The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Avalanche -Battle for Salerno (9/9/1943)

While the first elements of the infantry combat teams were hurrying from the landing craft to the dunes, engineers began their work of organizing the beachhead area for communication and supply, cutting gaps in the barbed wire, and searching for mines. The initial plans had directed that the 531st Shore Engineers, reinforced, a regiment of veterans from the African and Sicilian campaigns, under the command of Lt. Col. Russell S. Lieurance, was to support the assault troops on the beaches. One company of engineers was to work with each battalion combat team; one battalion in reserve was to be available for defense and assistance wherever needed.

Only veterans could have gone about their work coolly, handling supplies, setting up dumps, and fighting off the enemy at the same time. First Lt. George L. Shumaker, commanding Company D, 531st Shore Engineers, led a small group of his men in an attack against the Tower of Paestum where enemy snipers were firing on Green Beach. With the help of several infantrymen, the party destroyed the machine guns and even drove off tanks hidden behind the buildings. Cpl. Howard J. Tucker picked off the snipers. Shumaker was wounded in both arms; but Tucker, Tec. 5 Nathan S. Perlman, and Sgt. John J. Schneider carried on the fight until all the Germans in these positions were killed or captured.

In the construction of exit routes the engineers had one of the most dangerous tasks, for the bulldozers were especially vulnerable targets for enemy fire. Ignoring the shells bursting around them, Tec. 5 Nolan D. Green and Pfc. Clarence F. Taylor operated their bulldozer on Red Beach until an 88-mm shell hit their machine and killed both of them. Even on Blue Beach, where resistance was so strong that positions there were abandoned the next day, the engineers, under fire from artillery as well as from tanks within 200 yards of the shore, completed an exit route before they were forced to leave.

Although enemy fire had forced some of the vessels out to sea, and many radios had been lost in the landing, ship-to-shore communications were established under the direction of the 4th Naval Beach Battalion, led by Lt. Comdr. James E. Walsh. Shore fire control parties landed and began to direct effective naval gun fire. At daybreak, naval support against tanks on the southwest slopes of Hill 140 was twice requested by the 3d Battalion of the 142d. Fire from the Philadelphia destroyed or routed the tanks. Offshore, a scout boat, commanded by Lt. (j.g.) Grady R. Calloway, U.S.C.G., supported the 142d by launching rockets at Green Beach, where enemy machine gunners and snipers were concealed in the grove and behind the dunes. Shortly before dawn army units ashore and support boats laid down a smoke screen which proved effective in protecting landing craft against shell and machine-gun fire.

Some hostile planes slipped through our defenses to bomb and harass troops on the beach and in landing craft; but from 0605, when the first flights of our fighter planes began to roar overhead, enemy air operations were very much hampered. Four different types of aircraft made up our aerial umbrella. A-36's and British carrier-based Seafires covered from 6,000 to 10,000 feet; P-38's from 10,000 to 14,000 feet; and Seafires and Spitfires from 15,000 to 22,000 feet. Squadrons, varying in number from 6 to 12 planes, patrolled a 15- to 20-Mile area, receiving warnings of approaching enemy planes from control boats and ground control stations.

German Tank Attack

Almost from the moment of landing, enemy tanks in scattered positions had made it difficult for all combat teams to reach their objectives, but not until about 0700 did they attack on a large scale. The exact plan of the tank operations which developed on all beaches is not known; it is clear, however, that the Germans hoped to pin down and destroy our forces before they could reach favorable positions in the hills surrounding the plain.

The troops on Yellow and Blue beaches suffered the first concentrated tank assault. At 0700, the battalions of the Mist were still attempting to reorganize after their landing when they were attacked by 15 or more Mark IV's, belonging to the 2d Tank Regiment, 16th Panzer Division. Some of these tanks had apparently just come from the south; others had been stationed close by when our troops landed. Five or more were on each flank and four were in the center. Maneuvering back and forth across the flat terrain along the regimental front, the Mark IV's had the advantage of protection from machine guns, set up in the shelter of 4-foot stone walls and inside many small farm buildings.

