Removing Deadwood

The emphasis on the European theater was bound to affect the flow of equipment to the Southwest Pacific. Moreover, Kenney knew that he had to straighten out difficult personnel and logistical problems in his new assignment.

George C. Kenney and Kenneth N. Walker

With Arnold and Marshall, Kenney raised the issue of removing some officers among his new staff. "I am going to get rid of a lot of the Air Corps deadwood," Kenney informed them.

Upon arriving in the theater, Kenney found logistics to be "a hell of a mess." Combat aircraft were not able to get into the air. Spare parts were nowhere to be found. "A lot of stuff has gone out there," Kenney said, "but no one knows what has happened to it."

5th AAF B-25s execute an operation against Alexishafen Drome, a Japanese airbase on Dutch New Guinea. Wingtip vortices are clearly visible in the smoke.

There were even complaints from the field that requests for parts were turned down because of improperly filled out requisition forms. Kenney made clear that he was putting an end to this practice. "You don't win wars with file cabinets," he said.

Before he could tackle the logistics issue, he had to face MacArthur. According to Brett, neither MacArthur nor his staff possessed an understanding of air operations. Yet, he said, after conferring only with his immediate staff, MacArthur made all decisions himself.

Moreover, Brett emphasized that Maj. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland, MacArthur's chief of staff, was a bully and overly protective of the boss.

To reach MacArthur, Kenney had to get past Sutherland, who had shut Brett out and had taken it upon himself to write air operations orders.

"What I Know"

Kenney decided to confront Sutherland. In a meeting, he jabbed a dot onto a piece of paper. As he thrust it before MacArthur's chief of staff, he said, "The dot represents what you know about air operations, the entire rest of the paper what I know."

General Douglas MacArthur personally decorating General George C. Kenney after his stunning victory against the Lae Resupply Convoy during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea.

When Sutherland reacted belligerently, Kenney suggested they see MacArthur. Sutherland backed down.

Brett had told Kenney that he rarely saw MacArthur and added, "Every endeavor I have made to explain what I was trying to do has been lost among lengthy dissertations which I would not take the time to deliver to a second lieutenant."

Now, it was Kenney's turn. He recalled, "I listened to a lecture for approximately an hour on the shortcomings of the Air Force in general and the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific in particular."

Battle of the Bismarck Sea
Beaufighter of 30 Squadron RAAF and USAF B-25 attacking Taiyo Maru

The air forces, MacArthur charged, had done nothing.

Kenney interrupted and told him that he would take care of air operations. He added, "If, for any reason, I found that I couldn't work for him, I would tell him so and do everything in my power to get relieved."

According to Kenney, MacArthur grinned, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, "I think we are going to get along together all right."

The destruction of a Japanese destroyer in Ormoc Bay, Leyete, Philippines 11/10/44. At least one 500 pound bomb has impacted into the ship and separated the bow. Debris is hurled hundreds of feet into the air. This print clearly shows a 500 pound bomb suspended in mid-air as it skips over a very distressed aft gun crew.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Southwest Pacific had turned critical. Japanese forces had stormed through the southern Philippines, most of New Guinea, and the islands northeast of Australia. An invasion of the Australian continent seemed possible.

Prior to Kenney's arrival in the theater in July 1942, Japan had taken heavy losses in the Coral Sea and Midway battles. Despite that, Japanese troops had established positions in the Solomon Islands and were advancing in New Guinea across the Owen Stanley mountain range toward Port Moresby.

Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" about to receive incendiary para-frags courtesy of a 5th AAF B25.

Kenney immediately focused on building an organization that could meet the demands of the theater. In early August 1942, he established Fifth Air Force in Brisbane, Australia, 1,000 miles from the New Guinea front. He appointed Brig. Gen. Ennis C. Whitehead, his deputy, as commander of the Fifth Air Force advanced echelon at Port Moresby.

MacArthur planned to move his forces northwest along the northern coast of New Guinea toward the Markham Valley and Finschhafen.

