Milestones: April 5, 2024

April 5, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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WASHINGTON’S FIRST VETO — THE NATION’S FIRST PRESIDENT, GEORGE WASHINGTON, on April 5, 1792, exercised his first presidential veto over a new plan to divide the allocated number of seats in the House of Representatives to favor Northern states. As a Virginian, Washington did not want his veto to be interpreted as a pro-Southern bias, and fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson correctly perceived this. Jefferson, who was in Washington’s first Cabinet as Secretary of State, advised Washington to veto the plan on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and that its main principles lent themselves to future abuse. Washington needed some persuading but did veto the plan on constitutional grounds, pointing out that it would have exceeded the number of representatives that the Constitution stipulated. Congress decided not to override him, and instead drafted a new bill.

Washington’s only other exercised veto was against an act that would have reduced the number of cavalry units in the army. Perhaps as a military leader who during the Revolution had to deal with decimated troops, understood that bill to be unwise.

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PEACEMAKING MARRIAGE — THE INDIAN PRINCESS AND GUIDE POCAHONTAS MARRIED English settler and tobacco planter John Rolfe on April 5, 1614. Pocahontas, as the 13-year-old daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe, had interceded in the capture of another settler, Captain John Smith, and his companions. Later, the English took Pocahontas hostage in plans to use her as a pawn in negotiating a lasting peace with the tribe chief. She was taken to Jamestown and placed in the custody of the marshal of Virginia, Sir Thomas Gates, who treated her kindly and encouraged her to learn English customs, during which time she also converted to Christianity. Although Chief Powhatan eventually agreed to the terms of Pocahontas’ being released, she had fallen in love with a settler 10 years her senior, John Rolfe. It was Pocahontas’ marriage to Rolfe that really sealed a lasting peace. Both her father and Virginia’s governor gave their blessing to the marriage.

Pocahontas was actually the nickname of the chief’s daughter, meaning “playful” or “my favorite daughter.” Her real name was Matoaka, according to some records.

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PLAYED EAST AGAINST WEST — YUGOSLAV PARTISAN LEADER JOSIP BROZ (“TITO”) on April 5, 1945, signed an agreement permitting “Temporary Entry Of Soviet Troops Into Yugoslav Territory.” At the time he was secretary general of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and had led a counteroffensive against the Axis powers, leading the Allies to revere him as the leader of the Yugoslav resistance against both the Nazis and Stalin. His ambition was total control of Yugoslavia — against both the Soviets and pro-democracy forces, refusing to align himself with either. The April 5, 1945 agreement stipulated that the Soviets would leave Yugoslavia once its “operational task” was completed. But then Stalin tried to maintain a presence in postwar Yugoslavia, with the goal of creating a puppet state within this communist nation. However, Stalin’s plan backfired as Tito played East against West, succeeded in maintaining control in Yugoslavia and allowed unprecedented cultural and scientific freedoms, but not democracy itself.

Tito’s grip was so tight on Yugoslavia that upon his death in 1980, the lack of a solid successor led to an ethnic civil war, with Slovenia and Croatia breaking away and with the start of ethnic cleansing in parts of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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EXEMPLIFIED BRITISH RESISTANCE — SIR WINSTON LEONARD SPENCER CHURCHILL, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through World War II, on April 5, 1955, retired as Prime Minister of Great Britain. Although he was out of government office for a decade until 1939, he warned Britain about the threat of aggression from both the Nazis and Japan, but his advice went unheeded. During World War II, Churchill returned to his prior post as First Lord of the Admiralty and eight months later replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of a new coalition government. As Britain’s Prime Minister during World War II, Churchill led Britain in resisting Nazi Germany, promising the nation that Britain would “never surrender,” and rallying British citizens to resistance.

After a postwar Labor Party victory in 1945, he became leader of the opposition (conservatives) and in 1951 was again elected prime minister. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Churchill. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

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WORKING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT — PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT on April 5, 1933, established the Civilian Conservation Corps. This federally-funded organization accomplished two goals: putting Americans back to work and protecting the environment. Employees working under the CCC program were assigned to extinguishing forest fires, planting trees, maintaining access roads, re-seeding grazed lands and preventing soil erosion. They also built wildlife refuges. During the period of 1933 to 1942, when Congress had to divert funds for World War II, the CCC employed more than three million men.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was considered to be the most far-reaching and successful of the New Deal Policies.

See previous milestones, here.