The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Hamburger Hill - Feb. 24th, 2003

Hamburger Hill Operations History ^ | Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr., U.S. Army (ret.)

[SAMWolf]

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Hamburger Hill

Hamburger Hill proved to be the telling battle of the Vietnam War,
as Pork Chop Hill was for the Korean War.

"Don't mean nothin'." That was the refrain of the powerful 1987 movie about the battle for Hamburger Hill, more correctly called Ap Bia Mountain or Hill 937. Many veterans of that May 1969 fight would no doubt agree, since the hill was abandoned to the enemy soon after it was taken. But the truth is that it was one of the most significant battles of the war, for it spelled the end of major American ground combat operations in Vietnam.

The Hamburger Hill battle had run afoul of a fundamental war-fighting equation. Master philosopher of war Karl von Clausewitz emphasized almost a century and a half earlier that because war is controlled by its political object, "the value of this object must determine the sacrifices to be made for it both in magnitude and also in duration." He went on to say, "Once the expenditure of effort exceeds the value of the political object, the object must be renounced." And that's exactly what happened. The expenditure of effort at Hamburger Hill exceeded the value the American people attached to the war in Vietnam. The public had turned against the war a year and a half earlier, and it was their intense reaction to the cost of that battle in American lives, inflamed by sensationalist media reporting, that forced the Nixon administration to order the end of major tactical ground operations.



This was not the first time the American public had stopped supporting a war. Contrary to widespread belief, Vietnam is not the most unpopular war in American history. The Mexican War in 1848 was far more unpopular, as was the 1950­53 war in Korea. The majority of Americans supported the war in Vietnam from the landing of the Marines in Da Nang in March 1965 (64 percent supporting, 21 percent opposed after the first U.S. combat engagements) until October 1967, when for the first time a plurality (46 percent opposed, 44 percent supporting) turned against the war. Those 30 months equaled the period of time the American people supported the ground war in Europe in World War II, from the landing of U.S. forces in North Africa in November 1942 until the end of the war in May 1945. Public opinion had turned--not on ideological grounds, as the anti-war movement would claim, but for pragmatic reasons. "Either win the damn thing or get the hell out!" was the prevalent sentiment, and when the Johnson administration seemed unable to do either, the American people's patience ran out.

American public opinion turned against the war in Korea after only five months, percentages of those in favor falling precipitously after Chinese intervention in the war in November 1950. The war became stalemated after the U.S. Eighth Army's defeat of the 230,000-man Chinese Spring Offensive in April 1951 (as it did in Vietnam with the defeat of the enemy's 1968 Tet Offensive), degenerating into a series of bloody outpost skirmishes.

The last of those skirmishes was the battle for Pork Chop Hill between July 6 and 10, 1953. Officially Hill 255 (from its elevation in yards), it was dubbed Pork Chop Hill because of its geographic shape. One of a series of outposted hills along the "Iron Triangle" in the western sector of the line of contact, it had long been contested by the enemy. Earlier, in November 1952, the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division's Thailand Battalion had come under heavy Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) attack there, but the assault was beaten back.

On March 1, 1953, then defended by the 7th Infantry Division's 31st Infantry Regiment, Pork Chop Hill came under an 8,000-round CCF artillery barrage. Then on March 23, the CCF 67th Division, under cover of an intense mortar and artillery barrage, made a ground attack on Pork Chop Hill. After some initial gains they were beaten back, only to resume the attack on April 16. Once again they were beaten back by counterattacks from the 31st Infantry, reinforced by a battalion from the 7th Infantry Division's 17th Infantry Regiment. But it was artillery that made the difference, as the 7th Infantry Division massed the guns of nine artillery battalions and fired 77,349 rounds in support of the two-day battle.



On July 6, 1953, the CCF made yet another attempt to capture Pork Chop Hill. This time they gained a foothold on a portion of the crest. After repeated attempts to dislodge them were repulsed, General Maxwell D. Taylor, the Eighth U.S. Army commander, ordered the hill to be abandoned on July 11, 1953. Two weeks later, with the signing of the armistice agreement at Panmunjom on July 27, the hill became part of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Ever the politician (as he would prove to be again in the Vietnam War), General Taylor had made his decision based on his perception of American public and political reactions to the high numbers of U.S. casualties. During the month of July 1953 alone, the United States and its allies along the line of contact, including Pork Chop Hill, had suffered 29,629 casualties both from enemy ground attacks and a record 375,565-round CCF artillery barrage. Chinese and North Korean casualties were estimated at 72,112, most from allied airstrikes and a 2-million-round artillery barrage.

The battle for Hamburger Hill, like the Vietnam War itself, was less intense than the battle for Pork Chop Hill in Korea. A body count confirmed that 633 NVA soldiers had died in the battle, but as Samuel Zaffiri noted in his definitive history of the fight: "There is no telling how many other NVA soldiers were killed and wounded and carried into Laos. No telling how many were buried alive in bunkers and tunnels on the mountain or ended up in forgotten graves in the draws or along the many ridges."



Final U.S. casualties were 46 dead and 400 wounded. While these losses were high, Hamburger Hill was not the bloodiest fight of the war, even for the 101st Airborne Division. In the earlier November 1967 battle of Dak To in the Central Highlands, 289 U.S. soldiers were killed in action and an estimated 1,644 NVA soldiers also perished, victims of the 170,000 rounds of artillery, the 2,100 tactical airstrikes and the 228 Boeing B-52 sorties that supported the operation. Later, during the week of February 10-17, 1968, in the midst of the Tet Offensive, 543 Americans were killed in action and another 2,547 wounded without causing any outcry from the American public.

The Hamburger Hill losses were much smaller, but they set off a firestorm of protest back home. The American people were growing more weary of the war. A February 1969 poll revealed that only 39 percent still supported the war, while 52 percent believed sending troops to fight in Vietnam had been a mistake.

Politicians were quick to seek advantage in those numbers. Most prominent was Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose brother John F. Kennedy had been the architect of America's Vietnam involvement. As Zaffiri related: "In the early afternoon of May 29 [1969]...Senator Kennedy [who had served as a draftee military policeman in Paris during the Korean War] stood up on the Senate floor and angrily denounced the attack on Dong Ap Bia, calling it 'senseless and irresponsible...madness...sympathetic of a mentality and a policy that requires immediate attention. American boys are too valuable to be sacrificed to a false sense of military pride.'"



Kennedy would escalate his attack on May 24 in a speech to the New Democratic Coalition in Washington, referring to the battle as nothing but "cruelty and savagery," as well as saying that the Vietnam War was unjustified and immoral. He was soon joined by other senators, including South Dakota's George S. McGovern, a decorated World War II bomber pilot, and Ohio's Stephen M. Young, an infantryman in World War I and an Army staff officer in World War II, who carried the attack to a new level.

In a lengthy speech on May 29, noted Zaffiri: "Young described how during the Civil War the Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee attacked the Union forces at Chancellorsville from the rear and flanks simultaneously and routed them. 'Our generals in Vietnam acted as if they had never studied Lee and Jackson's strategy,' Young concluded. 'Instead, they fling our paratroopers piecemeal in frontal assaults. Instead of seeking to surround the enemy and seeking to assault the hill from the sides and the front simultaneously, there was one frontal assault after another, killing our boys who went up Hamburger Hill.'"

[SAMWolf]

What set off this wave of criticism was a May 19 dispatch by Associated Press war correspondent Jay Sharbutt. While reports of the Hamburger Hill battle had been appearing in newspapers since May 14, most were innocuous descriptions of the fight in routine terms. But Sharbutt's dispatch struck a nerve: "The paratroopers came down the mountain, their green shirts darkened with sweat, their weapons gone, their bandages stained brown and red--with mud and blood.



"Many cursed Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt, who sent three companies Sunday to take this 3,000-foot mountain just a mile east of Laos and overlooking the shell-pocked A Shau Valley.

"They failed and they suffered. 'That damn Blackjack [Lt. Col. Honeycutt's radio call sign] won't stop until he kills every one of us,' said one of the 40 to 50 101st Airborne troopers who was wounded."

The day after Sharbutt's story hit the newspapers, Hamburger Hill fell to the troopers of the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade. But that victory was short-lived, for on June 5 the decision was made to abandon the hill to the enemy, further exacerbating public outrage. Adding fuel to the fire, the June 27, 1969, issue of Life magazine featured photographs of the 241 servicemen killed in Vietnam the previous week, including the five who had been killed in the assault on Hamburger Hill. The feature was titled, "The Faces of the Dead in Vietnam: One Week's Toll," and it was prefaced by a quote from a letter written by one of those five soldiers during a break in the fighting. "You may not be able to read this," it said. "I am writing in a hurry. I see death coming up the hill." The erroneous impression was thus created that all 241 pictured had been killed during the Hamburger Hill assault, increasing public disgust over what appeared to be a senseless loss of life.

Underlying that disgust was the fact that the war in Vietnam did not fit the model of war that was fixed in most American minds. Except for the 19th-century Indian wars on the Western plains, most of America's wars had fixed geographic boundaries, and progress could be measured by movement on the map. But Vietnam was different. As MACV commander General Creighton Abrams tried to explain: "We are not fighting for terrain as such. We are going after the enemy." At a news conference following Hamburger Hill's capture, the 101st Airborne Division's commander, Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais, reinforced General Abrams' words.

"The hill was in my area of operations," Zaffiri quoted Zais as saying. "That was where the enemy was, and that was where I attacked him. If I find the enemy on any other hills in the A Shau, I assure you I'll attack him there also." Asked why he had not relied on Boeing B-52 bombers to do the job, he said, "I don't know how many wars we have to go through to convince people that aerial bombardment alone cannot do the job." When criticized for the high number of casualties involved, Zais testily replied: "It's a myth somebody perpetuated that if we don't do anything, nothing will happen to us. It's not true....It's just a myth that we can pull back and everything will settle down. If we pulled back, and were quiet, they'd kill us in the night. They'd come on and crawl under the wire, and they'd drop satchel charges on our bunkers, and they'd mangle and maim and kill our men. The only way I can in good conscience lead my men is to insure that they're not caught in that kind of situation."

Zais was reiterating a truth that military commanders throughout history have known--offense is the very best defense. But war is first and foremost a political act, and in the view of politicians in Washington the 101st Airborne Division's assault on Hamburger Hill had been a disaster. As Hedrick Smith reported in the May 23, 1969, New York Times, a number of civilian officials in the Nixon administration were afraid such Pyrrhic victories "would undermine public support for the war and thus shorten the administration's time for successful negotiations in Paris." As one official privately told Smith: "Now clearly the greatest limitation is the reaction of the American public. They react to the casualty lists. I don't understand why the military doesn't get the picture. The military is defeating the very thing it most wants--more time to gain a stronger hand."

What the military did not realize was that the American public had always been the greatest limitation on the use of military force. As General Fred C. Weyand, General Abrams' successor as MACV commander, wrote after the war: "Vietnam was a reaffirmation of the peculiar relationship between the American Army and the American people. The American Army really is a people's army in the sense that it belongs to the American people who take a jealous and proprietary interest in its involvement." In words particularly applicable to Hamburger Hill, he wrote, "When the Army is committed the American people are committed, when the American people lose their commitment it is futile to try to keep the Army committed."

Given the public and political reaction to Hamburger Hill, a change in war-fighting policy was not long in coming. In order to hold down casualties, what had been a policy of keeping "maximum pressure" on the enemy was changed to one of "protective reaction"--fighting only when threatened by enemy attack. As Lewis Sorley wrote in Thunderbolt (Simon & Schuster), his 1992 biography of General Abrams, when Henry Kissinger, then special assistant to the president for national security affairs, was asked "whether Abrams ever received any instructions, written or otherwise, to hold down the level of U.S. casualties, Kissinger replied, 'Not from the White House.' General Alexander Haig [Kissinger's deputy at the NSC] provided a different answer to the same question: 'Of course.'"

Sorley continued: "On June 19, just a month after the battle at Ap Bia Mountain, President Nixon cleared up any uncertainty there may have been about the existing policy. He had given explicit orders to General Abrams, he later said: 'They are very simply this: he is to conduct the war with a minimum of American casualties.'"

Vietnamization of the war had begun. At the same time Nixon gave his orders to General Abrams, the president also ordered a 25,000-man U.S. troop withdrawal by July 8 and removal of 35,000 more by early December. The U.S. military was on the way out of Vietnam, and the fighting on the ground would gradually be turned over to the ARVN. At the strategic level of the war, time had run out. As State Department Foreign Service Officer Norman Hannah, author of The Key to Failure (Madison Books) and one of the more insightful critics of the war, observed, "This is the tragedy of Vietnam--we were fighting for time rather than space. And time ran out."

Because time had run out at the strategic level, battlefield successes that had been won at the cost of so much blood and sacrifice were also rendered meaningless. In Hanoi a week before the fall of Saigon, I told my North Vietnamese counterpart on the Four Party Joint Military Team (set up by the Paris Peace Accords to deal, unsuccessfully as it turned out, with the POW/MIA issue), "You never beat us on the battlefield." He thought about that for a moment, then replied: "That may be so. But it's also irrelevant." And that irrelevance is what made Hamburger Hill so frustrating.

Previously, battlefield successes had been relevant indeed. Operation Apache Snow, of which the battle for Hamburger Hill would be a part, was designed by the U.S. XXIV Corps to keep the NVA forces in the A Shau Valley off balance. The goal was to prevent them from using the valley as a staging area for an attack on the old imperial capital of Hue and the coastal provinces, as they had done the previous year during the Tet Offensive.

[SAMWolf]

The 45-kilometer-long A Shau Valley, located in rugged country in southwestern Thua Thien province along the Laotian border, was the site of Base Area 611. This base area was a terminus of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of roads, trails and pipelines along the Chaine Annamitique mountains that begin in North Vietnam and continue southward along the Laotian and Cambodian border areas to some 60 kilometers from Saigon.

The valley had long been a staging area for NVA units preparing to attack the coastal provinces, and U.S. Army Special Forces established a camp there in 1963. On March 9, 1966, the NVA 95th Regiment launched a major attack on the camp, and the next day, after hard fighting, it fell to the enemy. There they would stage their capture of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive. After Hue was retaken, a counterattack into the A Shau was mounted on April 19, 1968, by the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the ARVN 1st Division and an ARVN airborne task force. Called Operation Delaware/Lam Son 216, it ended on May 17, 1968, after stiff resistance and meager results. On August 4, 1968, two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division, with two ARVN battalions, launched an airmobile operation into the valley. Named Operation Somerset, it had no better luck than Operation Delaware and withdrew on August 19.



On January 20, 1969, after a hardened road into the eastern part of the valley was constructed, Operation Dewey Canyon was launched into the A Shau. Led by the three battalions of the 9th Marine Regiment, the Marines not only advanced to the Laotian border but also launched a battalion-sized raid into Laos itself. They discovered that the NVA had built major roads in the area, and as many as 1,000 trucks were moving east from there. After capturing enormous enemy arms caches, including 73 AAA guns, 16 122mm artillery guns, nearly 1,000 AK-47 rifles and more than a million rounds of small-arms and machine-gun ammunition, the Marines withdrew on March 13, 1969.

The immediate prelude to Operation Apache Snow was an operation by the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade on March 1, 1969, into the southern end of the A Shau Valley. Labeled Operation Massachusetts Striker, it uncovered massive North Vietnamese supply depots that the enemy had abandoned in their flight northward, ironically right into the path of Operation Apache Snow, which began on May 10.

A 10-battalion operation, Apache Snow's initial assault force consisted of the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division under the command of Colonel Joseph B. Conmy, Jr., with his 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry (3/187); the 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry (2/501); the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry (1/506); and two infantry battalions from the 1st ARVN Division. Also part of the operation were the three battalions of the U.S. 9th Marine Regiment; the U.S. 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry; and two additional ARVN infantry battalions. The operation was supported by some 217 airstrikes as well as fire from four 105mm artillery batteries, two 155mm batteries, one 175mm battery and one 8-inch battery.

The main action of the operation was the 10-day assault on Hamburger Hill, which was defended by the entrenched NVA 29th Regiment. The assault was led by the 3/187 "Rakkasans" under the command of Colonel Honeycutt. A detailed firsthand account of that battle by Colonel Conmy, the 3rd Brigade commander and a combat infantry veteran of World War II and the Korean War, appeared in Vietnam Magazine ("Crouching Beast Cornered," in the August 1990 issue). Several of his observations bear repeating, however.

First is his defense of the 3/187 commander Honeycutt, who has been severely condemned as being a heartless butcher. He was my classmate at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the previous year and was known even then for his abrasive personality.


Dong Ap Bia (Hill 937--"Hamburger Hill"), Thua Thien Province
Insert: Edward J. Henry: Ed was in A Company, 2-506th when they were sent to Hill 937 to assist in the taking of Hamburger Hill, May 1969. Ed stopped before he reached the peak and made up this sign.

Enlisting in the Army at age 16 as a sixth-grade dropout, Honeycutt advanced from private to captain in five years and in the Korean War ended up commanding a rifle company in the 187th Regimental Combat Team, then commanded by Brig. Gen. William C. Westmoreland. Earning the nickname "Tiger" for his aggressiveness, he drove his subordinates hard and some would say mercilessly.

Conmy saw him in a different light. "If I ever go to war again, I want him on my team," he said. "He's a real fighter. Here's an indication of his type of leadership: In the first few days, 3/187 had sustained 50 percent casualties and there was talk of replacing the battalion. However, the troops and Colonel Honeycutt wouldn't have any part of it. They had started the thing and they wanted to finish it." And they did just that, joining forces with the 2/501, attacking from the northeast, the 2nd Battalion, 3rd ARVN Regiment, attacking from the southeast and the 1/506, attacking from the south. Reinforced by the 2/506's Alpha Company, the 3/187 would attack from the west. After the other three battalions had fought their way up the mountain, Colonel Conmy ordered them into blocking positions and gave the 3/187 the honor of making the final assault. By nightfall on May 20, 1969, it was all over.

Conmy also commented on the negative publicity: "Well, people wanted the war to end. This was a battle; maybe if it had been fought a couple of years earlier, it would have been noted--but probably wouldn't have received the attention that it did. In 1969 there was an uproar in the United States. In their eyes we were committing mayhem and murder. Our mission was still to save South Vietnam from communism and give it back to them. If nothing else, this battle certainly helped at the time [and] it was very instrumental in aiding in the eventual withdrawal of our troops from South Vietnam. The enemy had lost his Sunday punch, so to speak."

[SAMWolf]

The late General Abrams, the MACV commander at the time, should have the last word on the battle for Hamburger Hill. His biographer, Lewis Sorley, related: "Shortly after the battle and its immediate aftermath, Abrams had several people over for a game of poker. They had dinner beforehand, and Abrams told his guests: 'Today we had a congressional delegation in, including Teddy Kennedy. They were complaining about the loss of life at Hamburger Hill. I told them the last time the 29th NVA Regiment came out of North Vietnam it destroyed Hue, and I heard from every antiquarian in the world. This time, when they came out again, I issued orders that they were to be intercepted and defeated before they could get to Hue. We drove them back into North Vietnam, but I was criticized for the casualties that entailed. If they would let me know where they would like me to fight the next battle, I would be glad to do it there.' Then they dealt the cards."

'We felt isolated, we could not retreat or advance. We were most afraid of aerial bombardment, which killed us but also the Americans. It was a very special, intense battle. We call it the battle of ‘thit bam’ [the meat chopper].
We could not understand why the Americans chose to fight at Ap Bia. '

-- Ho Khoa,
North Vietnamese Major

[SAMWolf]

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On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on February 24:
1304 Muhammad ibn Battutah Arab travel writer (Travels in Asia & Africa)
1463 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Italy, scholar/platonist
1500 Emperor Charles V king of Spain (1516-56)/Holy Roman Emperor
1501 Sixt(us) Birck [Xystus Betulius] German writer (Suzanna)
1536 Clement VIII [Ippolito Aldofireini], Fano Italy, last Counter-Reformation pope (1592-1605)
1545 Don John of Austria the elder, Austrian general
1547 Jan of Austria Spanish military man/land guardian of the Netherlands
1557 Matthias C Sarbiewski [Sarbievius], Vienna, Polish Jesuit/poet/Holy Roman emperor (1612-19)
1619 Charles Le Brun Paris, painter, designer (The Chancellor Séguier)
1679 Domenico Natale Sarro Italian opera composer
1684 Catherine I Empress of Russia 1725-27, Dorpat, Estonia
1697 Bernard S Albinus [Weiss], German surgeon/anatomist
1704 Hubert Renotte composer
1717 Bernhard Hupfeld composer
1750 Miklós Révai Hungarian linguistic/poet
1766 Samuel Wesley Bristol England, composer/organist (Exultate Deo)
1771 Johann Baptist Cramer German/British pianist/composer/publisher
1786 Wilhelm Karl Grimm Hanau Germany, story teller (Grimm's Fairy Tales)
1797 Samuel Lover composer
1809 Albert Schäffle German sociologist (Abriss der Soziologie)
1809 Edwin H K Freiherr von Manteuffel governor/viceroy (Elzas-Lutherian)
1811 Daniel A Payne Bishop/reformer/educator of AME Church
1811 Edward Dickinson Baker Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1861
1824 John Crawford Vaughn Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1875
1827 Charles Davis Jameson Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1831 Georg Leo earl von Caprivi German chancellor/premier of Prussia
1833 Eduard earl von Taaffe Austrian premier (1868-93)
1836 Winslow Homer US, painter (Gulfstream)
1838 Thomas Benton Smith Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1923
1842 Arrigio Enrico Boito composer
1843 [Joaquim] Theófilo F Braga Portuguese poet/author/politician
1846 Luigi Denza composer
1848 C Grant B Allen Canadian writer (Woman Who Did)
1848 Johanna C P Barbiers actress (Voddenraper of Paris)
1852 George A Moore Ireland, painter/novelist (Esther Waters)
1854 Franz Courtens Flemish painter (Golden Rain)
1858 Arnold Dolmetsch Le Mans, musician
1860 Daniel Berkeley Updike printer/publisher/writer (Printing Types)
1866 Arthur Pearson Wookey Somerset England, newspaper proprietor
1872 John Jarvis England, swimmer (won 108 titles)
1874 Honus Wagner HOF shortstop (Pittsburgh Pirates, 1900-17)
1876 Jean Poveigh composer
1876 Victor Moore Hammonton NJ, comedian (Ziegfeld Follies, 7 Year Itch)
1877 Rudolf Ganz composer
1879 Herman Teirlinck Belgian writer (Sun)
1885 Admiral Chester Nimitz US Admiral (commanded Pacific fleet in WWII)
1885 Bert Lytell New York NY, actor (Henry-One Man's Family)
1885 Joseph Sprinzak Speaker of Israeli Knesset (1949-59)
1885 Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski Polish novelist/satirist (Black Wings)
1887 Mary Ellen Chase US linguistic/author (White Gate)
1890 Antonio Massana composer
1890 Marjorie Main [Tomlinson], Action IN, actress (Another Thin Man)
1898 Kurt Tank German WWII aircraft designer
1899 Jacob Presser Dutch historian/writer (Down-fall)
19-- Dorothy Parke Toronto Canada, actress (Amanda-Hot Shots)
19-- James Sloyan Indianapolis IN, actor (Oh Madeline)
19-- Joan Diener Cleveland OH, actress (54th Street Revue)
19-- Melinda Naud New York NY, actress (Operation Petticoat)
1905 E Boyland biochemist
1905 Guillaume Landre composer
1906 Alexis Curvers Belgian author (Tempo di Roma, Bourg-le-Rond)
1909 August William Derleth Sauk City WI, writer (Judge Peck Mysteries)
1909 Jean Yves Morvan Marin broadcaster
1909 Max Black Dutch/British/US philosopher (analytical philosophy)
1909 Michael Francis Morris Lindsay orientalist
1910 Lord Hazlerigg
1911 Konrad Lechner composer
1912 Julius Kowalski composer
1913 Richard Murphey Goodwin economist
1914 Zachary Scott Austin TX, actor (Spotlight Playhouse, Mildred Pierce)
1914 David Langdon cartoonist/illustrator
1915 Charles Henry "Harry" Urwin trade unionist
1916 Gene Mitchell museum director
1917 William Fairbank Minneapolis MN, physicist (superconductivity)
1919 Alan Hugh Iliffe psychologist
1919 Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
1920 Frank Rogers CEO (NPA Telegraph)
1921 Abe Vigoda New York NY, actor (Barney Miller, Fish)
1921 Douglass Watson Jackson GA, actor (Satan Murders, Another World)
1921 Ingvar Lidholm composer
1921 Ludvig Aschkenazy writer
1922 Kanwar Rai Singh cricketer (batted at MCG in Test for India 1948)
1922 Richard Hamilton painter
1922 Steven Hill Seattle WA, actor (Goddess, Raw Deal, Yentl, Law & Order)
1924 Douglass Watson Jackson GA, actor (Another World)
1924 Lionel Dakers director (Royal School of Church Music)
1924 William Pillar British Admiral
1926 Reginald Freeson British MP
1927 David Mourao-Ferreira poet/politician
1928 Michael Harrington St Louis, socialist/author (Fragments of Century)
1928 Paul B Elvström Denmark, yachtsman (Olympics-gold-1948, 52, 56, 60)
1928 Al Lettieri New York NY, actor (Deadly Kiss, Pulp, Mr Majestyk, Getaway)
1929 Richard B Shull Evanston IL, actor (Diana, Holmes & Yo-Yo)
1929 David Houston Major-General/Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland
1930 Barbara Lawrence Carnegie OK, actress (Joe Dakota)
1931 Brian Close cricketer (played for England between 1949 & 1976)
1931 Inge Bernstein British judge
1931 Lev Vasilyevich Vorobyov Russia, cosmonaut
1931 Maezumi Hakuyu Taizan Koun teacher Rinzai/Soto lines of Zen Buddhism
1931 Marta Marzotto Italy, countess
1932 John Vernon Canada, actor (Animal House, Chained Heat, Dirty Harry)
1932 Andrew Jacobs Jr (Representative-D-IN, 1965-73, 75- )
1932 Everard Goodman English real estate developer (TOPS Estates)
1932 Michel Legrand composer (Summer of '42, Windmills of Your Mind)
1934 Flemming Nielsen Denmark, soccer player (Olympics-silver-1960)
1934 Frank Chapot US, equestrian (Olympics-silver-1960, 1972)
1934 Linda Cristal Buenos Aires Argentina, actress (Victoria-High Chapparal)
1934 Renata Scotto Savona Italy, soprano (Violetta-La Traviata)
1934 Bettino Craxi Italy's 1st socialist premier (1983-87)
1934 Shuko Mizuno composer
1937 Jerry Wiggin British MP
1938 James Farentino Brooklyn NY, actor (Dead & Buried, Final Countdown)
1938 Kathleen Richardson president (Methodist Conference)
1939 George Bain principal (London Business School)
1940 Jimmy Ellis WBA heavyweight boxing champion (1968-70)
1940 Denis Law British soccer player
1940 Theo Bosch Dutch humanist/architect (Nieuwmarkt Amsterdam)
1942 David K Williamson Australian screenplay/playwright (Removalists)
1942 Joe Lieberman (Senator-D-CT)
1942 Paul Jones England, rocker (Manfred Mann-Mighty Quinn)
1942 Stuart Henry British disc jockey
1944 Sheila Larkin Brooklyn NY, actress (Deborah-Storefront Lawyer)
1944 Nicky Hopkins rock pianist (Stones-Ruby Tuesday, Jeff Beck, Quicksilver)
1945 Alain Prost France, Formula 1 race driver (1985, 86, 89, 93) & current team owner
1946 Barry Bostwick San Mateo CA, actor (Spin City, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lexx, Megaforce, Movie Movie, Scruples, Foul Play)
1946 Anthony Mayer chief executive (Housing Corporation)
1946 Jenny O'Hara Sonora CA, actress (Wishmaster, Facts of Life, My Sister Sam)
1946 Michael Radford director (1984, White Mischief)
1947 Edward James Olmos California, actor (Miami Vice, Stand & Deliver, Triumph)
1947 Lonnie Turner bassist/vocalist (Steve Miller Band-Abracadabra)
1947 Rupert Holmes Tenafly NJ, singer (Piña Colada song)
1948 Dennis "Minder" Waterman London England, actor (Fair Exchange)
1948 Lord Melchett
1948 Lorri Menconi playmate (February 1969)
1949 John Lever cricketer (England lefty quick in 21 Tests 1976-81)
1950 Cathy Mant LPGA golfer
1950 G J M Gazdar computational linguist
1951 Helen Shaver Ontario Canada, actress (WIOU, Praise of Older Women)
1951 Derek Randall cricketer (England batsman & animated cover fieldsman)
1952 Tom Burleson USA, basketball (Olympics-silver-1972) tallest Olympian-7'4"
1952 Simon Weinstock businessman/racehorse owner
1954 Marquess of Normanby
1955 Steven Jobs cofounder of Apple Computer
1955 Bob Abrams Ohio, rocker (Buckinghams)
1956 Eddie Murray Los Angeles CA, 1st baseman (Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians)
1957 Phil McConkey NFL wide receiver (New York Giants)
1958 Susan Scannell Lexington MA, actress (Nicole-Dynasty)
1958 Sammy Kershaw Kaplan LA, country vocalist (Cadillac Style)
1959 Beth Broderick Falmouth KY, actress (Aunt Zelda-Sabrina)
1959 Michael Roy Whitney cricket (great New South Wales & Aussie lefty quick 1981-92)
1961 Janice Gibson Tulsa OK, LPGA golfer (1994 Youngstown-Warren-15th)
1961 Persijn "Dakota" Joling Dutch rock guitarist/singer (Pilgrims-Red)
1961 Ruud Really soccer player (Feyenoord)
1962 Teri Weigel Ft Lauderdale FL, porn star/playmate (April 1986)
1962 Michelle Shocked singer/musician
1963 Fuad Reveiz NFL kicker (Minnesota Vikings)
1963 Matias Carrillo Mexican/US baseball outfielder (Florida Marlins)
1965 Paul Gruber NFL tackle (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
1966 Billy Zane actor (Orlando, Memphis Belle, Millions, Titanic)
1966 Rene Arocha Cubans/US baseball pitcher (St Louis Cardinals)
1968 John Velddman soccer player (Sparta)
1968 Kendall Cross Hardin MT, 125½ lbs freestyle wrestler (Olympics-gold-92, 96)
1968 Vaughn Booker NFL defensive end (Kansas City Chiefs)
1970 Jonathan Ward Baltimore MD, actor (Doug-Charles in Charge, Beans Baxter)
1970 Jeff Garcia CFL quarterback (Calgary Stampeders)
1970 Wilson Alvarez Maracaibo Venezuela, pitcher (Chicago White Sox)
1971 Aki Rahunen Finland, tennis star
1971 Brian Savage Sudbury, NHL left wing (Montréal Canadiens)
1972 Larry Amar Camarillo CA, field hockey midfielder/captain (Olympics-96)
1972 Manon Rheaume Lac Beauport Québec Canada, 1st female NHLer (Tampa Bay)
1972 Patricia Regan Leines Medford OR, Miss Oregon-America (1996-3rd)
1972 Ron Davis NFL cornerback (Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers-Superbowl 31)
1973 James Michael Kennedy Boston, rocker (4 Fun-Unbelievable Fun Boys)
1973 Alexei Kovalev Moscow Russia, NHL right wing (New York Rangers)
1973 Harold Morrow full back (Minnesota Vikings)
1973 Kavis Reed CFL defensive back (Edmonton Eskimos)
1973 Oscar de la Hoya boxer
1974 Jeremy Laster Fullerton CA, water polo driver (Olympics-96)
1974 Simeon Rice defensive end (Arizona Cardinals)
1977 Alexis Jose Grullon New York NY, singer (Menudo-Cannonball)
1977 Floyd Mayweather Grand Rapids MI, featherweight boxer (Olympics-bronze-96)
1978 Louise Woodward Elton England, nanny who killed Matthew Eappen

