The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Bear River Massacre (1/29/1863) - Jan 29th, 2004

college.hmco.com ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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Massacre at Boa Ogoi
Bear River, Idaho
January 29, 1863

Bear River was the first and the worst of the massacres of American Indians in the West. For fifteen years the Northwestern Shoshoni had been dispossessed of their traditional lands by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints pioneers, whose cattle herds were destroying the grass seeds that were their primary food. As the white hunters increased, the wild game decreased, taking another Shoshoni source of food. Without their lands the Shoshoni were starving, so they raided the farms on the lands that had been theirs. The policy of Brigham Young, the Church's leader, was that the settlers would provide food to the Shoshoni in exchange for the return of much of what they had taken.

The peace bought with food for the Shoshoni was an uneasy one. While the Shoshoni avoided the settlers' homesteads, the emigrants on trails and on the Overland Stage, with their supplies of food, were targets of their attacks. In one of their 1860 raids the Shoshoni along the Oregon Trail killed members of an emigrant family and captured three young children. In the search for the children, one man concluded that a young white boy in Bear Hunter's band of Shoshoni was his nephew. The Shoshoni said the boy was the son of a tribal woman and a French trapper. The uncle petitioned US Colonel Patrick Edward Connor to retrieve the boy. During the negotiations the soldiers killed four Shoshoni men. When a gold miner was killed by the Shoshoni on the Montana Trail, supposedly in retribution, a Salt Lake City judge issued a warrant for Bear Hunter's arrest.


Col. Patrick Edward Connor

The primary mission of Connor and his California Volunteers was to guard the overland mail, the vital connection between the East and the West. Their orders permitted them to "hang on the spot" any Indians accused of hindering the mail. Connor used the warrant as his mandate to kill Shoshoni and discredit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints's policy of providing food for them.

Connor launched a surprise attack on the Shoshoni on January 21 by sending 69 men of the 3rd California Infantry with two 6-pounder mountain howitzers toward Bear River. Three days later he and US Major Edward McGarry left Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City with about 220 men of the 2nd California Cavalry. Traveling at night to avoid detection, they headed northward, suffering in the intense cold and snowstorms. The two columns united on January 27.


Bear River Camp was similar to this one

The Shoshoni were in a favorite winter camp, located near hot springs and protected from winter winds by willow trees. Their seventy-five lodges were along Beaver Creek (now known as Battle Creek) where the protected ravine widened. Their horse herd was farther south in the meadow. Bluffs that almost circled the ravine provided defense.

On January 29 McGarry crossed the Bear River with the cavalry and attacked. Bear Hunter's warriors easily repulsed the initial frontal attack. Connor then ferried his infantry across the river on cavalry horses and surrounded the camp. When the Californians broke through a ravine on the Shoshoni's left, the battle became a massacre and then a slaughter. There were no wounded on the field because the soldiers had bludgeoned them to death.


Chief Sagwitch and his wife, the former wife of Chief Bear Hunter who was brutally murdered at the hands of the California militia. Chief Sagwitch was the only surviving chief of the massacre. Chief Lehi was also shot to death by the militia after capture.

While there were about 200 men engaged on each side, the Shoshoni included old men. As a result of the four-hour fight in the bitter cold, there were 42 wounded and 23 killed in Connor's force. Connor reported a month later that 112 men were still incapacitated from frostbite and injuries. About 20 Shoshoni men escaped, but Bear Hunter was killed and his body mutilated by the soldiers. Connor left the surviving women and children with a small supply of grain, destroyed the rest of their provisions, and burned their tipi poles to warm his troops.

The massacre enraged the surviving Indians in the area, and for six months raids—that avoided Connor—continued, until Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah James J. Doty was successful in engaging them in talks and then treaties later in the year.


Monument at the site of the infamous Bear River Massacre, where on January 29, 1863 over 250 Shoshonemen, women and children where slaughtered by U.S. troops

Connor was promoted two months later and became an adviser to US Colonel John Chivington, the commander in the massacre at Sand Creek in November 1864.

