.......
The change in front was one of the most important and controversial operational decisions of the campaign. It clearly reflected the British belief that the veteran Eighth Army was better qualified to carry the main burden of the campaign than its junior partner from across the Atlantic. Indeed, the decision did little more than make explicit the priorities and assumptions that had been implicit in the campaign plan all along. On the other hand, by ordering the Seventh Army to stop short of Highway 124 and redirecting its advance, Alexander lost momentum and provided the Axis valuable time to withdraw to a new defensive line between Catania and Enna. The loss of momentum was best illustrated by the repositioning of the 45th Division, which had to return almost to the shoreline before it could sidestep around the 1st Division and take up its new position for a northwestward advance. Given the circumstances, Alexander might have been better served by reinforcing success and shifting the main emphasis of the campaign to the Seventh Army. This was not his choice, however, and his decision stirred up a storm of controversy in the American camp.
Patton and his generals were furious. They had always assumed that the Seventh Army would be permitted to push beyond its initial Yellow and Blue objectives and into central and northern Sicily in order to accompany the Eighth Army on its drive toward Messina. After all, Alexander's vague preinvasion plans had never expressly ruled this out. Now that option had been eliminated and they felt slighted. Not content to accept a secondary role, Patton immediately cast about for an opportunity to have his army play a more decisive part in the campaign. The object which caught his eye was Palermo, Sicily's capital. Capture of this well-known city would not only be a publicity coup, but it would also give his army a major port from which to base further operations along the northern coast.
Patton's first move was to coax Alexander into sanctioning a "reconnaissance" toward the town of Agrigento, several miles west of the 3d Division's current front line. That authorization was all General Truscott needed to seize the city on 15 July. With Agrigento in hand, Patton was in a position to drive into northwestern Sicily, and on the 17th he traveled to Alexander's headquarters to argue for just such a course. Patton wanted to cut loose from the Eighth Army and launch his own, independent drive on Palermo while simultaneously sending Bradley's II Corps north to cut the island in two. Alexander reluctantly agreed, but later had second thoughts and sent Patton a revised set of orders instructing him to strike due north to protect Montgomery's flank rather than west. Seventh Army headquarters ignored Alexander's message claiming that it had been "garbled" in transmission, and by the time Alexander's instructions could be "clarified," Patton was already at Palermo's gates.
The Seventh Army met little opposition during its sweep through western Sicily. Guzzoni had recalled the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division to central Sicily soon after the invasion, and the only troops left in the western portion of the island were Italians who, for the most part, showed little inclination to fight. While General Bradley's II Corps pushed north to cut the island in two east of Palermo, Patton organized the 2d Armored, 82d Airborne, and 3d Infantry Divisions into a provisional corps under Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes and sent it on a 100-mile dash to the Sicilian capital. Palermo fell in only seventy-two hours, and by 24 July the Seventh Army had taken control of the entire western half of the island, capturing 53,000 dispirited Italian soldiers and 400 vehicles at the loss of 272 men.
A Sherman tank moves past Sicily's rugged terrain. (National Archives)
The fall of Palermo was quickly followed by even more startling news. Disenchanted by the long and costly war, Mussolini's opponents ousted the dictator from power on 25 July. Although the Allies had hoped that Operation HUSKY would destabilize the Fascist regime, the coup took them by surprise. Mussolini's downfall did not immediately terminate Italy's participation in the war. Nevertheless, the invasion of Sicily had acted as a catalyst in bringing about an important crack in the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Palermo's capitulation also coincided with the beginning of a new phase of the campaign. On 23 July Alexander ordered Patton to turn eastward toward Messina. Montgomery's drive had bogged down at Catania, and it was now apparent that the Eighth Army was not going to be able to capture Messina on its own. Alexander, therefore, redrew the army boundaries once again, authorizing Patton to approach Messina from the west while Montgomery continued to push from the south.
