Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Monday, June 24, 1945. Brandenburg Ballerina.
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Saturday, May 24, 1975. Virus variola major.
The last naturally occurring case of the smallpox virus variola major was found on a woman named Saiban Bibi in the Assam state of India.
The last case of variola minor was found in Somalia, at Merca, in October 1977.
The elimination of the disease is a scientific triumph that occured in an era in which the lethality of diseases was still widely appreciated.
Last edition:
Friday, May 23, 1975. Leaving Laos.
Monday, April 14, 2025
Monday, April 14, 1975. Collapse In Viet Nam
Operation Babylift concluded.
Congressional staff members, Richard Moose and Charles Miessner, back from South Vietnam released a report stating that "no one including the Vietnamese military believes that more aid could reverse the flow of events."
Their report further stated that evacuation of Americans from Saigon was being resisted by Ambassador Graham Martin and other senior officials.
The cover of Time featured a crying Vietnamese child and the words "Collapse in Viet Nam".
Soviet power lifter Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Widely admired all over the globe, he died at age 69 of heart problems, something not all that uncommon for the very bulky.
The Federal Election Commission commenced operating.
Sikkim voted to merge into India.
Actor Fredric March passed away at age 77. He acted for many years, but is best recalled by me for his role in The Best Years Of Our Lives.
Last edition:
Sunday, April 13, 1975. Start of the Lebanese Civil War.
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Thursday, April 10, 1975. A request, and a denial, for aid.
President Ford requested Congress to provide South Vietnam: $722 million in military aid and $250 million for economic aid, an absolutely massive amount in 1975 dollars. He also asked for the lifting of Case-Church restrictions in the event U.S. military intervention became necessary to help American citizens in Vietnam. He asked for a response by April 17. . Congress declined and expressed doubt that the aid could arrive in time to be useful, which, quite frankly, absent direct American intervention, was probably correct.
His appeal reinforced by recent successes by the ARVN at Xuan Loc and in IV CORPS. Units of the ARVN were fighting well.
We also start today with a surprising recollection by the Department of Defense recalling events that commenced on this day in 1975.
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The legislature of the Kingdom of Sikkim voted to become part of India.
Lee Elder became the first African American to play in the Masters.
The Masters must be played surprisingly early in the year.
Last edition:
Wednesday, April 9, 1975. Holding out.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Wednesday, April 9, 1975. Holding out.
The ARVN held out against a superior NVA force at the Battle of Xuân Lộc.
South Korea executed eight people who were involved in the People's Revolutionary Party Incident, were hanged. Korea University had been closed the prior day.
The Indian Army invaded the Kingdom of Sikkim in response to a request by the prime minister. The king was placed under arrest.
The National Association of Broadcasters voted 12–3 to designate the first hour of weeknight network television as "Family Viewing Hour", starting with the 1975–76 season, following a requirement set by the FCC which was soon found to be unconstitutional.
Last edition:
Tuesday, April 8, 1975. "Over in a month".
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Tuesday, November 2, 1824. The Blackpore Mutiny of 1824.
The Blackpore Mutiny of 1824 took place in which enlisted Indian sepoys mutinied at Blackpore. The troops were upset about lack of sensitivity to cultural concerns and being transported by sea. Ultimately the British attacked the camp and 180 of the Indian troops were killed.
Last edition:
Monday, October 25, 1824. Davy Crockett announces for office.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Monday, August 11, 1924. First sound film of a President.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Thursday, July 10, 1924. Before electronics.
Friday, May 31, 2024
Wednesday, May 31, 1944. Advances in Italy.
The Canadian 1st Corp took Frosinone; the British 10th Corps Sora. The US 6th Corps captured Velletri and Monte Artemiso, unhinging the Caesar Line.
US forces on the north coast of New Guinea come under heavy Japanese attacks. The Australians took Bunabum.
The Government of India formed the Department of Planning and Development to plan for the postwar future of the country.
Sarah Sundin reports that Japanese Gen. Sato Kotoku ordered Japanese forces to withdraw from Indian, against his orders. More here: Today in World War II History—May 31, 1944
She also reports that forces for Omaha beach began to load.
Polesti was bombed by the U.S. Army Air Force with heavy aircraft losses.
The USS England sank the Japanese submarine RO105, the sixth sub victory by the England in twelve days. The HMS Milne sank the U-289 in the Barents Sea.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, May 30, 1944. Loading up for Overlord.
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Friday, May 5, 1944. Counterattack at Imphal.
The British 14th Army counterattacked at Imphal.
Mahatma Gandhi was released from two years imprisonment due to ill health. He'd never be imprisoned again.
Italy's Torre Dam was breached by RAF Mustangs and Australian and South African P40s.
