DATE=10/09/03

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-37933

TYPE=English Programs Feature

TITLE=AMERICAN MOMENTS 10-16-03 - 10-31-03

EDITOR=Ted Landphair

TELEPHONE=619-3515

DATELINE=Washington

CONTENT=

(For Use 10/16)

JOHN BROWN'S RAID ON HARPERS FERRY 1859

NARR: On October sixteenth, 1859, the anti-slavery crusader John Brown led an attack on the federal government's armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

TAPE: MUSIC - PETE SEEGER, "JOHN BROWN'S BODY" (RUNS 1:28) SNEAKS IN (A-55)

NARR: Brown, an ardent abolitionist, believed that God had chosen him to lead a holy war to free black slaves in the United States.

MUSIC UP FULL TO ESTABLISH THEN FADE UNDER

NARR: John Brown's attack on the armory at Harpers Ferry was intended to capture arms and ammunition and to spark a slave insurrection in the surrounding Virginia countryside. Brown, who had led bloody anti-slavery raids in Kansas Territory in the American Midwest, held the Harpers Ferry armory for two days. However, there was no slave uprising, and the expected help from black recruits never came. What did arrive was a force of federal troops that drove Brown and his followers from their stronghold.

MUSIC SWELLS AND FADES UNDER

NARR: The abolitionist and the survivors of his group were captured and tried in a Virginia state court. They were found guilty of encouraging a slave rebellion, sentenced to death and hanged.

MUSIC - UP FULL TO ESTABLISH THEN FADE UNDER AND OUT AS DESIRED

NARR: Northern abolitionists considered John Brown a martyr to the cause of freedom, and a song was written about him. (BEGIN OPT) In the South, Brown's execution did little to relieve spreading fears of a slave rebellion. Some southerners also believed that northerners would continue to sponsor efforts to stimulate slave uprisings. Many historians believe that John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 intensified the drumbeat for civil war. (END OPT)

U.S. EMBARGOES STEEL SHIPMENTS TO JAPAN 1940

NARR: On October sixteenth, 1940, the United States announced an embargo on all scrap iron and steel shipments to Japan. The ban was the result of growing American concern about Japanese military expansion in Asia, and especially reports of barbarous behavior by Japanese troops in China. The stringent U-S embargo and other joint economic measures with England and the Netherlands, including a halt to oil shipments, began to threaten Japan's war industries and economic expansion. The cabinet in Tokyo considered two responses to the embargoes: either abandon Japan's ambitions for empire, or conquer the countries in Asia where the necessary raw materials could be found. Japan chose the second course. That nation's continuing ambitions, and its attack on the U-S naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, brought the United States into World War Two.

(For Use 10/17)

EINSTEIN TO PRINCETON 1933

NARR: Seventy years ago today, on October seventeenth, 1933, Albert Einstein, one of history's most brilliant physicists, joined the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University in New Jersey. Professor Einstein, a German Jew, had moved to the United States to lecture and teach after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. The rabidly anti-Semitic Nazis had stripped Dr. Einstein of his university posts, confiscated his property, and stripped him of his citizenship. While at Princeton, Professor Einstein taught many of the students who would become the foremost physicists in the United States. He also wrote what must be considered one of the most important letters of the twentieth century. He warned President Franklin Roosevelt that the Nazis were working to make what he called an "atomic bomb" of stupendous power. The letter prompted President Roosevelt to create the Manhattan Project, the secret and ultimately successful American effort to develop an atomic weapon before the Germans did.

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 1979

NARR: On October seventeenth, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the new cabinet-level Department of Education. In signing the measure at a White House ceremony, President Carter called education the nation's most important investment. The National Education Association, a nationwide teachers' union, supported Carter in the 1976 presidential election after he promised that he would create the new department. Previously, federal education policy had been the responsibility of a division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The first secretary of Education was Shirley Hufstedler, who had been a federal appellate court judge. With education now under a separate Cabinet officer, its former department took on a new name: Health and Human Services. In recent years, some conservatives have called for the abolition of the federal Department of Education. They say it is part of an excessive bureaucracy, and that more control of educational policy should be returned to the states and local communities.

