Replies

Before the new road could be cut, its route had to be determined. In 1755, Pennsylvania's James Burd had already started to open a road part of the way in order to provide Braddock with supplies from eastern Pennsylvania. The older Burd road thus solved the problem of getting Forbes' army from Shippensburg to a point somewhat west of Raystown (today's Bedford). Forbes and his engineers decided to strike northwest from the point where Burd's unfinished route turned southwest. The principal obstacle to determining how to proceed involved discovering suitable passes through the Allegheny and Laurel Ridges. A great deal of time was lost in reconnoitering a feasible route.

George Washington in the Uniform of a British Colonial Colonel, the rank Washington held during the French and Indian War period.

Forbes, however, was not content merely to survey and construct a new road. Determined to avoid Braddock's mistakes, he carefully laid down a network of fortified supply depots and encampments along the new road within convenient distance of one another. In addition, therefore, to having some 1,000 men felling trees, moving boulders and crudely grading the roadbed, and to the hundreds standing guard against attack, he had to divert sorely needed manpower to erect and then garrison his storehouses and stockades.

Nature withheld its benediction of Forbes' enterprise throughout that summer and fall of 1758, with one of the rainiest seasons in anyone's memory. The road flooded repeatedly, its clay and rocky bed becoming impassable. Landslides blocked passage and torrents often washed away the road where it traversed the mountain passes. Great numbers of wagons, bearing between 1,600 and 2,000 pounds of supplies, simply became marooned; worse, the stumps and boulders left on the road destroyed them by the hundreds.

View of troops assembling at Fort Bedford during the Spring of 1758.

Never fed adequately, hundreds of soldiers became ill with respiratory and intestinal infections. Surviving letters reveal that many of Forbes' officers became bedridden for long periods of time. Forbes himself was extremely ill throughout the campaign. In fact, Forbes, trained for a profession in medicine probably at the University of Edinburgh, realized he was a dying man (he survived until March 11, 1759). Although he identified his fatal disease as the "bloody flux," he seems to have suffered from more than one affliction. Blinded by migraines, dehydrated, brutally constipated, barely able to walk at times of severest attack, he could find no rest, nor could he get out of bed. One of the sad spectacles the soldiers often witnessed was that of their commanding officer being carried along the road in a litter slung between two horses as he struggled heroically to catch up with the advance companies, from Carlisle to Shippensburg, to Fort Loudon, to Fort Bedford, over the tortuous mountains, to Fort Ligonier on Loyalhanna Creek. Yet, even though he could not even write out his communiqués on certain days, his mind remained acute, his perseverance undiminished.

As if Forbes' physical infirmities were not torment enough, there is strong indication in the extant documents that he had been virtually abandoned to his own resources by his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. James Abercromby, and the Crown's agent for Indian affairs, northern district, Sir William Johnson. Still, Forbes refused to quit. As he wrote on October 25 to his second-in-command, Bouquet, "Whatever you and I may suffer in our minds, pray let us put the best face upon matters, and keep every body in Spirits."

Army train struggling to ascend the Allegheny front between Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier, on the Forbes Road (Rt. 30).

At least part of what Forbes alluded to in his phrase "suffer in our minds" points to the demoralizing effects of the shortages and the rivalrous conflicts undermining his command structure. During the planning stage, moreover, the British sought participation by the southern Indians. Mortal enemies of the Iroquois, "protectors" of the Shawnee and the Delaware, the Cherokees and Catawbas would provide Forbes with invaluable support in reconnaissance and guerrilla operations against the French and their own Indian allies. In May 1758, about 650 southern Indians had gathered at Winchester, Va., with 400 more expected. Unfortunately for Forbes and his staff, he noted that the Cherokees and Catawbas came "almost naked, and without arms." They required provisioning and a constant supply of gifts. Accordingly, an enormous sum of 8,000 pounds was allotted to keeping Forbes' Indian allies equipped and content. They also required activities to sustain their interest, having little patience with the slow, meticulous advance executed by Forbes.

