Showing posts with label Uncle Mike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uncle Mike. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Tuesday, December 23, 1975. Going metric.
In baseball:
December 23, 1975: The Reserve Clause Is Killed
President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the Metric Conversion Act. The country should have carried through with it, but abandoned it in 1982 when Ronald Reagan was President, the point at which, in the long history of the evolution of things, the country began its slide into idiocy, although it was hardly evident at the time.
CIA Station Chief in Athens Richard Welch, his identify recently exposed, was gunned down by terrorists in Athens.
Last edition:
Monday, December 22, 1975. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Labels: 1970s, 1975, Christmas, Comedians, Gerald Ford, Growing up in the 1970s, J. Edgar Hoover, OPEC, Personalities, Petroleum, Terrorism
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Saturday, December 16, 1775. Jane Austen Is Born
A blog link from Uncle Mike.
One of my favorite authors.
December 16, 1775: Jane Austen Is Born
Last edition:
Friday, October 10, 2025
Wednesday, October 10, 1945. Uncle Mike: "The World's Worst Series".
October 10, 1945: "The World's Worst Series"
The Detroit Tigers won the World Series, beating the Chicago Cubs 9 to 3 in game four.
The Chongqing Negotiations (Chinese: 重慶談判) came to an end.
The negotiations were between the Nationalist and the Communists and marked a resumption, after a twenty year gap, of efforts between the two contesting sides to resolve their differences. Both sides signed the Double Tenth Agreement at the end.
This day would be the last meeting between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong.
The Double Tenth Agreement provided:
- The CCP recognized the KMT as the legitimate ruling party of China
- All political parties within China were legalized.
- The KMT and CCP would end the war between them.
- The formation of a political consultative conference to discuss plans for state building with guaranteed representation of all political parties.
- The abolition of CCP and KMT secret services.
- Holding a general election to determine the next ruling party of China.
- Putting an end to political tutelage within China.
Neither side really fully intended to honor the treaty and it is clear that the Communists did not.
The British completed the reoccupation of the Andaman Islands.
The Allied Control Council abolished the Nazi Party.
The Communist Party of Korea was founded, unfortunately.
Joseph Darnand, a French hero of the Great War, far right politician between the wars to the point of belonging to the La Cagoule terrorist organization, decorated French soldier again upon the German invasion of 1940 only to form the collaborationist militia, Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) and become a member of the SS, was executed. He was 48.
CBS successfully conducted an experiment in color television.
Last edition:
Friday, October 5, 1945. Hollywood Black Friday.
Monday, April 28, 2025
Saturday, April 28, 1945. The fate of the fascists.
From Uncle Mike:
April 28-30, 1945: The Ends of the Dictators
Mike is covering two fateful days ine one post, April 28, when Mussolini was executed by Italian Partisans, and April 30, when Hitler killed himself. In both instances they took a "significant other" with them, in Mussolini's case, that being his current mistress, Clara Petacci, age 33.
Mussolini and Petacci had been caught trying to cross into Switzerland by partisans, who executed them the following day. They were shot, and then their bodies hung upside down.
Mussolini had been the first of the fascist dictators to hold power. There had always been opposition to the one time socialist turned fascist, but armed Italian opposition only came about after the Allies had landed on Italian territory. As with France, whose resistance swelled as it became obvious that the Allies would land, Italian opposition was heavily dominated by the far left, but there were other elements in it as well. Mussolini, as already noted, had once been a member of the far left as well, and it's probable, frankly, that amongst those who watched and cheered his death were those who had once cheered him.
Often missed, Nicola Bombacci, Alessandro Pavolini and Achille Starace were also executed at the same time. Nicola Bombacci was an Italian Marxist revolutionary and later a fascist politician. The others were prominent fascists.
Like Eva Braun, there's little to note about Petacci, other than that she was loyal, like Braun, to her dictator until death. In Mussolini's case, that was not true of his spouse, whom he left when he left.
The U.S. Fifth Army took Alessandria and Vicenza.
German and Soviet troops fought on in Berlin, where the Red Army was within a mile of the Fuhrerbunker.
The eccentric Rupprecht Gerngroß lead a military uprising against the Nazis in Munich, which failed.
Teh U-56 was sunk in an RAF raid on Kiel.
Hitler's brother in law, notorious SS figure Hermann Fegelein, was executed. He was planning on taking off with what he could.