The drive on Messina would not resemble Patton's quick, cavalry-like raid on Palermo. The city was protected by the most rugged terrain in Sicily, the Caronie Mountains and Mount Etna's towering eminence. In addition, the Germans had constructed a series of strongpoints, called the Etna Line, that ran from the vicinity of Catania on the east coast, around the southern base of Mount Etna, north to San Fratello on the island's northern shore. Here, in Sicily's rugged northeast corner, the Axis had decided to make its stand. But it was to be only a temporary stand, for while General Guzzoni still talked of defending Sicily to the end, Berlin had decided to withdraw gradually from the island. Guzzoni, his authority weakened by the disintegration of most of his Italian units, was not in a position to disagree. From this point forward General Hans Hube, commander of the newly formed German XIV Panzer Corps, and not Guzzoni, exercised real control over Axis forces in Sicily.
General Hube planned to withdraw slowly to the Etna Line where he would make a determined stand while simultaneously undertaking preliminary evacuation measures. Final evacuation would occur in phases, with each withdrawal matched by a progressive retreat to increasingly shorter defensive lines until all Axis troops had been ferried across the Strait of Messina to Italy. To accomplish this task, Hube had the remnants of several Italian formations plus four German divisions—the 1st Parachute, the Hermann Goering Panzer, the 15th Panzer Grenadier, and the newly arrived 29th Panzer Grenadier Division.
Troops and supplies unloading near Gela on D-day. (National Archives)
There were just four narrow roads through the Etna Line, and only two of these actually went all the way to Messina. Possessing these vital arteries became the focal point of the campaign. General Alexander gave each of the Allied armies two roads for the advance on Messina. A portion of the Eighth Army was to advance along the Adrano-Randazzo road that skirted the western slopes of Mount Etna, while the remainder endeavored to drive north along the eastern coastal road, Route 114, to Messina. Alexander assigned the two northern roads to the American Seventh Army. The first, Route 120, ran through the interior of Sicily from Nicosia, through Troina, to Randazzo. The second, Highway 113, hugged the northern shoreline all the way to Messina.
It was Highway 113 that held Patton's interest, for it was his most direct route to Messina. Stung by the belief that Generals Alexander and Montgomery belittled the American Army, Patton was obsessed with the idea of reaching Messina before the British. "This is a horse race in which the prestige of the US Army is at stake," he wrote General Middleton. "We must take Messina before the British. Please use your best efforts to facilitate the success of our race."
Conquest American Style, Newsweek cover 1943/10/18
The race got off to a slow start as the Germans skillfully exploited the mountainous terrain to cut the Allied advance to a crawl. Illness and the weather aided the Germans. Malaria and other fevers incapacitated over 10,000 soldiers. Heat exhaustion brought on by Sicily's 100-degree temperatures knocked additional G.I.s out of the ranks. The Seventh Army advanced two divisions abreast, with the 1st Infantry Division moving along Route 120 and General Middleton's 45th Infantry Division operating on the coast road. After Middleton's G.I.s captured Santo Stefano's "Bloody Ridge" on 30 July, Patton replaced them with General Truscott's 3d Division, allowing the men of the 45th time to rest and recuperate for their next assignment, the invasion of Italy.
Meanwhile, the 1st Infantry Division pushed its way eastward against stiffening German opposition, capturing Nicosia on the 28th before moving on to Troina. Patton planned to take the exhausted 1st Division out of the line once Troina fell. The mountain village, however, would prove to be the unit's toughest battle, as well as one of the most difficult fights of the entire Sicily Campaign. Troina constituted one of the main anchors of the Etna Line and was defended by the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division and elements of the Italian Aosta Division. The Axis forces were deeply entrenched in hills that both dominated the approaches to the town and were difficult to outflank. The barren landscape, almost devoid of cover, made advancing American soldiers easy targets for Axis gunners.
The battle for Troina began on 31 July, when the Germans repulsed an advance by the 39th Infantry Regiment, a 9th Infantry Division outfit temporarily attached to the 1st Division. The setback forced Bradley and Allen to orchestrate a massive assault. Over the next six days the men of the 1st Infantry Division, together with elements of the 9th Division, a French Moroccan infantry battalion, 165 artillery pieces (divided among 9 battalions of 105-mm. howitzers, 6 battalions of 155-mm. howitzers, and 1 battalion of 155-mm. "Long Tom" guns), and numerous Allied aircraft, were locked in combat with Troina's tenacious defenders. Control of key hilltop positions see-sawed back and forth in vicious combat, with the Germans launching no fewer than two dozen counterattacks during the week-long battle.
While the 1st Infantry Division battled for possession of Troina, General Truscott's 3d Division faced equally stiff opposition at San Fratello, the northern terminus of the Etna Line. Here the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division had entrenched itself on a ridge overlooking the coastal highway. Truscott made repeated attempts to crack the San Fratello position beginning on 3 August, but failed to gain much ground. The strength of the German position prompted him to try and outflank it by an amphibious end run. On the night of 7-8 August, while the 3d Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, and 3d Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, seized a key hill along the San Fratello Line, Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard led the 2d Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, reinforced by two batteries from the 58th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, a platoon of medium tanks, and a platoon of combat engineers, in an amphibious landing at Sant'Agata, a few miles behind San Fratello. The amphibious assault force achieved complete surprise and quickly blocked the coastal highway. Unfortunately, the Germans had selected that night to withdraw from San Fratello, and most of their troops had already retired past Bernard's position by the time the Americans arrived. Nevertheless, the 3d Infantry Division's combined land and sea offensive bagged over 1,000 prisoners.
Allied pressure at Troina, San Fratello, and in the British sector had broken the Etna Line, but there would be no lightning exploitation of the victory. Taking maximum advantage of the constricting terrain and armed with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mines, General Hube withdrew his XIV Panzer Corps in orderly phases toward Messina.
Troina. (National Archives)
Patton made a second bid to trap the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division on 11 August, when he sent Colonel Bernard on another amphibious end run, this time at Brolo. Once again Bernard's men achieved complete surprise, but they soon came under heavy pressure as the German units trapped by the landing tried to batter their way out. Bernard's group proved too small to keep the Germans bottled up, and by the time Truscott linked up with the landing force, the bulk of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division had escaped.
Time was now running out for the Allies. On 11 August, the day Patton launched the Brolo operation, General Hube began the full-scale evacuation of Sicily. Despite heroic feats by U.S. Army engineers in clearing minefields and repairing blown bridges, the Seventh Army was never quite able to catch the withdrawing Axis forces. A last amphibious end run by a regiment of the 45th Division on 16 August failed when the troops landed behind American, and not German, lines. By then the game was over. On the morning of 17 August, elements of the 3d Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment entered Messina, just hours after the last Axis troops had boarded ship for Italy. The enemy had escaped, but the Seventh Army quickly brought reinforcements into the port, in the words of 3d Division assistant commander Brig. Gen. William Eagles, "to see that the British did not capture the city from us after we had taken it." Shortly after Patton accepted the city's surrender, a column of British vehicles slowly wound its way through Messina's crooked streets. Spotting General Patton, the commander of the British column walked over and offered his hand in congratulations. Patton had won his race.
Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Husky - Sicily (Jul-Aug, 1943) - July 10th, 2003 www.capnasty.org/issues/7/13/1239
history.acusd.edu
www.history.navy.mil
............
Analysis
The American soldier had much to be proud of in the Sicily Campaign. With the exception of those units which had taken part in the Tunisia Campaign, especially the 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions, few American formations employed in Sicily began the campaign with any combat experience, and their abilities were still unknown. But the American troops had done well. After landing on a hostile shore, they had repelled several counterattacks, forced the enemy to withdraw, and relentlessly pursued him over sun-baked hills until the island was theirs. In thirty-eight days they and their British colleagues had killed or wounded approximately 29,000 enemy soldiers and captured over 140,000 more. In contrast, American losses totaled 2,237 killed and 6,544 wounded and captured. The British suffered 12,843 casualties, including 2,721 dead.
