Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States secretary of state under president Jimmy Carter, a United States senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951.
129 Facts About Edmund Muskie
2.
Edmund Muskie was the Democratic Party's candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 1968 presidential election.
3.
Edmund Muskie's actions severed a nearly 100-year Republican stronghold and led to the political insurgency of the Maine Democrats.
4.
Edmund Muskie promoted the 1960s environmental movement which led to the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972.
5.
Edmund Muskie supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the creation of Martin Luther King Jr.
6.
Edmund Muskie would go on to run in the 1972 presidential election where he secured 1.84 million votes in the primaries coming in fourth out of 15 contesters.
7.
Edmund Muskie served as first chairman of the new Senate Budget Committee from 1975 to 1980 where he established the United States budget process.
8.
Edmund Muskie's department negotiated the release of 52 Americans, thus concluding the Iran hostage crisis.
9.
Edmund Muskie was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Carter in 1981 and has been honored with a public holiday in Maine since 1987.
10.
Edmund Sixtus Muskie was born on March 28,1914, in Rumford, Maine.
11.
Edmund Muskie's father, Stephen Marciszewski, was born and raised in Jasionowka, Russian Poland and worked as an estate manager for minor Russian nobility.
12.
Edmund Muskie immigrated to America in 1903 and changed his name to Muskie from "Marciszewski" in 1914.
13.
Edmund Muskie worked as a master tailor and Muskie's mother, Josephine worked as a housewife.
14.
Edmund Muskie was born to a Polish-American family in Buffalo, New York.
15.
Edmund Muskie's parents married in 1911, and Josephine moved to Rumford soon after.
16.
Edmund Muskie began learning English soon after and eventually lost fluency in his mother language.
17.
Edmund Muskie felt as though his given name was "odd" so he went by Ed throughout his life.
18.
Edmund Muskie was shy and anxious in his early life but maintained a sizable number of friends.
19.
Edmund Muskie attended Stephens High School, where he played baseball, participated in the performing arts, and was elected student body president in his senior year.
20.
Edmund Muskie would go on to graduate in 1932 at the top of his class as valedictorian.
21.
Edmund Muskie then worked as a high school substitute teacher while he was studying for the Maine Bar examination; he passed in 1940.
22.
Edmund Muskie helped write Waterville's first zoning ordinance and was elected secretary of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
23.
Edmund Muskie had Gray model the dresses in the shop window while he was walking to work.
24.
Edmund Muskie came into the shop one day and invited her to a gala event.
25.
Edmund Muskie formally registered for the draft in October 1940 and was formally called to deck officer training on March 26,1942.
26.
Edmund Muskie left his law practice running so "his name would continue to circulate in Waterville" while he was gone.
27.
Edmund Muskie trained as an apprentice seaman for six weeks before being assigned the rank of midshipman.
28.
Edmund Muskie trained for two weeks in Miami, Florida at the Submarine Chaser Training Center.
29.
Edmund Muskie's vessel was in charge of protecting US convoys traveling from the Marshal and Gilbert Islands from Japanese submarines.
30.
Edmund Muskie was discharged from the Navy on December 18,1945.
31.
Edmund Muskie returned to Maine in January 1946 and began rebuilding his law practice.
32.
Edmund Muskie ran against Republican William A Jones in an election for the Maine House of Representatives for the 110th District.
33.
Edmund Muskie secured 2,635 votes and won the election to most people's surprise on September 9,1946.
34.
Edmund Muskie was assigned to the committees on federal and military relations during his first year.
35.
Edmund Muskie advocated for bipartisanship which won him over widespread support across political parties.
36.
Edmund Muskie continued his political involvement locally by securing a position on the Waterville Board of Zoning Adjustment in 1948 and stayed in this part-time position until he became governor.
37.
Edmund Muskie later returned to the House to start his second term in 1948 as Minority Leader against heavy Republican opposition.
38.
Edmund Muskie was appointed the chairman of the platform committee during the 1949 Maine Democratic Convention.
39.
On February 8,1951, Edmund Muskie resigned from the Maine House of Representatives to become acting director for the Maine Office of Price Stabilization.
40.
Edmund Muskie moved to Portland soon after and was assigned the inflation-control and price-ceiling divisions.
41.
Edmund Muskie's job required him to move across Maine to spread word about economic incentives which he used to increase his name recognition.
42.
Edmund Muskie served as the regional director at the Office of Price Stabilization from 1951 to 1952.
43.
Edmund Muskie was rushed to the hospital where he remained unconscious for two days.
44.
Edmund Muskie tried to jump out of the hospital window but was restrained by staff members.
45.
Edmund Muskie was deeply in debt owing five thousand dollars in hospital bills and maintained a rising mortgage.
46.
Edmund Muskie announced his candidacy for the office on April 8,1954.
