tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39094822541647852172023-12-04T01:03:54.937-08:00Today in History"Today in History" - What happened on this date in history? Author Brian T. Bolten presents something interesting, strange, amusing or tragic. Whatever it is, it happened TODAY.........Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.comBlogger410125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-28398649292875601232021-04-20T11:41:00.030-07:002021-04-21T11:11:23.713-07:00March 21, 1836 - The Battle of Goliad<i>"...(I) ask that He who buildeth up and pulleth down nations will, the mercy preserve and unite us. For a Nation divided against itself cannot stand. I wish, if this Union must be dissolved, that its ruins may be the monument of my grave, and the graves of my family."</i> - Sam Houston.
These were the final words of a very worried Sam Houston; a man who raised up Texas and got her into the United States of America only to watch her go down in the flames of Civil War in March of 1863. One of the most important acts which he brought about was the the Battle of Jacinto which took place on today's date, April 21 in 1836. It once and for all settled the question of whether the Lone Star Republic would be a part of the United States... it would. A detailed, first-hand account of the battle was written by General Houston from the headquarters of the Texan Army in San Jacinto on April 25, 1836. Numerous secondary analyses and interpretations have followed. What follows is the best that I could manage, based on on-line and separate sources not to mention the recent book by Brian Kilmeade.
<b>Lorenzo de Zavala had opposed Santa Anna's power grab</b> <b>in Mexico</b> wherein he openly supported the Democratic reforms. To Santa Anna, Zavala
was a traitor and needed to be arrested, along with his supporters. Unfortunately, Santa Anna missed the government at Harrrisburg when they bolted town some several hours ahead of the strutting martinet. Santa Anna did get there in time to destroy all of the government's printing equipment; <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLc61xCT6w_J1qfQ1zqtaj25Ojg6DJ0k1CkE3I2-KG6JSpRJwha3fBaPiaZvJD_yqvp3wmOrArX1y9lix4bAg8xvoplKijgiw7GM0AA_RWF222JjQExekPWilSqwdMq_5qRBWM8iKA8ibD/s459/Sam_Houston_c1850-crop.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLc61xCT6w_J1qfQ1zqtaj25Ojg6DJ0k1CkE3I2-KG6JSpRJwha3fBaPiaZvJD_yqvp3wmOrArX1y9lix4bAg8xvoplKijgiw7GM0AA_RWF222JjQExekPWilSqwdMq_5qRBWM8iKA8ibD/s200/Sam_Houston_c1850-crop.jpg"/></a></div>
General Houston (right) arrived a few days later. He was a man of strongly-held opinions; there was something reminiscent of George Washington in the man, and this was likely what got him named major general of the army at the beginning of the Texas Revolution. When he arrived at Harrisburg he found the town had been wrecked. After their long March most of the Texians wanted to settle and make Camp. But Deaf Smith* (*- so named because of a childhood disease that made him lose his sense of hearing) was determined to take a few of his men and go looking for these men who had made such a Mess of Harrisburg. <i>"They were of one mind,"</i>one colonel said,<i>"to march down and fight the enemy!"</i>
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At this point on that same day, a Mexican courier carrying intelligence on the locations,and future plans of all of the Mexican troops in Texas was captured and dragged into camp with Spanish language documents in their saddle bags. These were quickly translated and showed that the Mexican forces in the area were much smaller than the Texians. About 1500 to the nearly 3,000 Texians. Sam Houston realized that his army was ill-trained. So Houston continued to retreat
to the great displeasure of so many of his officers. Houston was keenly aware of how untrained they were, hence the reason for the continual retreats. They had moved back by 120 miles. On March 31 they paused and began <b>training together</b>. And at this time they were joined by Secretary of War Thomas Rusk and Preident David G. Burnet, as well as Secretary of War Samuel Carson. Houston convinced these men that his plans were legitimate, and they should retreat to the Sabine river. They moved through the town of Harrisburg, and that the Mexicans had about 600 men in Texas. Realizing that this showed the Mexicans those who had commited the massscres at the Alamo and at Goliad were now in smaller numbers and not far away.Also there were copies of the Texas Declaration of Independance around.The steamboat <i>"Cayuga"</i> had moved out with the Government members who Santa Anna had been looking to catch up with. When Houston showed up at Buffalo Bayou three days later (8/17/1836)they found that Santa Anna had already been there and left that place a mess. But they now knew that man - Santa Anna - who had ordered the massacres at the Alamo, and Goliad was within reach. The two armies were now within striking distance of each other. With his army standing in formaton. He spoke of meeting their opposites and glory and victory, but when he got right down to one thing that would fire all of their hearts: <b>"Some of us may be killed; remember the Alamo, the Alamo, The Alamo!!"<i></i></b>
His army then raced as fast as it could towards Lynchburg.The area was filled with Oak Groves and marshes; quite at home for the Texians, but strange as could be imagined
for the Mexicans. Houston's 900 man force arrived in the morning of April 20, Santa Anna's 700 mn force a couple of hours later. The Houston group set up camp near the banks of Bufallo Bayou which gave them decent cover, but little room to get away if needed. The set-up of Santa Anna's forces caused Colonel Pedro Delgado to write later <i>"the camping ground of His Excellency's selection was in all respects, against military rules. Any youngster would have done better.</i>" Over
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the next couple of hours skirrmishes broke out, with the Texians forcing the Mexicans to withdraw from a spot near the (above, Santa Anna surenders to Sam Houston)center. Then Mexican Dragoons then forced the Texians out of the area. Houston was unhappy that the Mexicans got a better look at his forces. Some of the men were unhappy that a full battle hadn't occurred. Genral Cos arrived in the morning with @540 reiforcements. But these men were all untrained and green. Santa Anna allowed his men to rest and relax. During this interval Houston ordered the destruction of Vinces Bridge thus blocking off the only escape for the mexicans.
As this morning lingered on and there was no attack, the Texicans got busy. The Texican cavalry was initially dispatched to the Mexican forces' far left, and the artillery advanced through the tall grass to within 200 yards of the Mexican breast works. "The Twin Sisters" (cannons brought from Cincinnati)opened the battle at 4:30. After this opening salvo the Texians broke ranks and began swarming all around the mexican lines yelling "Remember the Alamo! Remember tha Alamo" to initiate hand to hand combat with the Mexicans, who were taken completely by surprise. Santa Anna snd his officers issued conflicting orders while trying to lead some kind of defense. But it wasn't working. The Texian infantry forces charged on without halt until they had control of the woodland and the Mexican breastwork. The right wing of Burleson's and the left wing of Millard's forces had taken possession of the breastwork. Within 18 minutes, Mexican soldiers abandoned their campsite and fled for their lives, The killing lasted for hours. Many Mexicans tried to go through the marshes of Peggy Lake while shooting at anything that moved. But they had fallen prey to these Alamo/Goliad Avengers. The totals at the end of the day left
Mexican soldiers killed and 300 captured. Eleven Texians died, with 30 others, including Houston, wounded.
<b>Santa Anna <i></i></b>had escaped towards Vince's Bridge. Finding the bridge destroyed, he hid in the marsh and was captured the following day, wearing the uniform jacket of a private. But this failed when his own men recognized him as such and pointed him out to the Texian authorities. His Excellency was brought before Houston's own boys wanted him hung on the spot.He had escaped towards Vince's Bridge. Finding the bridge destroyed, he hid in the marsh and was captured the following day, wearing the uniform jacket of a private. But this failed when his own men recognized him as such and pointed him out to the Texian authorities. His Excellency was brought before Houston whose own boys wanted him hung on the spot.
In what historian Davis calls "one of the most one-sided victories in history",650 Mexican soldiers were killed and 300 captured. Eleven Texians died, with 30 others, including Houston, wounded. Eventually dealing with Santa Anna became a matter between one country and another.
In 1874, he took advantage of a general amnesty issued by President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and returned to Mexico, by then crippled and almost blind from cataracts. Santa Anna died at his home in Mexico City on 21 June 1876 at age 82. He was buried with full military honors in a glass coffin in Panteón del Tepeyac Cemetery.
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SOURCES =
<b>"Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers"<i></i></b>by Brian Kilmeade,Large Print, New York, Penguin Random House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Jacinto,
https://www.history.com/topics/mexico/battle-of-san-jacinto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo
Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-21890554105316694132021-02-27T18:22:00.075-08:002021-03-02T15:30:55.627-08:00February, 1917 : The Zimmermann TelegramFebruary 1917:
When Britain and France had gotten to Autumn of 1917, they found themselves at the end of a rope financially speaking. They had spent a lot of money to prosecute the war against the Germans. And the Germans were preparing to announce to the world that they were about to re-start their policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This meant that they would proceed to sink any ship of either the Allies, or their friends, any place that the found them. The Germans had come to figure that if the Americans were tied up with the Germans in submarine combat on one hand and had to deal with combat with the Mexicans on their southern boarder, then the Germans might prevail. The brits were frankly desperate to bring the the americans into the fray on their side.
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Alfred Zimmerman,(right) the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs during a portion of Kaiser Wilhelm's reign, thought that this idea of dragging the Americans into the European war might just be the trick that would put them over the top against the Allies. The man who received the coded message, Ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt, was really hot to make this happen for his side. It would really shut down the Allies The text of the telegram read in part:
<i>"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.</i><i></i>Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.
Signed, ZIMMERMANN"<i></i> This document was being reviewed by the director of British naval intelligence, Rear Admiral William Reginald Hall, the director of Naval intelligence. Hall<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJO3WNCKUu4YcGoQXHtbw2-SAWDGf3-PRp4FYDNOn3DV2cOJ-Npy3-fqWT1kzb2RVoB6_gu89CzUlB7XhbivbLd6X_AMJ4DjQeZLgFCMrBVSOmqor5u_yh0MZxhR17piZoYYrZrot-1CTV/s507/Admiral_Reginald_Hall%252C_1919.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJO3WNCKUu4YcGoQXHtbw2-SAWDGf3-PRp4FYDNOn3DV2cOJ-Npy3-fqWT1kzb2RVoB6_gu89CzUlB7XhbivbLd6X_AMJ4DjQeZLgFCMrBVSOmqor5u_yh0MZxhR17piZoYYrZrot-1CTV/s320/Admiral_Reginald_Hall%252C_1919.jpg"/></a></div> was a hot-tempered maverick who blinked his clear blue eyes so regularly that his colleaugues called him "Blinker." An American who worked with him called him the most cold blooded proposition there had ever been. His interrogations of German P.O.W.s were as ruthless as anything the Old Bailey had ever seen. ,,,,,To Bell, secretary of the United States Embassy in Britain it seemed at first incredible, and he thought that it was a forgery. But when he was convinced, Bell sent a copy to United States Amb. Walter Hines Page. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp53gvzsQZbx5yIDigMKJbBr_ctiHTw4MzWQb5XDyZW_30I8KgifpNxHb7aQLxvgzhGacOlFC0v1UHk_1z0Kk4VpGQpz0cRFUmGl7oh8X1dsPB_xjbel7SFKM6nismS72wA8xYqw1xMs0S/s276/Wilson.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp53gvzsQZbx5yIDigMKJbBr_ctiHTw4MzWQb5XDyZW_30I8KgifpNxHb7aQLxvgzhGacOlFC0v1UHk_1z0Kk4VpGQpz0cRFUmGl7oh8X1dsPB_xjbel7SFKM6nismS72wA8xYqw1xMs0S/s200/Wilson.jpg"/></a></div> Page who then reported the story to President Woodrow Wilson (right) <i>"Good Lord!"</i> he yelled. <i>"Good Lord!"</i><a on February 24, 1917. Wilson felt a considerable amount Good Lord!"</i> One would think he had much more by way of anger, but whtever he felt he kept it to himself until any doubts as to the authenticity of the telegram were done away with by Zimmermann himself. At a press conference on 3 March 1917, he told an American journalist, <i>"I cannot deny it. It is true."</i>
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson cited Germany’s violation of its pledge to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States, as his reasons for declaring war. On April 4, 1917, the U.S. Senate voted in support of the measure to declare war on Germany. The House concurred two days later. The United States later declared war on German ally Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917.
Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-3142453925940983322014-02-08T11:19:00.001-08:002021-02-08T11:27:32.651-08:00FEBRUARY 8 = "The Birth of a Nation" Premieres<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On February 8 in 1915, D.W. Griffith's film <i>"Birth of a Nation"</i> had it's premiere at Clyne's Auditorium in Los Angeles. This event is important for the history of the Cinema because the silent movie was America's first feature length film, lasting over three hours. It was also a huge box-office hit in which Griffith pioneered many film-making techniques which are central to the art today.<br />
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<b><i>"The Birth of a Nation"</i> Creates and Perpetuates Racial Stereotypes</b><br />
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It is also an important event for African American history, but for very negative reasons. While it was indeed cinematically ground-breaking, in terms of it's racist depiction of the post-Civil War era, it is also regarded as one of the offensive films ever made. Based on Thomas Dixon's novel <i>"The Clansman"</i>, the film follows the 1860's history of two fictional families from the North and South. While it is meticulous in it's attention to detail in some scenes such as Civil War battles, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it is thoroughly malicious in it's depiction of African Americans, who are uniformly portrayed as degenerate, lazy, and dangerous. For this reason, while it was seen by millions, and lauded by many - no less than President Woodrow Wilson called the film <i>"History written with lightening"</i>- it also caused a storm of controversy with the recently formed NAACP campaigning to have it banned. A sampling of some of the reaction:<br />
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<b>The "Critical" Reaction:</b><br />
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<i>"Griffith struck it right when he adapted the Dixon story for the film. He knew the South and he knew just what kind of picture would please all white classes. Some places the censors are going to find fault. That's a persistent way some censors have. The scene of the "black congress" and the negro removing his shoe may be censured, but it's drawn from reported facts. It's worth seeing anywhere. Many will see it twice, yea thrice and still obtain much satisfaction and entertainment."</i> - Mark Vance, <i>"Variety"</i> issue of March 12, 1915.<br />
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<i>"We do not, in any state of the Union, grant to the Negro economic and political economy. No white man of proper feeling can be proud of the record. The wonder is that the negro is as good as he is. The to the injury is added slander. To make a few dirty dollars men are willing to pander to depraved tastes and to foment a race antipathy that is the most sinister and dangerous feature of American life."</i> - Editorial in <i>"the New York Globe"</i> issue of April 6, 1915.<br />
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<i>"Your editorial is an insult to the intelligence and human kindness of nearly 100,000 of the best people in New York City who have viewed this picture from artistic interests and not through any depraved taste such as you indicate. Included in this list is your own able critic, Edwin Sherwin of the Globe."</i> - D.W. Griffith replying in <i>"the Globe"</i> on April 10, 1915. (Right: D.W. Griffith)<br />
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<i>"Whatever happened during Reconstruction, this film is aggressively vicious and defamatory. It is spiritual assassination. It degrades the censors that passed it and the white race that endures it."</i> - Francis Hackett in <i>"The New Republic"</i>, March 20, 1915.<br />
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<i>"In view of the fact that the film play known as "Birth of a Nation" is creating strenuous objection to it's presentation by the citizens of Dayton, Ohio, and in view of the fact that it is considered and recognized as a hatred breeding film as opposed to amicable relations between the white and colored citizenship, be it resolved that out of deference to the well-being of all citizens, the Commissioners of Dayton, Ohio condemn the presentation of the film "Birth of a Nation" at this time, and lend their influence both severally and collectively, in an effort to prohibit it's exhibitions."</i> - Resolution of Dayton, Ohio Commissioners, March 7, 1915.<br />
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Sources:<br />
D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time Illustrated Edition
by Melvyn Stokes (Author)Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-39937834397536864182021-02-04T08:43:00.000-08:002021-02-04T08:43:43.175-08:00FEBRUARY 4, 1937 Walt Disney Premiers "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs."<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Yat57oWleCUG-NNTH5ScBUUwECOR_hvcsy2iNjHjvK06X-dXsHWb8wvRqMISt9fKkBmmLg2KBa9Gn-NZC4XEjW_nJj-h89sfmvd2ri39quf4eRbHzHpZpNnZL0sJ8Ra2gllwvGZATIit/s1440/Walt_Disney_2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Yat57oWleCUG-NNTH5ScBUUwECOR_hvcsy2iNjHjvK06X-dXsHWb8wvRqMISt9fKkBmmLg2KBa9Gn-NZC4XEjW_nJj-h89sfmvd2ri39quf4eRbHzHpZpNnZL0sJ8Ra2gllwvGZATIit/s200/Walt_Disney_2.jpg"/></a></div> In December 1937 Walt Disney (below), producer and the father of "Mickey Mouse" was in the mood for a great experiment. He had produced countless cartoon shorts over the years and found success in that area. But now he wanted to make a full length animated film. He had a ton of negative voices in Hollywood including his wife Lillian, telling him that no adult would sit through the entire feature-length cartoon about a lady and a bunch of dwarfs. But Walt was convinced it would work, so he stuck his neck out on up to borrowing 1.5 million dollars in order to get it done. So Snow White premiered in Hollywood on December 21, 1937, got a huge ovation for his work from his celebrity filled crowd which loved every minute of it. It was then released the following February 4 grossing 8 million - an unbelievably huge sum during a vast economic depression. This was most made by any film up to that time. <b> Walt Disney was born in Chicago in 1901.</b> In 1923 Walt joined up with the infant animation industry. All films came with a cartoon back then, and in 1928 Walt introcuced the world to Mickey Mouse in the first full length sound cartoon: "Steamboat Willie"(below) 1928. By 1934, Disney had won 4 Oscars for his cartoons, many in color. But he realized that the way to <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjW_i9DpZLqDLXIcDW2-rXEDnd7c6Ijd_aJ2oKb_0z8Lb41S8OTPgGdDL1FttSuoJ9Nm8dLOZkKr75ybn5qrwFXin-ZdTd0WV37iuRUV5J3Z-Y4OO-FxlwmZ2XXug02CfIM7MQeP5WZGTr/s2048/Steam+Boat+Willie.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="2042" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjW_i9DpZLqDLXIcDW2-rXEDnd7c6Ijd_aJ2oKb_0z8Lb41S8OTPgGdDL1FttSuoJ9Nm8dLOZkKr75ybn5qrwFXin-ZdTd0WV37iuRUV5J3Z-Y4OO-FxlwmZ2XXug02CfIM7MQeP5WZGTr/s200/Steam+Boat+Willie.jpg"/></a></div>really expand and diversify his product was with feature length cartoons. So one night in 1934, Walt took all of his best prodution men out to dinner and then brought them back to the studio. <b>There, he related the entire "Snow White" story</b> for them right down to the characters music that would play with them and some type of voice that they would have had. He really had it all laid it out of his mind.
