Scared Straight was a 1978 documentary film, which depicted a group of juvenile criminal offenders, who were brought to Rahway State Prison in New Jersey, where they interacted with a group of “lifers” (criminals who had been sentenced to life in prison). The intention of the film was to expose the juveniles (as well as young people who watched the film) to the harsh, violent reality of life in prison, in hopes of “scaring them straight,” and leading them away from a life of crime.
The film, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, was widely shown on television in the U.S. and Canada. It featured heavy use of strong profanity, which most stations aired uncensored (though with content warnings), and represented one of the first times that words such as “fuck” and “shit” were broadcast on television. It inspired several sequels, as well as local “scared straight” sessions for juvenile delinquents, though several studies showed that, compared to a control group, viewing the film, or participating in such a program, actually led to higher levels of crime among participants.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, usually referred to as The Guggenheim, is a contemporary art museum located on Fifth Street in Upper Manhattan in New York City. The building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, receives close to a million visitors each year.
John Solomon Cartwright was a Canadian politician in Upper Canada and the Province of Canada. Although relatively young, he was one of the last of the Family Compact Tories, who were highly suspicious of democracy and favoured extensive powers for the governor, appointed by the British government. He died of tuberculosis in 1844. His twin brother died shortly after, also of TB.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was the youngest person ever elected President. Theodore Roosevelt, Republican of New York, was the youngest person to become President, which he, as Vice President, did in 1901 upon the death of William McKinley, Republican of Ohio. McKinley had been the most recent President to be assassinated when Kennedy was himself killed in Dallas, 62 years later.
The Warren Commission determined that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating JFK. But the Zapruder Film, the only recorded evidence of Kennedy while riding in the open limousine, clearly shows the President being struck twice.
And the Zapruder Film is not “the only recorded evidence of Kennedy while riding in the open limousine.” You can see some from another source at the beginning of this program, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd5EuGtlDZ4
In play:
Burt Griffin, a staff lawyer for the Warren Commission who was assigned to focus on Jack Ruby and his possible ties to the Mafia, has now written a book. Griffin served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County (greater Cleveland), Ohio, after his work for the Warren Commission. He has always rejected charges that the Warren Commission engaged in a coverup, saying, “If I had uncovered a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, I would have been elected to the U.S. Senate, not Howard Metzenbaum.”
The Federal Court of Canada has its own coat of arms. The supporters are mythical creatures with the head of a caribou, the wings and claws of a raven, and the tail of a salmon, to indicate that the Court operates throughout Canada, where those animals are found.
Salmon Portland Chase was a prominent anti-slavery lawyer in Ohio before the Civil War, called by some “the attorney general for the runaway slave.” After serving as Secretary of the Treasury in the first Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln, he was, in late 1864, named Chief Justice of the United States. He succeeded the late Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney, notorious for writing the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case.
It is not clear whether Dred was Dred Scott’s given name, or if it was a shortened form of Etheldred. His wife’s name was Harriet. Dred Scott’s slave owner was Peter Blow. The Peter Blow Plantation was in Southampton County, Virginia which borders North Carolina. The Blow family relocated to Alabama, and then later to St. Louis. Peter Blow died in 1832. Dred Scott was sold to Army surgeon Dr. John Emerson who took him to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory. Dred Scott’s stay in Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was prohibited, gave him the legal standing to make a claim for his freedom.
According to the MAS*H television series, Charles Emerson Winchester was sent to the 4077th so that Col. Baldwin could avoid paying him the $600 he lost to Winchester in cribbage.
Actor Adam Baldwin is best-known for his roles as Jayne Cobb on the science-fiction TV series Firefly, and as John Casey on the TV series Chuck. Adam is not related to the “Baldwin brothers” acting family.
In the 1995 film Clueless, “Baldwin” is used as a slang term for an attractive male. It was coined by writer-director Amy Heckerling after the four brothers.
British Conservative politician Stanley Baldwin served as Prime Minister three separate times through the 1920s and 1930s. Per Wiki, “[Winston] Churchill firmly believed that Baldwin’s conciliatory stance toward Hitler gave the impression that in the case of an attack by the German dictator, Britain would not fight. Churchill was known for his magnanimity toward political rivals such as [Neville] Chamberlain but had none to spare for Baldwin. ‘I wish Stanley Baldwin no ill,’ Churchill said in declining to send him 80th birthday greetings in 1947, ‘but it would have been much better had he never lived.’”
The Gleaner combine has been a popular model of harvesters for over 100 years. The first model was produced in 1923 in Nickerson, Kansas, by brothers Curtis, George and Ernest Baldwin. The first model was designed to mount on a small Fordson tractor, and subsequent models were made to be towed behind a tractor. Later, the company produced the first self-propelled combine. Today, the Gleaner combine is manufactured in Hesston, Kansas, under the AGCO brand, about 35 miles from the original manufacturing facility.
John Franklin “Home Run” Baker was a third baseman for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees from 1908-22. He led the American League in home runs for four consecutive seasons; however, as he played in the “dead ball era” (when home runs were rare), Baker never hit more than 12 home runs in a season, and finished his career with only 96 total homers.
Despite this, Baker is considered to have been among the best power hitters of his era, and baseball’s original “home run king.”
Benjamin Franklin, Minister of the United States to the court of King Louis XVI of France, played chess with the Mechanical Turk when it was brought to Paris. He was apparently quite intrigued by it, and had a book about it on his library shelf when he died.
