On This Day in History

c/o MacArthur Memorial, via AltDaily

1803 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase, acquiring 828,000 square miles originally claimed by France for less than three cents per acre (equivalent to 42 cents per acre today).

Ultimately 15 States would be carved from the area. Also of note, Napoleon Bonaparte said of the exchange, "This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride."

1818 – The Convention of 1818 was signed between the United States and the United Kingdom. Most importantly, Article II of the agreement established the 49th parallel as the border between the U.S. and Canada. It hasn't moved an inch after 193 years, and unlike our neighbors to the south, Canadians have no problem respecting our mutual border whatsoever.

1944 – General Douglas MacArthur (pictured) fulfilled his "I shall return" promise when the Battle of Leyte commenced in the Philippines. The Allies reclaimed the islands from the Japanese by New Year's Eve, and World War II would be decided nine months later. The good guys won.

1946 – Lewis Grizzard, a distinguished writer and humorist known for his commentary and Southern demeanor, was born in Fort Benning, Georgia. He was inflicted with a congenital heart defect from birth and died from complications of his fourth heart-valve surgery in 1994. "I Haven't Understood Anything Since 1962 and Other Nekkid Truths" is one of my all-time favorites.

1950 – Tom Petty, one of our finest singer-songwriters, was born in Gainesville, Florida. His music, both solo and collaborative, has sold a combined 60 million units worldwide since he debuted (with the Heartbreakers) in 1976.

1967 – A brief motion picture of an unidentified subject purported to be "Bigfoot" was filmed by two men in the Six Rivers National Forest in the northwestern-most corner of California. Known as the Patterson-Gimlin film, its veracity still remains open to debate.

1973 – Designed by acclaimed Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the Sydney Opera House opened to the public for the first time at Bennelong Point in New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, the SOH remains one of the most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous performing arts centers in the world.

1977 – Just three days after the release of their fifth album, Street Survivors, a plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and backup singer Cassie Gaines, along with three other non-members of the band.

Skynyrd reformed 10 years later for a reunion tour with lead singer Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother as the new frontman, a position Johnny holds to this day. Although lead/rhythm guitarist Gary Rossington is the only founding member who remains with Skynyrd, thousands still show up to see the Kings of Southern Rock every time they play. To date, the band has sold nearly 30 million units in the U.S. alone.

Information initially obtained from Wikipedia; confirmed and revised (when necessary) through various sources.

Sunday's Quote: The wisdom of the past (and how it can impact our future)

Picture by Carl Mydans, c/o LIFE

In my lifetime, a scant 35 years, the United States has digressed from being the greatest creditor nation in the world to, as you have no doubt heard, the most prolific debtor nation in history.  So like it or not, perhaps the worst possible news is all but official: communist China is now the top dog (oh God I hope to be wrong about that).  And we only have ourselves, and more specifically, our so-called leaders, to blame.

Standard & Poor's federal credit relegation isn't necessarily a sign of the apocalypse by any means, but it could very well be an indicator of things to come.  A couple of notable Americans, born 131 years ago almost to the day, offer their astute insight into the palpable and growing concern among those of us who, for the first time, cannot speak about the future of our country with complete certainty:

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"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out . . . without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.  Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable."
– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, satirist and all-around critic

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline.  There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."
– Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), simply one of the most important military figures in our nation's history

On This Day in History: A particularly blood-stained date

Pulitzer-winning shot by Charles Porter

1775 – The first engagements of the American Revolution begin at the Battles of Lexington and Concord throughout Middlesex County, Massachusetts.  Colonialists earned victory on this day, but the War itself would not be decided for another eight years.

1861 – One week after the Battle of Fort Sumter, a group of secessionists and Southern sympathizers in Baltimore, Maryland attack the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment as they traveled en route to Washington, DC.  The ensuing riot resulted in 16 deaths, including 12 civilians.

1951 – Eight days after being relieved of command by President Truman, General Douglas MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress with his famous Old Soldiers Never Die speech.

1961 – In an attempt to overthrow the regime implemented by Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs invasion of southern Cuba is quelled in three days.  Fifty years later, Cuba is all but in ruins.

1971 – Charles Manson was sentenced to death for his role in the Tate-LaBianca murders.  The ruling was commuted to life imprisonment a year later when the Supreme Court of California temporarily eliminated the state's death penalty.  Manson is currently incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison in central California.

