Good News in History, July 20

60 years ago today, the famous frontman Chris Cornell was born in Seattle, Washington. Fronting Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave, Cornell sold 14.8 million albums, 8.8 million digital songs, and 300 million on-demand audio streams in the U.S. alone, as well as over 30 million records worldwide. He was nominated for 18 Grammy Awards, winning three, and was voted “Rock’s Greatest Singer” by Guitar Player Magazine. Struggles with depression put an untimely end to his monstrous career in 2017, when he committed suicide in a Detroit hotel room. (1964)

Cornell was technically a baritone, but possessed a four-octave range that could perform nearly every styling in the rock catalogue, from intense screaming to gentle acoustic, lullabies.

Along with Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam, Cornell’s first band Soundgarden quickly became one of the most successful from Seattle’s emerging grunge scene in the early 1990s, eventually reaching international fame with their fourth album Superunkown.

After, he joined up with the remaining members of Rage Against the Machine to form Audioslave, and Cornell continued a meteoric rise to rock superstardom. In 2006 he became one of just a few singers, and the first American male, to sing the opening theme to a James Bond film—You Know My Name, for Casino Royale.

MORE Good News on this Day:

• The World Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded during the eighth Summer Olympic Games in Paris—and in 1966, this day began being heralded as International Chess Day (1924)
• The Methodist Church voted to allow women to become priests (1926)
• Viking 1 landed on Mars and its robot spacecraft transmitted the first color images from the planet’s surface, the culmination of an 11-month journey (1976)
• Israel’s Shimon Peres visited Jordan, the highest-ranking Israeli official to do so (1994)
• Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage (2005)

51 years ago today, Congress passed the War Powers Act, a bill aimed at reaffirming the mindset of the houses of Congress that it is their responsibility and no one else’s to debate and eventually decide for or against by vote whether to take the sons and daughters of America to war. It was passed after consecutive wars had been waged in Asia on Presidential command alone.

It was prompted by news leaking out that President Nixon conducted secret bombings of Cambodia during the Vietnam War without notifying Congress—and indeed the War Powers Act passed with two-thirds majorities in both houses, with enough support to override Nixon’s presidential veto.

The legislation reaffirms that under Article I, Section 8, Congress is given the sole authority to commit troops and provisions for their combat duties. Despite the passage of the law, it has never been successfully invoked to force an American President to disengage from a war zone, and there has still not been a declaration of war issued by Congress as required by the Constitution and the War Powers Act since World War II. (1973)

103 years ago today, Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson, who was the first woman to defeat an incumbent congressman, became the first female to preside over the floor of the US House of Representatives.

Years before, during World War I, she endeared herself to many servicemen by distributing food to soldiers in transit through the local train station. One of her admirers, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Robertson the postmaster of Muskogee, Oklahoma, where she continued to operate a 50-acre dairy farm and its on-site café, which became a “social magnet”, drawing politicians, students, journalists, and locals.

In 1920, the Republican ran for Congress, and narrowly defeated a 3-term Democratic incumbent, William Hastings. Robertson described why she deserved the job: “There are already more lawyers and bankers in Congress than are needed. The farmers need a farmer, I am a farmer. The women need a woman to look after their new responsibilities. The soldier boys need a proven friend. I promise few speeches, but faithful work.” Notably absent was her support for women’s rights, however. She was an avowed critic of women’s suffrage groups, including the League of Women Voters, but she fought hard for federal support to Native American tribes.

On her final day in office, according to US House History, Robertson scolded her colleagues for their lack of attention to the obligations she felt they owed to Native Americans. “I have kept watch through the years of the tribesmen with whom I took the peace obligation so long ago. I protest against such action as … depriving thousands of helpless Indian people of the strong defense they can receive through the Interior Department.” Born in the Creek Nation to missionaries who translated many works into the Creek language, the Oklahoma politician maintained a strong commitment to Native American issues after leaving office. Watch a video and learn more… (1921)

And, on this day in 1985, treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his crew discovered part of the 1622 Spanish galleon wreck, the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, 40 miles off Key West, including an estimated $450 million motherlode that included 40 tons of gold and silver, 114,000 Spanish silver coins known as “pieces of eight”, Colombian emeralds, gold and silver artifacts, and 1000 silver ingots.

Mel struggled through decades of hard times treasure hunting in the Florida Keys with the motto Today’s the Day. Much of the bounty is on display in the nonprofit Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum, but snce 2001, treasure hunters have been limited by the adoption of the UNESCO treaty, the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

Also on this day 48 years ago, gymnast Shun Fujimoto won Olympic gold medals for himself and his Japanese team after breaking his knee during the floor exercise routine. Performing with the injury, he scored 9.5 on the pommel horse and 9.7 on the rings, dismounting from the rings onto his broken knee from eight feet above ground and keeping his balance, landing on his feet. (1976)

Also, Happy Birthday to Carlos Santana who turns 76 years old today. The Mexican and American musician became a star at Woodstock in the 1960s with his band, Santana. They pioneered a fusion of rock and Latin American music that featured blues guitar alongside congas not generally heard in rock music. Born to a mariachi musician, he won eight of his 10 Grammy Awards for the 1999 LP Supernatural.

One of the surprises of the Woodstock festival, Santana’s set was legendary for its 11-minute instrumental. He is perhaps best known for his other hits, Oye Como Va, Black Magic Woman, and Smooth. Read about his musical self-determination and inner self-discovery in his articulate 2014 memoir, The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light, in which he wrote, “Love is the light that is inside of all of us, everyone.” (1947)

And, 64 years ago today, the world’s first-ever female head of government in the modern era was elected in Ceylon—Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister.

At a time in history when the idea of a woman leading a country was almost unthinkable to the public, Bandaranaike helped raise the global perception of women’s capabilities.

Born an aristocrat, she agreed to marry a man with a lower social status and became a social worker serving the poor. In addition to her lifelong contributions to Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), her three children worked in prominent roles to develop the country—and her marriage helped break down social barriers.

During her three terms in office, Bandaranaike attempted to undertake land reforms to benefit the native population, desiring to end the political favoritism enjoyed by Western-educated elites. She tried to reduce the ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in the country, but her failure to address adequately the needs of the Tamil population led to decades of strife and violence. As one of the co-founders of the Non-Aligned Movement, she kept Sri Lanka neutral to the influences of the superpowers and tried to resolve issues diplomatically, opposing nuclear expansion. Senanayake once called for a special gender quota for females in government—and it was finally enacted in 2016, reserving 25% of all legislative seats for women. (1960)

And, on this day in 1969, men first stepped on the moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission; Neil Armstrong first, at 10:56pm EST, because he was closest to the door and Buzz Aldrin second.

When the lunar module finally landed on the moon at 4:17 p.m., only 30 seconds of fuel remained, as the crew had to improvise, manually piloting the ship past an area littered with boulders. When Mission Control finally heard the words, “Houston… The Eagle has landed,” they erupted in celebration after long holding their breath.

At 10:56 p.m. EDT Armstrong was ready to take humankind’s first step on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbed down the ladder and uttered the now-famous words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Aldrin joined him shortly afterward, and offered a simple but powerful description of the lunar surface: “magnificent desolation.” They explored the surface for two and a half hours, collecting samples and taking photographs, leaving behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, and a plaque on one of Eagle’s legs. It reads, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

In an interview years later, Armstrong praised the hundreds of thousands of people behind the project that President John Kennedy set in motion eight years earlier—to set a man on the moon before the end of the decade. WATCH a look back from the 50th anniversary…

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