This Day in US History

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August 24th

Civil War:
1828 George Steuart is born

Confederate General George Hume "Maryland" Steuart is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

World War II:
1942 Brave volunteers save the day in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands


On this day in 1942, U.S. forces continue to deliver crushing blows to the Japanese, sinking the aircraft carrier Ryuho in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Key to the Americans' success in this battle was the work of coastwatchers, a group of volunteers whose job it is to report on Japanese ship and aircraft movement.

The Marines had landed on Guadalcanal, on the Solomon Islands, on August 7. This was the first American offensive maneuver of the war and would deliver the first real defeat to the Japanese. On August 23, coastwatchers, comprised mostly of Australian and New Zealander volunteers, hidden throughout the Solomon and Bismarck islands and protected by anti-Japanese natives, spotted heavy Japanese reinforcements headed for Guadalcanal. The coastwatchers alerted three U.S. carriers that were within 100 miles of Guadalcanal, which then raced to the scene to intercept the Japanese.

By the time the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was over, the Japanese lost a light carrier, a destroyer, and a submarine and the Ryuho. The Americans suffered damage to the USS Enterprise, the most decorated carrier of the war; the Enterprise would see action again, though, in the American landings on Okinawa in 1945.

As for the coastwatchers, Vice Adm. William F. Halsey said, "The coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the Pacific."

Cold War:
1954 Congress passes Communist Control Act

Congress passes the Communist Control Act in response to the growing anticommunist hysteria in the United States. Though full of ominous language, many found the purpose of the act unclear.

Vietnam War:
1969 U.S. unit refuses commander's order


Company A of the Third Battalion, 196th Light Infantry Brigade refuses the order of its commander, Lieutenant Eugene Schurtz, Jr., to continue an attack that had been launched to reach a downed helicopter shot down in the Que Son valley, 30 miles south of Da Nang. The unit had been in fierce combat for five days against entrenched North Vietnamese forces and had taken heavy casualties. Schurtz called his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Bacon, and informed him that his men had refused to follow his order to move out because they had "simply had enough" and that they were "broken." The unit eventually moved out when Bacon sent his executive officer and a sergeant to give Schurtz's troops "a pep talk," but when they reached the downed helicopter on August 25, they found all eight men aboard dead. Schurtz was relieved of his command and transferred to another assignment in the division. Neither he nor his men were disciplined. This case of "combat refusa!

l," as the Army described it, was reported widely in U.S. newspapers.

1963 Washington changes policy on support for President Diem

1970 B-52s conduct heavy raids along the DMZ

Crime:
1982 A Wall Street scheme is hatched


Martin Siegel meets Ivan Boesky at the Harvard Club in New York City to discuss his mounting financial pressures. Arbitrageur Boesky offered Siegel, a mergers-and-acquisitions executive at Kidder, Peabody & Co., a job, but Siegel, who was looking for some kind of consulting arrangement, declined. Boesky then suggested that if Siegel would supply him with early inside information on upcoming mergers there would be something in it for him.

By the end of 1982, although little information had been exchanged, Boesky sent a courier with a secret code and a briefcase containing $150,000 in $100 bills to be delivered to Siegel at the Plaza Hotel.

Over the next couple of years, Siegel passed inside information to Boesky on several occasions. With Siegel's inside tips, Boesky made $28 million dollars investing in Carnation stock before its takeover. But his success began to fuel investigative inquiries by both the press and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rumors that Siegel and Kidder, Peabody & Co. were involved in illegal activities began floating around.

Despite the pressure, Siegel and Boesky met at Pastrami 'n' Things in January 1985, where Siegel demanded $400,000. This time, the cash drop-off was made at a phone booth. Siegel, who was apprehensive about his relationship with Boesky, decided to put an end to it after he had received his money. Still, he continued to trade inside information with other Wall Street executives.

In 1986, the illegal schemes, which by then included many of the biggest traders in the country, came crashing down. Arrests were made up and down Wall Street, and Boesky and Michael Milken, the junk bond king charged with violating federal securities laws, were no exception.

