60 die, 56 Missing In Taiwan Floods
Taiwan is experiencing its worst flooding since 1959 from Typhoon Morakot, which has moved from the area after dropping a record 100 inches on the island. A severe mudslide caused by the rain has buried the Shiao-Lin Village, a small mountain town in Kaohsiung County. So far 15 are counted as dead, with hundreds more missing as rescue teams converge on the area.
A Historical Perspective
“More than 10,000 were homeless and 20,000 others left their homes to seek high ground following a deluge that poured 17 inches of rain in 12 hours in the hardest-hit areas,” reported the Pacific Stars and Stripes on August 9, 1959 [free front page]. “Flood waters, caused by what weathermen called cyclonic activities following Typhoon Ellen, were reported to have completely washed away the village of Miaoli near Taichung in central Taiwan. Unconfirmed reports had 70 dead in that village alone.” By the end, roughly 2,000 died in the floods.
The most powerful tropical cyclone (which includes both Typhoon and Hurricanes) to strike land was Hurricane Camille, which hit with 190 miles-per-hour winds. “Camille, the deadliest hurricane man has ever recorded, hammered the heavily-populated Gulf Coast Sunday night with the 100-mile-an-hour fringe blasts of its titanic winds,” began The Cumberland News on August 18, 1969 [free front page]. “‘God help us,’ gasped a civil defense director when told that the eye of Camille, surrounded by winds over 200 miles an hour, would strike the Gulfport area about midnight. Water four feet deep rushed over a sea wall and covered U.S. Highway 90 along the Mississippi coast. Power lines began falling, and spitting sparks through the flooded streets.” While Camille was the strongest cyclone to strike land, it shares wind speed records with several others, including the most intense storm ever recorded, Typhoon Tip.
“The worst typhoon to hit Japan in more than a decade swept past the nation’s main islands Friday, leaving at least 22 people dead and a massive trail of destruction,” reported the European Stars and Stripes on October 20, 1979 [free front page]. “The winds and torrential downpours from Tip paralyzed air, sea and land traffic in extensive areas as the storm cut across Honshu, Japan’s largest main island, after landing on the southern main island of Shikoku.” But Japan was lucky; when Tip hit land it had “settled down” to mere 80 miles-per-hour winds. During its peak, on October 12 and while in the Pacific, it reached 190-miles-per-hour sustained winds and a pressure of 870 millibars, the lowest in recorded history. The storm was more than 1,380 miles in diameter, almost half the size of the continental U.S.
Links to the Past
60 die, 56 Missing In Taiwan Floods
Pacific Stars and Stripes, August 9, 1959
Camille Strikes At Gulf Coast
The Cumberland News, August 18, 1969
Typhoon hits Japan
European Stars and Stripes, October 20, 1979
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Agent Saves President Ford
The Federal Bureau of Prisons have announced that Lynnette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, former Manson family member convicted of attempted assassination of President Ford, will be released from Federal Prison on August 16th. Fromme was sentenced in 1975 and became eligible for parole in 1985, though she waived her right for parole for years.
A Historical Perspective
Lynnette “Squeaky” Fromme was a part of the Manson Family, though she did not take part in the string of gruesome murders for which the Family is most known. Following the trial and incarceration of Manson and the four killers, Fromme continued to consider herself a part of the Family. In 1972, she was associated with the murder of Lauren Willett [premium newspaper page] by two members of the Aryan Brotherhood who Fromme and other Manson Family members lived with. She was released soon after.
On September 5, 1975, “Squeaky” Fromme skyrocketed again into the headlines when she pointed a .45 Colt at President Gerald Ford. “The lightning fast reaction of a Secret Service agent and the improper loading of a gun [later found to be purposeful] were credited today with possibly saving the life of President Gerald R. Ford,” reported the Lebanon Daily News on September 6, 1975 [free front page]. “In jail on $1 million bail, charged with attempting to kill Ford, is one of history’s most unlikely candidates to be an assassin — a pixieish, red-haired woman named ‘Squeaky’ who is an ardent follower of Charles Manson, the convicted mass murderer.” Fromme would be the first person convicted under a 1965 law making it a Federal crime to attempt to assassinate the President of the United Sates.
