On this day:

"NOV. 13, 1982 On this date, thousands of Vietnam veterans marched down Constitution Avenue to a spot along the Mall not far from the Lincoln Memorial, to dedicate the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Etched into the V-shaped granite wall were nearly 58,000 names of the dead and missing in action. "It was a day of flags and tears and stirring music, of marching Green Berets in jungle fatigues and Gold Star Mothers in cream-colored capes," Phil McCombs wrote in The Washington Post. Jan C. Scruggs, a wounded former specialist, led the group that built the memorial. The minimalist design, by then-student Maya Lin, had been controversial. Opponents included Jim Webb, H. Ross Perot and Pentagon lawyer Tom Carhart, who called it "a black trench that scars the Mall." As a compromise, a statue of three soldiers was added nearby. In 1993, another sculpture featuring a trio of female figures caring for a wounded soldier was erected to recognize the 265,000 women, including military nurses, who served in the conflict. (A total of roughly 9 million U.S. military personnel served on active duty in Vietnam between Aug. 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975.) Today, the entire site is one of the most-visited monuments in Washington."

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.



"On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincolndelivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went missing. The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war: General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.

Charged by Pennsylvania’s governor, Andrew Curtin, to care for the Gettysburg dead, an attorney named David Wills bought 17 acres of pasture to turn into a cemetery for the more than 7,500 who fell in battle. Wills invited Edward Everett, one of the most famous orators of the day, to deliver a speech at the cemetery’s dedication. Almost as an afterthought, Wills also sent a letter to Lincoln—just two weeks before the ceremony—requesting “a few appropriate remarks” to consecrate the grounds.

At the dedication, the crowd listened for two hours to Everett before Lincoln spoke. Lincoln’s address lasted just two or three minutes. The speech reflected his redefined belief that the Civil War was not just a fight to save the Union, but a struggle for freedom and equality for all, an idea Lincoln had not championed in the years leading up to the war. This was his stirring conclusion: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Reception of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was initially mixed, divided strictly along partisan lines. Nevertheless, the “little speech,” as he later called it, is thought by many today to be the most eloquent articulation of the democratic vision ever written."

The end of The Age of Innocence, at least from the perspective of a shocked 4th grader 55 years ago.

Shit like that didn't happen in this country anymore, or so we thought at the time.

Schools were all closed Monday for the funeral. It was the only time I didn't like school being closed with a free day off.

BarnBuster said:

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on this day, America's last gunslinger has died....
American politics hasn't been the same since

Nov. 24, 1963


I saw this live on TV, only one of the three networks at the time had it on live (the one my mom had on), the other two taped it and put in on within minutes.

I have to admit it didn't break my heart at the time, everybody knew Oswald did it. The evidence was solid and overwhelming and he had shot J.D. Tippit, a cop who tried to question him, 45 minutes after the assassination, with 8 eye witnesses of him emptying the spent casings out of his revolver and fleeing the scene. One witness heard Oswald say, 'poor dumb cop'. But the conspiracy theory book writers overlooked Officer Tippit who left behind a wife and small children.

tangerinegreen555 said:

Nov. 24, 1963

I saw this live on TV, only one of the three networks at the time had it on live (the one my mom had on), the other two taped it and put in on within minutes.

I have to admit it didn't break my heart at the time, everybody knew Oswald did it. The evidence was solid and overwhelming and he had shot J.D. Tippit, a cop who tried to question him, 45 minutes after the assassination, with 8 eye witnesses of him emptying the spent casings out of his revolver and fleeing the scene. One witness heard Oswald say, 'poor dumb cop'. But the conspiracy theory book writers overlooked Officer Tippit who left behind a wife and small children.

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I witnessed this as well. For as young as I was I was stunned that they allowed someone to walk up to him.

curious2garden said:

I witnessed this as well. For as young as I was I was stunned that they allowed someone to walk up to him.

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Especially after J. Edgar Hoover called the Dallas police informing them of multiple death threats, and making them promise to guarantee his safety for trial.

Every single law enforcement agency fucked up as bad as was possible that weekend. FBI and CIA shredded files so they wouldn't look bad. They knew Oswald was unstable and should have been watched. Too bad his 1959 suicide attempt failed.

tangerinegreen555 said:

Especially after J. Edgar Hoover called the Dallas police informing them of multiple death threats, and making them promise to guarantee his safety for trial.

