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Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician originally aligned with the United States Democratic Party and later with the United States Republican Party. McCarthy served as a U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 to 1957. During his ten years in the Senate, McCarthy and his staff became notorious for aggressive investigations of people in the U.S. government and others suspected of being Soviet agents on grounds of their political beliefs as Communists or Communist sympathizers. As a result, the term McCarthyism was coined to specifically describe the intense anti-Communist movement that existed in America from 1950 to about 1956, a time which became popularly known as the Red Scare. During this period, people who were suspected of varying degrees of Communist loyalties became the subject of aggressive inquiries, which became known as "witch hunts" to his opponents. People from the media, government, and the military were accused by McCarthy of being suspected Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers. Although McCarthy's activities did not result in any convictions or criminal prosecutions for espionage, intercepted Soviet communications from the now-declassified VENONA Project indicate that some of the individuals he pursued may have had hidden Communist associations. The term "McCarthyism" has since become synonymous with any government activity which opponents claim is meant to suppress unfavorable political or social views, often by limiting or suspending civil rights for the alleged purpose of maintaining national security.

Early life and career

McCarthy was born on a farm in the town of Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Although both of his parents had also been born in Wisconsin, his paternal grandmother had been born in Germany, and his three other grandparents in England. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school to help his parents manage their farm, and later returned to school and earned his diploma in one year. McCarthy worked his way through school studying engineering and law, earning a law degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1930 to 1935, and was admitted to the Bar Association in 1935. While working in a law firm in Shawano, Wisconsin, he launched an unsuccessful campaign to become District Attorney as a Democrat in 1936. In 1939 he successfully vied for the elected post of 10th District judge, becoming the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history. judge In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, McCarthy resigned his judgeship and enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps, and later took a commission as a Lieutenant. His judicial office would have exempted him from compulsory service. He served as an intelligence briefing officer for a bomber squadron in the Solomon Islands and Bougainville. Wartime log entries list eleven missions under McCarthy's name as an aerial photographer and tail gunner, and he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1952, although opponents who have investigated McCarthy question the Navy's decision to make the award. McCarthy was commended by Admiral Chester Nimitz for flying despite an injury, but others who served with him told investigators working for his opponents that his injuries (a broken foot) resulted from a shipboard hazing incident. He campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944, but was easily defeated by incumbent Alexander Wiley. After resigning his commission in April 1945 and being re-elected unopposed to his circuit court position, he began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Senate election, again challenging a Republican incumbent, four term Senator and United States Progressive Party icon, Robert M. La Follette, Jr.. In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war; he did not mention that La Follette had been forty-six when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and was in fact too old to join the armed services. McCarthy also claimed that La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he had been away fighting for his country. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of war profiteering (his investments had in fact been in a radio station), was deeply damaging and McCarthy won by 207,935 to 202,557. La Follette, deeply hurt by the false claims made against him, retired from politics, and later committed suicide. McCarthy enjoyed the support of the state party organization, and won the nomination narrowly. He easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Howard MacMurray, in the general election by a 2-1 margin, and joined Senator Wiley, whom he had challenged two years earlier, in the Senate. On his first day in the Senate, McCarthy called a press conference where he proposed a solution to a coal strike that was taking place at the time. McCarthy called for John L. Lewis and the striking miners to be drafted into the Army. If the men still refused to mine the coal, McCarthy suggested they should be court-martialed for insubordination and shot.

Senator

McCarthy's first three years in the Senate were unremarkable. While he was considered friendly and likeable, he was not taken seriously. McCarthy was criticized for his defense of a group of Nazis that had been sentenced to death for their role in the Malmedy massacre of American prisoners of war in 1944. Their death sentences were commuted to life in part because McCarthy charged that they had been denied due process. Many charged the Senator had been duped or enticed by neo-Nazis. McCarthy made a large number of speeches to many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His most notable early campaigns were for housing legislation and against sugar rationing. During the presidency of Harry Truman, his national profile rose meteorically after his Lincoln Day speech on February 9, 1950, to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. McCarthy's words in the speech are a matter of some dispute, as they were not reliably recorded at the time, the media presence being minimal. It is generally agreed, however, that he produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is quoted to have said "I have here in my hand a list of 205 people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party, and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department." McCarthy stated that he referred to 57 "known Communists," the number 205 referring to the number of people employed by the State Department who, for various security reasons, should not have been. The exact number stated by McCarthy would later become a matter of some importance when the matter was brought before the Tydings Committee. The State Department had a document which listed employees about whom there were various concerns, related not merely to loyalty but also issues such as drunkenness and incompetence. The effect of McCarthy's speech, in a nation already worried by the aggressiveness of the Soviet Union in Europe and alarmed by the trial of Alger Hiss then in progress, was electric. McCarthy's accusation was seen as an explanation for the fall of China to the Maoists and the Soviets' development of the atomic bomb the year before. McCarthy himself was taken aback by the massive media response to the speech, and continually revised both his charges and his figures over the following days, a characteristic feature of his method of operation. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a few days later, he cited a figure of 57, and in the Senate on February 20 he claimed 81. He made a marathon speech discussing all these cases in detail, but the evidence for many was tenuous or non-existent; nevertheless, the impact of the speech was considerable. The Senate convened the Tydings Committee to examine the charges, which eventually found them to be groundless. Three days after the committee dismissed McCarthy's claims, the FBI arrested Julius Rosenberg on charges of espionage for assisting the Soviet Union in obtaining information from the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic weapon. McCarthy attempted to engage in the political destruction of his critics, an aim he achieved when he campaigned against four-term incumbent Millard Tydings in 1950, in a victory that severely intimidated his would-be critics. This election was later called one of the dirtiest in American political history. A doctored photograph of Tydings conjoined with a well-known Communist was widely distributed, effectively ending Tydings' career. McCarthy once assaulted a journalist, Drew Pearson, in a Congressional restroom. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson. Pearson said that McCarthy "kicked me in the groin. Twice."