Shortly after 0700, Flying Column No. 2 of the 36th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop landed on Yellow Beach and helped to fight off seven Mark IV's which were firing opposite our right flank. One tank was destroyed; the others drew back to a peach orchard 600 yards from the shore. At 0800 four enemy tanks tried to break through the left flank. By this time two 105-mm howitzers, brought in on the sixth assault wave, were set up and, with this artillery support, the infantry again forced the enemy to retreat. Two tanks returned to attack through the center, but Sgt. Paul B. Walsh and Sgt. Delbert L. White, both of the 531st Shore Engineers, drove them back with horizontal fire from antiaircraft weapons.

Enemy snipers and machine gunners kept up their fire while the tanks were attacking. On the left flank, Capt. Hersel R. Adams, Operations Officer of the 3d Battalion, led a group of Company K men in an infantry charge against the oncoming vehicles. Capt. Adams was wounded but he urged his men to leave him beside a nearby canal and continue the fight. Their steady resistance broke up the tank formation for a time. Later when the tanks reformed and came back, Capt. Adams was exposed to their fire and killed. Pfc. Edward L. Rookey and Pvt. Lavern Counselman, members of a machine-gun squad of Company M, saw four enemy tanks approaching their position. Obtaining a bazooka from a wounded man, they crawled within 30 yards of the tanks and fired on them. Their fire and that of other men in their squad forced the Mark IV's to withdraw. Company L, which had moved forward out of contact with the battalion, now established communications by radio and directed mortar fire, forcing the tanks back several hundred yards. First Lt. William G. Brown, forward observer of the 131st Field Artillery Battalion, crept up to an observation point and obtained naval gunfire on the tanks in front of the 2d and 3d Battalions.

In the center of the 141st line, the men of the 2d Battalion beat off the tanks with infantry weapons. The regimental history reports the action:

Pfc. Juan R. Padilla effectively used his rocket gun against the tanks, and as the tanks withdrew he followed them, continuing to fire his weapon. Pvt. Manuel C. Gonzalez, in closing in on a tank position, was observed by the enemy and shot through the legs. As he lay helpless to move, one of the tanks ran over him and killed him. Pfc. Tirso F. Carrillo tried to remove Pvt. Gonzalez from the path of the tank and narrowly escaped being run over.

Pfc. Salomon Santos, Jr., and Pfc. Abner E. Carrasco . . . placed their machine gun on top of a rock wall while under fire from enemy machine guns and fired upon the German tanks menacing the front-line position. Their fire was effective in forcing the tanks to withdraw. Pvt. Harold B. Beaver scored a hit with his antitank grenade by slipping in close to an enemy tank. Pfc. Juan Pruitt placed his Browning automatic rifle on top of a stone wall and maintained a heavy volume of fire against the enemy, until his position was located by a German gunner who opened fire and killed him. Pvt. Ramon G. Gutierrez was wounded while firing his Browning automatic rifle at the enemy. Two bullets pierced Pvt. Gutierrez' helmet in such a place as not to injure him, but a third bullet caught him in the arm. Gutierrez, although wounded, moved forward, located an enemy machine gun and knifed the German gunner to death. First Sgt. Gabriel L. Navarrette, having been given the mission of reaching the battalion objective and determining the enemy strength if the enemy was encountered, was wounded in the hand when a German machine gun knocked the signal projector from his hand. . . .

Pfc. Alfredo P. Ruiz, a member of Sgt. Navarrette's patrol, closed in on a tank and exchanged fire with a member of the tank crew who was firing with a machine pistol from the turret. Pvt. Ruiz approached so close to the tank that he was caught in the camouflage of brush used by the Germans and pulled for about 10 yards before being able to break loose.

The enemy tanks did not get through the 2d Battalion to the beach.

At least seven tanks threatened the 1st Battalion in the fields south of Blue Beach. Five Mark IV's went back and forth across Company C's position three times, firing point-blank with machine guns. A detachment of Company B, caught in an open field, suffered severely. Leading one platoon of Company B, Sgt. James A. Whitaker emptied a clip of his submachine gun through the aperture of a tank, apparently disabling the driver. The tank lurched but its weapons continued to operate and Whitaker fell, wounded in the legs. Reloading his gun, he too kept up his fire until he forced the tank to turn away.

