Good Morning and God Bless To Everyone !!!
Today is December 21, the 354th day of 2013 & there are 11 days left this here where it is another blessed to in the work for our Lord at:
For God’s Glory Alone Ministries !!!
A hearty Happy Winter this morning being the first official day of winter this year. On this, the ‘shortest day of the year’, it is another beautiful day in Albuquerque this morning where it is presently 35 degrees and we’re expecting a high in the mid 40’s. It’s dry at my house on the west side of town but I understand they are getting some minor snow flurries across the river on the east side. There are rain & snow storms to the south and east of Albuquerque but we’re as dry as a towel fresh off the line here this morning !!! (For those who weren’t here to remember, before the days of clothes dryers back when I was growing up, you dried you freshly washed clothes outside on a line to dry).
So, What Happened Today In 1988:
Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed & Crashes Over Lockerbie, Scotland
On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain’s largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against the United States. One hundred eighty-nine of the victims were American.
Islamic terrorists were accused of planting the bomb on the plane while it was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Authorities suspected the attack was in retaliation for either the 1986 U.S. air strikes against Libya, in which leader Muammar al-Qaddafi’s young daughter was killed along with dozens of other people, or a 1988 incident, in which the U.S. mistakenly shot down an Iran Air commercial flight over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.
Sixteen days before the explosion over Lockerbie, the U.S. embassy in Helsinki, Finland, received a call warning that a bomb would be placed on a Pan Am flight out of Frankfurt. There is controversy over how seriously the U.S. took the threat and whether travelers should have been alerted, but officials later said that the connection between the call and the bomb was coincidental.
In 1991, following a joint investigation by the British authorities and the F.B.I., Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted for murder; however, Libya refused to hand over the suspects to the U.S. Finally, in 1999, in an effort to ease United Nations sanctions against his country, Qaddafi agreed to turn over the two men to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. In early 2001, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and Fhimah was acquitted. Over the U.S. government’s objections, Al-Megrahi was freed and returned to Libya in August 2009 after doctors determined that he had only months to live.
In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing, but didn’t express remorse. The U.N. and U.S. lifted sanctions against Libya and Libya agreed to pay each victim’s family approximately $8 million in restitution. In 2004, Libya’s prime minister said that the deal was the “price for peace,” implying that his country only took responsibility to get the sanctions lifted, a statement that infuriated the victims’ families. Pan Am Airlines, which went bankrupt three years after the bombing, sued Libya and later received a $30 million settlement.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On December 21 In History:
1761 – Revolutionary War hero & faithful patriot Robert Barnwell is born in Beaufort, South Carolina. He enthusiastically participated in each stage of the country’s revolutionary coming-of-age. After serving throughout the war, he became a distinguished politician & civic leader in South Carolina. Ironically he later chose to serve in the Confederacy during the Civil War;
1790 – The 1st successful Cotton Mill in the United States begins operations in Pawtucket, Rhode Island;
1860 – South Carolina becomes 1st state to secede from the Union when all 169 delegates voted in favor of separation;
1861 – British minister to the U.S., Lord Lyons, meets with the Secretary of State Seward concerning the fate of James Mason & John Slidel, Confederate envoys arrested by the U.S. Navy aboard the British ship Trent. The British did not choose sides in the Civil War. His protests forced Abraham Lincoln’s administration to release them several days later;
1864 – Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Georgia as Union General William T. Sherman continued his “March to the Sea”;
1866 – In the ‘old west’ in Wyoming, Indians from Cheyenne, Arapaho & Sioux, lead by “Crazy Horse” lures Lt. Col. William Fetterman & his troops into an ambush. Along with 80 troops, he was killed when some 40,000 arrows rained down on the hapless troops;
1929 – 1st Group Health Insurance Plan is offered in Dallas, Texas;
1937 – 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon, ‘Snow White’, premieres;
1959 – Tom Landry becomes Dallas Cowboys head coach where he stayed for 29 years;
1945 – Successful infamous General George S. Patton, Commander of the U.S. 3rd Army dies of a broken neck from a freak car accident;
1946 – An undersea earth quake sets off a powerful tsunami that devastates Honshu, Japan. While still recovering from the horrors of WWII, about 2,000 perished & a half million were left homeless by the tsunami;
1958 – 3 months after a new French constitution was approved, French WWII hero Charles de Gaulle is elected the 1st President of the 5th Republic by a sweeping majority of voters;
1968 – Apollo 8 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the 1st manned mission to the moon where it orbited 10 times before returning to Mother Earth;
1969 – In the Vietnam War, Thailand announces plans to withdraw it 12,000-man contingent from South Vietnam;
1970 – Elvis Presley is greeted by President Nixon at the White House where Elvis wanted to offer his services in the government’s war on drugs;
1972 – U.S. Defense Department announces the loss of eight B-52 bombers & several fighter bombers in Operation Linebacker II on December 18. The operation was ordered in attempt to force North Vietnam back to the negotiating table. North Vietnam agreed to return to the peace talks on December 28;
1975 – In Vienna Austria, ‘Carlos the Jackel’ leads a raid on OPEC oil ministers holding 63 people hostage including 11 ministers demanding an anti-Israeli political statement be broadcast over the radio. The hostages were eventually released unharmed but OPEC did not hold another summit for 25 years;
1991 – In a final step signifying dismemberment of the Soviet Union, 11 of 12 Soviet Republics declare the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States;
1996 – Margret Ray, who with her husband Hans, created the popular “Curious George” children’s books dies at age 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having escaped wartime Europe as German Jews in 1990, they fled to the U.S. & published their 1st book in 1941;
2011 – 17,000 chickens slaughtered in Hong Kong after the discovery of a chicken carcass infected by H5N1 disease.
Now We’re Off To The Fun Stuff:
Today’s Amazing Thought:
Today’s Thought For The Day:
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. … It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” — C.S. Lewis
Today’s Fun To Watch Video:
Amazing aircraft decent into Queenstown, New Zealand airport through the clouds: https://www.chonday.com/Videos/pilotnewzdalnd1
Today’s Silly Law:
In Alaska: A law in Fairbanks does not allow moose to have sex on city streets.
Today’s I Wonder Why ?:
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Today’s Silly Sign:
Today’s Patriotic Quote:
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” – Robert Kennedy
Today’s Cute Puppy Picture:
Today’s Musical Video:
THIS ONE’S GOOD FOLKS
There’s A Little Bit Of Heaven Everywhere: https://www.todayschristianmusic.com/artists/francesca-battistelli/videos/heaven-everywhere-live/
Today’s Christian Thought:
UNTIL TOMORROW – GOD BLESS TO ALL !!!