Anti-Communism

Drew Pearson From 1950 to 1953, McCarthy continued to press his accusations that the government was failing to deal with Communism within its ranks, which increased his approval rating and gained him a powerful national following. His finances were investigated by a Senate panel in 1952; its report cited questionable behavior in his campaigns and irregularities in his finances, but found no grounds for legal action. He married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office, on September 29, 1953. McCarthy's charges of "Communist influences" within the government probably aided the Republican Party's fortunes in the 1952 elections; it is probable that the defeat of more than one Democratic candidate for national office in 1952 was due at least in part to accusations against him by McCarthy. The party leadership, recognizing his immense popularity and his value as a stick with which to beat liberal Democrats, appointed him chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. His unreliability and evasiveness, however, meant he was never completely trusted by the party (and particularly by President Dwight Eisenhower, who once said privately that he didn't "want to get into a pissing contest with that skunk!") One of McCarthy's higher-profile targets was General George C. Marshall. McCarthy and Senator William Jenner of Indiana accused Marshall of treason. Eisenhower wrote a speech in which he included a spirited defense of General Marshall, but he was later convinced to remove this passage. Truman turned bitterly against Eisenhower because of this, calling Eisenhower a coward because he owed his career to General Marshall. McCarthy's committee, unlike the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, focused on government institutions. It first made an investigation into bureaucracy at Voice of America, then forced the withdrawal of supposedly pro-Communist literature from the State Department's overseas information library. Meanwhile, McCarthy continued to make accusations of Communist influence within the government. This angered Eisenhower, who, while not criticizing the popular Senator publicly, began behind-the-scenes work to remove him from his position of influence. Several noted persons resigned from the committee fairly early into McCarthy's administration of it. These resignations led to the appointment of one "B. Matthews" as executive director of the board. Matthews was a former member of several "Communist-front" organizations, in which he claimed to have joined more than any other American. However, when he fell out of favor with the radical groups of the 1930s, he became a fervent anti-Communist. Matthews was an ordained Methodist minister and was therefore often referred to as a "Dr. Matthews," although he held no degree. Matthews later resigned due to his portrayal of Communist sympathies among the nation's Protestant clergy in a paper called "Reds in Our Churches," which outraged several Senators. Through this critical period, however, McCarthy maintained control of the subcommittee and of whom it employed or chose not to. This course of action resulted in several more resignations.

McCarthy and Truman

Reds in Our Churches McCarthy sought to characterize President Truman and the Democratic party as soft on or even in league with the Communists. McCarthy's allegations fell flat with Truman who, unaware of decrypts which corroborated Elizabeth Bentley's debriefing, considered McCarthy "the best asset the Kremlin has." In 1947, it was apparent that no individual in the U.S. Government realized that evidence of massive Soviet espionage within the government was developing on twin tracks. There was an FBI counterintelligence investigation which empanelled a grand jury in New York, and the Army Signal Intelligence Service at Arlington Hall reading Soviet cipher decrypts. It was a case of one hand not knowing what the other was doing. So when McCarthy later made charges that the Truman administration knowingly protected Soviet agents, on the surface, this appeared to large sectors of the American public to be true. After the defections of Bentley and Igor Guzenko, and the gathering evidence of a "serious attack on American security by the Soviet Union", Truman tried to contain the subversion issue within the Executive Branch with Executive Order 9835 of 21 March 1947, and prevent congressional investigations, by instituting loyalty and security checks in the government.

McCarthy and Eisenhower

Eisenhower, a candidate for the presidency in the 1952 election, disagreed with McCarthy's tactics, but on one occasion was required to make a campaign stop with him in Wisconsin. There, he intended to make a comment denouncing McCarthy's agenda, but under the advice of a conservative colleague, cut that part from his speech. He was widely criticized during his campaign for "selling out" to pressure and giving up his personal convictions because of party pressures. After being elected president, he made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy or his proceedings and he worked actively to shut down his operation. At the same time, not directly confronting McCarthy may have prolonged his power by showing that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly.