Every single law enforcement agency fucked up as bad as was possible that weekend. FBI and CIA shredded files so they wouldn't look bad. They knew Oswald was unstable and should have been watched. Too bad his 1959 suicide attempt failed.

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Someone else would have killed JFK or so I believe. Also that autopsy was one fucked up piece of work. I'm shocked licenses were not lost over that! Oh well we live in a completely different world today.

curious2garden said:

Someone else would have killed JFK or so I believe.

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I never contemplated that but considering the lax security of the era, it has merit.

Two kids supposedly just fucking around pointed a scoped rifle at him a year earlier. They were never charged claiming they were using the scope to look through and the rifle was unloaded. People saw the rifle sticking out of a window and reported it.

When questioned by cops, the gun was loaded.

I think they'd be charged today. Or instantly shot at the scene in that window.

it's one of those things that the more you look at it, the less sense it all makes....if you believe the official accounts. you can look at my posting history, hell, ask beachwalker, i'm so not a conspiracy guy that he thought at one point that i was a government plant, to help control the spread of theories.....
but this was always a weird deal.....for the reasons stated above, and probably a few more that we'll never know about. Hoover did indeed ask for extra security, which was apparently ignored....why? the reason that pops to mind immediately is that someone wanted to make sure he took the blame, and didn't share it with anyone. not a fact, but a very feasible theory. he was a communist, who tried to gain russian citizenship in 1959. when they denied him, he tried to commit suicide. they saved him, and allowed him to stay, until 1962, when he moved back to Dallas, got a job in a photo shop, and started using the equipment there to make a false identity.......
he could have done all of this on his own, just thinking it was the right thing to do, inside his own very messed up ideology, or he could have been a puppet of the russians, or the American communist party, or even the c.i.a.......
i'm not a conspiracy guy, but shit like this makes me wonder.......

tangerinegreen555 said:

I never contemplated that but considering the lax security of the era, it has merit.

Two kids supposedly just fucking around pointed a scoped rifle at him a year earlier. They were never charged claiming they were using the scope to look through and the rifle was unloaded. People saw the rifle sticking out of a window and reported it.

When questioned by cops, the gun was loaded.

I think they'd be charged today. Or instantly shot at the scene in that window.

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I think the fact RFK was assassinated as well.

now i always have to wonder...did Roosevelt know, and allow it to happen......?

Dec 7, 1987 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was commandeered and crashed between Cayucos and Paso Robles, CA by a disgruntled employee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1771

It crashed about 18 miles from where I live, onto a ranch a work colleague owned. The plane accelerated and crashed at an estimated 700+ mph. The crash was heard 25 mi away, though at the time few knew what it was. Of interest: that crash lead to the banning of firearms on commercial flights in the US

Roger A. Shrubber said:

now i always have to wonder...did Roosevelt know, and allow it to happen......?

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That's bullshit.

Martin Sheen should have ordered the F-14's to fire though.

"On this day, 4,000 Japanese troops land on the Philippine Islands, while Japanese aircraft sink the British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse.The bombers rained down torpedo bombs on the British warships, sinking them and killing 840 men. “In all the war, I have never received a more direct shock,” Churchill lamented. “We have lost control of the sea.”

And the Japanese were far from finished: The humiliation of the United States in the Philippines and a more extensive occupation of Indochina and the South Pacific were still to come."

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-sinking-of-the-prince-of-wales-and-repulse/
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/end-battleship-hms-prince-wales-repulse-sunk-10th-december-1941.html

"On December 13, 1937, the 6th and 16th Divisions of the Japanese Army entered the citys' Zhongshan and Pacific Gates. In the afternoon, two Japanese Navy fleets arrived. In the following six weeks, the occupying forces engaged in an orgy of looting and mass execution which came to be known as the Nanking Massacre. Most experts agree that at least 300,000 Chinese died, and 20,000 women were raped. Some estimate the numbers to be much higher – 340,000 and 80,000 respectively. The Japanese government, to this day, maintains that the death toll is greatly exaggerated, and some politicians have even claimed that the Massacre itself is a fabrication. A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll in the eastern city now known as Nanjing at 142,000

During the Nanking Massacre, the Japanese committed a litany of atrocities against innocent civilians, including mass execution, raping, looting, and burning. It is impossible to keep a detailed account of all of these crimes. However, from the scale and the nature of these crimes as documented by survivors and the diaries of the Japanese militarists, the chilling evidence of this historical tragedy is indisputable."

