文章基本信息

标题：American chronicles
作者：Alexander, Gary L
期刊名称：Human Events
印刷版ISSN：0018-7194
出版年度：1999
卷号：Aug 6, 1999
出版社：Eagle Publishing

American chronicles

Alexander, Gary L

100 YEARS AGO, AUG. 5,1899, Henry Ford formed the Detroit Automobile Co. In the same month, the Literary Digest predicted that automobiles "will never come into as common use as the bicycle." In 1899, 4,000 motorcars were already in use, mostly steam- or electric-powered. Gasoline was considered costly, unreliable and dangerous, but Henry Ford vowed to change that.

For the last half-century, there's been a little bit of Richard Nixon in each slice of history, including the Nixon-inspired perjury trial of Alger Hiss, ongoing during 1949. Hiss was later convicted of perjury for lying to Congress (the House Committee on Un-American Activities), saying that he had not spied for the USSR.

40 YEARS AGO, AUG. 6, 1959, Vice President Nixon concluded his two-week tour of the Soviet Union, highlighted by the "Kitchen Debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khmshchev. And on Aug. 21, 1959, Hawaii was admitted to the Union as the 50th state.

30 YEARS AGO, AUG. 3,1969, President Nixon returned from a world tour, including a visit to Romania-the first time a U.S. President had visited a Communist nation since World War II. Maybe he caught a socialist bug on the trip, for on Aug. 8, 1969, Nixon called for a guaranteed minimum income for families with children, as part of his plan to "reform" the welfare system.

On August 9-10, actress Sharon Tate and six others were found murdered by the Manson gang. And on August 15-18, the Woodstock rock music festival was held in upstate New York. Four-hundred-thousand people attended the free concert, and listened to performances by, among others, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the Who.

25 YEARS AGO, AUG. 8, 1974, President Nixon resigned, effective the next day at noon, when Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as America 38th President Then, on August 20, Nelson Rockefeller, former governor of New York was nominated by Ford as the new Vice President.

The U.S. stock market continued its freefall, reaching a four-year low of 671.54 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Aug. 27, 1974, down over 20% in just two months (from June 25 to Aug. 27, 1974), partly over the Nixon resignation. Before 1974 was over, the 1973-74 bear market took the Dow down 45%, and the smaller stock indexes down 80% or more.