Miscellaneous Information

By Dick Martin

While doing research for Sunday’s Feature, I have run across miscellaneous information that may be of value to all of you amateur historians to keep at the back of your mind as you pick your way through whatever segment of history you may prefer to study.

1.  The D in D-Day stands for day.  I thought it meant departure which makes more sense.   It seems redundant if it stands for Day, ie D-Day would then be Day-Day.
   
2.  During the war, in 1943 to save copper, pennies were made out of steel.  In a glitch in quality control, 10 to 15 were made out of copper.   Because there were so few in circulation, recently one was auctioned for $204,000.  As a youth, I was an amateur coin collector.  I had quite a few of the steel pennies.  Many steel pennies were minted and are now worth less than $10.00 each. 
   
3. New research has revealed that the highest “killing frenzy” of Jews during the World War II Holocaust occurred from July 27 to November 4, 1942 when 445,700 men women and children were murdered per month or 15,000 a day.  I thought the killing frenzy would have peaked as the war in Europe came to an end.  However, Hitler’s power probably peaked towards the end of 1942 and began a downward spiral thereafter making it more difficult to equal the killing efficiency before that time.  In a tour of Dachau, north of Munich, our guide informed us that none of the concentration camps on German territory during WWII were used to exterminate the Jews.  Many were worked to death, but supposedly none were sent to the crematoriums.  Most of concentration camps used to exterminate Jews, Soviet POWs, gypsies, homosexuals, etc were in Poland.  There was a reason for this, but I do not know what it is.
   
4. At one time senators were picked by the state legislatures in each state and the presidential nominee for each party was picked at a national party convention.  There were no primaries or election by popular vote of senators.  In 1913, the 17th amendment provided for two senators in each state to be picked by popular vote. 
5. Party conventions do not provide much of a function anymore.   The only convention intrigue is the naming of a vice president picked by the party nominee, who has already been picked by popular vote in primaries in each state.  Prior to the rise of party conventions, the presidential candidates of national parties were chosen by members of Congress.
6. Until 1936, Democrats required a two-thirds majority to nominate a candidate, and resultantly, held seven conventions requiring more than ten ballots between 1832 and 1932. The last multi-ballot conventions were the 1948 Republican convention and the 1952 Democratic convention.   The 1968 Democratic convention was among the most contentious party meetings in history, and dissatisfaction with its results provided motivation for the reforms that changed the nomination system and led to the rise of the current primary-dominated system. In 1968, as was customary, most Democratic convention delegates were selected in caucuses of party functionaries. Such caucuses were generally not well publicized, and were sometimes held more than a year before the convention.  In 1968, the majority of delegates selected in Democratic caucuses supported Vice President Humphrey who, by virtue of his position within the Johnson Administration, was perceived as a candidate who would continue American involvement in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, two anti-war candidates, Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy, together won over two-thirds of the votes cast in Democratic primaries. Humphrey, who contested no primaries, nevertheless won the nomination. The system had produced a candidate who did not reflect the views of activists, particularly on the issue of the Vietnam War, and the convention was acrimonious.
7. The assassination of President Lincoln was only one part of a cabal that was intended to murder others as well.  Another assassin, at least, made a serious and nearly successful attempt on the life of Secretary of State William Seward.   While Seward survived the attack, he sustained a severe wound, as did his son.  All of these other parts of the cabal were lost in history because of the attention given to Lincoln’s assassination.
   

If anyone has any new or different information about the above, please enter it in the comment section.  Also, we sure would love to hear from others who have come across information like the above that surprised them.
Dick Martin
 
 

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