Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is Monday, June 16, the 167th day of 2014 and there are 198 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 !!!
And don’t forget!!!
So, What Happened Today In 1862?
Civil War Union forces are thwarted at the Battle of Secessionville
In the American Civil war, a Union attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina is thwarted when the Confederates turn back an attack at Secessionville, just south of the city on James Island.
In November 1861, Union ships captured Port Royal, South Carolina, which lay about halfway between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia. This gave the Federals an important base from which to mount operations along the southern coast.
Before dawn on June 16, Yankee General Henry W. Benham led 9,000 troops onto James Island. Benham had a checkered career as a commander. He helped clear western Virginia of Confederates in the summer of 1861 but was ordered arrested by General William Rosecrans for “unofficer-like neglect of duty” because he was headstrong and critical of leadership. Eventually, he and Rosecrans made amends, and in the spring of 1862 Benham was sent to Port Royal to command the northern district of General David Hunter’s Department of the South.
Benham decided to attack the strong fortifications that protected Confederates under the command of General Nathan “Shanks” Evans. But the Rebels’ fortifications were nearly impenetrable. The approach to the fort was across a strip of firm ground bracketed by marshes, which narrowed the ground that the Confederate artillery needed to cover. Only 500 Confederates were inside, but another 1,500 rushed in from Charleston. Benham staged three attacks against the fort, but each failed. The Federals lost nearly 800 men, while the Southerners suffered only 200 losses.
After the disastrous battle, Union officials began pointing fingers, and Benham was arrested three days later. His superior, Hunter, had ordered no assault without permission. There was disagreement between Benham and his three subordinates over plans to attack. The three later said they had presented objections on the eve of the battle, but an aide to Benham said there had been no such discussion. Benham blamed one of his commanders, Isaac Stephens, for the botched charge.
The Judge Advocate General’s Office recommended revocation of Benham’s commission. But the aggressiveness he possessed was in short supply among Union generals in 1862, and the Lincoln administration rescinded the revocation. Benham joined Ulysses S. Grant for the Vicksburg campaign and he commanded the Army of the Potomac’s engineering brigade during Grant’s Virginia campaign against Robert E. Lee in 1864.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On June 16 In History:
455 – Rome is sacked by the Vandal army;
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland. She escaped almost a year later but ended up imprisoned again;
1738 – Mary Katharine Goddard is born in New London, Connecticut. She went on to publish the first version of the Declaration of Independence to include all of the Congressional signatures. Mary Goddard’s professional life was inextricably bound with that of her brother, William. They worked together in print shops he owned in Providence, Rhode Island and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before moving to Baltimore, Maryland. While William traveled extensively in his efforts to build their business, Mary maintained the day-to- day operations in Baltimore. In 1775, William and his network showed their confidence in Mary’s abilities by naming her Baltimore’s postmaster. She held this post throughout the turbulent years of the War of Independence. In 1777, when Congress decided to print the Declaration of Independence including a complete list of signatures, they chose the Goddards as printers. As usual, Mary, not William, was running operations, and thus the document appeared “printed by Mary Katherine Goddard.” Mary died on August 12, 1816, leaving her personal property to her black maid and companion;
1779 – Spain declares war on Great Britain in support of the US, and the siege of Gibraltar begins;
1858 – Newly nominated senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln addresses the Illinois Republican Convention in Springfield and warns that the nation faces a crisis that could destroy the Union. Speaking to more than 1,000 delegates in an ominous tone, Lincoln paraphrased a passage from the New Testament: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” The issue dividing the nation was slavery’s place in the growing western territories and the extent of federal power over individual states’ rights. Lincoln declared that only the federal government had the power to end slavery. For his part, Lincoln firmly believed that slavery was immoral and was wholly incompatible with the principles of the Declaration of Independence embodied in the phrase “all men are created equal.” However, Lincoln prioritized preserving the Union above all else. After Lincoln’s speech, several of his friends expressed dismay at its “radical” content. Leonard Swett, a lawyer and friend of Lincoln’s, later wrote that Lincoln’s talk of using federal power to end slavery was “unfortunate and inappropriate,” although Swett admitted that in retrospect Lincoln was ultimately correct. At the time, the people of Illinois ultimately agreed with Swett: Lincoln lost the close Senate race of 1858 to the more moderate Stephen Douglas, who advocated states’ sovereignty. Lincoln’s eloquent speech, though, earned him national attention and his strong showing in the polls encouraged the people to back his ultimately successful bid for the presidency in 1860;
1884 – The first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. The new entertainment was an instant success and by the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country;