Owning the Air

For that to succeed, Kenney emphasized to MacArthur, the Allied Air Forces had to gain air superiority over Japanese forces. Kenney said that the Allies had to "own the air over New Guinea." He added that there was no use talking about "playing across the street" until the Allies got the Japanese troops "off of our front lawn."

Once having gained control of the air, Fifth Air Force would support the ground forces and hammer enemy shipping troop concentrations. The Allies would advance northward up the New Guinea coast, and ultimately the island-hopping campaign would succeed.

Kenney knew that MacArthur's strategy depended upon aerial resupply.

He had to straighten out the chaotic maintenance and supply systems. He made certain that critical equipment found its way from Australia to New Guinea.

Kenney noted he was "inventing new ways to win a war on a shoestring." He explained, "We are doing things nearly every day that were never in the books" and added, "It really is remarkable what you can do with an airplane if you really try; anytime I can't think of something screwy enough, I have a flock of people out here to help me. ... We carry troops to war, feed them, supply them with ammunition, artillery, clothes, shoes, and evacuate their wounded."

By the end of 1942, MacArthur had gained confidence in Kenney. The feeling, apparently, was mutual. "It is a lot of fun to talk to General MacArthur," Kenney maintained. "He thinks clearly, does not have preconceived ideas, weighs every factor, and plays the winning game for all it's worth. As soon as airpower could show him anything, he bought it."

Kenney definitely showed him something. By early 1943, Fifth Air Force had gained air superiority, putting MacArthur's forces in a position to turn the tide of war.

In March 1943, Kenney's fliers, aided by Australian airmen, dealt Japan a crippling blow in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. He employed skip-bombing, a concept he developed in 1928 while at the tactical school.

In this case, B-25s and some A-20s went in very low, skipping bombs over the water to strike an enemy convoy. Japan suffered heavy losses. Allied aircraft sank 12 of 16 ships in the convoy and killed approximately 2,900 troops.

Tackling Washington

Kenney was continually frustrated by the Europe-first strategy and did not appreciate Arnold's description of the Southwest Pacific as a "defensive" theater. He badgered Arnold at every opportunity for airplanes to conduct offensive operations.

Arnold explained that he could not "maintain every theater at offensive strength" as this "dispersed effort would invite disaster." His objective, he informed Kenney, was to keep Kenney's forces at sufficient strength to enable Kenney to support himself defensively and to carry out a limited offensive against the Japanese.

In foreground: Maj. Gen. George C. Kenny and, most likely, Lt. Col.Carmichael. Lt. Col. Richard H.Carmichael was CO of the 19th Bomb Group. Carmichael led a 16 plane mission of B-17s form Port Moresby to Vunakanu airstrip near Rabaul on August 7, 1942. This is the mission which earned Captain Harl Pease the posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.

Kenney made several trips to Washington, always keeping in mind the need to balance his loyalty to Mac-Arthur, as theater commander, with his loyalty to Arnold, the AAF boss. On one trip, though, Kenney held discussions with Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson and Assistant Secretary of War for Air Robert A. Lovett and then met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

To Roosevelt and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he emphasized the need to replace his losses to maintain air superiority. Roosevelt asked Kenney to "be reasonable about it," saying he would see what he could do even if he had "to argue with the whole British Empire about it."

Later, Arnold informed Kenney that the JCS would be sending him several bomb groups and several fighter groups.

In the summer of 1943, Kenney began to campaign for B-29s to be deployed to the Southwest Pacific. It is, he stated, "the plane with which we are to win the war."

Kenney's concept was to hurl the very-long-range bombers against the oil refineries at Palembang, Sumatra, and Balikpapan, Borneo. "If you want the B-29 used efficiently and effectively, where it will do the most good in the shortest time," he told Arnold, "the Southwest Pacific area is the place, and the Fifth Air Force can do the job. ... Japan may easily collapse back to her original empire by that time (1944), due to her oil shortage alone."

