On this day:

[ChingOwn]

Juneteenthhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth#cite_note-3 (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day and historically known as Jubilee Day,[2] Black Independence Day,[3] and Emancipation Day[4][5]) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating emancipation of enslaved African Americans. It is also often observed for celebrating African American culture.[6] Originating in Galveston, Texas, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States since 1866. The day was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.[7][8][9] Juneteenth's commemoration is on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas.[10]

 

[BarnBuster]

​

On June 22, 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the G.I. Bill, an unprecedented act of legislation designed to compensate returning members of the armed services–known as G.I.s–for their efforts in World War II.

As the last of its sweeping New Deal reforms, Roosevelt’s administration created the G.I. Bill–officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944–hoping to avoid a relapse into the Great Depression after the war ended. FDR particularly wanted to prevent a repeat of the Bonus March of 1932, when 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families flocked in protest to Washington. The American Legion, a veteran’s organization, successfully fought for many of the provisions included in the bill, which gave returning servicemen access to unemployment compensation, low-interest home and business loans, and—most importantly—funding for education.

By giving veterans money for tuition, living expenses, books, supplies and equipment, the G.I. Bill effectively transformed higher education in America. Before the war, college had been an option for only 10-15 percent of young Americans, and university campuses had become known as a haven for the most privileged classes. By 1947, in contrast, vets made up half of the nation’s college enrollment; three years later, nearly 500,000 Americans graduated from college, compared with 160,000 in 1939.

As educational institutions opened their doors to this diverse new group of students, overcrowded classrooms and residences prompted widespread improvement and expansion of university facilities and teaching staffs. An array of new vocational courses were developed across the country, including advanced training in education, agriculture, commerce, mining and fishing–skills that had previously been taught only informally.

The G.I. Bill became one of the major forces that drove an economic expansion in America that lasted 30 years after World War II. Only 20 percent of the money set aside for unemployment compensation under the bill was given out, as most veterans found jobs or pursued higher education. Low interest home loans enabled millions of American families to move out of urban centers and buy or build homes outside the city, changing the face of the suburbs.

Over 50 years, the impact of the G.I. Bill was enormous, with 20 million veterans and dependents using the education benefits and 14 million home loans guaranteed, for a total federal investment of $67 billion. Among the millions of Americans who have taken advantage of the bill are former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford, former Vice President Al Gore and entertainers Johnny Cash, Ed McMahon, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood.

Many Black World War II Veterans Were Denied Their GI Bill Benefits. Time to Fix That. - War on the Rocks

During World War II 1,154,486 black Americans served in uniform. Not only did they face continued brutal racism and discrimination when they returned home

warontherocks.com

 

[injinji]

Brother in law number two moved to Florida with Sister when his gig in the Air Force ended. We were both incoming freshmen at Chipola Jr College that year, with Uncle Sugar footing the bill for him.

Just an aside about how crazy the cost of school has gotten, the cost of my tuition for the first semester was like two hundred bucks.

 

[BarnBuster]

​

"On June 26, 1948, U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade.

When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though located within the Soviet zone of occupation, was also split into four sectors, with the Allies taking the western part of the city and the Soviets the eastern. In June 1948, Josef Stalin’s government attempted to consolidate control of the city by cutting off all land and sea routes to West Berlin in order to pressure the Allies to evacuate. As a result, beginning on June 24 the western section of Berlin and its 2 million people were deprived of food, heating fuel and other crucial supplies.

Though some in U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s administration called for a direct military response to this aggressive Soviet move, Truman worried such a response would trigger another world war. Instead, he authorized a massive airlift operation under the control of General Lucius D. Clay, the American-appointed military governor of Germany. The first planes took off from England and western Germany on June 26, loaded with food, clothing, water, medicine and fuel.

At the beginning of the operation, the planes delivered about 5,000 tons of supplies to West Berlin every day; by the end, those loads had increased to about 8,000 tons of supplies per day. The Allies carried about 2.3 million tons of cargo in all over the course of the airlift.

The massive scale of the airlift made it a huge logistical challenge and at times a great risk. With planes landing at Tempelhof Airport every four minutes, round the clock, pilots were being asked to fly two or more round-trip flights every day, in World War II planes that were sometimes in need of repair.

The Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949, having earned the scorn of the international community for subjecting innocent men, women and children to hardship and starvation. The airlift—called die Luftbrucke or “the air bridge” in German—continued until September 1949 at a total cost of over $224 million. When it ended, the eastern section of Berlin was absorbed into Soviet East Germany, while West Berlin remained a separate territory with its own government and close ties to West Germany.

The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, formed a dividing line between East and West Berlin. Its destruction in 1989 presaged the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and marked the end of an era and the reemergence of Berlin as the capital of a new, unified German nation."

 

[curious2garden]

Brother in law number two moved to Florida with Sister when his gig in the Air Force ended. We were both incoming freshmen at Chipola Jr College that year, with Uncle Sugar footing the bill for him.

Just an aside about how crazy the cost of school has gotten, the cost of my tuition for the first semester was like two hundred bucks.

Yup I remember when a semester at community college out here in California was $48.00. It's crazy that kids are being financially enslaved to get an education. It's wrong.

 

[injinji]

Yup I remember when a semester at community college out here in California was $48.00. It's crazy that kids are being financially enslaved to get an education. It's wrong.

What gets me is when they talk "C" high school students into going to college. 5% of all C students earn their four year degree. They are the ones who can least afford the debt.

 

[lokie]

The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 is often considered the first practical, functional helicopter, first flown in 1936. It was also known as the Fa 61, as Focke began a new company—Focke-Achgelis—in 1937. Wikipedia
Top speed: 76 mph
Introduced: 1936
Weight: 1,764 lbs
Designer: Henrich Focke
First flight: June 26, 1936
Engine type: Siemens-Halske Sh 14
Manufacturers: Focke-Wulf, Focke-Achgelis

 

[BarnBuster]

​

On the morning of June 27, 2015, activists posing as joggers signal to one of their comrades that the police have momentarily turned their attention away from the flagpole outside the South Carolina State House. Having received the signal, Brittany "Bree" Newsome scales the pole, takes down the Confederate flag that was flying there and is placed under arrest. Newsome's actions reverberated across the nation and eventually resulted in the state of South Carolina permanently removing the flag from its capitol.

Newsome's civil disobedience came just ten days after a white supremacist murdered nine African Americans in a bible study at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Newsome heard President Barack Obama's eulogy for one of the victims, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, as she drove to Columbia. In preparation, she practiced climbing and received advice from Greenpeace activists with experience scaling trees. As she held the flag in her hands, a police officer ordered her to come down, to which she responded, "You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today." She recited Psalm 23 as she was taken to jail.

Although the flag was flying again within an hour, Newsome's actions had an immediate and lasting effect. Civil rights leaders and other prominent cultural figures spoke out against the flag and in support of Newsome, with NBA star Dwyane Wade and filmmaker Michael Moore both offering to pay her bail. The protest drew attention to the many Confederate symbols that still held places of public prominence across the American South, and this attention ultimately forced the state of South Carolina to act.

On July 9, the Republican-dominated legislature of South Carolina passed a bill permanently removing the flag from the capitol building, and Republican Governor Nikki Haley quickly signed it. Newsome later connected her actions to acts of civil disobedience from the first civil rights era, equating it to the way “that it demonstrated power and agency for the Greensboro Four to go and sit down at the Woolworth's counter. You're saying we can't sit here? We're going to sit here. You're saying we can’t lower this flag? We are going to lower this flag today. It was just a feeling of triumph."

 

[BarnBuster]

​

"The Stonewall Riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, began in the early hours of June 28, 1969 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City. The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets and in nearby Christopher Park. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Constant Raids at Gay Bars
The 1960s and preceding decades were not welcoming times for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. For instance, solicitation of same-sex relations was illegal in New York City.

For such reasons, LGBT individuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, places of refuge where they could express themselves openly and socialize without worry. However, the New York State Liquor Authority penalized and shut down establishments that served alcohol to known or suspected LGBT individuals, arguing that the mere gathering of homosexuals was “disorderly.”

