On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress
to send U.S. troops into battle against Germany in World War I.
In his address to Congress that day, Wilson lamented it is a
fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war.
Four days later, Congress obliged and declared war on
Germany.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson
(December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924)
Peter Iredale in Seattle, around 1900.
Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel Braque sailing vessel that
ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to
Portland, Oregon with 1,000 tons of ballast and a crew of 27,
including two stowaways. She was abandoned on Clatsop Spit
near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles south of the
Columbia River channel.
The ship was named after Peter Iredale, who not only owned the
vessel as part of his shipping fleet, but was also a well-known
figure in Liverpool, England, where his business was located.
Wreckage the Peter Iredale is still visible, making it a popular
tourist attraction as one of the most accessible shipwrecks of
the Graveyard of the Pacific.
The United States launched a massive invasion of the Japanese
home island of Okinawa, with an initial landing of 60,000 soldiers
and marines, on this day in history, April 1, 1945.
The Battle of Okinawa proved the last major engagement of World
War II and the largest battle of the entire war in the Pacific Theater.
Okinawa has been a critical strategic location for the United States Armed Forces since the Battle of Okinawa and the end of World
War II. The island was under American administration until 1972,
and today hosts around 26,000 US military personnel, about half
of the total complement of the United States Forces Japan,
spread among 32 bases and 48 training sites.
Naha, Okinawa, Japan today.
On April 1, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon signed a
measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and
television, to take effect after Jan. 1, 1971.
Nixon, who was an avid pipe smoker, indulging in as
many as eight bowls a day, supported the legislation
at the increasing insistence of public health advocates.
Hymen L. Lipman (1817-1893)
(FOXNEWS) – Philadelphia inventor Hymen L. Lipman rushed
heroically to the aid of mistake-prone schoolchildren, artists
and draftsmen everywhere when he secured the patent for the
pencil with eraser on this day in history, March 30, 1858.
"Be it known that I, Hymen L. Lipman, of Philadelphia, in the
county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have
invented a new and useful Lead-Pencil and Eraser;" the
visionary wrote in his patent application.
"I make a lead-pencil in the usual manner, reserving about
one-fourth of the length, in which I make a groove of suitable
size … and insert in this groove a piece of prepared India
rubber (or other erasive substance) secured to said pencil
by being glued at one edge."
The eraser, he noted in his application, "is particularly valuable
for removing or erasing lines, figures, etc., and not subject to
be soiled or mislaid on the table or desk" — as if the purpose
of an eraser was unknown to mid-19th century consumers.
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