POSTED BY JAE JONES – MARCH 25, 2022 – BLACK HISTORY, HISTORY, LATEST POSTS, RACE RIOTS

The Lombard Street Riot was a three-day race riot that occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1842. The riot started on Lombard Street, between Fifth and Eighth streets.

On August 1, 1842, more than 1,000 African Americans gathered to participate in a temperance parade to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the West Indies. The group was attacked on Fourth Street by an Irish mob that beat many of the marchers and destroyed black homes in the area. The attack went on for three days.

The Irish rioters headed west toward the home of prominent and outspoken African American leader Robert Purvis at 9th and Lombard. Purvis sat on the steps of his home armed and ready.

Although his home was spared from the inferno by the intervention of a Catholic priest. Purvis eventually relocated permanently to his rural Bucks County home.

The Irish immigrants and African Americans lived in the vicinity and often competed for the same low paying jobs and places to live. Both groups felt their hard work and economic gains were being constantly threatened.

During this period of time, free African Americans were never truly safe because of fugitive slave laws, and in 1838 Pennsylvania stripped free blacks of their right to vote. The strength and vitality of Philadelphia’s fast-growing free-black community generated fear, frustration which ultimately led to violence on the part of the Irish immigrants.

Of those arrested by the militia, most were found not guilty or otherwise released. The three or four who were convicted received only light sentences.

source:

http://www.philaplace.org/story/62/

1492 – Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage led him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.

1750 – Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled “A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management.”

1777 – During the Siege of Fort Stanwix the first U.S. flag was officially flown during battle.

1880 – The American Canoe Association was formed at Lake George, NY.

1900 – Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.

1914 – Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.

1922 – WGY radio in Schenectady, NY, presented the first full-length melodrama on radio. The work was “The Wolf”, written by Eugene Walter.

1923 – Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.

1933 – The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.

1936 – The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to the Spanish Civil War.

1936 – Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.

1943 – Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.

1949 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1956 – Bedloe’s Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.

1958 – The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as “Operation Sunshine.”

1979 – Johnny Carson, the “Tonight Show” host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.

1981 – U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned. 

1984 – Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

1985 – Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they’d wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.

1988 – The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.

1988 – The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow’s Red Square.

1989 – Hashemi Rafsanjani was sworn in as the president of Iran.

1990 – Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.

1992 – The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing of nuclear weapons. 

1992 – Russia and Ukraine agreed to put the Black Sea Fleet under joint command. The agreement was to last for three years.

1995 – Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York’s World Trade Center.

2004 – In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2004 – NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011. On April 30, 2015, Messenger crashed into the surface of Mercury after sending back more than 270,000 pictures. 

2009 – Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

1776 – Members of the Continental Congress began adding their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

1791 – Samuel Briggs and his son Samuel Briggs, Jr. received a joint patent for their nail-making machine. They were the first father-son pair to receive a patent.

1824 – In New York City, Fifth Avenue was opened.

1858 – In Boston and New York City the first mailboxes were installed along streets.

1861 – The United States Congress passed the first income tax. The revenues were intended for the war effort against the South. The tax was never enacted. 

1887 – Rowell Hodge patented barbed wire.

1892 – Charles A. Wheeler patented the first escalator.

1921 – Eight White Sox players were acquitted of throwing the 1919 World Series.

1926 – John Barrymore and Mary Astor starred in the first showing of the Vitaphone System. The system was the combining of picture and sound for movies.

1938 – Bright yellow baseballs were used in a major league baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was hoped that the balls would be easier to see.

1939 – Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging the U.S. to have an atomic weapons research program.

1939 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act. The act prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns.

1943 – The U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, sank after being attacked by a Japanese destroyer. The boat was under the command of Lt. John F. Kennedy.

1945 – The Allied conference at Potsdam was concluded.

1964 – The Pentagon reported the first of two North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1983 – U.S. House of Representatives approved a law that designated the third Monday of January would be a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The law was signed by President Reagon on November 2.

1987 – “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was re-released. The film was 50 years old at the time of its re-release.

1990 – Iraq invaded the oil-rich country of Kuwait. Iraq claimed that Kuwait had driven down oil prices by exceeding production quotas set by OPEC.

1995 – China ordered the expulsion of two U.S. Air Force officers. The two were said to have been caught spying on military sights.