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Deaths which occurred on February 24:
1563 François Guise French General/duke, assassinated at 44
1624 Vicente Espinel Spanish adventure/chaplain (Marcos de Obrégon), dies at 72
1642 Marco da Gagliano Italian opera composer, dies at about 66
1666 Nicholas Lanier composer, dies at 77
1686 Ferdinando Tacca Italian painter/son of Pietro Tacca, dies at 66
1692 Antimo Liberati composer, dies at 74
1704 Marc-Antoine Charpentier French composer (church music), dies
1735 Georg Friedrich Kauffman composer, dies at 56
1784 Anton Laube composer, dies at 65
1785 Carlo Bonaparte Corsican attorney, dies at 39
1799 Broerius Brorius theologist (Pensive Christian), dies at about 41
1799 Georg C Lichtenberg German physicist/writer, dies at 56
1806 John Nieuwenhuijzen theologist (Society for General Use), dies at 81
1810 Henry Cavendish physicist/chemist, dies
1812 Hugo Kollataj Polish teacher/minister, dies at 61
1815 Robert Fulton steamboat pioneer, dies
1825 Thomas Bowdler self-appointed Shakespearean censor, dies
1829 Auguste Chouteau St Louis co-founder, dies
1836 Dániel Berzsenyi Hungarian poet, dies at 59
1848 Frans van Campenhout Belgian singer/composer (Brabançonne), dies at 69
1862 Bernard S Ingemann Danish author (Holger Danske), dies at 72
1871 Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny French painter/etcher, dies at 73
1874 Anselmo Clave composer, dies at 49
1876 Jan Pieter Heije Dutch physician/writer/poet, dies at 67
1895 Ignaz Lachner composer, dies at 87
1907 Otto Goldschmidt composer, dies at 77
1908 Anatol' Vakhnyanyn composer, dies at 66
1919 Josephine McGill composer, dies at 41
1922 Alfred Espinas French sociologist (Sociétes Animales), dies at 77
1922 Dmitri B Shostakovich father of Russian composer Dmitri D S, dies
1924 Edmond Picard French/Belgian writer (Ambidextre journalist), dies at 87
1926 Eddie Plank pitcher (won 327 games in 17 years), dies at 51
1929 Andre-Charles-Prosper Messager composer, dies at 75
1930 Jacobus van Looy Dutch writer/painter (Night Cactus), dies at 74
1933 Spottiswoode Aitken actor (Eagle, Home Sweet Home), dies at 64
1941 Oskar Loerke German director (Longest Day-1926), dies at 56
1944 Leo H A Baekeland Belgian/US chemist (bakelite), dies at 80
1945 Ahmed Maher Pasha Egypt's PM, assassinated in parliament
1953 Karl R G von Rundstedt German General-field marshal (Ardennes), dies at 77
1958 Fernand Baldensperger [Fernand Baldenne] French poet, dies at 86
1960 Jean Binet composer, dies at 66
1961 Léon Jeunehomme Belgian teacher (Pédagogie en Cours), dies at 77
1964 Alexander Archipenko Ukrainian sculptor/water colors painter, dies at 76
1964 Frank Conroy actor (Midnight Mary, Threat), dies at 73
1967 Franz Waxman German composer (Day at the races), dies at 60
1969 Kenneth Green actor (Penrod), dies of heart attack at 61
1970 Conrad Nagel actor (Celebrity Time), dies at 73
1973 Art Smith actor (Quicksand), dies of heart attack at 73
1975 Nikolai A Bulganin marshal/premier of USSR (1955-58), dies at 79
1976 H Allen Smith TV host (Armchair Detective), dies at 68
1976 Charles Wilfred Orr composer, dies at 82
1976 Julian Rivero actor (Via Pony Express), dies at 85
1982 Virginia Bruce actress (Born to Dance, Great Ziegfield), dies at 71
1983 Herbert Norman Howells composer, dies at 90
1983 Tennessee Williams US playwright (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), dies at 71
1984 Uwe Johnson writer, dies at 59
1988 Irwan Chanin US theater builder, dies at 96
1990 Johnnie Ray singer (Cry), dies of liver failure at 61
1990 Malcolm Forbes CEO (Forbes Publishing), dies of a heart attack at 70
1990 Sandro Pertini President of Italy (1978, 85), dies at 93
1990 Tony Conigliaro baseball player (Red Sox), dies in Salem MA at 45
1991 George Gobel Chicago IL, comedian (George Gobel Show), dies after surgery at 71
1991 Jean Rogers actress (Flash Gordon, Hot Cargo), dies at 74
1991 Marcella Markham dies of breast cancer at 68
1991 Webb Pierce US country singer (Bye Bye Love), dies of cancer at 64
1992 Kay Loring dies after long illness
1993 Bobby Moore English soccer team captain (World champions 1966), dies
1993 Toy Caldwell guitarist (Marshall Tucker Band), dies at 45
1994 Dinah Shore singer (Chevrolet), dies of cancer at 76
1994 Donald Phillips pianist/composer, dies at 80
1994 Jean Sablon crooner, dies at 87
1994 Knut Anders Haukfield SOE Operative, dies at 83
1994 Lores Bonney aviator, dies at 96
1995 Richard Nicholson musician, dies at 89
1996 Anna Larina revolutionary, dies at 82
1996 Gene Mitchell museum director, dies on 70th birthday
1996 James Runcieman Sutherland academic, dies at 95
1996 Laurence Richard Deniz jazz guitarist, dies at 71
1997 Isabelle Harriet Lucas actress/singer (Outland, Comics), dies at 69
1998 Henny Youngman comedian (Take my wife please), dies at 92

