The FReeper Foxhole Profiles - Nurse Pember's Whiskey War - December 4th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

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.


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Nurse Pember's Whiskey War



Chimborazo Hospital

During the Civil War, Phoebe Pember had come to tend the sick and comfort the dying. but she ended up fighting violent alcoholic patients over control of the medicinal whiskey.

By Mary C. Meskauskas

From atop Chimborazo Hill on the western outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, Phoebe Yates Pember, matron of Chimborazo Hospital Number Two, looked down upon "a scene of indescribable confusion." A few months earlier, the collapse of the Confederacy had been only a whispered rumor. Now, on the afternoon of April 2, 1865, that depressing prospect had become a shocking reality. With Federal troops fast on their heels, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, his cabinet, and other government officials were scampering out of town by train, carriage, and any other available form of transportation.



Surgeons, nurses, and stewards followed their example and skedaddled from the Chimborazo complex. After bidding her fleeing friends farewell, Pember turned away from the turbulent scene and walked through her nearly empty wards. Night was setting in. As she later wrote, "Beds in which paralyzed, rheumatic, and helpless patients had laid for months were empty. The miracles of the New Testament had been re-enacted. The lame, the halt, and the blind had been cured."

Pember had arrived at Chimborazo Hospital, a complex of long, single-story, whitewashed buildings sprawled atop Chimborazo Hill, on December 18, 1862. Chimborazo was at the time said to be the largest military hospital in the world, and Phoebe would be its first matron. She had accepted the job from Mrs. George Wythe Randolph, wife of the Confederate secretary of war, mainly to escape unhappiness and inactivity at the Yates homestead in Marietta, Georgia, where she had gone to live after the death of her husband the previous year.



In a November 29, 1862, letter to her sister, Eugenia, Pember admitted she was a little anxious about her decision: "You may imagine how frightened and nervous I feel concerning the step I am about to take and how important in this small way it will be to me, for I have too much common sense to underrate what I am giving up." In the same letter she also wrote proudly that she was to have "entire charge of my department, seeing that everything is clean, orderly and all prescriptions of physicians given in proper time, food properly prepared and so on."

Though she had no professional medical training, Pember had run a large household and cared for her husband, who had suffered from tuberculosis. She considered herself an efficient and educated woman well up to the challenge of heading one of Chimborazo's five hospital divisions. Nevertheless, the conditions she encountered at the hospital would challenge her efficiency and her patience. The challenge began with her living space. The surgeon-in-charge had made no preparations for his female nurses, so Phoebe set to work converting a vacant building into her own quarters, an office, parlor, laundry area, pantry, and kitchen.

As Pember's confidence grew so did her use of authority. She was responsible for procuring supplies and food for her patients' special diets and she soon insisted upon total control of luxuries such as coffee, tea, and milk. Still, her position seemed little more than that of a chief cook until the surgeon-in-charge, Dr. James B. McCaw, found her peeling potatoes one day. McCaw initiated a thorough study of hospital rules that resulted in the organization of a full staff under Pember's jurisdiction. She was provided with an assistant matron, cooks and bakers, and two laborers to perform menial tasks.

Pember soon had her first major skirmish with traditional male authority at the hospital, over a problem that nearly proved her undoing. Each hospital division received its own monthly barrel of whiskey for medicinal purposes. Pember noted that "the monthly barrel of whiskey which I was entitled to draw still remained at the dispensary under the guardianship of the apothecary and his clerks, and quarts and pints were issued through any order coming from surgeons or their substitutes, so that the contents were apt to be gone long before I was entitled to draw more, and my sick would suffer for want of the stimulant."



There was a wide discrepancy between Confederate law, which dictated that all spirituous liquors required by hospitals should be entrusted to the matrons, and how whiskey was actually dispensed at Chimborazo. Thoroughly familiar with the hospital bill passed by Congress, Pember made a formal request to Dr. McCaw for total jurisdiction over the monthly whiskey ration. The surgeon-in-charge protested, but then reluctantly released the barrel to the matron's care. Flushed with victory, Pember wrote, "I nailed my colors to the mast, and that evening all the liquor was in my pantry and the key in my pocket."

Pember's triumph heralded the beginning of trouble. She soon felt what she called "the thousand miseries of my position." Staff members flooded her office with countless petty requests. Pember's all-consuming passion--the care of the sick, wounded, and dying--kept her going. "My duty prompted me to remain with my sick, on the ground that no general ever deserts his troops," she wrote. She eventually found some respite from her responsibilities by renting a room in town, to which she returned at night.