The 8th Army took Digos in the Philippines.
Monday, July 29, 2024
Monday, July 29, 1974. Philadelphia Eleven and Alpha Group.
Episcopal Bishops Robert L. DeWitt, Bishop of Pennsylvania; Daniel Corrigan, Suffragan Bishop of Colorado; and Edward R. Welles II, the retired Bishop of West Missouri., ordained elevent female Episcopal deacons as priests, sparking a crisis in the Episcopal Church. The acts were declared valid but irregular by the Episcopal Church.
The act was pioneering as the direction became that of the Episcopal Church and much, but not all, of the Anglican Communion thereafter. It also had the result of causing it to be increasingly impossible for the overall Anglican Communion to reunite with the Catholic Church, which does not recognize the ordainment of women and of course which generally holds that Anglican holy orders are invalid, although there are exceptions we won't deal with here for individual priests and circumstances. The validity of Anglican holy orders has been a major topic in the Anglican Communion.
It's worth noting that Christian churches in general were becoming increasingly liberal in the wake of the 1960s, although that wasn't universally true. It was relatively noticeable in the Episcopal Church which had always been one of the most influential in the United States and one of the largest of the "mainline" Protestant churches. The Episcopal Church had been particularly associated with wealth and establishment in the US and remained so for much of the 20th Century, but starting at some point after this it began a dramatic decline and no longer holds the status it once did. The Anglican Communion itself has globally been in a condition of strife as conservative elements, with a heavy African representation, have been opposed by developments such as this within it.
The mysterious Alpha Group within the KGB Special Forces was created by Yuri Andropov.
From Uncle Mike's:
.png)
Last edition:
Saturday, July 27, 1974. Articles of Impeachment.
Labels: 1970s, 1974, 93d Congress, Angola, law, Mozambique, Portugal, Portuguese Empire, Rhodesia, Rhodesian Bush War, Richard Nixon, Watergate
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Friday, June 16, 1944. Executions.
Heavy fighting continued on Saipan.
Knocked out Japanese tanks, June 16, 1944.
Beachheads on Saipan were linked, with combat featuring heavy artillery duels by both sides.
US battleships hit Guam, but the invasion of the island was postponed due to the approach of a Japanese fleet, which later turned to link up with a second one.
Carrier task forces raided Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima and Haha Jima.
The Treaty of Vis was signed in Yugoslavia in an attempt by the Western Allies to merge the Yugoslavian government in exile and the Communist partisans in the field. The treaty provided for an interim post-war government.
The British 21st Army Group in Normandy advanced everywhere along its front. The U.S. 1st Army crossed the Douvre and captured St. Saveur.
King George VI visited British troops in France.
The U.S. 9th Infantry Division liberated Orglandes.
US troops in Normandy reading their mail.
244 V-1 rockets hit London.
The British 8th Army took Foligno and Spoleto, Italy. The US 5th Army took Grosseto.
French historian Marc Bloch, age 57, was shot by the Gestapo due to his work for the French Resistance.
George Stinney, a 14-year-old African American convicted of murder of two white girls, was executed in the electric chair, the youngest American to suffer that fate.
His conviction has since been vacated, not that it does him any good, on the basis that he did not receive a fair trial.
Another item on this from Uncle Mike:
June 16, 1944: A Southern State Executes a Black 14-Year-Old
Last prior edition:
Thursday, June 15, 1944. Saipan.
Thursday, June 6, 2024
Tuesday, June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord
Today In Wyoming's History: June 6: 1944
June 6
1944 Allied forces land in Normandy, in an event remembered as "D-Day", although that term actually refers to the day on which any major operation commences. This is not, of course, a Wyoming event, but at least in my youth I knew more than one Wyoming native who had participated in it. Later, I had a junior high teacher whose first husband had died in it. A law school colleague of mine had a father who was a paratrooper in it. And at least one well known Wyoming political figure, Teno Roncolio, participated in it. From the prospective of the Western Allies, it might be the single most significant single day of the campaign in Europe.
All the photos above are courtesy of the United States Army.
Airborne troops landed on French soil just minutes after midnight, with famously widely scattered results in the American sectors. The British landed troops of the SAS deep in France in Operation Houndstooth, something that's often overlooked.
