This Day in History: 07/19
*TRIGGER WARNINGS*
1553: Lady Jane Grey deposed
1989: Sitcom actress murdered; death prompts anti-stalking legislation
1991: Mike Tyson rapes a Miss Black America contestant
2003: Thousands of fans join the Miami funeral procession for Celia Cruz
1553: LADY JANE GREY DEPOSED
After only nine days as the monarch of England, Lady Jane Grey is deposed in favor of her cousin Mary. The 15-year-old Lady Jane, beautiful and intelligent, had only reluctantly agreed to be put on the throne. The decision would result in her execution.
Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII and the cousin of King Edward VI. Lady Jane and Edward were the same age, and they had almost been married in 1549. In May 1553 she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, the son of John Dudley, the duke of Northumberland. When King Edward fell deathly ill with tuberculosis soon after, Jane's father-in-law, John Dudley persuaded the dying king that Jane, a Protestant, should be chosen the royal successor over Edward's half-sister Mary, a Catholic. On July 6, 1553, Edward died, and four days later Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen of England.
Lady Jane's ascendance was supported by the Royal Council, but the populace supported Mary, the rightful heir. Two days into Lady Jane's reign, Dudley departed London with an army to suppress Mary's forces, and in his absence the Council declared him a traitor and Mary the queen, ending Jane's nine-day reign.
By July 20, most of Dudley's army had deserted him, and he was arrested. The same day, Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Her father-in-law was condemned for high treason, and on August 23 he was executed. On November 13, Jane and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were likewise found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, but because of their youth and relative innocence Mary did not carry out the death sentences.
However, in early 1554, Jane's father, Henry Grey, joined Sir Thomas Wyatt in an insurrection against Mary that broke out after her announcement of her intention to marry Philip II of Spain. While suppressing the revolt, Mary decided it was also necessary to eliminate all her political opponents, and on February 7 she signed the death warrants of Jane and her husband. On the morning of February 12, Jane watched her husband being carried away to execution from the window of her cell in the Tower of London, and two hours later she was also executed. As British tradition tells the story, after the 16-year-old girl was beheaded, her executioner held Jane's head aloft and recited the words: "So perish all the queen's enemies! Behold, the head of a traitor!"
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lady-jane-grey-deposed
1989: SITCOM ACTRESS MURDERED; DEATH PROMPTS ANTI-STALKING LEGISLATION
On this day in 1989, the 21-year-old actress Rebecca Shaeffer is murdered at her Los Angeles home by Robert John Bardo, a mentally unstable man who had been stalking her. Schaeffer’s death helped lead to the passage in California of legislation aimed at preventing stalking.
Schaeffer was born November 6, 1967, in Eugene, Oregon. She worked as a teenage model and had a short stint on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, but was best known for co-starring with Pam Dawber in the television sitcom My Sister Sam. Bardo, born in 1970, had written Schaeffer letters and unsuccessfully tried to gain access to the set of My Sister Sam, before showing up at her apartment on July 19, 1989. The obsessed fan had reportedly obtained the actress’s home address through a detective agency, which located it through records at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. On the day of the murder, Schaeffer reportedly complied with Bardo’s request for an autograph when he appeared at her home and then asked him to leave. He returned a short time later and the actress, who reportedly was waiting for someone to deliver a script, answered the door again. Bardo then shot and killed her.
Arrested the next day in Tucson, Arizona, Bardo was later prosecuted by the Los Angeles County district attorney Marcia Clark, who later became famous as a prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial. In 1991, Bardo was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1994, California passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prevented the Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing private addresses.
The 2002 film Moonlight Mile, loosely inspired by Schaeffer’s story, was written and directed by Brad Silberling, who had been dating the young actress at the time of her death.
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sitcom-actress-murdered-death-prompts-anti-stalking-legislation
1991: MIKE TYSON RAPES A MISS BLACK AMERICA CONTESTANT
Notorious boxer Mike Tyson rapes Desiree Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant, in an Indianapolis, Indiana, hotel room. At a time when the issue of date rape was entering the country's consciousness, Tyson's attack became a national sensation.