Gen. Terry Allen's "Big Red One" lands at Gela July 10, 1943
Sicily was also a victory for the logistician and the staff planner. Although overshadowed by the Normandy invasion a year later, Operation HUSKY was actually the largest amphibious operation of World War II in terms of the size of the landing zone and the number of divisions put ashore on the first day of the invasion. The amphibious operation, as well as the subsequent logistical effort, marked a clear triumph of American staff work and interservice cooperation. Army-Navy cooperation was particularly good, and the fire support provided by Allied naval vessels played a critical role in overcoming Axis resistance, especially around Gela.
The Sicily Campaign also marked the first time in World War II that a complete U.S. field army had fought as a unit. With over 200,000 men in its ranks by the time it reached Messina, the American Seventh Army employed the services of more than 150 different types of units, from infantry regiments to graves registration companies. The final victory was achieved only through the cooperation and collaboration of thousands of individuals from every branch of service.
Strategically, the Sicilian operation achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners at Casablanca. Axis air and naval forces were driven from their island bastion and the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened to Allied commerce. Hitler had been forced to transfer troops to Sicily and Italy from other theaters, and Mussolini had been toppled from power, thereby opening the way for the eventual dissolution of the Rome-Berlin Axis and Italy's ultimate surrender. Although U.S. military leaders had not initially planned to use Sicily as a springboard for an invasion of Italy, the impact of the operation on the tottering Fascist regime begged exploitation, and the Allies quickly followed up their victory by invading Italy in September 1943.
Palermo - women hold up babies to U.S. soldiers, ILN 1943/07/31
Yet for all its achievements, the Sicily Campaign also demonstrated some weaknesses in Allied capabilities, particularly in the realm of joint operations. None of the Allied commanders had much experience in joint air-land-sea operations, and consequently the three services did not always work together as well as they might have. Ground commanders complained about the lack of close air support and the inaccuracy of airborne drops, air commanders complained of their aircraft's being fired upon by Allied ground and naval forces, and naval officers chided the land commanders for not fully exploiting the fleet's amphibious capabilities to outflank the enemy once the campaign had begun. Similarly, General Alexander's unfortunate decision to broaden the Eighth Army's front at the expense of the Seventh Army can be attributed to the newness of combined operations, for the decision reflected the British Army's proclivity to underestimate American military capabilities—an attitude that American G.I.s proved unjustified during the Sicily Campaign.
One consequence of this lack of integration within the Allied camp was that the Axis was able to evacuate over 100,000 men and 10,000 vehicles from Sicily during the first seventeen days in August. The failure of Allied air and naval forces to interdict the Strait of Messina was due in large part to the fact that neither Eisenhower nor his principal air, land, and sea commanders had formulated a coordinated plan to prevent the withdrawal of Axis forces from the island.
Messina and view of distant Itlay, ILN 1943/09
The escape of Axis forces from Sicily is also attributable to the conservative attitude of Allied commanders. They had opted for the most cautious invasion plan, massing their forces at the most predictable landing site. They never seriously considered the bolder option of launching simultaneous attacks on Messina and Calabria, the "toe" of Italy, to trap all Axis forces in Sicily in one blow. Their conservativeness was somewhat justified, for multinational amphibious operations of this magnitude had never been attempted before, and the initial landings would have been outside of the range of Allied fighter cover. Nevertheless, the advantages to be gained by taking the enemy by surprise and destroying an entire Axis army would seem to have merited greater attention by Allied strategists than it received.
