While convalescing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Peter encountered the Marquis de Lafayette, who as a twenty-year-old major general in Washington's Army also had been wounded in the fray. Their vast differences in rank notwithstanding, the two young men recuperated together and reportedly became friends.
The dragoon, Peter Francisco, standing in stirrups, wielding 5 foot broadsword, slashing right and left in wild melee among British Guards.
1975
Artist not known
By October, Francisco was well again and rejoined his regiment in time for the Battle of Germantown, five miles north of Philadelphia. Although the British eventually forced the Americans to retreat, this fight nevertheless restored the Continentals' morale, for they had almost held the day and thus now knew that the British were vulnerable.
Francisco was with the troops at Fort Mifflin on Port Island in the Delaware River from late October to mid-November. This post was abandoned under ferocious British shelling, forcing the defenders into the wintry hell of Valley Forge, where Francisco was hospitalized for two of those agonizing months.
For the next three years, Francisco followed his commanders through a succession of engagements. In several instances he performed exploits of such an extraordinary and courageous nature that by war's end he became generally recognized as "the most famous private soldier of the Revolutionary War."
Francisco fought at Monmouth (near present-day Freehold, New Jersey) on June 28, 1778, where a musket ball tore into his right thigh, leaving a wound that nagged him for the rest of his life.
On July 15-16, 1779 the young Goliath took part in the daring surprise attack led by General "Mad Anthony" Wayne on Stony Point, the British Army's stronghold on the Hudson River, north of New York City. The American assault columns were spearheaded by two twenty-man commando units known as "forlorn hopes"; Francisco was in the northern one, commanded by a Lieutenant Gibbon. Gibbon's unit sustained so many casualties that only he, Francisco, and one other man reached their objective, but the advance party was right behind them, and the Americans captured the fort.
During the attack Francisco suffered his third wound of the war, a nine-inch gash in the stomach, but that didn't stop him from killing three enemy grenadiers and capturing the enemy's flag. After recuperating in Fishkill, New York, the wounded warrior bided his time with the troops in various locations until December 1779, when his three-year tour of duty expired and he returned to Virginia.
American militia firing at the British infantry from behind a split rail fence during the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781
1976
Illustration by Don Troiani
Francisco's journey southward coincided with a turn in the same direction by the war itself. In early 1778 the British decided to move their heaviest offensive activities into the South, partly because they expected to receive the backing of the many Loyalists they believed resided in the region. When Peter learned of the enemy's intentions, he joined the Virginia militia.
British strategy called for the capture of Savannah and the securing of Georgia, to be followed by a move north into South Carolina. Congress selected General Horatio Gates, the unpleasant intriguer whose victory at Saratoga in 1777 had puffed up his reputation, as the man to check the Redcoats' advance in the South. The ensuing operations, known as the "Camden Campaign," were an American fiasco, and Francisco was there to experience the unfortunate episode.
The first major clash in the South between the Continentals and the British Army came at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780. The outcome, an utter rout, was labeled by nineteenth-century historian John Fiske as "the most disastrous defeat ever inflicted on an American army," but nonetheless here Francisco achieved one of his most shining moments. Overtaken and surrounded by the enemy during the panicked American retreat, the lad speared a British cavalryman with a bayonet, hoisted him from his horse, and then, climbing onto the steed himself, escaped through the enemy line by pretending to be a Tory sympathizer. Catching up with his fleeing comrades, he gave the mount to his colonel, thereby saving the exhausted officer's life.
18 cent stamp honoring revolutionary war hero Peter Francisco
Next, seeing that one of two American cannon was being left behind, Peter--as the story has it--crouched beneath the 1,100-pound gun, lifted it from its carriage and onto his shoulder, and carried it off the field to prevent its falling into enemy hands. Some historians have questioned whether such a feat is possible, but during the American bicentennial celebrations of 1975-76 the U.S. Postal Service saw no reason to doubt it and issued a commemorative stamp showing the hulking Peter Francisco performing this stupendous deed. No wonder that, by the time of this battle, Peter had acquired the reputation as the strongest man in America.
Francisco again returned to Virginia after the Camden debacle, but not for long. When he learned that Captain Thomas Watkins was raising a cavalry troop, he got himself a horse and returned to action. Watkins's unit was assigned to the command of Colonel William Washington and was soon involved in the crucial confrontation at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, on March 15, 1781.
