Good Morning & God Bless To Everyone !!!
Today is December 31 and it is the last day of 2013 where it is, as always, a blessed day in the work for our Lord here at:
For God’s Glory Alone Ministries !!!
It’s a beautiful 18 degrees outside at 8 a.m. this morning but a chilly wind brings that down to a 12 degree windchill factor. Still, we’re expecting a high in the upper 40’s today & we’ll be basking in God’s glorious sunshine today & tomorrow. We’re expecting pretty much the same for New Years Day where we’re expecting lows in the lower 20’s & highs around 50 with another day of sunshine.
I again, ask everyone for a special prayer for Pastor Dewey’s wonderful puppy, Reno. Reno underwent some pretty radical cancer surgery this past Sunday & is still in the hospital. I was able to talk to the Pastor just a little bit ago & he is expecting Reno to be able to come home later today. I know Reno very well as he and his sister Buffy literally ministered to me when I first met the Pastor & the love truly flows fluently from both of them to anyone who wants it. While trying to deal with this, the Pastor has had to deal with car repair issues & it’s well past time for him to replace that old clunker of his! I ask all to pray over Reno’s healing and that God give the Pastor & his precious wife Sharon the strength they need to deal with these issues; I know their hearts bleed over their Reno. (Throwing in there a pray for some way for the Pastor to get a new car he can safely rely on in all his travels for FGGAM spreading God’s Word to Any & All who want it – – It sure worked on me!!!). Please pray with me!
And I also wish everyone a Happy New Year – – – Please make it a safe one !!!
So, What Happened Today In 1968:
The United States ends their bloodiest year of the Vietnam War 
The bloodiest year of the war comes to an end. At year’s end, 536,040 American servicemen were stationed in Vietnam, an increase of over 50,000 from 1967.
Estimates from Headquarters U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam indicated that 181,150 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese were killed during the year. However, Allied losses were also up: 27,915 South Vietnamese, 14,584 Americans (a 56 percent increase over 1967), & 979 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, & Thais were reported killed during 1968. Since January 1961, more than 31,000 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Vietnam & over 200,000 U.S. personnel had been wounded.
Contributing to the high casualty number was the Tet Offensive launched by the communists. Conducted in the early weeks of the year, it was a crushing military defeat for the communists, but the size and scope of the attacks caught the American & South Vietnamese allies completely by surprise. The early reporting of a smashing communist victory went largely uncorrected in the media & this led to a psychological victory for the communists. The heavy U.S. casualties incurred during the offensive coupled with the disillusionment over the earlier overly optimistic reports of progress in the war accelerated the growing disenchantment with President Johnson’s conduct of the war. Johnson, frustrated with his inability to reach a solution in Vietnam, announced on March 31, 1968, that he would neither seek nor accept the Democratic nomination for president. Johnson’s announcement did not dampen the wave of antiwar protests that climaxed with the bloody confrontation between protesters & police outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On December 31 In History:
1492 – 100,000 Jews are expelled from Sicily;
1600 – Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a formal charter to London merchants trading with the East Indies hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade in what is now Indonesia;
1775 – Patriot forces under Colonel Benedict Arnold & General Richard Montgomery attempt to capture the city of Quebec under cover of darkness & snowfall. They fail & the effort costs Montgomery his life in the 1st assault;
1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signed an act enabling Virginia’s western counties to become the State of West Virginia which took place in 1863;
1862 – Union General William Rosencrans’ army repels two Confederate attacks at the Battle of Murfressboro (Stone River). Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest narrowly escapes capture during the raid in western Tennessee;
1879 – In the 1st demonstration of his incandescent light bulb, American inventor Thomas Edison lights up a street in Menlo Park Jew Jersey;
1880 – American General & diplomat George C Marshall who distinguished himself with his service in France during WWI but is better known as the commander of U.S. forces during WWII & also the author of the “Marshall Plan” is born in Uniontown Pennsylvania;
