Here’s a brief look back in time on this day, March 14.
In 1794, the cotton gin is patented. Its inventor, Eli Whitney, was inspired by English inventors Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, who developed the Rolling Spinning machine to mass produce cotton-made products. Its only issue was that the machine was massive, taking up a large amount of space. Whitney’s cotton gin – with “gin” in this context short for “engine” – was a lot smaller and more efficient. It can create clean fibers at a rate 50 times faster than the standard machines in England. This was a very profitable invention in the South, which in turn, spiked up demand for slaves. Cotton, as well as slavery, became institutionalized: a vital lifeblood for the Southern economy.
In 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) introduces a publicized list of its most wanted fugitives. Termed the “10 Most Wanted”, the list comprised of highly wanted individuals wanted for federal crimes ranging from drug trafficking to serial murder. The first 10 were listed, in order: Thomas James Holden, Morley Vernon King, William Raymond Nesbit, Henry Randolph Mitchell, Omar August Pinson, Lee Emory Downs, Orba Elmer Jackson, Glen Roy Wright, Henry Harland Shelton, and Morris Guralnick. The concept was brought up in conversation by the FBI’s first and perhaps most notorious director: J. Edgar Hoover.
In 1964, nightclub owner Jack Ruby is sentenced to death by electric chair for the “murder with malice” of accused JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby shot Oswald point-blank while he was being transported by Dallas police to a county jail: all in front of television cameras and hundreds of witnesses. Oswald was killed instantly with a single bullet. Ruby was immediately detained and charged with first-degree murder. Some of the public regarded Ruby as a hero who took down one of America’s infamous villains. Others saw him as a perpetrator tying up loose ends. However, the Warren Commission, which was the federal task force charged with investigating John F. Kennedy’s assassination, overturned his conviction as new evidence emerged. A new trial was scheduled. Ruby was on death’s door however, having been diagnosed with cancer that has spread to his vital organs. His alleged last words were “there is nothing to hide…there was no one else”. He passed away of a pulmonary embolism in Dallas on January 3, 1967. According to the Commission’s final report, Ruby nor Oswald were ever part of a conspiracy, concluding that Oswald acted alone.