Siegel turned out to be one of the few cooperative witnesses for the government and virtually the only one who showed remorse for his role in the fraud, causing him to be ostracized on Wall Street. Nevertheless, he did fare better than the others: Milken received a 10-year sentence, Boesky received 3 years, and Siegel escaped with only a 2-month sentence and a large fine. The entire incident came to symbolize the era of unfettered greed on Wall Street in the mid-1980s.

[Batgirl]

Good idea for a thread Rick. I 'stickied' it for you at the top.

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August 25th

Civil War:
1864 Battle of Ream's Station, Virginia


Confederate troops secure a vital supply line into Petersburg, Virginia, when they halt destruction of the Weldon and Petersburg Railroad by Union troops.

The railroad, which ran from Weldon, North Carolina, was a major supply line for General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. For more than two months, Lee had been under siege at Petersburg by General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac. Grant had tried to cut the rail line in June and again in August. On August 18, his troops succeeded in capturing a section of the track, but the Confederates simply began to stop the trains further south of Petersburg and haul the supplies by wagon into the city.

Grant responded by ordering his troops to tear up the track and move further south. Soldiers from General Winfield Hancock's corps tore up eight miles of rail, but Lee moved quickly to halt the operation. On August 25, General Ambrose P. Hill's infantry and General Wade Hampton's cavalry were ordered to attack the Federals at Ream's Station, and they drove the Yankees into defensive positions. The Union earthworks, hastily constructed the day before, were arranged in a square shape that was too small and so Confederate shells easily passed over the top. The green troop in Union General John Gibbon's division was unnerved by the bombardment, and a Confederate attack broke through the Yankee lines. The Union force retreated in disarray.

Hancock's corps lost 2,700 men, most of whom were captured during the retreat. Hill and Hampton lost just 700. The battle was a stinging defeat for Hancock's proud Second Corps, which had held the Union line against Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, and was considered among the best in the Army of the Potomac. Gibbon and Hancock blamed each other for the disaster, and both soon left their positions in the Second Corps.

World War II:
1944 Liberation of Paris

1945 The first casualty of the Cold War


On this day in 1945, John Birch, an American missionary to China before the war and a captain in the Army during the war, is killed by Chinese communists days after the surrender of Japan, for no apparent reason.

After America had entered the war, Birch, a Baptist missionary already in China, was made a liaison between American and Chinese forces fighting the Japanese. But on August 25, Birch, commanding an American Special Services team, was ordered to halt by Chinese communist troops. A scuffle ensued, and Birch was shot dead.

In the 1950s, Robert Welch would create a right-wing, anticommunist organization called the John Birch Society. For Welch, Birch was "the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World."

Cold War:
1985 Samantha Smith dies in plane crash


Samantha Smith, the 13-year-old "ambassador" to the Soviet Union, dies in a plane crash. Smith was best known for writing to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov in 1982 and visiting the Soviet Union as Andropov's guest in 1983.

In late 1982, Smith, a fifth-grader at Manchester Elementary School in Manchester, Maine, wrote a plaintive letter to Soviet leader Andropov. She said that she was "worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to have a war or not?" A few months later, Smith's letter was reprinted in Russia and it was announced that Andropov was writing a response. Smith received his letter in April 1983. Andropov assured Smith that he did not want a nuclear war with the United States or any other country. Calling Smith a "courageous and honest" little girl, Andropov closed the letter with an invitation for her to visit the Soviet Union. In July, accompanied by her parents, Smith embarked on a two-week trip. She was a hit in the Soviet Union, and although she did not get to meet with Andropov, she traveled widely and spoke to numerous groups and people. In the United States, some people branded her as a patsy for the communists and claimed that Soviet propagandists were merely using her for their own purposes, but Samantha's enthusiasm and contagious optimism charmed most Americans and millions of other people around the world. During the next two years, Smith became an unofficial U.S. goodwill ambassador, speaking to groups throughout the United States and in foreign nations such as Japan. On August 25, 1985, while traveling with her father, their small plane crashed and both were killed.