By June, the southern Indian allies had begun deserting in large numbers. Forbes himself wrote Abercromby that "wee shall not be able to keep the Cherokees notwithstanding all the pains and expenses that they have cost us." All but about 160 had abandoned the army by July. To make matters worse, word came back to Forbes that the bored Cherokees encamped in Virginia had started attacking and scalping the settlers.

Construction of Fort Ligonier.

As the Indians continued to desert and became more difficult to manage, Forbes complained to Bouquet about their "bullying" behavior and "most sordid and avaritious [sic] demands." Bouquet, who had to deal with them directly and daily, summarized what must surely have been the army's prevailing feeling: "Our Indians are rascals who are worth neither the trouble nor the expense they have cost."

Of more serious concern was the composition of Forbes' 6,000-man force, a polyglot collection of competing ethnic and political interests. The principal British contingent was the 77th Highland Regiment of Foot, Montgomery's Highlanders. To this were added several companies of the 60th Regiment of Foot, the Royal Americans, whose ranks consisted mainly of Germans from the middle colonies and whose officers included European, some British, but mostly Swiss German and Swiss French. The 60th was commanded by Colonel Bouquet, a professional soldier from Switzerland who, in 1763, would win a two-day battle at Bushy Run and go on to suppress the bloody war initiated by Chief Pontiac.

Major James Grant leading a regiment of 800 Highlanders is resoundingly defeated by the French near present day Grant Street, September 8, 1758.

Although several other smaller units from Maryland and the Carolinas participated, the principal provincial contribution came in the form of three battalions of the Pennsylvania Regiment, who were mostly Scots-Irish, and the two Virginia Regiments commanded by William Byrd and George Washington. Although the Pennsylvania Regiment was riddled by contentiousness, desertion, some drunkenness, and other behavior Bouquet and Forbes often regarded as unprofessional, the Virginians -- Washington, particularly -- at times actively conspired against Forbes' decision to open the new road. That involved actions and attitudes beyond mere foot-dragging, even to the point of trying to get rid of the general himself.

Several of Washington's letters reveal his anger over Forbes' and Bouquet's refusal to yield to his incessant arguments -- he had converted Deputy Quartermaster General Sir John St. Clair -- but none speaks so unambiguously as his September 1 communication to John Robinson. In it, Washington complained of how "our time has been misspent." He wondered whether Forbes could actually "have Orders for this," and then answered his own question: "Impossible." If necessary, Washington wrote, he would journey with the upcoming Virginia mission to England, there to apprise the king "how grossly his [Honor] and the Publick money have been prostituted." Not mincing words, he concluded that he "could set the Conduct of the Expedition in its true colours, having taken some pains, perhaps more than any other to dive into the bottom of it."

Terminally ill General John Forbes arrives at the Point, November 25, 1758, one day after Fort Duquesne is abandoned and burned by the fleeing French. Forbes writes of the victory to Chancellor William Pitt and makes the first reference to the area as “Pittsbourgh”.

When he discovered that Washington was engaged in an effort behind his back to have him declared unfit for command, Forbes was understandably furious. Notwithstanding his anger, though, he saw Washington's plot for what it was, a maneuver to advance Virginia's claim to the western territory and to prevent Pennsylvania from asserting its own. Writing to Bouquet, he remarked on "a very unguarded letter of Col. Washington's" that had fallen into his hands, one that allowed him to see to "the bottom of their Scheme against this new road, A Scheme that I think was a shame for any officer to be Concerned in." Those were hard words for the future commander in chief of the United States.

Washington evidently attempted to learn from his indiscretion. Though he continued to exult in the expedition's imminent failure because Forbes ignored his arguments for using the Braddock road, evidence suggests that he executed his orders with professional diligence.

