Milestones: January 17, 2024

January 17, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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OVERTHREW THE QUEEN — A GROUP OF AMERICAN SUGAR PLANTERS WANTING TO CAPITALIZE ON THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS’ MAIN CROP OVERTHREW QUEEN LILIUOKALANI ON JAN. 17, 1893. The sugar planters, to create a new provincial government, had planned the coup with the knowledge and approval of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii, the Pacific Ocean archipelago, which Polynesian explorers had first settled in the 8th century C.E. had then — almost a millennium later — been besieged and stripped Hawaii of its sandalwood. Following these prospectors were missionaries, who revolutionized life and culture in Hawaii. A constitutional monarchy that was established in the mid-19th century diminished the monarchy’s authority, and Americans began dominating the lives of the indigenous peoples. However, one who resisted was Queen Liliuokalani who, in 1891, succeeded her late brother, King Kalakaua, and refused to recognize the constitution of 1887, instead replacing it with one that gave her more authority. However, the Marines were dispatched to assist in deposing Queen Liliuokalani.

President Grover Cleveland sent a new U.S. minister to Hawaii to restore Queen Liliuokalani to the throne under the 1887 constitution, but Gov. Sanford Dole refused to step aside and instead proclaimed the independent Republic of Hawaii. Cleveland was unwilling to overthrow the government by force.

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THE ALMOST PERFECT CRIME — A GROUP OF 11 MEN ON JAN. 17, 1950 STOLE MORE THAN $2 million from the Brink’s Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. Career criminal Anthony “Fats” Pino masterminded the heist, for which preparations had begun 18 months prior. They surveyed the depot to determine when the most money was brought. The group then stole the schematics on the depot’s alarm system, inconspicuously returning them before they were missed. Clad in rubber Halloween masks, they held up the employees, filled 14 bags of money and completed the task within half an hour, leaving almost no clues and harming nobody. They chose to delay spending the loot until the statute of limitations on their arrests but were nabbed before that deadline.

The foil in their plan, “Specs” O’Keefe, got angry with the bunch while he was serving time for another crime. He copped to the FBI, and the others got arrested and sentenced.

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THE BATTLE OF COWPENS — CREATIVE STRATEGY SAVED THE PATRIOT FORCES, ON JAN. 17, 1781, during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Cowpens. Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and a mixed Patriot force routed British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and a group of Redcoats. Outnumbered, the forces divided into smaller groups, forcing the British Army to fight on multiple fronts. Morgan took only a little more than a thousand Continental riflemen and militiamen to attack the British backcountry fort, Ninety-Six. He then ordered his men to leave the front lines after only two rounds of fire, making the Brits assume they had routed the Americans — before encountering a siege of rifle shots from the Patriots. Before Cornwallis’ men could respond, the Patriots reinforced the battle scene with a cavalry charge and the militia’s return.

Although Tarleton himself escaped, his army had been routed by Morgan’s soldiers.

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RUDE MONDAY AWAKENING — A 6.74 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE SHOOK LOS ANGELES AWAKE AT 4:31 A.M. LOCAL TIME ON MONDAY, JAN. 17, 1994, WITH 54 LIVES LOST AND DAMAGES IN THE BILLIONS. Considered one of the most destructive earthquakes in U.S. history, the death toll from the temblor could have been worse if it hadn’t been for its timing: before people would have been commuting. Most people were still in bed, and the highways were empty. Mitigating the damage were the city’s building and safety codes, which had been amended following the 1971 Sylmar quake.

Buildings that were constructed after the new regulations took effect stayed intact.

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U-CHIGAGO’S YOUNGEST PRESIDENT— JAN. 17, 1899 MARKED THE BIRTHDAY OF BROOKLYN-BORN ROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINS. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister who later became president of Berea College. His family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, when he was about eight; the community there instilled in him the value of education and hard work. After attending Yale, he eventually became dean of its law school, embracing the predominant attitude of the time, legal realism, which held that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, relying heavily on empirical evidence.

After becoming the University of Chicago’s youngest president at age 30, Hutchins grew disillusioned and began questioning Legal Realism. He later became a civil liberties activist. He introduced the Great Books Program.

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ELDER STATESMAN — THE STATESMAN AND POLYMATH BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WAS BORN ON JANUARY 17, 1706, in Boston. But it was in Pennsylvania that he made the greatest contribution to the founding of the United States. Often called the “Elder statesman of the American Revolution,” Franklin was the oldest signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. During his lifetime he was also a printer and publisher (“Poor Richard’s Almanack,”) scientist and inventors, diplomat and philanthropist.

The Poor Richard Club of Philadelphia observes Franklin’s birthday with a graveside observance each year.

See previous milestones, here.