This Day In History: The Gun

[Johnny Dollar]

Thank you very much,gentlemen! That makes me feel good! I am pleased to do it and learn something new myself, everyday.

It is very gratifying that people enjoy history. I'll continue on as long as my health and my wife's disposition allow me!

[Johnny Dollar]

March 15,1767. Andrew Jackson,frontiersman,soldier and the 7th President of the United States,is born in Waxhalls,South Carolina Colony.

One of America's most polarizing figures,Andrew was never dull!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson

Jackson was born on March 15, 1767. His parents were Scots-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland two years earlier.[5][6] Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in current-day Northern Ireland, around 1738.[7] Jackson's parents lived in the village of Boneybefore, also in County Antrim. Their former house is preserved as the Andrew Jackson Centre and is open to the public.

When they emigrated to America in 1765, Jackson's parents probably landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They would have traveled overland down through the Appalachian Mountains to the Scots-Irish community in the Waxhaws region, straddling the border between North and South Carolina.[8] They brought two children from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764).

[Johnny Dollar]

March 16,1802.The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Corps_of_Engineers

The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to 16 June 1775, when the Continental Congress organized an army with a chief engineer and two assistants.[12] Colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washington's first chief engineer; however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers. One of its first tasks was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill. The first Corps was mostly composed of French subjects, who had been hired by General Washington from the service of Louis XVI.

The Corps of Engineers as it is known today came into being on 16 March 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson was authorized to "organize and establish a Corps of Engineers ... that the said Corps ... shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York and shall constitute a Military Academy." Until 1866, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy was always an engineer officer.

During the first half of the 19th century, West Point was the major and, for a while, the only engineering school in the country. The Corps's authority over river works in the United States began with its fortification of New Orleans after the War of 1812.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 16,1751. James Madison,the "Father of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights",per his peers and the 4th President of the United States, is born in Port Conway,Virginia Colony. Certainly one of our great men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison

James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 (O.S. March 5) – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman and political theorist. He is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights.[1] He was the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817). He served as a politician much of his adult life. Like other Virginia statesmen, he was of the landed gentry; he inherited his plantation known as Montpelier, and owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops.

After the constitution had been drafted, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify it. His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produced the Federalist Papers (1788). Circulated only in New York at the time, they would later be considered among the most important polemics in support of the Constitution.

He was also a delegate to the Virginia constitutional ratifying convention, and was instrumental to the successful ratification effort in Virginia. Like most of his contemporaries, Madison changed his political views during his life. During the drafting and ratification of the constitution, he favored a strong national government, though later he grew to favor stronger state governments, before settling between the two extremes late in his life.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 16,1968. The My Lai Massacre occurs at 2 South Vietnamese hamlets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre

The My Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰɐ̃ːm ʂɐ̌ːt mǐˀ lɐːj], [mǐˀlɐːj] ( listen); English pronunciation: /ˌmiːˈlaɪ/, also /ˌmiːˈleɪ, ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/)[1] was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children (including babies), and elderly people. Some of the bodies were later found to be mutilated.[2]

While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai, only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest.

The massacre took place in the hamlets of Mỹ Lai and My Khe of Sơn Mỹ village.[3][4] The event is also known as the Sơn Mỹ Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Sơn Mỹ) or sometimes as the Song Mỹ Massacre.[5] The US military codeword for the "Viet Gong [sic] stronghold" was "Pinkville".[6]

[ants]

I'll continue on as long as my health and my wife's disposition allow me

I raise a toast to your health and the wife's disposition.
May both last long and be happy!

[Johnny Dollar]

I raise a toast to your health and the wife's disposition.
May both last long and be happy!

Thank you very much,ants! That is very kind and thoughtful of you.