Scouting for the English
A Cherokee with Forbes command scouts Fort Duquesne in 1758

As if forging his disparate, rivalrous, often openly factious international army into a unified force were not enough, Forbes had another problem. His fellow Scot, St. Clair, was apparently incapable of getting along with anyone. Although his position as deputy quartermaster general did not fall within the military command structure -- St. Clair was only a lieutenant colonel on loan from the Royal Americans -- he was the man who fed, armed and clothed the army. He had, moreover, to deal with widespread corruption, avarice, stingy provincial legislatures, pervasive British bureaucratic inefficiency; with farmers who did not want to supply their wagons and horses to men who would probably never return them; and with roads and passes that washed out, disappeared, and destroyed his precious wagons. A man of short temper and no tact, St. Clair antagonized everyone -- farmers, bureaucrats and fellow soldiers alike.

Although he had indeed gained valuable experience as deputy quartermaster general under Braddock, St. Clair's contentiousness originally inclined Forbes to prefer another man to oversee logistics and provisioning. St. Clair, however, was well-connected and received the commission. His objections overridden, Forbes remained guarded in his written complaints about St. Clair. "He is a very odd Man," he allowed to Bouquet in one letter, "and I am sorry it has been my fate to have any concern with him. But more of this hereafter" -- that is, more on Sir John when he might enlarge on his feelings without committing himself to writing.

Major James Grant's September 1758 sortie on Fort Duquesne to avenge Braddock's Expedition was met unexpectedly by spirited French and Indian resistance. In the ensuing carnage, Private Robert Kirkwood of the 77th Highland Regiment was pursued by four Indians and wounded. He later wrote that, "I was immediately taken, but the Indian who laid hold of me would not allow the rest to scalp me, tho' they proposed to do so. In short, he befriended me greatly."

Apparently dissatisfied with his highly important position in supply, St. Clair insisted that his title's final emphasis on "general" conferred upon him the rank of Forbes' second-in-command. Repeatedly, St. Clair meddled in the army's military affairs and operations. In one astonishing instance, he brought the expedition to a standstill by having Virginia Lt. Col. Adam Stephen placed under arrest for insubordination to his presumed authority to command.

With the campaign's success precariously dependent upon the efforts of its deputy quartermaster general, it took all of Forbes' and Bouquet's self-control and diplomacy not to dismiss St. Clair altogether. "I am not So thoroughly informed of all the Rules of the English army as to take upon me to determine the Extent of your Power as a Q[uarter] M[aster] G[eneral]," Bouquet wrote St. Clair with dry ascerbicy. "But I know that in all other Services, They have no right to command as such: You do not act in this Expedition as Colonel, but as Q.M.G. only." Without countermanding the temperamental St. Clair openly, Bouquet and Forbes found ways of tacitly treating Colonel Stephen as though he still exercised his commission.

Major Grant's Piper

That the entire command teetered on the edge of disaster was emphasized by a significant military reversal. As the army inched closer to the Forks of the Ohio, Forbes and Bouquet desperately required concrete intelligence concerning exact distances to the fort, the extent and state of its fortifications, the morale of its garrison, and the number of Shawnees and Delawares encamped about the stockade. At the head of about 800 men, Major James Grant was sent to reconnoiter Fort Duquesne and its environs. Instead of strictly following his orders to conduct his reconnaissance in secret, however, Grant split his force in two, then baited the French by literally beating his drums. The French obliged. Marching out of Duquesne on September 14, they destroyed Grant's forces in pitched battle, killing and capturing hundreds.

By November, it had become fairly evident that the British could not hope to reduce Fort Duquesne before the winter set in. Forbes and his staff concluded as much at the war council held on the 11th of that month. The next day, the French again attacked, this time nearer the main British base camp at Ligonier, and though they were driven back, events occurred that in a way epitomized how lost Forbes' army had become.

