The Centre Cannot Hold >> 1949

1949 – Georgia O’Keeffe moves to New Mexico

After her first visit in 1929, painter Georgia O’Keeffe became enamoured of the landscapes and colours of the American South West. She spent at least a part of each year there. Many of her paintings, including some of her best known, such as Summer Days (1936).

In 1945, she bought a property at Ghost Ranch, north of Abiquiu, New Mexico, and began renovating it. In 1949, she permanently relocated there, producing numerous paintings, sketches and sculptures. She eventually moved to Santa Fe as old age took its toll on her health, where she died in 1986. Her artistic legacy is vast and she is particularly noted for her contributions to abstract landscape painting.

Referenced in:
Splendid Isolation — Warren Zevon

I have been unable to pin this down any more clearly than August 1940 – if anyone out there knows the correct date, please let me know.

1949 – John George Haigh is executed for murder

The murderous career of John George Haigh is an object lesson in the importance of forensics in obtaining convictions. Haigh disposed of the bodies of people he killed by dissolving them in baths full of acid – he believed that the police needed a body in order to convict.

He was wrong, of course – although police originally began investigating him based on the items he stole from his victims, an analysis of the residue in his acid bath revealed three human gallstones and part of of denture. Haigh was arrested, and confessed to nine murders although he was convicted of only six. He was hanged in Wandsworth Prison, an execution that caused considerable controversy at the time (for its method – his guilt was not contested).

Referenced in:

Acid Bath Vampire – Macabre

1949 – Ben Chifley makes the ‘Light on the Hill’ speech

Ben Chifley is probably most remembered for two things: his serious efforts to implement some of the more socialist ideals of the Australian Labour Party, and this speech. Both, ultimately, come from the same wellspring: Chifley’s compassionate idealism.

He is also the only Australian Prime Minister never to have lived at the Lodge, and the only Labour Prime Minister to have sent the troops in to break a strike – and one from a communist trade union, at that.

I haven’t talked much at all about the speech here, for one very simple reason: I think you should read it yourself.

Referenced in:

Neighbourhood Watch – My Friend The Chocolate Cake

The Centre Cannot Hold

1949 – Georgia O’Keeffe moves to New Mexico

1949 – John George Haigh is executed for murder

1949 – Ben Chifley makes the ‘Light on the Hill’ speech

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