(For Use 10/18)

FIRST DRAFT CARD BURNER ARRESTED 1965

NARR: On October eighteenth, 1965, the Federal Bureau of Investigation made its first arrest under the terms of a new federal law that made it a crime to destroy or mutilate a draft card -- that is, a card signifying registration for military service. The practice of burning draft cards had become a popular way for young men to protest the Vietnam War and military conscription. David Miller, a college student, was charged with burning his draft card at an anti-war demonstration in New York City three days earlier. Miller, a member of a pacifist organization, pleaded "not guilty" at his trial. His attorney maintained that burning the draft card was an exercise in free expression protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Nevertheless, Miller was found guilty and sentenced to thirty days in jail. (BEGIN OPT) He could have been sentenced to a fine of up to ten-thousand dollars and/or up to five years in prison. (END OPT)

ALASKA BECOMES AMERICAN 1867

NARR: On October eighteenth, 1867, at a fort in eastern Alaska, the flag of Imperial Russia was lowered, and the "Stars and Stripes" flag of the United States was raised. The ceremony marked the transfer of ownership of Alaska from Russia to the United States. In what must be considered one of the smartest real estate transactions in its history, the United States had purchased the wilderness of more than one-and-one-half-million square kilometers for about four cents a square kilometer. The purchase was negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward. Many Americans at the time thought it was foolish to purchase so much snow and ice and the deal came to be known as "Seward's Folly." However, the wisdom of the acquisition was eventually confirmed by the discovery of vast reserves of natural resources in the territory. Alaska became the forty-ninth state of the United States in 1959. (BEGIN OPT) Alaskans continue to observe October eighteenth each year as Alaska Day, to celebrate the change of ownership from Russia to the United States. Everything about Alaska -- except its population -- is large: its width from Attu (PRN: AH too) island in the west to Ketchikan (PRN: CATCH ih can) in the east is equal to the distance from America's North Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast of Oregon. In terms of land, it is the largest state, three times the size of Texas. But it has the second-smallest population -- 627-thousand in the 2000 census -- with only Wyoming having fewer people. (END OPT)

(For Use 10/19)

STAMP ACT PROTEST 1765

NARR: On October nineteenth, 1765, tension between Britain and its American colonies intensified with the colonists' approval of a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." Delegates from nine of the British colonists approved that declaration as a way of protesting the British Stamp Act. The delegates also urged a boycott of British imports to the colonies, England's largest market. The British Parliament had enacted the Stamp Act, a tax on legal documents and most other public papers, to help pay for the maintenance of English troops in America. The Stamp Act immediately set off waves of protest in the colonies and the call for a meeting to seek relief. The "Declaration of Rights" contained fourteen points that claimed colonists were entitled to all the rights of British citizenship as though they lived in England; this included the right to representation in Parliament before they could be taxed. The Stamp Act congress, or meeting, was the first inter-colonial gathering to deal with a problem with England. It set the pattern for future meetings to respond to England's colonial policies, meetings that eventually led to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.

VICTORY AT YORKTOWN 1781

NARR: On October nineteenth, 1781, the American Army won the climactic battle of the War for Independence. The British commander, Lord Charles Cornwallis, surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, after his army became trapped between George Washington's forces and a French fleet anchored offshore. General Cornwallis signed the documents of surrender after a siege of nearly two weeks. He believed that further resistance would be a foolish waste of the lives of his troops.

TAPE: MUSIC - "THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN" (RUNS :44) SNEAKS IN AND REMAINS UNDER [A-27]

NARR: The general ordered his men to march out of the town in a dignified manner, with their flags shrouded as a sign of defeat. As the British troops stacked their arms, General Cornwallis ordered the regimental band to play an English march appropriately titled, "The World Turned Upside Down."

MUSIC SWELLS AND FADES UNDER AND OUT AS DESIRED

NARR: (BEGIN OPT) American independence was virtually assured after the victory at Yorktown. In London, the Parliament and general population, already tired of five years of war across the Atlantic Ocean, received news of the defeat and the surrender of Cornwallis with growing skepticism that the war could be won. And the British prime minister, Lord North, was heard to say, "It is all over." (END OPT)

(For Use 10/20)

U-S EMBARGO ON CUBA 1960

NARR: On October 20th, 1960, the United States announced the beginning of an embargo on most U-S exports to Cuba. The State Department said the Cuban government deliberately made American products too expensive for Cubans by imposing high fees and import taxes of up to one hundred percent. The State Department also charged that Havana's Communist government had pressured Cuban businesses that had been customers for American exports to order their goods from countries other than the United States. The U-S export ban covered technical information and all goods except medicines, medical supplies and certain foods. The embargo also forbade the sale, transfer or charter of United States-owned ships to the Cuban government or to its citizens, unless they had been pre-approved by the U-S Maritime Commission. Fidel Castro's government retaliated five days after the embargo was imposed by seizing 166 U-S owned businesses in Cuba valued at about 250-million dollars.