B-25s of the 38th Bomb Group, 71st Bomb Squadron (The Wolfpack) rain parafrags upon Kagi Town, Formosa.

However, this was one battle that Kenney would not win. Arnold had long ago determined that the B-29 would be employed solely against the Japanese home islands. And the AAF Chief was not about to relinquish the B-29s to a theater commander--in this case, MacArthur.

Nonetheless, Fifth Air Force intensified its efforts to support Mac-Arthur's drive up the north coast of New Guinea toward Lae and Sal-amaua. Kenney's forces had been striking Rabaul, but now their attention turned to Wewak, where Japan had a large concentration of aircraft.

In mid-August 1943, Fifth Air Force bombers and P-38 pursuit aircraft attacked the Wewak airdromes, destroying about 175 enemy aircraft on the ground. As a result of this devastating strike, Japan had to base its forces farther to the rear, leaving Lae and Salamaua vulnerable.

Airlift in Action

Both Lae and Salamaua fell in September 1943 to MacArthur's offensive. Kenney had made that possible by orchestrating the first large-scale airlift of the war. Kenney's C-47 transports air-dropped 1,700 troops and an Australian artillery battery into Nadzab, 19 miles northwest of Lae.

General MacArthur and Maj. Gen. George C. Kenney

The scale of the airlift operation was daunting. In fact, MacArthur, when he was briefed, asked Kenney whether he had discussed the airlift with MacArthur's staff. Learning that he hadn't done so yet, MacArthur exclaimed, "Well, don't, you will scare them to death!"

Meanwhile, air operations by Fifth Air Force in 1943-44 against the Rabaul complex of harbor and airfields rendered the area practically useless to Japanese forces.

By mid-1944, MacArthur and Kenney picked up the pace. Ground forces occupied Hollandia as well as Wakde, Biak, Owi, Woendi, and Numfoor Islands. At the same time, Kenney joined Thirteenth Air Force with Fifth Air Force as part of Far East Air Forces. Whitehead took command of Fifth Air Force.

MacArthur's accelerated offensive moves and Kenney's shift of Thirteenth Air Force into FEAF set the stage for MacArthur's return to the Philippines.

Dick Bong, General Douglas MacArthur and General George C. Kenney

The invasion of the Philippines had been moved up from December 1944 to October 1944. Sixth Army landed on the east coast of Leyte Gulf on Oct. 20. And when Allied forces landed on Luzon in January 1945, no enemy aircraft opposed them.

Kenney's FEAF, along with Navy aircraft, destroyed hundreds of Japanese airplanes on the ground. By March 1945, Manila had fallen. (Also in March, on a trip to Washington, Kenney was personally informed by President Roosevelt that he would receive his fourth star.)

Following the capture of Iwo Jima and with the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945, Fifth Air Force used Okinawa to launch strikes against Kyushu, one of the Japanese home islands. In July 1945, Brig. Gen. Thomas D. White's Seventh Air Force joined FEAF and teamed up with Fifth to strike Kyushu and enemy shipping.

Meanwhile, Arnold's plan to use the B-29s for direct attacks against the Japanese home islands had taken shape. In April 1944, the Joint Chiefs had approved creation of Twentieth Air Force, based in Washington, D.C., with Arnold as executive agent of the JCS.

P-47 Thunderbolt fighters flown by the “Aztec Eagles” of the 201st Squadron of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force attack a convoy of enemy trucks in central Luzon, the Philippines, in June, 1945. The Squadron flew close air support missions, assisting American ground troops in the liberation of the Philippine Islands from the Japanese occupation in World War II

In March 1944, Kuter, Arnold's deputy, gave Kenney the bad news, at which time Kenney's pique got the better of his judgment. B-29 raids against Japan from the Marianas, he said, would accomplish little; they would be just "nuisance raids."

Nonetheless, Japan, by mid-1945, was being strangled by blockade and hammered by the B-29 campaign.

At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, President Truman ordered use of the atomic bomb against Imperial Japan. In late July, Gen. Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz arrived on Guam to head the newly established Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific.

After receiving authorization from Truman and Marshall, Spaatz ordered the use of the atomic bomb. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US struck Hiroshima, and on Aug. 9, it hit Nagasaki. The next day, Japan asked for peace.

Additional Sources:

home.st.net.au
www.ibiblio.org
www.navart.com.au
history.acusd.edu
www.arlingtoncemetery.net
www.chandellewinery.com
www.brooksart.com
www.enter.net
www.grafixnpix.com
www.kensmen.com
www.bongheritagecenter.org
www.histoiredumonde.net
www.acepilots.com

Toward an Independent Air Force

The war was over, but Kenney had more work to do. He became the point man for unification of the War and Navy Departments and a truly independent air arm.

5th Air Force Patch

In the immediate post-World War II period, when hopes were high for the success of the United Nations organization, Kenney was named the senior US member of the UN Military Staff committee. This committee had been organized to assist the Security Council on military issues and potentially to implement plans for creation of a UN military force.

Kenney's post at the UN did not last long, though. In early 1946, Spaatz and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed on a postwar reorganization for the air forces, establishing Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command (upon which Eisenhower had insisted), and Air Defense Command. Spaatz appointed Kenney as SAC's first commanding general.

However, Kenney spent little time in the position. Instead, with the battle over unification approaching a climax in 1947, Kenney was encouraged by W. Stuart Symington, assistant secretary of war for air, and Spaatz to go on the road to speak about the need for a separate air force. Knowledgeable and articulate, Kenney advocated an independent Air Force to audiences from coast to coast.

After the war, Kenney testified before Congress for both a separate air arm and a unified department of armed services. He also lectured coast to coast on the importance of an independent Air Force.

Kenney left the running of SAC's daily operations to his deputy--initially Maj. Gen. St. Clair Streett and then Maj. Gen. Clements McMullen. Although McMullen was an excellent supply and maintenance man, the training of SAC's combat crews suffered.

Meanwhile, the Cold War heated up, and in the summer of 1948, the Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, who succeeded Spaatz in April 1948 as Air Force Chief of Staff, asked Charles Lindbergh to assess SAC's combat readiness. Lindbergh reported in September that SAC's readiness left a great deal to be desired.

As a result, Vandenberg and Symington decided, in October, to replace Kenney with Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the US Air Forces in Europe and architect of the B-29 campaign against Japan.

General George Kenney, MacArthur's Air Commander, Florida 1945

Kenney was assigned as commander of Air University at Maxwell AFB, Ala. While there, he wrote General Kenney Reports: A Personal History of the Pacific War, which is characteristically candid and one of the very best memoirs of the war. He retired in August 1951 and continued writing, including a book about MacArthur.

MacArthur had quickly recognized that Kenney was a man who had a plan and, what's more, got results. Over and above everything else, Kenney was a straight shooter and true to himself.

After the war, MacArthur had this to say about Kenney: "Of all the commanders of our major air forces engaged in World War II, none surpassed General Kenney in those three great essentials of successful combat leadership: aggressive vision, mastery over air strategy and tactics, and the ability to exact the maximum in fighting qualities from both men and equipment."

As Kenney's Fifth Air Force director of operations, Lt. Col. Francis C. Gideon, observed in retrospect, "He was unique; for the war to be fought in the Southwest Pacific under General MacArthur, he may have been the only one who could have succeeded."

September 13, 2004

A Life-Long Issue

Read: Psalm 90

The days of our lives are seventy years; and if . . . they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. —Psalm 90:10

Bible In One Year: Proverbs 16-18; 2 Corinthians 6

Scientists predict that the average lifespan in the United States may reach 100 by the end of the 21st century. They say the genetics that control aging could be altered to extend life beyond the 70 to 80 years referred to in Psalm 90:10. Life's final chapter, however, will still read, "It is soon cut off, and we fly away."

Moses, who wrote those words, likened our existence to grass that flourishes in the morning and is cut down and withers in the evening (vv.5-6). Although he lived to be 120 (Deuteronomy 34:7), life's brevity was never far from his mind. That's why he prayed, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

D. J. De Pree, a longtime member of the RBC Board of Directors, took those words literally. He calculated the number of days from the date of his birth until he would turn 70. At the end of each day he'd reduce his total by one. To see that figure decline reminded him to make each day count for the Lord.

We are all part of a rapidly passing scene. That should sober us, but not discourage us. Moses affirmed God as his "dwelling place" (v.1). That's the way to face the life-long issue of our fleeting earthly existence. —Dennis De Haan

To gain a heart of wisdom takes a lifetime,
And we are told to seek it all our days;
But whether life is long or too soon ended,
God's lovingkindness fills our heart with praise. —Hess

A life lived for God will count for eternity.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 13:
1157 Alexander Neckum/de Sancto Albano English theologist/encyclopedist
1739 Grigory Potemkin army officer, statesman, Catherine II's lover
1755 Oliver Evans pioneered high-pressure steam engine
1806 Joseph Lewis Hogg Brig General (Confederate Army), die in 1862
1813 John Sedgwick Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1864
1817 John McAuley Palmer US Union msj-gen/(Gov-Ill, 1868-72)
1818 Olivier Gloux [Aimard], French world explorer/writer (Grande Flibuste)
1836 John McCausland Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1927
1851 Walter Reed US Army Surgeon, proved mosquitoes transmit yellow fever
1857 Milton S Hershey , chocolate manufacturer/philanthropist
1860 Gen John J (Blackjack) Pershing US commander in WW I
1863 Arthur Henderson Britain, socialist/disarmament worker (Nobel 1934)
1866 Adolf Meyer US, psychiatrist/neurologist (pioneered mental hygiene)
1895 Ruth McDevitt Coldwater Mich, actress (Jo-All in the Family)
1896 Morris Kirksey US, 4 X 100m (Olympic-gold-1920)
1904 Gladys George Patten Maine, actress (Roaring Twenties)
1913 Roy Engle Mo, actor (Police Chief-My Favorite Martian)
1924 Maurice Jarre Lyons France, composer (Dr Zhivago-Acad Award 1966)
1925 Mel Torme‚ Chic Ill, jazz singer "Velvet Fog" (Jet Set, Night Court)
1930 James McLane US, 1500m freestyle swimmer (Olympic-gold-1948)
1931 Barbara Bain Chic, actress (Cinnamon-Mission Impossible, Space 1999)
1937 Fred Silverman broadcasting exec (ABC/NBC)
1938 Judith Martin Miss Manners
1939 Larry Speakes presidential press secretary
1939 Richard Kiel Detroit Mich, James Bond adversary
1941 Oscar Arias Sanchez president of Costa Rica (1986- ) (Nobel 1987)
1944 (Winifred) Jacqueline Bisset England, actress (Class, Deep, Secrets)
1948 Nell Carter Birmingham Ala, actress (Nell-Gimme a Break, Lobo)
1951 David Clayton-Thomas singer (Blood Sweat & Tears-You've Made Me So Very Happy, Spinning Wheel)
1956 Joni Sledge Phila, vocalist (Sister Sledge-We are Family)

Deaths which occurred on September 13:
0081 Titus Flavius Vespasianus, emperor of Rome (69-81), dies at 42
1321 Dante Alighieri author of the Divine Comedy, dies
1598 Philip II King of Spain (1556-98), dies at 71
1759 James Wolfe British general (Plains of Abraham), dies at 32
1803 Commodore John Barry, considered by many the father of the American Navy, died in Philadelphia.
1881 Ambrose Everett Burnside, US Union general, dies at 57
1921 Ludwig-Alexander von Battenberg [Mountbatten] adm (WW I), dies at 67
1981 William Loeb publisher of Manchester Union Leader, NH, dies at 75
1982 Philip Ober actor (Gen Stone-I Dream of Jeannie), dies at 80
1991 Joseph Pasternak movie producer, dies at 89 of cancer
1998 George Wallace Governor of Ala., presidential candidate at 79.