Estimated Casualties: 65 US, 250 Shoshoni

[SAMWolf]

BEAR RIVER MASSACRE

On 29 January 1863 Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and about 200 California Volunteers attacked a Northwestern Shoshoni winter village located at the confluence of Beaver Creek and Bear River, twelve miles west and north of the village of Franklin in Cache Valley and just a short distance north of the present Utah-Idaho boundary line. This band of 450 Shoshoni under war chief Bear Hunter had watched uneasily as Mormon farmers had moved into the Indian home of Cache Valley in the spring of 1860 and now, three years later, had appropriated all the land and water of the verdant mountain valley. The young men of the tribe had struck back at the white settlers; this prompted Utah territorial officials to call on Connor's troops to punish the Northwestern band. Before the colonel led his men from Camp Douglas at Salt Lake City north to Bear River, he had announced that he intended to take no prisoners.

Bear River Massacre site, looking east for the Shoshone camp. General Connor came down the slope

As the troopers approached the Indian camp in the early morning darkness at 6:00 a.m., they found the Shoshoni warriors entrenched behind the ten-foot eastern embankment of Beaver Creek (afterwards called Battle Creek). The Volunteers suffered most of their twenty-three casualties in their first charge across the open plain in front of the Shoshoni village. Colonel Connor soon changed tactics, which resulted in a complete envelopment of the Shoshoni camp by the soldiers who began firing on the Indian men, women, and children indiscriminately. By 8:00 a.m., the Indian men were out of ammunition, and the last two hours of the battle became a massacre as the soldiers used their revolvers to shoot down all the Indians they could find in the dense willows of the camp.


Regimental Band, 3d Regiment California Volunteers, Fort Douglas, Utah

Approximately 250 Shoshoni were slain, including 90 women and children. After the slaughter ended, some of the undisciplined soldiers went through the Indian village raping women and using axes to bash in the heads of women and children who were already dying of wounds. Chief Bear Hunter was killed along with sub-chief, Lehi. The troops burned the seventy-five Indian lodges, recovered 1,000 bushels of wheat and flour, and appropriated 175 Shoshoni horses. While the troops cared for their wounded and took their dead back to Camp Douglas for burial, the Indians' bodies were left on the field for the wolves and crows.


Major Edward McGarry

Although the Mormon settlers in Cache Valley expressed their gratitude for "the movement of Col. Connor as an intervention of the Almighty" in their behalf, the Bear River Massacre has been overlooked in the history of the American West chiefly because it occurred during the Civil War when a more important struggle was taking place in the East. Of the six major Indian massacres in the Far West, from Bear River in 1863 to Wounded Knee in 1890, the Bear River affair resulted in the most victims, an event which today deserves greater attention than the mere sign presently at the site.

Brigham D. Madsen

[SAMWolf]

Four miles north of Preston, Idaho, the Bear River quietly ambles through green valleys and sagebrush covered mountains. It is quiet now, with only a few cattle grazing nearby on well-kept farms.

Today, the tall willows which once provided cool respite for the Northwestern band of Shoshone who camped there to escape the summer's glaring heat have all but vanished.

Something happened on this site that is little known to U.S. history. But it is seared forever into the memory of the Shoshone.

On January 29, 1863, the militia of the U.S. Army's Third California Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Patrick E. Connor, rode down the frozen bluff and massacred some 300 Northwestern Shoshone Indians - the largest slaughter of Native Americans in the history of the country.


On January 29th, the Shoshone Peoples honor the crying spirits of the Bear River Massacre.

It was a clash of two diverse cultures trying to share the same land, and the Shoshone lost. The Shoshone, comprising several bands, had close contact with the white settlers moving in the ever-growing tide of westward expansion.

They found themselves in the unenviable position of being precisely where immigrants would pass on their way to the Pacific. That, combined with the critical perception people had of Native Americans at the time, resulted in a recipe for disaster.

The Shoshone were a starving people that winter, and the sometimes friendly offerings of food by nearby residents had dwindled as the Shoshone were blamed for skirmishes and the atrocities to other groups nearby.

Soon after the founding of Salt Lake, Peter Skene Ogden wrote, "What will be the reward of these poor wretches in the next world I cannot pretend to say, but surely they cannot be in a more wretched state than this." It was a commonly held notion at the time.


Families like this one were wiped out by Conner's men

Native Americans were viewed as poor, starving beggars who didn't understand the concept and benefits of a Manifest Destiny, or, as Col. Patrick E. Connor believed, violent savages who needed to be destroyed at all costs.

Skirmishes had broken out all along the Utah frontier leading to the Utah War, and the overland mail routes had been under attack. Individual murders had been taking place and the local constituency were at their wits end.

