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By this point in your life, you probably no longer believe the story that George Washington once threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River. You may have also come to terms with the fact that he never cut down a cherry tree as a boy ( It was a myth created by author Mason Locke Weems, ten years after Washington’s death). Are you also aware that Washington was not born on February 22, 1732, the date you needed to memorize in history class? The father of our country was actually born on February 11,1731. When Washington was born, England and its colonies followed the Julian calendar, which was instituted in 46 B.C. by  Julius Caesar. By that calendar, Washington was born on February 11, 1731. Washington’s official birthdate changed in 1752 when England switched to the Gregorian calendar. Points of Interest Here are some additional factoids about the man without whom we would be speaking with silly accents, drinking tea instead of coffee, and watching endless reruns of Mr. Bean.   In 1789, President Washington’s annual salary of $25,000 represented 2% of the national budget. Today, that translates to over $80 billion a year. Washington is the only president to unanimously win the electoral college (he did it both times). He is the only independent candidate to win the presidency (he refused to join a party). At 6’2” Washington towered over most of his contemporaries as the average height for men in the U.S. was around 5’7”. He was an extraordinarily rugged man. As a young surveyor in the backwoods of the Ohio Valley, Washington made rafts out of trees with his bare hands in below-freezing temperatures. His job required that he ford impossible rivers, and hack paths through perilous woods. Washington mastered almost every sport of his day  including archery, swimming, and wrestling. According to Thomas Jefferson, Washington was “the best horseman of the age”. While fighting for the British in a battle against the French and Indians, the fearless Washington had two horses shot from under him. After the battle it was discovered that four musket balls had pierced his jacket but none reached his body. The episode gave Washington and everyone else the belief that he was invincible. Washington had a strong constitution that allowed him to power through numerous illnesses including diphtheria, smallpox, dysentery, malaria, pneumonia, and carbuncle (it sounds like a card game you would play with your grandmother but it’s a cluster of boils under the skin). Washington’s second inaugural address was only 134 words and took less than two minutes to deliver. Alexander Hamilton helped Washington write his farewell address which is still hailed for his urging American leaders to avoid foreign entanglements. Recognition and Honors Washington earned mythical status across the globe and was particularly revered in France. As the French Revolution began in 1792, Washington was made an honorary French citizen despite the fact he didn’t speak French and had never visited the country.   After becoming our second President in1797, John Adams became fearful of a possible French invasion. Although Washington was enjoying life as a gentleman farmer, Adams appointed him commander-in-chief of the military. It was a largely ceremonial appointment to bolster recruiting efforts.   When Washington died in 1799, Napoleon immediately called for ten days of official mourning in France. British officials had the Royal Navy lower its flags to half-mast. One of many reasons I am glad I didn’t live in the 1700s are the medical practices of the era. In 1799, after catching a simple cold the ex-President was subjected to four rounds of bloodletting. Washington  lost an estimated forty percent of his blood before he expired. Kudos Keep Coming In 1976, Congress awarded George Washington a new military rank: General of the Armies of the United States. It was further decreed that nobody will ever outrank him. A 2012 poll of British citizens rated Washington as the greatest military officer to ever face the British Empire.   Take that, Napoleon!   Have a great weekend- By George.

