Assassins

Study Guide
Prepared by
Briana Choynowski, Assistant Dramaturg

Andrew Lowy, Dramaturg

Performances: November 5-9, 2008 Madeleine Wing Adler Theater For tickets please call: 610-436-2533
Assassins is produced by University Theatre, in collaboration with
West Chester Universitys Department of Theatre and Dance

Table of Contents
Playwright Biographies Production History Plot Synopsis Assassins Biographies: John Wilkes Booth State of the Country: 1865 Charles Guiteau State of the Country: 1881 Leon Czolgosz State of the Country: 1901 Giuseppe Zangara State of the Country: 1933 Lee Harvey Oswald State of the Country: 1963 Sam Byck State of the Country: 1974 Lynette Squeaky Fromme Sara Jane Moore/State of the Country: 1975 John Hinckley State of the Country: 1981 Vocabulary List Works Consulted Word Search 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23-25 26 27 2 3-4 5-6

Assassins Playwright Biographies

STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Stephen Sondheim is commonly known, next to Oscar Hammerstein, as the leading writer in the musical theatre. Born on March 22, 1930, in New York, he spent his summers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania after his parents divorced. His mothers neighbor was Oscar Hammerstein, who became his mentor until his death in 1960. After he graduated from Williams College in 1950, he began his musical theatre writing career by penning the musical Saturday Night in 1954. Unfortunately, the show was not produced at the time because the producer suddenly passed away. The show was not produced until almost 45 years later in London and subsequently in New York. Even though the show wasnt produced, Sondheim proved that he was a rare talent and caught his break writing the lyrics for a new musical with Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents, West Side Story. After writing just lyrics for West Side Story, Gypsy (1959, music by Jule Styne) and Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965, music by Richard Rodgers), he decided that he wanted to only write music AND lyrics. His first full score on Broadway was the Tony Award winning A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To the Forum (1962). After a huge financial flop with Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Sondheim teamed with producer-director Hal Prince, creating several experimental and genre-breaking new musicals, typically known as concept musicals. The first of these was Company (1970), which centered on a group of characters and not linear plot. The next was Follies, an enormous piece that broke many barriers of what a musical could be and is considered by most as one of the great pieces of musical theater. His next musical, A Little Night Music (1973) gives us a romantic musical that uses a series of variations of the waltz to tell us a story loosely based on Ingmar Bergmans Smiles Of A Summer Night. In 1976, he collaborated with John Weidman on the musical Pacific Overtures, which tells the Japanese perspective of the Westernization of the East. Sondheim followed this with one of his most popular musicals, Sweeny Todd (1979), which has received 3 productions on Broadway and was recently turned into a feature film by Tim Burton. The last of the Sondheim-Prince musicals was Merrily We Roll Along (1981), a story of three friends told in backwards order. Although this musical was a huge flop in its original incarnation, the show has been revised and is now performed all over the world. After his break with Harold Prince, Sondheim found refuge at an Off-Broadway theater called Playwrights Horizons. It was here where he developed (with James Lapine) Sunday In the Park With George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), and Passion (1994). All of which transferred for successful runs on Broadway. Playwrights Horizons was also the place where Assassins had its original New York production. Stephen Sondheim has received numerous awards for his work, including an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (seven in total; more than any other composer), multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He currently is bringing his long awaited collaboration with John Weidman, Bounce, to The Public Theater this fall.

JOHN WEIDMAN
John Weidman for many years has been one of the most sought after book writers in the musical theatre. After being educated as a Lawyer at Harvard and Yale, he went to Harold Prince with the idea for a show that eventually became Pacific Overtures (1976), his first show with Sondheim. Other musicals he has written the book for include Anything Goes (1987, revised book with Tim Crouse), Big (1996), Contact (2000), and Bounce (2008, this fall at The Public Theater). For many years, he was an editor for the famed National Lampoon and has won Emmy Awards as a staff writer for Sesame Street. He currently serves as the president of the Dramatists Guild of America. John is the son of famed librettist and novelist Jerome Weidman (Fiorello!, I Can Get It For You Wholesale).

Assassins Production History

By Andrew Lowy
In 1988, Stephen Sondheim was serving as a judge for the Musical Theatre Lab run by producer Stuart Ostrow. One of the scripts he read was by Philadelphia favorite Charles Gilbert. Entitled Assassins, the musical was about a fictional Vietnam veteran who wanted to kill the president. Sondheim was struck by the title, but was specifically inspired by Gilberts inclusion of Charles Guiteaus poem I Am Going to the Lordy. Some time after that John Weidman, Sondheims collaborator on Pacific Overtures, came to him with the idea of writing a musical about Woodrow Wilson and the Paris Peace Conference. Although Sondheim was not inspired by that idea, he was immediately reminded of Gilberts musical and after many conversations with Weidman, decided that they wanted to pursue writing a musical about assassination. After securing permission from Gilbert to create his own musical out of similar subject matter, the two writers sought out a suitable form for the piece. They eventually decided on using revue and vaudeville as the tools to tell their story. Originally, the piece was going to be epic, with characters as far back as Julius Caesar, asking the question, What does it mean to kill a political figure? After much deliberation, they decided to focus on American Presidential Assassins. Their largest breakthrough was when they decided that the assassins from different eras would be allowed to interact with each other. In an interview, Sondheim commented on this, saying Once the barriers are down, you can allow yourself to cross eras and find parallels and contrasts. The writers took the piece to Playwrights Horizons, where Sondheim developed Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods. After many reading at the theater, they decided to produce the piece on their 141 Main Stage in December 1990. The production was directed by Jerry Zaks and featured actors like Victor Garber, Terrance Mann, Patrick Cassidy, Debra Monk, and Annie Golden. The production sold out very quickly, making the Daily News claim the production was the toughest ticket in town. Lines formed around the block nightly for cancellations. In fact, ironically, President George Walker Bush drove by the cancellation line in January 1991. From the beginning, the authors knew that the piece did not have commercial subject matter. The biggest issue working against the piece was that the opening coincided with Operation Desert Storm and the Persian Gulf War. Given the circumstances, many critics thought the show was written in bad taste and was not coherent as a whole. The production suffered from the small space that Playwrights Horizons could provide and the lack of space for a suitable orchestra. After the run of 71 performances, producers David Geffen and the Shubert Organization had a tentative deal to bring the show to the Golden Theater on Broadway. This deal ultimately did not make economic sense and the production never transferred to Broadway. Shortly after, British director Sam Mendes was about to open his new theater, the Donmar Warehouse. He had read Assassins and thought the piece would set the standard for the type of work he wanted to produce at the Donmar. The production, which starred Henry Goodman, Ciaran Hinds, and David Firth, sold out its entire 12 week run. The production featured a new song entitled Something Just Broke, which Weidman said gives the ensemble, who are treated comically earlier in the piece, an opportunity to express the simple, uncomplicated grief and raw, unresolved emotions which we all experience in response to these vicious, horrific acts. Unlike the reviews from the original production, the London critics gave unanimous rave reviews. After the London production, the show found its popularity across college campuses across the nation. Unfortunately, between 1992 and 2003, there were only twelve professional productions of the show in the entire United States.

In 2000, Weidman received a call from the popular director Joe Mantello, saying he wanted a chance to direct Assassins. Sondheim and Weidman agreed and Mantello went to work at finding a suitable venue for the production. Initially, Mantello wanted to start the production in a smaller venue then transfer to a larger space. After their experience with the show in 1991, the writers wanted to do the show in a place where the piece could breathe and have its full orchestration heard. Mantello eventually went to Todd Haimes, Artistic Director of Roundabout Theater Company, who agreed to produce the piece on Broadway. After a June 2, 2000 reading at the Roundabout, rehearsals were to begin September 17, 2001 and open two months later at the Music Box Theater. Unfortunately, no one could have predicted the horror that would ensue in our country due to the September 11th attacks. In a statement released on September 13, Sondheim and Weidman said "Assassins is a show which asks audiences to think critically about various aspects of the American experience. In light of Tuesdays murderous assault on our nation and on the most fundamental things in which we all believe, we, the Roundabout, and director Joe Mantello believe this is not an appropriate time to present a show which makes such a demand. The cancellation cost the company $400,000 and cast members like Douglas Sills, John Dossett, and Raul Esparza never got to do the piece on Broadway. In the fall of 2003, Roundabout decides to that it is finally the right time to produce Assassins. Mantello then put together a creative team including the legendary Paul Gemignani and a cast which included Mario Cantone, Neil Patrick Harris, Becky Ann Baker, Michael Cerveris, Mark Kudisch, and Denis OHare. On April 22, 2004, Assassins finally arrived on Broadway. This time, critics and audiences welcomed the production and realized its poignant message. Due to the Tony Awards Classics rule, saying that a show deemed historical or in the popular repertoire cannot be eligible for Best Musical, the production was considered in the Best Revival category. This ended up being a huge advantage for the show, with the production winning awards for Best Direction (Joe Mantello), Lighting Design, Best Supporting Actor (Michael Cerveris) and Best Musical Revival. The production ran 101 performances on Broadway and began a new future for the piece, which is now performed all around the world in colleges, amateur and professional theaters.

