The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Ann Story, Ethan Allen & The Green Mountain Boys - July 16th, 2003

http://www.vuhs.org/project/story.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

Welcome to "Warrior Wednesday"
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

Ann Story:
Vermont's Heroine of Independence

Ann Story was born in Preston, Connecticut in 1741. Since she had five brothers and one sister in a hard working poor family, based in a tight-knit community, Ann became a tomboy. She loved to play with her brothers and go on boyish pursuits.

Ann married Amos Story in Norwich, Connecticut on the 17th of September 1755. They had five children, Solomon, Ephraim, Samuel, Susanna, and Hannah. Wanting a better life for their children, Ann and Amos decided to move north to the New Hampshire Grants. There land was plentiful and the Story children could have good lives.

In 1774 Amos and their 13-year-old son Solomon left Connecticut to go north and build a home for the family. They decided upon a clearing in the small town of Salisbury. Together they built a cabin large enough for the whole family. They were finished with the cabin by the spring of 1775, but they still needed to clear land to plant wheat so the family would have bread the next winter. While they were doing this, a large maple twisted and pinned Amos to the ground, killing him instantly. Frantically, Solomon chopped the tree away and freed his father's body. Then he ran all the way to Middlebury and the home of Benjamin Smalley. Smalley and his two sons, Imri and Alfred, went with Solomon to the Salisbury clearing and they brought Amos's body back to the Middlebury burial plot where Smalley's two daughters were buried. There Amos Story was laid to rest.

When her son returned with the sad news of her husband's death, Ann decided she had to bring her children to the home their father built for them.

One spring day in 1776, one of Ann's young sons saw Indians burn their neighbors deserted cabin. When he told his mother, she had the children grab all of their belongings they could carry, and they hid in the family's canoe among dense trees. The Indians set fire to the Story's cabin as the family watched from their hiding place. Once the Indians had left, Ann and her children returned to the place their cabin had been. Without hesitation, they rebuilt the cabin with logs small enough that she and the children could lift them. Finally they had an adequate cabin, with an escape route through the floor to a crevice in a granite ledge and then a thicket of prickly ash. Ann knew she had to hide her children in case of another surprise Indian attack. Then she got an idea.



They dug a tunnel into the high banks over the Otter Creek. The canoe could pass into the opening, if all the passengers laid flat. A place to sleep was dug at one side, well above the water level. Tree roots formed an arch to hold up dirt over the underground room. This is where Ann and her children spent their nights.

One day one of the Story boys was returning from an expedition into the woods when he heard someone crying. Curiously he peeked through the leaves and saw a white girl sitting on the ground sobbing. He went back to tell his mother, who thought it might be an Indian trick. With her musket on her shoulder Ann followed the little-boy back to the spot he had seen the girl. Seeing it was no trick, Ann stepped forward.

The girl was from a settlement that had been raided by an Indian war-party, servicing the British. The prisoners were forced to walk a trail to Canada, but this girl was far along in a pregnancy and could not keep up. Finally she fell so far behind she was out of their sight, so they left her to starve. Ann had five children and she knew this girl was close to delivering, so she took her in. She had her baby with Ann acting as midwife.

Royalists and Anti-Americans were leaving Vermont to go to Canada and join the British Army. They were to bring information to the British and their Indian allies about the location and defenses of Vermont settlements, and movements, resources, and organization of Vermont guerrilla fighters, like the Green Mountain Boys. They went at night, while the Story family was sleeping in their underground cave.



Early one morning a royalist named Ezekiel Jenny was walking past the cave when the baby began to cry. Jenny stopped in his tracks. Now he knew the secret about the Story's vanishing at nightfall. He hid in the bushes and before long the canoe emerged from the opening of the cave. Jenny waited until Ann was out of the canoe, then he emerged from his hiding place. He pointed his musket at her in an attempt to make her talk and betray her allies, but Ann would not. She glared at Jenny and told him she had no fears of being shot by a coward like him. Jenny threatened and yelled at her, but Ann was firm and finally he passed along down the creek.

