Outandabout March 2022 Issue195

MEMORY LANE
March 1, 1872 - Yellowstone
becomes the U.S.’s first national
park.
March 1st. 1932 The Lindbergh
baby is kidnapped. On the
evening of 1 March 1932, the
pioneering aviator Charles
Lindbergh was at home in New
Jersey with his wife, Anne, and
20-month-old son, Charles Jr. At
7.30pm, a nanny laid the toddler
down to sleep in his crib. About
two hours later, Charles heard a
noise he thought sounded like
a crate smashing, but thought
nothing of it.
Then at 10pm, the nanny, frantic
with worry, reported that the
baby had disappeared. In his
bedroom, Charles found a
handwritten, misspelled note:
“Dear Sir! Have 50000$ redy
25000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$
bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills … We
warn you for making anyding
public or for notify the Police.
The child is in gut care.”
So began one of the most lurid
cases in American criminal
history. Amid massive publicity,
crowds swiftly swarmed to the
Lindbergh estate, destroying
any chance of finding footprints.
Amateur detectives, military
men and even Chicago mobsters
offered their assistance. More
ransom notes arrived. In early
April, Lindbergh delivered
$50,000 to the kidnapper via an
intermediary. But there was no
baby. Then, on 12 May, a truck
driver found a child’s body
in woods near Lindbergh’s
home. It was little Charles. Two
years later, the police arrested a
German-born carpenter, Bruno
Richard Hauptmann, who had
a record of robbery and whose
garage contained notes from the
ransom money. Protesting his
innocence, he went to the electric
chair. But many observers were
convinced that he must have had
help. And for the novelist Agatha
Christie, the case inspired one of
her greatest books, Murder on the
Orient Express.
March 1, 1958 - U.S. launches
Explorer I, its first satellite.
March 1, 1961 - The U.S. Peace
Corps was founded.
March 1, 1982 - Late Night with
David Letterman premieres on
NBC.
March 2, 1836 - Texas declared its
independence from Mexico.
March 2, 1887 - The first
Ground Hog Day is observed in
Punxsutawney, PA
March 2, 1933 - The movie King
Kong premieres.
1966 - UK To Go Decimal 1971
1966 : The Chancellor of the
Exchequer, James Callaghan, has
confirmed the decision to change
over to decimal coinage in 1971.
March 4 1918: ‘Spanish’ flu
strikes and kills 100 million
March 5 1946: Churchill warns
of an ‘iron curtain’ falling across
Europe
March 7, 1933 - Monopoly board
game is invented.
March 9, 1964 - The first Ford
Mustang rolls off the assembly
line.
March 11, 1997 - Paul McCartney
is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
March 12, 1894 - Coca Cola is
sold in bottles for the first time
in a candy store in Vicksburg,
Mississippi.
March 18, 1931 - Shick introduces
the first electric shaver to the
marketplace.
March 23, 1857 - Elisha Otis
installs the first elevator at 488
Broadway in New York City.
March 24 1944: The Great Escape
arouses Hitler’s fury
March 29 1461 At Towton in
Yorkshire, Edward IV leads
the Yorkists to victory over
the Lancastrian army – led by
the Duke of Somerset – in the
bloodiest battle ever fought on
English soil
March 29, 1886 - Coca Cola is
invented.
March 31, 1899 - The Eiffel Tower
was built to be one the main
attractions at the Paris World’s
Fair in 1889.
1994 : Fred West is charged with
two more murders following the
discovery of additional human
remains in the garden of his
Gloucester home.