On This Day

In 1776, the members of Congress pin their signatures to an enlarged, more formal copy of the Declaration of Independence. One month before the signing, Congress accepted a resolution that statedthat all ties between the colonies and Britain should be abolished. Two days after, Congress accepted the new Declaration made by Thomas Jefferson. It was then sent and arrived in London eight dayslater, causing the Americans to have a sense of unity.

22 year old Jose Diaz was strolling along Los Angeles early Sunday morning coming back from a party when he was attacked viciously by what theauthorities report to be “17 young Hispanic males.” It was 1942 and the young Hispanic was in line to serve in the US army in two days. This murder was called the “murder of the Sleepy Lagoon,” and aftertwo years in prison, the prosecuted were declared free because of an unfair trial. This was significant because it shows the racial judgment in the prosecution of 17 Hispanic males after World War II.In 1939 famous scientist becomes concerned with Hitler’s rise of power, and begins to think that Germany had begun working on the creation of the world’s most lethal weapon, the atomic bomb. Hewrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt, our president at the time, urging him to consider atomic research to be prepared for any attack the World War brings. Three years later he started the atomicprogram know as the Manhattan Project. Three years after that the first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert.

The founder of the Motown sound died on this day in 1983. Bassist James Jamersondied of pneumonia on this dreadful year. He was a member of the Funk Brothers along with his brother, Jack Jamerson and two others. He was known for playing his instrument with only one instrumentand him and his band played on more number-one records than the Beatles, Elvis, and The Beach Boys combined, according to the 2002 documentary film, Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

On this day...