Utah Governor Frank Fuller and various other officials asked the Secretary of War to come in with a temporary regiment of mounted rangers. Brigham Young interpreted that as an attempt to bypass the Utah militia who "were ready and able to take care ... of all the Indians and ... protect the mail line if called upon to do so."

It seems that the few people doing most of the talking did not understand the Northwestern Shoshone, and did not distinguish that particular band of the tribe from the others.


Col. Patrick Edward Connor

There were troublemaking bands that took a few horses and cattle, were involved in an altercation with settlers (two Indians and two white settlers were killed), and ate the stolen cattle because of hunger. None of these bands, however, were of the Northwestern Shoshone, but all were tarred with the same brush.

It was in this environment that Col. Connor and his California Volunteers rode toward the area of the Bear River.

It was so cold that winter that merely exhaling caused men's mustaches to freeze. Before setting out for Bear River in southern Idaho, nearly 75 of Connor's 275 men were left behind in Utah's Brigham City due to frozen feet before the remainder of the regiment made the hard ride north.

Along the river banks on the icy morning of January 29, 1863, Chief Sagwitch rose early. A white friend of the Shoshone had come to tell them that Col. Connor was at last coming to the camp to "get the guilty parties."


Bear River Camp was similar to this one

Chief Sagwitch had expected a visit for just that purpose and on that January morning, as he realized the steam drifting from the mountains was getting lower, he realized too that the soldiers were at last there.

As he called to the others who were still asleep, men tumbled from their tepees and grabbed their weapons. In the frenzy, Sagwitch yelled for the men not to be the first to shoot.

As his granddaughter Mae Parry recounts in her story Massacre at Boa Ogoi, "He thought that perhaps this military man was a wise and just man. He thought the Colonel would ask for the guilty men, whom he would immediately have handed over."

The encounter did not happen the way that Chief Sagwitch thought it would. The Colonel asked no questions. The regiment commenced firing, and the Indians were being "slaughtered like wild rabbits."


A two year old like this one survived with seven bullet wounds. He wandered in a daze carrying a bowl of pine nut gravy that had frozen. He was the son of Chief Sagwitch.

Seeing themselves vastly outnumbered, the Shoshone began jumping into the freezing river in an attempt to escape. No one was spared: men, women and children, whose names are known only to historians of the tribe.

One survivor was Anzee Chee. She was chased by soldiers, but was able to hide under a bank that overhung the river. She suffered wounds in the shoulder and chest and the loss of her baby, who was tossed into the icy water to be drowned.

Chief Bear Hunter was known as a leader by the soldiers. He was kicked and tortured, and finally, because he would not cry out, had a rifle bayonet run through his ears. It proved to be painfully true that arrows were no match for rifles.

There were close to 450 men, women and children in the camp that day. If Connor had arrived a few weeks earlier, during the Shoshone's Warm Dance, the death toll could have been higher.


Monument at the site of the infamous Bear River Massacre.

The traditional Warm Dance, to bring back warm weather and drive out the cold, brought many bands together to play games and to socialize. Colonel Connor, who prided himself on knowing the ways of the Indian, was unaware of the Warm Dance tradition.

Throughout the battle, the wounded urged their chief to escape. After surviving two of his horses in battle, Sagwitch finally escaped on a third. Another Shoshone escaped with him by grasping the horse's tail as they rode across a frozen section of the river.

One incident that has been recounted many times by the Timbimboo family tells of Yeager Timbimboo (or Da boo zee, meaning cottontail rabbit), who was the son of Chief Sagwitch.

Only twelve years old, Yeager was caught up in the bloodshed, looking for shelter as bullets whizzed past him. He spied a grass teepee so full of people that it was actually moving. He entered the teepee and there he found his grandmother.


Camp Douglas was established in October 1862 to protect the Overland Mail and telegraph route from Indian depredations.

She was afraid that soon the teepee would go up in flames, but she had a plan. She and the boy would go out among the dead and be very still, not making a sound or, as she instructed him, "not even open your eyes."

Surrounded by the dead, they remained still on the intensely cold ground all day until Yeager, whose curiosity got the best of him, raised his head and looked down the gun barrel of a soldier who saw that he was still alive.

Yeager told later that the soldier raised his gun and lowered it two times while looking into his eyes. The soldier finally lowered the gun and, perhaps weary from the blood spilled there, walked away.

