May 30: Andrew Jackson kills man in duel

On this date in History .... May 30, 1806:  

Future President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel. Jackson was not charged with murder as dueling was considered a “time honored tradition”. 

Dickinson accused Jackson of reneging on a horse bet and called him a coward. Dickinson also accused Mrs. Jackson of being a bigamist.  Rachel Jackson thought she was divorced when she married Jackson but her first husband had not finalized the divorce. In the duel, Dickinson’s bullet struck Jackson in the chest, next to the heart. Holding his hand over the wound, Jackson stood long enough to fire his round. His gun misfired, which according the rules of dueling would end the duel. But Jackson re-cocked his gun and killed Dickinson with a second shot. 

Ironically, the story of Rachel’s unfinalized divorce caused more scandal in Washington than the duel.

January 30: Assassination Attempt on Andrew Jackson

On this date in History .... 1835:

The first attempt to assassinate a United States President was tried against President Andrew Jackson.

 

Richard Lawrence discharged 2 separate pistols in the House chamber of the U.S. Congress during a funeral service honoring Rep. Warren Davis of So. Carolina. Both weapons misfired.  Jackson began beating Lawrence with his walking stick until members of Congress pulled Jackson off of him. 

 

 

Lawrence was subdued by other members of Congress, (including Congressman Davy Crockett), arrested, found to be insane & sent to a mental hospital.

Jackson was certain that Lawrence had been paid by political opponents to kill him but this was never proven. 

100 years later, the Smithsonian did a test-fire on the guns used by Lawrence and determined that the odds of BOTH guns misfiring was 1 in 125,000.

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November 6: Reagan Wins by a Landslide

On this date in History .... 1984:

Ronald Reagan wins re-election by a landslide.  He won:

·         over 97% of the electoral vote, (525 out of 538)
·         58.8% to Mondale’s 40.6% of the popular vote, (54M to 37M)
·         49 states
·         was only the 2^nd President to take 49 states (Nixon was the 1^st in 1972).
·         It was the last election a Republican carried every Northeast state.
·         No candidate since has ever matched or passed his electoral result.

In the 1980 election (Reagan v. Carter), pre-election polls showed Carter 45% to Reagan’s 39%.  Reagan won by a 10% lead in the popular vote and took 91% of the electoral vote.

Mondale won only Wash DC and his home state of Minnesota, but the win in MN was less than 3800 votes (a winning margin of 0.18% or 0.0018).  It was the worst electoral defeat of any Democratic Party candidate in history. Despite Mondale’s tactic of choosing the first woman for the V.P. slot, 55% of women voted for Reagan.

The 1984 Republican Convention was the only time a Vice Presidential roll call was taken concurrently with the Presidential roll call.  It was the last time in history that the V.P. of either party was nominated by a roll call vote.

The Democratic Convention of that year is often referred to as “the closest in two generations” and the most recent election in which the nomination of a party’s candidate has gone all the way to the convention.  The three top candidates were Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson.

While Jackson was a serious contender throughout the primaries, his off the cuff remark in which he referred to the Jewish population as “Hymies” and referred to New York as “Hymietown” derailed the rest of his campaign in spite of the apology issued by Jackson.

When Hart and Mondale got to the convention, Mondale was about 40 votes short of what he needed to cinch the nomination.  The votes from the super-delegates gave him the numbers he needed to go up against Reagan in the presidential election.

When Reagan was asked in early December 1984 what he wanted for Christmas, he joked "Well, Minnesota would have been nice."