So the more the story took shape in Disney's head the more it took hold with his artists. The story had to be adapted storyboard form by the artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. David Hand became the supervising director, and William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen directed the film's penetrating individual sequences. <b>The story was based on a plot from Grimms fairy tales</b>, and it went through any<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3e7kyIlJT-M7-BSqh4VM2uZNmlUcePCypTUu-cz7yhdcm6Vw0lxzrOP74oVrEJuk6clZ10TN7ZJGfItDORtWLdA6e_-w42PLdODstkuOD-BOT5Tp0XIeZn4dHKDvve7nDo8IpNdrUWtdJ/s350/Grim%2527s+Fairy+Tales.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3e7kyIlJT-M7-BSqh4VM2uZNmlUcePCypTUu-cz7yhdcm6Vw0lxzrOP74oVrEJuk6clZ10TN7ZJGfItDORtWLdA6e_-w42PLdODstkuOD-BOT5Tp0XIeZn4dHKDvve7nDo8IpNdrUWtdJ/s320/Grim%2527s+Fairy+Tales.jpg"/></a></div> number of changes while it was developed into a full blown story. For example staff writer Richard Creedon came up with the principal characters for the seven dwarfs, none of whom had names in the original story. Also the number of dwarfs went through several changes. But Disney wanted names that would express something about the indvidual characters of the dwarfs, hence "Doc", "Sneeezy", "Grumpy", etc.were born. Also there were changes in the character of the Evil Queen. Disney didn't want her to be crazy, or fat, but a <i>"stately beautiful type"</i> There were a number of changes in how the Queen was to have Snow White murdered. Eventually after many changes that had the Queen using a poison comb, it was decided that a poisoned apple was to be the weapon of choice, The object of the Queen's wrath was of course <b>Snow White who was spoken and sung by 21 year old Adriana Caselotti </b>(below). Adriana brought a very sweet voice to Snow White, both in<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLys3F9iJvgTA4AMpWhLy9lmmjLwwDgAVLSWL-mGHyzBGZLeHHP2032uW0fj9dxX-fToQkHU8BVbLyO5YWkN2oQRbw79SarUMqn-9FuNHxz1Bd3Qzt7uQLmxf9IBe92zgVgnXchDFiC1uJ/s348/Adriana_Caselotti_photo.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLys3F9iJvgTA4AMpWhLy9lmmjLwwDgAVLSWL-mGHyzBGZLeHHP2032uW0fj9dxX-fToQkHU8BVbLyO5YWkN2oQRbw79SarUMqn-9FuNHxz1Bd3Qzt7uQLmxf9IBe92zgVgnXchDFiC1uJ/s320/Adriana_Caselotti_photo.jpg"/></a></div> song and in dialogue, as a direct contrast to the darkness of evil Queen. Her version of "Some Day My Prince Will Come" by Frank Churchill was one of the hilights of the film. And I couldn't resist whistling along with "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Home From Work We Go" by Frank Churchill, and Larry Morey. Of course, there were artists all over the place on this one. The main concept artist in this production was Albert Hurter who had final approval on everything: from the look on each character to the animals to the rocks surrounding the dark castle had to be approved by Mr.Hurter before it went into the film.
That is just a hint of what went into the production of this magnificent film. The main point is that Disney got his baby out to the public.<b>The film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937,</b> to an audience which was very receptive, and which contained some of the people who were most critical of its production. An audience contaning the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton and Judy Garland gave it a standing ovation. The American publication Variety observed that<i> "[so] perfect is the illusion, so tender the romance and fantasy, so emotional are certain portions when the acting of the characters strikes a depth comparable to the sincerity of human players, that the film approaches real greatness."</i>
Following successful intial runs in New York and Miami, the film was put into general release all around the United States on February 4, 1937. It became the most sucessful sound film of all time. Of course it was eclipsed in this by "Gone With The Wind" (1939), but it did remarkably well in foreign releases such as England and Australia. The film was re-released during the War, and it did so well that Disney began the practice of re-releasing every ten years. Eventually with VHS, and DVD technology, and all manner of special editions,"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" looks to be a permanent part of our cinematic firmament.
...<b>Sources:</b> = .............................................. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film)...... https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs.................
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disney-releases-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs..........https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disney-releases-snow-white-and-the-sevendwarfs.......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriana_Caselotti......https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Albert_Hurter......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales
Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-6876271611568724032020-01-09T16:14:00.002-08:002021-01-09T10:58:32.428-08:00JANUARY 9 = 1861 "Star of the West" is Fired Upon<br />
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The American Civil War begun in earnest in April of 1861 when shots were exchanged between Union batteries in Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and Confederate guns on the shore installations. But the first actual shots were fired on this day, January 9 in 1861 when shots were fired upon the merchant ship <i>"Star of the West"</i> (above) as she attempted to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter.<br />
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<b>States Seceding, the Union Dissolving</b><br />
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This all came about during the secession crisis that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln on November 6, 1860. Sectional differences had divided the United States for years. There were arguments about state's sovereignty, but the main dividing factor was the practice of slavery in the southern states. Lincoln's Republican Party had run on a platform which pledged not to interfere with slavery where it already existed, but which opposed the extension of slavery into the territories as they became states. The election was held, and with the opposition so divided between pro and anti-slave elements, Lincoln won with nearly 40% of the popular vote but a commanding majority of the electoral votes - 180 of the 303 available. Many of the Southern states had been threatening to secede from the Union, and this mindset was very strong in South Carolina. On Nov. 8, the newspaper the Charleston Mercury, published a dark message: <i>"The tea has been thrown overboard—the revolution of 1860 has been initiated.”</i> And South Carolina indeed lead the way formally seceding from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860.<br />
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<b>Fort Sumter - in Charleston Harbor</b><br />
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On seceding from the Union on that day South Carolina demanded the the withdrawal of the Federal garrison in Fort Sumter right out in the middle of Charleston Harbor. The small number of Federal troops still in Charleston after secession had been moved there by their<br />
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commander, Major Robert Anderson in (left) to "prevent the effusion of blood." President James Buchanan refused to cave in on this one point. But Maj. Anderson and his 80 men required supplies and perhaps reinforcements. But Pres. Buchanan sent a civilian supply ship instead of a military ship, so as to keep the crisis from expanding by provocative action. The ship sent was <i>"The Star of the West"</i>, a purely civilian ship. Sent on Jan. 5, <i>Star of the West </i>was cruising into a hornet's nest. Cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy - the Citadel - had set up a battery of guns on Morris Island, and were waiting.<br />
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<b>The Shots Are Fired!</b><br />
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Early in the morning of today's date, January 9,<i> Star of the West</i> captain John McGowan tried to move his ship into a channel near Fort Sumter. The Cadets on Morris Island fired a shot across the merchant vessel's bow to warn her off. Still <i>Star of the West</i> tried to move on forward. The cadets began to open fire (below). Major Anderson gave no thought to returning fire from his batteries on<br />
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Sumter. If he had it might have initiated a full fledged military engagement, and the Civil War might have started right then and there. Some batteries on nearby Fort Moultrie scored a couple of hits on their target, causing some damage on the ship. At this point, Capt. McGowan in charge of his unarmed ship decided to exit the channel and make a safe withdrawal.<br />
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So ended thee initial shots of America's bloodiest war... a small little skirmish in a Southern harbor in which nobody was killed or even harmed. A few weeks later after Lincoln had been inaugurated, 11 southern states had seceded from the union. And on April 12, 1861 the batteries in Charleston harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter itself, and the real shooting had begun.<br />
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<b>Sources =</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/news/charleston-at-war-in-star-of-the-west-gets-first/article_27c54d7b-af4a-57a2-8273-d5902a0965a3.html">https://www.postandcourier.com/news/charleston-at-war-in-star-of-the-west-gets-first/article_27c54d7b-af4a-57a2-8273-d5902a0965a3.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/star-of-the-west-is-fired-upon" target="_blank">https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/star-of-the-west-is-fired-upon</a><a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/star-of-the-west-is-fired-upon" target="_blank"><br /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West</a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter</a><br />
<b><i><u><br /></u></i></b>
<b><i><u>"The Civil War"</u></i></b> Prod. by Ken Burns, written by Geoffrey C. Ward Vol. 1<br />
<b><i><u>"The Cause"</u></i></b>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/star-of-the-west-is-fired-upon" target="_blank"><br /></a>
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Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-52690889050474112642015-01-04T10:55:00.002-08:002021-01-05T13:02:33.437-08:00JANUARY 4 = Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette in Captivity<br />
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In January of 1790, a British Country Squire named Arthur Young was traveling through Europe. France had recently been convulsed by the events of the French Revolution which had resulted in the King himself, Louis XVI, and his whole family being imprisoned in their fabulous palace outside Paris, the Tuileries. Young, for whom this was an unbelievable sight, the once mighty King of France reduced to the status of mere prisoner in a gilded cage, remarked on the appearance of the King his Queen, Marie Antoinette, and their son when he saw them on January 4, 1790:<br />
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<i>"After breakfast walk in the gardens of the Tuileries, where there is the most extraordinary sight that either French or English eyes could </i><br />
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<i>ever behold at Paris. The King </i>(right)<i> with six grenadiers... with an officer or two of his household and a page.... When he entered the palace the doors of the garden were thrown open for all without distinction, though the Queen was still walking with a lady of her court."</i><br />
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<b><i>"The King is as plump as ease can render him..."</i></b><br />
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<i>"A mob followed her talking very loud, and paying no other apparent respect than that of taking off their hats wherever she passed, which was indeed more than I expected. Her Majesty </i>(below)<i> does not </i><br />
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<i>appear to be </i><i>in health; she seems to be much affected and she shows it in her face: but the King is as plump as ease can render him. By his orders, there is a little garden railed off for the Dauphin </i>(the young son of Louis & Marie)<i> to amuse himself in... here he was at work with his little hoe and rake, but not without a guard of two grenadiers. He is a very pretty, good natured-looking boy of five or six years old with an agreeable countenance, wherever he goes, hats are taken off to him, which I was </i><i>glad to observe. </i><i> </i><br />
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<i>All the family </i>(pictured in the Tuileries, right)<i> being kept thus close prisoners (for such they are in effect) afford at first view, a shocking spectacle; and is really so if the act were not necessary to effect the revolution."</i><br />
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Louis and his family attempted to escape France in June of 1791. But their plan fell through and they were re-captured. With this attempt to escape, Louis lost all hold he had on popular respect or sympathy. He went to the guillotine on January 21, 1793, and his Queen followed him there on October 16 of that year. The Dauphin - Louis Charles - was kept in prison wherein he died at age 10, in 1795.<br />
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<b>Sources:</b><br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-History-John-Carey/dp/0380729687/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420397204&sr=1-1&keywords=eyewitness+to+history">"Eyewitness to History"</a></i></b>, Edited by John Carey, Avon Books, New York, 1987.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France</a><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette</a><br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-46207126729522233552020-12-26T11:04:00.030-08:002020-12-26T11:25:39.139-08:00December 26 = The Battle of Trenton.
On December 23, 1776 Thomas Paine wrote <i>"these are the times that try men's souls."</i> in his incendiary pamphlet <i><i>"Common Sense"</i>.</i> Surely it was so for George Washington's Continental army. They had been kicked out of New York and all of the Forts which they had erected on the Brooklyn Hieghts. And his army was literally disintegrating arround him his soldier's enlistment papers were due to expire at the end of the year. The men he had were in very poor shape, many of whom were <i>"entirely naked and most so thinly clad as to be unfit for service"</i> in Washington's own description, The only element in their favor was winter, which kept the Delaware River frozen, and safely between the Brits and the Americans. The British had settled into their winter quarters, hoping that either the freezing winter, or renewed hostilities in the spring, would end the rebellion. Indeed the Hessians (German mercenaries in the employ of the Brits) had settled down with a mere 1500 men at Trenton, just 9 miles down the road across the Delaware River.
<b>Washington Conceived a Bold Plan</b> to keep his army together and in the field.
Washinton refused to see himself as beaten no matter what William Howe (the General in charge of the British forces) thought. He now had the permission of the Congress to use the army in any way he thought productive, and this seemed to stimulate his thoughts.<i>"His Excellency George Washington" </i>General Greene (below) would record later <i>"never appeared to so much advantage as the hour of stress."</i><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8aL_mnlVhcZWADvac2MGxXuDG2cIRVxFsajNVukFoPKEA026ZmGZD9BPYjBQb_e1jOhdACchLpaBsVHrZuLMwzgeI_XgdALLoo_xJXnl4lIEKnkf7A9rqYWlYnX1gH4JWtnD3LHdcpmK/s400/General+Greene.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8aL_mnlVhcZWADvac2MGxXuDG2cIRVxFsajNVukFoPKEA026ZmGZD9BPYjBQb_e1jOhdACchLpaBsVHrZuLMwzgeI_XgdALLoo_xJXnl4lIEKnkf7A9rqYWlYnX1gH4JWtnD3LHdcpmK/s200/General+Greene.jpg"/></a></div> Washinington devised a daring plan to sting the British, and the Hessiaan mercenaries. capture a ton of much-needed supplies as well as give a huge boost to his Armies morale. ....... His plan was the reverse of what anyone expected. Instead of huddling in winter quarters like the Brits and their Hessian pals did, <b>he proposed to ATTACK!<i></i></b>................He would move his 2,400 man force, including horse and eighteen cannons, across the ice-choked Delaware River, divide his forces into two, one under Greene and one under Sullivan, to launch a pre-dawn attack. Sullivan would attack the town from the south, and Greene from the north at dawn on December 26. The task of ferrying everything across the Delaware River fell on Colonel John Glover and his tough, rugged band of Massachusetts fishermen. After revealing his plan at a council of war, Washington ordered as many boats as his men could lay ther hands on to be located and ferried to his position ten miles above Trenton. And the strictest silence had to be maintained. The freezing troops of the Continental Army were given meager provisions for three days and were not told the objective, only that the password was,<i> “Victory or Death!"</i> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGpME14kGKTv_nTZcAfF1MCvWXH1B9WnB8VcO9c5jQ1i5NpCuMIsvknIUxJiD3WG0J_JElBkrmYPmx5K8-9rRDICbPThoYg-CKCqxFqIAdmGs4WixtHEcm1KwqLfZleIea_q1GG-gj24G/s297/Crosing+the+Delaware.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGpME14kGKTv_nTZcAfF1MCvWXH1B9WnB8VcO9c5jQ1i5NpCuMIsvknIUxJiD3WG0J_JElBkrmYPmx5K8-9rRDICbPThoYg-CKCqxFqIAdmGs4WixtHEcm1KwqLfZleIea_q1GG-gj24G/s400/Crosing+the+Delaware.jpg"/></a></div>
Henry Knox, Washington’s Chief of Artillery recalled in a letter to his wife, <i>"The moon was full on Christmas night. As men and material loaded into the transports.."Floating ice in the river made the labor almost incredible.”</i> The river’s strong and swift current complicated matters, as did a nasty nor’easter which began pelting everyone with snow, freezing rain and sleet, accompanied by a steady and stiff wind. By 3:00 am, Washington’s troops were across. <i>“Perseverance,</i>” wrote Knox, <i>“accomplished what first seemed impossible."</i>
Behind schedule because of the storm, the Americans arrived on the outskirts of Trenton around daybreak on the 26th. Washington split his force into two columns. One, commanded by Nathaniel Greene attacked from the north, while a second under John Sullivan attacked from the west to cut the line of retreat to the south.
Recalling the assault, one American officer said,<i> “I never could conceive that one spirit should so universally animate both officers and men to rush forward into action.”</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75pylA4dK1dr_CHYl2DNK7Dd5MgmFQLq4HUhgs37h4xN2TDLnkWviXjzF9fBx0lnbRnXaPTDFG99g3qkX-pXlhPUXr-HXIaeUZBE1VMWpwLhlDA83iFJH8x9Xv2RrXFprDgXczVCmGFvk/s1200/Battle_of_Trenton_by_Charles_McBarron.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75pylA4dK1dr_CHYl2DNK7Dd5MgmFQLq4HUhgs37h4xN2TDLnkWviXjzF9fBx0lnbRnXaPTDFG99g3qkX-pXlhPUXr-HXIaeUZBE1VMWpwLhlDA83iFJH8x9Xv2RrXFprDgXczVCmGFvk/s320/Battle_of_Trenton_by_Charles_McBarron.jpg"/></a></div> As they marched, Washington rode up and down the line, urging his men to forward. General Sullivan sent a message to Washington that the weather was wetting his men's gunpowder. Washington ordered, <i>"Tell General Sullivan to use the bayonet. I am resolved to take Trenton."</i>
The Hessian garrison, under the command of Colonel Johann Rall had been harassed by American militia for several weeks and were exhausted. Despite Washington engaging the pickets on the outskirts of town, Rall was taken completely by surprise. The Hessians attempted to form up at several spots but were unable to do so effectively. It became a running battle and the Americans quickly had the upper hand. Some of the Hessians did manage to escape, but most of them were captured.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH_5plOjkHsMDE6dw6VUDfMWyzrhSZiforujwrllE3_0GmqGd4fD-n_TdkiOHtRTZ_hxSkeDz89WCgyUE56-dM5_2BCguN2Q8hXOeEb9I5IKY5UIGue7RT4yWWOqFZUMYFDxNRthxPG8Tv/s278/More+Battle+of+Trenton.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="181" data-original-width="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH_5plOjkHsMDE6dw6VUDfMWyzrhSZiforujwrllE3_0GmqGd4fD-n_TdkiOHtRTZ_hxSkeDz89WCgyUE56-dM5_2BCguN2Q8hXOeEb9I5IKY5UIGue7RT4yWWOqFZUMYFDxNRthxPG8Tv/s320/More+Battle+of+Trenton.jpg"/></a></div> The battle raged with the Americans pouring down their assault upon the suddenly awakened Teuonic enemies. The Hessians were never sufficiently able to mount an organized defense. At on point they pulled back in as orderly a fashion as they could through the streets of Trenton only to be surrounded by the Americans in a peach orchard on the outskirts. Hessian commander Col. Johann Rall attempted to rally his men, but it couldn't be done, as his men felt frightened by this surprise attack. Col. Rall wound up beeing mortally wounded. This left his troops demoralized and those who saw this through their weapons to the ground and surrendered.
