Time Magazine -- Bernard Baruch -- February 18, 2024

Time, February 18, 1924

Bernard Baruch​was a banker and statesman who carried much influence during the Great Depression and borth World Wars. He was a US representative at the Paris Peace Conference. I alwaays liked his name.

Pearl Harbor Day, 2023 -- December 7, 2023

USN - Official U.S. Navy photo NH 63132 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command

82 years ago a sneak attack by forces of the Japanese Empire sank or damaged much of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in the territory of Hawaii. The Japanese Empire came to regret doing this.

When the attack started, destroyer USS Downes (DD-375) was in drydock next to destroyer USS Cassin (DD-472). A Japanese bomb landed between the two destroyers, which started fires that eventually caused munitions to explode on both ships. The machinery and other equipment were salvaged and the Mare Island Naval Shipyard built two new ships, sharing the names and hull numbers of the Downes and the Cassin. Both new ships served in the Pacific throughout the war.

Chuck Yeager 100 -- February 13, 2023

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General Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier on purpose, has died. During World War Two, he started as an enlisted mechanic in the US Army Air Force, and then became a flight officer (something like a warrant officer), He flew a P-51 Mustang in Europe and was credited with 11.5 victories. In 1944, he received a commission.

After the war, he became a test pilot and broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket plane. He stayed in the US Air Force, commanding fighter squadrons and wings, and was the first commandant of the US Air Force Test Pilot School. 

Chuck Yeager was the best character in Tom Wolf's book The Right Stuff and in Phil Kaufman's movie adaption. Sam Shepard, seen in the photo with Yeager, played Yeager. 

Comic Book -- America's Best Comics -- January 5, 2023

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This cover of America's Best Comics features heroes The Black Terror, The Fighting Yank, American Eagle (I think) and Doc Strange. They stomp on stereotypical Imperial Japanese soldiers. Please excuse the racism. 

Hughes H-4 Hercules 75 Years -- November 2, 2022

Lagrand Observer, 05-November-1947

The Hughes H-4 Hercules, also known as the Spruce Goose, was the largest flying boat ever built. Industrialist Henry J Kaiser proposed the concept during the height of the U-Boat attacks on shipping, when the US government wanted to procure an airplane made of non-strategic materials, which could fly across the Atlantic with a heavy load. Kaiser dropped out, but Howard Hughes carried on and built an incredible airplane. A Senate committee was grilling Hughes about possible war profiteering, but he proved that the giant airplane could fly 75 years ago today, on 02-ovember-1947. The airplane never flew again, but Hughes preserved it carefully until he died. The plane went on display in Long Beach for many years and is now in Oregon. I'd like to go see it.

Jackie Robinson 50 Years -- October 24, 2022

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I find it hard to believe that Jackie Robinson died 50 years ago today, on 24-October-1972.  He starred 

in many sports at UCLA.  He received a commission in the Army during World War Two.  Refusing to move to the back of the bus, he faced a court-martial for insubordination.  He was acquitted and spent the rest of his service coaching Army athletics.

After the war, Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs, a team in the Negro American League.  Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey signed him to play for the Montreal Royals in 1946.  Rickey had been looking for a player to break the baseball color line, which had been in effect since the late Nineteenth Century.  Robinson agreed to turn the other cheek when racists on and off the field taunted him. In 1947, Robinson came out of spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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In 1950, Robinson played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story.  Ruby Dee played his wife Rachel.
I remember a 1990 television movie called The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson.  I couldn't find any photos.  Andre Braugher played Robinson.

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In 2013, Chadwick Boseman played Robinson in 42.  Ruby Dee played his mother.

Breaking the Sound Barrier 75 -- October 14, 2022

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75 years ago today, on 14-October-1947, Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket plane. He stayed in the US Air Force, commanding fighter squadrons and wings, and was the first commandant of the US Air Force Test Pilot School. 

Chuck Yeager was the best character in Tom Wolf's book The Right Stuff and in Phil Kaufman's movie adaption. Sam Shepard, seen in the photo with Yeager, played Yeager. 

