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#91
The Tailgate / Today in history 3-10
Last post by remrogers - March 10, 2024, 11:32:20 AM
1864
March 10
Montana vigilantes hang Jack Slade

Local hell-raiser Jack Slade is hanged in one of the more troubling incidents of frontier vigilantism.

Slade stood out even among the many rabble-rousers who inhabited the frontier-mining town of Virginia City, Montana. When he was sober, townspeople liked and respected Slade, though there were unconfirmed rumors he had once been a thief and murderer. When drunk, however, Slade had a habit of firing his guns in bars and making idle threats. Though Slade's rowdiness did not injure anyone, Virginia City leaders anxious to create a more peaceable community began to lose patience. They began giving more weight to the claims that he was a potentially dangerous man.

The year before, many of Virginia City's leading citizens had formed a semisecret "vigilance committee" to combat the depredations of a road agent named Henry Plummer. Plummer and his gang had robbed and killed in the area, confident that the meager law enforcement in the region could not stop them. Determined to reassert order, the Virginia City vigilantes began capturing and hanging the men in Plummer's gang. As a warning to other criminals, the vigilantes left a scrap of paper on the hanged corpses with the cryptic numbers "3-7-77." The meaning of the numbers is unclear, though some claim it referred to the dimensions of a grave: 3 feet wide, 7 feet long, 77 inches deep.

In the first two months of 1864, the Montana vigilantes hanged 24 men, including Plummer. Most historians agree that these hangings, while technically illegal, punished only genuinely guilty men. However, the vigilantes' decision to hang Jack Slade seems less justified. Finally fed up with his drunken rampages and wild threats, on this day in 1864 a group of vigilantes took Slade into custody and told him he would be hanged. Slade, who had committed no serious crime in Virginia City, pleaded for his life, or at least a chance to say goodbye to his beloved wife. Before Slade's wife arrived, the vigilantes hanged him.

Not long after the questionable execution of Slade, legitimate courts and prisons began to function in Virginia City. Though sporadic vigilante "justice" continued until 1867, it increasingly attracted public concern. In March 1867, miners in one Montana mining district posted a notice in the local newspaper that they would hang five vigilantes for every one man hanged by vigilantes. Thereafter, vigilante action faded away.
#92
The Tailgate / Today in history 3-9
Last post by remrogers - March 09, 2024, 11:05:45 AM
1996
March 9
Comedian George Burns dies at age 100

On March 9, 1996, the legendary cigar-chomping performer George Burns dies at his home in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City, Burns was one of 12 children. As a young child, he sang for pennies on street corners and in saloons, and at age 13, he started a dance academy with a friend. In 1922, Burns was performing the latest in a string of song-and-dance acts in Newark, New Jersey, when he teamed up with a fellow performer, Gracie Allen. Though Allen began as the straight one in their partnership, her natural comedic ability prompted Burns to rewrite their material to give her most of the punch lines. From then on, Burns played the straight man to Allen's ditz, with hilarious results.

By the time Burns and Allen married in 1926 (his brief first marriage, to the dancer Hannah Siegel, ended in divorce), they had already become known on the vaudeville circuit. The 1920s were a golden era for vaudeville performers, and Burns and Allen were only two of a number of greats—their peers included Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Bert Lahr and Jack Benny (Burns' close friend)—who successfully made the transition to other forms of entertainment. After making their radio debut in 1929, the pair landed a regular show, "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show," which aired from 1932 to 1950 on the NBC network. In the late 1930s, the program's audience numbered more than 40 million people and NBC paid Burns and Allen $10,000 per week, an enormous sum for the time. The couple also played themselves on the big screen in a number of films, including International House (1933), Many Happy Returns (1934), A Damsel in Distress (1937) and College Swing (1938).

In 1950, "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" made a seamless transition to television, airing on CBS and becoming one of the top-ranked programs for the duration of the decade. The Burns-Allen team remained in the public eye until Allen's retirement in 1959. She died of a heart attack in 1964. Though Allen was a Roman Catholic, Burns buried her with Episcopal rites, explaining that as a Jewish man he couldn't be buried in Catholic-consecrated ground, and he wanted to be buried beside her.

After Burns underwent major heart surgery in 1975 at the age of 79, his career got a second wind. That year, he played a retired vaudevillian in the film adaptation of Neil Simon's play "The Sunshine Boys," co-starring Walter Matthau and Richard Benjamin. Burns won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role. After that, there was no shortage of movie parts for the octogenarian actor, who played God in Oh God! (1977) and its sequels, Oh God! Book II (1980) and Oh God! You Devil (1984), in which Burns was featured as both God and the Devil. He also starred in Just You and Me, Kid (1979), Going in Style (1979) and Eighteen Again (1988).

