Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is March 16, the 75th day of 2014 and there are 290 days left this year where it is another Blessed Day in the pleasure of our service for our Lord here at:
For God’s Glory Alone Ministries !!!
Special prayers today all my friends for all our Pastor’s and Clergy. They are all out doing God’s work ministering and leading us to the light of our Lord.
So, What Happened Today In 1945?
U.S. Navy declares Iwo Jima is secured & fighting ends
In World War II, the west Pacific volcanic island of Iwo Jima is declared secured by the U.S. military after months of fiercely fighting its Japanese defenders.
The Americans began applying pressure to the Japanese defense of Iwo Jima in February 1944, when B-24 and B-25 bombers raided the island for 74 days straight. It was the longest pre-invasion bombardment of the war, necessary because of the extent to which the Japanese–21,000 strong–fortified the island, above and below ground, including a network of caves. Underwater demolition teams (“frogmen”) were dispatched by the Americans just before the actual invasion to clear the shores of mines and any other obstacles that could obstruct an invading force. In fact, the Japanese mistook the frogmen for an invasion force and killed 170 of them.
The amphibious landings of Marines began the morning of February 19, 1945, as the secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, accompanied by journalists, surveyed the scene from a command ship offshore. The Marines made their way onto the island–and seven Japanese battalions opened fire, obliterating them. By that evening, more than 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 were wounded.
In the face of such fierce counterattack, the Americans reconciled themselves to the fact that Iwo Jima could be taken only one yard at a time. A key position on the island was Mt. Suribachi, the center of the Japanese defense. The 28th Marine Regiment closed in and around the base of the volcanic mountain at the rate of 400 yards per day, employing flamethrowers, grenades, and demolition charges against the Japanese that were hidden in caves and pillboxes (low concrete emplacements for machine-gun nests). Approximately 40 Marines finally began a climb up the volcanic ash mountain, which was smoking from the constant bombardment, and at 10 a.m. on February 23, a half-dozen Marines raised an American flag at its peak, using a pipe as a flag post. Two photographers caught a restaging of the flag raising for posterity, creating one of the most reproduced images of the war. With Mt. Suribachi claimed, one-third of Iwo Jima was under American control.
On March 16, with a U.S. Navy military government established, Iwo Jima was declared secured and the fighting over. When all was done, more than 6,000 Marines died fighting for the island, along with almost all the 21,000 Japanese soldiers trying to defend it.
(As a side note; while stationed aboard the USS Nashville (LPD-13) deployed to the Mediterranean Sea serving as the ship’s and battle group commander’s communications officer in the 1980s, I had the proud privilege of spending a week onboard the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2), obviously named after this victory during World War II to do some training with her communications department and the proud United States Marines stationed onboard her. The Iwo Jima was a proud Amphibious Helicopter Carrier and served her country well. She has subsequently been decommissioned and replaced by a newer and more advanced version but still appropriately performs amphibious duties for the United States Navy today).
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On March 16 In History:
37 – Roman emperor Tiberius died; he was succeeded by Caligula;
1521 – Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month;
1621 – The first Indian appears to colonists in Plymouth, Massachusetts;
1751 – James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the Federalist Papers and fourth president of the United States, is born on a plantation in Virginia. Madison, one of the key drafters of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, became America’s fourth president in 1809. He is considered the Father of the Constitution, though he humbly referred to its development as the work of many heads and many hands;
1802 – The United States Military Academy–the first military school in the United States–is founded by Congress for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Located at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point. The academy is now under the general direction and supervision of the department of the U.S. Army and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students;
1833 – Susan Hayhurst becomes the first woman to graduate from a pharmacy college;
1861 – Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy;
1861 – Arizona Territory votes to leave the Union;
1865 – In the American Civil War, the mighty army of Union General William T. Sherman encounters its most significant resistance as it tears through the Carolinas on its way to join General Ulysses Grant’s army at Petersburg, Virginia. Confederate General William Hardee tried to block one wing of Sherman’s force, commanded by Henry Slocum, but the motley Rebel force was swept aside at the Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina. The Yankees lost approximately 95 men killed, 530 wounded, and 50 missing, while Hardee lost about 865 total. The battle did little to slow the march of Sherman’s army;
1881 – Barnum & Bailey Circus debuts;
1903 – Roy Bean, the self-proclaimed “law west of the Pecos,” dies in Langtry, Texas. A saloonkeeper and adventurer, Bean’s claim to fame rested on the often humorous and sometimes-bizarre rulings he meted out as a justice of the peace in western Texas during the late 19th century. By then, Bean was in his 50s and had already lived a life full of rough adventures. Travelers on the train passing through Langtry often made a point of stopping to visit the ramshackle saloon, where a sign proudly proclaimed Bean to be the “Law West of the Pecos.”;