[pmeisel]

A little reminiscence and curiosity led me to this:

Calley's evaluations described him as merely "average" as an officer.[3] Later, as the My Lai investigation progressed, a more negative picture emerged. Men in his platoon reported to army investigators that Calley lacked common sense and could not read a map or compass properly.[6] A number of men assigned under Calley claimed that because he was so disliked some secretly discussed assassinating him.[2]

Calley did not command nearly so much respect from his subordinates or superiors in the military. Very few of the people who worked with him on a regular basis liked him. Captain Medina would often address him as “Lieutenant ****head” in front of his men and rebuff him when addressed by him with a sarcastic, “Listen Sweetheart...” This had an obvious discrediting effect with his soldiers. The opinion of him in his platoon was “universally hostile.” One GI described him as “a glory-hungry person...the kind of person who would have sacrificed all of us for his own personal advancement.” Others called him “nervous, excitable type who yelled a lot” and “incompetent.” Another GI said of Calley, there was “something about him that rubbed people the wrong way.” It was even said that “Calley was so disliked by members of the unit that they put a bounty on his head. None of the men had any respect for him as a military leader.”

Just a little aside from history.....

[Johnny Dollar]

March 17,1521. Ferdinand Magellan and his crew reach the Philippines in his incredible circumnavigational voyage around the globe, which began in 1519.
Six weeks later on April 27,1521 Magellan is killed in battle at the age of 41.The voyage is eventually completed one year later in 1522, a unforgettable 3 year saga.

He is remembered by many landmarks and company names today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan

Heading northwest, the crew reached the equator on 13 February 1521. On 6 March they reached the Marianas and Guam. Magellan called Guam the "Island of Sails" because they saw a lot of sailboats. They renamed it to "Ladrones Island" (Island of Thieves) because many of Trinidad's small boats were stolen there. On 17 March Magellan reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines, with 150 crew left. Members of his expedition became the first Spaniards to reach the Philippine archipelago, but they were not the first Europeans.[18]

Magellan was able to communicate with the native tribes because his Malay interpreter, Enrique, could understand their languages. Enrique was indentured by Magellan in 1511 right after the colonization of Malacca and was at his side during the battles in Africa, during Magellan's disgrace at the King's court in Portugal and during Magellan's successful raising of a fleet. They traded gifts with Rajah Siaiu of Mazaua[19] who guided them to Cebu on 7 April.

Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly towards Magellan and the Spaniards, both he and his queen Hara Amihan were baptized as Christians. Afterward, Rajah Humabon and his ally Datu Zula convinced Magellan to kill their enemy, Datu Lapu-Lapu, on Mactan. Magellan had wished to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity, as he had Humabon, a proposal of which Lapu-Lapu was dismissive. On the morning of 27 April 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small attack force. During the resulting battle against Lapu-Lapu's troops, Magellan was hit by a bamboo spear and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons.[20]

[ants]

Referencing pmeisel's quotes about Lt Calley: They disrespect and despise him. And yet, at his order they killed hundreds of innocents...

[pmeisel]

Bizarre, wasn't it, ants.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 17,1804. Jim Bridger,frontiersman,mountain man,guide and scout is born in Richmond,Virginia.

Bridger lived an remarkable life from the age of 16,surviving through incredibly difficult,primitive,dangerous conditions for over 30 years, perhaps longer than any other frontiersman.

His was a life many of us would envy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bridger

James Felix "Jim" Bridger (b. March 17, 1804 in Richmond, Virginia – d. July 17, 1881 south side Kansas City, Missouri) was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and encroaching whites. He was of English ancestry, and his family had been in North America since the early colonial period.[1]

Jim Bridger had a strong constitution that allowed him to survive the extreme conditions he encountered walking the Rocky Mountains from what would become southern Colorado to the Canadian border. He had conversational knowledge of French, Spanish and several native languages. He would come to know many of the major figures of the early west, including Brigham Young, Kit Carson, George Armstrong Custer, John Fremont, Joseph Meek, and John Sutter.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 18,1852. Wells, Fargo & Company is established in New York City.Stagecoaches with their brand soon start covering the country.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...ny-established

Businessmen in New York establish Wells, Fargo and Company, destined to become the leading freight and banking company of the West.

