History News

Some Crazy Stuff That Happened In World War II

3:59 pm EST January 24th, 2012 | Books, History | 4 Comments

So I’m reading this book about World War II that’s really great. It’s called All Hell Let Loose by Sir Max Hastings and is a re-telling of the story of World War II with the addition of tons of first-person observations from people experiencing the war.

Some interesting stories I’ve found so far.

* A Russian soldier holed up in a farmhouse during the Russian invasion of Poland went outside to go to the bathroom to do number 2. In the process, he was shot in the leg. He ran back to the farmhouse and didn’t go the bathroom for another 7 days.

* A woman waiting for rationed food in the blockaded city of Leningrad had her food stolen by a man in line behind her. The starvation had reached such a crisis point that she reached down his mouth and pulled out what was left of the food in order to take it home for her family.

* In order to combat the problem of desertion in the Russian army, Stalin devised a strategy where Russians would approach the German line with their hands raised in a “surrender” position. Then, when they got close to the Germans, they would throw grenades. The Germans began responding to surrendering Russians by shooting them. Russian soldiers learned this, and what their fate would be if they surrendered to the enemy.

Fred Shuttlesworth, Hero, Dies

2:32 pm EST October 5th, 2011 | History | 11 Comments

Just an amazing group of people fought for our rights.

It was in Birmingham in the spring of 1963 that Mr. Shuttlesworth, an important ally of Dr. King, organized two tumultuous weeks of daily demonstrations by black children, students, clergymen and adults against a rigidly segregated society.

Graphic scenes of helmeted police officers and firefighters under the direction of Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s intransigent public safety commissioner, scattering peaceful marchers with fire hoses, police dogs and rattling nightsticks, provoked a national outcry.

The brutality helped galvanize the nation’s conscience, as did the Ku Klux Klan bombing of a black Birmingham church that summer that killed four girls attending Sunday school. The events led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, after the historic protest march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, organized in part by Mr. Shuttlesworth, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The measures were the keystones of civil rights legislation.

Thanks to the work of Fred Shuttlesworth, America overcame.

9/11/01 To 9/11/11

10:18 am EST September 11th, 2011 | History | 3 Comments

It’s hard to believe that its been a whole ten years since the world flipped upside down.

It seems like it was just yesterday, and often when I see images or sounds of 9/11 all the feelings come back and I get a lump in my throat. All of those people, right here in the heart of America.

I don’t personally know anyone who died on 9/11, but they were our friends and neighbors. Struck down at random, the only “reason” they died because they were Americans.

Even though we have avenged them in a very concrete way – killing Bin Laden and disrupting the Al Qaeda network – they are all gone forever. Their families never saw them come home the way they left, smiling faces and love in their hearts. No military action can change that.

Time and politics have made us less unified than we were on that day and the subsequent weeks as we collectively mourned. But we have a spirit that still lies right below the surface. When push comes to shove, Americans can and will stand together.

We must honor those who died, remembering how it happened and never let the memory fade. Two giant towers were collapsed, the heart of our military was pierced, and a field in Pennsylvania was shaken to its core.

But America prevails, lives on, fights, and remembers.

September 11, 2011.

Topic: 9/11, Al Qaeda, Terrorism

Rudolf Hess Grave Exhumed To Stop Neo-Nazi Pilgrimages

11:02 am EST July 21st, 2011 | History | 2 Comments

Amazing this is still a problem Germany has to deal with.

The grave holding the remains of Adolf Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess has been destroyed to stop it being used as a pilgrimage site by neo-Nazis.

Hess’s bones were exhumed at the graveyard in the town of Wunsiedel, southern Germany, early on Wednesday.

The remains will be cremated and then scattered at sea.

Hess was captured after flying to Britain in 1941 and sentenced to life in prison. He killed himself in a Berlin jail in 1987 at the age of 93.

It doesn’t help that they have banned the swastika. Doing that just gives it power.

