Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is June 8, the 159th day of 2014 and there are 206 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 !!!
Read Fast, it’s time for
Just a Thought from long ago:
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
– Seneca the Younger, Roman statesman (circa 5 B.C.-A.D. 65)
So, What Happened Today In 1967?
Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats attack the defenseless USS Liberty (GTR-5)
During the Six-Day War, Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attack the USS Liberty (GTR-5) in international waters off Egypt’s Gaza Strip. The intelligence ship, well-marked as an American vessel and only very lightly armed, was attacked first by Israeli aircraft that fired napalm and rockets at the ship. The Liberty attempted to radio for assistance, but the Israeli aircraft blocked the transmissions. Eventually, the ship was able to make contact with the United States aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CVA-60) and 12 fighter jets and four tanker planes were dispatched to defend the Liberty. When word of their deployment reached Washington, however, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered them recalled to the carrier, and they never reached the Liberty. The reason for the recall remains unclear.
Back in the Mediterranean, the initial air raid against the Liberty was over. Nine of the 294 crewmembers were dead and 60 were wounded. Suddenly, the ship was attacked by Israeli torpedo boats, which launched torpedoes and fired artillery at the ship. Under the command of its wounded captain, William L. McGonagle, the Liberty managed to avert four torpedoes, but one struck the ship at the waterline. Heavily damaged, the ship launched three lifeboats, but these were also attacked–a violation of international law. Failing to sink the Liberty, which displaced 10,000 tons, the Israelis finally desisted. In all, 34 Americans were killed and 171 were wounded in the two-hour attack. In the attack’s aftermath, the Liberty managed to limp to a safe port.
Israel later apologized for the attack and offered $6.9 million in compensation, claiming that it had mistaken the Liberty for an Egyptian ship. However, Liberty survivors, and some former U.S. officials, believe that the attack was deliberate, staged to conceal Israel’s pending seizure of Syria’s Golan Heights, which occurred the next day. The ship’s listening devices would likely have overheard Israeli military communications planning this controversial operation. Captain McGonagle was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic command of the Liberty during and after the attack.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On June 8 In History:
452 – Attila the Hun invades Italy;
632 – The prophet Muhammad died in Medina;
1776 – During the American Revolution, Canadian Governor Sir Guy Carleton defeats American Patriot forces under John Sullivan, who were already in retreat from Quebec toward Montreal. After General Richard Montgomery’s early success in Montreal, he and Colonel Benedict Arnold attempted to take Quebec in the middle of the night between December 31, 1775 and January 1, 1776. Montgomery lost his life and Arnold was wounded in the action; half of their men were also lost to death, injury or capture and Quebec remained in British control. The colonists’ ill-conceived, pre-emptive attack on Canada ended in disaster. Instead of winning French Canadians to the Patriot cause, it led only to a huge loss of life among Patriot forces. Although the highly trained Redcoats and German mercenaries made quick work of the colonists, killing 25, wounding 140 and capturing 236, Carleton allowed the rest of the 2,500-man force to complete their retreat to Montreal. It was a temporary respite for the Patriots: by June 15, Montreal too had returned to British control. Arnold saw that the Patriots’ priorities had changed and wrote to Sullivan, “let us quit and secure our own country before it is too late”;
1861 – The state of Tennessee votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy;
1862 – During the American Civil War, at the Battle of Cross Keys, Virginia, Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s notches another victory during the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Sent to the valley to relieve pressure on the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia, which had been pinned on the James Peninsula by Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, Jackson’s force staged one of the most stunning and brilliant campaigns of the war. Jackson led the Yankees on a chase south through the valley, beating the Union forces to Port Republic, the site of a crucial bridge where the Federals could have united to defeat Jackson. He kept the bulk of his force at Port Republic and sent General Richard C. Ewell and 5,000 troops to nearby Cross Keys. On June 8, Freemont’s troops advanced on Ewell’s and launched a halfhearted attack that failed to disrupt the Confederate lines. Fremont engaged only 5 of his 24 regiments, followed by a mild artillery bombardment. Casualties were relatively light, with Ewell losing 288 men to Fremont’s 684. Cross Keys was only a prelude to the larger Battle of Port Republic on June 9, but it was another Union failure in Jackson’s amazing 1862 Shenandoah campaign;