Fort Ligonier

The French struck at advance positions commanded by Colonel Washington. Military records of this skirmish are remarkably few and terse, but more details appeared in an anonymous account in the November 30, 1758, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette. The writer reported that during the engagement another element of Forbes' army, hearing the attack, hurried through the dusk to Washington's assistance. But they were soon fired upon by the very soldiers they had come to assist. Before the confusion was sorted out, some 14 Virginians had been killed by friendly fire. Much later, in 1818, William Findley set down a recollection of Washington's own account, told to him years earlier. Findley wrote that "the parties met in the dark and fired upon each other till they killed thirty of their own number; nor could they be stopped till he [Washington] had to go in between the fires and threw up the muzzles of their guns with his sword." Two units of Forbes' army shooting at each other by night on the shores of the Loyalhanna must have brought Forbes' expedition to its nadir. Stalled at the boundary between the wilderness and civilization, the British resigned themselves to a depressing and possibly fatal delay, within marching distance of their ultimate goal. Yet, at that darkest moment, everything turned around.

During the French attack, the British had taken several prisoners who revealed that the French soldiers at Duquesne were extremely weak, hardly fit to defend the fort. The French had drastically reduced the garrison; their Delaware and Shawnee allies were leaving. Provisions were almost gone -- in fact, the British later discovered that the French had begun eating their horses. The defending garrison was actually far worse off than the attacking army.

Additional Sources:

www.usccls.org
www.oldgloryprints.com
www.frenchandindianwar250.org
www.mccordfamilyassn.com
store1.yimg.com
web.hardynet.com
www.wmhoffmanjr.com

On This Day In history

Birthdates which occurred on May 26:
1478 Clement VII [Giulio de' Medici], Italy, Pope (1523-34)
1566 Mohammed III sultan of Turkey (1595-1603)
1667 Abraham De Moivre French mathematician (De Moivre's theorem)
1700 Nikolaus L earl von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf German evangelist
1759 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin writer/mother of Mary Shelley
1799 Alexander S Pushkin Russia, writer (Eugene Onegin)
1806 Henry Knox Thatcher Commander (Union Navy), died in 1880
1835 Edward Porter Alexander Brigadier General of artillery (Confederate Army)
1853 John Wesley Hardin was born in Bonham, Texas. (meanest man in Texas, once shot a man for snoring)
1876 Jack Root boxing's 1st light heavyweight champion
1877 Isadora Duncan San Fransisco CA, free form/interpretative dancer
1877 Sadao Araki Japanese general/minister of War (1931-34)
1886 Al Jolson [Asa Yoelson] jazz singer/film actor (Mamie, Swanee)
1895 Dorothea Lange US documentary photographer
1895 Paul Lukas Budapest Hungary, actor (Watch on the Rhine, Sphynx)
1899 Pieter Menten Dutch war criminal
1903 Estes Kefauver (Senator-D-TN)

1907 John "Duke" Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison] Winterset IA, actor (True Grit)

1908 Robert Morley Semley Wiltshire England, actor (High Road to China, African Queen)
1910 Laurence S Rockefeller New York NY, CEO (Chase Manhattan Bank)(secret ruler of the world)
1911 Ben Alexander Goldfield NV, actor (Dragnet, Outer Gate, Mr Doodles Kicks Off)
1912 János Kádár premier Hungary (1956-58)
1913 Peter Cushing Kenley Surrey England, actor (Hound of the Baskervilles, Dracula, Star Wars, Dr Who)
1919 Jay Silverheels actor (Tonto-Lone Ranger)
1920 Peggy Lee [Norma Egstrom] Jamestown ND, singer (Fever, Why Don't You Do Right)
1923 James Arness Minneapolis MN, actor (Matt Dillon-Gunsmoke, Thing)
1939 Brent Musburger sportscaster (CBS-TV)
1948 Stevie [Stephanie Lynn] Nicks Phoenix AZ, rocker (Fleetwood Mac-Bella Donna)
1949 Hank Williams Jr Shreveport LA, country singer (All My Rowdy Friends Are Comin' Over Tonight, There's A Tear In My Beer)
1949 Pam Grier Winston-Salem NC, actress (Big Bird Cage, Tough Enough)
1949 Philip Michael Thomas Columbus OH, actor (Miami Vice)
1950 ? 1st whooping crane hatched in captivity
1951 Muhammed Ahmad Faris Syria, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-3)
1951 Sally K. Ride Los Angeles CA, 1st US woman astronaut (STS-7, STS 41G)
1956 Joe Penny actor (Jake & the Fatman)
1962 Bob[cat] Goldthwait Syracuse NY, comedian (Police Academy, Scrooged)
1964 Lenny Kravitz singer/guitar (911 is a Joke, Are You Gonna Go My Way?)