Fall of McCarthy

In the fall of 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the United States Army. It attempted to uncover a spy ring in the Army Signal Corps, but failed. The committee came to focus its attention on an Army dentist, Irving Peress, who took the Fifth Amendment twenty times under sustained questioning. Peress was accused of recruiting military personnel into the Communist Party. It is known for certain that Peress refused to answer questions on Defense Department forms concerning membership in "subversive organizations," and that the Army Surgeon General had recommended his dismissal early in 1953. McCarthy expressed serious concerns that Peress had not been discharged after that recommendation, but instead had been promoted to the rank of Major. In examining this latter question, McCarthy brought hostile media attention upon himself concerning his treatment of General Ralph W. Zwicker. Among other things, McCarthy compared Zwicker's intelligence to that of a "five-year-old child," and stated that Zwicker was "not fit to wear the uniform of a General." Charles Potter was one of the few Republican Senators to speak out against McCarthy. He later wrote a book called Days Of Shame in which he lambasted his fellow Senator. Early in 1954, the Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, of pressuring the Army to give favorable treatment to another former aide and friend of Cohn's, G. David Schine. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year. G. David Schine]] The Senate convened the Army-McCarthy Hearings into the matter, which was broadcast live and on television. In one memorable interchange, McCarthy revealed that the Army's attorney general, Joseph Welch, had hired a lawyer who had previously worked for a group supposedly linked to the Communist Party. (This revelation was explicitly in retaliation for Welch's combative questioning.) This led to Welch's famous rebuke: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" These proceedings have been recorded in the documentary film Point of Order! The Senate voted 67 to 22 on December 2, 1954, to condemn McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute," the first time a Senator was censured for actions in a past session of Congress. Several members of the U.S. Senate opposed McCarthy well before 1953. One example is U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican (and the only woman in the Senate at the time) who delivered her "Declaration of Conscience" on June 1, 1950, criticizing both the Executive and Legislative branches' use of smear tactics without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. Smith also said "The Democratic administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of Communism and the leak of vital secrets to Russia through key officials of the Democratic administration." [http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/SmithDeclaration.pdf] Six other Republican Senators, Wayne Morse, Irving M. Ives, Charles W. Tobey, Edward John Thye, George Aiken and Robert C. Hendrickson joined her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. Vermont Senator Ralph E. Flanders also condemned McCarthy on the floor of the Senate and he introduced the resolution to censure him. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow Senators as "Snow White and the 6 dwarves." One of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods, which has recently been dramatized in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, was an episode of the TV documentary series See It Now, hosted by respected journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. The show consisted mostly of clips of McCarthy speaking, so any negative reaction would be mostly from McCarthy's own words. In the clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason" (1933-1953, in his estimation, the Administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman), and berates witnesses, including an Army general. The Murrow report sparked a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy, in large part due to the fact that he was now seen, for the first time by many Americans, to be a flesh-and-blood, moving, speaking figure whose statements were immediately and publicly challenged, rather than a name in a newspaper story and sometimes an accompanying photograph. To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy appeared on See It Now about three weeks after the original episode and made a number of personal attacks and charges against Murrow. However, his method of delivery had been designed for a live audience, not a nationwide broadcast one; the result of this appearance was a further decline in his popularity. President Eisenhower, now free of McCarthy's political intimidation and the always potential threat of American Catholic electoral displeasure, referred to "McCarthywasm" to a reporter. McCarthy had always been a heavy drinker, one of the things that had helped him develop amicable relationships with many members of the press. Angered and depressed over his censure, his heavy drinking became full-scale alcoholism. This aggravated his existing weak health and caused serious diseases. He finally died of acute hepatitis in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48, and was given a state funeral attended by 70 Senators. St. Matthew's Cathedral performed a Solemn Pontifical Requiem before over a hundred priests and 2,000 others. He was buried in St. Mary's Parish Cemetery, Appleton, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife, Jean, and their adopted daughter, Tierney. In addition to being a heavy drinker, Senator McCarthy may have been addicted to morphine. In his 1961 memoir The Murderers, Harry Anslinger, U.S. Commission of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, admitted to regularly supplying morphine to "one of the most influential members of the Congress of the United States." The story strongly suggests that the Senator was Joseph McCarthy. This theory was supported by Anslinger's biographer, John C. McWilliams, in The Protectors. In 1953, playwright Arthur Miller wrote his play The Crucible, which uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as an allegory for McCarthyism. Miller was named by Elia Kazan as having attended Communist Party meetings. He was brought before HUAC in 1956.

VENONA files

In 1995, when the VENONA transcripts were declassified, further detailed information was revealed about Soviet espionage in the U.S. VENONA specifically references at least 349 people in the U.S.—including citizens, immigrants, and permanent residents—whom the NSA identified engaged in clandestine activities with Soviet intelligence agencies. It is generally believed that McCarthy had no access to VENONA intelligence, but VENONA supports the view that some of the individuals accused by McCarthy were indeed Soviet agents. These are several prominent examples:
- Mary Jane Keeney, a United Nations employee, and her husband Philip, who worked in the Office of Strategic Services;
- Lauchlin Currie, a special assistant to President Roosevelt;
- Virginius Frank Coe, Director of Division of Monetary Research, U.S. Treasury; Technical Secretary at the Bretton Woods Conference; International Monetary Fund
- William Ludwig Ullman, delegate to the United Nations Charter Conference and Bretton Woods Conference;
- Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, Chief Planning Technician, Procurement Division, U.S. Treasury and head of the Silvermaster network of spies;
- Harold Glasser, U.S. Treasury Representative to the Allied High Commission in Italy;
- Four staff members of the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee, a Senate subcommittee on labor rights chaired by Senator Robert La Follette, Jr., whom McCarthy defeated for election in 1946;
- Allan Rosenberg, Chief of the Economic Institution Staff, Foreign Economic Administration; Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board; argued cases before the United States Supreme Court.
- Cedric Belfrage journalist; British Security Coordination However, McCarthy himself was consistently unable to provide any evidence for his allegations. On one particular occasion, he declared in a floor speech that he would happily turn over evidence of subversive activities by government employees, whereupon Senator Herbert Lehman approached him and held out his hand. McCarthy, having no evidence, ignored Lehman, as did the rest of the Senate, testifying to other Senators' fear of McCarthy's political attacks. Many of the people McCarthy accused of Communist party membership were not later identified in VENONA intellegence as being Soviet espionage agents.