Thanks to activists’ efforts, these regulations were overturned in 1966, and LGBT patrons could then be served alcohol. But engaging in gay behavior in public (holding hands, kissing or dancing with someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars continued and many bars still operated without liquor licenses—in part because they were owned by the Mafia.

Gay Rights Before Stonewall
The first documented U.S. gay rights organization, The Society for Human Rights (SHR), was founded in 1924 by Henry Gerber, a German immigrant. Police raids forced them to disband in 1925, but not before they had published several issues of their newsletter, “Friendship and Freedom,” the country’s first gay-interest newsletter. America’s first lesbian rights organization, The Daughters of Bilitis, was formed in San Francisco on September 21, 1955.

In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattachine Society, an organization dedicated to gay rights, staged a “sip-in” where they openly declared their sexuality at taverns, daring staff to turn them away and suing establishments who did. When The Commission on Human Rights ruled that gay individuals had the right to be served in bars, police raids were temporarily reduced.

Stonewall Inn
The crime syndicate saw profit in catering to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genovese crime family controlled most Greenwich Village gay bars. In 1966, they purchased Stonewall Inn (a “straight” bar and restaurant), cheaply renovated it, and reopened it the next year as a gay bar.

Stonewall Inn was registered as a type of private “bottle bar,” which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their own liquor. Club attendees had to sign their names in a book upon entry to maintain the club’s false exclusivity. The Genovese family bribed New York’s Sixth Police Precinct to ignore the activities occurring within the club.

Without police interference, the crime family could cut costs how they saw fit: The club lacked a fire exit, running water behind the bar to wash glasses, clean toilets that didn’t routinely overflow and palatable drinks that weren’t watered down beyond recognition. What’s more, the Mafia reportedly blackmailed the club’s wealthier patrons who wanted to keep their sexuality a secret.

Nonetheless, Stonewall Inn quickly became an important Greenwich Village institution. It was large and relatively cheap to enter. It welcomed drag queens, who received a bitter reception at other gay bars and clubs. It was a nightly home for many runaways and homeless gay youths, who panhandled or shoplifted to afford the entry fee. And it was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed dancing.

Raids were still a fact of life, but usually corrupt cops would tip off Mafia-run bars before they occurred, allowing owners to stash the alcohol (sold without a liquor license) and hide other illegal activities. In fact, the NYPD had stormed Stonewall Inn just a few days before the riot-inducing raid.

The Stonewall Riots Begin
When police raided Stonewall Inn on the morning of June 28, it came as a surprise—the bar wasn’t tipped off this time.

Armed with a warrant, police officers entered the club, roughed up patrons, and, finding bootlegged alcohol, arrested 13 people, including employees and people violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statute (female officers would take suspected cross-dressing patrons into the bathroom to check their sex).

Fed up with constant police harassment and social discrimination, angry patrons and neighborhood residents hung around outside of the bar rather than disperse, becoming increasingly agitated as the events unfolded and people were aggressively manhandled. At one point, an officer hit a lesbian over the head as he forced her into the police van— she shouted to onlookers to act, inciting the crowd to begin throw pennies, bottles, cobble stones and other objects at the police.

Within minutes, a full-blown riot involving hundreds of people began. The police, a few prisoners and a Village Voice writer barricaded themselves in the bar, which the mob attempted to set on fire after breaching the barricade repeatedly.

The fire department and a riot squad were eventually able to douse the flames, rescue those inside Stonewall, and disperse the crowd. But the protests, sometimes involving thousands of people, continued in the area for five more days, flaring up at one point after the Village Voice published its account of the riots.

Stonewall's Legacy
Though the Stonewall uprising didn’t start the gay rights movement, it was a galvanizing force for LGBT political activism, leading to numerous gay rights organizations, including the Gay Liberation Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

On the one-year anniversary of the riots on June 28, 1970, thousands of people marched in the streets of Manhattan from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in what was then called “Christopher Street Liberation Day,” America’s first gay pride parade. The parade’s official chant was: “Say it loud, gay is proud.”

In 2016, then-President Barack Obama designated the site of the riots—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surrounding streets and sidewalks—a national monument in recognition of the area’s contribution to gay rights."