The Hessians lost 22 men killed in the fight with another 86 receiving wounds and close to 900 were taken prisoner. The Americans also seized much-needed supplies, including additional cannons and 1,200 muskets. The Americans suffered only five casualties, all only wounded. It was a major victory that proved a vital boost to the American cause when it desperately needed it.
<b>Washington had won a stunning victory.</b> The army that the British thought was all but defeated had destroyed a major garrison with very light casualties, capturing critical supplies in the process. Striking on Washington took to cross and recross Delaware again over the next ten days, fighting a delaying action at the Battle of the Assunpink and winning another stunning victory at the Battle of Princeton. The Revolution had survived.
<b>Sources =</b>
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/trenton.....
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/trenton.....
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/washington-wins-first-major-u-s-victory-at-trenton........
<b>"1776"</b> by David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005.
<b>"The American Heritage History of the American Revolution" </b>by Bruce Lancaster, American Heritage Publising Co. New York, 1971......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trenton
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Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-32191296136522169142013-12-16T09:42:00.002-08:002020-12-16T11:26:19.943-08:00DECEMBER 16 = Beethoven's Birthday!!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJvGEoTLKq5dmou2emaZcau43A5y8mQ_Rz5F1gA_8uJwNrCTVzV2DuzG5Ns8b2HEy2aur0AcKsJYa45le97BTfthNFYdBxfIAvvVQJZu7Iil-MUDBlRgyrpxjATuSQi8mKKwcsexuA1Y/s1600-h/250px-Beethoven_Waldmuller_1823%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415914448546003106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJvGEoTLKq5dmou2emaZcau43A5y8mQ_Rz5F1gA_8uJwNrCTVzV2DuzG5Ns8b2HEy2aur0AcKsJYa45le97BTfthNFYdBxfIAvvVQJZu7Iil-MUDBlRgyrpxjATuSQi8mKKwcsexuA1Y/s400/250px-Beethoven_Waldmuller_1823%5B1%5D.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 308px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /></a><br />
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<i>"...a short, stout man with a very red face, small, piercing eyes, and bushy eyebrows, dressed in a very long overcoat which reached nearly to his ankles...notwithstanding the high color of his cheeks and his general untidiness, there was in those small piercing eyes an expression which no painter could render. It was a feeling of sublimity and melancholy combined...The wonderful impression made on me was heightened every time I met him. When I first saw him at Baden, his white hair flowing over his mighty shoulders, with that wonderful look -- sometimes contracting his eyebrows when anything afflicted him, sometimes bursting into a forced laughter, indescribably painful to his listeners -- I was touched as if "King Lear" or one of the old Gaelic bards stood before me."</i><br />
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- Sir Julius Benedict.<br />
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<strong>Beethoven's Innovations to Music</strong><br />
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{NOTE = click on the highlighted words in this paragraph for musical examples; some of these examples don' work... sorry}<br />
The <i>"old Gaelic Bard"</i> that Sir Julius is describing is Ludwig van Beethoven,born on this date, December 16, 1770 in the city of Bonn in what is now the Federal Republic of Germany. On first seeing him in 1823, Benedict was no doubt expecting someone or something else. And that is what listeners and performers of Beethoven's sublime music have been getting ever since. From his magnificent chamber works, to his monumental orchestral music Beethoven has been surprising and intriguing the music world ever since he burst upon<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgwHq-x2gdntVgMG8-KxDBVdRF2wyayQPlE3Z1m68kxYSPfFAHiopfuPWbFG8EMp5j59Uoo9ZrykYFCooPNTLZgqjXZlQDwuqw_T4OgbGOH5_BqV_8bNx0Ayi3-N2ow610Xok0lXwd6cd/s1600/Beet.+WalkingColor1611113995.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgwHq-x2gdntVgMG8-KxDBVdRF2wyayQPlE3Z1m68kxYSPfFAHiopfuPWbFG8EMp5j59Uoo9ZrykYFCooPNTLZgqjXZlQDwuqw_T4OgbGOH5_BqV_8bNx0Ayi3-N2ow610Xok0lXwd6cd/s320/Beet.+WalkingColor1611113995.2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
it at the end of what is known as the <i>"Clas- sical" </i>period. In his First Symph- ony, for example, often seen as a tribute to his one-time teacher Franz Joseph Haydn, Beethoven started out on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ZicjLYKWQ" target="_blank">dominant chord resolving to the tonic</a>. Then in the standard <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxFVGsd0vM" target="_blank">Minuet</a> movement he takes the listener on a raucous romp in three, complete with accents on the SECOND beat! In the Third Symphony, he places in the third movement a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCjdnaSZZdg" target="_blank"> "Marcia Funebre"</a>. In the Fifth Symphony, he links each movement with some variation of the famous <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4IRMYuE1hI">short-short-short-long opening motif</a>. In the Ninth Symphony Beethoven writes a final movement complete with a monumental chorus, yet what does he interrupt all of this for? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9V5yUsrmdg">A little Turkish Band!</a><br />
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<strong>Beethoven's Place in Musical History</strong><br />
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The man's inventiveness, his determination to produce music which from the very first continuously stretched the envelope of established musical forms and practices, was endless. In spite of deafness which had overtaken him completely well before he had written the third of his nine symphonies, he almost single-handedly pulled the music of the western world into the romantic era. Professor Donald J. Grout says of Beethoven:<br />
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<i>"Historically, Beethoven's work is built on the achievements of Classical period. Through external circumstances, and the force of his own genius he transformed this heritage and became the source of much that was characteristic of the Romantic period. But he himself is neither Classic nor Romantic; he is Beethoven, and his figure towers like a colossus astride the two centuries."</i><br />
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READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any <strong><em>"Today in History"</em></strong> posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: <a href="mailto:krustybassist@gmail.com"><span style="color: #5588aa;">krustybassist@gmail.com</span></a> I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!<br />
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<b>Sources =</b><br />
<br />
<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/History-Western-Music-Ninth/dp/0393918297/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450303353&sr=1-1&keywords=a+history+of+western+music" target="_blank">"A History of Western Music"</a></i></b> by Donald J. Grout, W.W. Norton and Co. Inc., New York, 1960, 1973.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_229356951"><br /></a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven</a><br />
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+ 17.<br />
+ 57.Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-86648680376286403142020-12-12T11:37:00.001-08:002020-12-14T08:12:16.045-08:00December 14, 1911 = Amundsen Wins Race to the South PoleOn today's date, December 14 in 1911, Norwegian <b>Roald Amundsen</b> (below) became the first explorer to reach the South Pole, beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott by more than a month.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfANBGH2P0_GpA5ckOIqKdUOTVYeJDns_zV0ckzVjAarA2DDI9-yHtEiEjuekB3OZLxs3tS1SSCMQ8gQOJRILEXyx7x0PndBCC51mbJ33ZMQwFhDqtye0HHGKJC6bYkOAvLrH0pr57jX2/s444/330px-Amundsen_in_fur_skins.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfANBGH2P0_GpA5ckOIqKdUOTVYeJDns_zV0ckzVjAarA2DDI9-yHtEiEjuekB3OZLxs3tS1SSCMQ8gQOJRILEXyx7x0PndBCC51mbJ33ZMQwFhDqtye0HHGKJC6bYkOAvLrH0pr57jX2/s320/330px-Amundsen_in_fur_skins.jpg"/></a></div>
Amundsen, born in Borge, near Oslo, in 1872, was one of the greatest figures in the history of polar exploration. In 1897, he was first mate on a Belgian expedition that was the first ever to spend the entire winter in Antarctica. In 1903, he steered the 47-ton sloop Gjöa around the coast of Canada using the Northwest Passage and becoming the first navigator to accomplish that treacherous route. He was having some difficulty raising funds for a dash to the North Pole when he heard in 1909 that the Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had already gotten there.
Amundsen completed his preparations and in June 1910 sailed instead for Antarctica, secretly changing his plans. Without telling his financial backers or even his own crewmen at first, the Norwegian steered his ship Fram toward Antarctica and set his sights on reaching the South Pole. Before arriving, he sent a letter to<b> Captain Robert Falcon Scott of the British Royal Navy</b>(below) <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8DNm7QVqIisrQUIagzy6i9SQUKgCbTmpfNS3GQ5YWL8DHtBJteoFuulTdWTaA44u_rrlHhPXTtBX_9SNGXt3UVxSFgh48z0e4_dMH1TrB5YhZgsuRIEGTAPGz7VzkuP5bVf8GaPrvPwnI/s471/Robert+Falcon+Scott.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8DNm7QVqIisrQUIagzy6i9SQUKgCbTmpfNS3GQ5YWL8DHtBJteoFuulTdWTaA44u_rrlHhPXTtBX_9SNGXt3UVxSFgh48z0e4_dMH1TrB5YhZgsuRIEGTAPGz7VzkuP5bVf8GaPrvPwnI/s320/Robert+Falcon+Scott.jpg"/></a></div>who was preparing his own expedition in Australia. It read simply: <i>“Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen.”</i> Amundsen sailed his ship into Antarctica’s Bay of Whales and set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than Scott. Both explorers set up their means of trasportation Amundsen using sleigh dogs, and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs. There was considerable press coverage to the two teams in what they called <i>“race for the South Pole.” </i>
After spending the early part of 1911 laying down advance caches of food and supplies for their polar journeys, Amundsen and Scott’s expeditions took shelter and spent several months waiting out the dark and frigid Antarctic winter. Amundsen later tried to get a head start by beginning his journey early in September 1911, but was forced to turn back after temperatures fell as far as 68 degrees below zero. <b>Finally, on October 20, 1911,</b> conditions improved enough for his five-man team to begin their dash to the Pole. Scott got underway just a few days later on November 1.
Amundsen and Scott relied on vastly different forms of transport during their journeys. Scott employed a combination of sled dogs, Manchurian ponies and even several motorized tractors. The machines fell victim to the arctic temperatures which quickly caused them to break down. Similarly, the cold caused his ponies to grow weak and they had had to be shot. After sending the dogs back to camp, he and his team were forced to spend much of their strength for their journey hauling their heavy supply sledges on foot. Amundsen, meanwhile, relied solely on skis and sled dogs to cross the tundra. The dogs helped his men save their strength, and the explorers later killed the weakest of the animals to supplement their food supply.
<b> Thanks to the speed of his dog teams</b>, Amundsen’s party managed to race toward the Pole at a pace of over 20 miles per day. The Norwegians took a previouly untried route that forced them to navigate a dizzying icy trail of crevasses, mountains and glaciers, but by early December, they had penetrated farther into the interior of Antarctica than anyone in history. Amundsen would later summed up his feelings at this moment of triumph: <i>“had the same feeling that I can remember as a little boy on the night before Christmas Eve—an intense</i> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKdJ0soisr-nnEy6azIkVRFPMqaCAduzamWldi8ogDETO0xj77b2ojpcrPR5dDGAPJ1CUtYJsniYw2KpgGDwfVPnpwxA8MtzJS2giR5BRfeFQnsZ7DKrkiZ_DgOmxdnQ7QQ_2poLMMhctG/s525/525px-At_the_South_Pole%252C_December_1911.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="525" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKdJ0soisr-nnEy6azIkVRFPMqaCAduzamWldi8ogDETO0xj77b2ojpcrPR5dDGAPJ1CUtYJsniYw2KpgGDwfVPnpwxA8MtzJS2giR5BRfeFQnsZ7DKrkiZ_DgOmxdnQ7QQ_2poLMMhctG/s320/525px-At_the_South_Pole%252C_December_1911.jpg"/></a></div><i>expectation of what was going to happen.”</i> Finally, on December 14, 1911, he and his companions arrived at the South Pole. The men planted the Norwegian flag, (Pictured,above)smoked celebratory cigars and posed for snapshots, but they only remained for a few days before beginning the arduous trek back to their base camp. <i><i>“The goal was reached,”</i></i> Amundsen wrote, <i>“our journey ended.”</i>
<b>Scott's Team Arrives...Late</b>
Over a month later on January 17, 1912, Scott and his weary British team finally reached the Pole. And there they found that Scott had left him notes informing him that he had beaten them to their prize location by just over a month. Now Scott had to find their way back to their base camp. Having reached the South Pole late in the summer of the Antarctic. The Temperatures were dropping rapidly as Scott's weary company began its slow and laborious track to the north. But exhaustion from frostbite and not enough food began to spread throughout the weary group. <b> Nevertheless Scott kept a diary of his travels almost the end.</b>
<i>"Wednesday, 17 January
Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have labor to it without the reward of priority
</i>
<i>"Thursday 29 March
Since the 21'st we have had a continuous gale from West Southwest and Southwest. We had fuel to make 2 cups of tea a piece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day have been ready to start for depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think can hope for better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more."
"For God sake look for our people."</i>
The members of Scott's Scott’s group had a much tougher time on their return trek. Scott's dog teams were sent back while Scott and his four explorers continued on foot. On January 18, 1912, they reached the pole only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by over a month. Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad–two members perished–and a storm later trapped Scott and the other two survivors in their tent only 11 miles from their base camp. Scott’s frozen body was found later that year.
<b>Sources =<i></i></b>
<b>"The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness History"</b> Edited by John B Lewis
Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. 1998.
<b>"The Treacherous Race to the South Pole"</b> By Evan Andrews....
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/amundsen-reaches-south-pole....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%27s_South_Pole_expedition....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Falcon_Scott
Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-85157970224357867072020-11-02T08:08:00.004-08:002020-11-02T08:44:53.284-08:00November 2, 1948 – Dewey defeats Truman!Note= This posting is intended strictly as report on the remarkable events that happened in 1948 on this date.<b> NO</b> support or lack of support for either of the candidates on the ballot tomorrow is intended.
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<b>"Dewey Defeats Truman"</b> was an incorrect banner headline on the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune on November 3, 1948, the day after incumbent United States President, Harry S. Truman, won an upset victory over Republican challenger and Governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey, in the 1948 presidential election. The President bought the paper's early edition. The... mistake was famously held up by Truman at a public appearance following his successful election, smiling triumphantly at the error.
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<b>What had gone wrong at the polls?</b>
Harry Truman had been thrust into the presidency by the death of Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945. Most Americans seemed to appreciate his steady grip on the government during difficult times. But the Republicans nominated Thomas E Dewey governor of New York (above). During his time as governor of New York and during his time as New York City Dist. Attorney, Dewey had made it his business to go after mafia related crime syndicates such as the one led by Lucky Lucciano and others. Both men seemed qualified. Dewey seemed like a more steady reliable hand at the helm of government. Some papers while expressing fondness for the president could not support him. <i>"However much affection you may feel for Mr. Truman and whatever sympathy we may feel for him in his strugges with his difficulties,"</i> said a front-page editorial in the Baltimore Sun, <i>"to vote him into the presidency on November 2 would be a tragedy for the country and for the world."</i> For some time polls had been predicting Dewey as being ahead of Tuman by 5 to 15 points. <i>“We stopped polling a few weeks too soon,”</i> said George Gallup Jr., co-chairman of the Gallup organization and son and namesake of another polling titan. <i>“We had been lulled into thinking that nothing much changes in the last few weeks of the campaign.”</i>
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<b>Truman's 1948 Campaign:</b> within the Democratic Party, there was some opposition Truman. After he forced a strong civil rights plank into the party platform that year Truman faced a walkout of many Southern Democrats under the leadership of Strom Thurmond,who formed a "Dixiecrat" party separate from the Democratic ticket.Similarly former vice president Henry Wallace,who favored more progressive policies than Truman formed his own "Progressive Party", and these exspected to take some points away from Truman's Democratic Party.
Given what seemed a deadly three-way split the Democratic Party, Dewey decided to take the high road in his campaign speaking in generalities and vague platitudes about what a great picture that they had in front of her.
The Louisville Courier Journal summed up what it saw as Dewey's bland and vague campaign by saying it could be reduced to four sentences: <i>"agriculture is important, our rivers are full of fish, you cannot have freedom without liberty, our future lies ahead."</i>
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<b>But Truman's feisty fighting personality</b> let him out on whistle stop campaign all across America. As can be seen in the map above Truman's campaign touched countless towns with countless speeches about his campaign. It was an Odyssey of 31,000 miles across the country and 352 speeches during his whistle stop tour and put him in personal contact countless civilians who understoodhis plain speaking style and appreciated it. Dewey was determined to avoid anything too controversial by criticizing Truman directly. In contrast to Dewey's restrained style, Truman unleashed a continuous attack upon Dewey by name, his refusal to cite issues specifically, and the "Do nothing" republican held 80'th Congress. The candidate for the most part seemed unbeatable, his outlook entirely positive. Between speeches he could lie down and go immediately to sleep however rough the road had been. <i>"Give me 20 minutes."</i> he would say. The strain of the campaign seemed to make him more firm even, in his purpose. At no point in the entire campaign to the staff, or the press, or even any of his family did he show less willingness to go on. The odds were all against him yet this only seemed to make him stronger. His natural optimism seemed to take over and keep them going. Several well-known and influential newspaper columnists, such as Drew Pearson and Joseph Alsop didn't believe Truman had a chance. Influential politcians said that Truman didn't have a chance and in their talks suggested which of Dewey's circle would take over which cabinet positions.