In 1988, Burns won an award for lifetime achievement from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He wrote two best-selling autobiographical works, including Gracie: A Love Story (1988) and All My Best Friends (1989), along with eight other books that earned him his well-deserved reputation as an invaluable first-hand observer of the history of 20th century entertainment.

#93
The Tailgate / Today in history 3-8
Last post by remrogers - March 08, 2024, 10:22:41 AM
1917
March  8
February Revolution begins, leading to the end of czarist rule in Russia

In Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar) begins on March 8, 1917 when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in Petrograd. One week later, centuries of czarist rule in Russia ended with the abdication of Nicholas II, and Russia took a dramatic step closer toward communist revolution.

By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability of the czarist regime. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward, and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma, the Russian parliament established after the Revolution of 1905, when it opposed his will. However, the immediate cause of the February Revolution—the first phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917—was Russia's disastrous involvement in World War I. Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort, and moderates joined Russian radical elements in calling for the overthrow of the czar.

On March 8, 1917, demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now known as St. Petersburg). Supported by 90,000 men and women on strike, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets. On March 10, the strike spread among all of Petrograd's workers, and irate mobs of workers destroyed police stations. Several factories elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet, or "council," of workers' committees, following the model devised during the Revolution of 1905.

On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets, and the troops began to waver. That day, Nicholas again dissolved the Duma. On March 12, the revolution triumphed when regiment after regiment of the Petrograd garrison defected to the cause of the demonstrators. The soldiers, some 150,000 men, subsequently formed committees that elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet.

The imperial government was forced to resign, and the Duma formed a provisional government that peacefully vied with the Petrograd Soviet for control of the revolution. On March 14, the Petrograd Soviet issued "Order No. 1," which instructed Russian soldiers and sailors to obey only those orders that did not conflict with the directives of the Soviet. The next day, March 15, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael, whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the czarist autocracy.

The new provincial government, tolerated by the Petrograd Soviet, hoped to salvage the Russian war effort while ending the food shortage and many other domestic crises. It would prove a daunting task. Meanwhile, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary party, left his exile in Switzerland and crossed German enemy lines to return home and take control of the Russian Revolution.
#94
The Tailgate / Re: Gittin the itch
Last post by Hawks Feather - March 08, 2024, 06:59:02 AM
Nasty will be the newest member of Swamp People or Tall Tales.  :innocentwhistle:
#95
Fishing Equipment / Re: Getting the boat ready
Last post by Hawks Feather - March 08, 2024, 06:57:37 AM
You ARE the man!
#96
The Tailgate / Re: Gittin the itch
Last post by FinsnFur - March 08, 2024, 05:54:00 AM
 :alscalls:  :alscalls: Were gonna need pics
#97
The Tailgate / Re: Gittin the itch
Last post by nastygunz - March 08, 2024, 12:39:39 AM
I stopped canoe fishing the Connecticut River when I saw a Northern Pike go by with a cow in its mouth :innocentwhistle: 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟
#98
Fishing Equipment / Re: Getting the boat ready
Last post by FinsnFur - March 07, 2024, 06:28:36 PM
Well played Mike. Well played  :eyebrow:
#99
The Tailgate / Re: Gittin the itch
Last post by FinsnFur - March 07, 2024, 06:26:32 PM
Quote from: bigben on March 07, 2024, 06:20:31 AMthey fish flys all the time on the susquehanna.  which is a mile or more wide at its widest point but of course not that deep  very shallow running.  id be hard to understand how to fish the mississippi after fishing the wide shallow runners we have in pa.

Thats me on a lake Ben. I know the Mississippi, where the fish go and what structure they want. Fished it my whole life. Put me on a lake and I am absolutely lost. :confused:
In fact a couple years ago when the Mississippi was a disaster from floods, I took the Kayak and road tripped to several state inland lakes during our 4th of July shut down.
NEVER caught a fish. Didnt know what to use, where to go, or how to work it.
#100
The Tailgate / Re: Gittin the itch
Last post by FinsnFur - March 07, 2024, 06:21:27 PM
Quote from: Okanagan on March 07, 2024, 08:46:00 AMJim, are you left handed or do you just fish baitcasting reels left handed?  I am right handed but fish left handed with all but the heaviest salt water reels.  Nice video.  Would love to get into smallies like that.  They are super fighters, pound for pound stronger than steelhead IME. WTG!

Same Clyde. I'm right handed. I just use left hand reels. I cant get my head wrapped around the concept of casting with one hand and then passing the rod and reel over to the other hand to crank it.
A LOT of people do it. I just cant make any sense of taking extra steps to juggle.
I also feel that being right hand dominant and casting with my right hand gives more casting efficiency and accuracy. But I know it another Chevy vs Ford controversy  :eyebrownod: