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 15th Edition

What to remember about January 15th…

• 1777  New Connecticut (Vermont) declares independence from Britain and the colony of New York
• 1815  USS President is captured by British squadron during War of 1812
• 1919  Storage tank holding 2.5 million gallons of boiling molasses ruptures in Boston killing 21 and injuring scores with 8-foot high molten wave
• 1929  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1968)
• 1943  Dedication of the United States Department of Defense headquarters in Arlington, Virginia; building popularly called “the Pentagon”
• 1947  “Black Dahlia” investigation  begins with discovery of body of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles, California; mystery remains unsolved today
• 1951  Ilse Koch known as “Witch of Buchenwald”, wife of commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp is sentenced to life in prison
• 1973  President Nixon suspends offensive military action in Vietnam to give peace process a better chance of success
• 2009  Commercial airline pilot Captain “Sully” Sullenberger performs his Miracle on the Hudson; lands powerless Airbus 320 safely on the water; walks the flooding aircraft twice to ensure all 150 passengers escape safely

Lost and Found – December 4th Edition

What to remember about December 4th…

• 1780  Patriot dragoons use fake cannon to bluff British troops into surrender near Camden, South Carolina
• 1783  At a tavern in New York, General George Washington informs his officers that he is returning to civilian life
• 1872  After leaving New York a month before, British ship Mary Celeste is found abandoned at sea and under full sail
• 1912  Marine pilot, POW, and Medal of Honor winner Gregory “Pappy” Boyington is born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho (d. 1988); commander of famous “Black Sheep Squadron” in Pacific
• 1917  Psychiatrist W.H. Rivers publishes report on psychological trauma of WWI troops; “shell shock” is the name given to what is now known at PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder
• 1918  Woodrow Wilson sets sail for Europe; 1st President to visit the continent while still in office
• 1942  Polish Christians form Zegota resistance group to aid Jews avoid or escape the Nazi’s “final solution”
• 1945  Senate votes to allow U.S. participation in the United Nations
• 1966  Viet Cong infiltrate defenses and shell Tan Son Nhut airport for over an hour damaging U.S. aircraft
• 1980  After the death of drummer John Bonham, legendary rock band Led Zeppelin announces they have disbanded
• 1992  President George H.W. bush orders U.S. troops to Somalia to secure humanitarian efforts during ongoing civil war
• 2009  American student Amanda Knox is convicted by Italian Jury in murder of her British roommate; conviction overturned 2011

Lost and Found – October 30th Edition

What to remember about October 30th…

• 1735  Founding Father and 2nd President of the United States John Adams is born in Braintree, Massachusetts (d. 1826)
• 1831  Escaped slave Nat Turner is captured after bloody slave rebellion that killed over 60; after a trial he hangs on November 11
• 1938  Orson Welles radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” causes nationwide panic
• 1941  President Franklin Roosevelt approves $1 billion Lend Lease aid program for Soviet Union; hopes to stay out of the war
• 1944  Anne Frank and her sister are moved from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
• 1961  Soviet Union test 50 megaton hydrogen bomb; still the largest explosive device ever detonated
• 1974  Muhammad Ali wins the Rumble in the Jungle
• 1995  Vote for establishing an independent Quebec fails in Canada

Lost and Found – July 31st Edition

What to remember about July 31st…

• 1777  Continental Congress commissions Marquis de Lafayette as an unpaid Major General in the Continental Army
• 1875  Former 17th President of the United States Andrew Johnson dies in Tennessee of a suspected stroke (b. 1808)
• 1912  American economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman is born in Brooklyn, New York, the man that saved America from Jimmy Carter’s stagflation and saved capitalism
• 1941  Herman Goering sends order to Heydrich to create a plan for the “final solution of the Jewish situation”; Holocaust planning begins
• 1965  English author J.K. Rowling is born; creator of the Harry Potter books series
• 1971  Astronauts from Apollo 15 take first ride aboard the Lunar Rover on the surface of the Moon
• 2007  Operation Banner, the British occupation of Northern Ireland, ends after 38 years