Arden Theatre Company

Philadelphia, PA

Signature Theatre Company

Washington, DC

Assassins Synopsis
Written by MTIShows.com
Assassins opens in a fairground shooting gallery, with calliope music playing. Amidst flashing lights, we see a series of male target figures, dressed in the fashions of the past two hundred years, trundle by on a conveyor belt. The fairs prize shelf, in addition to the usual array of stuffed toys and souvenirs, includes a sexy life-sized female doll, money, elaborate scrolled documents, books, newspapers, and fancy jars of colored liquid. The Proprietor stands behind the counter. Leon Czolgosz, a scruffy, sullen laborer in his late twenties, shuffles in sadly. The music changes to a slow, disgruntled beat. The Proprietor advises Czolgosz he can chase his blues away by killing a President, pointing out that assassination is a skill at which even rank beginners can excel (Everybodys Got the Right). As Czolgosz picks up a gun, John Hinckley, a soft, plump, 21-year-old, ambles aimlessly in. The Proprietor convinces him he can improve his love life and impress his dream girl by shooting a President. They are joined by Charles Guiteau, who enters furtively, dressed in black. His shoes are polished, but he wears no socks. The Proprietor says he can overcome failure by killing a President, and he steps up to the shooting gallery. He is soon joined by Giuseppe Zangara, a tiny, angry man, who groans and rubs his stomach. The Proprietor promises shooting a President will relieve his pain. The next arrival is Samuel Byck, in a dirty Santa suit, carrying a sign that says, All I Want for Christmas Is My Constitutional Right to Peaceably Petition My Government for the Redress of My Grievances. As the Proprietor encourages him to pick up a gun, Lynette Fromme, a small, intense girl wearing red religious robes, and Sara Jane Moore, a bright-eyed, heavy-set, middle-aged woman, enter. The Proprietor signs them up after Moore has a great deal of difficulty finding the proper change in her purse. John Wilkes Booth appears, accompanied by the faintly sinister music we heard at the beginning of the show. The Proprietor introduces him as the groups pioneer and distributes ammunition. Booth leads the assembled assassins through the end of the song, proclaiming: Rich man, poor man, Black or white, Pick your apple, Take a bite, Everybody just hold tight To your dreams. Everybodys Got the right To their dreams. As the assassins take aim, we hear Hail to the Chief, and Lincolns arrival offstage is announced. Booth excuses himself and a shot rings out. Booth shouts, Sic semper tyrannis! In Scene 2, the Balladeer sings the story of John Wilkes Booth (The Ballad of Booth). We see Booth and his accomplice David Herold hiding in a tobacco barn in rural Virginia. Booth knows he is about to be captured and is trying to write his justification for his actions in his diary. His statements that his actions were politically motivated are juxtaposed with the Balladeers comments that Booths motives actually have to do with his own personal problems. As Booth is shot by a Union soldier, he throws the Balladeer his diary, begging him to tell his story to the world. The Balladeer recites Booths version of events as Booth shoots himself. As Booth dies, the Balladeer concludes that Booth was a madman who left behind a legacy of butchery and treason. He points out that, ironically, in trying to destroy Lincoln, Booth actually elevated him to legendary status. The Balladeer points out the futility of the assassins actions, saying: Hurts a while, But soon the countrys Back were it belongs, And thats the truth. Still and all... Damn you Booth! In Scene 3, Booth, Hinckley, Czolgosz, Byck, Guiteau, and Zangara are gathered in a bar. In the course of the scene, we begin to gain insight into each of their twisted lives. Booth continues to encourage them to become the masters of their own fates. Scene 4 is introduced with a radio report that Zangara has attempted to assassinate Franklin D. Roosevelt. In How I Saved Roosevelt, members of the crowd speak into microphones telling the radio audience their distorted impressions of the event they have witnessed; everyone is convinced that he or she personally saved the Presidents life with some seemingly inconsequential action. We see Zangara strapped into the electric chair. He sings of his refusal to be scared, stating he didnt care whom he killed as long as it was one of the men who control all the money. He actually meant to kill Herbert Hoover, but the weather in Washington was too cold. He is furious that as an American nothing he doesnt get any photographers at his execution. Assassin and crowd are both concerned with their media images. The lights dim, rise, dim and go out as Zangara is electrocuted. In Scene 5, we hear the anarchist Emma Goldman speaking offstage as Leon Czolgosz listens, enraptured. He introduces himself to her after the speech and declares he is in love with her. She encourages him to redirect his passion to the fight for social justice. She refuses to allow him to carry her bag, saying, they make us servants, Leon. We do not make servants of each other, but he insists on carrying it anyway. Scene 6, Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore meet in a public park. Fromme smokes a joint and speaks of her obsession with Charles Manson, the mass murderer. She declares herself his lover and slave. Juggling her purse, a Tab, and a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Moore says she is a narc for the FBI or used to be; has been a CPA; had five husbands and three kids; and suffers from amnesia. Fromme insists Manson is

going to emerge as king of a new order and make her his queen. Moore is sure she knew Manson when he was much younger. The scene ends as they both give the portrait of Colonel Sanders on Moores bucket of chicken the evil eye, then blast it to pieces with their guns. The next scene (7) is a barbershop quartet for Booth, Czolgosz, Guiteau, and Moore (Gun Song), in which they comment on the power of a gun to change the world. In Scene 8, we see Czolgosz at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, watching President McKinley shaking visitors hands in the Temple of Music Pavilion (The Ballad of Czolgosz). The Balladeer traces Czolgosz as he works his way down the receiving line of fairgoers who see only the positive elements of McKinleys image. When Czolgosz finally reaches the head of the line, he shoots McKinley. Samuel Byck in his soiled Santa suit sits on a park bench in Scene 9, with a picket sign and shopping bag. He drinks a Yoo-Hoo and talks into his tape recorder. He is sending a message to the composer Leonard Bernstein, begging him to save the world by writing more love songs. By the end he is accusing Bernstein of ignoring him just like the other celebrities with whom he has tried to communicate. In Scene 10, Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley are in Hinckleys rumpus room exchanging thoughts about their loved ones, Charles Manson and Jodie Foster. Fromme mocks Hinckley, saying he doesnt even know Foster. Hinckley orders Fromme to leave. After she goes, he sings of his love for Foster (Unworthy of Your Love). In limbo, Fromme sings the same song to Manson. Hinckley starts shooting at a photo of President Ronald Reagan that is projected on the back wall. The picture keeps reappearing as Fromme mocks Hinckleys inability to kill the President. In the following scene (11), Charles Guiteau gives the clumsy Sara Jane Moore tips on shooting and tries to kiss her. When she rebuffs him, he assassinates President Garfield. Scene 12 shows Guiteau standing at the foot of the gallows reciting a poem, I Am Going To The Lordy (which the real-life Guiteau did in fact write on the morning of his execution). The Balladeer describes his trial and execution (The Ballad of Guiteau) as Guiteau cakewalks up and down the gallows steps. In Scene 13, Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore are implementing their plan to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Moore has brought along her nine-year-old son and her dog, whom she accidentally shoots. The President, also clumsy, comes along, and in spite of his attempts to assist her collect some dropped bullets, Moore fails to assassinate him. Frommes gun doesnt go off, so both attempts are botched. In Scene 14, Samuel Byck is in his car on the way to the airport to hijack a plane, which he plans to crash dive into the White House. He recites a disjointed litany of complaints about contemporary American life and then announces the killing of the President as the only solution. In Scene 15, crowd noises supply a slow, wordless lamentation for the victims of the assassins as Czolgosz, Booth, Hinckley, Fromme, Zangara, Guiteau, Moore, and Byck review their motives. They all ask for the prize they expected as the result of their actions. The Balladeer replies that their actions didnt solve their problems or the countrys. There is no prize. The assassins, newly united with a common purpose, reply there is a different song stirring in America (Another National Anthem) that continues to grow louder and louder, sung by all Americans who believe themselves dispossessed by the dream. As long as its possible for the mailman to win the lottery, there is always the chance you can get a prize. They insist: If you cant do, What you want to, Then you do, The things you can. In Scene 16, Lee Harvey Oswald is preparing to kill himself in a storeroom on the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Booth interrupts him and tries to convince him to murder President Kennedy instead. He summons Guiteau, Czolgosz, Zangara, Fromme, Moore, Byck and Hinckley from the shadows, telling Oswald that by joining them, he can at last be part of something (November 22, 1963). The assassins who preceded Oswald say he will bring them back; those who come after him say he will make them possible, by once again making assassination a part of the American experience. His act can give them historical power as a unified force, not as a bunch of isolated lunatics. Oswald refuses. Booth entices him with the statement that when Hinckleys room is searched after his assassination attempt on President Reagan, Oswalds writings will be found. Booth summons up the voices of Arthur Bremer (who attempted to assassinate Governor George Wallace), Sirhan (who assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy) and James Earl Ray (who assassinated Reverend Martin Luther King), telling Oswald that he holds the key to the future in his hands. Oswald again refuses. The assassins implore him to act so their own acts can be reborn. He can free them from being merely footnotes in a history book. They say they are his family. Oswald crouches at the window and shoots... In Scene 17, the shocking impact of Oswald's deed is expressed by American citizens who gather together onstage and sing a ballad describing where they were when they heard President Kennedy had been shot (Something Just Broke). In Scene 18, the assassins reappear in limbo singing (Everybodys Got The Right: Reprise). All of their guns go off at once-Blam!!