 

[BarnBuster]

Nothing worthy of reporting on June 24th, now, next year, sadly this. This happens in third world countries not here. :

Surfside condominium collapse - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Possible Failure Point Emerges in Miami-Area Building Collapse (Published 2021)

Some engineers looking at the failure of a 13-story condo tower in Florida said the collapse appeared to have begun somewhere near the bottom of the building.

www.nytimes.com

 

[injinji]

. . . . . . . . This happens in third world countries not here. :

Dade County has third world corruption. Buildings that tall should never have been built on filled in swamps. The ground always sinks over time.

 

[BarnBuster]

1947: John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, with support from colleague William Shockley, demonstrate the transistor at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.​

Bell Labs publicly announced the first transistor at a press conference in New York on June 30, 1948.

It's been called the most important invention of the 20th century. The transistor, aka point-contact transistor, is a semiconductor device that can amplify or switch electrical signals. It was developed to replace vacuum tubes.

Vacuum tubes were bulky, unreliable and consumed too much power. So AT&T's research-and-development arm, Bell Labs, started a project to find an alternative.

For nearly a decade before the first transistor was developed, Shockley, a physicist at Bell Labs, worked on the theory of such a device. But Shockley couldn't build a working model. His first semiconductor amplifier had a "small cylinder coated thinly with silicon, mounted close to a small, metal plate."

So Shockley asked his colleagues, Bardeen and Brattain, to step in. One of the problems they noticed with Shockley's first attempt was condensation on the silicon. So they submerged it in water and suggested the initial prototype have a metal point "that would be pushed into the silicon surrounded by distilled water." At last there was amplification — but disappointingly, at a trivial level.

Following more experiments, germanium replaced silicon, which increased amplification by about 300 times.

A few more modifications later, Brattain had a gold metal point extended into the germanium. That resulted in better ability to modulate amplification at all frequencies.

The final design of a point-contact transistorhad two gold contacts lightly touching a germanium crystal that was on a metal plate connected to a voltage source. Also known as the "little plastic triangle," it became the first working solid-state amplifier.

Bardeen and Brattain demonstrated the transistor device to Bell Lab officials Dec. 23, 1947. Shockley was reported to have called it "a magnificent Christmas present." But Shockley himself was not present when it happened and was said to be bitter over losing out on that day.

He had his revenge, though. Shockley continued to work on the idea and refine it. In early 1948, he came up with the bipolar or junction transistor, a superior device that took over from the point-contact type.

The transistor went on to replace bulky vacuum tubes and mechanical relays. The invention revolutionized the world of electronics and became the basic building block upon which all modern computer technology rests.

Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for the transistor, but the trio never worked together after the first few months of their initial creation of the transistor.

Shockley left Bell Labs and founded Shockley Semiconductor in Mountain View, California – one of the early high-tech companies in what would later become Silicon Valley.

Brattain remained a fellow at Bell Labs. Bardeen became a professor at the University of Illinois in 1951, and he shared a second Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972, for the first successful explanation of superconductivity.

 

[BarnBuster]

​

The three-day Battle of Gettysburg began on this day in 1863. It proved to be a turning point in the Civil War.

As measured by the number of troops engaged, the first day ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of the war. It began as an engagement between units of the Army of Northern Virginia under Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of the Potomac under Union Maj. Gen. George Meade. Before the sun had set, it had escalated into a major battle — one that culminated in the outnumbered and defeated Union forces retreating to high ground south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. About one quarter of Meade’s army, some 22,000 men, and one third of Lee’s army, roughly 27,000, joined in that day’s struggle.

In September of the previous year, Lee had ventured north into Maryland where, at Antietam, the bloodiest single day of the Civil War occurred. Although that battle was judged to be a draw, Lee’s invasion was turned back.

Emboldened by his subsequent victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia, Lee decided to once again invade the North. After emerging victorious at Gettysburg, Lee had hoped to strike at Harrisburg and Philadelphia, with the eventual goal of breaking the Union’s will to fight.

On June 30, Union Gen. John Buford had taken possession of Seminary Ridge west of Gettysburg. On July 1, Gen. George Reynolds arrived with the First Corps to assist Buford. Reynolds opened the battle but was struck by a bullet and killed before noon. His death set the tone for the day. While the first day of the clash proved to be a Confederate victory, by the following day the tide turned irrevocably in the Union’s favor.