By noon the main tank assault on the southern beaches had been brought virtually to a standstill. Naval gunfire and fire from mortars and howitzers had helped to make the operations costly for the enemy, but to a large extent the battle had been fought by the infantrymen, using infantry weapons. Meanwhile, the Regimental Command Post was moved 500 yards directly inland from Yellow Beach. By this time, communications were through to the 2d and 3d Battalions, but patrols had been unable to reach the 1st Battalion because of enemy sniping, machine-gun and artillery fire.

On the north, the principal tank attacks against the infantry combat teams fighting their way inland developed somewhat later than the attacks against the teams of the Mist. At about 1020, 13 Mark IV's rumbled down from the direction of Battipaglia between Highway 18 and the beaches, approaching the 142d Infantry Command Post which had been set up at Capaccio Station. At the same time a dukw came up the road, pulling a 105-mm howitzer of the 151st Field Artillery Battalion. The gun crew went into action immediately with absolutely no cover. Observers disagree on the details, except in one particular: when the fight was over, 5 enemy tanks had been knocked out, and the remaining 8 had withdrawn.

Another attack from the north came about 1145, when personnel from the 36th Division Command Post in the tobacco warehouse at Casa Vannulo saw 13 German tanks approaching. From the ditches along the railroad, where they had taken cover, the men watched the enemy come within easy range. The tanks opened fire at noon, but the attack was broken up by the combined opposition of bazooka teams of the 142d and 143d Infantry Regiments; a 75-mm self-propelled howitzer of the Cannon Company, 143d Infantry; two 105-mm howitzers of the 151st Field Artillery Battalion; and a 37-mm antitank gun of the 36th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop. The 75-mm howitzer crew, commanded by 2d Lt. John W. Whitaker, destroyed 3 tanks. The 37-mm antitank gunners claimed 2 tanks knocked out at 170 yards. By the time the next attack occurred in this area, at about 1300, three howitzers of the 133d Field Artillery Battalion were also available and 3 of the 10 enemy tanks were destroyed. The attempt to break through on our left had cost the enemy at least 13 tanks, and his armor made no more threats from the north against the beaches.

Progress of the Combat Teams

After the concentrated tank attacks shifted from Yellow and Blue beaches to those farther north, the 211d and 3d Battalions of the 141st were able to proceed inland and reorganize at about 1000. Maj. Webster moved units of the 2d Battalion across the Capodifiume and stopped to complete the reorganization 300 yards east of Highway 18. Col. McCall assembled the 3d Battalion along the Capodifiume about 1,000, yards from the shore, in a position which it held until midnight.

At noon, when the Regimental Command Post was moved inland from Yellow Beach, the shore and dunes were still swept by artillery fire, and the landing of equipment and personnel was proceeding under extremely hazardous conditions. Even the command post was bracketed by fire from 88's, but no direct hits were made. Artillery and naval gunfire began to silence the enemy guns on Hill 78 and Collina San Marco.

The 1st Battalion remained pinned down all day north of the Solofrone and west of the railway tracks. The companies tried to reorganize, but the slightest movement of grass or brush or the snapping of a twig immediately brought enemy fire down on them. The 2d Platoon of Company D, led by 2d Lt. Stanley Schuyler, operated with more freedom than other elements of the battalion and reduced several German machine-gun positions. The platoon observed the machinegun fire, crept in close and used grenades with excellent results. Strongly entrenched machine guns and mortars of the enemy, however, kept patrols from reaching this unit, and it was not until the morning of D plus 1 that radio contact with the 1st Battalion was finally established.

On the left flank of the division, Col. Graham had assembled elements of the 2d Battalion, 142d Infantry, near Paestum station at 0645 and with them moved east to the Capodifiume River a half hour later. In the vicinity of Paestum a tank approached with one of the crew firing his machine pistol from the open turret. A rifleman picked off the German; then Sgt. John Y. McGill, a member of Company H, jumped on the tank and dropped a hand grenade down the turret, putting the tank out of action. Throughout the morning, as the battalion worked northeast along the river, the men were forced to dodge in and out of the cold stream to escape sporadic tank attacks.