John Wilkes Booth vs. President Abraham Lincoln

April 14, 1865
John Wilkes Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland, and attended school sporadically. A strikingly handsome youth, he attracted many people, and early on he decided to try the stage. Although unwilling to work at his parts, native talent enabled him to win acclaim as a Shakespearean actor, especially in the Richmond, Virginia Stock Company. In 1860, the year Lincoln was elected president, Booth achieved recognition across the country and played to approving audiences. A respiratory problem in 1863 forced Booth to leave the stage temporarily, and he began conceiving a romantic "conspiracy" to abduct President Lincoln and deliver him to Richmond for a ransom of peace or an exchange of Confederate prisoners. Unlike the rest of the Booth family, John had always been a Southern sympathizer. He believed the Civil War to be a simple confrontation between Northern tyranny and Southern freedom. He enrolled six other Confederate sympathizers in his kidnapping scheme. Their efforts in March 1865 to capture Lincoln on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. were foiled by the President's failure to appear. Booth's frustration undoubtedly contributed to his decision to assassinate Lincoln. Booth learned at noon on April 14 that Lincoln would attend Laura Keene's performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington that evening. Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward were also to be killed, but Booth's confederates failed to carry out these murders. Booth went to the theater in the afternoon and fixed the door of the President's box so that it could be barred behind him. At about ten o'clock Booth entered the theater, shot Lincoln, and jumped to the stage, shouting "Sic semper tyrannis! (Thus ever to tyrants!) The South is avenged!" Breaking a leg in his leap to the stage, Booth dragged himself from the theater to a waiting horse. The pain slowed him, and he and another conspirator were forced to seek a doctor. For several days they tried to cross the Potomac, where they journeyed to the farm of Richard H. Garrett. Pursuers found them in Garrett's barn on April 26. When Booth refused to surrender, the barn was set afire. Although one of the pursuers claimed to have shot Booth, it is unclear whether he was killed or committed suicide. Booth's accomplices were rounded up and tried in a controversial set of trials. Booth's tragedy lay in his twisted vision of patriotism. He never understood the horror caused by his act, and he died with these last words: "Tell Mother ... I died for my country."
Source: "John Wilkes Booth." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.

Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin (now Larue) County, Ky., on Feb. 12, 1809. His family moved to Indiana and then to Illinois, and Lincoln gained what education he could along the way. While reading law, he worked in a store, managed a mill, surveyed, and split rails. In 1834, he went to the Illinois legislature as a Whig and became the party's floor leader. For the next 20 years he practiced law in Springfield, except for a single term (184749) in Congress, where he denounced the Mexican War. In 1855, he was a candidate for senator and the next year he joined the new Republican Party. A leading but unsuccessful candidate for the vicepresidential nomination with Frmont, Lincoln gained national attention in 1858 when, as Republican candidate for senator from Illinois, he engaged in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic candidate. He lost the election, but continued to prepare the way for the 1860 Republican convention and was rewarded with the presidential nomination on the third ballot. He won the election over three opponents. From the start, Lincoln made clear that, unlike Buchanan, he believed the national government had the power to crush the rebellion. Not an abolitionist, he held the slavery issue subordinate to that of preserving the Union, but soon perceived that the war could not be brought to a successful conclusion without freeing the slaves. His administration was hampered by the incompetence of many Union generals, the inexperience of the troops, and the harassing political tactics both of the Republican Radicals, who favored a hard policy toward the South, and the Democratic Copperheads, who desired a negotiated peace. The Gettysburg Address of Nov. 19, 1863, marks the high point in the record of American eloquence. Lincoln's long search for a winning combination finally brought generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman to the top; and their series of victories in 1864 dispelled the mutterings from both Radicals and Peace Democrats that at one time seemed to threaten Lincoln's reelection. He was reelected in 1864, defeating Gen. George B. McClellan, the Democratic candidate. His inaugural address urged leniency toward the South: With malice toward none, with charity for all . . . let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds . . . This policy aroused growing opposition on the part of the Republican Radicals, but before the matter could be put to the test, Lincoln was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater, Washington, on April 14, 1865. He died the next morning. Source: infoplease.com

January 31 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief. February 22 - Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery. March 3 - The U.S. Congress authorizes formation of the Freedmen's Bureau. The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and intended to last for one year after the end of the war, to aid former slaves through education, health care, and employment March 4 - US President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for second term. Andrew Johnson becomes Vice President. March 13 - The Confederate States of America agrees to the use of African American troops. March 18 - The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time. April 9 - General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War. April 14 - President Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. by John Wilkes Booth.

Events of 1865:

Important Issues:
"The cornerstone of the Confederacy"
The coexistence of a slave-owning South with an increasingly anti-slavery, Southern fears of losing control of the federal government to antislavery forces, and Northern fears that the slave power already controlled the government, brought the crisis to a head in the late 1850s. In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's declaration of secession from the Union. By February 1861, six more Southern states made similar declarations. Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion. -March 13, 1862, Lincoln forbade Union Army officers from returning fugitive slaves. -April 10, 1862, Congress declared that the federal government would compensate slave owners who freed their slaves. -June 19, 1862, Congress prohibited slavery in United States territories. A mass abolitionists rally in Chicago on September 7, 1862, demanded an immediate and universal emancipation of slaves.

SLAVERY

Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. The first one, issued September 22, 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The ten affected states were individually named in the second part. The Proclamation only gave Lincoln the legal basis to free the slaves in the areas of the South that were still in rebellion. Thus, it initially freed only some slaves already behind Union lines. However, the great majority of the 4 million slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, as Union armies moved South. The proclamation represented a shift in the war objectives of the Northreuniting the nation was no longer the only goal.

Charles Guiteau vs. President James Garfield

July 2, 1881
On July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield. After a circus-like trial in which he wildly castigated his attorneys and gave bizarre, impromptu speeches, a jury found him guilty in January of 1882. Later that year, he was executed publicly in Washington D.C. Born in 1841, beaten regularly by his father and often told he wanted too much in life, Guiteau had a difficult childhood. Inheriting the large sum of $1,000 in 1859, the eighteen year old tried education, but he flunked out of the University of Michigan. He squandered his inheritance with the Oneida Community, a utopian religious commune notorious for its open sexual views, and then was driven out from it as well after the commune's founder, John Humphrey Noyes, decided Guiteau was insane. Guiteau married and became a law clerk in Chicago. Cheating legal clients, skipping hotel bills, and abandoned by his wife, Guiteau took to another kind of fraud in the 1870s, traveling the country pretending to be a religious revivalist speaker. After the election of Garfield in 1881, Guiteau plunged deeper into delusion. Convinced of his own greatness, he believed the ragged speeches he gave for Garfield would lead to a post in the new administration. Guiteau took to writing the president and his staff, staying around the White House, and beseeching anyone who would listen that he should become the consul general to Vienna. He even sneaked into a presidential reception, getting close to the First Lady. Ignored and humiliated, Guiteau was nearing mental collapse. He wrote a threatening letter to Garfield that summer, warning of dire consequences. On July 2, as the president entered a train station next to Capitol Hill, Guiteau shot Garfield in the back. Two months of 19th century medical quackery soon finished off the president, who died in unsanitary conditions on September 19, 1881. Guiteau, meanwhile, declared that God had selected him as an assassin. Both the public and the press overwhelmingly clamored for his execution. Some criticism also fell on opponents of Garfield, such as the powerful New York politician Roscoe Conkling, whose heated rhetoric was blamed for motivating Guiteau. With luminaries gathering to watch, Guiteau's trial began on November 14. His plea was not guilty by reason of insanity, but the egomaniacal defendant did everything possible to undermine his own case. Deriding his attorneys in court, he objected whenever they portrayed him as incompetent or ill. He lectured the courtroom, proclaimed his own rising fortunes, and otherwise raved. The jury, deliberating less than an hour, pronounced him guilty. Reciting a long religious poem before his execution on June 30, 1882, Guiteau was hanged before a cheering crowd.
Source: "Charles Guiteau." World of Criminal Justice. 2 vols. Gale Group, 2002.

James Garfield was the 20th President of the United States. Born on a frontier farm in Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, he spent his early years in poverty. As a youth he worked as farmer, carpenter, and canal boatman. After graduation (1856) from Williams College, he became a teacher of ancient languages and literature at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute at Hiram, Ohio (the name was later changed, largely through his influence, to Hiram Institute), and later (185761) was its principal. He was also a lay preacher of the Disciples of Christ, was admitted (1859) to the bar, and was elected an antislavery state senator. During the Civil War he served in the Union army and was a major general of volunteers when he resigned (1863) to take his seat as Representative in Congress. He was a regular Republican, unhesitatingly following his party's postwar program of radical Reconstruction and later of hard-money deflationism and opposition to civil service reform. On the tariff issue he was evasive. Garfield was prominent in the settlement of the disputed election of 1876 (in which Rutherford B. Hayes was finally adjudged the winner), but in 1880 he was still only moderately well known nationally. He was campaign manager for John Sherman in the Republican convention but on the 36th ballot was himself chosen as compromise candidate for President. Former President Grant, who had wanted the nomination, and his supporter, Roscoe Conkling, gave Garfield only formal aid in the electionand allegedly even that was conditioned on a promise of a share in the President's political favors. After Garfield had defeated W. S. Hancock and was President, he passed over Conkling's Stalwarts in his appointments and appointed James G. Blaine, Conkling's political enemy, Secretary of State. War was thus declared between the President and the most important faction of the Republican party. Garfield won the first round of the fight, getting his appointee for the New York port collectorship approved over Conkling's objections. He began prosecution of the star route postal frauds. Constantly harassed by office seekers, President Garfield met his death through one of them. On July 2, 1881, he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau. On Sept. 19 he died, and Chester A. Arthur succeeded to the presidency. Garfield was a brilliant orator and an able, knowing, and charming man. He had shown little originality or force in his 17 years as Congressman, and his early death prevented him from showing whether or not he might have demonstrated statesmanship as President. Source: infoplease.com

Events of 1881:
February 19 - Kansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. May 21 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton. March 28 - Greatest Show On Earth was formed by PT Barnum and James A Bailey July 2 - James Abram Garfield, President of the United States is shot by lawyer Charles Julius Guiteau. He survives the assassination attempt but he suffers from infection of his wound September 19 - US President James A. Garfield dies. Vice President Chester Alan Arthur becomes the 21st President of the United States

Life in the 1880s

The age was marked with practical inventions that impacted everyday life kerosene, the light bulb, the tin can, breakfast cereal and others. The population changed from producers to one of consumer of mass-marketed products churned out at far away factories and marketed through new mail order catalogs. Farm production changed with the introduction of machines capable of plowing, planting and reaping thousands of times more than human labor could ever accomplish. More and more acres west of the Mississippi River came into large-scale production and farming elsewhere became more specialized and commercial. As railroads spread, so did the availability of goods massed produced in urban factories. Refrigerated rail cars, first patented in 1868, brought heretofore-unavailable produce, like oranges, to remote corners of the country. Purchases that once occurred by bargaining with local shopkeepers were now transacted through mail order catalogs. Department stores, mail order catalogs and the 5 and 10 cent stores delighted the city residents, while rural families relied on the Montgomery Ward and The Sears catalogs to keep them abreast on the latest conveniences, machinery, and fashion.

Leon Czolgosz vs. President William McKinley

September 6, 1901
Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist who shot and killed William McKinley, the twenty-fifth president of the United States. Czolgosz, who had emigrated from Poland, believed that McKinley was an enemy of working people. His action put Theodore Roosevelt in the White House, and it also highlighted the ominously violent image of anarchism. The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of rapid societal changes. Anarchism, the belief that people should not be ruled by organized government, caught on among the poor and the working class. Some anarchists advocated more radical views than others, and Czolgosz belonged to this camp. The son of Polish immigrants, Czolgosz grew up in poverty, and he grew into a bitter adult. (During his trial he made no secret of his hatred for the United States.) He eventually settled in the New York town of West Seneca. There he quickly established a reputation as a dangerous individual, one whom the police would need to watch closely. The secretive Czolgosz raised suspicion not only among the police but also among his fellow anarchists. He was considered untrustworthy, perhaps even a spay or an undercover policeman. Anarchist publications denounced Czolgosz and urged that he be shunned. None of this deterred Czolgosz, who continued to support anarchism and continued to project the same image that made him appear so unsavory. In 1901, the Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, not far from Czolgosz' home. When he found out that President McKinley would be there, he decided to murder the leader. On September 6, McKinley was greeting a crowd of people, one of whom was Czolgosz (who had his hand wrapped in a bandage as though he had been injured). As the President drew nearer to Czolgosz, the anarchist removed a pistol from under the bandage and fired twice. The first bullet was deflected, but the second lodged in McKinley's stomach. Nearby guards and soldiers grabbed Czolgosz, who did not resist but merely said, "I done my duty." McKinley did not die immediately; in fact, he lived another eight days. Modern physicians believe that it was gangrene from the bullet wound and not the bullet itself that killed the president. (Ironically, one of the inventions featured at the Exposition was a forerunner of the modern X-ray machine, but no one thought to use it to locate the bullet.) McKinley died on September 14, and Czolgosz was put on trial on September 23. He made no effort to defend himself; he refused to cooperate with his court-appointed lawyer and did not take the stand in his own behalf. He did say that he had been inspired to kill McKinley by the assassination of Italy's King Humbert I the previous year. He was sentenced to death and electrocuted at Auburn Prison, near Syracuse, New York on October 29. He pointedly said that he held no remorse for his deed. The role of the Secret Service as protector of the president and the president's family was prescribed by Roosevelt, who acted in light of the fact that three presidents had been assassinated in only 36 years. Source: "Leon Czolgosz." World of Criminal Justice. 2 vols. Gale Group, 2002.

Born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, McKinley lived for much of his childhood in Poland, Ohio. After the Civil war, he studied law at the Albany Law School before passing the Ohio bar examination and establishing a law office in Canton, Ohio. In January 1871, he married Ida Saxton, the daughter of a prominent Canton banker and businessman. Elected to the House of Representatives on the Republican ticket in 1876, McKinley served in Congress until 1891, after a Democratic gerrymandering of the Ohio House districts cost him the 1890 election. As a congressman, McKinley developed a reputation for favoring civil-service reform and a high tariff. Returning to Ohio, McKinley was elected governor in November 1891 and served in that office until January 1896. During the 1890s, as the issue of monetary reform became more and more crucial, McKinley appeared at first to favor increased silver coinage. In 1896, however, backed by millionaire Marcus Hanna, McKinley ran for president on a Republican platform that emphasized the gold standard and high protectionist tariffs, defeating free-silver Democrat William Jennings Bryan, who called for lowered tariffs. After McKinley took office on March 4, 1897, Congress passed the Dingley Act, once again raising tariffs, which had been lowered during the administration of McKinley's predecessor, Democrat Grover Cleveland. Although Cleveland had tried to maintain U.S. neutrality in the Cuban uprising against Spain, McKinley had won the election on a platform that endorsed Cuban independence, and he soon faced a mounting cry for U.S. military aid to the Cuban rebels. Forced into war with Spain by an upsurge of public sentiment after the explosion of the U.S. warship Maine in Havana harbor on 15 February 1898, the United States emerged from that brief conflict with new possessions in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The issue of how the United States should administer these territories immediately gripped the country, with Democrats and many reform-minded Republicans advocating independence for all the territories and some expansionist Republicans advocating keeping them as U.S. possessions. McKinley's own views were a mix of the "imperialist" and "antiimperialist" positions and eventually became: independence for Cuba, with the United States maintaining the right to intervene in its internal affairs; U.S. control over the Philippines until it was deemed ready for self-government; and territory status for Guam, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Reelected in 1900 with the popular Theodore Roosevelt of New York as his vice president, McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz while visiting the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, almost exactly six months after his second inauguration. He died on September 14 and was succeeded by Vice President Roosevelt.
Source: "William McKinley." American Eras, Volume 8: Development of the Industrial United States, 1878-1899. Gale Research, 1997

Events of 1901:
January 1 - The world celebrates the beginning of the Twentieth Century. January 7 - Alfred Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism January 10 - In the first great Texas gusher, oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. March 2 - The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops March 4 - United States President William McKinley begins his 2nd term. Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as Vice President of the United States. May 3 - The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, FL May 17 - The U.S. stock market crashes for the first time. August 30 - Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner September 2 - U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick September 6 - American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies, eight days later.

Important Issues:
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
The 19th century was an era of widespread invention and discovery, with significant developments in the understanding or manipulation of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electricity, and metallurgy largely setting the ground works for the comparably overwhelming and very rapid technological innovations which would take place the following century. The century ended with economic prosperity and a recent victory in the Spanish-American War. The state of the country aided in McKinleys re-election in the 1900 presidential race between Republican President William McKinley and his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan, it was a rematch of the 1896 race.

PROGRESSIVISM
U.S. labor-management history has long been recognized as the most violent and bloody of any Western industrialized nation. There was urban poverty, poor working conditions, and high accident rates. The rich were getting richer faster than poor got richer. Big business consolidation increased and got bigger. American society was an inequality which allowed the wealthy to enrich themselves by exploiting the poor. Bankers became very important because they were able to float big loans. To protect investments, they wanted control of enterprises. They were not concerned with working conditions, etc. The middle class of the 1890s was angry at the ability of corporations to corrupt politics, charge outrageous prices for their products, sell shoddy and unsafe goods (especially food) and to avoid taxes by shifting them to average taxpayers. They wanted responsible corporations. Reform started with the exposure of evil. Muckrakers, journalists and novelists, conducted investigations and published their findings.

Guiseppe Zangara vs. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

February 15, 1933
In the history of political assassination, the case of Giuseppe Zangara ranks as one of the strangest. A naturalized Italian immigrant, the thirty-three year old Zangara tried to kill president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt at a speech in Miami in 1933. Zangara's poor aim spoiled his shot, and he instead wounded five others, including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who later died. In custody, Zangara proved an enigma. He offered the barest of explanations for the attack: he hated rich people and presidents, as they made his stomach hurt. His bizarre ramblings, refusal of legal defense, and swift execution made his attack a peculiar if tragic historical footnote. Much of what is known about Zangara was gleaned from his confession and a memoir that he hastily scribbled in prison before his death. Born in 1900 in the southern Italian province of Calabria, he apparently suffered a brutal childhood. Beatings from his father, starvation, and being sent to work at the age of six combined to give him chronic stomach aches. Immigrating to the United States, he settled in Miami and was in and out of work as a bricklayer when a lifelong animosity toward politicians and capitalists drove him to contemplate assassination. He first targeted President Herbert Hoover but gave up on the idea: the cold northern climate of Washington, D.C., upset his stomach. Upon learning that Roosevelt would be in Miami, Zangara made plans to kill him. On the night of February 15, 1933, Roosevelt was finishing his speech at a political rally in Miami's Bayfront Park. Speaking with a microphone from his car, he sat upon the top of the back seat. Providence intervened: Roosevelt slid off the top and back into his seat, and almost simultaneously, someone jogged Zangara's arm and further spoiled his aim. Holding an $8 handgun over the heads of spectators in front of him, the short assassin, standing on tiptoe, fired five shots blindly. Secret Service agents subdued Zangara with the crowd's help. Unharmed personally, Roosevelt cradled the bleeding Cermak on the ride to the hospital. After confessing to the crime, Zangara was found guilty of four counts of intent to kill. Zangara was quoted as saying, "I kill capitalists because they kill me," he explained in his broken English. "Stomach like drunk man. No point living. Give me electric chai" ("A Date Which Should Live in Irony," by Florence King, The American Spectator, February 1999). With the subsequent death of Cermak on March 6, the conviction was changed to murder. Zangara was sent to the electric chair on March 20, his last words a shrill cry for his jailers to push the button. In 1933, much speculation attended the killing. The media declared Zangara an anarchist, but the FBI investigation disagreed. Nor was there any evidence for the charge by the popular columnist Walter Winchell that the Mafia had hired Zangara to kill Cermak. Decades later, new insights emerged, along with the discovery and translation of Zangara's prison memoir, in the attorney Blaise Picchi's book, The Five Weeks of Giuseppe Zangara (1999), which argued that Cermak's death was due to malpractice that physicians later covered up.
Source: "Giuseppe Zangara." World of Criminal Justice. 2 vols. Gale Group, 2002.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, N.Y., on Jan. 30, 1882. A Harvard graduate, he attended Columbia Law School and was admitted to the New York bar. In 1910, he was elected to the New York State Senate as a Democrat. Reelected in 1912, he was appointed assistant secretary of the navy by Woodrow Wilson the next year. In 1920, his radiant personality and his war service resulted in his nomination for vice president as James M. Cox's running mate. After his defeat, he returned to law practice in New York. In Aug. 1921, Roosevelt was stricken with infantile paralysis while on vacation at Campobello, New Brunswick. After a long and gallant fight, he recovered partial use of his legs. In 1924 and 1928, he led the fight at the Democratic national conventions for the nomination of Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York, and in 1928 Roosevelt was himself induced to run for governor of New York. He was elected, and was reelected in 1930. In 1932, Roosevelt received the Democratic nomination for president and immediately launched a campaign that brought new spirit to a weary and discouraged nation. He defeated Hoover by a wide margin. His first term was characterized by an unfolding of the New Deal program, with greater benefits for labor, the farmers, and the unemployed, and the progressive estrangement of most of the business community. At an early stage, Roosevelt became aware of the menace to world peace posed by totalitarian fascism, and from 1937 on he tried to focus public attention on the trend of events in Europe and Asia. As a result, he was widely denounced as a warmonger. He was reelected in 1936 over Gov. Alfred M. Landon of Kansas by the overwhelming electoral margin of 523 to 8, and the gathering international crisis prompted him to run for an unprecedented third term in 1940. He defeated Wendell L. Willkie. Roosevelt's program to bring maximum aid to Britain and, after June 1941, to Russia was opposed, until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor restored national unity. During the war, Roosevelt shelved the New Deal in the interests of conciliating the business community, both in order to get full production during the war and to prepare the way for a united acceptance of the peace settlements after the war. A series of conferences with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin laid down the bases for the postwar world. In 1944 he was elected to a fourth term, running against Gov. Thomas E. Dewey of New York. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Ga., shortly after his return from the Yalta Conference. His wife, (Anna) Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he married in 1905, was a woman of great ability who made significant contributions to her husband's policies. Source: infoplease.com

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EVENTS OF 1932-1933:
May 29, 1932 - The first of approximately 15,000 World War I veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. demanding the immediate payment of their military bonus, becoming known as the Bonus Army. July 8, 1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22. July 28, 1932 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the U.S. Army to forcibly evict the Bonus Army of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.. Troops dispersed the last of the Bonus Army the next day September 18, 1932 - Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide jumping from the letter H of the (then) "Hollywoodland" sign November 8, 1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory. January 5, 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay. February 6, 1933 - The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect January 17, 1933 - US Congress votes favorably for Philippines independence, against the view of President Herbert Hoover. February 10, 1933 - The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram. February 15, 1933 - In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate Presidentelect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead fatally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The collapse of the US stock market in 1929 led to a worldwide economic depression, The Great Depression. For most of the nation, the "Black Tuesday", stock market crash October29 1929, marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, and deflation. The initial government response to the crisis exacerbated the situation; protectionist policies, rather than helping the economy, merely strangled global trade. Industries that suffered the most included agriculture, mining, and logging. Massive layoffs occurred, resulting in unemployment rates of over 25%. Number of unemployment became something between 13 and 15 million, hourly wages had dropped 60% since 1929. A Hooverville was the popular name for a shanty town, examples of which were found in many United States communities during the Great Depression of the 1930s.These settlements were often formed in unpleasant neighborhoods or desolate areas and consisted of dozens or hundreds of shacks and tents that were temporary residences of those left unemployed and homeless by the Depression. People slept in anything from open piano crates to the ground. March 3 1933, President Herbert Hoovers last day of President, the banking system of the U.S had completely collapsed. A spark of hope came in the 1932 election, with Franklin Delano Roosevelts promise of major political change with his New Deal. FDR primarily blamed the excesses of big business for causing an unstable bubble-like economy. Democrats believed the problem was that business had too much power. FDR beats Hover in the presidential race with a landslide victory.

Lee Harvey Oswald vs. President John F. Kennedy

November 22, 1963
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939. His father, Robert E. Lee Oswald, died two months before Oswald was born. His mother, Marguerite Claverie, moved around so much that Oswald had attended six schools by the age of ten. He had a reading disability and--partly on account of this difficulty--he was a poor student and often truant. His mother was over-protective and defended Oswald's despondent and often violent nature. In 1952 he was sent to the New York City Youth House for truancy and was assessed as needing psychiatric care. Released on probation at sixteen, he was supposed to seek the counseling of the Big Brothers organization. He ignored the requirement. At the age of seventeen, Oswald joined the Marines, though he had not yet graduated from high school. During his training he qualified as a sharpshooter, the second highest rating. His shooting skills later fell to the lowest rating of marksman. He was teased by fellow enlistees for being a loner. Twice he was sentenced to hard labor and loss of pay for offenses such as using profanity and failing to register a fire arm. Using a gun he mail-order purchased, he wounded himself, for which he was demoted to a private. He studied the Russian language and read Communist literature while stationed in Japan. He never achieved any rank higher than private first class. In order to care for his ailing mother, he received a hardship discharge on September 11, 1959. He stayed with her in Fort Worth, Texas, for only a week, however, before leaving for Europe. After visiting several countries, he ended up in Moscow at the American embassy where he turned in his passport and renounced his American citizenship. However, he left before completing the paperwork. The Soviet government, considering him a stateless person, sent him to Minsk. There he met Marina Alexandrovna Medvedeva and married her on April 30, 1961. After the birth of their daughter they returned to the United States, settling in Fort Worth in June of 1962. Oswald's behavior became unpredictable. He often fought and separated from his wife for short periods of time. He attempted the assassination of General Edwin Walker in April of 1963, though ballistic evidence did not tie him to this failed attempt until after the Kennedy assassination. He also unsuccessfully attempted to return to Moscow via Cuba in September of 1963. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tried to question him about this incident. To avoid FBI officers, he moved to Dallas and used an alias O. H. Lee. Marina's friend got Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository. His second daughter was born shortly afterward. On November 22, 1963, Oswald took a rifle wrapped in brown paper with him to work. During the presidential procession, he fired the rifle from a sixth-floor window, shooting and killing President John F. Kennedy and wounding Governor John B. Connally. Fleeing the building, Oswald was apprehended by police at the Texas Theater. On November 24, 1963, as Oswald was being transported to Dallas County Jail, Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, shot and killed Oswald. Allegations that Oswald was not working alone or that President Kennedy's assassination was part of a government conspiracy were investigated by the Warren Commission, established to delve into the shooting. The Warren Commission found Oswald to have been working alone and concluded he did indeed fire the shots that killed Kennedy and wounded Connally. Theories that Oswald was working with others and Ruby killed him to silence him have proved inconclusive, as have government conspiracy theories. Both theories, however, continue to be pursued by some.
Source: "Lee Harvey Oswald." Biography Resource Center Online. Gale Group, 1999

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 29, 1917. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was ambassador to Great Britain from 1937 to 1940. Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940 and joined the navy the next year. He became skipper of a PT boat that was sunk in the Pacific by a Japanese destroyer. Although given up for lost, he swam to a safe island, towing an injured enlisted man. After recovering from a war-aggravated spinal injury, Kennedy entered politics in 1946 and was elected to Congress. In 1952, he ran against Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of Massachusetts, and won. Kennedy was married on Sept. 12, 1953, to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, by whom he had three children: Caroline, John Fitzgerald, Jr. (died in a 1999 plane crash), and Patrick Bouvier (died in infancy). In 1957 Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for a book he had written earlier, Profiles in Courage. After strenuous primary battles, Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination on the first ballot at the 1960 Los Angeles convention. With a plurality of only 118,574 votes, he carried the election over Vice President Richard M. Nixon and became the first Roman Catholic president. Kennedy brought to the White House the dynamic idea of a New Frontier approach in dealing with problems at home, abroad, and in the dimensions of space. Out of his leadership in his first few months in office came the 10-year Alliance for Progress to aid Latin America, the Peace Corps, and accelerated programs that brought the first Americans into orbit in the race in space. Failure of the U.S.-supported Cuban invasion in April 1961 led to the entrenchment of the Communist-backed Castro regime, only 90 mi from United States soil. When it became known that Soviet offensive missiles were being installed in Cuba in 1962, Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of the island and moved troops into position to eliminate this threat to U.S. security. The world seemed on the brink of a nuclear war until Soviet premier Khrushchev ordered the removal of the missiles. In his domestic policies, Kennedy's proposals for medical care for the aged and aid to education were defeated, but on minimum wage, trade legislation, and other measures he won important victories. Widespread racial disorders and demonstrations led to Kennedy's proposing sweeping civil rights legislation. As his third year in office drew to a close, he also recommended an $11-billion tax cut to bolster the economy. Both measures were pending in Congress when Kennedy, looking forward to a second term, journeyed to Texas for a series of speeches. While riding in an automobile procession in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, he was shot to death by an assassin firing from an upper floor of a building. The alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed two days later in the Dallas city jail by Jack Ruby, owner of a strip-tease club. At 46 years of age, Kennedy became the fourth president to be assassinated and the eighth to die in office.
Source: infoplease.com

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Events of 1963:
January 28 - Black student Harvey Gantt enters Clemson University in South Carolina, the last U.S. state to hold out against racial integration. February 8 - Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy Administration. March 18 - Gideon v. Wainwright: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the poor must have lawyers April 16 - Martin Luther King, Jr. issues his "Letter from Birmingham Jail". May 2 - Thousands are arrested, many of them children, while protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Sheriff Eugene "Bull" Connor later unleashes fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators June 11 - President Kennedy makes a historic civil rights speech, in which he promises a Civil Rights Bill, and asks for "the kind of equality of treatment that we would want for ourselves." June 17 - Abington School District v. Schempp: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state-mandated Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional. August 28 - Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. September 15 - The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, kills 4 and injures 22. November 22 - In Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes the 36th President.