The Continentals were now under the command of Nathanael Greene, who, unlike Gates, proved worthy of the confidence placed in him. Greene's actions in the South were instrumental in bringing the war to a victorious conclusion. Technically, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a British victory, for Greene's soldiers retreated after a hard-fought contest; but it was a Pyrrhic one--the losses suffered by the British, now under the command of Lord Cornwallis, were so grave that his army was effectively wrecked. Later Cornwallis wrote that the "Americans fought like demons" in what was one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
At Guilford Courthouse Francisco once again gave a most astonishing performance. As Benson Lossing reported in his 1850 Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Francisco, "a brave Virginian, cut down eleven men in succession with his broadsword. One of the guards pinned Francisco's leg to his horse with a bayonet. Forbearing to strike, he assisted the assailant to draw his bayonet forth, when, with terrible force, he brought down his broadsword and cleft the poor fellow's head to his shoulders!" **
Despite his latest wound, Francisco did not leave the battle, and in one final assault against the British he killed two more of the enemy before receiving a bayonet thrust "in his right thigh the whole length of the bayonet, entering above the knee and coming out at the socket of his hip." As his comrades retreated, the fallen cavalryman was left for dead on the field. A Quaker named Robinson is said to have taken Francisco to his home and cared for him until he rallied.
After this fray, Francisco again limped home to Virginia. Having suffered five wounds for his country's cause, Peter could easily have been excused from further service at this late date in the war, but his military career was not quite over. He volunteered as a scout to monitor the Virginia operations of Banastre Tarleton and his horsemen. While out on a mission, Peter stopped off at the inn of one Ben Ward. Nine of Tarleton's troopers surrounded the tavern and announced Peter's arrest. One of the soldiers further demanded that Francisco surrender his silver shoe buckles; in a scene worthy of a Hollywood script-writer, Francisco told him, in effect, to "take them yourself." As the cavalryman bent to do just that, Peter snatched his captor's saber and struck him a blow on the head. The wounded trooper fired a pistol, grazing Peter in the side for his sixth wound of the war; Francisco at the same moment cut the soldier's hand nearly off. Another cavalryman aimed a musket at the American, but when it misfired Peter wrenched it from the soldier's grasp, knocked him from the saddle, and escaped on his horse.
With this feat of derring-do, Francisco's career of terrorizing British troops ended. He was granted, however, the supreme satisfaction of being present when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
Peter then returned to Richmond in the company of Lafayette. There is an unverifiable story that as the two were strolling in front of St. John's Church, a young lady who was leaving the building tripped and was caught by the strapping young veteran. And that was how Francisco first encountered Susannah Anderson, the woman he would marry.
Before giving any thought to marriage, however, Peter sought the education he had earlier been denied. The story of his determination to rise above his humble status is as inspiring as the tales of his battlefield achievements. He went to school, sat his hulking form down next to the children, and within three years was reading the classics.
At the same time that Peter was pursuing learning, he worked as a blacksmith. During this time a diarist named Samuel Shepard observed him at work and recorded that he "never before saw muscles as great and developed in so young a man, or boy, he is still a boy . . . his great hands, long broad the fingers square, the thumbs heavy and larger in the nail than the usual great toe. His feet are as exceptional for length and thickness as is his whole body. His shoulders like some old statue, like a figure of Michelangelo's imagination like his Moses but not like David. His jaw is long, heavy, the nose powerful, the slant [of his] forehead partly concealed by uncombed black hair of a shaggy aspect. His voice was light, surprising me as if a bull should bellow in a whimper." Other contemporary accounts emphasize Francisco's gentle nature and note that his "prominent traits of character for temperance, good temper, and charity were no less striking."
Francisco Monument, looking toward the American Third Line.
From this hill, Lt. Col. William Washington's cavalry charged the British Guards in the vale below while simultaneously the 1st Marylanders counterattacked from the edge of the woods. Thus was enacted one of the most dramatic scenes of the Revolutionary War.
With Washington's cavalry was Peter Francisco, a giant of 6 feet 8 inches, who wielded a 5-foot sword given him by Gen. George Washington after Francisco's complaint that ordinary swords were too light. With his huge sword and mighty courage, legend credits Francisco with slaying 11 men in the battle.
The monument was erected by Peter Francisco Pescud, a grandson of the Revolutionary hero. Unveiled in 1904, the monument is also a tribute to the Marquis de Bretigny and, through him, to all French participants in the American War for Independence.
