Today in History

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Today's history deals with a lot of controversial issues. First, a royal wedding. There shouldn't be anything controversial about that, should there? Well, maybe not today, but back in 1572 when France's Henry III of Navarre, and King Henry IV of France, a Protestant Huguenot, married Margaret of Valois, a Catholic, it was definitely controversial. So much so, that five days after the nuptials Catholic mobs killed thousands of Huguenots. Henry barely escaped. So much for religious unity. Next, is a witch hanging. I would have said burning, but these gals were literally hung as witches, standing accused of committing ten murders by witchcraft. Local leaders wanted to please King James in 1612, and with the wild reputation of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, ten women believed to be witches were hung by the neck until dead. My next bit of controversy takes place in the US, in 1920. It only took 42 years for Congress to ratify the US Constitution. From the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to 1920 the Women's Suffrage Movement finally saw a victory when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Imagine the victory those fearless suffragettes would have today if they knew women were now holding office. My last bit of controversy took place in Mississippi as Ole Miss graduates a young man, James Meredith from a segregated university - the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss as it's lovingly referred to. James Meredith was the first African American student to graduate with a political science degree in 1963. We've come a long way, breaking all kinds of barriers of race and religion, political and cult to our place in history today. There are still points of controversy, but at least we've broken those barriers. Royals can marry commoners. Witches are found on the silver screen. Women can hold office, and schools everywhere graduate men and women of every race and nationality. For your listening pleasure, I thought this tune from 1968 would be appropriate for today's day in history.