1896 – As daylight breaks, survivors of a tsunami in Japan find that more than 20,000 of their friends and family have perished overnight. The tsunami resulted from a disturbance in the Japan Trench, 120 miles east of Japan’s main island of Honshu. This deep underwater gorge is located where the Pacific tectonic plate is pushing under the Asian plate. A large earthquake at the fault caused a massive displacement of water. Waves may have reached as high as 115 feet in some places. Entire villages all along the coast were washed away during the evening. Fishermen who were working at sea and people living several miles inland, though, had no clue about the destruction until the following morning, when they arrived at the shore to find miles of the coast lined with wreckage and corpses. The final death toll was estimated at between 22,000 and 27,000 people. This section of the Japanese coast seems vulnerable to such disasters. On March 3, 1933, 75-foot waves resulting from an 8.9-magnitude quake killed 3,000 people. Accounts also tell of destructive waves in 869 and 1611;
1903 – At 9:30 in the morning, Henry Ford and other prospective stockholders in the Ford Motor Company meet in Detroit to sign the official paperwork required to create a new corporation. Twelve stockholders were listed on the forms, which were signed, notarized and sent to the office of Michigan’s secretary of state. The company was officially incorporated the following day, when the secretary of state’s office received the articles of association;
1911 – IBM had its beginnings as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. was incorporated in New York State;
1933 – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, (FDIC), was founded as President Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933;
1940 – In World War II, Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain, a World War I hero, becomes prime minister of the Vichy government of France. As Germany began to overrun more French territory, the French Cabinet became desperate for a solution to this crisis. Premier Paul Reynaud continued to hold out hope, refusing to ask for an armistice, especially now that France had received assurance from Britain that the two would fight as one, and that Britain would continue to fight the Germans even if France were completely overtaken. But others in the government were despondent and wanted to sue for peace. Reynaud resigned in protest. His vice premier, Henri Petain, formed a new government and asked the Germans for an armistice, in effect, surrendering. This was an ironic position for Petain, to say the least. The man who had become a legendary war hero for successfully repelling a German attack on the French city of Verdun during the First World War was now surrendering to Hitler. In the city of Vichy, the French Senate and Chamber of Deputies conferred on the 84-year-old general the title of “Chief of State,” making him a virtual dictator–although one controlled by Berlin. Petain believed that he could negotiate a better deal for his country–for example, obtaining the release of prisoners of war–by cooperating with, or as some would say, appeasing, the Germans. When Paris was finally liberated by General Charles de Gaulle in 1944, Petain fled to Germany. He was brought back after the war to stand trial for his duplicity. He was sentenced to death, which was then commuted to life in solitary confinement. He died at 95 in prison. The man responsible for saving his life was de Gaulle. He and Petain had fought in the same unit in World War I and had not forgotten Petain’s bravery during that world war;
1944 – George Stinney, a 14-year-old black youth, became the youngest person to die in the electric chair as the state of South Carolina executed him for the murders of two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7. George Stinney’s family, who maintains his innocence, is seeking to overturn his conviction;
1958 – Imre Nagy, a former Hungarian premier and symbol of the nation’s 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, is hanged for treason by his country’s communist authorities. On November 4, 1956, a massive Soviet force of 200,000 troops and 2,500 tanks entered Hungary. Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy but was later arrested by Soviet agents after leaving the embassy under a safe-conduct pledge. Nearly 200,000 Hungarians fled the country, and thousands of people were arrested, killed, or executed before the Hungarian uprising was finally suppressed. Nagy was later handed over to the regime of Janos Kadar, who convicted and executed him for treason. On June 16, 1989, as communism crumbled in Hungary, Nagy’s body was officially reburied with full honors. Some 300,000 Hungarians attended the service;
1961 – During the Vietnam War, following a meeting between President John F. Kennedy and South Vietnam envoy Nguyen Dinh Thuan, an agreement is reached for direct training and combat supervision of Vietnamese troops by U.S. instructors. South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem had earlier asked Kennedy to send additional U.S. troops to train the South Vietnamese Army. U.S. advisers had been serving in Vietnam since 1955 as part of the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group. There would be only 900 U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam at the end of 1961, but in accordance with President Kennedy’s pledge to provide American military assistance to South Vietnam, the number of U.S. personnel rose to 3,200 by the end of 1962. The number would climb until it reached 16,000 by the time of President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963;