Lynnette Fromme’s next stint in the papers occurred in December of 1987 when she escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Weste Virginia and attempted to find Manson, whom she had heard was ill. “Fromme escaped Wednesday night from the prison, where she is serving a life sentence for trying to assassinate Ford 12 years ago,” explained the Casa Grande Dispatch on December 26, 1987 [free front page]. “More than 100 searchers accompanied by tracking dogs had scoured the rugged mountains around the prison, and a nationwide alert was issued before she was recaptured at 12:50 p.m. in a remote area two miles south of the prison.”
“Squeaky” Fromme is now 60 and has been in prison for 34 years.
Links to the Past
‘Manson girl’ tells how family continues to survive
Chronicle Telegram, November 19, 1972
Agent Saves President Ford
Lebanon Daily News, September 6, 1975
‘Squeaky’ Fromme Recaptured 2 Days After Prison Escape
Casa Grande Dispatch, December 26, 1987
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Health officials stage mock terrorist attack
Ziketan Town in Qinghai Province, China, has been sealed off after an outbreak of pneumonic plague which has killed three to date. Pneumonic plague is an infections disease related to bubonic plague, or Black Death, but it is transmittable from person to person via air - making it more worrisome. The plague has a very high fatality rate (near 100%) if not treated very early through heavy antibiotic treatments. Scary stuff.
A Historical Perspective
The earliest newspaper front page dealing with pneumonic plague that I can find in our archives is from January 18, 1901, in The Cedar Rapids Republican: “Sailors on the Ship Friary Afflicted With Pneumonic Plague. Two more deaths have occurred among the crew of the British steamer Friary. Five of the crew are isolated. At a meeting of the sanitary authorities of the port this evening Medical Officer Mason said the disease which had attacked the crew was pneumonic plague, a much more malignant malady than the bubonic plague.”
Jamaica’s The Gleaner reported on an outbreak of pneumonic plague in England on November 10, 1910: “England was startled this week by the discovery that a pneumonic plague even deadlier than the bubonic plague is established in Suffolk. A child in the village of Preston died on September 16. The mother and father and a neighbour who had helped nurse the child all died within a few days. The illness was not then diagnosed, but was considered so malignant that eleven neighbours were isolated in a hospital.”
The most recent mention of this terrible plague is in the April 14, 2005 Oelwein Daily Register, while discussing potential terrorist attacks: “Here’s the scenario: Federal officials receive indications of a terrorists’ threat to strike the U.S. Heartland. During RAGBRAI [for those of you not in the know: the Registered Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa], a terrorist unleashes a biological agent, pneumonic plague, infecting untold numbers of bicycle riders and the public.[...] The bioterrorism drill was held at the dance pavilion at the county fairgrounds where some 50 law enforcement, city and county officials, EMTs, board of health and health related professionals, and a dozen or so volunteer victims took part.”
Of course, we’re hoping that this kind of situation never occurs… but I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the pneumonic plague through 108 years of our newspaper archives!
Links to the Past
Worse Than Bubonic Plague
The Cedar Rapids Republican, January 18, 1901
‘Black Death.’
The Gleaner, November 10, 1910
Health officials stage mock terrorist attack
Oelwein Daily Register, April 14, 2005
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Soothsayers Wrong, Earthquake Misses California
A magnitude-6.9 earthquake has hit the Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico on Monday afternoon. As of this writing, no deaths or damage have been reported; we’ll hope that this remains the case. For today’s Daily Perspective, I’ll take a look into the 1969 fears that an earthquake would cause California to separate from the rest of America.
A Historical Perspective
A strong earthquake struck the Baha Peninsula in April of 1969, amid fears that California would break off into the sea. “If you can read this today in California, chances are the golden state has not been shattered by a cataclysmic earthquake. If you can’t read it…,” reported The Lima News on April 5, 1969 [free front page]. “A lot of doom prophets predicted an earthquake along the San Andreas fault would cause California to crumble like a stale cookie and fall into the Pacific Ocean. there was an earthquake on Good Friday, by golly. But the prophets of doom were a bit off. It shook a part of Mexico. California remains on the U.S. mainland and not in the Pacific Ocean.”
