Lost and Found – January 20th Edition

What to remember about January 20th…

• 1732  American Patriot and statesman Richard Henry Lee is born in Virginia; President of  Continental Congress and Senator
• 1783  Gret Britain signs peace treaty with France and Spain ending last hostilities of the American Revolution
• 1801  President John Adams nominates John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; establishes Court role and tradition
• 1841  China cedes Hong Kong to Britain in bid to end 1st Opium War; in 1898 2nd Convention of Peking grants 99 more years of British rule; Hong Kong turned back over to China in 1997
• 1920  American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded
• 1942  Wansee Conference is held to inform senior Nazi officials of Hitler’s “final solution to the Jewish question” and their roles in it
• 1945  Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes 1st and only President elected to 4 terms in office; in 1947 22nd Amendment to the Constitution is passed limiting office holders to 2 terms
• 1981  20 minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th President Iran releases American hostages it has held for 444 days
• 1996  Terrorist and founder of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat elected president of Palestinian National Council

Lost and Found – January 17th Edition

What to remember about January 17th…

• 1706  American inventor, statesman, printer, and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1790)
• 1781  Continental Army victory at Battle of Cowpens opens door for reconquest of South Carolina by Patriot forces; Tarleton and his Legion crushed
• 1865  Pausing in Savannah after city’s capture, rains General Sherman’s Union forces from beginning their assault on the Carolinas
• 1893  Civil War general and former 19th President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes dies at home from a heart attack (b. 1822)
• 1893  American sugar planters led by Sanford Dole overthrow Hawaiian monarchy; U.S. Marines arrive to protect American civilians
• 1944  Operation Panther begins; Allies try to wrest control of Cassino region of Italy from the Germans
• 1953  Chevrolet unveils the prototype for iconic Corvette
• 1961  In his farewell address to American people, President Eisenhower warns of the rising “military-industrial complex”
• 1966  In-flight collision of a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker drops 4 hydrogen bombs on Spain and surrounding ocean waters; last bomb recovered April 7th
• 1994  At 4:30am the 6.7 magnitude Northridge quake strikes San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles; 54 die and billions in damage reported
• 1994  Federal sexual harassment lawsuit is filed in Littlerock, Arkansas by Paula Jones accusing President Bill Clinton
• 1991  Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles at Israel in an unsuccessful attempt to draw them into the Persian Gulf War
• 1998  On his website The Drudge Report, Matt Drudge breaks the story of alleged affair between President Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky

Lost and Found – January 11th Edition

What to remember about January 11th…

• 630  Muhammad leads army of 10,000 to conquer city of Mecca
• 1755  Founding Father, soldier, and 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton is born (d. 1804)
• 1861  Alabama secedes from the Union ahead of the Civil War
• 1863  Union forces capture crucial fortifications at confluence of Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers; secures supply lines for coming offensive at Vicksburg
• 1908  President Theodore Roosevelt bypasses Congress’ power to designate national parks by declaring Grand Canyon a national monument
• 1935  American aviator Emilia Earhart becomes 1st to fly solo from Hawaii to North America; 18 hour flight wins her $10,000
• 1949  Cornerstone is laid for the 1st major mosque in the United States; 160-foot minaret rises above Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.
• 1973  Baseball’s American League adopts the designated hitter rule
• 1989  President Reagan delivers his farewell address as his second term comes to a close; declares America “respected again in the world”
• 2003  Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes sentences of 167 death row inmates as a result of investigation into illegal police interrogations

Thanksgivings of the Past (Repost)

For those that would argue that our Founders and this nation were secularists that intended to keep God and faith out of the public square, I invite you to read some of their own words on the occasion of Thanksgiving.

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation – October 3, 1789

Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving – October 3, 1863

I would argue that their greatest concern was that NO faith or become the officially endorsed religion of this country.  The right to practice your beliefs, s long as they caused no harm to another,was to be sacrosanct and inviolable.  Their intent was not to prevent one from speaking of religion, hearing of religion or being offended by another’s religion.  The Founders saw America as a moral nation whose various faiths gave them the strength and values to surmount any challenge and strive towards the greatness in every individual… no matter their creed.  Stop trying to get God out of the public square.  He has the right to free speech too.

Lost and Found – October 1st Edition

What to remember about October 1st…

• 1730  American jurist, legislator, and signer of the Declaration of Independence Richard Stockton is born near Princeton, New Jersey
• 1781  American naval officer James Lawrence is born; famously gave dying command “Don’t give up the ship!” during War of 1812
• 1864  Washington, D.C. socialite and Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow drowns while smuggling gold to the South
• 1890  Congress establishes Yosemite National Park
• 1903  Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans play the 1st game of the 1st World Series ; game is held at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1908  Ford Motor Corporation unveils the 1st production Model T in Detroit, Michigan
• 1924  President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter is born in Plains, Georgia
• 1949  Mao Zedong proclaims the creation of the People’s Republic of China
• 1958  NASA begins operations; replaces the 46-year-old NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics)
• 1975  Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier at the Thrilla in Manila boxing match in the Philippines
• 1981  EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow) Center opens at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
• 2005  University of Oklahoma student Joel “Joe” Henry Hinrichs III detonates backpack bomb outside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium there were no other casualties