The fundamental reason why the Messina-Calabria option was not seriously considered had to do with grand strategy, not operational considerations. At Casablanca the Allies had agreed only to invade Sicily, not Italy, and U.S. leaders had clearly stated their opposition to anything that might further delay a cross-Channel attack. A landing in Italy, even a local one intended purely to assist the Sicily Campaign, threatened to open the very Pandora's box Marshall wanted to avoid. Of course in the end, the Allies invaded Italy anyway, only to be confronted by the same German troops who had made good their escape from Sicily. But in the spring of 1943, coalition politics ruled out a Calabrian envelopment, and Allied planners confined themselves to a narrow, frontal assault in southeastern Sicily.
1st gun fired on Italy, Newsweek 1943/9/6
Sicily was thus an important victory for the Allies, but not a decisive one. Coalition politics and the innate conservativeness of men who were still learning how to work the intricate machinery of joint, multinational operations tied Allied armies to a strategy which achieved the physical objective while letting the quarry escape. Nevertheless, Axis forces did not escape unscathed, and the experience Allied commanders gained in orchestrating airborne, amphibious, and ground combat operations during the campaign would serve them well in the months ahead, first in Italy and then at Normandy.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 10:
1509 John Calvin Protestant religious reformer/theologian
1723 Sir William Blackstone England, jurist (Blackstone's Commentaries)
1792 George Mifflin Dallas (D) 11th VP (1845-49)
1818 John Stuart "Cerro Gordo" Williams, Brig General (Confederate Army)
1820 Andrew Porter, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1872
1821 Christopher Columbus Augur, Major General (Union volunteers)
1833 Lucius Eugene Polk, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1892
1834 James A McNeill Whistler, US/British painter (Whistler's Mother)
1835 Henryk Wieniawski Lubin Poland, violinist/composer (Souv de Moscou)
1867 Finley Peter Dunne US, journalist/humorist (Mr Dooley)
1871 Marcel Proust France, novelist (Remembrance of Things Past)
1875 Mary McLeod Bethune SC, slave/educator (Bethune-Cookman College)
1879 Dr Harry Nicholls Holmes Penn, crystallized vitamin A
1882 Ima Hogg Texas art patron/founder of the Houston Symphony
1888 Graham McNamee sportscaster (1st Rose Bowl)
1888 Toyohiko Kagawa Kobe, Japan, Christian social reformer
1915 Saul Bellow Quebec, novelist (Nobel 1976-Mr Samler's Planet)
1917 Don Herbert Waconia Minn, Mr Wizard
1919 Rusty Gill St Louis Mo, singer (Polka Time)
1920 David Brinkley Wilmington NC, NBC News anchor (Huntley-Brinkley)
1920 Owen Chamberlain codiscovered antiproton (Nobel 1959)
1921 Jake LaMotta Bronx, middleweight boxing champ (1949-51) (Raging Bull)
1926 Fred Gwynne NYC, actor (Car 54 Where Are You, Munsters)
1927 David Dinkins (Mayor-D-NYC, 1989- )
1931 Julian May, US, sci-fi author (Golden Torc, Magnificat)
1931 Nick Adams Nanticoke Pa, actor (Johnny Yuma-The Rebel)
1942 Pyotr I Klimuk cosmonaut (Soyuz 13, 18, 30)
1943 Arthur Ashe tennis pro (1968 US Open)
1945 Ron Glass actor (Sgt Harris-Barney Miller, Frank's Place)
1946 Sue Lyon Davenport Iowa, actress (Lolita, Evel Knievel)
1947 Arlo Guthrie singer (Alice's Restaurant, City of New Orleans)
1954 Andre Dawson Miami Fla, outfielder (Expos, Cubs, 1987 NL MVP)
1974 Jennifer Montica Curry, Muscatine Iowa, Miss America-Iowa (1996)
Deaths which occurred on July 10:
0138 Publius A Hadrianus, Roman emperor (117-138), dies
0518 Anastasius I Dikoros, [Dyrrhachium/Durazzo], Byzantine emperor, dies
0983 Benedict VI, Italian Pope (974-83), dies
1086 Knut IV, the Saint, king of Denmark (1080-86), murdered
1103 Erik I Ejegod, the good hearted, King of Denmark (1095-1103), dies
1480 Ren‚, last heir of house of Anjou, dies