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<b>But still,the unthinkable began happening!</b> On the night of the election Dewey and his family and his staff confidentally assembled at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. There they fully expected returns coming in from all of the country electing Dewey to the presidency. Truman, used his Secret Service men assigned to him to steal away the historic Elms Hotel in nearby Excelsior Springs Missouri.There, he had dinner took a bath and went to sleep. " In the returns that started coming in Truman took an early which he never relinquished. Leading radio constantly reported that the returns were coming in from other parts of the country that would overcome Truman's lead and win the election for Dewey. Meanwhile over the radio the authoritative voices of radio commentators were reporting that the president was ahead by 1.2 million notes, but that Truman was undoubtedly beaten. Truman's staffers kept vigil over the radio for the next several hours. The tide was turning, with reports coming in that said Truman was leading by 2 million votes! They got Truman to wake up and turn on his radio radio to hear the commentator saying he didn't seem how Truman could possibly be elected since states like Ohio and Illinois which is where Dewey's base of "rural votes" was, had not been tallied yet. "We got 'em beat!" Truman said. The Secret Service got the car ready and they took a ride to Kansas City. Dewey had carried New York New Jersey and Michigan, but Truman and taken Massachusetts all the South except four states, was winning in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Colorado, He held by slim margins in Illinois and Ohio so far, and was ahead in all-important California. Dewey for his part began to realize the trouble he was in the early returns from New England and New York shows his new tallies as much less than was expected. He stayed up rest the evening and early morning analyzing the bits as they were counted. By 10:30 AM Dewey realized the jig was up at 11:14 AM he sent a kind letter of concession Pres. Truman. Clearly the pollsters had gotten it all wrong and went back to their books and came up with new ways of interpreting their data. Truman went on to serve four more eventfull years as president of the United States. But with a picture of Truman holding up the Chicago Tribune saying Dewey had defeated him in their memories, polllsters were never quite so sure of themselves again.
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<b>Sources</b> =
<b>"Truman"</b> by David McCullough. Simon and Schuster, 1992.XXXXXX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_United_States_presidential_election#Fall_campaignXXXXX https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truman-defeats-dewey XXXXX https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna26661213
Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-59828476627388202042013-10-07T09:45:00.001-07:002020-10-07T08:20:27.856-07:00OCTOBER 7 = The Great Debates: JFK -vs- RN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"...we could only guess which program would have the larger audience. Foreign affairs was my strong suit, and I wanted the larger audience for that debate. I thought more people would watch the first one, and that interest would diminish as the novelty of the confrontation wore off. Most of my advisers believed that interest would build as the campaign progressed, and that the last program, nearest Election Day, would be the most important one."</i><br />
- Richard M. Nixon in <i>"RN - the Memoirs of Richard M. Nixon."</i><br />
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On today's date - October 7 in 1960, then Vice President Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy squared off in the second of four televised debates. At that point in time, television was a relatively new medium. Nixon had used TV once before - in 1952 his famous<i>"Checkers"</i> speech, in which he invoked the name of the family dog to deflect charges that he had accepted improper gifts from contributors. It was a performance that had saved his spot on the Republican ticket with Dwight D. Eisenhower. But this was eight years later and the challenger was JFK. The two men were about the same age, and both were were very intelligent, capable, and awesomely ambitious. But Kennedy was extraordinarily photogenic, and Nixon was not. And this disparity was very evident on the TV screen. Author Theodore H. White remarked on the TV appearance of Nixon:<br />
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<i>"(Nixon in person) was attractively slim, as lithe as an athlete. His face...was a smiling one...broad and open... the heavy eyebrows and broad forehead give it a clean, masculine quality. Yet on television, the deep eye wells and heavy brows cast a shadow on the face and it glowered on the screen darkly...and showed ferocity.</i>"<br />
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<b>Nixon and Kennedy's Appearance on T.V. Cameras Differs</b><br />
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Nixon was also in poor health during the first debate on Sept.26. He had injured his knee recently, and it was still in considerable pain. In addition, he had kept up an exhausting schedule of campaign appearances. So as Nixon himself acknowledged he was physically worn out and looked it. And any modern viewer, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QazmVHAO0os" target="_blank">used to the heavily made-up appearance of TV personalities </a> in the modern age can see the difference. Kennedy looks tan, rested and quite relaxed as he gives calm and seemingly reasonable, substantive answers to the questions. Nixon, on the other hand, giving answers that are in fact equally substantive and reasonable nevertheless appears to to glower meanly at the camera, looking uncomfortable and combative.<br />
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<b>The Radio Audience -vs- the TV Audience</b></div>
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In that first debate, both men did well on substance. Most editorial writers called it a draw. Audiences who listened on radio gave the edge to Nixon. But the majority of the audience who watched the debate on TV judged Kennedy to be the winner. That first debate of 1960 focused on domestic issues. The second one of October 7 was focused on foreign affairs. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30kDGU2vmx8">Nixon was in better physical shape, and turned in a better performance. </a>But the audience for the second debate had fallen to 60 million viewers, down from the 80 million who had seen the first one. It can't be said with any precision that the ill impression Nixon showed on TV in the first debate actually cost him the 1960 election. But the debates had certainly helped JFK's stature, moving him from a young challenger to a man who could hold his own with the Vice President of the United States. And since the election wound up being decided by barely 100,000 votes, anything could have made the difference. As for Nixon, his conclusion on TV debates was not surprising:</div>
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<i>"As for television debates in general, I doubt that they can ever serve a responsible role in defining the issues of a presidential campaign. Because of the nature of the medium, there will inevitably be a greater premium on showmanship than on statesmanship."</i><br />
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Dick Morris has an interesting prospective on this story... click on <a href="http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/how-kennedy-beat-nixon-dick-morris-tv-history-video/">this phrase for a link to that</a>.<br />
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READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: krustybassist@gmail.com I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!<br />
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Sources:<br />
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<div style="border: medium none;">
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=todainhist0d-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0448143747&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>by Richard Nixon, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1978.</div>
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=todainhist0d-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0061900605&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>by T.H. White, Athaneum House, New York, 1961.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/NIXON-One-Education-Politician-1913-1962/dp/B003SIM3BA?ie=UTF8&tag=todainhist0d-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">NIXON: Volume One; The Education of a Politician 1913-1962.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=todainhist0d-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003SIM3BA" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
by Stephen E. Ambrose, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1987<br />
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+ 188.<br />
+ 113.Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-5644172640794338252014-09-25T07:21:00.008-07:002020-09-25T15:59:04.513-07:00SEPTEMBER 25 = The Bricca Murders 50 + Years Later<br />
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Saito calls for a jeep with a machine-gun in the back, pulling it up in front of the British commander and his officers. From the hospital hut, Shears tells the doctor, Major Clipton that he fears the worst about Saito's threat: <i>"He's going to do it. Believe me. He's really going to do it." </i>Before Saito reaches the count of three, Clipton runs out, interrupting the stand-off:<br />
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<i>"Colonel Saito! I've seen and heard everything. So has every man in the hospital. There are too many witnesses. You'll never get away with calling it a mass escape! Most of those men can't walk...Is this your soldier's code? Murdering unarmed men?"</i><br />
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This is a quote from <i>"The Bridge on the River Kwai"</i> which was playing on ABC TV that night. It was the first time that this film, the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture of 1957, had ever shown on network TV. Back in 1966, long before DVDs, a network showing was the only way a major movie like this could be seen outside of the Big Screen. I recall my parents letting me stay up and watch it. Major Clipton warns Colonel Saito that he'll never get away with this massacre. <i>"There are too many witnesses."</i> he says. Little did anyone near Greenway Ave. that night realize how ironic those words would prove to be in retrospect. Little did any of us realize as we sat in our homes so safe and cozy - that night, September 25 in 1966, <b><i><span style="color: red;">- 50+ Years Ago -</span></i></b> I with my parents just a short distance from there - that a truly unspeakable massacre was taking place. And that the <i><b>only</b></i> witness - a beautiful little four year old girl - was being murdered along with her parents. <br />
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<b>Jerry, Linda, and Little Debbie Bricca</b><br />
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Jerry Bricca, 28, seemed to have the perfect American life. He had come from an upbringing in San Francisco, wherein by hard work, he had risen rapidly in the Monsanto Chemical Co. which had transferred him to its Addyston, Ohio plant near Cincinnati. He brought with him his wife, Linda. She has been described everywhere as being beautiful, with large brown eyes which in the words of one writer <i>"...possess even in photos, an alluring intensity."</i> And even in the old photos of her, one<br />
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would have to agree with this description. Linda, 23, had been an airline stewardess, who had a passion for animals. The couple had a pair of dogs, and Linda had some rabbits whom she loved, keeping them in back of their home. And they had a beautiful sweet little girl, Deborah who loved to play on the brand new swing set which they had in back of the house, and who liked for her own little reasons to be called "Carole" on occasion. And they had a nice, tri-level home in a quite suburban area of Cincinnati called Bridgetown, which was just a short five minute ride from where this writer lived at the time. They fit in well with the neighbors, of whom they were the youngest. <i>"The Kids"</i> as they were dubbed were always at barbeques, and block parties. They were friendly and well liked, although Linda was described by some as being a bit aloof. <br />
<br />
<b>But Something Was Wrong</b><br />
<br />
Yet in spite of this picture of the blissful american couple in their suburban home, something was wrong. Jerry worked very hard... some would say too hard. He would work long hours into the night, often staying at work all night. In fact it was not at all unusual, neighbors would say for him to be home only a few hours a week. His beautiful wife had a daughter to look after, but something seemed to be missing for her. She filled this void by indulging her passion for animals. Apart from her dogs and her rabbits, she took on part-time work at one of the Veterinary Hospitals on nearby Glenway Avenue. And there was where she apparently attracted some special attention. But for the moment<br />
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life seemed to go on as usual.<br />
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That evening, was a rather cool night for early autumn... the temperatures were in the low fifties, and it had rained that day. Jerry had been working as usual, so he stopped at the local store and picked up some milk. At around 8:45 pm, Jerry Bricca who was taking out the garbage cans, encountered his neighbor, Joan Janzen as she walked her dog. They exchanged pleasantries about the weather and went on their ways. She was certain of the time because she wanted to get home in time to watch <i>"Bridge on the River Kwai"</i>; she was one of an estimated 60 million viewers who tuned into ABC to watch the movie that night. She was also the last person outside that house (above) to see any of the Briccas alive. While Sessue Hayakawa had his test of wills with Sir Alec Guiness, the Bricca's lives were being brutally brought to an end.<br />
<br />
<b>The Murders Are Discovered</b><br />
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Monday, September 26, people dressed for work and got the kids off to school. They brought in the garbage cans from the front and picked up the morning paper. Only, oddly enough, the garbage cans were still in front of the Bricca home. The morning paper had been collected, but the lights were on in the house including the back yard floodlights. And the dogs were not barking as usual. The evening paper was not picked up. And, strangest of all, Linda's pet rabbits had been left out in the rain since Sunday night. When it got to be Tuesday, the 27th and that morning's paper was still on the lawn, and another evening paper was left, the neighbors knew that something was terribly amiss. Joan Janzen's husband Richard had called the Bricca's phone repeatedly with no answer. So at about 10:00 pm he and the Bricca's next-door neighbor, Richard Meyer went over to 3381 Greenway to investigate. They knocked at the front door and found it unlocked. Peaking their heads in and calling for Linda, they were immediately hit with a horrible foul smell which Meyer, a World War Two veteran recognized as the smell of death. <i>"I knew it what it was as soon as I opened the </i><br />
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<i>front door."</i> said Meyer. <i>"Nothing else smells like that."</i> The police were called.<br />
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Hamilton County police arrived at 10:40 p.m. to a horrific scene. In the Master bedroom Jerry Bricca and his wife were both found dead from multiple stab wounds. Jerry was face down on the bed with stab wounds to his back, his neck and his head. Linda was sprawled across her husband with her negligee and housecoat open to reveal stab wound to her breasts as well as to her neck and head. And worst of all in this scene dripping with blood, the body of little Debbie (above) was found in her room against the wall, where she apparently had been deposited. She had been stabbed so viciously in the back that several of the wounds had gone clear through her body. They had been bound and gagged with rope and tape, as some residue of tape was found on Jerry's mouth, which also had a sock in it. But the restraints had been removed. The dogs were found in the basement, where they were now barking lustily. The TV set was still on, tuned to Channel 12, WKRC TV, the local affiliate to ABC which had broadcast <i>"Bridge on the River Kwai"</i> on Sunday night. There was a six-inch knife missing from a collection kept in the Dining Room. And there was laundry, some still wet, and some folded in the basement.<br />
<br />
<b>The Investigation</b><br />
<br />
This, the mid-sixties was a tough time for our country. We had just buried a martyred president, and his successor was teetering on the edge of the abyss Vietnam. The year of 1968 with its riots and assassinations was still in the future. But that future seemed all the more precarious to us, as if things were slipping out of control, and no less so in Cincinnati where we were already being terrorized by a serial killer/rapist known as the Cincinnati Strangler. And now here in the very heart of the seemingly secure suburbs came this brutal annihilation of an entire young family. People were petrified. The sales of door locks and big guard type dogs went up. People started locking those doors and bolting those windows. Halloween was moved to Sunday afternoon. All of this in large part due to what seemed like the motiveless act of a bloodthirsty killer. But was he really motiveless? The motive which originally seemed to be rape was eventually discounted. There had been no robbery, so that was out. Eventually a report on the evidence sent to the FBI crime lab in Washington D.C. ruled on the basis of hair samples that the killer was not a Black man, which apparently the Cincinnati Strangler was. So that wasn't it. So who then, and why?<br />
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The investigation eventually lead to the conclusion that the Briccas likely knew their killer. There had been no forced entry. There had been no screams and no barking dogs heard in the homes of neighbors which were a mere fifteen feet away. There was no sign of struggle inside the home. The murder weapon (which was missing) seemed indeed to have been taken from a set inside the home. And it also seemed very likely that little Debbie had been killed because she knew the killer too. And while the coroner had originally said that Linda had been raped, this had been softened to the conclusion that she had had <i>"recent intercourse"</i> at the time of her death. This really set the rumor mill going in a way that hasn't stopped since 1966. It could have been anyone in the neighborhood! Police questioned everyone whom the Briccas knew and who had had any dealings with them, right down to Linda's beautician. And after weeks of questioning suspects, friends and mere acquaintances an interesting picture began to emerge.<br />
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<b>Linda's "Male Friend"</b><br />
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It seemed that Linda Bricca had a male friend whom she had been secretly seeing since not too long after her arrival in Cincinnati in 1963. Witnesses saw them in secluded spots, and "lovers' lanes" any number of times. Where exactly these "lover's lanes" are I cannot say, but apparently they <i>are</i> there or <i>were </i>there in 1966. This with the fact that Jerry had been a workaholic husband did certainly fit the pattern of a wayward relationship. The police had conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and gradually eliminated all but one suspect. This man, Veterinary Doctor Fred Leininger, had at first been questioned for 10 minutes by officers and later for over 45 minutes by Lieutenant Herbert Vogel of the Cincinnati Police Department. Vogel taped the interview which had been held at the suspect's place of business, and had problems with some of his replies, so he called Dr. Leiniger's wife to clear up some of these problems and she told him that her husband had been so upset with the taped interview that he had hired a lawyer to protect him. This was in the days when the Supreme Courts Miranda ruling was still fairly new, so it was easy for police to commit a<br />
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technical violation of them which would enable a suspect to hide behind them and simply refuse to answer questions,<br />
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One theory of the case has the killer making love with Linda when Jerry (left) came home and walked in on them. But the fact that her father called Linda at 9:30 that night and heard nothing wrong in her voice, and the fact that they were evidently watching the movie while Linda folded laundry makes the following more likely: Linda met the man at her part time job at Leininger's Veterinary business. The affair flourished for a time, but Jerry found out and told Linda that she would have to end it or else their marriage was through. She had one last time in bed with him but this was not enough. He HAD to have her. He stalked her through the back door while they watched the movie in the basement TV room. Jerry took Debbie up stairs to put her to bed, and then the killer moved in while Linda was in the basement by herself. He tried to make her continue the affair, but she was unwilling. She tried to make him go, but once she had gotten him upstairs he went for the knife in the dining room, and started threatening her. When Jerry came down and saw the threat to his wife he tried to quietly talk him out of it. But instead he tied them up, which would have been a difficult task, as Jerry had been a high caliber swimmer at Stanford University, and was physically quite a strong man. So was there a killer working with an accomplice? Then gave the dogs a sedative to keep them quiet, (if the killer was Leininger, a Veterinary Doctor, this would be no difficulty at all) and then closed them in the basement. Then he went back to his victims, ultimately killing them in a fit of a spurned lover's rage. Then in the same fit killed little Debbie because she knew him and could identify him. He then calmed down, and cleaned the home of any evidence of their affair, wrapped the knife in the morning paper when it came at @5:30 am, threw it in the garbage and left. The fact of the suspects invoking of his Miranda rights made it impossible to push the investigation any further.<br />
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<b>Epilogue....</b><br />
<br />
And that is where it has been ever since. Lt. Vogel has long since conceded that their investigation has centered on this one man, but that he has hidden successfully behind his lawyer, Richard Morr. Morr has been able on his client's behalf to refuse to answer any further questions about the case, and has been able to reject all requests for blood, hair or fingerprints for crime scene comparisons. And as a result of this the case has remained officially unsolved. Why have I been so careful not to use the name of Fred Leininger until now? Leininger's place of business is now owned and run by a couple whom I happen to know; the wife is an old High School friend. I want to talk with her before I go naming her and her husband's business in connection with this whole miserable affair. As to Leininger himself, well his name is well known to the police and others familiar with this case. But it was in the absolutely superb and utterly fascinating book, <i>"Queen City Gothic"</i> that I gained most of my familiarity with this case. In this fine book, author J.T. Townsend named Leininger, so I felt that bit of information should remain his "scoop" until I became more familiar with the case myself. However, the physical description of this suspect which I have differs somewhat from that in Mr. Townsend's book. I have a friend whose pets were in the man's care for quite a few years. My friend describes the man as being about 5 ft. 10 inches tall, and maybe 190 lbs., but as Mr. Townsend reports, a man with large powerful hands. Also, interestingly enough, my source describes him as being <i>"a kindly man, with kindly eyes..."</i> So take from that what you will. If you really want a full reading of this mysterious case buy <i>"Queen City Gothic"</i> and therein you will find all of the details for which I hadn't the space. You could also log onto the "Historical True Crime Cincinnati" site on Facebook wherein this crime is a frequent subject of discussion = <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1521543611432640/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/1521543611432640/</a> Or better yet, go out and buy Mr. Townsend's new book <b><i>"Summer's Almost Gone"</i></b> about this case, which he will be discussing at many locations around the Cincinnati area. I read it some time ago, and found it to be a penetrating and very detailed account of what went on that night which advances the idea that the killer had an accomplice to help him tie up Jerry Bricca. It also takes up the idea of there being another car on Greenway Ave. that night with two people in it. And was it Dr. Leininger who appeared at a nearby convenience store to make a phone call?<br />