Prior to the quake, the Raleigh Register explained. “Mayor Joseph Alioto’s anti-earthquake party is come as you are. Bring your own water wings. The San Francisco Mayor - tired of listening to rumors the Golden State is about to crack like a stale brownie and drop into the sea - has decided on a giant public celebration to dispel the gloom,” the paper printed on April 3, 1969 [free front page]. “Only partially hidden by Alioto’s levity, however, is the fact some Californians are actually awaiting a cataclysmic temblor which they think will strike sometime during April.”
Then, on October 1, 1969, California was hit by two earthquakes, large enough to feel in Arizona. “Walls collapsed, windows shattered and at least 24 persons were injured by two sharp earthquakes that jolted a 150-mile stretch of northern California Wednesday night,” informed The Times on October 2, 1969 [free front page]. “Heaviest damage and all of the injuries were reported in Santa Rasa, 60 miles north of San Francisco and about five miles from the epicenter of both shocks. Police and sheriff’s deputies cordoned off a 16-block area in which most plate-glass windows were destroyed and looting was reported.”
Links to the Past
Soothsayers Wrong, Earthquake Misses California
The Lima News, April 5, 1969
Will ‘Quake’ Dump California Into Pacific?
Raleigh Register, April 3, 1969
Two Sharp Quakes Jolt North State
The Times, October 2, 1969
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A Chat with Blondin
My post yesterday concerned some of the history of Niagara Falls in newspapers, but the daredevil stunts were limited to barrel rides over the falls. Today, I’ll look at another form of Niagara Falls stunt - that of the tightrope walker.
A Historical Perspective
The Great Blondin, real name Jean Francois Gravelet, was the first tight-rope walker to cross the gorge separating the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara river, in 1859. “When in his intrepid prime he walked the narrow path of hemp above the mad swirling waters so dizzily far beneath him, both the American and Canadian shores were black with beholders who watched him with bated breath,” reported The Bucks County Gazette on September 13, 1888, in an interview with Blondin [free front page]. “‘When you crossed Niagara did you find the rush of the water below you a nerve trying thing?’ ‘No. For a fortnight before I crossed I used to go and look down and see the waters sweep over; but I found that they had no unpleasant effect on me.’” Blondin crossed many times, occasionally blindfold, on a bicycle, with hands and feet manacled, carrying his manager on his back, and even carrying a stove, stopping in the middle to cook and eat an omelet, and then continuing.
Signor Farini, real name William Leonard Hunt, replicated many of Blondin’s stunts as well as his own (such as carrying a washing machine to the center of the rope, washing clothes, and returning). He never quite managed to achieve the fame of Blondin, however.
The only woman to ever cross the gorge was Maria Spelterini in 1867. “Yesterday afternoon this lady accomplished a feat which no female had ever before essayed, one which, probably, none of our readers would be ambitious for their wives, sisters, or sweethearts to emulate,” informed The Constitution on July 18, 1876 [free front page]. “There was no less an undertaking than the crossing of the gorge of Niagara on a tight rope, stretched immediately over the point where the rapids boil most furiously, a couple of hundred feet beyond the railroad.” She crossed several times, including with a paper bag over her head and with peach baskets strapped to her feet.
Henry Bellini tried a different strategy to gain fame: he walked a rope to half-way across the River, then jumped in! “Upon arriving at the Falls, a few minutes walk brought the sight seers into Prospect Park, in which place one end of the rope was fastened. This rope is fifteen hundred feet long and over two inches in diameter. Long before the Signor made his appearance both the banks on the American and Canadian sides were black with people,” reported the Janesville Gazette on August 30, 1873 [free front page]. “Is he alive? were the words breathlessly spoken by the crowd of excited people as they looked nervously over the banks into the water below. to be sure he was, and no sooner was the splash heard than the head of the Signor came peeping out of the water and he struck out vigorously and heartily towards the boat which was there to pick him up.”
Links to the Past
Across The Cataract
Janesville Gazette, August 30, 1873
A Daring Feat
The Constitution, July 18, 1876
A Chat with Blondin
The Bucks County Gazette, September 13, 1888
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