Important Issues:
AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (19551968)
The reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in Southern states. During the period 1955-1968, acts of civil disobedience produced crisis situations between protesters and government authorities. The authorities of federal, state, and local governments often had to respond immediately to crisis situations which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of civil disobedience included boycotts, beginning with the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-inin North Carolina; and marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama. Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional Europeans; and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cold War. The climax period of the crisis began on October 15, 1962, when United States reconnaissance photographs taken by an American U-2 spy plane revealed missile bases being built in Cuba, and ended two weeks later on October 28, 1962, when US President John F. Kennedy and UN Secretary-General U Thant reached an agreement with the Soviets to dismantle the missiles in Cuba in exchange for a no invasion agreement and a secret removal of the Jupiter and Thor missiles in Turkey.

Sam Byck vs. President Richard Nixon

July 2, 1881
All I want for Christmas is my constitutional right to publicly petition my government for a redress of grievances. Samuel J. Byck Samuel Byck was born on January 30, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were quite poor and he dropped out of high school. In 1954, he joined the United States Army for two years and was discharge in 1956. After the army he married a woman and fathered four children. He also tried to start several businesses, but all ultimately failed, causing him to develop a severe case of depression. When he tried to get a loan from the Small Business Administration to start a new business, he was turned down and developed a strong hatred for Richard Nixon. In 1972, he admitted himself at a psychiatric clinic, where he revealed his ideas that the government conspired to oppress the poor in the United States. That same year, he started sending out audio tapes of himself threatening Richard Nixon to public officials and the Secret Service was notified, but considered him generally harmless. In 1973, he began developing a plot to kill Richard Nixon. His idea was to hijack an airplane and crash it into the White House. He decided to enact his plan in early 1974. The first step was to get a weapon to allow him to perform the hijacking. He decided to steal a .22 caliber pistol from a friend and also made a bomb using two gallons of gasoline. He also recorded himself talking about his plans, stating that he believed he would be a hero after the assassination. On the morning of February 22, 1974, he drove to the Baltimore International Airport with intent to hijack a plane. He was stopped by George Ramsburg, a security officer at the airport, but ended up shooting him to continue on his way. He ran through the airport and boarded a Flight 523 to Atlanta aboard a DC-9. On the plane, he went to the cabin and ordered the pilots to take off, but they refused and stated that the wheel blocks had to be removed before the plane could leave. In a fit of rage, he shot both pilots and ordered a random passenger to fly the plane at gunpoint. In the meantime, police officers managed to board the plane and fired shots through the door, injuring Byck. As the police attempted to enter the cabin, he shot himself in the head. Paramedics managed to save the pilot of the flight, but the copilot died from the gunshot wounds. It was not difficult for the police to determine his motives since Byck had mailed a tape recording of his plan to a news columnist, Jack Anderson, prior to the attempted hijacking. In this tape, he is quoted saying, I will try to get the plane aloft and fly it toward the target area, which will be Washington, D.C. I will shoot the pilot and then in the last few minutes try to steer the plane into the target, which is the White House.
Sources: http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=602 http://www.moviecitynews.com/arrays/2005/assassinaiton_byck.html

When Richard Nixon was elected US President in 1969, President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated and the American public were increasingly mutinous as they watched more and more of their sons return from Vietnam in coffins. The nations foreign policy was discredited and the peoples confidence shattered. Nixons achievement was reconciliation, his failing the Watergate scandal. Born to a working class family in California, Nixon studied his way through the public school system. He excelled at Whittier College and Duke University Law School. In 1937, he was admitted to the bar and started to practice law in California. Throughout his career Nixon was simultaneously proud and sensitive about his working class roots. Nixon went to sea during World War II, serving predominantly in the Pacific and rising through the ranks to become lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. Back from battle, the lawyer joined the Republican Party and was elected to Congress. He resigned in 1950, to fight and win a seat in the Senate. Two years later, at the age of 39, General Eisenhower chose Nixon as his running mate. They won. Nixon was then re-elected Vice President for a second term. In 1960, he fought for the top slot of President on a Republican ticket, and lost narrowly to JFK. Though a competent administrator, Nixon lacked the good looks and rhetorical skills needed to inspire the American public, and beat Kennedy. Back working as a lawyer, Nixon fought for the Governorship of California in 1962 - yet again the public rejected him. His political career appeared to be finished. Through his famous bullish determination, Nixon clawed his way back, finally taking control of the White House in 1969, elected by a jaded public needing to trust a straight talking man. A president searching for world peace, Nixons achievements abroad were outstanding. In 1972, he went to Moscow, signing a treaty with Brezhnev to limit strategic nuclear weapons. The next year, he announced the end of American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated a truce between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria. At home, Nixons second administration was a disaster and, within a few months of his election in 1972, the Watergate scandal began to erode his landslide victory. Accused of covering up the bugging of the Democratic National Committee offices during the 1972 campaign, and forced to give up tapes that indicated his guilt, Nixon was faced with almost certain impeachment in summer 1974. He resigned on 9th August. Gerald Ford, who was named the next President, pardoned Nixon and others involved. In his later years, Nixon was a respected elder statesman and wrote several books on his political experiences and US foreign policy. Nixon suffered a stroke on April 18th, 1994 and died four days later at the age of 81.
Source: www.thebiographychannel.co.uk

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EVENTS OF 1974:
January 4 - Citing executive privilege, U.S. President Richard Nixon refuses to surrender 500 tapes and documents which have been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee January 4 - Joni Lenz is attacked in her bedroom by serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington. January 6 - In response to the energy crisis, Daylight Saving Time commences nearly 4 months early in the United States January 30 - In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Richard Nixon declares, "One year of Watergate is enough." February 22 - Samuel J Byck attempts to hijack a plane flying out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport intending to crash into the White House in hopes of killing U.S. President Richard Nixon. March 1 - Seven former White House officials are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. May 9 - The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon. July 24 - The United States Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon cannot withhold subpoenaed White House tapes, and orders him to surrender them to the Watergate special prosecutor July 27-July 30 - The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee adopts 3 articles of impeachment charging President Richard M. Nixon with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee. August 9 - Richard M. Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, Vice President Gerald R. Ford becomes the 38th President, September 8 - U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

THE WATERGATE SCANDAL

The scandals began on June 17, 1972 with five men being arrested after breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington, D.C. Investigations conducted initially by the FBI, and then later by the Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee. The press revealed that this burglary was just one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon's staff and those loyal to him. They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations. This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in. Nixon and his staff conspired to cover up the break-in as early as six days after it occurred.

Lynette Squeaky Fromme vs. President Gerald Ford

September 6, 1975
A woman whose life came to symbolize the dark side of the tumultuous 1960s in America, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme went from a child of middle-class parents in California to an unsuccessful assassin of President Gerald Ford, in between becoming a loyal follower of Charles Manson. Fromme was born in Santa Monica, California on October 22, 1948 to Helen and William Fromme. Her mother was a homemaker and her father worked as an aeronautical engineer. Lynette was one of the star performers in a children's dance troop called the Westchester Lariats, who performed around the country and appeared on the Lawrence Welk show and at the White House. During Lyn's high school years, her home life was miserable. Her tyrannical father often berated her for minor things and she became rebellious and began drinking and taking drugs. After a ferocious argument with her father over the definition of a word, Lyn packed her bags and left home for the final time. She ended up at Venice Beach where she soon met Charlie Manson. The two talked at length and Lyn found Charlie captivating as he spoke of his beliefs and his feelings about life. The intellectual connection between the two was strong and when Manson invited Lyn to join him and Mary Brunner to travel the country, Lyn quickly agreed. As the Manson family grew, Lyn seemed to hold an elite spot in the Manson hierarchy. When the family moved onto the Spahn ranch, Charlie assigned Lyn to the job of caring for 80-year-old, George Spahn who was blind and also the caretaker of the property. Lyn's name eventually changed to "Squeaky" because of the sound she would make when George Spahn would run his fingers up her legs. Although she eventually rose to be Manson's most trusted associate, Fromme played no part in the infamous Tate-LoBianco murders in 1969, when members of Manson's hand picked "family" murdered seven people in a three-day killing spree. She served as the family's spokesperson throughout the trial that followed, camped in front of the Los Angeles courthouse. Manson recruited girls as nuns for his new religion called the Order of the Rainbow. As nuns, Squeaky was forbidden to have sex, watch violent movies, or smoke and was required to dress in long hooded robes. Manson renamed Squeaky "Red" and her job was to save the Redwoods. "Red" was committed to making Manson proud of her environmental work, and when she found out that President Gerald Ford was coming to town, she stuck a .45 Colt automatic into a leg holster and headed out to Capital Park. As Ford came through the crowd, Fromme pointed the gun at Ford and was immediately taken down by the Secret Service. She was charged for attempting to assassinate the President, although it was later disclosed that the gun she carried did not have bullets in the firing chamber. As was the Manson way, Fromme represented herself at her trial but refused to present testimony that was relevant to the case and instead used it as a platform to speak about the environment. Judge Thomas McBride ultimately removed her from the courtroom. At the end of the trial, Fromme hurled an apple at U.S. Attorney Dwayne Keyes head because he had not turned over exculpatory evidence. Lynette Fromme was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Fromme's prison days have not been without incident. At a prison in Pleasanton, California, she brought the claw end of a hammer down on the head of Julienne Busic, a Croatian Nationalist who was imprisoned for her involvement in a 1976 airline hijacking. In December 1987, she escaped from prison in order to see Manson who she heard was dying of cancer. She was quickly caught and returned to prison. Currently Fromme is at the Federal Medical Center Carswell, near Fort Worth, Texas. She has remained a devoted follower of Charlie Manson.
Sources: Squeaky Fromme." World of Criminal Justice.2 vols. Gale Group, 2002 http://crime.about.com/od/murder/p/squeaky.htm