Meanwhile, her patients taught her something about courage. "No words can do justice to the uncomplaining nature of the Southern soldier," she wrote. "Day after day, whether lying wasted by disease or burning up with fever, torn with wounds or sinking from debility, a groan was seldom heard." In her war memoir, A Southern Woman's Story, Yates described a particularly remarkable example of a young soldier named Fisher.



Fisher had suffered a severe hip wound. One night, after months of hard and diligent nursing, he turned over in bed and cried out in pain. Pember examined him and discovered that a sharp edge of splintered bone had severed one of his arteries. She immediately placed her finger in the tiny hole to stop the gush of blood, and summoned the surgeon. After looking at Fisher's injury, the doctor shook his head and declared sadly that the poor man was beyond help.

Pember faced what she later considered "the hardest trial of my duty at Chimborazo." She told Fisher there was no hope for him, and the gravely injured man gave her directions on notifying his mother of his death.

"How long can I live?" he asked.

"Only as long as I keep my finger upon this artery," Pember replied.

Then, she later wrote, "A pause ensued. God alone knew what thoughts hurried through that heart and brain, called so unexpectedly from all earthly hopes and ties. He broke the silence at last."

"You can let go," Fisher said. Pember froze, unable to obey. The horror of the situation overcame her, and for the only time during her days at Chimborazo, she fainted.

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As the war progressed, casualties multiplied and Pember's duties increased. Massive numbers of incoming wounded caused shortages of medical supplies, surgeons and assistants, and hospital beds. Pember arranged for makeshift beds and continually washed and dressed minor wounds, preparing the more difficult cases for the surgeons. Soon, however, trouble began anew, and as Pember wrote, "if it is necessary to have a hero for this matter-of-fact narrative, the whiskey barrel will have to step forward and make his bow."

It was the spring of 1864 when the ongoing whiskey problem escalated into a confrontation between Pember and a determined ward surgeon. Every day, each ward's officer of the day ordered a quart bottle of whiskey in case a patient needed a stimulant during the night. The following morning Pember would inquire why the bottles were empty when no patients had required the elixir. The answer would invariably be that rats must have tipped the bottle over during the night.

The mystery of the disappearing whiskey rations might have continued for the duration of the war if not for a complaint lodged by a patient in a distant ward, who wondered why the liquor ration had not reached his building. Pember marched over and questioned the other patients, who all said that they had not received any whiskey. The men hinted that several champagne bottles hidden behind a certain vacant bed might easily be spirited away in the night.



Pember searched and discovered the stowed champagne bottles filled with the missing whiskey. Incensed, she tracked down and confronted the ward master, but he indicated that another party was guilty. Pember was unsympathetic; in looking the other way the ward master had failed his charges, and the matron informed him that when she took "the matter to the proper authorities he would be sent to the field."

An hour later the ward surgeon accosted Pember in her office. He swore that his ward master did not drink. Pember replied, "I know he does not, and I also know who does." The doctor's fiery flush revealed him as the true culprit. Despite his subsequent efforts to discredit Pember, it was the surgeon who soon left Chimborazo, never to return. It was a hollow victory for Pember, who soon realized that the whiskey barrel was not just a source of contention, but a troubling institution she would someday have to deal with once and for all.



That day came on the Monday following the evacuation of Richmond. The hospital was in enemy hands and Pember spent the day discharging orders given by Federal surgeons. She cleared one hospital division to make room for incoming Union patients, who were laid alongside the remaining Confederates. Exhausted at the end of the day, she entered her quarters and tumbled onto her straw mattress.

Suddenly, the sound of a door crashing down jolted her to her feet, and Pember found herself face to face with a threatening mob. She recognized the ringleader, a long-time hospital resident named Wilson. "We have come for the whiskey!" he declared.

"You cannot, and shall not have it," the matron answered, undeterred by the angry "hospital rats" at Wilson's back.

"It does not belong to you," Wilson said. In this, Wilson was mistaken. Pember had remained at Chimborazo to execute her duties, and those duties included insuring the safety and disposition of 30 gallons of whiskey that had arrived the day before. Pember was determined to do her duty.

"Boys!" Wilson bellowed, "Pick up that barrel and carry it down the hill. I will attend to her!"

For nearly three years, Pember had given orders and the men had taken them. Now they backed away, leaving their leader to confront the defiant matron by himself.

"Wilson," Pember said, "you have been in this hospital a long time. Do you think from what you know of me that the whiskey can be taken without my consent?"

That said, she stepped solidly between her foe and the whiskey barrel. She watched as Wilson's "fierce temper blazed up in his face, and catching me roughly by the shoulder, he called me a name that a decent woman seldom hears and even a wicked one resents." The bully was about to shove Pember out of his way when he heard a telltale click--the sound of a pistol being cocked, barely muted by the folds of the matron's homespun skirt. Pember told him to leave. "If one bullet is lost," she warned, "there are five more ready, and the room is too small for even a woman to miss six times."

Wilson backed down, but left with a threat: "You think yourself very brave now, but wait an hour; perhaps others may have pistols too, and you won't have it entirely your way after all." Wilson's hateful words were chilling, and after the men retreated Pember nailed the head of a flour barrel across the back door and sat down on the whiskey barrel, her pistol within easy reach. Fortunately, the men did not return. "Warm with triumph and victory gained," Phoebe slept undisturbed, if uncomfortable, through the rest of the night.



On the morning of April 4, 1865, Federal authorities took possession of Chimborazo's stores, and the troublesome whiskey was no longer Pember's concern. The matron remained on duty until all her patients had convalesced, died, or been removed to another hospital. Then, after more than two years of selfless duty, Pember suddenly found herself alone in Union-occupied Richmond, without prospects, and with just a silver 10-cent piece and a box of useless Confederate money to her name. Laughing at her lot, she spent her paltry remaining funds on "a box of matches and five cocoa-nut cakes."

Pember eventually made her way back to Georgia, and spent many of her remaining years traveling. She died in 1913, an eternity removed from her trials and triumphs at Hospital Number Two.

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Educational Sources:
historynet.com

[snippy_about_it]

Phoebe Pember

The Passionate Nurse for the Confederacy

Phoebe Pember was born on August 23, 1823, the daughter of a very well-to-do Jewish family from Charleston, South Carolina. She married a man from Boston, who died in July 1861. Widowed, she returned to her family who was now living in Marietta, Georgia.



Loyal to the Confederacy, Phoebe was friends with the wife of Secretary of War George W. Randolph, and used this relationship to achieve an appointment. Successful, she was appointed the chief matron of the 2nd division of Richmond's Chimborazo Hospital on December 1, 1862. In her service during the war, she was plagued by the usual short-comings of male doctors who believed that women should not work beside them, as well as shortages of medicines and other badly needed supplies. But, in spite of this, she continued to work tirelessly caring for the sick and wounded soldiers.

She was criticized by others who said that ladies should not see the horrors of the hospitals. In response, Pember said, "In the midst of suffering and death, hoping with those almost beyond hope in this world; praying by the bedside of the lonely and heart stricken; closing the eyes of boys hardly old enough to realize man's sorrows, much less suffer man's fierce hate, a woman must soar beyond the conventional modesty considered correct under different circumstances."

Pember remained at the Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond even after the fall of Richmond, until the hospital was taken over by Union authorities. Working on her memoirs after the war, she published them in 1879, titled, "A Southern Woman's Story," whereby she describes the suffering and unbelievable spirit of those soldiers she helped during the war. Pember possessed considerable compassion for those she tended, and in her book wrote, "Scenes of pathos occurred daily-scenes that wrung my heart and forced the dew of pity from the eyes; but feeling that enervated the mind and relaxed the body was a sentimental luxury that was not to be indulged in. There was too much work to be done...."

Phoebe Pember died on March 4, 1913 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Phebe's sister, Eugenia, was a spy and was banished to an island. Her brother, Samuel, was the highest ranking Jewish officer in Savannah during the war.

Copyright© John T. Marck. All Rights Reserved. This article and their accompanying pictures, photographs, and line art, may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author.

[snippy_about_it]

Here are the recommended holiday mailing dates for military mail this year:

For military mail addressed TO APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

• Parcel Post - November 13
• Space Available - November 27
• Parcel Airlift - December 4
• Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - Mailing date is December 11 to all locations
  • EXCEPT for locations starting with ZIP 093. For all locations starting with ZIP 093 the mailing date is December 6.
• Express Mail - December 20 to locations where Express Mail service is available. Check with your local post office to determine which APO/FPO addresses can receive Express Mail. Note: This service is not available to ships.

