Today In History; December 8

The day before, Japanese pilots had bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, decimating the majority of U.S. warships in the Pacific Fleet along with most of the Air Corps and Navy aircraft stationed on the island of Oahu. The bombing raids killed 2,403 people, including 68 civilians, and wounded almost 1,200.

Although Roosevelt and his advisors had received intelligence reports indicating an imminent attack by Japan days before, he had hoped that Japanese and American diplomats, then negotiating in Washington, would come to a peaceful solution. He was incensed to realize that while American and Japanese diplomats engaged in negotiations (over Japan’s recent military actions in China and elsewhere in the Pacific), Japanese aircraft carriers had been steaming toward Hawaii intent on attack. His words on December 8 relayed his personal indignation and fury.

Roosevelt had already proven his oratorical skills during the Great Depression when his “fireside chats” rallied the nation’s morale. The same president who once said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” declared with equal conviction that the nation “would never forget the character of [Japan’s] onslaught against us” and vowed that the “unbounding determination of our people… will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.”

The stirring speech was hardly necessary—Congress and millions of Americans, who had been hearing details of the attack in the news, shared the president’s outrage and commitment to defending the nation. Young men flocked to armed forces recruiting stations the next day and both houses of Congress quickly voted to declare war on Japan, with only one dissenting vote.

Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring on December The 8th In History:

1542 – Mary Queen of Scots is born in Linlithgow Palace in Scotland;

1775 – Colonel Benedict Arnold & General Richard Montgomery lead an American siege of British-occupied Quebec Canada;

1813 – Ludwig von Beethoven’s 7th Symphony premieres;

1854 – Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception;

1961 – The Beach Boys release their first single, “Surfin'”;

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction;

1863 – 2,500 reported killed in by fire at Jesuit Church La Compana in Santiago, Chile;

1881 – Fire at the Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria kills an estimated 620 & injures hundreds more;

1914 – British Naval forces defeat German Navy in Battle of Falkland Islands, considered the most decisive naval battle of WWI;

1940 – Chicago Bears trounce the Washington Redskins in the NFL championship game 73-0, the largest margin of defeat in NFL history;

1941 – Montanan Jeanette Rankin, the 1st woman elected to congress and a dedicated pacifist casts the sole vote against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan;

1942 – Albert Kahn, known as ‘the man who built Detroit’ dies at home at the age of 73;

1949 – Chinese Nationalists move capital to Taiwan;

1965 – In some of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War, 150 U.S. Navy & Air Force planes launch Operation Tiger Hound to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the lower portion of the Laotian panhandle;

1966 – North Vietnam rejects President Johnson’s prisoner exchange proposal;

1980 – John Lennon, a former member of ‘The Beatles’, a rock group that transformed popular music in the 1960s is shot & killed by an obsessed fan in New York City. He was considered “The intellectual Beatle”;

1987 – In Washington D.C., President Ronald Reagan & Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign 1st treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear weapons arsenals;

1992 – Galileo makes its nearest approach to Jupiter (303 km);

2003 – President George W Bush signed Medicare overhaul bill which included prescription drug plans for seniors;

2011 – Japan’s government apologizes to Canada for the treatment of its POW’s during WWII.

Today’s Founder’s Quote:

“God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”  – Thomas Jefferson, 1774

Today’s Pro’s & Con’s:

If ‘PRO’ & “CON’ are opposites, does that make congress the opposite of progress?

Today’s Child’s Funny Advice:

Never trust a dog to watch your food.

Today’s Do You Remember What This Is:

 Jiffy Pop PopCorn

Today’s Silly Sign:

(in an office)  Would the person who took the step-ladder yesterday please bring it back or further steps will be taken.

Today’s Where It Came From:

In Britain, at local taverns, pubs and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid’s job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in ‘pints’ and who was drinking in ‘quarts’, hence the phrase “minding your ‘P’s and ‘Q’s”.

Today’s Crazy Law:

In St Louis it is illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you’re sitting on a curb! (One has to guess if it’s OK if you’re fully sitting on the sidewalk!)

Today’s I Wonder:

In the song ‘She’ll be coming around the mountain’; have you ever thought it might be nice to know her name before she got there?

Today’s Funny Picture:

Really, he said what?

 Today’s Inspirational Music Video:

You Raise Me Up;   https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aJxrX42WcjQ

Until Tomorrow – God Bless To All !!!