HUAC

McCarthy is often incorrectly described as part of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (technically, HCUA, but generally known as HUAC), best known for the investigation of Alger Hiss which helped bring Richard Nixon into prominence. HUAC was established in May of 1938 as the "Dies Committee" before McCarthy was elected to the Federal office, and, being a House committee, had no connection with McCarthy, who served in the Senate.

Additional reading


- Bayley, Edwin R. Joe McCarthy and the Press (University of Wisconsin Press, 1981)
- Belfrage, Cedric The American Inquisition, 1945-1960: A Profile of the "McCarthy Era" (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1989)
- Coulter, Ann Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism" (Crown Forum, 2003)
- Daynes, Gary Making Villains, Making Heroes: Joseph R. McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Politics of American Memory (Garland Pub., 1997)
- Feldstein, Richard. "Political Correctness: A response from the cultural Left" (University of Minnesota Press, 1997) (linking McCarthyite tactics with conservative attacks on politically correct academics)
- Fried, Richard M. Men against McCarthy (Columbia University Press, 1976)
- Fried, Richard M. Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1990)
- McCarthy, Joseph America's Retreat from Victory (Western Islands Publishing, 1952)
- McCarthy, Joseph McCarthyism, the Fight for America (Devin-Adair Co., 1952)
- Oshinsky, David Senator Joseph McCarthy and the American Labor Movement (University of Missouri Press, 1976)
- Rabinowitz, Victor "Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir" (University of Illinois Press, 1996)
- Ranville, Michael To Strike at a King: The Turning Point in the McCarthy Witch Hunts (Momentum Books, 1997)
- Rosteck, Thomas See It Now Confronts McCarthyism: Television Documentary and the Politics of Representation (University of Alabama Press, 1994)
- Rovere, Richard Halworth Senator Joe McCarthy (Harcourt Brace, 1959)
- Watkins, Arthur Vivian. Enough rope; the inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues, the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public life (Prentice Hall, 1969)
- Herman, Arthur. Joseph McCarthy : Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator (Free Press, 1999)

References


- [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html US Government declassified sealed documents of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations] - used in article
- [http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1254348 NPR Talk Of The Nation] - used in article
- [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/mccarthy/telegram.htm 11 February 1950 McCarthy to Truman telegram]; "We have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State Department. This list is available to you."
- [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/exhibit_documents/index.php?tldate=1950-02-11&groupid=3435&pagenumber=1&collectionid=mccarthy Truman Draft reply to McCarthy, Truman Library]
- [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/exhibit_documents/index.php?tldate=1950-03-30&groupid=3436&pagenumber=1&collectionid=mccarthy Radio Conference with Truman, Truman Library]
- [http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm InfoUSA, Basic Readings in US Democracy, Censure of Joeseph McCarthy]
- [http://www.americanpresident.org/history/dwighteisenhower/ University of Virginia's American Presidency site on Eisenhower]

Notes


- NSA Archives, National Cyptological Museum, [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sanders/214/other/handouts/VenonaChrono.html Venona Chronology]; "~September 1: Col. Carter Clarke briefs the FBI's liaison officer Robert J. Lamphere on the break into Soviet diplomatic traffic. September: Carter W. Clarke of G-2 advises S. Wesley Reynolds, FBI, of successes at Arlington Hall on KGB espionage messages."
- Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa7.html Appendix A, 7. The Cold War]; "In November 1945 Elizabeth Bentley informed the FBI of her activities as a Soviet courier, which in turn led to renewed interest in Chambers. In late August or early September 1947, the FBI was informed that the Army Security Agency had begun to break into Soviet espionage messages".
- National Security Agency, Venona Archives, Robert L. Benson, Introductory History of VENONA and Guide to the Translations,[http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps33230/www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/monographs/monograph-1.html The VENONA Breakthroughs]; " An Arlington Hall report on 22 July 1947 showed that the Soviet message traffic contained dozens, probably hundreds, of covernames, many of KGB agents, including ANTENNA and LIBERAL (later identified as Julius Rosenberg). One message mentioned that LIBERAL's wife was named "Ethel." General Carter W. Clarke, the assistant G-2, called the FBI liaison officer to G-2 and told him that the Army had begun to break into Soviet intelligence service traffic, and that the traffic indicated a massive Soviet espionage effort in the U.S."
- Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, [http://www.nacic.gov/history/CIReaderPlain/Vol3Chap1.pdf Counterintelligence Reader, Vol. 3, Chap. 1, pg.47], "Polls taken at the time revealed that a majority of Americans believed that Communism at home and abroad was a serious threat to US security".
- Margareet Chase Smith, [http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/SmithDeclaration.pdf Declaration of Conscience, pg. 2], 1 June 1950, U.S. Congress, Senate, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd sess., pp. 7894-95. "The Democratic administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home and the leak of vital secrets to Russia through key officials of the Democtaric administration. There are enough proved cases to make this point without diluting our criticism with unproved charges"; "..there have been enough proved cases, such as the Amerasia case, the Hiss case, the Coplon case, the Gold case, to cause nationwide distrust and strong suspicion that there may be something to the unproved, sensational accusations".
- Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa7.html Appendix A, 7. The Cold War]; "proof that there had been a serious attack on American security by the Soviet Union, with considerable assistance from what was, indeed, an 'enemy within.' The fact that we knew this was now known to, or sufficiently surmised by, the Soviet authorities. Only the American public was denied this information."
- National Archives and Records Administration, Harry S. Truman, Executive Order 9835, Prescribing Procedures for the Administration of an Employees Loyalty Program in the Executive Branch of the Government [http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1947.html#9835]
- Commission on Secrecy Report, [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa3.html Appendix A, 3. Loyalty]
- Howard Zinn, [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/zinn-chap16.html A People's History of the United States], Chap. 16, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980; "Though Truman would later complain of the 'great wave of hysteria' sweeping the nation, his commitment to victory over communism, to completely safeguarding the United States from external and internal threats, was in large measure responsible for creating that very hysteria. "