1961 – Rudolf Nureyev, the young star of the Soviet Union’s Kirov Opera Ballet Company, defects during a stopover in Paris. The high-profile defection was a blow to Soviet prestige and generated international interest. Nureyev became a star of Russian ballet in 1958 when, at barely 20 years old, he was made one of the Kirov Opera Ballet’s featured soloists. Nureyev’s high-profile defection was a double blow to the Soviet Union. First, it detracted from the quality of the Kirov Company, which had featured the young prodigy prominently in its performances throughout the world. Second, it severely damaged Soviet propaganda that touted the political and artistic freedom in Russia. Nureyev continued with his career after his defection. During the next 30 years he danced with England’s Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. He was in great demand as both a dancer and choreographer, and even made a few films (including a disastrous turn as the silent film star Rudolf Valentino). In 1983, he took over as ballet director of the Paris Opera. In 1989, he briefly returned to the Soviet Union to perform. He died in Paris in 1993;
1965 – During the Vietnam War, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces that 21,000 more U.S. troops are to be sent to Vietnam. He also claimed that it was now known that North Vietnamese regular troops had begun to infiltrate South Vietnam. The new U.S. troops were to join the U.S. Marines and paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade that had arrived earlier to secure U.S. airbases and facilities. These forces would soon transition from defensive missions to direct combat operations. As the war escalated, more and more U.S. combat troops were sent to South Vietnam. By 1969, there were over 540,000 American troops in Vietnam;
1970 – During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong attacks almost completely isolate Phnom Penh. The principal fighting raged in and around Kompong Thom, about 90 miles north of the capital. On June 17, Cambodia’s last working railway line, which ran to the border of Thailand, was severed when communist troops seized a freight train with 200 tons of rice and other food supplies at a station at Krang Lovea, about 40 miles northwest of Phnom Penh;
1977 – During the (first) Cold War, Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party since 1964, is elected president of the Supreme Soviet, thereby becoming both head of party and head of state. A member of the Soviet Communist Party since 1931, Brezhnev was Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s protege and deputy in the early 1960s. In 1964, however, he joined in the party coup that removed Khrushchev from power, and he was named first secretary in Khrushchev’s place. As first secretary, he initially shared power with Alexei Kosygin, who succeeded Khrushchev as premier. However, Brezhnev proved a forceful leader, and he gradually emerged as the chief figure in Soviet politics. In 1976, Brezhnev became the first party leader since Joseph Stalin to hold the title of marshal of the Soviet Union, the USSR’s highest military rank. In 1977, he assumed the presidency of the USSR, thus becoming the most powerful Soviet leader since Stalin. The last five years of his rule were marked by the USSR’s costly invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and a return of Cold War tensions. Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982 and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov as general (first) secretary;
1978 – President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties;
1987 – A jury in New York acquitted Bernhard Goetz of attempted murder in the subway shooting of four youths he said were going to rob him; however, Goetz was convicted of illegal weapons possession. In 1996, a civil jury ordered Goetz to pay $43 million to one of the persons he’d shot;
1999 – Kathleen Ann Soliah, a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), is arrested near her home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Soliah, who now calls herself Sara Jane Olsen, had been evading authorities for more than 20 years;
2000 – Israel complies with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms;
2004 – Rebuffing Bush administration claims, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said no evidence existed that al-Qaida had strong ties to Saddam Hussein;
2009 – Federal health regulators warned consumers to stop using Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and related products because they could permanently damage the sense of smell;
2009 – President Barack Obama met with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at the White House; afterward, Obama declared North Korea a “grave threat” to the world and pledged the U.S. and its allies would aggressively enforce fresh penalties against the nuclear-armed nation;
2012 – After a classified 469-day orbital mission, the U.S. air force’s robotic Boeing X-37-B spaceplane returns to Earth;
2013 – In Turkey, riot police firing tear gas and water cannons repelled thousands of anti-government protesters attempting to converge on Istanbul’s central Taksim Square while Prime Minister Recep Tayipp Erdogan defended the crackdown at a rally of his supporters;
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY!!!
Yet another reason I still enjoy reading the newspaper!
Number 41 of 50 beautiful pictures from 50 beautiful states:
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
As I
A thought
Compassion. Not pity, not anger, not shame, not impatience, not intolerance, not rejection, but compassion is what God, my Father, gives to me. He cares for my pain enough to enter into my world and share it in Jesus.
Leads to a verse
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
– Psalm 103:13
That brings a prayer
God of all Compassion, thank you for not only knowing and caring about my struggles and problems but sending me help in Jesus and the Holy Spirit. By one I know your love and mercy and by the other I know your might and power. May your Spirit of compassion be found in my relationships. Through the grace of Jesus I pray. Amen
Until the next time – America, Bless GOD!!!