MACARTHUR "RETURNS" 1944

NARR: On October 20th, 1944, United States Army General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands, fulfilling a promise he had made in 1942. While the initial American assault on the Philippine island of Leyte was still underway, General MacArthur proclaimed his "return" during a shipboard radio broadcast to the people of the island. He then went in an assault craft to a beach, where he waded ashore. In February 1942, the general's departure had been less exciting: President Franklin Roosevelt had ordered him to leave the embattled island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. After a perilous journey to Australia, General MacArthur declared: "I have come through ... and I shall return!" (BEGIN OPT) Carlos Romulo, who would become the Philippines' first ambassador to the United Nations and later, his nation's first foreign secretary, accompanied MacArthur when he returned. Romulo recalled the scene:

TAPE: CARLOS ROMULO (RUNS :29) [M-1402]

"When we landed on the beach, he said to me, as he shook my two hands, 'Carlos, you are home.' That word 'home,' thrilled me. I had been homeless for three and one half years and I was back home. And that was because America did not let my people down. And that was because General MacArthur made good his promise: 'I shall return.'

NARR: While General MacArthur's army fought on land, American naval forces engaged in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It was, at the time, the largest naval battle in history. Two-hundred-sixteen American, two Australian and sixty-four Japanese warships engaged in a series of widely separated actions. The Japanese made a desperate attempt to destroy the cargo ships supplying the Americans on Leyte. Outnumbered and without sufficient air cover, the Japanese lost the three-day battle. (END OPT)

(For Use 10/21)

EDISON'S LIGHT BULB 1879

NARR: On October 21st, 1879, inventor Thomas Edison began testing yet another kind of filament for his incandescent electric light bulb. The bulb burned brightly for forty hours, becoming the first successful light bulb after thousands of failures at Edison's Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory. The key to success was his choice of a hair-thin carbon filament that would glow but not melt from the heat of the electricity. He proclaimed to laboratory workers, If I can make it burn forty hours, I can make it burn a hundred. With the workable bulb, Edison designed the first successful electrical lighting system, which initially provided power to eighty-five New York City homes that his company had equipped with electric circuits and light bulbs.

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM OPENS 1959

NARR: On October 21st, 1959, politicians and luminaries from the New York City art world celebrated the opening of the Guggenheim [GOO-gen-hime] Museum of Art. The structure, whose ziggurat shape somewhat resembles a Mayan temple, immediately became the most controversial museum building in the United States. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the edifice represented a radical departure from traditional museum architecture. The Wright design had visitors walk a continuous spiral ramp around the curved walls. It was Wright's last significant work and his only work in New York City. Today, the Guggenheim remains one of America's foremost museums of contemporary art.

(For Use 10/22)

U.S.-CUBA MISSILE CRISIS

NARR: On October 22nd, 1962, President John F. Kennedy ordered a U-S naval quarantine of Cuba. His order followed the discovery of the construction of Soviet offensive nuclear missile sites on the island. Reconnaissance photos also showed the preparation of facilities for long-range bombers that could strike many cities in the United States as well as other Western Hemisphere nations. President Kennedy delivered a nationally broadcast speech to announce the blockade and suggested that it was up to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to end the crisis:

TAPE KENNEDY :26

He has an opportunity now to move the world back from the abyss of destruction, by returning to his government's own words, that it had no need to station missiles outside its own territory, and withdrawing these weapons from Cuba, by refraining from any action which will widen or deepen the present crisis and then by participating in a search for peaceful and permanent solutions.

NARR: The crisis eased when Premier Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the bases and withdraw nuclear missiles from Cuba -- and the United States agreed to dismantle medium-range missiles in Turkey.

N-Y Metropolitan Opera in New Home 1883

NARR: One hundred-twenty years ago today, on October 22nd, 1883, the New York Metropolitan Opera staged its first performance in a new permanent home. Newspaper critics described the evening as a glittering affair under the light of the huge gas chandelier that hung from the ceiling in the theater. All 3,625 seats in the new house were occupied. The interior of the venue was said to be far superior to the yellow-painted brick exterior, which one critic likened to that of a brewery.

