This day in history...

On June 4, 1940, Winston Churchill gives his famed "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech. The British Prime Minister was addressing the House of Commons of Parliament on the successful evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, a bitter defeat despite the evacuation. Churchill needed to give the news, along with a warning of a possible German invasion of the home islands, but at the same time offer the same type of confidence he had displayed in his "blood, toil, sweat and tears" speech less than a month before. Churchill concluded his remarks with: "Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Many in the audience recognized immediately they had heard something historic. (The speech was not recorded; Brits who later claimed to hear it on the radio probably heard transcript excerpts delivered by newscasters. Churchill recorded the speech himself for archival purposes in 1949)


On June 4, 1855, Major Henry C. Wayne, US Army departs New York City on the USS Supply, destined for Italy and then Africa. After viewing first hand how the Italian Army used camels as work animals with greater efficiency than horses, Wayne moved on to Africa, and returned to the US with the 33 animals that would form the initial backbone of the U.S. Camel Corps in the American southwest. An additional 41 camels were later added, and Congress was prepared to back the funding for an additional 1,000 when the Civil War began. The short-lived Camel Corps was disbanded (at least in part because its most avid backer was former Secretary of War and now Confederate President Jefferson Davis) and the animals released into the southwest deserts of the U.S. One of them was seen as late as 1891.


On June 4, 1977, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) releases its video home system - VHS - in the United States. Magnetic video tape recorders had been on the market commercially since the 1950's; it wasn't until the mid-70's that the technology became affordable to the masses. JVC soon found itself in a "format war" with several other new mediums for home video, most notably Sony's Betamax system. The tide turned when JVC and American counterpart Panasonic convinced Matsushita (Japan's largest electronics manufacturer) that VHS was superior to Beta. VHS tape players were less complex than Beta decks, fast-forwarded and rewound faster, and the larger casettes allowed for longer recording time than Beta. By 1980, 60% of home video systems in the U.S. were VHS.

 

Don't know the song, but kind of figured that out.

 

On June 11, 1955, the 24 Hours of LeMans is marred by the most catastrophic crash in motorsports history. Midway through the race's 3rd hour, race leader Mike Hawthorn swerved his Jaguar in front of a lapped Austin Healey driven by Lance Macklin, and braked to enter the pit area. Macklin swerved to his left and was run up on from behind by Pierre Levegh. The impact briefly launched Levegh's Mercedes into the air (photo) before it impacted with the barrier protecting a grandstand. This last impact exploded the car and scattered huge chunks of debris - including the engine block - into the crowd, and killed Levegh instantly. Eighty-three spectators were killed and anywhere from 120 to 180 injured. A board of inquiry would fault none of the three drivers involved and said the 30-year old track design was not sufficient for the speeds being attained. Improvements were made in time for the 1956 race.


On June 11, 1935, Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of his work with frequency modulation radio. A Columbia University-based electrician, Armstrong already had several patents in the mid 1920's when he began tackling the problem of outside interference (static) in amplitude modulation; AM radio. He drew at first on the work of AT&T engineer John Renshaw Carson, who concluded FM transmissions were no significant improvement to AM. Armstrong felt Carson only scratched the surface of FM's potential with his "narrow band" experiments. His demonstraton of "wide band" FM was hailed as one of the most important developments in the history of radio, although World War II, the research shift to television and the FCC's slow process of frequency allocations meant there was no meaningful development of commercial FM radio stations until the 1960's.


On June 11, 1970, Anna May Hayes (left) and Elizabeth Hoisington become the first women to receive a U.S. Army brigadier general's star. Hayes joined the Army Nurses Corps in 1942, serving in field hospitals in the Asian theatre and during the Korean Conflict. After Korea she was made chief nurse at Walter Reed Army Hospital, and eventually became head of the Nurses Corps as a Colonel in 1967. Hoisington joined the newly created Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942, giving her opportunities in the Army beyond nursing. She was assigned to an air raid station in Maine and rose throught the non-com ranks, studying and emulating the base's first sergeant so well that (she later claimed) she was able to graduate OCS without ever opening a book. Hayes and Hoisington received their stars from President Richard Nixon; because the promotions were performed in alphabetical order, Hayes held literally a couple of minutes seniority for time-in-grade as a general officer over Hoisington. Both retired in 1971.

 

On July 5, 1865, the Secret Service Division of the Department of the Treasury is established, with the mission of supressing counterfeiting. It was proposed by a commission established earlier that year by President Lincoln, after being told that roughly one-third of the U.S. currency in circulation was counterfeit. Federal law enforcement agencies were few in number at the time, and the Secret Service quickly became involved in investigating other crimes as well. In 1902 (after an informal request by Congress following the assassination of President McKinley), the Secret Service assumed the duty of providing full-time presidential security. Transferred to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, the USSS today has about 8,300 employees nationwide and continues to play an active role in investigating financial crimes, while handling personal protection for the president's family and numerous officials in the line of succession (including Presidents-elect), as well as former presidents.


On July 5, 1943, the German army launches Operation Citadel, an armored offensive directed at the industrial center of Kursk in the Soviet Union. Over the next 6 weeks, the largest and most costly battle in the history of land warfare unfolds. At its height, the German and Soviet armies deployed more than 10,000 tanks, more than 50,000 mobile guns and more than 6,000 aircraft combined. Casualties would exceed 200,000 men. A Soviet victory, it would mark the first time in WWII that the Germans were denied a strategic objective and began the de-escalation of hostilities in the USSR, as the Allies' launch of the invasion of Sicily on July 10 would force the Germans to begin diverting assets to Italy.


On July 5, 1946, French fashion designer Louis Reard unveils his new women's 2-piece swimsuit to the press. Its the first summer after the war and clothing material is still in short supply. Reard turns the problem into opportunity by designing the skimpiest 2-piece (2-piece swimsuits date back to the Greco-Roman era) ever seen, most noteworthy that - unlike previous 2-pieces - Reard's suit leaves the wearer's navel uncovered. He calls it the "bikini," borrowing the name from the Pacific atoll where the U.S. was conducting atom bomb tests at the time, and tells the press, "like the atom bomb, the bikini is small and devastating." Unable to find a fashion model willing to wear his creation, Reard recruits an 18-year old nude dancer named Micheline Bernadini to show off the goods. (note the box in Bernadini's left hand. The bikini could fit in that box.)

 

On July 8, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur is appointed Commander of United Nations forces in Korea. MacArthur had been serving as the appointed ruler of Japan since their surrender in 1945 (Mac was more or less allowing the emperor to run the country but overseeing his decisions). When North Korea invade South Korea in June, 1950, the relatively new UN saw its first opportunity to create a coalition force, but recognized the U.S. was best positioned to lead the effort, and permitted President Truman to appoint the commander. MacArthur was the logical choice and he performed admirably at first, conducting what would be the last major amphibious assault of a beachhead of the 20th century at Inchon (photo below) and driving the North Koreans back across the border. But his decision to push forces deep into NK and approach the Yalu River despite warnings that this could lead to China's entering the war led to his dismissal in April 1951. (Recent research into the dictatorship of Mao Zedong has revealed he intended to enter the war almost from the day it began, and that Mac's push toward the Chinese border had nothing to do with it.)


On July 8, 1775, the Second Continental Congress signs the Olive Branch Petition. By the summer of '75, most members of the Congress saw war with England as inevitable, though some, led by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania (below), still held out for a peaceful solution to the dispute. Dickinson would be principle author of the Olive Branch Petition, which assured King George III of America's loyalty to the crown and offered an end to hostilities. It had little chance of being well received, however; it arrived in London at about the same time as Congress' Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms (ironically, Dickinson also had a hand in composing this resolution, though Thomas Jefferson was principle author). Barely a month later, George would formally declare the colonies to be in rebellion. (below right: signatory pages of the Olive Branch Petition. Note John Hancock's famed signature at the top of page one.)