47.
Edmund Muskie ran on a party platform of environmentalism and public investment.
48.
Edmund Muskie stressed the need for "a two-party" approach to Maine politics with resonated with both Democratic and Republican voters wishing to see change.
49.
Edmund Muskie criticized the Republican Party for neglecting the environment, failing to restart the economy, underutilizing skilled labor forces, and ignoring public investment.
50.
Edmund Muskie successively won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and then the general election by a majority popular vote on September 13,1954.
51.
Edmund Muskie's election has been viewed as a causal link to the end of Republican political dominance in Maine and the rise of the Democratic Party.
52.
Edmund Muskie was inaugurated as the 64th Governor of Maine on January 6,1955.
53.
Edmund Muskie used this authority to sign the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Compact on August 31,1955.
54.
Edmund Muskie expanded certain programs and cut down on others in order rebalance state spending.
55.
Edmund Muskie expanded the territory comprising Baxter State Park by 3,569 acres and purchased 40 acres of Cape Elizabeth from the federal government for $28,000.
56.
Edmund Muskie created the Department of Development of Commerce and Industry and Maine Industrial Building Authority.
57.
On September 10,1956, Muskie was re-elected Governor of Maine with 180,254 votes against Republican Willis A Trafton.
58.
Edmund Muskie began his second term by aggressively enforcing environmental standards.
59.
Edmund Muskie added $4 million to infrastructure development focusing on roads and river maintenance.
60.
Edmund Muskie sporadically lowered sales tax, increased the minimum wage and furthered labor protections leading to a marked increase in consumer spending.
61.
Edmund Muskie amended the constitution of Maine in order divert $20 million in public funds into private investment.
62.
Edmund Muskie increased subsidies to expensive institutions such as public primary and secondary schools as well as universities.
63.
Edmund Muskie's governorship exploited multi-factionalism in the Republican Party leading to a vast expansion of the Democratic Party in Maine.
64.
Edmund Muskie resigned on January 2,1959, to take his seat in the United States Senate after the 1958 Senate election.
65.
Edmund Muskie was succeeded by Republican Robert Haskell in an interim capacity until the Governor-elect, Democrat Clinton Clauson, was inaugurated.
66.
Edmund Muskie was officially succeeded by Clauson on January 6,1959.
67.
Edmund Muskie ran in the 1958 elections against incumbent Republican Senator Frederick G Payne.
68.
Edmund Muskie was one of the 12 Democrats who overtook Republican incumbents and established the party as the party-of-house during the election cycle.
69.
Edmund Muskie ran for a second term in 1964, running against Republican Clifford McIntire.
70.
Edmund Muskie was sworn into office as US Senator from Maine on January 3,1959.
71.
Edmund Muskie used the influence gain in his first two terms to push a vast expansion of environmentalism in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
72.
Edmund Muskie served his entire career in the Senate as a member of the Committee on Public Works, a committee he used to execute the majority of his environmental legislation.
73.
Edmund Muskie served on the Committee on Banking and Currency from 1959 to 1970; the Committee on Government Operations until 1978.
74.
Edmund Muskie sponsored the Intergovernmental Relations Act, later that year.
75.
Edmund Muskie assembled more than one hundred votes for the proposed legislation eventually passing it.
76.
Edmund Muskie was upset by its "overzealous surveillance and its director's intemperance".
77.
Edmund Muskie sponsored the construction of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park near Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Brunswick estate.
78.
Edmund Muskie was the floor manager for the discussion and led to its passage in 1965 and its successful amendments in 1970.
79.
Alongside President Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs, Edmund Muskie drafted the Model Cities Bill which eventually passed both houses of Congress in 1966.
80.
Previously, combative with Johnson, Edmund Muskie began developing a more cooperative relationship with him.
81.
Edmund Muskie made the case that the US ought to withdraw from Vietnam as quickly as possible.
82.
Edmund Muskie voted against the appointment of Clement Haynsworth to the US Supreme Court.
83.
Edmund Muskie voted against him and Carswell failed the confirmation process.
84.
Edmund Muskie proposed a six-month ban on domestic and Soviet Union development of nuclear technologies to taper the nuclear arms race.
85.
Also in 1971, Edmund Muskie was asked to join the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; he traveled to Europe and the Middle East in this capacity.
86.
The people of Maine said this was "rash and self serving" but Edmund Muskie has stated his lack of regret for his actions publicly.
87.
In 1970, Edmund Muskie was chosen to articulate the Democratic party's message to congressional voters before the midterm elections.
88.
Edmund Muskie served as the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee through the Ninety-third to the Ninety-sixth Congresses from 1973 to 1980.
89.
In 1968, Edmund Muskie was nominated for vice president on the Democratic ticket with sitting Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
90.