After this Ann sent one of her sons to the Green Mountain Boys with the news of Jenny and where she thought he was going next. The Green Mountain Boys attacked the Anti-American camp, killing no one, but taking prisoners. They marched their prisoners over to Fort Ticonderoga, which was in then in American hands, and gave their prisoners up to the proper authorities.

Ann Story was a valued aid and advisor to the Green Mountain Boys. She said to them: " I cannot live to see my children murdered before my eyes - give me a place among you and see if I am the first to desert my post." The patriots used her cabin for rest and shelter, and as a message drop where information could be passed along.

Years later, at the age of 51, Ann married the widower Benjamin Smalley and moved to Middlebury. Thirteen years later, when Benjamin was 67, his health took a turn for the worst and they moved back to his original homestead where Benjamin's son Imri still lived. Benjamin died in 1807, at the age of 82.


Green Mountain Boys Memorial - RUTLAND, VT.
Erected by the Ann Storey Chapter,
Daughers of the American Revolution. 1915

Five years later Ann married Captain Stephen Goodrich. She moved to his two-hundred acre farm east of Middlebury, where she died on April 5, 1817. She was 75 years old.

A monument to Ann Story stands in Salisbury at the site of the cabin her first husband built. Engraved into the marble are these words:

ON THIS SPOT STOOD THE HOME OF ANN STORY
IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF HER
SERVICE IN THE STRUGGLE OF
THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS FOR
THE INDEPENDENCE OF VERMONT,
ERECTED BY
THE VERMONT SOCIETY OF
COLONIAL DAMES
MAY 30, 1905
DEDICATED JULY 27, 1905

[SAMWolf]

Ethan Allen

Allen was born on January 21, 1738, in Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1769 he moved to the region known as the New Hampshire Grants, comprising present-day Vermont. After settling in Bennington, he became prominently involved in the struggle between New York and New Hampshire for control of the region. Following rejection by the New York authorities of an appeal that the region be established as a separate province, Allen organized a volunteer militia, called the Green Mountain Boys, to resist and evict proponents of the New York cause. He was thereupon declared an outlaw by the royal governor of New York.

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Allen and his force offered their services against the British. On orders from the Connecticut legislature, he, the Connecticut soldier Benedict Arnold, and a contingent of the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga early in the morning of May 10, 1775. Allen demanded surrender from the British commander "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." Subsequently, as a member of the army of General Philip John Schuyler, he rendered valuable service in the American military expedition against Canada. He was taken prisoner near Montréal in September 1775 and held in confinement until exchanged in 1778. Following his release by the British, he returned to his home and was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and major general of militia.

In 1778 Allen appeared before the Continental Congress in behalf of a claim by Vermont for recognition as an independent state. With his brother Ira Allen and other Vermonters he devoted most of his time thereafter to the territorial dispute. He negotiated with the governor of Canada between 1780 and 1783, ostensibly to establish Vermont as a British province. On the basis of this activity he was charged with treason, but, because the negotiations were demonstrably intended to force action on the Vermont case by the Continental Congress, the charge was never substantiated. He wrote a Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity (1779). Allen died in Burlington, Vermont, on February 12, 1789.

The Green Mountain Boys was a name applied to a group of soldiers from Vermont who fought in the American Revolution (1775-1783). They took their name from the Green Mountains in Vermont. In 1775, on the verge of war, the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, with reinforcements from Massachusetts and Connecticut, seized British-held forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain in New York. In 1777 they helped win the Battle of Bennington in Vermont.

Ethan Allen

The Green Mountain Boys were originally organized by Allen before the revolution to oppose the claims of the New York government to Vermont territory. They repeatedly harassed New Yorkers and, after the war, declared Vermont an independent republic. When New York relinquished its claims to the land, Vermont applied for statehood and in 1791 became the 14th state.

It's odd, but a man who was one of Vermont's greatest patriots never really was a U.S. citizen because Vermont didn't join the Union as its fourteenth state until 1791. Ethan Allen died of a stroke in 1789, while driving his ox team across Lake Champlain. At the end, he and his Green Mountain Boys were popularly known as "the damndest Yankees".

