I tried posting this on the actual date, but… they’ll have to settle for one of those cheesy “sorry I missed your real birthday” cards.
The Bureau of Investigation (later to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation) turned 100 this week. It was founded on July 25 (or July 26- accounts vary) 1908. Had a longer post but this one will suffice.
Some very well known trivia (though not so well known as J. Edgar Hoover’s alleged cross-dressing) is that the (F)BI was founded by an act of Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, the great-nephew of Napoleon.* The Bureau was founded to assist and relieve the caseload of other government agencies (especially the Treasury) and state agencies, and their first major investigation was of brothels in the D.C. area**.
*For those who don’t know the story, Napoleon’s brother Jerome (made King of Westphalia by his big bro) traveled to the U.S. while a French naval officer and married a Baltimore heiress, Elizabeth Patterson. He impregnated her with a son before returning to Europe with her for his brother’s coronation. The marriage was fully legal and performed by a Catholic archbishop no less, but was annulled by Napoleon himself [when the Pope refused] who forbade his brother to ever see the girl again or his wife to even enter France (which is why their son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, was born in England). Mother and son returned to the U.S. and founded the American branch of the family (not recognized by Napoleon himself, but was declared a legitimate branch by his heirs).
**Largely for use in the “white slavery” allegations that were becoming louder in rumor and recently provided some threads on the board, but also for allegations of rolling customers. The rumor mill is that it was also for use as a source of blackmail info on political figures, which had it occurred a generation later under J. Edgar’s regime would not have been unlikely at all.