<br />
<br />
Go to the Facebook page listed above and you will find a complete listing of Mr. Townsend's appearances.<br />
<br />
As to the fate of the suspect, Dr. Leininger retired in 1995 and then<br />
moved to Florida where he died in 2004. The case was never solved. The main suspect got away with it... in this life anyway. Jerry, Linda, and Deborah Bricca were buried in Winfield Memorial and Nature Sanctuary in Illinois, near the Chicago area town of Barrington where Linda grew up. The last scene of the film <i>"Bridge on the River Kwai"</i> has the only final word which I feel is truly appropriate in this case. As Major Clipton (played by the actor James Donald) surveys the wreckage all around him; the bridge destroyed, the Japanese Colonel, Saito, and his own commander, Colonel Nicholson dead, he is stunned. "Madness!" he says. "MADNESS!!"<br />
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<b>Sources:</b><br />
<br />
<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Queen-City-Gothic-Cincinnatis-Mysteries/dp/1449018912/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411624115&sr=1-1&keywords=queen+city+gothic" target="_blank">"Queen City Gothic - Cincinnati's Most Infamous Murder Mysteries"</a></i></b> by J.T. Townsend, AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana, 2009, 2012.<br />
<br />
<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cincinnati-Crime-Book-George-Stimson/dp/0966349407/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411624326&sr=1-1&keywords=the+cincinnati+crime+book" target="_blank">"The Cincinnati Crime Book"</a></i></b> by George Stimson, The Peasenhall Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1998.<br />
<br />
<b><i>"Death On a Quiet Street" </i></b>by Jack Heffron and John Boertlein, <b><i>Cincinnati Magazine</i></b>, April, 2008.<br />
<br />
<b><i>"Summer's Almost Gone"</i></b> by J.T. Townsend, True Crime Detective Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2018.<br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-49978635114574655392014-09-13T15:11:00.014-07:002020-09-13T12:28:13.644-07:00SEPTEMBER 13 = The "Star Spangled Banner" Turns 200 +<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light</i><br />
<i>What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?</i><br />
<i>Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the clouds of the fight,</i><br />
<i>O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?</i><br />
<i>And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,</i><br />
<i>Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.</i><br />
<i>Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave</i><br />
<i>O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"</i><br />
<br />
These lyrics to our nation's national anthem, the <i>"Star Spangled Banner"</i> were born on this night, September 13, in the year 1814... <span style="color: red;"><over two hundred years ago today</b></span>. They were the words of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, one Francis Scott Key was inspired to write as he stood aboard the deck of the H.M.S. <i>Surprise</i> and watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor in Maryland, during the War of 1812. Of course the lyrics have changed just a little bit, but more about that in a moment.<br />
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<b>The Brits Shell Baltimore, Key is Aboard One of Their Ships</b><br />
<br />
The War of 1812 (1812-1815) had not gone very well for the Americans up to this point and this certainly seemed like the darkest of hours for us. The Brits had just sailed up the Potomac River, and had sacked and burnt our Capitol City, Washington D.C. to the ground. They now decided to turn about, sail into Chesapeake Bay, and then turn north and sail into Baltimore harbor and attack that city. But in order to do this, they had<br />
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first to get past Fort McHenry, guarding the mouth of the harbor. Dr. William Beanes, had been taken prisoner by the British at that time. Beanes was a friend of Key's, so Key went to Baltimore, located the ship where Beanes was being held and negotiated his release. But, Key and Beanes weren't permitted to depart until the morning after the Brits had finished their bombardment of the Fort (above). Having failed to take the Fort, the Brits decided to pack up and leave. But Key, witnessing the assault from the British side, had no way of knowing the outcome of the battle until the dawn broke and he saw our nations flag flying over the fort.<br />
<br />
<b>Key Is Inspired to Write a Song.....</b><br />
<br />
The song was not actually written until the next day. Key, who had been greatly inspired by the sight of our nation's flag still waving triumphantly over the scene the battle, had come up at that time with the words of poem which he jotted down the following morning onto the back of a letter which he had kept in his pocket. When he and his party were released on September 16, Key went back the Indian Queen Hotel where he had been staying, and completed the poem, which he entitled "Defence of Fort M'Henry". The poem, and an explanation of its origin were published in newspapers and on broadsheets (copies of the song). Eventually it was set to the tune of a popular English drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven" by composer John Stafford Smith. Francis Scott Key died of pleurisy on January 11, 1843. Today, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814 is housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. President Woodrow Wilson announced in 1916 that<br />
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the song should be played at all national ceremonies. It was formally adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931.<br />
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And the line <i>"through the perilous fight"</i> <u>was</u> actually the way that the poem was originally written. The manuscript above was indeed written by Mr. Key, but it was written by him in 1840, and included that alternate wording <i>"through the <b>clouds of the </b>fight"</i>. This image can be enlarged for closer viewing merely by clicking on the image. Although <i>why</i> Key wrote this alternate wording, I do not know. While I have encountered any number of web sites noting the difference in the lyrics, I have yet to find anything explaining it. It may simply have been a matter of Key forgetting the correct lyric later on in his life.<br />
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Sources:<br />
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<a href="http://www.usa-flag-site.org/song-lyrics/star-spangled-banner.shtml">http://www.usa-flag-site.org/song-lyrics/star-spangled-banner.shtml</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/key-pens-star-spangled-banner">http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/key-pens-star-spangled-banner</a><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner</a><br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Picture-History-Navy-Theodore-Roscoe/dp/B001B2S24C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410646020&sr=1-1&keywords=picture+history+of+the+us+navy+roscoe" target="_blank">"Picture History of the U.S. Navy"</a></i></b> by Theodore Roscoe and Fred Freeman, Bonanza Books, New York, 1956.<br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-52334818029987108852013-09-11T09:07:00.007-07:002020-09-11T13:09:16.942-07:00SEPTEMBER 11 = 9/11 Many Years Later...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong. "</i><br />
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- President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001<br />
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<b>The Murderers Strike at Our Nation</b><br />
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Early on the morning of this day, September 11 in 2001, nearly 3,000 people were murdered by fanatical muslim terrorists. Their murderers were 19 individuals - members of a terrorist attack group named Al-Qaeda. These murderers had hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners which they then intentionally crashed. Two of the airliners were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing all on board as well as many people working in the adjacent buildings of the World Trade Center (WTC) Complex. Both of the Twin Towers collapsed within two hours, destroying several nearby buildings of the WTC and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, just<br />
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outside of Washington, D.C.(right). The fourth plane went down in a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania (below), after its passengers and flight crew, having determined the hijackers aims, attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers evidently planned to use on some other target in Washington, D.C. , possibly the White House or the Capital building. There were no survivors from any of the flights. A total of 2,980 human beings perished in<br />
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in these attacks. All 19 of their murderers died as well. The vast majority of those who died were innocent civilians - citizens of over 90 countries around the world, although most of them were Americans who along with the freedom and prosperity which they represented were the obvious targets of the killers. A large number of the casualties were brave members of the New York City Fire and Police departments, who responded to the emergency, and sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. In his remarks quoted above President Bush responded to the events that very night. Later, on September 20, in an address to the nation before for a joint session of Congress, he said:<br />
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<i>"Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We'll remember the moment the news came -- where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire, or a story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever. Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We'll remember the moment the news came -- where we were and what we were doing."</i><br />
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<b>An Ordinary Morning at U.T. Austin, Until....</b><br />
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For my own part, I was sitting at my desk in the Brass Woodwind and Percussion Instrument Room of the University of Texas at Austin School of Music. I was working at my computer when<br />
my fine colleague Tony Zapata, the School of Music's Business Manager came in to his job at the Business Office which was then just down the hall from my location. <i>"Brian did you hear that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City?" </i>he asked. I had not heard of this. I frequently had a radio playing in my office, but that particular morning I did not. I had images in my mind of a private plane crashing into one of those huge towers in a fog . I turned on the radio, and reports made it sound like considerably more serious than that. So I pulled out a small color TV which I kept in that office, as a part of my job was to check out TV/Video monitors for classroom use. I do not remember the exact time, but the first strike occurred at 8:46 a.m., and as fate would have it I turned on the TV just as the strike on the second tower was being shown. This was not, I think as it happened - which was at 9:03 a.m., but it was only a few minutes later. As I saw this image I was frozen with fear imagining what it must have been like for the passengers on that plane. Clearly, this was more than just the small accident that I had at first imagined.<br />
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<b>The Rest of the Day Was a Horrified Blur</b><br />
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I remember a jumble of images from the rest of that day. Calls from friends and colleagues discussing what had happened. E-mails from a former student, as well as questions about whether the University would remain open also came to my office. U.T. did indeed remain open, but I also remember making the morning run for mail across campus, and seeing that every automobile entrance to the University power plant had been blocked with heavy equipment - trucks or bulldozers. I stopped in the student union building, and saw that every television monitor in the food court had small crowds of students huddled around it silently watching as the horror unfolded. The same happened with one of the TV monitors in the Music Building lobby which usually had only announcements on it's screen, but which had been turned on to news reports. It was there that I first saw the picture of the Marines raising the flag atop Mt. Suribachi during tha Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II place alongside of the photo of firemen doing the same with the flag atop the wreckage of the WTC. This photo pairing had a particularly strong significance for me, as my father had been both a combat veteran of the battle on Iwo Jima, and a fireman for 25 years after the war.<br />
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Those are my memories of what happened to me in my world on 9/11. <b>What are <i><u>your </u></i>memories? </b>Where were you when you heard about it? What were you doing? How did it affect you? <b><i><u>Please do write in to this blog and tell me.</u></i></b> Or write to me at: krusty1960@yahoo.com. Even now, 14 years later, they are relevant and important for you, for ME and for ALL Americans to know about. <i><b>Whatever you were doing, it is your small part of history. and I hope that you will write in and tell me, tell us all about it.</b></i> I have in the posting just before this one written out the recollections of many of the people I know, and even a few whom I do not know, of what they were doing that day, how they heard about it, and how it affected them. I hope that you will give that a look.<br />
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<b>Like a Certain Sunday in 1941....</b><br />
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Clearly our world had changed. In the remainder of his remarks that September 20 speech before congress, our President reminded us of another world changing attack upon us and our freedom that had happened to a previous generation:<br />
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<i>"On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars -- but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war -- but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks -- but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day -- and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.</i><br />
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<b>How Have We Changed Since Then?</b><br />
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We have, as a people become considerably more vigilant about the threat of terrorism. An entire new department of government has since been created: <i>"the Department of Homeland Security."</i> The regime which allowed the terrorist vermin to fester, that of the Taliban in Afghanistan was uprooted and bombed nearly out of existence. Nevertheless, many elements of the Taliban continue to exist and threaten the peace and freedom of the world. A subsequent war was fought in Iraq, which was highly controversial, and was said by many, and not in my opinion without reason, to have taken our national focus away from the Taliban in Afghanistan. But that war ultimately lead to the death of one more middle-eastern despot, and more indirectly in my opinion to the <i>"Arab Spring" </i>that has followed, and to the formation of the terrorist state "ISIS", and all of the murderous activities it promotes. BUT whatever the paranoia that may exist (or NOT) visa-vie Muslim Americans, I am eternally proud that my generation did NOT resort to the Internment Camps to which Japanese Americans were subjected in the 1940's, nor anything REMOTELY like it. And as to the filthy murdering scum who was the primary author of this violence, Osama Bin Laden, he now is being eaten by the fishes. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu said <i>"Congratulations America, Congratulations, Mr. President, you got Bin Laden... GOOD RIDDANCE!!"</i> To which I can only add may Bin Laden and all of his minions rot in hell.<br />
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READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any <b><i>"Today in History"</i></b> posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: <a href="mailto:krustybassist@gmail.com"><span style="color: #5588aa;">krustybassist@gmail.com</span></a> I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not)!</div>
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Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-39563151980930722062015-08-06T12:51:00.002-07:002020-08-06T07:33:25.574-07:00AUGUST 6 = The Bombing of Hiroshima 75 Years later.<i><br /></i>
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<i>"The revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully with-held from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in their minds and consciences of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, they may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity."</i><br />
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These were the reflections of Sir Winston Churchill on being told about the Atomic Bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in Japan, on today's date, August 5, 1945.<br />
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A uranium gun-type atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, exploding 2,000 feet above the city in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city. Within the first two to four months of the bombing, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima. About half of these fatalities occurred on the first day. In the months that followed, a large number of people died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and this was compounded by illness and malnutrition. Although Hiroshima did in fact have a large military garrison, most of those killed were civilians.<br />
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<b>The Meaning of the Atomic Bomb...</b><br />
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Those are the basic facts. What can one say about this event? I admit that I have a very personal bias in this: my father was a Marine serving in the South Pacific. He would have been but one of the thousands of U.S. military personnel who would have invaded the home islands of Japan. This was indisputably what would have had to happen; the Japanese had no intention of surrendering. My father and many others might well have been killed and neither myself, nor any member of my family would ever have existed. If one mourns the loss of civilian life and the destruction that occurred in Hiroshima - as I do - then imagine something very much like that occurring over the whole of Japan, and you have the likely result if the bombs - the one dropped on Nagasaki came three days later - had not been dropped. So I for one am completely supportive of President Truman's decision to go ahead with it. But that does not beget any gladness on my part about the hideous deaths that occurred, nor of the nuclear age that opened on this day when we took this step. War is a tragedy, and this day was perhaps the most tragic of all. This debate will continue - and I urge you, my readers to take part in it by writing in your reaction to my words.<br />
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What I shall do now is let a few of the participants speak....<br />
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<b>Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Pilot of the "Enola Gay" the plane that dropped the bomb:</b><br />
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<i>"...we made our turn, and as we leveled out our turn the flash occurred. The man in the tail gunner's position said, 'I can see it coming,' meaning the shock wave. It was a real wallop -- a real bang. It made a lot of noise, and it really shook the airplane.... There was the mushroom cloud growing up, and we watched it blossom... the thing reminded me more of a boiling pot of tar than any other description I can give it. It was black and boiling underneath with a steam haze on top of it. And of course we had seen the city when we went in, and there was nothing to see when we came back. It was covered by this boiling, black looking mess."</i><br />
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<b>A Japanese Journalist:</b><br />
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<i>"Suddenly a glaring whitish-pink light appeared in the sky, accompanied by an unnatural tremor that was followed almost immediately by a wave of suffocating heat and a wind that swept away everything in its path. Within a few seconds the thousands of </i><br />
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<i>people in the streets and the gardens in the center of the town were scorched by a wave of searing heat. Many were killed instantly, others lay writhing on the ground, screaming in agony from the intolerable pain of their burns. Everything standing upright in the way of the blast was annihilated.... Trams were picked up and tossed aside as though they had neither weight nor solidity. Trains were flung off the rails as though they were toys. Horses, dogs, and cattle suffered the same fate as human beings. Every living thing was petrified in an </i><br />
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<i>attitude of</i> <i>suffering.... Up to about three miles from the center of the explosion, lightly built houses were flattened as though they had been built of cardboard. Those who were inside were either killed or wounded. Those who managed to extricate themselves by some miracle found themselves surrounded by a ring of fire."</i><br />
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<b>United States President Harry Truman:</b><br />
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<i>"The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost.</i><br />
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<i>"Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.</i><br />
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<i>"We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us."</i><br />
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- From Truman's Public Statement of August 9, 1945<br />
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<b>Hiroshi Sawachika, Japanese Army Doctor:</b><br />
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<i>"When I felt someone touch my leg, it was a pregnant woman. She said that she was about to die in a few hours. She said, 'I know that I am going to die. But I can feel that my baby is moving inside. It wants to get out of the room. I don't mind if I had died. But if the baby is delivered now, it does not have to die with me. Please help my baby live.' There were no obstetricians there. There was no delivery room. There was no time to take care of her baby. All I could do was to tell </i><br />
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<i>her that I would come back later when everything was ready for her and her baby. Thus I cheered her up and she looks so happy. But I have to return to the treatment work. There were so many patients. I felt as if I was fighting against the limited time. Later, I went to the place where I had found her before, she was still there lying in the same place. I patted her on the shoulder, but she said nothing. The person lying next to her said that a short while ago, she had become silent. I still recalled this incident partly because I was not able to fulfill the last wish of this dying young woman. I also remember her because I had a chance to talk with her however short it was."</i><br />
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The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first, and so far the only time such weapons have been used other than testing. Whatever one's view on this event, I think that we can <b>ALL</b> agree in hoping devoutly, that Hiroshima and Nagasaki will <i>remain </i>the only time such weapons have ever been used. <br />