External links


- [http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/mccarthy_telegram/mccarthy_telegram.html Digital Classroom information on McCarthy] "helping to shape our foreign policy"
- [http://history1900s.about.com/cs/joemccarthy/ The History Net page on McCarthy]
- [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.html The McCarthy-Welch exchange]
- [http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/Mss/JRM/mss-JRM.html Joseph McCarthy Papers, Marquette University Library]
- FBI Memo Referencing 206 Communists in Government
- [http://foia.fbi.gov/venona/venona.pdf FBI Belmont to Boardman memo, 26 November 1957] (PDF pgs. 74-75; also pg. 20) referencing "206" Soviet espionage agents
- [http://www.infoage.org/mccarthy.html] Information on McCarthy's investigations of the Signal Corps, including transcripts of the hearings and more recent interviews. Defenses of McCarthy
- [http://www.spongobongo.com/em/em9820.htm Joe McCarthy Was Right]
- By Human Events Online, a conservative weekly:
  - [http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=689 Editor Taints Recently Published Hearings: How Senate Historian Botched Data on McCarthy]
  - [http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=474 Levin and Collins Trigger Disinformation: Senate Historian Clams Up When Queried On McCarthy]
- By The New American, John Birch Society:
  - [http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2003/06-16-2003/vo19no12_witches.htm McCarthy's "Witches"]
  - [http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1996/vo12no18/vo12no18_mccarthy.htm The Real McCarthy Record]
- By Opinion Editorials, a conservative website:
  - [http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/burns_20030513.html The 1950's Reign Of Terror Was AGAINST McCarthy - Not By Him!] Critics of McCarthy
- Critical book links
  - [http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/mccarthy-bio.html Excerpt from Richard H. Rovere's book ' Senator Joe McCarthy']
  - [http://www.dimensional.com/~randl/mccart.htm Paper from 'From Seeds of Repression; Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism' by Athan Theoharis, Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1971; 'McCarthy and McCarthyism in Wisconsin', Michael O'Brien, University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1980; Blacklist: 'Hollywood on Trial', AMC, broadcast Feb 28, 1996]
- Student Paper on McCarthy
  - [http://www.jessefriedman.com/writings/joemccarthy.shtml Essay by 8th grader Jesse Friedman called 'The Fight for America' which calls McCarthy 'greatest demagogue in the history of America'] McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph Category:Anti-communism ko:??? ??? ja:???????????

1908

1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February


- January 1 - British Harry Bensley leaves for his would-be trip around the world pushing a pram and wearing an iron mask, beginning from the Trafalgar Square
- January 1 - A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time
- January 8 - A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.
- January 11 - Grand Canyon National Monument is created
- January 12 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
- January 15 - Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Greek-letter organization by and for Black college women is established.
- January 21 - New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for aliens to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
- January 24 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement
- February 1 - King Carlos I of Portugal and Crown Prince Luis shot in Lisbon
- February 11 - Australia regain The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
- February 18 - Japanese immigration to USA forbidden
- February 25 - Los Angeles. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) founded.

April-June


- April 7 - Herbert Henry Asquith takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
- April 21 - Friedrich A Cook's claimed date to have reached North Pole
- April 27 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
- May 10 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia).
- May 26 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
- June 30 - The Tunguska impact event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs in Siberia.

July-December


- July 6 - Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic North Pole.
- July 11-12 night - Explosion of a ship Amalthea in the Malmö harbor in Sweden, housing 80 British strikebreakers. 1 dead, 20 injured.
- July 13 - Women compete in modern Olympics for the first time.
- July 19 - Feyenoord Rotterdam was founded.
- July 22 - Albert Fisher establishes the Fisher Body Company to manufacture carriage and automobile bodies.
- July 26 - United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
- September 8 - Danish minister of Justice, Alberti, is revealed to be an embezzler
- September 27 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
- October 5 - Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire - Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar
- October 14 - The Chicago Cubs win the World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers 2-0 in the fifth game. They haven't won the World Series since.
- December 28 - An 7 Richter scale earthquake destroys Messina, Sicily and rocks Calabria killing over 75,000.
- November - William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
- November 13 - Andrew Fisher becomes the 5th Prime Minister of Australia.