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For military mail FROM APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

• Space Available - November 20
• Parcel Airlift - December 4
• Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - December 11
• Express Mail - December 18 from APO/FPO addresses where Express Mail can be accepted. Check with your local military post office to determine if they can accept Express Mail. Note: This service is not available from ships.

Thanks for the information StayAt HomeMother

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Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

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

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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It's Friday. Good Morning Everyone.


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[Neil E. Wright]

God Bless our Nurses, Doctors and corpsmen/medics who struggle to preserve life, often under extreme circumstances. These heroes do not get near enough of the recognition and accolades they deserve!

To any and all medical personnel reading this thread, this old sailor SALUTES YOU!
±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

[CholeraJoe]

What a story!

I dated a nurse named Phoebe for a while, although she went by her middle name. Statuesque but shy blonde. (Sigh...)

Too high maintenance...or maybe I was.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[alfa6]

Hah good news bump for Saturday's Freeper Foxhole. The boss said I could have a vacation day on Monday WOO HOO!!!

6 of 7 underway

Hi manna

more later

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

[Iris7]

Phoebe Pember gave her all to help our wounded American fighting men. Other names ring down from that era, like Barton and Nightingale. Just as good as humans get.

The story of Private Fisher and the hopeless (in that era) hemorrhage I have read before. War is a heart breaker.

In 1965 the Navy was looking for volunteers for Hospital Corpsmen school amongst my group for later service with the Marine Corps. I did not apply. Later, about 1978, I realized I had done the wrong thing in not volunteering. The regret is fading these days.

[GailA]

Good morning

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning FOXHOLE!!

[The Mayor]

December 4, 2004

Read All Of It

Read: Psalm 119:97-112

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. —2 Timothy 3:16

Bible In One Year: Ezekiel 47-48; 1 John 3

---

Some Christian families follow the practice of reading through the whole Bible. After evening meals, they read a chapter or two. They read from Genesis to Revelation, skipping nothing. Even the genealogies with their hard-to-pronounce names are read aloud.

We might question the relevance of such a method for small children, but it does acquaint all the family members with the entirety of God's Word. It also exposes children to the sinful depths and spiritual heights of which we are capable, and it teaches them right and wrong.

If you've never done so, why not embark on your own program of reading the Bible straight through? Try doing it as a family or for your personal devotions.

There are two persuasive reasons for resolving to undertake such a program. One is Paul's declaration that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable (2 Timothy 3:16). The other is the testimony of believers whose lives have been changed by following such a practice.

Read God's Word straight through and you'll begin to see the unfolding plan of God's redeeming grace, and that you were the object of His love even before you were born. Do it once, and you'll want to do it again. —Vernon Grounds

Oh, may these heavenly pages be
My ever dear delight,
And still new beauties may I see,
And still increasing light. —Steele

Those who only sample the Bible never acquire a taste for it.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on December 04:
1443 Pope Julius II, (1503-13), patron of Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael
1584 John Cotton, Puritan clergyman in Mass Bay colony
1795 Thomas Carlyle, Scotland, essayist/historian (French Revolution)
1822 Frances Crabbe, England, feminist founded Anti-Vivisection Society
1835 Samuel Butler, England, author (Erewhon, Way of All Flesh)
1861 Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard) (singer, actress, famous burlesque beauty
1875 Rainer Maria Rilke, Austria, poet (Duino Elegies)
1892 Francisco Franco [y Bahamonde], Spanish Generalissimo/dictator (1936-75)
1903 Alfred Leslie Rowse, historian
1912 Pappy (Gregory) Boyington (aviator)
1915 Eddie Heywood, Jr. (pianist, composer: Canadian Sunset)
1922 Gerard Philipe, Cannes France, actor (Caligula, Le Diable au Corps)
1931 Alex Delvecchio (hockey: Detroit Red Wings: Most Gentlemanly Player [1966, 1969])
1933 Horst Buchholz (actor)
1934 Wink Martindale (TV host: Tic Tac Dough, Can You Top This?)
1937 Max Baer, Jr. (actor, producer: The Beverly Hillbillies, Ode to Billy Joe)
1940 Freddy 'Boom Boom' Cannon (Frederick Anthony Picariello)Singer-teen idol ("Tallahassee Lassie","Palisades Park")
1941 Marty Riessen (tennis champion: shares record for most US Open mixed doubles, won by an individual male [4])
1942 Chris Hillman (singer: group: The Byrds)
1943 Gary Sabourin (hockey)
1944 Dennis Wilson (musician: drums, keyboard; singer: group: The Beach Boys )
1949 Jeff Bridges (actor: The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Fisher King, The Last Picture Show, The Company She Keeps, American Heart, Sea Hunt; songwriter)
1952 Gary Rossington (guitarist: group: Lynyrd Skynyrd)