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February 14th is not only Valentines Day but it is also the anniversary of the birth of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. Born in 1859 in Galesburg, Illinois, George received an engineering degree from  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in1881. After spending a few years in the railroad industry, he started a Pittsburgh-based company that tested the integrity of steel structures. The Exposition In late 1890, renowned architect Daniel Burnham began plans for the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago. Burnham was determined to make the event more memorable than the1889 Paris Exhibition, the centerpiece of which had been the magnificent Eiffel Tower. Burnham assembled a team of designers and gave them one directive: “Make no little plans.” One designer envisioned a tower garlanded with rails to distant cities, enabling visitors to toboggan home. A second proposal put forward a gigantic tower from which riders would be propelled by rubber bands, a forerunner of bungee jumping. Gustave Eiffel himself proposed an even taller tower but Burnham was not interested. As the Exhibition’s opening date approached Burnham implored the designers to come up with “something novel, original, daring and unique”. George Ferris, whose company was responsible for inspecting the steel used by the exhibition, was struck by a brainstorm. He proposed an enormous revolving steel wheel which was held together by tension wires, just like a bicycle wheel. After several redesigns, his wheel was finally approved by Burnham, just four months before the exhibition’s opening. Ferris had already spent $25,000 of his own money on safety studies and redesigns. Now, Burnham told Ferris that he was responsible for all of the construction costs. Undaunted, Ferris raised funds, procured 45 tons of steel and had the wheel up and running by June 11,1893 – not in time for the opening, but still an amazing feat. There had never been anything like it and1.5 million curious people paid fifty cents admission to ride on the wheel. The 34-year-old Ferris was now America’s most famous engineer.   The Exposition committee and Ferris’s company argued about the distribution of profits. Ferris not only lost the legal battles but suffered Ill-health because of the pressures of the litigation. He became despondent when the city dismantled the wheel after the exhibition closed. Adding insult to injury, George’s wife left him. In 1896, he contracted typhoid fever and died at the age of 37. A wrecking company bought the wheel and sold it to the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Two years later, it was dynamited into scrap metal, ending the life of the original Ferris Wheel. Wheeling Around the World Prior to Ferris’ invention, the world’s largest tension wheel was 30 feet high. The Ferris Wheel rose 264 feet off the ground giving riders in the 30 gondolas a view further than anyone in Chicago had ever experienced. It has inspired numerous imitations. The five tallest Ferris Wheels today are: At 820 feet, “Ain Dubai” is three times the size of the original wheel. It features 48 luxurious, air-conditioned capsules that each accommodate 40 passengers.  The 550 foot “High Roller” in Las Vegas is the largest Ferris Wheel in the Western Hemisphere. Each of the 28 glass-enclosed cabins can hold forty people. Guests can enjoy interactive video and music during their 30 minute rotation. At 525 feet, “The Star of Nanchang” held the title of the world’s tallest Ferris wheel from 2006 until 2008. Located in Nanchang, China, It features 60 capsules, each seating eight passengers.   “The London Eye”, standing at 443 feet, provides spectacular views of all that the magnificent city has to offer. The wheel features 32 capsules, each representing one of London’s boroughs. The “Redhorse Osaka Wheel” stands at 404 feet. The glass floors in the capsules create an exhilarating experience for thrill-seekers. If your bucket list includes riding the world’s tallest Ferris Wheels know that you’ll need a large travel budget. Of the tallest eighteen Ferris Wheels, eleven are in Asia ( six in China, four in Japan and one in Taiwan). The Texas Star in Dallas is the only American wheel outside of Vegas to make the top eighteen. Safe travels.

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I recently came across a “Rolling Stone” archive ranking the 100 all-time greatest rock songwriters. Here are the magazine’s top ten: 10) At age 13, Stevland Hardaway Morris became the youngest solo artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 with his single, “Fingertips”. “Stevie Wonder” would write and record many more sixties hits including “Uptight”. In the early seventies, Stevie became the only artist to win the best album Grammy with three consecutive albums: “Innervisions”, “Fulfillingness First Finale” and “Songs in the Key of Life”. Stevie’s prolific songwriting has continued during the eighties and beyond. 9)  Joni Mitchell’s eleven Grammy awards are very impressive and I understand why she is so beloved. However I question her making the top ten. “Both Sides Now” and “Big Yellow Taxi’ are outstanding compositions but this rock fan can only name a handful of other Mitchell songs. 8) I’m not a huge admirer of Paul Simon’s post- “Simon and Garfunkel” work but I concur with his being named #8.. His sixties compositions such as “Homeward Bound” and “Scarborough Fair” are superb while “The Sounds of Silence” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” are transcendent. 7) The body of work written by Carole King and her collaborator/husband Gerry Goffin is extraordinary. Carole wrote the melodies while Gerry wrote the lyrics to many iconic songs. “Up on the Roof,” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and “I’m into Something Good” are just three of the many hits the duo wrote. John Lennon observed “When Paul and I first got together, we wanted to be the British Goffin and King.” After her divorce from Goffin, Carole recorded the seminal album “Tapestry” which included her compositions ‘So Far Away” and “You’ve Got a Friend”. 