Smith's legacy lived on, however. Her mother began the Samantha Smith Foundation, which has as its goal bringing people from different nations and cultures together to share their experiences. In particular, the foundation established a student exchange program with the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, news of Smith's death was met with great sadness. The Russian government responded by issuing a stamp in her honor and naming a mountain after the young girl.

Vietnam War:
1967 McNamara concedes that bombing is less than effective


Defense Secretary McNamara concedes that the U.S. bombing campaign has had little effect on the North's "war-making capability." At the same time, McNamara refuses a request from military commanders to bomb all MIG bases in North Vietnam. In Hanoi, North Vietnam's Administrative Committee orders all workers in light industry and all craftsmen and their families to leave the city; only persons vital to the city's defense and production were to remain.

1971 173rd Airborne Brigade departs Vietnam

Crime:
1967 A manhunt for the Pacific Coast killers begins


Police in California, Oregon, and Washington begin a manhunt for the two killers that had previously been identified by a 17-year-old girl left for dead alongside a mountain road in northern California. The teenage girl had been hitchhiking with her boyfriend, Timothy Luce, when two young men who called themselves "Mike" and "John" picked them up. Once inside the vehicle, the men pulled a gun on the young couple, raped the girl, and shot Luce to death.

Going in and out of a coma after being shot herself, the young girl was able to describe the assailants and their car. Detectives were then led to Luce's body, which had been run over with their car several times. Around the same time, the body of a missing woman was found in Washington. She had been shot five times with the same gun used in the California attack.

Apparently, the same type of gun had been used to kill Samuel Ledgerwood in Oregon a few days earlier. It quickly became evident that the two suspects were in the midst of a crime spree along the Pacific Coast during the so-called "Summer of Love."

Outside a seedy motel in the small town of Jamestown, California, police officers spotted a car that matched the victim's description. Within minutes, 22-year-old Thomas Braun and Leonard Maine were under arrest.

The two men, both from Ritzville, Washington, offered no explanation for their murderous rampage. They both received life sentences.

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August 26th

Civil War:
1862 Second Bull Run campaign begins

World War II:
1944 DeGaulle enters a free Paris

Cold War:
1957 Russia tests an intercontinental ballistic missile


The Soviet Union announces that it has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of being fired "into any part of the world." The announcement caused great concern in the United States, and started a national debate over the "missile gap" between America and Russia.

For years after World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union had been trying to perfect a long-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Building on the successes of Nazi Germany in developing the V-1 and V-2 rockets that pummeled Great Britain during the last months of World War II, both American and Russian scientists raced to improve the range and accuracy of such missiles. (Both nations relied heavily on captured German scientists in their efforts.) In July 1957, the United States seemed to win the race when the Atlas, an ICBM with a speed of up to 20,000 miles an hour and an effective range of 5,000 miles, was ready for testing. The test, however, was a disaster. The missile rose only about 5,000 feet into the air, tumbled, and plunged to earth. Just a month later, the Soviets claimed success by announcing that their own ICBM had been tested, had "covered a huge distance in a brief time," and "landed in the target area." No details were given in the Russian announcement and some commentators in the United States doubted that the ICBM test had been as successful as claimed. Nevertheless, the Soviet possession of this "ultimate weapon," coupled with recent successful test by the Russians of atomic and hydrogen bombs, raised concerns in America. If the Soviets did indeed perfect their ICBM, no part of the United States would be completely safe from possible atomic attack.