Initial Coastwise Voyage of S.S. H. F. Alexander -- July 30, 2022

San Francisco Examiner, 06-July-1922

The S.S. Great Northern was launched in 1914 for the Great Northern Pacific Steam Ship Company. The Great Northern and her sister the Northern Pacific were extremely fast turbine-driven ships used to connect Puget Sound with San Francisco. In 1917, both ships were taken over to serve as Army transports during World War One. Both ships were sold to the Pacific Steamship Company, owner of the Admiral Line. The Northern Pacific sank on its way to a shipyard for refurbishment. 

This 1922 ad touts the "Initial Coastwise Voyage of S.S. 'H. F. Alexander'," an excursion from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 14 hours. 

The Admiral Line folded up in 1936. The H. F. Alexander served again as a troop transport during World War Two. She was scrapped in 1948. 

San Francisco Examiner, 06-July-1922

history.navy.mil/NH 53536

Hoyt Wilhelm 100 -- July 26, 2022

Right handed relief pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm was born 100 years ago today, on 26-July-1922. He threw a knuckleball.  This allowed him to pitch in the major leagues until he was nearly 50.  I remember being amazed a few years before he retired learning that a former New York Giant was still pitching. 

He was called Ol' Sarge because he was a veteran of World War Two; he served in the Battle of the Bulge and reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. 

His success with the Giants and other teams inspired many managers to rely on a relief ace. 

Sir Christopher Lee 100 -- May 27, 2022

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Sir Christopher Lee was born 100 years ago today, on 27-May-1922.  He was a veteran of World War II.  He was the only person involved with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies who had met JRR Tolkien.  He had a long career and worked nearly until his death in 2015.  He could act, sing and write.  He played all the great movie monsters in Hammer films with his good friend Peter Cushing.  He was a villain in a Bond movie. 

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Jack Kerouac 100 -- March 12, 2022

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Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac was born 100 years ago today on 12-March-1922. He served in the US Merchant Marine during World War Two. After his ship was torpedoed, he joined the Naval Reserve. He wrote his novel On the Road in an experimental manner which made it hard to find a publisher. Kerouac's Catholic upbringing had a strong effect on his work. Later in life he studied Buddhism.

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Betty White 100 -- January 17, 2021

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Betty White would have been 100 years old today. She was born on 17-January-1922. During World War Two, she participated in the American Women's Voluntary Services. She started working regularly on television in 1949. I remember her on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Lots of people were looking forward to celebrating her birthday, but she died just a few weeks ago.

Pearl Harbor Day, 2021 -- December 7, 2021

navsource.org photo 09410403

80 years ago a sneak attack by forces of the Japanese Empire sank or damaged much of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii. The Japanese Empire came to regret doing this.

When the attack began, seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4), which had just returned to Pearl Harbor after taking reinforcements and cargo to Wake Island. Curtiss got underway and fired her guns at the Japanese airplanes. A Japanese midget submarine fired a torpedo at Curtiss, but missed. Curtiss was damaged by a crashing Japanese airplane and a dive bomber attack. Curtiss went on to serve in the Pacific throughout the war and for years after.

Curtiss was named after aviation and flying boat pioneer Glenn Curtiss.

Bob Dole, RIP -- December 5, 2021

Senator Bob Dole has died. He served as a young officer in the Italian campaign during World War Two. He was severely injured and fought through problems caused by it for the rest of his life. I did not vote for him when he ran for President in 1988, but I liked him a lot better than any current Republican officeholder.

Halloween 2021 -- October 31, 2021

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Happy Halloween, everyone. The 31-October-1942 cover of The New Yorker features a witch who bears a certain resemblance to Adolph Hitler getting caught in an air raid defense spotlight.

FDR Polio, 100 Years -- August 11, 2021

100 years ago today, future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio. He made a heroic fight and was able to return to politics and save the United States from the Great Depression and lead us through World War Two. 

4 Negroes Slain by Georgia Mob -- July 25, 2021

 

Wilmington Morning Star, 27-July-1946

The last mass lynching in the United States, so far, took place in Georgia 75 years ago today, on 25-July-1946. A white farmer bailed out a black man, Roger Malcom, a war veteran, who had been accused of stabbing a former boss. As they drove to the farmer's home with the accused's wife, Dorothy and another African-American couple, George W Dorsey and his wife Mae, a mob stopped the car and murdered the Malcoms and the Dorseys with guns. The Moore's Ford Lynchings shocked many people in the United States, including President Harry S Truman. Federal and state investigators were not able to find enough evidence to convict any perpetrators.