Another of the chief's sons escaped with a girlfriend. She rode behind him on his horse as they raced for the surrounding hills. He made it, but she died from the bullets that found their mark.



Tale after tale of that day's intimate sorrow, rage and courage became the saddest chapters of the Northwestern Shoshone history. Scenes of desperation, the courage to survive, and the loss of the dream that they would find justice at the hands of their perpetrators also fell upon them that day.

Today, the killing field is marked with a small stone monument with a plaque. Surrounding the tiny parking area are farms and a few homes that are well-kept and quiet.

Though designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990 by the National Park Service, you can easily drive past this stone monument, a silent testimony to those who lost their lives in the largest massacre of Indians in the history of the United States, and never know what happened.

For many Shoshone, the wooden sign and the little monument of stones not more than eight feet high is not a proper testimony to the hundreds who were brutally killed there that January day.



Mark Carter, a local resident, while pointing to the ford where the California Volunteers came down, said "It wasn't a battle, it was a massacre and I remember hearing about it all my life. I'm in my seventies now and I recall at the age of 14 seeing the stones being piled here as this monument. These people have to be remembered."

Rebecca Fawn Cochran

Additional Sources:

www.bearriverheritage.com
rnsmith.com/wpsmith
www.onlineutah.com
www.aaanativearts.com
historytogo.utah.gov
www.pbs.org
www.indianer-web.de
www.generalsandbrevets.com
wolfrunner.hypermart.net
americancivilwar.com
www.preston.k12.id.us
www.rootsweb.com/~idfrankl

[SAMWolf]

Text of the Marker

No. 16
Erected 1932

The Battle of Bear River
was fought in this vicinity January 29, 1863

Col. P.E. Connor, leading 300 California volunteers from Camp Douglass, Utah, against Bannock and Shoshoni Indians guilty of hostile attacks on emigrants and settlers, engaged about 500 Indians of whom 250 to 300 were killed or incapacitated, including about 90 combatant women and children. 14 soldiers were killed. 4 officers and 49 men wounded, of whom 1 officer and 7 men died later. 79 were severely frozen. Chiefs Bear Hunter, Sagwitch, and Lehi, were reported killed. 175 horses and much stolen property were recovered. 70 lodges were burned.

Franklin County Chapter, Daughters of The Utah Pioneers
Cache Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America, and
Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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[snippy_about_it]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Thursday Morning Everyone

If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

This is what I fly at work.

[SCDogPapa]

Mornin' Snippy,,,Mornin' Sam!

It was a clash of two diverse cultures trying to share the same land, and the Shoshone lost.

So did so many other tribes! It is obvious that the white man didn't want to share anything with the Indians.

[The Mayor]

Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart

The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.

[stainlessbanner]

Good morning, all. Grits and coffee coming up!

Now Sam, we need to talk about this Florida not being Southern and all : )

[snippy_about_it]

I know there are two sides to every story but all I know for sure is I wouldn't have wanted to live in these times as the west was settled. There are sad stories in our history on every side.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Aeronaut.

Nice plane. Sure beats sitting behind a desk I bet.

[snippy_about_it]

Morning SCDogPapa. I'd like to think some were willing to share but it was certainly a clash of two cultures and wasn't going to work. We still have that problem today especially with our lax immigration rules.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning stainless banner. I'll take a double heaping of those grits, I'm hungry this morning.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC. We have a cold north wind coming down to spend a couple days with us. Wind chills below zero expected.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor. Hope you're staying warm.

[SCDogPapa]

I'd like to think some were willing to share but it was certainly a clash of two cultures and wasn't going to work.

Certainly there were some willing to share. I would have been one. There was so much WE could have learned from the Indians.

As far as the cultural differences,, if the white man had not had the attitude, that they were heathens, things could have been different. After all, we broke all our treaties we made with them, and taught them how to scalp.

