Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is Wednesday, June 18, the 169th day of 2014 and there are 196 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 !!!
BREAKING NEWS!!! – Obama now has a foreign policy!!! – This is exciting folks – (click to enlarge) – –
So, What Happened Today In 1812?
The War of 1812 begins
The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law–and the War of 1812 begins. The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress known as the “War Hawks” had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial land gains for the United States.
In the months after President Madison proclaimed the state of war to be in effect, American forces launched a three-point invasion of Canada, all of which were decisively unsuccessful. In 1814, with Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire collapsing, the British were able to allocate more military resources to the American war, and Washington, D.C., fell to the British in August. In Washington, British troops burned the White House, the Capitol, and other buildings in retaliation for the earlier burning of government buildings in Canada by U.S. soldiers.
In September, the tide of the war turned when Thomas Macdonough’s American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburg Bay on Lake Champlain. The invading British army was forced to retreat back into Canada. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812. By the terms of the agreement, all conquered territory was to be returned, and a commission would be established to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada.
British forces assailing the Gulf Coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, the U.S. forces under Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. The American public heard of Jackson’s victory and the Treaty of Ghent at approximately the same time, fostering a greater sentiment of self-confidence and shared identity throughout the young republic.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On June 18 In History:
618 – Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty’s rule over China;
1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature;
1541 – Irish parliament selects Henry VIII as king of Ireland;
1667 – The Dutch fleet sails up the Thames River and threatens London;
1778 – During the American Revolutionary War, after almost nine months of occupation, 15,000 British troops under General Sir Henry Clinton evacuate Philadelphia, the former U.S. capital. The British had captured Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, following General George Washington’s defeats at the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of the Clouds. British General William Howe had made Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress the focus of his campaign, but the Patriot government had deprived him of the decisive victory he hoped for by moving its operations to the more secure site of York one week before the city was taken. While Howe and the British officer corps spent the winter enjoying the luxury of Philadelphia’s finest homes, the Continental Army froze and suffered appalling deprivation at Valley Forge. An infusion of capable European strategists, including the Prussian Baron von Steuben; the Frenchmen Marquis de Lafayette and Johann, Baron de Kalb; and Poles Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Casimir, Count Pulaski, aided Washington in the creation of a well-drilled, professional force capable of fighting the British. The British position in Philadelphia became untenable after France’s entrance into the war on the side of the Americans. To avoid the French fleet, General Clinton was forced to lead his British-Hessian force to New York City by land. Loyalists in the city sailed down the Delaware River to escape the Patriots, who returned to Philadelphia the day after the British departure. On June 24, the Continental Congress returned to the city from its temporary quarters at York, Pennsylvania;
1798 – President John Adams passes the Naturalization Act, the first of four pieces of controversial legislation known together as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Strong political opposition to these acts succeeded in undermining the Adams administration, helping Thomas Jefferson to win the presidency in 1800. Of the four acts, the Sedition Act was the most distressing to staunch First Amendment advocates. They objected to the fact that treasonable activity was vaguely defined, was defined at the discretion of the president and would be punished by heavy fines and imprisonment. The arrest and imprisonment of 25 men for supposedly violating the Sedition Act ignited an enormous outcry against the legislation. Among those arrested was Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, who was the editor of the Republican-leaning Philadelphia Democrat-Republican Aurora. Citing Adams’ abuse of presidential powers and threats to free speech, Jefferson’s party took control of Congress and the presidency in 1800;
1815 – At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest military strategists in history, suffers defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history. Napoleon returned to Paris and on June 22 abdicated in favor of his son. He decided to leave France before counterrevolutionary forces could rally against him, and on July 15 he surrendered to British protection at the port of Rochefort. He hoped to travel to the United States but the British instead sent him to Saint Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. With a group of followers, he lived quietly on St. Helena for six years. In May 1821, he died, most likely of stomach cancer. He was only 51 years old. In 1840, his body was returned to Paris, and a magnificent funeral was held. Napoleon’s body was conveyed through the Arc de Triomphe and entombed under the Dome of the Invalides;
1863 – During the American Civil War, after repeated acts of insubordination, General Ulysses S. Grant relieves General John McClernand during the siege of Vicksburg;
1864 – During the American Civil War, at Petersburg, Union General Ulysses S. Grant realizes the town can no longer be taken by assault and settles into a siege;
1864 – In the American Civil War, Union war hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is severely wounded at Petersburg, Virginia while leading an attack on a Confederate position. As commander of the 20th Maine, he earned distinction at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania when he shored up the Union left flank and helped save Little Round Top for the Federals. His bold counterattack against the Confederates earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. His wound at Petersburg was the most serious of the six he received during the war. Doctors in the field hospital pronounced his injury fatal and Union General Ulysses S. Grant promoted him to brigadier general as a tribute to his service and bravery. Miraculously, he survived and spent the rest of the Petersburg campaign convalescing at his Maine home. He returned to the Army of the Potomac in time for Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, and he was given the honor of accepting the arms of the Confederate infantry;
1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote for president of the United States;
1923 – The first Checker Cab rolls off the line at the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Though the company still owns the Yellow and Checker cab fleets in Chicago and continued to make parts for other auto manufacturers, including General Motors, the last Checker Cab rolled off the line in Kalamazoo on July 12, 1982;
1936 – Mobster Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano is found guilty on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution;
1940 – During World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, “This was their finest hour”;
1940 – In World War II, Benito Mussolini arrives in Munich with his foreign minister, Count Ciano, to discuss immediate plans with the Fuhrer, and doesn’t like what he hears. Embarrassed over the late entry of Italy in the war against the Allies, and its rather tepid performance since, Mussolini met with Hitler determined to convince his Axis partner to exploit the advantage he had in France by demanding total surrender and occupying the southern portion still free. The Italian dictator clearly wanted “in” on the spoils, and this was a way of reaping rewards with a minimum of risk. But Hitler, too, was in no mood to risk, and was determined to put forward rather mild terms for peace with France. He needed to ensure that the French fleet remained neutral and that a government-in-exile was not formed in North Africa or London determined to further prosecute the war. He also denied Mussolini’s request that Italian troops occupy the Rhone Valley, and that Corsica, Tunisia, and Djibouti (adjacent to Italian-occupied Ethiopia) be disarmed. Ciano recorded in his diary that Mussolini left the meeting frustrated and “very much embarrassed,” feeling “that his role is secondary.” Ciano also records a newfound respect for Hitler: “Today he speaks with a reserve and perspicacity which, after such a victory, are really astonishing”;
1942 – The United States Navy commissions its first African-American officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson;
1944 – In World War II, the United States First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg, France;
1951 – General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina;
1953 – Egypt’s 148-year-old Muhammad Ali Dynasty came to an end with the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic;
1960 – Arnold Palmer shoots a 65 to win the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, Colorado. It was the best final round in U.S. Open history. Palmer, from Ligonier, Pennsylvania was the son of a golf pro at the Latrobe Country Club in nearby Latrobe. His father taught him the game during the club’s off hours, as the young Palmer was not allowed to play when members were present. The training paid off and Palmer won the 1954 National Amateur while at Wake Forest College, then turned pro in 1955. Palmer was named PGA Player of the Year in 1960, and again in 1962. Over the course of his career, he won the Masters four times, the U.S. open once and the British Open twice. In 1968, Palmer became the first golfer to earn $1 million in a year. He remained one of the richest athletes in the world well into his 70s because of sound investments and a variety of profitable endorsements. In 1971, Palmer bought the Latrobe Country Club, where, presumably, he can now play golf any time he wants;
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson and Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda spoke to each other by telephone as they inaugurated the first trans-Pacific cable completed by AT&T between Japan and Hawaii, and linked to existing cables between Hawaii and California. (Due to the time difference, it was already June 19 in Tokyo;