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Deaths which occurred on December 04:
1334 John XXII, [Jacques Duze], Pope (316-34), dies
1371 Reinald III, the Fat Duke, duke of Gelre (1343-61), dies at 38
1514 Richard Hunne, English "heretic", commits suicide(?)
1642 Armand-Jean Duplessis Richelieu, bishop of Luzon, dies at about 57
1732 John Gay, English poet (Beggar's Opera), dies at 47
1798 Luigi Galvani, Italian anatomy/physicist, dies at 61
1967 Bert Lahr, [Irving Lahrheim], US comic (Wizard of Oz), dies at 72
1969 Fred Hampton Chairmen of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.
1976 Tommy Bolin rock guitarist (Deep Purple), dies of heroin overdose
1993 Frank V Zappa, US music/composer (Mothers of Invention), dies at 52
1995 Itzhak Rabin, PM of Israel (1968-73), assassinated

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 COLLINS ARNOLD---NEW YORK NY.
1970 GREEN GEORGE C. JR.---ATTICA IN.

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

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On this day...
0771 With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire
1110 Syria harbor city Saida (Sidon) surrenders to Crusaders
1197 Crusaders wound Rabbi Elezar ben Judah
1259 Treaty of Paris: English king Henry III & French king Louis IX
1534 Turkish sultan Suleiman occupies Baghdad
1489 Battle of Baza-Spanish army captures Baza from the Moors
1534 Turkish sultan Suleiman occupies Baghdad
1563 Council of Trent holds last session, after 18 years
1619 America's 1st Thanksgiving Day (Virginia)
1644 1st European peace congress opens in Münster
1655 Middelburg Netherlands forbids building of synagogue
1674 Father Marquette builds 1st dwelling in what is now Chicago
1680 Hen in Rome lays an egg imprinted with comet not seen until Dec 16th
1682 1st General Assembly in Pennsylvania (Chester)
1691 Emperor Leopold I takes control of Transsylvania
1691 Spanish king Carlos II names Maximilian II viceroy of South Netherlands
1745 Bonnie Prince Charles reaches Derby
1783 General Washington bids officers farewell at Fraunce's Tavern, New York NY
1791 Britain's Observer, oldest Sunday newspaper in world, 1st published
1798 Rebellious Flemish farmers occupy Hasselt
1812 Peter Gaillard of Lancaster PA patents a horse-drawn mower
1816 James Monroe (VA), elected 5th President, defeating Federalist Rufus King
1829 Britain abolished "suttee" in India (widow burning herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre
1832 French army begins bombing citadel of Antwerp
1833 American Anti-Slavery Society formed by Arthur Tappan in Philadelphia
1836 Whig party holds its 1st national convention, Harrisburg PA
1843 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas & rope) patented, Massachusetts
1844 James K Polk elected 11th President of US, George M Dallas Vice President
1851 President Louis Napolean Boaparte forces crush a coup d'etat in France
1864 Romanian Jews are forbidden to practice law
1864 Battle of Waynesborough, Brier Creek GA
1867 Grange organized to protect farm interests
1872 The U.S. brigantine Marie Celeste is found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal.
1875 William Marcy "Boss" Tweed (NYC-Tammany Hall) escapes from jail
1889 Stanley's expedition reaches Bagamoyo in Indian Ocean
1899 56th Congress (1899-1901) convenes
1899 Webb Hayes son of President Rutherford Hayes receives medal of honor
1901 Anne Russell's "Girl & The Judge" premieres in New York NY
1905 British government of Balfour resigns
1906 Alpha Phi Alpha, 1st Black Greek Letter Fraternity, forms
1908 Haiti's President General Alexis Nord flees from military coup
1909 1st CFL Grey Cup: University of Toronto defeats Toronto Parkdale, 26-6
1914 Walter Johnson accepts money from Federal League Chicago Whales Clark Griffith threatens to take Johnson to court
1915 Panamá-Pacific International Exposition closes in San Francisco CA (Opened February 20 1915)
1915 F F Fletcher is 1st admiral to receive Congressional Medal of Honor
1915 Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County GA
1918 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes (Yugoslavia) proclaimed
1918 President Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France, 1st chief executive to travel outside US while in office
1920 1st Pro football playoff game Buffalo-7, Canton-3 at Polo Grounds
1922 Lucille Atcherson, becomes 1st woman legation secretary-US foreign service
1923 Cecil B DeMille's 1st version of "Ten Commandments" premieres
1923 WEAF radio begins broadcasting Eveready Hour (variety show)
1927 Duke Ellington opens at the Cotton Club in Harlem
1927 Dmitri Shostakovich's 2nd Symphony, premieres in Moscow
1928 Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn's musical "Whoopee" premieres in New York NY
1930 French government of Tardieu falls
1930 Vatican approves rhythm method for birth control
1931 "Frankenstein" opens at Mayfair
1933 FDR creates Federal Alcohol Control Administration
1935 1,200 at St Joseph's College (Philadelphia) enroll in anticommunism class
1941 Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
1941 Nazi ordinances places Jews of Poland outside protection of courts
1942 1st US citizenship granted an alien on foreign soil (James Hoey)
1942 FDR orders dismantling of Works Progress Administration
1942 US bombers struck Italian mainland for 1st time in WWII
1943 Commissioner Landis announces any baseball club may sign Negroes
