MIKE GRACIA

President Nixon shakes hands with Premier Chou En-lai of
the People’s Republic of China. Nixon’s trip to China was
to seek a “normalization of relations.”

On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman (above) announced
that he is ordering U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to
aid the democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist
North Korea. The United States was undertaking the major military
operation, he explained, to enforce a United Nations resolution
calling for an end to hostilities, and stop the spread of communism
in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea, Truman also 
deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to guard against
invasion by communist China and ordered an acceleration of
military aid to French forces fighting communist guerrillas in
Vietnam.

U.S. troops arrive at the dockside in Pusan, 6 August 1950.

SANDY KOZEL

George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum)
(January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996)

George Burns has three stars on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame: a motion pictures star at 1639 Vine
Street, a television star at 6510 Hollywood Boulevard,
and a live performance star. Burns is also a member
of the Television Hall of Fame, where he and Gracie
Allen were both inducted in 1988.

The Famous comedy duo of George Burns and Gracie Allen.

George Burns & Gracie Allen were not only
married in real life, their work from the
mid-1930s through the mid-1950s made them
one of the biggest comedy duos in Hollywood.

In Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of
Russia’s use of the Julian calendar) began on March 8, 1917
when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in
Petrograd. One week later, centuries of czarist rule in Russia
ended with the abdication of Nicholas II, and Russia took a
dramatic step closer toward communist revolution.

By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability
of the czarist regime. Government corruption was rampant, the
Russian economy remained backward, and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma, the Russian parliament established after
the Revolution of 1905, when it opposed his will. However, the
immediate cause of the February Revolution—the first phase of
the Russian Revolution of 1917—was Russia’s disastrous
involvement in World War I.

TIM MAGUIRE

Author Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is 78 today.