The 3d Battalion had advanced inland on the left regimental flank. Companies I and K turned north on Highway 18 and at 0730 arrived at Hill 140, their initial objective. Company L had at first headed north toward Ponte alla Scafa, but machine guns and tanks had forced it back to the railroad crossing. The 1st Battalion in reserve had been unable to make orderly landings owing to floating mines and enemy fire. During the day, however, it had moved to its position at the southeast end of Hill 140, less Company B, whose mission was to destroy enemy installations between Green Beach and the Sele River and join the battalion later.

Various units attached to the 142d had come ashore and prepared for action. Each of them had met opposition from machine-gun and sniper fire, artillery, tank attacks, and bombing and strafing from the air, but most of their artillery, tanks, and tank destroyers were ashore and organized before nightfall. Brig. Gen. John W. O'Daniel, Assistant Commander of the 36th Division, landed during the morning about a mile north of Red Beach and ordered a fifth beach, called Red North, to be opened there. The 191st Tank Battalion (M), commanded by Lt. Col. Percy H. Perkins, assembled in the afternoon and moved up Highway 18 toward Ponte alla Scafa to take a position about a mile south of the bridge. The 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Van W. Pyland, moved into the area where the Mark IV's had been successful earlier in driving back Company L, 142d Infantry. This time our destroyers upset an attack and knocked out four tanks. The Germans then blew up Ponte alla Scafa, a clear indication that they considered Highway 18 south of that point no longer usable by their forces.

THE BEACHES AT PAESTUM were extensively mined. German defenses also included machine guns, wire, and 88-mm guns placed within 400 yards of the beach. In the foreground of his sketch of Yellow and Blue beaches is the dune line with an exit road leading from the water's edge. Mountains near Agropoli are in the background

Throughout D Day, while the 142d, on the left flank, fought toward Hill 140, and the 141st on the right struggled to reorganize, the 143d Regimental Combat Team was forced to scatter widely as it advanced. On Red Beach and around Paestum, the 2d and 3d Battalions had to clear the area of snipers and machine gunners before they could reach the railroad where they were to reorganize. The 1st Battalion, landing later than the others, went north to guard Division Headquarters at Casa Vannulo. By 1000, Col. Martin, commanding the 143d Regimental Combat Team, had assembled the men of the two attack battalions at the railroad. Their objective was Hill 386, a projection running northwest from Mount Soprano and ending abruptly in a cliff just above the junction of the roads to Capaccio and Roccad'aspide. Mount Soprano, the most dominant height in the entire area, was to be the focal point for both flanks of the 36th Division.

From Hill 386 every movement on the plain and the beaches could be seen by the enemy, who had set up an observation post and stationed three artillery pieces on the cliff. These pieces fired steadily on the invading forces until naval gunfire silenced them on the afternoon of D Day. At 1530 members of the 2d and 3d Battalions of the 143d moved to take Hill 386. One company was to occupy Capaccio to forestall any danger that the units advancing toward Hill 386 might be cut off from the rear. The Germans had pulled out of Capaccio, and at 1815 the town fell without opposition. Meanwhile Company F captured Hill 386, after a 2-hour attack. Company K occupied the base of Mount Sottane, more than a mile southeast of Capaccio. By nightfall on D Day the 143d controlled the southeast slope of Mount Soprano and a vital stretch of the road leading to the plain.

At the End of D Day

While the 36th Division was battling the enemy south of the Sele River, the British 10 Corps on the Fifth Army left flank faced a critical situation but was making slow progress. Even before the first waves of the 46 and 56 Divisions hit the beaches, the enemy opened fire. Allied warships took up the challenge and blasted the areas behind the beaches; nevertheless, troops of the 64th Panzer Grenadier Regiment (16th Panzer Division) held on stubbornly. In the face of extremely bitter resistance, British troops slowly slugged their way inland. Before nightfall 10 Corps, supported by naval gunfire, pushed forward more than 3 miles to the Montecorvino airfield just west of Highway 18 and had patrols in Battipaglia. The Ranger force on the left flank had landed unopposed at Maiori. The Commandos had met some opposition at Vietri sul Mare but succeeded in establishing a beachhead and moved east into Salerno.