Stanley Hollis would win the Victoria Cross for his actions on this day:
In Normandy on 6th June, 1944, during the assault on the beaches and the Mont Fleury Battery, C.S.M. Hollis's Company Commander noticed that two of the pill-boxes had been by-passed, and went with C.S.M. Hollis to see that they were clear. When they were 20 yards from the pillbox, a machine-gun opened fire from the slit and C.S.M. Hollis instantly rushed straight at the pillbox, firing his Sten gun. He jumped on top of the pillbox, re-charged his magazine, threw a grenade in through the door and fired his Sten gun into it, killing two Germans and making the remainder prisoner. He then cleared several Germans from a neighbouring trench. By his action, he undoubtedly saved his Company from being fired on heavily from the rear and enabled them to open the main beach exit.Later the same day, in the village of Crepon, the Company encountered a field gun and crew armed with Spandaus at 100 yards range. C.S.M. Hollis was put in command of a party to cover an attack on the gun, but the movement was held up. Seeing this, C.S.M. Hollis pushed right forward to engage the gun with a P.I.A.T. from a house at 50 yards range. He was observed by a sniper who fired and grazed his right cheek, and at the same moment the gun swung round and fired at point-blank range into the house. To avoid the fallen masonry C.S.M. Hollis moved his party to an alternative position. Two of the enemy gun crew had by this time been killed, and the gun was destroyed shortly afterwards. He later found that two of his men had stayed behind in the house and immediately volunteered to get them out. In full view of the enemy who were continually firing at him, he went forward alone using a Bren gun to distract their attention from the other men. Under cover of his diversion, the two men were able to get back.Wherever fighting was heaviest, C.S.M. Hollis appeared and in the course of a magnificent day's work, he displayed the utmost gallantry and on two separate occasions his courage and initiative prevented the enemy from holding up the advance at critical stages. It was largely through his heroism and resource that the Company's objectives were gained and casualties were not heavier, and by his own bravery he saved the lives of many of his men.
Jimmie W. Monteith won a posthumous Medal of Honor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on 6 June 1944, while serving with 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, in action near Colleville-sur-Mer, France. First Lieutenant Monteith landed with the initial assault waves on the coast of France under heavy enemy fire. Without regard to his own personal safety he continually moved up and down the beach reorganizing men for further assault. He then led the assault over a narrow protective ledge and across the flat, exposed terrain to the comparative safety of a cliff. Retracing his steps across the field to the beach, he moved over to where two tanks were buttoned up and blind under violent enemy artillery and machinegun fire. Completely exposed to the intense fire, First Lieutenant Monteith led the tanks on foot through a minefield and into firing positions. Under his direction several enemy positions were destroyed. He then rejoined his company and under his leadership his men captured an advantageous position on the hill. Supervising the defense of his newly won position against repeated vicious counterattacks, he continued to ignore his own personal safety, repeatedly crossing the 200 or 300 yards of open terrain under heavy fire to strengthen links in his defensive chain. When the enemy succeeded in completely surrounding First Lieutenant Monteith and his unit and while leading the fight out of the situation, First Lieutenant Monteith was killed by enemy fire. The courage, gallantry, and intrepid leadership displayed by First Lieutenant Monteith is worthy of emulation.
Adolf Hitler was awoken at the Berghof around noon. Noon?
He showed no signs of distress.
Churchill announced the invasion to the House of Commons, stating:
Reports are coming in in rapid succession. So far the Commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred ... Nothing that equipment, science or forethought could do has been neglected, and the whole process of opening this great new front will be pursued with the utmost resolution both by the commanders and by the United States and British Governments whom they serve.
Roosevelt announced the invasion by radio that evening, in the form of a prayer.
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
The British and Canadians, making use of specialized armor nicknamed "funnies", advanced considerably further inland than the Americans by the end of the day, but the Germans did not succeed in pushing anyone back into the sea.
D-Day recalled on some other blogs that feature on this site:
Flyover Country: D-Day begins on the Platte ("The man who won the war")
Uncle Mike's: June 6, 1944: D-Day
World War II Today:
World War II Today:
PT Boat Red: The PTs on D-Day, June 6, 1944
City Father: D Day + 80
Operation Overlord was legitimately such a major event in World War Two that it has long overshadowed, at least in the Western World, other events in the war that happened on the same day, but things did happen. Recall that Rome had been taken just the day prior.