Topic: WWII

The Warning Light Is On

10:26 am EST July 8th, 2011 | Economy, History | 124 Comments

The jobs report today came out and the numbers are anemic. Yes, we’re adding jobs (as opposed to the massive losses in the final months of the Bush administration), but it isn’t remotely enough. The stimulus wasn’t big enough and it wasn’t focused enough on job growth. This is a result of America being stuck in a conservative posture on economics, from the President on down to the congress.

The answer now is not “cut the deficit.” It never has been. Sometimes you just want to take our leaders and turn their heads away from cable news and the op-ed columnists and say, “Look, dammit, this problem needs fixing and people don’t give a crap if the Wall Street Journal editorial board is happy!”

The really sad thing is, like many of the problems affecting America, we know what the right thing to do is. There are many national problems screaming for us to fix them. We were able to do this in the past, but a witch’s brew of conservatism and Democratic paralysis is contributing to our ship sinking while we slap ourselves on the back for arranging the deck chairs in an impressive orientation.

On problems like employment, economy, education, health care, the environment, national security, etc., we know what has to be done but there hasn’t been the political will and leadership to do them. Our failures to act on the most important issues of today are damaging America in ways we will feel for generations.

This country fought and defeated a depression, the British monarchy, and the Nazis. This country landed on the moon, cured Polio, and created one of the most powerful economic engines in the history of man. We ought to be able to handle the problems we’ve got today.

But we can’t. Or, more honestly, we won’t.

What the Hell?

Bachmann Fans Now Editing Wikipedia To Please Dear Leader

1:20 pm EST June 28th, 2011 | History | 22 Comments

You knew it was going to happen at some point. Here are the edits some Bachmann fan attempted to add to Wikipedia in order to prove Bachmann’s false allegation that the then-child John Quincy Adams was a founding father. They were soon reverted with an admonition to “Please don’t edit an historical article based on current events.”

Topic: 2012 Election, Michele Bachmann

Hitler’s Descent Into Hate, Documented

12:56 am EST June 7th, 2011 | History | Comments Off

Fascinating that you could trace back the madness this far.

In 1919, a soldier in Munich discovered that he could galvanize small groups of fellow trench warfare veterans with virulently anti-Semitic oratory. A superior officer, impressed with the soldier’s oral skills, asked him to commit his ideas to paper.

Thus came into existence the first written record of Adolf Hitler’s obsessive hostility toward Jews, an embryonic form of the worldview that would later lead to the Holocaust and millions of deaths.

Now, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has acquired what it believes may be the original version of the document, known as the Gemlich letter. In July, the center plans to put it on public view for the first time, at its Museum of Tolerance, making the letter the centerpiece of its Holocaust exhibit.

The text of the letter is well known to scholars. It is considered significant because it demonstrates just how early in his career Hitler was formulating his anti-Semitic views.

“It is his first written statement about the Jews,” said the historian Saul Friedlander, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his study of the Holocaust. “It shows that this was the very core of his political passion.”

Historians: Stupid Palin Got Revere Story Wrong

3:50 pm EST June 6th, 2011 | Conservative, History | 23 Comments

The other people who know this: Every American child.

Sarah Palin said that Paul Revere warned the British during his midnight ride in 1775. Historians beg to differ.

“He didn’t warn the British,” said James Giblin, author of “The Many Rides of Paul Revere.” “That’s her most obvious blooper.”

During her “One Nation Tour” last week, the former Alaska governor uttered a now-infamous recounting of the Revolutionary War hero’s midnight ride, telling reporters that Revere “warned, uh, the … the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells.” She defended her explanation on “Fox News Sunday,” saying “Part of his ride was to warn the British that we’re already there — that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to succeed. ‘”

Experts agree that warning the British — Revere was an American patriot, remember, he was against the folks across the pond — was not crucial to the midnight ride.

“Revere’s assignment that night was to go to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were moving in that direction from Boston,” explained Kristin Peszka, director of interpretation and visitor’s services at the Paul Revere House, which Palin visited Thursday. (Peszka noted that Palin offered her convoluted account before touring the historic site.)

“People did ring bells that night,” she added. “It was a common way of alerting people to come out. But Revere was not the person ringing the bells.”

Conservatives are tying themselves in knots trying to extricate Palin’s foot from her mouth, but the problem is IT DIDN’T HAPPEN THAT WAY.

