Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is June 6, the 157th day of 2014 and there are 208 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 !!!
So, What Happened Today In 1944?
D-DAY
Although the term D-Day is used routinely as military lingo for the day an operation or event will take place, for many it is also synonymous with June 6, 1944, the day the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War II. Within three months, the northern part of France would be freed and the invasion force would be preparing to enter Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet forces moving in from the east.
With Hitler’s armies in control of most of mainland Europe, the Allies knew that a successful invasion of the continent was central to winning the war. Hitler knew this too, and was expecting an assault on northwestern Europe in the spring of 1944. He hoped to repel the Allies from the coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet Union in the east. Once that was accomplished, he believed an all-out victory would soon be his.
On the morning of June 5, 1944, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious military operation in history. On his orders, 6,000 landing craft, ships and other vessels carrying 176,000 troops began to leave England for the trip to France. That night, 822 aircraft filled with parachutists headed for drop zones in Normandy. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion.
By dawn on June 6, 18,000 parachutists were already on the ground; the land invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches; so did the Americans at Utah. The task was much tougher at Omaha beach, however, where 2,000 troops were lost and it was only through the tenacity and quick-wittedness of troops on the ground that the objective was achieved. By day’s end, 155,000 Allied troops–Americans, British and Canadians–had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches.
For their part, the Germans suffered from confusion in the ranks and the absence of celebrated commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was away on leave. At first, Hitler, believing that the invasion was a feint designed to distract the Germans from a coming attack north of the Seine River, refused to release nearby divisions to join the counterattack and reinforcements had to be called from further afield, causing delays. He also hesitated in calling for armored divisions to help in the defense. In addition, the Germans were hampered by effective Allied air support, which took out many key bridges and forced the Germans to take long detours, as well as efficient Allied naval support, which helped protect advancing Allied troops.
Though it did not go off exactly as planned, as later claimed by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery–for example, the Allies were able to land only fractions of the supplies and vehicles they had intended in France–D-Day was a decided success. By the end of June, the Allies had 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy and were poised to continue their march across Europe.
The heroism and bravery displayed by troops from the Allied countries on D-Day has served as inspiration for several films, most famously The Longest Day (1962) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). It was also depicted in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers (2001).
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On June 6 In History:
1391 – Inhabitants of Seville, Spain, massacres 5,000 Jews;
1683 – The Ashmolean, the world’s first university museum, opens in Oxford, England. At the time of the English Restoration, Oxford was the center of scientific activity in England. In 1677, English archaeologist Elias Ashmole donated his collection of curiosities to Oxford University, and the school’s directors planned the construction of a building to display the items permanently. Acclaimed English architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned for the job, and on June 6, 1683, the Ashmolean opened. The first modern museum, the Ashmolean was designed to display its collections, organized so that Oxford University could use it for teaching purposes, and was regularly opened to the public;
1775 – During the American Revolution, Marinus Willett and a small group of Sons of Liberty confront British soldiers and seize five wagonloads of weapons as the Redcoats evacuate New York City. Willet was born in Jamaica, New York on July 31, 1740. His great-grandfather, Thomas Willett, had been the first English mayor of New York City, a position Marinus would hold as well in the early 1800s. After attending King’s College (now Columbia University), Marinus served as a lieutenant in the Seven Years’ War, joining in the attacks on New York’s Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Frontenac. He ended the war as a patient in the hospital at Fort Stanwix, New York, then under construction. After his successful capture of British arms on June 6, Willett was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel on June 28, 1775, and participated in the Patriots’ ill-fated Canadian expedition, where he served as the commanding officer at Fort St. John. As colonial ire rose, Willett became a leader of the New York Sons of Liberty, but little is known regarding his activities with the group. Also during the War for Independence, Willet earned the moniker Hero of the Mohawk Valley for his defense of the site of his earlier convalescence, Fort Stanwix, which guarded the portage path between the Mohawk River and Oneida Lake. Willett and his commanding colonel, Peter Gansevoort, worked to restore the fort to battle-readiness. The British arrived under Colonel Barry St. Leger and laid siege to Gansevoort and Willett’s forces on August 3, 1777;