Green Mountain Boys

The Green Mountain Boys (aka Green Mountain Boyes) were a paramilitary group organized in Western Vermont in the decade prior to the American Revolution. They comprised settlers and land speculators who held New Hampshire titles to lands between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain -- modern Vermont. New York was given control of the area by a decision of the English crown and refused to respect the New Hampshire land titles and town charters. Although a few towns with New York land titles -- notably Brattleboro on the Connecticut River -- supported the government in Albany, the vast majority of the settlers in the sparsely populated frontier region rejected the authority of New York.

The Green Mountain Boys were a paramilitary force several hundred strong that effectively controlled the area where New Hampshire titles had been issued. They were led by Ethan Allen, his brother Ira, and their cousin Seth Warner. They were based at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington -- ironically only a short distance from the New York seat of government in Albany. By the 1770s, the Green Mountain Boys had become an armed military force and de facto government that prevented the Albany government from exercising its authority in the NorthEast portion of the state of New York. New York authorities had standing warrants for the arrests of the leaders of the rebellious Vermonters, but were unable to exercise them. New York surveyors and other officials attempting to exercise their authority were prevented from doing so and in some cases were severely beaten.

When the Revolutionary War started in 1775, Ethan Allan and a force of his guerillas along with colonial General Benedict Arnold marched up to Lake Champlain and captured the important military posts at Fort Ticonderoga; Crown Point; Fort Ann and the town of St John (Now St Jean), Quebec. The Green Mountain Boys later formed the basis of the Vermont militia which selected Seth Warner as it's leader. Some of the Green Mountain Boys preferred to stick with Ethan Allen and were captured along with Allen in August 1775 in a bungled attack on the city of Montreal.

The Vermont Air National Guard, organized on July 1, 1946, was the fifth Air Guard unit to be formed, and was federally recognized on August 14, 1946. (158th Fighter Wing)

Vermont eventually declared its independence from New York and organized a government based in Windsor. The army of the Vermont republic was based on the Green Mountain Boys. Although Vermont initially supported the American revolution and sent troops to fight Burgoyne's British at Hubbardton and Bennington in 1777, Vermont eventually adopted a more neutral stance and became a haven for deserters from both the British and colonial armies. George Washington -- who had more than sufficient difficulties with the British -- brushed off congressional demands that he subdue Vermont. The Green Mountain Boys/Vermont Army faded away after Vermont eventually joined the United States as the fourteenth state.

[SAMWolf]

Lake Champlain

In colonial times, Lake Champlain provided an easily traversed water (or, in winter, ice) passage between the Saint Lawrence and the Hudson Valleys. Boats and sledges were usually preferable to the unpaved and frequently mud bound roads of the time. The northern tip of the lake at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec (St. John in colonial times) is a short distance from Montreal. The Southern tip at Whitehall (Skeenesboro in colonial times) is a short distance from Saratoga, New York, Glens Falls, New York and Albany, New York. Forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point (Fort St. Frederic) controlled passage of the lake in colonial times. Important battles were fought at Ticonderoga in 1758 and 1777. Significant naval battles were fought in 1776 at Valcour Island and in 1814 at Plattsburg.


Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Blunder (aka Fort Montgomery) was built by the Americans on an arm of Lake Champlain after the war of 1812, to protect against attacks from British Canada. Its name comes from a surveying error that caused it to inadvertantly be built on the Canadian side of the border.

Fort Ticonderoga

On May 10, 1775, a sleeping British garrison of 22 soldiers was taken by surprise by a small force of Americans under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold (calling themselves the Green Mountain Boys), walked into the fort through an unlocked gate. A single shot was fired -- probably by accident. The colonials obtained a large supply of cannon and powder, much of which was hauled 300 kilometers to Boston where it was used to lay siege to the town.


Capture of Fort Ticonderoga: Ethan Allen and Captain de Ia Place. Engraving from painting by Alonzo Chappel.

In 1776, the British returned to Canada and moved down Lake Champlain under General Carlton. A ramshackle fleet of American gunboats delayed the British until winter threatened (see The Battle of Valcour Island), but the attack resumed the next year under General Burgoyne. The British drove the Americans back into the fort, then hauled cannon to the top of undefended Mt. Defiance, which overlooked the fort. The colonials quickly withdrew across the Lake to Fort Independence on the Vermont side of the Lake. They soon abandonded that fort as well and retreated south in disarray. The rear guard left to delay the British at the Lake Champlain crossing was reportedly too drunk to fire their cannon, and the colonial army was fortunate to withdraw to the Hudson Valley without major losses.

After Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga, the fort at Ticonderoga became increasingly irrelevant. The British abandoned Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1780.



Battle of Bennington

The Battle of Bennington (August 16, 1777) was an important battle during the American Revolution.

As with many battles, the Battle of Bennington was fought not at its namesake, Bennington, Vermont, but instead a few miles over the border into the New York colony.



British Gen. Burgoyne was trying to push through northern Hudson River valley. After the recent British victories at Hubbardton, Fort Ticonderoga, and St. Clair, Burgoyne's plan was to defeat the American forces in the area and then continue south to Albany and on to the Connecticut River Valley, dividing the American colonies in half.

However by late July, Burgoyne's progress towards Albany had slowed to a crawl and his army's supplies began to dwindle. Burgoyne sent forth from Fort Miller a detachment of about 800 troops under the command of the German Lt. Col. Friedrich Baum. Half of Baum's detachment was made up of German mercenaries, while the other half consisted of local Loyalists, Canadians, and Indians. Baum was ordered to raid the supply depot at Bennington, which was guarded by fewer than 400 colonial militia.

On August 13th, en route to Bennington, Baum learned of the arrival in the area of 1,500 New Hampshire milita under the command of Gen. John Stark. Baum ordered his forces to stop at the Walloomsac River, about 4 miles west of Bennington. After sending a request for reinforcements to Fort Miller, Baum took advantage of the terrain and deployed his forces on the high ground. In the pouring rain, Baum's men dug in and hoped that the weather would prevent the Americans from attacking before reinforcements arrived. Deployed a few miles away, Stark decided to reconnoiter Baum's positions and wait until the weather cleared.



On the afternoon of August 16th, the weather cleared and Stark ordered his men ready to attack. Stark is reported to have rallied his troops saying There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow. Upon hearing that the militia had melted away into the woods, Baum assumed that the Americans were retreating or redeploying. However, Stark had recognized that Baum's forces were spread thin and decided immediately to envelop them from two sides while simultaneously charging Baum's central redoubt head-on. Stark's plan succeeded, and after a brief battle on Baum's flanks, the Loyalists and Indians fled. This left Baum and his German dragoons trapped on the high ground without any horse. The Germans fount valiantly even after running low on powder. The dragoons led a saber charge and tried to break through the enveloping forces. However, after this final charge failed and Baum was mortally wounded, the Germans surrendered.

Shortly after this battle ended, while the New Hampshire militia was disarming the German troops, Baum's reinforcements arrived. The German reinforcements, under the command of Lt. Col. Heinrich von Breymann, saw the Americans in disarray and pressed their attack immediately. After hastily regrouping, Stark's forces tried to hold their ground against the German onslaught. Fortunately for the New Hampshire militia, before their lines collapsed a group of several hundred Vermont militiamen arrived to reinforce Stark's troops. The Green Mountain Boys, commanded by Seth Warner, had just been defeated at Hubbardton by British reinforcements and were eager to exact their revenge on the enemy. Together, the New Hampshire and Vermont militias repulsed and finally routed von Breymann's force.


Battle of Bennington

Total British and German losses at Bennington were recorded at 200 dead, 700 captured, compared to 40 American dead, 30 wounded. Stark's decision to intercept and destroy the raiding party before they could reach Bennington was a crucial factor in Burgoyne's eventual surrender, because it deprived his army of supplies.

The American victory at Bennington also galvanized the rebels and was a catalyst for French involvement in the war.

Additional Sources:

www.americanrevwar.homestead.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.virtualvermont.com
www.uss-bennington.org
www.nepress.com
www.law.ou.edu
www.americanrevolution.org
www.dhca.state.vt.us
www.revolutionaryday.com
www.quebecairforce.com
etext.lib.virginia.edu
www.archives.gov
projects.edtech.sandi.net
www.historiclakes.org
www.mce.k12tn.net
www.multied.com
www.letmeshowyouvermont.com
www.thenortherncampaign.org
www.revolutionaryday.com

[SAMWolf]

THE BENNINGTON FLAG

Tradition has it that the "Bennington" flag was the one under which the Green Mountain Boys and others defeated Colonel Baum and his Hessians at the Battle of Bennington.



