#ThrowbackThursday – 24 October
It’s 24 October, and that means it’s time for another edition of Throwback Thursday! Today, we’re taking a look back at three prominent events that went down on this day in history:
1593 – From Manila to Mexico City … By Magic(?)
October is generally regarded as the spookiest month of the year. Naturally, we want to start this article off with a supernatural story!
According to legend, a Spanish soldier by the name of Gil Pérez was stationed as a guard on the night of 24 October 1593 at the Palacio del Gobernador in Manila, a city that was part of the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. Overcome by sleepiness, Pérez leaned against the ornate wall and momentarily shut his eyes.
To his surprise, when Pérez opened his eyes mere seconds later, he found himself no longer at the palace. Instead, he found himself surrounded by soldiers wearing different uniforms, demanding to know who he was and where he came from.
To his even bigger surprise, Pérez discovered that he was no longer in Manila – instead, he was in Mexico City, Mexico, which was located over 14 000 kilometres away!
Given that Mexico City was also a part of the Spanish Empire, the local authorities suspected Pérez of being a deserter and had him imprisoned. Pérez tried his best to protest his innocence, claiming that he had been in Manila just moments before, but no one believed him. When he spoke of a prominent governor’s assassination that occurred the day before his “teleportation”, they still did not believe him.
Six months later, news of the governor’s death in the Philippines finally arrived in Mexico City. This made everyone re-evaluate Pérez’s story; for what it’s worth, written accounts state that a passenger who travelled from the Philippines to Mexico City was able to recognise Pérez as one of the soldiers dutifully stationed outside the palace after the governor’s death.
In the end, the authorities were convinced that Pérez had been telling the truth, and he was finally released from custody and returned home. There’s no telling what happened to him afterwards – or if the story is even true – but one question remains: how did Pérez experience such an extraordinary and inexplicable event?
Well and truly, this legend gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Blink and you’ll miss it!”
1929 – The Horrors of Black Thursday
While Halloween falls on 31 October, for countless financiers, investors and bankers in 1929, Thursday, 24 October, was likely seen as the most terrifying and infamous date in history.
The Roaring Twenties was a decade characterised by advances in technology, mass production and consumer culture, leading to economic prosperity in the USA and many parts of the world. Wall Street was abuzz with activity as stock prices soared, and the public became increasingly enamoured with the idea of rapid wealth accumulation through stock market investments.
However, this all came to a screeching halt 24 October 1929, a day that would be labelled “Black Thursday”: the stock market experienced a catastrophic decline, wiping out billions of dollars in wealth and triggering a wave of panic among investors in the process.
Panic-selling began early in the morning; by midday, traders were desperately trying to unload their shares and salvage what was left of their investments as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, the situation worsened over the next four business days: by 29 October (known as “Black Tuesday), the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from 305.85 points to 230.07 points, representing a 25% decrease in stock prices. This culminated in the stock market crash, resulting in significant financial losses for many individuals and businesses.
It also marked the onset of the Great Depression, a decade-long period of severe economic decline that would impact millions in the US and around the world. Not until 1954 did the Dow finally return to its pre-crash levels.
1931 – The Taxman Nabs Al Capone
Of all the crimes that American gangster Al Capone had been convicted for, it was dodging the taxman that earned him the biggest prison sentence of his life.
From a young age, Capone had been involved in various gang-related activities. After leaving his native New York City for Chicago, Illinois in 1919, he began working for the notorious Chicago Outfit, which was initially led by “Big Jim” Colosimo and later by Johnny Torrio, Capone’s life-long mentor.
In due time, Capone would assume control of the Outfit following Torrio’s retirement to Italy. From 1925 to 1931, at the height of the Prohibition Era, he ruled the Windy City’s underworld, committing crimes from gambling, prostitution and bootlegging to robbery, racketeering and murder. One of the most infamous incidents during Capone’s rule was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, where seven members of a rival gang were brutally gunned down as part of his ongoing turf war.
Although Capone was able to evade arrest and prison time for many of these crimes, he did spend some time behind bars during his reign. However, these sentences were usually light (ranging from a few months to a year), and he would be back in business like nothing ever happened.
This changed on 17 October 1931 when Capone was found guilty of five out of 23 counts of tax evasion: the mobster evaded income tax for the years 1925, 1926 and 1927, and failed to file returns for 1928 and 1929.
A week later, on 24 October 1931, Capone was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison – the largest sentence he ever received. He spent two years at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, before being transferred to the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, California.
After seven years of imprisonment, Capone was released in November 1939 as a result of his deteriorating health stemming from syphilis. He died at the age of 48 at his home in Miami, Florida.
