Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is Thursday, June 5, the 156th day of 2014 and there are 209 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 !!!
A special note, from me, on this special day!!!
I ask everyone to join me today as I celebrate my FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!
It was one year and 16 days ago when on June 21 of 2013 I suffered my fourth stroke placing me in the new Rust Medical Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. This hospitalization resulted in numerous tests, medical procedures and surgical procedures over the course of the next 14 days. On this day one year ago today, in addition to having had yet another stroke in addition to my two previous heart attacks, the final diagnosis was made that I now had stage four lung cancer which was also quite widespread through my lymph system throughout my chest area and up my neck and into my chin area although there was no evidence that it had reached my brain yet. On this day, I was informed that I probably would not see this day one year later.
In disagreement, GOD said, I need Rick to get the ‘Today In History’ Post out for fggam.org!!! I think it wise I follow HIS directives!!!
I want to give a very special thanks to my precious wife Sandy who has continued to stand strong by my side and with our Lord during this very trying year! I also dearly thank my entire family near and far, along with all our friends for all their support and prayer efforts over this last year. Another special thanks are due for all my precious Brothers and Sisters in my church congregation and a very special thanks to all my Pastors; (Pastor Dewey Moede and Pastor Paul Holt right here at For God’s Glory Alone Ministries and to Pastors Marty and Paulette Cooper and Elder Mabel Lopez at Christ Full Deliverance Ministries in Rio Rancho where Sandy and I are regular members of this wonderful Church Of GOD!!!
(I left this as my last entry to make in my post today as I knew full well what would happen … therefore I apologize for any grammatical errors as I can not proof read due to the tears of JOY running down my face!!!!!!!!!!!) Thank You All so very much for your prayers and support!!!
So, What Happened Today In 1967?
The Middle East Six-Day War begins
Israel responds to an ominous build-up of Arab forces along its borders by launching simultaneous attacks against Egypt and Syria. Jordan subsequently entered the fray, but the Arab coalition was no match for Israel’s proficient armed forces. In six days of fighting, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem, both previously under Jordanian rule. By the time the United Nations cease-fire took effect on June 11, Israel had more than doubled its size. The true fruits of victory came in claiming the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan. Many wept while bent in prayer at the Western Wall of the Second Temple.
The U.N. Security Council called for a withdrawal from all the occupied regions, but Israel declined, permanently annexing East Jerusalem and setting up military administrations in the occupied territories. Israel let it be known that Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai would be returned in exchange for Arab recognition of the right of Israel to exist and guarantees against future attack. Arab leaders, stinging from their defeat, met in August to discuss the future of the Middle East. They decided upon a policy of no peace, no negotiations, and no recognition of Israel, and made plans to defend zealously the rights of Palestinian Arabs in the occupied territories.
Egypt, however, would eventually negotiate and make peace with Israel, and in 1982 the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in exchange for full diplomatic recognition of Israel. Egypt and Jordan later gave up their respective claims to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to the Palestinians, who opened “land for peace” talks with Israel beginning in the 1990s. A permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement remains elusive, as does an agreement with Syria to return the Golan Heights.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On June 5 In History:
1099 – Members of the First Crusade witness an eclipse of the moon and interpret it as a sign they will recapture Jerusalem;
1723 – Adam Smith, future author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), a critique of the mercantilist model of trade in the British empire, is baptized in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. Smith, the father of political economy—or the relationship between a society and its economic system–was born in the village of Kirkcaldy near Edinburgh, Scotland. Smith began writing The Wealth of Nations. In 1767, Smith returned to London just as Lord Townshend was imposing his revenue acts, which taxed goods the American colonies were only allowed to import from Great Britain–including the famed tax on tea. All goods had to pass through and be taxed by the mother country on their way to and from the colonies. It was precisely this sort of restraint on trade that Adam Smith refuted as detrimental to the wealth of nations in his treatise, completed in 1776. The colonists’ objections became a rebellion on July 4 of the same year; their treatise was entitled the Declaration of Independence;
1794 – The United States Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from taking part in any military action against a country that was at peace with the United States and prohibits citizens from serving in any foreign armed forces;
1851 – Harriet Beecher Stow publishes the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in The National Era;