There is enough evidence otherwise to say that this tradition is no more than fanciful myth.

To wit:

• There is no historical reference to a flag of the "stars and stripes" design being carried in the Battle of Bennington. The only flag documented as having been used that day is the one known as the "Green Mountain Boys" flag: green with 13 white five-pointed stars in a blue canton.
• There is no record of the flag or its design prior to the late 19th Century when it was on display at the Chicago Public Library.
• Grace Cooper, former curator of textiles at the Smithsonian Institution, has observed this flag at close range and is of the opinion that its material was woven on a power loom in the early 19th Century.
• The construction of the flag (cotton material and cotton thread) and the use of the numeral "76" are characteristic of the 1820's.

Some vexillologists (those who study flags) say that the "Bennington Flag" may have been made as late as the US Centennial in 1876, but that doesn't explain how it could have become so worn and aged that people began to think of it as a Revolutionary War relic, and display it as such in the Chicago Library within a few short years. The relic flag is quite faded - the red, white, and blue are all just various shades of tan or brown today



What does seem likely is that in the historic frenzy of the Centennial celebration, a 50-year old 13-star flag was discovered, tattered and torn, and displayed as an authentic 100-year old relic in ignorance (the standards for historical research were not quite as high then as they are today.)

It is more likely that this flag was made for the 1824 visit of General Lafayette to the US, or for the 50th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in 1826.

-- Nick Artimovich
November 15, 1996

[SAMWolf]

</center

[Support Free Republic]

What would you do without YOUR favorite thread ? Please Contribute

[SAMWolf]

.......FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

.......Good Morning Everyone!


If you would like added or removed from our ping list let me know.

[radu]

Good morning, SAM! Just caught me. I was getting ready to shut things down and head off for a little shut-eye.

While playing the wolf howl (ya know I just had to wake up all these kitties. *giggle*) I remembered something I'd found for you. Hope ya like it.

[SAMWolf]

Good Night, Radu.

Nice Wolf Graphic! I like it very much.

[radu]

Nighty night, SAM. The bat cave calls. LOL!! Catch ya next time.

Glad you like the wolf. I thought it was a beauty when I spotted it and saved it immediately.

[Fiddlstix]

Good Morning Everybody.

You Know The Drill
Click the Pics J

Coffee & Donuts J

[E.G.C.]

Good Morning, SAMWolf. How's it going?

[aomagrat]

Wednesday's weird warship, the Brazilian navy's Sao Paulo

Minas Geraes class battleship
Displacement. 19200 t.
Lenght. 540'
Beam. 83'
Draft. 25.5'
Speed 21 k.
Complement. 1200
Armament. 12 12"; 22 4.7"; 12 76mm; 12 47mm; 4 40mm.

The São Paulo is featured as a weird warship because she was the largest ship, and the only battleship to disappear in the Bermuda Triangle.

The São Paulo was launched on April 19,1909, her launch sponsor was Mrs. Regis de Oliveira, wife of presidente of São Paulo state. The São Paulo was commissioned on July 12,1910 and her first commander was the captain Francisco Marques Pereira de Sousa.

After commissioning she voyaged to Liverpool, UK to be laid up again for inspection by Brazilian naval engineers The people of Liverpool came to the port to see "The most powerful ship of world" as the local newspaper said at the time. And on trials she proved she was the best of her time, with runs at 21 knots, very fast for a battleship of the time, and had very successful full gun salvos, due to adequate freeboard for heavier seas.

On her first voyage she stopped at Cherbourg, French, to take on the new Brazilian president, the Marchal Hermes da Fonseca. On October 2,1910 she entered the Tejo river cruising to Lisboa, Portugal. The Portuguese Exterior Relation Minister Mr. José Azevedo Castelo Branco came on board São Paulo to welcome the ship. The same night the Portuguese Imperator Dom Manuel II himself came on board, and the Brazilian president and ship's officers dined at the Portuguese palace.