Deaths which occurred on May 26:
0604 605? Augustinus van Canterbury bishop/apostle of England, dies
0735 Beda Venerabilis English speaking church historian, dies at about 62
1421 Mohammed I sultan of Turkey (1413-21), dies
1512 Bajezid II Governor of Amasja/8th Sultan of Turkey, dies
1703 Samuel Pepys English marine expert (Diary)/composer, dies at 70
1831 Georg Hermes German philosopher/theologist (Hermenianen), dies
1868 Michael Barrett Irish nationalist, last British public execution
1883 Abd el-Kader Algerian sultan/religious ruler, dies at about 74
1905 Alphonse de Rothschild French banker, dies
1933 Jimmie Rodgers country singer, dies at 35
1939 Charles H Mayo US surgeon/co-founder (Mayo Clinic), dies at 74
1939 Cornelis J Cutters supreme commander of Navy (1910-18), dies
1943 Edsel Ford owner (Ford Motor Company), dies at 49
1951 Lincoln Ellsworth Arctic explorer, dies at 71
1956 Al Simmons Outfielder (A's)/lifetime batting average of .334, dies at 54
1959 Joe Kelly TV host (Quiz Kids), dies at 57
1963 Sharon Lynn actress (Way Out West, Big Broadcast), dies at 53
1968 William E "Little Willie" John US R&B-singer (Fever), dies at 30)
1976 Martin Heidegger German philosopher/Nazi (Holzweg), dies at 86
1979 George Brent actor (Baby Face, Dark Victory, 42nd St), dies at 75
1991 Tom Cassidy anchor (CNN), dies of AIDs at 41
1994 Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock US free-jazz Guitarist, dies at 53
1995 Isadore "Friz" Freling cartoon director (Sylvester), dies at 88
1997 Manfred Von Ardenne German scientific pioneer, dies at 90

GWOT Casualties

Iraq
26-May-2003 5 | US: 5 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Keman L. Mitchell Kirkuk (near) Non-hostile - drowning
US Private Kenneth A. Nalley As Samawah Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Staff Sergeant Brett J. Petriken As Samawah Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Private 1st Class Jeremiah D. Smith Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - bomb
US Major Matthew E. Schram Hadithah Hostile - hostile fire

26-May-2004 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Kyle W. Codner Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Corporal Matthew C. Henderson Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Corporal Dominique J. Nicolas Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire

Afghanistan
A Good Day

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White

On this day...
0961 German King Otto II crowned
1328 William of Ockham forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII
1521 Edict of Worms outlaws Martin Luther & his followers
1538 Genève throws out Calvijn
1637 1st battle of Pequot at New Haven CT kills 500 Indians
1647 Massachusetts disallows priest access to colony
1736 Battle of Ackia (Louisiana), British & Chickasaw Indians defeat the French
1781 Bank of North America incorporated in Philadelphia
1788 Mary Clark of England gives birth to a baby without a brain (I didn't know Howard Dean was that old)
1790 Territory South of River Ohio created by Congress
1798 British kill about 500 Irish insurgents at the Battle of Tara
1805 Lewis & Clark 1st see Rocky Mountains
1805 Napoleon is crowned king of Italy
1824 Brazil is recognized by US
1834 Portuguese Civil war ends, Dom Miguel capitulates
1860 Garibaldi occupies Palermo Italy
1861 Postmaster General Blair announces end of postal connection with South
1861 Union blockades New Orleans LA & Mobile AL
1864 Skirmish along the Totopotomoy Creek VA
1864 Territory of Montana is formed
1865 Battle of Galveston TX, surrender of Edmund Kirby Smith