1863 – In the American Civil War, residents of Vicksburg flee into caves as General Ulysses S. Grant’s army begins shelling the town;
1864 – Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention in Baltimore;
1874 – Chief Cochise, one of the great leaders of the Apache Indians in their battles with the Anglo-Americans, dies on the Chiricahua reservation in southeastern Arizona. By the mid-19th century, he had become a prominent leader of the Chiricahua band of Apache Indians living in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Like many other Chiricahua Apache, Cochise resented the encroachment of Mexican and American settlers on their traditional lands. Cochise led numerous raids on the settlers living on both sides of the border, and Mexicans and Americans alike began to call for military protection and retribution. War between the U.S. and Cochise, however, resulted from a misunderstanding. In October 1860, a band of Apache attacked the ranch of an Irish-American named John Ward and kidnapped his adopted son, Felix Tellez. Although Ward had been away at the time of the raid, he believed that Cochise had been the leader of the raiding Apache. Unaware that they were in any danger, Cochise and many of his top men responded to an invitation from army Lieutenant George Bascom to join him for a night of entertainment at a nearby stage station. When the Apache arrived, Bascom’s soldiers arrested them. Cochise told Bascom that he had not been responsible for the kidnapping of Felix Tellez, but the lieutenant refused to believe him. Cochise would not tolerate being imprisoned unjustly. He used his knife to cut a hole in the tent he was held in and escaped. By 1872, the U.S. was anxious for peace, and the government offered Cochise and his people a huge reservation in the southeastern corner of Arizona Territory if they would cease hostilities. Cochise agreed, saying, “The white man and the Indian are to drink of the same water, eat of the same bread, and be at peace.” The great chief did not have the privilege of enjoying his hard-won peace for long. In 1874, he became seriously ill, possibly with stomach cancer and died on this day in 1874. About a decade after Cochise died, Felix Tellez–the boy whose kidnapping had started the war–resurfaced as an Apache-speaking scout for the U.S. Army. He reported that a group of Western Apache, not Cochise, had kidnapped him;
1896 – President Grover Cleveland asks leaders of federal departments to investigate how many “aliens,” or foreign nationals, are currently employed in the federal government, specifically directing his request to the secretaries of state, treasury, war, navy, interior and agriculture, the postmaster general and the attorney general. Cleveland was in his second term in 1896 and was the leader of a Democratic Party that was largely anti-immigrant. Cleveland firmly believed that the government carried the unquestionable authority to “prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security even where there is not treaty stipulation on the subject.” His fear of what he thought would be damaging immigrant influence prompted him to investigate potential subversive behavior among federal employees of foreign birth as part of a larger program to stave off the negative effects of immigration on the nation’s political and economic security;
1915 – Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement with President Woodrow Wilson over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania;
1941 – During World War II, British and Free French forces enter Syria and Lebanon in Operation Exporter. In May, the pro-Axis Rashid Ali rose to power in Iraq and refused to allow British maneuvers within his country in accordance with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930. Britain quickly restored the status quo ante by driving Ali and his followers out of Iraq. And to ensure that German military supplies shipped to Ali via Syria did not result in Axis control of that country and neighboring Lebanon, Britain decided to take preventive action. With Australian and Indian support, as well as that of Free French forces, Britain invaded both Syria and Lebanon, fighting Vichy French garrisons loyal to Germany. Resistance lasted five weeks before an armistice was finally signed on July 14, giving the Allies control of both Syria and Lebanon. Among those wounded in the fighting was the 26-year-old leader of Palestinian volunteer forces, Moshe Dayan, the future hero in the fight for an independent Jewish state. He lost an eye;
1944 – In World War II, U.S. General Omar Bradley, following orders from General Eisenhower, links up American troops from Omaha Beach with British troops from Gold Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer. Meanwhile, Russian Premier Joseph Stalin telegraphs British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to announce that the Allied success at Normandy “is a source of joy to us all,” and promises to launch his own offensive on the Eastern Front, as had been agreed upon at the Tehran Conference in late ’43, and thereby prevent Hitler from transferring German troops from the east to support troops at Normandy;
