HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL~MAY 12

 

 

     1812 Edward Lear Was Born 

 

Lear was a poet and a talented illustrator born in Highgate, England

A big champion of the limerick (which dates back to the early 18th century), Lear wrote Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense and other such amusing pieces. The Nonsense book especially helped the limerick to become very popular. The limerick is the only fixed-verse form indigenous to the English language.

Write a limerick today! Here’s one to get you started:

There once was a man named Nation,
Who worked for a radio station.
Although he was tall,
His hands were too small,
Wee paws for station identification.

 

1932  Body of Lindbergh Baby Found

The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found on this day in 1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.

Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years earlier when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic, and his wife Anne discovered a ransom note in their 20-month-old child's empty room on March 1. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the open second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room. The ransom note demanded $50,000 in barely literate English.

The crime captured the attention of the entire nation. The Lindbergh family was inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even Al Capone offered his help from prison, though it of course was conditioned on his release. For three days, investigators had found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter showed up, this time demanding $70,000.

It wasn't until April 2 that the kidnappers gave instructions for dropping off the money. When the money was finally delivered, the kidnappers indicated that little baby Charles was on a boat called Nelly off the coast of Massachusetts. However, after an exhaustive search of every port, there was no sign of either the boat or the child.

On May 12, a renewed search of the area near the Lindbergh mansion turned up the baby's body. He had been killed the night of the kidnapping and was found less than a mile from the home. The heartbroken Lindberghs ended up donating the home to charity and moved away.

The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934, when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. Suspicious of the driver who had given it to him, the gas station attendant who had accepted the bill wrote down his license plate number. It was tracked back to a German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann. When his home was searched, detectives found $13,000 of Lindbergh ransom money.

Evidence and intense public pressure was enough to convict Hauptmann. In April 1935 he was executed in the electric chair.

Kidnapping was made a federal crime in the aftermath of this high-profile crime.

 

 

1937  George VI Crowned At Westminster

At London's Westminster Abbey, George VI and his consort, Lady Elizabeth, are crowned king and queen of the United Kingdom as part of a coronation ceremony that dates back more than a millennium.

George, who studied at Dartmouth Naval College and served in World War I, ascended to the throne after his elder brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated on December 11, 1936. Edward, who was the first English monarch to voluntarily relinquish the English throne, agreed to give up his title in the face of widespread criticism of his desire to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee.

 

1971  The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger Married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias

Mick couldn’t remember her whole name very well, so she became known as Bianca the world over.

 

 

 

1820  Florence Nightingale Health Activist, Nurse: promoted the nursing profession, contributed to modern nursing procedures, founded Nightingale Training School for Nurses; author: Notes on Nursing; Died Aug 13, 1910

1907  Katharine Hepburn  Academy Award-winning Actress: Died June 29, 2003

 1925  Yogi (Lawrence Peter) Berra  Baseball Hall of Famer: catcher: NY Yankees [World Series: 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963/all-star: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962], NY Mets; manager: NY Yankees, NY Mets

1937  George Carlin  Comedian: The George Carlin Show, Award Theater, 1st host of Saturday Night Live, The Kraft Summer Music Hall, Wonderful W-I-N-O, Seven Dirty Words, actor: Prince of Tides, That Girl, Car Wash, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

1969  Kim Fields  Actress: The Facts of Life, Living Single, Baby, I’m Back