unknown dates


- First Zionist colony in Palestine
- British suffragettes begin a campaign for female suffrage
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is the first woman in England to be elected mayor (of Aldeburgh)
- Due to the evidence collected by Roger Casement, Léopold II of Belgium is forced to make reforms in Congo, which is his personal colony
- The Children's Encyclopedia
- Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of FBI, founded
- Blackball coal miner strike in New Zealand lasts 11 weeks
- Isak Saba, the first Sami in the Norwegian parliament
- Henri Matisse open his own art academy
- Serial killer Belle Guinness disappears in Laporte
- Young Turks revolution in the Ottoman Empire
- Change of Emperor of Qing Dynasty from Guangxu Emperor of China (1875-1908) to Henry Puyi (1909-1911)
- A 40,000-year-old Neandertal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France.
- The Child Labour Act of Ontario is passed.
- The Irish Universities Act, 1908 is passed and creates the National University of Ireland at Dublin and the Queen's University of Belfast.
- First Ideal Home Exhibition held.
- De Meester's Dutch government resigns.
- Discovery of oil deposits near the Persian city of Abadan.
- Abd al-Aziz IV, sultan of Morocco is deposed and is succeeded by his brother Abd al-Hafiz.
- The Young Turks rebel and force sultan Abd al-Hamid II to adhere to the constitution of 1876.
- The University of the Philippines is founded at Manila.
- The University of Alberta is founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- First year of Rugby League in Australia
- American Temperance University closes.

Births

January


- January 8 - William Hartnell, British actor (d. 1975)
- January 9 - Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (d. 1986)
- January 12 - Jean Delannoy, French film director
- January 14 - Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer (d. 1934)
- January 15 - Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
- January 22 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- January 26 - Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d. 1997)
- January 27 - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, American jazz musician (d. 1954)

February


- February 1 - George Pál, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
- February 5 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (d. 1969)
- February 11 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (d. 1999)
- February 17 - Red Barber, baseball announcer and sports journalist (d. 1992)
- February 22 - John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
- February 23 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
- February 26 - Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d. 1980)
- February 26 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (d. 1949)
- February 29 - Balthus, French painter (d. 2001)
- February 29 - Dee Brown, American writer and historian (d. 2002)

March


- March 2 - Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)
- March 5 - Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
- March 7 - Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)
- March 12 - Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (d. 1970)
- March 13 - Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d. 2002)
- March 17 - Brigitte Helm, German actress (d. 1996)
- March 20 - Sir Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
- March 22 - Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
- March 25 - Helmut Käutner, German actor and director (d. 1980)
- March 25 - David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)
- March 29 - Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d. 1981)

April


- April 1 - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d. 1970)
- April 2 - Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
- April 5 - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
- April 5 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
- April 5 - Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (d. 1986)
- April 6 - John P. Davies, American diplomat (d. 1999)
- April 7 - Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (d. 1976)
- April 15 - Eden Ahbez, American musician (d. 1995)
- April 20 - Lionel Hampton, American musician and bandleader (d. 2002)
- April 25 - Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)

May


- May 5 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (d. 1989)
- May 7 - Max Grundig, German inventor and industrialist (d. 1989)
- May 8 - Cristian Vasile, Romanian singer (d. 1974)
- May 19 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
- May 20 - Jimmy Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
- May 23 - John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
- May 28 - Ian Fleming, English writer (d. 1964)
- May 30 - Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- May 30 - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
- May 31 - Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)

June-July


- June 18 - Bud Collyer, American voice actor and game show host (d. 1969)
- June 21 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
- June 24 - Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
- June 29 - Leroy Anderson, American composer (d. 1975)
- June 30 - Winston Graham, English writer (d. 2003)
- July 12 - Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
- July 25 - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
- July 27 - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)

August-September


- August 4 - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
- August 5 - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
- August 5 - Mary Louise Miner, American Journalist (d. 1999)
- August 20 - Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
- August 21 - M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
- August 22 - Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)
- August 27 - Sir Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
- August 27 - Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (d. 1973)
- August 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist, artist, and educator (d. 1996)
- August 30 - Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (d. 1996)
- September 3 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (d. 1988)
- September 6 - Louis Essen, English physicist (d. 1997)
- September 6 - Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor (d. 1982)
- September 7 - Paul Brown, American football coach (d. 1991)
- September 7 - Michael E. DeBakey, American physician
- September 13 - Mae Questel, American actress (d. 1998)
- September 15 - Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
- September 29 - Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d. 1967)
- September 30 - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 1974)

October-December


- October 14 - Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (d. 2003)
- October 14 - Allan Jones, American actor and singer (d. 1992)
- October 15 - John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist
- October 16 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania (d. 1985)
- October 19 - Sydney MacEwan, Scottish singer (d. 1990)
- October 19 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
- October 23 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- October 25 - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)
- November 2 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (d. 1983)
- November 4 - Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2005)
- November 12 - Harry Blackmun, American Judge (d. 1999)
- November 18 - Imogene Coca, American actress (d. 2001)
- November 20 - Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist (d. 2004)
- November 28 - Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born anthropologist
- December 4 - Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
- December 6 - Pierre Graber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 2003)
- December 10 - Olivier Messiaen, French composer (d. 1992)
- December 11 - Elliot Carter, American composer
- December 17 - Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
- December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d. 2005)

Unknown date


- George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)
- Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician and Presidential candidate

