MIKE GRACIA
On this day in 1971, President Nixon announced that he’d sent Henry Kissinger to China and that the result of these meetings was an agreement for a presidential trip to China to seek a ‘’normalization
of relations.”
President Nixon shakes hands with Premier Chou En-lai of the
People’s Republic of China.
President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon Visiting the
Great Wall of China.
SANDY KOZEL
An artists depiction of the incident.
In the Persian Gulf on this day in 1988, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes
shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile Iranian
fighter aircraft. Two missiles were fired from the American warship–the
aircraft was hit, and all 290 people aboard were killed. The attack came
near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, when U.S. vessels were in the gulf
defending Kuwaiti oil tankers. Minutes before Iran Air Flight 655 was
shot down, the Vincennes had engaged Iranian gunboats that shot at
its helicopter.
Iran called the downing of the aircraft a “barbaric massacre,” but U.S.
officials defended the action, claiming that the aircraft was outside the
commercial jet flight corridor, flying at only 7,800 feet, and was on a
descent toward the Vincennes. However, one month later, the United
States acknowledged that the airbus was in the commercial flight
corridor, flying at 12,000 feet, and not descending. The U.S. Navy
report blamed crew error caused by psychological stress on men
who were in combat for the first time. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay
$62 million in damages to the families of the Iranians killed in the attack.
CARLATA BRADLEY
The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade on this day in 1948. It
was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. The
Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies’ railway, road, and canal
access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. (Wikipedia)
CAMILLE
BOHANNON
Sir James Paul McCartney is 77 years old today.
Paul McCartney is an English singer-songwriter, multi-
instrumentalist, and composer. He gained worldwide
fame as the bass guitarist and singer for the rock band
the Beatles, widely considered the most popular and
influential group in the history of popular music. Paul
is one of the most successful performers of all time
and has written, or co-written, 32 songs that have
reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
CAMILLE
BOHANNON
The Battle of Midway began on this day in 1942. It was the first major victory for America over Japan and a turning point in the Pacific
during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and prevented
further Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
