Thursday, April 3, 1975. Operation Babylift.

President Ford ordered the evacuation of Americans from Phnom Penh.

Operation Babylift began as a U.S. effort to bring South Vietnamese orphans to the United States.  Widely lauded today (it would be unlikely to take place, frankly, under the current administration), there was some criticism at the time on the assertion that not all the children were actually orphans, and that it was a cultural based decision given that young people were being taken out of their native land to avoid communism.

Gen. Weyand met with President Thiệu in Saigon and promised more American aid to South Vietnam, but declined Thiệu's request for a renewal of American bombing of North Vietnamese forces.  As they both well knew, without U.S. air support there was no hope for the ARVN.

South Vietnamese Prime Minister Trần Thiện Khiêm resigned.  He would take up exile in France and then the United States, converting to Catholicism there.  He died in 2021.

Israel and South Africa signed SECMENT, a secret mutual defense agreement.

Bobby Fischer refused to play a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, and thereby ceded the title of chess champion.

Actress Mary Ure, most famous for her role in Where Eagles Dare, and the wife of Robert Shaw, died of an overdose of alcohol and barbiturates at age 42.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 2, 1975. Driving on Saigon.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, North Vietnamese Army, Saigon Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Monday, April 2, 1725. Birth of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova

Better known simply by his last name, Casanova remains famous for his sexual exploits and libertine lifestyle.

He was born in the Republic of Venice and died in 1798 in Bohemia, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. Late in life he wrote his memoirs, which is why he is remembered today.   A lawyer by training, he was mostly a seducer in society and a gambler, and was working as a librarian at the time of his death.  Given his behavior, he is thought to have fathered several children, including a child by one of his own illegitimate daughters.

Interestingly, his final words were "I have lived as a philosopher and I die as a Christian", perhaps showing a late in life conversion back to Catholicism.

I wasn't going to post this anniversary at all, but decided to do so as Casanova was illustrative of the lack of morals in European high society of his day.  He serves as an illustration of how gross and disgusting behavior in the age of Musk, Trump, Weinstein, Hefner, Cosby and Epstein isn't something wholly new to our own age.

Last edition:

Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725. Bach's Easter Oratorio.

Labels: 1720s, 1725, Austria, Bach, Catholic, Christianity, Classical Music, Easter, Music, religion

Wednesday, April 1, 1915. Improving airborne lethality.

Aviator Garros before the war.

French fighter pilot Lieutenant Roland Garros scored the first areal kill by firing a machine gun through a tractor propeller.

His propeller.

He was shot down and killed on October 5, 1918, just a month before the end of the war.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 30, 1915. Germans fighting Arabs.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Arabs, Bedouins, German Kriegsmarine, Ottoman Army, Ottoman Empire, World War One

Wednesday, March 28, 1945. Guderian gets his release.

Hitler fired Guderian as Chief of the OKH following an argument. His replacement was Hans Krebs.

Guderian, as we've noted before, would survive the war.  He was released from being held as a POW in 1948, never prosecuted for war crimes, and died in 1954 at age 65.

Krebs killed himself on May 2, 1945.

Eisenhower telegrammed Stalin with his plans for advancing in Germany.  The British, who were not consulted, protested.

The Red Army captured Balga.

The U.S. 80th Infantry Division captured Wiesbaden.

The 3d Corps took Marburg.

The USS Trigger was sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the East China Sea.

The Battle of Slater's Knoll began between Australian and Japanese forces on Bougainville.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 27, 1945. The last rockets.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Argentina, Artillery, Battle for Cebu City, German Kriegsmarine, Nazi Germany, Philippines, Royal Navy, Weapons

Tuesday, March 27, 1900. Gen. Joubert dies.

South Africa's best general, Piet Joubert, died of peritonitis at age 68.

Last edition:

Sunday, March 25, 1900. Socialist Party founded in United States.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Social Democracy, Socialism, United States

Friday. March 26, 1875. Violence in Texas.

Syngman Rhee or Lee Seungman (이승만) was born in Whanghai Province to Rhee Kyong-sun, a member of the aristocratic Yangban family.

Elected by the South Korean parliament in 1948, he'd assume dictatorial powers and govern the country until forced out of the country following student unrest in 1960.  He lived in Hawaii thereafter until his death in 1965.

In certain ways, Rhee symbolized a strategy that both Democratic and Republican administrations employed during the Cold War of supporting right wing autocrats in the belief that their countries would evolve into democracies.  In the case of South Korea, they were right.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 23, 1875. The Marianas Trench discovered.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, Geology, Marianas, Marianas Trench, Pacific Ocean, Royal Navy, Science

Wednesday, March 25, 1925. Flannery O'Connor born.

Southern Gothic and Catholic novelist Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah Georgia.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 21, 1925.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art

Monday, March 17, 1975. "Starkly Bad News From South Vietnam – Burning Secret Papers – Onassis Laid To Rest."

 

March 17, 1975 – Starkly Bad News From South Vietnam – Burning Secret Papers – Onassis Laid To Rest.