Tyson, who had lost his heavyweight title in February 1990 to James "Buster" Douglas, was preparing for a chance to win it back later in the year. However, Tyson's behavior had become increasingly erratic. His marriage to Robin Givens had fallen apart amid accusations of domestic violence. Furthermore, there were multiple reports that Tyson was known for unwanted, crude, and sometimes violent advances toward women wherever he went.
Tyson attended the Miss Black America pageant in Indianapolis to lend his celebrity to the event. At a photo opportunity with the contestants, Tyson flirted with the women by grabbing and hugging them. Later, several women would testify that Tyson had made disgusting propositions to them. Still, the boxer impressed Desiree Washington, a college student from Rhode Island.
After attending a Johnny Gill concert that night, Tyson found himself without a date. He called Washington and convinced her to join him so that they could talk and get to know one another. At his hotel, Washington agreed to accompany Tyson to his room so that he could pick up something he claimed to have left in his room. Surprising her as she came out of the bathroom, Tyson pinned Washington to the bed, telling her to relax as he forced himself upon her. Washington left the room alone about 30 minutes after arriving. A hospital medical examination was conducted and found to be consistent with Washington's account. Tyson claimed that the sexual encounter was purely consensual and that Washington had made the story up for money and because she was angry that Tyson had not walked her down to his limousine.
On February 10, 1992, Tyson was convicted of rape. At his sentencing hearing, the remorseless Tyson railed about his own social "humiliation" and received a six-year sentence. Even an appeal by the famous attorney Alan Dershowitz could not get Tyson a new trial.
After his release in 1995, Tyson became even more paranoid and out of control. In June 1997, Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear during a boxing match, for which his boxing license was revoked. In a 1999 interview, Tyson maintained that he would bite off his opponent's ear if the situation arose again. Despite these comments, Tyson was granted a reinstatement of his boxing license. Although Tyson continued to fight, he never regained his previous dominance. He declared bankruptcy in 2003 and retired two years later, in June 2005, after losing three of his last four fights.
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mike-tyson-rapes-a-miss-black-america-contestant
2003: THOUSANDS OF FANS JOIN THE MIAMI FUNERAL PROCESSION OF CELIA CRUZ
On July 19, 2003, three days after her death from cancer at the age of 77, Latin music legend Celia Cruz has one of her final wishes granted when her body is flown to Miami, Florida, for a special public viewing by tens of thousands of fans prior to her burial in New York City. It was as close as the legendary Queen of Salsa could get to her beloved homeland of Cuba.
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1925, one of 14 children raised in a family that was poor, but in a time and place that was rich with musical activity. Cruz's talent was recognized early on. The story she told was that her first pair of shoes were given to her by a tourist for whom she had performed on the streets of Havana, and she was a regular winner of local singing contests in which the grand prize was usually a cake. Exposed to a wide range of music by the radio and by an aunt who would take her around to Havana's cabarets, Cruz sang in every style from tango to mambo to son cubano-all of which would contribute to the later development of her signature style, salsa.
After training in Cuba's National Conservatory, Cruz got her big break in 1950, when she was invited to join one of Cuba's most popular orchestras, the Sonora Matancera, with whom she would perform throughout Latin America for the next 15 years. Cruz was abroad with the Sonora Matacera in 1959 when Castro took power, and she never returned to her native Cuba, settling permanently in the sizable Cuban community near Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Recording almost exclusively in her native Spanish, Celia Cruz built a career over the next 40-plus years that made her one of the best-known Latin music stars in history. Her famously warm and gracious personality also made her one of the most beloved, as evidenced by the outpouring of grief that greeted her death from cancer. Among those lining up in Miami on this day in 2003 to pay their respects were many Cuban Americans for whom the music of Celia Cruz was an important cultural connection to Cuba. As one told The New York Times that day, "I call her and people like her, the last of the true Cubans. She was part of the Cuba of our parents, a Cuba we didn't really know and that doesn't exist anymore. It's the Cuba of our imagination."