Less than two months later, the Soviets sent the satellite Sputnik into space. Concern quickly turned to fear in the United States, as it appeared that the Russians were gaining the upper hand in the arms and space races. The American government accelerated its own missile and space programs. The Soviet successes--and American failures--became an issue in the 1960 presidential campaign. Democratic challenger John F. Kennedy charged that the outgoing Eisenhower administration had allowed a dangerous "missile gap" to develop between the United States and the Soviet Union. Following his victory in 1960, Kennedy made missile development and the space program priorities for his presidency

Vietnam War:
1968 Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago

1964 Johnson receives Democratic nomination for president

1967 Major George E. Day shot down over North Vietnam

Badly injured after ejecting when his North American F-100F is shot down over North Vietnam, Major George E. Day is captured and severely tortured. He later managed to escape and eventually made it to the DMZ. After several attempts to signal U.S. aircraft, he was ambushed and recaptured, and was later moved to prison in Hanoi, where he continued to strongly resist to his captors. Finally released in 1973, Major Day was awarded the Medal of Honor for his conspicuous gallantry while a POW.

Crime:
1980 A 1,000-pound bomb is discovered in a Nevada casino


Workers at Harvey's Resort and Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, discover a 1,000-pound bomb disguised as a copy machine in an executive suite. A ransom note that had been attached to the massive explosive demanded $3 million to be paid in return for instructions on how to defuse the bomb.

As experts from the bomb squad examined the complex, handmade explosive containing a control box with 28 switches, the hotel was evacuated and the adjoining streets shut down. However, the nearby casino remained open to the skeptical gamblers who refused to leave.

The extortionist demanded that a helicopter fly $3 million in cash to an area south of the Lake Tahoe airport where a strobe light would give further coded instructions. But when the FBI violated the ransom instructions by contacting the helicopter by radio, the plan went awry and the bomb squad was left to dismantle the bomb.

From the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, experts tried to disassemble the bomb with robots. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful: The bomb exploded, demolishing the hotel. Luckily, none of the gamblers were killed.

After remaining at large for nearly a year, the four perpetrators were arrested by FBI agents in 1981. John Waldo Birges, who had lost a large amount of money at the casino in the months before the bomb exploded, orchestrated the plan with the help from his girlfriend, Ella Williams, and two other men. His sons later testified that he stole the TNT from a construction site. Birges was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Harvey's Resort and Casino was eventually rebuilt.

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August 27th

Civil War:
1861 The attack on Cape Hatteras begins

Union ships sail into North Carolina's Hatteras Inlet, beginning a two-day operation that secures the area for the Federals and denies the Confederates an important outlet to the Atlantic.

The Outer Banks is a series of long, narrow islands that separate Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic, with Hatteras Inlet as the only deep-water passage connecting the two. In the first few months of the war, the Outer Banks were a haven for Confederate blockade runners and raiders. During the summer of 1861, one Rebel ship, the Winslow, wreaked havoc on Union shipping off North Carolina, and Federal naval and army officials mounted a combined operation to neutralize the area.

To protect the passage, the Confederates erected two fortresses of sand and wood, garrisoned by 350 soldiers. Eight Union warships and 800 troops under the command of Commodore Silas Stringham and General Benjamin Butler anchored off Cape Hatteras on August 27. Butler's men slogged ashore the next day with wet powder, hardly in shape to attack a fortified position. Fortunately for the Yankee infantry, the squadron off shore began a devastating bombardment that forced the Confederates to abandon one of the strongholds, Fort Clark. The Confederates gathered inside of the larger Fort Hatteras, but the shelling from the Union ships was more than the garrison could stand. The force surrendered on August 29.

The capture of Cape Hatteras was an important victory for the Union, especially after the disaster at Bull Run one month earlier. It also gave the Union a toehold on the North Carolina coast, and it sealed an important outlet to the Atlantic.

World War II:
1941 Japanese prime minister requests a summit meeting with FDR

On this day in 1941, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, prime minister of Japan, announces that he would like to enter into direct negotiations with President Roosevelt in order to prevent the Japanese conflict with China from expanding into world war.