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Sources =<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hinge-Factor-Stupidity-Changed-History/dp/1611453216/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438890140&sr=1-1&keywords=%22How+Chance+and+Stupidity+Have+Changed+History%22" target="_blank">"How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History"</a> by Erik Durschmied, MJF Books,<br />
New York, 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Heritage-Picture-History-World/dp/B000KGBS64/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438890399&sr=1-1&keywords=%22The+American+Heritage+Picture+History+of+World+War+II%22" target="_blank">"The American Heritage Picture History of World War II"</a> by C.L. Sulzberger, American Heritage Publishing Co. Inc. , 1966<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.doug-long.com/hst.htm">http://www.doug-long.com/hst.htm</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.inicom.com/hibakusha/hiroshi.html">http://www.inicom.com/hibakusha/hiroshi.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki</a><br />
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Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-71800126184779391342019-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:002020-08-03T10:49:55.965-07:00AUGUST 3 = Jesse Owens Wins Olympic Gold<br />
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On today's date, August 3, in 1936 at the Olympic games held in Berlin, the American track star Jesse Owens won the gold medal for his 1st place finish in the 100 meter dash. This was no ordinary feat. This was because it had happened just three days after Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader of Germany had opened the games as a tribute to his regime which glorified the White Aryan as the master race. And Owens who would go on to win three more gold medals was an African American. In the words of ESPN: " When Owens finished competing, the African-American son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves had single-handedly crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy."<br />
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<b>The Olympics: Hitler's Showpiece</b><br />
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As I wrote in my blog posting of three days ago (Aug.1<a href="https://historysstory.blogspot.com/2016/08/august-1-hitler-opens-1936-olympics-in.html"> "Hitler Opens 1936 Olympics in Berlin"</a>), the Nazi regime fully intended to use the Olympic stage as a propaganda tool for their new Germany. And as William Shirer told us, the Nazis saw these games as a perfect time for them to impress the whole world with the scope of their achievements in their Third Reich. And although the Nazis tried their best to put on a good public face, removing the most obvious signs of their Antisemitic policies, they could only go so far with that charade. As ESPN further wrote: "Berlin, on the verge of World War II, was bristling with Nazism, red-and-black swastikas flying everywhere. Brown-shirted Storm Troopers goose-stepped while Adolf Hitler postured, harangued, threatened. A montage of evil was played over the chillingly familiar Nazi anthem: "Deutschland Uber Alles."<br />
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<b>Jesse Takes Charge and Wins - FOUR times!</b><br />
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It was into all of these symbols of the Nazi's racist pageantry James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens of Alabama standing 5-10, and weighing 157 lbs. dashed forward at the sound of the starter's pistol, and sprinted down the 100 meter track in a world record tying 10.3 seconds beating<br />
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Tinus Osendarp of the Netherlands, and just edging out his own team mate Ralph Metcalfe, thus securing the gold medal (above). And this would only be the first of a total of FOUR gold medals that Owens would collect. In the next few days he would win three more gold medals for the 200 meters dash, the long jump and part of the U.S. team in the 4x100 meters relay, overtaking world records in each category. This total of four gold medals was a record unmatched in that time and for years after.<br />
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<b>Hitler Wasn't Happy.....</b><br />
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In his book "Inside the Third Reich" Albert Speer, one of Hitler's closest associates wrote that Hitler "was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games." On this day Hitler was only willing to shake the hands of the German athletes who had won medals, leaving the stadium immediately thereafter. When International Olympic Committee president Henri de Baillet-Latour protested saying that Hitler should shake hands with all the medalists or none at all. Hitler took the suggestion, and in his Nazi snit skipped all of the remaining medal awards.<br />
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Jesse Owens himself was not overly upset one way or another. A calm rational man, he took it all in stride, knowing that in his own country as an African American his treatment would not be much better. "When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus," Owens said. "I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either." This was certainly a regrettable reality for Jesse Owens' time, but that would eventually change and he would get the accolades due to him as a winner of the record four gold medals in the Olympics. Among many other honors he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford, in 1976 (below).<br />
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<br />
Sources =<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Third-Reich-Albert-Speer/dp/0684829495/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7LAYK7EYAUZ7&keywords=inside+the+third+reich+albert+speer&qid=1564432815&s=books&sprefix=inside+the+third%2Caps%2C140&sr=1-1"><b>"Inside the Third Reich"</b></a> by Albert Speer, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970<br />
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<a href="https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ow/jesse-owens-1.html">https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ow/jesse-owens-1.html</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html">http://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html</a><br />
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<a href="https://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/august-3-1936-jesse-owens-wins-100m-gold-in-front-of-adolf-hitler-at-the-berlin-olympics-11363995389348">https://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/august-3-1936-jesse-owens-wins-100m-gold-in-front-of-adolf-hitler-at-the-berlin-olympics-11363995389348</a><br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-39816982959284163882018-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:002020-08-02T12:13:08.296-07:00FEBRUARY 15 = U.S.S. Maine Explodes <br />
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On today's date, March 15 in 1898 a vast explosion sunk the American Navy Battleship U.S.S. <i>Maine</i> (Pic- tured above) while she was in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. 260 men were killed out of a crew of nearly 400. The source of the explosion was unknown at the time. But an official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry wasted no time in stating that explosion had been caused by a mine. Spain was not directly blamed for the ''mine" in the Inquiry report. But much of the American public as well as Congressional leaders believed Spain to be the culprit, and this eventually lead to a Declaration of War against Spain.<br />
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"I was just closing a letter to my family when I felt the crash of the explosion. It was a bursting, rending, and crashing sound, or roar of immense volume, largely metallic in character. It was succeeded by a metallic sound - probably of falling debris - a trembling and lurching motion of the vessel, then an impression of subsidence, attended by an eclipse of the electric lights and intense darkness within the cabin. I knew immediately that the MAINE had been blown up and that she was sinking." These were the recollections of the <i>Maine's</i> Captain Charles D. Sigsbee<br />
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<b>What was the U.S. Problem With Spain, and Why was the <i>Maine</i> in Havana?</b><br />
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By the 1890's Spanish rule over her "Empire" was growing weak. Spain held several territories in the Pacific Ocean, most importantly the Philippine Islands, and also the island of Cuba wherein there were rebels conducting a full scale insurrection against Spanish rule. And the Spanish authorities were spending no mercies on the Cuban rebels. American indignation over the brutal Spanish tactics ran high. Also there were U.S. commercial interests in Cuba were being adversely affected. The U.S. President at the time was William McKinley<br />
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(President 1897 - 1901) who had been an officer during the American Civil War and his experiences there left him detesting war. So he tried to avoid armed conflict. The <i>Maine </i>was sent in to show the American flag and protect U.S. interests But with the explosion the newspapers particularly those of William Randolph Hearst (See New York Journal headlines reporting on the explosion above), The public and governmental leaders were whipped into a high pitch of anti Spanish feelings with sensational and totally unproven headlines such as <i>"Destruction of the War Ship Maine Was the Work of an Enemy!"<b> </b></i>McKinley had few diplomatic avenues to explore and when these failed, war was declared on April 20, 1898.<br />
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<b>What Happened in the Spanish American War?</b><br />
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Although Theodore Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in order to raise a cavalry regiment that came to be known as <i>"the Rough Riders"</i> which subsequently charged up San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, it was not T.R. who coined the phrase <i>"A splendid little war"</i>. The phrase was written by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay who gave it that moniker in a letter to T.R.. And it did turn out to be just that for the Americans. The first clash came on May 1, 1898 when the seven ships of the Asiatic Squadron under the command of Admiral George Dewey (below) blew 10 out-dated Spanish warships<br />
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out of the water in Manila Bay. The rest of the war went with similar victories for the U.S. Army which invaded Cuba and decisively defeated the Spanish forces within three months. An armistice halted the shooting in August. A Peace Treaty was signed in Paris on Dec. 12, 1898 and in the treaty Spain ceded its former possessions of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The United States thus acquired its first overseas Empire.<br />
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<b>Oh, and By the Way.....</b><br />
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Several investigations conducted by Admiral Rickover, the National Geographic Society and finally by the Discovery Channel (in 2002) determined that a coal bunker fire caused the explosion which blew up the U.S.S. <i>Maine</i> back in 1898. This "Act of an Enemy" as it was described back at the time, happened as the result of a gap in the bulkhead separating the coal and powder bunkers which then allowed the fire from the coal bunker to spread to the powder bunker. Far from being a dark plot, the loss of the Maine happened because of a design flaw in the ship's construction.<br />
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<b>Sources =</b><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-maine-explodes">http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-maine-explodes</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.spanamwar.com/mainelos.htm"> http://www.spanamwar.com/mainelos.htm</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.pbs.org/crucible/tl10.html">http://www.pbs.org/crucible/tl10.html</a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dewey">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dewey</a></div>
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-88157924072544463332020-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:002020-07-29T10:44:38.542-07:00JUNE 23 = Hitler Tours Paris<br />
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Adolf Hitler, Der Fuehrer his very own self stopped by Paris for a few hours to gaze and gawk a bit on today's date, June 23 in 1940. He had a full schedule of things that he wanted to see, but he was there for just a few hours that morning, and that was it. He left promptly and never came back. All the better for the people of Paris one might say, but there it was. Evidently the man was as odd as he was evil. Now I should say right off that I've run into several other internet sources saying that Hitler's visit came on the 24th, the 25th, and also the 21st. But I've found more saying the 23rd was the date than others citing another date so that is the one I'm going with. Forgive me if I've gotten it wrong.<br />
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<b>Hitler Arrives on the Spot</b><br />
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The Germans blew through the French defenses without too much trouble and and the French wound up surrendering to the Germans on June 22, 1940 on the very spot where Germany had had to surrender to France at the end of World War I. In fact Hitler had the railway car of Marshall Foch (the General who had beaten the Germans in 1918) hauled to the spot in Compiegne Forest wherein the 1918 ceremony had taken place and took the French armistice there, not wanting to pass up this chance to rub salt into the wounds of his enemies. He subsequently had the memorial sight destroyed. Hitler also ordered the destruction of two other memorials: one of French War Hero General Mangin and one of Edith Cavell a nurse who helped Allied troops to escape the Germans in World One. Now that he had destroyed these little details, Hitler had a few other things to do.<br />
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<b>Der Fuehrer Decides to Have a Look at Paris</b><br />
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Albert Speer, whom Hitler referred as his "colleague" in matters of Art and Architecture was informed by the Little Corporal himself that he wished tour the French capitol in a few days, and that he wanted Speer as part of his entourage. So at 5:30 a.m. the plane carrying Hitler and his Henchmen arrived at Le Bourget airport near Paris and they all piled into three large Mercedes sedans (with Hitler seated as usual next to the driver) and drove through streets largely unoccupied at such an early hour. They went directly to Paris Opera House - a great neobaroque building designed by Charles<br />
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Garnier which was very dear to Hitler's "heart". The great stairway was very spacious and highly ornamented as well as the elegant foyer (above) all were carefully examined. Hitler, who took on the role of guide in spite of the presence of a guide from the Opera Co. noticed a salon was missing and pointed it out, but the guide already knew it. Hitler was quite taken with all of this beauty. When the tour was finally over Hitler through his adjutant offered a couple of times to pay the Opera's attendant 50 marks, which the man politely but firmly declined saying that he was 'only doing his job."<br />
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<b>Off to the Eiffel Tower!</b><br />
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Next the Motorcade proceeded past the Rue Madeline, on down the Champs Elysees, and on to the Eiffel Tower. Hitler seemed in the film of this event to be one more tourist looking the place over; not overly impressed as he moved among his cronies. From the Arc de Triomphe which included<br />
France's Tomb of the Uknown Soldier, Hitler's caravan move onto L'Invalides there to gaze upon the tomb of Napoleon (the Original Little Corporal)which he spent some time doing. He later ordered that the remains of Napoleon's son to be re-interred alongside of his Dad. Hitler was much impressed by the Pantheon, but had no great interest in the most significant architectural works in Paris: the Place des Vosges, the Palace of Justice, and the Louvre. The only sight he got into was the unitary row of houses on the fashionable Rue de Rivoli. After taking in a few more churches, Hitler had everyone back at airport by 9:00 a.m.. It was one of the greatest cities in world, but after less than three hours this man had had his fill. Nevertheless he later gushed to Speer: "It was the dream of my life to be permitted to see Paris. I cannot say how happy I am to have that dream fulfilled today."<br />
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Sources =<br />
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<a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-takes-a-tour-of-paris">https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-takes-a-tour-of-paris</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hitlerparis.htm">http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hitlerparis.htm</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=rue+Rivoli&oq=rue++Rivoli&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2j46j0l3j69i60.46675j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">https://www.google.com/search?q=rue+Rivoli&oq=rue++Rivoli&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2j46j0l3j69i60.46675j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8</a></div>
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-62001937306388340702014-07-20T13:14:00.000-07:002020-07-20T11:45:35.848-07:00JULY 20 = FOOTSTEPS ON MOON! <br />
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<b>"FOOTSTEPS ON MOON!"</b><br />
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So read the breathless headlines here on earth, as you can see from the <i>Cincinnati Enquirer </i>at left. Yes on today's date*, July 20 in 1969, human beings made their first steps onto the surface of another world outside of earth. My purpose here today will not be to fill you in on the details of the moon flight, as you can get better accounts of that elsewhere. I will attempt to convey some of the excitement of this moment. I can tell you that the one memory of this which I personally have is<br />
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watching the rather stark black and white image of Neil Arm- strong's descent (right) onto the lunar surface. The Enquirer reported it all in detail:<br />
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<b>"They got back in. Both men had returned to the Eagle at 1:11 A.M. (EDT).</b><br />
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<b>"SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Two Americans landed and walked on the Moon Sunday, the first human beings on its alien soil. They planted their nation's flag and talked to their President on earth by radio telephone.</b><br />
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<b>"Millions on their home planet 240,000 miles away watched on television as they saluted the flag, and scouted the lunar surface.</b><br />
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<b>"The first to step on the moon was Neil Armstrong, 38, of Wapokoneta, Ohio. He stepped into the dusty surface at 10:56 p.m. (EDT). His first words were, 'That's one small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.'</b><br />
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<b>"Twenty minutes later, his companion, Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin Jr., 39, of Montclair, N.J. stepped to the surface </b>(below)<b> His words were, 'Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. A magnificent desolation.'</b><br />
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<b>"They had landed on the moon nearly six hours before, at 4:18 p.m.</b><br />
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"President Nixon's voice came to the ears of the astronauts on the moon from the Oval Room at the White House.<br />
" 'I just can't tell you how proud I am... Because of what you have done the heavens have become part of man's world.'<br />
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"Armstrong's steps were cautious at first. He almost shuffled. 'The surface is fine and powdered, like powdered charcoal to the soles of the foot." he said. 'I can see my footprints of my boots in the fine sandy particles.' Armstrong read from the plaque on the side of Eagle, the spacecraft that had brought them to the surface. In a steady voice, he said, 'Here man first set foot on the Moon, July, 1969. We came in peace for all mankind.' "<br />
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Later, Armstrong would comment:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I was really aware, visually aware that the moon was in fact a sphere not a disc. It seemed almost as if it were showing us its roundness; its similarity to the shape of our earth in a sort of welcome. I was sure it would be a hospitable host. It had been awaiting its first visitors for a very long time..."</i><br />
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Aldrin:<br />
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<i>"The moon was a very natural and pleasant environment in which to work. It had many of the advantages of zero gravity, but it was less lonesome than Zero G, where you always have to pay attention to securing attachment points to give you some means of leverage."</i><br />
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Above, the Apollo 11 crew, L to R: Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin</div>
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* = I have found authoritative sources that date this event as having occurred on both July 20 AND on July 21. But as I have in front of me an actual copy of the <i>Enquirer</i> pictured at the top of this posting, and IT is dated <i>"Monday <u>Morning</u>, July 21"</i>, then I feel comfortable in assuming that the events it was reporting did in fact happen on July 20, at least in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States.<br />
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Sources:<br />
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<b><i>"The Cincinnati Enquirer"</i></b> 129th Year No. 103 -- Souvenir Edition, Monday Morning July 21, 1969.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11</a><br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-History-John-Carey/dp/0380729687/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405886942&sr=1-1&keywords=eyewitness+to+history" target="_blank">"Eyewitness to History"</a></i></b>, Edited by John Carey, Avon Books, New York, 1987.<br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-34679046274646867762017-07-16T15:20:00.000-07:002020-07-15T10:21:10.604-07:00JULY 16 = The Atom Bomb is First Tested<br />
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On today's date, July 16 in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the first atom bomb is success- fully tested in Alamo- gordo, New Mexico. This was the end result of the Manhattan Project, which was the code name that was given to the efforts of the United States government to produce an Atom Bomb. Pictured above is a photo of the explosion.<br />
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<b> Leó Szilárd and Albert Einstein Warn FDR</b><br />
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The effort had been going on for some years, ever since a letter written by the famed physicist Albert Einstein, and conceived by Einstein and the Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd in 1939 was sent to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein (below) and Szilárd came to the conclusion that the neutron-driven fission of heavy atoms could possibly utilized to create a nuclear chain reaction which could yield vast amounts of energy for electric power generation or... atomic bombs<b>.</b> In the letter, written on August 2, 1939, just one month minus a day that <a href="http://historysstory.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-1-world-war-ii-begins.html">Hitlers' armies invaded Poland and began World War II.</a> And the letter didn't hesitate to point fingers:<br />