1535 Jacob Van Campen, Reconstruction bishop, beheaded
1559 Henry II, King of France (1547-59), dies
1584 Willem I "the Silent", [Willem of Orange], earl of Nassau, dies at 51
1692 Bridget Bishop first Salem witch hung
1863 Clement Clarke Moore ('Twas the Night Before Xmas), dies at 83
1863 Paul Jones Semmes, US businessman/Confederate brig-general, dies at 48
1884 Paul Morphy US chess wizard, dies
1910 Johann Galle discoverer of Neptune with telescope, dies
1920 John A "Jacky" Kilverston, adm/designer (dreadnought), dies at 79
1927 Kevin O'Higgins Irish Free State VP, assassinated
1941 Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton pioneer jazz pianist, dies at 56 in LA
1945 Robert Goddard Rocket pioneer, dies
1979 Arthur Fiedler orch leader (Boston Pops), dies at 84
1987 John Hammond died at age 76. Discovered Billie Holiday,Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Robert Johnson, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan.
1989 Mel Blanc voice of cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny), dies at 81
1991 Gerome Ragal author (Hair), dies at 48 of cancer
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1972 GREEN FRANK C. JR.---WASKOM TX.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0552 Origin of Armenian calendar
1040 Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes
1460 Wars of Roses: Richard of York defeats King Henry VI at Northampton
1629 1st non-Separatist Congregational Church in America founded (Salem, MA)
1645 Battle at Langport Somerset: Cromwell's New Model-army beats Royalists
1690 Battle of Beachy Head-French fleet defeats Anglo-Dutch fleet
1775 Horatio Gates, issues order excluding blacks from Continental Army
1797 1st US frigate, the "United States," is launched in Phila
1832 Pres Jackson vetoed legislation to re-charter 2nd Bank of US
1847 Urbain J.J. Leverrier & John Couch Adams, codiscoverers of Neptune meet for 1st time at home of John Herschel
1850 VP Fillmore becomes pres following Zachary Taylor's death
1861 Lincoln writes to Kentucky's militia and says Union troops will not enter that state
1862 US begins construction of Central Pacific Railroad
1863 Battle of Charleston, SC (Morris Island)
1863 Battle of Jackson, MS - captured by federals
1866 Indelible pencil patented by Edson P Clark, Northampton, Mass
1875 L Schulhof discovers asteroid #147 Protogeneia
1886 Eruption of Tarawera volcano destroys famous pink & white calcium carbonate hot-spring terraces (North Island, New Zealand)
1890 Wyoming becomes 44th state (1st with female suffrage)
1892 1st concrete-paved street built (Bellefountaine, Ohio)
1910 Chicago White Sox Comiskey Park opens, visiting Browns win 2-0
1913 134ø F (57ø C), Greenland Ranch, Calif (US record)
1914 Boston Red Sox purchase Babe Ruth from the Baltimore Orioles
1917 Emma Goldman imprisoned for obstructing the draft
1918 Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic established
1919 Pres Wilson personally delivers Treaty of Versailles to Senate
1923 2-pound hailstones kill 23 & many cattle. (Rostov, Russia)
1923 All non-fascist parties disolved in Italy
1925 Jury selection took place in John T Scopes evolution trial
1925 USSR's official news agency TASS established
1926 Lake Denmark, NJ arsenal explodes, kills 21, $75m damage
1928 H E Wood discovers asteroid #3300
1929 In game between Pirates & Phillies 9 HRs hit 1 in each inning
1929 US issues newer, smaller-sized paper currency
1932 Jack Burnett gets 9 hits, Eddie Rommel relieves in 2nd & continues to 18-17 victory in 18 as his A's beats Indians in longest relief job
1933 1st police radio system operated, Eastchester Township, NY
1934 1st sitting US president to visit South America, FDR in Colombia
1934 Carl Hubbell strikes out Ruth, Gehrig & Foxx in the All star game
1936 109ø F (43ø C), Cumberland & Frederick, Maryland (state record)