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thousands-of-fans-join-the-miami-funeral-procession-of-celia-cruz
1553: Lady Jane Grey deposed
1989: Sitcom actress murdered; death prompts anti-stalking legislation
1991: Mike Tyson rapes a Miss Black America contestant
2003: Thousands of fans join the Miami funeral procession for Celia Cruz
1553: LADY JANE GREY DEPOSED
After only nine days as the monarch of England, Lady Jane Grey is deposed in favor of her cousin Mary. The 15-year-old Lady Jane, beautiful and intelligent, had only reluctantly agreed to be put on the throne. The decision would result in her execution.
Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII and the cousin of King Edward VI. Lady Jane and Edward were the same age, and they had almost been married in 1549. In May 1553 she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, the son of John Dudley, the duke of Northumberland. When King Edward fell deathly ill with tuberculosis soon after, Jane's father-in-law, John Dudley persuaded the dying king that Jane, a Protestant, should be chosen the royal successor over Edward's half-sister Mary, a Catholic. On July 6, 1553, Edward died, and four days later Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen of England.
Lady Jane's ascendance was supported by the Royal Council, but the populace supported Mary, the rightful heir. Two days into Lady Jane's reign, Dudley departed London with an army to suppress Mary's forces, and in his absence the Council declared him a traitor and Mary the queen, ending Jane's nine-day reign.
By July 20, most of Dudley's army had deserted him, and he was arrested. The same day, Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Her father-in-law was condemned for high treason, and on August 23 he was executed. On November 13, Jane and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were likewise found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, but because of their youth and relative innocence Mary did not carry out the death sentences.
However, in early 1554, Jane's father, Henry Grey, joined Sir Thomas Wyatt in an insurrection against Mary that broke out after her announcement of her intention to marry Philip II of Spain. While suppressing the revolt, Mary decided it was also necessary to eliminate all her political opponents, and on February 7 she signed the death warrants of Jane and her husband. On the morning of February 12, Jane watched her husband being carried away to execution from the window of her cell in the Tower of London, and two hours later she was also executed. As British tradition tells the story, after the 16-year-old girl was beheaded, her executioner held Jane's head aloft and recited the words: "So perish all the queen's enemies! Behold, the head of a traitor!"
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lady-jane-grey-deposed
1989: SITCOM ACTRESS MURDERED; DEATH PROMPTS ANTI-STALKING LEGISLATION
On this day in 1989, the 21-year-old actress Rebecca Shaeffer is murdered at her Los Angeles home by Robert John Bardo, a mentally unstable man who had been stalking her. Schaeffer’s death helped lead to the passage in California of legislation aimed at preventing stalking.
Schaeffer was born November 6, 1967, in Eugene, Oregon. She worked as a teenage model and had a short stint on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, but was best known for co-starring with Pam Dawber in the television sitcom My Sister Sam. Bardo, born in 1970, had written Schaeffer letters and unsuccessfully tried to gain access to the set of My Sister Sam, before showing up at her apartment on July 19, 1989. The obsessed fan had reportedly obtained the actress’s home address through a detective agency, which located it through records at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. On the day of the murder, Schaeffer reportedly complied with Bardo’s request for an autograph when he appeared at her home and then asked him to leave. He returned a short time later and the actress, who reportedly was waiting for someone to deliver a script, answered the door again. Bardo then shot and killed her.
Arrested the next day in Tucson, Arizona, Bardo was later prosecuted by the Los Angeles County district attorney Marcia Clark, who later became famous as a prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial. In 1991, Bardo was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1994, California passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prevented the Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing private addresses.
The 2002 film Moonlight Mile, loosely inspired by Schaeffer’s story, was written and directed by Brad Silberling, who had been dating the young actress at the time of her death.
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sitcom-actress-murdered-death-prompts-anti-stalking-legislation
1991: MIKE TYSON RAPES A MISS BLACK AMERICA CONTESTANT
Notorious boxer Mike Tyson rapes Desiree Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant, in an Indianapolis, Indiana, hotel room. At a time when the issue of date rape was entering the country's consciousness, Tyson's attack became a national sensation.
