Presidential candidate Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946 in Queens, NY.  (This is where Prince Akeem – Eddie Murphy’s character visits in Coming to America.)

Donald Trump was the fourth of five children born to Mary Anne and Fred Trump. His mother was born in Scotland and his father was born in Queens to parents who had immigrated from Germany.

(Side note: His most direct immigrant ancestor was his mother, so why does Hillary Clinton and others concentrate on his German ancestry? That’s a rhetorical question, I know why – It’s to imply some relationship between Trump and Hitler…I guess she doesn’t know that Hitler was Austrian. Or maybe she’s sure her supporters are too ignorant to know.)

Let’s see how many cards he gets from supporters! Send them to:

Mr. Donald Trump
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Get it in the mail soon so it gets there by the 14th!

Make a note because next year you’ll need to send it to:

President Donald Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

It was August, 1968, and it had already been a year of mob violence and riots in many American cities. People were angry about our involvement in Vietnam (Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?) And some important political leaders – Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy – had been assassinated, taking away some of the guidance that might have eased the rioting.

President Lyndon Johnson had announced that he would not seek re-election, but his vice-president Hubert Humphrey decided to run. Anti-war activists saw him as someone who would continue the war policies of Johnson so they came to Chicago to protest the war.

The Republican convention that year was being held in Miami and some Democrats tried to get their convention moved there too. There was a phone strike in Chicago and reporters needed phone lines to get their stories in to their networks (this was before satellites and immediate streaming of news reports.)

Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, was a powerful part of the Democratic political machine and he was able to keep the convention from being moved out of his city.

Daley wanted Ted Kennedy to run. (This was before Kennedy left Mary Jo Kopechne to drown in his car. Not that it would have made any difference to Daley if it had happened earlier.) This challenge, plus the anti-war groups made it unsure that Humphrey would get the nomination.

There was in-fighting among the delegates on what to include in the Party Platform and delegations marched around the convention hall in protest. In spite of the division, Humphrey got a majority of the delegate votes and won the nomination. The convention ended with a tribute to Bobby Kennedy and a sign-carrying demonstration in support of Richard Daley (paid for by Richard Daley.)

Outside the convention hall, about 10,000 protesters met with almost 12,000 police, 7500 army troops, 7500 National Guards troops, and 1000 Secret Service agents. The protesters wanted to get close to the convention site, the armed forces wanted to stop them. The police viewed the protesters as their enemy but they also viewed the press who were reporting on the conflict as an enemy.

Protesters were stopped in their march to the convention hall. The police used their batons to beat protesters. Innocent bystanders and doctors that were trying to come to the aid of the injured were also beaten. Police used teargas on the protesters and sprayed them and other people in the area with mace.

In the end, Chicago police reported 589 arrests and said that 119 police and 100 protesters were injured. (Those numbers don’t sound fake, nope, not at all.)

Eight people were charged with the federal crime of crossing state borders to incite a riot (part of the Civil Rights Act). Mayor Daley later rewarded the police with a pay raise for beating down the dirty hippies their vigilance in keeping the peace.

In 1964, when Ali was still going by his birth name of Cassius Clay, he fought Sonny Liston in Miami. It was one of the most watched fights in history.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay, named after his father, who was named after a famous abolitionist, in Louisville, KY on January 17, 1942.

He began his boxing training at age 12 and fought his first professional fight in 1960. Over the next three years he had a perfect win record, 19 – 0. This put him in position to challenge Sonny Liston for his heavyweight title. They met in February 1964 and the fight lasted seven rounds, ending when Liston refused to answer the bell for that round. The match was declared a TKO in Clay’s (Ali’s) favor.

Here are the highlights from the fight.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble.” (Said by Clay/Ali before his fight with Liston.)

In a time before radio or telephone, the only way to communicate over long distance was by letter. At the time, it typically took a a few weeks to a month for a letter to get from the eastern US to California.

The Pony Express used relay teams to deliver mail between the east and the west coast. They were able to get delivery time down to about 10 days, traveling from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA.

There were stations located about 5 to 25 miles apart all along the route where the riders would change horses. The riders would ride about 100 miles before passing the mail to the next relay rider.

It was costly to mail items through the Pony Express, $5 for a half ounce in the beginning, $1 per half ounce in the end. (That would have been about $130 and $26 in today’s dollars.) The company had hoped to get a US government contract but it went to a stagecoach company instead and private business wasn’t enough to keep them solvent.

After a little less than a year – March 1861 – the only route they were running was between Salt Lake City, UT and Sacramento, CA. In October of that year the transcontinental telegraph line was completed. Two days later, the Pony Express announced it was closing.

1988 was the end of a 20-year winning streak for Republican presidential candidates in California and if it weren’t for the state going for Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the winning streak would have gone back to 1952.

California Presidential Votes:
The winner of the California election is in bold.
Year – Republican vs. Democrat (national winner)

2016 – ? vs. ?
2012 – Romney vs. Obama (Obama)
2008 – McCain vs. Obama (Obama)
2004 – G.W. Bush vs. Kerry (Bush)
2000 – G.W. Bush vs. Gore (Bush)
1996 – Dole vs. Clinton (Clinton)
1992 – G.W.H. Bush vs. Clinton (Clinton)
1988 – G.W.H. Bush vs. Dukakis (Bush)
1984 – Reagan vs. Mondale (Reagan)
1980 – Reagan vs. Carter (Reagan)
1976 – Ford vs. Carter (Carter)
1972 – Nixon vs. McGovern (Nixon)
1968 – Nixon vs. Humphrey (Nixon)
1964 – Goldwater vs. Johnson (Johnson)
1960 – Nixon vs. Kennedy (Kennedy)
1956 – Eisenhower vs. Stephenson (Eisenhower)
1952 – Eisenhower vs. Stephenson (Eisenhower)
1948 – Dewey vs. Truman (Truman)
1944 – Dewey vs. F.D. Roosevelt (Roosevelt)
1940 – Wilkie vs. F.D. Roosevelt (Roosevelt)
1936 – Landon vs. F.D. Roosevelt (Roosevelt)
1932 – Hoover vs. F.D. Roosevelt (Roosevelt)
1928 – Hoover vs. Smith (Hoover)
1924 – Coolidge vs. Davis (Coolidge)
1920 – Harding vs. Cox (Harding)
1916 – Hughes vs. Wilson (Wilson)
1912 – Taft vs. Wilson vs. T. Roosevelt [Progressive Party] (Wilson)
1908 – Taft vs. Bryan (Taft)
1904 – T. Roosevelt vs. Parker (Roosevelt)
1900 – McKinley vs. Bryan (McKinley)
1896 – McKinley vs. Bryan (McKinley)
1892 – Harrison vs. Cleveland (Cleveland)
1888 – Harrison vs. Cleveland (Harrison)
1884 – Blaine vs. Cleveland (Cleveland)
1880 – Garfield vs. Hancock (Garfield)
1876 – Hayes vs. Tilden (Hayes)
1872 – Grant vs. Greeley (Grant)
1868 – Grant vs. Seymour (Grant)
1864 – Lincoln vs. McClellan (Lincoln)
1860 – Lincoln vs. Douglas (Lincoln)
1856 – Frémont vs. Buchanan (Buchanan)
1852 – Scott [Whig Party] vs. Pierce (Pierce)

U.S. Presidents are not elected by popular vote. Each state is allowed electoral college votes that equal its number of Congressional Representatives plus Senators. 270 EC votes are needed for a candidate to win the presidential election. Currently, California has 55 EC votes. This gives the state a lot of influence in electing the president.