Sunday, March 16, 1975. Withdrawing from the Central Highlands.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1976, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, North Vietnamese Army, Vietnam War

Friday, March 16, 1900. McKinley moves towards Philippine independence.

The Second Philippine Commission was formed with McKinley appointed William H. Taft at its head.  The commission was instructed by McKinley to work towards successful independence.

There's yet another lesson for claimed Chief Executive Trump, who has totally failed to grasp the thought behind President McKinley's tariff policies, which were to wipe out a government surplus by depressing trade.  McKinley wasn't an imperialist and was attempting to bring a country to independence even while we were fighting its independence movement.

McKinley, it might be noted, was an intelligent man, not rich, who had served his country in wartime.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 13, 1900. Bloemfontein

Location: Bloemfontein, South Africa

2025 Elections In Other Countries.

February 24, 2025.

The Christian Democratic Union and the Bavarian Christian Social Union won the German election with about 29% of the vote.  The AfD came in second, but underperformed.   The overall breakdown of seats is as follows:

CDU/CSU 14,158,432 28.52 208

AfD                 10,327,148 20.80 152

SPD                     8,148,284 16.41 120

Greens             5,761,476 11.61 85

Die Linke     4,355,382 8.77 64

Others            2,273,817 4.58 1

BSW             2,468,670 4.97 0

FDP                     2,148,878 4.33 0

The Social Democratic Party had been in power.

The government will be a coalition government with Friedrich Merz as the Chancellor.  Like me, Merz is Catholic, a lawyer, and had served as an artilleryman.

March 10, 2025

Not really a popular election, but an internal party one in a parliamentary system, the Liberal Party of Canada has chosen Mark Carney to be head of its party and hence the new Prime Minster, replacing Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau had become deeply unpopular, but rallied the country nonetheless when Canada became the subject of economic attack due to the closeted autarkic policies of demented infant, Donny Trump.  Trump, who has the brain of a two year old, took to insulting Trudeau repeatedly and now Canadians hate the United States.  Carney is an economist who is well suited for the role of dealing with "but I learned this in the Classic Comics cartoon about William B. McKinley" approach to taxation being exhibited by Mango Mussolini.

Carney also holds British and Irish citizenship, and in 2015 was declared the most influential Catholic in Britain. Both outgoing Trudeau and incoming Carney made it once again clear that Canada will not be entering the United States.

Saturday, March 3, 1945. Manila taken.

"Riflemen of "K" Co., 87th Mtn. Inf., 10th Mtn. Div., firing at German positions 200 yards away during the attack up the Porretta-Moderna Highway. 3 March, 1945. Company K, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division."

The Battle of Manilla ended in a U.S. victory.

Hitler visited General Theodor Busse’s 9th Army Headquarters, close to the river Oder.  It was Hitler's last visit to the front.

Red Army tank commander Aleksandra Grigoryevna Samusenko was killed.  There are two variants of her death, both involving her being run over by a tracked vehicle.  She may have been accidentally run over by a Red Army tank.

She was a real exception to the rule about women in combat generally.  Unfortunately, not a great deal is known about her. She appears as the "daughter of the regiment" of a tank unit as early as 1934, when she was 12 years gold, and it appears that by that time her mother was dead.  Her ethnic origin is debated, with Belorussian, Ukrainian and Tartar all claimed (fwiw, she looks pretty Ukrainian).  Effectively, she was in the Red Army from about 12 years of age on.

Finland retroactively declared war on Germany, dating the start of the war to September 15, 1944.

The Luftwaffe commenced Operation Gisela, a nighttime intruder operation aimed at RAF night operations.  The aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe in the operation was nearly the same as that lost by the RAF, 22 to 24.

The Polish post Home Army and Polish civilians killed up to 500 Ukrainians in hte Pawlokoma Massacre in retaliation for  Ukrainian Insurgent Army attacks on civilians, although there is evidence that the NKVD, and not the UIA, had carried out the attacks the Poles were seeking revenge for.

Last edition:

Friday, March 2, 1945. Advances.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Artillery, boats and ships, German Kriegsmarine, Iwo Jima, United States Marine Corps, Western Front, World War Two

Sunday, February 18, 1945. Off of Iwo Jima.

 

"HoM2/C Charles R. Roth, USCG, leads hymn singing and gives brief talk to his shipmates aboard a Coast Guard-manner LST the day before landing on Iwo Jima. Photographed February 18, 1945."

Pre landing bombardments continued at Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima, February 18, 1945.

Operation Solstice ended in a German defeat.

American forces breached the Siegfried Line north of Echternach.

The USS Gamble was damaged beyond repair off of Iwo Jima.

General Ivan Chernyakhovsky, commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, dies from wounds received outside Konigsberg at age 37.

General Dmitry Mikhaylovich Karbyshev was tortured to death along with other Soviet POWs by being doused with water and left out in a freezing night.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 17, 1945. Rum and Coca Cola. Cold Comfort. Scientist leave Peenemünde. Iwo Jima.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Alcohol, British Army, Conscription, Elon Musk, Growing up in the 1980s, Imperialism, Iwo Jima, Music, Operation Cold Comfort, Peenemünde, Science, Special Air Service, Swing Music, World War Two

Sunday, February 8, 1925. The Lost World.