On October 3, 1910 the São Paulo witnessed the Portuguese rebellion that ended Imperator Dom Manuel II's reign. Hermes da Fonseca offered protection to the Imperial government but Dom Manuel II refused with thanks, preferring to stay and await the outcome.

São Paulo entered Rio de Janeiro port for the first time on October 25, 1910, and was immediately incorporated into the Center Naval Division.

In the early 1920s the Brazilian government planned on modernizing São Paulo similiar to Minas Geraes but this was cancelled and she remained much the way she was commissioned (including coal burning) for the rest of her career.

In World War II she operated as a floating static cannon battery at Port of Recife, Pernambuco state, and returned to Rio de Janeiro after the end of the war. She was placed into reserve on July 2,1947, and was then operated as a training ship.

She was decommissioned in 1951 and sold to an English shipyard for scrap. While being towed to England by a single tugboat through the Bermuda Triangle, she broke tow and disappeared the night of November 6, 1951. No trace of her or the 8 men onboard was ever found.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on July 16:
1704 John Kay England, machinist, invented flying shuttle
1723 Sir Joshua Reynolds England, portrait painter (Simplicity)
1746 Giuseppe Piazzi discovered 1st asteroid (Ceres)
1821 Mary Baker Eddy founded Christian Science (Science & Health)
1858 EugŠne Ysa˜e Belgium, violinist/conductor/composer (Pierill Hou‹ou)
1862 Ida B Wells famous African
1872 Roald Amundsen Norway, explorer, discovered South Pole
1887 "Shoeless" Joe Jackson black sox player (Say it aint so, Joe)
1888 Frits Zernike invented phase-contrast microscope (Nobel 1953)
1896 Trygve Lie 1st UN Secretary-General (1946-52)
1904 Goffredo Petrassi Zagarolo Italy, composer (Beatitudines)
1907 Barbara Stanwyck Bkln, actress (Dynasty II, Big Valley, Thorn Birds)
1907 Orville Redenbacher popcorn king (Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet)
1911 Ginger Rogers [Virginia McMath], Independence Mo, dancer/actress
1912 Ray Barr NYC, pianist (Vincent Lopez Show)
1915 Barnard Hughes Bedford Hills NY, (Tron, Where's Poppa, Best Friends)
1915 Laverne Andrews Minneapolis, Andrew Sister (or 0706)
1917 William Bishop Oak Park Ill, actor (Steve-It's a Great Life)
1924 Bess Myerson NYC, 1st Jewish Miss America (1945)
1925 Phillip Pine Hartford Ct, actor (Set-Up, Under the Ground)
1928 Bella Davidovich Baku Russia, pianist (Chopin, Beethoven, Ravel)
1932 Milly Vitale actress (7 Little Foys, War & Peace, Juggler)
1932 Oleg Protopopov Russia, olympic pairs skater (Gold 1964, 68)
1932 Richard L Thornburgh Penn, US Attorney General (1988- )
1936 Buddy Merrill Torrey Utah, guitarist (Lawrence Welk Show)
1939 Corin Redgrave London, actor (Excalibur, Man For All Seasons
1942 Desmond Dekker reggae pioneer (The Aces-Israelites)
1942 Margaret Smith Court Australia, tennis pro (1970 Grand Slam)
1948 Pinchas Zukerman Tel Aviv Israel, violinist/violist (Leventritt 1967)
1948 Rub‚n Blades salsa singer/actor (Critical Condition, Last Fight)
1949 Cyndy Garvey Detroit, wife of Steve Garvey, talk show host (AM LA)
1952 Stewart Copeland drummer (The Police-Roxanne)
1953 Philece Sampler San Angelo, Tx, actress (Another World)
1960 Gisela Beyer German DR, discus thrower (Olympics-4th place-1980)
1963 Phoebe Cates Manhattan NY, actress (Fast Times at Ridgemount High)
1969 Rain Pryor actress (Head of the Class)
1971 Corey Feldman Encino Calif, actor (License to Drive, Stand by Me)
1972 Mindy Carson NYC, vocalist (Club Embassy, Ford Star Revue)