1945 – President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9568, permitting the release of scientific information from previously top-secret World War II documents. He hoped the information might help stimulate America’s developing industries in the post-World War II economy. The order provided for the release of scientific and technical data, including highly sensitive information from World War II weapons programs, but only after it had been reviewed first by the War and Navy Departments and the director of War Mobilization and Reconversion. The order laid out specific types of classifications of information: secret, confidential and restricted. It also allowed for documents to be classified with some “other comparable designation [of secrecy level] or otherwise withheld from the public for purposes of the national military security.” The new classification system was designed to protect sensitive documents that needed to remain secret in the interest of national security while at the same time using some information to help transition wartime industries to peacetime and create a robust post-war economy. Truman’s legislation responded to a growing concern among many Americans that citizens had a “right to know” what their government was doing. Executive Order 9568 was a stepping stone to future transparency-oriented legislation including the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), passed in 1966, which granted Americans the right to petition the government for the release of information from federal agencies;
1953 – The United States Supreme Court forbids segregated lunch counters in Washington, D.C.;
1965 – In the Vietnam War, a State Department press officer notes that, “American forces would be available for combat support together with Vietnamese forces when and if necessary,” alerting the press to an apparently major change in the U.S. commitment to the war. Prior to this time, U.S. forces had been restricted to protecting American airbases and other installations. The next day, the White House tried to calm the protests by some in Congress and the media who were alarmed at this potential escalation of the war by issuing a statement claiming, “There has been no change in the missions of US ground combat units in Vietnam.” The statement went on to explain that General Westmoreland, senior U.S. commander in Saigon, did have the authority to employ troops “in support of Vietnamese forces faced with aggressive attack.” Later in the month, Westmoreland was given formal authority to commit U.S. forces to battle when he decided they were necessary “to strengthen the relative position of the GVN [Government of Vietnam] forces.” This authority and the influx of American combat troops that followed forever changed the role of the United States in the war;
1966 – The rival National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) announce that they will merge. The first “Super Bowl” between the two leagues took place at the end of the 1966 season, though it took until the 1970 season for the leagues to unite their operations and integrate their regular season schedules. Under the merger agreement announced on June 8, 1966, the new league would be called the NFL, and split into the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The first two Super Bowls proved the NFC (the former NFL) to be the better league, with Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers handling their AFC challenger easily. In Super Bowl III, however, Joe Namath and the New York Jets upset the favored Baltimore Colts and ushered in a new era of greater parity between the two leagues. The Super Bowl, played between the AFC and NFC champions at the end of every NFL season, is now the most watched televised sporting event in the world;
1966 – Gemini astronaut Gene Cernan attempts to become the first man to orbit the Earth untethered to a space capsule, but is unable to when he exhausts himself fitting into his rocket pack;
1968 – James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, is arrested in London, England, and charged with the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, King was fatally wounded by a sniper’s bullet while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Motel Lorraine. That evening, a Remington .30-06 hunting rifle was found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block from the Lorraine Motel. During the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray. A two-bit criminal, Ray escaped a Missouri prison in April 1967 while serving a sentence for a holdup. In May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. The FBI eventually determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false identity, which at the time was relatively easy. On June 8, Scotland Yard investigators arrested Ray at a London airport. Ray was trying to fly to Belgium, with the eventual goal, he later admitted, of reaching Rhodesia. Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) was at the time ruled by an oppressive and internationally condemned white minority government. Extradited to the United States, Ray stood before a Memphis judge in March 1969 and pleaded guilty to King’s murder in order to avoid the electric chair. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison;