1799 – American patriot, politician and orator remembered for his speech in which he stated – “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, Give me Liverty of Give me Death!,” Patrick Henry, died at Red Hill Plantation in Virginia;
1833 – In Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, President Andrew Jackson boards a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train for a pleasure trip to Baltimore. Jackson, who had never been on a train before, was the first president to take a ride on the “Iron Horse,” as locomotives were known then. The acceptance of railroads came quickly in the 1830s, and by 1840 the nation had almost 3,000 miles of railway, greater than the combined European total of only 1,800 miles. The railroad network expanded quickly in the years before the Civil War and by 1860 the American railroad system had become a national network of some 30,000 miles. Nine years later, transcontinental railroad service became possible for the first time;
1844 – The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London;
1862 – During the American Civil War, the Union claims Memphis, Tennessee, the Confederacy’s fifth-largest city, a naval manufacturing yard, and a key Southern industrial center. One of the top priorities for Union commanders at the start of the war was to sever the Confederacy along the Mississippi. In April 1862, the Union scored major victories toward this goal with the capture of New Orleans in the south and the fall of Island No. 10 in the north. For seven weeks following the defeat of Island No. 10, Yankee ships pounded away at Fort Pillow, 40 miles north of Memphis. On June 4, a Rebel garrison abandoned the fort after Confederate troops withdrew from Corinth, Mississippi, leaving them dangerously isolated in Union-held territory. The next day, the Union flotilla steamed to Memphis unopposed. The city had no fortifications, because the Confederates had directed their resources toward strengthening the installation upriver. All that stood between the Yankees and Memphis was a Rebel fleet of eight ships. On the morning of June 6 three Confederate ships were rammed and sunk, and one Union ship was struck and severely damaged. Union guns aboard the other ships began a devastating barrage that destroyed all but one of the Confederate vessels. The Rebel fleet was decimated, while the Union suffered only four casualties and one damaged ship;
1865 – William Quantrill, the man who gave Frank and Jesse James their first education in killing, dies from wounds sustained in a skirmish with Union soldiers in Kentucky. Born and raised in Ohio, Quantrill was involved in a number of shady enterprises in Utah and Kansas during his teens. In his early 20s, he fled to Missouri where he became a strong supporter of pro-slavery settlers in their sometimes-violent conflict with their antislavery neighbors. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the 24-year-old Quantrill became the leader of an irregular force of Confederate soldiers that became known as Quantrill’s Raiders. In August 1863, Frank James was with Quantrill when he led a savage attack on the largely defenseless town of Lawrence, Kansas. Angered that the townspeople had allowed Lawrence to be used as a sporadic base for Union soldiers, Quantrill and his guerrillas shot every man and boy they saw. After killing at least 150 male civilians, the raiders set the town on fire. In May 1865, Quantrill was badly wounded in a skirmish with Union forces, and he died on this day in 1865. Since Quantrill’s men were guerillas rather than legitimate soldiers, they were denied the general amnesty given to the Confederate army after the war ended. Some, like Frank and Jesse James, took this as an excuse to become criminals and bank robbers;
1918 – In World War I, the first large-scale battle fought by American soldiers in war begins in Belleau Wood, northwest of the Paris-to-Metz road. For the next three weeks, the Marines, backed by U.S. Army artillery, launched many attacks into the forested area, but German General Erich Ludendorff was determined to deny the Americans a victory. Ludendorff continually brought up reinforcements from the rear, and the Germans attacked the U.S. forces with machine guns, artillery, and gas. Finally, on June 26, the Americans prevailed but at the cost of nearly 10,000 dead, wounded, or missing in action;