The St. John the Baptist Church in Dragatuš, Slovenia, was destroyed in a German air raid on the town.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, May 4, 1944. Smoke on the Water.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Friday, April 14, 1944. Indian drama.
The Bombay Explosion occured at Mumbai, India) when the British SS Fort Stikine caught fire and exploded, creating mass destruction and killing around 800 to 1,300 people.
Col. Shaukat Ali Malik of the Indian National Army entered Moirang with his troops and raised the flag of the Azri Hukumat e-Azad Hind for the first time on Indian soil.
The stories above illustrate the complicated nature of India and the Indian people in World War Two. Col/ Sjailat Ali Malik was a Muslim Indian who had previously served in a British Indian police force, the latter being quite militarized. The INA was a collaborationist army in combat against the Allies, while of course the British Indian Army was an Allied Army, but subject to the British Empire and therefore not really a "free" army.
Following the war, the INA would be regarded with sympathy by many Indians. I don't know what happened to Col. Malik, but the Muslin portions of Indian broke off from it immediately with independence, forming Pakistan. Today, what had been East and West Pakistan are Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Red Army reached the Carpathian foothills.
Gen. Nikolai F. Vatutin died of wounds received in an ambush by Ukrainian partisans on February 29, 1944.
The U-448 was sunk off of the Azores.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, April 13, 1944. Soviet advances in Crimea.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Monday, April 10, 1944. Odessa taken by the Red Army.
The Red Army took Odessa. 24,000 German and Romanian troops were evacuated, although many of them were wounded, along with 55,000 tons of supplies.
The RAF dropped 3,600 tons of bombs in a single raid that included Germany, France and Belgium. It was a record.
Gen. William Slim ordered an offensive to relieve Kohima and into Japanese territory.
The U-68 and U-515 were sunk in the Atlantic by U.S. aircraft flying from the USS Guadalcanal.
Last prior edition:
Easter Sunday, April 9, 1944. A wartime Easter, de Gaulle becomes Commander of the Free French, fighting in Romania, a Ukrainian heroine, Belgrade bombed.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Holy Tuesday, April 4, 1944. Battle of Kohima commences, German counteroffensive, Photographing Auschwitz by accident, Bombing Bucharest, Italo-Yugoslav partisands, Charlie Chaplin not guilty.
The Battle of Kohima began around the town of Kohima in British India. The battle would prove to be the turning point in U-Go, and also prove to be long-running.
Japanese forces were depending on taking the town in order to resupply their provisions. In their initial attacks they cut off all access to the town.
A German counterattack by the 4th Panzer Army retook Kovel, a city in pre-war Poland, which is now in Ukraine. The attack blocked the Soviets from gaining a pass through the Carpathians.
The city had a large Jewish population before World War Two, and in fact had a large Ukrainian population that were members of the Communist Party. The Soviet invasion in 1939 had accordingly been largely welcomed. The German invasion would, of course, prove tragic, with 18,000 Jewish residents of the city being murdered. The city became a refuge for Poles escaping Ukrainian partisans late in the war. After the war, the Polish population of the city was forcibly relocated to post-war Poland.
A de Havilland Mosquito from the SAAF 60 Photo-Recon Squadron, flying out of Foggia, Italy to photograph the IG Farben photographed Auschwitz as part of a filming overrun, the latter of which was a practice in photo recon missions. It was the first instance of Auschwitz being photographed by the Allies from the air.
Six Valentine DD tanks sank in Exercise Smash I with the loss of their crews.
Forty-nine Axis aircraft were lost contesting an Allied raid, launched from forces in the Mediterranean, on Bucharest's marshalling yards. Twelve to Twenty Allied aircraft were lost. 2,942 civilians were killed.
Charles de Gaulle announced changes to the Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, including the appointment of two Communists.
In France, the resistance halts aircraft parts production at Bronzavaia.
The First Partisan battalion Pino Budicin in Yugoslavia, made up of Italian Communists was formed.
The Work Truck Blog: Caterpillar Crew.:
Caterpillar Crew.
Charlie Chaplin was acquitted of violating the Mann Act.
The suit was somewhat ironic in that it stemmed from Joan Barry's pregnancy. While FBI files suggest that Barry aborted two children during her affair with Chaplin, which did occur, this child was not Chaplin's, as blood tests proved. Chaplin, in a separate suit, would nonetheless be ordered to pay child support for the girl until age 21.
Moreover, Barry was 21 years old with her affair with 52-year-old Chaplin began. Chaplin definitely fished in the shallower end of the pond, but Barry was of age, which at least one of his prior conquests, whom he married, was not.
Barry was sliding towards insanity, and after her affair with Chaplin ended, stocked him. She'd end up being committed to a mental institution at age 33, by which time she had married and had two additional children.
Related Threads:
November 29
Wednesday, June 16, 1943. Noor Inayat Khan inserted in France.
Last prior edition.