When George Washington took the Presidential Oath of Office for the second time in 1793, he did so reluctantly. He had served his first term as the first President of the United States with distinction, and proved himself to be a very capable leader. But a second term? He wasn’t really in favor of that. [...]
Archive for February, 2009
U.S. Creates New Species: The Lame Duck
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1951, 22nd Admendment, President Franklin Roosevelt, President George Washington, Term Limits, U.S. Constitution on February 27 | Leave a Comment »
Scuds and Patriots: Timing is Everything
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1991, Dhahran, Gulf War, Patriot Missile, Saudi Arabia, Scud Missile on February 25 | Leave a Comment »
.3433 seconds. A third of a second isn’t very long. I try to think of things I can do in that amount of time, but it’s pretty hard. I could maybe blink my eyes, or swivel my head, or count the cash in my wallet. But not much else comes to mind, which must mean I can’t [...]
The 9-1-1 in Flight 8-1-1
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1989, Boeing 747, Cargo Door, Decompression, Honolulu, UAL Flight 811 on February 24 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been a little more than a month since I wrote about Air Florida Flight 90, which crashed in the Potomac River back in 1982. Coincidentally, it was just 2 days later when Flight 1549, under very different circumstances (bird strikes), landed in the Hudson River. Of course, with no loss of life and only [...]
Iwo Jima: Two Flags, One Indelible Memory
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Bonin Islands, Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal, Mount Suribachi on February 23 | Leave a Comment »
There are few pictures more iconic than the one that captured the raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi. But what you may not know is that moment in time, one of The Moments in Time, was actually the second time the U.S. flag had been planted there. Suribachi was the only really landmark [...]
George Washington Goes Postal
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1792, Benjamin Franklin, Postal Service Act, President George Washington, Timothy Pickering, United States Post Office on February 20 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t pretend to know much about our first President’s demeanor, so if I were discussing that as part of Today’s History Lesson, there’s at least a 50% chance that the title of this piece is way off the mark. But happily for all of us, I’m not writing about George Washington’s attitude nor his bouts [...]
Iwo Jima: Island of Volcanic Conflict
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Bonin Islands, General Holland Smith, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines on February 19 | 1 Comment »
Taken at face value, the island of Iwo Jima is pretty inconsequential. It’s one of 30 tiny islands and atolls that comprise the Bonin Islands, which rest roughly 750 miles south (and a little east) of Japan. The surface area of all the islands together isn’t much more than 50 square miles. Iwo Jima’s area [...]
Give us This Day our Daily Read
Posted in American literature, Late nineteenth century (1865-1900), United States, tagged 1885, Brer Rabbit, De Tar Baby, Mark Twain, Reading, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Remus on February 18 | 1 Comment »
One of the things I remember about growing up were the times that Dad would read to us. Sometimes it would be on one of our beds, with us kids sitting around him. Other times, it would be in the morning before the van came to take him to work. We’d sit in the bean-bag chairs in [...]
British Rescue Mission Right on the Altmark
Posted in Scandanavia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1940, Admiral Graf Spee, Altmark, Altmark Incident, HMS Cossack, Norway on February 16 | Leave a Comment »
Today’s History Lesson, a discussion of the Altmark (shown to the left), actually bridges a couple of topics we’ve looked at in the past. Back in December, we learned about Captain Hans Langsdorff and the Admiral Graf Spee. Langsdorff’s pocket battleship earned quite a reputation as a merchant raider in the southern Atlantic Ocean. In that piece, I [...]
“Dear Abbey”
Posted in Mediterranean, Uncategorized, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Abbey of Monte Cassino, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, General Bernard Freyberg, Gustav Line, Italy, Monte Cassino on February 15 | Leave a Comment »
For more than 1,400 years, the Abbey of Monte Cassino had stood more than 1,500 feet above Cassino town in central Italy. Majestically situated with a commanding view of the entire valley, it had for centuries been a place of solitude, study, and prayers. Established in the 6th century, the Abbey had seen a slow decline [...]
Arizona: A Hot Valentine’s Day Gift
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1912, Arizona, Desert, Grand Canyon National Park, Phoenix on February 14 | Leave a Comment »
Valentine’s Day. Day of flowers, and candy, and kisses, and the color red. And, course, it’s the day for chocolate. Well, for most people it is. My wife got me a box of chocolates…Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls. There are few things better in life than Swiss Cake Rolls. She also got me a little [...]
“A Daring and Skillful Opponent”
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1941, Afrika Korps, Deutsches Afrikakorps, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Libya, North Africa, Tripoli on February 12 | Leave a Comment »
“We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us. And may I say across the havoc of war, a great general.” I don’t think he paid very many compliments to the enemies arrayed against him, so those words, spoken by Prime Minister Winston Churchill concerning Erwin Rommel, scream in effusive praise for the German General [...]
Have Oil, Will Travel
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1940, Adolf Hitler, German-Soviet Commercial Aggreement, Joseph Stalin, Nazi-Soviet Pact on February 11 | Leave a Comment »
When Germany signed its non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in August of 1939, it caused a huge stir in the capital cities of many countries, not the least of which were London, Paris, and Warsaw. There the reactions were those of shock and dismay, as the British and French had been trying to negotiate [...]
Guadalcanal: Three Views of Victory
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, General Alexander Patch, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands on February 9 | Leave a Comment »
In January of 1942, when southeast Asia and the Pacific were collapsing under the weight of one Japanese victory after another, looking ahead to January of 1943 and any glimmer of hope probably required, in the minds of the military, a telescope. Names like Pearl Harbor, the Prince of Wales, Wake Island, and Guam may have been [...]
Midwest Quakes Deemed Missouri’s Fault
Posted in Early nineteenth century (1810-1850), United States, tagged 1812, Earthquake, Missouri, New Madrid, New Madrid Seismic Zone on February 7 | Leave a Comment »
When we think of earthquakes, we tend to think of specific places like San Francisco or Alaska, where major quakes have occurred. We probably also think of places like Indonesia and Bande Aceh, where an underwater earthquake and subsequent landslide caused the immense tsunami on December 26, 2004. Others of us may think in more general terms, like the Ring [...]
Electoral College Gets it 100% Right
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1789, Electoral College, President George Washington on February 4 | Leave a Comment »
February 4, 1789 marks the first time that the Electoral College was called upon to do its duty: elect the President of the United States. And for one of only two times in the history of U.S. elections, the vote was unanimous. George Washington, Virginian, hero of the French and Indian War and the War of [...]
Fighting Falcon Flies for the Second “First” Time
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1974, Aircraft, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Interceptor, McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle, Vietnam War on February 2 | Leave a Comment »
As we’ve looked at various aircraft, there’s a trend of “action-reaction” that I hope you’ve noticed. An airplane was produced (North American’s XB-70 Valkyrie), which prompted the Russians to produce an aircraft (the MiG-25 Foxbat). The Foxbat caused the U.S. military immense alarm, and that led to the incredible McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle. Cause and effect…action and [...]