The primitive nature of Civil War medicine, both in its intellectual underpinnings and in its practice in the armies, meant that many wounds and illnesses were unnecessarily fatal. Our modern conception of casualties includes those who have been psychologically damaged by warfare. This distinction did not exist during the Civil War. Soldiers suffering from what we would now recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder were uncatalogued and uncared for.

The Battle of Gettysburg left approximately 7,000 corpses in the fields around the town. Family members had to come to the battlefield to find their loved ones in the carnage. The blazingly hot July sun further complicated the unprecedented challenges of burying the dead, usually in shallow (12-18 inched deep) graves and trenches. Apart from the human carnage, some 5,000 horses and mules died in the battle. They, too, had to be collected and burned in great pyres, leaving a stench that hung over the area for weeks.

64 men were awarded the Medal of Honor for the Gettysburg Campaign. (Many of the Medal’s issuance’s were for picking up the fallen colors (Flag) and advancing thru heavy sustained rifle and cannon fire. The Flag was an important and reverent rallying symbol for open field charging troops. Sharpshooters on both sides targeted Standard Bearers before officers. bb) During the American Civil War, as in earlier conflicts, the flags of a combat unit (its "colors") held a special significance. They had a spiritual value; they embodied the very "soul" of the unit. Protecting a unit's flag from capture was paramount; losing one to the enemy was considered disgraceful . There were practical reasons for the flags as well, as the regimental flags marked the position of the unit during battle. The smoke and confusion of battle often scattered participants across the field. The flag served as a visual rallying point for soldiers and also marked the area where to attack the enemy. Carrying the colors for the regiment was the greatest honor for a soldier. Generally the flag bearers were selected or elected to their position by the men and officers of the unit. As one Union Colonel told his men, “the colors bear the same relation to the soldier as honesty and integrity do to manhood. It is the guiding star to victory. When in the smoke and din of battle the voice of the officer is drown by the roar of artillery, the true soldier turns his eye to the colors that he may not stray too far from it, and while it floats is conscious of his right and strength. Take it… guard it as you would the honor of the mother, wife or friend you left behind.”

Union
3,155 killed
14,529 wounded
5,365 missing & captured

Confederate
3,903 killed
18,735 wounded
5,425 missing & captured

 

[BarnBuster]

​

On the evening of July 2, 1947, several witnesses in and near Roswell, New Mexico, observed a disc-shaped object moving swiftly in a northwesterly direction through the sky. The following morning Mac Brazel, foreman of a ranch located near tiny Corona, New Mexico, rode out on horseback to move sheep from one field to another. Accompanying him was a young neighbor boy, Timothy D. Proctor. As they rode, they came upon strange debris -- various-size chunks of metallic material -- running from one hilltop, down an arroyo, up another hill, and running down the other side. To all appearances some kind of aircraft had exploded.

In fact Brazel had heard something that sounded like an explosion the night before, but because it happened during a rainstorm (though it was different from thunder), he had not looked into the cause. Brazel picked up some of the pieces. He had never seen anything like them. They were extremely light and very tough.

By the time events had run their course, the world would be led to believe that Brazel had found the remains of a weather balloon. For three decades, only those directly involved in the incident would know this was a lie. And in the early 1950s, when an enterprising reporter sought to re-investigate the story, those who knew the truth were warned to tell him nothing.

The cover-up did not begin to unravel until the mid-1970s, when two individuals who had been in New Mexico in 1947 separately talked with investigator Stanton T. Friedman about what they had observed. One, an Albuquerque radio station employee, had witnessed the muzzling of a reporter and the shutting down of an in-progress teletyped news story about the incident. The other, an Army Air Force intelligence officer, had led the initial recovery operation. The officer, retired Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, stated flatly that the material was of unearthly origin.

History of the Roswell UFO Incident

The history of the Roswell UFO incident has a long, complicated legacy of truth and conspiracy. From the crash site to the recovered alien bodies, there is a lot of speculation -- how much is believable? Learn more history of the Roswell UFO incident.

science.howstuffworks.com

https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/UFOS.pdf

 

[injinji]

Crossover. . . .