6) Clocking in at number six is the team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Like Lennon/McCartney, Jagger and Richards didn’t always write together. “Happy” was all Keith while “Brown Sugar” was all Mick. But, overall, both songwriters had an imprint on the Stones’ top hits. 5) Smokey Robinson’s first successful composition was the 1960 hit, “Shop Around”. He would go on to write sensational songs such as The Temptations’ “My Girl” and ironically Mary Wells’ “My Guy”. Smokey composed a dozen Top 20 hits for “The Miracles” including the epic “Tracks of My Tears”. Paul McCartney said that “Smokey was like God in our eyes”. Bob Dylan called Smokey “the greatest living poet”. 4) In the 1950s, Chuck Berry switched from playing the blues to creating “songs of novelties and feelings of fun and frolic”. Chuck transformed a country song “Ida Red” into his first top single “Maybellene”. His influence over sixties artists was profound. Bob Dylan based the cadence of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” on Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business” while Jagger and Richards borrowed from Berry’s “30 Days,” to create “Satisfaction”. John Lennon opined “If you gave rock & roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.” 3) John Lennon set an example for sixties rock groups by incorporating lessons learned from the great fifties artists including Berry, Elvis, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. After driving through Colorado and hearing non-stop Beatles on the car radio, Dylan realized “they were pointing the direction where music had to go.” 2) The aforementioned Mr. Dylan says of Paul McCartney, “I’m in awe of McCartney. He’s about the only one that I’m in awe of.” John Lennon observed “Even in the early days we used to write things separately because Paul was always more advanced than I was.” 1)  “Blowin in the Wind”, ”The Times They are a Changing” and “Like a Rolling Stone” are a good start to the discussion. Those songs deeply effected many songwriters including Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash and Sam Cooke. Dylan has written hundreds more songs that are sometimes entertaining but almost always thought provoking. BTW, the Dylan biopic, ‘A Complete Unknown” is terrific. In case you were wondering: “Rolling Stone” places Bob Marley # 11. He is immediately followed by Brian Wilson, Hank Williams, and Springsteen.     Have a great weekend. Rock On !!!!

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January 31 marks the 106th anniversary of the birth of Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Jackie was born in Cairo, Georgia and raised in Pasadena, California. A major influence on young Jackie was his older brother Mack who became a member of  the 1936 U.S. Olympic track team despite struggling with a heart condition. Mack won a silver medal when he finished second to Jesse Owens in the 200-meter race. Sufficiently inspired, young Jackie set his sights set on competing in the 1940 games which unfortunately were canceled due to the outbreak of World War II. Jackie enrolled at UCLA and became the first “Bruin” to letter in four sports. In addition to baseball and track, he starred in basketball and football. In both of his basketball seasons Jackie was the leading scorer in the Pacific Coast Conference. He led the UCLA football team in rushing yards and his career punt return average of 18.8 yards ranks fourth in NCAA history. In his spare time, Jackie won several amateur tennis titles. Robinson’s first professional job was playing semi-pro football for the Honolulu Bears. His last game with the team was at Pearl Harbor on December 5, 1941, just two days before the Japanese attack. Soon after,  Robinson was drafted into the Army where he became friends with fellow recruit, Joe Louis. The world famous boxer used his influence to help Jackie and several other black soldiers gain entrance into the Army Officer Candidate School after they had been denied admission because of their race. In 1944, Jackie was arrested and court martialed for refusing to sit in the back of a military bus. He was later acquitted on all charges and received an honorable discharge. In 1945, Jackie played his first professional baseball game for the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs. The following year, Brooklyn Dodgers’ General Manager Branch Rickey selected Robinson to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier.  On April 15, 1947, after having finished one season with a Dodger’s farm team, the 28-year-old Robinson made his major league debut. Several teams canceled exhibition games in protest.  A few Brooklyn Dodgers players launched a petition to keep Robinson off their team. The petitioners were stunned when star shortstop, Pee Wee Reese who grew up in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, not only refused to sign but also took Jackie under his wing.  During an early season game Reese put his arm around Robinson, as a signal to white players and fans to accept his barrier-breaking teammate. Robinson was voted the National League’s Rookie of the Year and two seasons later was voted the league’s MVP.  During his ten year career Robinson compiled an impressive 311 batting average. More importantly, Jackie paved the way for other Black players as 150 Blacks entered the majors during the next  five years. Astoundingly, eleven  of the fourteen National League MVPs from 1949 through 1962 were Black. In 1962, Robinson became the first Black player inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. That was only one of Robinson’s many firsts. He became the first black vice president of a major American corporation (Chock Full o’ Nuts). In 1964, Robinson helped found Harlem’s Freedom National Bank, an institution that was established because of the financial industry’s discrimination against African Americans. In 1965 he joined ABC-TV Sports as baseball’s first Black announcer. Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 53. Pallbearers at his funeral included Pee Wee Reese, other Dodger teammates, and basketball legend Bill Russell. Robinson’s number, 42, was retired by Major League Baseball on April 15, 1997, the 50th anniversary of his breaking the league’s color barrier.  Later, UCLA  announced that number 42 would be retired across all sports. Every April 15 all major league baseball players wear number 42. It would be impossible to go overboard in honoring Jackie Roosevelt Robinson (BTW, his middle name was in honor of another great American, Teddy Roosevelt). He first set the example of how a Black athlete should carry himself and eventually became an example for all Americans. Have a great weekend. BTW, If you haven’t seen the movie “42” you should check it out on Amazon.