---

Deaths which occurred on July 16:
0276 Marcus Annius Florianus, emperor of Rome (276), murdered
1557 Anne of Cleeves, queen of England/4th wife of Henry VIII, dies at 41
1764 Ivan VI, Emperor of Russia (1740-41), murdered at 23
1882 Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a stroke.
1918 Nicholas II Russian tsar, his tsarina & their 5 kids executed
1981 Harry Chapin dies at 39, of a heart attack when his car is rear-ended
1982 Patrick Dewaere actor, dies at 35 of self-inflicted gunshot wound
1984 Billy Williams singer (Your Show of Shows), dies at 73
1985 Wayne King orch leader (Wayne King Show), dies at 84
1991 Frank Rizzo (Mayor-D-Phila, 1972-80), dies from a heart attack at 70

---

Reported: MISSING in ACTION


1968 NECO-QUINONES FELIX V. RIO PIEDRAS PR.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG]
1969 DAWSON JAMES V. ASHLAND KY.

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

---

On this day...
463 Start of Lunar Cycle of Hilarius
622 Origin of the Islamic Era (Muharram 1, 1 AH)
1099 Crusaders herd Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue & set it afire
1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa; end of Moslem power in Spain
1429 Joan of Arc leads French army in Battle of Orleans
1439 Kissing is banned in England
1548 La Paz, Bolivia is founded
1769 Father Serra founds Mission San Diego, 1st mission in Calif
1775 John Adams graduates Harvard
1790 Congress establishes District of Columbia
1798 US Public Health Service established & US Marine Hospital authorized
1845 NY Yacht Club holds its 1st regatta
1862 David G Farragut became 1st rear admiral in US Navy
1893 A Charlois discovers asteroid #371 Bohemia
1894 Many negro miners in Alabama killed by striking white miners
1894 Treaty of Aoki-Kimberley signed between Japan & England
1898 A Charlois discovers asteroid #437 Rhodia
1904 Islands of the Manu'a group (Samoa) ceded to US by their chiefs
1909 AL's longest scoreless game, Senators & Tigers 0-0 in 18
1910 J Helffrich discovers asteroid #702 Alauda
1912 Naval torpedo launched from an airplane patented by B.A. Fiske
1920 Gen Amos Fries appointed 1st US army chemical warfare chief
1920 Ruth sets season home run record with 30 en route to 54
1920 US wins Davis Cup sweeping Australia in 5 straight matches
1926 National Geographic takes 1st natural-color undersea photos
1927 Augusto Sandino begins 5«-year war against US occupation of Nicaragua
1934 K Reinmuth discovers asteroid #1334 Lundmarka
1935 1st automatic parking meter in US installed, Oklahoma City, Ok
1936 1st x-ray photo of arterial circulation, Rochester, NY
1936 K Reinmuth discovers asteroids #1395 Aribeda & #1402 Eri
1936 NY Giants are 10« games back in NL, & go on to win the pennant
1941 100ø F (38ø C) highest temperature ever recorded in Seattle Wash
1941 Joe Dimaggio goes 3 for 4, hitting in his 56th straight game
1945 1st atomic bomb detonated, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico
1946 Attempt made to recall Mayor Lapham (1st time in SF history)
1947 Bobo Newsom wins 200th game, 1st as a Yankee & Yanks 18th straight In the nightcap Vic Rashi extends streak to 19
1948 Leo Durocher changes managership from Dodgers to Giants
1950 Single day 16 team HR record set at 37 (NL-25, AL-12)
1950 Uruguay beats Brazil 2-1 for soccer's 4th World Cup in Rio de Janeiro
1951 Novel "Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger published
1955 "Golden Horseshoe Revue" 1st of 50,000+ performances, Disneyland
1956 Detroit Tigers & Briggs Stadium sold for then record $5.5 million
1956 Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes part of Russian SFSR
1956 Last Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey Circus under a canvas tent
1957 Marine Maj John Glenn sets transcontinental speed record (03:28:08)
1960 205,000 (record sports attend) see Brazil-Uruguay World Cup soccer
1960 George Crowe sets record of 12 pinch hit HRs with a runner on
1961 Ralph Boston of the US, sets then long jump record at 27' 2"
1962 NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,600 m
1964 In accepting the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
1967 Prison brawl ignites barracks, killing 37 (Jay, Florida)
1969 Apollo 11, carrying 1st men to land on the Moon, launched
1970 Pitts Pirates replaces Forbes Field with 3 River Stadium
1973 During Watergate hearings, Butterfield reveals existence of tapes
1974 Felix Aguilar Observatory discovers asteroid #2964
1976 Rock duo Loggins & Messina break-up after 6 years
1980 Ronald Reagan nominated for Pres by Republicans in Detroit
1981 Shukuni Sasaki spins 72 plates simultaneously
1982 NASA launches Landsat 4 to thematic map the Earth
1983 20 killed in Britain's worst helicopter accident
1985 F-86 Sabre sets world aircraft speed record of 1152 kph (716 mph)
1985 NL beats AL 6-1 in th All Star Game (HHH Metrodome, Minn)
1987 Don Mattingly hits his 4th grand slam of the season & ties AL record of homers in 6 straight games (on way to tie major league record of 8)
1988 Carl Lewis runs a wind-assisted 100 m in 9.78 sec
1988 Florence Joyner runs 100 m in women's world record 10.49 seconds
1988 Jackie Joyner-Kersee sets women's hepathlete record of 7,215 pts
1988 Michael J Fox marries Tracy Pollan
1988 San Antonio (Texas League) beats Jackson 1-0 in 26 innings
1988 Wayne Gretzky (NHL) & Janet Jones (Police Acad 5) wed in Edmonton
1990 400 die in a (7.7) earthquake in the Philippines
1990 NYC's Empire State Building catches fire-No fatalities
1990 Rick Dee's "Into the Night," premiers on ABC-TV
1992 To the dismay and anger of supporters, Ross Perot announced he would not run for president. He later changed his mind.
1992 A train carrying 2,200 tons of New York garbage that spent three weeks wending its way through the Midwest headed home for burial in a Staten Island landfill.