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<i>"I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium </i><br />
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<i>from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated."</i><br />
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<b>General Groves Assembles the Team</b><br />
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This led FDR to the conclusion that a committee of scientists needed to be formed in order to counter the Nazi threat. Initially the amount of $6,000.00 was granted toward this project, but with onset of war with Germany in December of 1941 this cap was removed. Brigadier <br />
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General Leslie Groves (left) who had himself spent his army career as an engineer, was put in charge of organizing the whole project, which included assembling the finest scientific minds in the United States, and bringing them into his program. Groves was introduced to Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer had like Einstein and others had made known his concerns about the Germans coming up with an atomic weapon, and this brought him to Groves attention. Groves had been favorably impressed with clarity of Oppenheimer's vision as well as his determination to get the bomb before the Germans could. These were two very different types of men; Groves determined and quite boorish, and Oppenheimer cerebral and intellectual. But they both managed to work together at the secret facility that was put together by Groves at Los Alamos, New Mexico. In true U.S. Governmental fashion, the Manhattan Project grew to the employment of over 130,000 people and cost close to US $2 billion (roughly $27 billion in 2016 dollars).<br />
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<b>The Bomb is Assembled and Tested</b><br />
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Neither Groves nor Oppenheimer were pleasant taskmasters for the men working under them. Maj. General Kenneth Nichols called Groves <i>"...the biggest sonovabitch I ever met in my life. I hated his guts and </i><br />
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<i>so </i><i>did everybody else."</i> But with the men working at Los Alamos and elsewhere in the country he and Oppenheimer produced results - the bomb which was tested on this date. The first detonation of a nuclear weapon was given the Code Name "Trinity"<br />
by the ever mercurial Oppenheimer (right) who had been so inspired by the poetry of John Donne a poet of Elizabethan England. After an earlier delay Groves resumed the countdown. At the sixty second point, the scientists smeared suntan lotion on their faces, slipped on welding goggles, and huddled behind their sandbag shelters<b>.</b> And at 5:29 a.m. the detonation unleashed the explosive energy of about 22 kilotons of TNT (92 TJ). There was only one possible target left, as Germany was out of the war, and that was Japan. It was so used on <a href="http://historysstory.blogspot.com/2015/08/august-6-hiroshima-and-dawn-of-atomic.html">Hiroshima (Aug. 6) </a>and Nagasaki (Aug. 9, 1945), after which Japan finally surrendered. By March 1946, when Oppenheimer met President Harry Truman, he had long since decided that the use of the Atom bomb had been terribly wrong. <i>"Mr. President, I have blood on my hands,"</i> To which Truman sternly replied <i>"It'll all come out in the wash." </i>After Oppenheimer had departed, Truman said to an aide: <i>"Don't you bring that fellow around here again."</i> Such are the vagaries at the intersection of politics and science.....<br />
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<b><i>SOURCES =</i></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-atomic-bomb-test-is-successfully-exploded"> http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-atomic-bomb-test-is-successfully-exploded</a></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Szil%C3%A1rd_letter">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Szil%C3%A1rd_letter</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0028869/bio">http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0028869/bio</a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project</a><br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project"><br /></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)"> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)</a><br />
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<b><i><u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Past-Imperfect-History-According-Reference/dp/0805037608/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500243011&sr=1-1&keywords=past+imperfect+history+according+to+the+movies">"Past Imperfect - History According to the Movies"</a></u></i></b> Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1995.<br />
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Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-29964652246959784782014-07-11T07:05:00.000-07:002020-07-11T12:33:29.032-07:00JULY 11 = Burr Kills Hamilton in Duel<i><br /></i>
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<i>"Colonel Burr arrived first on the ground, as had been previously agreed. When General Hamilton arrived, the parties exchanged salutations, and the seconds proceeded to make their arrangements. They measured the distance, ten full paces, and cast lots for the choice of position, as also to determine by whom the word should be given, both of which fell to the second of General Hamilton. They then proceeded to load the pistols in each other's presence, after which the parties took their stations."</i><br />
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- Nathaniel Pendleton, W.P. van Ness<br />
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This was the joint account written by the seconds to a duel between Vice President Aaron Burr and the former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Alexander Hamilton which took place on today's date, July 11 in the year 1804. The seconds in a duel are essentially assistants to the dueling parties. And in this case the two dueling parties were two men who had nursed a blood political feud for some 15 years, which had become very personal. This day would finish both men. Hamilton would die literally, and Burr would die politically, and this moment on the shores of New Jersey would link their names forever.<br />
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<b>Burr and Hamilton: A Study in Contrasts</b><br />
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Aaron Burr was born in Newark New Jersey on February 6, 1756. Burr<br />
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had a fine upbringing having been born into a strongly Presbyterian family. His father was the President of the College of New Jersey (later named Princeton). But Aaron (right) was just a little too smart to pick up any of his family's religious work ethic. <i>"Great souls have little use for small morals." </i>he used to say. He loved money power and influence. He went to Princeton, but interrupted his studies to serve honorably in the American Revolution, acquiring the rank of Colonel. But he was strictly a player at politics albeit a highly intelligent and ambitious one. To Burr, politics offered <i>"...a great deal of fun, honor and profit."</i><br />
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Not so for Alexander Hamilton. Born almost a year after Burr<br />
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on January 11, 1757 on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts, Hamilton (left) had never viewed any part of life as being fun. His parents (never married) died when he was young and he had had to work his way up through the import/ export company of Beekman and Cruger wherein his brilliant mind kept the books in order. But his witness to slavery in the islands, which he saw as being evil gave him a dim view of humanity. He traveled to America to study in 1773, but like Burr ducked out of school to fight in the Revolution. Even there, his experience dimmed his view of life. Even though his brilliance got him appointed as an aide to George Washington, the suffering he witnessed at Valley Forge as a result of Congressional mis-management weighed heavily on him: <i>"I hate Congress, I hate the Army, I hate the world, and I hate myself."</i> he wrote at the time. <i>"The whole is a mass of fools and knaves..."</i><br />
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<b>Burr and Hamilton Square Off</b><br />
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Well it didn't take too long for these two very brilliant and highly ambitious men to run into each other. Hamilton, together with John Jay and James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers, which served as a basis for our Constitutional system of government. Hamilton, viewing mankind as essentially greedy and corrupt favored the system of checks and balances which was eventually adopted. But in one of the first elections for a Senate seat in the State of New York, Hamilton found his own candidate, his father in law, being out-done by the wily Aaron Burr and his political games. <i>"I fear that Mr. Burr is unprincipled as both a public and a private man."</i> he said. <i>"In fact, I take it that he is for or against nothing but as it suits his interest and ambition!"</i> he protested. Burr won the Senate seat but Hamilton got back at him in a <b>huge</b> way in <a href="http://historysstory.blogspot.com/2014/02/february-17-its-jefferson-in-house.html" target="_blank">the Presidential election of 1800</a> when he arranged for his supporters to block Burr from taking the Presidency from Thomas Jefferson. So when in 1804, Burr found himself under attack in the press from Hamilton again, he struck back. He wrote to Hamilton that opinions which he expressed in public to a Dr. Cooper were defamatory and called the accusations an <i>"Affair of Honor"</i> which meant he was being challenged to a duel. Hamilton tried to back out of it, but could not bring himself to make a public apology. So the duel was set.<br />
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<b>July 11, 1804 at Just After Dawn:</b><br />
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The account of the seconds continued: <i> "He then asked if they were prepared; being answered in the affirmative... both parties presented and fired in succession. The fire of Colonel Burr took effect, and General Hamilton almost instantly fell. Colonel Burr advanced toward General Hamilton with a manner and gesture that appeared to be expressive of regret; but, without speaking, turned about and withdrew, being urged from the field by his friend... with a view to prevent his being recognized by the surgeon and bargemen who were then approaching. No further communication took place between the principals, and the barge that carried Colonel Burr immediately returned to the city. We conceive it proper to add, that the conduct of the parties in this interview was perfectly proper, as suited the occasion."</i> There have been differing accounts of whether Hamilton deliberately fired over Burr's head as if to let the whole matter drop, or if he simply missed. But whatever the case, Burr had the next shot and he did <i>not</i> miss. Burr it is said, went home and ate a hearty breakfast. Hamilton, mortally wounded in the stomach lingered on before dying the next day. <br />
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<b>Together Forever.....</b><br />
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Hamilton is today enshrined in our nation's memory as one of our founding fathers with his worrisome visage looking out upon us from the ten dollar bill. Aaron Burr was prosecuted for murder, as dueling, however much practiced in some circles was nevertheless illegal. When it became clear that he was going to lose, he was obliged to leave the state of New York and the Vice Presidency. In 1807, he was brought to trial for treason by another of his old targets, Thomas Jefferson after a foolish and ill-conceived attempt to invade Mexico and form a separate country with some American territories. He was acquitted, but was this time obliged to leave the United States altogether. He lived for some time in a house on Craven Street in London (it's true... he <i>really</i> did!!). Late in life he returned to the United States where he died on Staten Island on Sept. 14, 1836. He is buried in New Jersey. And to this day, he is remembered almost entirely for his connection to a man whom he sought to eliminate from his life completely, by an <i>"Affair of Honor"</i>..... and now that we have the "Rap" Musical roaring along on Broadway,, the connection is even stronger....<br />
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<b><i>Sources:</i></b><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr#Conspiracy_and_trial">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr#Conspiracy_and_trial</a><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/duel.htm">http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/duel.htm</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande17.html">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande17.html</a><br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Notorious-New-Jersey-Mobsters-Scoundrels/dp/0813541778/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405050109&sr=1-1&keywords=%22Notorious+New+Jersey%22+by+Jon+Blackwell" target="_blank">"Notorious New Jersey"</a></i></b> by Jon Blackwell, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 2008<br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Affairs-Honor-National-Politics-Republic/dp/0300097557/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405050381&sr=1-1&keywords=%22Affairs+of+Honor%22+by+Joanne+B.+Freeman" target="_blank">"Affairs of Honor"</a></i></b> by Joanne B. Freeman, Yale University Press, 2003<br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-35167145024947384272013-07-09T09:00:00.001-07:002020-07-09T08:57:12.497-07:00JULY 9 = The "All - Stars" Tie, Brian WINS!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8YhBeW9cTtq93jV_U-ks8NpwM7n6EIJpMiODcWYQWTGQZ8W3vIjEpvBfWtmXoGBSlifmJlCtF-7_cW0UZzPHaH2sUStqDYmDKhlzElBv221y_8fjhwppqjL54reFBI_kXBssirwlMVeIF/s1600/GUARDADO.jpg$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8YhBeW9cTtq93jV_U-ks8NpwM7n6EIJpMiODcWYQWTGQZ8W3vIjEpvBfWtmXoGBSlifmJlCtF-7_cW0UZzPHaH2sUStqDYmDKhlzElBv221y_8fjhwppqjL54reFBI_kXBssirwlMVeIF/s1600/GUARDADO.jpg$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.jpg" /></a></div>
<i>"Obviously, nobody wanted it to end like this, but it really was the right move...the fans got to see the stars, they got to see good pitching, good hitting, great plays. The only thing they didn't get to see was a winner."</i><br />
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- Eddie Guardado, Minnesota Twins on the 2002 MLB All Star Game<br />
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<i>"The ten years since my diagnosis have been the best ten years of my life, and I consider myself to be a lucky man."</i><br />
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- Michael J. Fox, Actor in his 2002 Autobiography, <i>"Lucky Man"</i>.<br />
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<i>"The years since my operation have been the most remarkable years of my life. While I cannot say that everything is perfect, things are good, and I am definitely a lucky man."</i><br />
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- Brian T. Bolten, writer, on his life since his <i>DBS</i> surgery.<br />
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On today's date, July 9 in 2002 the National League and the American League squared off in Major League Baseball's Annual All Star Game. And in an unprecedented result the game was called off after 11 innings in a tie at 7 to 7. I remember this very well because I sat up watching the game until this tied ending. And the reason I was able to sit up to the end of this game is that I had just undergone DBS Surgery at St. David's Hospital in Austin, Texas, and for the first time in over two or more year's, my hands were both completely still. And I was so happy to have my hands still, that I didn't want to sleep. The National and American leagues may have concluded the night in a tie, but I had won!! My hands would not <i>remain <u>completely</u></i> still, but I felt that I had won, and I still feel that way. Like Michael J. Fox, I was then, and remain today a lucky man.<br />
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<b>MJF and BTB Notice Parkinson's For the First Time</b><br />
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<i>"Even with the lights off, blinds down, drapes pulled in, an offensive amount of light still filtered into the room. Eyes clenched shut, I placed the palm of my left hand across the bridge of my nose in a weak attempt to block the glare. A moth's wing -- or so I thought -- fluttered against my right cheek. I opened my eyes, keeping my hand suspended an inch or two in front of my face so I could finger-flick the little beastie across the room. That's when I noticed my pinkie. It was trembling, twitching, auto-animated. How long this had been going on I wasn't exactly sure. But now that I noticed it, I was surprised to discover that I couldn't stop it."</i><br />
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This was how Michael J. Fox described a moment early on a November morning in 1990 when he first noticed the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, a disorder of the nervous system resulting from the death of cells in the brain which generate the chemical <b><i>dopamine.</i></b> The result is a chronic tremor, sometimes severe, in the arms and legs of the sufferer. The disease bears the name of the English doctor James Parkinson , who published the first detailed description of it's symptoms in <i>An Essay on the Shaking Palsy</i> in 1817. The cause of the death of these cells remains unknown.<br />
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Although MJF and I are the same age (58 as of today!!), I was a lot less surprised by a tremor in my hand than he was. This is because I had had all of my life a condition previously known as <i>"Benign Familial Tremor"</i> which has since come to be called <i>"Essential Tremor"</i>. And this was a slight tremor of both of my hands, which my father had to some extent, as did his mother before him. I had always told people that it was just an odd sort of inherited tick, which did nothing more than make me look more nervous on dates than I was really. And for most of my life this was true. But I noticed a definite change somewhere during the Autumn of 1999. I was auditing a class and I noticed for the first time that I was having trouble keeping my hand steady enough to hand write my notes. I didn't think of PD at that time. But the Austin Symphony Orchestra, of which I was a member was rehearsing the Symphony No. 1 in D Major, by Gustav Mahler. In one of the movements there is a spot wherein the Double Bass section breaks briefly into a solo section divisi. So the top half of each stand plays a line and then the bottom half continues it. Performance anxiety is something with which every musician must contend and it had always been something which for me inhibited me from playing as relaxed as I normally would. But now all of a sudden in this brief little spot where I was one of only four Basses playing, my right hand (with which the bow is held) would shake violently, and uncontrollably. For the little brief moments of my exposure, I was effectively disabled.<br />
<b><br /></b><b>DBS Surgery, St. Davids Hospital.....</b><br />
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So flash forward to the summer of 2002. My niece Maria had come down to Austin to look after me during my trip (above: Neuro-Surgeons perform DBS Surgery on a patient) into the operating room at St. Davids Hospital which is literally a ten minute walk from where I was then a member of the Staff of the U.T. Austin School of Music. I was to have a kind of surgery called <i>"DBS"</i>, which stands for<i> "Deep Brain Stimulator"</i>. It sounds frightening, and it is serious.... it <b><i>IS</i></b> in fact brain surgery afterall. But it's purpose is very clear. A very small hole is DRILLED through the skull (that was the only frightening part... not because it was painful... it wasn't at all; it just felt very strange) and a line about the thickness of sewing thread is inserted through that opening and through a small little tunnel which my brilliant Neuro-Surgeon, Dr. Lee Berlad had made to the portion of my brain (such as it was... ha-ha!!) wherein the nerve cell imbalance of Parkinson's Disease was occurring. On the end of this little wire was an electrode. The wire was then attached to a device (the<i> "Deep Brain Stimulator" </i>) which was planted in my chest. This battery powered device delivered a regular electrical pulse to this part of the brain which remedies the nerve cell imbalance enough to bring about a significant reduction in the tremors and the other symptoms of that old bastard Parkinson's.<br />
In the years since the tremor has returned to some extent, and I'm having troubles with balance, but I'm still lucky!! I can still walk with the help of a walker --- but I can still walk!!<br />
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<b>And the All Star Game!!</b><br />
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The operation went very well. My niece called my Super- visor at U.T. Music, Elaine Law to give her the news, and Elaine sent out an e-mail to my colleagues to tell them about this. One of the immediate effects of the surgery was the very slight swelling that occurred in my brain tissue around the route where the electric wire passed. The Stimulator would not be activated until two weeks after the surgery. But because of this swelling the tremor in my hands was stopped immediately while the swelling was occurring... for about two or three days. I got a pair of "Get Well", congratulatory phone calls from my Austin Symphony colleagues Sean and Betsy Sanders, and the hospital staff were looking after me very well. Maria stayed in the room with me until fairly late in the evening, before returning to my apartment to get some sleep.<br />
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<b>The N.L. & the A.L. Tied, But <u><i>I </i></u>Had WON!!</b><br />
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But what I remember best of all was the fact that for the very first time in two or more years, my hands were folded on a pillow in front of me and were <i>completely</i> and <i>totally<b> still</b></i>!! I knew that this would only last for a couple of days, and that the tremor would return until they activated the Stimulator. But I didn't care!! I just adored the blessed stillness of my body for this little time. AND the All Star Game was on T.V. And I was so pleased that I loved it!! I didn't care that there was only one Cincinnati Red player on the team that year: Adam Dunn in the outfield. It was as Eddie Guardado (pictured above as a Red, which he was from 2006 - 07) said, a fun and hard-played contest. I didn't care when Bud Selig and the rest of the officials got together and decided after 11 innings when all 30 of the players on both teams had been used, to call it off as a tie (above). It was OK with me!! After two years of constant, and unremitting shakes brought on by PD, my hands were gloriously and miraculously STILL! I had won!! Life since then hasn't exactly been a smooth skate. But when they activated the Deep Brain Stimulator it worked very well. My tremor is not totally gone. But it is greatly reduced. And my sense of balance is a bit off, so I use a cane. And I do now live with the continuous threat of falling. So while I can still get around OK, it's no longer quite safe for me to live on my own. Nevertheless, if you're expecting to see an old man shuffling around with his head bowed, forget it!! Look for a MAN striding confidently, and smiling!! The operation was EIGHTEEN YEARS ago today, and I can still say that I am one VERY lucky man!!<br />
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READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: krustybassist@gmail.com I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!<br />
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Sources:<br />
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By Michael J. Fox, Hyperion, New York, 2002. <br />
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Major_League_Baseball_All-Star_Game<br />
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http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/allstar2002/mlb_allstar_2002.jsp<br />
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_disease<br />