Deaths


- January 25 - Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)
- February 1 - King Charles of Portugal (b. 1863)
- April 20 - Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian (b. 1824)
- April 22 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1836)
- May 26 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Punjabi founder of the Ahmadi sect (b. 1835)
- June 21 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b. 1844)
- June 24 - Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (b. 1837)
- July 5 - Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (b. 1833)
- July 10 - Phoebe Knapp, American hymn composer (b. 1839)
- July 20 - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (b. 1835)
- July 22 - William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1828)
- August 25 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- August 26 - Tony Pastor, American vaudeville and theater impresario (b. 1837)
- September 20 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
- October 30 - Caroline Astor, American socialite (b. 1830)
- November 14 - The Guangxu Emperor of China (b. 1871)
- November 15 - Empress Dowager Cixi, de facto ruler of China (b. 1835)

Marriages


- February 14 - Lee De Forest & Nora Stanton Blatch
- February 28 - King Ferdinand & Eleanor Reuss
- April 7 - Knud Kristensen & Else Christensen
- June 13 - Carl Sandburg & Lilian Steichen
- July 19 - Joe Jackson & Katherine Wynn
- August 6 - Roscoe Arbuckle & Minta Durfee
- August 8 - Ty Cobb & Charlotte Lombard
- August 30 - Harry Solter & Florence Lawrence
- September 12 - Winston Churchill & Clementine Churchill
- November 20 - Vilhelm Buhl & Thyra Schmidt
- November 25 - Will Rogers & Betty Blake
- December 22 - Sybil Thorndike & Lewis Casson

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Gabriel Lippmann
- Chemistry - Ernest Rutherford
- Medicine - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Paul Ehrlich
- Literature - Rudolf Christoph Eucken
- Peace - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer Category:1908 ko:1908년 ms:1908 ja:1908年 simple:1908 th:พ.ศ. 2451

May 2

May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). There are 243 days remaining.

Events


- 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
- 1335 - Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.
- 1568 - Mary I of Scotland escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
- 1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
- 1672 - John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
- 1808 - Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation.
- 1816 - Léopold of Saxe-Coburg and Charlotte Augusta are wed.
- 1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering for the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia 8 days later.
- 1866 - Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
- 1885 - Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
- 1885 - Cree and Assiniboine warriors won the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
- 1885 - The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium.
- 1889 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, which gives Ethiopia control over Eritrea.
- 1900 - Oscar II, King of Sweden, declares support for Britain at the time of the Boer War.
- 1918 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
- 1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana].
- 1932 - Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
- 1933 - The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster is reported.
- 1933 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
- 1939 - Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it.
- 1945 - World War II: Fall of Berlin – The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building. German forces surrender in Italy. German forces surrender to the New Zealand Army in Trieste.
- 1945 - The last postage stamp utilized by Manzhouguo is issued.
- 1953 - Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
- 1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
- 1963 - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a rocket with three stages with a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
- 1964 - Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.
- 1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
- 1972 - Buddy Baker became the first stock car driver to finish a 500-mile race in less than three hours en route to winning the Winston Select 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Alabama.
- 1982 - Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
- 1986 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, opens.
- 1988 - The last B-1 Lancer is delivered to the United States by Rockwell International.
- 1997 - The Labour Party's Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he is the youngest prime minister for 185 years.
- 1998 - The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the EU's monetary policy.
- 1999 - Panamanian election: Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
- 2000 - Bill Clinton announces that GPS access equivalent to the U.S. military would be available for regular citizens.
- 2005 - First day of Cream reunion shows at the Royal Albert Hall. It is the first time Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker have played together since their 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Births