1916 – In World War I, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the man largely responsible for the buildup of the German navy in the years before the war and the aggressive naval strategy pursued by Germany during the first two years of the war, tenders his resignation to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who—somewhat to Tirpitz’s surprise—accepts it;
1926 – The first man to give hope to dreams of space travel is American Robert H. Goddard, who successfully launches the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts, on March 16, 1926. The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at a speed of about 60 mph, reaching an altitude of 41 feet and landing 184 feet away. The rocket was 10 feet tall, constructed out of thin pipes, and was fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline;
1935 – Adolf Hitler orders a German rearmament and violates the Versailles Treaty;
1968 – During the Vietnam War, in what would become the most publicized war atrocity committed by U.S. troops in Vietnam, a platoon slaughters between 200 and 500 unarmed villagers at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets in the coastal lowlands of the northernmost region of South Vietnam;
1975 – Near the end of the Vietnam War, the withdrawal from Pleiku and Kontum begins, as thousands of civilians join the soldiers streaming down Route 7B toward the sea. In late January 1975, just two years after the cease-fire established by the Paris Peace Accords, the North Vietnamese launched Campaign 275. The objective of this campaign was to capture the city of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The battle began on March 4 and the North Vietnamese quickly encircled the city with five main force divisions, cutting it off from outside support. The South Vietnamese 23rd Division, which had been sent to defend the city, was vastly outnumbered and quickly succumbed to the communists. The South Vietnamese collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally to North Vietnam on April 30 and the war was over;
1978 – One of the world’s worst supertanker disasters takes places when the Amoco Cadiz wrecks off the coast of Portsall, France, on this day in 1978. Although the 68 million gallons of oil that spilled from the Cadiz has since been exceeded by other spills, this remains the largest shipwreck in history;
1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by terrorists (he was tortured by his captors and killed in 1985;
1985 – In Beirut, Lebanon, Islamic militants kidnap American journalist Terry Anderson and take him to the southern suburbs of the war-torn city, where other Western hostages are being held in scattered dungeons under ruined buildings. On December 4, 1991, Anderson’s Hezbollah captors finally released him after 2,455 days. He was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon;
2003 – Race car driver Ricky Craven wins the Darlington 500, crossing the finish line .002 seconds ahead of Kurt Busch for the closest recorded finish in National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) history;
2004 – China declared victory in its fight against bird flu, saying it had “stamped out” all its known cases;
2013 – It was one year ago Today!
Now, Off To The Fun Stuff!!!
Today’s Funny Thought For The Day:
“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.”
– Joseph Conrad
Today’s Thought For The Day:
“Nearly all our disasters come from a few fools having the ‘courage of their convictions.'”
– Coventry Patmore, English poet (1823-1896)
Today’s ‘Try Not To Smile’ Picture:
Today’s Patriotic Quote For The Day:
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
– President James Madison
(How appropriate in today’s times; remind you of anything in the news recently?!?)
Today’s ‘Just Incase You Forgot’:
Today’s ‘Least We Forget’ Music Video:
If I Die Before You Wake – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkkzNa2nlZI
Today’s ‘Adorable Baby’ Picture:
Today’s Quote For The Day:
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible.’”
– Audrey Hepburn
Today’s ‘Why It’s Not A Good Idea To Drive Too Close To Hazmat Trucks’ Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FG1LGKieTxY
Today’s ‘It’s A Dog’s Life’ Picture:
Today’s Animal Video:
Enjoy the power & beauty of the ‘Fresian Horse’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y5XJbSqwriM
Today’s Word For The Day:
Ostentatious (os·ten·ta·tious) adj. Characterized by or given to pretentiousness. “The chandelier was the most ostentatious I have ever seen.”
Today’s ‘Impeccable Timing’ Picture:
Today’s Trivia:
The oldest known goldfish was 41 years old.
Today’s ‘Clever Words For Clever People’:
HEROES: What a guy in a boat does!
Today’s ‘Teamwork’ Picture:
(“Quickly! And get me a coke zero while your at it”)
Today’s Verse & Prayer:
As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.}
– Colossians 3:12
Father, thank you for bringing me into your family. May I never disappoint you in the way I treat others. May they see in me, the qualities of character that can only be attributed to your presence in my life. To you be the glory and the honor, forever and ever, in the name of Jesus my Lord. Amen
Today’s ‘Awe Of God’ Picture:
Today’s Inspirational Music Video:
All I’ve Ever Needed – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bVWtWFHZF4g
Today’s Funny Church Sign:
Today’s Inspirational Thought For The Day:
Next time your day goes south, here is what you do: Steep yourself in the grace of God. Saturate your day in His love. Marinate your mind in His mercy. He has settled your accounts, paid your debt.
“Christ carried our sins in His body on the cross.”
– 1 Peter 2:24
Today’s Inspirational Image:
Until Tomorrow – America, Bless GOD!!!