1979 - The Sony Walkman
Sony introduced the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple's iPod and other new digital devices.

When I was on the Saipan my tapedeck burned out, so I picked up a used WALKMAN at the flea market. My roommates had some top end audio equipment, so it was pretty funny looking paired up with their stuff.

I never walked with it then, but just think how far we have came in portable music. My 16gig mp3 player cost about 30 bucks. That's roughly 210 CD's worth of music. And for another 20 bucks, the 64gig microsd card takes the number of songs in my pocket to over a thousand. (although nothing can explain how I got two different cuts of In the Jailhouse Now back to back on shuffle)

Walkman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[BarnBuster]

​

"Iran Air flight 655, flight of an Iranian airliner that was shot down by the missile cruiser USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988, over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board. The passenger plane, which was in Iranian airspace, had been incorrectly identified as a fighter jet.

In July 1988 Iran and Iraq were in the midst of a war that included attacks on each other’s oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. The United States was among several countries that had warships in the area to safeguard the transport of oil. Various incidents, notably an attack on the USS Stark involving Iraq missiles in May 1987, had resulted in a revision to the U.S. rules of engagement, allowing U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf to undertake more protective measures. On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes, under the command of Capt. William C. Rogers III, was involved in several skirmishes with Iranian vessels. According to various reports, Rogers, who had a reputation for aggressiveness, ignored orders to change course and instead continued to pursue the enemy gunboats.

Against this background, the Iranian airliner, an Airbus A300, departed from Bandar-e ʿAbbās, Iran, at approximately 10:47 AM, headed to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Crewmen aboard the Vincennes immediately began tracking Iran Air flight 655, which had taken off from an airport used by both military and commercial aircraft. For the next several minutes, there was confusion aboard the U.S cruiser over the identity of the aircraft, which was eventually determined to be a much smaller F-14 fighter jet. After several warning calls went unheeded, the Vincennes fired two surface-to-air missiles at 10:54 AM, destroying the plane and killing all those on board.

Immediately after the event, U.S. officials reported that the Iranian airliner had been rapidly descending and was headed toward the Vincennes. In addition, it was stated that Iran Air flight 655 was not within its normal route. However, a U.S. Navy report on July 28, 1988—released to the public in redacted form on August 19—refuted these claims. It concluded that the Iranian aircraft was actually ascending “within the established air route,” and it was traveling at a much slower speed than reported by the Vincennes. Furthermore, the airliner’s failure to communicate with the Vincennes was dismissed; in contact with two air control towers, the Iranian pilot was likely not checking the international air-distress channel. In the end, U.S. officials concluded that it was “a tragic and regrettable accident.” In explaining how the state-of-the-art cruiser had misidentified Iran Air flight 655, authorities cited “stress…and unconscious distortion of data.” However, U.S. officials also claimed that Iranian aggression played a key role in the incident. In 1990 the U.S. Navy notably awarded Rogers the Legion of Merit for his “outstanding service” during operations in the Persian Gulf.

Some, however, accused the U.S. military of a cover-up. It was noted that investigators failed to interview others near the Vincennes—notably the commander of the USS Sides, some of whose personnel had identified the aircraft as a commercial plane—as well as the surface warfare commander who had ordered Rogers to change course several hours before the incident. In addition, the report’s statement that the Vincennes was in international waters was later acknowledged as incorrect; the cruiser was in Iranian waters.

In Iran it was widely believed that the U.S. attack had been deliberate, and Iranian authorities worried that it indicated the United States was planning to join forces with Iraq. That assumption was thought to have played a role in Iran’s decision to agree to a cease-fire with Iraq in August 1988. In May 1989 Iran filed a lawsuit against the United States at the International Court of Justice. As the case dragged on, a settlement was reached in 1996. The United States, which “expressed deep regret” for shooting down Iran Air flight 655, agreed to pay $61.8 million to the victims’ families, and Iran dropped its suit."

