Sponsor |  Ogmin | Jun 8, 2005 8:55am | 6/8/1967
34 U.S. servicemen were killed when Israeli forces raided the USS Liberty, a Navy ship stationed in the Mediterranean. (Israel called the attack a tragic mistake.) The Israeli Air Force attacked the U.S. Navy intelligence gathering auxiliary ship Liberty, killing 34 crewmen and wounding 171. The attack came at the outbreak of the Six-Day War in international waters off the coast of Israel. While still a controversy, the official explanation was that Israel believed the Liberty was an Egyptian vessel. Commander William L. McGonagle (d.1999 at 73) was awarded the Medal of Honor for keeping Liberty afloat and remaining on the bridge for 17 hours despite his own wounds. Israel apologized and paid over $12 million in compensation. |
|
| | | BArg | Jun 21, 2005 7:25am | | Hmm, I just finished reading a book about the Six Days war. As with most events like this, there are any different theories surrounding it. Many of the documents surrounding the attack have still not been declassified, which just fuels the controversy. Others theorise that pro-Israel elements in the US military plotted to create an event which would drag the US into the war. Many of the ship's crew also claimed that the attack was 'premeditated'. Still, it may have just been an accident brought on by the confusion of war. |
|
| 
| |
|
Sponsor | | Ogmin | Dec 6, 2005 8:07am | Largest Mass Execution in U.S. History
In 1851 the Santee Sioux Indians in Minnesota sold twenty-four million acres of land to the federal government for $1.4 million. By August of 1862 thousands of white settlers continued to pour into the Indian lands even though none of the money had been paid to the Santee Sioux. There was a crop failure that year, and the Indians were starving. The Lincoln administration refused to pay them the money they were owed, breaking yet another Indian treaty, and the starving Sioux revolted.
A short "war" ensued, with Lincoln putting one of his favorite generals, General John Pope, in charge of federal forces in Minnesota. Pope announced that "It is my purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux . . . . They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromise can be made." (Similar statements were being made at the time by General William Tecumseh Sherman, who said that to all Southern secessionists, "why, death is mercy").
The Santee Sioux were overwhelmed by the federal army by October of 1862, at which time General Pope held hundreds of Indian men, women, and children who were considered to be prisoners of war. The men were all herded into forts where military "trials" were held, each of which lasted about ten minutes according to David A. Nichols in Lincoln and the Indians .They were all found guilty of murder and sentenced to death even though the lack of hard evidence was manifest and they were not given any semblance of a proper defense. Most were condemned to death by virtue o the fact that they were merely present during a battle, during a declared (by the Indians) war.
Minnesota political authorities wanted the federal army to immediately execute all 303 of the condemned men. Lincoln, however, was concerned that such a mass execution of so many men who had so obviously been railroaded would be looked upon in a bad light by the European powers who, at the time, were threatening to support the Confederate cause in the War for Southern Independence. His compromise was to pare the list of condemned down to 39, with a promise to the Minnesota political establishment that the federal army would eventually kill or remove every last Indian from the state. As a sweetener to the deal Lincoln also offered Minnesota $2 million in federal funds.
On December 6, 1862, Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution in American history in which the guilt of the executed could not be positively determined beyond reasonable doubt. (The cartel of "Lincoln scholars" actually praises Lincoln for this act, claiming that it is yet another example of his humanitarianism and his "culture of life." He may well have killed 39 innocent people, they say, but it could have been much worse).
note: the author in the above article incorrectly listed the date of the above decision by Lincoln as Dec. 26, 1862; I took the liberty of correcting that. - Ogmin |
|
|  | |
| | |
| | |
| 
| |
| |  214878 | Nov 19, 2006 4:10am | For November 20th (links to all events):
1759 The British fleet under Admiral Hawke defeated the French at the Battle of Quiberon Bay, thwarting an invasion of England.
royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3933 [royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3933]
1818 Simón Bolívar, known as 'the Liberator', declared Venezuela to be independent of Spain.
britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/article-60881 [britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/article-60881]
1917 The Battle of Cambrai began, in which the British deployed large numbers of tanks for the first time.
1914-1918.net/bat21.htm [1914-1918.net/bat21.htm]
1944 The lights of Piccadilly, the Strand, and Fleet Street were switched back on after five years of blackout.
vqronline.org/articles/1987/autumn/settle-london--1944/ [vqronline.org/articles/1987/autumn/settle-london--1944/]
1945 The Nuremberg trials of 24 chief Nazi war criminals by an international military tribunal began
news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_4356000/ [news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_4356000/]
4356166.stm
.
1979 Anthony Blunt, surveyor of the queen's pictures, was stripped of his knighthood when his past work as a double agent was made public
knittingcircle.org.uk/anthonyblunt.html [knittingcircle.org.uk/anthonyblunt.html]
.
1980 The Solar Challenger was flown for the first time, entirely under solar power.
nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html [nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html]
1990 In elections held for leadership of the British Conservative Party, with Michael Heseltine as challenger to Mrs. Thatcher; Thatcher failed to secure the margin needed for re-election.
pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp [pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp]
1995 In Sri Lanka, government forces entered Jaffna.
hrw.org/reports/1997/WR97/ASIA-06.htm [hrw.org/reports/1997/WR97/ASIA-06.htm] |
|
|
|
| |
| |
History → Discussion
Paolo-Meccano
backintheair