Their first concern was to eliminate any threat from the 90,000 Chinese soldiers who surrendered. To the Japanese, surrender was an unthinkable act of cowardice and the ultimate violation of the rigid code of military honor drilled into them from childhood onward. Thus they looked upon Chinese POWs with utter contempt, viewing them as less than human, unworthy of life.

The elimination of the Chinese POWs began after they were transported by trucks to remote locations on the outskirts of Nanking. As soon as they were assembled, the savagery began, with young Japanese soldiers encouraged by their superiors to inflict maximum pain and suffering upon individual POWs as a way of toughening themselves up for future battles, and also to eradicate any civilized notions of mercy. Filmed footage and still photographs taken by the Japanese themselves document the brutality. Smiling soldiers can be seen conducting bayonet practice on live prisoners, decapitating them and displaying severed heads as souvenirs, and proudly standing among mutilated corpses. Some of the Chinese POWs were simply mowed down by machine-gun fire while others were tied-up, soaked with gasoline and burned alive.

After the destruction of the POWs, the soldiers turned their attention to the women of Nanking and an outright animalistic hunt ensued. Old women over the age of 70 as well as little girls under the age of 8 were dragged off to be sexually abused. More than 20,000 females (with some estimates as high as 80,000) were gang-raped by Japanese soldiers, then stabbed to death with bayonets or shot so they could never bear witness.

Pregnant women were not spared. In several instances, they were raped, then had their bellies slit open and the fetuses torn out. Sometimes, after storming into a house and encountering a whole family, the Japanese forced Chinese men to rape their own daughters, sons to rape their mothers, and brothers their sisters, while the rest of the family was made to watch."

http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/57_S4.pdf
https://web.stanford.edu/~kcook/history.html
https://allthatsinteresting.com/rape-of-nanking-massacre
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/nanking.htm
http://nanking-massacre.com/RAPE_OF_NANKING_OR_NANJING_MASSACRE_1937.html

About 7:00 PM on December 21, Pan Am flight 103, a Boeing 747 en route to New York City from London, exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. The plane had reached a height of approximately 31,000 feet (9,500 metres) and was preparing for the oceanic portion of the flight when a timer-activated bomb detonated. The bomb, constructed with the odorless plastic explosive Semtex, was hidden in a cassette player that was stored in a suitcase. The blast broke the plane into thousands of pieces that landed in an area covering roughly 850 square miles (2,200 square km). All 259 passengers and crew members were killed. Falling wreckage destroyed 21 houses and killed an additional 11 people on the ground.

Although the passengers aboard the plane came from 21 countries, the majority of them were Americans, and the attack increased terrorism fears in the United States. Investigators believed that two Libyan intelligence agents were responsible for the bombing; many speculated that the attack had been retaliation for a 1986 U.S. bombing campaign against Libya’s capital city, Tripoli. Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi refused to turn over the two suspects. As a result, the United States and the United Nations Security Council imposed economic sanctions against Libya. In 1998 Qaddafi finally accepted a proposal to extradite the men. In 2001, after an investigation that involved interviewing 15,000 people and examining 180,000 pieces of evidence, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to 20 (later 27) years in prison. The other man, Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted. The Libyan government eventually agreed to pay damages to the families of the victims of the attack.

In 2009 Megrahi, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya; the United States strongly disagreed with the Scottish government’s decision. In July 2010 an investigation spurred by U.S. senators revealed that oil company BP had lobbied for a prisoner transfer agreement between the United Kingdom and Libya. Although both BP and the U.K. government denied that Megrahi was discussed specifically, in 2009 British justice minister Jack Straw had stated that BP’s business dealings with the Libyan government were a factor in considering his case.

https://adst.org/2013/12/the-bombing-of-pan-am-flight-103-over-lockerbie-december-21-1988/