1936 111ø F (44ø C), Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (state record)
1936 New Straits Convention allows Turkish rearmament of Dardanelles
1938 Howard Hughes flies around the world in 91 hours
1940 Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces attacked by air
1943 US & Britain invade Sicily in WW II
1949 1st practical rectangular TV tube announced-Toledo, Oh
1950 "Your Hit Parade" premiers on NBC (later CBS) TV
1951 Armistice talks to end Korean conflict began at Kaesong
1951 E L Johnson discovers asteroid #1609 Brenda
1953 Pravda reports arrest of Beria [affiliate of imperialist]
1958 1st parking meter installed in England (625 installed)
1962 Martin Luther King Jr arrested during demonstration in Georgia
1962 Telstar, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, launched
1965 Rolling Stones score their 1st #1, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction"
1967 Bobbie Gentry records "Ode to Billie Joe"
1969 NL votes to split into 2 divisions
1972 Democratic convention opens in Miami Beach Florida (McGovern)
1972 Herd of stampeding elephants kills 24, Chandka Forest India
1973 Bahamas gain independence after 300 yrs of British rule (Nat'l Day)
1978 E F Helinand E Shoemaker discovers asteroid #3484
1978 Military coup in Mauritania
1980 Ayatollah Khomeini releases Iran hostage Richard I Queen
1981 CERN achieves 1st proton-antiproton beam collision (570 GeV)
1982 Miguel Vasquez makes 1st public quadruple somersault on trapeze
1983 E Bowell discovers asteroids #3222 Lillerand #3751
1985 Coca-Cola Co announces it will resume selling old formula Coke
1985 French agents sink Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand
1997 RJR Nabisco announces it will replace Joe Camel in new ads
2001 For the second time in a month, a jury in New York rejected the death penalty for one of the men convicted in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, opting instead for life in prison without parole.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Albania : Army Day
Bahamas : Independence Day (1973)
Wyoming : Statehood Day (1890)
South Africa : Family Day (Monday)
Swaziland : Reed Dance Day (Monday)
National Nude Weekend
Be Nice to New Jersey Week Ends
National Canned Luncheon Meat Week Ends
Cost of Government Day (approx date)
Hitch Hiking Month
Religious Observances
Buddhist-Burma : Beginning of Buddhist Fast
Christian : SS Rufina & Secunda, virgins & 7 Brothers
RC-Bilbao, Spain : Feast of Virgin of Bego¤a
Religious History
1509 Birth of John Calvin, French religious reformer. His 'Institutes of the ChristianReligion' became the most popular doctrinal statement of the Protestant Reformation.
1629 The first non-separatist Congregational church in America was established atSalem, Massachusetts.
1851 California Wesleyan College was chartered in Santa Clara, under sponsorship ofthe Methodist Church. In 1961 its name was changed to the University of the Pacific.
1925 The famous 'Scopes Monkey Trial' began in Dayton, TN, after high school biologyteacher John T. Scopes, 24, was charged with teaching evolution to his students.
1950 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'I am just trying to deliver familiar truth from the oblivion of general acceptance.'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"In fashion be a reed in the wind, In principles be a rock in the stream."
Things To Do If You Ever Became An Evil Overlord...
Make sure you have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in your organization. For example, if a general screws up do not draw your weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.
The World's Shortest Books...
Whoopie Goldbergs beauty secrets
Dumb Laws...
Wyoming:
You may not take a picture of a rabbit from January to April without an official permit.
Top Ten Things That sound Dirty In Golf..But Aren't...
3. My hands are so sweaty I can't get a good grip