TAPE MUSIC OF FAUST 1:57

SNEAKS IN AND REMAINS UNDER [CDC-885]

NARR: The initial performance was of Faust, by the French composer Charles Gounod [sharl GOO-noh]:

MUSIC SWELLS AND FADES UNDER AND OUT AS DESIRED.

NARR: All of the operas that first season in the new home, including Wagner's Lohengrin, were sung in either French or Italian.

[For Use 10/23]

TERRORIST KILLS U-S MARINES IN BEIRUT 1983

NARR: Twenty years ago today, on October 23rd, 1983, more than two hundred United States servicemen were killed in a terrorist bombing attack in Beirut, Lebanon. A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck past a guard post and into a Beirut airport building. The facility had been the headquarters and barracks for U-S Marines and other personnel, part of the American contingency of an international peacekeeping force. Moments after the explosion at the U-S occupied building, another terrorist drove a truck into the headquarters of the French peacekeeping force. That bomb destroyed the eight-story building and killed about fifty French soldiers. U-S President Ronald Reagan reacted angrily, calling the bombings, hideous and insane.

FIRST U-N GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING IN NEW YORK 1946

NARR: On October 23rd, 1946, delegates to the United Nations were called to order for the first meeting of the General Assembly in New York City. The session was held in a converted skating rink in the city's Flushing Meadows section of the Bronx. The dominant feature of the hall was an eighteen-by-ten-meter map of the world with no national boundaries. No opening prayer was offered because of the diverse religions of the delegates. Belgium's foreign minister, Paul-Henri Spaak [on-REE spock], the assembly president, opened the meeting with the statement: Either we succeed or the world will fall back into disorder, chaos, and finally war. U-S President Harry Truman told the delegates that American participation in the organization symbolized the end of U-S isolationism.

(For Use 10/24)

COAST-TO-COAST TELEGRAPH 1861

NARR: On October 24th, 1861, a telegrapher [tell-EGG-raff-her] in San Francisco tapped out a message from a state judge in California to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D-C. Moments later the mayor of San Francisco sent a message to the mayor of New York City. Both expressed similar ideas: "Greetings from the Pacific Coast, and isn't this new means of communications wonderful?" The Morse code messages flashed across the wires at nearly the speed of light. The ability to send such coast-to-coast messages was the result of the Pacific Telegraph Act, which the U-S Congress passed on June 16th, 1860. The measure authorized the construction of a telegraph line from Missouri, the eastern terminal in the Midwest, to San Francisco on the West Coast. (BEGIN OPT) The first message was made possible when the final connection was made between Sacramento, California and Denver, Colorado. By 1880, the Western Union company had organized a nationwide network of telegraph lines and relay stations. (END OPT)

CANDIDATE EISENHOWER'S KOREA PROMISE 1952

NARR: On October 24th, 1952, U-S presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower said that if he were elected, he would go to Korea. His purpose was to seek an early and honorable end to the war being fought there. The former World War Two commander of Allied forces in Europe made the pledge during a campaign speech in Detroit, Michigan. Republican Eisenhower said the Korean War was never "inevitable," as claimed by outgoing President Harry Truman, a Democrat, and Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson, Eisenhower's Democratic opponent in the presidential race. Eisenhower said his first task, if elected, would be to end the war.

TAPE: DWIGHT EISENHOWER (RUNS :25)

"Where will a new administration begin? It will begin with its president taking a firm, simple resolution. That resolution will be to forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean War. That job requires a personal trip to Korea!" [APPLAUSE LASTS :05]

NARR: (BEGIN OPT) "Ike," as Eisenhower was known, won the presidential election by a landslide and went to Korea. When he came home, the president-elect said there were no easy answers that would bring a quick peace. However, he said his three-day tour of South Korea made him confident that he could help improve the United Nations' efforts in the war. (END OPT)

(For Use 10/25)

STOCK MARKET SHOCK 1929

NARR: On October 25th, 1929, the stock market in the United States was in shock, and the Great Depression was under way. The day before, October 24th, known as "Black Thursday," had produced an unprecedented drop in stock prices. The value of shares in many of even the most solid corporations dropped as much as fifty percent. One report said eleven stock speculators had committed suicide because they had lost so much money. On Friday, the day after Black Thursday, stock prices plunged again. Some economists blamed rumors, on and off the stock exchange, and psychology for the sharp drop in prices for the second day. (BEGIN OPT) President Herbert Hoover tried, but failed, to instill confidence in the stock markets when he said from the White House: "The fundamental business of the country, that is, the production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis." [END OPT]

