TIM MAGUIRE
On this day in 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the sixteenth president of the United States in a four-way race ad the American
Civil War nears.
Election poster, campaign of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, 1860, lithograph.
The American Civil War (1861-1865)
TIM MAGUIRE
On this day in 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in
the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young
girls.
With its large African-American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church
served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who once called Birmingham a “symbol of hardcore resistance to integration.” Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one
of the central goals of his administration. Birmingham had one of the most
violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.
2001
On this day in 1950 During the Korean War, U.S. Marines land at Inchon on
the west coast of Korea, 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and just 25 miles
from Seoul. The location had been criticized as too risky, but U.N. Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur (below) insisted on carrying out the landing.
General Douglas MacArthur (center) observes the shelling of
lightly defended Incheon from the U.S. Navy amphibious force
command ship USS Mount McKinley.
TIM MAGUIRE
On this day in 1901, President William McKinley was shot and
mortally wounded (he died eight days later) by Leon Czolgosz,
an American anarchist, was executed the following October.
Leon Czolgosz
The funeral for Britain’s Princess Diana was on this day
in 1997.
Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain in the Southern and Midwestern regions
of the U.S. The first outlet opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is
notable for having been the first true self-service grocery store, and the
originator of various familiar supermarket features such as checkout stands, individual item price marking and shopping carts. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire. Currently, more than 600
independently owned Piggly Wiggly stores operate in 17 states, primarily
in smaller cities and towns.
Piggly Wiggly founder Clarence Saunders.
(August 9, 1881 – September 23, 1953)
George Roger Waters is 75 years old today.
Bass player, composer, vocalist Roger Waters was co-founder,
and front man of the English rock band Pink Floyd, the group
known for songs like "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."
SANDY KOZEL
Berlin was once divided by a barbed wire fence to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later on this day in 1961, work on the Berlin Wall began.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016)
Infamous Cuban dictator and revolutionary Fidel Castro came to power in
1959 and served as his country’s Prime Minister until 1976 and President
from 1976 to 2008.
Present day Mexico City was captured by Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez from the Aztec Indians on this day in 1521.
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
(August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980)
Iconic director Alfred Hitchcock is known as The
Master of Suspense for his classic films such as
Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), Dial M for
Murder (1954), and The Birds (1963). One of the
most influential filmmakers of all time, he directed
over 50 feature films, and his work continues to
circulate through film circles and classic movie
channels.
It was on this day in 1995.
Mickey Charles Mantle
(October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995)
Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball career with the New
York Yankees as a center fielder and first baseman, from 1951
through 1968. He was nicknamed The Commerce Comet and The
Mick.
CARLATA BRADLEY
Last U.S. combat troops leave Vietnam on this day in 1972.
It was on this day in 1944 during World War 11.
Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. perished in one of the first American
fatalities associated with a pilotless aircraft, which we usually know today
as a drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The older brother of future
president, John F. Kennedy, was taking part in an extraordinary secret war
being waged across the English Channel with new generations of exotic
weapons.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944)
New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey resigned on this day in 2004,
declaring he’s gay.
James Edward McGreevey turned 61 on August 6th.
The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man
crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea on this
day in 2000.
Following salvage operations, analysts concluded that 23 sailors in the
sixth through ninth compartments had survived the two explosions. They
took refuge in the small ninth compartment and survived more than six
hours. When the oxygen ran low, crew members attempted to replace a
volatile potassium superoxide chemical oxygen cartridge when it contacted
oily sea water that had seeped into the compartment. A resulting explosion
killed several crew members and triggered a flash fire that consumed the
remaining oxygen, suffocating the remaining survivors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the monument to the sailors who died in the Kursk disaster.
