convention held regarding the promontory’s sovereignty and continued allegiance to the British crown—affirmed by a referendum of Gibraltarians not to become a condominium, Francisco Franco closed the land border with Spain on this day in 1969, stopping ferry services and cutting utilities. The border would not be fully open with egress and ingress restored until 1985. The near unanimity of the 1967 vote to remain an overseas territory is mirrored by the Gibraltar’s strong rejection of Brexit and the contention Spain’s own disputes with Morocco over its exclaves on the Africa side of the straits, Monte Hancho in Ceuta being the complimentary Pillar of Hercules.

annual reminder

Staged at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall yearly since 1965 to admonish the government and the public that gay people did not have basic civil protections and reputations and careers were precarious and subject to the caprice and prejudice of others, the final march of picketers took place on this day in 1969. After Stonewall, organisers decided to hold the subsequent parade on its anniversary, the last weekend in June, to commemorate the riots and moved the venue to New York City, holding the first Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970.

dansk porno

Having legitimised literature two years prior and passing legislation in the Folketing to the effect a few weeks earlier, on this day in 1969 Denmark became the first country in the world to legalise pornography in all formats. Aside from restrictions put in place for the protection of children and animals from exploitation, people in Denmark have had unfettered access to porn (see also) for the past five decades, wagering that sunshine is the best disinfectant and people would have a healthier relationship with a subject that was not a social taboo.

stonewall

During the early hours of this morning fifty years ago, members of the LGBT community in Greenwich Village staged a spontaneous uprising to protest a police raid of the Stonewall Inn.
This stand along Christopher Street, between West 4th Street and Waverly Place, marked the beginning of a long and ongoing struggle for gay rights and equal treatment under the law in the US. Pride parades world wide have occurred around this anniversary. Though the relationship is not causal and to suggest otherwise would dampen rising tensions and dangers faced daily by lesbian and gay people, the night before was the funeral for the iconic Judy Garland who had passed away earlier in the week in London from “an incautious self-overdosage”—held at a chapel on Madison Avenue which remained open through the night so twenty-thousand members of the public could pay their respects. Though no one recalled it being acknowledged during the riots, that sort of turn-out surely helped mobilise at least a few mourners and fans.

can you dig it?

Via the always outstanding Nag on the Lake, we are treated to a course in contemporary archaelogy with a fascinating, forensic exploration of the venue of Woodstock five decades on. Though well documented and still very much in the domain of living memory, Nature is taking its course on the dairy farm near Bethel Woods, New York and consequently obscuring some of the history of the festival and the conservationist hope to unobtrusively mark trails for visitors to imagine or re-live the experience. Much more to explore at the links above.

watershed moment

On this day in 1969, the Cuyahoga River, downstream from the industrial cities of Akron, Kent and Cleveland Ohio, caught on fire—the latest in a series of at least a dozen major conflagrations of the polluted tributary of Lake Erie—captured the attention of reporters at TIME magazine and the issue made the cover of the June edition. The public outrage that followed helped endorse a tranche of pollution-control measures and eventually led to the creation of a federal and state Environmental Protection Agency by early December of the following year.

bill c-195

Whilst American engineers were busy shutting off their part of the Niagara Falls by means of a cofferdam apron to staunch the flow of water and allow for repairs of the eroded riverbed and cliffs, the Canadian senate was legislating and passed on this day in 1969 amendments to the law to decriminalise abortion and homosexual relations.
Introduced originally by then Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau, the passage allowed for the sale of contraceptive medicines and devices, consensual gay relations for persons of majority in private dwellings, as well as tightening laws regarding gun sales and ownership, drink driving, telephonic harassment and cruelty to animals. Trudeau famously defended his stance to the press by declaiming an often repeated phrase, «l’ État n’a rien à faire dans les chambres à coucher de la nation.» “There’s no place for the State in the bedrooms of Canada.”

flagellation, regulation, integrations, meditations, united nations, congratulations

Referred by Messy Nessy Chic, we are afforded a chance to spend some time in the Montreal hotel honeymoon suite (Room #1742) of John and Yoko Ono Lennon refurbished ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the Bed-Ins for peace that began in late March 1969 in Amsterdam with a two-weeks intervention. The next iteration was planned for New York but Lennon was barred entry into the US over a previous marijuana possession charge and so moved to Canada. Having arrived on 26 May and inviting guests over the ensuing week like Timothy Leary, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsburg, Tommy Smothers and others, all took part in a recorded chorus of the anthem “Give Peace a Chance” in the suite on this day.

dead reckoning

On this day in 1969, the luxury ocean liner the Queen Elizabeth 2, in service until 2008 and since last year, a floating hotel in Dubai, began her maiden voyage from the shipyards in Southhampton to New York, and was the first private, commercial vessel to avail itself of the US Navy’s Global Positioning System constellation of artificial satellites, heralding the end of navigation by compass and sextant. Coincidentally, also on this day in 2000, Bill Clinton made accurate and detailed GPS telemetry available to the public for any venture. 

reggie mac dawson has absconded with my funds

On this day in 1969, the US government issued its first mortgage-backed security through an organisation incorporated the year prior, the Government National Mortgage Association—colloquially known as Ginne Mae, a wholly-owned charter within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to promote home-ownership.
An earlier and enduring iteration was creations of the crisis of Great Depression, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and in 1970 the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and infamously Sallie Mae (the Student Loan Marketing Association) do not have the full-faith and backing of the federal government, guaranteeing solvency, only Ginnie Mae (with a real estate portfolio upwards of two trillion dollars presently), yet are de facto beneficiaries, whose purpose is to create secondary bond markets and have occasioned a few crises of their own. Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back?

8x8

interview mit bauhäuslern: a curated exhibit of the art and design movement’s journal (previously), published from 1926 to 1931

it’s 10 pm—do you know where your children are: the history of American public service announcements

erisology: the new discipline of agreeing to disagree—named for the goddess of discord that started the Trojan War

symbol and cipher: Louise Borinski explores how abstract shapes acquire meaning

audience-share: a gadget that helped marketers gauge what engaged radio-listeners in the 1930s

kannen: radical Japanese concept art of the late 1960s—see also

nattåg: Sweden plans to revitalise overnight train services in a push for more environmentally friendly travel options

less is more: the life and work of Maria Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in graphic novel format