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Today in History with Ray – November 10
Semper Fi
Today is national Marine Corps Day because on this day in 1775 during the American Revolution, the Continental Congress passed a resolution stating that “two Battalions of Marines be raised” for service as landing forces for the recently formed Continental Navy. The resolution, drafted by future U.S. president John Adams and adopted in Philadelphia, created the Continental Marines and is now observed as the birth date of the United States Marine Corps.
Serving on land and at sea, the original U.S. Marines distinguished themselves in a number of important operations during the Revolutionary War. The first Marine landing on a hostile shore occurred when a force of Marines under Captain Samuel Nicholas captured New Province Island in the Bahamas from the British in March 1776. Nicholas was the first commissioned officer in the Continental Marines and is celebrated as the first Marine commandant. After American independence was achieved in 1783, the Continental Navy was demobilized and its Marines disbanded.
In the next decade, however, increasing conflict at sea with Revolutionary France led the U.S. Congress to establish formally the U.S. Navy in May 1798. Two months later, on July 11, President John Adams signed the bill establishing the U.S. Marine Corps as a permanent military force under the jurisdiction of the Department of Navy. U.S. Marines saw action in the so-called Quasi-War with France and then fought against the Barbary pirates of North Africa during the first years of the 19th century. Since then, Marines have participated in all the wars of the United States and in most cases were the first soldiers to fight. In all, Marines have executed more than 300 landings on foreign shores.
Today, there are more than 200,000 active-duty and reserve Marines, divided into three divisions stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Camp Pendleton, California; and Okinawa, Japan. Each division has one or more expeditionary units, ready to launch major operations anywhere in the world on two weeks’ notice. Marines expeditionary units are self-sufficient, with their own tanks, artillery, and air forces. The motto of the service is Semper Fidelis, meaning “Always Faithful” in Latin.
Mary Anderson, inventor of the windshield wiper
On this day in 1903, the patent office awards U.S. Patent No. 743,801 to a Birmingham, Alabama woman named Mary Anderson for her “window cleaning device for electric cars and other vehicles to remove snow, ice or sleet from the window.” When she received her patent, Anderson tried to sell it to a Canadian manufacturing firm, but the company refused: The device had no practical value, it said, and so was not worth any money. Though mechanical windshield wipers were standard equipment in passenger cars by around 1913, Anderson never profited from the invention.
As the story goes, on a freezing, wet winter day around the turn of the century, Mary Anderson was riding a streetcar on a visit to New York City when she noticed that the driver could hardly see through his sleet-encrusted front windshield. Although the trolley’s front window was designed for bad-weather visibility—it was split into parts so that the driver could open it, moving the snow- or rain-covered section out of his line of vision—in fact the multi-pane windshield system worked very poorly. It exposed the driver’s uncovered face (not to mention all the passengers sitting in the front of the trolley) to the inclement weather, and did not improve his ability to see where he was going in any case.
Anderson began to sketch her wiper device right there on the streetcar. After a number of false starts, she came up with a prototype that worked: a set of wiper arms that were made of wood and rubber and attached to a lever near the steering wheel of the drivers’ side. When the driver pulled the lever, she dragged the spring-loaded arm across the window and back again, clearing away raindrops, snowflakes or other debris. When winter was over, Anderson’s wipers could be removed and stored until the next year. (This feature was presumably designed to appeal to people who lived in places where it did not rain in the summertime.)
People scoffed at Anderson’s invention, saying that the wipers’ movement would distract the driver and cause accidents. Her patent expired before she could entice anyone to use her idea.
Charlotte Bridgewood
In 1917, a woman named Charlotte Bridgewood patented the “Electric Storm Windshield Cleaner,” an automatic wiper system that used rollers instead of blades. (Bridgewood’s daughter, the actress Florence Lawrence, had invented the turn signal.) Like Anderson, Bridgewood nor Lawrence ever made any money from their inventions.
In the midst of the Vietnam War
At a news conference on November 10, 1964, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told America that the United States had no plans to send combat troops into Vietnam. When asked whether the United States intended to increase its activities in Vietnam, he replied, “Wait and see.” By 1969, more than 500,000 American troops were in South Vietnam.
