Daily history

This date in history December 7




1941 At 7:55a on Sunday of this date 355 Japanese aircraft launched a surprise attack against the United States naval and air forces on the Hawaiian Islands. Earlier President Roosevelt had talked with the Japanese Emperor about Japan signing an alliance with Germany and Italy who were ravaging Europe. Roosevelt knew that Japan would not withdraw from the so-called Axis so he ordered all oil and scrap metal to be withheld from Japan making it very difficult for that country to manufacture the tools of war. Roosevelt knew this and was expecting an attack by the Japanese but he did not know where. Australian coast watchers reported that a large Japanese fleet has been spotted heading south down the Malayan peninsula and the target appears to be Thailand. This turned out to be a diversion and the real target was the Hawaiian Islands that were going to be attacked by a Japanese task force sporting four aircraft carriers. This whole scenario was planned by the brilliant and Harvard trained Admiral Yamamoto. The attack came in four waves. First came the fighters to suppress any American fighter counter-attack, second came the torpedo planes and finally the dive bombers. There was no American counter-attack. Nearly all of American fighter-bombers were destroyed before they could get off the ground. The Japanese attack was a complete success. They had destroyed 17 ships and nearly all of the American warplanes on the Islands. Fortunately for us, three of our Hawaii based aircraft carriers were out to sea and escaped attack. For reasons known only to the Japanese, they could have occupied Hawaii or sailed on east and attacked the west coast of the United States but they did neither and sailed on back to the house but the United States Navy was severely damaged. While the Japanese upper military command were singing and dancing about the victory in Hawaii Admiral Yamamoto rose up and said “It is a great victory, but I fear that all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant.” The prophetic words proved to be truthful because Yamamoto knew the manufacturing power available in the good old United States and four years later Japan was prostrate and in ruins administered by the American military.



1787 On this date the thirty members of the Delaware delegation ratify the newest American Constitution making them the first state in the United States. The law was that nine of the thirteen colonies had to ratify the Constitution for it to become law. In June 1788 New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution and it became the law of the land making us the first Democratic Republic is history.



1982 On this date the predictable staff at the Huntsville, Texas prison executed Charles Morris, Jr. who had been convicted of murdering an auto mechanic. Executions in this infamous prison are not news; they lead the nation in executions only this time they did it with an injection rather than, poison gas, the electric chair or hanging. Texas was the first to use sodium pentothal in excessive amounts to kills someone. Sodium pentothal is normally used as a “truth serum” is smaller amounts. Very soon after the execution of Morris, 30 states adopted the lethal injection as their method of execution.



1993 Earlier a black man named Colin Ferguson emigrated from Jamaica to the American west coast and then to New York City. On the date he boarded a subway train and after a couple of stops, he jumped up and produced a pistol. He then began running up and down the aisles shooting people at random. He killed 6 and injured nine. Soon thereafter famous defense lawyer William Kuntsler offers Ferguson his services and had already began putting together a defense using “black rage” as the motive. This defense even infuriated Ferguson and he fired Kuntsler and chose to be his own attorney. First he said that he was not the shooter but that it was a white man that had stolen his gun and tried to pin the murders on Ferguson, then he changed horses and said that it was some other guy with his facial features. All of this in spite of a parade of witnesses that pointed to Ferguson as the shooter. The jury was not fooled and convicted and sentenced Ferguson to 6 life term without the possibility of parole. What a dumb-ass.



1805 After reaching the Pacific Ocean a few weeks earlier, the Lewis and Clark expedition elects to make camp and spent the winter on a small creek off the Columbia River near what is now Portland Oregon. They named it Fort Clatsop after a local Indian tribe. Even though the weather is relatively mild as compared the storms raging in the Cascade Mountains a few miles away, the downside was that in the three months they spent there it rained all but 12 days resulting in wet clothing most of the time causing colds and rheumatism. They had planned to retrace their tracks on there way out the following spring but the local Indians showed them a much easier route to cross the Rockies. In the middle of March 1806, the Voyage of Discovery departed Fort Clatsop and headed east back toward Saint Louis.



Born today:



1873 US writer Willa Cather. She said “Where there is great love there is always miracles.”



1883 English writer Joyce Cary. She said “The less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything.” Sounds like Pat Robertson to me.



1932 US actress Ellen Burstyn. She said “What a lovely surprise it is to realize how unlonely being alone can be.” Me too Ellen.



1947 US baseballer Johnny Bench. He said “I have never seen a horny baseball player walk into a bar and not let everyone know what he does for a living.”



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow