1777 – Charles Gravier, the French foreign minister, officially acknowledged the United States as an independent nation. News of the Continental Army’s overwhelming victory against the British at Saratoga the previous October had given Benjamin Franklin new leverage in his efforts to rally French support for the American rebels.
It took the impressive and long-awaited victory at Saratoga to convince Louis XVI that the American rebels had some hope of defeating the British Empire. His enthusiasm for the victory paired with the foreign minister’s concern that the loss of Philadelphia to the British would lead Congress to surrender, gave Franklin two influential allies with two powerful – if opposing – reasons for officially backing the American cause. A formal treaty of alliance followed on February 6, 1778.
1843 – Charles Dickens’ classic story A Christmas Carol was published in London.
1862 – U.S. Army General Ulysses S. Grant, the future 18th president of the United States, issued General Order No. 11, expelling Jews suspected of engaging in war profiteering from a region occupied by the Union Army.
Swayed by the commonly held prejudice that Jews were largely responsible for war profiteering, Grant blamed the district’s Jewish community for organizing the illegal trade in black-market cotton.
Grant’s order prohibited the issuing of trade licenses to Jews within the Tennessee district. Furthermore, it required them to leave the district within 24 hours of the order or risk imprisonment.
President Abraham Lincoln did not know about Grant’s order and expressed surprise when a group of Jewish leaders met with him to protest Grant’s decree. President Lincoln disapproved of the order and expressed his disbelief to Grant in a letter: “a paper purporting to be [issued by you] has been presented here. It expels all Jews from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked.”
Three days later, Grant obeyed the commander in chief’s orders and revoked General Order No. 11. Lincoln later told Jewish representatives that “to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad” and promised to not only rid the country of slavery, but to protect Americans from religious discrimination.
1903 – Near Kitty Hawk, NC, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight.
1933 – In the first NFL championship game, the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants 23-21 at Wrigley Field.
1941 – Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel was relieved of his command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet as part of a shake-up of officers in the wake of the Pearl Harbor disaster.
Even as word was out that Japan was likely to make a first strike against the United States as the negotiations in Washington floundered, Kimmel took no extraordinary actions at Pearl Harbor. In fact, he believed that a sneak attack was more likely at Wake Island or Midway Island, and requested from Lieutenant General Walter Short, Commander of the Army at Pearl Harbor, extra antiaircraft artillery for support there.
Although he had no more reason than anyone else to believe Pearl Harbor was a possible Japanese target, a scapegoat had to be found to appease public outrage. He avoided a probable court-martial when he requested early retirement. When Admiral Kimmel’s Story, an “as told to” autobiography, was published in 1955, Kimmel made it plain that he believed FDR sacrificed him – and his career – to take suspicion off himself. Kimmel believed Roosevelt knew Pearl Harbor was going to be bombed, although no evidence has ever been adduced to support his allegation.
1944 – U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes.
On February 19, 1942, 10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable.” The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area.
By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. For the next two and a half years, many of these Japanese Americans endured extremely difficult living conditions and poor treatment by their military guards.
During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry.
1944 – 84 American Prisoners of War were murdered by their German captors near Malmedy, Belgium. The massacre was committed during the Battle of The Bulge.
An American convoy of about thirty vehicles was traveling toward Ligneuville when they were intercepted by Col. Joachim Peiper’s 1st SS Panzer Division. Armed with only rifles and other small arms, the Americans surrendered to the Nazi tank force. While the German column led by Peiper continued on the road toward Ligneuville, the American prisoners were taken to a field, joined with others captured by the SS earlier in the day.
About 120 men were gathered in the field. For reasons that remain unclear today, the SS troops suddenly fired on their prisoners with machine guns. Some of the prisoners tried to escape but most were shot where they stood. A few sought shelter in a building at the crossroads. The SS soldiers set fire to the building, and shot all who tried to escape the flames. Some in the field had dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead when the shooting began. However, SS troops walked among the bodies and shot anyone who appeared to be alive.
1961 – A fire at Gran Circus Norte-Americano – the Brazilian version of America’s Ringling Brothers – in Niteroi, Brazil, killed 503 people and severely burned hundreds more. Adilson Marcelino Alves, a disgruntled employee, and two accomplices, were later arrested and convicted. That is the official version but it has long been maintained that electrical problems that were covered up was the real cause. With 3000 people present, a trapeze artist noticed the fire. In a little over five minutes, the circus was completely devoured by the flames. Of all the casualties, 323 died immediately, with the total reaching 503 dead as others succumbed to their injuries. About 70% of the victims were children. The circus tent imported from India had been advertised as being made of nylon, but was actually cotton treated with paraffin wax, a highly flammable material. At least 500 more people were seriously injured, from burns, smoke inhalation and trampling.
1962 – Actor Thomas Mitchell (Lost Horizon, The Hurricane, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Gone With The Wind, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Stagecoach for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) died of Peritoneal mesothelioma at the age of 70.
1969 – The U.S. Air Force closed its Project “Blue Book” by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
1969 – An estimated 50 million viewers watched singer Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky on NBC’s Tonight Show.
1975 – A federal jury in Sacramento, CA, sentenced Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme to life in prison for her attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford.
On September 5 of that year, a Secret Service agent had taken a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Fromme, who brandished the weapon during a public appearance of President Ford in Sacramento. Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, was pointing the loaded gun at the president when the Secret Service agent grabbed it.
During her trial, Fromme pleaded not guilty to the “attempted assassination of a president” charge, arguing that although her gun contained bullets, it had not been cocked, and therefore she had not actually intended to shoot the president. The jury was not swayed – or fooled. She was sent to the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia.
1989 – The Simpsons premiered on Fox. The first episode was Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire.
1991 – After a long meeting between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, a spokesman for Yeltsin announced that the Soviet Union would officially cease to exist on or before New Year’s Eve. Yeltsin declared that, “There will be no more red flag.”
For many people, the Soviet Union had already disintegrated. The various Russian republics had already declared their independence; in a few days they would meet and form the Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev’s power was steadily ebbing: a coup attempt the previous August had already nearly toppled him. Yeltsin, on the other hand, was busily planning the takeover of Soviet facilities and the symbolic lowering of the Soviet hammer-and-sickle to be replaced by the flag of Russia.
2000 – During a 17-0 victory by the San Francisco 49ers over the Chicago Bears, San Francisco’s wide receiver Terrell Owens set a new NFL record of 20 catches in a single game.
2003 – National Football League Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham died of a heart aneurysm at the age of 82. With Graham at quarterback the Cleveland Browns went to the league championship game every year between 1946 and 1955, winning seven of them.
2005 – President George W. Bush acknowledged he’d personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
2005 – Actress Jennifer Jones (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing, Duel In The Sun and Love Letters, and winner of the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in The Song Of Bernadette) died of natural causes at the age of 90.
2011 – Kim Jong il, North Korea’s ruthless, reclusive dictator, died of a heart attack while reportedly traveling on a train in his country. Kim, who assumed leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father in 1994, ruled the Communist nation with an iron fist, and his isolated, repressive regime was accused of numerous human rights violations.
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2015 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.