[snippy_about_it]

It does seem the settlers got "greedier" the further west they went.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on January 29:
1688 Emanuel Swedenborg Sweden, religious leader (Angelic Wisdom)
1700 Daniel Bernoulli Basel Switzerland, mathematician (10 time French award)
1711 Giuseppe Bonno composer
1717 Jeffrey Amherst English Governor-General of America/field marshal
1737 Thomas Paine political essayist (Common Sense, Age of Reason)
1756 Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee (Republican/Governor-VA)/General/cavalryman
1761 Abraham AA "Albert" Gallatin Switzerland, US minister of Finance (1801-14)
1810 Earnest E Kummer German mathematician
1821 Isaac Ferdinand Quinby Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1891
1823 Franklin Gardner Major-General (Civil War-fought at Shiloh & Port Hudson)
1836 Benjamin Franklin Potts Brevet Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1887
1836 James Meech Warner Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1897
1843 William McKinley Niles OH, (R) 25th President (1897-1901)
1850 Lawrence Hargrave inventor (box kite)
1860 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov Tagarov Russia, playwright (Cherry Orchard)
1874 John David Rockefeller Jr Cleveland OH, philanthropist
1878 Barney Oldfield Ohio, daredevil
1880 W C Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] Philadelphia PA, actor (My Little Chickadee, Bank Dick)
1901 Allen B DuMont inventor (perfected commercial practical cathode ray tube)
1912 Professor Irwin Corey Brooklyn NY, comedian (Car Wash, Doc)
1913 Victor Mature Louisville KY, actor (One Million BC, The Robe, Samson & Delilah)
1918 John Forsythe New Jersey, actor (Bachelor Father, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty)
1923 Paddy Chayevsky [Sydney], US, dramatist (Marty, Hospital)
1929 William McMillan US, rapid pistol (Olympics-gold-1960)
1939 Germaine Greer Melbourne Australia, feminist/author (Female Eunuch)
1942 Katharine Ross Hollywood CA, actress (Graduate, Francesca-Colbys)
1945 Tom Selleck Detroit MI, actor (Lance-Rockford Files, Magnum PI)
1952 Tommy Ramone [Thomas Erdelyi], Budapest Hungary, rock drummer/bassist [Ramones-Rock & Roll High School)
1954 Oprah Winfrey Kosciusko MI, actress/TV host (Color Purple, Oprah)
1959 Paul McGann actor (Dr Who)

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Deaths which occurred on January 29:
1559 Sir Thomas Pope English politician, benefactor, dies at about 52
1696 Ivan V co-tsar of Russia (1682-89), dies
1820 George III king of Great-Britain (1760-1820), dies at 81
1837 Aleksandr Pushkin poet/novelist/dramatist (Golden Cockeral), killed in a duel
1941 Ioannis Metaxas Greek General/dictator (1936-41), commits suicide at 69
1946 Harry L Hopkins US minister of Business (Loan & Lease law), dies at 55
1956 H L Mencken US essayist/critic/satirist (Smart Set), dies in Baltimore MD at 75
1963 Robert Lee Frost US poet (New Hampshire, 4 Pulitzers), dies at 88
1964 Alan Ladd actor (Shane), dies at 50 in Palm Springs CA
1970 Basil H Liddell Hart English military historian, dies at 74
1977 Freddie Prinze comedian/actor (Chico & the Man), shoots himself at 22
1986 Leif Erickson actor (John-High Chaparral), dies at 74
1992 Willie Dixon blues composer (I'm a Man, Backdoor Man, Spoonful, Little Red Rooster....), dies at 76
1994 Nick Cravat midget (Gremlin-Twilight Zone), dies of lung cancer at 81

