CAMILLE
BOHANNON

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.       

CAMILLE BOHANNON

On this day in 1974, President Gerald Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft-evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.

In west Beirut on this day in 1982, the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children began in refugee camps
of the Lebanese Christian militiamen.

SANDY KOZEL

The American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, PA, ended after three
days on this day in 1863. It was a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.

U.S. Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental
Army at Cambridge, MA. on this  day in 1775.

 
   
 
Mourners carry coffins of victims from the air disaster through the streets of Tehran.    
    
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    
     
    
     
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

It was on this day in 1962.

Jim Morrison (Left) of The Doors died in Paris at age 27 on this day
in 1971. The cause was allegedly of a heroin overdose.

James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971)

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is 56 years old today.

Actor Tom Cruise won Golden Globe Awards for his roles in Born on the
Fourth of July (1990), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Magnolia (2000). He had
his breakthrough role in the 1983 film Risky Business and in 1996, he
began playing Ethan Hunt in the popular Mission: Impossible film series. 

Tom Cruise from the 1986 classic summer blockbuster Top Gun.