With his marriage to Susannah in December 1784, Peter became a member of the landed gentry, a part he played well. He displayed a taste for bright-colored waistcoats, high hats, and silk stockings. He acquired a reputation for his hunting and fishing outings and his house parties, at which he would display his fine voice, described by one visitor as having "a power, depth, and sweetness of tone, with wonderful potency. His pathetic earnestness is irresistible."
Peter and Susannah had a son and a daughter before she died in 1790. Catherine Brooke became Peter's second wife in 1794, and two years after her death in 1821 (they had three sons and one daughter) he married Mary Grymes West, the widow of Major West, a Virginia planter.
Many of the stories told about Peter Francisco in this period of his life are awestruck recountings of his strength. He seems to have acquired a Paul Bunyan-like status, and it is impossible to tell which of the tales about him are true. It may well be that they all are. He may really have amused guests by holding two 160-pound men at arm's length above his head, and actually have rescued a cow and her calf from a bog by picking one up under each arm and simultaneously carrying them out of the mud.
Not surprisingly, Francisco folklore includes stories of arrogant tough guys foolish enough to test his strength. One husky chap reportedly traveled all the way from Kentucky for this purpose. Finally goaded into action, the gentle giant threw the challenger over a four-foot fence onto the public road. The badly shaken visitor said that he would leave satisfied if Peter could dispose of his horse in the same fashion; whereupon Francisco handily lifted the steed over the rails. The embarrassed Kentuckian headed for home, enjoined by his good-natured host to "call again when you are passing."
As Francisco grew older and rich in renown, honors and rewards came his way. In 1819, Congress granted him a monthly pension. Five years later, when the Marquis de Lafayette made a triumphal return to the United States, the celebrated visitor made a point of visiting his old hospital mate. And, in 1825 Francisco was named sergeant-at-arms of the Virginia legislature.
Peter Francisco passed away, apparently from appendicitis, on January 16, 1831. The House of Delegates adjourned and paid him the honor of a public funeral at which the Right Reverend R. C. Moore took note of Peter's "degree of bodily strength superior to that of any man of modern times . . . exerted in defense of the country which gave him [a home]."
The passage of this American Hercules from mysterious waif to war hero to country squire, and from the Azores to the Virginia countryside, is surely one the most intriguing and unusual stories to be found in the early annals of the United States. Hollywood, take note.
Additional Sources: www.cr.nps.gov
www.vahistorical.org
www.alaskacoinexchange.com
johnsmilitaryhistory.tripod.com
www.army.mil
www.dean.usma.edu
www.gallon.com
On This Day In history
Birthdates which occurred on April 07:
1506 St Francis Xavier Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan
1534 José de Anchieta Spanish jesuit/missionary (Brazilian Tupi-Indians)
1629 Juan José of Austria, Spanish General/Governor of Netherlands
1632 MoJo2001 aka "Queen of the WooHoo" "Marchioness of Godiva". Nutritional scientist (Discovered that chocolate eaten late at night is devoid of calories).