1943 2nd conference of Caïro: FDR, Churchill & Turkish President Inönü
1943 Yugoslavian resistance forms provisionary government under Dr Ribar
1944 Germans destroy Rhine dikes, Betuwe flooded
1945 Senate approves US participation in UN
1945 11th Heisman Trophy Award: Doc Blanchard, Army (FB); he is 1st junior to win the trophy
1947 USSR joins International Amateur Athletic Union
1948 SS Kiangya hits mine in Whangpoo River China, sinks killing 2,750 die
1949 Bob Gage ties NFL record of a 97 yard touchdown run
1951 Superheated gases roll down Mount Catarman (Philippines), kills 500
1951 Copland/Robbins' "Pied Piper" premieres in New York NY
1952 Killer fogs begin in London England, "Smog" becomes a word
1952 The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
1952 Walter P Reuther chosen chairman of CIO
1954 "Hit the Trail" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 4 performances
1956 22nd Heisman Trophy Award: Paul Hornung, Notre Dame (QB)
1957 1st edition of "Chase's Annual Events" published
1957 2 commuter trains collide in heavy fog killing 92 (St John's England)
1958 Dahomey (Benin), Ivory Coast become autonomous within French Community
1958 Finnish government of Fagerholm, resigns
1961 Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse's Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
1961 Tanganyika becomes the 104th member of the UN
1961 Floyd Patterson KOs Tom McNeeley in 4 for heavyweight boxing title
1961 WXGA TV channel 8 in Waycross GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 Aldo Moro forms Italian government
1963 Pope Paul VI closes 2nd session of 2nd Vatican Council
1964 Beatles release "Beatles For Sale" album
1964 Baseball approves a free-agent draft
1964 Commissioner's office given full powers in baseball disputes
1965 Gemini 7 launched with 2 astronauts (Borman & Lovell)
1965 "Roar of the Greasepaint" closes at Shubert NYC after 232 performances
1965 2 passenger planes collide above Danbury CT, 4 die
1965 San Francisco Giant Masanori Murakami, 4-1 this year, does not renew his contract signing instead with the Nankai Hawks of Osaka for $40,000
1966 KETS TV channel 2 in Little Rock AR (PBS) begins broadcasting
1970 Unemployment in US increases to 5.8%
1973 John Cappelletti wins Heisman trophy
1974 Dutch DC-8 charter crashes in Sri Lanka killing 191 Moslem pilgrims
1974 Jean-Paul Sartre visits RAF leader Andreas Baader in prison
1975 6 South Molukkans occupy Indonesian consulate in The Hague, 1 dead
1976 Liz Taylor's 7th marriage (John Warner)
1977 Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of Central African Empire, crowns himself
1977 NFL's 5,000th game, Cincinnati beats Kansas City 27-7
1977 Hollis Stacy/Jerry Pate win Pepsi-Cola Mixed Team Golf Championship
1977 Neil Simon's "Chapter Two" premieres in New York NY
1978 Dianne Feinstein is named San Francisco 1st female mayor
1978 Pioneer Venus 1 goes into orbit around Venus
1978 Dutch War criminal Pieter Menten freed
1979 Cleveland Cavaliers retire jersey #7, Bingo Smith
1979 Liza Minnelli's 3rd marriage (Mark Gero)
1980 2 months after death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin breaks up
1981 "Falcon Crest" premieres on CBS-TV
1981 According to South Africa, Ciskei gains independence; Not recognized as an independent country outside South Africa
1981 President Reagan allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence (No 12333)
1982 48th Heisman Trophy Award: Herschel Walker, Georgia (RB)
1982 China adopts its constitution
1983 US jet fighters strike Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon
1983 "Amen Corner" closes at Nederlander Theater NYC after 83 performances
1983 David Shire & R Maltby Jr's musical "Baby" premieres at Barrymore Theater NYC for 241 performances
1984 Hijackers commandeered a Kuwaiti airliner
1985 President Reagan appoints Vice Admiral John Poindexter as security adviser
1985 "Les Miserables" opens at Palace Theatre, London
1985 French President Mitterrand receives Polish leader Jaruzelski
1986 NASA launches Fltsatcom-7
1988 Actor Gary Busey critically injured in motorcycle crash
1988 Baltimore Orioles trade veteran 1st baseman Eddie Murray to Los Angeles Dodgers
1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1990 Due to Persian Gulf crisis gas hits $1.60 per gallon price in New York NY
1990 Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages
1991 Judds final concert (Nashville)
1991 Muslim Shiites release last US hostage Terry Anderson (held 6½ years)
1991 Pan American World Airways ceased operations
1991 Patricia Bowman testifies that William Kennedy Smith raped her
1992 US Troops land in Somalia
1993 Dan Jansen skates world record 500 meter (35.92 seconds)
1993 Johann Koss skates world record 5K (6:35.53)
1994 83rd Davis Cup: Sweden beats Russia in Moscow (4-1)
1994 Marta Figueras-Dottie/Brad Bryant win LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1996 NASA's 1st Mars rover launched from Cape Canaveral
1996 Orlando Magic tie NBA record of fewest ponts scored since inception of 24 second clock losing to Cleveland Cavalier, 84-57
1996 Jonathan Schmitz was sentenced in the slaying of Scott Amedure, who had confessed to having a crush on Schmitz during the taping of "The Jenny Jones Show." The segment never aired.
1997 Top health officials in Europe voted to ban most forms of advertising of tobacco beginning in four to five years.
1997 "Diary of Anne Frank" opens at Music Box Theater NYC