1965 – For the first time in the Vietnam war, 28 B-52s fly-bomb a Viet Cong concentration in a heavily forested area of Binh Duong Province northwest of Saigon. The B-52s that took part in the Operation Arc Light missions had been deployed to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and more bombers were later deployed to bases in Okinawa and U-Tapao, Thailand. In addition to supporting ground tactical operations, B-52s were used to interdict enemy supply lines in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, and later to strike targets in North Vietnam. Releasing their bombs from 30,000 feet, the B-52s could neither be seen nor heard from the ground as they inflicted awesome damage. B-52s were instrumental in breaking up enemy concentrations besieging Khe Sanh in 1968 and An Loc in 1972. Between June 1965 and August 1973, 126,615 B-52 sorties were flown over Southeast Asia. During those operations, the Air Force lost 29 B-52s: 17 from hostile fire over North Vietnam and 12 from operational causes;
1966 – During the Vietnam War, General William Westmoreland, senior U.S. military commander in Vietnam, sends a new troop request to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Westmoreland stated that he needed 542,588 troops for the war in Vietnam in 1967–an increase of 111,588 men to the number already serving there. In the end, President Johnson acceded to Westmoreland’s wishes and dispatched the additional troops to South Vietnam, but the increases were done in an incremental fashion. The highest number of U.S. troops in South Vietnam was 543,500, which was reached in 1969;
1972 – A Trident jetliner crashes after takeoff from Heathrow Airport in London, killing 118 people. The official cause of this accident remains unknown, but it may have happened simply because the plane was carrying too much weight. As the summer of 1972 approached, there were serious problems facing the air-travel industry. Pilots were threatening to strike any day due to lack of security. Hijackings were becoming more common and pilots were feeling particularly vulnerable since they most often bore the brunt of the violence. However, on June 18 at Heathrow Airport outside of London, all appeared to be running smoothly. The BEA morning flight to Brussels was full and weather conditions were perfect. The Trident 1 jet took off with no incident but, just after its wheels retracted, it began falling from the sky. The plane split on impact and an intense fireball from the plane’s fuel supply erupted, scattering the fuselage and passengers. Only two of the 118 passengers and crew members on board were pulled from the wreckage alive; both died just hours later. All efforts to explain the crash were fruitless. The investigators’ best guess was that the jet simply was carrying too much weight or that the weight was improperly distributed and the plane could not handle the stress;
1979 – During the (first) Cold War, in a summit meeting in Vienna, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT-II agreement dealing with limitations and guidelines for nuclear weapons. The treaty, which never formally went into effect, proved to be one of the most controversial U.S.-Soviet agreements of the Cold War. The SALT-II agreement was the result of many nagging issues left over from the successful SALT-I treaty of 1972. Though the 1972 treaty limited a wide variety of nuclear weapons, many issues remained unresolved. Debate over SALT-II in the U.S. Congress continued for months. In December 1979, however, the Soviets launched an invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet attack effectively killed any chance of SALT-II being passed, and Carter ensured this by withdrawing the treaty from the Senate in January 1980. SALT-II thus remained signed, but unratified. During the 1980s both nations agreed to respect the agreement until such time as new arms negotiations could take place;
1983 – From Cape Canaveral, Florida, the space shuttle Challenger is launched into space on its second mission. Aboard the shuttle was Dr. Sally Ride, who as a mission specialist became the first American woman to travel into space. During the six-day mission, Ride, an astrophysicist from Stanford University, operated the shuttle’s robot arm, which she had helped design. Her historic journey was preceded almost 20 years to the day by cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, who on June 16, 1963, became the first woman ever to travel into space;
2004 – An al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., 49, posting grisly photographs of his severed head; hours later, Saudi security forces tracked down and killed the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping and murder;
2009 – Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Tehran again, joining opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to mourn demonstrators killed in clashes over Iran’s disputed presidential election;
2013 – The Taliban and the U.S. said they would hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan, as the international coalition formally handed over control of the country’s security to the Afghan army and police;
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY!!!
Another reason why I still enjoy reading the newspaper!
Number 43 of 50 beautiful pictures from 50 beautiful states:
Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve, Southwest of Austin, Texas
As I
A thought
“Talk is cheap.” “Actions speak louder than words.” Let’s show our love for our family, our friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ by the way we live and what we do for each other.
Leads to a verse
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
– 1 John 3:18
That brings a prayer
Loving and generous God, my Father, please forgive me for letting my love for your children remain just a matter of words. Please give me the opportunity today to bless one of these brothers or sisters in Christ with a kind deed, a gentle action, or way to serve. I want to demonstrate my love just as my Savior did. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen
Until the next time – America, Bless GOD!!!