4 NEGROES SLAIN

BY GEORGIA MOB

60-Shot Broadside Mows

Victims Down 50 Miles

From Atlanta

MONROE Ga., July 25. -- (U.P) -- More than a score of white men, led by a six-foot-three giant wearing a black "Simon Legree" hat, dragged four terrified, pleading negroes from a car on a desolate Georgia road Thursday and lynched them with a 60-shot broadside from rifles, shotguns and pistols.

A horrified witness of the mass lynching was J. Loy Harrison, a prosperous Oconee county farmer. Harrison was driving the Negroes -- two men and their wives -- to his farm after posting $600 bond to release one of them from jail where he was held on charges of stabbing a former white employer.

Would Know Lynchers

Harrison vowed that he would recognize two of the lynches if he ever saw them again -- the strapping leader of the band and an undersized youth in G I clothes who held a shotgun at his head while the Negroes were hustled into the woods and mowed down.

The U. S. Justice department joined the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Walton County Sheriff E. S. Gordon in an immediate investigation of what Maj. W. E. Spence of the State Bureau of Investigation said was "the worst thing that ever happened in Georgia."

Party Waylaid

The four Negroes and Harrison were waylaid on the approach of a small plank bridge over the Appalachee river dividing Walton and Oconee counties. It was a wild, remote spot where the road was lined with swamp and lush undergrowth, about 10 miles east of Monroe and 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Harrison said the leader of the lynching party was a towering figure of a man, weighing at least 220 pounds. He wore a brown suit and a broad-brimmed black hat, long black hair, mottled with gray, jutted out from his hat and he was deeply sunburned. He spoke like an educated man, giving crisp commands to his fellow lynchers and sounded "like a retired doctor or general." the witness said.

John Glenn 100 -- July 18, 2021

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Astronaut John Glenn was born 100 years ago today, on 18-July-1921. He served as a Marine fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War.  When NASA looked for the first group of astronauts for the Mercury program, he was almost too old and lacked the required degree in science, but made the cut.  On 20-January-1962, in Friendship 7, he became the first American to make an orbital space flight.

When I was growing up, we heard a lot more about John Glenn than Alan Shepard or Gus Grissom, who flew before him.  We had a Time Life book and record set about the space program and Glenn was heavily featured.

In 1974 he ran for the US Senate as a Democrat and won.  He ran for President in 1984, and got a boost from his portrayal in The Right Stuff.

I remember how excited he was to fly on the Space Shuttle in 1998,.

Audie Murphy 50 Years -- May 28, 2021

 

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Audie Murphy's father abandoned the family when Audie was young. Audie's mother worked hard to hold her children together. Audie developed great skill at shooting by hunting to feed the family. His mother died when he was 16 and he took care of all of the children as well as he could. After Pearl Harbor, he tried to volunteer for the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps, but they all rejected him for being below minimum weight and age. He lied about his age and joined the Army. He took part in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, and Torch, the invasion of the south of France. He earned a battlefield commission and nearly every decoration that was out there up to the Medal of Honor.

His experiences left him with a bad case of PTSD, but he went to Hollywood and became an actor, starring in To Hell and Back, his own biography. He appeared in many westerns and in John Huston's adaption of The Red Badge of Courage. When I was young, San Francisco television stations did not play many westerns, so I did not become familiar with his work. 50 years ago today, on 28-May-1971, he died in a plane crash. I knew his name, but not a lot about him at that time.

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Warren Spahn 100 -- April 23, 2021

 

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Pitcher Warren Spahn was born 100 years ago today, on 23-Apri-1921. He was a combat engineer during World War Two. His career in the majors lasted from 1942 to 1965, with three years out for the war. He played mostly for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, but played for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants during his last season.

I don't remember him as a player, but I grew up hearing people talk about him. On 02-July-1963, Spahn faced the Giants. Spahn and Juan Marichal faced each other for 16 innings with no score until Willie Mays hit a home run in the bottom of the 16th. Spahn was 42.