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On January 25, 1890, Nellie Bly arrived back home in New York City after a trip around the world that was accomplished in an astounding (at the time) 72 days. The boisterous crowds attested that Nellie had become an American icon. Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Pennsylvania in1864, her father Michael had escaped poverty and became owner of a profitable mill. Michael had ten children with his first wife and five more with his second. Elizabeth was Michael’s thirteenth daughter. The family struggled financially after Michael’s death  and Elizabeth was forced to drop out of college. Soon after, she read a column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch which argued that a woman’s place was in the home. Elizabeth wrote an impassioned response under the pseudonym “Lonely Orphan Girl”. The Dispatch’s editor was so impressed that he publicly asked the writer to identify herself. Elizabeth responded and was hired to write a regular column. Nellie Using her penname “Nellie”, she wrote investigative articles on the travails of female factory workers. When factory owners complained to her editors, Nellie was reassigned to cover fashion and society. Determined “to do something no girl has done before”, Nellie traveled to Mexico and wrote about the plight of Mexico’s poor. Authorities were outraged and threatened to arrest her. Nellie returned to Pittsburgh and was once again covering fashion for The Dispatch. She decided to seek her fortune in NYC.   New York newspapers had little use for female reporters. After four months of rejection, Nellie landed an undercover assignment with the New York World. She agreed to feign insanity to investigate reports of brutality at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum. Nellie checked into a boarding house called “Temporary Homes for Females”. She avoided sleep to give herself a crazy, wide-eyed look. She terrified fellow boarders until police came and took her to the asylum. After ten days, the asylum released Bly at The World’s request. Her reports detailing the abuse of inmates prompted the asylum to implement significant reforms, Now famous, Nellie proposed that Joseph Pulitzer, editor of The World finance her trip around the world. Her goal was to emulate the odyssey of Phileas Fogg as depicted in Jules Vernes’ novel “Around the World in 80 Days”. Pulitzer told Nellie “No one but a man can do this”. She replied, “Start the man, and I’ll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him.” Pulitzer acceded. Rival news executive Brisben Walker heard about Bly’s plans and decided that his new publication Cosmopolitan should jump on the bandwagon. Walker called in 28-year-old editor Elizabeth Bisland. After an hour-long discussion, Bisland accepted the assignment. She headed west from NYC just hours after Bly’s east-bound departure.   After a brutal trans-Atlantic crossing Nellie headed to Amiens, France where she met with a welcoming Jules Verne.  She traversed the world by train, steamship, rickshaw, horse and donkey. Reporters eagerly wrote about the race between the two intrepid women. Bly traversed Europe and the Mideast, completely unaware that she had a challenger. When she reached Hong Kong Bly learned that she not only had a competitor, but that Bisland had left Hong Kong three days earlier. After sailing from Asia to San Francisco, Nellie boarded a train chartered by Pulitzer. Jubilant throngs greeted Nellie as her train whizzed through the countryside. Meanwhile, Bisland endured a difficult crossing from England back to America. She arrived in NYC four days after Bly. Post-Voyage Five years later, 31-year-old- Nellie married 73-year-old millionaire Robert Seaman. She left journalism to attend to her husband’s failing health. Upon Robert’s death, Nellie succeeded him as head of Iron Clad Manufacturing, a producer of steel containers. Embracing her role as a prominent female industrialist, Bly provided employees with generous benefits including healthcare. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt because of her poor management and embezzlement committed by a key employee. Returning to journalism, Nellie covered the women’s suffrage movement and World War I. Bly was the first woman to visit certain war zones and was briefly arrested as a suspected British spy. Nellie left the world too soon when she died of pneumonia at age 57.  A century later, she still inspires. Have a great weekend.

