Friday, March 23, 1973. Unraveling.

Watergate burglar James W. McCord Jr. wrote Judge John Sirica that the Watergate defendants had been pressured to remain silent, naming U.S. Attorney John Mitchell as the "overall boss" of the Watergate operation.

McCord had been a CIA officer before becoming a private security contractor.  He passed away at age 93 in 2017.

Mori Chack (森チャック) designer of Gloomy Bear, a Japanese pink stuffed bear that eats people, born.

Railhead: Mutzerbahn - "Cat-aclysm" in Such station, waiting...

Railhead: Mutzerbahn - "Cat-aclysm" in Such station, waiting...: 

Mutzerbahn - "Cat-aclysm" in Such station, waiting for a model train to ...

Somethings you just can't resist.

August 31, 1920. Building.

On this date in 1920, John Lloyd Wright was given a patent for what would become Lincoln Logs.

Wright had been marketing the toy logs since 1918, and had based them upon his observations of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel's foundation, designed by his father, Frankly Lloyd Wright.   The foundation featured an interlocking log structure to give it flexibility during earthquakes.

The standing hotel following the devastating 1923 earthquake.

An election held on this date in Hannibal Missouri was the first to be conducted following the 19th Amendment going into effect.  Marie Ruoff Byrum was the first woman voter to cast a ballot to have been given the right to vote under the amendment.

Of course, women had been voting for some time in states that had adopted universal suffrage on their own, including Wyoming's female voters.

Mrs Byrum lived until age 73.  She had been involved in politics and had retired to Florida in her later years.

Tennessee, which had been the 36th state to vote to add the 19th Amendment, on this day voted to rescind their ratification in an effort to reverse course on it.  The effort came too late as retroactive post ratification rescissions are not allowable, assuming recessions are at all, which itself isn't clear.

It's odd that it was attempted in this context.  If the vote had preceded the adoption of the Amendment that would have raised a Constitutional question, but doing it after the ratification would fairly obviously do nothing.

1862 French map used as a template in 1920.

French Genera Henri Gouraud issued a decree that set Lebanon's borders in anticipation of creating a separate Lebanese territory the following day.

Some major 1968 events we already missed.

 USS Pueblo.

This blog won't become the This Day In 1968 Blog, like it threatened to become for 1915, 16, 17, and 18.

But it is 50 years ago, and it was quite a year, as already noted.  We may, therefore, take note of some things that occurred during it.

Here's what we already missed:

January 4:  Mattel introduced Hot Wheels.

I, and every boy I knew, loved those little cars.

Shoot, I still do.

January 5:  Alexander Dubcek chosen as the leader of the Czech Communist party, ushering in the Prague Spring.

This seemed to usher in some hope that Communism in Eastern Europe would evolve into Democratic Socialism, something, it would would soon show, that the USSR was not prepared to accept.

January 21.  The Battle of Khe Sanh, a diversion of for the Tet Offensive, commences.

The battle was one of the few real sieges of the American war in Vietnam.  The Marine Corps defended the base valiantly, supplied from the air by the United States Air Force.  In April the siege ended when the U.S. Army reestablished ground connection with the base.  While an American victory of a sort, the fact that the NVA was capable of laying an American force to siege, would be a factor in the change in the public's mind on the war.   And, we started to look like the French, in a way, with there being shades of Dien Bien Phu.

January 22:  Rowan & Martin's Laugh In debuts. 

Funny, and irreverent, and featuring a mild form of the exist humor that characterized a lot of American humor at the time, it was hugely popular.

January 23. The USS Pueblo taken.

As if there wasn't enough grim news, the seizure of an American vessel, and the poor performance of the Navy's officer corps as it happened, made the Americans look anemic and caused concern that the Korean War was about to revive.

The ship is still held by North Korea.

January 30.  The Tet Offensive launched.

We'd win the battle, but the public's mind was lost by the fact that the NVA and VC could launch such a major offensive after years of war.  A desperate gamble on their part, it proved to be a gamble that would pay off.

January 31:  The US embassy in Saigon attacked by the Viet Cong.

Part of the Tet Offensive, of course.

February 1:  Viet Cong terrorist Nguyễn Văn Lém is executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan,  South Vietnamese National Police Chief.   The famous photograph by photographer Eddie Adams would go on to be a factor in the turn of American opinion against the war, but Adams regretted taking it and in fact held Nguyễn Ngọc Loan in high regard.

All that and 1968 was just a month old.

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: 20 Mule Team Borax Wagons

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: 20 Mule Team Borax Wagons:   Throughout America’s history, there are certain early horse-drawn vehicles that have attained a legendary status… even among the gener...

I wonder how many of us had  a Twenty Mule Team model?  I did.

I loved models as a kid.  I don't think building them is as common as it once was.  Most of mine were military models, ground equipment and aircraft, but this one, a Twenty Mule Team, was an exception.  Wish I knew where it was today.