In Italy, the French Expeditionary Corps took Tivoli.
The Soviet First Jassy–Kishinev offensive, with the objective of taking Romania, came to an unsuccessful end.
Operation Rösselsprung concluded, having temporary disrupted Yugoslav partisan activity.
This would have been a regular Tuesday work day in the States. The news must have been extremely distracting.
Last prior edition:
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Thursday, May 4, 1944. Smoke on the Water.
Sgt. Sam Marinkovich, Anaconda, Mont., Sgt. Raymond Pasvogel, Davenport, Iowa, write up daily paper "The Cyclops Sentinel". Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. 4 May, 1944. Sgt Marinkovich is wearing heavily hobnailed boots, something the US generally did not issue in World War Two. The boots are almost certainly British pattern "clodhoppers" that were issued as replacements in Australia. Boots are one of the very few items of Commonwealth issuance that Americans sometimes issued in World War Two.
From "Uncle Mike":
May 4, 1944: The St. Louis Browns Desegregate Sportsman's Park
Gaslight premiered in New York City.
Sarah Sundin reports that another Overlord exercise occured:
Today in World War II History—May 4, 1944: In Exercise Fabius, a full-scale rehearsal for D-day, Allied troops who will land on Sword, Juno, Gold, and Omaha Beaches make landings on English beaches.
The RAF hit rail facilities at Budapest at night.
The U-371 was scuttled off of Algeria. The U-846 was attacked and sunk in the Bay of Biscay by the RCAF.
Smoke on the Water was recorded. . . the patriotic Red Foley one . . not the Deep Purple one.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Friday, February 9, 2024
Blog Mirror: Sunday, February 9, 1964: The Beatles On "The Ed Sullivan Show"
From Uncle Mike's:
February 9, 1964: The Beatles On "The Ed Sullivan Show"
.jpg)
I wonder if my parents watched it?
My mother was more of a music fan than my father. My father's record collection consisted a few albums he had bought after, I'm pretty sure, my parents bought a very large and heavy combination radio and stereo set. It's a massively substantial piece of furniture. The records he purchased were all of military marches. Nothing else.
My mother had a pretty extensive set of 45 rpm records, or singles as they were called, which weren't really singles but which had one song each on each side. I should commit more of them to digital. They included a lot of Elvis Pressley, and some jazz, and some odds and ends. She later bought some albums that were from the 60s, but they were people like Tom Jones.
Musically, FWIW, I can recall The Lawrence Welk Show being a weekly staple in the house. I can barely recall The Ed Sullivan Show playing from time to time, which must mean that my father watched it on rare occasion. It ran until 1971.
The 1964 Winter Olympics closed in Innsbruck.
Monday, February 5, 2024
Sunday, February 4, 2024
Monday, December 25, 2023
Saturday, November 11, 2023
A few Veterans Day Comments.
Somewhere in Korea.
I wasn't going to post on Veterans Day at all, in part because the overblown hero worship that's been attached to it for some time is really starting to bug me. But then, I've been owly recently anyhow.
But, as predictable (every year the number of posts on this site goes up, this year no exception, which is why I’m considering not posting at all in December) I changed my mind. A few random comments.
Were you in the Army?
My new associate asked me this the other day, as I have the photograph of my basic training platoon up on my office wall.
Funny, I'm so used to it being there, I never notice it.
Military service, regular and reserve, was routine when I was young. Not everyone had it by any means, but lots of people do.
And this was even more so for my parents. My father was in the Air Force, his brother in the Army. My other uncles in the World War Two Navy and Canadian Army, and post-war Navy. The guys my father ate lunch with every day had all been in the service.
Not so much anymore.
November 7, 1983: Able Archer 83, a Close Call
An item from Uncle Mike's fine blog.
I was in the National Guard at the time. Little did we realize how close we'd come to serving in a short, sharp, and probably nuclear war.
As odd as it may sound, I actually had predicted a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact at about this time, a predication that didn't come true, but my reasoning was sound.
Reagan became President in 1981 and as soon as his first military budgets started to take effect, things really were noticeable in the Guard. New equipment, better field training, etc. The Warsaw Pact took note of that and started building up to counter it.
Able Archer, like Team Spirit, and Reforger were all part of the training regime of the time. It was no secret that the Warsaw Pact was trying to respond to it all. In the end, that spending brought them down. They couldn't afford it.
