46 Fascinating Facts About Our 46 Presidents-- Part 8: Johnson to Reagan

36.  LYNDON B. JOHNSON (1963-1969)

His first career was as a teacher.  He worked at a school near the U.S.-Mexican border for four years before  launching a career in politics.

37.  RICHARD M. NIXON  (1969-1974)

He became such a skillful poker player while stationed in the Solomon Islands during World War II that his winnings helped launch his political career upon his return to the United States.

38.  GERALD FORD (1974-1977)

A star football player at the University of Michigan, Ford turned down offers from both the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers.

39.  JIMMY CARTER (1977-1981)

When his father died in 1953, Carter gave up his successful military career to move back to Georgia to run the family's peanut farm.

40.  RONALD REAGAN (1981-1989)

He worked as a life guard and sportscaster before becoming an actor and later a politician.

--CootPres

A Native American Timeline-- Part 8: Indian Citizenship Act, the Code Talkers, Indian Civil Rights Act

**  JUNE 2, 1924:  U.S. Congress passes Indian Citizenship Act, granting citizenship  to all Native Americans born in the territorial limits of the country.  Previously, citizenship had been limited depending upon what percentage of Indian ancestry the person had, whether they had served in the military, or, of they were women, were married to a U.S, citizen.

**  MARCH 4, 1929:  Charles Curtis serves as the first Native American U.S. vice president under  President Herbert Hoover.

**  MAY 1942:  Members of the Navajo Nation develop a code to transmit messages and radio messages to U.S.  armed forces during World War II.  Eventually, hundreds of  Code Talkers from multiple  Indian tribes serve with the U.S. Marines during he war.

**  APRIL 11, 1968:  The Indian Civil Rights Act is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, granting Indians many of the benefits guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

**  MARCH 15, 2021:  Representative  Deb Haaland of New Mexico is confirmed as the Secretary of the Interior, making her the first Native American to lead a cabinet department.

"Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce," she tweeted on her confirmation for the post.  "I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all our protected land."

--Cooter

America's Long Line of Presidential Military Heroes-- Part 3: Eisenhower to Kennedy

As the presidency is by definition a political position, the issue of exactly what kind of a military service a president had becomes important.  Seeing combat is the general measure of worth, but not always.  Dwight Eisenhower, the first World War II veteran elected president, graduated from West Point in 1915 and was never under fire during his nearly 40-year military career, yet that was not held against the Supreme Allied Commander.

Ike was in the Army; six of the seven other World War II-era presidents were in the Navy, starting with John Kennedy, who turned his heroism aboard PT-109 into a best-selling book that helped rocket him to the presidency.

Lyndon Johnson was already a congressman when he entered the Naval Reserve -- there is some question whether his sole moment of combat experience and resulting Silver Star was real or prevarication.

I wrote several posts about Johnson getting his Silver Star in my Tattooed On Your Soul:  WW II blog in 2015.  Go to it and click the Lyndon Johnson tag in the labels section.

--Cooter

Man on the Moon-- Part 2: 11 Things You Might Not Know

4.  The lunar spacesuits had been created by way of an underwear corporation.  Playtex, better known for its bras, had a lot to do with the design of those spacesuits.

5.  NASA was fearful that a launching pad explosion could hurt spectators.  The large Saturn V rocket used for the launch.  In 1965, two engineers figured an explosion on the pad would  create a 14,000 foot fireball with temperatures of up to 2500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bits of shrapnel could rain down on up to a 3 mile radius.    As such, NASA seated Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon Johnson and other VIPs three miles away.

6.  Buzz Aldrin took communion on the Moon.  After the lunar module touched down on the Sea of Tranquility Aldrin radioed back to Earth:  "I'd love to take this chance to invite each and every particular person listening in, whoever and  anyplace they is also, to pause for a second and ponder the occasions of the previous few hours and to offer thank you in his or her  personal approach."

Then, Aldrin -- an elder in the Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas,  -- switched off the radio, opened small plastic boxes of bread and wine and browsed silently from the Gospel of John.

--CootMoon

LBJ Letter to MLK's Widow Up For Auction

From the Feb. 20, 2015, Chicago Tribune "LBJ letter to King's widow up for auction" by Ian Shapira, the Washington Post.

It was written April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee.  And it was sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Coretta Scott King to express his condolences and determination to find the murderer.

"We will overcome this calamity," he wrote.  She kept it until 2003 when she gave it to her husband's confidant, singer Harry Belafonte.

But he considered auctioning it in 2008, shortly before Coretta King died and King's three children objected and it wasn't.

But now, it is slated to be auctioned again.  Belafonte gifted the letter to his half-sister and brother-in-law who figured it was a good time to sell it because of all the 50 anniversary of the Civil Rights movement going on these days.  The minimum bid is $60,000.

They seem to be a bit too money-oriented and should have gifted it or sold it for a low price to the Civil Rights museum in  Memphis.

A followup in March in Reuters said it sold for $60,000 to an online bidder, but auctioneers had been expecting twice as much as I am sure Belafonte's relatives were as well.  Too bad, a piece of American history gone.

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Teachers-- Part 3

5.  When future president LYNDON JOHNSON taught speech at Sam Houston High School in Houston, he drove his debate team relentlessly, putting them through 50 practice competitions.  The team easily won the city and district competition, but lost at the state level, upsetting Johnson so much that he ran into the bathroom and threw up.


6.  AN ITALIAN CONNECTION:  Famed educator MARIA MONTESSORI left Italy and went into exile because of philosophical clashes with a former teacher--  Italian dictator BENITO MUSSOLINI, whose students nicknamed him "il tiranno" (the tyrant).  (Couldn't you have just imagined a lecture by Adolf Hitler had he been a teacher.  No way you could have fallen asleep in that class.)


7.  Teachers are HEROES everyday, but espcially when violence erupts.  SHANNON WRIGHT shielded a studnet and was fatally shot during a school massacre in Jonesboro, Arkansas.  In 1998, DAVE SANDERS was killed while helping students to safety at Columbine High School outside Denver in 1999.  When a student started setting off pipe bombs at a school in San Mateo, California, in 2009, KENNET SANTANA tackled him.

Three More to Come.  --Cooter