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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

HUBERT HORATIO HUMPHREY

HUBERT HUMPHREY DIED 37 YEARS AGO 

Waverly, Minnesota (JFK+50) Hubert Horatio Humphrey*, the 38th Vice-President of the United States, died 37 years ago today, January 13, 1978.  The former Vice-President succumbed to a fight with bladder cancer.

Humphrey, a New Deal Minnesota Senator, was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960 but dropped out of contention when he lost the West Virginia Democratic Primary to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. 

Senator Humphrey was Lyndon B. Johnson's choice in 1964 to be his running-mate. The Johnson-Humphrey ticket won the general election by a landslide. 

In 1968, the Vice-President won the Democratic nomination for President only to be defeated in the general election by Richard M. Nixon.  Robert F. Kennedy. Senator from New York, also ran for the Democratic nomination but was assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the Democratic Primary in June.


*Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978) was born in Wallace, SD and attended the University of Minnesota, Capitol College of Pharmacy, and Louisiana State University.  He was a WPA supervisor during WWII and served as Mayor of Minneapolis 1945-1948, and United States Senator 1949-1964 and 1971-1978.


Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey
Library of Congress Image

LBJ APPOINTS ROBERT WEAVER TO CABINET

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 49 years ago today, January 13, 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the first African American to serve in the cabinet of the President of the United States, Robert C. Weaver.**

Mr. Weaver became Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  RCW 
had been an adviser to the Secretary of the Interior under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and head of the Housing and Home Finance Agency under President John F. Kennedy.

**Robert C. Weaver (1907-1997) was born in Washington, D.C. and earned his BA, MA and PhD at Harvard University.  Mr. Weaver was a member of FDR's "black cabinet."

RCW became the 1st Secretary of the Department of Housing and
Urban Development in 1966 and later served as president of Baruch College and professor of urban affairs at Hunter College in New York.


Robert C. Weaver and LBJ
Swearing-In Ceremony
Photo by Frank Wolfe (1966)
LBJ Online Photo Archive


JAMES JOYCE DIED 74 YEARS AGO

Zurich, Switzerland (JFK+50) Ireland's greatest author, James Joyce,*** died here in Zurich 74 years ago today, January 13, 1941.  

Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, is regarded as one of the greatest works in the English language.  



James Joyce Statue
by Marjorie Fitz Gibbon
North Earl Street, Dublin
Photo by Toniher


***James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941) was born in Dublin, Ireland.  He attended Clongoues and Belvedere schools as well as University College Dublin.  Joyce's works include "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Finnegan's Wake," "Dubliners," as well as "Ulysses."