Note: it's not my fault. AZamericonnie made me do it! HEY I'M THE VICTIM HERE!!! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
1648 Ferdinand van Kessel Flemish painter
1770 William Wordsworth England, poet laureate (The Prelude)
1775 Francis C Lowell founded 1st raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill
1786 William Rufus DeVane King (D) 13th US Vice President (1853)
1801 Henry Eagle Commander (Union Navy), died in 1882
1805 Francis Wilkinson Pickens (Governor-SC, Confederacy), died in 1869
1822 Gershom Mott Major General (Union volunteers)
1837 J. Pierpont Morgan (J.P. Morgan, d.1913), American financier, born Hartford, Conn
1859 Walter Camp Connecticut, father of American football (Yale)
1860 W K Kellogg a real corn flake
1878 Jozef C Bittremieux Flemish theologist (Virgin & Mother of God)
1882 Kurt von Schleiger German chancellor (12/2/32-1/28/33)
1884 Charles Dodd English new testament authority
1890 Marjory Stoneman Douglas environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades)
1893 Allan W Dulles US diplomat/CIA head 1953-61 (Germany's Underground)
1893 Irene Castle dancer (leader in anti-vivisection movement)
1897 Walter Winchell Harlem New York NY, newscaster/columnist/muckracker (Untouchables)
1908 Le Duan Vietnamese politician
1915 Billie Holiday(Lady Day) [Eleanora Fagan] Philadelphia PA, singer (Ain't Nobody's Business)
1915 Henry Kuttner US, sci-fi author (Dark World, As You Were, Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner)
1920 Ravi Shankar Benares India, sitar player (Sounds of India)
1920 Terence Edward Armstrong polar geographer
1928 James [Scott Bumgarner] Garner Norman OK, actor (Rockford Files, Bret Maverick)
1928 James White UK, sci-fi author (Star Surgeon, Star Healer)
1930 Andrew Sachs actor (Manuel-Fawlty Towers)
1931 Daniel Ellsberg whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)
1933 Wayne Rogers Birmingham AL, actor (MASH, House Calls, Chiefs)
1935 Hodding Carter III press secretary (Jimmy Carter)
1935 Bobby Bare Irontown OH, country singer (Detroit City)
1938 Freddie Hubbard Indianapolis IN, jazz trumpeter (Art Blakey)
1938 Yvonne Lime Glendale CA, actress (Father Knows Best, Dobie Gillis)
1938 [Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr San Francisco CA, (Governor-Democrat-CA, 1975-83)(governor moonbeam)
1939 David Frost Tenderdon England, TV host (That Was the Week That Was)
1939 Francis Ford Coppola Detroit MI, film maker (Godfather, Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti)
1949 John Oates guitarist/vocalist (Hall & Oates-Rich Girl)
1951 Janis Ian [Janis Eddy Fink] New York NY, folk singer (Society's Child, At 17)
1951 John Dittrich Union NJ, country singer (Restless Heart-Wheels)
1954 Jackie Chan martial art actor (Rumble in the Bronx)
1954 Tony Dorsett NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys, Heisman Trophy)
1966 Teri Ann Linn Honolulu HI, actress (Kristen-Bold & Beautiful)
1967 Steve Wisniewski NFL guard (Oakland Raiders)
Deaths which occurred on April 07:
0030 Jesus crucified by Roman troops in Jerusalem (scholars' estimate, according to astronomer Schaefer)
0924 Berengarius I Emperor of Italy, murdered
1498 Charles VIII King of France (1483-98), dies at 27
1614 El Greco Spanish painter (View of Toledo), dies (birth date unknown)
1719 Jean-Baptiste de la Salle French priest/theory/saint, dies at 67
1783 Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer composer, dies at 71
1789 Abdül-Hamid I 27th sultan of Turkey (1774-89), dies at 64
1803 [François Dominique] Toussaint L'Ouverture Haitian revolutionary, dies
1881 Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte Corsican MP, dies at 65
1891 P[hineas] T Barnum US circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 80
1932 Erv A Kelley US policeman, shot to death by Pretty Boy Floyd
1947 Henry Ford (Auto pioneer) dies at age 83.
1950 Walter Huston dies at 66
1955 Theda Bara actress (Camille, Cleopatra, 2 Orphans), dies at 62
1961 Marian Jordan radio comedienne (Fibber McGee & Molly), dies at 62
1968 Jim Clark of Scotland, former world driving champion, dies in race car at 32
1972 "Crazy" Joe Gallo mobster, killed at his 43rd birthday party
1983 Gavin Gordon television actor (Romance, Lone Cowboy), dies at 82
1984 Frank Church (Senator-Democrat-OH, 1957-81), dies at 59
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
07-Apr-2003 8 | US: 8 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Andrew Julian Aviles Central part Hostile - hostile fire
US Corporal Jesus Martin Antonio Medellin Central part Hostile - hostile fire
US Staff Sergeant Lincoln Daniel Hollinsaid Baghdad airport Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US 2nd Lieutenant Jeffrey Joseph Kaylor Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - grenade
US Private 1st Class Anthony Scott Miller Baghdad (south of) Hostile - hostile fire - mortar attack
US Specialist George Arthur Mitchell Jr. Baghdad (south of) Hostile - hostile fire - mortar attack
US Major William Randolph Watkins III Tikrit (near) Hostile - jet crash
US Captain Eric Bruce Das Tikrit (near) Hostile - jet crash
07-Apr-2004 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant 1st Class William W. Labadie Jr. Camp Cooke (Taji) Hostile - hostile fire - rocket attack
US Sergeant 1st Class Marvin Lee Miller Samarra?/Balad? Hostile - hostile fire
US Captain Brent L. Morel Fallujah [Al Anbar Prov.] Hostile - hostile fire
US 2nd Lieutenant John Thomas "J.T." Wroblewski Ramadi Hostile - hostile fire
US Staff Sergeant George S. Rentschler Baghdad (Diala Police Sta.) Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US Specialist Tyanna S. Felder Balad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan
A Good Day
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
On this day...