The California economy boomed after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1849, spurring a huge demand for shipping. Henry Wells and William Fargo joined with several other New York investors to create Wells, Fargo and Company to serve and profit from this demand. In July 1852, the company began transporting its first loads of freight between the East Coast and the isolated mining camps of California. From the beginning, Wells, Fargo and Company also engaged in banking, making good profits in the traffic of gold dust and providing loans that helped sustain the growth of the California economy.

The company usually used stagecoaches to move gold dust, critical business papers, and other express freight quickly. The stages could carry nine paying passengers, and if the interior seats were full, a few more hardy travelers could ride on top with the driver. The traveling conditions were far from luxurious, and passengers had to tolerate crowding, dust, cold, heat, and the occasional holdup or Indian attack. Nonetheless, the relatively fast pace of travel ensured a steady supply of customers.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 19,1687. Rene-Robert de La Salle,renowned French explorer, is shot and killed by his own men, near present day Navasota,Texas.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/exp.../lasalle.shtml

Stranded in Texas: The French expedition built a fort at the mouth of the Lavaca River, and explored the area. The last remaining ship was wrecked by a drunken pilot in April 1686, stranding the French in Texas. The 20 men traveled up the Lavaca River, trying to locate the Mississippi River so they could follow it north into the French missions in the Great Lakes region.

Most of the men in this expedition died, and the 8 survivors returned to the fort in October, 1686. On a second try, La Salle and 17 others set out (25 people remained at the fort); in a few months, a group of five mutineers shot and killed La Salle (near Navasota, Texas) on March 19, 1687. They left his body for the animals to eat. The rest of the expedition made it to Montreal in 1688, but those at the fort were killed by the Karankawa Indians.

[ants]

traveled up the Lavaca River, trying to locate the Mississippi River

Even if you do not know the lay of the land and its waterways,
you cannot find a link to a major river by going UP a tributary...
When you go upriver you find its headwaters. Not another major river.
Well, no wonder the leader got shot.

[Johnny Dollar]

Even if you do not know the lay of the land and its waterways,
you cannot find a link to a major river by going UP a tributary...
When you go upriver you find its headwaters. Not another major river.
Well, no wonder the leader got shot.

Excellent point! Poor Rene!

[Johnny Dollar]

March 19,1941. The Tuskegee Airman,the first all black unit of the Army Air Corps, are activated. They eventually become quite legendary in the skies over Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen

On 19 March 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron [N 3] was activated at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois.[11][12][N 4] A cadre of 271 enlisted men were trained at Chanute in aircraft ground support trades, beginning in July 1941; the skills being taught were so technical that setting up segregated classes was deemed impossible. This small number of enlisted men became the core of other black squadrons forming at Tuskegee and Maxwell Fields in Alabama.[13]

The Tuskegee program began officially in June 1941 with the 99th Pursuit Squadron at the Tuskegee Institute.[14][15][N 5] The unit consisted of 47 officers and 429 enlisted men,[17] and was backed by an entire service arm. After basic training at Moton Field, they were moved to the nearby Tuskegee Army Air Field, about 10 mi (16 km) to the west for conversion training onto operational types.

Consequently, Tuskegee became the only Army installation performing all four phases of pilot training at a single location. Initial planning called for 500 personnel in residence at a time.[18] By mid-1942, over six times that many were stationed at Tuskegee, even though only two squadrons were training there.[19]

Tuskegee Army Airfield was a replica of already-existing airfields reserved for training white pilots, such as Maxwell Field, only 40 miles (64 km) distant.[20] With African American contractors McKissack and McKissack, Inc. in charge of the contract, 2,000 workmen from their company, the Alabama Works Progress Administration, and the U.S. Army built the airfield in only six months. The construction was budgeted at $1,663,057.[21] The airmen were placed under the command of Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., one of only two black line officers then serving.