---

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
USA : Atomic Bomb Day.
Bolivia : La Paz Day (1548)
Wash DC : District of Columbia Day (1790)
National Peach Month

---

Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt Carmel (opt)
Feast of St Athenogenes
Feast of St Eustathius of Antioch
Feast of St Fulrad
Feast of St Helier

---

Religious History
1054 The 'Great Schism' between the Western and Eastern churches began over rivalclaims of universal pre-eminence. (In 1965, 911 years later, Pope Paul VI and PatriarchAthenagoras I met to declare an end to the schism.)
1769 Spanish Franciscan missionary Father Junipero Serra founded the San Diego deAlcala mission in California -- the first permanent Spanish settlement on America's westcoast.
1863 Birth of Howard E. Smith, American church organist and composer of the melody tothe popular hymn, 'Love Lifted Me.'
1931 Death of C. T. Studd, 69, pioneer English missionary. He was one of the 'CambridgeSeven,' and worked on the mission field in China, India and Central Africa.
1944 German Lutheran theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letterfrom prison: 'One has to live for some time in a community to understand how Christ is"formed" in it (Gal 4:19).'

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

---

Thought for the day :
"Two wrongs do not make a right, it usually takes three or more."

---

Today's 'You Might Be A Redneck If' Joke...
"Taking a dip has nothing to do with water."

---

Murphy's Law of the Day...
"Probability of failure of a component, assembly, subsystem or system is inversely proportional to ease of repair or replacement."

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning Sam, snippy, everyone!

Snip, you up yet???
Sam, made the coffee yet??


Here's to a terrific day!!

[SAMWolf]

Good morning Fiddlstix.

[SAMWolf]

Good morning E.G.C.

It's been going very well. Snippy and I are running each other ragged running all over the State it seems. We're going up to Washington today to visit Mount St Helens.

[SAMWolf]

The São Paulo is featured as a weird warship because she was the largest ship, and the only battleship to disappear in the Bermuda Triangle

Thanks aomagrat. Now I'm gonna have the Twilight Zone theme running through my head all day.

[SAMWolf]

1980 Ronald Reagan nominated for Pres by Republicans in Detroit

One of the better things that happened to my Country in my lifetime.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Feather.

I'm about to run out the door and head to Starbucks to get coffee with Snippy.

[Valin]

On a related note.
1964 In accepting the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."