This is a year of politics. Instead of hashing over the present, I would like to present you some very interesting facts of the past. I ran across an especially interesting clipping in some of my folks’ saved articles. Because it is just a 2×8 inch cut out piece of newspaper, I do not know what paper it was published in. I do know that my folks at different times in their lives received the Omaha World Herald and the Norfolk Daily News (Norfolk, NE) I assume this article was published by one or the other.
The article talks of the similarities between President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Here are the details in the article:
- Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960
- Both men were slain on a Friday, each time their wife was with them.
- John Wilkes Booth who killed Lincoln was born in 1839, Lee Harvey Oswald who killed Kennedy was born in 1939.
- Booth and Oswald, both Southerners, favored unpopular ideas. Both were murdered before they could be brought to trial.
- Booth shot Lincoln in a theater, and ran to a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse, and ran to a theater.
- Lincoln’s secretary, who was named Kennedy, urged Lincoln not to go to the theater where he was killed. Kennedy’s secretary, named Lincoln, urged Kennedy not to go to Dallas.
- Both slain presidents were succeeded by men named Johnson, both Southerners. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808; Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908. Both the Johnsons served in the U.S. Senate before becoming vice-president.
This is a rather eerie example of history repeating itself, don’t you think? It is also a story that makes history interesting. These are the kind of stories that would have made history class come alive for me. Unfortunately, what I remember of history class is a lot of memorizing dates and places the night before the exam, only to be forgotten soon afterwards.
Maybe history has become more important to me in my sixth decade because I see myself as part of history now. I have lived some of the United States history. I remember sitting at my desk in my 4th grade classroom in Osmond, Nebraska when the announcement came over the PA system. “President Kennedy has been shot.” (I also remember that President Lyndon Johnson who succeeded him had two beagle dogs – one named Him and the other Her.) As a 9 year old beagle owner myself, at the time, I thought this was rather cool.
Even though this has been a somewhat sullen blog I encourage you to keep smiling this week. And as always, “keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin.’
