This Week in American History: 1940 – Benjamin Davis Promoted to Brigadier General

Here is what happened this week in American History.

• Oct. 22. On this day in 1934, notorious criminal Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd is shot and killed in East Liverpool, Ohio. There are multiple accounts of who fired the round that killed Floyd and even where he was actually killed. It is known that Floyd and accomplices had robbed a bank just four days earlier, adding to a lengthy list of bank robberies. Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declared Floyd as “Public Enemy No. 1”. His body was embalmed and placed on public display in East Liverpool. His funeral, held in Oklahoma, was attended by over 20,000 people.

• Oct. 23. In 1970, Gary Gabelich sets a new land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in a natural-gas powered bullet-shaped car called the Blue Flame. He achieves an average speed exceeding 622 miles per hour and brief top speed of 650 miles per hour.

• Oct. 24. Today in 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph line is completed across the country. That line connected an existing telegraph network in the eastern US to a small network in California. For the first time, there was near instant communication between the east and west via dots and dashes. A monument stands in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, close to where that final connection was made. The cost to send a telegram was a dollar per word, quite expensive then, and the system was maintained by the US Post Office.

• Oct. 25. On this day in 1940, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., is promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, becoming the first black person to become a general in the US Army. Davis was a career officer who served in the Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, World War I, and World War II. He also served in the New York National Guard’s 369^th Infantry Regiment. During his career, Davis was stationed for a short while at Chickamauga Park, Georgia.

• Oct. 26. In 1881, the most famous gunfight in the Old West takes place as brothers Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil Earp along with John Henry “Doc” Holliday face Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne – all members of the Cowboys gang — at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Virgil and Morgan Earp were both wounded, though not critically. Holliday had a bullet graze his hip. Both Tom and Frank McLaury were killed as was Billy Clanton. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight.

• Oct. 27. Today in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis has the US and Soviet Union on the precipice of nuclear war. Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov was serving as Executive Officer on Russian submarine B-59, a diesel-electric submarine. The Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles and soldiers in Cuba, both discovered by American U-2 spy planes and intelligence. A US Naval blockade of Cuba was established while peace negotiations were held. B-59 was at the blockade line armed with at least one nuclear-tipped torpedo and operating too deep for radio communications. US Navy units had forced B-59 to remain submerged, slowly exhausting its air supply, and then began dropping small signaling depth charges on B-59. During that action, B-59 Captain Valentin Grigoryevich Savitsky assumed the signaling depth charges were real depth charges and proposed launching the nuclear torpedo. Such an action required the consent of three officers, including Arkhipov who refused and averted a nuclear war. B-59 was forced to the surface and extensively photographed by US Naval units as it turned away from Cuba. B-59 would be decommissioned in April 1990. Arkhipov would earn the rank of Vice Admiral in the Soviet Navy before retiring in 1988 and died of kidney cancer ten years later.

• Oct. 28. On this day in 1776, British General William Howe is preparing yet again to trap and eliminate American General George Washington and his Colonial Army. Embarrassed at being defeated in Boston in March, Howe has since been chasing Washington seeking a pitched battle that could end the Revolutionary War. With a huge advantage in the numbers of soldiers, Howe had been victorious in New York at the battles of Valcour Island and Pell’s Point. But the wily Washington has kept his forces largely intact while retreating and avoiding the battle Howe sought. Washington’s troops now retreat to White Plains and the Elijah Miller House becomes his headquarters. Days earlier, Washington had sent Colonel Rufus Putnam on a reconnaissance mission to learn where the British were and the size of their force. Upon his return, Putnam is sent to Lord Stirling with orders to have his troops marching north toward White Plains. Another battle is brewing and will begin the next day. The Elijah Miller House still stands and is a museum operated by the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Conservation. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Outside the house is a huge sycamore tree that was there when Washington stayed there. Lord Stirling was an interesting character, his actual name being William Alexander. He held claim to the title Earl of Stirling in Scotland and adopted the name Lord Stirling. His claim was upheld by a Scottish court in 1759, but later unsurprisingly denied by the British.