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 BADOLATI FRANK N.---GOFFSTOWN NH.
1966 HODGSON CECIL J.---GREENVILLE TX.
1966 TERRY RONALD T.---NIAGARA FALLS NY.
[SHOTS HEARD]
1967 SILVA CLAUDE ARNOLD---MONTE VISTA CO.
1968 MILLS JAMES DALE---COMMERCE TX.
1968 MULLEAVEY QUINTEN EMILE---NORTH WOODSTOCK NH. [NOT ON OFFICIAL DIA LIST. REFNO 2057]
1968 WHITE CHARLES E.---BESSEMER AL.
["POSS DEAD, IMPALED"]
1969 CAMPBELL WILLIAM E.---MC ALLEN TX.
1969 HOLTON ROBERT E.---BUTTE MT.
1971 LINEBERGER HAROLD B.---AUSTIN TX.
1971 MIXTER DAVID I.---DARIEN CT.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
1523 Sermon of Constanz Zwingli defends 67 Schlussreden
1574 Sea battle of Reimerswaal - Admiral Boisot beats Spanish fleet
1676 Fjodor Aleksejevitsj becomes czar of Russia
1781 Mozart's opera "Idomeneo" premieres, Munich
1788 Australia Day
1802 John Beckley of Virginia appointed 1st Librarian of Congress
1834 President Jackson orders 1st use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute
1845 Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" 1st published (New York City NY)
1850 Henry Clay introduces a comprise bill on slavery to US Senate
1856 Victoria Cross established to acknowledge bravery
1860 American College established in Rome by Pope Pius IX
1861 Kansas becomes 34th state
1863 Battle at Bear River WA US Army vs Indians
1864 Battle of Moorefield WV (Rosser's Raid)
1879 Custer Battlefield National Monument, Montana established
1886 1st successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe
1900 American League organized in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee & Minneapolis
1900 Boers under Joubert beat English at Spionkop Natal, 2,000 killed
1912 Martial law declared in textile strike in Lawrence MA
1916 1st bombings of Paris by German Zeppelins takes place
1919 Secretary of state proclaims the 18th amendment (prohibition)
1920 Walt Disney starts 1st job as an artist; $40 week with Kansas City Slide Co
1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland
1929 Seeing Eye Guide Dog Organization forms
1942 German & Italian troops occupy Benghazi
1942 Peru & Ecuador sign Protocol of Rio (boundary determination)
1944 285 German bombers attack London
1948 Commissioner Happy Chandler fines the Yankees, Cubs, & Phillies $500 each for signing high school players
1949 Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand & Switzerland recognize Israel
1951 Liz Taylor's 1st divorce (Conrad Hilton Jr)
1953 1st movie in Cinemascope (The Robe) premieres
1958 Murderer, Charles Starkweather, captured by police in Wyoming
1958 Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward wed
1959 Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" released
1963 Jim Thorpe, Red Grange & George Halas elected to football hall of fame
1964 Most lopsided high-school basketball score-211-29 (Louisiana)
1964 Unmanned Apollo 1 Saturn launcher test attains Earth orbit
1964 Stanley Kubrick's"Dr Strangelove" premieres
1967 Branch Rickey & Lloyd Waner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1969 Jimi Hendrix & Peter Townshend wage a battle of guitars
1979 President Carter commuted Patricia Hearst's 7 year sentence to 2 years
1980 6 Iranian held US hostages escape with help of the Canadians
1984 President Reagan formally announces he will seek a 2nd term
1987 Lisa files for separation from husband New York Met Darryl Strawberry
1987 William J Casey, ends term as 13th director of CIA
1991 Battle for Khafji in Saudi Arabia (begins)

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
New Zealand : Auckland Provincial Anniversary
Kansas : Admission Day/Kansas Day (1861)
US : Think Hawaii Day
National Be On-Purpose Month

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Religious Observances
old Roman Catholic : St Francis of Sales, bishop of Geneva, doctor

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Religious History
993 St. Ulrich, who lived c.890-973, and was Bishop of Augsburg from 923, was canonized at a Lateran Synod. With this action by Pope John XV, St. Ulrich became the first individual in Roman Catholic history formally elevated to sainthood.
1499 Birth of Katherine von Bora, the former German nun who became Martin Luther's wife in 1525 when he was 41 and she 26. During their 21-year marriage, Katie bore Martin 3 sons and 3 daughters. Her death in 1552 followed six years after her husband's in 1546.
1780 Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his journal: 'My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed.'
1921 The Congregational Holiness Church was formally organized, following a split the previous year with the Pentecostal Holiness Church. Headquartered today in Griffin, GA, most CHC churches are located in the Southeast US.
1967 Pope Paul VI and Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny conferred at the Vatican in the first meeting in history between a Roman Catholic pontiff and the head of a Communist state.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken."

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Question of the day...
What do they mean when they say, Act naturally?

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Murphys Law of the day...(Gerrold's Laws of Infernal Dynamics)
1 An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction.
2 An object at rest will always be in the wrong place.
3 The energy required to change either one of the states will always be more than you wish to expend, but never so much as to make the task totally impossible.

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Astounding fact #93,765...
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language - 823 words without a period.

[hardhead]

'Buon giorno, tutti amici!'  Those words are music to the ears of many former USAF Security Service and Electronic Security Command  personnel stationed at San Vito dei Normanni Air Station in Brindisi, Italy.  There is a web page devoted to documentation of the history of San Vito, which finally closed it's gates in April 2002 after a decade of phasedown - Welcome BACK to Sunny San Vito   Also attached to the web page is the USAFSS Web Ring which will bring you up to date on many other former Security Service locations.