Lost and Found – July 28th Edition

What to remember about July 28th…

• 1746  Thomas Heyward, Jr is born in South Carolina; signer of the Declaration of Independence
• 1776  Colonial forces from Massachusetts arrive to fortify Horn’s Hook, New York
• 1864  Battle of Ezra Church in Georgia; General Sherman’s hold on Atlanta remains unbroken
• 1868  Ratification of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution is certified by Secretary of State Seward; due process and citizenship affirmed
• 1914  Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia; World War I begins
• 1929  Jacqueline Lee Bouvier is born in Southampton, New York; marries John F. Kennedy in 1953
• 1932  President Herbert Hoover orders the army to forcibly remove demonstrating veterans from Washington, D.C.
• 1935  1st flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
• 1945  U.S. Senate approves the charter of the United Nations
• 1945  B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building
• 1978  National Lampoon’s Animal House is released
• 1998  Monica Lewinsky granted blanket immunity by Special Prosecutor about her relationship with President Bill Clinton

Lost and Found – July 23rd Edition

What to remember about July 23rd…

• 1793  American patriot Roger Sherman dies; only signer of  – the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
• 1862  Abraham Lincoln appoints Henry W. Halleck as General-in-Chief of all Union armies
• 1885  President Ulysses S. Grant dies in New York
• 1952  King Farouk I of Egypt overthrown in military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser
• 1958  USS Nautilus sets sail from Pearl Harbor for historic first submerged voyage under the North Pole
• 1967  Beginning with raid on illegal bar, 12th Street Riots begin in Detroit; 43 die and 2000 buildings destroyed by time the Army arrives
• 1984  Miss America Vanessa Williams resigns title after Penthouse Magazine plans to print nude photos of her
• 2005  Islamic Muslim Brotherhood terrorists kill 88 and wound over 200 in multiple bombings in resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
• 2012  Astronaut and physicist Dr. Sally Kristen Ride dies of cancer (b. 1951); 1st American woman in space

Lost and Found – July 17th Edition

What to remember about July 17th…

• 1744  Elbridge Gerry born (d. 1814); signer of the Declaration of Independence and Vice President to James Madison; inventor of “gerrymandering” of electoral districts for political advantage
• 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders to the British at Rochefort
• 1938  Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan makes non-stop flight across the Atlantic “accidentally”
• 1945  Potsdam Conference convenes with President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill, and Secretary Stalin; determine fate of Germany
• 1955  Disneyland unveiled to the public; opens the next day
• 1975  Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft launch for rendezvous to be made in orbit 2 days later; last manned spaceflight until Space Shuttle
• 1989  1st flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber
• 2007  Atlanta Falcon’s football quarterback Michael Vick and 3 others indicted by federal grand jury for dog-fighting and gambling enterprise
• 2009 Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked group detonates 2 suicide bombs in Jakarta, Indonesia; 9 killed and over 50 wounded

Lost and Found – July 14th Edition

What to remember about July 14th…

• 1099  Jerusalem captured during the First Crusade
• 1779  George Ross dies; member of Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and militia colonel
• 1789  French revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm the Bastille; recognized later as French holiday “Bastille Day”
• 1789  Congress passes the unconstitutional Sedition Act
• 1881  Outlaw Billy the Kid (William Henry McCarty) killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett near Fort Sumner, New Mexico
• 1913  Future 38th President of the United States Gerald Ford is born in Omaha, Nebraska (d. 2006)
• 1933  Germany passes “Law against the establishment of political parties”; ends organized opposition to Nazi Party
• 1933  Germany enacts Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring; compulsory sterilization of persons suffering from alleged genetic disorders
• 1965  Mariner 4 makes flyby taking first close up photos of Mars
• 1968  Hank Aaron hits his 500th home run
• 2003  Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reveals Valerie Plame might be a CIA Operative

Lost and Found – June 28th Edition

What to remember about June 28th…

• 1776  Thomas Hickey convicted and executed for mutiny, sedition, and conspiring with the enemy; Washington signs the death warrant
• 1778  Mary “Molly Pitcher” Hays replaces her wounded husband on the battlefield as cannon crew helping win the Battle of Monmouth
• 1836  James Madison dies; 4th President of the United States, “father” of the Constitution; husband of Dolley Madison
• 1914  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is shot to death beginning a chain of events leading to World War I
• 1919  Future 33rd President of the United States Harry S. Truman marries Bess Wallace; afterward they lived in her mother’s house
• 1919  Treaty of Versailles is signed; ends World War I
• 1953  Assembly begins in Flint, MI on the 1st Chevrolet Corvette
• 1965  3000 troops from the 173rd Airborne assault Viet Cong positions north of Saigon; 1st major offensive of the Vietnam War
• 1978  SCOTUS rules in University of California v. Bakke that he be admitted to the medical school; ruled against reverse discrimination
• 1997 Boxer Mike Tyson bites off ear of Evander Holyfield’s ear
• 2000  6-year old Elián González sent back to Cuba
• 2004  Sovereign power is transferred from the Coalition Provisional Authority to Iraq’s interim government
• 2005  Navy Lt. Michael Patrick Murphy is killed in Afghanistan calling in support for his surrounded unit; he will receive the Medal of Honor
• 2012  SCOTUS rules that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is constitutional as a tax and not under Commerce Clause; largest tax increase in history of the world goes forward

INS Border Patrol agents take 6-year old into “protective custody”