Quote of the Day
"We have met the enemy and they are ours..."
-- Oliver Hazard Perry

1946 - Filibuster in US Senate kills FEPC bill
1947 - Arabs & Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine
1948 - Omar Bradley succeeds Dwight Eisenhower as Army Chief of Staff
1950 - Georges Bidault forms French government; Senator Joe McCarthy finds "communists" in US Ministry of Foreign Affairs; US & Great-Britain recognize Bao Dai Vietnamese regime
1958 - Dutch auto-transmission car DAF 600 introduced
1959 - Cessna lands in Las Vegas after 65 d without landing (refuels in air); Castro proclaims new Cuban constitution
1960 - Old handwriting found in at Qumran, near the Dead Sea
1962 - Gas explosion in Luisanthal coal mine Voelklingen Germany kills 298; President Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba
1964 - The Beatles land at New York's JFK airport, for their 1st US tour; Cassius Clay becomes a Muslim & adopts the name Muhammad Ali
1965 - US begins regular bombing & strafing of North Vietnam; Operations begin at Grupo Folklorico Antiyano on Curaçao
1969 - Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat becomes president of PLO
1971 - Women win the right to vote in Switzerland
1973 - Senate creates Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities
1974 - Grenada gains independence from Britain (National Day); Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" opens in movie theaters (I love that movie)
1976 - World's largest telescope (600 cm) begins operation (USSR)
1977 - Soyuz 24 launches with 2 cosmonauts
1978 - Ethiopian offensive in Ogaden desert
1979 - Neptune becomes farthest planet from the sun in our solar system (will remain that way for 20 years); Colonel Benjedid Chadli succeeds President Boumédienne in Algeria
1982 - Luis A. Monge elected President of Costa Rica
1983 - 1st female secretary of transportation sworn-in (Elizabeth Dole)
1984 - Bruce McCandless makes 1st untethered space walk (US)
1985 - "New York, New York" becomes the official anthem of New York, NY
1986 - Haiti's President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier flees to France - Henri Namphy becomes leader of Haiti; Philippine Corazon Aquino defeats incumbent dictator Ferdinand Marcos but fraudulent returns gave the election to Marcos
1990 - Karachi police kill 22 anti-nationalistic demonstrators
1990 - USSR Communist party agrees to allow opposition political parties
1991 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide sworn in as Haiti's 1st elected president
1998 - 18th Winter Olympics games open at Nagano Japan

Birthdays
1478 - Sir Thomas More, lawyer/lord chancellor of England/saint (Utopia)
1556 - Maria van Nassau, Dutch countess of Buren
1688 - Maria Louise van Hessen-Kassel [Marijke Meu], princess of Orange
1693 - Anna Ivanova Romanova, empress of Russia (1730-40)
1740 - Adam-Philippe Custine, French earl/General/MP
1812 - Charles Dickens, novelist (Oliver Twist, Tale of 2 Cities)
1817 - Frederick Douglass, 1st high ranking Black in US government; Leroy Pope Walker US lawyer/Confederate minister of War (1861)
1834 - Dmitri I. Mendelejev, Russian chemist (devised Periodic Table)
1837 - Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, created Oxford Dictionary
1839 - Nicolaas G. Pierson, Dutch banker/Suriname premier (1897-1901)
1842 - Alexandre Ribit, premier (France)
1867 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, children's book author (Little House on Prairie)
1872 - Nikolaos "Sokrates" Politis, Greek lawyer/diplomat/foreign minister
1877 - Julius Curtius, German minister of Foreign affairs
1896 - Harold Hoffman, (Governor-New Jersey)
1899 - Arvid Pelshe, Latvian Communist leader, CPSU Politburo member
1906 - Henry P'u-i, last emperor of China, puppet emperor of Manchukuo
1921 - Bryan Woods, soldier/clerk
1924 - Cathy Long (Representative-LA, 1985-86)
1926 - Konstantin Petrovich Feokistov, cosmonaut (Voskhod I)
1932 - Alfred M. Worden, Colonel USAF/astronaut (Apollo 15)
1935 - Herb Kohl (Senator-Wisconsin)
1942 - Ton [ACHM] de Kok, Dutch MP (CDA)
1944 - Berend baron van Voorst tot Voorst, Dutch foreign state secretary (CDA); Berry [AH] Esselink Dutch MP (CDA)
1944 - Michael A. Andrews (Representative-TX)
1963 - Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Lieutenant Commander USN/astronaut

Passings
0590 - Pelagius II, Gothic Pope (579-90), dies from plague
1609 - Ferdinand I, cardinal/ruler of Toscane
1857 - Félix PBOG Earl of Merode, Belgian minister of War, dies at 65
1865 - John Henry Winder, US Confederate Brigadier-General/provost marshal, dies at 64
1878 - Pius IX "Pio Nono", [Giovanni Ferretti], Pope (1846-78), dies at 85
1920 - Alexander Koltsjak Admiral/leader Russian counter-revolutionary, executed
1933 - Albert György Earl Apponyi Hung minister of Education, dies at 86
1937 - Elihu Root, US Minister of War/Foreign affairs (Nobel 1912), dies at 91
1959 - Daniel F. Malan, premier of South Africa (1948-54), dies at 84
1960 - Igor V. Kurtshatov, Russian nuclear physicist, dies at 57
1961 - Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French physician/author/anti-Semite, dies at 67
1967 - Henry Morgenthau, US minister of Finance (devaluated dollar), dies at 74
1979 - Josef Mengele, concentration camp doctor, drowns
1994 - Maarten Vrolijk, Dutch Social-Democrat minister (CRM 1965-66), dies at 74; Richard Bissell, US under director of CIA, dies at 84

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Dickson, Edward A., USNR (PA); A4E shot down, KIA, body not recovered

1966
Crayton, Render, USN (GA); A4E shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 (injured) - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

1968
The following US Army SF personnel reported MIA when NVA forces assaulted the Lang Vei camp:
Brande, Harve G. (CA); released by PRG March, 1973 - alive as of 1998

Hanna, Kenneth (CS)

Holt, James W. (AR)

Lindewald, Charles W., Jr. (IN)

McMurry, William G. (AZ); released by PRG March, 1973 - retired as a Master Sergeant - alive as of 1998

Moreland, James L. (CA)

Phillips, Daniel R. (PA)

Thompson, Dennis L. (OR); released by PRG March, 1973 - alive as of 1998

Also reported MIA this day in 1968:
Smith, Maynard Lee, USN (KS); drowned, remains recovered August, 1974

1969
Deleidi, Richard A., USMC (CA); F4J shot down, KIA, body not recovered