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http://www.pmdi.org/movement-disorders.html<br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-65190106017095474502016-07-05T13:59:00.002-07:002020-07-05T08:32:55.116-07:00JULY 5 = The "Bikini" is Introduced in Paris<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In my never-ending quest to see that you, my T.I.H. readers are kept aware of the most important events in history on any given day I bring you this: on today's date, July 5 in 1946 French designer Louis Reard introduced a revealing two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Reard named his new product the "Bikini" after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean wherein Atomic Bomb testing was being conducted. Why it is that the designer chose to link a small women's bathing suit with the ultimate weapon of mass destruction seems an odd question to which I may have a possible partial answer by the end of this posting. We'll see... but I make no promises.</div>
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<b>What EXACTLY IS a Bikini?</b></div>
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Well, just in case any of you out there are somehow unclear on this point we will turn to <b><i>"Wikipedia"</i></b> for a proper definition:</div>
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<i>"A bikini is usually a women's abbreviated two-piece swimsuit with a bra top for the chest and underwear cut below the navel. The basic design is simple: two triangles of fabric on top cover the woman's breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom cover the groin in front and the buttocks in back. The size of a bikini bottom can range from full pelvic coverage to a revealing thong or G-string design."</i> So there you have it - two triangles on top and two (or maybe just one) on the bottom.</div>
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<b>The Bikini Developed as a Wartime Measure</b></div>
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Ok, while that may be stretching the truth a bit, wartime needs did play a role in this story. In Europe of the 1930's women had been wearing a </div>
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kind of two-piece bathing suit all along which was made up of a halter top and shorts. But very little of the midriff was exposed, and none of the navel was visible. Over here in America a fairly tame version of the two piece began appearing during World War II. The war brought on fabric shortages and the rationing of their use requiring the removal of the skirt panel and other unnecessary bits of material. This version looked something like the suit Betty Grable is wearing at right. But heavily fortified coastlines pretty much put a stop to developments in ladies swimwear like everything else not related directly with the war. </div>
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<b>The War Ends and Things Cut Loose</b></div>
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So the war ended in 1945. And beach lovers in 1946 were looking forward getting back to the beach for the first time in years. And some, including a pair of French fashion designers were really ready to cut loose. Fabric shortages due to the war were still in effect, so in an<br />
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attempt to revive sale of ladies swimsuits, two French designers – Jacques Heim and Louis Réard (right), launched a new and quite daring design which took advantage of the lingering fabric shortage simply by using less fabric, and leaving more skin on display than had ever been tried before. Heim called his version the <i>"Atome"</i> named after the world's smallest particle - the Atom - calling his creation <i>"the smallest bathing suit in the world".</i> Whereas Reard went a step further introducing his creation as <i>"smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world." </i>At a mere 30 inches of fabric a fair claim, and naming it the<i>"Bikini"</i>... in his words: <i>"like the </i>[atom]<i> bomb, the bikini is small and devastating"</i>. Reard at first thought the Bikini would horrify the world perhaps with this name reference, but he stuck to it.</div>
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<b>The Bikini's Reception is Shock and Awe</b><br />
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Whatever Reard's confidence in his design, he ran into trouble conveying that to others, as no professional model was willing to<br />
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appear in this (nearly) show-all design. So he wound up hiring one Micheline Bernardini (left), a nude dancer at the Casino de Paris, who had no trouble at with the idea of strutting her stuff nearly nude in public. Reard was so certain of the newspaper headlines his suit would generate, that he made the suit with newspaper design printed across it. and he had his model holding a 2" x 2" box into which the suit would fit. Naturally the suit was a tremendous hit critically with men who sent Reard about 50,000 fan letters. But the staid French newspaper <i>"Le Figaro" </i>kept all the fuss in prospective: <i>"People were craving the simple pleasures of the sea and the sun. For women, wearing a bikini signaled a kind of second liberation. There was really nothing sexual about this. It was instead a celebration of freedom and a return to the joys in life."</i><br />
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<b>The Bikini Is Slow to Catch On</b><br />
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The Bikini was a great success in France, and soon began making appearances along the Mediterranean and Spanish coasts. Although some attempts were made to outlaw it in some such spots, eventually local officials bowed to the popular tide. But in spite of it's initial success in France, sales were sluggish, and by the 1950's Reard was back to making the more traditional one-piece design. And in America, buyers resisted the bikini through the 1950's. But once the 1960's arrived with its care-free youth movement in the air the bikini finally began to catch on with it being featured in the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach party movies.<br />
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And since then the bikini has become a fashion mainstay for better or for worse, although it seems to be getting progressively smaller all the time to a degree that might have made even Micheline Bernardini blush... well a little bit anyway....</div>
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<b>Sources =</b></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_820263610"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bikini-introduced">http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bikini-introduced</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-bikinis-inventor-guessed-how-much-it-would-horrify-the-public-6914887/?no-ist">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-bikinis-inventor-guessed-how-much-it-would-horrify-the-public-6914887/?no-ist</a></div>
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Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-82326940208123524012020-06-21T13:53:00.000-07:002020-06-21T14:02:36.148-07:00Father's Day<br />
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It is amazing to me think that I've been doing this Blog since about 2014 (I think!), and only today did I notice that I've never done a posting about Father's Day! I know that I've posted the picture to the left of my own magnificent father before, and I've written about<br />
his participation in World War II. And within my family, I have a couple more veterans, my brother-in-law Dave and my brother Pat, both of them veterans of the U.S. Navy. And there is nephew Pat Jr., who served in the U.S. Army. There is another brother, not me, but my brother John who is a Dad. And two more nephews (both of whom are taller than me), and a couple of nephews in law all of whom, just like the men mentioned above are excellent fathers and husbands. I wish them all Happy Father's Day!<br />
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<b>A Bit of the History of Father's Day</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ESZI29bvOxvql9hElLEs5MLeKzEjcQXV1xqskm5fwQ0OneMVIHAjLIswAyn8ltW-38PHgaKeYbhCJkEBRDJmhdH3gIDB3rEbxSXGBZfNt9Mawd50cR4Aiv9FjS9eFm7D-jvkzhPeldTY/s1600/SONORA_DODD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ESZI29bvOxvql9hElLEs5MLeKzEjcQXV1xqskm5fwQ0OneMVIHAjLIswAyn8ltW-38PHgaKeYbhCJkEBRDJmhdH3gIDB3rEbxSXGBZfNt9Mawd50cR4Aiv9FjS9eFm7D-jvkzhPeldTY/s200/SONORA_DODD.jpg" width="200" /></a> There are versions of Father's Day across the world on which we celebrate our Fathers and show our filial devotion to the men who brought us into this world. In Americca, the first celebration is thought to have been a memorial service held for the men who had been killed in the <a href="https://historysstory.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-6-monongah-mining-disaster.html" target="_blank">Mining Disaster which took place in Monongah, West Virginia</a> in 1907. But following that, it seems to have been the inspiration of a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd (pictured,right) (1882 - 1978), a native of Arkansas. When listening to a sermon about the newly created Mother's Day at the Central Methodist Church in Spokane, Washington. Ms. Dodd held her own father, a Civil War veteran very dearly in her heart, and after hearing the sermon felt that there should be a day to honor fathers as well. She spoke with church leaders about her idea which was well received. They chose the third Sunday in June as the date. So Father's Day was first celebrated in Spokane on June 19, 1910.<br />
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<b>The Date Changes Over Time</b><br />
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Observance of the day faded over the course of the following decade. But it regained popularity ans in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson wrote a telegram to the leaders of Spokane praising them for their celebrations of the day, and the great orator William Jennings Bryan<br />
spoke out in favor of observance of the day.And getting closer to our own time, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring that the third Sunday in June to be Father's Day. And in 1972 President Richard Nixon established the third Sunday in June to be the permanent observance of Father's Day. Of course there are hundreds of merchants and department stores which try their best to cash in with sales of all kinds. But Ms. Dodd that she thought anything to honor our fathers was fine with her. So let's get going with parties, and toasts to the loving spirit of our fathers, and warm memories of those, who like my own Dad are no longer here to share them with us.<br />
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<b>Sources =</b><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jun/18/it-started-here-sonora-dodd-the-spokane-mother-of-/" target="_blank"> https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jun/18/it-started-here-sonora-dodd-the-spokane-mother-of-/</a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_Smart_Dodd">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_Smart_Dodd</a><br />
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<br />Brian T. Boltenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347138270315020257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3909482254164785217.post-61322187406764865462019-06-06T09:21:00.000-07:002020-06-06T11:12:45.590-07:00JUNE 6 = "D - Day" 76 Years Later<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"Omaha Beach was a night- mare. Even now it brings pain to recall what happe- ned there on June 6, 1944. I have returned many times to honor the valiant men who died on that beach. They should never be forgotten. Nor should those who lived to carry the day by the slimmest of margins. Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero."</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">- General Omar Bradley, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"A General's Life"</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">, 1983</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">On today's date, June 6 in 1944 </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>- 76 years ago -</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">the forces the Western Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France. This was the largest amphibious operation in military history with 160,000 men hitting the beach that morning starting at 6:30 a.m. The landings were preceded by airborne attacks through the early morning hours of June 6 by 24,000 Allied paratroopers. There were 5,000 ships supporting the invasion with naval bombardment as well as carrying the troops and supplies. The enemy were the forces of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany who had occupied France since 1940, imposing untold brutality. The Allied forces were the armies of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, the Free French, as well as ships and contingents of many of the countries which had been overrun by the Nazis. This was quite literally democracy and freedom versus the forces of tyranny, and as would become apparent as the invading allies moved inland and uncovered the murderous death camps, the forces of darkness and evil.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">These are basic facts of the operation that day, called </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"D Day"</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">. But this battle (code named "</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">Operation Overlord</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">")... </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">this <u>one</u> day</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">... was such a huge and complex undertaking that entire books, movies and TV documentaries have been devoted to it.. This one engagement would decide whether the Nazi tyranny could be overthrown, or whether it would last indefinitely. Every part of this story would qualify for a separate posting of it's own. But for our purposes here I shall choose one particular facet of the story and focus on that. And as the worst of the fighting -- the bloodiest, yet as General Bradley (commander of the U.S. forces in Normandy) tells us above the most heroic part of the story came at </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">Omaha Beach</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">, that is where I shall focus, attempting to relate what it was like to be there.</span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>Omaha Beach</i> - A Killing Field</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuzKQcOg4IaAmPZcQpDBk_frnWKYF2vM28NS2bCUdqoKrRcOSInGVseRsZ6305nLXjEFGGsWlqZ9eqY9yvBepOa18YR6WW6PJhstiVhXyoccjjFHSgH19pm5QzmMK5-6e9pDKC368bOkbf/s1600/D-DAY+MAP%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #999999; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuzKQcOg4IaAmPZcQpDBk_frnWKYF2vM28NS2bCUdqoKrRcOSInGVseRsZ6305nLXjEFGGsWlqZ9eqY9yvBepOa18YR6WW6PJhstiVhXyoccjjFHSgH19pm5QzmMK5-6e9pDKC368bOkbf/s320/D-DAY+MAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 4px;" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">Omaha Beach was so bloody is because of its topo- graphy and its po- sition in the Allied attack zone: right in the middle of it - a fifty mile (80 kilometer) stretch of the of northwestern France's Normandy peninsula, divided into Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah Beach (click on the above map to enlarge). The British, Canadian, and Free French were assigned the Sword, Juno and Gold beaches, the Americans were assigned Omaha and Utah Beaches. Failure to take it could endanger the entire operation by leaving the Allied forces divided. The German commander, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, an intelligent officer (to say the least) saw that this area would be the key to any Allied assault, and had put up the strongest defenses in Normandy here. Omaha was overlooked by tall cliffs (easily visible in the middle of the above photograph) from which the Germans could blanket the whole beach with machine gun fire. The beach leading up from the water was filled with obstacles and mines. Part of the beach was called "shingles" - a line of small stones which offered a very small amount of protection from the machine gun fire. These were lined with barbed wire which made it impassable without exposure to the machine guns. And staying by the shingles too long left the troops exposed to German mortar fire. And with high cliffs enclosing it, Omaha could not be gone around.</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>"A hurricane of enemy machine gun fire..."</b></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">As if the above was not enough, the German forces defending Omaha were not the soft, half-loyal Russian and Polish conscripts that Allied intelligence had reported, but the crack, battle-hardened 352'nd Division. Their artillery made it nearly impossible for the men to be taken close to the beach. Thus from the moment they left their landing craft, the American infantry was in high water under heavy fire. As General Bradley sorrowfully recorded: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"All men instantly came under a hurricane of enemy machine gun, mortar and artillery fire. Dozens died or fell wounded, many drowning in the sea. There was no cover. The men lay in the sand or shallow water, unable to return fire, or crouched behind stranded landing craft. For several hours, the beach and the water just beyond was a bloody chaos."</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">Bradley gives "</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">unstint- ing praise</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">" to the ships of the U.S. navy, whose destroy- ers repeatedly risked running aground by steaming in close enough to the beach to give the Army troops cover with their big naval guns. But Omaha was still nearly impassable. Nearly entire regiments were wiped out within a few minutes, leaving many survivors disoriented. Sgt. Thomas Valance of the 116'th Regiment recalled that after being severely wounded, he </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"... staggered up against the seawall and sort of collapsed there, and as a matter of fact spent the whole day in that same position. Essentially my part in the invasion ended by having been wiped out as most of my company was. The bodies of my buddies were washing ashore and I was the one live body in amongst so many of my friends, all of whom were dead, in many cases severely blown to pieces."</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">Private John Mc Phee of the 16'th regiment recalled being exhausted by all of the heavy equipment he had to carry: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"Our life expectancy was about zero. We were burdened down with too much weight. We were just pack mules. I was very young in excellent shape. I could walk for miles, endure a great deal of physical hardship, but I was so seasick I thought I would die. In fact, I wished I had. I was totally exhausted."</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;"> Pvt. Mc Phee was hit three times, and luckily for him was dragged to safety by his buddies and evacuated.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></b><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">Dealing With Chaos and Moving Off the Beach</b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">With so many higher ranking officers being wounded or killed it was frequently left to Captains and lower ranking officers to organize the chaos from different parts of units being thrown together in the chaos of battle and find some way of moving off the very slim sliver of beach they were holding onto and moving up the cliffs. Lieutenant John Spaulding of the 16'th regiment's E Company lead one such movement, climbing one of the many bluffs looking down on the beach: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"We still could see no one to the right and there was no one up to us on the left... we didn't know what had become of the rest of E Company. Back in the water boats were in flames. I saw a tank ashore, knocked out. After a couple of looks back, we decided we wouldn't look back anymore."</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;"> Spaulding lead his men through a minefield with the help of Sergeant Fred Bisco, who yelled</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"> "Lieutenant, watch out for the damn mines... but we lost no men coming through them, although H Company coming along the same trail a few hours later lost several men. The Lord was with us and we had an angel on each shoulder on that trip." </i><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">Captain Joseph T. Dawson was leading a company of men through a similar minefield situation when he met up with Spaulding's group. They were proceeding </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"... up to the crest of the ridge which overlooked the beach. We got about halfway up when we met the remnants of a platoon from E Company, commanded by Lt. Spaulding. This was the only group -- somewhere less than twenty men -- we encountered who had gotten off the beach." </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">The group then organized an attack: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"Above me, right on top of the ridge, the Germans had a line of defenses with an excellent field of fire. I kept the men behind and along with my communications sergeant and his assistant, worked our way up to the crest of the ridge. Just before the crest was a sharp perpendicular drop, and we were able to get up the crest without being seen by the enemy. I could now hear the Germans talking in the machine gun nest immediately above me. I then threw two grenades, which were successful in eliminating the enemy and silencing the machine gun which had been holding up our approach." </i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></i><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">General Eisenhower Pays Tribute</b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;">Overall the Allies suffered 12,000 casualties (men killed or wounded) in operations that took place on June 6, 1944. These included operations of airborne troops, naval vessels, and medical corpsmen operating on the beach, whose heroic contributions to the victory won that day we simply didn't have room to include in this posting, as extended as </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">it</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px;"> is. In an interview with Walter Cronkite on the 20'th Anniversary of D Day in 1964 Dwight D. Eisenhower the Supreme Allied Commander who gave the order to go ahead with the invasion on June 6 said:</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">"It's a wonderful thing to remember what those fellows twenty years ago were fighting for and sacrificing for, what they did to preserve our way of life. Not to conquer any territory, not for any ambitions of our own. But to make sure that Hitler could not destroy freedom in the world. I think it's overwhelming. To think of the lives that were given for that principle, paying a terrible price on this beach alone on that one day... But they did it so that the world could be free. It just shows what free men will do rather than be slaves."</i><br />
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<b>Sources:</b><br />
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by Omar N. Bradley & Clay Blair, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1983<br />
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by Stephen E. Ambrose, Touchstone Books, New York, 1995.<br />
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edited by Jon E. Lewis, Carroll & Graf Publ. Inc., New York, 1998.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings" style="color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings</a><br />
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+ 4146.<br />
+ 279.<br />
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<cite class="user" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12429730420678601455" rel="nofollow" style="color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;">Michele</a></cite><span class="icon user " style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text" style="margin-left: 6px;"><a href="https://historysstory.blogspot.com/2014/06/june-6-d-day-70-years-later.html?showComment=1465313797417#c5988351682668401516" rel="nofollow" style="color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;">June 7, 2016 at 8:36 AM</a></span></div>
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By the way, Eisenhower's son, John, graduated from West Point on June 6, 1944!</div>
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