1864 – During the American Civil War, at the Battle of Piedmont, Virginia, Union forces under General David Hunter rout a Confederate force led by General William “Grumble” Jones, giving the North their first real success in the 1864 Shenandoah campaign. As part of his attempt to knock out the Confederates in Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Grant sent Franz Sigel to neutralize Rebel forces in the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. But Sigel did little to assist Grant, instead presiding over a Union defeat at New Market on May 15. Hunter, who replaced Sigel, quickly moved toward the rail center at Staunton with some 11,000 soldiers and another 5,000 cavalry troopers. Resisting him were about 5,600 troops under the command of Jones and John D. Imboden, cobbled together from various Confederate units scattered about western Virginia. As the Union force marched south to Staunton, Imboden moved his part of the army to block the Yankees. They met north of Piedmont, where Hunter attacked on the morning of June 5 and forced Imboden to retreat. After being reinforced by Jones at Piedmont, the Confederates spread out to stop the Federals but left a small gap in their lines that later proved fatal. The Union troops pressed through the gap, and Jones was killed while leading an attempt to drive the Yankees back. The Confederate line was broken, and the Southerners retreated. Six hundred soldiers were killed or wounded, and another 1,000 were captured; the Yankees lost 800. Rebel opposition evaporated, and Hunter entered Staunton the next day. The victory cleared the way for Union occupation of the upper Shenandoah Valley;
1870 – A huge section of the city of Constantinople, Turkey, is set ablaze on this day in 1870. When the smoke finally cleared, 3,000 homes were destroyed and 900 people were dead. The fire began at a home in the Armenian section of the Valide Tchesme district. A young girl was carrying a hot piece of charcoal to her family’s kitchen in an iron pan when she tripped, sending the charcoal out the window and onto the roof of an adjacent home. The fire quickly spread down Feridje Street, one of Constantinople’s main thoroughfares. An entire square mile of the city near the Bosporus Strait was devastated. Only stone structures, mostly churches and hospitals, survived the conflagration;
1872 – The Republican National Convention, the first major political party convention to include African Americans, commences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. President Ulysses S. Grant was nominated and subsequently elected to a second term as President of the United States;
1916 – In World War I, in the icy waters of the North Sea on June 5, 1916, the British cruiser Hampshire strikes a German mine and sinks off the Orkney Islands; among the passengers and crew drowned is Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British secretary of state for war. Kitchener was a war hero who earned the lord distinction with his triumphant leadership of the British army in the Sudan in 1898;
1922 – George W. Carmack, the first person to discover gold along the Klondike River, dies in Vancouver, British Columbia. Carmack was born into a life of prospecting and mining. His father was a forty-niner who settled his family in Contra Costa County, California. When he was in his early 20s, Carmack followed his father’s example, setting off on long prospecting journeys that took him from Juneau, Alaska to the Yukon Territory of northwest Canada. In the summer of 1896, Carmack was fishing for salmon near the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike River. Carmack decided to explore Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike. As he did habitually, Carmack stopped occasionally to pan for signs of gold along the creek. At first, he found little of the telltale yellowish color in his pan. Then, on August 17, he stumbled across a deposit of gold so rich that he needed no pan to see it: Thumb-sized pieces of gold lay scattered about the creek bed. According to some reports, when he returned to the United States in 1898 he had found gold worth more than a million dollars. Now a wealthy and influential man, Carmack moved to Vancouver, B.C. He died in Vancouver in 1922 at the age of 61;
1933 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt directs the United States off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold. The United States had been on a gold standard since 1879, except for an embargo on gold exports during World War I, but bank failures during the Great Depression of the 1930s frightened the public into hoarding gold, making the policy untenable. Soon after taking office in March 1933, Roosevelt declared a nationwide bank moratorium in order to prevent a run on the banks by consumers lacking confidence in the economy. He also forbade banks to pay out gold or to export it. According to Keynesian economic theory, one of the best ways to fight off an economic downturn is to inflate the money supply. And increasing the amount of gold held by the Federal Reserve would in turn increase its power to inflate the money supply. Facing similar pressures, Britain had dropped the gold standard in 1931, and Roosevelt had taken note. On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, thus completely abandoning the gold standard. In 1974, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that permitted Americans again to own gold bullion;
1942 – During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues a stern statement warning Japan to stop using poison gas in its war on China. At this point during World War II, the United States and Japan were engaged in battle in the Pacific; Japan was also at war with China. Roosevelt received intelligence reports that Japanese military forces had used poisonous gas and other forms of what he called inhuman warfare, including biological agents, on innocent Chinese civilians, which violated the Geneva Convention of 1925, an international agreement on the rules of engagement in war. Roosevelt warned that if Japan continued to use chemical warfare against China, the U.S. would consider such actions tantamount to a chemical or biological attack on America and the United Nations and respond with similar attacks. The president minced no words, stating that retaliation in kind and in full measure will be meted out. We shall be prepared to enforce complete retribution. Upon Japan will rest the responsibility;
