Latest news with #EmancipationProclamation
Chicago Tribune
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Jeffrey Dahmer arrested in Milwaukee
Today is Tuesday, July 22, the 203rd day of 2025. There are 162 days left in the year. Today in History: On July 22, 1991, police in Milwaukee arrested Jeffrey Dahmer, who later confessed to murdering 17 men and boys. Also on this date: In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln presented to his Cabinet a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1933, Aviator Wiley Post landed at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes. In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater, where he had just seen the Clark Gable movie 'Manhattan Melodrama.' In 1937, the U.S. Senate rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court. In 1942, the Nazis began transporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. In 1943, American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily, during World War II. In 1975, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore the American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. In 1992, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison near Medellin. (He was slain by security forces in December 1993.) In 2011, Anders Breivik, a self-described 'militant nationalist,' massacred 69 people at a Norwegian island youth retreat after detonating a bomb in nearby Oslo that killed eight others in the nation's worst violence since World War II. In 2015, a federal grand jury indictment charged Dylann Roof, the young man accused of killing nine Black church members in Charleston, South Carolina, with 33 counts including hate crimes that made him eligible for the death penalty. (Roof would become the first person sentenced to death for a federal hate crime; he is on death row at a federal prison in Indiana.) In 2022, Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Bannon is currently serving his four-month sentence in federal prison.) Today's Birthdays: Actor Terence Stamp is 87. Singer George Clinton is 84. Actor-singer Bobby Sherman is 82. Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is 82. Movie writer-director Paul Schrader is 79. Actor Danny Glover is 79. Singer Mireille Mathieu is 79. Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 78. Rock singer Don Henley is 78. Author S.E. Hinton is 77. Film composer Alan Menken is 76. Jazz musician Al Di Meola is 71. Actor Willem Dafoe is 70. Actor John Leguizamo is 65. R&B singer Keith Sweat is 64. Folk singer Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls) is 62. Actor-comedian David Spade is 61. Actor Rhys Ifans is 58. Actor/singer Jaime Camil is 52. Singer Rufus Wainwright is 52. Actor Franka Potente is 51. Actor Selena Gomez is 33. NFL running back Ezekiel Elliott is 30.
Epoch Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
‘Freedom Season': How US History Took a Different Path in 1963
On New Year's Day in 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed an audience of more than 7,000 black Americans in Oakland, California; this was an observance of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. His speech highlighted two challenges. He called for a nationwide boycott of corporations that refused to hire black employees and sent a direct message to President John F. Kennedy to issue an updated Emancipation Proclamation that would end the second-class citizenship experienced by the nation's black population.
New York Post
30-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Citadel boss Ken Griffin scoops up Abraham Lincoln-signed Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment for $18.1M
Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin added two of the most iconic artifacts in American history to his growing collection of rare documents — spending a combined $18.1 million for items signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The founder and chief executive of Citadel — whose net worth is estimated at $46 billion, according to Forbes — scooped up a rare, handwritten copy of the 13th Amendment for $13.7 million to break Sotheby's auction record for a Lincoln-signed document, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Signed by Lincoln in 1865, the single sheet of vellum marked the formal abolition of slavery in the United States and is one of only four copies known to remain in private hands. 4 Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has added two of the most iconic artifacts in American history to his growing collection of rare documents. Getty Images The auction house had estimated the document would sell for up to $12 million. Griffin's winning bid not only shattered expectations but also eclipsed the previous $2.4 million record set by another copy of the 13th Amendment in 2016. Griffin also purchased a rare copy of the Emancipation Proclamation for $4.4 million at the same Sotheby's auction on Thursday. 'Since our founding, America has been on a journey to form a more perfect union. The Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment marked a profound step forward, abolishing the scourge of slavery and advancing the ideal that all people are created equal,' Griffin said in a statement to The Post. 'As America approaches its 250th anniversary, we all have a part to play to strengthen and renew the promise of our nation. Each generation must experience the sacred documents of our democracy — to learn from them and be inspired to carry our country forward.' 4 Griffin purchased one of four surviving copies of the Emancipation Proclamation. AFP via Getty Images Originally issued by Lincoln during the Civil War in 1863, the proclamation declared enslaved people in the Confederate states to be free. This version, signed in 1864, had been expected to sell for between $3 million and $5 million. The previous high for a signed copy was $3.8 million, set in 2010. The documents 'marked a profound step forward, abolishing the scourge of slavery and advancing the ideal that all people are created equal,' Griffin said in a statement to the Journal following the sale. Griffin — who last year purchased the largest ever dinosaur skeleton for a record 44.6 million — has become one of the most prominent and aggressive collectors of pivotal pieces of American political history in recent years. 4 A Sotheby's employee adjusts a display of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment in May 2016. AFP via Getty Images 4 The illustration depicts Lincoln at the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave enslaved people their freedom. Getty Images In 2021, he outbid a decentralized group of cryptocurrency investors — known as ConstitutionDAO — to win a first-edition copy of the US Constitution for $43.2 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a historical document. Last month, Griffin announced he would lend that copy, along with a rare 1789 printing of the Bill of Rights, to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for a special exhibition timed to the United States' 250th anniversary in 2026. The loans will coincide with a new gallery celebrating America's founding documents and ideals. Griffin, based in Florida, said he intends to make the newly acquired Lincoln documents available for public exhibition as well.