Humphrey asked Edmund Muskie to be his running mate because he was a more reserved contrast personality-wise, from a Catholic background and of Polish origin.
91.
In late 1971, Edmund Muskie gave an anti-war speech in Providence.
92.
Edmund Muskie himself had never participated in a primary election campaign, and it is possible that this led to a weakening of his campaign.
93.
Edmund Muskie went on to win the New Hampshire primary, the victory was by only a small margin, and his campaign took a hit after the release of the "Canuck letter".
94.
Edmund Muskie's speech was viewed as emotional and defensive; he called the newspaper's editor a "gutless coward".
95.
Edmund Muskie gave the speech during a snowstorm which created the appearance of him crying.
96.
Edmund Muskie tried to connect Muskie's acquaintance with singer Frank Sinatra to an abuse of office.
97.
Edmund Muskie often flew on Sinatra's private plane while traveling around California.
98.
In early July 1976, Edmund Muskie spoke with Jimmy Carter in a "productive" and "harmonious" discussion that was followed by Carter confirming that he considered Edmund Muskie qualified for the vice-presidential nomination.
99.
Edmund Muskie was picked by Carter for his accomplishments with senatorial foreign policy.
100.
One poll showed that Edmund Muskie would be a more popular alternative to Carter than Ted Kennedy, implying that the attraction was not so much to Kennedy as to the fact that he was not Carter.
101.
Edmund Muskie began his tenure as secretary of state five months into the invasion.
102.
Edmund Muskie assigned Deputy Secretary Warren Christopher the tasks of managing the domestic side of the department while he participated in international deliberations.
103.
Edmund Muskie met with Soviet diplomat Andrei Gromyko who categorically rejected a compromise that would secure the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
104.
Edmund Muskie was against the rapid accumulation of highly developed weaponry during the 1950s and 1960s as he thought that would inevitably lead to a nuclear arms race that would erode international trust and cooperation.
105.
Edmund Muskie spoke frequently with the government executives of Cold War allies and that of the Soviet Union urging them to suspend their programs in pursuit of global security.
106.
Edmund Muskie's inclinations were confirmed during the early 1970s when Russia split from the US and accumulated more warheads and anti-ballistic missile systems.
107.
Edmund Muskie established diplomatic ties with the Iranian government and attempted to have the hostages released yet was initially unsuccessful.
108.
Edmund Muskie left office on January 18,1981, two days before Carter's last day as president and the inauguration of Ronald Reagan.
109.
Edmund Muskie retired to his home in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1981.
110.
Edmund Muskie continued to work as a lawyer for some years.
111.
Edmund Muskie served as the chairman of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University as well as the chairman Emeritus of the Center for National Policy.
112.
In 1987, Edmund Muskie was appointed a member of the President's Special Review Board known as the "Tower Commission" to investigate President Ronald Reagan's administration's role in the Iran-Contra affair.
113.
Edmund Muskie died at 4:06 AM EST on the morning of March 26,1996, at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, after seeking treatment for bouts of congestive heart failure.
114.
Edmund Muskie died two days shy of his 82nd birthday.
115.
Edmund Muskie's assistant reported that he had suffered a myocardial infarction.
116.
Edmund Muskie was buried next to Muskie and his grave stone was corrected to read "March 26,1996".
117.
Edmund Muskie was memorialized in Washington DC, Lewiston, Maine, and Bethesda, Maryland.
118.
Edmund Muskie was eulogized by US president Jimmy Carter; US Senator, George J Mitchell; 20th United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright; a political aide, Leon G Billings; and one of Muskie's sons, Stephen.
119.
Historical evaluations of Edmund Muskie focus on the impact his actions and legislation had in the United States and the greater world.
120.
Edmund Muskie occupied all offices available in the Maine political system excluding state senator and United States representative.
121.
Edmund Muskie preserved the cultural integrity of the state by endowing the Maine State Museum which was seen as critical to his public perception.
122.
Edmund Muskie has been widely characterized as the catalyst for the political renaissance of the Democratic Party in Maine.
123.
Since Edmund Muskie left office as the US Secretary of State, writers, historians, scholars, political analysts and the general public have debated his legacy.
124.
Edmund Muskie was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the creation of Martin Luther King Jr.
125.
Edmund Muskie's height had him often compared to US President Abraham Lincoln and referred to by voters and media alike as "Lincolnesque".
126.
Edmund Muskie was often seen as "towering over" political candidates creating symbolic superiority and power.
127.
Edmund Muskie was awarded the Guardian of Berlin's Freedom Award from the US Army Berlin Command in 1961.
128.
Edmund Muskie was given honorary citizenship to the State of Texas in 1968.
129.
The statute was amended in 1989; Edmund S Muskie Day is celebrated annually and is a public holiday in Maine.