Gerald Rudolph Ford was born Leslie King Jr. in Omaha, Neb., on July 14, 1913, the only child of Leslie and Dorothy Gardner King. His parents were divorced in 1915. His mother moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., and married Gerald R. Ford. The boy was renamed for his stepfather. Ford received a football scholarship from University of Michigan, where he starred as varsity center before his graduation in 1935. He then attended Yale Law School, from which he graduated in the top third of his class in 1941. He returned to Grand Rapids to practice law, but entered the Navy in April 1942. He saw wartime service in the Pacific on the light aircraft carrier Monterey and was a lieutenant commander when he returned to Grand Rapids early in 1946 to resume law practice and dabble in politics. Ford was elected to Congress in 1948 for the first of his 13 terms in the House. He was soon assigned to the influential Appropriations Committee and rose to become the ranking Republican on the subcommittee on Defense Department appropriations. As a legislator, Ford described himself as a moderate on domestic issues, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist. He carried the ball for Pentagon appropriations, was a hawk on the war in Vietnam, and kept a low profile on civil-rights issues. In 1963, he was elected chairman of the House Republican Conference. He served in 19631964 as a member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A revolt by dissatisfied younger Republicans in 1965 made him minority leader. On Oct. 12, 1973, Nixon nominated Ford to fill the vice presidency left vacant by Agnew's resignation under fire. It was the first use of the procedures for filling vacancies in the vice presidency laid down in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which Ford had helped enact. Once in office, he said he did not believe Nixon had been involved in the Watergate scandals, but he criticized Nixon's stubborn court battle against releasing tape recordings of Watergate-related conversations for use as evidence. The scandals led to Nixon's unprecedented resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and Ford was sworn in immediately as the 38th president, the first to enter the White House without winning a national election. Ford assured the nation when he took office that our long national nightmare is over and pledged openness and candor in all his actions. He won a warm response from the Democratic 93rd Congress when he said he wanted a good marriage rather than a honeymoon with his former colleagues. In Dec. 1974 congressional majorities backed his choice of former New York governor Nelson A. Rockefeller as his vice president. The cordiality was chilled by Ford's announcement on Sept. 8, 1974, that he had granted an unconditional pardon to Nixon for any crimes he might have committed as president. Although no formal charges were pending, Ford said he feared ugly passions would be aroused if Nixon were brought to trial. The pardon was widely criticized. To fight inflation, the new president first proposed fiscal restraints and spending curbs and a 5% tax surcharge that got nowhere in the Senate and House. Congress again rebuffed Ford in the spring of 1975 when he appealed for emergency military aid to help the governments of South Vietnam and Cambodia resist massive Communist offensives. Politically, Ford's faced some right-wing opposition in his own party, but made an early announcement of his intention to be a candidate in 1976. During the election campaign, Ford was regarded as a caretaker president lacking in strength and vision. He was defeated in November by Jimmy Carter. In 1948, Ford married Elizabeth Anne (Betty) Bloomer. They had four children, Michael Gerald, John Gardner, Steven Meigs, and Susan Elizabeth. He died on Dec. 26, 2006, at age 93. Sources: infoplease.com

Sara Jane Moore vs. President Gerald Ford

September 22, 1975
Unsuccessfully married five times, mother of four children, Sarah Jane Moore was the picture of mental instability. Moore entered and dropped out of nursing school, joined the Women's Army Corps, then became a CPA. At age 42, Sara abandoned marriage and career to immerse herself in counter-culture lifestyle and revolutionary politics of the day. Soon after going underground, she was recruited by th FBI to gain information on the Patty Hearst kidnapping. It became known that she was an FBI spy, and her radical friends turned against her. Seeking to re-connect with them, she attempted to shoot President Gerald Ford with a .38 Smith and Wesson on September 22, 1975 (17 days after "Squeaky" Fromme's attempt) as he left the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Ford was saved by a bystander, Oliver Sipple, who grabbed Moore's arm when he saw the gun, causing the bullet to ricochet off a wall and wound a cab driver. Prior to the attack, Sarah Jane Moore wrote the following poem: "Hold-Hold, still my hand. Steady my eye, chill my heart, And let my gun sing for the people. Scream their anger, cleanse with their hate, And kill this monster." Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to attempted Presidential assassination, and was also sentenced to life in prison. After 30 year of good behavior, Moore was released from prison on December 31, 2007. Moore famously stated, "There comes a point when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a gun." Source: http://www.geocities.com/proprioter/y_moore.html

EVENTS OF 1975:
January 1 - John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up. April 4 - Bill Gates founds Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico April 30 - The Fall of Saigon: The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon, resulting in mass evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese. As the capital is taken, South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally August 5 - President Ford posthumously pardons Robert E. Lee, restoring full rights of citizenship. September 5 - In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford. September 22 - U.S. President Gerald Ford survives a second assassination attempt, this time by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco.

VIETNAM WAR
The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam, beginning with military advisory missions in the early 1960s and escalating to full warfare with the deployment of combat units from 1965 onward. By 1973, almost all U.S. troops had and in 1975, communist forces assumed control of South Vietnam. North and South Vietnam were reunified shortly thereafter. The war, and the failure of the United States to achieve its objective, had a major impact on U.S. politics, culture and foreign relations. Americans were deeply divided over the U.S. governments justification for, and conduct of the war. Opposition to the war formed the basis for the counterculture youth movement of the 1960s. The war exacted a huge human cost as well. In addition to approximately 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed, 3 to 4 million Vietnamese from both sides, and 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians lost their lives.

John Hinckley Jr. vs. President Ronald Reagan

March 30, 1981
A would-be presidential assassin, John Hinckley was a prime example for critics of criminal justice system leniency when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity for his attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Hinckley was born in 1955, the son of a prosperous oilman in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Despite a privileged background, Hinckley was a loner by the time he got to high school and left home in 1976 to make his fortune as a songwriter. While drifting from town to town, he became obsessed with the movie Taxi Driver and one of its stars, Jodie Foster. In the movie, a man played by Robert De Niro attempts to assassinate a senator to impress Foster's character. Hinckley was arrested in 1979 for possession of firearms at the Nashville airport after following President Jimmy Carter to a campaign stop. He was under psychiatric care for a brief period then began to stalk Foster all over the country. Determined to get her attention, on March 30, 1981, Hinckley fired six bullets at Reagan, hitting him, a police officer, a secret service agent, and presidential press secretary James Brady. He was immediately arrested. Hinckley's 1982 trial ended with a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict, sparking nationwide outrage. Several states passed legislation limiting use of the insanity verdict after this case. Hinckley was confined to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. after his trial. On November 26, 2003, after four days of testimony, a federal hearing to determine whether Hinckley's mental condition was improved enough to permit him unsupervised visits with his parents concluded without a ruling. He maintained his mental health has improved since he tried to kill President Reagan in 1981 and on occasion has been granted permission to make short visits outside of his facility to stay with his parents.
Source: "John Warnock Hinckley, Jr." World of Criminal Justice. 2 vols. Gale Group, 2002.
Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, on February 6, 1911. He was raised in several towns in northern Illinois and graduated from Eureka College in 1932. After graduating, he began working in Davenport, Iowa as a radio sports announcer. Reagan had a respectable acting career, appearing in such movies as Brother Rat (1938), Dark Victory (1939), and Kings Row (1941). His most notable film was made in 1940, Knute Rockne--All American, in which he portrayed football legend George Gipp. After Word War II, he found himself becoming extensively involved in politics. During his early political years, Reagan was an active member of several liberal organizations, including the Americans for Democratic Action. Eventually he began to grow fearful of communist subversion and his political attitudes made a turn to the right. In 1947 he testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee regarding the influence the communists had in the movie industry. It was also during this period that he shifted from being a liberal and a Democrat to a conservative Republican. After holding many leadership roles, Reagan successfully ran for governor of California against Democratic incumbent Edmund G. Brown. In 1976 he made his first serious run for the U.S. presidency. His long-fought campaign against Gerald Ford was a lost battle and the Republican nomination went to Ford. Reagan was not deterred, and in 1980 he easily won his party's nomination and defeated the Democratic incumbent, Jimmy Carter, for the presidency. Reagan's presidency was filled with substantial tax cuts. He reduced spending on domestic programs, increased military expenditures, and doubled the national debt. His moves are credited with decreasing the inflation rate, which had seen rapid growth in the 1970s, down to 3.5 percent during his tenure. On March 30, 1981, a 25year old named John Hinckley shot Reagan. His wounds were serious, but he recovered and the stories of his good humor while in the hospital added to his popularity. In 1986 it was learned that the Reagan administration had participated in the shipping of arms to the radical Islamic fundamentalist government of Iran. This was apparently an effort to gain the release of American hostages who were being held by Iranian terrorists in Beirut, Lebanon. During investigations it became clear that high-ranking officials in the National Security Council, an agency that advises the president, had covertly moved money from the Iranian arms deals to aid the U.S.-supported insurrectionists against the (Marxist) Sandinista government in Nicaragua. While others resigned or were prosecuted for their involvement, Reagan himself was left relatively unscathed by the scandal. Reagan's foreign affairs policies may be the legacy which will stand the test of time. During Reagan's tenure he pushed for the largest peacetime military buildup in American history. In 1983 he unveiled a proposal for the Strategic Defense Initiative. His strong military build up lead to the 1988 summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev where they signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) limiting the use of intermediate-range nuclear weapons. Arguably, this marked the beginning of the end of communist Russia. Many credit Reagan's policies with the end of communism in Europe and its reduction as a political alternative in much of the world. Reagan retired to Santa Monica, California, with his second wife Nancy Davis Reagan. His last public act was to have President William Clinton inform the country of his Alzheimer's Disease. Reagan died on June 5, 2004, at his home in Los Angeles, California, of pneumonia. He was 93.
Source: Ronald Wilson Reagan." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Gale Group, 1999.