0451 Attila's Hun's plunder Metz
1118 Pope Gelasius II excommunicated Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
1348 Prague U, 1st university in central Europe, formed by Charles IV
1498 Crowd storms Savonarola's convent San Marco Florence Italy
1509 France declares war on Venice
1521 Inquisitor-General Adrian Boeyens bans Lutheran books
1625 Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed German supreme commander
1645 Michael Cardozo becomes 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil
1652 Dutch establish settlement at Cape Town, South Africa
1655 Fabio Chigi replaces Pope Innocent X as Alexander VII
1712 Slave revolt (New York NY)
1724 Johann S Bach's "John Passion" premieres in Leipzig
1788 1st settlement in Ohio, at Marietta
1798 Territory of Mississippi is organized
1818 General Andrew Jackson conquers St Marks FL from Seminole Indians
1827 English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches
1862 Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeat the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: “I saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground.” More than 9,000 Americans died.
1862 Island #10 falls
1863 Battle of Charleston SC, failed Federal fleet attack on Fort Sumter
1865 Battle of Farmville VA
1888 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Yellow Face" (BG)
1891 Nebraska introduces the 8 hour work day
1902 Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms
1922 Naval Reserve #3, "Teapot Dome", leased to Harry F Sinclair
1923 1st brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed (Beth Israel Hospital in NYC) by Dr K Winfield Ney
1923 Workers Party of America (NYC) becomes official communist party
1926 Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose
1927 Using phone lines TV is sent from Washington DC to New York NY
1933 Prohibition ends, Utah becomes 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment
1933 University Bridge, Seattle opens for traffic
1933 1st 2 Nazi anti-Jewish laws, bar Jews from legal & public service
1934 In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspends his campaign of civil disobedience
1939 Italy annexes Albania
1940 1st black to appear on US stamp (Booker T Washington)
1941 British Generals O'Connor & Neame captured in North Africa
1942 Heavy German assault on Malta
1943 British/US troops make contact at Wadi Akarit, South-Tunisia
1943 Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg seriously wounded in allied air raid
1945 US planes intercept Japanese fleet heading for Okinawa on a suicide mission; superbattleship Yamato & four destroyers are sunk
1946 Part of East Prussia incorporated into Russian SFSR
1947 Arab students, influenced by national socialist movements in Europe, founded the Baath Party. Satia al-Husri, father of Ba’athism, was a disciple of German philosopher Johann Fichte. This became a holiday in Iraq until abolished in 2003.
1947 Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, Friedrich A. von Hayek invited a group of classical liberals to discuss the threat of freedom posed by the expansionist governments of the day. The group founded the Mont Pelerin Society to continue meetings and discussions in the future. They viewed central planning as the single most important threat to liberty
1948 World Health Organization established by UN
1949 Rogers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific" opens at Majestic Theater (for 1928 performances)
1951 American Bowling Congress begins 1st masters tournament
1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
1953 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight
1953 Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden elected 2nd UN General-Secretary
1954 German government refuses to recognize DDR
1954 President Dwight Eisenhower fears "domino-effect" in Indo-China
1956 Spain relinquishes her protectorate in Morocco
1957 Last of New York's electric trolleys completes its final run
1959 Radar 1st bounced off sun, Stanford CA
1959 Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years
1963 Public stock offering of 115,000 shares in Milwaukee Braves withdrawn after only 13,000 shares are sold to 1,600 new investors