Konoye, a lawyer by training and well studied in Western philosophy, literature, and economics, entered the Japanese Parliament's upper house by virtue of his princely status and immediately pursued a program of reform. High on his agenda was a reform of the army general staff in order to prevent its direct interference in foreign policy decisions. He also sought an increase in parliamentary power. An antifascist, Konoye championed an end to the militarism of Japanese political structures, especially in light of the war in Manchuria, which began in 1931.

Appointed prime minister in 1933, Konoye's first cabinet fell apart after full-blown war broke out between Japan and China. In 1940, Konoye was asked to form a second cabinet. But as he sought to contain the war with China, relations with the United States deteriorated, to the point where Japan was virtually surrounded by a U.S. military presence and threats of sanctions. On August 27, 1941, Konoye requested a summit with President Roosevelt in order to diminish heightening tensions. Envoys were exchanged, but no direct meeting with the president took place. (The U.S. government did not want to send the wrong message to China-and that Japan was on the losing end of that war anyway.)

In October, Konoye resigned because of increasing tension with his army minister, Tojo Hideki, who would succeed him as prime minister. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Konoye was put under military surveillance, his political career all but over until 1945, when the emperor considered sending him to Moscow to negotiate peace terms. That meeting never came off either.

The grand irony of Prince Konoye's career came at the war's conclusion, when he was served with an arrest warrant by the U.S. occupying force for suspicion of war crimes. Rather than submit to arrest, he committed suicide by drinking poison.

Cold War:
1952 Red Scare dominates American politics

Vietnam War:
1970 Agnew meets with President Thieu in Saigon

Vice President Spiro Agnew meets with South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon. In a speech at Ton Son Nhut air base, Agnew praised the South Vietnamese people for suffering "so much in freedom's cause" and promised that "there will no lessening of U.S. support." Meanwhile, MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) reported that 52 Americans died and 358 were wounded during the week August 16-22, the lowest casualty toll since the week of December 3, 1966.

1972 U.S. aircraft conduct heavy raids on Hanoi and Haiphong

In the heaviest bombing in four years, U.S. aircraft flatten North Vietnamese barracks near Hanoi and Haiphong as part of ongoing Operation Linebacker I, part of President Nixon's response to the NVA Easter Offensive. Planes also hit bridges on the northeast railroad line to China. In an associated action, four U.S. ships raided the Haiphong port area after dark, shelling to within two miles of the city limits. As the U.S. ships withdrew from the area, the cruiser USS Newport News sank one of two North Vietnamese patrol boats in pursuit, and destroyer USS Rowan set the other on fire.

Crime:
1963 A 15-year-old murders his grandparents

Fifteen-year-old Edmund Kemper kills his grandparents with a rifle. Kemper, whose later crimes would be even more horrific, then called his mother and told her, "I just wondered how it would feel to shoot Grandma."

Seriously disturbed from an early age, Kemper chopped off the heads of his sister's dolls and tortured his family's cats. He buried one cat alive, then dug up the body, decapitated it, and displayed the head in his bedroom. Rather than seek professional care for the child, his mother shipped him off to live with his grandparents.

Following the murder of his grandparents, Kemper was sent to the Atascadero State Hospital, where he tried to convince psychiatrists that he should never be released. However, for reasons never explained, Kemper was released in 1969, then standing 6 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing over 300 pounds.

Three years later, Kemper picked up two college girls who were hitchhiking in northern California. He stabbed them to death and then mutilated their bodies. Over the next year, Kemper found four more young female victims. He cut off each of their heads and kept some of them at his home. He often committed unspeakable acts with the dead bodies, and purportedly ate parts of his victims.

When police began looking for the "Coed Killer," Kemper was so bold as to befriend some of them. On Easter in 1973, he went back to his mother's house and beat her to death with a hammer before having sex with her body. He then called her friend and invited her over to dinner. She, too, met the same fate.

After this double murder, Kemper drove to Colorado and called the Santa Cruz police department to confess. They hung up on him at first, not believing his tale. But he persisted until his story was checked out. In 1973, Kemper was convicted of eight counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison, despite his own testimony that "death by torture" was the most appropriate punishment.