1987 – The Simpsons premiered as a short cartoon on The Tracy Ullman Show.  I remember like it was yesterday.

1993 – Ending a siege that lasted for over seven weeks, the Mount Carmel Center – home of the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas – burns to the ground, killing all 80 people inside.  Four ATF agents were also killed throughout the incident.

1995 – Said to be seeking vengeance against the federal government for its handling of the siege in Waco, among other raids, Timothy McVeigh carried out the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 450.  At the time it was the deadliest act of terrorism ever committed on American soil.

Eventually convicted of 11 federal offenses, McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001 – exactly three months prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Sundays' Quote: Leaders of the past harken to us still

 

The once-unthinkable has become commonplace.  As cheerful optimism is supplanted by acute pessimism, many of the 300 million in our country now spend time, everyday, pondering our future path.  And for the first time in ages, the definitive answers at which we once arrived with relative ease now escape us.

All is not lost, however.  In fact the solutions we seek are readily available if only we apply the proper formula.  One of America's most distinguished guardians, dead for nearly a half-century, summed it up best:

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline.  There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster." 

-- General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific during World War II and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor; from General MacArthur Speeches and Reports 1908-1964, (2000, p. 198) ed. by Colonel Edward T. Imparato, USAF; also found in America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations (1996, p. 407) by William J. Federer 

And one more, just for good measure...

"From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.  The Long Gray Line has never failed us.  Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.  This does not mean that you are war mongers.  On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.  But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: 'Only the dead have seen the end of war.'"
-- from MacArthur's "Duty, Honor, Country" address to the United States Military Academy; May 12, 1962.  MacArthur himself graduated first in his class at West Point in 1903.

Still leading

If you assumed that Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the top man in the U.S. military, you're wrong.  If you thought the lead guy was perhaps Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead or Marine Commandant General James Conway, think again.  I'll explain.

The rank General of the Armies of the United States was first appointed to General John J. Pershing on September 3, 1919.  A lifetime appointment, Pershing held the position until his death on July 15, 1948 and remains the only man to hold this rank during his lifetime.

Under Department of the Army Order 31-3, effective July 4, 1976, George Washington was posthumously appointed General of the Armies of the United States under Public Law 94-479, whereby Congress further specified that Washington would be permanently considered the highest ranking officer in the United States armed forces.

Categorized first by rank, then seniority, the men listed below -- which includes three U.S. Presidents -- are, now and always, the senior-most officers in the American military.  If a nation with better leaders has ever existed, I have not seen or heard of it.  Decades, even centuries, after their respective deaths, these men remain tops among the war dogs and I would gladly put them up against anyone:

1. General of the Armies of the United States George Washington
2. Admiral of the Navy George Dewey
2. General of the Armies of the United States John J. Pershing
3. Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy
3. General of the Army George C. Marshall
3. Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
3. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
3. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
3. General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. General of the Army/General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold
3. Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey
3. General of the Army Omar N. Bradley
4. Admiral David G. Farragut
4. General of the Army Ulysses S. Grant
4. General of the Army William T. Sherman
4. Admiral David D. Porter
4. General of the Army Philip H. Sheridan

Note: Henry Arnold was promoted to General of the Army on December 21, 1944.  The Air Force was established in 1947 and Arnold was made the first, and thus far only, General of the Air Force on May 7, 1949.

Sunday's Quote: Victory

Reminiscent of Harvard's 29-29 "win" over Yale in 1968, a recent Twitter pic (left) of the New York Post tells the story of a World Cup point that our national team should feel fortunate to have thanks almost entirely to a flub that the English may never let Robert Green forget.  Here are some quotes about victory that expand on this, in one way or another:

"Any time the Western way of war can be unleashed on an enemy stupid enough to enter its arena, victory is assured."

-- Victor Davis Hanson, historian, essayist and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University 

"Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory."
-- Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), General of the Army of the United States and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II 

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States (R-NY) 

"Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war."
-- William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), novelist and all-around artist

On the brink

Five more banks collapsed recently, bringing the total to an astonishing 120 for the year. The numbers amaze even a hardened bank veteran such as myself. Now that unemployment has topped 10% for the first time in a quarter-century, I thought a politically incorrect quote from one of America's all-time greats would be in order:

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."
-- General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II

No diatribe is necessary. That says it all.