The gang at Sesame Street
On this day in 1969, “Sesame Street,” a pioneering TV show that would teach generations of young children the alphabet and how to count, makes its broadcast debut. “Sesame Street,” with its memorable theme song (“Can you tell me how to get/How to get to Sesame Street”), went on to become the most widely viewed children’s program in the world. It has aired in more than 120 countries.
The show was the brainchild of Joan Ganz Cooney, a former documentary producer for public television. Cooney’s goal was to create programming for preschoolers that was both entertaining and educational. She also wanted to use TV as a way to help underprivileged 3- to 5- year-olds prepare for kindergarten. “Sesame Street” was set in a fictional New York neighborhood and included ethnically diverse characters and positive social messages.
Taking a cue from “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” a popular 1960s variety show, “Sesame Street” was built around short, often funny segments featuring puppets, animation and live actors. This format was hugely successful, although over the years some critics have blamed the show and its use of brief segments for shrinking children’s attention spans.
From the show’s inception, one of its most-loved aspects has been a family of puppets known as Muppets. Joan Ganz Cooney hired puppeteer Jim Henson (1936-1990) to create a cast of characters that became Sesame Street institutions, including Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Grover and Big Bird.
The subjects tackled by “Sesame Street” have evolved with the times. In 2002, the South African version of the program, “Takalani Sesame,” introduced a 5-year-old Muppet character named Kami who is HIV-positive, in order to help children living with the stigma of a disease that has reached epidemic proportions. In 2006, a new Muppet, Abby Cadabby, made her debut and was positioned as the show’s first female star character, in an effort to encourage diversity and provide a strong role model for girls.
Since its inception, over 74 million Americans have watched “Sesame Street.” Today, an estimated 8 million people tune in to the show each week in the U.S. alone.
On this day in 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board.
The ship weighed more than 13,000 tons and was 730 feet long. It was launched in 1958 as the biggest carrier in the Great Lakes and became the first ship to carry more than a million tons of iron ore through the Soo Locks.
The Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, with 26,116 tons of iron–ore pellets heading for Detroit, Michigan. The following afternoon, the 10th, the ship and her crew met a storm with 60 mile an hour winds and waves in excess of 15 feet. Ernest McSorely, the captain of the Fitzgerald and a 44-year veteran, contacted the Anderson by radio, another ship traveling on Lake Superior and reported that his ship had encountered “one of the worst seas he had ever been in.” The Fitzgerald had lost its radar equipment and was traveling blind. It began listing badly to one side.
A couple of hours later, another ship, the Avovfor, made contact and was told that the Fitzgerald was holding its own. However, minutes afterward, the Fitzgerald disappeared from radar screens. A subsequent investigation showed that the sinking of the Fitzgerald occurred very suddenly; no distress signal was sent out and the condition of the lifeboats suggested that little or no attempt was made to abandon ship.
One possible reason for the wreck is that the Fitzgerald was carrying too much cargo. This made the ship sit low in the water and made it more vulnerable to being overwhelmed by a sudden large wave. The official report also cited the possibility that the hatches to the cargo area may have been faulty, leading to a sudden shift of the cargo that capsized the boat.
The Fitzgerald was eventually found 530 feet below the surface, 17 miles from Whitefish Bay, at the northeastern tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The ship had broken into two parts that were found approximately 150 feet apart. As there were no survivors among the 29 crewmembers, there will likely never be a definitive explanation of the Fitzgerald‘s sinking.
This ship’s sinking was the worst wreck in the Great Lakes since November 29, 1966, when 28 people died in the sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell in Lake Huron.
The disaster was immortalized in song the following year in Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
On November 10, 1984, the University of Maryland’s backup quarterback Frank Reich threw six touchdown passes against the University of Miami in the second half of the Orange Bowl. The Terrapins, who had been losing 31-0 at the half, ended up winning the game 42-40. “In the first half, everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong,” one of Reich’s teammates said. “In the second half, everything that could possibly go right, went right.”
In the first two quarters of the game, Miami out-gained the Terps 328 yards to 57 and ran up their 31-point lead–but they didn’t do it graciously. “The comeback never would’ve happened if it had not been for the attitude of the Miami Hurricanes,” one Maryland player remembered. “No question about it. Those guys were the biggest cheap-shot, trash-talking, classless outfit of football players I’ve ever seen in my life.” He added: “You can almost take getting beat if a team is kicking your butts and they’re doing it cleanly. And there was no question that they were kicking our butts in the first half. But that team made us mad, and it gave us a little extra incentive.” And the Terps dug in their heels.
