02/03 Open Thread - The Day the Music Died

On February 3, 1959, a Beechcraft "Bonanza" airplane, tail number N3794N, carrying the pilot (Roger Peterson), Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), crashed, killing everybody on board. This event was the subject of Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" in which he referred to it as The Day The Music Died. Since then, today's date has become widely referred to by that identifier. For much more information than most of us will ever need to know see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died

On this day in 1637 the Tulip Mania bubble burst like so many bubbles before it did and so many after it would. The propensity of so-called market capitalism to repeatedly generate such bubbles which then collapse with horrible effects would be viewed as a structural defect were it not for the fact that said market capitalism is the principal religion of the US and sundry other states.

On this day in 1870, the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. It says that:

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

. Though many sources state that this grants, creates or establishes a right to vote regardless of race, color, etc., it does not. It merely limits the restrictions which can be placed upon any pre-existing or subsequently arising right to vote. The 17th Amendment establishes a right to vote for Senators but vests it only in those allowed to vote for the most numerous branch of the State legislature. It is the 14th Amendment which deals with who such persons are deemed to be. The relevant provisions are in Sectiion 2:

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Read that several times until you get it. There is nothing prohibiting a state from disenfranchising a portion of its population, it simply states that if one does, then it will lose a proportional number of seats in the US House. This, then, cannot be the basis for the existence of an absolute right to vote and therefore the 15th Amendment cannot create one.

**********

On this day in history:

1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal landed in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope

1637 – Tulip Mania collapsed within the Dutch Republic

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issued the first paper money in the Americas.

1870 – The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, prohibiting certain restrictions on voting by adult male citizens

1913 – The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

1918 – The World's longest streetcar tunnel, the Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, went into service

1930 – The Communist Party of Vietnam was founded

1953 – The Batepá massacre occurred in São Tomé

1958 –The Benelux Economic Union was founded, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.

1959 – Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1966 – The Soviet Union's Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon

1971 – Frank Serpico was shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn but survived to later testify against police corruption. So, that ended police corruption in New York, right?

1989 – A military coup overthrew Alfredo Stroessner's US supported dictatorship in Paraguay

1998 – A US military pilot caused the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cut the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

**********

Some people who were born on this day:

The only thing that any one wants now is to be free, to be let alone, to live their life as they can, but not to be watched, controlled and scared, no no, not.

~~ Gertrude Stein 1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, pianist, composer, and conductor 1811 – Horace Greeley, journalist and politician 1816 – Ram Singh Kuka, activist, credited with starting the Indian Non-cooperation movement 1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, physician, social reformer, and educator 1874 – Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, playwright, 1893 – Gaston Julia, mathematician and academic. (you may have heard of his set) 1894 – Norman Rockwell, painter and illustrator 1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd, businessman 1920 – Henry Heimlich, physician and author 1927 – Kenneth Anger, actor, director, and screenwriter 1935 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1947 – Dave Davies, musician 1947 – Melanie Safka, singer and songwriter

**********

Some people who died on this day:

Give me twenty-six soldiers of lead and I will conquer the world.

~~ Johannes Gutenberg 1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, publisher, invented the printing press 1959 – The Big Bopper 1959 - Buddy Holly 1959 - Ritchie Valens

**********

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: The Day The Music Died

**********

Today's Tunes

Johnny Guitar Watson

Trending Articles