Lost and Found – July 16th Edition

What to remember about July 16th…

• 1779  American General “Mad” Anthony Wayne captures British fort at Stoney Point, New York in surprise midnight bayonet attack
• 1790  Congress declares Washington,D.C. to become nations capital
• 1941  New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio hits in his 56th consecutive game; still stands as longest hitting streak in baseball history
• 1942  French police begin round-up of 13,000 Jews for detention and eventual shipment to the death camp at Auschwitz
• 1945  First atomic bomb is successfully tested in New Mexico
• 1948  Israeli forces capture Nazareth in 1948 Arab-Israeli War
• 1951  J.D. Salinger’s novel “Catcher in the Rye” first published
• 1969  Apollo 11 launches from Florida carrying the first humans to the Moon; “Buzz” Aldrin and Neil Armstrong will land on July 20th
• 1999  John F. Kennedy, Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren Bessette die in plane crash off of Martha’s Vineyard
•  2015  Muslim immigrant and naturalized citizen Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez goes on shooting spree at 2 Navy facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee; 4 Marines and 1 Sailor killed.  Terrorist killed by local police because service members worked in “gun-free” zones.

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 – July 7th Edition

What to remember about July 7th…

• 1798  Congress rescinds treaties with France in response to raids on American shipping; “Quasi-War” begins between France and U.S.
• 1846  U.S. forces occupy Monterey, California unopposed during Mexican-American War; begins annexation of California
• 1863  America’s first military draft begins; exemption costs $300
• 1865  Marry Surrat is 1st woman executed in the United States; convicted as conspirator in assassination of President Lincoln
• 1907  Science fiction author Robert Heinlein born; Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• 1942  Heinrich Himmler orders that medical experiments be performed on Jews at Auschwitz; Hitler approves
• 1946  Future President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter marries Eleanor Rosalynn Smith in Plains, Georgia
• 1981  Sandra Day O’Connor is nominated as an associate Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States by Ronald Reagan
• 1981  Solar Challenger piloted by Stephen Ptacek makes first solar-powered flight over the English Channel
• 2003  NASA Opportunity rover launched towards Mars aboard a Delta II rocket
• 2005  In London 3 subway trains and 1 bus are attacked by Muslim suicide bombers; the 4 attacks kill 56 and injure another 700
• UPDATE: 2016  Racist, African-American Army veteran Micah Xavier Johnson attacks police protecting a Dallas “Black Lives Matter” rally.  5 officers killed, 7 more injured, and 2 civilians wounded in sniper-style attack.  After hours of gunfire, bomb threats, and racial taunts by the murderer, Dallas police use a remotely piloted deliver an explosive device to end the standoff.  The perpetrator dies.

Lost and Found – July 6th Edition

What to remember about July 6th…

• 1699 – Pirate William “Captain” Kidd arrested in Boston
• 1747 – John Paul Jones is born (d. 1792); naval hero of the American Revolution that famously said “I have not yet begun to fight!”
• 1777 – British troops take Fort Ticonderoga in New York
• 1908 – American explorer Robert Peary sets sail from New York for his successful attempt to reach the North Pole
• 1919  British dirigible R-34 completes 1st transatlantic crossing by an airship; lands on Long Island, New York
• 1942 – Family of Anne Frank go into hiding to escape the Nazis
• 1945 – President Harry S. Truman authorizes Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award
• 1946 – George Walker Bush born in New Haven, Connecticut; future 43rd President of the United States
• 1971 – Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, jazz trumpeter, musician, and singer, dies in New York, New York
• 1976  U.S. Naval Academy admits its first female midshipmen
• 1989  In Israel a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist seizes control of commuter bus and drives it over a cliff killing 16 and wounding 27

Lost and Found – June 15th Edition

What to remember about June 15th…

• 1775  Assembly of Lower Counties of Pennsylvania declares independence from Britain forming state of Delaware
• 1775  George Washington accepts command of Continental Army
• 1836  Arkansas admitted to the Union as its 25th state
• 1863  As General Lee’s Confederates move towards Washington, D.C., President Lincoln calls for 100,000 volunteers to defend the city
• 1864  Union Army bypasses Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to attack Petersburg; leads to the eventual fall of Richmond
• 1877  Former slave Henry Ossian Flipper becomes 1st African-American graduate from the United States Military Academy
• 1916  National charter signed establishing Boy Scouts of America
• 1917  Congress passes the Espionage Act
• 1942  Deportation of Jews from Netherlands begins; approximately 101,000 sent to death camps;  Anne Frank will be among them
• 1944  U.S. forces begin landings for the invasion of Saipan
• 1994  Ruth Bader Ginsburg sworn in as Supreme Court Justice