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1965 MOSSMAN JOE R. SPRINGFIELD PA.
1966 COAKLEY WILLIAM F. LENNOX MA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 05/89]
1967 REID HAROLD ERICH SALT LAKE CITY UT.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 03/27/99]
1968 BRIGHAM JAMES W. OCALA FL.
[01/01/69 RELEASED, DECEASED]
1970 MILLER WYATT JR. PHILDELPHIA PA.

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

On this day...
0122 Building begins on Hadrian's Wall
0604 Sabinian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1515 King Francis of France defeats the Swiss army under Cardinal Matthias Schiner at Marignano, northern Italy.
1625 Rabbi Isiah Horowith & 15 other rabbis arrested in Jerusalem
1663 1st serious slave conspiracy in colonial America (Virginia)
1759 Wolfe defeats Montcalm on Plains of Abraham(Quebec)
; Canada becomes English
1788 The Congress of the Confederation authorized the first national election, to be held "the first Wednesday in January next (Jan 7, 1789)." and declared New York City the temporary national capital.
1789 1st loan to US Govt (from NYC banks)
1849 1st US prize fight fatality (Tom McCoy)
1861 1st naval battle of Civil War, Union frigate "Colorado" sinks privateer "Judah" off Pensacola, Fla
1862 Union troops in Frederick, Maryland, discover General Robert E. Lee's attack plans for the invasion of Maryland wrapped around a pack of cigars. They give the plans to General George B. McClellan who does nothing with them for the next 14 hours
1863 The Loudoun County Rangers route a company of Confederate cavalry at Catoctin Mountain in Virginia.
1867 Gen E R S Canby orders SC courts to impanel blacks jurors
1869 Jay Gould & James Fisk attempt to control US gold market
1881 Lewis Latimer invents & patents electric lamp with a carbon filament
1882 Battle at Count el-Kebir: British troops invade Egypt
1898 Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film
1906 1st airplane flight in Europe
1918 U.S. and French forces take St. Mihiel, France in America's first action as a standing army.
1922 136.4F (58C), El Aziziyah, Libya in shade (world record)
1927 Waite Hoyt became the only 20 game winner of the 1927 Yankees
1928 KOH-AM in Reno NV begins radio transmissions
1931 Capt G H Stainworth flies world speed record (655 kph)
1932 NY Yankees clinch their 7th pennant
1934 Judge Landis sells World Series broadcast rights to Ford for $100,000
1936 Cleve Bob Feller strikes out then record 17 in a game (vs Phila A's)
1942 Cubs shortstop Leonard Merullo makes 4 errors in 1 inning
1942 Battle of Edson's Ridge (2nd Japanese assault) at Guadalcanal
1942 German forces attack Stalingrad
1943 Chiang Kai-shek became president of China
1943 German counter attack at Salerno
1944 US 28th Infantry division opens assault on Siegfried line/Westwall
1948 Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me) elected senator, 1st woman to serve in both houses of Congress
1949 Ladies Pro Golf Association of America formed in NYC
1951 In Korea, U.S. Army troops begin their assault in Heartbreak Ridge. The month-long struggle will cost 3,700 casualties.
1959 USSR's Luna 2 becomes 1st probe to contact another celestial body
1961 "Car 54 Where are You?" premiers on TV
1961 Unmanned Mercury-Atlas 4 launched into Earth orbit
1963 "The Outer Limits" premiers
1963 Yanks clinch their 28th pennant
1965 Beatles release "Yesterday"
1965 Today Show's 1st totally color broadcast
1965 Willie Mays hits his 500th HR
1970 IBM announces System 370 computer
1971 9 hostages & 28 prisoners die in take over at Attica State Prison
1971 Frank Robinson hits his 500th HR
1974 1st broadcast of "Rockford Files" on NBC-TV
1974 Phillies set NL record, using 27 players in a game, St Louis uses 24, tying record of 51. Phils win 7-3 in 17
1976 2nd Enterprise, approach & lands test (ALT) flight (5m28s)
1977 1st TV viewer discretion warning-Soap
1977 2nd test of the Space Shuttle Enterprise
1978 NY Yanks win to gain sole possession of 1st place from 14 games back
1981 33rd Emmy Awards (Hill Street Blues big winner)
1981 April Moon sets women's handbow distance record of 1,039 yds & 13"
1981 Atlanta Falcons tie record of 31 points in 4th quarter (vs Green Bay)
1982 Joe Lefevre gets 6 hits in one baseball game
1983 US mint strikes 1st gold coin in 50 years (Olympic Eagle)
1984 STS 41-G launch vehicle moves to launch pad
1985 John Williams introduces the new Today Show theme
1986 Bert Blyleven gives up a record 44 HRs in a season
1986 Kellye Cash (Miss Tennessee) crowned Miss America
1987 Paul Lynch of Great Britain does 32,573 push-ups in 24 hours
1988 10th time, 4 players hit baseball major-league record grand slams
1988 Hurricane Gilbert becomes strongest (26.13 barometer) hurricane in Western Hemisphere
1989 Fay Vincent named baseball commissioner
1990 Iraqi troops storm the residence of French ambassador in Kuwait
1990 Senate Judiciary Com opens hearing on confirmation of David Souter
1991 Joe Colemans 3rd 100 RBI season in a row 3 teams (Cleve, SD & Toronto)
1994 Space probe Ulyssus passes south pole of Sun
1996 The Dow closed above 5,838, a new record high.
1999 At least 118 people were killed in the bombing of a Moscow apartment building. The blast was the latest in a series of explosions blamed on terrorists from the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
2000 With the government all but abandoning its case against him, former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee pleaded guilty in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a single count of mishandling nuclear secrets; he was then set free with an apology from U.S. District Judge James Parker, who said the government's actions had "embarrassed our entire nation."
2001 Airports that wer closed after the terrorist attacks on 9-11 began reopening, but Logan Airport in Boston, where two of the hijacked planes took off, and Reagan National in Washington remained closed.