[ants]

I had never realized until JD's post that the Tuskegee air combat unit was created BEFORE the attack on Pearl Harbor. It must have been conceived and approved as early as 1940. During that year, our leaders in Washington probably figured we would join the war eventually. It is very interesting that they felt it necessary to break the race barrier before war was declared. I wonder how far back they started discussing it?

[Johnny Dollar]

I did not realize it either. According to another part of the Wiki article ,it appears the idea was formulated as early as WWI and finally funded in 1939:

Before the Tuskegee Airmen, no African American had been a U.S. military pilot. In 1917, African American men had tried to become aerial observers, but were rejected.[5] African American Eugene Bullard served as one of the members of the Franco-American Lafayette Escadrille, but he was denied the opportunity to transfer to American military units as a pilot when the other American pilots in the unit were offered the chance. Instead, Bullard returned to infantry duty with the French.[6]

The racially motivated rejections of World War I African American recruits sparked over two decades of advocacy by African Americans who wished to enlist and train as military aviators. The effort was led by such prominent civil rights leaders as Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, labor union leader A. Philip Randolph, and Judge William H. Hastie. Finally, on 3 April 1939, Appropriations Bill Public Law 18 was passed by Congress containing an amendment designating funds for training African American pilots. The War Department managed to put the money into funds of civilian flight schools willing to train black Americans.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 20,1815. After escaping from Elba,Napoleon enters Paris with a regular force of 140,000 and a volunteer force of 200,000 to begin his "Hundred Days Rule." Waterloo ended it and permanent exile to the remote island of St. Helena followed.

He died there six years later in 1821, under circumstances still in dispute almost 200 years later. Such is the fascination of once a in thousand year personalities,which Bonaparte certainly was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France

Separated from his wife and son, who had come under Austrian control, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815. He landed at Golfe-Juan on the French mainland, two days later.[142]

The 5th Regiment was sent to intercept him and made contact just south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within gunshot range, shouted, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish."[143]

The soldiers responded with, "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to Paris; Louis XVIII fled. On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw, and four days later Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to each put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.[144]

Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days. By the start of June the armed forces available to him had reached 200,000, and he decided to go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies. The French Army of the North crossed the frontier into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, in modern-day Belgium.[145]

[Johnny Dollar]

March 21,1918. The Second Battle of the Somme begins.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...e-somme-begins

During World War I, the Second Battle of the Somme, the first major German offensive in more a year, begins on the western front. After five hours of bombardment from more than 9,000 pieces of German artillery, the poorly prepared British Fifth Army was forced into retreat in France's Somme River region.

For a week, the Germans pushed toward Paris, shelling the city from a distance of some 80 miles with their "Big Bertha" cannons. However, the poorly supplied German troops soon became exhausted, and the Allies halted their advance as French artillery knocked out the German guns besieging Paris. On April 2, U.S. General John J. Pershing sent American troops down into the trenches to help repulse the German offensive. It was the first major deployment of U.S. troops in World War I.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 22,1622.Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre_of_1622

The Indian Massacre of 1622 occurred in the Colony of Virginia, in what now belongs to the United States of America, on Friday, March 22, 1622. Captain John Smith, though he had not been in Virginia since 1609 and was thus not a firsthand eyewitness, related in his History of Virginia that braves of the Powhatan Confederacy "came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us".[1]

Suddenly the Powhatan grabbed any tools or weapons available to them and killed any English settlers who were in sight, including men, women and children of all ages. Chief Opechancanough led a coordinated series of surprise attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy that killed 347 people, a quarter of the English population of Jamestown.[2]

Jamestown was the site of the first successful English settlement in North America in 1607, and was then the capital of the Colony of Virginia. Although Jamestown was spared due to a timely last-minute warning, the Powhatan also attacked and destroyed many smaller settlements along the James River. In addition to killing settlers, the Powhatan burned houses and crops. The English abandoned many of the smaller settlements after the attacks.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 23,1806. The Lewis and Clark Expedition happily leaves Fort Clatsop near the Pacific Coast, and begin the arduous journey home to St.Louis.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...t-fort-clatsop

After passing a wet and tedious winter near the Pacific Coast, Lewis and Clark happily leave behind Fort Clatsop and head east for home.