CABINET MEETING BROADCAST 1954

NARR: On October 25th, 1954, a special report to a White House Cabinet meeting by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles about a just- concluded session of the Atlantic Alliance was broadcast live on television and radio around the United States. Secretary Dulles reported that the Alliance leaders had agreed to restore West German sovereignty. They also agreed to permit West Germany to rebuild its army, air force and navy under the overall control of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Other steps were approved to strengthen the political and military wings of NATO. In conclusion, Secretary Dulles said the "...solidarity and strength ..." developed at the Paris meeting might lead to a firmer basis for reaching a realistic agreement with the Soviet Union. It was the first time a Cabinet meeting had ever been broadcast live.

(For Use 10/26)

ERIE CANAL OPENS 1825

NARR: On October 26th, 1825, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton poured a barrel of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean near New York City to mark the official opening of the Erie Canal. The waterway linked existing rivers and lakes between the port city of Buffalo on Lake Erie and Albany on the Hudson River, a distance of more than five hundred kilometers.

TAPE: MUSIC - "ERIE CANAL" (RUNS 1:53) IN FULL FOR :08 THEN FADE UNDER (M-3615)

NARR: The canal made it possible for mule teams to tow freight-carrying barges along the canal from Buffalo to Albany faster and cheaper than wagons could haul the freight. (BEGIN OPT) Lore of the canal was retold in many of the songs sung by the mule drivers and boat crews. One of their favorite tunes was about a mule named Sal:

TAPE: MUSIC - IN FULL FOR :10 THEN FADE UNDER (END OPT)

NARR: After barges reached Albany, goods and passengers from the West could sail south on the Hudson River to New York City. (BEGIN OPT) The canal gave the Atlantic port of New York easy access to the West and was partially responsible for the city's continued growth as a port and financial center. The Erie Canal also encouraged the commercial development of cities like Rochester and Utica along its route and stimulated emigration westward. (END OPT)

MUSIC - UP FULL AND FADE OUT AS DESIRED

PEACE IS AT HAND 1972

NARR: Declaring that "peace is at hand," National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger broke the silence on the Vietnam War peace talks on October 26th, 1972. Kissinger, President Richard Nixon's top foreign policy adviser, optimistically predicted that a cease-fire could be arranged in just one more negotiating session in Paris.

TAPE: HENRY KISSINGER (RUNS :16)

"We believe that peace is at hand. We believe that an agreement is within sight ... We cannot fail, and we will not fail over what still remains to be accomplished."

NARR: President Nixon, campaigning for re-election, promised he would achieve what he called "peace with honor and not peace with surrender." It turned out that Kissinger was overly optimistic -- it actually took three more months to achieve a final peace agreement. It was signed in late January 1973. (BEGIN OPT) Despite the treaty's mandate for a cease-fire, Viet Cong forces and the army of North Vietnam continued their attacks in South Vietnam until Saigon capitulated in April 1975. (END OPT)

(For Use 10/27)

FEDERALIST PAPERS 1787

NARR: On October twenty-seventh, 1787, the Independent Journal, a New York City newspaper, published the first in a series of essays supporting ratification of the proposed United States Constitution. Eighty-five essays were

printed in New York City papers between October 1787 and August 1788. Under the name "The Federalist Papers," the essays were widely reprinted and quoted throughout the country. They were written under the pseudonym "Publius," by James Madison, a future president; Alexander Hamilton, a future secretary of the treasury; and John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States. The three men argued that the new Constitution was needed to replace the nation's first national charter, the Articles of Confederation. The proposed constitution, they wrote, would be the foundation of a strong federal government, without usurping important powers that belonged to the states.

(BEGIN OPT) Like many historians, Professor Joel A. Cohen, of the University of Rhode Island, believes the Federalist Papers were important in the national debate over the ratification of the Constitution.

TAPE: JOEL A. COHEN (RUNS :29)

"The Federalist Papers' lay[s] it all out for us, putting forward the variety of different arguments to express why this system should be adopted and accepted: because people are protected; because powers (of government) are separated; because there is direct and representative democracy; because there is a diverse nation and yet it is a nation which will make sure that all citizens are protected." (END OPT)

NARR: In 1788, the Federalist Papers were published in book form under the title, The Federalist. The essays have been widely read through the years, and are respected for their interpretation of the principles upon which the government of the United States was established.