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January 17 marks the 126th anniversary of Al Capone’s birth. Everyone know the name of the notorious criminal but few are aware that the legendary hoodlum ran his infamous empire for only six years and only spent 48 years on our planet. Alphonse Capone was the fourth of nine children born to Italian immigrant parents in Brooklyn. The son of a barber and a seamstress, Al did well in school until at age fourteen he punched a teacher in the face. Al stopped going to school and worked at a candy store and a bowling alley. He made quick money as a pool hustler and was a star pitcher for a Brooklyn semi-professional baseball team. He also belonged to street gangs that specialized in petty crime. He was hired as a bartender and bouncer at a saloon owned by gangster Johnny Torrio.  One night, Capone allegedly insulted the sister of a local felon who promptly slashed Al with a pocketknife. The damage inflicted resulted in Capone’s nickname: “Scarface”. ln 1918, the eighteen-year-old married Mae Coughlin. The couple had one child and remained together until Al’s death.  Soon after the wedding, Capone followed his mentor Torrio, to Chicago where they became part of a criminal network headed by Big Jim Colosimo. Torrio took over the enterprise after the violent death of Colosimo (probably a hit ordered by Torrio). A few years later Torrio was shot outside his  home. He survived the attack but left Chicago after naming his 26-year-old aide Capone as his replacement. Capone’s crime syndicate pulled in an estimated $100 million a year from illegal activities ranging from bootlegging to prostitution. Capone became an international celebrity because he won over reporters with his charm and extravagant lifestyle. He claimed that he merely provided a “public service”, stating “Ninety percent of the people of Cook County drink and gamble and my offense has been to furnish them with those amusements.” On February 14, 1929, seven men affiliated with the George “Bugs” Moran gang were shot to death inside a Chicago garage. Capone was in Miami at the time but there was ample speculation that he had masterminded the murders. The crime was never solved and Capone was never charged. Meanwhile the wily gangster generated favorable publicity by opening a soup kitchen that served 2.000 Chicagoans per day in the midst of a world-wide depression. For many years, Capone managed to avoid prosecution by threatening witnesses and paying off police and public officials. He finally was criminally convicted in 1929 after being arrested on a concealed weapon charge in Philadelphia. He was freed from prison in March 1930 just before the Chicago Crime Commission released its first-ever list of the city’s worst criminals with Capone named as Public Enemy Number One. The famous prohibition agent, Elliot Ness was diligently trying to get Capone indicted for his  bootlegging operations. However under instructions from President Herbert Hoover  the federal government focused on charging the mob boss for income-tax fraud.  A jury found the gangster guilty of five charges  He was sentenced to eleven years in prison and fined $50,000. In 1932, 33-year-old Capone began his sentence at the U.S. penitentiary in Atlanta. Two years later, Capone was transported to the recently opened federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island. Prison officials were pleasantly surprised by Capone’s good behavior- So much so, they allowed the gangster to play his banjo in the inmate band, the Rock Islanders. Soon after Capone’s move to Alcatraz, he began showing signs of neurosyphilis and was later diagnosed with syphilis of the brain. The disease stemmed from Capone not getting treated properly when he contracted the disease as a young man. In 1939 he was released from Alcatraz and was admitted to a Baltimore hospital where doctors concluded that Capone had the mental capacity of a twelve-year-old. Capone was allowed to return to his Miami home where he died of heart failure at the age of 48 in 1947. I guess if there is anything positive we can take from Al Capone’s life it is the importance of regular medical checkups. Other than that, I am stumped. Have a great weekend and remember “crime doesn’t pay”.

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