A lesson there to a country that's spending like crazy right now and just got economically downgraded.
Anyhow, my prediction nearly came true with Able Archer, but not for the reason I thought this would happen. I thought it would happen as the Warsaw Pact, or rather the USSR, would reason that it only had so much time while it had military superiority in which to act.
This was a view, I'd note, that was reinforced by playing the military hex and counter war games based on a NATO/Warsaw Pact war. It was pretty clear that it was really hard for NATO to win a conventional one.
Or so it seemed.
We vastly overrated the Red Army and Soviet military equipment, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated.
Funny, at the same time I recall being assigned A Republic of Grass in college which suggested we surrender to the Soviets before a war broke out.
A note on Reagan
When Reagan was President, I wasn't sure what to make of him. As a Guardsman, we were all grateful for the new equipment and attitude. Carter's military had been a sad sort of thing, as exemplified, perhaps, by the failed attempt to mount a raid to free the Iranian embassy hostages.
But it seemed like we were messing around in Central America an awful lot, which I wasn't sure what to make of. In retrospect, it's clear that the Cold War was being played out there in proxy.
When Reagan was president, I was a university student. It seems to be forgotten now, but most university students weren't big Reagan fans. As noted, I wasn't an opponent, but I wasn't a fan. My father was convinced that Reagan had Alzheimer's which, in fact, he did.
On Reagan and Carter, it's interesting to note that Carter was an Annapolis graduate. Reagan had more of a military career than his opponents claimed, having been a pre-war cavalry reserve officer, but his wartime role was in the branch of the military that made films. That was honorable enough, but Reagan introduced the snappy salute to servicemen which stuck after that, and which I don't like. Presidents saluting servicemen seems really odd, particularly when we get Presidents who've never been in the military.
Anyhow, most of my conservative friends love and admire Reagan. I still am not so sure about him. I can see where he made course corrections at the time which were vital. It was under Reagan, really, that the country got back on its feet after the Vietnam War. And Reagan introduced the brief period of Buckleyite conservatism, which I like, to the government.
He also, however, started the populist smudge which is now a roaring flame by using the Southern Strategy to win, and that's having dire effects. And frankly, I'm not impressed with the starving of the government economically that came in at that time.
On this Veterans Day, don't thank those who served, but ponder those who didn't.
This sounds harsh, but I'm not kidding.
Most veterans don't really want to be thanked for serving. Truth be known, a lot of us served for reasons that weren't all that noble or were mixed. Paying for university was in my mind, for example.
Having said that, in my adult years I've known a few people who avoided serving in the military when there was a time of need. Some of them have real reason of conscience and can and do defend it, on the rare occasions it comes up.
In contrast, we have people who sort of hero worship the military, or who are public figures thanking it, about whom there are real questions.
Donald Trump sent out his thanks today, but he avoided the Vietnam draft on a medical profile. That's never been adequately answered, and in private comments he disdains those who served in the military, which fits right in with his epic level of being self impressed. Biden had draft deferments too, I'd note.
There are real reasons for deferments, but what gets me here is the co-opting of valor, or the bestowing of it on people who don't deserve it. People don't claim that Biden is some sort of hero. But you can find completely absurd illustrations of Trump as a military figure. I don't really see Trump voluntarily serving in any war at any time, and had he lived during the Revolution, I sure don't see him as some sort of Continental Army officer.
So, while it's rude, for at least some thanking veterans "for their service", an appropriate response is "why didn't you serve?".
The real purpose of the day
The real purpose of this day is to remember the dead and badly wounded. That's about it.
Lots of people serve during time of peace in one way or another. We don't deserve your thanks. Yes, I'm sure that I'm personally responsible for keeping the Red Horde at bay, but I didn't get hurt serving. Truth be known, I benefitted from it personally in all sorts of ways, a lot of which are deeply personal. The service formed a lot of my psychology on certain things in a permanent way, all of which are ways in which I'm glad that it did.
A lot goes into a person's personality, some of it more significant than others, and I do have more significant ones. The service was, however, a significant one. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had not gotten out of the Guard when I did, also for a selection of personal reasons.
So I owe the service thanks. The country doesn't really owe me any. But people whose lives were permanently altered or last? Well, that's a different matter.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)