Interviewers looking for a glimpse into Kemper's twisted mind found some disturbing evidence. When asked what he thought when he saw a pretty girl, he said, "One side of me says, I'd like to talk to her, date her. The other side of me says, I wonder how her head would look on a stick."

Where do you get his, out of curiosity?

[übergrunt]

Mostly from the history channel but I do some surfing through the net also...if I feel like it.

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August 28th

Civil War:
1864 Alfred Terry is promoted

Union General Alfred Terry is promoted from brigadier general to major general of the United State Volunteers.

A native of Connecticut, Terry studied law and became a clerk of the New Haven Superior Court before the war. He was a colonel in the Second Connecticut when the war began, and his regiment fought at the First Battle of Bull Run. Terry and his regiment fought at Port Royal, South Carolina, in the fall of 1861. He spent the next two and a half years fighting along the southern coast. For his service, he was promoted to brigadier general and given temporary command of the captured Fort Pulaski in Georgia.

At the end of 1863, Terry was assigned to General Benjamin Butler's Army of the James. He participated in the early stages of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, before his promotion to major general, and assumed temporary command of the Tenth Corps when General David Birney died of malaria.

At the end of 1864, Terry participated in an attempt to capture Fort Fisher in North Carolina, a stronghold that protected the approach to Wilmington, the Confederacy's most important blockade-running port. Led by General Benjamin Butler, the expedition was a dismal failure. General-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant was so disappointed with Butler that he removed him from command and placed Terry in charge of the next attempt. In January 1865, Terry teamed with Admiral David Porter to make another attempt on Fort Fisher. Porter's ships shelled the fort, and Terry led nearly 10,000 troops on multiple attacks that effected a surrender by the Confederate garrison inside.

Terry went on to a distinguished postwar military career. He commanded the Department of Dakota in the late 1860s, then took over the Department of the South during Reconstruction. He returned to the Department of Dakota, and he was the overall commander of the expedition that resulted in the massacre of George Custer and his entire command at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. Terry retired in 1888, and he died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1890 at age 63.

1861 Capture of Cape Hatteras

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, falls to Union troops after a two-day operation, closing an important outlet from Pamlico Sound for Confederate blockade runners.

World War II:
1941 Mass slaughter in Ukraine

On this day in 1941, more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews are murdered by the Gestapo in occupied Ukraine.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union had advanced to the point of mass air raids on Moscow and the occupation of parts of Ukraine. On August 26, Hitler displayed the joys of conquest by inviting Benito Mussolini to Brest-Litovsk, where the Germans had destroyed the city's citadel. The grand irony is that Ukrainians had originally viewed the Germans as liberators from their Soviet oppressors and an ally in the struggle for independence. But as early as July, the Germans were arresting Ukrainians agitating and organizing for a provisional state government with an eye toward autonomy and throwing them into concentration camps. The Germans also began carving the nation up, dispensing parts to Poland (already occupied by Germany) and Romania.

But true horrors were reserved for Jews in the territory. Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews had been expelled from that country and migrated to Ukraine. The German authorities tried sending them back, but Hungary would not take them. SS General Franz Jaeckeln vowed to deal with the influx of refugees by the "complete liquidation of those Jews by September 1." He worked even faster than promised. On August 28, he marched more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews to bomb craters at Kamenets Podolsk, ordered them to undress, and riddled them with machine-gun fire. Those who didn't die from the spray of bullets were buried alive under the weight of corpses that piled atop them.

All told, more than 600,000 Jews had been murdered in Ukraine by war's end.

Cold War:
1968 Riots in Chicago fracture the Cold War consensus

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of protesters against the Vietnam War battle police in the streets while the Democratic Party tears itself to shreds concerning a platform statement on Vietnam. In one day and night, the Cold War consensus that had dominated American thinking since the late 1940s was shattered.

