Norma Jeane Mortenson was born in Los Angeles to Gladys Pearl Baker, nee Monroe, who was married at the time to her second husband, Martin Edward Mortensen, but who was not her father.
Newton Baker and Gladys had married when she was only 14 years old. Baker was reportedly abusive. The couple had two children. Interestingly, she was born to an American family living in Mexico but one that had strong connections to California, where she grew up.
In 1923 the Bakers divorced and obtained custody of all three of the couple's children. He, however, kidnapped the oldest two and moved to Kentucky. Baker was effected by the Roaring 20s and conducted herself to some extent as a flapper and participant in the early feminist movement, which then as later advocated sexual laxity. She was pregnant when she married Mortensen, who she soon found to be boring, leading to divorce.
Norma Jean's father was likely Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys's superior at RKO Studios, where she was working.
Gladys and Norma Jeane.
Baker was likely mentally unstable ,which seems to have run in her family. Based on what evidence exists, it seems like that there was a genetic component to this and she's spend much of the later years of her life institutionalized.
The rest of this story is, of course, well known. While its speculation, it would seem likely that at least some of the genetic component of her mental instabilities visited themselves upon her daughter, who of course lived a very disrupted early life.
She outlived her daughter and died in 1984.
Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina. He was at first a voice comedian and later a famous television actor, best remembered for the Andy Griffith Show. He was strongly connected to North Carolina his entire life.
The Andy Griffith Show almost defines a certain vision of rural America to this day, and it retains a very strong following. Unlike the Sheriff protagonist of the show, Griffith married three times and had an affair with one of the shows love interests while it was running. Irrespective of those failings, he remains widely admired.
Eamon de Valera proposed the name "Fianna Fáil" for his new political party which was scheduled to organize on May 16. "Fianna" (soldiers) and the Lia Fáil, the coronation stone for the ancient kings of Ireland, formed the basis of the name.
The hard to characterize republican party is still around. It's political positions have shifted a great degree over the past century and indeed the ability to do so is a self acknowledged feature of the party.
Watts residents voted to become part of Los Angeles.
Calvin Coolidge declined an invitation to send American delegates to a League of Nations conference in Geneva to discuss America's reservations about joining the World Court.
Terrorists attacked a train traveling from Moscow to Riga in Latvia, killing Soviet couriers L. F. Pecherskiy, Theodor Nette and his partner, with the apparent goal of stealing a diplomatic pouch.
A crowd of 10,000 people gathered in Los Angeles to watch the funeral procession of actress Barbara La Marr.
La Marr was regarded as a great beauty and was famous for that, as well as a torrid life. Only 29 at the time of her death, she'd been married four times.
This is the U.S. Federal Building & Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This building, built in 1960s, is s survivor of the brutal domestic terrorist attack that wrecked the Murrah building that was across from it. A memorial to the victims of that attack is now located there, across from the courthouse.
Even here, however, the Court granted a stay of thirty days on the implementation of its order, which a private litigant would be unlikely to have received, and the government shouldn't have received here. The order should have gone into effect immediately absent the government posting a bond to cover the damages, which would be all the tariffs collected while the matter was on appeal, and all that it has already collected, which should need to be fully refunded.
But a refund won't happen and the implementation of the ruling is delayed by 30 days, so the government can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which doesn't actually have to take the appeal.
Whether the S.Ct upholds it, or proves to be a pure political arm of the government, is another matter.
There were three dissents in the en banc decision.
September 3, 2025
A Federal Court has ruled Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to be illegal.
In an act that's outrageous, former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by a grand jury on two out of the three charges the government brought before it.
The Trump administration, and hence the Republican Party, has gone over to outright fascism with acts of this type. The test now is whether the Courts can withstand the onslaught.
In addition to Comey, now Letitia James has been indicted. More such indictments are apparently coming.
Trump's efforts to deploy the National Guard into cities is universally failing in the Courts.
Comey is being prosecuted for lying to Congress, which Pam Bondi just did herself.
October 16, 2025
And now John Bolton has been charged with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information by a grand jury.
The Department of Justice has become a department of persecution for Trump. It'll take years to undo the damage that has been done. Moreover, because of the extent of this, it's my prediction that many who are now involved in these Trump efforts will face bar sanctions, and likely some prosecutions, in the future.
October 17, 2025
An Illinois court ordered ICE agents to wear body cameras.
October 25, 2025
Way milder than it could have been, but at least somebody tried to do something:
If the TRO is granted, construction will stop, but I would have asked for the structure to have been returned to the status quo ante.
The Weimar Republic announced the first balanced German budget since the end of World War One.
The Soviet Union produced its first domestically manufactured motor vehicle, the AMO-15 truck.
The Alvarado Hot Springs was created when a natural gas exploratory well taped into a geothermal pool in Los Angeles County. It was operated commercially as a hot springs facility until at least 1961, following which it seem to have disappeared from history.
2BE began operating commercially, broadcasting twice a week, in Sydney. Australia's first commercial radio station would close in 1929.
The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, dismissed Virginia's House of Burgesses due to a resolution, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, calling for a Day of Fasting and Prayer being passed. The cause for Virginia's concern over British reaction to the Boston Tea Party, and it came on the same day that the British Navy planned to blockade Boston's harbor in punishment for the same.
The heavy-handed British reaction was propelling things in the very direction that the British did not want it to go.
The members of the House did not go right home, but instead convened as an Association, at the Raleigh Tavern, where they called for a Continental Congress.
Juan Bautista de Anza completed his overland expedition from Tubac, Mexico to San Gabriel Mission, in modern Los Angeles, California.
The Reverend Robert Newburgh was accused by a private British soldier of the 18th Regiment of Foot, stationed in the Colonies, of beggary. He would be acquitted in a trial in June. The story was bizarre as he had invited the charge in the first instance, and coached the private on how to make it, seemingly in an effort to overall clear his name as he became increasingly unpopular. He'd seen three soldiers tried for gossiping.
The plan would fail, and he'd ultimately be arrested after his acquittal for being disruptive, although his being accused of an "unnatural crime", the one he'd been just acquitted of, was mentioned at the time.
To the extent that this story is illustrative of anything, it's partially illustrative of the harsh discipline in the British Army of the period, as well as the somewhat junior high atmosphere that existed in 18th and 19th Century armies. Additionally, however, it's interesting as neither the terms "heterosexual" or "homosexual" existed at the time, those being modern constructs, the latter of which did not originally apply to those who might commit beggary.
A large bomb exploded outside the offices of the Los Angeles Times, killing 21 employees.
The bombing was part of a campaign by union members and in this instance was directed at the Times due to its position on unions. The perpetrators, brothers John J. ("J.J.") and James Barnabas ("J.B.") McNamara were arrested in April 1911 J. B. was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. J.J. was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for bombing a local iron manufacturing plant, and returned eventually to union organization.
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