HISTORY INA NUTSHELL ~ JUN 8

Warning: This entry reads more like and OBIT than an entry ::sigh::    sad, sad day

 

 

 

     1968  Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Suspect Arrested

James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, is arrested in London, England, and charged with the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, King was fatally wounded by a sniper's bullet while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Motel Lorraine. That evening, a Remington .30-06 hunting rifle was found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block from the Lorraine Motel. During the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray. A two-bit criminal, Ray escaped a Missouri prison in April 1967 while serving a sentence for a holdup. In May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. The FBI eventually determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false identity, which at the time was relatively easy.

On June 8, Scotland Yard investigators arrested Ray at a London airport. Ray was trying to fly to Belgium, with the eventual goal, he later admitted, of reaching Rhodesia. Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) was at the time ruled by an oppressive and internationally condemned white minority government. Extradited to the United States, Ray stood before a Memphis judge in March 1969 and pleaded guilty to King's murder in order to avoid the electric chair. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

According to his family and friends, he was an outspoken racist who told them of his intent to kill King. Ray died in 1998.

 

 

 

1968  Robert Kennedy Buried

Three days after falling prey to an assassin in California, Senator Robert F. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, just 30 yards from the grave of his assassinated older brother, President John F. Kennedy.

Robert Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1925, interrupted his studies at Harvard University to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was legal counsel for various Senate subcommittees during the 1950's and in 1960 served as the manager of his brother's successful presidential campaign. Appointed attorney general by President Kennedy, he proved a vigorous member of the cabinet, zealously prosecuting cases relating to civil rights while closely advising the president on domestic and foreign issues. After John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Robert joined President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration but resigned in 1964 to run successfully in New York for a Senate seat. He became a leader of liberal Democrats in Congress and voiced criticism of the war in Vietnam.

In 1968, he was urged by many of his supporters to run for president as an anti-war and socially progressive Democratic. Hesitant until he saw positive primary returns for fellow anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on March 16, 1968. Fifteen days later, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the key Democratic hopeful, with McCarthy and Kennedy trailing closely behind. Kennedy conducted an energetic campaign and on June 4, 1968, won a major victory in the California primary. He had won five out of six primaries and seemed a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination and, some thought, the presidency.

Shortly after midnight, Kennedy gave a victory speech to his supporters in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. At 12:50 a.m., while making his way to a press conference by a side exit, he was shot three times in a hail of gunfire that wounded five others. One bullet entered Kennedy's brain. The shooter, a Palestinian drifter named Sirhan Sirhan, had a .22 revolver wrested from his grip and was promptly arrested. Kennedy was rushed to the hospital, where he fought for his life for the next 24 hours. At 1:44 a.m. on the morning of June 6, he died. He was 42 years old.

His assassination came only two months after civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Like King, Robert Kennedy had advocated social reform, defended the rights of minorities, and called for an end to the Vietnam War. The loss was devastating to many Americans and was made only more tragic by memories of his older brother's assassination five years earlier.

 

 

*On the lighter side....

1786  Commercial Ice Cream was Manufactured for the First Time -- in New York City

 

1928  WGY-TV in Schenectady, NY the World's First Telivision Station Revamped its Programing Schedule

While continuing to broadcast three days a week, there were two times each day that viewers could watch TV: 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. and 11:30 to Midnight.

The station is especially notable for launching the television career ofFood Network and talk-show personality Rachael Ray who started the 30 Minute Meals segment exclusively on WRGB's newscasts once-a-week before going national.