BRIAN THOMAS
Former professional basketball player Michael Jeffrey Jordan is 57 years
old today. He played 15 seasons in the NBA, winning six championships
with the Chicago Bulls. He is considered by many fans of the sport the
greatest basketball player of all time. Known by his initials, MJ is the
principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team.
CARLATA BRADLEY
On this day in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (seated) for the Soviet KGB spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel (right) being held by the U.S.
Francis Gary Powers and a U2 recon aircraft .
The Glienicke bridge just after the Powers swap.
A U.S. Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion is deployed to Da
Nang. President Johnson (below) had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there.
This was the first commitment of American combat troops in South Vietnam
and there was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of
U.S. involvement in the war.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973)
Hawk missile launchers at Da Nang Airfield in 1965.
MIKE GRACIA
On this day in 1998, President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations
with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Denial of the affair lead to Clinton being only the second president to be impeached in US history.
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President Jimmy Carter, in his first day in office, fulfilled a campaign
promise by announcing the pardoning of draft dodgers.
On January 21, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter granted an unconditional
pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the
Vietnam War by fleeing the country or by failing to register. The executive
order left many people furious, while others saw it as a bold show of
compassion.
In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and
early 70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where
after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants.
Still others hid inside the United States. In addition to those who avoided
the draft, a relatively small number–about 1,000–of deserters from the U.S.
armed forces also headed to Canada. While the Canadian government
technically reserved the right to prosecute deserters, in practice they left
them alone, even instructing border guards not to ask too many questions.