H-020-1: USS Vincennes Tragedy

H-Gram 020, Attachment 1 Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC July 2018 Following the execution of Operation Praying Mantis on 18 April 1988, President Ronald Reagan gave U.S. Navy ships authority to engage Iranian warships that were in the act of attacking neutral merchant ships in the Arabian Gulf...

www.history.navy.mil

 

[BarnBuster]

​

 

[injinji]

Happy Birthday America. (and my ex old lady too)

 

[BarnBuster]

​

On the morning of July 7, 2005, bombs are detonated in three crowded London subways and one bus during the peak of the city’s rush hour. The synchronized suicide bombings, which were thought to be the work of al-Qaida, killed 56 people including the bombers and injured another 700. It was the largest attack on Great Britain since World War II. No warning was given.

The train bombings targeted the London Underground, the city’s subway system. Nearly simultaneous explosions, at about 8:50 a.m., occurred on trains in three locations: between the Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations on the Circle Line; between the Russell Square and King’s Cross stations on the Piccadilly Line; and at the Edgware Road station, also on the Circle Line. Almost an hour later, a double-decker bus on Upper Woburn Place near Tavistock Square was also hit; the bus’s roof was ripped off by the blast.

The attacks took place as world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, were meeting at the G8 summit in nearby Scotland. In his remarks after learning of the blasts, Blair called the attacks barbaric and pointed out that their taking place at the same time as the G8 summit was most likely purposeful. Later, he vowed to see those responsible brought to justice and that Great Britain, a major partner with the U.S. in the war in Iraq, would not be intimidated by terrorists.

Of the four suicide bombers, three were born in Great Britain and one in Jamaica. Three lived in or near Leeds in West Yorkshire; one resided in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Al-Qaida officially claimed responsibility for the attacks on September 1, 2005, in a videotape released to the al-Jazeera television network.

Two weeks later, on July 21, 2005, a second set of four bombings was attempted, also targeting the city’s transit system, but failed when the explosives only partially detonated. The four men alleged to be responsible for the failed attacks were arrested in late July.

An estimated 3 million people ride the London Underground every day, with another 6.5 million using the city’s bus system.

After Coordinated Bombs, London Is Stunned, Bloodied and Stoic (Published 2005)

An unknown group claimed responsibility on an Arabic Web site, but authorities said it was too early to settle on one suspect.

www.nytimes.com

 

[BarnBuster]

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"At 12:25 a.m. on Sunday, July 8, 1945, two months after Germany’s surrender in World War II, the report of a .30 caliber machine gun shattered the silence in the small southern Utah town of Salina. Private Clarence V. Bertucci, a 23 year old guard at a nearby prisoner of war camp full of sleeping German prisoners, sprayed the camp with three bursts of bullets. Bertucci fired two hundred and fifty rounds in fifteen seconds before being stopped by fellow camp guards. He had been on duty for less than a half-hour.

Two hundred and fifty German prisoners living in 43 tents populated the camp at the time. Bertucci’s rounds hit 30 of those tents. Wounded prisoners were sent to hospitals in Kearns, Ft. Douglas, Tooele, and Brigham City’s Bushnell General Hospital. The most seriously wounded prisoners received medical attention in Salina. A total of eight prisoners died on July 8. A ninth prisoner succumbed to his wounds on July 13, 1945. Twenty other soldiers were wounded. The uninjured soldiers went back to agricultural work in Sanpete County and around Salina the next day, though they had requested the day off.

On July 12, the eight dead were interred at the Ft. Douglas Cemetery. German POWs from Ogden purchased wreaths to adorn the U.S. military caskets bearing their fellow soldiers. The War Department allowed some German POWs to attend the funeral. The seventeen prisoners in attendance sang “Good Comrade.” No Nazi flags were allowed at the service.

Private Bertucci remains somewhat of an enigma. The motive for the shooting remains unclear. A few hours before the shooting, he reportedly drank a few beers then promised something big would happen that night. After the shooting, Bertucci went to Ft. Douglas for psychiatric treatment. Bertucci showed no remorse for what he done. He said he hated Germans, and wanted to kill them. This is considered the worst massacre at a POW camp in the history of the USA."

Clarence Bertucci | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Clarence Bertucci was an American soldier who killed nine German prisoners of war at a camp in Salina, Utah, USA, on July 8, 1945.

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Utah prisoner of war massacre - Wikipedia

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