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

Pennsylvania : John Barry Day (1803)
Rhodesia : Pioneer Day (1923)
World : Dante Alighieri Day
Afghanistan : National Assembly Foundation Day (1964) (Wednesday)
International Chocolate Day!!!
Hand-Craft Soap Month

Religious Observances
Ang : Commemoration of St Cyprian, bishop & martyr of Carthage
RC, Luth : Memorial of St John Chrysostom, bishop & doctor

Religious History
1635 The Massachusetts General Court banished Separatist preacher Roger Williams, 32, for criticizing the Massachusetts Bay Company charter and for perpetually advocating a separation of church and state.
1845 William Walford's hymn, "Sweet Hour of Prayer," first appeared in print in the "New York Observer." Walford (1772-1850), a blind lay preacher, had written the poem three years earlier in the village of Coleshill, England.
1931 Having recently suffered a nervous breakdown, Foursquare Gospel founder Aimee Semple McPherson, 40, entered an ill-fated marriage to David Hutton. (They divorced four years later.)
1940 The Southern Baptist General Convention of California was organized at Shafter by representatives of 14 congregations attending an associational meeting of the denomination.
1962 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'God, according to 2 Cor. 5:19, reconciled the world to himself, not himself to the world.'

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

Thought for the day :
"Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat."

Translating Southern United States Slang to English...
RETARD - Verb. To stop working.

Usage: "My granpaw retard at age 65."

How Many Dogs Does it Take to Change Light Bulb?
Rottweiler: Make me.

Politically Correct Terms For Males...
He will never get a : BEER BELLY
He will become : ABDOMINALLY EXTENDED

What's Your Business Astrological Sign?...
ENGINEERING
One of only two signs that actually studied in school. It is said that engineers place ninety percent of all Personal Ads. You can be happy with yourself; your office is full of all the latest ergonomic gadgets. However, we all know what is really causing your carpal tunnel syndrome.

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