- 1360 - Yongle, Emperor of China (d. 1424)
- 1451 - René II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1508)
- 1551 - William Camden, English historian (d. 1623)
- 1601 - Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit scholar (d. 1680)
- 1660 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1725)
- 1695 - Jean-Nicolas Servan, French architect and painter (d. 1766)
- 1702 - Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (d. 1782)
- 1729 - Empress Catherine II of Russia (d. 1796)
- 1740 - Elias Boudinot, American president of the Continental Congress (d. 1821)
- 1772 - Novalis, German writer (d. 1801)
- 1773 - Henrik Steffens, Norwegian-German philosopher (d. 1845)
- 1802 - Heinrich Gustav Magnus, German chemist and physicist (d. 1870)
- 1828 - Désiré Charnay, French archaeologist (d. 1915)
- 1860 - Theodor Herzl, Austrian journalist and Zionist leader (d. 1904)
- 1865 - Clyde Fitch, American playwright (d. 1909)
- 1881 - Alexander Kerensky, Russian politician (d. 1970)
- 1884 - Elijah McCoy, Canadian-born inventor (d. 1929)
- 1885 - Hedda Hopper, American actress and gossip columnist (d. 1966)
- 1886 - Gottfried Benn, German author (d. 1956)
- 1887 - Vernon Castle, English dancer (d. 1918)
- 1887 - Eddie Collins, baseball player (d. 1951)
- 1890 - E. E. Smith, American writer (d. 1965)
- 1892 - Manfred von Richthofen, German World War I pilot (d. 1918)
- 1895 - Lorenz Hart, American lyricist (d. 1943)
- 1903 - Dr. Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (d. 1998)
- 1907 - Pinky Lee, American vaudeville performer and television host (d. 1993)
- 1910 - Alexander Bonnyman, U.S. Marine (d. 1955)
- 1912 - Axel Cäsar Springer, German publisher (d. 1985)
- 1913 - Nigel Patrick, English actor (d. 1981)
- 1915 - Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (d. 2003)
- 1920 - Jean-Marie Auberson, Swiss conductor (d. 2004)
- 1921 - Satyajit Ray, Indian director (d. 1992)
- 1922 - A.M. Rosenthal, Canadian-born newspaper editor
- 1924 - Theodore Bikel, Austrian-born actor and singer
- 1925 - Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor
- 1929 - Link Wray, American guitarist
- 1935 - King Faisal II of Iraq (d. 1958)
- 1935 - Lance LeGault, American actor
- 1936 - Engelbert Humperdinck, British singer
- 1936 - Michael Rabin, American violinist (d. 1972)
- 1937 - Lorenzo Music, American writer and producer (d. 2001)
- 1938 - Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (d. 1996)
- 1941 - Stephen J. Cannell, American producer
- 1942 - Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympics Committee president
- 1945 - Sarah Weddington, American attorney
- 1945 - Bianca Jagger, Nicaraguan activist
- 1946 - Lesley Gore, American singer
- 1946 - David Suchet, English actor
- 1948 - Larry Gatlin, American musician and songwriter
- 1949 - Alan Titchmarsh, English gardener, television presenter, and writer
- 1952 - Christine Baranski, American actress
- 1952 - Campbell McComas, Australian impersonator
- 1953 - Valery Gergiev, Russian-born conductor
- 1955 - Donatella Versace, Italian fashion designer
- 1961 - Steve James, English snooker player
- 1962 - Jimmy White, English snooker player
- 1969 - Brian Lara, West Indian cricketer
- 1972 - The Rock, American professional wrestler and actor
- 1975 - David Beckham, English footballer
- 1979 - Roman Lyashenko, Russian hockey player (d. 2003)
- 1980 - Zat Knight, English footballer
- 1980 - Troy Murphy, American basketball player
- 1985 - Sarah Hughes, American figure skater
- 1986 - Kyle Busch, American race car driver
- 1987 - Nana Kitade, Japanese singer
- 1988 - Brooke Hogan, American singer
- 1990 - Kay Panabaker, American actress

Deaths


- 373 - Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (b. 298)
- 756 - Emperor Shomu, Emperor of Japan (b. 701)
- 1230 - William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny (hanged)
- 1300 - Blanche of Artois, regent of Navarre
- 1450 - William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English military leader (b. 1396)
- 1519 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian inventor and painter (b. 1452)
- 1564 - Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian humanist (b. 1500)
- 1627 - Lodovico Grossi da Viadana, Italian composer (b. 1560)
- 1667 - George Wither, English writer (b. 1588)
- 1711 - Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, English statesman (b. 1641)
- 1802 - Herman Willem Daendels, Dutch statesman (b. 1762)
- 1819 - Mary Moser, English painter (b. 1744)
- 1857 - Alfred de Musset, French writer (b. 1810)
- 1864 - Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (b. 1791)
- 1927 - Ernest Starling, British physiologist (b. 1866)
- 1957 - Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator (b. 1908)
- 1964 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (b. 1879)
- 1972 - J. Edgar Hoover, American director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (b. 1895)
- 1979 - Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- 1980 - George Pál, Hungarian-born film director and producer (b. 1908)
- 1983 - Norm Van Brocklin, American football star (b. 1926)
- 1989 - Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Roman Catholic Cardinal (b. 1906)
- 1989 - Veniamin Kaverin, Russian writer (b. 1902)
- 1990 - David Rappaport, English actor (b. 1951)
- 1992 - Wilbur Mills, American politician (b. 1909)
- 1995 - Michael Hordern, English actor (b. 1911)
- 1997 - John Carew Eccles, Australian neurophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- 1998 - Hideto "hide" Matsumoto, Japanese musician (b. 1964)
- 1998 - Kevin Lloyd, British actor (b. 1949)
- 1999 - Oliver Reed, English actor (b. 1938)
- 2001 - Ted Rogers, British comedian (b. 1935)
- 2002 - John Nathan-Turner, English television producer (b. 1947)
- 2002 - W. T. Tutte, English-born codebreaker and mathematician (b. 1917)
- 2005 - Kenneth B. Clark, American psychologist (b. 1914)
- 2005 - Wee Kim Wee, 4th President of Singapore (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances


- Poland - Flag Day, an official holiday to honour the Flag of Poland
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  - Athanasius
  - Waldebert or Gaubert
  - Saints Exuperius and Zoe
  - Saint Mafalda
- Islam - Muhammad's Birthday (2004)
- Bahá'í Faith: Last day of the Festival of Ridván
- Madrid Region - Day of the Region.
- College Board's Advanced Placement Program Testing Begins
- Slovenia - second day of Labour Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/2 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050502.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- May 1 - May 3 - April 2 - June 2 – listing of all days ko:5월 2일 ms:2 Mei ja:5月2日 simple:May 2 th:2 พฤษภาคม

Politics of the United States

The federal government of the United States was established by the United States Constitution. United States politics is dominated by the two major parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. There are several other groups or parties of minor political significance.

Federal, state and local governments

The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature of the American governmental system. However, every person outside the capital is subject to at least three governing bodies: the federal government, a state, and a county (Note: county government has been abolished in some places, see New E