Milestones: December 17, 2023

December 17, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA — WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRITE, ORIGINALLY FROM DAYTON, OHIO, ACHIEVED THE FIRST successful airplane flights on Dec. 17, 1903 in the North Carolina coastland town of Kitty Hawk. According to the Wright Brothers National Memorial website, the brothers piloted four successful flights with their powered flying machine, after having experimented for more than two years with gliders. The Outer Banks of New Carolina were ideal because they provided the needed environment, sand, wind and isolation. The Wright Flyer (sometimes called the Flyer 1 or the 1903 Flyer) became the first heavier-than-air, powered aircraft to fly successfully. On Dec. 17, 1903 at 10:35 a.m. It was a revision of previous gliders that the Wright Brothers had built over three years. the gliders that the Wright brothers had built and tested since 1900. To balance the extra weight of an engine, they had to extend the wing area, and in turn add more weight. The Flyer came to 605 lbs. when empty.

The area where the flights took place is now home to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

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JAPANESE INTERNMENT ENDS — THE END OF GOVERNMENT-MANDATED INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE-AMERICANS WAS APPROVED on Dec. 17, 1944, when U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21. The Proclamation stated that declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared the entire West Coast region as a militarized zone following the Pearl Harbor attack three years earlier, essentially authorizing the U.S. government to treat Japanese-Americans as an enemy and to throw them into military prisons. More than 100,000 Japanese were imprisoned and suffered hardship simply because of their nationality.

Of the 10 Americans convicted of spying for Japan, not one of them was Japanese. At the same time, 2nd-generation Japanese-Americans were honorably serving the United States in the U.S. Army’s 442nd Infantry Regiment. They served primarily in the European Theater. The 442nd became the most decorated military unit in U.S. history.

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SOCIETY IN VOGUE — A NEW MAGAZINE FOCUSING ON AMERICAN HIGH SOCIETY ITSELF BECAME A DEBUTANTE, ON DEC. 17, 1892. Publisher Arthur Baldwin Turnure produced the magazine, titled “Vogue,” which was dedicated to “the ceremonial side of life” and focused on “the sage as well as the debutante, men of affairs as well as the belle.” Giving rise to this was the Industrial Revolution and the families that were able to glean unprecedented wealth from the growth of their corporations. Foremost among these families were the Vanderbilts and Astors. The debut edition had as its cover photo a black-and-white drawing of a debutante. Its content focused on “the Astor 400,” a set of elite socialites named for the capacity of the Astors’ ballroom.

After publishing firm Condé Nast bought “Vogue” in 1905, the target market became almost exclusively women and fashion. The first international version was then published and expanded to the current 20 world editions. Vogue remains one of the most enduring magazines and features models, photographers and writers.

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AFTER THE FACT — THE RUSSIAN LEADERS BORIS YELTSIN AND MIKHAIL GORBACHEVS’ DEC. 17, 1991 DECLARATION THAT THE SOVIET UNION WILL CEASE TO EXIST on or before New Year’s Eve was anti-climactic. The drama had already happened within the previous two years: the November 1989 takedown of the Berlin Wall and, with it, the end of the Iron Curtain. Moreover, Gorbachev’s policies of “glasnost” and “perestroika” had warmed relations between the world’s two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, after a protracted Cold War. Perestroika established a free market. However, instead of garnering praise for the policies, the Soviet Union wound up losing complete control of the media and public opinion, with people instead calling for the dismantling of the entire Soviet apparatus.

Russian citizens were unimpressed with the joint announcement of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Many of the former Soviet holdings were now declaring independence. Among them were Armenia, the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and several “istan” regions, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

See previous milestones, here.