11th August: Alcatraz Day

Alcatraz day On this date in 1934, 80 years ago, the first prisoners arrived at Alcatraz. 137 of them were transferred from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas by train, along with 60 special FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials. Waiting for them were 155 prison staff, including the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden J. E. Shuttleworth, both considered to be "iron men". The staff were highly trained in security, but not rehabilitation. 10 things you may not know about Alcatraz:

1. Historically, Native Americans believed the island to be cursed. They called it "Evil Island" and kept well away from it.
2. The first person to survey the island was Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775, when he was charting San Francisco Bay. He named it "La Isla de los Alcatraces," which translates as "The Island of the Pelicans," because large numbers of the birds were nesting there.
3. The earliest recorded owner of the island of Alcatraz is Julian Workman, to whom it was given by Mexican governor Pio Pico in June, 1846, with the understanding that Workman would build a lighthouse on it.
4. In 1853, the US Army started to build a fortress there to defend the city. When the US Civil War broke out, it was used as an arsenal - a safe place to store firearms where the Confederates couldn't get at them.
5. From 1907 to 1933, Alcatraz was a military prison. During World War I, the prison held conscientious objectors.
6. A gangster named Alvin "Creepy" Karpis spent the most time (26 years) in the prison.
7. One of the most famous inmates was Robert Franklin Stroud, also known as the Birdman of Alcatraz. He never kept any birds in Alcatraz, though. At Leavenworth, he kept, raised and sold birds and became a respected ornithologist, but he was forced to leave them all behind when transferred to Alcatraz, where birds weren't allowed.
8. The authorities claimed that no prisoners ever escaped from Alcatraz, although 36 of them tried (and two tried twice). 23 were caught, 6 shot and killed and two drowned. There are five, including three men who tried to escape in an inflatable raft in June 1962, who were never accounted for, but were presumed to have drowned.
9. By 1969, the Native Americans had overcome their fear of the island. After the prison closed, a group of Native American students occupied the island in protest. They wanted it to be given back to the Native American peoples, who had discovered it thousands of years before the white people did, and turned into a Native American cultural centre. While that didn't happen, the occupation did raise awareness and led to Richard Nixon changing Government policy on Native Americans. Today, Native Americans still hold sunrise ceremonies on the island on Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day.
10. A proposal to knock down the prison and build a peace centre was defeated in 2008. The argument that the prison was too rich in history to be destroyed won the day. Those who wanted the prison knocked down will just have to wait until 2259 when the Starship Vengeance crashes on it (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)).