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History Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 06, 2017 7 Comments
On this day, 73 years ago, the Allies stormed into Normandy, France, and led an invasion to liberate Western Europe from the Germans. These men risked everything to bring an end to one of the most evil regimes in history. American, British, and Canadian soldiers took part in Operation Overloard, also known as D-Day, along the 50 miles of five beaches. D-Day is "one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history."

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 08, 2017 7 Comments
On May 8, 1945, the German army collapsed around Europe after Adolf Hitler's successor Karl Dönitz officially surrendered to the Allies. This date has become known as Victory Day in Europe, aka VE Day, to mark the end of World War II on the continent. At first, the German High Command led by General Alfred Jodl only wanted to surrender to the Western Allies. General Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded the Germans surrender on both fronts. Dönitz told Jodl to comply. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced the surrender on May 8:
Yesterday morning, at 2.41, at General Eisenhower's headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command and of Grand Admiral Doenitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Force, and, simultaneously, to the Soviet High Command. General Bedell Smith, who is the Chief of the Staff to the Allied Expeditionary Force-and not, as I stated in a slip just now, Chief of the Staff to the United States Army-and General François Sevez, signed the document on behalf of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and General Susloparoff signed on behalf of the Russian High Command.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 11, 2017 25 Comments
This is a fascinating story and kind of a fun break from politics. Researchers have discovered an ancient settlement off the west coast of Canada that is approximately 14,000 years old. The Independent reports:
14,000-year-old village discovered in Canada one of oldest settlements ever found in North America An ancient village believed to be one of the oldest human settlements ever found in North America has been discovered during an excavation on a remote island in British Columbia.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 06, 2017 4 Comments
On April 6, 1917, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to enter World War I, 373-50, almost three years after the war began. President Woodrow Wilson vowed American neutrality, but that all changed due to Germany's submarine warfare. Wilson admitted America's tactic did not work:
"With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty," he said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 07, 2016 6 Comments
75 years ago today, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered one of the most famous speeches, which the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum will display until December 31:
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 24, 2016 2 Comments
This is my favorite time of year. For a brief while the world is grateful. People are kind and patient; willing to look beyond themselves. There's a collective sense of gratitude. What better place to be than a country who, from her conception, devoted time to thankfulness. Every year I take a few moments to read through the earliest Thanksgiving proclamations. It speaks not only to the priorities of our founders, but the foundations of our cultural heritage. Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation encouraged prayer, reflection, thanks, and above all, humbleness for the abundance these great states were so fortunately granted.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 13, 2016 37 Comments
A cafeteria worker at Yale's Calhoun College named Corey Menafee "resigned" from his job last month after using a broom handle to smash a window. The stained glass image in the window depicted slaves working in a cotton field. Menafee, who is black said the image angered him and that "we shouldn't have to see that." The New Haven Independent reported:
An African-American dishwasher lost his job after losing his cool and breaking a stained-glass panel in Yale’s Calhoun residential college dining hall that depicted slaves carrying bales of cotton. The dishwasher, Corey Menafee, said he used a broomstick to knock the panel to the floor. He said he was tired of looking at the “racist, very degrading” image. Yale University Police arrested Menafee, who now faces a felony charge. The university, meanwhile, has cut ties with him....

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 05, 2016 5 Comments
A family found a letter from Thomas Jefferson from 1815 to the U.S. Ambassador to France about the victory in the War of 1812:
“As in the Revolutionary War, [the British] conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot,” Jefferson wrote in the letter, penned at his Monticello home on Valentine's Day, 1815. "We owe to their past follies and wrong the incalculable advantage of being made independent of them. . . ”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 04, 2016 7 Comments
Thomas Jefferson rightly receives the lionshare of credit for writing the Declaration of Independence, though he wasn't the only founder who had a hand in its creation. Following the introduction and debate of Richard Henry Lee's resolution to dissolve ties with Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five -- John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson -- to write the Declaration during the Congressional recess. Later, Jefferson wrote of the Committee:
"unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught [sic]. I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams requesting their corrections. . . I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered to the Congress."

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 03, 2016 10 Comments
In honor of the passing of Elie Wiesel, I'd like to share a personal story about how I was affected by his work. In the early 1980's I found myself at a new school in the eighth grade. My English teacher required my class to read Wiesel's major work "Night" as an assignment. Despite years of education, I didn't know much about the Holocaust.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 20, 2016 12 Comments
Harriet Tubman was a badass. And if things go as planned, she'll be gracing the front of our $20 bills in about ten years or so. In honor of Tubman's accension to currency, I present to you Drunk History's recounting of Harriet Tubman, Union spy. If you're not familiar with Drunk History, it's a show where the hosts du jour get plastered, tell a very particular historical tale, and then that tale is acted out by comedians and other well known Hollywood types. Politically correct it is not, because really, who's PC when plastered?

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 21, 2016 11 Comments
Fifteen years ago when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, they destroyed ancient Buddhist statues. Today, ISIS is following their lead in other parts of the region, most recently by destroying a Christian monastery in Iraq. Jonah Bennett reports at The Daily Caller:
ISIS Just Bulldozed The Oldest Christian Monastery In Iraq The Islamic State just bulldozed St. Elijah’s Monastery, the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq, which has survived every other assault for 1,400 years until now. ISIS took out the location with bulldozers, sledgehammers and perhaps even explosives.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 02, 2015 21 Comments
On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito ordered Japan's unconditional surrender, bringing about a formal end to World War II. His speech announcing the ceasing of hostilities was recorded secretly, for fear that violent protests would break out once the army and the people realized that their leader was, indeed, surrendering. Yesterday, the Imperial Household Agency released a digital version of the original recording of Hirohito's address ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. More from the Daily Mail:
Speaking in unique intonation that drops at the end of sentences, Hirohito opens his 1945 address with Japan's decision to accept the condition of surrender. He also expresses 'the deepest sense of regret' to Asian countries that co-operated with Japan to gain 'emancipation' from Western colonisation. Hirohito also laments devastation caused by 'a new and most cruel bomb' dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and asks everyone to stay calm while helping to reconstruct the country.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 07, 2015 6 Comments
During my family’s visit of Berlin, Germany yesterday, an American president was prominently featured as part of the tour we took. Our guide spoke glowingly of a speech that he heard, and one which still resonates with him to this day. As we passed the Bradenburg Gate, he quoted Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech by saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Our guide lived 3 blocks away from the infamous Berlin Wall, the remnants of which are covered in art and graffiti or which are boxed up as souvenirs of a seemingly distant era. While the entire speech is iconic, reviewing Reagan's words again, I was struck by this passage:
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