1868 President Andrew Johnson avoids impeachment by 1 vote

1876 HMS Challenger returns from 128,000-km oceanographic exploration
1887 Racetrack betting becomes legal in New York state
1894 Emanuel Lasker (26) becomes World Champion chess player
1896 1st American intercollegiate bicycle race, Manhattan Beach NY
1896 Dow Jones begins an index of 12 industrial stocks (closing is 40.94)
1896 Last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned
1900 British troops under Ian Hamilton attack the Vaal in South Africa
1903 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the 3 Gables" (BG)
1905 A pogrom against Jews in Minsk Belorussia
1906 Archaeological Institute of America forms
1909 Frederick Barrett runs world record marathon (2:42:31)
1913 Actors' Equity Association forms (NYC)
1917 Walt Cruise hit 1st homerun out of Braves Field
1918 Georgian Social Democratic Republic declares independence from Russia
1922 Lenin suffers a stroke
1923 1st Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance was run
1923 Socialist Workers Youth International forms in Hamburg
1924 President Coolidge signs Immigration Law (restricting immigration)
1925 Tigers' Ty Cobb is 1st to collect 1,000 extra-base hits (ends 1,139)
1927 Ford Motor Company manufactures its 15 millionth Model T automobile
1930 Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
1932 Admiral Makoto Saito forms parliament in Tokyo
1934 Century of Progress Exposition reopens in Chicago
1937 San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opens
1938 House Committee on Un-American Activities begins work

1940 Operation Dynamo begins evacuating defeated Allied troops from Dunkirk
1941 Ark Royal airplane sight the German battleship Bismarck.
1941 American Flag House (Betsy Ross' Home) given to city of Philadelphia
1941 Ark Royal airplane sights German battleship Bismarck
1942 Anglo-Soviet Treaty signed in London
1942 Belgian Jews are required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star
1942 Tank battle at Bir Hakeim: African corps vs British army
1943 1st president of a black country to visit US (Edwin Barclay, Liberia)
1943 Jews riot against Germany in Amsterdam
1945 US drop fire bombs on Tokyo
1946 2-for-42 & hitting .048 for 1946, Mel Ott stops playing baseball (good move)
1946 Patent filed in US for H-Bomb
1948 Entire Hagana-arm forces sworn-in as Israeli soldiers
1948 South Africa elects a nationalist government with apartheid policy
1956 Aircraft carrier "Bennington" burns off Rhode Island, killing 103
1959 Harvey Haddix pitches 12 perfect innings, loses in 13th
1961 Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee establishes in Atlanta
1961 USAF bomber flies the Atlantic in a record of just over 3 hours
1965 Revised international Convention on Safety of Life at Sea takes effect
1966 Buddhist sets self on fire at US consulate in Hué South-Vietnam
1966 Guyana (formerly British Guiana) declares independence from UK
1969 Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth
1969 John & Yoko begin their 2nd bed-in (Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montréal)
1971 Soviet Union's Concorde, TU-144, makes its 1st appearance
1972 Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1972 Nixon & Brezhnev signs SALT accord
1973 Bahrain adopts it's constitution
1973 Beatles' "The Beatles 1967-1970" album goes #1
1974 During a David Cassidy concert in London a 14 year old is trampled
1977 George Willig climbs NYC World Trade Center
1977 Movie "Star Wars" debuts
1978 1st legal gambling casino opens in Atlantic City
1979 "Dancin' Fool" by Frank Zappa hits #45
1980 Soyuz 36 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Hungarian) to Salyut 6
1981 Marine jet crashes on flight deck of USS Nimitz, killing 14
1982 British ship Atlantic Conveyor & Coventry were hit in Falkland war
1984 Frisbee is kept aloft for 1,672 seconds in Philadelphia (27.8 minutes)
1987 Cecilia Bolocco, 22, of Chile, crowned 36th Miss Universe
1987 Great offensive against Tamil-rebellion in Jaffra Sri Lanka
1987 Supreme Court ruled dangerous defendants could be held without bail
1989 At 7:42 AM, radio has a 30 second silence, honoring radio
1989 Danish parliament allows legal marriage among homosexuals
1990 Philadelphia Phillies retire Mike Schmidt's uniform #20
1993 Long fly ball by Indians' Carlos Martinez bounces off Jose Canseco's head & goes over fence for a homerun
1993 San Francisco DJs Mancow Muller and Chewy Gomez from the KSOL radio station stopped all traffic on the Bay Bridge for “8 minutes” during the morning commute for a haircut. Muller was fined $500 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. They were inspired by news reports that Pres. Clinton had held up air traffic in LA for a haircut in Air Force One and 8 days before
1994 Michael Jackson (35) weds Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley (26) The couple divorced less than two years later.
(Michael retains custody of the chimpanzee)
1997 Sammy Sosa (Cubs) & Tony Womack (Pirates) hit inside the park homeruns
1998 US Supreme Court rules that Ellis Island is mainly in New Jersey, based on an 1834 border agreement between New York and New Jersey
2001 Republicans and moderate Democrats drove a sweeping $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut through Congress, handing President Bush a political triumph.
2004 FBI issues an alert warning of a possible major terrorist attack in the US this summer. Photos of 7 suspects were released

