Today in History, January 13th
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash recorded his live album at Folsom Prison. Plus Robert Weaver's cabinet first and Douglas Wilder.
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January 13 is best known as the day Johnny Cash played Folsom Prison in 1968, a show that became a No. 1 live album and rescued his career. The date also saw Robert Weaver named the first Black cabinet member in 1966 and Douglas Wilder take office in 1990 as the first African American elected governor of a U.S. state.
The big story: Johnny Cash Plays Folsom Prison (1968)
By the late 1960s, Johnny Cash was in rough shape. His record sales had slumped, and he was fighting depression and an addiction to pills and alcohol. He needed something big, so he talked his record label into letting him cut a live album inside a California prison. On January 13, 1968, he took the stage at Folsom Prison, with armed guards watching from the walkways above and inmates under orders to stay seated. He built the set for that crowd. It included “Folsom Prison Blues,” a song he had written years earlier after watching a crime movie, not from any time behind bars. He closed with “Greystone Chapel,” written by a Folsom inmate named Glen Sherley. The rowdy audience fired up the band, and the album went to No. 1. Cash was a household name again, and for the rest of his life he was linked with prisoners, even speaking up for prison reform before Congress.
More events on January 13
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1842 | A British army doctor reached the outpost at Jalalabad, famously the only member of a 16,000-strong force retreating from Kabul, Afghanistan, to get there. |
| 1903 | The RMS Gaelic arrived in Honolulu carrying 102 Korean immigrants, the first group of Korean immigrants to the United States. |
| 1929 | Wyatt Earp, of O.K. Corral fame, died in Los Angeles at 80, nearly half a century after the gunfight. |
| 1941 | Irish novelist James Joyce, author of Ulysses, died in Zurich at 58. |
| 1950 | The Soviet Union began boycotting the UN Security Council after it refused to expel Nationalist China’s representative. |
| 1966 | President Lyndon Johnson named Robert C. Weaver to lead the new Department of Housing and Urban Development, making him the first African American cabinet member. |
| 1982 | An Air Florida jet crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., shortly after takeoff, killing 78 people. |
| 1990 | Douglas Wilder took office as governor of Virginia, the first African American elected governor of a U.S. state. |
| 1999 | Michael Jordan announced his second retirement from basketball at Chicago’s United Center. |
Born on January 13
- 1808: Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s Treasury secretary and later the sixth chief justice of the United States.
- 1832: Horatio Alger, author of popular rags-to-riches novels such as Ragged Dick.
- 1961: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress known for TV comedies.
Sources
- Johnny Cash Performs at Folsom Prison, History.com
- What Happened on January 13, History.com
- Salmon P. Chase, Britannica
- Horatio Alger, Britannica
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Britannica