1968 – Three days after falling prey to an assassin in California, Senator Robert F. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia just 30 yards from the grave of his assassinated older brother, President John F. Kennedy;
1969 – During the Vietnam War, President Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet at Midway Island in the Pacific. At the meeting, Nixon announced that 25,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by the end of August. Nixon and Thieu emphasized that South Vietnamese forces would replace U.S. forces. Along with this announcement of the first U.S. troop withdrawal, Nixon discussed what would become known as “Vietnamization.” Under this new policy, Nixon intended to initiate steps to increase the combat capability of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces so that the South Vietnamese would eventually be able to assume full responsibility for the war;
1972 – During the Vietnam War, an Associated Press photographer captured the image of 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc as she ran naked and severely burned from the scene of a South Vietnamese napalm attack;
1982 – President Ronald Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament;
1986 – At the end of a controversial campaign marked by allegations that he had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II, former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria, a largely ceremonial post. After the annexation of his country by Nazi Germany in 1938, Waldheim was conscripted into the Germany army and served on the Russian front until 1941, when he was wounded. Waldheim claimed that he spent the rest of the war studying law in Vienna, but in 1986 documents were discovered showing he had been a German army staff officer stationed in the Balkans from 1942 to 1945. Waldheim admitted that, contrary to earlier statements he made about his past, he had indeed served in the Balkans during the war, but denied any involvement in war crimes. On June 8, 1986, he was elected Austrian president, or head of state. Waldheim was guilty in many people’s eyes, and the United States banned him from entering the country in 1987. His tenure as Austrian president was marked by a period of international isolation, and he chose not to run for reelection in 1992;
1995 – United States Air Force pilot Captain Scott O’Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia;
2001 – Tropical Storm Allison hits Houston, Texas for the second time in three days. Although Allison never even approached hurricane status, by the time it dissipated in New England a week later, it had killed about 50 people and caused $5 billion in damages. Tropical Storm Allison proved that storms need not be particularly strong or fast-moving to be deadly and destructive;
2004 – The United Nations Security Council gave unanimous approval to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq’s new government by the end of June;
2009 – North Korea’s highest court sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years’ hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.” The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton;
2010 – The trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich begins today; Blagovich faces corruption charges regarding his alleged attempt to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat;
2011 – Residents in the U.S. towns of Eagar and Springerville, Arizona fully evacuate as the Wallow Fire wildfire rages on. (I can remember this when my wife and I were driving across Arizona during this and about 75 miles to the north of the fire the sky was completely black, the sun was a dull orange in the haze and hot, red ash was dropping on us!);
2013 – President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping concluded a two-day summit in the California desert that ended with few policy breakthroughs but the prospect of closer personal ties. (Isn’t it sweet, ‘personal ties’, I’m sure that did a lot for our foreign and defense policies in the region!);
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY!!!
Another reason I still enjoy reading the newspaper!
Really?!?!?
Number 33 of 50 beautiful pictures from 50 beautiful states:
Smokey Mountains, Suttontown, North Carolina
As I close today, I
When a thought
How can I not forgive a brother or sister for whom Christ died, when I know what God paid to forgive me?
Leads me to a verse
Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
– Colossians 3:13
That brings me to a prayer
Holy Father, I commit today to release any grudge or bitterness that I have against one of your children. I am sorry for not reflecting your grace and mercy which you lavished on me. Father, I need the help of your Holy Spirit to relinquish my claim on the wrongs committed against me and to treat those who have hurt me as full siblings in your family. Please empower me as I commit to follow your example in forgiving, even when it is hard. Through Jesus I pray. Amen
Until the next time – America, Bless GOD!!!