1966 US recovers lost H-bomb from Mediterranean floor (whoops!)
1967 Israeli/Syrian border fights
1967 Tom Donahue, San Francisco dj begins new radio format - Progressive (KMPX-FM)
1969 Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material
1969 Ted Williams begins managing Washington Senators, they lose to Yankees 8-4
1970 Milwaukee Brewers (former Seattle Pilots) 1st game, lose to Angels 12-0
1971 Dismissal of Curt Flood's suit against baseball is upheld by Supreme Court
1971 President Richard Nixon orders Lieutenant Calley (My Lai) free
1976 Chinese Politburo fires vice-premier Deng Xiaoping
1977 Consumer Product Safety Commission bans the flame-retardant chemical "TRIS"
1978 President Jimmy Carter defers production of the neutron bomb
1978 Guttenberg bible sold for $2,000,000 in NYC
1978 US Court of Appeals upholds Commissioner Kuhn's voiding of attempted player sales by A's owner Charlie Finley in June 1976
1979 Henri La Mothe dives 28' into 12 3/8" of water
1980 Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis
1981 Willem Klein mentally extracts 13th root of a 100-digit # in 29 seconds
1982 Iran minister of Foreign affairs Ghotbzadeh arrested
1983 STS-6 specialist Story Musgrave & Don Peterson 1st STS spacewalk
1983 Oldest human skeleton, aged 80,000 years, discovered in Egypt(Doesn't look a day over 79,992)
1984 Detroit Tiger Jack Morris pitches no-hitter against Chicago White Sox, 4-0
1985 New Jersey General Hershel Walker runs for USFL record 233 yards
1988 Russia announces it will withdraw its troops from Afghánistán
1989 New York Supreme Court takes America's Cup away from San Diego Yacht Club for using a catamaran against New Zealand; Appeals court eventually overrules
1989 Soviet sub sinks in Norwegian Sea, with about a dozen deaths (Kursk)
1990 John Poindexter (National Security Advisor) found guilty on Iran-Contra scandal
1990 Michael Milken pleads innocent to security law violations
1991 "Shadowlands" closes at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC after 169 performances
1996 Monica Lewinsky informes pres. Clinton that she was to be transferred from the White House. He promised to bring her back following the elections and they had another sexual encounter.
2000 AG Janet Reno met in Washington with the father of Elian Gonzalez; Reno later told reporters that officials would arrange for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to reclaim his son, but she gave Elian’s Miami relatives one more chance to drop their resistance and join in a peaceful transfer.
2002 Saddam Hussein pledges to defeat the US if attacked and promised to continue supplying Palestinians to defend against Israel.
2003 19th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the center of Baghdad, seizing Saddam Hussein's Sijood and Republican palaces.
A US warplane dropped 4 precision-guided 2,000-pound JDAMs and left a smoking crater 60 feet deep in the upscale al-Mansour section of western Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein was believed to have been in a meeting with top officials
Capt. Harry Alexander Hornbuckle on the road to Baghdad led 80 US soldiers against 300 Iraqi and Syrian fighters. 200 enemy were killed with no US casualties.
2003 SF Chronicle ran a $45,000 full-page ad that called for the impeachment of Pres. Bush. Former US Attorney Gen’l. Ramsey Clark led the ad sponsors.
2004 In Germany a court in Hamburg released Mounir el-Motassadeq (30), the only man convicted so far of involvement in the Sep 11, 2001, attacks
2004 A Moscow court sentenced Russian arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin to 15 years in prison for spying on behalf of the United States
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
China : Ching Ming - families gather at graves of ancestors
Haiti : World Health Day (1948)
Yugoslavia : Republic Day (1963)
US : National Laugh Week Ends
US : National Publicity Stunt Week Ends
US : National Reading a Road Map Week (Day 4)
National Welding Month
Religious Observances
Orthodox : Annunciation of Mary (3/25 OS)
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St John Baptist de la Salle, priest, patron of teachers
Religious History
1541 Spanish founder of the Jesuits Francis Xavier, 35, and three friends set sail from Lisbon, Portugal for Goa. They became the first Roman Catholic missionaries to travel to India.
1628 Jonas Michaelius, 51, arrived in New Amsterdam (New York City), the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church to come to America.
1884 Birth of C. H. Dodd, English clergyman and Bible scholar. Dodd became the most influential British New Testament scholar of the mid-20th century, and penned over a dozen books, including "The Parables of the Kingdom" (1934).
1953 Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjld, 47, was elected Secretary General of the United Nations. Hammarskjld endeared himself to Christians, after his death in 1961, through the 1964 publication of his spiritual journal, "Markings."
1968 In a letter penned during his 83rd and final year of life, Karl Barth wrote: 'How one learns to be thankful for each day on which one can still do something.'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Cheap things are of no value, valuable things are not cheap."