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On this day...
0303 1st official Roman edict for persecution of Christians issued
1208 St Francis of Assisi, 26, received his vocation in Portiuncula Italy
1296 Pope Boniface VIII degree Clericis Iaicos
1389 Battle at Falköping Danes defeat King Albert of Sweden
1496 England's Henry VII ends commercial dispute with Flanders
1510 Pope Julius II excommunicates the republic of Venice
1525 Battle at Pavia Emperor Karel V's troops beat French king, François I caught taken/8700 killed
1527 Ferdinand of Austria crowned as king of Bohemia
1528 János Zápolyai, Hungarian king, recognizes Sultan Suleiman's suzerainty
1530 1st imperial coronation by a Pope, Charles V crowned by Clement V
1538 King Ferdinand of Austria & King János Zápolyai of Hungary sign Peace of Grosswardein
1541 Santiago, Chile founded by Pedro de Valvidia
1552 Privileges of the Hanseatic League in England are abrogated
1581 Pope Gregory approves the results of his calendar reform commission
1582 Pope Gregory XIII announces New Style (Gregorian) calendar
1597 Flemish painter Frederick of Valckenborch becomes porter of Frankfurt-on-Main
1607 Claudio Monteverdi's opera "Orfeo" premieres in Mantua
1613 English princess Elizabeth marries earl Frederik of Palts
1708 Prince Johan Willem Friso sworn in as viceroy of Groningen
1711 Handel's opera "Rinaldo" premieres, London
1779 George Rogers Clark captures Vincennes IN from British
1786 Charles Cornwallis appointed Governor-General of India
1793 French troops conquer Breda
1803 Supreme Court 1st rules a law unconstitutional (Marbury vs Madison)
1807 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England
1821 Mexico gains independence from Spain
1835 Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun) is 1st Indian language monthly magazine
1836 3,000 Mexicans attack 182 Texans at the Alamo, lasts 13 days
1839 Steam shovel patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
1848 King Louis-Philippe abdicates, 2nd French republic declared
1855 US Court of Claims established for cases against the government
1857 1st perforated US postage stamps delivered to the government
1857 Los Angeles Vineyard Society organized
1863 Arizona Territory created
1863 Forrest's raid on Brentwood TN
1864 Battle of Tunnel Hill GA (Buzzard's Roost)
1868 House of Representatives vote 126 to 47, to impeach President Andrew Johnson
1868 1st US parade with floats (Mardi Gras-Mobile AL)
1876 Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" premieres in Oslo
1881 De Lesseps' Company begins work on Panama Canal
1888 Louisville KY becomes 1st government in US to adopt Australian ballot
1891 French troops under Captain Archinard occupy Diéna West Sudan
1894 Nicaragua captures Tegucigalpa, Honduras (National Day, sort of)
1895 Cuban war of independence begins
1896 Victoria all out for 43 vs South Australia, Jones 6-15 Jarvis 4-27
1902 Battle at Yzer Spruit Boer General De la Rey beats British
1903 US signs agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay Cuba
1905 Simplon tunnel in Switzerland completed
1914 Frank Craven's "Too Many Cooks" premieres in New York NY
1917 German plan to get Mexican help in WWI exposed (Zimmerman telegram)
1917 Russian revolution breaks out
1917 Red Sox sell Smokey Joe Wood, his arm dead at 26, to Cleveland for $15,000
1918 Estonia declares independence from Russia
1920 Peace treaty gives Estonia independence
1920 NSDAP begins at Hofbräuhaus Münich
1921 1st transcontinental flight in 24 hours flying time arrives Florida
1923 Flying Scotsman goes into service
1923 Mass arrests in US of Mafia
1924 Greek parliament proclaims republic
1924 Johnny Weissmuller, swims 100 meter record (57:2/5 seconds)
1924 Mahatma Gandhi released from jail
1925 Thermit explosive 1st used to break up ice jam, Waddington NY
1927 John Golden Theater (Theatre Masque) opens at 252 W 45th St NYC
1932 Malcolm Campbell drives record speed (253.96 mph) at Daytona
1933 Final demonstration of German communist party in Berlin
1933 League of Nations tells Japanese to pull out of Manchuria
1937 1st US group hospital-medical cooperative authorized, Washington DC
1938 Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles
1939 Roy Harris' 3rd Symphony, premieres in Boston
1940 Frances Langford records "When You Wish Upon a Star"
1941 43 Geuzen resistance fighter trial opens in the Hague
1941 Anti Nazi meeting at Noordermarkt Amsterdam
1942 Voice of America begins broadcasting (in German)
1943 General-Major Bradley flies to Algiers
1943 Texas League announces it will quit for the duration of WWII
1944 Argentina coup by Juan Peron minister of war
1945 Egypt & Syria declares war on Nazi-Germany
1945 Manila freed from Japanese
1945 Nazi occupiers begin state of siege
1946 Juan Peron elected President of Argentina
1948 Communist Party seizes complete control of Czechoslovakia
1949 V-2/WAC-Corporal 1st rocket to outer space, White Sands NM, 400 km
1949 Israel & Egypt sign an armistice agreement
1950 Labour wins British parliamentary election
1951 "Bless You All" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 84 performances
1951 Ice Pairs Championship at Milan won by Ria Baran & Paul Falk of Germany
1951 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Milan won by Jeanette Altwegg of Great Britain
1951 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Milan won by Richard Button USA
1952 Betty MacKinnon & Sam Snead win LPGA Orlando Mixed Golf Tournament
1955 "Silk Stockings" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 461 performances
1955 Pact of Baghdad between Iraq & Turkey signed
1960 Italian government of Segni falls
1960 US beats Germany in Olympics hockey finals round, 9-1
1961 Explorer (10) fails to reach Earth orbit
1962 "New Faces of '62" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 28 performances
1962 "Sail Away" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 167 performances
1962 General mobilization in Indonesia over New-Guinea
1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1964 Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston for heavyweight boxing championship
1965 Beatles begin filming "Help" in the Bahamas
1965 East German President Ulbricht visits Egypt
1966 Coup ousts President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana
1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 Gary Unger begins NHL consecutive game record of 914 games
1968 "Darling of the Day" closes at George Abbott NYC after 31 performances
1968 1st pulsar discovered (CP 1919 by Jocelyn Burnell at Cambridge)
1968 US troops reconquer Hue Vietnam
1969 Mariner 6 launched for Mars fly-by
1970 29 Swiss Army officers die in avalanche (Reckingen, Switzerland)
1970 Heintje Simons (14) wins 7 gold records
1970 KVDO TV channel 3 in Salem OR (IND) begins broadcasting
1971 Algeria nationalizes French oil companies
1974 Pakistan officially recognizes Bangladesh
1974 Atje Keulen-Deelstra becomes world champion all-round skater
1976 Cuba adopts its constitution
1976 Jules Feiffer's "Knock Knock" premieres in New York NY
1976 Leonid Brezhnev opens 25th congress of CPSU
1977 President Carter announces US foreign aid will consider human rights
1978 Kevin Porter, New Jersey, sets NBA record with 29 assists in a game
1979 Highest price ever paid for a pig, $42,500, Stamford TX
1979 War between North & South Yemen begins
1980 Rangers score 5 power-play goals against Islanders
1980 USA Olympics hockey team beats Finland (4-2) & wins gold medal
1980 "Canterbury Tales" closes at Rialto Theater NYC after 16 performances
1980 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Bent Tree Golf Classic
1981 Boston Celtics begin 18 NBA game win streak
1981 Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale diet doctor Tarnower
1981 Britain's Prince Charles announces engagement to Lady Diana Spencer
1982 Wayne Gretzky scores NHL-record 78th goal of season en route to 92
1982 24th Grammy Awards Betty Davis Eyes, Double Fantasy win
1983 Dow Jones closes above 1100 mark for 1st time
1983 USSR performs underground nuclear test
1984 Iraq resumes air attack on Iran
1985 Jim Kelly (Houston USFL) passes for pro football record 574 yards
1985 Amy Alcott wins LPGA Circle K Golf Open Tucson
1985 Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev crowned King of Nepal
1985 Yul Brynner reprised his role in "The King & I"
1986 Voyager 2, 1st Uranus fly-by
1986 Texas Air buys Eastern Airlines for $676 million
1987 Radio personality Larry King suffers a heart attack
1987 29th Grammy Awards Higher Love, Graceland, Bruce Hornsby win
1987 Los Angeles Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores his 36,000th NBA point
1988 Supreme Court votes 8-0 Jerry Falwell cannot collect for Hustler parody
1988 Matti Nykanen becomes winter Olympics 1st triple gold medalist
1988 South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
1989 Margaret Ray found in David Letterman's home, claims to be his wife
1989 150-million-year-old fossil egg (oldest dinosaur embryo) found
1989 Harold E Ballard sells CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats to David Braley
1989 US Boeing 747 loses parts of roof over Pacific, 9 die
1989 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1990 Beth Daniel wins LPGA Orix Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open
1991 End of World League of American Football's (WLAF) 1st draft
1991 US & allies begin a ground war assault on Iraqi troops
1991 "Those Were The Days" closes at Edison Theater NYC after 126 performances
1993 35th Grammy Awards Tears in Heaven-Eric Clapton wins
1994 Scoreboard is unveiled at new Cleveland Indians' park (Jacobs Field)
1995 Dow-Jones hits record 4011.74
1996 Cuba downs 2 US planes
1996 Meg Mallon wins LPGA Cup o' Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open
1997 Deng Xiaoping, leader of China, cremated (died Feb 19th)
1997 South Africa announces it is constructing largest modern day blimp
1998 Elton John knighted
1998 NHL resumes season since Feb 8th to accommodate the Olympics
2002 XIX winter Olympics closes in Salt Lake City UT/Québec City

