1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type. Printed in Mainz, Germany, where I was stationed 1974-77. They have the Gutenberg Museum, with an original Gutenberg bible as one of many interesting displays. I spent three great years in Mainz.
1778 – American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army. This is regarded as the birth of the drill sergeant.
1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas. Sometimes you have to fight, knowing that you might lose…
1847 – Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. If we’d have hanged him after we captured him following the Battle of San Jacinto, we could have saved a lot of trouble. The guy was a psychotic, murderous thug.
1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”. I’m surprised that obama didn’t give it back.
1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium. Nobody cares. Belgium is the doormat that the German Army wipes its feet on before it enters France. Now they’re the seat of the European Union.
1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Pozna. The city is ‘liberated’ by Soviet and Polish forces, where ‘liberated’ means rule by ONE murderous dictatorial regime is replaced by rule by another murderous dictatorial regime for the next forty-odd years.
1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh. Polio was the big “scare” disease when I was a kid. You seldom hear of it today. Two years after this date I and my brother and sisters stood in LINE to get the vaccine. Now you never hear of it. But vaccines’re bad, huh?
Real (meaning licensed) vaccines are not bad. They prevent infection and the spread of infection. The experimental goo they are jabbing people with now is as much a vaccine as a Volkswagen is a Porsche. It ONLY (temporarily?) keeps people from getting a severe case of Wu-Flu, not from catching, suffering from, or passing it. I passed on the jab in the first round for 1st responders, and will pass on it again on March 1st when my age group is allowed to get it. I will wait for a licensed vaccine that uses actual virus elements to show my body what to build immunity for. BTW… my wife and I both believe we had it about a year ago anyway. Her first, then me. We haven’t had as much as a case of the sniffles since. I believe myself to be immune because I have been up close and personal to many people with Wu-Flu and have not caught a thing. I wear an N95 whenever dealing with patients.
My wife was one of the original Polio Pioneers. She still has the little metal pin. I was vaccinated shortly after that. We both believe that we were jabbed so many times during our school days that we have healthy immune systems. Children today are brought up in a near sterile environment and have trouble fighting off infections as an adult.
1847 – Santa Anna was merely third world culture in action. What else would you expect???
1903 – I’m even MORE surprised that “Killer Rabbit” did not do so!!!
1945 – My understanding is that the photograph is a re-creation of the original action, with men who did not originally participate.