Bloomberg
30-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Ken Griffin Spends $18 Million on Lincoln-Signed Civil War Documents
Citadel founder Ken Griffin paid $18.1 million for copies of the 13th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln. Griffin intends to loan the documents, which were offered at a Sotheby's fine books and manuscripts auction in New York, to an unspecified US institution, according to a Citadel spokesperson.
Washington Post
27-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
The 13th Amendment: Sold for $12 million
NEW YORK — A crowd, most of them employees with ID badges around their necks, gathered in the back of the room of Sotheby's for the last two items of Thursday's morning auction. They weren't there to see icy jewels or buzzy art being sold to the cocktail crowd. This was history. Important history. 'The 13th Amendment,' the auctioneer announced. 'Signed by Abraham Lincoln and the majority of senators and congressmen who supported this landmark legislation abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude within the United States.' The bidding opened at $8 million. It was preceded by bidding on a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, also signed by Lincoln. This was a highlight of Book Week at Sotheby's. Nerd paradise. It's the kind of thing that draws a small crowd of brainy lookie-loos with canvas totes and book dealers in tweed and seersucker to see and maybe bid on first edition Shakespeares, Galileos, Cervantes, Darwin and Adam Smith. And on Americana. This wasn't a swank auction with mysterious bidders, champagne and women in fabulous hats. Most of the bidding happened online or over the phones, with staff on risers flanking the auctioneer's podium. The auction was divided into two parts. Those participating in person raised paddles to place their bids. The only paddle that kept going up was #939, held by a man in a buzz cut, black sneakers, work-from-home clothes and a Nike Air backpack. He dropped around $800,000. 'We got the Darwin, Josephus, Audubon aaaand the Galileo,' said Callum Hill, 27, a cataloger for Peter Harrington, antiquarian book sellers from London. Landmark moments in human history were dispatched across the globe to anonymous sellers. 'The first of two Shakespeare folios,' the auctioneer announced. 'We have $95,000.' 'Bidder on the phone with $100,000.' 'Sold.' On to Portugal in 1519: Vasco da Gama's citation from the King of Portugal for his discoveries complete with a royal wax seal. The bidding went up to $120,000. 'Anything further from online? Or the phones? Otherwise, fair warning. $120,000,' the auctioneer said. 'Sold.' Finally, the premium items came up: Lots 26 and 27. There was James Monroe's letter authorizing the $2 million down payment on the Louisiana Purchase. Previously unknown to Monroe scholars, the four-page letter written in August 1803 was a hedge against Napoleon reneging on the deal. It was a basically handshake deal until Congress moved to ratify it. 'It ought not to be suspected that we are trifling with the Go[vernmen]t of France, or gaining time by an idle correspondence,' Monroe wrote, offering up all the cash that was at his disposal while he was posted in London. The letter sold for $127,000. Also up was the 1774 document establishing the Continental Association, which called for a trade ban between America and Great Britain. Some scholars argue that the Articles of Association document, an agreement among all the colonies to refuse trade relations with England, is the original founding document, merely a precursor to the Declaration of Independence. 'For many Americans the decision to accept the recommendations of Congress and endorse the Continental Association proved to be the point of no return,' historian David Ammerman wrote in his 1974 book, 'In the common cause: American response to the Coercive acts of 1774.' The browned broadside with fold marks is 'one of the most important documents of American colonial history,' Ammerman said. It sold for just over $1 million. Sotheby's is protecting the identity of the buyers who dropped millions on those documents, which are seismically important to United States history. Sotheby's had an unusual offering — both the signed Emancipation Proclamation and the resulting 13th Amendment, signed by Congress on Jan. 31, 1865. 'I never in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper,' Lincoln said after signing the Emancipation Proclamation into law on Jan. 1, 1863. The proclamation that Sotheby's auctioned on Thursday was part of a Civil War fundraiser. One of Lincoln's favorite charities in D.C. was the United States Sanitary Commission, established in June 1861 to assist sick and wounded Union soldiers and their dependent families. It ran on contributions, and Lincoln often donated an autograph to sell at one of their fundraising fairs. For the 1864 Grand Fair, Lincoln signed dozens of the proclamations, and they sold for $10 each, according to Sotheby's. 'One of 27 surviving copies,' the auctioneer said. Eighteen of them are in collections at institutions. The auction opened at $2 million, then quickly went to to $3 million. The rivals were a mystery bidder and a woman in a burgundy dress with a paddle. Then it went to $3.5 million. 'A bidder at 3.6. And the room bidder is out,' the auctioneer said. The 13th Amendment came up. Bidding opened at $8 million. Back and forth, until it got to $12 million. 'It's $12 million on the phone,' the auctioneer said. 'Anyone watching online?' 'Here in the room?' 'It's on the phone. And will sell,' he said, scanning the room one last time. No movement. No paddles. 'At $12 million.' Polite applause. 'This one was special,' a Sotheby's employee said as she left. Lincoln signed an unknown number of commemorative copies of the Emancipation Proclamation. Historians know of 15 bearing Lincoln's signature, Sotheby's said, and more than a dozen additional exist that are signed by members of Congress, but not Lincoln. There is an empty space for his signature. He never lived to see it ratified.
