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Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
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The Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) was transferred from Rheims to Frankfurt-am-Main.
The Saturday Evening Post featured Norman Rockwell's "GI Homecoming" illustration that was soon used for a war bond poster. It features in one of Sarah Sundin's articles on her blog site, and this is directly linked into that:
Extremely poignant, there's a lot going on in the illustration, from the "girl next door" peeking around the corner, to the fact that the returning soldier is returning to an extremely urban, and not very attractive apartment building, something very common of urban life at the time.
The Berlin Philharmonic gave its first performance since the end of the war in Europe.
Allied forces occupied Bassein, Burma.
It was my father's 16th birthday.
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Winston Churchill was named Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Nikola Pašić became Prime Minister of Yugoslavia for the second time.
Published on this date:
It does not seem possible to me to make an adequate expression concerning the Presidency of the United States. No other honor equals it; no other responsibility approaches it. When it is conferred by an overwhelming choice of the American people and vote of the Electoral College, these are made all the greater.I can only express my simple thanks to all those who have contributed to this result and plainly acknowledge that it has been brought to pass through the work of a Divine Providence, of which I am but one instrument. Such powers as I have I dedicate to the service of all my country and of all my countrymen.In the performance of the duties of my office I cannot ask for anything more than the sympathetic consideration which my fellow-Americans have always bestowed upon me. I have no appeal, except to the common sense of all the people. I have no pledge except to serve them. I have no object except to promote their welfare.
Life Magazine came out with a cover featuring a Girl Scout.
The Irish Boundary Commission held its first meeting to come to an agreement of the dividing line between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom.
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The Dawes Plan went into effect.
Germany replaced paper marks with a coin, due to hyperinflation.
Clashes with the Ku Klux Klan resulted in six deaths in Herrin Illinois.
The French High Commission of the Levant created Lebanese citizenship.
Edwards, Prince of Wales, met with Calvin Coolidge.
Saturday magazines were out.
Just a few days after U.S. ships shelled US Army troops at Slapton Sands in Operation Tiger in a friendly fire incident, the PT-346 was sunk, killing nine sailors and wounding nine, by Marine Corps Corsairs.
Lieutenant James Burk ordered medic John Frkovich to take his Burk's life jacket so he could survive and treat the wounded. Wilbur Larsen, USNR, received the Navy Marine Corps medal for saving wounded non-swimmer Forrest May's life.
An American air raid on Truk destroyed most of the island's Japanese aircraft.
On New Guinea, the captured Japanese airfields at Hollandia and Aitape become operational for Allied aircraft.
The HMCS Athabaskan was sunk in the English Channel by the T24, once again showing active Kriegsmarine activity in the Channel. The T24 picked up 83 men as prisoners, 44 were rescued by the Allies, and 123 went down with the ship.
The I-183 was sunk off the Bungo Strait by the USS Pogy.
The U-421 was sunk at Toulon in an American air raid.
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It was a Saturday, and all the Saturday magazines were out. As we're dealing with 1943, they're still protected by copyright. They all featured Thanksgiving themes, but the most recalled is that of the Saturday Evening Post, which featured a Rockwell with a picture of an Italian girl praying near rubble, wearing the wool mackinaw of an American Army 1st Sergeant.
The US, China, and UK agreed to the release of the Cairo Declaration. It stated:
The several military missions have agreed upon future military operations against Japan. The Three Great Allies expressed their resolve to bring unrelenting pressure against their brutal enemies by sea, land, and air. This pressure is already rising.
The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan. They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion. It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed. The aforesaid three great powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.
With these objects in view the three Allies, in harmony with those of the United Nations at war with Japan, will continue to persevere in the serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.
Included in the "rising pressure" that declaration referenced were actions on New Guinea, where on this day the Australians, who didn't get a seat at the table in the Cairo Conference, began an armored supported advance at Wareo.
The Australian Army was using the Matilda tank, which had been a disappointment elsewhere, to great effect in New Guinea. Its use took the Japanese by surprise.
The campaign in New Guinea, one of the major ones of the war against Japan, which was heavily borne by the Australian Army, went on until the Japanese surrender. It was like the Marine action at Bougainville, albeit on a much larger scale, that way.
The Army-Navy Game was played at West Point. Navy beat Army 13 to 0.
Angelo Bertelli was awarded the Heisman Trophy for his performance as Notre Dame's quarterback. He was in Marine Corps bootcamp at the time.
Badly wounded as a Marine Corps officer on Iwo Jima, his football career in the NFL was short after the war, ending in 1948. His Marine Corps career lasted longer, as he remained in the reserves until 1957. He died of brain cancer at age 78 in 1999.
As playing for Notre Dame would indicate at the time, Bertelli was Catholic and the child of Italian immigrants.
Hachikō (ハチ公) an Akita, was born. The dog would return daily to wait for his deceased owner to return from work for over nine years, living to be eleven years old.
The Saturday magazines were on the stand.
Crown Prince Wilhelm of German returned to Germany from the Netherlands.
Ludendorff was released on parole, demonstrating one of the problems Weimar Germany had with suppressing anti-democratic uprisings. . . the tendency to let those on the right, go.
Today in World War II History—June 26, 1943: Allied commanders choose Normandy for invasion of France in 1944 and appoint Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory to prepare air plans for D-day.
Sarah Sundin, on her blog.
The crews of six U-boats based in Norway mutinied, refusing to put out to sea in light of high German submarine losses. They were arrested and placed in Akershus Prison in Oslo. The collapse of Imperial Germany began, of course, with sailor revolts in 1918.
Fritz Schmidt, age 39, the German Commissioner-General for Political Affairs and Propaganda in the occupied Netherlands died when he "fell, jumped, or was pushed out of a train".
A famous Norman Rockwell illustration appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, depicting his everyman soldier figure, Willie Gillis, showing the "cat's cradle" string trick to an Indian snake charmer.
The Saturday Evening Post ran Norman Rockwell's illustration of Rosie the Riveter.
I wrote about this earlier here, although I did not post the iconic image as it's copyrighted:\
Sarah Sundin's blog has a number of interesting items in it:
Today in World War II History—February 15, 1943: J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It” poster, now identified with Rosie the Riveter, is first posted at Westinghouse for a two-week in-house campaign.J. Howard Miller lived until 2004, but remained obscure, unlike his famous poster.
The Rockwell image is, in my view, so much better than the poster variant that's come to be lionized it isn't even funny. I'm not saying the Miller version is bad, but it doesn't compare to the Rockwell illustration that appeared the day before Memorial Day, 1943.
Note also that the Saturday Evening Post went with something bold and defiant, and actually female, rather than the endless maudlin posts you'll see this Memorial Day. Indeed, offhand, I can't find any of the national media that sought to inspire guilt, as current recollection so often do.