Topic: Sarah Palin

D-Day: June 6, 1944

10:33 am EST June 6th, 2011 | History | 4 Comments

This is the prayer President Roosevelt read over the radio as Allied troops were landing on the beach of Normandy for the D-Day invasion. That was 67 years ago today.

On May 8, 1945 the Nazis surrendered. On August 15, 1945 the Japanese surrendered.

My Fellow Americans:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest — until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment — let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace — a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt – June 6, 1944

OMG! Medicare Is Going Bankrupt

12:20 pm EST June 2nd, 2011 | History | 33 Comments

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Sun Times cracks open the history books, to hilarious effect:

Chicago Tribune July 2, 1969: The Medicare hospital trust fund faces bankruptcy by 1976 and taxes must either be raised or benefits reduced the senate finance committee was told today.

New York Times July 7, 1981: Medicare payroll taxes already imposed by Congress, including two increases scheduled for 1985 and 1986, will only be able to keep the hospital insurance system solvent for eight to 10 more years, three Cabinet officers informed Congress. Even under the Reagan Administration’s highly optimistic economic projections, the fund will be bankrupt before 2000, the three said.

Washington Post,March 6, 1983: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici warned the nation’s governors the other day, “Medicare can be bankrupt in 2 1/2 years,” unless some way is found to put the brakes on its burgeoning costs.

Chicago Tribune: June 25, 1983: Medicare is in danger of bankruptcy as early as 1986, the system’s trustees declared Friday.

Chicago Tribune, March 10 1984: To avert Medicare’s expected insolvency, a federal advisory council proposed Friday raising the eligibility age to 67, taxing employer paid health insurance benefits and boosting the tax on alcohol and tobacco… the Congressional Budget Office said Medicare may be insolvent in 1989

New York Times, January 20, 1985: In the last few years, when it appeared that the Medicare trust fund would run out of money in 1987-89… But the need seemed less urgent after the Congressional Budget Office issued new estimates last September indicating that the Medicare trust fund would not go bankrupt until 1994.

Chicago Tribune February 6, 1985: Medicare is still expected to go bankrupt in 1991, and a new flood of red tape is not helping America’s hospitals.

New York Times, March 27, 1985: Reagan Administration officials said tonight that new projections showed the Medicare trust fund would not go bankrupt until late in 1990′s.

Chicago Tribune, Nov. 17 1985: Last spring, the government estimated that the Medicare trust fund would run out of money by 1998. Given less optimistic assumptions about the economy, it could happen as soon as 1992

Washington Post, April 1, 1986: The Medicare hospital insurance program faces bankruptcy by 1996, two years earlier than projected last year.

Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1986: Dr. Jerald Schenken of Omaha, an AMA trustee, said the doctors have worked for more than two years on formulating the plan, because they fear the current Medicare system will go bankrupt by the end of the century.

New York Times, May 22, 1988: Reflecting the view of the Reagan Administration, Dr. William L. Roper, the head of the Federal Medicare and Medicaid agency, said, ”With the Medicare Trust Fund expected to go insolvent shortly after 2000, it is hard for us to sign on for a major expansion of the Medicare program beyond the catastrophic care bill.”

New York Times, January 22, 1989: The fund that pays all Government reimbursement for hospital care of Medicare patients is projected to become insolvent in the next decade or so.

Washington Post May 4, 1990: Control of health costs is considered by many experts to be the number one health problem in the United States. Such costs are expected to bankrupt Medicare by the year 2003.

Washington Post December 13, 1994: The trust fund that finances Medicare is projected to become insolvent in the year 2001

Los Angeles Times May 31, 1995: For weeks, Republicans have been talking about a report that warns that Medicare is in danger of going bankrupt in the year 2002.

Chicago Tribune April 25, 1997: Medicare trustees said Thursday that the program providing health care to more than 38 million senior citizens is still headed for bankruptcy in 2001.

Chicago Tribune, January 7, 1999: [The National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare] was created in 1997 to deal with Medicare’s projected bankruptcy in 2008.