Today In History..............

In 1587................

Sir Francis Drake one of Queen Elizabeth I most effective "sea dogs" sailed into Cadiz Harbor and burned multiple Spanish ships that lay at anchor there. This set back Spanish plans to invade England by at least a year. Drake referred to this act as "singeing" the Spanish King's beard.

In 1775................

The first shots were fired marking the start of the American Revolution in Lexington, Massachusetts. This first skirmish cost the colonist 8 dead and 10 wounded, with no casulties for the British. A little later in the day, the first three British soldiers were killed in Concord, just down the road from Lexington.

In 1943...............

As a part of the "Final Solution" Nazi forces moved into the Warsaw ghetto to remove the last of the Jewish population for transportation to the death camps. There had been a low level of resistance to the Nazis in the ghetto since January of 1943, but this date was the beginning of significant fighting. The ghetto fighters were armed with mostly small arms, homemade bombs, and anything else they could beg borrow or steal but managed to hold off the might of the Nazi hoards until May 16th 1943 when the ghetto area had literally been wiped off the face of the earth and was declared secure. There are names and places that ring throughout history, places such as the Alamo, Masada, Little Big Horn and so on. These places show us that sometimes you need to fight. Even if you know that there is no way that you can win, you still must make a stand and make the the good fight. I think that, due to the bravery of the defenders of the Warsaw ghetto, they can add their name with pride to the others. And to those fallen defenders of the ghetto I salute them with the lyrics that are in so many of their songs,
" Next year in Jerusalem!"

In 1989.................

In Tiananman Square, Beijing, China pro-democracy demonstrations began. Again, men and women will fight for freedom, no matter the cost. I will always remember the film of the lone Chinese man standing in front of a line of Chinese army tanks and not letting them pass when the Chinese government sent the army in to crush the protest. Again, sometimes you must fight because as a human being you can do nothing else.

In 1993.................

The 51 day siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas ended when federal law enforcement officers attempted to use teargas to get the Davidians out. A fire started in the main building and it burned to the ground. A number of the Davidians died in the fire.

In 1995.................

At 9:02 A.M. C.S.T. a truck bomb detonated beside the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma killing 168 men, women and children. 500 others were injured. Charged in this crime were Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Both were convicted, Nichols received a life sentence, McVeigh, the death penalty which he richly deserved. I can only hope that his reward in the afterlife is as bad as it should be in hell where I have no doubts he is now residing.