HIGHWAY 18, through the coastal plain, skirts the beaches and runs close to the Tobacco Warehouse at Casa Vannulo, seen on the right. The Fifth Army landings at Salerno prevented the enemy from using this macadam highway, which extends from the toe of Italy to Naples, as an escape route from the south.

Throughout the day practically no communication existed between 10 Corps and VI Corps, and a dangerous 10-mile gap lay between them.

On the whole, VI Corps met with considerable success on D Day. The 36th Division, untried in battle, had landed under fire, overcome prepared beach defenses, and reached its initial objectives. Our troops controlled the plain south of the Sele River and occupied the high ground, an average distance of 5 miles from the beaches. Only on the right flank was the issue in doubt. But there, too, the infantry had absorbed vicious enemy attacks without being routed and were ready to reorganize on 10 September. Men, vehicles, artillery, and supplies continued to pour on to the beaches where the engineers labored efficiently under constant fire. The hours of confusion had passed. Dumps were set up, exit roads were operating, antiaircraft batteries were in position, and communications were finally working. VI Corps had won a beachhead.

Additional Sources:

amh.freehosting.net
www.ngb.army.mil

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on July 22:
1478 Philip I (the Handsome) 1st Habsburg king of Spain (1506)
1822 Gregor Mendel monk/geneticist, discoverer of the laws of heredity
1844 Rev William Archibald Spooner London, invented "spoonerisms"
1849 Emma Lazarus poet ("The New Colossus"-base of Statue of Liberty)
1882 Edward Hopper US painter (House by the Railroad)
1887 Gustav Hertz German quantum physicist (Nobel 1925)
1888 Raymond Chandler Chic, mystery writer (The Long Goodbye)
1890 Rose Kennedy mom of JFK, RFK & Ted
1892 Arthur Seyss-Inquart Austrian chancellor (1930s)
1895 Hans Rosbaud Graz Austria, conductor (Tonhalle Orch Zrich)
1898 Alexander Calder sculptor (mobiles, stabiles)
1898 Stephen Vincent Ben‚t US, writer (The Devil & Daniel Webster)
1901 Charles Weidman Nebraska, modern dancer/choreographer (Candide)
1908 Amy Vanderbilt authority on etiquette (Complete Book of Etiquette)
1913 Lucia Albanese soprano (NY Met Opera)
1921 William Roth (Sen-R-Del)
1923 Robert Dole (Sen-R-Ks)
1924 Margaret Whiting Detroit, singer (Kreisler Bandstand, Strauss Family)
1927 George Hunter South Africa, light heavyweight boxer (Oly-gold-1948)
1928 Orson Bean actor/comedian (I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth)
1930 Marcia Henderson Andover Mass, actress (Kathleen-Aldrich Family)
1930 Yuri P Artyukhin cosmonaut (Soyuz 14)
1932 Oscar de la Renta Dom Rep, designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1973)
1933 Chuck Cassey Chicago, choral director (Jimmy Dean Show)
1939 Terence Stamp England, actor (The Collector, Alien Nations)
1940 Alex Trebek Sudbury Ontario, TV game host (High Rollers, Jeopardy)
1940 Stan Ross NYC, actor (New Bill Cosby Show)
1940 Yuriy Klimov USSR, team handball (Olympic-gold-1976)
1941 George Clinton rocker (Testify, Funkadelics)
1941 Susie Maxwell Berning golfer (US Women's Open 1968,72,73)
1941 Thomas Wayne rocker (Tragedy)
1944 Estelle Bennett NYC, vocalist (Ronettes-Be My Baby)
1944 Guich Koock Austin Tx, actor (Harley Puckett-Carter Country)
1944 Sparky Lyle relief pitcher (NY Yankees, Cy Young)
1945 Bobby Sherman actor/singer (Seattle)
1947 Albert Brooks LA Calif, comedian (Broadcast News, Lost in America)
1947 Don Henley drummer (Eagles-Desparado)
1949 Lasse Viren Finland, 5K/10K runner (Olympic-gold-1972, 76)
1952 Madeleine Collinson Malta, twin playmate (Oct, 1970)
1952 Mary Collinson Malta, twin playmate (Oct, 1970)
1955 Willem Dafoe actor (Platoon, Roadhouse 66, Mississippi Burning)
1956 Michael Spinks US, middleweight boxer (Olympic-gold-1976)
1957 Dave Steib pitcher (Toronto Blue Jays)
1958 Sandra Elizabeth Greenberg Spokane Wash, playmate (June, 1987)
1963 Joanna Going actress (Another World)
1965 Patrick Laborteaux LA Calif, actor (Albert-Little House on Prairie)
1967 Pat Badger heavy metal bassist (Extreme-More Than Words)
1971 Charlotte Gainsbourg London England, actress (The Little Thief)