1890 – Ellis Island in New York City 1st opens as a United States immigration depot;
1909 – The Manhatten Bridge spanning the East River between Manhatten & Brooklyn was officially opened to traffic;
1915 – In WWI, German U-boats torpedo and sink the British liner SS Persia without any warning killing 335 passengers;
1935 – Popular board game “Monopoly” is patented by Charles Darrow;
1938 – Doctor R N Harger’s “drunkometer” becomes the 1st alcohol breath test when he introduces it in Indiana;
1943 – Musician & Actor, John Denver, is born in Roswell, New Mexico;
1944 – In WWII the provisional government of Hungary officially declares war on Germany bringing an end to Hungary’s cooperation – sometimes freely, sometimes coerced – with the Axis power;
1945 – Ratification of United Nations Charter is completed;
1946 – President Harry S Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in WWII;
1951 – Post WWII Marshall Plan expires after distributing over $12 billion in foreign aid;
1961 – President John F Kennedy issued a statement extending his “sincere wishes” & those of the American people to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev & the people of the Soviet Union for a peaceful & prosperous New Year. It was the height of the Cold War & the United States & Soviet Union were locked in a nuclear arms race. Citing 1961 as a “troubled one” between the two superpowers, Kennedy said that it was his “earnest hope” that 1962 would see improved relations between the two countries. Kennedy then told Khrushchev he believed the responsibility to achieve world peace rested on the two men’s shoulders;
1968 – The Soviet Union’s TU-144 supersonic airliner makes its first flight, several months ahead of the Anglo-French Concorde. The TU-144 so closely resembled the Concorde that the Western press dubbed it the “Konkordski.” In 1962, 15 years after U.S. pilot Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier, Britain & France signed a treaty to develop the world’s first supersonic passenger airline. The next year, President John F Kennedy proposed a similar U.S. project. Meanwhile, in the USSR, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered his top aviation engineers to beat the West to the achievement;
1971 – In the Vietnam War, as a result of a gradual U.S. withdrawal from the war, U.S. annual casualty figures drop. Americans killed in action dropped to 1,386 from the previous years total of 4,204 while South Vietnamese troops lost 21,500. Viet Cong & North Vietnamese total loss was estimated at 97,000;
1978 – Flags at both the American Embassy in Taiwan & the Taiwanese Embassy in the U.S. are lowered as relations with Taiwan officially come to an end while President Jimmy Carter grants official recognition to the People’s Republic of China;
1981 – CNN Headline News debuts in the United States;
1984 – Bernhard Goetz, the white man dubbed the “subway vigilante” after he shot four young black men on a New York City subway train, turns himself in at a police station in Concord, New Hampshire. Goetz claimed that the men, all of whom had criminal records, were trying to rob him & that he had acted in self-defense. At the time, New York was in the midst of a crime wave and Goetz was viewed by some people as a hero, an ordinary citizen fighting back against his attackers;
1994 – 1st recorded ‘snowless’ December closes out the year in Baltimore Maryland;
1997 – In Sweden, more Swedes died than were born in the year for the first time since 1809;
1999 – In accordance with the Torrijos-Carter treaties, the U.S. officially hands over control of the Panama Canal into Panamanian hands for the 1st time;
2008 – One ‘Leap Second’ is added to the end of the year. This also occurred in 1972, 73, 79 & 87;
2010 – Italy bans plastic bags; the country was using 20 billion plastic bags a year, about 300 per person.
Now We’re Off To The Fun Stuff:
Today’s I’m Too Big Doggie Picture:
Any one looking for a baby sitter: 
Today’s Word For The Day:
Derision – is a scornful treatment of someone or something; a mockery or ridicule. The object that is being mocked can be called derision.
Today’s Christian Inspirational Music Video:
Amy Grant & Michael W Smith – Thy Word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8dO3VVayw
Today’s Educational Video:
Lessons we should learn from dogs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKotol5koDA&feature=player_embedded
Today’s Crazy Law:
This one concerns me in my relationship with Minnesotans – In Minnesota you are forbade from teasing skunks.
Today’s Crazy ?:
Why do people repeat the word ‘number’ when the say PIN?
Today’s Funny Sign: 
Today’s Patriotic Quote:
“Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men & women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.” — Colin Powell
Today’s Christian Though/Image:
This one today comes with our Pastor Dewey in mind: 
Until NEXT YEAR – GOD BLESS TO EVERY ONE !!!
