Milestones: January 12, 2024

January 12, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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DIDN’T USE THE WORD ‘NUCLEAR’ — SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN FOSTER DULLES ON JAN. 12, 1954, ANNOUNCED THAT THE UNITED STATES WILL PROTECT ITS ALLIES through the “deterrent of massive retaliatory power” — thus prioritizing the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Dulles (for whom an airport near Washington, D.C. is named) was addressing the Council on Foreign Relations at a dinner held in his honor as he discussed Communist strategy which, he believed had the goal of “bankruptcy” of the United States through overextension of its military power. While he did not directly mention nuclear weapons, it was widely believed that the U.S. would rely more on this form of warfare. Even though it had been President Harry S. Truman who initiated the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dulles was speaking during the Eisenhower Administration. A fiscal conservative, Eisenhower wanted to rein in defense spending, whereas Dulles called for a bolder approach in fighting the sphere and spread of Communism.

But Eisenhower and Dulles believed that a stronger reliance on nuclear weapons — as destructive as they had already proven to be — would solve two issues: control defense expenses and serve as a deterrent to adversaries.

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JOY RIDING ON ICE — HENRY FORD ON JAN. 12, 1904, SET A LAND-SPEED RECORD OF 91.37 MPH ON THE FROZEN SURFACE OF MICHIGAN’S LAKE ST. CLAIR, while driving a four-wheel vehicle, dubbed the “999.” The vehicle had a wooden chassis, but neither a body nor a hood to protect him. He raced one mile in 39.4 seconds. This encouraged him to build race cars, but their success record was inconsistent.

Though the record Ford set that day was soon broken by a driver named William K. Vanderbilt, Ford’s stunt had lasting publicity as he had just incorporated what would later become one of the Big Three: The Ford Motor Company.

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THE ANCIENT METHOD WORKED — MODERN CONSTRUCTION METHODS PROVED INFERIOR TO THOSE USED BY THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, or so an international group overseeing the Great Pyramids found out. Still, the restoration team pivoted on Jan. 12, 1984. The pyramids, which sit just south of Cairo, in Giza, located on the west bank of the Nile River, are some of the oldest manmade structures on earth but were badly decaying by the 1980s. The restoration endeavors were impeded when water in the kind of cement manufactured nowadays began splitting the limestone rocks. The restorers on Jan. 12, 1984, switched from mortar, instead adopting a system of interlocking blocks that the original pyramid builders had used. Switching was the key, and the restoration progressed smoothly from that point.

The ancient Egyptians’ system of nearly 100 pyramids, built over a millennium, were burial chambers for royalty so that the monarchs’ passage into the afterlife would be smooth. Thus the pyramids became centers of worship.

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FIRST WOMAN ELECTED TO SENATE — HATTIE OPHELIA WYATT CARAWAY BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN ELECTED TO THE U.S. SENATE TO TAKE OFFICE, ON JAN. 12, 1932. A Democrat from Arkansas, she had been appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy that her late husband, Sen. Thaddeus Horatio Caraway, had left just two months beforehand. Sen. Huey Long, a powerful leader from neighboring Louisiana, advocated for Mrs. Caraway, and she was elected and, six years later, reelected. During her time in the Senate, Hattie Caraway became the first woman to formally take up the gavel as the Senate’s acting president pro tempore (who presides over the body when the vice president must be absent from chambers).

The very first woman senator was Rebecca Latimer Felton, who was appointed in 1922 to fill a vacancy. However, she never ran for election.

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COURAGEOUS PROGRAM — THE EMMY-AWARD-WINNING BUT CONTROVERSIAL SERIES “ALL IN THE FAMILY” MADE ITS TV PREMIERE ON JAN. 12, 1971. Norman Lear created the sitcom based on the British program “Till Death Us Do Part.” “All in the Family” pioneered in that it realistically drew out contemporary issues and taboos with great wit. The antagonist was Archie Bunker, a conservative, prejudiced blue-collar worker who ruled from his TV recliner and spewed out invective – and frequent malapropisms — on anyone who challenged his opinions, particularly his liberal daughter and son-in-law. Playing opposite Archie was his good-natured and patient wife, Edith, who proved she could stand up to him when needed. One of the most successful sitcoms in television, “All in the Family” brought in four Emmy Awards and, became the top-rated show in the United States for five consecutive years.

One of the most memorable scenes unfolded when guest star Sammy Davis, Jr. kissed the bigoted Archie on his cheek.

See previous milestones, here.