Since World War II ended and tensions with the Soviet Union began to intensify, a Cold War consensus about foreign policy had grown to dominate American thinking. In this mindset, communism was the ultimate enemy that had to be fought everywhere in the world. Uprisings in any nation, particularly in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America, were perceived through a Cold War lens and were usually deemed to be communist-inspired. In Chicago in August 1968, that Cold War consensus began to crack and crumble. The Democratic Party held its national convention in Chicago that year. Problems immediately arose both inside and outside the convention. Inside, the delegates were split on the party's stance concerning the ongoing Vietnam War. Many wanted a plank in the party's platform demanding a U.S. withdrawal from the bloody and frustrating conflict. Most of these delegates supported Eugene McCarthy, a committed antiwar candidate, for president. A majority, however, believed that America must not give up the fight against communism. They largely supported Vice President Hubert Humphrey. As the debate intensified, fights broke out on the convention floor, and delegates and reporters were kicked, punched, and knocked to the ground. Eventually, the Humphrey forces were victorious, but the events of the convention left the Democratic Party demoralized and drained.

On the streets of Chicago, antiwar protesters massed in the downtown area, determined to force the Democrats to nominate McCarthy. Mayor Richard Daley responded by unleashing the Chicago police force. Thousands of policemen stormed into the crowd, swinging their clubs and firing tear gas. Stunned Americans watched on TV as the police battered and beat protesters, reporters, and anyone else in the way. The protesters began to chant, "The whole world is watching. The whole world is watching."

The world--and the American nation--was indeed watching that night. What they were witnessing was a serious fracture beginning to develop in America's previously solid Cold War consensus. For the first time, many Americans were demanding that their nation withdraw from part of its war against communism. North Vietnam, instead of being portrayed as the villain and pawn of its Soviet masters, was seen by some as a beleaguered nation fighting for independence and freedom against the vast war machine of the United States. The convention events marked an important turning point: no longer would the government have unrestrained power to pursue its Cold War policies. When future international crises arose--in Central America, the Middle East, or Africa--the cry of "No more Vietnams" was a reminder that the government's Cold War rhetoric would be closely scrutinized and often criticized.

Civil Rights:
1963 Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech

Vientnam War:
1968 DNC endorses Johnson administration platform on the war in Vietnam

1966 North Vietnamese pilots being trained in Soviet Union

It is reported in three Soviet newspapers that North Vietnamese pilots are undergoing training in a secret Soviet air base to fly supersonic interceptors against U.S. aircraft. This only confirms earlier reports that the Soviets had initiated close relations with North Vietnam after a visit by Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin to Hanoi in February 1965 during which he signed economic and military treaties with the North, pledging full support for their war effort. The Soviets and North Vietnamese leadership planned military strategy and discussed North Vietnam's needs to prosecute such a strategy. The Soviets agreed to supply the necessary war materials, to include air defense weapons for the North and offensive weapons to be employed in the South. At one point in the war, the Soviets would supply 80 percent of all supplies reaching North Vietnam.

1967 More voices raised against the war

Reverend Thomas Lee Hayes, speaking for the National Mobilization Committee, announces that there will be a massive protest march on October 21 in Washington. In the Senate, Mike Mansfield (D-Montana) made a proposal endorsed by 10 other senators to bring a peace plan before the United Nations.

1972 U.S. Air Force gets its first ace since Korean War

The U.S. Air Force gets its first ace (a designation traditionally awarded for five enemy aircraft confirmed shot down) since the Korean War. Captain Richard S. Ritchie, flying with his "backseater" (radar intercept officer), Captain Charles B. DeBellevue, in an F-4 out of Udorn Air Base in Thailand, shoots down his fifth MiG near Hanoi.

Two weeks later, Captain DeBellvue, flying with Captain John A. Madden, Jr., shot down his fifth and sixth MiGs. The U.S. Navy already had two aces, Lieutenants Randall Cunningham and Bill Driscoll.