Deaths which occurred on July 22:
1461 Charles VII king of France (1422-61), dies at 58
1802 Marie-Fran‡ois-Xavier Bichat a founder of histology, dies
1826 Giuseppe Piazzi discoverer of 1st asteroid, dies
1870 Josef Strauss, composer, dies at 42
1934 John Dillinger shot dead at Biograph Theater in Chicago
1953 Cy Kendall actor (Mysteries of Chinatown), dies at 55
1955 Joseph Foley actor (Mr Peepers), dies at 45
1967 Carl Sandburg poet (Abraham Lincoln: The Prarie Years), dies at 89
1979 Hope Summers actress (Clara-Andy Griffith Show), dies at 78
1988 Luigi Lucioni Italian, landscape painter (opera stars), dies at 87

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 WELLS ROBERT J. PHILADELPHIA PA.
1972 PAIGE GORDON C. LOS ALTOS CA
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]

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

On this day...
260 St Dionysius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1298 English defeat Scots at Battle of Falkirk
1306 King Phillip the Fair orders expulsion of Jews from France
1587 2nd English colony established on Roanoke Island off NC
1686 City of Albany, NY chartered
1775 George Washington takes command of the troops
1796 Cleveland, Ohio, founded by Gen Moses Cleaveland
1812 Duke of Wellington defeats French at Battle of Salamanca, Spain
1854 J R Hind discovers asteroid #30 Urania
1864 Battle of Atlanta-Hood attacks Sherman & suffers terrible losses
1898 Belgica crew see 1st sunrise in 1600 hrs-1st to endure Antarct winter
1905 Phila Athletic's Weldon Henley no-hits St Louis Browns, 6-0
1908 W Lorenz discovers asteroid #665 Sabine
1912 5th Olympic games in Stockholm closes
1916 A bomb went off during a Preparedness Day parade in SF killing 10
1917 Alexander Kerensky becomes Russian PM
1917 M Wolf discovers asteroids #879 Ricarda, #880 Herba & #881 Athene
1918 Lightning kills 504 sheep in Utah's Wasatch National Park
1923 Walter Johnson becomes the 1st to strikeout 3,000
1925 Yankees purchase infielder Leo Durocher
1926 105ø F (41ø C), Waterbury, Connecticut (state record)
1926 108ø F (42ø C), Troy, New York (state record)
1926 Cin Red Curt Walker ties record of 2 triples in an inning
1930 G Neujmin discovers asteroid #1306 Scythia
1930 H Van Gent discovers asteroids #1666 van Gent, #1752 van Herk & #1945 Wesselink
1933 Caterina Jarboro sings "Aida," NYC-1st negro prima donna in US
1933 Wiley Post completes 1st round-the-world solo flight
1934 - John Dillinger the first person to receive the FBI's appellation of "Public Enemy No. 1" was killed by federal agents as he left Chicago's Biograph movie theater.
1935 C Jackson discovers asteroids #1359 Prieska & #1360 Tarka
1935 Lester Walton appointed minister to Liberia
1936 Phillies John Moore hits 3 consecutive HRs
1937 Senate rejects FDR proposal to enlarge Supreme Court
1939 1st black woman judge (Jane Matilda Bolin-NYC)
1942 Gasoline rationing begins in US during WW II
1943 Allied forces captured Palermo, Sicily
1944 Soviets set up Polish Committee of National Liberation
1946 Estelle Bennett, rocker (The Ronettes)
1947 -8ø F (-13ø C), Charlotte Pass, NSW (Australian record)
1950 King Leopold, after 6 years in exile, returns to Belgium
1952 Polish constitution adopted (National Day)
1955 1st VP to preside over cabinet meeting-R Nixon
1955 Phillies longest win streak since 1892 hits 11
1962 1st US Venus probe, Mariner 1, fails at lift-off
1962 Chic White Sox Floyd Robinson goes 6 for 6 (all singles)
1963 Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson to retain heavywieght championship
1963 The Beatles release "Introducing the Beatles"