1933 – Eager motorists park their automobiles on the grounds of Park-In Theaters, the first-ever drive-in movie theater, located on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey. Park-In Theaters–the term “drive-in” came to be widely used only later–was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, a movie fan and a sales manager at his father’s company, Whiz Auto Products, in Camden. Reportedly inspired by his mother’s struggle to sit comfortably in traditional movie theater seats, Hollingshead came up with the idea of an open-air theater where patrons watched movies in the comfort of their own automobiles. He then experimented in the driveway of his own house with different projection and sound techniques, mounting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, pinning a screen to some trees, and placing a radio behind the screen for sound. He also tested ways to guard against rain and other inclement weather, and devised the ideal spacing arrangement for a number of cars so that all would have a view of the screen;
1934 – President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act, establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission;
1939 – The first Little League game was played as Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy 23-8 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania;
1949 – On this day, ‘s novel of a dystopian future, Nineteen Eighty-four, is published. The novel’s all-seeing leader, known as “Big Brother,” becomes a universal symbol for intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy. Orwell’s novel brought him lasting fame with its grim vision of a future where all citizens are watched constantly and language is twisted to aid in oppression. Orwell died of tuberculosis in 1950;
1964 – During the Vietnam War, two U.S. Navy jets flying low-altitude target reconnaissance missions over Laos are shot down by communist Pathet Lao ground fire. Washington immediately ordered armed jets to escort the reconnaissance flights, and by June 9, escort jets were attacking Pathet Lao headquarters. The downing of the two reconnaissance aircraft and the retaliatory strikes were made public, but the full extent of the U.S. involvement in Laos was not. In fact, the U.S. fighter-bombers were flying combat missions in support of Royal Lao forces in their war against the communist Pathet Lao and would continue to do so until 1973;
1966 – James H. Meredith, who in 1962 became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi is shot by a sniper shortly after beginning a lone civil rights march through the South. Known as the “March Against Fear,” Meredith had been walking from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South. James Meredith later recovered and rejoined the march he had originated, and on June 26 the marchers successfully reached Jackson, Mississippi;
1971 – Twenty-three years after its 1948 premiere, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ airs for the last time. Sunday nights, 8:00 pm, CBS. Ask almost any American born in the 1050s or earlier what television program ran in that timeslot on that network, and they’ll probably know the answer: The Ed Sullivan Show. For more than two decades, Sullivan’s variety show was the premiere television showcase for entertainers of all stripes, including borscht-belt comedians, plate-spinning vaudeville throwbacks and, most significantly, some of the biggest and most current names in rock and roll;
1972 – In the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese forces drive out all but a few of the communist troops remaining in Kontum. Over 200 North Vietnamese had been killed in six battles in and around the city. The city had come under attack in April when the North Vietnamese had launched their Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the Easter Offensive), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, which he had instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces so that U.S. troops could be withdrawn;
1977 – During the (first) Cold War, in the face of recent Soviet crackdowns on human rights activists, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance assures skeptics in the United States that the administration of President Jimmy Carter will hold the Soviet Union accountable for its actions. On June 1, 1977 the Soviets charged Anatoly Shcharansky, a computer expert and leader of the human rights movement in Russia, with treason and arrested him. Shcharansky was a leading member of the so-called “Helsinki group” in the Soviet Union, a collection of dissidents whose goal was to monitor the Soviet government’s compliance with the 1975 Helsinki accords between the United States and Russia. Just a few days after Shcharansky was charged with treason, Secretary of State Vance met with members of the U.S. commission on human rights, headed by Representative Dante Fascell. They were skeptical of the Carter administration’s commitment to pushing the issue of human rights with the Soviets, particularly in the face of the recent crackdowns on dissent in Russia. Vance assured the commission that “The United States will not back down with respect to its position on human rights.” The Carter record on this matter remained mixed. While the president publicly condemned Russia’s human rights policies, and sometimes even instigated sanctions (such as a halt on the sale of computer equipment to the Soviet Union), he was never as aggressive with the Soviets as he was with smaller and less powerful nations;