NEW YORK'S SUBWAYS 1904

NARR: On the afternoon of October twenty-seventh, 1904, fifteen-thousand formally dressed New Yorkers attended the gala opening of the city's underground railway, the New York Subway. The mayor of the city, George McClellan -- the son of the U-S Civil War general who commanded the Union Army until being relieved by President Lincoln -- acted as motorman on the first trip with passengers. He used ceremonial silver controls to direct the train up Broadway to One Hundred-Forty-Fifth Street. The distance of almost fifteen kilometers was completed exactly on the published schedule. The general public was admitted to the system at seven that evening for free rides, and most stayed until the last train pulled out at midnight. Passengers admired the clean white-tile stations and quiet ride of the electric trains. (BEGIN OPT) The subway replaced surface trolleys that clogged streets, and elevated steam trains that were both noisy and dirty. The subway became the key to New York's public transportation system. It now has about fifteen-hundred-thirty kilometers of track. (END OPT)

(For Use 10/28)

VOLSTEAD ACT 1919

NARR: On October twenty-eighth, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the Volstead [VOLE-sted] Act, the measure intended to enforce the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States. President Wilson believed that most Americans did not favor the ban. But the House of Representatives overturned the veto within two hours, and the Senate followed suit the next day. The Volstead Act prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating beverages in the United States. The measure defined an alcoholic beverage as containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume. (BEGIN OPT) It was named for Andrew J. Volstead, a member of the U-S House of Representatives from Minnesota, who had drawn up the legislation. (END OPT) The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution became effective on January sixteenth, 1920, beginning a long period of national prohibition. (BEGIN OPT) Critics pointed to the demoralizing effect of a law that respectable citizens routinely violated. They said the hugely profitable business of supplying illegal beverages fostered the growth of organized crime and the corruption of public officials. Not until more than fourteen years later, in December 1933, was the Eighteenth Amendment repealed, making liquor once again legal in the United States. (END OPT)

COTTON GIN 1793

NARR: Two hundred-ten years ago today, on October twenty-eighth, 1793, American inventor Eli Whitney filed a patent application for his cotton gin. The word "gin" is short for engine. Whitney's machine removed the seeds from cotton and cleaned fifty times more cotton in one day than one person could clean by hand. Most planters in the South could grow only a kind of cotton whose fibers stuck to the seeds, and it was very expensive to clean the cotton by hand. Because of the high cost of cleaning cotton, southern farmers had begun to look for other crops to plant. However, the cotton gin revolutionized the southern economy and is one of the factors that helped perpetuate slavery.

By the early nineteenth century, King Cotton, as some called it, had become the leading cash crop of the southern states, and overseas sales of the fiber were soaring. The southern growing region, which stretched from the coast of South Carolina to the Mississippi River, was called "The Cotton Kingdom." (BEGIN OPT) The cotton-based economy relied on slave labor. The cotton producers' desire to expand the system, with its dependence on slaves, ultimately helped bring about the American Civil War of the 1860s. (END OPT)

(For Use 10/29)

HARVARD UNIV. FOUNDED 1636

NARR: Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, was founded in the Massachusetts Colony on October twenty-ninth, 1636. It was established by the religious leaders of the colony, who had attended Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. Harvard's purpose was to provide learned ministers for the colony. Students studied Latin, Greek and the ancient philosophers, especially Aristotle. The school provided a pious atmosphere that included two church services each day. Over the centuries, Harvard has graduated many noted ministers. It has also expanded its curriculum, and has graduated a steady stream of top scientists, statesmen, business leaders and five American presidents. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts maintains such a high standard of excellence that other leading colleges are sometimes called the Harvards of their areas.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN 1966

NARR: On October twenty-ninth, 1966, the writer Betty Friedan [free-DAN] and about thirty other prominent leaders of the women's movement founded the National Organization for Women, known by the acronym NOW. The organization was intended to fight sexual discrimination in all forms and to bring women into the mainstream of society. In 1971, NOW began to encourage women to seek public office. This effort has had substantial success in elections for the U-S Congress and state and local offices. However, the organization has failed to achieve what had been the most important goal on its agenda: the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. This proposed constitutional change was aimed at guaranteeing women the same legal and economic rights as men. Other primary focuses of NOW include abortion rights and efforts to stop violence against women. (BEGIN OPT) On one anniversary of NOW, former First Lady Betty Ford spoke of the accomplishments of the organization and the movement to improve the lives of women:

TAPE: BETTY FORD (:13)

"There are innumerable rights that today's young women have without realizing that we -- those of us who were there in the beginning -- worked for and marched for." (END OPT)

NARR: The National Organization for Women's current membership crosses age, economic and ethnic lines.

