19th of September

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 19

In 1954 English Comedian, Writer and producer, Charlie Chaplin, was banned from returning to the United States. After being branded a communist during the McCarthyite “reds under the beds” witch-hunt.

 

 

In 1970 Michael Eavis hosts the first Glastonbury Festival which has grown to become the largest greenfield festival in the world

 

 

In 1983 St Kitts and Nevis joined the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

 

In 1995 The Washington Post and New York Times published the ‘Unabomber’s Manifesto’.

 

In May 1978 a package was found in the car park at the University of Illinois at Chicago. No one new who the package was for but it did have a return address. The package was therefore returned to Professor Buckley Crist at the materials engineering department at Northwestern University. The package arrived on the 25th of May 1978 but Professor Crist didn’t recognise the package or the handwriting of his return address. He therefore notified campus police who opened the suspicious package. The device exploded and injured a member of the campus police but caused relatively little damage. The bomb was very crude and it poor construction led to only a small percentage of the potential damage.

 

One year later on the 9th of May 1979 a second device was sent to the University this time disguised as a cigarette box. A graduate student was, John Harris, received minor injuries when the device exploded.

 

On the 15th of November 1979 American Airlines Flight 444 was forced to land before reaching its destination of Washington DC (from Chicago) when smoke emanating from the cargo hold began to fill up the passenger cabin. After the pilot landed 12 passengers were treated for smoke inhalation and the cargo hold was searched. The source of the smoke was from a third device which failed to explode due to a faulty triggering mechanism. Had the device worked it contained enough explosive to destroy the Boeing 747 over the skies of the United States.

 

These attacks led the FBI to codename the unknown attacker as the University and Airline Bomber or Unabomber. The Unabomber sent a further 13 devices which became increasingly sophisticated. In total   he sent 16 devices between 1978 and 1995 all of which were targeting universities and airlines. The Unabomber killed 3 and injured another 23 people.

 

On the 24th of April 1995 the Unabomber sent a letter to the New York Times and Washington Post promising to end his terrorist activities if they published his 35,000-word essay “Industrial Society and Its Future” or “The Unabomber Manifesto” as it was renamed by the FBI. This was the same day that his 16th device claimed the life of a timber industry lobbyist, Gilbert B. Murray.

 

Initially authorities were sceptical about publishing his manifesto but when a further letter was sent threatening public safety if they didn’t agree to his request they gave the go-ahead to the press. On the 19th of September 1995 The New York Times and Washington post published his Manifesto. His Manifesto was an argument for the end to industry which he believed had destroyed humanities relationship with nature and would, added by future technologies, end mankind’s freedom.

 

The Unabomber was very good at making his devices untraceable and he even left false clues in his un-exploded devices to through the authorities off the scent. But on the 3rd of April 1996 the FBI arrested Theodore Kaczynski from his one room remote cabin in the mountains of Montana. Kaczynski was a child prodigy attending Harvard University at the age of 16 and becoming an assistant professor by the age of 25. Kaczynski refused to allow his lawyers plead insanity on his behalf and attempted to sack them in protest. Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison without possibility for parole on the 11th of January 1998.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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