 

On July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified by the states. 14A, which most prominently would grant African Americans full citizenship, was only begrudgingly ratified by most of the former Confederate states, for whom passage was made a condition for post-war representation in Congress. 14A also clarified due process of law to all American citizens, and included numerous other clarifications of citizenship. The 14th Amendment is one of the most widely contested and cited of all amendments; cases in which it is cited by the Supreme Court include Brown v Board of Education, Roe v Wade, Loving v Virginia and Bush v Gore. (Rep John Bingham of Ohio wrote 14A's Equal Protection Clause)


On July 9, 1944, the Japanese island of Saipan is declared secure by American forces. Three divisions of Marines and soldiers invaded the island on June 15 as the first phase of Operation Forager, the campaign to take the Marianas Islands. Original estimates were that it would take 6 days to secure the island, which was defended by about 25,000 troops; it would take 24. In the invasion's final days, Lt. General Yoshitsugu Saito would order a gyokusai (suicide charge) by his last remaining troops, after which he committed suicide. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, who had led the Japanese strike forces at Pearl Harbor and Midway, would also take his own life as his naval assets on site were destroyed. American troops were horrified on the final day to witness an estimated 1,000 Japanese civilians leap off the island's high cliffs to avoid capture. The taking of Saipan gave the Americans the first base from which strategic bombing of the Japanese home islands could be staged. (an American tank equipped with a flame thrower incinerates a Japanese pillbox on Saipan)


On July 9, 1937, spontaneous combustion sparks a fire that destroys much of 20th Century Fox's film library, located at Little Ferry, NJ. Early film was nitrate based and highly flammable, and although the vault was considered fireproof, summer heat and poor ventilation deteriorated some of the film into a volatile gas. Although Fox downplayed the significance of the loss, in fact, the fire claimed almost all of the company's pre-1932 films, including most of its silent film library. A film historian at New York's Museum of Modern Art would remark that there were numerous early film actors at Fox who's careers were simply burned out of existence by the fire. (ruined cans of film at the door of the vault after the fire)

 

On July 10, 1921, Irish Protestants and Catholics clash in what will come to be known as Belfast's Bloody Sunday. Ireland had been in civil war for more than a year, the issue being that nationalists (mostly Catholics) wanted independence, while the majority Unionist Party (mainly Protestants) wanted to maintain ties to the British Empire. Violence had been steadily increasing during the summer of '21, but on July 9, minority Republicans and the British agreed to a truce. Many Protestants were against the truce, and on 7/10 police attempted a raid on a Catholic enclave in Belfast. Scouts for the (Catholic) Irish Republican Army detected the movement and ambushed the police, killing an officer. That touched off rioting and armed clashes throughout the city, with 17 killed, about 100 wounded and more than 200 (mostly Catholic) homes destroyed before the truce went into effect on July 11. The truce held for about a month in a half.


On July 10, 1942, Bill Thies (left in final photo), a U.S. Navy Catalina pilot on a reconnaisance mission off Alaska, spots a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter laying upside down on Akuta Island. He marks and reports the position, and over the next 5 days, salvage teams recover the aircraft, giving its pilot an honorable burial. Action reports identify the plane as one damaged during the attack on American bases in the Aleutians one month earlier, a diversion from the Japanese attack on Midway. The plane suffered damage to its oil line and the pilot, Tadayoshi Koga (left), attempted a wheels down landing on Akuta, but what appeared to be solid ground was actually soggy tundra, and the plane flipped on touch down, killing Koga instantly. Japanese records indicate that other pilots saw the crash, but not knowing if Koga was alive, decided not to destroy the Zero. That would turn into one of Japan's biggest mistakes of the war, as the plane was virtually intact. Repair and test flying the "Akutan Zero" gave the Americans uncanny insight into the formidable Zero's weaknesses, and aided in the development of a plane specifically designed to counter the Zero, Grumman's F6F Hellcat. Many historians consider it "one of the greatest prizes of WWII," and one Japanese general officer would later say the loss of that one plane was as devastating to the Japanese war effort as the defeat at Midway. (second photo shows Koga's Zero trailing oil after being hit over Dutch Harbor)