1944 – During World War II, more than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries placed at the Normandy assault area, while 3,000 Allied ships cross the English Channel in preparation for the invasion of Normandy—D-Day. The day of the invasion of occupied France had been postponed repeatedly since May, mostly because of bad weather and the enormous tactical obstacles involved. Finally, despite less than ideal weather conditions—or perhaps because of them—General Eisenhower decided on June 5 to set the next day as D-Day, the launch of the largest amphibious operation in history. Ike knew that the Germans would be expecting postponements beyond the sixth, precisely because weather conditions were still poor. Bad weather and an order to conserve fuel grounded much of the German air force on June 5; consequently, its reconnaissance flights were spotty. That night, more than 1,000 British bombers unleashed a massive assault on German gun batteries on the coast. At the same time, an Allied armada headed for the Normandy beaches in Operation Neptune, an attempt to capture the port at Cherbourg. But that was not all. In order to deceive the Germans, phony operations were run; dummy parachutists and radar-jamming devices were dropped into strategically key areas so as to make German radar screens believe there was an Allied convoy already on the move. One dummy parachute drop succeeded in drawing an entire German infantry regiment away from its position just six miles from the actual Normandy landing beaches. All this effort was to scatter the German defenses and make way for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy;
1947 – In one of the most significant speeches of the (first) Cold War, Secretary of State George C. Marshall calls on the United States to assist in the economic recovery of postwar Europe. His speech provided the impetus for the so-called Marshall Plan, under which the United States sent billions of dollars to Western Europe to rebuild the war-torn countries. In 1946 and into 1947, economic disaster loomed for Western Europe. World War II had done immense damage, and the crippled economies of Great Britain and France could not reinvigorate the region’s economic activity. Germany, once the industrial dynamo of Western Europe, lay in ruins. Unemployment, homelessness, and even starvation were commonplace. For the United States, the economic chaos of Western Europe was providing a prime breeding ground for the growth of communism and the U.S. economy, which was quickly returning to a civilian state after several years of war, needed the markets of Western Europe in order to sustain itself. In March 1948, the United States Congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act (more popularly known as the Marshall Plan), which set aside $4 billion in aid for Western Europe. By the time the program ended nearly four years later, the United States had provided over $12 billion for European economic recovery. British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin likened the Marshall Plan to a “lifeline to sinking men”;
1950 – The United States Supreme Court, in Henderson v. United States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining cars;
1963 – During the (first) Cold War, British Secretary of War John Profumo resigns his post following revelations that he had lied to the House of Commons about his sexual affair with Christine Keeler, an alleged prostitute. At the time of the affair, Keeler was also involved with Yevgeny “Eugene” Ivanov, a Soviet naval attache who some suspected was a spy. Although Profumo assured the government that he had not compromised national security in any way, the scandal threatened to topple Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s government. John Profumo left politics after his resignation and dedicated himself to philanthropy in the East End of London. For his charitable work, Queen Elizabeth II named him a Commander of the British Empire, one of Britain’s highest honors, in 1975;
1968 – Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by the 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He died a day later. Kennedy was perceived by many to be the only person in American politics capable of uniting the people as anti-Vietnam War protests were peaking and following the Martin Luther King Jr assassination. He was beloved by the minority community for his integrity and devotion to the civil rights cause. After winning California’s primary, Kennedy was in the position to receive the Democratic nomination and face off against Richard Nixon in the general election. Sirhan, who was born in Palestine, confessed to the crime at his trial and received a death sentence on March 3, 1969. However, since the California State Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty sentences in 1972, Sirhan has spent the rest of his life in prison where he has since said that he believed Kennedy was “instrumental” in the oppression of Palestinians. Hubert Humphrey ended up running for the Democrats in 1968, but lost by a small margin to Nixon;
1972 – During the Vietnam War, testifying before a joint Congressional Appropriations Committee, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird says the increase in U.S. military activity in Vietnam could add up to $5 billion to the 1973 fiscal budget, doubling the annual cost of the war. This increased American activity was in response to the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, also called the Easter Offensive, which had been launched on March 31 which included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. In response, President Richard Nixon had ordered massive support for the South Vietnamese defenders and their U.S. advisers. The number of U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers in Southeast Asia was tripled, and B-52s were quadrupled. Nixon ordered additional ships to join the 7th Fleet, sending the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from the Philippines to join the carriers already off the coast of Vietnam in providing air support;
1976 – 14 people are killed when the Teton Dam in Idaho burst;
1981 – The United States Center for Disease Control reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS;
1998 – 3,400 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union walk out on their jobs at a General Motors (GM) metal-stamping factory in Flint, Michigan beginning a strike that will last seven weeks and stall production at GM facilities nationwide. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, after rising fuel prices had left the “Big Three” American car manufacturers reeling, the UAW had agreed to a series of concessions as a way of saving one of the three–Chrysler–from bankruptcy and help the other two–GM and Ford Motor Company–recover. Among these concessions were wage cuts, pay freezes and the elimination of jobs. By the late 1990s, however, years of improved profits had helped the union gain back the ground it had lost with those concessions, and relations between labor and management had subsequently become more adversarial again. The 1998 strike didn’t end GM’s problems with the UAW: In September 2007, the union launched a nationwide strike against GM, with 73,000 workers walking out and halting operations in 30 states for two days until a resolution was announced. (The next chapter in GM’s problems is still being written, AT THE TAX PAYERS EXPENSE!!!);
2004 – Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States dies after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan, who was also a well-known actor and served as governor of California was a popular president known for restoring American confidence after the problems of the 1970s and helping to defeat communism. Born on February 6, 1911, Reagan, who was nicknamed Dutch as a youngster, was born and raised in several small towns in Illinois. Although Reagan did not serve combat duty in World War II because of his poor eyesight, he began active duty in 1942 and made training films for the military until his discharge in 1945. Politically, it was during the 1940s that Reagan gradually became more conservative and also became involved in the country’s burgeoning anti-communist movement. Just 69 days after taking office as President of the United States, Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley after giving a speech at a hotel about one mile from the White House. After surgery to remove the bullet, which had lodged near his heart, he recovered quickly, which added to his image as a strong leader. Throughout his two terms in office, Reagan pursued his successful trademark economic program, Reaganomics—a supply-side economics theory that involved drastic cuts to both taxes and spending. It was his campaign to end the (first) Cold War, though, that defined the Reagan presidency for many Americans. His plan was to use an unprecedented military buildup to negotiate arms-reduction treaties from a position of strength. During a visit to Germany, he famously urged then-Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down that wall. By 1991, the Berlin Wall was torn down and the Soviet Union Reagan had once referred to as an evil empire was no more. Many credit Reagan for this historic turn of events, and it is certain he played a significant role in the downfall of the Soviet Union. Known as the Great Communicator, Reagan left the Oval Office as one of the most popular presidents in history, retiring to his much-loved California ranch, Rancho del Cielo. His announcement in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease was greeted with great sadness by many across the country. He wrote, in an open letter to the American people, I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. He lived out the rest of his days on the ranch, with his wife Nancy, who remained devoted to him to the end, by his side. He was buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California;
2009 – Ex-CIA operative and Watergate scandal burglar Bernard Barker died in suburban Miami at age 92;
2012 – The Wisconsin Senate recall election is held and Wisconsin voters re-elect incumbent governor Scott Walker;
2013 – U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, many of them sleeping women and children, pleaded guilty to murder at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, to avoid the death penalty;
2013 – The British newspaper The Guardian reported the National Security Agency was collecting the telephone records of millions of American customers of Verizon under a top secret court order;
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY!!!
Another reason why I still enjoy reading the newspaper!
Number 31 of 50 beautiful pictures from 50 beautiful states:
Manzano Mountains, Southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico
As I close, I
When a thought
While Paul’s exhortation here is excellent, it is the style of the exhortation we should especially notice. We live in an age where we are constantly pressured to emphasize the novel, new, or improved versions of things. But in our lives as Christians, our knowledge always exceeds our obedience. So more often than we like to think, we need to remind each other of what we are doing right and just simply say, “Hey, you’re doing well; just keep doing what you’re doing!”
Leads to a verse
Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when He returns, we can live with Him forever. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:10-11
That brings a prayer
Faithful Father, thank you for noticing and keeping record of the things I’ve done that are good and pleasing to you. Please help me to keep doing those things that please you, only better, that you may be pleased and glorified. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen
Until the next time – America, Bless GOD!!!