The Corps of Discovery arrived at the Pacific the previous November, having made a difficult crossing over the rugged Rocky Mountains. Their winter stay on the south side of the Columbia River-dubbed Fort Clatsop in honor of the local Indians-had been plagued by rainy weather, thieving Indians, and a scarcity of fresh meat. No one in the Corps of Discovery regretted leaving Fort Clatsop behind.

In the days before their departure, Captains Lewis and Clark prepared for the final stage of their journey. Lewis recognized the possibility that some disaster might still prevent them from making it back east and he prudently left a list of the names of all the expedition's men with Chief Coboway of the Clatsops.

Lewis asked the chief to give the list to the crew of the next trading vessel that arrived so the world would learn that the expedition did reach the Pacific.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 24,1765. The Quartering Act is enacted by Great Britain in the American Colony's. Another step toward 1775.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartering_Act

This first Quartering Act (citation 5 Geo. III c. 33) was given Royal Assent on March 24, 1765, and provided that Great Britain would house its soldiers in American barracks and public houses, as by the Mutiny Act of 1765, but if its soldiers outnumbered the housing available, would quarter them "in inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualing houses, and the houses of sellers of wine and houses of persons selling of rum, brandy, strong water, cider or metheglin", and if numbers required in "uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings." Colonial authorities were required to pay the cost of housing and feeding these troops.

When 1,500 British troops arrived at New York City in 1766 the New York Provincial Assembly refused to comply with the Quartering Act and did not supply billeting for the troops. The troops had to remain on their ships. With its great impact on the city, a skirmish occurred in which one colonist was wounded following the Assembly's refusal to provide quartering.

For failure to comply with the Quartering Act, Parliament suspended the Province of New York's Governor and legislature in 1767 and 1769, but never carried it out, since the Assembly soon agreed to contribute money toward the quartering of troops;[3] the New York Assembly allocated funds for the quartering of British troops in 1771.

The Quartering Act was circumvented in all colonies other than Pennsylvania.

This Act expired on March 24, 1767.

[Johnny Dollar]

March 24,1943. 76 Allied prisoners escape from German Stalag Luft III, eventually made famous in the 1950 book, and the 1963 movie,The Great Escape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III

In the spring of 1943, Squadron Leader Roger Bushell RAF conceived a plan for a major escape from the camp, which occurred the night of March 24–25, 1944.[9][23]

Bushell was held in the North Compound where British airmen were housed. He was in command of the Escape Committee and channeled the effort into probing for weaknesses and looking for opportunities. Falling back on his legal background to represent his scheme, Bushell called a meeting of the Escape Committee and not only shocked those present with its scope, but injected into every man a passionate determination to put their every energy into the escape. He declared,

"Everyone here in this room is living on borrowed time. By rights we should all be dead! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun... In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug - Tom, Dick, and Harry. One will succeed!" [24]

The simultaneous digging of these tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them was discovered by the Germans, because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two could be well underway. The most radical aspect of the plan was not merely the scale of the construction, but the sheer number of men that Bushell intended to pass through these tunnels.

Previous attempts had involved the escape of anything up to a dozen or twenty men, but Bushell was proposing to get in excess of 200 out, all of whom would be wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment. It was an unprecedented undertaking and would require unparalleled organisation. As the mastermind of the Great Escape, Roger Bushell inherited the codename of "Big X".[24] The tunnel "Tom" began in a darkened corner of a hall in one of the buildings. "Dick"'s entrance was carefully hidden in a drain sump in one of the washrooms. The entrance to "Harry" was hidden under a stove.[25] More than 600 prisoners were involved in their construction.[9]