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

México : Day of the Artisans
Tonga : Proclamation Day
US : Lefotver Week Ends
US : Taco Night
Bingo's Birthday Month

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Religious Observances
Orthodox : Presentation in the Temple of Mary
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Barbara, virgin/martyr
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna/doctor
Roman Catholic, Anglican : Commemoration of John Damascene, priest/doctor

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Religious History
1154 Adrian IV, 54, was elected to the papacy. Born Nicholas Breakspear, near St. Albans, England, he was the only Englishman ever elevated to the office of pope.
1674 French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette erected a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan, in present_day Illinois. His log cabin became the first building of a settlement that afterward grew to become the city of Chicago.
1809 The International Bible Society was founded in New York City as an interdenominational agency for translating, producing and distributing the Scriptures. The I.B.S. has since distributed the Bible to over 150 countries in the world.
1854 Birth of Mary Reed, American Methodist missionary. She died in 1943, having spent the last 52 years of her life ministering to the lepers of India.
1966 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'The good Lord, in spite of reports to the contrary, is not dead.'

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

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Thought for the day :
"Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege"

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Signs You've Bought a Cheap Car...
Shadow Traffic warns other drivers what highway you're taking.

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You Just Might Be A Scrooge...
If your only contact with three spirits on Christmas Eve
is gin, vodka and bourbon
-- you just might be a Scrooge

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Dictionary of the Absurd...
tree
The Irish number that follows two.

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Man's Answers to Every Question a Woman ever asks
WHAT'S WITH ALL THE BELCHING AND FARTING?
This usually only occurs after months of courting. It's our way to let you know that we're comfortable with you. Believe it or not, it's actually a sign of affection!

[SAMWolf]

Phoebe Pember was one heck of a special Lady.

[SAMWolf]

Amen Neil!

[SAMWolf]

Morning CholeraJoe.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

[SAMWolf]

Morning alfa6.

I wish my boss would let me have a vacation day. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

Foggy and cold again this morning. I think winter is here to stay.