For the second half, Maryland’s coach replaced first-string quarterback Stan Gelbaugh with Reich, who had a steady, consistent arm. The new QB completed 12 of 15 passes and gained 260 yards. In the third quarter, he threw two touchdown passes and ran a third in himself to cut Miami’s lead to 34-21. In the fourth, he drove 55 yards in nine plays, and his teammate Tommy Neal scored a 14-yard touchdown to make the score 34-28. Then, with about nine and a half minutes left to play, Reich threw a long pass that glanced off Miami safety Darrell Fullington’s hands and landed in Maryland player Greg Hill’s, who ran it in for another touchdown. The score was 35-34, and the Terps had the lead.
Then Miami fumbled the kickoff and Maryland’s Rick Badanjek grabbed the ball and scored again. Now the Terrapins were winning 42-34. For a minute, it looked like Reich’s luck had run out–Miami got the ball after a bad punt snap and scored a quick touchdown, making the score 42-40–but Terp Keeta Covington prevented the two-point conversion and preserved Maryland’s miraculous victory.
To many fans and journalists, the 1984 Orange Bowl was college football’s greatest and most exciting comeback ever. And Reich went on to become the second-string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, where he was responsible for one of the greatest comebacks in pro football history: In 1993, he threw four second-half touchdown passes for the Bills, who came from a 35-3 deficit to beat Houston 41-38.
Never forget 9/11
On November 10, 2001, in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush addressed the United Nations to ask for the international community’s help in combating terrorism around the world. He also pledged to take the fight against terrorism to any place where terrorists were harbored.
In his speech, Bush called the war on terror a case of “light overcoming darkness” and warned that civilization itself was being threatened by those who used terror to achieve their political aims. In a poignant moment, Bush pointed out that only a few miles from United Nations headquarters in New York City “many thousands still lie in a tomb of rubble,” referring to the site where the World Trade Center towers formerly stood. Bush cited the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and the Taliban regime that had sponsored them, begun a month earlier, as proof that the U.S. was fully prepared to attack other nations that harbored or financed terrorist groups. Bush went on to promise that the U.S. would stand by its commitment to peace in the Middle East by “working toward a day when two states, Israel and Palestine, live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders as called for” by the United Nations.
Bush concluded his speech by saying he expected the United Nations member states to live up to their global obligation to help root out terrorist cells. “The cost of inaction is far greater,” he said, and the attacks on September 11 proved that “the only alternative is a nightmare world where every city is a potential killing field.” This speech was the first time Bush laid out a policy of pre-emptive action against regimes that sponsored terrorists. He followed up on his threat two years later by sending American troops to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, whom he accused of funding terrorist organizations and developing weapons of mass destruction, though no such weapons were ever found.
And on this day – November 10, 2015, there are 2 lead stories to this hour………
(WASHINGTON) — Congress passed a $607 billion defense policy bill today that bans moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States — something Barack Obama has been trying to do since he was sworn in as president.
The Senate’s 91-to-3 vote gave final legislative approval to the measure. The House overwhelmingly passed it last week, 370-58.
Obama does not like the Guantanamo provisions, but so far has not threatened to veto it. The House and Senate votes suggest that should he veto the legislation, both chambers would be able to muster the two-thirds majorities needed to override it, an embarrassing blow presidents usually try to avoid.
Obama vetoed an earlier version of the defense policy bill over a dispute, later resolved, about whether defense spending increases should be accompanied by boosts in domestic programs.
Among other things, the bill would:
—Provide a 1.3 percent pay increase to service members and a new retirement option for troops.
—Authorize lethal assistance to Ukraine forces fighting Russian-backed rebels.
—Extend a ban on torture to the CIA.
—Authorize the president’s request of $715 million to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State militants.
“We all know the unfortunate and unnecessary roadblocks the defense authorization bill has faced this year. We all know that the president decided to veto the version of this bill we passed last month,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
“We look forward to the president signing the bipartisan bill — along with its restrictions against bringing terrorists into the United States — into law,” he said.
The legislation has become a lightning rod for debate over whether the president needs congressional approval to move some of the remaining 112 detainees from the U.S. detention center in Cuba to the United States, or if he could do it with an executive order.
