On 5 Feb 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed an increase in the size of the US Supreme Court—his ‘court packing’ proposal. It was the great depression and his “stimulus” packages weren’t working and there were lots of...
Today in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens held a shipboard peace conference off the coast of Virginia; the talks deadlocked over the issue of Southern autonomy. In a Republic the power resides with the...
Today, 2 Feb, in 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its...
Today in 1958, the year I graduated from high school, the US launched its first successful satellite, Explorer I. It was launched from Cape Canaveral. We’d been beaten into space by the Soviets who put their Sputnik satellite up ahead of us...
On 30 Jan 1968, I was a rifle company commander in the 101st Airborne Div in Vietnam when the Tet Offensive began. It was the most intensive fighting I ever experienced. In coordinated attacks all across South Vietnam, communist forces launch their...
On 30 Jan 1943 the British Royal Air Force began a bombing campaign on the German capital that coincided with the 10th anniversary of Hitler’s accession to power. To celebrate the anniversary of Hitler’s 1933 becoming the head of the...
Today in 1834, Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to use federal troops to quell labor unrest when the banks of the Potomac burst into violence when workers on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal rioted. We don’t permit that any more. But...
On 28 Jan 1915 an act of Congress created the US Coast Guard. Several organizations that had existed for a long time were merged under the new name. Anyway, happy birthday, Coasties!
Today in 2006 Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Denmark to protest caricatures of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper. The protests spread across the world for weeks, and dozens of people were killed. I do believe that Islam is a...
Today in 1968, the US intelligence-gathering ship Pueblo was seized by North Korean naval vessels and charged with spying and violating North Korean waters. Negotiations to free the 83-man crew drug on for nearly a year. We denied that the ship was...