History & Comment for March 31, 2025

A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Monday the 31st and last day of March 2025.   I’m trying to grasp how we are almost ¼ of the way through 2025 already.  This is the 90th of 365 days.  

I was commenting the other day with an on-line friend, about how current events relate in time with historical events.   For example this year is as far from the year 2000 and is 1975.  

I’m trying to recall significant life events from 1975.   Nothing particularly memorable comes to mind.  It was freshman year of High School.  I was talking to a friend yesterday and the subject of going back and changing things came up.    As humans there are always things that we would like to change or reflecting back on Robert Frost, maybe take the other path.    We were discussing 1985,   but no matter, every small decision affects the whole.   You cannot go back and make a small change.  We are the product of dozens if not hundreds of small choices.     I can think of many small events that have had major effects on where I am today.    Maybe the biggest question is what part did divine providence play in those events?   

In the year 307,  Roman Emperor Constantine divorces his wife Minervina. She is the mother of his oldest son Crispus.    For possible political reasons he marries Fausta.   She is at least a half sister to his step Mother.    Things get along somewhat normal for a few years.   Until Fausta is believed to have hopped into bed with Crispus.   The details are vague.  What we do know is both Crispus and Fausta died from unnatural causes,  in the year 326.  And their names are erased from the official records. 

Queen Isabella is quite busy in the year 1492.   On this day she issues a decree that Jewish and Muslim subjects must convert to Christianity or face expulsion from the realm.  Castile was much of present day Spain.  Later in the year she will sponsor Christphor Columbus on his voyage to find the Far East by sailing West.  

We have often discussed the period in English History where they did not have a Monarch between Charles the first and second.   During that time there was a lot of debate about the monarchy. In 1657, the Parliament offers Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, the throne.    He turns it down.   

Boston was the seat of much of the fervor that lead to the American Revolution.   Similar to many historical events there was some reasonable debate and opinions were diverse.    It could be argued that the events leading to the Boston Tea Party were reasonable and the “Party” was not.  Some took the opposite view.    In the former category was the British Parliament.   They saw it as an act of terrorism and gross vandalism.   That was not totally unreasonable.   In response they passed a series of acts to punish Boston.   One of those is passed on this day in 1774.   Closing the port to all ships and placing a number of troops on the streets of Boston.   Parliament’s position was pay for the damages or we will close your harbor to all trade.   

The Eiffle Tower officially opens in 1889, after a hasty two year construction effort.   It was planned as the centerpieces of the Worlds Fair that opened just five weeks later.   The fair was slated to run for six months,   what would become of the tower after, was in question.   

Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the US for the first time in 1918.   The effect is to push the daylight period one hour towards the evening.   The idea was to conserve energy during WW I.  However the practice has been utiltized as far back as the Romans for various reasons.    It is a nice touch to have a long period of daylight in the summer evenings.   Here on the Western Edge of the Eastern Time Zone, solar noon is now two in the afternoon.   

1930, the Motion Picture Production Code is instituted.  This set standards for how sex, crime, religion and violence would be treated on the silver screen.   It was a form of self-regulation that will stay in place until the current rating scheme is enacted.    In the 1920s Hollywood’s moral fabric was widely questioned and pressure was coming from a number of political groups.    We might add that Hollywood’s religious background is quite different than most of middle America.   In Fact that statement can be extended to the entertainment industry as a whole.  

The Civilian Conservation Corp was instituted in 1934 to help relieve Depression Era unemployment, in this case Younger workers.   The CCC was a residence program that employed young men to public works projects  on State and Federal lands.   It and the PWA might have been two of the best programs of the era.  They offered work and wages instead of direct payments to workers.   

Today trains provide a vital way to move large volumes of freight across the country.   This has been the case for the past century and a half.   Prior to the 1950s it was the prime method to move any freight.    The advent of improved roads and more reliable trucks have moved a large portion of freight to the Highway System and off of the rail.    In the first half of the 20th Century,  most towns of any size had train service for freight and passenger travel.   The FedEx of the day was the Railway Express Agency,  where your small package would travel by rail and could be picked up from the local REA agent.  

After WW II this began to change.   Highway travel and freight was a bit faster and roads went more places especially for short distances.   Another factor was rails were private property, built, paid for and taxed in that manner.  Roads were government-financed.    Then became a great decline in the Railroads.    Most,once profitable, were bankrupt.    They retreated to lines that could carry large volumes of bulk freight between major cities and the branch lines were pulled up.   

On this day in 1980,  the once mightly,  Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operate is final train after beign ordered to liquidate by a bankruptcy court.   The name was in the classic scheme that had begun in the 1830s when the first railroad were formed.  Later names were The Rock Island Line or simply the Rock. 

The sale of trackage, locomotives and rolling stock left the successor Company Chciago Pacific Corporation with boat loads of cash. They first purchased the Hoover Vacuum Company before being acquired by the Maytag Corporation later in the decade.    Creditors who had bought debt for pennies on the dollar made out well when the Company made good on all of its debts.   

The Rock Island did leave a legacy in popular culture.    Ruth Henning’s grandmother operated a small hotel in Eldon, Missouri along the tracks of a Rock Island branch line.    It was the inspiration for the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction.   Ruth’s husband Paul was the creator of the series. 

Birthdays for the last day of March:

Country Singer Lefty Frizzell in 1928.   His birth name was William Orvel Frizzell.   At a point in the early 1950s Frizzell was the only County Singer who could compete with the popularity of Hank Williams and even toured with Williams.  Like Hank his personal life was a complete mess.   Frizzell had a number of popular hits including the haunting song Long Black  Veil and Saginaw Michigan.   Another point similar to Williams, he had a long history of trouble with drink and died of a massive stroke at  the age of 47.   

Hockey Legend Gordie Howe also in 1928.   Howe may not have been perfect but he did have a very long history in professional hockey and lived to the age of 88. 

Actor Richard Chamberlain would have been 91 today, he passed late last week. 

Actress and singer Shirley Jones is 91 today.   She made her name in the 70’s television series The Partridge Family. 

Herb Alpert is 90.   Alpert was a talented trumpet player who was having trouble finding his niche.   Then came into his stride when he adapted the energy of a Mexican bull fight and mariachi music.  The first version of the band the Tijuana Brass?  Was just,  Alpert and multi-track recording.  

Since we often take a look back and have already mentioned the year 1975. On television that year was a show called Welcome Back, Kotter.  Which was highly autobiographical of lead actor Gabe Kaplan. Kaplan is 80 today.   The series was also the breakout role for John Travolta.   

Hard Rocker Angus Young is 70 today. 

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