Moments in Time – December 14, 2022

#Middlebury

• On Dec. 28, 1900, Mrs. Lulu Jenkins, of Chicago, was paid $4,000 in compensation for the lynching of her husband in Ripley County, Indiana. Mr. Jenkins allegedly was involved in the theft of a horse and ended up the victim of a furious mob. Two other men were killed as well.
• On Dec. 31, 1943, Henry John Deutschendorf, better known to us today as singer-songwriter, actor John Denver, was born. In a four-decade career before his untimely death in an airplane crash, he won worldwide affection and acclaim not just for his music but for his dedication to humanitarian and environmental causes.
• On Jan. 1, 1962, the U.S. Navy SEALs unit was created. Their elite members (only about 20% actually make it that far) are trained to operate in urban, desert and jungle locations and to withstand torture.
• On Dec. 26, 1966, the first Kwanzaa celebrations began in America, with the holiday continuing until Jan. 1. Created by activist, author and professor of Africana studies Dr. Maulana Karenga, the annual event, which affirms African family and social values, was originally intended to replace Christmas for Africans.
• On Dec. 30, 1984, speleologists (cave studiers/explorers) in the Mexican state of Oaxaca landed upon what was then thought to possibly be the world’s deepest cave after going through a maze of underground tunnels in the jungle.
• On Dec. 27, 1994, Rwanda’s president died in a plane crash and the African country was plunged into a genocidal blood bath in which the Hutu majority slaughtered the Tutsis, leaving half a million dead. A distraught missionary exclaimed of the carnage: “There are no devils left in hell. They are all in Rwanda.”
• On Dec. 29, 2011, Russian authorities discovered a large amount of a rare caviar stored in, of all places, a morgue in St. Petersburg. A businessman and morgue attendant were arrested but claimed that the caviar was being kept for a personal New Year’s celebration.

© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.