By this time in the war, there was only one U.S. fighter-bomber base left in South Vietnam at Bien Hoa. The rest of the air support was provided by aircraft flying from aircraft carriers or U.S. bases in Thailand.

Also on this day: Back in the United States, President Nixon announces that the military draft will end by July 1973.

Crime:
1990 Murdered students are discovered at the University of Florida

The bodies of Tracy Paules and Manuel Toboada are discovered at the Gatorwood Apartments, near the campus of the University of Florida. Their murders came two days after the discovery that three young female students had been killed and mutilated in two separate locations near the campus. The serial killer was known for positioning his victims' bodies in a lewd manner before he left. Authorities determined that all five murders were connected, and the Gainesville student community panicked.

While the first murders spawned a massive investigation including 80 state and federal agents, Florida's governor sent an additional 50 state troopers and investigators to assist after the bodies of Paules and Toboada were found.

University of Florida officials offered all students temporary on-campus housing to those afraid for their safety. Nearby Santa Fe Community College allowed its students to return home for two weeks with no adverse affect on their grades. In the wake of the crimes, people flooded the sheriff's office to obtain concealed weapons permit applications, while stores ran out of stock of mace.

The desperation to calm the community led police to arrest Ed Humphrey as a suspect, and students began to return to campus. However, with no real evidence against him, authorities continued their search, while keeping Humphrey in jail with a conviction on an unrelated charge.

The case was finally cracked when investigators found an abandoned campsite on the campus with a cassette recorded by the killer, admitting to the murders. Surrounding evidence eventually led police to Danny Rolling, who had been arrested in Tampa for armed robbery.

Apparently, Rolling had also killed a family in Shreveport, Louisiana, the previous November. He then shot his own father in the face before moving on to Florida. Rolling was convicted of the murders in April 1994, and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Ed Humphrey was released from prison, and his family bitterly denounced the police for their investigation and erroneous conclusions.

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August 29th

Civil War:
1862 Battle of Second Bull Run

World War II:
1942 Red Cross announces Japan refuses passage of supplies for U.S. POWs

On this day in 1942, the international humanitarian agency, the Red Cross, reveals that Japan has refused free passage of ships carrying food, medicine, and other necessities for American POWs held by Japan.

In January 1941, the U.S. government requested that the American Red Cross begin a blood-donor program to provide ready and ample supplies of blood plasma and serum albumin for transfusions for wounded soldiers. More than 13 million donations (each about a pint) were collected.

Among other grassroots efforts organized by local Red Cross chapters were bandage-making "assembly lines," working out of local churches, synagogues, and town halls. Abroad, volunteers worked in military hospitals, reading and writing letters for the wounded. Tens of millions of food packages were prepared and funneled to Allied POWs through Geneva, which served as a clearinghouse. But getting such packages to prisoners in Japan proved particularly difficult. Japan refused to allow even "neutral" ships to enter Japanese waters, even those on humanitarian errands. Despite protests by the Red Cross, Japan allowed just one-tenth of what POWs elsewhere received to reach prisoners in their territories.

As the war came to a close, the Red Cross followed on the heels of liberating military forces to supply relief and aid to those suffering from the ravages of battle. Approximately 20,000 professional Red Cross workers served during the war, along with countless other volunteers.

Cold War:
1950 State Department official discusses "captive populations"

Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Edward W. Barrett declares that most of the "captive populations" in Soviet satellite nations oppose the Russians. Barrett called for an accelerated program of U.S. propaganda designed to capitalize on this weakness in the communist bloc.

Speaking before a luncheon for the Overseas Writers Organization, Barrett said, "Stalin has completely failed to win over the satellite populations even though he has them under his complete control." The citizens of these "satellites"--the nations of Eastern Europe occupied by Soviet forces after World War II--hated their Russian masters. "Despite four years of intensive Soviet propaganda, any informed visitor will tell you that between 60 and 90 percent of the captive populations are today anti-Soviet." Barrett reassured his audience that despite the recent massive Soviet propaganda efforts around the world, the United States was w