The Lost World premiered.

Parliamentary elections were held in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with the People's Radical Party (Narodna radikalna stranka or NRS), led by Prime Minister Nikola Pašić gaining 15 seats. The populist party had evolved from a radical populist socialist party into a conservative one.

Actor Jack Lemmon was born in an elevator in Newton, Massachusetts.

Lemmon was a great actor, but personally highly insecure, something that perhaps reflects itself in his portrayal of worried characters, of which there are some very notable performances.  He died in 2001 at age 76.

Radical environmentalist Alice Mabel Gray died at age 43.

Last edition:

Monday, February 2, 1915. Serum run concludes.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Serum Run, actors and actresses, Aircraft, Calvin Coolidge, Mail, Retail, Work

Tuesday, February 6, 1945. False hopes at Manila.

While the siege of Manila had only just begun, MacArthur announced that the city had been taken.

Yugoslav Partisans, who were well equipped and a (communist) army in their own right, launched the Mostar operation.

SS general Wilhelm Mohnke was put in command of government district, the Zitadelle, of Berlin.

Gee, what a nifty promotion. . . 

He survived the war, surprisingly, and was imprisoned by the Soviets until 1955.  After his release he became a dealer is small trucks and trailers, and died at age 90 in 2001.

35th Division infantrymen in Unterbruch, Germany.  February 6, 1945

The US 4th Corps took Gallicano, Italy.

More bombing raids occurred on Iwo Jima.

Last edition:

Monday, February 5, 1945. French SOE agents Denise Bloch, Lilian Rolfe, and Violette Szabo were executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Labels: 1940, 1945, Army, Artillery, Battle of Manila, boats and ships, British Army, Ecuador, Espionage, French Army, Heroes, Imperial Japanese Navy, Iwo Jima, Japan, Philippines, Poland, press, SOE, World War Two

Sunday, February 1, 1925. Balto, the future King Zog, wild party in Laramie.

The final leg of the serum run began with Gunnar Kaasen setting out with lead dog Balto.  The Norwegian born Kaasen is the only musher who became famous due to the event.

The story made the first page of the Tribune:

A party in Laramie had apparently gotten out of control.

Ahmed Zog became the first President of Albania. He'd later be its first king. . . sort of a cautionary tale there.

Irish President W. T. Cosgrave appealed to the United States for food aid as the country's potato crop had been severely reduced due to excess rain.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 31, 1925. Leonhard Seppala and Togo.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Serum Run, Alaska, Animals, Art, Daily Living, Dogs, Kven people, Lapp people, tools and appliances, Transportation, Trucks

Thursday, January 30, 1975. Rubik's Cube.

Professor Ernő Rubik applied at the Hungarian patent office for a patent on his cube.

One of the interesting things here is that a person living in a communist country, or at least Hungary, could get a patent.

He is still with us, and is a bibliophile and collector of plants.

The deadline for draft dodgers to apply for amnesty for evading service in the Vietnam War was extended from January 31 to March 1.

Amnesty required a year of volunteer service, which most weren't up for, so not all that many had applied for amnesty.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 29, 1975. American terrorism of the 1970s.

Labels: 1960s, 1970s, 1975, 2020s, 2025, American Terrorist Organizations, Commentary, Communism, Folk Music, Music, Populism, The Second Trump Administration, Washington DC, Weather Underground

Friday, January 26, 1945. Audie Murphy.

The Przyszowice massacre began in Upper Silesia, Poland. It carried into the next day, during which the Red Army killed between 54 and 69 civilian Poles in the community.  The Soviets may have mistaken the Poles for Germans, which still wouldn't justify their actions.

The Battle of the Heiligenbeil Pocket began on the Eastern Front.

The Battle for the Kapelsche Veer began in the Netherlands.

Lt. Audie Murphy performed the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective.

Murphy is famous, of course, for having been the most highly decorated US soldier of World War Two, although that is no longer the case or at least not clearly the case.  He was, undoubtedly, heroic.

His life was, overall, quite sad.  He came from an impoverished background in which his father abandoned his large family.  He acquired hunting skills as a child in part for that reason, as that provided necessary food for the table.  His education ended at the 5th Grade level.  Seemingly a natural born soldier, he wanted to stay in the post war Army and even contemplated trying to attend West Point, but his lack of an education and physical injuries precluded it.  He did remain in the Texas National Guard.  He had an explosive temper even as a child, and suffered from PTSD after the war. 

After the war, he worked as an actor and songwriter.  

He died in 1971 in an airplane crash.  His father outlived him, dying in 1975.  His beloved mother died in 1941.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 25, 1945. The Beginning of the Evacuation of East Prussia and the Nature of the Red Army.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of the Bulge, British Army, Burma, Evacuation of East Prussia, German Wehrmacht, Health, Philippines, Prussia, Rape and the Red Army, Red Army, Volkssturm, World War Two