This was a day of military action, not all of it positive. In 1821 Jose de San Martin declared Peru independent of Spain, yet in 1915 the US began a 19-year occupation of Haiti. Because the Monroe Doctrine stated that European Nations should stay out of American affairs, but that didn’t mean that the US would stay out of Latin American affairs -we consistently interfered throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Then in 1932 during the Great Depression, which also affected those who had served in the military in WWI, 20,000 veterans formed the Bonus Army and came to Washington DC to demand the bonuses that had been promised them for their service. President Hoover called out the US Army to clear their encampments near DC, refusing to pay- shameful:(
In 1943 the RAF (Royal Air Force) bombed Hamburg, Germany in what was called Operation Gomorrah, causing a firestorm that killed 42,000 German citizens. And in an odd bit of news, a US Army B-25 crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 and injuring 26.
Those born on this date include Ballington Booth (1857) cofounder of Volunteers of America, English novelist and poet Beatrix Potter (1866), who brought us Peter Rabbit, American inventor Earl Tupper (1907) who brought us Tupperware, cartoonist Jim Davis (1945) who created Garfield, and the late First Lady Jackie Kennedy (1929).
Passing on this day was French poet and playwright Cyrano de Bergerac (1655), German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1750), and Christian singer-songwriter Keith Green (1982).
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