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

Guyana : Independence Day (1966)
US : Memorial Day/Decoration Day, a legal holiday (1868)(Monday)
Virginia : Confederate Memorial Day (1868)(Monday)
Poppy Week (Day 4)
Human Fly Day
Mystic, Conn : Lobster Festival
Scottsboro Alabama : Catfish Festival
US : All You Can Eat Day
REACT CB-Radio Month

Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Eleutherius, pope [175-178], martyr
Roman Catholic, Anglican : Memorial of Augustine, English Apostle, 1st abp of Canterbury (optional)
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Philip Neri, priest
Jewish : Shavuot (celebration of 10 commandments)(Sivan 6, 5753 AM)
Anglican, Roman Catholic : Ember Day

Religious History
1232 Pope Gregory IX sent the first Inquisition team to Aragon in Spain, after turning its details over to the Dominicans the previous year.
1811 Birth of William Hunter, American Methodist clergyman. The author of three collections of hymns, published during his lifetime, Hunter is best remembered today for the hymn entitled, "The Great Physician Now is Near."
1858 In Pittsburgh, the Associate Presbyterian and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian churches merged to form the United Presbyterian Church in North America.
1899 Future President William McKinley, 56, wrote in his notebook: 'My belief embraces the Divinity of Christ and a recognition of Christianity as the mightiest factor in the world's civilization.' (McKinley had been "born again," at age 10, during a revival meeting, and later joined a Methodist church.)
1957 The religious program "The Fourth R" aired for the last time over NBC television. Produced by several different religious organizations, this short-lived series aired on Sunday mornings.

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

Strange days
Thai anti-corruption commission corrupt: court
Thu May 26, 2005

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's nine anti-corruption commissioners were found guilty on Thursday of awarding themselves extra payments illegally, a court said.

A panel of nine Supreme Court judges voted six to three to uphold an earlier finding against the nine commissioners of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), the country's top anti-graft watchdog.

"They were guilty of misusing their authority to benefit their own interest, which has caused damage to the National Counter Corruption Commission," a judge said in reading the hour-long verdict.

However, the court suspended their two-year jail terms, saying their convictions should not overshadow the good work they had done in the past.

The commissioners were found guilty of boosting their monthly allowances by 42,500-45,500 baht (580-621 pounds) without parliamentary approval.

It was not clear if the commissioners, who had denied the charges, would lose their jobs.

"I won't resign since this verdict won't disqualify me," NCCC commissioner Vichien Viriyaprasit told reporters after the court ruling.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Thought for the day :
"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."