(For Use 10/30)

HALLOWEEN SCARE: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS 1938

NARR: Sixty-five years ago today, on October thirtieth, 1938, many Americans living in the northeastern states mistakenly believed that Earth was being invaded by aliens from the planet Mars. Panic seized many people who heard reports on the radio of a Martian invasion. But what they were listening to were actors dramatizing "The War of the Worlds," a science fiction story by British author H-G Wells. The show's producers had given the audience advance warning that the program was make-believe. But many in the radio audience either missed the announcement or, convinced by the reality of the production, simply ignored it. (BEGIN OPT) In this excerpt from the "War of the Worlds" broadcast, an actor portrays a radio reporter:

TAPE: SFX - FROM "THE WAR OF THE WORLDS" (:23) IN FULL TO(***), FADE UNDER AND OUT

"The monster is now in control of the middle section of New Jersey and has effectively cut the state through its center. Communication lines are down from Pennsylvania to the Atlantic Ocean. (***) Railroad tracks are torn and service from New York to Philadelphia (has been) discontinued, except -- routing some of the trains through Allerton and Phoenixville. Highways to the north, south and west are clogged with frantic human traffic. Police and army reserves are unable to control the mad flight." (END OPT)

NARR: Some New Yorkers and residents of New Jersey and Pennsylvania continued to believe the drama, even after the fictional Martians had already supposedly destroyed their neighborhoods. (BEGIN OPT) The public reaction was so intense that the producers of "The War of the Worlds" met with the news media the next day and apologized for disruptions they had caused. To this day, the "War of the Worlds" broadcast is considered a classic example of the ability of the media to shape public perception of reality. (END OPT)

GEORGE MARSHALL RECEIVES THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 1953

NARR: Fifty years ago today, on October thirtieth, 1953, former U-S Secretary of State George C. Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was chosen primarily because of his role in helping to rebuild Europe after World War Two. General Marshall, the former chief of staff of the Army, had served as President Franklin Roosevelt's principal military adviser during the war. As Secretary of State under President Truman in 1947, Marshall was the architect of the European recovery plan that bore his name.

In a speech at Harvard University in June 1947, George C. Marshall said that the Marshall Plan was intended to alleviate hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. The Marshall Plan was credited with helping Europe rebuild from the ashes of the war. And an unspoken goal was to help thwart the postwar spread of communism in Western Europe.

(For Use 10/31)

FIRST HYDROGEN BOMB TEST 1952

NARR: On October thirty-first, 1952, a blinding flash of light and the deep roar of primeval thunder ushered in the nuclear age. The United States had detonated the world's first hydrogen bomb. The test, at Eniwetok (en ih WEE tok) Atoll in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, released the energy of millions of tons of high explosives. It was said to be hundreds of times more powerful than either of the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan to end World War Two. The Eniwetok Atoll, five kilometers long and one kilometer wide, was vaporized in the explosion.

(BEGIN OPT) President Harry Truman decided the United States should develop the H-bomb after the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic weapon in 1951. Starting in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union sought limitations on nuclear weapons. In the early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet regime and the end of the Cold War appeared to lessen the nuclear threat -- at least from the two superpowers. (END OPT)

HARRY TRUMAN GAVE THEM HELL 1948

NARR: Fifty-five years ago today, on October thirty-first, 1948, President Harry S. Truman finished his campaign for election to a full term as president. The Democratic president reviewed his record in a nationally broadcast radio speech and charged that his Republican opponent, New York governor Thomas Dewey, had gained popular support by dodging difficult issues. Truman also said he did not believe the public opinion surveys that predicted he would lose the election. His political instincts proved well-founded; two days later, American voters chose him for a full term in office. The pollsters' miscall damaged the credibility of public opinion surveys for many years after the election. (BEGIN OPT) Truman, who had served as President Franklin Roosevelt's vice president, became president when Roosevelt died in April 1945. (END OPT)