1964 Steve Ballesteros wins the Britsh Golf Open
1967 Atlanta Braves use a record 5 pitchers in the 9th inning
1967 Jimi Hendrix quits as opening act of the Monkees' tour
1969 Aretha Franklin arrested for disturbing the peace in Detroit
1969 USSR launches Sputnik 50 & Molniya 1-12 communications satellite
1972 27.53 cm (10.84") of rainfall, Fort Ripley, Mn (state 24-hr record)
1972 Venera 8 makes soft landing on Venus
1973 Sue Berning wins her 3rd US Golf Open championship
1975 House of Reps votes to restore citizenship to Gen Robert E Lee
1981 Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca sentenced in a Rome to life
1982 Academic Text Processing Service established in Seattle
1983 -128ø F (-89ø C) recorded, Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
1983 Dick Smith makes 1st solo helicopter flight around the world
1983 Poland's PM Januzelski lifts martial law
1984 Kathy Whitworth wins a record 85th pro golf tournament
1986 House of Reps impeaches Judge Harry E Claiborne on tax evasion
1987 Said Aouita of Morroco sets the 5k record (12:58.39) in Rome
1987 Soyuz TM-3 launched with 3 cosmonauts (1 Syrian)
1987 US began escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers in Persian Gulf
1988 500 US scientists pledge to boycott Pentagon germ-warfare research
1990 Greg Lemond of US wins bicycling's 3rd tour de France
1990 Nick Faldo of England wins the British Open Golf championship
1991 Jeffrey Dahmer confesses to killing 17 males in 1978
1994 OJ Simpson pleads "Absolutely 100% Not Guilty" of murder
1994 A federal judge ordered The Citadel, a state-financed military college in Charleston, S.C., to open its doors to women.
1995 Susan Smith, the mother who had confessed to drowning her two young sons by allowing her car
to roll into a lake with the boys locked inside, was convicted by a jury in Union, S.C., of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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

Pakistan : Bank Holiday
Poland : Liberation Day (1944)
Swaziland : King's Birthday
Virgin Islands : Hurricane Supplication Day - - - - - ( Monday )

Religious Observances
RC, Ang, Luth : Memorial of St Mary Magdalen, penitent

Religious History
1620 A small congregation of English Separatists, led by John Robinson, began theiremigration to the New World. Today, this historic group of religious refugees has come tobe known as the 'Pilgrims.'
1836 Birth of Emily E. S. Elliott, Anglican missions supporter and hymnwriter. Nieceof Charlotte Elliott (who wrote the hymn 'Just As I Am'), Emily penned the words to the hymn'Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne.'
1847 The first large company of Mormon immigrants entered the Salt Lake Valley, in whatwas still Mexican territory. Soon after, Mormon leader Brigham Young founded Salt Lake City,Utah.
1865 Birth of Peter P. Bilhorn, sacred composer. He produced over 1,400 hymns in hislife, including 'I Will Sing the Wondrous Story' and 'Sweet Peace, The Gift of God's Love.'
1981 Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment for hisattempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in May of this year.

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

Thought for the day :
" The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up. "

Today's 'You Might Be A Redneck If'Joke...
"You consider Outdoor Life deep reading."

Murphy's Law of the Day...
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

Cliff Clavin says..Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

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