21

Events of 1980-1981:
November 4, 1980 - former Governor Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory, exactly 1 year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis. November 10, 1980 - The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth. November 21, 1980 - A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada kills 85 people December 8, 1980 - Former Beatle John Lennon dies in hospital after being shot outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan who had received his signature earlier in the day January 19, 1981 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity. January 20, 1981 - Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter, becoming the 40th President of the United States. Minutes later, Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days, ending the Iran hostage crisis. February 10, 1981 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills 8 and injures 198. March 6, 1981 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time. March 19, 1981 - Three workers are killed and 5 injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia. March 30, 1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.

IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 U.S. diplomats were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of students took over the American embassy in support of Iran's revolution. In Iran, the incident was seen by many as a blow against U.S. influence in Iran and its support of the recently fallen Shah of Iran. In the United States, the hostage-taking was widely seen as an outrage violating a centuries-old principle of international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic compounds sovereignty in the territory of the host country they occupy The crisis ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in. The crisis is seen politically as the primary reason for President Jimmy Carter's defeat in the 1980 presidential election. In Iran, the crisis is thought to have strengthened the prestige of the Ayatollah Khomeini and consolidated the political hold of radical anti-American forces who supported the hostage taking. The crisis also marked the beginning of American legal action, or sanctions, that economically separated Iran from America. Sanctions blocked all property within U.S. jurisdiction owned by the Central Bank and Government of Iran.

Assassins Vocabulary List

Anarchist - a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed. Artie Bremer - the son of a Milwaukee truck driver, shot U.S. Democratic presidential candidate George Corley Wallace on May 15, 1972 in Laurel, Maryland, leaving him paralyzed for life. Balladeer - A singer of ballads Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D. C. - was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's main rail line from Baltimore, Maryland southwest to Washington, DC. The original Washington station was on the National Mall, at the present location of the National Gallery of Art, at the southwest corner of Sixth Street NW and Constitution Avenue. Bayfront Park - is a major public, urban park in Downtown Miami, Florida. The park began construction in 1924 under the design plans of Warren Henry Manning and officially opened in mid-1925. In 1933, this was the setting of Giuseppe Zangaras assassination attempt of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Capitalists - Person who believes in an economic system where trade and industry are controlled by private owners and for profit. Charlie Manson - an American criminal who led the "Manson Family," a quasi-commune that arose in the U.S. state of California in the later 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders, which members of the group carried out at his instruction. Through the joint-responsibility rule of conspiracy, he was convicted of the murders themselves. Lynette Squeaky Fromme was one of his most devoted followers. Coquette - a woman who flirts lightheartedly with men to win their admiration and affection; flirt. Cossacks - Member of those Russians who sought a free life in the steppes or on the frontiers of imperial Russia and were allowed privileges by the Tsars, including autonomy for their settlements in southern Russia and Siberia in return for service in protecting the frontiers. Defect - To abandon ones country or cause in favor of another. Lee Harvey Oswald defected to the Soviet Union soon after ending his stint with the marines.

Emma Goldman played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in the United States and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Leon Czolgosz had interacted with her on a few occasions, which led to her being questioned by the police after the assassination of President William McKinley. Evangelist - A bringer of the glad tidings of Church and his doctrines. Specially a missionary preacher sent forth to prepare the way for a resident pastor; an itinerant missionary preacher; A traveling preacher whose efforts are chiefly directed to arouse to immediate repentance. Hail to the Chief - is the official anthem of the President of the United States. The song, written by Sir Walter Scott and James Sanderson, accompanies the President at almost every public appearance. The U.S. Department of Defense made "Hail to the Chief" the official music to announce the President of the United States in 1954. Helter Skelter A song by The Beatles: The murders perpetrated by members of Charles Manson's "Family" were inspired in part by Manson's prediction of Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites. Indictment - a formal accusation initiating a criminal case, presented by a grand jury and usually required for felonies and other serious crimes. Iver Johnson - a U.S. firearms, bicycle, and motorcycle manufacturer from 1871 to 1993. Leon Czolgosz used an Iver Johnson gun to assassinate William McKinley in 1901. James Earl Ray - was convicted of the assassination of American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which occurred on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Ray had been placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list twice. KGB - (Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty) KGB was official name of the umbrella organization serving as the Soviet Union's premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991. Leonard Bernstein - was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He is perhaps best known for his long conducting relationship with the New York Philharmonic, which included the acclaimed Young People's Concerts series, and his compositions including West Side Story, Candide, and On the Town. Limbo - According to Roman Catholic theology, a place barred from heaven because of not having received Christian baptism. A place or state of restraint or confinement...A place or state of neglect or oblivion <proposals kept in limbo. An intermediate or transitional place or stateA state of uncertainty.

Mayor Anton Cermak - was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his assassination by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933. Pikers - A cautious gambler; A person regarded as petty or stingy. Sic Semper Tyrannis! - Latin phrase meaning "thus ever (or always) to tyrants." According to some witnesses and an excerpt from John Wilkes Booth's diary, he is said to have shouted the phrase after shooting United States President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Coincidentally, both his father and his brother's names was Junius Brutus. Sirhan Sirhan convicted of assassinating United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968.

Temple of Music Pavilion at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York - The Temple of Music was a concert hall and auditorium built for the Pan-American Exposition. The Exposition celebrated American ingenuity and featured many new inventions, such as the X-Ray machine. In addition, all of the major structures at this World Fair were lit both internally and on its exterior by Nikola Tesla and his recent electric innovations. This was the place where Leon Czolgolsz shot William McKinley in 1901. Texas School Book Depository in Dallas Texas - Located 411 Elm Street located on Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, it is now the Dallas County Administration Building. Originally constructed in 1901, in 1963 the building was leased to the Texas School Book Depository Company and used as a multi-floor warehouse for the storage of school textbooks and related materials and an order-fulfillment center by a private business of the same name. Lee Harvey Oswald, according to most accounts, shot John F. Kennedy from the 6th floor of this building.

Works Consulted
The following are a list of some of the works that were consulted in the creation of this study guide. Sources that are already cited within the study guide are not listed here.

Clarke, James W., and James W. Clarke. American Assassins : The Darker Side of Politics. New York: Princeton UP, 1982. Posner, Gerald. Case Closed. New York: Anchor, 2003. Singer, Barry. Ever After : The Last Years of Musical Theater and Beyond. New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema, 2004. Secrest, Meryle. Stephen Sondheim : A Life. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Bryer, Jackson R., and Richard A. Davison, eds. The Art of the American Musical : Conversations with the Creators. New York: Rutgers UP, 2005. Lifton, Robert J. "Assassination: The Ultimate Public Theater." The New York Times 9 Sept. 1990. Rauchway, Eric. Murdering McKinley : The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. New York: Hill & Wang, 2004. Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus : John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2005. Rothstein, Mervyn. "Sondheim's 'Assassins': Insane Realities of History." The New York Times 27 Jan. 1991. Broadway Revival Cast. Assassins. Rec. 7 June 2004. Tommy Krasker, 2004. Rich, Frank. "At Last, 9-11 Has Its Own Musical." The New York Times 2 May 2004. Schaffer, Amanda. "A President Felled by an Assassin and 1880s Medical Care." The New York Times 25 July 2006.

LETS HAVE SOME FUN!!!

Assassins Word Search
BOOTH OSWALD HINCKLEY ROOSEVELT REAGAN
N M N M Y T C W E T F Z L E M O O K L F L A L L Y O R B I O E I U A A L S V W A O F G G E R D R L R A I O T D O N D A K N O E M O O O O D D Y O R E O L L E D S B L R N L C I H T R Y B R I N N Y M L H S L H O N U A S N S D Y M D S A E O E A H L S M B R G B O A G N Y S M O C B D S Z O L Y Z L E O E E I O G C N I N E A C R N E A T N E Y N O E Y R D S

GUITEAU BYCK LINCOLN KENNEDY ASSASSINS

O B O A D G E N I E R L A A V E D N D I A M R K D N L Z S H G I L O C H C R O F E O R I A K F A I S A O S C E A R B E O A E H O N W T N A C E C E D O O G T L S V I E O S A A S N L S R G N T O G M D N F S R K N L E L R G C V E E N I A N O R A L N S K

CZOLGOSZ FROMME GARFIELD NIXON SONDHEIM

E W W A O F U L A R S K I A S L N F M N E O D E T L E E A O N G N T L O A H I N D I C N K X S R O R O R H G L K E A O M T S S I L D S S O I K S Y D I L A B T E D N S I A E I A N N U O N N L E L S O I W C S R O F N E C O R C M A A C L G I C N C I N I E D D X Z O H O F T S K Z E D E K L H S A E K Y E N A L D G D B S E R E A T O I S S L N D S H B C A

ZANGARA MOORE MCKINLEY FORD WEIDMAN

S A E E N F N I R G I I M F L M W D E S A A S O A D E W O I T O G A E U O S L A G A O K Y A S S N B L R S X M F M O Y G S S C C D O O D T N M G R S A B I A G O M R N U I S H H X S M S S M C L L I T A R E I N W N I A I T D A T R F M D S Z A E A U F E S N A L N G A A G N O A U A F L G K N Z N N N W E