1981 – More than 500 passengers are killed when their train plunges into the Baghmati River in India on this day in 1981. The rail accident—the worst in India to that date—was caused by an engineer who was reverential of cows. The nine-car train, filled with approximately 1,000 passengers, was traveling through the northeastern state of Bihar about 250 miles from Calcutta. Outside, monsoon-like conditions were battering the region. Extremely hard rains were swelling the rivers and making the tracks slick. When a cow and a Hindu engineer—who believed that cows are sacred animals—entered the picture, the combination led to tragedy. As the train approached the bridge over the Baghmati River, a cow crossed the tracks. Seeking to avoid harming the cow at all costs, the engineer braked too hard. The cars slid on the wet rails and the last seven cars derailed straight into the river. With the river far above normal levels, the cars sank quickly in the murky waters. By the time help arrived, nearly 600 people had lost their lives. After a multi-day search, 286 bodies were recovered but more than 300 missing people were never found. The best estimate is that close to 600 passengers were killed by the engineer’s decision;
1984 – In a bloody climax to two years of fighting between the Indian government and Sikh separatists, Indian army troops fight their way into the besieged Golden Temple compound in Amritsar–the holiest shrine of Sikhism–and kill at least 500 Sikh rebels. More than 100 Indian soldiers and scores of nonbelligerent Sikhs also perished in the ferocious gun and artillery battle, which was launched in the early morning hours of June 6. The army also attacked Sikh guerrillas besieged in three dozen other temples and religious shrines throughout the state of Punjab. Indian officials hailed the operation as a success and said it “broke the back” of the Sikh terrorist movement. Punjab’s political status remained a divisive issue in India, and disorder and violence persisted in the state until the early 1990s;
1997 – Eighteen-year-old Melissa Drexler gives birth to a baby boy in the bathroom stall at an Aberdeen Township banquet hall in New Jersey during her high school prom. Maintenance workers called to clean up blood found in the stall discover a bag in the garbage with her dead baby inside. An autopsy later revealed that the baby had been born alive but had been strangled to death. Drexler’s case drew national attention and outrage, especially since she returned to the dance floor after killing her newborn baby. Prosecutors in Monmouth County initially charged Drexler with murder, but she pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter on August 21, 1998. Telling the court that she was remorseful for her actions, on October 29 the teary-eyed girl was sentenced to 15 years in prison with the possibility of parole in three years. She was released on parole after 37 months;
2002 – In the Eastern Mediterranean area, a near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 metres diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb;
2005 – (Prior to the Obama era), the United States Supreme Court votes to ban medical marijuana in Gonzales v. Raich;
2009 – Summer Bird won the Belmont Stakes, rallying past Mine That Bird to spoil jockey Calvin Borel’s attempt at winning all three legs of the Triple Crown;
2012 – In east London, archeologists find remains of the Curtain Theatre, which opened in 1577 and was where some of Shakespeare’s plays were performed;
2013 – Director of National Intelligence James Clapper moved to tamp down a public uproar spurred by the disclosure of secret surveillance programs involving phone and Internet records, declassifying key details about one of the programs while insisting the efforts were legal, limited in scope and necessary to detect terrorist threats. (Sure!);
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY!!!
Another reason I still enjoy reading the newspaper!
As I
A thought
Love that surpasses knowledge. That’s very difficult to explain, but when you have loved your spouse for decades and he or she is as close to you as any bodily organ, you experience what this means. When you love a child and do what you never dreamed you could do for another human being, you understand this phrase. And when you stand before God, adopted as a full heir of all his great riches, a full sibling to Jesus Christ the Lord, and know you are seen as holy, without reproach, and blameless, you begin to understand this phrase.
Leads to a verse
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
– Ephesians 3:17-19
That brings a prayer
Holy and incredible God, help me to know in my soul the love that is greater than words and knowledge so that I may not only be like you, but that I may know you in experience just as I know you in faith. Through Jesus I pray. Amen
Until the next time – America, Bless GOD!!!