Congress has repeatedly thwarted Obama’s effort to fulfill a 2008 campaign promise and close the military prison.
A Pentagon report expected as early as this week identifies prisons in Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina where Guantanamo detainees could possibly be housed so the military prison in Cuba could be shut down. That has raised the ire of lawmakers, especially those from the three states.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest hinted last week that the president might use his executive authority to close the prison. On Monday, Earnest said the White House is focused on working with Congress to shut down Guantanamo, but he left the door open on the president taking executive action.
“I’m not aware of any ongoing effort to devise a strategy using only the president’s executive authority to accomplish this goal,” Earnest said. “But I certainly wouldn’t, as I mentioned last week, take that option off the table.”
The facilities reviewed by a Pentagon assessment team were the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Leavenworth, Kansas; the Consolidated Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the medium, maximum and supermax facilities in Florence, Colorado; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colorado, also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility.
Republican candidates in Tuesday night’s Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal debate will have their last chance for a debate game-changer until mid-December.
And the high stakes are evident.
The prelude to the Milwaukee face-off has been marked by tense sparring within the field’s top tiers. The eight candidates on stage for the prime-time event, after spending the last debate bickering with the moderators, seem ready to get back to the issues — and each others’ history — Tuesday night.
Ahead of the fourth GOP debate, billionaire businessman Donald Trump released a policy paper focusing on U.S.-China relations, one of his hallmark issues. And he used an Illinois rally the night before to hammer rival Ben Carson over violent incidents during his youth.
“This is a strange election, isn’t it? … This is the only election in history where you’re better off if you stab somebody,” Trump said.
Carson, for his part, has spent the last several days sparring with the media and his rivals over reports questioning his personal story.
“I am trying to move on,” Carson told Fox News. But his campaign manager also says Carson will punch back if an opponent challenges him on stage Tuesday night — suggesting a departure for Carson from past debates, where he mostly avoided the fray.
The prime-time debate will be held at 9 p.m. ET, from Milwaukee, preceded by an earlier 7 p.m. ET debate with lower-polling candidates. It is expected to focus on economic issues, and is the last GOP debate until Dec. 15.
Several candidates, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, have used the debates to raise their profiles in the race while others have suffered in the polls following lackluster performances.
This is the first time that just eight candidates will be on the main stage, a change that could give the contenders more time to explain their positions and engage each other.
Rubio, in the hours before the debate, launched a striking ad against GOP rival Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. The ad plays clips of Bush, before the 2016 campaign, praising Rubio.
“I’m a huge Marco fan,” Bush says in one clip. In another, he says, “He’s probably the most articulate conservative on the scene today.”
The text of the ad blares: “Jeb Bush before his phony attacks.”
Bush, the former front-runner, has struggled in every debate so far, and Rubio is no doubt angling for the edge against him in Tuesday’s showdown. At the last debate, Rubio deftly parried a critique by Bush of his Senate absences.
The prime-time debate is set to include: Trump; Carson; Rubio; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Bush; Fiorina; Ohio Gov. John Kasich; and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
The candidates set for the earlier debate are: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
Rubio is currently third in most national polls, followed closely by Cruz, who by many accounts had the stand-out moment in the last debate by slamming the CNBC moderators for allegedly unfair and off-topic questions. Speaking with Fox News on Monday, Rubio said the polls have been “up and down,” but “what I’m going to do is I’m going to focus on the message of my campaign.”
Still tangling for the lead are Carson and Trump.
Speaking with Fox News, Trump pointed to the most recent polling in saying he’s back on top.
“I’m No. 1 in the polls, as you know, in every single — I think I’m No. 1 in every single state. I’m now No. 1 again in Iowa. I had lost Iowa for a period of time, and I didn’t quite understand it,” Trump said.
Trump has shown no hesitation about going after Carson, for everything from his past writings about having anger issues growing up, to stories questioning elements of his personal narrative, to Carson’s statement that Egypt’s pyramids were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain.
“He’s having a hard time. The pyramids are solid structures. You can’t put grain in the pyramids because they’re solid structures,” Trump said.
Trump, who hosted “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend, also made headlines overnight by suggesting a “boycott” against Starbucks over its holiday cups that are missing winter or Christmas scenes. But then Trump added, “Seriously, I don’t care.”
Today in History with Ray November 10
Today in History with Ray – November 10