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Cuba : Baire Uprising
Estonia : National Day (1920)
Ghana : Liberation Day (1966)
Indiana : Vincennes Day-George Clark's defeat of British (1779)
México : Flag Day
World : Brotherhood Day (1934) - - - - - ( Sunday )

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Religious Observances
Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Matthias the Apostle (non-leap years)

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Religious History
303 The first official Roman edict for the persecution of Christians was issued by Roman Emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus.
1208 St Francis of Assisi, 26, received his vocation in the Italian village of Portiuncula. He founded the Franciscans the following year, and is regarded by some Catholics as the greatest of all Christian saints.
1500 Birth of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Reigning 1519-56, it was Charles who officially pronounced Martin Luther an outlaw and heretic.
1782 Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his journal: 'It is my constitutional weakness to be gloomy and dejected; the work of God puts life into me.'
1967 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'The statement that God is dead comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this; He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them.'

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Thought for the day :
"Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses."

[SAMWolf]

1903 US signs agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay Cuba

And 100 years later we're still getting use out of it.

Morning Valin, thanks for opening the foxhole today.

[Soaring Feather]

Good Morning SAM!

[SAMWolf]

Morning Feather, Cote made some extra Beavertails just for you this morning.

[HiJinx]

1991 US & allies begin a ground war assault on Iraqi troops

Deja vu all over again...it's coming.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Cote. Good poem again today. I always look forward to see what you come up with.

[SAMWolf]

Only this time, we finish it.

[Jen]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

To be removed from this list, please send me a blank private reply with "REMOVE" in the subject line! Thanks! Jen

[SAMWolf]

Fantastic photos, good find Cote.

[SAMWolf]

Good morning, Jen.

[Jen]

Hi Sam! Fantastic thread today. I'll be out all day -- homework deadlines and errands that I 'must' do today. Have a good day everyone.