Tyson, who had lost his heavyweight title in February 1990 to James "Buster" Douglas, was preparing for a chance to win it back later in the year. However, Tyson's behavior had become increasingly erratic. His marriage to Robin Givens had fallen apart amid accusations of domestic violence. Furthermore, there were multiple reports that Tyson was known for unwanted, crude, and sometimes violent advances toward women wherever he went.
Tyson attended the Miss Black America pageant in Indianapolis to lend his celebrity to the event. At a photo opportunity with the contestants, Tyson flirted with the women by grabbing and hugging them. Later, several women would testify that Tyson had made disgusting propositions to them. Still, the boxer impressed Desiree Washington, a college student from Rhode Island.
After attending a Johnny Gill concert that night, Tyson found himself without a date. He called Washington and convinced her to join him so that they could talk and get to know one another. At his hotel, Washington agreed to accompany Tyson to his room so that he could pick up something he claimed to have left in his room. Surprising her as she came out of the bathroom, Tyson pinned Washington to the bed, telling her to relax as he forced himself upon her. Washington left the room alone about 30 minutes after arriving. A hospital medical examination was conducted and found to be consistent with Washington's account. Tyson claimed that the sexual encounter was purely consensual and that Washington had made the story up for money and because she was angry that Tyson had not walked her down to his limousine.
On February 10, 1992, Tyson was convicted of rape. At his sentencing hearing, the remorseless Tyson railed about his own social "humiliation" and received a six-year sentence. Even an appeal by the famous attorney Alan Dershowitz could not get Tyson a new trial.
After his release in 1995, Tyson became even more paranoid and out of control. In June 1997, Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear during a boxing match, for which his boxing license was revoked. In a 1999 interview, Tyson maintained that he would bite off his opponent's ear if the situation arose again. Despite these comments, Tyson was granted a reinstatement of his boxing license. Although Tyson continued to fight, he never regained his previous dominance. He declared bankruptcy in 2003 and retired two years later, in June 2005, after losing three of his last four fights.
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mike-tyson-rapes-a-miss-black-america-contestant
2003: THOUSANDS OF FANS JOIN THE MIAMI FUNERAL PROCESSION OF CELIA CRUZ
On July 19, 2003, three days after her death from cancer at the age of 77, Latin music legend Celia Cruz has one of her final wishes granted when her body is flown to Miami, Florida, for a special public viewing by tens of thousands of fans prior to her burial in New York City. It was as close as the legendary Queen of Salsa could get to her beloved homeland of Cuba.
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1925, one of 14 children raised in a family that was poor, but in a time and place that was rich with musical activity. Cruz's talent was recognized early on. The story she told was that her first pair of shoes were given to her by a tourist for whom she had performed on the streets of Havana, and she was a regular winner of local singing contests in which the grand prize was usually a cake. Exposed to a wide range of music by the radio and by an aunt who would take her around to Havana's cabarets, Cruz sang in every style from tango to mambo to son cubano-all of which would contribute to the later development of her signature style, salsa.
After training in Cuba's National Conservatory, Cruz got her big break in 1950, when she was invited to join one of Cuba's most popular orchestras, the Sonora Matancera, with whom she would perform throughout Latin America for the next 15 years. Cruz was abroad with the Sonora Matacera in 1959 when Castro took power, and she never returned to her native Cuba, settling permanently in the sizable Cuban community near Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Recording almost exclusively in her native Spanish, Celia Cruz built a career over the next 40-plus years that made her one of the best-known Latin music stars in history. Her famously warm and gracious personality also made her one of the most beloved, as evidenced by the outpouring of grief that greeted her death from cancer. Among those lining up in Miami on this day in 2003 to pay their respects were many Cuban Americans for whom the music of Celia Cruz was an important cultural connection to Cuba. As one told The New York Times that day, "I call her and people like her, the last of the true Cubans. She was part of the Cuba of our parents, a Cuba we didn't really know and that doesn't exist anymore. It's the Cuba of our imagination."
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thousands-of-fans-join-the-miami-funeral-procession-of-celia-cruz